Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Shehzad hands Pakistan morale-boosting win
DHAKA: Ahmed Shehzad and Misbah-ul-Haq helped to put Pakistan's recent troubles behind them as the duo hit centuries to steer their team to a morale-boosting 89-run victory over Bangladesh in a World Cup warm up match on Tuesday.The win would have helped to put the players in the right frame of mind for the Feb 19-April 2 tournament after their recent on-field exploits were overshadowed by the ban handed to three former team mates for spot-fixing.Pakistan scored 285 for nine in their 50 overs before skittling out Bangladesh 196 in the 42nd over, with the hosts losing their last three wickets for the addition of just two runs.Bangladesh were put on the back foot from the start as they lost opener Tamim Iqbal when Abdul Razzaq knocked over his bails with the very first delivery.Shehzad made the most of benefitting from two dropped catches to hit 103 from 122 balls with a six and nine boundaries while Misbah smashed a 100-ball century with four sixes and eight fours.Suhrawadi Shuvo and Abdur Razzak dropped Shehzad while he was on 42 and 56 respectively, which allowed the match to swing Pakistan's way."I am not disappointed with the (dropped) catch by Razzak as he has never been our best fielder but the other catches which went down were disappointing," said Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons.Pakistan play their first World Cup Group A match against unfancied Kenya on Feb. 23 in Hambantota.Bangladesh meet fellow co-hosts India in Group B in the opening match of the tournament on Feb. 19 in Dhaka.
Pakistan set 286-run target for Bangladesh
MIRPUR, Bangladesh: Brilliant centuries by opener Ahmed Shahzad and middle-order batsman Misbah-ul-Haq helped Pakistan to set a difficult target of 286 for hosts Bangladesh in their warm-up match here on Tuesday.Pakistan piled up 285 runs for the loss of nine wickets in the allotted 50 overs after captain Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat on the slow wicket of the Shere Bangla National Stadium.Openers Mohammad Hafeez and Shahzad provided a good start making 42 runs before Hafeez was dismissed for 21.Later, Pakistan lost two more wickets for 16 runs as experienced batsmen Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan fell out cheaply.
Then, Shahzad was joined by vice-captain Misbah and both steered Pakistan to 210 before Shahzad departed. Both added 152 runs for the fourth wicket.Ahmed Shahzad made 103 off 122 balls with nine fours and a six.Misbah-ul-Haq also completed his hundred from 99 balls. He smashed four sixes and eight boundaries.After the two centurions got out no other batsman could make any significant score.For Bangladesh, Shakib Al Hasan and Rubel Hossain were the most successful bowlers taking three wickets each.
Pakistan bat against Bangladesh in warm-up
MIRPUR, Bangladesh: Pakistan are batting in their first warm-up match, being played against Bangladesh here on Tuesday.Captain Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat on the slow wicket of the Shere Bangla National Stadium.Shoaib Akhtar has been rested for today’s match.Teams:Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (captain), Misbah-ul-Haq, Hafeez Ahmed, Ahmed Shahzad, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz.Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mohammad Ashraful, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Naeem Islam, Mehmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain.
Never-before riches for World Cup hopefuls
DHAKA: World Cup contenders are set for a financial bonanza with a record prize money of eight million dollars on offer for cricket's latest showpiece event.It marks a rise of three million dollars from the previous 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, which itself was a five-fold increase from the 1999 edition in England.
The World Cup has come a long way since it was first held in England in 1975 with eight teams contesting just 15 matches over five playing days.Clive Lloyd's West Indians earned 4,000 pounds for winning the inaugural tournament, and took home 10,000 pounds after retaining the World Cup four years later.When Australia won their third successive title in the Caribbean in 2007, they carried home 2.2 million dollars, while losing finalists Sri Lanka pocketed a cool one million dollars.When the champions of the 43-day, 2011 edition are crowned one-day kings at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on April 2, they will receive 3.25 million dollars for their efforts.The losing team can console itself with 1.5 million dollars.With an additional 30,000 dollars kept aside for the winners of each first round match, the champions stand to gain another 180,000 dollars if they win all their six preliminary games.The two losing semi-finalists will take home 500,000 dollars each, while teams that are knocked out in the quarter-final stage will get 250,000 dollars each.The prize money does not include the share of the profits the International Cricket Council dishes out to all the 14 participating teams from its joint revenue pool.The financial bonanza for the February 17-April 2 event should not surprise anyone.India, co-hosts of the six-week tournament with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, are regarded as cricket's financial powerhouse generating nearly 70 percent of the sport's world revenues.Former Indian cricket chief Inderjit Singh Bindra said South Asia beat a joint bid by Australia and New Zealand for the 2011 event by promising higher profits."We assured them a profit of 400 million dollars," Bindra, who was one of the chief architects of the Asian bid and now works as an adviser with the ICC, said.
"No one can make money for cricket as India can."With the ICC expected to spend around 50 million dollars on the event, the tournament is already assured of a healthy balance sheet even before the first
ball is bowled.Cricket, with just 10 full member nations, is no match for football's money power where a prize fund of a whopping 420 million dollars was handed out for the last World Cup in South Africa.But officials at the ESPN-Star Sports network, who paid a billion dollars to be the ICC's official broadcasters from 2007 to 2015, are not complaining."There is nothing bigger in the world of cricket than the World Cup and when it is held in the subcontinent it evokes passion and excitement like none other," said the network's managing director Manu Sawhney."We have not only roped in several big sponsors like Pepsi, Sony, Nokia, Maruti Suzuki and Philips, but have received a positive feedback from other advertisers."ESPN-Star Sports have syndicated the coverage to 200 networks around the world, with all the 49 matches to be broadcast live in the High Definition (HD) format for the first time. (AFP)
