Kolkata, January 30: The West Bengal government, which has swiftly moved in to ensure the Eden Gardens gets back the Feb 27 World Cup match, Sunday said less than ‘five percent’ of construction work remained to be completed and will be done by Feb 5.
The International Cricket Council, the game’s apex body, has taken away the India-England match from the Eden Gardens due to unpreparedness of the ground.
Kolkata, January 30: A day after Cricket Association of Bengal(CAB) chief Jagmohan Dalmiya sought his intervention to bring back the Feb 27 India-England world cup match to the Eden Gardens, union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said he would speak to International cricket Council (ICC) president Sharad Pawar on the issue.
Mukherjee’s assurance to take up the matter with Pawar, his ministerial colleague in the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, ollowed a 25-minute meeting with Dalmiya Saturday night.
Mumbai, january 31:Sachin Tendulkar hopes India will draw on their achievement of becoming the No.1 Test nation as they try to capture the ICC World Cup.
Tendulkar, who has struck more than 32,000 runs and 97 centuries in one-day and Test cricket, is widely regarded as the best batsman of his generation and is set to be considered one of cricket’s all-time greats upon his eventual retirement from the sport.
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New Delhi, January 30: The Indian team for the 2011 World Cup is one of the most well-balanced units comprising maximum number of match-winners, according to 1983 World Cup winning team member Syed Kirmani, who feels it is the best chance for the Men In Blue to bag the coveted title.
Melbourne, January 30:The weekend title success at the Australian Open may have Kim Clijsters even more confused than ever about her tennis future after the 27-year-old beat China’s Li Na to win her fourth major trophy.
“I do think this is probably my last full season that I will be playing,” said the Belgian mother of one who quit once to have her child and then returned in 2007.
Chennai, January 30: The Indian junior boys team created history when they downed archrivals and holders Pakistan in the 15th Asian Junior Team Championships held in Colombo, Sri Lanka to win this prestigious title for the first time in Indian squash history since the inception of the Asian Championships in 1981.
Ranchi, January 29: The opening ceremony of the 34th National Games here Feb 12 will see either Kareena Kapoor or Priyanka Chopra take part, while Katrina Kaif will perform at the closing ceremony Feb 27, an official said Saturday.
‘We have awarded Cineyug contract for opening and closing ceremonies. In the opening ceremony, either Kareena or Priyanka Chopra will take part and Katrina Kaif will take part in the closing ceremony,’ a senior official told IANS.
Kolkata, January 29: The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) virtually accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of double standards after the international body Saturday turned down its plea of retaining the historical Eden Gardens as the venue for the India-England World Cup match.
CAB joint secretary Biswarup Dey said the ICC has different principles for different venues.
Kolkata, January 29:Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Jagmohan Dalmiya Saturday called on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and discussed with him the Eden Gardens fiasco.
Dalmiya held a closed-door meeting with Mukherjee for about 25 minutes.
Kolkata, January 29: Second seed Mari Tanka ranked 460 in the WTA rankings of Japan upset the top seed Dalila Jakuoppovic of Slovenia ranked 394 in the finals of the 10,000 US dollars ITF Women’s Tournament at Jaidip Mukerjea Tennis Academy today.
The match was a close affair and the Japanese won 6-4 6-3, which lasted 90 minutes, Tanaka led 5-0 in the first set after wich Jakuoppovic pulled up to 5-4 but could not win the set. In the 2nd set also Tanaka had an early break and finally won 6-4 6-3. It was a very hard hitting match from the base line and the crowd appriciated it very much.
Sydney, January 29:Australian fast bowler Nathan Bracken Saturday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket due to a persistent knee injury.
Bracken represented Australia in 116 One-day Internationals (ODI), taking 174 wickets at an impressive average of 24.36. Bracken also played five Tests but was never able to cement his place in the side. The left-arm seamer shouldered New South Wales attack in his successful first-class career.
The highlight of his career came when he was ranked the No.1 ODI bowler in 2008.
New Delhi, January 29: Home conditions, crowd support and consistent performance of the past one and a half year make India the hot favourites in next month’s cricket World Cup in the sub-continent, feels stylish Test batsman VVS Laxman.
“India have the best chance to win the World Cup. I don’t want to put undue pressure on the players by predicting the favourites. But I think the team can repeat the 1983 feat. They have the potential and talent to lift the trophy. The team has been performing consistently over the last year and a half,” Laxman said.
Sydney, January 29: The fans were dumbfounded when Football Federation Australia (FFA) named German nobody Holger Osieck the new national coach six months ago.
His career as head coach – Turkey, Japan, Canada – looked as unimpressive as his time as a player. Despite being on the books of FC Muelheim, Osieck did not play a Bundesliga game for them.
Billionaire FFA boss Frank Lowy had promised a world-class coach would follow on from Dutch maestro Guus Hiddink and his understudy Pim Verbeek and said he was ready to write the cheque big enough to pull one.
New Delhi, January 29: Training his guns at BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi today blamed dirty Cricket Board politics for Eden Gardens’loss of India-England World Cup match on February 27.
“This tweet is my protest at shifting of Ind-Eng match from the Eden Gardens,”Modi said.
“Sorry to see politics again -take away matches from Kolkata. I had restored them when I chaired the tours and fixtures committee. Thou secretary opposed it. Once again dirty tricks department wants to alienate the Fans,”wrote the former BCCI vice-president on his’Twitter’page.
New Delhi, January 29: Senior batsman VVS Laxman today said that openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir will be key to India’s campaign at the Cricket World Cup starting next month and the duo will have to fire if the co-host wants to lift the coveted trophy.
Laxman tipped India the hot favourites to win the World Cup given the favourable home conditions and the crowd support.
Cairo, January 29: Egypt’s Football Association has postponed all football matches scheduled for Saturday citing security reasons related to the ongoing wave of anti-government protests that have shaken the country since Tuesday, a news website said.
Federation board member Ayman Younes was cited as saying that security authorities had sent a formal letter to the federation requesting the postponement of the scheduled 16th round of Super League matches until further notice.
Doha, January 29:South Korea finished third at the Asian Cup after beating Uzbekistan 3-2 in a play-off Friday.
The victory in front of 8,000 spectators in the Al-Sadd Stadium sees the South Koreans qualify directly for the 2015 edition in Australia.
The 2010 World Cup finalists opened up a three-goal lead within the first 40 minutes from Koo Ja Cheol and a brace by Ji Dong Won, but then had to endure some anxious moments after Alexander Geynrikh pulled two back shortly before and after the break.
New Delhi, January 28: The Indian cricket board Friday asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to reconsider its decision of taking away the India-England World Cup match from the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata.
‘We have written a letter to the ICC to reconsider its decision. Now it is up to the ICC to decide, but we are confident that the stadium can host the crucial India-England match,’ Ratnakar Shetty, tournament director and chief administrative officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), told IANS.
Karachi, January 28: After Mohammad Aamer, another suspended Pakistan cricketer -Salman Butt – has allegedly flouted International Cricket Council (ICC) directives by featuring in a club match in Lahore.
According to reports, the former Pakistan captain featured in a club game played at his home ground in Model Town, Lahore, even though the ICC has in clear terms told the suspended players and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that they cannot take part in any cricket activity that come under the umbrella of the PCB or its affiliated units.
New Delhi, January 28:After Mumbai Indians, suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi questioned the last-minute changes made to the January 8-9 players’ auction in Bangalore.
“The changing of players auction order as pointed by some franchisees is an issue which I highlighted when I saw the rules changed last minute. The order changing – should not have been allowed – as it gives advantage to teams that knew of it before,” Modi wrote on social networking site Twitter.
New Delhi, January 28: The Indian cricket board on Friday asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to reconsider its decision of taking away the India-England World Cup match from the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata.
“We have written a letter to the ICC to reconsider its decision. Now it is up to the ICC to decide, but we are confident that the stadium can host the crucial India-England match,” Ratnakar Shetty, tournament director and chief administrative officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said.
London, January 28: Fans in Kolkata are not the only ones left heartbroken by the ICC’s decision to shift the World Cup match between India and England out of Eden Gardens, the English cricketers are also disappointed that they would not be playing at the historic venue.
The ICC on Thursday decided to shift the match out of Eden Gardens after the stadium failed to meet the completion deadline for renovation work.
The iconic 100,000-capacity venue will not host the February 27 match due to concerns about “cricket operations, media, broadcast and sponsorship facilities”.
Colombo, January 28: Sri Lanka have named their World Cup squad of 15 players to meet the West Indies in a one-day international series originally scheduled for November but abandoned due to bad weather.
The three-match series will start on Monday with the remaining games on Feb. 3 and 6 before the World Cup gets underway on Feb. 19.
Originally scheduled for the two World Cup venues at Hambantota and the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the matches have been switched to the Singhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo.
Bangalore, January 28: Following the move to shift the England – India match from the famous Eden Gardens, the English players responded by saying they were disappointed about the change in the venue.
The ICC had announced on Thursday that Eden gardens would not be ready to host its first World Cup match on February 27 between England and the hosts, because of concerns over “cricket operations, media, broadcast and sponsorship facilities”.
The new venue for the match is yet to be confirmed.
Karachi, January 28: Veteran batsman Misbah-ul Haq, one of the prime candidates who is in the fray to lead the Pakistan side in the forthcoming World Cup has said that playing in the mega event would be a dream come true for him.
Misbah, 36, who has never played in World Cup and is currently the captain of the Test team said that taking part in a World Cup tournament feels playing in the showpiece event is a dream for every cricketer.
“It`s an absolute honour for any professional cricketer to play in a World Cup,” Misbah told a website.