Fearing arrest, Samuels declined World Cup offer

Controversial West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels apparently rejected an offer to play in the World Cup as a replacement for injured Dwayne Bravo fearing that police officials might arrest him over charges of match-fixing.

Noted commentator and columnist Tony Cozier wrote in Trinidad Express that the 30-year-old Jamaican, who is coming out of a two-year ban on charges of match fixing, was in good form and was West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) first choice replacement. But fearing arrests in India, Samuels declined the offer and Guyana leg-spinner Davendra Bishoo was selected as Bravo's substitute.

Samuels returned to regional cricket for Jamaica in October and since then he has been the leading scorer in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament in January and also tops the current four-day tournament batting.

He began the season with an unbeaten 250 against Guyana and has followed with hundreds against Barbados and against the Leeward Islands in the current season.

WICB corporate communications officer Imran Khan would neither confirm nor deny the report.

"All I can state what is already known, that Davendra Bishoo has been chosen as Dwayne Bravo's replacement," Khan was quoted as saying by the daily.

Clyde Butts, chairman of the West Indies selection panel also declined to comment on the matter.

Samuels was banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for two years in May 2006 for passing information on to an Indian bookmaker during an ODI in Nagpur. The evidence was supplied by the Delhi police through taped telephone conversations during a West Indies ODI series in India in 2007.

Cozier wrote that Samuel's decision has now placed that hope in doubt, especially since the West Indies are scheduled for a tour of India in November and December.

Samuels has taken the same course as that of South African players Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje who were both implicated in the match-fixing scandal that led to a life ban for the late captain, Hansie Cronje.

They chose not to return to India, for fear of arrest, until they were given assurances by the Indian police prior to their return for the 2006 Champions Trophy.

Cricket World Cup 2011: how England captain Andrew Strauss mastered one-day cricket with help of golf swing

There are many who will be surprised by that. Until he took over as England captain two years ago he wasn’t even considered as a one-day batsman.

As Sachin Tendulkar has so often proved however, those with the best methods for the longer game can usually adapt it to other formats. All Strauss has really done is added a bit of purpose to an otherwise sound method.

The unlikely ally of his golf swing has come to his aid in this respect. More of that anon. First though, his overall philosophy on one-day batting.

“It’s fairly simple,” he says. “Assess the percentage risks of a particular shot on a certain pitch, and know when and when not to go for the big shots. It comes mainly from experience. In a Test I collect runs early in an innings. In one-day cricket I look to be a bit more assertive.

"But I’m quite selective. And sometimes a little voice in my head says ‘go for the big shot now’ but I have learnt to usually ignore that. There’s nearly always more time than you think.”

“On Sunday I said to the guys at the halfway point ‘it’s a fantastic wicket, just play normal cricket, look to build partnerships but we might have to look to play a few more big shots than normal in the middle overs.’

"I knew I would have to make the first ten overs count and I calculated that Munaf Patel would bowl a fairly consistent length so I selected him as the bowler to go after initially and try and disrupt his rhythm.”

It didn’t quite work because Patel tucked him up a bit as he sought to use his feet and go down the ground. He was not flustered though because he knew the spinners would offer scoring potential.

“The Indians always tend to have a couple of close fielders – a slip and a leg slip – to their spinners and that gives me some boundary options,” said Strauss.

“With no man at short fine leg for instance, a fine sweep will go for four. Also if I look to play a couple of slog sweeps I can get the deep mid wicket fielder moved squarer, and then wait for one to pull in front of square. Its all about field manipulation. Sachin does that brilliantly.”

He looked to hang on the back foot – while Kevin Pietersen is inclined to lunge forward at everything – and use the pace of the ball.

“In India because the ball doesn’t move much footwork is not all that important,” he said. "Look at the way Sehwag bats. He rarely gets forward. And he’s pretty successful!”

The one extra dimension he has added to his one day game is six-hitting. He rarely hit balls over the ropes until two years ago when he adapted his prowess at golf – he plays off five – into his batting.

“It was Paul Collingwood [also a handy golfer] who first came up with the idea. Instead of running up the pitch and trying to hit the spinners over the top with an orthodox straight swing of the bat, we tried using more of a golfers back swing, taking the bat back and round behind your head and then using your hips and clearing your front leg to follow right through over your shoulder,” said Strauss.

He gets up from his hotel room sofa to demonstrate this with his club of a bat, illustrating how if the ball is not quite in the slot you can still go through with the shot and drag it more over the legside.

“I tried it in the one-dayers in the West indies against the left arm spinners and it worked really well and I’ve practised it a lot since,” he added.

“It gives me the confidence to know I don’t need to worry about the men on the boundary.”

He proved that with his advance up the pitch to Yuvraj Singh on Sunday to plant the ball 20 rows back over long on despite the presence of a fielder in that position. “I backed myself to clear him,” he says.

How does one pace an enormous run chase like that? “We use the Duckworth-Lewis par score on the board as a guide. We tried to keep ahead of it all the time. You don’t want to leave too much to do at the end, but it’s important not to panic.”

Strauss passed 4,000 one day international runs during his scintillating century, another cuff to the heads of his one-day detractors.

“I have reached the stage of my career when I’m not bothered about what people say about me,” said Strauss “I know I’m actually one of the most important players in the one day side and being here at the World Cup really floats my boat, being on a world stage to show what I can do.”

With his smart approach, he could just help England get a little further than everyone expects.

Panic as Kyazoonga fails to deliver Cricket World Cup tickets in Sri Lanka

Failure on the part of the International Cricket Council’s official ticketing agent Kyazoonga.com to deliver ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 tickets purchased as early as July last year and the lack of information on where to pick up tickets has caused panic among cricket fans in Sri Lanka.


Kyazoonga leaves cricket fans in the dark. © AFP/Dibyangshu SARKAR.Panic stricken cricket fans, who purchased tickets for the Pakistan-Sri Lanka encounter at the R. Premadasa Stadium from Kyazoonga, wrote to Island Cricket just days before the match seeking more information on how to obtain their tickets. They claim that Kyazoonga was not replying to their e-mails.
“My brother purchased our tickets from their website [Kyazoonga.com] last year and we were getting very worried because five days before the match the tickets weren’t here,” Shenuka Fonseka from Colombo said in an e-mail.

Ajit Jayasekara the chief executive officer of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) requested cricket fans to visit the World Cup secretariat at SLC headquarters in Colombo to obtain their tickets, when Island Cricket approached him with complaints from disgruntled fans.

“People who have made on-line bookings may come to the World Cup office at SLC with their on-line confirmation e-mails and collect their tickets from there,” Jayasekara said.

Mayan Priyadarshana from Anuradhapura purchased tickets for last Saturday’s Group-A clash via Kyazoonga.com and says he was in a state of panic two days before the match. He was unaware of the location to pick up his tickets.

When Priyadarshana attempted to contact SLC by telephone, he says, the operator abruptly ended the call when he mentioned that he was calling to inquire about World Cup tickets.

“I’m from Anuradhapura. I bought tickets on-line because I thought I can get the tickets at the gate before the match,” Priyadarshana said, after visiting SLC offices last Friday to pick up his tickets.

“I have to waste one extra day to travel to Colombo to pick up the tickets. In India, the Kyazoonga counter is right near the gate. In Sri Lanka, we have to waste a whole day.

“But getting the tickets was easy. I went to SLC with my national ID card and the ticket confirmation print-out,” he added.

Kyazoonga - India’s leading ticketing agency - has been under criticism lately, after its website crashed during the sale of World Cup final tickets last week.

Willow TV: Sri Lanka and Kenya ICC World Cup, live

Sri Lanka, beaten in their last game against Pakistan, will play Kenya in the 14th match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Premadasa Stadium, in Colombo.

Watch Live Action on Willow TV

The team was very disappointed about the lost to Pakistan and have vowed to come out and play strong against the Kenyans, even though they are overwhelming favourites to take the victory.

Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene will look to lead the charges with the bat while Muttiah Muralitharan will be the man in charge with the ball.

Meanwhile, pacer Lasith Malinga could return after recovering from a back injury.

Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss said: “Lasith bent over to pick up a cricket ball about two weeks ago and strained his back a little.

“He bowled in the last two practice sessions. He has bowled with a full run-up today and batted and fielded.

“We have a selection meeting in the evening and will decide what to do then.”

Cricket, West Indies vs Netherlands ICC World Cup 2011 live score video, WI 119

Cricket, West Indies vs Netherlands ICC World Cup 2011 live score video, WI 119 for the loss of one wicket. They are in very strong position right now

West Indies are in a very strong position after a great opening partnership between Smith and Gayle. Both scored well and rather fast and gave a dream start to their team. Netherland captain seems to have erred in asking the West Indies cricket team to bat first after winning the toss.

Smith scored a brilliant 53 runs before being out. Gayle is playing at 49 and may be preparing to explode after playing a very balanced inning.

New Zealand score after 21 overs is 119 and Bravo is giving good support to Gayle.

West Indies take on Netherlands at the ICC World Cup 2011 in a day-night matchup today. The West Indians, two-time winners of Cricket World Cup are in a miserable state now that even makes it difficult for cricket analysts to predict that they can beat Netherlands comfortably, one of weaker sides in the tournament.

It looks like that Netherlands will be a tough challenger for West Indies, the team legendary cricketer Brain Lara and many others played in the past. West Indies lost their first match in the ICC World Cup 2011 to South Africa. Netherlands, on the other hand, lost their match to England after raising huge challenges to the English players.

West Indies need to show up a tight competition today to enliven their ICC World Cup 2011 quarterfinal dreams. Otherwise, it will perish their dreams to stay in the elite group of world cricket.

“The results in the last two years don’t suggest that West Indies are a big team, but what we know and what believe in is that we are a still a big team and we have to prove that,” Ottis Gibson, former England bowling coach from West Indies said.

Gibbon had a bad experience from Dutch as English bowling coach with the team being defeated by them in the World Twenty20. “Our players have got a lot belief that they can come here and do well and prove to the world that we are still a more than capable nation,” Gibbon hoped.

AIR expects to earn Rs. 8 crore ad revenue from ICC World Cup

All India Radio (AIR) expects to earn Rs. 7-8 crore in advertising revenue from its coverage of the ongoing Cricket World Cup, but the public service broadcaster’s news division is complaining that live commentary is eating into current affairs programming and news bulletin time.

AIR, which typically charges Rs. 300 for a 10-second ad spot during regular programming, is earning Rs. 7,000-10,000 for the same spot during matches.

“If team India performs well, the figure can escalate by 20-30%,” said an AIR official, who did not want to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Cricket is India’s most popular sport, and the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, held every four years, is its biggest tournament, pitching top teams from around the world against each other. India, along with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, is co-hosting this year’s edition, which began on 19 February.

AIR will air 35 of the 49 matches that will be played during the World Cup, and has paid ICC around Rs. 1 crore—at $6,250 (Rs. 2.8 lakh) per match—for broadcasting rights. It has made additional investment in hiring 20-25 commentators, inviting experts and setting up commentary boxes at match venues.

The broadcaster earned Rs. 4-5 crore in ad revenue from 18 matches in the 2007 World Cup. “This time, we are excited and confident of earning more revenue because many of the matches are happening in India,” said the AIR executive.

Rajeev Shukla, deputy director of sports at AIR, said the World Cup commentary, both in Hindi and English, covered 70 stations to reach 95-98% of India’s population. “We are very happy with the response and the feedback that we are getting is positive,” he said.

But AIR’s news services division, which puts together more than 500 bulletins every day in 82 languages or dialects, of which 89 are broadcast from Delhi, is unhappy.

“In Delhi alone, 12-15 news bulletins apart from programmes on current affairs and personal finance will not be aired throughout this cricketing season,” said a news division official who refused to be named, saying the issue is sensitive. “We had made a special programme on the Rail Budget (of 25 February), but it was cancelled because of cricket commentary.” The executive said AIR’s news audience is complaining.

But other officials said the broadcaster shouldn’t miss on a rare chance to earn ad revenue.

“We hardly get any advertising on radio and it would be silly not to encash the World Cup,” said the first executive cited above.

“This (World Cup) is an important event and it’s our duty to air it,” said Shukla. He, however, added that the finance minister’s Union budget speech on 28 February will be broadcast live.

Companies and brands such as ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Lava International Ltd and Coca Cola have already started advertising during AIR’s World Cup coverage.

“Given AIR’s wide reach, it makes sense for brands to advertise, especially if they want to look beyond just the metros,” said Basabdatta Chowdhuri, chief executive of Madison Media, an arm of marketing communications group Madison Communications Pvt Ltd. “Also, AIR’s cricket commentary has always been very impressive and, invariably, the inventory goes full.”

Although both AIR and the Doordarshan network of television channels are public service broadcasters under the autonomous Prasar Bharati, the two have entered into separate deals with ICC.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007 mandates that live television and radio feeds should be shared with Doordarshan and AIR for events deemed important for the nation by the government.

AIR has purchased the exclusive rights for World Cup’s radio broadcasting as no private radio broadcaster is allowed to uplink signals for news or live commentary in India.

“According to the current regulations, no private radio channel can beam current affairs programmes or live commentaries in the country since these come under the category of news,” said S. Keerthivasan, business head, radio and entertainment business, HT Media Ltd, which operates the Fever 104 FM brand. “That’s a reason why we cannot purchase rights for the matches.”

Mint is also published by HT Media Ltd.

How to Watch Live Cricket Streaming Online: Sri Lanka v Kenya

The Sri Lanka v Kenya is live now, a Group ‘A’ match of the ICC World Cup, that takes place at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. For our readers who are interested to watch the game live, the following sites are broadcasting as we speak: ESPNstar.asia (live streaming available only in Asian countries), Crictime.com (site for live streaming, broadcasting on four different servers) and ESPN3.com (ideal for US viewers). Currently broadcasting live, also extracover.net. Both Crictime.com and extracover.net are free to use, however ads powered. Live Telecast on Star Cricket begun at 08:30 am GMT.

Unlike other games from the B group, the Sri Lanka v Kenya match is not covered live by the BBC. There is however a live scorecard, here. Highlights on Red Button & BBC Sport website (UK only) from 2200 GMT, on BBC Two & online 2320-0020. Another excellent source for live scores is alltimecricket.com.

Sri Lanka have lost their first match at the ICC World Cup 2011 to Pakistan, and have to beat Kenya in the day-night-match today to keep themselves up in the tournament. The challenge is not impossible -Kenya is not a strong competitors, but this is the Cricket World Cup – and surprises are possible. Sri Lanka won the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996, and was a runner up in 2007. The Sri Lankan cricket team currently holds several world records, including world records for highest team totals in all three forms of the game, Test, ODI and Twenty20.

Sri Lanka v Kenya - Kenya innings - click on the image to see live scores on BBC Sports.