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3 Asian teams and New Zealand have made it to the semi finals of the ICC World Cup.  No one would have expected such a situation at the begining of the tournament.  Australia was destined to be in the semis and as for South Africa, they have made choking their middle name.  The nail-biting win over India in the group matches was alas, a fluke.

The India – Pakistan semi finals is almost being hyped up to a final.  Wishing that the law of averages catches up with Afridi in the semis.  But they still have enough mavericks in the team to turn the match on its head.

New Zealand is my other favourite apart from India and i would love to see them beat the Lankans, though it would be a tall order for them.  Looking at the way this tournament has progressed, anything is possible though.

May the best team win.

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The Cricket World Cup has started.  Hardly see any real enthusiasm for the game. The same is the situation with me.  Other than the opening match, there has hardly been any game worthwhile.

Why couldnt the ICC stage matches between the top teams on weekends?  Why is India playing the next match with England more than a week later on a Sunday instead of Saturday or Friday?  Why is the tournament stretched so long in the first place?  Heck, why have 14 teams in the first place?

Iam all for all out participation of minnows in top leagues, but why bring in Canada, Netherlands etc to the world cup.  There should have been a qualifying tournament for the other ICC member teams and only 2 of the winners should have made the cut for the actual world cup.

And then they worry as to why the 50 over format of One dayers are losing their appeal.

Call it tamasha or nautanki, iam still waiting for the IPL.  Gimme my Deccan Chargers and the cheerleaders anyday

And ya, keep that Lalit Modi fella away.  Another shot of his on the TV screen and i might puke.

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With less than 30 days for the ICC Cricket World Cup to begin in thesubcontinent (February 19), all the 14 teams (except Canada) have announced their 15 member teams.  With so many ex-players pointing out India as the favourites to win the cup, am a bit apprehensive now.  Combine it with the hopes of a billion people and Dhoni has the biggest challenge on hands.  The Indian injury list is pretty long and hope they get ready before the tournament starts.  Also, the whole thing about India wanting to win the world cup for Sachin Tendulkar is a big hogwash.  Let’s face it.  Cricket is a team sport and yes Sachin Tendulkar is probably the best cricketer to ever have graced the sport.  But to have such priorities is ridiculous.  If India doesnt win the cup, it doesnt make a dent on Sachin’s reputation or vice versa.  So lets chuck that extra reason for pressure out and concentrate on the game.

The defending champions Australia too have a big task on hand after having slipped down the test ranking and also after having lost the Ashes.  A loss here would mean a certain end of the road for Ponting.

The perennial chokers, South Africa would be itching to get rid of the tag and so would be Pakistan (the only team to yet decide on a captain) along with Sri Lanka wanting to win the cup for a second time.

There will be the usual mismatches between the stronger and weaker teams, but some upsets would set the tournament up beautifully.

Australia
Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin, John Hastings, Nathan Hauritz, David Hussey, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Tim Paine, Steve Smith, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson, Cameron White.

Bangladesh
Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Shariar Nafees, Zunaed Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hassan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riad, Abdur Razzak, Naeem Islam, Shafiul Islam, Suhrawardi Shuvo, Rubel Hossain, Nazmul Hossain.

England
Andrew Strauss (Captain), Jimmy Anderson, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy.

India
MS Dhoni (Captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yusuf Pathan.

Ireland
William Porterfield (captain), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, Ed Joyce, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Gary Wilson, Andrew White.

Kenya
Jimmy Kamande (captain), Seren Waters, Alex Obanda, David Obuya, Collins Obuya, Steve Tikolo, Tanmay Mishra, Rakep Patel, Morris Ouma, Thomas Odoyo, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Elijah Otieno, Peter Ongondo, Shem Ngoche, James Ngoche.

Netherlands
Peter Borren (c), Adeel Raja, Wesley Barresi (wk), Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman (wk), Tom Cooper, Tom de Grooth, Alexei Kervezee, Bradley Kruger, Bernard Loots, Pieter Seelaar, Eric Szwarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate, Berend Westdijk, Bas Zuiderent

New Zealand
Daniel Vettori (captain), Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Kane Williamson, James Franklin, Jacob Oram, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Hamish Bennett, Luke Woodcock.

Pakistan
Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanveer, Ahmed Shahzad

South Africa
Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk.

Sri Lanka
Kumar Sangakkara (c/wk), Mahela Jayawardene (vc), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Rangana Herath, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thisara Perera, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga

West Indies
Darren Sammy (captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh Jr., Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith.

Zimbabwe
Elton Chigumbura (c), Regis Chakabva, Charles Coventry, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Sean Ervine, Greg Lamb, Shingirai Masakadza, Chris Mpofu, Ray Price, Ed Rainsford, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Brendan Taylor, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams

Canada
Yet to announce.

The full schedule of the ICC Cricket World Cup can be found here.

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So, the main bidding for IPL-4 is complete.  New teams, new players and newer loyalties.  Again, dont think that i need to define my loyalties, which remain firmly with Deccan Chargers.  The loss of Symonds and Gilchrist is a bit upsetting, but then life moves on and i believe DC has a more balanced team this time.

Given below is the list of the players (info source: Cricinfo) picked up in the auction and the ones retained by the teams.  The first player in each team (according to my assumption) will captain the team.

The IPL-4 looks much more formidable this time with more players, more teams and no clear favourites.   Again happy to see no Pakistani players in the auction and glad to see them being kept out of the whole tournament.  Hope this courtesy is extended to all their artists too who are feeding off our film & music industry.

First the World Cup in February and then the 4th edition of IPL.  Ah, life’s gonna be busier again.

Previous posts on IPL here

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Saina Nehwal makes it 4 Super Series Wins for the year 2010 apart from the Commonwealth Games gold by beating China’s Wang Shixian in the Hong Kong Super Series finals.

India’s Saina Nehwal won the Hong Kong Open Super Series badminton tournament beating China’s Shixian Wang 2-1 in the women’s singles final here Sunday.

Second seeded Saina won 15-21 21-16 21-17 against third seeded Wang, an Asian Games gold medallist, in a match that lasted one hour and 11 minutes at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

For Saina the win was her fifth title of the year, which includes three Super Series and Commonwealth Games gold.

The Hong Kong Open was the fourth Super Series title for Saina, who won her first Super Series at the Indonesian Open last year and retained it this year.

Earlier on Saturday, overcoming mid-match blues, Saina Nehwal waltzed into the final of the Hong Kong Super Series with a 21-19, 17-21, 21-12 victory over Juliane Schenk of Germany in the keenly-contested semifinal at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Above news courtesy:  TOI

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