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IPL controversy: Sharad Pawad and family own a stake in franchise bidder
(Cricket) |
04-06-10
A new controversy has erupted around the IPL (Indian Premier League). This time the fingers are pointed at Sharad Pawar and his MP daughter Supriya Sule.
Sharad Pawar and Supriya have been categorically denying any involvement in the IPL controversy that erupted after the second round of bidding that March 2010. Now it so appears that Sharad Pawar and his immediate family hold a considerable stake in City Corporation Ltd. a Pune based construction company that had bid for the Pune franchise in March.
City Corporation had bid for the Pune franchise in the second round of IPL bids but was eventually outbid by Sahara with its Rs.1702 crore winning bid.
Sharad Pawar and his family own 16% of City Corporation. Pawar, Agriculture Minister and ICC President in waiting has however said that Aniruddha Deshpande the Managing Director of City Corporation had bid in his personal capacity and that neither he nor his family was not involved in the bidding process.
The opposition has, however, got a card that it is playing to the full. BJP has already voiced its demand for the resignation of Sharad Pawar saying that the senior minister had misrepresented facts.
The IPL controversy has already cost one central minister his ministership and the commisioner of IPL his job.
Lalit Modi the commissioner of IPL is presently suspended with an inquiry pending against him while Shashi Tharoor had to quit his ministership over his involvement in the controversy. |
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Dhoni banned for 2 ODIs, Sehwag named Captain
(Cricket) |
19-12-09
Captain of the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been suspended for two one-day internationals (ODIs) over tha slow over-rate during the second ODI on Friday at Nagpur in the match that it lost against Sri Lanka.
Also, the entire Indian side will be fined 40% of their match fees for the same offence.
The action was taken in accordance to the Article 2.5.2 of the new ICC Code of Conduct which provides for 2 suspension points for the captain. The same article provides for a fine of 10% match fees for each of the first two overs short and 20% for the every additional short over.
In the new code of conduct 2 suspension points mean a ban in one test match or two ODIs which ever is first.
Jeff Crowe of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees imposed the ban after Dhoni's side was ruled to be three overs short of its target at the end of the match when time allowances were taken into consideration.
Dhoni will not be a part of the team for the ODIs scheduled for 21 and 24 December at Cuttack and Kolkata respectively.
Meanwhile the Indian Cricket body, BCCI, has said that it will not be contesting the ruling and has named Virendra Sehwag as the skipper of the Indian teams for these two matches. |
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Sehwag alleges corruption in DDCA - Gambhir, Nehra, Sharma support their skipper
(Cricket) |
18-08-09
Virendra Sehwag stirred a hornet's nest when he spoke up against the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) on Sunday. He has also threatened to walk out of the Delhi Ranji Team and play for Haryana in the coming season if things did not improve.
The cricketer voiced his dissatisfaction over the interference and manipulation by the selection committee. He also accused the association of corruption.
Even the selection of the under-16 and under-19 teams is manipulated he said.
Several of Delhi's players have come forward in support of the Sehwag. Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma have all come forward in support of Sehwag.
They have said that they would not hesitate to leave Delhi along with their captain and play for Haryana if things did not improve.
Gautam Gambhir said that their was need for improvement and transparency in the selection process.
DDCA initially responded aggressively to Sehwag's allegations saying that it was a pressure tactic but by Tuesday it went on the defensive. |
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IPL Season II to be hosted in South Africa - BCCI
(Cricket) |
24-03-09
The venue for IPL Twenty20 Season II has been shifted from India to South Africa. It will be held on schedule announce its organizers. BCCI officials have assured that the timing will be adjusted so that Indian television viewers will watch the games from 4pm to 8pm, as promised.
The 59 game tournament was originally scheduled to be held in India but had run into rough weather over security concerns. Failing to convince the authorities of this country, the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) had decided to host the tournament in some other country.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) had both offered to host the Season II of DLF Indian Premier League.
BCCI has announced that it has chosen South Africa for the games due to its favourable weather conditions.
The organizers have a massive task of configuring the logistics and completing other technicalities before the league starts on 18 April 2009. The organizers have expressed confidence in being able to complete all the formalities well wtihin time with the help of Cricket South Africa. |
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England calls-off remain 2 matches of its ODI tour in India
(Cricket) |
27-11-08
The English cricket team has cancelled the remaining 2 one day international (ODI) matches in India after Wednesday's terror attack on Mumbai.
The English team currently on a 7 match ODI tour of India out of which 5 matches have already been played.
It may be noted at this point that the visiting England team has lost all the 5 ODIs played so far against India during the trip. The remaining 2 matches are scheduled for Saturday in Guwahati and Tuesday in Delhi.
Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) sources have informed that team management of the visiting England team has informed BCCI president Shashank Manohar that their players are not willing to play the remaining two matches.
The fate of the forthcoming 2 test matches against England next month, and the upcoming Twenty20 Champions League is not yet clear.
Mumbai is still reeling under the worst terror attack witnessed by the country that has already left more than a 100 dead and scores injured. |
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Top BCCI Officials including Sharad Pawar face criminal proceedings
(Cricket) |
12-11-08
Calcutta High Court has ordered that criminal proceedings be initiated against BCCI President Sashank Manohar, former BCCI President Sharad Pawar and 4 officials (Ratnakar Shetty, Niranjan Shah, N. Srinivasan and Chirayu Amin) for filing false affidavits.
The order was passed today by Justice Nadira Pathariya ex-parte in which the court has directed the registrar to initiate criminal proceedings under section 195 or CRPC at an appropriate court.
After his suspension in December 2006, Dalmiya had appealed in the High Court through his counsel that he had been wrongly suspended from BCCI on the basis of an unregistered amendment.
Dalmiya had filed that BCCI had wrongly submitted before the high court that the amendment had been duly registered. Apparently, BCCI had applied to register the amendment only after the suspension of Dalmiya from BCCI.
Calcutta High Court had in July 2007 declared that Dalmiya's suspension from the Board was illegal. |
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India beats Australi 2-0 in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008/09
(Cricket) |
10-11-08
India has bagged Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008-09 for the test series against Australia in India by defeating the visiting team 2 games to 0.
India has beaten the visiting Australian team in the 4th and final test match at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium at Nagpur.
Today's game had started from the overnight score of 13 for 0. Most had expected the going to be tough for India. It had seemed that the Australian's had a small target to chase and would at the worst certainly take it to a draw.
But, good fielding and good bowling from the the Indian side saw the Australian team loose all their wickets for a total of 209 runs. Harbhajan bagged 4 while Mishra took 3 wickets today.
India had already won the second test match in the series that was played in Mohali last month (from 17 to 21 October). |
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New team at helm of Indian Cricket - Shashank Manohar new BCCI president
(Cricket) |
28-09-08
Shashank Manohar takes over as president of Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).
Shashank Manohar is a lawyer from Nagpur. He took charge from Sharad Pawar the outgoing president of BCCI at the 79th AGM of the country's cricket board on Saturday.
The new office bearers of BCCI are as follows...| President | Shashank Manohar | | Secretary | N. Srinivasan | | Joint Secretary | Sanjay Jagdale | | Treasurer | M. P. Pandove | | Vice President (North) | Arun Jaitley | | Vice President (South) | N. Shivlal Yadav | | Vice President (East) | Arindam Ganguly | | Vice President (West) | Chirayu Amin | | Vice President (Central) | Lalit Modi |
The other salient changes in the new team announced on Saturday include the name of K. Srikkanth as chairman of the selection committee. He will replace outgoing chairman Dilip Vengsarkar.
Lalit Modi has retained his chairmanship of the committee of Indian Premier League. Niranjan Shah has been made vice-chairman of this committee.
Out-going President of BCCI, Sharad Pawar, is the vice president and president-elect of International Cricket Council. |
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Commercial Rights of Champions League Twenty20 go to ESPN Star Sports for US$900 million
(Cricket) |
12-09-08
Commerical Rights for 10 years for the Champions League Twenty20 (upto 2017) have been awarded to ESPN Star Sports, a leading sports broadcaster in Asia.
According to the deal, ESPN Star Sports has been awarded the exclusive Commerical Rights for all matches in the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 season to be played from 3 December to 10 December 2008 and for all forthcoming seasons until 2017.
ESPN Star Sports had bid US$ 900 million for the rights.
Manu Sawhney, MD - ESPN Star Sports, expressed his pleasure at having bagged the rights and said " Through our television channels - ESPN, STAR Sports & STAR Cricket, our website www.espnstar.com, and our wireless platforms mobileESPN and STAR Sports Mobile, we are confident of taking the Champions League Twenty20 to new heights..."
The Champions League Twenty20 has been founded by 3 boards - Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa. The inaugural season of Champions League in 2008 will see 8 teams in the fray.
6 of the 8 teams are the winning teams from the domestic Twenty20 competitions in India, Australia and South Africa. The reigning champion from England - Middlesex, and winner of 2008 Twenty20 championships scheduled for October 2008 in Pakistan have been invited as the 7th and 8th team for the event.
It has been announced that 12 teams will be contesting in the 2009 season. |
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No to ICL players by BCCI for Twenty20 Champions League in Sept-Oct
(Cricket) |
23-06-08
In the wake of the roaring success of its Indian Premier League, BCCI is preparing to host the Twenty20 Champions League in India during September-October.
Another extravaganza on the lines of IPL has been planned for the Cricket lovers, in which 2 domestic teams from cricket playing countries will be participating.
The total prize money announced for the Twenty20 Champions League is US $10 million out of which the winner will get $5 million and the runner up will be given $2.5 million.
On Sunday, BCCI officials decided that players from the barred Indian Cricket League will not be allowed to play at the tournament.
BCCI has asked the participating countries to ensure that their teams do not have any players associated with the Indian Cricket League (ICL). BCCI officials say that South Africa and Australia have consented while Pakistan is also expected to accept the condition.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has already expressed that it could not leave out any players from the county teams for the tournament as it would be in violation of the English laws.
If BCCI sticks to its stand of not allowing ICL players at its matches, the English teams may not be able to play in the Twenty20 Champions League. |
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