World cricketers arrive in Jersey
Cricketers from 12 nations across the globe have started to arrive in Jersey for the ICC World Division Five Cricket Tournament which begins on Friday.
The tournament involves teams as diverse as Norway and Afghanistan, with the top two securing berths in Division Four and possibly the 2011 World Cup.
ICC global development manager Matthew Kennedy said Jersey was a good venue.
"It's got a great cricket culture and that's due to hard work from people there," he told BBC Radio Jersey.
"People there like cricket and hopefully they'll be keen to see countries from all over the world battling it out in the ICC World Cricket League.
"The ICC's very excited, we're sure it's going to be a great event."
Kennedy was impressed an island that was only granted associate membership of the international cricket body last year was already hosting a world tournament.
"It really is fantastic for them to be able to host 12 associate and affiliate members of the world," he said.
He went on to reveal part of the reason the island had been chosen to hold the tournament was its dynamic cricket association.
"It's a great team of people off the field that worked really hard at developing the game in a voluntary capacity.
"The island also has an effective professional administration which engaged government well and engaged local corporate support very well."
BBC (c) MMVIII
Locals sign for cricket bonanza
THE company behind the rise of the V8 Supercars has secured the rights to global merchandising and licensing for International Cricket Council events for the next eight years.
At the same time, Fox Sports and the Nine Network have jointly acquired the Australian broadcast rights to ICC tournaments through to 2011.
While Nine and Fox Sports have had rights to broadcast various cricket events, this is the first time they have jointly bid for the ICC's rights.
Sports & Entertainment Ltd, in partnership with Velocity Brand Management, secured the licensing deal, which could be worth more than $US150million in sales over the life of the contract.
Licensing in Motion, the joint venture between SEL (the operator of the V8 Supercars) and VBM, has already handled merchandising and licensing for the 2007 World Cup, the Twenty20 World Cup and the Super Series in 2005.
Speaking to The Australian from the ICC cricket committee's two-day meeting in Dubai this week, SEL co-founder Basil Scaffidi said the length of the contract meant the joint-venture partners could play a pivotal role in helping the ICC build interest in cricket through merchandising.
He said the awarding of the eight-year contract came at a watershed moment in the history of the sport, with the Indian Premier League attracting global headlines.
And Mr Scaffidi said the growth of the sport in Asian markets was critical.
"Reebok opens a new store in Asia every 39 hours," he said.
"We will be able to sign long-term contracts with suppliers and have people working on this full time."
Mr Scaffidi said the length of the contract meant they would be able to offer ICC merchandise for sale well ahead of an event such as the World Cup, rather than just as the event was about to begin.
"There is no reason why, with the World Cup in Australia (in 2011), we cannot have the merchandise in the marketplace two years out from the event."
Meanwhile, Nine and Fox Sports will share the Australian rights to ICC events, including the Cricket World Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup.
Fox Sports will also broadcast all matches from the Champions Trophy.
(c) The Australian
Two Jamaicans in US cricket squad
Former national players Orlando Baker and Carl Wright have been named in a 14-man squad announced by the United States of America Cricket Association in midweek.
The duo forms part of the US team that will take part in next month's ICC World Cricket League Division Five tournament in Jersey, as the host return to international cricket after serving an ICC-imposed suspension. The US will compete against the likes of Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway and Singapore.
Baker, 28, played one first-class match for Jamaica, before migrating to the States where he has been one of the most sought-after cricketer in US Metropolitan Leagues.
Wright, 30, is a former wicketkeeper batsman, with 11 first-class matches under his belt representing Jamaica and has done enough to earn a place in the US team to be captained by Steve Massiah.
Other notable West Indians in the team are Lennox Cush from Guyana and manager, Clayton Lambert, a who former West Indies and US international player.
In 2006 the US were suspended by the ICC, which saw them being demoted from World Cricket League Division One and automatically ruling them out of next year's ICC World Cup Qualifiers. They, however, have an opportunity to qualify for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup should they finish in the top two of divisions five, four and three, where they'll be invited to the final Qualifiers in January 2009 for cricket's next World Cup three years from now.
Team: Rahul Kukreti, Carl Wright, Wahab Syed, Niraj Shah, Aditya Thyagarajan, Lennox Cush, Imran Awan, Khawaja Usman Shuja, Steve Pitter, Sushil Nadkarni (vice cpt), Steve Massiah (cpt), Orlando Baker, Mohamed Masood, Rashard Marshall, Sohail Bari (manager), Clayton Lambert (coach)
(c) 2000-2001 Jamaica Observer
Symonds Century Not Enough As Warne Steals Show
Andrew Symonds struck a brilliant century for the Deccan Chargers against the Rajasthan Royals in game nine of the Indian Premier League in Hyderabad but it wasn't enough as Shane Warne hit him for 16 runs in three balls to secure a three-wicket win in an enthralling match.
Needing 17 to win from the final over, three runs came from the first two deliveries to bring Warne onto strike, and the rest was pure theatre of the type Warne scripted for the majority of his career.
A full toss was smashed for a straight four - ten required from three. Symonds dropped a quicker ball a fraction short and an advancing Warne heaved him into the stands at midwicket, leaving four runs to get in two balls. Warne had no intention of taking it down to the last ball, hitting an imperious shot, perhaps the best of the day, over cover for six to win the match.
It was a thrilling finale to a match that swung this way and that throughout, Symonds' century helping his side recover from early wickets to post 214 for five before the Royals completed the second-highest successful run chase in Twenty20 cricket.
Key to that were half-centuries from Yusuf Pathan and Graeme Smith which set the stage for Warne's last act.
Pathan, who earlier dropped Symonds on 75, took to Vaas, launching him for two sixes and a four as the Royals made a superb start to their run chase despite the loss of Kamran Akmal (14) to Vaas early on, with Pathan and Graeme Smith scoring 50 runs together in just 19 balls.
Pathan cleared the boundary for the sixth time to bring up his half-century from 21 balls, a new tournament record, as was the speed with which the Royals got to one hundred runs - 51 balls. His breathtaking innings of 61 in 29 balls was ended when he finally mistimed a shot down the ground and Symonds made no mistake, giving Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna a deserved wicket.
The Chargers then earned themselves a lifeline when Shahid Afridi bowled Shane Watson for four as the Australian looked to break the shackles with a big hit after two excellent overs of spin from Afridi and Pragyan Ojha.
Smith needed 34 balls to get to his fifty as the run rate slowed against the spinners and the Chargers found themselves back on top of the game. Mohammad Kaif smacked three sixes off of Symonds and with Smith also in belligerent mood, another fifty partnership was added, this one taking 24 balls and putting the Royals back in the box seat. Nevertheless, the Chargers bounced back again with the wicket of Kaif, caught by Symonds for 34 off of Afridi. Two balls later, Smith shovelled a full toss down to long-on and they were well and truly back in the hunt, Kalyankrishna holding the catch.
The next ball should have seen another wicket as Ravindra Jadeja offered Kalyankrishna another catch, but was relieved to see the chance put down, leaving the Royals 23 runs to win from the last two overs. A nerveless over from Rudra Pratap Singh saw two wickets and just six runs conceded, meaning the Royals needed 17 to win from six balls.
Enter Warne, facing what Symonds himself called "the worst over in Twenty20 history," and the Chargers soon found themselves in the unenviable position of having played three matches without a win.
Captain VVS Laxman was understandably a disappointed man:
"I thought we batted really well and posted a good total, which I thought that we could defend but in the end I think they played better than us," he said.
"We had bowled all our regular bowlers, and took the match to the last over, so it was disappointing but full marks to Shane Warne for the way he batted in the last over," he added.
Earlier, Warne Royals won the toss and chose to bowl, and his side picked up three quick wickets to halt the home side's bright start but after that it was one way traffic with Symonds in full and devastating flow.
Bowling first looked like a shrewd move as Warne's side picked up the wickets of Gilchrist (13) and Shahid Afridi (ten), both falling to spinner and man of the match Pathan in the third over of the game, Warne turning to spin early and reaping the rewards.
Laxman and Symonds both survived a run out chance to take the score past fifty before Warne needed just three balls himself to strike, having Laxman caught and bowled for 16.
Symonds remained and looked in good form, reaching his half-century with a six and a four off of Warne. He shared a century partnership with Rohit Sharma, who looked as neat and compact as ever - perhaps India's own 20/20 specialist.
Symonds reached his hundred by launching Warne into the second tier of the stand behind long-on, the same stroke bringing up the century stand with Sharma, who gorged himself on a series of full tosses offered by Warne and Munaf Patel.
His downfall came from the final ball of the 18th over when he was caught by Salunkhe off of Warne as he tried to hit over the top against the spin. His innings of 36 lasted 30 balls and included three fours and a six.
Seven bowlers were used by Warne, with Pathan impressing with two for 20 while at the other end of the scale, Munaf was taken for 55 for no wickets and Warne for 47 for his two wickets.
Symonds' century was the quickest of the three in the tournament so far, the Queensland and Australia all-rounder needing 47 balls, and facing just 53 in all.
Warne paid tribute to Symonds' innings, joking that he contemplated putting some fielders in the stands but was quick to praise his own young, inexperienced players for an excellent performance.
"We have got a very inexperienced side, a very young side but they have got a lot of skill these young guys, we played with a lot of passion we made our plans it was just a matter of execution. There is a very good spirit in our team and you can sense that from the way we play," he said.
"We just want to keep playing, we want to be the best cricketers that we possibly can, we work pretty hard and we have got a good team spirit."
Final, optimistic, word to Laxman, with his side in desperate need of a win to kick start a campaign that promised so much, but has so far delivered nothing:
"Once we get a win under our belt I am sure we will have a lot of success."
(c) Cricket World 2008
If it works, Indian league will transform cricket
If there were any doubt about the India Premier League's being a major international sporting event, it was ended this week as the league and the news media staged one of those stand-up arguments about coverage and intellectual property rights that have become an invariable part of the prelude to World Cups in all sports.
Not that there was ever much doubt about the league's status. Ever since the owners of the eight franchises threw vast sums at the world's prime talent at the India Premier League player auction in February, it has been a given that the cricket world would never be the same again. The only debate has been as to whether the change will be beyond recognition or not.
Scyld Berry, editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and one of the most historically aware journalists, argued in his newspaper column last week that Friday's opening day - when the Bangalore Royal Challengers entertain the Calcutta Knight Riders - marks the beginning of a fourth phase in cricket's long history.
The first phase ran from the sport's origins to the start of test cricket in 1877, the second from then until Kerry Packer's rebel SuperTests, in 1977, opened a third newly commercialized era, which has run until today.
If this truly is to be a new cricket world, it is starting in an appropriate place. Bangalore is the center of the technological industries that are helping to drive the transformation of India and the creation of the sizeable middle class whose disposable income has made the country cricket's economic powerhouse.
The eight franchises, each representing an Indian city or region, will play one another twice in the Twenty20 format, which gives each team one innings of 20 six-ball overs, in the next six weeks.
Each squad combines established home and international stars with India's best young players. Every headline writer in the world will be wishing the Madras teenager Napoleon Einstein well.
The top four will qualify for the semifinals which, like the final on June 1, will be played in Mumbai.
Nowhere will the tournament's progress be watched more anxiously than in the country that might look least affected, England. Dimitri Mascarenhas, an all-rounder who has played a few matches for England's one-day and Twenty20 teams, is the only English player involved.
The reason for this also explains, however, the England's cricket authorities' worry about the India Premier League, or IPL. It is the only country whose domestic season coincides with the Indian competition.
Its best players are well rewarded - all-rounder Paul Collingwood earned GBP465,000, or $919,00, from his central contract with the England team last year. But the top players in the IPL will earn over $1 million for a short season of work.
Yet England's captain, Michael Vaughan, was right when he said this week that it was inevitable that his players would also want to seize the IPL opportunity. England's star batsman, Kevin Pietersen, who not so long ago complained of burnout from too much cricket, described attempts to stop England players' from joining the IPL as "silly." The England and Wales Cricket Board's previously hard line shows signs of softening.
The competition will transform the living standards of leading cricketers in exchange for the somewhat demeaning experience of being assigned to teams by being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Adam Gilchrist, the Australian wicket-keeper, may be more perceptive than most, but surely not alone in having felt like a cow at market.
It may hasten the demise of the 50-over one-day international, increasingly made to look slow and outmoded by Twenty20, which promises almost as much action in much less than half the time.
Whether it is a real threat to the five-day test is much less clear.
Players continue to regard the long game as the supreme test of their skill and are aware that fame, and hence market value, still rests to a great extent on performances in it.
The national governing bodies that make up the International Cricket Council are likely to accede to the IPL's request for a guaranteed slot in the annual calendar, if only to protect themselves from fixture clashes that could cost them their best players.
Less clear is whether the IPL itself will be a success. It has already put millions into the bank accounts of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the contracted players.
Whether it will be a paying proposition for the franchise owners is another matter. They are betting that Indian fans will buy into newly confected all-star teams and turn up for games in atmosphere-creating thousands, or just switch on television transmissions in their millions. If that assumption is wrong, reports of the coming revolution may prove to have been exaggerated.
Copyright (c) 2008 the International Herald Tribune
Australia Name Centrally Contracted List Of Players
Four new players were awarded contracts and test opener Chris Rogers has been dropped from Cricket Australia's list of contracted players for next season.
David Hussey, Shaun Marsh, Doug Bollinger and Beau Casson were included on the 25-man list for the first time, while Simon Katich and Ashley Noffke were offered new contracts after failing to make the cut last season.
Three places were available following the retirements of Adam Gilchrist, Brad Hogg and Jason Gillespie while the remaining three came about through the ditching of Rogers, Cullen Bailey and Daniel Cullen.
Chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said on Wednesday they had chosen a blend of experienced and emerging players.
"The national selection panel has continued to recognise the outstanding performances of key players who have continually contributed to the Australian side while at the same time recognising the efforts of those in interstate cricket," Hilditch said in a statement.
NOTABLE ABSENTEE
Rogers was the most notable absentee after making his test debut against India in Perth in January. The left-handed opener failed to make a big score in his only appearance.
"Simon Katich and Ashley Noffke have had outstanding seasons for New South Wales and Queensland respectively and have thoroughly deserved their selection," Hilditch said.
"At the same time we have decided to add a young spinner to the list and Beau Casson has performed strongly for New South Wales throughout the summer.
Fast bowler Shaun Tait was also included despite announcing last season he was taking a break because he was worn-out from playing professional cricket.
"Shaun just encountered something which probably he's never had to deal with before and probably as a selection panel we haven't had to deal with before," Hilditch said.
"We have had lengthy discussions, both coaches, players and fitness people, with Shaun, and we're really confident that it's going to be a good future in the next 12 months or so for Shaun."
Australia's contracted players for 2008-09:
Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Beau Casson, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hodge, James Hopes, David Hussey, Mike Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Shaun Marsh, Ashley Noffke, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White.
(c) Reuters 2008
CricketAkhtar, Kaneria to attend Tuesday's disciplinary hearing
KARACHI, March 31 (Reuters) - Shoaib Akhtar and Danish Kaneria will appear before a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) disciplinary committee on Tuesday to respond to charges of violating the players' code of conduct.
The duo were charged with criticising PCB policies following the board's announcement of the new central contracts in January.
Paceman Akhtar was dropped from the list of contracts while leg-spinner Kaneria was demoted.
If found guilty, they face fines of between one and five million rupees (between $17,000 and $82,000) or bans ranging from three to six matches.
"I can confirm we have called both players for a hearing on Tuesday to hear their viewpoint on the charges," disciplinary committee chairman Muneer Hafeez told Reuters on Monday.
Akhtar was last year banned for 13 matches and fined 3.4 million rupees for hitting team mate Mohammad Asif before the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
(c) Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
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