New Delhi : Rubbishing reports of match-fixing in 2011 World Cup semifinal against Pakistan, former captain Sourav Ganguly said Monday that India won the tournament on merit and hardwork.

“Nothing takes away from India’s World Cup win and what they achieved in the tournament. I need to know the exact the details of the allegations but please don’t take away what India did in the competition,” Ganguly said after leading Bengal to their first Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Ganguly’s comments came after England’s The Sunday Times reported that match-fixing was on the rise in international cricket and Indian bookmakers were luring players in County Cricket. The daily also claimed that the World cup semi-final in Mohali was also fixed.

Senior board official and chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Rajeev Shukla also refuted the media reports.

“Newspapers can publish anything, unless we get something concrete from an agency or ICC, I don’t thing it would be appropriate to react to it. We haven’t got anything from ICC, unless we get it from some police agency, it would be inappropriate to react to media reports,” he said.
© IANS

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

Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s willow, with which he struck the World Cup winning six, fetched a whooping 100, 000 pound here in a charity auction.

The auction was held in London on Monday to raise the funds for his charitable foundation “Winning the Ways Today for Tomorrow”. The charity was launched in India last year.

The captain cool had played match-winning knock of unbeaten 79-ball 91 against Sri Lanka in the ICC Cricket World Cup final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2.

Dhoni had sealed the six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the final when he smashed seamer Nuwan Kulasekara for six with the bat.

Dhoni said that the charity, which will be run by his wife Sakshi, will work on “improving children’s accessibility to cricket by building a sports academy where children will be able to develop their talents across a whole range of disciplines.”

Apart from this, Sacha Jafri’s Original Artwork also went under the hammer. The charity auctioned collected total 450,000 pounds.

Cricket’s world governing body has launched an investigation into “black marketeering” during the World Cup ticket sales fiasco that left thousands of fans with no hope of seeing the marquee matches.

The International Cricket Council made the announcement after its executive board in Hong Kong received a confidential report criticising the handling of ticket sales in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

“Although the event was universally acclaimed as a success and one of the best cricket events in history, the report highlighted certain shortcomings around ticketing and stadia construction,” the ICC said in a statement released late Wednesday.

The statement said the directors had “noted the appointment of forensic auditors to review ticketing during the ICC Cricket World Cup, including allegations of black marketeering”.

“Even though the event was hugely successful, it is important for us to learn lessons so that we can continually improve our events,” ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said.

The controversy over ticket distribution and availability caused a rift between the world body and local organisers during the tournament.

The choice of Mumbai for the April 2 final was controversial as the Wankhede Stadium had only a 33,000 capacity with 20,000 tickets going to clubs linked to the Mumbai Cricket Association and 8,500 to the ICC.

The remaining tickets, around 4,000, were sold to the general public.

Fans in Mohali told AFP of concerns over forged tickets being sold for the India-Pakistan semi-final.

One fan said a 500-rupee ($12) ticket was fetching up to 20 times its value.

Lorgat was forced to apologise in February after fans in Bangalore, many of whom had queued overnight in the hope of securing one of 7,000 tickets for the India-England game on February 27, were baton-charged by police at Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

“What is unfortunate is that too few go to the public as a general sale,” he said.

“No matter what sort of capacity we provide, the truth is that we won’t have enough seats for the demand that we have on our hands.”

The ICC has also ruled that stadiums hosting major ICC tournaments must be “match ready” at least six months before the event.

Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, the home of cricket in India and one of the world’s most famous venues, wasn’t ready to host its first World Cup game, forcing organisers to move the India-England clash to Bengalaru on February 27.

The decision was a severe embarrassment to organisers and caused intense disappointment in cricket-crazy Kolkata, where an estimated 80,000 spectators were expected to pack the famous stadium.

© AFP