“Immediate ties between both countries is not possible. It is not in the hands of the cricket boards. It is a diplomatic issue. This is a decision taken by the Indian government,” Pawar said.

Asked about demands for the introduction of day-night Tests to save the longer format of the game, Pawar said the “issue has not reached his ear”.

“We are only administrators. If needed, I will let the experts take a call (on the issue),” he said.

To a query whether the ICC was mulling to shift its headquarters back to England, Pawar said, “In England, there are 40 per cent taxes while there are no taxes in Dubai. The moment England thinks similarly about cricket we will consider it.”

Pawar said he was confident about BCCI president Shashank Manohar’s integrity to handle the controversial Lalit Modi issue.

Cricket India

Tickets as low as 20 US cents for the Cricket World Cup 2011 were in the first phase of sales on Tuesday.

More than 100,000 tickets were released in the first phase for the event co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from Feb. 19 to April 2.

“The prices confirm the promise we made that the tickets would be affordable and accessible,” Sharad Pawar, chairman of the World Cup’s central organizing committee, said in a statement.

“I am sure that cricket lovers in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as those from around the world will be excited at the prospect of being able to plan their trips to the matches …. and be a part of the Cup that counts.”

The International Cricket Council said that from July 1, technology will allow spectators to pick tickets for specific teams and venues and will even be able to see exactly where their seat is in a ground.

Tickets are available at www.iccevents.yahoo.com. After the first phase of tickets, more will be available from stadiums and tour operators.

“Further tickets will also be made available online,” the ICC statement said.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat was pleased with the progress made in organizing the World Cup.

“While there is a lot of important operational detail ahead of us, I am pleased at the progress we have made to date,” he said.

Lorgat said in the next few months, safety and security aspects of the World Cup will be dealt with in detail by the tournament’s security directorate – headed by Board of Control for Cricket in India president Shashank Manohar.

Pakistan was stripped as the fourth co-host after gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team at Lahore in March 2009, killing six police and a van driver.

Mr. Sharad Pawar, Vice President ICC and Chairman of the Central Organizing Committee bought the first ticket to the inaugural match between India and Bangladesh online. Mr. A H M Mustafa Kamal, President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board followed with his purchase to the inaugural match to be played in Dhaka.

Haroon Lorgat, Chief Executive of the ICC, said: “Our mission is to reach out to as many cricket fans as possible, both in the subcontinent and around the world. We’re thrilled to appoint KyaZoonga in this crucial role, as we have been impressed with their ticketing track record, world class ticketing services and previous experience with cricket ticketing in the Indian subcontinent.

Launching online ticket sales to thirteen venues across the three host countries, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, almost nine months prior to the largest international cricket event is a “first” for the tournament. We look forward to seeing a full house throughout the ICC flagship tournament.”

Professor R.S. Shetty, Tournament Director, ICC CWC 2011 commented on the occasion of the launch, “In order to make it easy for the spectators to buy tickets well in advance, we are launching the online sale of tickets for the event on June 1, 2010.”

Tickets are available by clicking on the ticketing link on the official ICC website www.iccevents.yahoo.com. Credit cards, debit cards and net banking will be the accepted modes of payment for the purchase and delivery of tickets. At the customers’ option, tickets booked online will either be delivered by courier or can be picked up at the venue pick-up counters nearer the tournament date. Tickets are available by team, by venue or by looking up the entire tournament schedule. Additionally, unique packages such as “Follow your Team”, “Love your City” or “Be a Great Host” allow the customer to access a combination of matches to suit their preferences. Detailed instructions on how to buy, schedule information, package descriptions, as well as Frequently Asked Questions are available in the Official Ticket Guide published and distributed at the ticket launch. This guide is also available for download online. Ticket purchase Terms and Conditions are also available online.

The ticketing site has several innovative and customer-friendly features such as multiple currency options (INR, LKR, BDT, USD) and View from the Stand, a first of its kind feature that allows customers to view the cricket ground from their selected stands before they purchase their tickets. Other unique features include automatic Facebook and Twitter updates to users’ profiles once they have bought their tickets.

Neetu Bhatia, Chairman and CEO of KyaZoonga said, “We are truly excited about going global with our partnership with the ICC. It is our honor and privilege to have Mr. Pawar buy the first ticket to the tournament. The World Cup is the final word when it comes to global cricketing competition and we are proud to have been appointed its Official Ticketing Partner. Cricket in the sub-continent is a uniquely fantastic experience and we are very excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of ticketing an international event of the stature of the World Cup at home. The ICC and each of the host country Boards – the BCCI, SLC and BCB have a singular goal of providing easy access to cricket fans to their favorite game. We will work closely with them to do what we do best – continue to provide customers and fans, both locally and globally, with seamless access to tickets for fixtures held in the sub-continent.

Dhoni slipped to third behind Australia’s Michael Hussey and South Africa’s AB de Villiers in the rankings for batsmen after deciding to skip the tour to Zimbabwe where Sri Lanka won the triangular series after defeating Zimbabwe by nine wickets in the final.

As a player loses half a per cent of his ratings points for every ODI he misses, Dhoni conceded 16 ratings points and slipped to third position, the ICC said in a statement.

However, he still has the number-one ranked Hussey and second-placed de Villiers firmly within his sights as he trails the Australian by eight ratings points and the South African by just two ratings points.

With India scheduled to play a minimum of three ODIs in Sri Lanka, a couple of good performances with the bat will help Dhoni regain his number-one position.

Also aiming to maintain his upward movement will be Virat Kohli who achieved career-best ranking to date after good performances in Zimbabwe last week.

Kohli scored 168 runs to jump to 13th position after a leap of seven places.

Also moving up the order after the Zimbabwe series was Rohit Sharma. Sharma’s series aggregate of 260 runs has given him a lift of 44 places and puts him in 47th position which he shares with Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal.

However, Suresh Raina, who captained India in Zimbabwe, had a disappointing series and he slipped to 20th after scoring 83 runs in four matches.

In the rankings for ODI bowlers, Sri Lanka boasts two bowlers inside the top 20 while Pakistan has two and Bangladesh and India have one each.

Harbhajan Singh represents India in the top 20 in 11th spot whereas Pakistan’s captain Shahid Afridi is seventh and his countryman Saeed Ajmal is in 18th spot.

In the ODI Championship table, India will start in third place after dropping behind South Africa following their three losses in Zimbabwe.

However, it can regain the number-two spot if they win both their matches against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

If they manage to achieve this, they will join South Africa on 119 ratings points but will be placed higher after the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

Regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra were rested as the BCCI senior selection committee, which met here on Sunday, named a young 15-member squad with new faces galore.

Dinesh Karthik has been named the specialist wicketkeeper for the tour which begins with a tri-series – also involving Sri Lanka – on May 28 while Madhya Pradesh batsman-stumper Naman Ojha is also part of the squad.

Once the tri-series is over on June 9, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla will join the squad for India’s subsequent two Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe on June 12 and 13.

Apart from Karthik and Naman Ojha, the side includes specialist batsmen Murali Vijay, Raina, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, besides all-rounders in Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and offie Ravichandran Ashwin will spearhead the slow bowling department in the tri-series, while the largely inexperienced pace attack will comprise Umesh Yadav (Vidarbha), R Vinay Kumar (Karnataka), Ashok Dinda (Bengal) and Pankaj Singh (Rajasthan).

The selectors also announced a 16-member India ‘A’ squad for a tri-series in England, naming Cheteshwar Pujara as its captain and Wriddhiman Saha his deputy.

Zimbabwe Tri-series squad: Suresh Raina (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha.

T20 squad: Suresh Raina (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha and Piyush Chawla.

India ‘A’ team: Cheteshwar Pujara (Captain), Wriddiman Saha (wk), Abhinav Mukund, Shikar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Sourav Tiwary, Iqbal Abdulla, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhaval Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Mithun, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Jaskaran Singh, Bipul Sharma and Jayadev Unadkad.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Syed Ashraful Huq told The Hindu here that only the four Test playing nations of Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – would take part in the event. Ashraful, in the city to hold discussions with BCCI Secretary N. Srinivasan, said The matches will be staged in Colombo and Premadasa Stadium is the likely venue. In all there will be six league games and the final.

In the last edition of the Asia Cup, we had Hong Kong and UAE in the tournament but we had to shorten the format this time because of the lack of time available for the major teams.

He admitted Malaysia was in contention to host the championship. Yes, Malaysia was in the running. Eventually, the ACC has settled for Sri Lanka.

This will be the fourth occasion Sri Lanka will be hosting the tournament begun in 1984. They played host in 1986, 1997 and 2004 and won the final on each occasion.

The 2010 version is the tenth edition of the Asia Cup. Sri Lanka are the present holders of the trophy having won it in 2008 when Pakistan hosted it. They beat India by 100 runs in the final played at Karachi. Sri Lanka has appeared in every final since the tournament`s inception except the first when it was decided on a round-robin league.

Sri Lanka and India have won the Asia Cup the most occasions four each and Pakistan once. Bangladesh, Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates have yet to lay their hands on the trophy.

India will host 29 matches at 8 venues, while Sri Lanka is hosting 12 matches in 3 venues and Bangladesh will host 8 matches. The final of the tournament will be played in Mumbai and 14 teams will fight for the prestigious cup.

The teams have been divided in two groups.

Group A: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada, Kenya.

Group B: Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland South Africa, West Indies, Netherlands.

Cricket World Cup 2011 Schedule

Cricket India

Ogilvy & Mather has been selected as the official Advertising and Media Agency for the 50-over ICC Cricket World Cup to be co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh next year.

In 1948, David Ogilvy founded the agency that went on to become Ogilvy & Mather later. The company is eighth largest advertising networks in the world and has more than 450 plus offices in 169 cities.

The 10th edition of the World Cup will take place during February and March 2011, with the first match being played on February 19th in Dhaka and final in Mumbai on April 2nd.

It will be Bangladesh’s first time co-hosting of a World Cup and fourteen cricketing nations will complete in the quadrennial event.

The World Cup was also to be co-hosted by Pakistan, but in the wake of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore, the International Cricket Council (ICC) were forced to strip Pakistan of its hosting rights.

The tournament will take place at 13 venues in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The prize money for the prestigious event has been set by the ICC Board at a record $10 million in order to reflect the importance of the competition.

Tickets for the premium event will go on sale online from June 1, 2010 at www.iccevents.yahoo.com.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan on Saturday confirmed a “strategic partnership” had been formed with USA Cricket.

It is likely the New Zealand team will play three games against Sri Lanka in Lauderhill, Florida in late May following the Twenty20 World Cup hosted by the West Indies.

Vaughan stressed the games — the type of matches were not specified — were not yet confirmed but was “optimistic” they would take place.

Cricket India

A desperate India will look to hit back at South Africa in the decisive second and final Test starting on Sunday after suffering a humiliating defeat in the opening tie.

India’s reputation as the number one Test side in the world took a massive blow after they lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and six runs to the second-ranked Proteas.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men need a series-levelling win at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata to stop South Africa from snatching the coveted ranking.

India’s hopes received a timely boost when key middle-order batsman Venkatsai Laxman was cleared to play after having recovered from a finger injury.

With star batsmen Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh ruled out at the start of the series with injuries, Laxman was sorely missed in Nagpur as India crashed for 233 and 319 in reply to South Africa’s 558-6 declared.

Laxman, 35, has scored 6,993 runs in 109 Tests at an average of 45.70 with 14 centuries.

India were forced to play rookie wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha as a specialist batsman in Nagpur after Rohit Sharma, the first-choice replacement for Laxman, got injured just before the toss.

“We definitely missed some important players due to injuries,” said Dhoni after suffering his first Test defeat since taking over as captain in 2008.

“That pushed us to the back foot. Injuries can cause a bit of panic in the dressing room.

“It was a test of our bench strength. So I won’t complain, I’ll only say that we were completely outplayed by South Africa.”

India’s bowling attack also lacked firepower, with pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and frontline off-spinner Harbhajan Singh paling in comparison to their South African rivals, Dale Steyn and Paul Harris.

Steyn, with a match haul of 10-108, underlined his reputation as the leading fast bowler in the world, while left-arm spinner Harris proved effective with three vital wickets in the second innings.

During their last series in India in 2008, South Africa won the second Test in Ahmedabad by an innings and 90 runs to take the lead in the three-match series after the first match was drawn.

India drew the series on an under-prepared wicket in Kanpur, raising fears that a similar ploy may be used at the Eden Gardens.

South Africa’s coach Corrie van Zyl, however, said his team will not be intimidated, whatever the nature of the wicket.

“Mentally, the South African team is better prepared than they were in 2008,” said van Zyl, who took over as interim coach from Mickey Arthur just before the start of the India tour.

“I won’t say it will be a minefield, but I do expect something that will help the Indian team. We know that if the first Test was a challenge, then the second Test is going to be a bigger challenge.”

The Kolkata Test will be followed by three one-day internationals in Jaipur (February 21), Gwalior (February 24) and Ahmedabad (February 27).