ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 – Opening Ceremony

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 will be an extravaganza in itself. It is one of the biggest cricketing events in the history of cricket. The grand opening ceremony of this world cup held at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka on February 17, 2010 started with great pomp and show. In total, an amount of 30 million dollar has been spent to make it as a grandiose event. Around 40,000 people were fascinated by the vibrant carnival. The welcoming speech was given by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina. Great Canadian rock star Bryan Adams and trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were the highlight of this flashy ceremony. The official song of the world cup was sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Divya Kumar. “De Ghum Ke”(whack it with all your might) is the theme song in three different languages Hindi, English and Bengali. Lady singers of Bangladesh Sabina Yasmin, Runa Laila and Mumtaz sang their chart-bursting numbers along with soothing voice of Sonu Nigam from India. It was quite excitement when the 14 captains of the participating teams paraded in the rickshaw ride with the usual laser and firecracker as well as a message from the UN AIDs ties up through children. Former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly, ICC President Sharad Pawar Sri Lankan cricket board president Nishanth Ranathunga also made it to this gala event. Everyone is waiting for the action which starts with in-form India versus home support Bangladesh on Feb 19th 2011.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Schedule

The ICC World Cup 2011, is scheduled from 19 February, 2011 to 2 April, 2011 will be hosted by three South Asian Countries (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh). India will host maximum of the matches in the World Cup Tournament. India with 29 matches out of 46 and the Sri Lanka will host 12 of the rest and remaining by Bangladesh.

Feb 19:  Bangladesh v India, Dhaka
Feb 20:  New Zealand v Kenya, Chennai
Feb 20:  Sri Lanka v Canada, Hambantota
Feb 21:  Australia v Zimbabwe, Ahmedabad
Feb 22:  England v Netherlands, Nagpur
Feb 23:  Pakistan v Kenya, Hambantota
Feb 24:  South Africa v West Indies, New Delhi
Feb 25:  Australia v New Zealand, Nagpur
Feb 25:  Bangladesh v Ireland, Dhaka
Feb 26:  Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Colombo
Feb 27:  India v England, Kolkata
Feb 28:  West Indies v Netherlands, New Delhi
Feb 28:  Zimbabwe v Canada, Nagpur
March 1:  Sri Lanka v Kenya, Colombo
March 2:  England v Ireland, Bangalore
March 3:  South Africa v Netherlands, Mohali
March 3:  Pakistan v Canada, Colombo
March 4:  New Zealand v Zimbabwe, Ahmedabad
March 4:  Bangladesh v West Indies, Dhaka
March 5:  Sri Lanka v Australia, Colombo
March 6:  India v Ireland, Bangalore
March 6:  England v South Africa, Chennai
March 7:  Kenya v Canada, New Delhi
March 8:  Pakistan v New Zealand, Pallekele
March 9:  India v Netherlands, New Delhi
March 10:  Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe, Pallekele
March 11:  West Indies v Ireland, Mohali
March 11:  Bangladesh v England, Chittagong
March 12:  India v South Africa, Nagpur
March 13:  New Zealand v Canada, Mumbai
March 13:  Australia v Kenya, Bangalore
March 14:  Pakistan v Zimbabwe, Pallekele
March 14:  Bangladesh v Netherlands, Chittagong
March 15:  South Africa v Ireland, Kolkata
March 16:  Australia v Canada, Bangalore
March 17:  England v West Indies, Chennai
March 18:  Sri Lanka v New Zealand, Mumbai
March 18:  Ireland v Netherlands, Kolkata
March 19:  Australia v Pakistan, Colombo
March 19:  Bangladesh v South Africa, Dhaka
March 20:  Zimbabwe v Kenya, Kolkata
March 20:  India v West Indies, Chennai
March 23:  Quarter-final, Dhaka
March 24:  Quarter-final, Colombo
March 25:  Quarter-final, Dhaka
March 26:  Quarter-final, Ahmedabad
March 29:  Semi-final, Colombo
March 30:  Semi-final, Mohali
April 2:      Final, Mumbai

Li Na fails to bloom in Australian Open

The grand Australia open has come to an end where the third seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters bagging her fourth grand slam title after defeating Li in the final.  Li Na from China, seeded ninth, had already surpassed expectations as she played exceptionally well though she does not have the experience of her opponent but was outclassed. Her home crowd reacted with sadness and disappointment after Li Na failed to win the Australian Open women's title on Saturday but said they were still proud she had managed to get as far as the final. If she had won the final, she would have become her country’s first grand slam singles champion. In an instant, Li Na has become a new national idol. She has made history for Chinese tennis, recast the record books of Asian tennis, and she can become the queen of this pursuit.

YUSUF PATHAN - The Brutal Hitter

There is a great relief to Indian cricket team as Yusuf Pathan filled the no.7 perfectly who is considered as a match winner/saver who strongly brings the match of any type under his control. This real hero can keep getting hit in the shoulder off the bouncers, and still keeps coming back to smack the fuller deliveries into the crowd. He sends all the balls to boundaries and he never waits for power play. He has turned three of the last four games he has batted scoring at a strike rate of 134.95 by hitting 18 sixes in 216 deliveries. Two of those knocks have won India games from the dead, and one of them gave South Africa a mighty scare after India had been 119 for 8, chasing 268.

Considering the India’s preparation to world cup, India is having the much attacking opening batsmen among all the Teams. Middle order batsmen failed to shine in the recent tour in South Africa but they could do well in Indian conditions. Though Yusuf was getting in down the order, he can lead the attack even with the tail enders. His bowling is another advantage with 30 wickets under his belt, where his best 3/49 comes from a match against New Zealand. Moreover he is one of the Best Fielder among the young Indian squad. Let’s see this explosive batsman in action the World Cup.

Accident Victory by Chiefs

On Sunday, everyone were surprised by the unexpected dominance by the Kansas City Chiefs over Seahawks. Yes, it is an another victorious slip-up that baffled players, coaches, and fans alike, the Chiefs accidentally defeated the Seahawks 42-24, inadvertently outplaying their opponent by scoring more touchdowns. Matt Cassel said of his team's unintentional dominance of the game that they have no idea what even happened, because on most of the plays they didn't even mean to score. He tried to throw the ball away at least three times, but it kind of floated and ended up in Dwayne Bowe's hands. It must have startled him, too, because he started screaming and running with the ball towards the end zone as fast as he could.  During the postgame press conference, players on the Chiefs' defensive line apologized to the Seahawks for frequently tripping and falling on top of their running backs.

Funny Sledging Incidents in Cricket

Hi guys. I found these sledging incidents in the cricket world and I enjoyed reading it. I am posting here to make you laugh and it is not to hurt anybody. Sometimes, sledging sound funny but at other times, they just turn ugly.

Sunil Gavaskar (India) and Viv Richards (West Indies)

To ease the pressure on himself, Sunil Gavaskar had decided to come lower down the order and bat at No 4 for that particular match. But, Malcolm Marshall fired out Anshuman Gaekwad and Dilip Vengsarkar for ducks, setting the stage for Gavaskar to walk in at 0/2. Viv Richards said “Man, it don’t matter where you come in to bat, the score is still zero.”

Rodney Marsh (Australia) and Ian Botham (England)

Rodney Marsh to Ian Botham in an Ashes match: “So how’s your wife and my kids?” Ian Botham’s reply – “The wife’s fine. The kids are retarded!”

Javed Miandad (Pakistan) and Merv Hughes (Australia)

Javed Miandad called Hughes a fat bus conductor during a match. A few balls later, Hughes dismissed Miandad. “Tickets please,” said Hughes, as he ran past the departing batsman.

Glenn McGrath (Ausrtralia) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies)

McGrath to Ramnaresh Sarwan: “So what does Brian Lara’s di*k taste like?”Sarwan: “I don’t know. Ask your wife.

Douglas Jardine (England) and Bill Woodfull (Australia)

England player Jardine complained that one of the Australian players called him a bastard. Australian captain Bill Woodfull turns to his team, points to Jardine and asked “Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?”

Steve Waugh (Australia) and Parthiv Patel (India)

When Steve came (Steve’s last test match) to bat, Parthiv said, “Come on, just one more of the famous slog-sweeps before you finish” Steve-”Respect Me…for when i made my test debut You were still in your nappies”.

Glen McGrath (Australia) and Eddo Brandes (Zimbabwe)

Aussie paceman Glenn McGrath was bowling to Zimbabwe number 11 Eddo Brandes – who was just missing each ball. McGrath, frustrated, went to him and inquired: “Why are you so fat?”Quick as a flash, Brandes replied, “Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a biscuit.”

Ravi Shastri (India) and Mike Whitney (Australia)

Shastri hits the ball towards Mike Whitney (the 12th man in the game) and looked for a single. Whitney said, “If you leave the crease i’ll break your f***ing head”. Without battling an eyelid, Shastri retorted, “If you could bat as well as you can talk you wouldn’t be the f***ing 12th man”.

Shane Warne (Australia)  and Arjuna Ranatunga (SriLanka)

Warnie told the press, "[Ranatunga is] probably slotting himself around at 150 kilos at the moment. Swallowed a sheep or something." The former Sri Lankan captain quickly hit back, "It is better to swallow a sheep or a goat than swallow what he has been swallowing."

Viv Richards (West Indies) and Merv Hughes (Australia)

Viv Richards hit Merv Hughes for four consecutive boundaries in one over. Merv stops halfway down the pitch, farted loudly, and said to Viv: “let’s see you hit that to the boundary!” Viv was dumb-founded.

Kim Clijsters bags WTA Championships title

Kim Clijsters bagged her third WTA Championships title after defeating No. 1 ranking Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in OHA. Clijsters was sidelined due to an infected foot, played in her first tournament since winning the U.S. Open in September. Clijsters earned $1.4 million with the win and she said that it was a tough match and glad to win it. Also she added that she doesn’t how many more years she is going to keep doing this. This is her 40th career title after victories in Brisbane, Miami, and Cincinnati and at the U.S. Open this year. She became the fifth player in WTA history to win the tournament three or more times. She also backed Wozniacki by assuring that she’s young, she’s No. 1 and she will win a Grand Slam if she keeps on working the way that she has been working.

Pakistan's Baseball Team @ Asian Games

Pakistan's baseball team is very serious in its preparation for the forthcoming 16th Asian Games starting on November 12 in Guangzhou, China. This event lasts for 6 days till November 17 and Pakistan is very keen to win in this event. There are on their way with a training camp at the Pakistan Sports Complex (PSC) with all prospective players from the national tournaments attending. The final team will be selected on the performance basis in the training camp. As of now, the Squad includes Mohammad Imtaiz, Sarfraz Ahmed, Ehsan Ullah, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Farooq, Zafar Iqbal, Mohammad Aseef, Zaheer Ahmed, Usman Azam, Salim Hyder, Dura Hussain, Musadaq Hanif, Hafiz Usman, Umair Bhatti, Mohammad Zubair, Irshad Ali, Tusif ahmed and Sumair Zawal.

 

Bangladesh's Victorious ODI series ever

This is the first time for Bangladesh to win the ODI series by 4-0 of five match series. Really it’s a bad time for New Zealand as they experienced a white wash lost against Bangladesh, which is considered to be under performing cricket nation. Of the 5 matches, Bangladesh won the first match by nine runs at Dhaka whereas the second match at Dhaka was abandoned due to rain. After then Bangladesh tasted the three consecutive victories. It won the third match by seven wickets, fourth match by nine runs and the fifth match by three runs. Rubel Hussain who captured four for 25 bagged the Man of the Match award and Shakib Al Hasan bagged Man of the Series award for his all round performance. As of now, Bangladesh won 61 ODIs in its history. There are some interesting facts at the end of the series like BB McCullum has an aggregate of 196 dismissals {189 catches and 07 stumpings} and against Bangladesh he has an aggregate of 30 dismissals {29 catches and 01 stumping} just one spot behind KC Sangakkara of Sri Lanka with 39 dismissals. DL Vettori became the 15th bowler to capture 275 plus wickets in one day games.

IPL scraps Punjab and Rajasthan

It’s been shocking news to hear two IPL teams have been ruled out of the world famous IPL Twenty20 tournament for breaching ownership rules. BCCI terminated franchises of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab who were active participants in first three editions of the Twenty20 tournament, and of course Rajasthan Royals were the first to hold the IPL title. Also it has warned Kochi franchise to resolve their ownership issues soon to get out of trouble. BCCI gave no specific statements so far regarding the breaches and it is known that former IPL chairman Lalit Modi was earlier accused of having financial connections with these two teams. BCCI honorary secretary N Srinivasan told reporters that the decision to terminate the contract of Punjab and Rajasthan franchises were taken purely based on legal opinion we received and the breaches committed by these franchises. Rajasthan Royals was acquired by Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch and co for $67 million. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra paid approximately US $15.4 million for an 11.7% stake later. The big faces were Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan in Royals. Kings XI Punjab was bought by Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and actor Preity Zinta for $ 76 million. Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh were the big faces in it. Let’s wait and watch the future actions and auctions of IPL-4.