QBR’s India schedule announced

The 2010 Commonwealth Organising Committee announced the India schedule of Queen’s Baton Relay, which will pass through the various States and union territories in the run-up to the quadrennial event starting from October 3 here.

“The baton will arrive in India on June 25 at 1300 hrs through Wagah Border after finishing its Pakistan tour and proceed to Amritsar via road on the same day in the evening,” OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi said.

“During its 100-day-long programme, the baton will pass through all the States and union territories before finally arriving in Delhi on September 30 at 1100 hrs, two days prior to the start of the Games,” Kalmadi added.

The schedule was announced during OC’s meeting with the nodal officers of different States and union territories to inform them about the arrival and departure of the relay in their respective cities and arrangements required to be made to ensure baton’s smooth run.

“The baton will spend 3-4 days in each State and union territory, during which it will be taken to the different cities and districts. Special attention has been given to the remote and far flung areas where the baton will travel in regards to security and transportation,” Kalmadi said.

Kalmadi, briefing the nodal officers, said that all must work in one direction — to make this relay a ceremonious event to showcase India’s rich cultural diversity, lifestyle and strong democracy.

“Each State and their respective sports federations must take care of the baton as the responsibility lies with them.

All international sportsperson of that State must be sent an invitation to receive Queen’s Baton Relay when it arrives in the city,” Kalmadi said.

“State ministers, MPs, MLAs, mayor, Army commanders must also be invited to mark its arrival. Branding is important and whole city should look colourful. Any person dressed as Shera must carry the torch during respective State tours.

“Security must be of high class, right from the entry to exit point of the baton. Also we have proposed the State and district-level committees, which will take care of all the requirements. Director sports or any other official dealing with sports must lead the committee.

“Commonwealth Games are very important for whole of the country and we will put our best foot forward,” he added.

Dravid, Yuvraj out of first Test against South Africa

MUMBAI - Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh have been ruled out while Karnataka’s new pace sensation Abhimanyu Mithun and Bengal wicketkeeper Wridhiman Saha get their maiden call-up to the Indian squad for the first Test against South Africa beginning Feb 6 in Nagpur.
Dravid, who fractured his jaw after being hit by a lethal Shahadat Hossain bouncer in the second Test against Bangladesh, has been advised three-week rest.
Yuvraj, who was out midway through the Dhaka Test with a ligament injury on his left wrist, has also been rested.
Tamil Nadu batsmen Subramaniam Badrinath and Murali Vijay have benifitted from their absence. Vijay has been retained while Badrinath recalled in the 15-member squad announced by national selectors here Thursday.

Also, fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who flew back home from Bangladesh
after sustaining a hamstring injury in the first Test, has been left out.
Karnataka pacer Mithun, who made a sensational first class debut this season with a hat-trick and a match haul of 11 wickets against Uttar Pradesh in Ranji Trophy, has been drafted in the squad.
Mithun continued with his stellar form to finish with 47 wickets (23.23 avg) in nine Ranji Trophy matches, and together with another fast bowler R.Vinay Kumar (46 wickets, avg 19.69) was instrumental in taking Karnataka to the finals where they lost to Mumbai.
Bengal wicket-keeper Saha was selected ahead of Dinesh Karthik, who was part of the team in Bangladesh series.
The team for the two-day Board President’s XI match against South Africa at Nagpur from Feb 2 was also announced. Rohit Sharma has been named as the captain of the side.
Test squad:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicket-keeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir
Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, S. Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Sudeep Tyagi, Pragyan Ojha, Abhimanyu Mithun, Wridhiman Saha
Board President’s XI team:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), Ajinkya Rahane,
Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Nayar, Piyush Chawla, R. Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Manpreet Gony.

India vs South Africa 2010

South Africa will play two Tests and three ODIs during India tour in February-March 2010. Both the top two teams in ICC Test ranking will vie for the number one crown. India will definitely play for defending number one Test team title.

South Africa will play fist Test at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur on February 6.

Before the fisrt Test match, visitors will also play a practice match on Feb 2.

The complete fixture of South Africa�s India tour is as following:

Tue Feb 2 - Wed Feb 3
09:30 local
TBC v South Africans
Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur

Sat Feb 6 - Wed Feb 10
09:30 local
1st Test - Ind vs SA
Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur

Sun Feb 14 - Thu Feb 18
09:30 local,2nd Test: Ind vs SA
Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Sun Feb 21
14:30 local
1st ODI: Ind vs SA
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Wed Feb 24
09:00 local
2nd ODI: Ind vs SA
Green Park, Kanpur

Sat Feb 27
14:30 local
3rd ODI: Ind vs SA
Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad

ICC T20 Rankings

The much awaited ICC World T20 2009 will be held in England in the month of June. This year the venues are Kennington Oval, London, Lord's, London and Trent Bridge, Nottingham.
There is no official ICC T20 Rankings on the official website of International Cricket Council (ICC) as such. But there is an unofficial T20 ranking of the teams by some experts. Here is a brief information on the ranking of each team (after the ICC World T20 2007) -

• India - 102 points
• Australia – 100 points
• Bangladesh - 98 points
• England – 90 points
• South Africa – 87 points
• Sri Lanka – 56 points
• New Zealand – 55 points
• Pakistan – 40 points
• Zimbabwe – 35 points
• West Indies – 30 points 

In the ICC World T20 2007, India emerged as the winner and lifted the trophy after defeating Pakistan in the finals. With their victory in the last edition of ICC World T20, a lot is expected from them this year. On the other hand, Australia's performance was not up to the expectations. They entered the ICC World T20 2007 quite effortlessly after claiming the ICC Cricket World Cup earlier that year. But even with their strong squad they couldn't hold their strong ODI form in the T20 matches. Interestingly, Bangladesh was one team that surprised everyone with their performance in the last season of ICC World T20. In the ICC Cricket World cup 2007, Bangladesh defeated stronger teams like India and South Africa. It also shocked everyone by defeating West Indies. Let's see how they perform this year.

In the inaugural season of the ICC World T20 in South Africa, team England started off quite well but couldn't continue with their strong performances. On the contrary, the players of England had played more T20 matches than any other team's players. South Africa was the host of the first season of the ICC World T20 2007. But the performance of the team South Africa was not remarkable and the team managed to reach the stage of super 8s of the event. Sri Lanka and New Zealand also reached the level of super 8's of the tournament. Surprisingly, West Indies didn't survive long in the ICC World T20 2007 and the team had an exit after being defeated by South Africa and Bangladesh. Another strong team, Pakistan, played well in the last season of ICC World T20 and reached the finals.
The time has come to see how the 12 teams – India, Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan, England, Netherlands, Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa and Scotland, the three qualifiers and the other test playing nations compete this year, in the ICC T20 World 2009.

Cricket Betting: Five key moments of 2009

As the year draws to a close, its time to take stock of what has occurred in the last twelve months. Andrew Hughes brings us the five key moments that defined 2009.
 
The Lahore Atrocity
Pakistan's status as an international cricket venue was already hanging by the slenderest of threads, but there remained hope that somehow cricket could carry on despite the turmoil that existed within the country. That hope was shattered on the morning of Tuesday March 3rd when gunmen attacked coaches carrying Sri Lankan players and officials to the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore ground. Five policemen were killed and some players were injured. Pakistan was stripped of the right to co-host the 2011 World Cup but perhaps more significantly, the belief that cricketers would never be targeted in a cricket-loving part of the world was dispelled forever.
England winning the Women's World Twenty20
Whilst England's men were struggling to rebuild under a new captain, England's women spent most of 2009 underlining their utter dominance. Claiming their third World Cup in Australia was another tremendous achievement, as was winning the Ashes during the summer. But it was their victory in the inaugural World Twenty20 that had most significance. The ICC had scheduled the women's tournament to run alongside the men's and when Claire Taylor hit the winning boundary in the final against New Zealand, a significant television audience were watching as well as a full house at Lord's. In a year when Charlotte Edwards received an MBE and Claire Taylor became the first women to feature as one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year, the World Twenty20 victory was a huge boost for women's cricket in England.
The Dilscoop
Tillakaratne Dilshan was probably the batsman of the year, an unfulfilled talent in the middle order who had been moved to open and become one of the most destructive batsmen in the game as a result. During the IPL in a game against the Deccan Chargers, he unleashed a shot that no-one had seen before. Going down on one knee, he was able to lift a ball from Ryan Harris, with rare skill and timing over his shoulder towards the boundary. Pundits struggled to put a name to it but when he produced the shot again, during the World Twenty20, they finally settled on the Dilscoop. It was yet more good publicity for the shortest form of the game, generated considerable public interest and represented a new challenge to bowlers.
Tendulkar's Century
Sachin Tendulkar has gathered more records than any other batsman has over the course of his long and successful career. On November 5th in Hyderabad, he notched up another one and at the same time confirmed that his appetite for runs, not to mention his sublime talent remains undimmed. Chasing an unlikely 350 to win the fifth one-day international, Tendulkar was also chasing his 17,000th one-day international run. It came in the fifth over. On the last ball, he flicked a good length delivery through square leg and scampered three. The crowd, complete with banners and flags, who had looked far more tense than Sachin, erupted with joy as Virender Sehwag shook his hands and the scoreboard flashed up his record. The Little Master simply called for a new bat and set about crafting a breathtaking innings of 175 that all but brought his team victory, but as has happened so often in the past, his teammates proved altogether more mortal than Sachin and India lost by just 3 runs.
New South Wales winning the Champions League
The Champions League had had a troubled beginning. Emerging from the Indian Premier League, it was an attempt by the IPL head Lalit Modi to exploit the idea of an international club competition. The concept survived an attempt by the ECB to set up a rival and a postponement after last year's appalling Mumbai attacks and finally got underway in October. The tournament proved a success ratings-wise, despite the early exit of the IPL franchise teams, with the emergence of a talented Trinidad & Tobago team capturing the Indian public's imagination. The tournament was doubly significant in underlining the fundamental strength of Australian cricket. Both Australian teams reached the semi-finals and New South Wales ran out impressive victors against Trinidad & Tobago in the final.

Breaking News: Statistical records of India-Sri Lanka ODIs

India-Sri Lanka ODIs - Head to Head Venue Played Won by India Won by Lanka NR Success % India Lanka In India 37 25 10 2 71.42 28.57 Lanka 46 17 23 6 42.50 57.50 Neutral 30 18 10 2 64.28 35.71 Total 113 60 43 10 58.25 41.74 Bilateral series played in India Series Match Result Captains: India Sri Lanka 1982-83 3 India won (3-0) Kapil Dev B Warnapura 1986-87 5 India won (4-1) Kapil Dev Duleep Mendis 1990-91 3 India won (2-1) Mohd Azhauddin Arjuna Ranatunga 1993-94 3 India won (2-1) Mohd Azhauddin Arjuna Ranatunga 1997-98 3 Drawn (1-1) Sachin Tendulkar Arjuna Ranatunga 2005-06 7 India won (6-1) Rahul Dravid Marvan Atapattu. Virender Sehwag (1) 2006-07 4 India won (2-1) Rahul Dravid Mahela Jayawardene Highest Innings Totals: Team Runs Overs Venue Date India: 373-6 50 Taunton 26.5.1999 Sri Lanka: 320-8 50 Colombo RPS 8.2.2009 Lowest Innings Totals: India: 54 26.3 overs Sharjah 29.10.2000 Sri Lanka: 96 41.0 overs Sharjah 8.4.1984. Highest match aggregate: 618-12 96.5 overs Lanka 308-8, India 310-4 Karachi 3.7.2008 Lowest match aggregate: 193-10 62.4 overs Lanka 96, India 97-0 Sharjah 8.4.1984 Biggest wins: India: 10 wickets Sharjah 8.4.1984 183 runs Johannesburg 10.3.2003 Sri Lanka: 9 wickets Colombo RPS 28.8.1996 245 runs Sharjah 29.10.2000 Highest Individual Innings: Runs Balls Batsman For Venue Date 189 161 Sanath Jayasuriya Lanka Sharjah 29.10.2000 183* 145 Mahendra Dhoni India Jaipur 31.10.2005 183 158 Sourav Ganguly India Taunton 26.5.1999 Leading run-getters: India: 2749 (ave. 44.33) in 74 ODIs Sachin Tendulkar Lanka: 2848 (ave. 36.98) in 86 ODIs Sanath Jayasuriya Most hundreds: India: 8 by Sachin Tendulkar Sri Lanka: 7 by Sanath Jayasuriya Leading wicket-takers: India: 49 (ave. 20.61) in 25 ODIs Ajit Agarkar Sri Lanka 74 (ave. 30.79) in 61 ODIs Muttiah Muralitharan Best Bowling in an innings: India: 6/59 Ashish Nehra Colombo, RPS 9.8.2005 Sri Lanka: 7/30 M Muralitharan Sharjah 27.10.2000 6/13 Ajantha Mendis Karachi 6.7.2008 6/20 Angelo Matthews Colombo RPS 12.9.2009. Best Partnerships: India: 318 (2nd) S Ganguly & R Dravid Taunton 26.5.1999 Lanka: 226 (3rd) M Atapattu & M Jayawardene Sharjah 27.10.2000 Wicketkeeping dismissals: India: 43 (36 ct.+ 7 st) in 34 mt. Mahendra Singh Dhoni Sri Lanka 36 (32 ct.+ 4 st) in 46 mt. Kumar Sangakkara Most catches by Fielders: India: 25 in 74 matches Sachin Tendulkar Sri Lanka: 28 in 56 matches Mahela Jayawardene ODIs played during 2009 Country P W L NR Tied Winning % Australia 39 23 14 2 - 62.16 West Indies 21 4 15 2 - 21.05 Sri Lanka 22 11 11 - - 50.00 Zimbabwe 27 13 14 - - 48.14 India 26 14 9 3 - 60.86 New Zealand 24 10 11 3 - 47.61 Bangladesh 19 14 5 - - 73.68 Pakistan 20 8 12 - - 40.00 South Africa 18 11 7 - - 61.11.

TV markets dictate Twenty20 World Cup

HAROON LORGAT, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Cricket Council (ICC), stated that there will be few day/night matches at the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup due to the needs of the game’s major television audiences, in England, South Africa, India and Australia.

The World Cup will take place here in the Caribbean from April 30 to May 16.

“The dominant markets that will be watching the games, if we (in the WI) were playing at nights, you’re talking about 3 am in those markets,” admitted Lorgat, during the recent launch of the World Cup Ticket Sales Launch at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

“Whether there are men playing or women playing, it’s a difficult time of the night to be sitting up and watching cricket,” he added. “In order to balance that, the fixtures (in the WI) are starting in the mornings and afternoons, so you’ve got prime time or some time available in the late afternoons or evenings in the dominant markets across the globe where the cricket will be watched.

“The reality is, as much as we want spectators in the venues, we need to ensure we’ve got eyeballs in the game as well.”

According to the tournament’s schedule, in the Semi Finals (on May 13 and 14) in St Lucia and the Final, the men’s matches will be staged before the women’s game.

Lorgat admitted that those arrangements were made to cater for the television audience.

“That might have been the trickiest part we had to face in scheduling,” said Lorgat. “The greatest challenge we had from the television viewership and the (main) broadcaster who’s got certain perimeters, to which they had to ensure their returns.

“In order to balance all of that, the unfortunate reality is (this scenario),” he added. “We have scheduled the matches for viewership in prime time – not necessarily in the stadiums – but in other markets around the globe.”

Another major issue is the fact that there will be no regional Twenty20 tournament before World Cup.

“I think it will be difficult between now and April to have a Twenty20 tournament,” said Ernest Hilaire, CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). He said that the West Indies players will be involved in a three-Test tour of Australia this month, followed by the regional four-day tournament from January until March, as well as a one-day tour of Australia in February and an international series at home against Zimbabwe.

“There’s virtually no space for us to have a Twenty20 tournament,” Hilaire stated.

He said that, between now and 2012, the Board will be looking at available time periods where a Twenty20 tournament can be staged. But, he insisted that Twenty20 internationals are part of the package during the series against Australia and Zimbabwe.

“You do not need to have a regional Twenty20 tournament for the team to prepare but we are trying to ensure that the team plays enough Twenty20 matches leading up to the Twenty20 World Cup,” he said.

The Kensington Oval was chosen as the venue for the Final on May 16.

Concerning the location for the Final, Hilaire pointed out, “we were motivated by a desire to have facilities that can accommodate the largest number of spectators, and a facility that has been tried and tested, (and) be able to host the final of what is the biggest Twenty20 tournament in the world.

“As such, Barbados became a logical choice of the three venues that were chosen to host matches,” Hilaire said.Concerning the ‘semis’, the Board decided to award the games to St Lucia due to the fact that, during the month of May, it will be the rainy period in Guyana.

But Hilaire said that Guyana was given the privilege of hosting some First Round matches (April 30 to May 3).

Robert Bryan, the Tournament Director, stated that the WICB is keen to learn from the mistakes made during the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup here in the Caribbean.

“I think the way that this tournament has been structured, in terms of the ticketing and pricing, it shows that we’ve learnt from that,” said Bryan. He noted that the Board does not have to deal with the additional burden of building venues to host the matches. “We’re able, much earlier, to focus on the event planning, organisation and execution,” he said.

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