Indian Cricket League (ICL) announces 20 Match Tournament Schedule

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) has announced the schedule for its inaugural Twenty20 tournament, which will kick off with Delhi Jets taking on Chandigarh Lions on November 30.

The tournament will have a round-robin format, with six teams - Delhi Jets, Chandigarh Lions, Mumbai Champs, Kolkata Tigers, Chennai Superstars and Hyderabad Heroes - vying for a place in the semi-finals. The teams which fail to make the final will compete for the third and fourth spot as well as the fifth and sixth spot.

"The match schedule we have announced offers cricket fans great excitement on all days, starting November 30," Kapil Dev, the chairman of the ICL's executive board, said on Friday (November 23). "We look forward to seeing some fantastic cricket action played by combined pool of some of the best players in the world and fresh cricketing talent in India."

Himanshu Mody, the ICL's project head, spoke about the players who decided to sign up with the ICL, including the likes of Inzamam-ul-Haq, Chris Cairns, and Lance Klusener, along with a host of players from the Indian domestic circuit. "We believe that each of these players, represent the best of cricketing talent in the country and internationally. We will continue to search for further talent with killer instinct that can take India to the next level. We now see the teams that will play in the ICL tournament later this year, finally taking shape."

The tournament will be played at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, a town near Chandigarh.

Schedule
Nov 30: Chandigarh Lions v Delhi Jets

Dec 1: Chennai Superstars v Kolkata Tigers; Mumbai Champs v Hyderabad Heroes

Dec 2: Delhi Jets v Hyderabad Heroes; Chandigarh Lions v Kolkata Tigers

Dec 3: Mumbai Champs v Chennai Superstars

Dec 5: Hyderbad Heroes v Chandigarh Lions

Dec 7: Mumbai Champs v Delhi Jets

Dec 8: Chennai Superstars v Chandigarh Lions; Delhi Jets v Kolkata Tigers

Dec 9: Hyderabad Heroes v Chennai Superstars; Mumbai Champs v Chandigarh Lions

Dec 10: Mumbai Champs v Kolkata Tigers

Dec 12: Chennai Superstars v Delhi Jets; Hyderbad Heroes v Kolkata Tigers

Dec 14: Semi-final I

Dec 15: 5/6 classification; Semi-final II

Dec 16: 3/4 classification; Final

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Lara and Inzamam named in ICL teams

Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq headlined the list of players as the Indian Cricket League (ICL) announced its teams for the inaugural tournament. Lara has been named in the Mumbai Champs side while Inzamam will play for Hyderabad Heroes.

Inzamam and Lara, along with Stuart Law, Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan are likely to lead the teams.

The other international players include Abdul Razzaq, Taufeeq Umar and Shabbir Ahmed of Pakistan, Australia's Ian Harvey, South Africa's Johan Van der Wath, Lance Klusener, Nicky Boje and Andrew Hall, New Zealand's Nathan Astle, Chris Harris and Daryl Tuffey and England's Vikram Solanki. The ICL is in talks with Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu, while Russel Arnold and Upul Chandana have already signed.

The overseas players have been spread among the six teams - Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh Lions, Chennai Superstars, Delhi Jets and Kolkata Tigers. The coaches for these teams are Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal, Balwinder Sandhu, Moin Khan, Daryll Cullinan and Michael Bevan.

"We have ensured the teams are balanced in every way and receive the best facilities in terms of coaching, showcasing their talent and exposure to international cricket," Kapil Dev, the chairman of the ICL's executive board, said. "I wish all the players best of luck for the tournament."

The teams will be taking part in a practice camp in their respective cities.

The tournament begins on November 30 in Panchkula, a town near Chandigarh.

Teams:

Chennai Superstars: Stuart Law, Ian Harvey, Hemang Badani, Chris Read (wk), Russell Arnold, Sridharan Sriram, Shabbir Ahmed, V Devendran, R Sathish, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Hemanth Kumar, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammed, Thiru Kumaran, J Hareish, V Sarvanan, R Jesuraj, Sanjeev Martin, G Vignesh, P Vivek.
Coach: Michael Bevan

Hyderabad Heroes: Inzamam-ul-Haq, Chris Harris, Nicky Boje, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Anirudh Singh, Ambati Rayudu, S Shahubuddin, Stuart Binny, IS Reddy, Vinay Kumar, Ibrahim Khaleel, Kaushik Reddy, Bheema Rao, Alfred Absolem, Shashank Nag, PS Niranjan, Baburao Yadav, Zakaria Zuffri.
Coach: Moin Khan

Kolkata Tigers: Craig McMillan, Lance Klusener, Darren Maddy, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Rohan Gavaskar, Upul Chandana, Deep Dasgupta, Abu Nechim, Parviz Aziz, Shiv Sagar Singh, Boyd Rankin, Mihir Diwakar, Rajiv Kumar, Sayed Akhlakh, Subhomoy Das, Sujay Tarafdar, Pritam Das, Anshu Jain, Ali H Zaidi.
Coach: Daryll Cullinan

Delhi Jets: Taufeeq Umar, Niall O'Brien, Paul Nixon, Dale Benkenstein, JP Yadav, Mohnish Mishra, Abbas Ali, Ali Murtaza, T Sudhindra, Abid Nabi, Sachin Dholpure, Abhishek Tamrakar, Dishant Yagnik, Dhruv Mahajan, Abhinav Bali, Raghav Sachdev.
Coach: Madan Lal

Mumbai Champs: Brian Lara, Vikram Solanki, Robin Morris, Nathan Astle, Kiran Powar, Shreyas Khanolkar, Johan Van der Wath, Rakesh Patel, Avinash Yadav, Nantie Hayward, Subhojit Paul, Dheeraj Jadhav, A Sanklecha, Ranjeet Kirid, Pushkaraj Joshi, Suyash Burkul, Raviraj Patil, Nikhil Mandale, Sridher Iyer.
Coach: Sandeep Patil

Chandigarh Lions: Chris Cairns, Imran Farhat, Dinesh Mongia, Hamish Marshall, Andrew Hall, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Rajesh Sharma, TP Singh, Sarabjeet Singh, Ishan Malhotra, Daryl Tuffey, Sumit Kalia, Chetan Sharma, Manish Sharma, Luv Ablish, Bipul Sharma, Karanveer Singh, Amit Uniyal, Gaurav Gupta, Harpreet Singh.
Coach: Balwinder Sandhu

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Pakistan Test Squad for India Series - Afridi left out of Pakistan Test squad

After failing to make much impact in the ongoing one-day international series, flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi was on Friday left out of the 14-member Pakistan squad for the three-match Test series against India starting November 22.

Apart from Afridi, three others -- Fawad Alam, Rao Iftikhar and Imran Nazir -- will also return home after the fifth and final one-dayer in Jaipur.

"These four [Afridi, Alam, Iftikhar and Nazir] will return home after the final one-dayer in Jaipur," chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed said.

The selectors have brought in leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, pacer Mohammad Sami and batsman Faisal Iqbal in place of the omitted quartet.

Pakistan have already lost the five-match ODI series after losing the fourth game in Gwalior on Thursday to go down 1-3.

Defending Afridi's exclusion, Salahuddin said it would have been difficult to strike a balance in the Test team if the all-rounder had been accommodated.

"If we play three pacers and Danish it is difficult to find a place for him. He is such a senior player, we feel it is better he comes home," Salahuddin said.

Earlier, pacer Mohammad Asif failed to pass a fitness test, which ruled him out of the series.

Salahuddin admitted that Asif's failure to recover from his elbow injury has come as a blow to the team.

"He is a good pacer and ideal for Test matches. But since he is yet not recovered from his elbow injury we had no option left," he said.

Asif also missed the one-day series because of the injury after being initially picked in the squad.

The chief selector said Asif would be sent to Australia by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for examination by a sports medicine specialist.

"We are hoping he will make a complete recovery from his injury before our next series," he said.

The chief selector said losing the one-day series is a setback and disappointing but hopes that the players will learn from their mistakes and do better in the Tests.

Squad: Shoaib Malik (captain), Younis Khan (vice-captain), Abdur Rehman, Danish Kaneria, Faisal Iqbal, Mohammad Sami, Kamran Akmal (w/k), Misbah-ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Salman Butt, Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Yasir Hameed.

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Gambhir, Sehwag make way for Yuvraj, Murali in Test team

The Indian Test squad for the first two Test matches against Pakistan was announced today after a long meeting of the BCCI selectors. They have decided to make way for the entry of Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Kartik, Wasim Jaffer and Yuvraj Singh in the 14 players for the crucial Test matches.

Among the big names that have been left out cold are the out of form Virender Sehwag along with Irfan Pathan and Ramesh Powar. Ironically, the in-form opener from Delhi, Gautam Gambhir has also been ruled out from the first two Test matches in spite of being in good nick.

Newly appointed Test captain Anil Kumble also attended the meeting and perhaps his insistence on the inclusion of a spinner made way for Murali Kartik.

The opening Test is to be held at Delhi from November 22-26 while Kolkata is the venue for the November 30-December 4 second Test.

The team for the subsequent four-Test series in Australia, commencing on December 26, would be chosen between the end of the second Test against Pakistan and the start of the third and concluding Test (Dec 8-12) at Bangalore.

"The team for Australia will be selected between the second and third Tests against Pakistan. We can`t delay choosing the team," BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said.

Shah said henceforth, teams would not be chosen on days when matches involving the squad are held.

"We will not choose teams on the day of a match. It becomes difficult for the selectors to concentrate on the game," Shah explained.

India are to play the four Test matches for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against hosts Australia at Melbourne (Dec 26-30, 2007), Sydney (Jan 2-6, 2008), Perth (Jan 16-20) and Adelaide (Jan 24-28).

Squad: Anil Kumble (Capt), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, RP Singh, S Sreesanth, Murali Kartik, Dinesh Karthik

Russell Crowe might own T20 team in India

Oscar-winning Hollywood star Russell Crowe is all set to own a team in the Indian Premier League, BCCI's Twenty20 extravaganza.

Crowe — cousin of former New Zealand captains Jeff and Martin Crowe — and businessman Peter Holmes a Court, who jointly own the South Sydney Rugby League Club, are about to buy into a franchise in IPL, the Australian newspaper Sun-Herald reported.

They may well hire players like Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee to play for Rabittohs, as the club is better known, in Mumbai next year, the paper said.

Apart from the Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, Mike Hussey and Andrew Symonds have signed up for IPL.

Archrivals India, Pakistan set for another battle of supremacy

Barely a day after imposition of Emergency, Pakistan renew their cricketing rivalry against arch-rivals India with a five-match One-day series in Guwahati on Monday with two young captains leading highly talented but unpredictable teams.
 
 The political turmoil back home would no doubt weigh down heavily on Pakistanis' mind as they go into the first One-dayer seeking to take an early advantage in the battle of nerves and skills.
 The series will also be a test of character for the captains Mahendra Singh Dhoni of India and Shoaib Malik of Pakistan, who have shown a remarkable composure but any contest involving the traditional foes is bound to put that extra bit of pressure.
 
 Besides, Malik will also have to manage without their pace spearhead Mohammad Asif, who pulled out of the One-day series owing to his elbow injury, and the experience of former captain Inzamam-ul Haq, who recently retired from the international cricket.
 
 India would also be without their senior batsman Rahul Dravid, their batting main stay so far who has been dropped for the first two matches of the series.
 
 With the talks of 'phasing out process' in the Indian cricket, other two ageing warhorses Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly would also be under pressure as the hosts would rely on their strong opening partnerships.
 
 The seasoned Virender Sehwag would also be keen to regain his old magic, particularly as his inclusion in the team in place of former skipper Dravid triggered lot of a debate.
 
 Sehwag, who boasts of a 300 plus score against the Pakistanis, would look for a success with his bat against the attack which includes speedster Shoaib Akhtar returning to the team after a long gap.
 
 There is lot of interest in cricketing circles about who comes out in the number three batting slot, with skipper Dhoni himself expressing his willingness to bat at that position sometime back, and the followers of the game would be waiting with baited breath to see the mystery unravel.
 
 Dhoni, who shot into the limelight with a scintillating hundred against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam, has always had a good record against the neighbours, and the sell out crowd at the stadium would be looking forward to another cracker of an innings from the talismanic Ranchi-based cricketer.

Indians gear up for home series against Pakistan

Battered by formidable Australia in the recent One-day series, Indian cricketers used the opening day of the camp on Friday to rejuvenate themselves ahead of the tough engagements against Pakistan.

The two-hour session at the floodlit Eden Gardens saw ageing warhorses Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar spend the maximum time at the nets.

Tendulkar seemed in full flow against both spinners and pacers, as he executed a flurry of strokes that triggered spontaneous applause from the sizeable number of cricket buffs present at the galleries.

Ganguly, who looked a bit circumspect initially, settled down after some time, to play some trademark aggressive shots.

The other batsmen also had some fruitful net sessions, while the bowlers in the team turned their arms for long spells, though the pacers had to do with shorter run ups in view of the run up being slightly wet due to rains over the last couple of days.

The conditions also forced fielding coach Robin Singh to stick to some standard fielding drills with his boys.

Among the battery of local bowlers deployed by the Cricket Association of Bengal, one caught the attention of those watching the proceedings because of his white skin.

Many were seen asking "who is this sahib?" A CAB official later said that the foreigner was Nigel, a bowler from the Lancashire minor county league, who has been recruited by a city club Kalighat this year.

The Indian players would have two sessions on the morrow. In the morning, they would slog it out at the nets for three hours before having a one and half hour fielding session in the afternoon.