ICL's next event to feature international sides
Cricinfo staff
The Indian Cricket League has announced that its next tournament will feature international sides, as first reported by Cricinfo. The event called ICL 20s World Series 2008 is a Twenty20 tri-series that will have a team comprising Indian players, one with Pakistan players and a World side taking each other. Previous ICL competitions have all been contests between city-based sides.
The ICL 20s World Series 2008 lasts for a week starting from April 9 and will be held at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad. The competition, the fourth to be conducted by the ICL, involves seven matches, with each team playing against each other twice, followed by the finals.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, currently captaining the Lahore Badshahs, will lead the Pakistan team while Chris Cairns will captain the World team. Moin Khan, John Emburey and Steve Rixon will coach the Pakistan, World and India sides respectively.
Kapil Dev, chairman of the executive board of the ICL, said the Indian squad will be selected after the semi-finals of the ongoing Twenty20 tournament. The captain of the Indian team is also yet to be announced.
ICL's next event to feature international sides
Motera curator promises sporting track for 2nd Test
Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla turned out to be the heroes in Chennai as runs flowed from their bats in the first of three Tests. However, there was one factor working against the bowlers – the pitch. The Chepauk track just did not have anything in it for any bowler throughout all the five days.
Both the skippers – Anil Kumble and Graeme Smith – criticised the pitch after the match and hoped for a balanced contest between the bat and the ball in the rest of the series. It is learnt that Smith has heavily criticised the strip in Chennai in his report to the match referee Roshan Mahanama.
As a result, as both the teams move to Ahmedabad for the second Test, the pitch at Motera remains the talking point. And the 22-yard strip in question bears a look exactly opposite to the one in Chennai.
When both the teams reach the stadium for training on Tuesday, the bowlers’ eyes, especially that of Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn and Co., will light up at the sight of the grass at the centre.
On Monday afternoon, the pitch had a tinge of live grass on it, something which was missing in Chennai. And if Dhiraj Parsana, the curator, said the grass cover will remain even when both the captains walk out for toss on Thursday morning.
“I can assure you that it will be a sporting track,” Parsana told the Hindustan Times on Monday. “There have been no instructions to prepare a specific pitch and my job is to give a sporting track.”
Parsana, a former Test cricketer, explained the logic behind keeping the grass cover.
“There is a vast difference between the weather in Chennai and Ahmedabad,” Parsana, who is also heading the West Zone wing of the BCCI’s Pitch and Ground committee, said. “In Chennai, due to high humidity it feels too hot even when the temeperature is between 30 and 35 degree Celsius. But here in Ahmedabad the ground temperature has already passed the 45-degree mark and with the dry conditions, if we don’t keep grass on the wicket, it will crumble on the second day itself.”
With talks of Chennai curator K Parthasarathy being forced to take the nip out of the surface at the behest of Indian team management doing the rounds, it remains to be seen whether the Motera track will retain its present look till Thursday morning.
Motera curator promises sporting track for 2nd Test
Lollywood star Momi buys stake in Lahore Badshahs
Buying stakes in Twenty20 teams seems in vogue for the actors and after Mithun Chakraborty, it’s the turn of popular Pakistani tinsel town star Moammar Rana, also known as Momi, to jump onto the bandwagon.
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) today announced that the Pakistani actor will have a stake in ICL’s Lahore Badshahs team and would promote the side both in India and Pakistan.
Earlier, Mithun had bought stake in Kolkata Tigers.
“I am delighted to see the Lahore Badshahs perform so well and entertain millions of cricket fans. I am looking forward to be working with the Lahore Badshahs team with stalwarts like Inzamam, Moin Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed, to take the Badshahs to the next level in cricket,” the actor said in a statement.
“I am sure, that my fans will support my team Lahore Badshahs,” he added.
Incidentally, the BCCI-backed Indian Premier League (IPL) has also seen actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla (Kolkata Knight Riders), Preity Zinta (King’s XI Punjab) buying franchisees.
Kapil Dev, Chairman of ICL’s Executive Board welcomed Momi and said, “After our association with the living legend, Mithun Chakraborty, this is the latest development at ICL. The Lahore Badshahs have been a critical factor in getting an overwhelming response for the Edelweiss 20s Challenge.
“The Badshahs are arguably one of the best sides in the word and deserve all the support from their increasing home fan base. With Momis huge fan following in Pakistan, I am sure the popularity of the Lahore Badshahs will reach unprecedented levels across the sub-continent,” he said.
Momi became a popular actor after the success of ‘Deewane Tere Pyar Ke’, ‘Choorian’ and ‘Nikki Jai Haan’. His other hit movie is ‘Yeh Dil Aap Ka Hua’. His recent film ‘Koi Tujh Sa Kahan’ has also been termed successful.
The Pakistani actor also appeared in a 2004 Indo-Pak venture, ‘Dobara’, alongside Mahima Chaudhary and Jackie Shroff.
Lollywood star Momi buys stake in Lahore Badshahs
South Africans plan to target Sehwag with short balls
Still smarting from the caning their bowlers received from Virender Sehwag in the series opener at Chennai, the South Africans are planning to pepper the Indian opener with short balls into his body and cramp him for space in the second cricket Test starting in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Visiting team’s coach Micky Arthur, while maintaining that Sehwag played a fantastic innings, said the Delhi marauder, who scored the fastest triple hundred in Test history (319 off 304 balls) in the drawn match in Chennai, would be in for some chin music in the second Test.
“We had a look at Sehwag’s fantastic innings. We saw that he played his first pull shot after scoring 312. He cuts the ball very well. We plan to target him with short balls into his body and cramp him for space and see how he takes it,” Arthur told reporters after his team’s first practice session at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera today.
Asked how his fast bowlers make the plan work if the wickets do not respond well to fast bowling, Arthur said “We will have to wait and watch for the first ball to be bowled on how the wicket is. At the moment it looks good with some grass on it. But it may be a bit slow. The heat is also dry heat and we are used to similar conditions at home, like in Cape Town and Johannesburg.”
Arthur also tried to put behind the issue of the SG brand of balls that is being used in the Test series and said since the team has been here for 15 days the players have hopefully become used to it.
“It’s a contentious issue. I can’t say whether we have got used to them. We have been here for two weeks and hopefully got used to it. It would be interesting to see how the ball behaves here on the lush green outfield, whether it reverses. Hopefully the pitch will help the seamers,” he said.
Lavishing praise on his team’s batsmen for their fine display in Chennai, Arthur said the Proteas’ line-up had gained from their previous tours to the sub-continent and was now comfortable playing spin bowling.
“We have played a lot in the sub-continent. We have kept the same top six in the batting order. We are comfortable playing spin bowling,” he said.
Arthur termed his team’s bowling attack as well balanced.
“We have a very balanced attack. We have also a very good spinner in Paul Harris who is probably the most under-rated spinner. He was a bit nervous in Chennai,” he said.
Arthur maintained that the visitors were not under any psychological pressure after the blitz from Sehwag.
“We have probably taken more positives from the first Test. The top order performed. We have bowlers who can take 20 wickets,” he said.
Arthur said in Yuvraj Singh, who was benched in Chennai, and Mohammed Kaif, brought into the squad for the Test here as replacement for the injured Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian team had enough reserve strength, but the point of interest would be whether the home team will field five frontline bowlers.
“Yuvraj Singh was waiting in the wings and Kaif, I have noted, has scored lot of runs in domestic cricket. They have lot of back-up. It will be interesting to see whether India play five bowlers with (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni and an all-rounder (Irfan Pathan) coming in at six and seven or six batsmen (like in Chennai),” he said.
South Africans plan to target Sehwag with short balls
Those banning ICL cricketers are traitors: Kapil
Kapil Dev, former captain and Indian Cricket League (ICL) executive board chief, Thursday termed functionaries of the Indian cricket board as "traitors" for banning the players who have joined the "rebel league".
"These boys want to play for their country. They are some of the finest cricketers of the country. If anyone says they can't play for the country, for me they are traitors," said the World Cup winning Indian team's skipper in an emotional outburst at the re-launch of the Kolkata Tigers team that was bought by actor Mithun Chakraborty.Kumble extends his world record | In Images: Openers give India sound start after South Africa reach 540
"If Sourav (Ganguly) had joined ICL, would he have been banned from playing for the country? I ask the people of Bengal, would they accept it? If not, how can they see this injustice done to the other sons of the soil?" he asked.
"I am becoming emotional, as sportsmen are emotional people. But I have thought time and again if I was doing anything wrong. And the answer I got was a resounding 'no'."
"We have nothing against the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) or the Indian Premier League (IPL). We want to promote the game and see everyone reap its benefits," the Haryana Hurricane added.
"Are these boys not Indians? If they are not accepted as Indian players, the ones who are trying to stop them should be ashamed of themselves. I am confident that they will serve their country one day," he added.
Asked if the ban and other restrictions imposed by the BCCI worked as a deterrent for young cricketers from joining the unauthorised league, he said: "They are trying to put up various hurdles. But we will not give up without a fight, provided they don't turn it into a boxing game."
Queried what will happen if some of the players don't play well, he said: "There will be no compromises as far as cricketing standards are concerned. If they don't play well, they don't deserve to be in the team. But they are all fine cricketers and are dying to play for the country."
Asked how he saw ICL's relation with the cricket board, he said, "BCCI is the father of the family. If we have done something wrong, the father can scold us, but cannot throw us out of the house. The father loves all his children."
On whether there could be a match between the champions of ICL and IPL, he said, "Let the IPL begin first and have its champions. Nothing is impossible."
Those banning ICL cricketers are traitors: Kapil