ICC World Cup 2011 Warm-up Match Schedule

Date	Match Details	Time (IST)	Place
Feb 12 - Sat	West Indies v Kenya	09:30	Colombo
Feb 12 - Sat	Bangladesh v Canada	09:30	Chittagong
Feb 12 - Sat	Ireland v New Zealand	09:30	Nagpur
Feb 12 - Sat	Sri Lanka v Netherlands	09:30	Pallekele
Feb 12 - Sat	South Africa v Zimbabwe	14:30	Chennai
Feb 13 - Sun	India v Australia	14:30	Bengaluru
Feb 15 - Tue	Kenya v Netherlands	09:30	Pallekele
Feb 15 - Tue	Ireland v Zimbabwe	09:30	Nagpur
Feb 15 - Tue	Bangladesh v Pakistan	14:00	Dhaka
Feb 15 - Tue	Australia v South Africa	14:30	Bengaluru
Feb 16 - Wed	Canada v England	09:00	Dhaka
Feb 16 - Wed	Sri Lanka v West Indies	09:30	Colombo
Feb 16 - Wed	India v New Zealand	14:30	Chennai
Feb 18 - Fri	England v Pakistan	14:00	Dhaka

India name preliminary World Cup squad

Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane are included in the 30-man preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup, while there was no place for veteran Rahul Dravid and Irfan Pathan.

Yusuf Pathan made it to the list of probables following his good performances against New Zealand in the recently concluded ODI series. Also named in the squad was Parthiv Patel, who hit two half-centuries in the last two matches of the five-match ODI series against New Zealand.

The batting had the likely names of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina. The ones who are likely to be challenging for a place in the final fifteen are Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahana, Saurabh Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.

The fast department had well-known seniors such as Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar, while Vinay Kumar also found a spot. The spinners were led by Harbhajan Singh and included Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and R Ashwin, while Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja made it as the bits-and-pieces men.

The side had four wicket-keepers with Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel and Wridhiman Saha joining captain MS Dhoni.

The final team is to be declared a month before the start of the World Cup as per the rules of the ICC and would be pruned to a squad of 15.

30-man list: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Parthiv Patel , R Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar.

ICC: DRS to be used in all WC games

The International Cricket Council has said that it will use the Decision Review System (DRS) based on technology popularly known as ‘hawkeye’ for all the matches of the ICC cricket World Cup 2011.

The world's cricket governing body, however, said the hot-spot technology can be used as part of the DRS only in the two semi-finals and the final of the mega event to be held in the Indian sub-continent from Feb-April 2011.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni is known to be in favor of the hot-spot technology, which uses infrared sensors to show whether the ball has hit bat, pad or glove.

"All the matches of the ICC World Cup 2011 will have the DRS which will be based on virtual technology. It is just that the hot-spot technology will not be available for all the matches," an ICC representative told PTI.

"ICC is still talking to BBG Sports for four cameras to be used in two semi-finals and final to implement the hot-spot technology," she said, adding two cameras each could be used for each of the semi-finals.

The representative also said the ICC is yet to finalize the supplier for the virtual technology as it has asked for quotations from Virtual Eye and Hawkeye, the two firms that provide such services.

The ICC's clarification comes a day after one of its spokespersons said in Mumbai that the DRS will be used in the four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the final - a total of seven matches.

ICC World Cup: Best economy rates in an innings

Player	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Econ	Team	Opposition	Ground	Year
DA Reeve	5.0	3	2	1	0.40	England	v Pakistan	Adelaide	1992
BS Bedi	12.0	8	6	1	0.50	India	v E.Africa	Leeds	1975
M Hendrick	8.0	4	5	1	0.62	England	v Canada	Manchester	1979
AC Botha	8.0	4	5	2	0.62	Ireland	v Pakistan	Kingston	2007
SM Pollock	6.0	3	4	1	0.66	S. Africa	v N.lands	Basseterre	2007
CM Old	10.0	5	8	4	0.80	England	v Canada	Manchester	1979
CEL Ambrose	10.0	4	8	2	0.80	West Indies	v Scotland	Leicester	1999
B Wood	5.0	2	4	0	0.80	England	v India	Lord's	1975
RJ Hadlee	12.0	6	10	0	0.83	N.Zealand	v E.Africa	Birmingham	1975
AY Karim	8.2	6	7	3	0.84	Kenya	v Australia	Durban	2003

ICC Cricket World Cup: Highest partnerships by wicket

Wkt	Runs		Players	Teams	Place	Year
1st	194		Saeed Anwar, W. Wasti	v	Manchester	1999
2nd	318		SC Ganguly, R Dravid	v	Taunton	1999
3rd	237*		R Dravid, SR Tendulkar	v	Bristol	1999
4th	204		MJ Clarke, BJ Hodge	v	Basseterre	2007
5th	148		RG Twose, CL Cairns	v	Cardiff	1999
6th	161		MO Odumbe, AV Vadher	v	Southampton	1999
7th	98		RR Sarwan, RD Jacobs	v	Port Elizabeth	2003
8th	117		DL Houghton, IP Butchart	v	Hyderabad	1987
9th	126*		N Kapil Dev, SMH Kirmani	v	Tunbridge Wells	1983
10th	71		AME Roberts, J Garner	v	Manchester	1983

ICC Cricket World Cup: Lowest Innings Totals

Score	Team	Place	Year
36	Canada v Sri Lanka	Boland Bank Park, Paarl	2003
45	Canada v England	Old Trafford, Manchester	1979
45	Namibia v Australia	N/W Cricket Stadium, Potchefstroom	2003
68	Scotland v W.Indies	Grace Road, Leicester	1999
74	Pakistan v England	Adelaide Oval	1992
77	Ireland v Sri Lanka	Queen's Park (New), St George's	2007
78	Bermuda v Sri Lanka	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain	2007
84	Namibia v Pakistan	De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley	2003
86	Sri Lanka v West Indies	Old Trafford, Manchester	1975
91	Ireland v Australia	Kensington Oval, Bridgetown	2007

India or Sri Lanka may win ICC WorldCup 2011: Rodney Marsh

India and Sri Lanka will be hot favorites’ to win cricket World Cup 2011 which would be held in the sub-continent, according to ex-Australian wicketkeeper Rodney Marsh.

Marsh feels Asian countries will have an edge during the February-March tournament which would be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Marsh said Australia's chances in the World Cup 2011 would also get clearer depending on how they fare against India and England in the coming days.

"I think we'll get a fair idea of how Australia are going to fair in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 once we've seen the results of the ODI games Australia are playing against India and also against England.

"We'll also get an idea of how England and India are going to fair too with those results," Marsh, who represented Australia in 92 ODIs, said on this week's ICC Cricket World audio show.

"I think the fact that the tournament is being held in the sub-continent means it will be very difficult for teams England, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa to win.

"I would think a team from Asia would be successful, perhaps Sri Lanka, I quite fancy them for the title and of course India," he said.

Marsh is an ICC Cricket Hall of Famer, who played in the 1975 and 1983 World Cups in England.

ICC World Cup: Top 10 Highest Batting Averages

Player Name	Match	Runs	Highest	Avg.	S.Rate
L Klusener	14	372	57	124.00	121.17
A Symonds	18	515	143*	103.00	93.29
SB Styris	18	767	141	69.72	89.08
IVA Richards	23	1013	181	63.31	85.05
R Dravid	22	860	145	61.42	74.97
GM Turner	14	612	171*	61.20	64.01
RR Sarwan	14	584	92	58.40	83.54
SR Tendulkar	36	1796	152	57.93	88.21
HH Gibbs	25	1067	143	56.15	87.38
Sourav Ganguly	21	1006	183	55.88	77.50

ICC World Cup: Top 10 Highest Wicket Takers

Name	Team	Wickets	Match
GD McGrath	Australia	71	39
M Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	68	40
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	55	36
C Vaas	Sri Lanka	49	31
Zaheer Khan	India	44	23
J Srinath	India	44	33
AA Donald	South Africa	38	25
Jacob Oram	New Zealand	36	23
Brett Lee	Australia	35	17
GB Hogg	Australia	34	21

ICC Cricket World Cup: Most Man of the Match Awards

Name	Match	MOM Awards
SR Tendulkar	36	8
GD McGrath	39	6
L Klusener	14	5
GA Gooch	21	5
IVA Richards	23	5
ST Jayasuriya	38	5
DC Boon	16	4
SK Warne	17	4
SC Ganguly	21	4
ME Waugh	33	4
BC Lara	34	4
A de Silva	35	4

ICC Cricket World Cup: Highest Run Scorer

Player	Match	Runs	HS	Avg	100	50
SR Tendulkar (India)	36	1796	152	57.93	4	13
RT Ponting (Aus)	39	1537	140*	48.03	4	6
BC Lara (WI)	34	1225	116	42.24	2	7
ST Jayasuriya (SL)	38	1165	120	34.26	3	6
AC Gilchrist (Aus)	31	1085	149	36.16	1	8
Javed Miandad (Pak)	33	1083	103	43.32	1	8
SP Fleming (NZ)	33	1075	134*	35.83	2	5
HH Gibbs (SA)	25	1067	143	56.15	2	8
PA de Silva (SL)	35	1064	145	36.68	2	6
IVA Richards (WI)	23	1013	181	63.31	3	5
SC Ganguly (India)	21	1006	183	55.88	4	3
ME Waugh (Aus)	22	1004	130	52.84	4	4

ICC Cricket World Cup: Top 10 Highest Innings Totals

Team	Score	Over	Innings	Opposition	Place	Year
India	413/5	50	1	v Bermuda	Port of Spain	2007
Sri Lanka	398/5	50	1	v Kenya	Kandy	1996
Australia	377/6	50	1	v South Africa	Basseterre	2007
India	373/6	50	1	v Sri Lanka	Taunton	1999
New Zealand	363/5	50	1	v Canada	Gros Islet	2007
West Indies	360/4	50	1	v Sri Lanka	Karachi	1987
Australia	359/2	50	1	v India	Johannesburg	2003
Australia	358/5	50	1	v Netherlands	Basseterre	2007
South Africa	356/4	50	1	v West Indies	St George's	2007
South Africa	353/3	40	1	v Netherlands	Basseterre	2007

Young cricketers fall victim to fast money: Steve Waugh

Describing the recent spot-fixing scandal as "unfortunate", former Australia skipper Steve Waugh said young cricketers are giving in to the prey of fast money.

"We need to take appropriate measures to curb fixing. Now a day, a lot of youngsters are playing cricket. They are getting fascinated to making easy and fast money by the bookies," he said.

"There has to be stringent measures and the guilty should be heavily punished at any cost. This is very unfortunate," Waugh added.

Suspended by ICC, Pakistan Test skipper Salman Butt and pace duo of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer are under the scanner for their alleged role in spot fixing scandal exposed by a British tabloid.

India have missing home advantage: SA Coach van Zyl

South Africa coach Corrie van Zyl felt India have lost World Cup home advantage due to the IPL, largely because of the experience of playing conditions that the world's top players have gained and their dealing with the strength of the most zealous crowds in the cricketing world.

"India has traditionally been a difficult place to tour but more recently teams have learnt to win in Indian and sub-continent conditions," he said.

"India in particular, where most of our preliminary matches will be played, is a wonderful place to play cricket as the people love the game and the support is phenomenal. Teams have learnt to embrace the atmosphere rather than be wary of it and we are looking forward to playing in these packed stadiums," he said.

"This is also the 1st major ICC event in the subcontinent since the IPL was launched. Players from around the world have now played lots of limited over cricket in India. This may reduce India's home ground advantage. Delhi, for example, is like a 2nd home to AB de Villiers."

South Africa will set up for the tournament with ODI series against Zimbabwe, Pakistan and India and van Zyl said he wants his wards to win those series and then carry that form into the World Cup 2011.

"We will prepare and uses the upcoming series that we have to play on the ICC calendar as preparation but at the same time not lose the focus on taking each series as a campaign on its own," he said.

The Protease first match will be against the West Indies, and van Zyl stressed the importance of getting off to a winning start.

"Playing the West Indies in Delhi means that we have to do our home work regarding the ground and its history and how this will affect our play against the West Indies. We obviously need to see how Delhi suits them and how we need to use our strengths to have the advantage in these conditions," he said.

Sri Lanka Tri-series, good training for World Cup: Taylor

New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor said the tri-series in Sri Lanka would make Black Caps some valuable practice of playing in sub-continent conditions before the 2011 World Cup, which India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will co-host.

"Definitely, ideal preparation. Obviously, coming from New Zealand, the pitches are going to play differently but the conditions that we have here and in India and in Bangladesh will be similar to what we are going to experience in the World Cup," said Taylor.

"So this experience is going to be valuable for the team and for the youngsters leading in to the selection for the World Cup," he added.

Taylor, asked to lead the side in absence of Daniel Vettori, feels the series will also be a good chance for the players to prove their worth in sub-continent conditions and impress the selectors.

"I think it's good, it gives some other players an opportunity and some youngsters the chance to play in the sub-continent as well. If we can have a squad of 20-odd to pick from and push each other, I think it will augur well for the upcoming months and for the World Cup," he said.

Having played a few practice games, Taylor said his team is in a good shape for the series.

"Every time you play cricket, you obviously play to win. We have come here to win, we won warm-up games and probably have got an edge over them in playing the competition.

Tri-series in Sri Lanka 2010

Wankhade Stadium will be ready by Dec 31: BCCI

The BCCI dismissed media reports that repair at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium was running at the back schedule and claimed the venue would be ready in time for next year's cricket World Cup final.

Board Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said in a statement that Wankhede Stadium will be ready by Dec 31 and there was no truth in the report that DY Patil Stadium has been reserved as a standby venue.

"As the Tournament Director of ICC Cricket World Cup-2011, I would like to place on record that the ICC Committee, keeping track of the attentiveness of the World Cup venues, is satisfied with the progress of the work at the Wankhede Stadium," Shetty said.

"The stadium would be ready by end of December 2010 which is the time limit given to Mumbai Cricket Association. The central Organising Committee of ICC Cricket World Cup-2011 has not taken any decision regarding D Y Patil ground as an altenative venue," he said.

The report has said that the Wankhede Stadium would miss the November 30 deadline and that the Cricket Board has determined to keep much-in-shape DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai as standby to avoid any last minute glitches.

Flintoff hopes to return in coming weeks

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff hopes to make his long-awaited return from knee surgery in coming weeks".

Flintoff has had two knee operations since helping England win the Ashes against Australia in the final Test at the Oval in last year.

The Lancashire batsman retired from Test cricket after that match, but he still hopes to play in ODI internationals for England, as well as representing his county in domestic action.

Flintoff, 32, believes he could play for Lancashire some time in the coming weeks as a batsman and then slowly step up his bowling work-load as well.

"It's going well, there's light at the end of the tunnel," he told Sky Sports News.

"It's been a long road with the rehab since then but I'm hoping to play again in the next few weeks.

"I'm back in the nets at Lancashire and from nowhere I've found the ability to bat again which is encouraging.

"I'm going to have to play in the second team first and force my way back into the first team but with the way I'm batting, I'm hoping to do that with the bat initially and then pick up the bowling from there.

"Rather than worrying about where my feet go, my hands and my head and getting too technical, I've basically gone back to how I used to play when I was younger, just see the ball and hit it as hard as I can.

"That's the way I tend to play, especially in the short form of the game, but I just can't wait to get cracking.

"It's been so long, and I'm now starting to get excited and chomping at the bit to start."

Kapil Dev's 'mad' captaincy won us WC 1983: Srikkanth

Members of 1983 World Cup winning team never thought of even reaching the semifinals but it was their "mad" Captain Kapil Dev's inspirational leadership that guided them to the coveted trophy, said chief India selector Krish Srikkanth.

Srikkanth, one of the key members of the team that beat the mighty West Indies twice in 1983 World Cup including in the final, said many players had even booked flight tickets for the United States for holidaying after the tournament as they believed they would not go beyond the group stage.

"None of the players thought we would reach the semifinals. So, they booked flight tickets for the US. The plan was to watch the semifinal and the final and then fly to the States for a holiday. The tour agent said that even my wife can come as I married in March 1983. So my booking was for Bombay-London-New York," he said at a book launch function in the city yesterday.

"At that time we were minnows in ODIs. Before 1983, we had won only one match in a World Cup, against East Africa which was a team not heard of. So to be honest there was no hope of going beyond the group stage of the competition," said the former dashing opener.

Srikkanth said Kapil was somehow very serious and said his side can beat the mighty West Indies and his self-confidence rubbed off on to his team-mates.

"Somehow Kapil was very serious. He said we had beaten the West Indies once so we can beat them in our first group match at Old Trafford. He said 'Dil se khelo' we can do it," he stated.

"All the players said Kapil had gone mad. West Indies have Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes as openers. After that they have Vivian Richards, Larry Gomes, Jeff Dujon and four fast bowlers whom I never wanted to face. But Kapil insisted at the pre-match meeting that we can beat them. That gave us the self-confidence that we wanted and we managed to defeat them in the group match and in the final," Srikkanth said.

"I can say that the group match victory against the West Indies was the turning point in India's ODI history. And I say there will never be another Kapil in this country and for that matter in the world," he declared.

Dhoni signs massive 200 crore deal with Rhiti Sports

Indian cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has signed a massive Rs 200 crore endorsement deal with a talent management company, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar in the corporate contract sweepstakes.

MS Dhoni has entered into 2 year deal with Rhiti Sports Management and Mindscapes, which will manage the Indian captain's long list of endorsements and brand associations, corporate profile, patents and digital rights, images, visibility on social networking sites and merchandise through a joint venture.

Tendulkar's 3 year deal with sports management firm Iconix, signed in 2006, was worth Rs 180 crore.

Confirming the development, Rhiti Sports General Manager Sanjay Pandey said as per the agreement, the company will be looking after Dhoni's entire spectrum of endorsements.

Currently, Dhoni is the country's most classy sportsperson and is associated with 22 brands such as PepsiCo, Reebok, Aircel, Godrej and Hersheys.

Dhoni, often described as India's most eligible bachelor, married childhood sweetheart and hotel management student Sakshi Singh Rawat at a private ceremony outside the northern town of Dehra Dun last week.

A Forbes study last year on the world's richest cricketers put him at the top with an annual earning of 10 million dollars, followed by Tendulkar at eight million dollars.

Two other Indian cricketers, Yuvraj Singh (5.5 million dollars) and Rahul Dravid (five million dollars), were ranked 3rd and 4th, while England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was in 5th place with four million dollars, Forbes said.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting was in sixth place with 3.5 million dollars a year, the magazine said, adding the figures included club and national team salaries and commercial endorsements.

Will play in 2011 World Cup if team wants: Muralitharan

All set to bid adieu to his Test career, Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said if the team wants will play the 2011 cricket World Cup in the sub-continent.

Muralitharan has announced that he will leave from the longer version of the game after playing the 1st Test against India starting July 18 at Galle.

"I will be happy to see the younger players shape up and win the World Cup 2011 for Sri Lanka. But if the authorities think I should also be a part of the team, then I will play," the world's highest wicket taker said at a press conference.

Hitting back at his attackers, who questioned his bowling action, Muralitharan said it was easy to criticize anybody with a naked eye but bio-mechanics proved that his action was legal.

He also thanked Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and World Cup winning skipper Arjuna Ranatunga for their support when his action repeatedly came under the scanner.

The batsmen worldwide have often feared facing him but when asked which batsmen he would find difficult to bowl at, Muralitharan named Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.

"It is difficult. Overall I think I played lot of cricket against the West Indies during Lara's days. And also played a lot against Sachin Tendulkar. Like that you can name so many. But these two players are very special players in the world. And I think they have played me the best," Muralitharan said.

Muralitharan said his Test record of 792 wickets was not unbreakable.