Sahara to continue as Indian team sponsor

The Sahara logo will stay on India jerseys until 2013. The Sahara Group will continue as sponsors of the Indian team after they won the contract by bidding Rs. 3.34 crores ($719,000) per match. The current sponsorship contract ends on June 30 and the new one runs until December 31, 2013. A top Sahara official also confirmed the development. Bharti Airtel, the only other company in the fray, put in a bid for Rs 2.89 crore ($628, 260) per match.

"We take pride in sponsoring the Indian national team," Abhijit Sarkar, corporate affairs head at Sahara, said.

Sahara's winning bid comes as something of a surprise as chairman Subrata Roy had said the company would re-evaluate its sponsorship of the Indian team after it bagged the Pune IPL franchise. According to market sources, Sahara decided to bid again because an analysis of the numbers turned out positive. It paid Rs 407 crores ($88 million) over the last four years, so the new deal requires roughly Rs 85 crores ($18.5 million) more, which doesn't hurt the group much.

Sahara waited until the last minute before entering the bidding because it was worried about the response from its competitors. It feared the price of deal could rise over Rs 500 crores if its interest was publically known. The deal is solely to sponsor the Indian men's team, as the group was not interested in spending an extra Rs 10-15 crore on the other three squads (women's, India A and Under-19).

The BCCI had set a base price of Rs 2.5 crores ($ 541,000) per match for the three-and-a-half-year period, during which India will play between 144 and 167 matches, depending on how far the team progresses in ICC tournaments. At Rs 3.34 crores a match, the Sahara deal is worth between Rs 481 crores ($104 million) and Rs 558 crores ($121 million).

Under the terms of the previous deal, Sahara paid Rs 1.91 crores ($ 412,000) per Test, Rs 2.09 crores ($ 455,000) per ODI and Rs 1.57 crores ($ 340,000) per Twenty20. The new price is the same across all three formats, and more than doubles the price of a Twenty20 game, highlighting its appeal and popularity.

The board had originally issued a tender late last year with a base price of Rs 3 crores ($ 650,000) per match, but failed to attract a single bid. As a stop gap measure, the Sahara Group agreed to extend its sponsorship of the Indian team for a further six months.

The Indian board issued the tender on Monday inviting companies to bid for the rights and the bidding period closed on Saturday.

Source : Cricinfo

New England's Dark Day

1780: In the midst of the Revolutionary War, darkness descends on New England at midday. Many people think Judgment Day is at hand. It will be remembered as New England’s Dark Day.

Diaries of the preceding days mention smoky air and a red sun at morning and evening. Around noon this day, an early darkness fell: Birds sang their evening songs, farm animals returned to their roosts and barns, and humans were bewildered.

Some went to church, many sought the solace of the tavern, and more than a few nearer the edges of the darkened area commented on the strange beauty of the preternatural half-light. One person noted that clean silver had the color of brass.

It was darkest in northeastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine, but it got dusky through most of New England and as far away as New York. At Morristown, New Jersey, Gen. George Washington noted it in his diary.

In the darkest area, people had to take their midday meals by candlelight. A Massachusetts resident noted, In some places, the darkness was so great that persons could not see to read common print in the open air. In New Hampshire, wrote one person, A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet.

At Hartford, Col. Abraham Davenport opposed adjourning the Connecticut legislature, thus: The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause of an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty.

When it was time for night to fall, the full moon failed to bring light. Even areas that had seen a pale sun in the day could see no moon at all. No moon, no stars: It was the darkest night anyone had seen. Some people could not sleep and waited through the long hours to see if the sun would ever rise again. They witnessed its return the morning of May 20. Many observed the anniversary a year later as a day of fasting and prayer.

Professor Samuel Williams of Harvard gathered reports from throughout the affected areas to seek an explanation. A town farther north had reported a black scum like ashes on rainwater collected in tubs. A Boston observer noted the air smelled like a malt-house or coal-kiln. Williams noted that rain in Cambridge fell thick and dark and sooty and tasted and smelled like the black ash of burnt leaves.

As if from a forest fire to the north? Without railroad or telegraph, people would not know: No news could come sooner than delivered on horseback, assuming the wildfire was even near any European settlements in the vast wilderness.

But we know today that the darkness had moved southwest at about 25 mph. And we know that forest fires in Canada in 1881, 1950 and 2002 each cast a pall of smoke over the northeastern United States.

A definitive answer came in 2007. In the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Erin R. McMurry of the University of Missouri forestry department and co-authors combined written accounts with fire-scar evidence from Algonquin Provincial Park in eastern Ontario to document a massive wildfire in the spring of 1780 as the likely source of the infamous Dark Day of 1780.

Source : Wired.com

Nokia X2 in India

Nokia will soon unleash a new device into the acclaimed Xseries line-up in India dubbed as the Nokia X2 mobile phone. Customers residing in India were earlier treated to the Nokia N8 handset, according to Nokia Conversations.

The company reveals that the latest X2 phone is formulated by taking inspiration from the earlier Xseries devices such as the Nokia X6 and Nokia X3. This candybar phone boasts of a 2.2-inch QVGA screen and is noted to be highly portable in nature. The Nokia offering can be easily slipped into the pocket or placed in the handbag as it measures only 13mm and weighs 81g.


Customers can expect the X2 handset to house dedicated music keys, FM stereo, dual speakers to suit the needs of music aficionados. It also offers complete support for up to 16GB of storage through a microSD card. Users can also groove to their favorite tunes either via Bluetooth 2.1 or the 3.5mm headphone jack. Quick transfer of music is also observed as it includes full speed USB 2.0.

The device also enables customers to seamlessly manage their music through the Windows Media Player 11 or Ovi Player PC client. Besides offering many entertainment features, the Nokia X2 also provides direct access to Facebook on the home screen itself. They can enjoy Instant Messaging and e-mailing with the inclusion of the Nokia Messaging. Other features also include a 5 megapixel camera as well as video recorder. Customers are spoilt for choice with loads of apps from the Ovi Store.

The Nokia X2 handset is tagged with a price of €85 (approx. Rs.5,000) and is expected to entice mobile enthusiasts in India by the end of next month.