Johannesburg :  South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis will not play in all the five ODIs against Sri Lanka as he plans in advance to participate in what could be his sixth and last World Cup for the country in 2015.

“I think I will play in at least the first two and then decide about the rest of the series,” Kallis said.

Kallis explained that he would be talking to Proteas coach Gary Kirsten about his plans.

A week after being written off following a pair in the second Test against Sri Lanka, Kallis led the Proteas to series victory with a double century during the final Test –his 150th — in Cape Town last week.

Thrilled at the success at his favourite ground, Kallis said he had no plans to retire yet, and still dreamt of winning the World Cup for South Africa.

“Only time will tell whether I’ll get another chance to do that. I doubt whether I’ll still be able to play for another 10 years, because no one has the right to play in South Africa. It’s a privilege that you have to earn,” Kallis was quoted as saying by weekly ‘City Press’.
© PTI

London : Anglo-Irish cricketer Eoin Morgan wants to win the 2015 World Cup for England.

Morgan, who is already a World Twenty20 trophy winner, is setting his sights on the main 50-over trophy as part of a team he thinks can succeed in Australia in 2015 despite their recent 5-0 drubbing in India.

The Mirror quoted Morgan, as saying: “We’ve got half an eye on the next World Cup -definitely. If you’ve got good players, they will improve every time they play and we’ve shown we can do well in most places, it is just in India where we struggle in one-day cricket.”

“If we look after the here and now and win series as we move forward then we’ll put ourselves in a position to win it when we get there,” he added.

Morgan can call himself one of the senior men in the England dressing room, even though he only made his debut in 2009.

He had an international grounding with Ireland before that and his performances have made him not only the world No. 1 T20 batsman but the first name down on the team sheet in coloured clothing.

Add to that a one-off game as captain in Dublin last summer and it is easy to see why England instantly become a far better team with him than without, and why his absence from the India one-day tour with a shoulder injury was such a huge blow.

Morgan played at No. 6 last summer following Collingwood’s retirement, and a second Test ton plus three 70s in seven matches was a fair return.

But he is not satisfied with that and with 15 Tests in 2012 he is aiming for more.

He added: “The opportunity was there to establish myself in the Test arena but it has been a slow process.
© ANI

LONDON : Battered by humiliating defeats on the England tour, the Indian cricket team created a fresh controversy by skipping the Annual Awards function, inviting sharp criticism from the ICC which said such a shameful conduct was not expected from a champion team.

The Indian team claimed that the invite for the function came late but the ICC insisted that the BCCI and the visiting side had been informed well in advance.

“It was quite disappointing that the Indian team did not attend the Awards function last night. I know for a fact that my team had invited them some months back. We probably have confirmation of their likely attendance and in fact the very date was scheduled around their availability in London. Well, they haven’t and England team has attended,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

“I know for a fact that they were invited. We sent those invitations through the BCCI. Perhaps that’s the question which should be asked to the BCCI,” Lorgat added.

The ICC CEO said the huge gathering at the ceremony was disappointed to not find Indian players.

“In fact I feel more saddened by the number of people, in fact everybody was in attendance last night, who were quite disappointed that India was not there. And that makes me feel more sad and unhappy,” Lorgat added.

Lorgat said such conduct and behaviour from a team like Indian was not expected.

“It’s a great shame and disappointing that not long ago they were the number one Test team in the World. They won the World Cup in such a great style. And there were many fans and people looking forward to their attendance. It’s a shame that they did not attend”, he said.

The Indians, whitewashed 0-4 in the Tests and trailing 0-2 in the ODIs against England, were interestingly staying at a hotel close to the venue of the function held on Monday.

Indian team manager Shivlal Yadav expressed his helplessness, stating he was informed only at 12 noon by an ICC communication officer by which time “the players were already away, some shopping, some sight-seeing as this was their final day of stay in London.”

The clarification from the ICC was that a mail to this effect had already been sent to the BCCI, much in advance on August 26.

“The Indian team management had been invited to attend tonight and they were invited some weeks ago. Those who were nominated for awards have known it since 26th of August, in Canterbury, when the short-listed names for the awards were announced,” said ICC’s Head of Communications Colin Gibson.

The ICC sources said they have evidence by mail which confirms that the BCCI was aware of the function and had also agreed that the Indian team would attend it.

“If it wasn’t so, the Indian team ought to have left for Cardiff (the venue of the final one-dayer) today itself and not stayed back in London on Monday,” said an ICC spokesman.

“The fact that their schedule included a stay in London on Monday confirms they were in know of it. I don’t know whether the team was advised to attend it. They had been invited some weeks ago, end of August. The whole team was invited on August 26,” the spokesman added.

Rajiv Shukla, a senior functionary of the BCCI who attended the function, wasn’t aware that the Indian team wouldn’t be turning up for the function.

“I thought those who have been nominated would be attending the function,” said Shukla.

“It is the prerogative of the players whether to attend the function or not,” he added.

The Indian players’ decision to skip the function has triggered off speculation on the exact reason for the absence, with one interpretation being that it was a fallout of the BCCI’s cold war with ICC president Sharad Pawar.

There was another speculation that the Indians were unhappy with the treatment meted out to them during the tour of England though there was no official word from the team management.

Sources said that a communication breakdown between the BCCI and the touring team could be the reason behind the Indian players’ no show.

“Since there was no formal instruction from the BCCI to attend the function, the players probably thought that it was not necessary to attend it,” the source said.

An ICC Spokesman said, “we can only tell you that the date and the venue were finalised long back and the BCCI was always in the loop.”

“The Indian team was invited through the BCCI well in advance,” the spokesman said.

Why Team India Boycott An ICC Event, Team India boycotts ICC Event, Cricket Awards of ICC BCCI Opts out, BCCI ICC Fight over cricket awards

James Strong has been named as Chariman of organising committee for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 by New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Australia. 2011 World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand. James Strong is a successful businessman. He is currently chariman of retail chain Woolworths Limited, chairman of Kathmandu Holdings and the chairman of the Australian Council for the Arts. Strong is also a member of the board of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation that stages the F1 Grand Prix in Australia and the Australian Motor Cycle Grand Prix. Another businessman from New Zealand’s Ralph Waters, has been appointed as deputy chairman of World Cup 2015.

“I am absolutely delighted to be involved in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup to be jointly hosted by New Zealand and Australia. Both countries have a great track record of organising major sporting events, and share a passion for cricket,” Strong said. “The recent ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup showcased one-day cricket as a fast paced and highly competitive form of a great game. We are working to develop an exciting tournament with matches in both countries, which will capture public imagination here and throughout the cricketing world.”

James Strong will be leading the committee of World Cup 2015 and the first work he has to do is to appoint a chief executive officer who will later report to James Strong from Cricket Australia and Ralph Waters from New Zealand Cricket. The committee could also include two additional independent appointees apart from Strong. Earlier Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the world cup in 1992 and this is the second time they are hosting the Cricket World Cup.

Developing an independent software funded by the ICC could help in evaluating the accuracy of the two competing ball-tracking technologies – Hawk-Eye and Virtual Eye – according to Paul Hawkins, the former’s chief executive.

Hawk-Eye was used for the 2011 World Cup among other series, and Virtual Eye was used during the 2010-11 Ashes.

An independent software may not be as accurate as the two systems currently in use, it would still be good enough to point out glaring errors committed by either technology provider, Hawkins believed.

“What we have proposed to the ICC, which I feel will be hugely beneficial to everyone involved, including ourselves, is a software solution which the ICC could use to independently monitor both systems, ourselves and Virtual Eye,” Hawkins said.

Explaining further he said, “So any lbw decision used for DRS, or not for DRS, that anyone has concern with, be it the board, players or the umpires, then the ICC can look into it in the same way that they evaluate the human umpires. It’ll be very easy for them to have a software that will give them independent answers for pitch point, interception point, prediction of whether the ball will go on to hit the stumps.”

“It certainly won’t be as accurate as our system but will be accurate enough to highlight if either system had made a glaring error, of over two centimetres for example,” he was quoted as saying by website.

Hawkins also suggested penalties be imposed on the two providers if they were found to be consistently

© PTI