Friday 6 May 2011
Delhi Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag single-handedly demolished Deccan Chargers bowlers with a blistering century to guide his team to a four-wicket victory in an IPL match.
Chasing a stiff target of 176, Sehwag took the Chargers attack to the cleaners scoring 119 from only 56 balls with the help of 13 fours and six sixes as his teammates had little contribution in the winning cause.
His maiden T20 century made him the highest scorer of the IPL 4
Chasing a stiff target of 176, Sehwag took the Chargers attack to the cleaners scoring 119 from only 56 balls with the help of 13 fours and six sixes as his teammates had little contribution in the winning cause.
His maiden T20 century made him the highest scorer of the IPL 4
Thursday 5 May 2011
Anger Over Decision to Shrink World Cup Cricket Field
It takes something special to unify in anger such different nations as Afghanistan and Ireland, Singapore and Canada, and Nepal and Scotland. That, though, is what cricket’s rulers have achieved by their decision to exclude everybody apart from the 10 test-playing nations from the 2015 World Cup.
The decision was announced within 48 hours of the conclusion of the 2011 World Cup. If it was hoped that opposition would be muted amid the euphoria of India’s success and widespread satisfaction over the Cup itself — by general consent, it was the best of the 10 so far — that tactic has backfired. Instead, the backlash from those excluded is still gaining strength more than a week later.
“This is a kick in the teeth for all associate members,” said John Cribbin, honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Cricket Association, which fields its own team, separate from China, in international sports. The H.K.C.A.’s team is currently playing in the World Cricket League division two, a six-team tournament in the United Arab Emirates. The top four finishers in that competition were supposed to earn places in the qualifying tournament for the next Cricket World Cup, but not anymore after the decision by the International Cricket Council.
Anger has spread well beyond those countries with a realistic hope of qualifying for the 2015 tournament. Warren Deutrom, chief executive of Cricket Ireland, cited a message he has received from a nation much lower in the game’s pecking order.
“It said that ‘We all feel disenfranchised. While we are a long way from having a chance to qualify, the dream that it might one day be a possibility is very important to us, and taking it away is extremely damaging.”’
One country came close to making that unlikely dream a reality in the qualifiers for 2011. Afghanistan worked its way up from the fifth division of the World League, winning a series of promotions before falling just one place short of the four qualifying berths in the tournament this year.
“A lot of legal experts have been in touch to tell me that we would have a strong legal case against the International Cricket Council,” Deutrom said by telephone this week. But he said that suing the game’s governing body would be a last, not first, resort.
“We don’t want to go down that route unless we have to,” he said. “We want to seek recourse within the I.C.C.’s structures and are examining its constitution and articles of association to see what forms of recourse are open to us.”
Ireland, which has posted strong performances as a qualifier in the last two World Cups — eliminating Pakistan in 2007 and beating England this year, when it was highly competitive against test nations throughout the tournament — has been the example cited in most comments criticizing the decision, and it is among the driving forces behind the protests. “I don’t think I’ve seen any statement in favor of this decision,” Deutrom said.
Deutrom has been working with other leaders among the 95 non-test members of the I.C.C. “Our aim is to develop a consensus, and that seems to be coming together very fast,” he said.
Critics have included Malcolm Speed, the former chief of the I.C.C., who told the ESPN Cricinfo Web site, “The decision strikes me as an insular, parochial decision that just perpetuates the 10 full-member countries.”
Deutrom argued that it changes the nature of the competition. “Can you really call it a World Cup any more? If there is no qualifying competition, it is really an invitation tournament. I can’t think of any other sport which operates its world championship in this way.”
Every World Cup since the second, in 1979, has been preceded by qualifiers for non-test nations. The first qualifying tournament was won by Sri Lanka, which by 1996 was world champion and has been runner-up in the last two World Cups.
The decision runs in the face of one of the I.C.C.’s genuine successes, using the world league system to create pathway for non-test nations to raise their standards — a policy reaffirmed in group’s strategic plan for 2011-15, which was endorsed at the same meeting last week that decided to exclude the non-test nations.
The I.C.C. has attempted to sweeten its decision by extending the World Twenty20, scheduled to be held every two years, so that six non-test nations will qualify, but Deutrom sees this as inadequate compensation.
“It ignores the extent to which the leading associates regard the 50 over game as their main focus, followed by four-day matches and with Twenty20 only third,” he said. “Dave Richardson, the I.C.C.’s cricket director, has told us that we should be playing all three forms. Now we’re told that we should concentrate completely on the least of the three
The decision was announced within 48 hours of the conclusion of the 2011 World Cup. If it was hoped that opposition would be muted amid the euphoria of India’s success and widespread satisfaction over the Cup itself — by general consent, it was the best of the 10 so far — that tactic has backfired. Instead, the backlash from those excluded is still gaining strength more than a week later.
“This is a kick in the teeth for all associate members,” said John Cribbin, honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Cricket Association, which fields its own team, separate from China, in international sports. The H.K.C.A.’s team is currently playing in the World Cricket League division two, a six-team tournament in the United Arab Emirates. The top four finishers in that competition were supposed to earn places in the qualifying tournament for the next Cricket World Cup, but not anymore after the decision by the International Cricket Council.
Anger has spread well beyond those countries with a realistic hope of qualifying for the 2015 tournament. Warren Deutrom, chief executive of Cricket Ireland, cited a message he has received from a nation much lower in the game’s pecking order.
“It said that ‘We all feel disenfranchised. While we are a long way from having a chance to qualify, the dream that it might one day be a possibility is very important to us, and taking it away is extremely damaging.”’
One country came close to making that unlikely dream a reality in the qualifiers for 2011. Afghanistan worked its way up from the fifth division of the World League, winning a series of promotions before falling just one place short of the four qualifying berths in the tournament this year.
“A lot of legal experts have been in touch to tell me that we would have a strong legal case against the International Cricket Council,” Deutrom said by telephone this week. But he said that suing the game’s governing body would be a last, not first, resort.
“We don’t want to go down that route unless we have to,” he said. “We want to seek recourse within the I.C.C.’s structures and are examining its constitution and articles of association to see what forms of recourse are open to us.”
Ireland, which has posted strong performances as a qualifier in the last two World Cups — eliminating Pakistan in 2007 and beating England this year, when it was highly competitive against test nations throughout the tournament — has been the example cited in most comments criticizing the decision, and it is among the driving forces behind the protests. “I don’t think I’ve seen any statement in favor of this decision,” Deutrom said.
Deutrom has been working with other leaders among the 95 non-test members of the I.C.C. “Our aim is to develop a consensus, and that seems to be coming together very fast,” he said.
Critics have included Malcolm Speed, the former chief of the I.C.C., who told the ESPN Cricinfo Web site, “The decision strikes me as an insular, parochial decision that just perpetuates the 10 full-member countries.”
Deutrom argued that it changes the nature of the competition. “Can you really call it a World Cup any more? If there is no qualifying competition, it is really an invitation tournament. I can’t think of any other sport which operates its world championship in this way.”
Every World Cup since the second, in 1979, has been preceded by qualifiers for non-test nations. The first qualifying tournament was won by Sri Lanka, which by 1996 was world champion and has been runner-up in the last two World Cups.
The decision runs in the face of one of the I.C.C.’s genuine successes, using the world league system to create pathway for non-test nations to raise their standards — a policy reaffirmed in group’s strategic plan for 2011-15, which was endorsed at the same meeting last week that decided to exclude the non-test nations.
The I.C.C. has attempted to sweeten its decision by extending the World Twenty20, scheduled to be held every two years, so that six non-test nations will qualify, but Deutrom sees this as inadequate compensation.
“It ignores the extent to which the leading associates regard the 50 over game as their main focus, followed by four-day matches and with Twenty20 only third,” he said. “Dave Richardson, the I.C.C.’s cricket director, has told us that we should be playing all three forms. Now we’re told that we should concentrate completely on the least of the three
Breakking new
WASHINGTON — President Obama decided Wednesday not to release graphic photographs of Osama bin Laden’s corpse, as new details emerged about the raid on Bin Laden’s fortified compound that differed from the administration’s initial account of the nearly 40-minute operation.
Mr. Obama, after a brief but intense debate within his war council, concluded that making the images of Bin Laden public could incite violence against Americans and would do little to persuade skeptics that the founder of Al Qaeda had been killed, White House officials said.
The new details suggested that the raid, though chaotic and bloody, was extremely one-sided, with a force of more than 20 Navy Seal members quickly dispatching the handful of men protecting Bin Laden.
Administration officials said that the only shots fired by those in the compound came at the beginning of the operation, when Bin Laden’s trusted courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, opened fire from behind the door of the guesthouse adjacent to the house where Bin Laden was hiding.
After the Seal members shot and killed Mr. Kuwaiti and a woman in the guesthouse, the Americans were never fired upon again.
This account differs from an official version of events issued by the Pentagon on Tuesday, and read by the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, which said the Seal members “were engaged in a firefight throughout the operation.”
In a television interview on PBS on Tuesday, Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., said, “There were some firefights that were going on as these guys were making their way up the staircase of that compound.”
Administration officials said the official account of events has changed over the course of the week because it has taken time to get thorough after-action reports from the Seal team. And, they added, because the Special Operations troops had been fired upon as soon as they touched down in the compound, they were under the assumption that everyone inside was armed.
“They were in a threatening and hostile environment the entire time,” one American official said.
When the commandos moved into the main house, they saw the courier’s brother, who they believed was preparing to fire a weapon. They shot and killed him. Then, as they made their way up the stairs of the house, officials said they killed Bin Laden’s son Khalid as he lunged toward the Seal team.
When the commandos reached the top floor, they entered a room and saw Osama bin Laden with an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol in arm’s reach. They shot and killed him, as well as wounding a woman with him.
The firefight over and Bin Laden dead, the team found a trove of information and had the time to remove much of it: about 100 thumb drives, DVDs and computer disks, along with 10 computer hard drives and 5 computers. There were also piles of paper documents in the house.
The White House declined to release any additional details about the operation, saying that further information would jeopardize the military’s ability to conduct clandestine operations in the future. The administration’s reticence came after it was forced on Tuesday to correct parts of its initial account of the raid, including assertions that Bin Laden had used his wife as a “human shield.”
“We’ve revealed a lot of information; we’ve been as forthcoming with facts as we can be,” Mr. Carney said.
Mr. Carney said the president expressed doubts early on about releasing the photos, but consulted his senior advisers. All of them, Mr. Carney said, voiced concerns about the risks. Based on its monitoring of worldwide reaction to the announcement of Bin Laden’s death, Mr. Carney said, the administration also concluded that most people viewed the reports of his death as credible and that publicizing photos would do little to sway those who believed it was a hoax.
Mr. Obama was direct in an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” to be broadcast Sunday, according to a transcript released by the network. “It is very important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence — as a propaganda tool.”
“That’s not who we are,” Mr. Obama added. “You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.” He said, “We don’t need to spike the football.”
“Certainly there’s no doubt among Al Qaeda members that he is dead,” he said on “60 Minutes.” “And so we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference. There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see Bin Laden walking on this earth again.”
The deliberations were reminiscent of Mr. Obama’s decision in May 2009 to fight the release of photos documenting the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan by American military personnel. The administration said originally that it would not oppose releasing the pictures, but the president decided he would fight making them public after his military commanders warned that the images could provoke a reaction against troops in those countries.
The White House said Mr. Obama would take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the site of the Sept. 11 memorial in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. He is also to meet with relatives of the victims of the terrorist attacks, but he will not make a speech. The next day, he is to travel to Fort Campbell in Kentucky to speak to troops returning from Afghanistan.
Seeking to quell any legal questions about the raid, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said, “It was justified as an act of national self-defense,” citing Bin Laden’s role as the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
There were divided opinions on Capitol Hill about the photographs, with some lawmakers saying the United States needed to show proof that Bin Laden was dead, while others worried about the possibility of blowback against American troops.
“The whole purpose of sending our troops into the compound, rather than an aerial bombardment, was to obtain indisputable evidence of Bin Laden’s death,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “The best way to protect and defend our interests overseas is to prove that fact to the rest of the world.”
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