BCCI vis-à-vis ICL: Who will win?

KAPIL DEV, Tony Greig, Dean Jones and Kiran More — these are familiar names in the world of cricket. All these legends have contributed a lot to the game of cricket. Today, we are not going to discuss about all of them. But in some way all of them are correlated. To promote modern cricket they have constituted a body which will pose a tough challenge to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The body, called the Indian Cricket League (ICL), is not just for local players but for foreign players too.

On April 3 this year, ICL came into being. It is headquartered in Mumbai.   Former Indian captain Kapil Dev is the President of the Board, while Tony Greig, Dean Jones and Kiran More are the other members on the Board of Indian Cricket League. ICL is a private cricket league which proposes to adhere to the Twenty-20 cricket format. The Indian Cricket League was to be inaugurated in October 2007 but its inauguration was later deferred to the second week of November, with six club teams participating.

India’s poor performance in recent years and the politicisation of cricket has prompted some national players to register with ICL. A former Indian player will coach each team, meanwhile, the Essel Group is planning to set up cricket academies all over the country. However, all the national and international players will be distributed over the six teams, viz., Mumbai Champs, Chennai Super Stars, Chandigarh Lions, Hyderabad Warriers, Kolkata Tigers and Delhi Jets. The winning team will receive 1,000,000 US dollars, this season. Totally 58 Indian players and 17 international players have signed up for the Indian Cricket League. Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf left ICL and joined the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was recently inaugurated by BCCI.  

However, BCCI has refused to recognize ICL as an Indian cricket board. It has even criticized the officers of ICL a lot. Faced with the threat of young players joining the ICL, BCCI has jacked up prize money for the winners, runners-up and losing semi-finalists across all tournaments. BCCI is not the only obstacle to ICL. Lack of infrastructure like stadium may limit the success of Indian Cricket League in future.

In the days to come, whether the Indian Cricket League will pose a challenge to or rival BCCI in developing cricket in India is difficult to say as of now. But the corruption-free and professional complexion weighs in favour of the ICL.     

Pakistan’s Yousuf asked to face hearing after ICL U-turn

MUMBAI – Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has been asked to face an arbitration hearing over his decision to pull out of a rebel Indian Twenty20 league.

Yousuf had signed up with the lucrative Indian Cricket League (ICL), which has not been approved by national boards, but then changed his mind and joined the Indian Premier League

(IPL).

The IPL is the Indian board’s multi-million dollar professional Twenty20 league launched to counter the rebel version.

Yousuf has been asked to attend the hearing in Mumbai a day before Pakistan begin their first test against India in New Delhi on November 22.

India’s Essel Group, the promoters of the ICL, confirmed they had sent the batsman a legal notice for arbitration.

“We will not let him set a bad example,” Ashish Kaul, executive vice president of the Essel Group, said on Friday.

The inaugural tournament of the ICL will be played from November 30 to December 16. The league has attracted several big names including Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board will be handling all these matters,” Pakistan team’s media manager Ehsan Malik told Reuters.

2008 cricket fixtures announced

TEESSIDE cricket fans can enjoy their first derby of the season when Yorkshire travel to Durham for a Friends Provident Trophy clash on April 20.

Durham are, of course, the holders of the trophy and will be determined to put up a solid defence of what is their first ever major honour.

The fixture was one of many exciting games that the new 2008 fixture list has thrown up.

Yorkshire’s County Championship season starts on April 23 with the visit of Ausssie spin king Shane Warne’s Hampshire to Headingley Carnegie.

The Tykes’ annual visit to the east coast takes the form of a four-match Scarborough Festival fortnight, starting with a NatWest Pro40 encounter with Kent on Monday, August 25.

There are several Roses battles to look forward to during the 2008 season with the home and away Friends Provident Trophy ties against Lancashire taking place in May.

The return leg takes place on Wednesday, May 28, and is followed on the Friday by the Roses championship match in what is shaping up to be the Headingley Roses week of cricket.

The Twenty20 Cup has been altered to allow each side to play home and away legs against every other county in their regional group, necessitating an extra fixture at Headingley.

There are home Twenty20 fixtures against Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Durham.

Durham’s first County Championship match of the season starts on Wednesday, April 23, when Surrey visit the Riverside.

The four day competition concludes with a visit to Canterbury to play Kent on Wednesday, September 24.

On Wednesday, June 11, Durham Dynamos take on Derbyshire Phantoms in the first of five home Twenty20 matches in just 16 days.

The Dynamos have home Friday day/night matches against Leicestershire Foxes on June 20 and Lancashire Lightning on June 27.

One of the highlights of the domestic season will be the home floodlit match against Somerset Sabres on Wednesday, July 23.

Nadal reaches Shanghai semis with Ferrer’s help

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – World number two Rafael Nadal blasted past Serb Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup on Thursday.

The French Open champion sank to his knees in celebration after his Gold Group match in Shanghai but still faced a nervous wait before his place in the last four was assured.

Nadal’s fellow Spaniard David Ferrer guaranteed his close friend would join him in the knockout stages by pulverising Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-1 6-1.

American Andy Roddick became the first man to reach the semi-finals on Wednesday, while world number one Roger Federer is hot favourite to claim the final spot on Friday.

An inspired Ferrer finished on a perfect 3-0 round-robin record with Nadal going through as runner-up in their group on 2-1 having lost to his compatriot earlier this week.

“I played a complete match — one of my best matches of the indoor season,” Nadal told reporters. “Even if I’d gone out today I would have gone out with very good feelings.”

Djokovic, already eliminated after losing his first two matches, failed consistently to threaten Nadal, who was fired-up from the start.

A lucky net cord gave Nadal an early break and Djokovic effectively surrendered the set when he dumped an easy volley into the net to drop serve again in the fifth game. 

Nadal dashed any ideas Djokovic had of a comeback with a lunging backhand volley to hold to 5-3 in the second set, pumping his fists and roaring in delight after winning a marathon point.

A looping forehand down the line sealed a comprehensive victory for Nadal, while Djokovic left to lick his wounds after a disappointing Masters Cup debut.

“I’m going to go somewhere far, far away from everybody,” smiled Djokovic, who won five titles and reached the U.S. Open final in 2007.

“I’m still just 20 years old and I’m number three in the world but I still need a little something more.”

Ferrer’s confidence was high after beating Nadal on Tuesday and he rattled off 20 of the last 23 points to take the first set in 26 minutes.

The Spaniard, who thrashed Gasquet 6-1 6-2 in the final of the Japan Open just over a month ago, blew him off the court in even quicker fashion this time, taking 59 minutes.

“I don’t think about Federer or Roddick,” shrugged Ferrer. “Federer is the best player in history. For me it is a dream to be in the semi-finals.”

Pak playing individual game: Raja

Former Pakistani captain Rameez Raja has hit out at the Pakistani batsmen and Mohammad Yousuf in particular for the loss against India in the series.

Rameez has said, “If you looked at Mohammad Yousuf’s innings, you could straightaway make out that he was more keen to play for himself. He has now become a statsguru, he’s always looking after himself and doesn’t seem to be playing for the team.”

“That is the impression I got from his innings. Otherwise why would Pakistan lose matches whenever he has scored runs for the team?,” he added. Yousuf made 99 off 104 balls in Gwalior and was the top scorer for the team so he might well disagree with this accusation.

Further expressing his disappointment Raja said, “One has to question the intent of the Pakistan batsmen because I thought they were going nowhere today. Their batsmen seemed to be playing according to ten different scripts and nobody seemed to be following the overall team script.”

He said, “A selfish streak dominated their play. The team goals were put on the backburner.”

He also thought Pakistan’s strategy left a lot of questions unanswered. They lost crucial wickets at the wrong time and the innings never really took off.

Shoaib Malik’s decision to bat first had to be backed by a good total on the board. Pakistan needed at least 30 runs extra over what they scored in order to beef up the total and counter the dew factor, as controlling the ball becomes difficult both while bowling and fielding in such circumstances.

According to Raja 255 was never going to be enough. India never looked out of breath or out of control when Pakistan started batting because they weren’t threatened by any of the Pakistan batsmen.

Raja also said that the the statistics show the difference between the two captains – while Dhoni is averaging in the 50s in the ODI series, his counterpart is struggling, averaging less than 20 with the bat.

Raja thinks Malik’s own form has got to improve; he has got to believe in himself in order to be a presentable leader for his team. Otherwise it will be tough for Pakistan to unsettle India in the Test series.

Indian skipper Dhoni hails teamwork after series win

GWALIOR  - Indian skipper Mahendra Dhoni praised his players’ teamwork after they won the fourth one-dayer against Pakistan on Thursday to clinch the series.

India won by six wickets, scoring 260 for four replying to Pakistan’s 255 for six, taking an unassailable 3-1 lead with a game to spare. Batsman Sachin Tendulkar stroked 97 to set up the win.

“Today the bowlers could not do well in the end and the batsmen took the responsibility,” Dhoni told reporters.

“This is what we have been doing throughout this series.”

Dhoni was disappointed Tendulkar missed out on his century.

“More than him we are feeling sad,” he said. “He can even smile although he has missed seven hundreds this year.

“There are many who retire even without scoring seven in their career.”

Tendulkar, who holds the one-day record with 41 hundreds, has been dismissed in the 90s in one-dayers six times this year. He was also out in the 90s once during the 1-0 test series win in England in August. 

Named man-of-the-match, Tendulkar joked: “I’m getting into this wrong habit again and again but I feel very happy my innings has contributed to the team’s victory.”

Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik bemoaned the poor effort of his new ball bowlers.

“We lack in bowling and even today we gave away too many runs with the new ball,” he said. “Otherwise, 255 was a good score.”

Malik hoped the players would lift themselves for the tests and his in-form batsmen Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and opener Salman Butt would maintain their touch for the remainder of the series.

India will stick with the same squad for Sunday’s last ODI in Jaipur.