Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi Cuccittini (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi] ( listen); born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team as a forward, and is also the captain of the national team.

By the age of 21, Messi had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2009, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He followed this up by winning the inaugural FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010, and then again in 2011 and 2012. He also won the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award twice, in 2011 and 2015. At the age of 24, Messi became Barcelona's all-time top scorer in all official club competitions. In September 2014 he scored his 400th senior career goal for club and country aged just 27. In November 2014, Messi became the all-time top scorer in La Liga, and the all-time leading goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League.

Often considered the best player in the world and rated by some in the sport as the greatest of all time,Messi is the first and only football player in history to win four FIFA/Ballons d'Or, all of which he won consecutively, and the first to win three European Golden Shoe awards. With Barcelona, Messi has won seven La Ligas, three Copas del Rey, six Supercopas de España, four UEFA Champions Leagues, three UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups.

Messi is the only player to top-score in four consecutive Champions League seasons, and also holds the record for the most hat-tricks scored in the competition with five. In March 2012, he made Champions League history by becoming the first player to score five goals in one match. In the 2011–12 season, Messi set the European record for most goals scored in a season with 73 goals, set the goalscoring record in a single La Liga season with 50 goals, and became the second player ever to score in six different official competitions in one season after Pedro. In February 2013 he scored his 300th Barcelona goal. On 30 March 2013, Messi scored in his 19th consecutive La Liga game, becoming the first footballer in history to net in consecutive matches against every team in a professional football league. He extended his record scoring streak to 21 consecutive league matches. In March 2014, with a hat-trick against Real Madrid, Messi became the player with the most goals and most hat-tricks in the history of El Clásico. In October 2014, Messi, aged 27, became the youngest player to score 250 goals in La Liga. In November 2014, Messi scored a hat-trick against Sevilla to reach 253 La Liga goals, becoming the all-time top scorer in La Liga. In May 2015, he scored his 77th Champions League goal to become its all-time leading scorer.

Messi helped Argentina win the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup, finishing as both the best player and the top scorer (with six goals). In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play and score in the FIFA World Cup, and in 2007 he won a runners-up medal at the Copa América, in which he was named young player of the tournament. In 2008, he won an Olympic Gold Medal with the Argentina Olympic football team. At the 2014 World Cup, he led Argentina to the final, winning four consecutive Man of the Match awards in the process, and received the Golden Ball award as the best player of the tournament. In 2013, SportsPro rated him the second-most marketable athlete in the world.In 2015, he won a second runners-up medal at the Copa América; he also took part in the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 Copa América with his national side. His playing style and stature have drawn comparisons to compatriot Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his "successor".

Brutal Injuries In Cricket History

Cricket injuries seem to have become far too common in the game. A 24-year-old Tamil cricketer died after being hit by a cricket ball in the chest on Sunday..

The Manipay Parish Sports Club announced on Wednesday that the British Tamil cricketer Bavalan Pathmanathan was batting at Long Ditton in Surrey when he was struck by the ball. He collapsed immediately afterwards on the pitch. Let’s take a look at 18 other of the most awful on-field cricket injuries, some of which were even fatal.

In the 2004 Champions Trophy semifinal, Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s bouncer felled the great West Indies batsman Brian Lara.

Gary Kirsten was well-set and batting on 55. He attempted to hook Shoaib Akhtar but missed it. The ball smashed Kirsten’s cheek.
Ricky Ponting was one of the world’s best backfoot players. There are not many occasions where fast bowlers bounced him out. In the 2005 Ashes, Steve Harmison beat Ponting for pace as the Australian captain missed the hook shot. The ball thudded on to Ponting’s helmet and there was a cut on his face.
This was one of the worst accidents on the cricket field. In the 1999 Galle Test, Mahela Jayawardene top-edged Collin Miller and the ball was in the air. Steve Waugh from short fine-leg and Jason Gillespie from deep square-leg ran towards the ball. The fall fell in between the two but Waugh and Gillespie collided which resulted in the former breaking his nose and the latter breaking his leg.
In the 1992 Wellington Test, Lawrence’s patella bone shattered in the middle of his delivery stride. The injury literally ended his career and he had to retire at 29.

Mark Boucher didn’t put on his helmet while keeping to leg-spinner Imran Tahir. When Tahir dismissed one of thebatsmen bowled, the ball hit Boucher’s left eye. The retina was damaged which ended Boucher’s promising 15-year international career

cricket injuries

The following is a list of notable cricket players who died while playing a game, died directly from injuries sustained while playing, or died after being taken ill on the pitch.

Player	Cause	Date	Place
jasper vinal	Struck on the head by a bat	28 August 1624	keyneys
george summmer	Struck on the head by a ball	29 June 1870	nottingham
andy ducat	Heart failure	23 July 1942	london
abdul aziz	Struck over the heart by a ball	17 January 1959	karachi
walif slack	Collapsed while batting	15 January 1989	banjul
ian flory	Heart attack while being treated in hospital for eye injury sustained on the field	30 August 1993	white haven
raman lamba	Struck on the head by a ball while fielding	20 February 1998	dhaka
wasim raja	Suffered a heart attack on the pitch	23 August 2006	marlow
daryan randall	Struck on the head by a ball	27 October 2013	alice eastern cape
phillip Hughes	Struck on the neck by a ball	27 November 2014	sydney

and latestly a srilankan player ,in tamil league...

Australian bowlers fire England batting line

Australia in the first ODI of the five match series are right back to their bowling form and for the first time in this time the Kangaroos looked a lot threatening. The bowled right in their parameters and their fielding also helped their bowlers a lot.

In the middle over Australia were able to take 3 batsmen out in three consecutive balls. Coulter-Nile missed his hat trick but before Shane Watson gave the big break through when he took the English middle order wall Eoin Morgan.
Morgan was caught behind the wicket by Wade. It was a short ball right on the body of Morgan from Watson. Morgan inserted a pull but it was quick from Watson and the ball kissed the glove of Morgan and went into the safe hands of Wade.

Next was Butler who on the very first ball of the next over bowled by Coulter-Nile tried to go aerial over the mid-off where Shaun Marsh was fielding. It went straight into his chest and the big man caught his with ease.
Two poor shots from the English batsmen. Already a lot of wickets were down and plenty of overs left, they should have stayed in the crease to give solidity to the innings. Woakes joined the legion too when he too played a rash shot.

He too chased one down the leg side and eventually gloved it down to Wade again. The ball was not even short of length but somehow he was able to play it this badly. Coulter-Nile missed his yorker and ended up giving a full toss to Adil.

He missed his hat trick yet the Australians did manage to take one as a team. Crossing 200 looks a but difficult for the Englishmen the way they are losing their wickets would make them fall under the 200 runs land mark.

Waqar Younis Maitla (Punjabi: وقار یونس, born 16 November 1971) is a former Pakistani right-arm fast bowler in cricket, regarded as one of the greatest and fastest bowlers of all time.[4][5] Currently, he is the coach of Pakistan Cricket team. As of 2012, he holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days).He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day International (ODI) matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from 1989 to 2003. Younis' trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed. He took 373 Test wickets and 416 One Day International wickets during his career. Together with bowling partner Wasim Akram, he formed one of the world's most feared bowling attacks. Younis has the best strike rate, after Dale Steyn, for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets.He worked as a bowling coach with the national side from 2006 to 2007. Waqar was appointed as the coach of the Pakistan cricket team on 3 March 2010. He resigned as Pakistan's cricket coach on 19 August 2011 citing personal reaPlaying career  Waqar began his cricket career in 1987/88 Pakistan, playing for several first-class cricket clubs. However he suffered an injury when he had cut and removed his little finger on his left hand,after he had jumped into a canal. He recovered from this accident and went on to continue his sporting career. He was eventually discovered by former Pakistan captain, Imran Khan and was selected to be part of the national side. He had played only six first class games when he got picked for the Pakistan camp out of the blue. Waqar says "I remember Imran was not feeling well at the time, and was not present at the camp. Luckily the Super Wills Cup was going on, and there was a match between United Bank and Delhi XI. Saleem Jaffar got injured, and I got the opportunity to play that game. Imran watched me on TV, and actually came to the ground to watch the end of the game. The very next day, he met me and told me that I will be going to Sharjah next month. Just meeting Imran at the time was enough of an experience for me, but for him to notify me of my selection was just out of this world." Domestic
 English audiences became aware of Waqar's talent during the early 1990s, when he played for Surrey. By taking 113 wickets in 582 overs for Surrey in 1991, at a mere 14.65 apiece, and by carrying on his shoulders an otherwise moderate county attack, he announced himself as one of the finest contemporary bowlers. There he displayed excellent cricketing performances and attracted attention from the sporting public. He went on to win the English County Championship with Glamorgan in 1997. He took 7 wickets for 25 against Lancashire at Liverpool on 21 June 1997, which included a hat-trick achieved after narrowly ming a hat-trick e International[edit] Waqar made his International cricket debut for Pakistan against India on 16 November 1989, in the same match that Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar made his debut. Waqar took 4 wickets in the drawn match including the wickets of Tendulkar and Kapil Dev. He made an immediate impression with his speed and became known in the cricket media as "Wiki'' or the "Burewala Express". Waqar along with Wasim Akram opened the bowling attack regularly for Pakistan, becoming a feared and potent attack.At his peak, he developed into a very quick fast bowler and also became famous for achieving a hat-trick in a One Day International match against New Zealand in 1994. During the early periods of 2000, he stayed out of the Pakistan team for a brief period allegedly due to suspension and conflicts with bowling partner and captain Akram. His return to cricket came with him being appointed the captain of Pakistan. However, he had to deal with allegations of ball-tampering and a number of controversies. In July 2000 Waqar was banned for ball tampering and was fined 50% of his match fee.He was involved in further controversy during 2003 World Cup matches. In the opening match against Australia, Waqar was removed from the attack after bowling a beamer at Andrew Symonds, becoming the first bowler to be disciplined in such a way during an international match.The Pakistanis then crashed out of the group stage after winning only two matches, both against associate member teams. After the tournament he conceded the captaincy and was dropped from international selection.After a nearly 15-year career, Waqar announced his retirement from cricket altogether in April 2004.

Afridi Balls 125 KPH Stinger to Russell in Caribbean Premier League.. Imagine a spin bowler bowls to you a medium pace Yorker that you haven’t thought of coming your way especially from the bowler whose orthodox bowling speed lies under 100 kmph well this is Shahid Afridi for you. It was fast and it almost took Russell out of the equation but the big man somehow managed to defend it from the toe of his bat and to be precise the bottom of his bat’s toe would counter it perfectly. He was known to bowl those stingers in his early days and his speed in bowling these faster ones was near to 130 kmph and he took wickets on such deliveries as well but then Afridi started bowling them in a more reduced numbers. Now he hardly bowls them may be due to age factor or whatever may be the reason is but those faster ones were a treat to watch. In the match against Jamaica Tallawahs Afridi refreshed some ole memories when he knocked down Russell with a 125 kmph Yorker. Everything about this delivery was so good that it deserved a wicket which unfortunately didn’t come. It had the pace as well as the perfection. It landed right in the crease and had it been any other player the stumps would have been knocked out but in case of Russell things goes the other way as we have seen in the past. Afridi fans were delighted to see him using some old artillery but they all know that he will not keep on using such deliveries and will concentrate on the other variations that he has learnt over the past years. In his early days in international cricket Afridi was known to bowl a quick one through the air with a speed matching to a normal medium fast bowler. This faster one from him gave him many wickets as well. He then started bowling it at very large scale and became predictable and after that Afridi reduced bowling those faster ones and now he hardly bowls any of them. For Afridi everything about this ball went according to the plan. He bowled it from the normal action. The pitching point was perfect and the ball hit right at the toe of the bat and Russell was down to the ground after dodging that one. In his last match against the Jamaica Tallawahs he bowled his old weapon. It was a 125 Kmph fast Yorker that even put in trouble a man like Andre Russell who is known for his big hitting capabilities. Afridi went for a low voiced leg before wicket shout which the umpire denied as there was no chance of a leg before wicket on this one but it was one beautifully crafted delivery.