Blog / News 

Australia's grievances have exacerbated with the news that Doug Bollinger is to be sent home from the World Cup due to an ankle injury. The Australians came to India already without Hussey, Hauritz, Ryan Harris, McKay, Doherty and S Marsh due to injuries, but Bollinger is the team member to be flown home in the middle of the tournament. Bollinger suffered pain in his left ankle while playing the first warm-up game against India and although the pain alleviated and he was available for Monday's match against Zimbabwe, the problem exaggerated when the team reached in Nagpur. Peter Siddle would be the rational subtitute for Bollinger, but the selectors have not yet decided on that. The ICC has also established that withdrawn players can return to swap other injured members, meaning the door has been opened for Michael Hussey to make a possible surge to the World Cup. However, the Australians would most likely prefer a backup fast bowler to substitute Bollinger, with John Hastings the only reserve fast bowler in the touring party.

INDIA vs BANGLADESH

 

MIRPUR: It's not about having the best team or about revenge. When India and Bangladesh square off on Saturday at the Shere-e-Bangla National Stadium here, it will all be about hanging in there in the moment when it matters.

There is so much buildup adjoining the inaugural match of the 2011 World Cup that even a cool campaigner like Mahendra Singh Dhoni is feeling the heat, while the Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan is spooling under it. While Dhoni tried to ward off pressure by playing to the gallery at Friday's match-eve press conference, Shakib literally sweated it out even as he answered some not so comfortable questions, including some on the injured Mashrafe Mortaza. 

Shakib, maintained that the team would miss him as he is an experienced allrounder, He was the Man of the Match on the last two encounters when Bangladesh beat India, but Shakib expects others to do the job now. Dhoni, on the other hand, simply joked - that "being out of the squad means Mortaza wouldn't be able to pick up the award this time." 

It was clearly Dhoni's way of dealing with the pressures of World Cup that his team is hotly tipped to win. The match-up against Bangladesh signifies the first obstacle in the exciting tournament. 

History counts for little in today’s cricket, and the loss to Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup has been eclipsed by the current form of players whom Dhoni has stirred up into world-winners. It's salvation, rather than vengeance, that India would be seeking through a winning start on Saturday. To expect Bangladesh to do it yet again against India will be just too much to expect from Shakib's youthful side which clearly lacks depth. 

Technically seeing, Bangladesh is too much dependent on their left-handed opener Tamim Iqbal to post a good total, while their bowling attack lacks both variety as well as depth. Their two pacers - Shaiful Islam and Rubel Hossain - are both right-arm operators, while their three frontline spinners Shakib, Razzak and Sohrawordi Suvho are all of left-armers. 

Unless they make early breakthroughs and keep picking wickets at regular intervals, it is hard to see them stopping the otherwise mighty Indian line-up that boasts the likes of Sachin, Sehwag, Virat, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, and Yusuf. 

It is good for any captain to have choices, but Dhoni has to now make up his mind about Yuvraj Singh. Picked on his status as a match-winning batsman, Yuvi continues to struggle with the bat but has emerged as a frontline spinner, who regularly bowls his full quota of overs. 

The first XI picks itself with Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir and Kohli taking up the top four slots and Yuvraj, Dhoni and Pathan coming in next, followed by Harbhajan, Zaheer, Chawla and Munaf. 

Nehra could be replaced by Munaf to the second pacer's berth. But Dhoni must be comforted to see Zaheer back in the bowling nets here after missing the warm-up games. 

Yuvi's new-found poise in bowling gives Dhoni an opportunity to include a frontline batsman instead of Pathan, whose hard-hitting skills may not be needed against Bangladesh. Dhoni has also not used Pathan's off-spin much in the two warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand. Raina could be a direct recipient as he is a good player of spin and would relish batting against the left-arm tweakers of Bangladesh. 

The plain, brown pitch will have nothing to offer to the fast bowlers. It is expected to play low and slow which means taking the pace off the ball would pay for the spinners, while batsmen need to just hang in there.

It may not be a cake walk for India, but a clash of erosion, where Dhoni's team must overcome the pressure of expectations before slaughtering the Bangla Tigers in their den.

 

Praveen Kumar, the Indian medium pace bowler, has been ruled out of the World Cup due to an injured elbow and will be replaced by Sreesanth. The verdict comes a day after Praveen failed to pass a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore to measure whether he had improved from the injury sustained before the start of the one-day series in South Africa last month. Praveen, 24 had been sent back right away from South Africa as a defensive step to recover at the NCA. The recovery did not go as planned, however, and he checked with Dr Andrew Wallace, a London-based surgeon who has taken care of many Indian players including Sachin Tendulkar. Praveen has been a usual with the Indian one-day side for the past couple of years and was set to be a sure starter in the World Cup, but his injury healed too slowly to let him to participate in the World Cup. Sreesanth has recognized himself in the Test side but has been on the periphery of the one-day outfit. He has played only 51 ODIs in more than five years since his debut in 2005, and has a swollen career economy rate of 6.01. But he proved efficient in the two ODIs he's played over the past 12 months, bagging seven wickets for 77 runs. The other fast bowlers in the Indian squad are Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel.

A major hindrance for the Indian team before their World Cup campaign starts is that medium pace bowler Praveen Kumar has been ruled out of the tournament due to an elbow injury. Praveen had returned home during the ODI series against South Africa, after he had worsened an elbow injury. Despite that he was included in the final 15 team for the ICC tournament. He was undertaking a treatment at Bangalore's National Cricket Academy after which he went off to England. But the injury was just not getting better and time was running out, so Praveen is out. His substitution will be named soon and it's likely to be a competition between Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and R Vinay Kumar.

Australia's World Cup XI board their flight to India on Wednesday with injuries a worry, but the coach Tim Nielsen anticipates the selectors don't risk sending too many ailing players to secure the title. Ricky Ponting (finger), Michael Hussey (hamstring) and Nathan Hauritz (shoulder) have all been trying to prove their fitness for the big series, while some of their possible replacements are also struggling, including Xavier Doherty (back) and Shaun Marsh (hamstring). 

The squad travels to India this week and their first practice match is on Sunday against India in Bangalore, eight days before their first game of the World Cup 2011, against Zimbabwe. Hussey said on the weekend that he would find it tough to be fully fit for the first couple of games, while Hauritz, who dislocated his shoulder while playing the recent ODIs against England, was bowling in the nets last week and said he had no uncertainty over his fitness for the World Cup. 

 "I can't afford to have two, three or four guys that we're uncertain about," Nielsen said. "It means we've only got 11 fit ready to go at the start. That's the quandary we face. What is the role the players who are injured play? Do we have back-up for that position? If we have an injury to somebody in the team at the moment is the injured person the next cab off the rank or the only possible replacement or do we have other options? All those things will be thrown into the mix." 

 One positive is the development being made by Ponting, who missed the Sydney Test after infuriating his broken finger during the Boxing Day Test. Ponting had a surgery on the little finger on his left hand after the Melbourne game, and by the time the World Cup arrives it will have had nearly seven weeks of healing time. He hasn't returned to fielding yet, but believes he could play if the Australians had an important match tomorrow. "I'm a lot better now than I was last week," Ponting said on Monday night at the Allan Border Medal ceremony in Melbourne. "I've been back in the nets this week; I've had three good hits and a bit of time out there. It's probably a bit more advanced than I thought it would be." 

 The spin place shapes up as one of the more grave issues, with Steven Smith also battling a hip muscle injury, along with the issues that are troubling Hauritz and Doherty. Smith's injury shouldn't be a chief concern, though the more serious state of affairs with Hauritz, added to the likelihood that Hussey won't be fit for the start of the World Cup, leaves the selectors with some headaches. 

 "We've got our fingers crossed for both those guys," Ponting said. "Their injuries couldn't have come at a worse time for us, looking forward to the World Cup. They're both very senior members of our side. We've got our fingers crossed for both those guys and I know the physios and doctors have been doing a lot of talking today about those two. Hopefully they come up." Australia have two warm-up matches before the World Cup begins, and they have six pool matches before finding out if they have advanced to the next round. Australia is in a group with Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya.

Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been barred for 10, 7 and 5 years respectively after an ICC court found them accountable of spot-fixing which came into light from the Lord's Test against England last year. The sanctions against Butt and Asif have five and two years suspended, which means that the trio cannot play any official, sanctioned cricket, international or domestic, for a minimum of five years, until September 2015.

The suspended decree on Butt and Asif have been made conditional on their making no more infringements of the code and take part in an anti-corruption education program, under the patronage of the PCB.

Butt, who was captain during the series in England, received the maximum sentence but one accuse against him - of batting out a maiden over during the Oval Test - was dismissed. However, he was found to have not disclosed an approach by Majeed that he should bat the maiden over. The other charges that were maintained relate to the following Lord's Test, where Amir and Asif were found to have bowled intentional no-balls and Butt was penalized for being accomplice to that. Amir will appeal against the verdict to the Court of Arbitration Sports, but the other two players have not yet said whether they will.

The statement on Saturday evening followed a day of discussions in Doha between the three-man tribunal - comprising the head Michael Beloff QC, Sharad Rao and Justice Albie Sachs - the players and their legal teams and the ICC's lawyers. The three players began the day requesting the hearing for a delay of any judgment, in light of the statement on Friday by the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that the players might also face criminal charges in relation to the Lord's Test as the result of a different inquiry carried out by British police. The players, who continued to maintain their virtuousness, argued that a decision today by the tribunal could be detrimental to any criminal trial in the UK, but the request was discarded.

The span of the sentences may be considered astonishing to the extent that at least one life ban had been envisaged beforehand. In theory, the 26-year-old Butt could return after five years if he conforms to the conditions of the judgment. Amir, who will only turn 19 in April, could also possibly harbour expectations of a return, though in realistic terms a five-year gap from any professional cricket makes the prospect of a return that much more hard. The situation is most miserable for Asif, who will be 33 by the time the minimum five years are up.

The tribunal also suggested that the ICC formulate "certain changes to the code with a view to providing flexibility in relation to minimum sentences in exceptional circumstances." The lawyers of Butt and Amir later said that the tribunal would've given inferior punishments had their hands not "been tied" to the code's range of sanctions.

News of the World, the newspaper that broke the spot-fixing story this summer, released a statement of its own, saying that "it is now clear to everyone in the game that corruption will not be tolerated,".

 A number of Pakistani fans waited outside the Qatar Financial Centre, some for the entire nine-hour period of the proceedings, and gave loud support to the players when they ultimately came out. Amir, in fact, was mobbed and had to return inside the building momentarily.

 

Butt, Amir, Asif at the middle of the spot-fixing allegations that rocked the cricket world last August have been charged by the UK Crown Prosecution Service with scheme to gain and accept dishonest payments, and conspiracy to defraud. Salman Butt, the Ex-Test captain, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been accused of conspiring in the bowling of intentional no-balls on last year's tour of England – claims which they all disagree with.

Mazhar Majeed, the players' agent, was also not spared of charges, with a first hearing planned for City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on March 17. The CPS confirmed that expulsion orders would be required if the three players fail to turn up in court. "We have authorised charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and also conspiracy to cheat against Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Mazhar Majeed," Simon Clements, Head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said.

"We have decided that Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and their agent, Mazhar Majeed, should be charged with conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and also conspiracy to cheat. These charges relate to allegations that Mr Majeed accepted money from a third party to arrange for the players to bowl 'no balls' on 26 and 27 August 2010, during Pakistan's Fourth Test at Lord's Cricket Ground in London."

The CPS confirmed its findings in a statement shortly after 11 a.m. GMT on Friday, and the trio could be barred for life when an (ICC) tribunal proclaims the conclusions of its own inquiry in Doha on Saturday. A CPS spokesperson said there was no association between the two timings.

"Summonses for the same court date (March 17) have been issued for the three players and they have been asked to return to this country voluntarily, as they agreed to do in September last year. Their extradition will be sought should they fail to return."

In August 2010, Britain's News of the World tabloid did a newspaper 'sting operation' which it said confirmed the Pakistan trio's readiness were involved in the purposeful bowling of no-balls while playing the Lord's Test against England. This, the paper said, was proof of a spot-betting swindle where money can be gambled on exact incidents in a match with no need to 'fix' the outcome.

The Pakistan trio was interrogated by police. So too was Majeed, whom the newspaper alleged accepted £50,000 to set up the contract. Majeed was detained, and a third fast bowler, Wahab Riaz, was also questioned under vigilance.

 

Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore is the new venue for the India-England World Cup game that was originally supposed to be played in Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata. The ICC confirmed this news later in the afternoon also confirming that there shall be no change in the date of the match.
"This decision now clarifies and gives us certainty over the fixture," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said. "We can now work with our various partners and stakeholders to make sure that the match - along with the rest of the tournament - is all it should be."

In a letter to the BCCI, the ICC also stated the pending work that had to be finished to get Eden Gardens ready for the World Cup. Kolkata was originally hosting three other matches for the cup, the first one being on March 15. The ICC said an audit team will visit Eden Gardens on February 7 to see the development made before deciding on the fate on those three matches.

The BCCI had selected Bangalore as its chosen venue for the India-England match after the ICC had ruled out Eden Garden last week.

The India-England match will now be the most coveted World Cup game for Bangalore, which hosts four other group games. Only one of those features the home team, while all of them pit a minnow against a strong side.