November 2012

INDO-PAK CRICKET SERIES

The Union Home Ministry on 30 October 2012 mentioned that it had cleared the Pakistan cricket team’s India visit later this year after detailed discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials on issues related to security and visas for fans who will be visiting for the limited-overs series.

BCCI senior official and Union Minister Rajiv Shukla after meeting with Union Home Secretary RK Singh asserted that BCCI team had discussed all security aspects and assured full proof security to the Visitors. The coming series is going to be of limited-overs and is likely to begin on December 2012 and continue till January 2013. Both the teams are going to play three one-day internationals and two Twenty-20 international matches. The ODI matches are planned to be played in Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi. The liberal visa regime was already signed by both the countries and is supposed to be on operational mode before beginning of cricket series on 25 December 2012.

WOMEN T-20 WORLD CUP TITLE

The Australian Women Cricket team on 7 October 2012 defeated England by four runs to retain the Women T-20 world cup title.

It is Australia’s second win in women T-20 World cup. Before this Australia had won T-20 World Cup in 2010. Australia Batted first and made 142 runs in 20 overs with 6 wickets in hand, In response to that England women cricket team managed to make only 138 runs in 20 overs losing the tournament to Australia.

BCCI POLLY UMRIGAR AWARD

Indian Cricketer Virat Kohli was chosen for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Polly Umrigar award for being India’s top international cricketer in 2011-12. With this Virat Kohli is going to be honoured with a trophy and cheque of 5 lakh Rupees at the Annual BCCI Awards Ceremony in Mumbai on 21 November 2012.
The other previous winners of this prestigious award are Sachin Tendulkar in year 2006-07 and 2009-10, Virender Sehwag in year 2007-08, with Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid in year 2008-09 and 2010-11 respectively. Virat Kohli in year 2011-12 had scored:

• 627 run @ 52.25 from 7 Tests, which include two centuries.

• 1539 runs @ 73 from 26 ODIs, which includes seven centuries.

• 389 run @ 48 from ten T20 Internationals, which include four fifties.

VVS Laxman, who announced his retirement from international cricket in August 2012, is also going to be felicitated at the ceremony with Sachin Tendulkar who is being honoured for completing a century of international centuries.

The award Polly Umrigar is under the name of late Indian cricketer Polly Umrigar (28 March 1926 – 7 November 2006) who had played first-class cricket for Bombay, and Test cricket in the Indian cricket team, as a middle-order batsman and had captained the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Australian all-Rounder Shane Watson on 7 October 2012 at the conclusion of T-20 World Cup in Premadasa Stadium named player of the tournament.

It was his outstanding form in T-20 World cup that helped Australian Team getting into semi-final before they were knocked out by West Indies. Shane Watson batted six innings in the tournament, scoring a total of 249 runs at an average of 49.80 and took 11 wickets at an average of 16 and an economy rate of 7.33. Shane Watson is also the only Player in the tournament who got four consecutive man-of-the-match awards.

HYDERABAD IPL FRANCHISE

Chennai based SUN TV Network acquired the Indian Premier League (IPL) Hyderabad franchise on 25 October 2012 for an enormous amount of 85.05 crore Rupees per year.

The Hyderabad franchise of the Indian Premier League was fell vacant after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) dropped Deccan Chargers in October 2012 for its failure to give a bank guarantee and other issues. The deal was made by owner of Sun TV Network, Kalanithi Maran who bought the (IPL) Hyderabad franchise for 425 crore Rupees (approx $80m) which is payable in the next five years at 85.5 crore Rupees per year. The bid made by SUN TV Network was substantially higher than the second bid of 69.03 crore Rupees made by PVP Ventures of Hyderabad. For attracting more bidders, the BCCI had kept the base price at reasonable 60 crores Rupees per year. The franchise was earlier owned by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. (DCHL) who had bought the Hyderabad franchise for 428 crores rupees for a period of 10 years. Chennai-based Sun TV Networks Limited is the part of Sun Group and is one of India’s biggest television networks with 32 TV channels and 45 FM radio stations primarily catering to an audience in the four southern languages of India. Their network includes channels covering news, entertainment, film, documentary and music.

NEW COACH FOR MAHARASHTRA RANJI TEAM

Dermot Reeve, the former all-rounder of England took the charge of Maharashtra Ranji Team as its Coach for domestic season of 2012-13 on 9 October 2012. Reeve will take the charge from the outgoing coach of the team Shaun Williams, who is going to take charge of the indoor Cricket Academy of Maharashtra Cricket Association. Reeve has also served Raigad Royals, a franchise of Maharashtra Premier League as its Coach in past. Before Reeve, the Ranji Team of Maharashtra had seen two more Foreign Coach in its history and they were Shaun Williams and Darren Holder.

NEW ZEALAND TOP CRICKET AWARD

Opening batsman of New Zealand Cricket team Martin Guptill on 18 October 2012 claimed the top honour at the New Zealand Cricket Awards in Auckland, winning the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for 2011-12. Martin Guptill was also named ODI and Twenty20 player of the year, based on performances between 1 September 2011 and 31 August 2012. Also, Young fast bowler of New Zealand cricket team Doug Bracewell picked up the other big award of Test Player of the Year.

Bracewell finished the 2011-12 season with taking up of 37 wickets at an average of 24.05. Martin Guptill played terrifically in all forms of the game during the 2011-12 season. With 490 Test runs he is only second behind skipper Ross Taylor, while he top-scored for the New Zealand team in one-day with 579 and in T20 with 378.

RARE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA FOR SACHIN

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on her visit to India on 16 October 2012 announced that Sachin Tendulkar would be conferred with the membership of the Order of Australia.

This is the honor that is rarely bestowed on any non-Australian. The Prime Minister, while announcing this special honour for Sachin said that he deserves the award because he was a special cricketer. Sachin will be conferred with this award during the visit of Australian Minister Simon Crean to India. Tendulkar will be honoured with AM award, one of the six different grades of the Order of Australia honour.
Sachin is the Second Indian after Soli Sorabjee, the former Attorney General of India to be conferred with this award.
Before Sachin Tendulkar, Brain Lara the cricketer from West Indies was conferred with this honour in the year 2009.

ANIL KUMBLE APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF ICC CRICKET COMMITTEE

Former India cricketer and captain Anil Kumble on 11 October 2012 was named the new head of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) cricket committee, replacing former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd.

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) cricket committee is a 16-member committee which meets twice a year to consult on playing matters and offer recommendations to the ICC on technical aspects and rules of the sport. Also in another separate reshuffling of members former West Indies paceman Ian Bishop was replaced by England’s Andrew Strauss, who retired from all forms of cricket at the end of August. Anil Kumble also heads the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s board’s technical Committee. Anil Kumble, is 41 years old and has 619 Test and 337 One-Day International wickets to his name.

ACC T20 ASIA CUP 2012

The Indian women’s cricket team on 31 October 2012 won inaugural Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Twenty20 Asia Cup, beating Pakistan by 18 runs in a low-scoring final in Guangzhou city of People’s Republic of China. The team elected to bat first but did not have a good beginning as they lost both their openers within the first couple of overs. They somehow managed to make a low score of 81runs but the bowlers did a splendid job to dismiss Pakistan to 63 in 19.1 overs. The women bowlers showed an impressive disciplined performance with giving away just a couple of wides from 19.1 overs. Harmanpreet Kaur, was stand-in captain in place of Mithali Raj. The captain of Indian women cricket team Mithali Raj and senior player Jhulan Goswami were not playing the final match due to ankle injury. Earlier Indian women cricket team defeated Thailand in their opening match of the tournament by 77 runs, while Hong Kong was defeated in the second match with 142 runs.

WEST INDIES PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATION BOARD

West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan on 23 October 2012 resigned from the board of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA). The resigning of Ramnaresh Sarwan came with resignation of Dave Kissoon, the director of West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA). Dave Kissoon, recently had presided over the court cases concerning player contracts and a disputed memorandum of understanding involving WIPA and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). Ramesh Sarwan, the out-of-favour West Indies batsman, was a member of WIPA’s executive from 2008, while Dave Kissoon was appointed a director in November 2010. Ramnaresh sarwan had resigned from WIPA executive to patch up with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and he is in way to make is presence back into the national team. Ramnaresh Sarwan, last played for West Indies in June 2011, but has since then declared that he would never represent the regional side again. He had won his case against the WICB (West Indies Cricket Board) in September 2012 over comments made about his fitness and was awarded $161000 in damages. The positions made vacant by both the people are going to be filled at the next annual general meeting in January 2013.

DECCAN CHARGERS OUT OF INDIAN PREMIUM LEAGUE

The Supreme Court of India on 19 October 2012 rejected the plea of Deccan Chargers to put a stay order on the decision of Mumbai High Court that supported the decision of BCCI to terminate the franchise from being in Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Bench of Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir including Justices S.S. Nijjar and J. Chelameswar after dismissal of the plea made by the Deccan Chronicle Holding Ltd. cleared that the arbitrator can’t overrule an order passed by the Court. With this development by the side of Supreme Court it is clear that the Deccan Chargers are completely out of the League. There remains only two ways for the franchise to bounce back into the IPL and they are in case, Bombay High Court reverses its decision after hearing the arguments from both sides once again in detail or CK Thakkar, the court appointed arbitrator finds any ground of incorrect termination of the team from the IPL by 29 October 2012.

ICC SUSPENDED SIX UMPIRES

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on 10 October 2012 suspended all the six umpires for their alleged involvement in their willingness to fix the T20 matches by the TV Sting Operation. The statement released by the governing body of ICC after the meet of its full member board cleared that the umpires named in the sting would not be appointed in any format of international or domestic cricket matches, until the ongoing investigations doesn’t reach to a conclusion. Due to the matters of urgency, the board that recruits and nominates the umpires would directly look into the matter. Umpires alleged for their willingness to fix the match in the TV sting were Nadir Shah from Bangladesh, Nadeem Ghauri and Anees Siddiqui from Pakistan and Maurice Winston, Gamini Dissanayake and Sagara Gallage from Sri Lanka.

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