ICC announces public ballot process for CWC tickets

Updated at: 0925 PST,  Monday, February 28, 2011

The ICC today announced the process for the public sale of tickets for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 semi-finals in Colombo and Mohali on 29 and 30 March, respectively and the final to be held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April. When the tickets were initially programmed to go on sale on 21 February the demand was so great that the website was overloaded. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC Chief Executive, announced today in Bengaluru that there will be a public ballot system similar to that which is used in the majority of global sporting events. The ballot will open on Monday 28 February. Mr Lorgat said: "It was most unfortunate and no blame should be directed at Kyazoonga, the ICC's official ticketing partner, as no one could have anticipated that tens of millions people would be trying to access the site an hour before it went live. In truth Kyazoonga have been an innocent third party in all the issues we have had with ticketing. "In conjunction with the hosts, we have now agreed that a ballot system is the best means of releasing any available tickets for the semis and final. The high demand clearly proves the massive attraction of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and format of 50 overs cricket." In dismissing media perceptions about a letter addressed to ICC President Mr Sharad Pawar, Mr Lorgat added: "To help resolve our ticketing challenges we have also engaged the offices of the ICC President Mr Pawar to assist us as he has done with several other issues related to World Cup planning." Mr Lorgat also reflected on the fact that two contractors had been arrested in Sri Lanka for selling tickets on the black market. Mr Lorgat said: "We will support and encourage the actions of Sri Lanka Cricket in having such persons arrested for black market selling. It must serve as a warning that we will not hesitate to take action against anyone who abuses the system and sells tickets illegally." The ballot process is as follows: STEP ONE

You may apply for the ICC CWC 2011 Ticket Public Ballot from 28 February 2011 to 6 March 2011.

You need to fill in a the Public Ballot application form at http://cwc2011ballot.kyazoonga.com A ticket limit of two tickets per applicant applies. Only one application per person. Please do not submit more than one form: Kyazoonga will void your applications. STEP TWO You will receive a Ballot Confirmation Number once you complete and submit your application. No up-front payment is required at this stage.STEP THREE Please read and follow the instructions carefully before completing the form. If you break any of the rules all tickets you may be offered will be cancelled. All Ballot applications must be submitted no later than 6 March 2011. STEP FOURThe draw will be made by computer on 10 March 2011 and successful applicants will be informed by email on 11 March 2011. If you have not heard from Kyazoonga by 12 March 2011, please assume that your application was not successful in the ballot. STEP FIVESuccessful applicants will be able to pay for their tickets through Kyazoonga's secure payment processing website where they will be shown the transaction amount and asked to pay online using credit card/debit card/net-banking. If your transaction is not successful, your place in the draw will be offered to the next polled applicant from the draw. STEP SIXU pon successful payment completion, you will receive a confirmation page and email. Please print the page and keep the email. You will receive your tickets from the third week of March 2011.

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Qualifying begins for World Twenty20

Updated at: 0925 PST,  Monday, February 28, 2011

While Associate nations ponder a future that may not include being part of the World Cup, some of the game's least well-known nations take their first steps towards what they hope can ultimately be a place at the expanded 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.Although the 2015 World Cup is set to be trimmed to 10 teams this has been balanced to some degree by the expansion of the Twenty20 event which will increase from the 12 sides that took part in 2010 to 16 for the next tournament.However, it is highly unlikely that the seven countries who begin the qualifying campaign on February 24 will reach the showpiece event next year. Cameroon, Gambia, Lesotho, Mali, Morocco, Rwanda and the Seychelles will play in an initial qualifier in Ghana at the end of this month.Sixteen teams will take part in the final global qualifier in UAE in early 2012 to decide the final places at the World Twenty20. The six Associate and Affiliate members with one-day international status - Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland - have automatically qualified for the UAE event.Three teams from the Asia region, two teams from Africa, Americas and Europe, and one team from East Asia-Pacific will play in the global qualifying event.In 2010 in the Caribbean the two Associate and Affiliate nations involved were Ireland and Afghanistan. Although neither progressed to the Super Eights, Ireland caused England problems in Guyana and Afghanistan performed with great credit during their first global tournament.

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Butt, Amir file appeals against bans

Updated at: 0925 PST,  Monday, February 28, 2011

Butt, Amir file appeals against bans Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir have filed appeals against their bans from the game with the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.Butt and Amir, along with Mohammad Asif, were found guilty of orchestrating three pre-planned, deliberate no-balls during the Lord's Test against England last August. The trio, who were provisionally suspended by the ICC in September, were given sanctions ranging from 5 to 10 years by an independent tribunal headed by Michael Beloff QC after a full hearing in Doha, Qatar in early January, with the verdicts being handed down on February 5."Today my legal team served a statement of appeal upon The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) to appeal against the Tribunal's findings in relation to the Lords Test and the sanctions imposed at the recent Hearing in Doha. Full Grounds for the Appeal will be lodged in due course," a statement from Butt's lawyer, Yasin Patel, said.As captain at the time, Butt received the stiffest sentence, though the ban comes with a suspended sentence of five years. On the day the verdict was announced, Patel had indicated that the tribunal's recommendation to the ICC to revisit sanctions in their code was encouraging. "The tribunal's hands were tied by the ICC's code to a five-year minimum," he said. "Mr Butt is encouraged that the tribunal advised the ICC to change the code or revise the minimum term."Butt also confirmed that he would appear at a London court on March 17th for a hearing into the criminal charges he faces - along with Asif and Amir - into the same incident.Amir was given a straight five-year ban with no suspended sentence and had indicated his intention to appeal on the day the judgments came. "We have filed an appeal against the ban [on Friday]," Shahid Karim, Amir's lawyer, said. "The process is now set into motion. We have challenged the judgment on various grounds."Asif has so far not said whether he will file an appeal.

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Zimbabwe win toss, bat against Canada

Updated at: 0903 PST,  Monday, February 28, 2011

NAGPUR: Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura won the toss and decided to bat in the World Cup Group A game against Canada on Monday.Both sides lost their opening matches, Zimbabwe going down by seven wickets to Australia here while Canada suffered a 210-run mauling in Sri Lanka. Zimbabwe Elton Chigumbura (capt), Brendan Taylor, Charles Coventry, Tatenda Taibu (wkt), Craig Ervine, Sean Williams, Greg Lamb, Prosper Utseya, Graeme Cremer, Raymond Price, Christopher Mpofu. Canada Nitish Kumar, John Davison, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Ashish Bagai (capt/wkt), Jimmy Hansra, Zubin Surkari, Tyson Gordon, Rizwan Cheema, Khurram Chohan, Harvir Baidwan, Balaji Rao Umpires: Asad Rauf (PAK) and Bruce Oxenford (AUS) TV umpire: Steve Davis (ENG) Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI).(AFP)

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Afridi, his team fined for slow over rate

Updated at: 1848 PST,  Sunday, February 27, 2011

NEW DELHI: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has been fined 20 percent of his match fee and his team mates will lose 10 percent for their slow over rate in Saturday's 11-run win against Sri Lanka, the ICC said on Sunday.Match referee Chris Broad imposed the fine after Pakistan were one over short of their target at the end of the match in Colombo when time allowances were taken into consideration, the International Cricket Council said in a statement.According to the ICC Code of Conduct governing minor over-rate offences, players are fined 10 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fail to bowl in the allotted time while the captain is fined double that amount."The penalty was accepted by Pakistan without contest so there was no need for a hearing," the ICC statement read.Having beaten Kenya and Sri Lanka, Pakistan take on Canada in their next Group A fixture on Thursday.

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High-scoring India-England match tied

Updated at: 2213 PST,  Sunday, February 27, 2011

BANGALORE: India and England tied a thrilling World Cup clash here on Sunday in a high-scoring match which yielded 676 runs and was adorned by blistering centuries from Sachin Tendulkar and Andrew Strauss here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.Chasing a huge target of 339 runs, England finished on 338 for eight having scored 13 off the last over when 14 were needed for victory. Captain Andrew Strauss was declared Man-of-the-Match who led from the front to steer England near to a certain victory with his career-best 158 from 145 balls with 16 fours and a six But Zaheer Khan's dramatic three-wicket burst turned the match back in India's favour when England needed 56 runs in 44 balls with eight wickets in hand.Earlier, India great Tendulkar's record-breaking 120 saw him become the first man to score five World Cup hundreds. Zaheer took three wickets for one run in six balls, including two in two, as England slumped from 281 for two to 285 for five.Tim Bresnan (14) revived England's innings before he was bowled by leg-spinner Piyush Chawla to leave his side 325 for eight and needing 14 off the last over from Munaf Patel.But Ajmal Shahzad launched Patel for six to leave England needing five from three balls in front of a frenzied crowd at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.Shahzad and Graeme Swann ran a single to make the target four from two. They ran two more to leave England requiring two for victory off the last ball.But they managed just a single to produce only the fourth tie in World Cup history. Strauss and Ian Bell (69) put on 170 for the third wicket before Zaheer had Bell holing out.Next ball he had Strauss lbw with a brilliant yorker to end the left-handed opener's 145-ball innings featuring a six and 18 fours that beat his previous one-day best of 154 against Bangladesh last year.Strauss's was the first hundred by an England captain at the World Cup and the highest score by an England batsman, beating the 137 made by Dennis Amiss against India in the competition's inaugural match at Lord's in 1975.England then needed 58 off 43 balls with two fresh batsmen at the crease but they were in the first over of the batting powerplay.Zaheer then bowled Paul Collingwood and finished with three for 64.There had been controversy when Strauss and Bell's partnership was worth just 52. Left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh thought he had Bell lbw on review for 17, with replays showing the ball would have hit the stumps. Bell had started to walk off but because New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden's verdict was not out, the decision was returned to him by Australian replay official Rod Tucker and the Kiwi deemed Bell to be too far down the pitch.But he enraged India fans who had seen Bell 'dismissed' on the giant replay screens.An unruffled Strauss advanced to drive Yuvraj for a superb six before Bell completed a 45-ball fifty with a six when he swept leg-spinner Piyush Chawla. Bell was reprieved again on 68, with England 278 for two in the 42nd over, when he was dropped by slip Virat Kohli off Chawla.Earlier, Tendulkar had faced 115 balls with 10 fours and five sixes.Yuvraj ensured there was no respite for England with a quickfire 58.James Anderson conceded 91 runs in 9.5 overs to give the paceman the most expensive analysis by an England bowler at the World Cup, beating Derek Pringle's none for 83 against the West Indies at Gujranwala in 1987.But Bresnan picked up several late wickets to finish with career-best figures of five for 48.

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India plunder 338 against hapless England

Updated at: 1802 PST,  Sunday, February 27, 2011

BANGALORE: Indian batsmen ruthlessly punished England bowlers to amass 338 runs in 49.5 overs in their crucial Group B match of the ICC World Cup here at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.Winning the toss, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to bat first on an easy batting wicket.Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar opened the innings in style and made 46 in 7.5 overs before Sehwag got out for 35 made off 26 balls.Then, Tendulkar joined by Gautam Gambhir took the charge and thrashed England bowlers for a 134-run second wicket stand. Gambhir was bowled by Graeme Swann for 51 but it was Tendulkar who showed great stroke-play. The master-blaster, who had made 28 against Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament, completed the much awaited hundred off 103 balls, hitting four towering sixes and seven marvelous boundaries.This was his fifth hundred in the World Cup, a record, and second against England. He along with Yuvraj Singh added another 56 runs before making an exit from the field, making 120 from 114 balls.Later, Yuvraj and Dhoni blasted 69 runs in 46 balls and both were dismissed off two successive deliveries from Tim Bresnan. Yuvraj went for 58 (50 balls) and Ddhoni 31(25 balls).However, India managed to set an difficult target of 339 runs for England and in this process lost three more wickets.Bresnan was the most successful bowler for England taking five wickets for 48 runs.

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Cricket World Cup: Sri Lanka need Murali and Malinga to hit ground running

Updated at: 1652 PST,  Sunday, February 27, 2011

COLOMBO: If Sri Lanka are to have any chance of becoming the only Asian team to win two World Cups in the sub-continent, they need their two chief weapons, Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan, to find their form -- fast.The co-hosts were one of the pre-tournament favourites to win the showpiece but Saturday's 11-run defeat by Pakistan exposed some glaring weaknesses in their bowling armoury.Muralitharan should have been trapping rival batsmen with his mystifying powers of flight and spin but has instead been leaking runs to rank outsiders such as Canada. In the first match he was the most expensive of the Sri Lankan attack.The off-spinner's figures of 2-38 at the cost of 4.22 against a bunch of part-timers in Hambantota was hardly the kind of stats the world's most prolific wicket-taker would want to shout about.He was the most economical of the Sri Lankan bowlers against Pakistan but having picked up only one wicket, his success rate would have hardly set Sri Lankan pulses racing.But at least Muralitharan is playing a part in all the action as the same cannot be said of Malinga.The 27-year-old, who made his name in the 2007 World Cup by claiming four wickets in four balls against South Africa, has not even tested one run-up to the pitch.SORE BACKHe was sidelined with a sore back against Canada but had been declared fit for the contest against Pakistan. However, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara was not prepared to gamble on his fitness and chose to rest him for "the more difficult matches we have ahead" -- a strategy that backfired on Saturday.With showdowns against world champions Australia now less than a week away, the Sri Lankans know they can no longer waste time experimenting with their line-ups and plan to draft Malinga into action in their match against Kenya on Tuesday."We will consider him for the next game because we need to get him into his rhythm ahead of the game against Australia next Saturday," Sri Lanka's team manger Anura Tennekoon said."Malinga was rested as a precautionary measure. We don't want to take any chance with him because he is our key bowler.Malinga is fit but we don't want to take that extra one percent (risk with his fitness) and play him."Sangakkara acknowledged the presence of Malinga could have tipped the match in their favour, as in the end they lost by a fairly narrow margin after Pakistan amassed 277-7."We can say that we missed Lasith a bit. He is going to be back with us very shortly," he said.Luckily for Sri Lanka, one defeat is unlikely to dent their chances of progressing in the tournament, especially since Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada are expected to be the teams that fall by the wayside in Group A.Its round-robin format means four teams from Group A will qualify for the knockout stages.While the bowling has been the obvious weak link, Sangakkara was also concerned with his team's batting even though they scored 332-7 in their first match and came very close to overhauling Pakistan's total.Going forward, Sangakkara wants to learn from their mistakes and said he wants his bowlers to pay more attention once on the field."A few things we can learn, maybe bowling a better line and length is important all the time," he said. "On a pitch like this, had we played better cricket and done basics especially in batting, we could have changed the result."If we had kept building partnerships, when we had that great start, I think it would have been a different story."It's pretty disappointing to be 10 (sic) runs short at the end." (Reuters)

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Tendulkar smashes 47th ODI century

Updated at: 1643 PST,  Sunday, February 27, 2011

BANGALORE: Sachin Tendulkar smashed 47th century in his One-day International career, while playing against England in a Group B match of the ICC Cricket World Cup here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.Tendulkar who had made 28 against Bangladesh in the opening match of the tournament, completed the much awaited hundred in 103 balls, hitting four towering sixes and seven marvelous boundaries.This was his fifth hundred in the World Cup and second against England.

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India win toss, bat against England

Updated at: 1343 PST,  Sunday, February 27, 2011

BANGALORE: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has won the toss and elected to bat against England in their crucial Group B match of the ICC World Cup here at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.India made one change from the team that beat fellow co-hosts Bangladesh by 87 runs in Dhaka, bringing in leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for wayward fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.That gave India a second spinner alongside off-break bowler Harbhajan Singh.England made two switches from the side that scraped a six-wicket win over the Netherlands after fast bowler Stuart Broad was ruled out with illness, bringing in fellow seamer Ajmal Shahzad.They also dropped all-rounder Ravi Bopara and, like India, opted for a second spinner in left-armer Michael Yardy on a pitch expected to take turn. This match had originally been scheduled for Kolkata but was switched to Bangalore after International Cricket Council officials said work still needed to be done on the Eden Gardens ground to make it tournament ready.India: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Piyush Chawla, Munaf Patel England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior (wkt), Michael Yardy, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Ajmal Shahzad, James Anderson Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZ) and Marais Erasmus (SA), TV umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (SL)

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