World Cup Updates For India, Pakistan and other Teams

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Allow me to Give Updates ON ICC World Cup 2007. You Can Contribute In This Thread Too By Sharing Your Comments. I'll Be Giving You Latest NEWS, VIEWS, WALLPAPERS, RECORDS MADE OR BROKEN And Lot of other stuff. Please Post Your Comments on this.....

[usman_mugal89]

Waqar tells Pathan to view old footage



MUMBAI, India • Former Pakistan pace spearhead Waqar Younis suggested struggling India seamer Irfan Pathan (pictured below) should view his old footage to draw inspiration ahead of next week’s World Cup.

The 22-year-old left-arm bowler’s confidence has been in tatters in recent months and he was sent home from the South Africa tour in December to regain his form in domestic cricket.

He returned one for 12 off six overs in the World Cup warm-up match against the Netherlands in Jamaica on Tuesday which India won by 182 runs.

But the talented seamer had bowled at a reduced pace against the minnows.

“My advice to him is to go back and look at his old footage because that might help find what is missing,” Waqar told reporters at a cricket function yesterday.

“That is the best thing to do when one is struggling.”

Pathan had in the past taken tips from Pakistan pace great Wasim Akram and former Caribbean speedster Andy Roberts.

“I think there is too much advice being given to him, too many people are talking to him,” said Waqar, who stepped down as Pakistan’s bowling coach in January due to differences with the board.

“I think one should leave him alone and allow him to sort his bowling out himself.

“Right now any advice will be detrimental. He has to view his old footage and boost himself.”

The 35-year-old Waqar expects one of the sub-continent teams India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka—to win the showpiece event due to the conditions in the Caribbean.

“I would definitely say one of the sub-continent teams will take it,” he said.

“I was just there in the West Indies, the wickets are definitely going to suit the sub-continent teams because they are more of a turner tracks like the ones we play on in the sub-continent.”

[usman_mugal89]

Woolmer in the eye of another storm


Controversy simply refuses to spare Pakistan cricket and this time coach Mr Bob Woolmer might be dragged into a possible case of copyright violation over the design of the team’s World Cup kits.
According to details, Pakistan’s World Cup kits were designed and manufactured in South Africa after Mr Woolmer, a former coach of the Proteas, and some of the players had complained about the quality of the previous one. Mr Woolmer also insisted on procuring the kits from South Africa, a well-informed source in the board said.
The coach allegedly passed on some of the designs made by a Pakistani company to Slazenger, and the foreign company used the same, despite those being copyrighted.
“Woolmer and the players had asked the Pakistan Cricket Board to have the new kits made in South Africa,” the PCB source said. “The allegation is that Woolmer passed on the same design to the South African company which has now used it for the World Cup,” he added.
The Pakistani youngster, who had originally created the design for the local manufacturer, is reportedly contemplating action over what he described as a copyright violation. The PCB officials held several meetings with Slazenger, with whom they had signed a contract last year for the playing kits and clothings.
“So much so that the PCB specifically ordered the material used to make the blazer and casual clothing for the World Cup made by Marks and Spencers in London,” the source said.

[usman_mugal89]

It’s painful to miss World Cup: Shoaib Akhtar

ISLAMABAD: Disgruntled Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar on Thursday said his failure to make it to the World Cup in the Caribbean had caused him great pain.

“I am going through hell. I can’t describe it in words what it means to miss an event like the World Cup,” Shoaib said, a week after he was withdrawn from Pakistan’s squad on fitness grounds.

The 31-year-old paceman failed to recover from knee and hamstring injuries which ruled him out of the mega event starting with a match between Pakistan and the West Indies in Jamaica on March 13.

“I have been waiting for this event for two years and to play in a cricket-loving region like the Caribbean was my dream. Not being able to play in the World Cup is like taking all my dreams away,” he said.

Shoaib said he had played only one match in the West Indies in 2000 and was anxious to play because every fast bowler wanted to do well in the Caribbean, which is known as a fast bowlers’ paradise. “I am badly missing the atmosphere,” he added.

Shoaib’s new-ball partner Mohammad Asif was also pulled out of the 15-man squad due to an elbow injury, badly hitting Pakistan’s chances in the World Cup.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) claimed that the duo were withdrawn on fitness grounds.

But several newspapers last month reported that private tests, carried out while Shoaib and Asif were having their injuries reassessed in England, revealed they still had banned substances in their systems.

Pakistan had to withdraw them from the Champions Trophy in India in October last year after both tested positive for banned steroid nandrolone.

Shoaib was subsequently banned for two years and Asif for one year by an anti-doping tribunal in November. A month later, both were exonerated by an appeal committee on the grounds that they did not take the substances knowingly.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) challenged the ban overturn in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which is yet to announce a date for the hearing.

Shoaib said it was not new that people doubted his injury. “I have always played to the best of my abilities but people have doubted my integrity. My injuries are always doubted as if I am feigning it and I always had to prove that I am unfit,” he said.

“People don’t understand. Why would I not the play the game I love? I wanted to be in the Caribbean and I wanted to help my team win,” he added.

[usman_mugal89]

Records on Risk:
1. Most Wickets - Wasim Akram has the record of Most wickets in World Cup tournaments a total of 55 wickets. But this record can be broken by McGrath of Australia who has taken 45 wickets and needs only 11 wickets to break this record.

2. Most Matches Played: Wasim akram also holds the record number of matches played i.e. 38 matches. This record can be broken by Inzamam who need just 7 matches to break this record,Sachin can also break this record by playing 6 matches while Ricky Ponting and McGrath are also in the race and need 11 matches.

* Note: A team can play maximum of 11 Matches.

If You Know Any Other Record That is On Risk Or You Think That Will BeBroken In This world Cup. Please Reply.

[usman_mugal89]

“The Game of Love and Unity” – The Official Song for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 (performed by Rupee, Shaggy and Faye-Ann Lyons) was launched on December in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

“The Game of Love and Unity” – The Official Song for ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 (performed by Rupee, Shaggy and Faye-Ann Lyons) was launched on December in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
On behalf of the artistes, entertainer Rupee stated: "It is a pleasure working on such a magnificent project. We are going to showcase the best of the Caribbean to the world, including our diverse creative talent and our hospitality when we host the tournament."
Rupee is the lead composer of the ICC CWC 2007 Official Song.Internationally-acclaimed artiste and Grammy Award winner, Shaggy, is best known for his hit singles "Oh Carolina", "It wasn't me", "Angel" and many others.Faye-Ann Lyons is rapidly establishing herself as a musical force to be reckoned with following her Trinidad and Tobago Road March winning song "Display".

• Song Title:
  It's a Game of Love & Unity
• Length:
  4 Minutes 54 Seconds
• Quality:
  80 Kbps
• Format:
  MP3
• Size:
  2.82 MB
• Download:
  Click Here To Download

[jerinbrunel]

Nice Idea... Keep it up.......

[Mac-X]

usman bhai can u tell me on which channel in Pakistan r they telecasting the World Cup warm up matches?

[usman_mugal89]

usman bhai can u tell me on which channel in Pakistan r they telecasting the World Cup warm up matches?

Currently They Were Telecasting The Matches On GEO Super And AAG TV. But The Warm up Matches Are Over. Now What They Will Do For Regular Matches is, If Both Matches Are On Same Time, They Will Show High Priority Match On GEO Super and The Other Match On AAG TV. Dont Know Where They Will Show The Third Match Cause Its Upto The Producers of GEO Network Wether They Want To Shiw A Third Match or Not. Cause GEO Have Contract With ESPN and SUPER SPORT. And TEN SPORTS Have Contract With ARY Digital Network. So They Have To Follow What The Host Channels Will Say.

[Mac-X]

thanx usman bhai, i really missed the warm up match between Pakistan vs SA, when Pakistan won. really would have loved to see it.. anywayz, the world cup will be starting tomorrow..!!! Yahooooooooooooooooo!

[zfrak]

And Pakistan has Lost their Opening Match in the WC against the Hosts Windies

I hope South Africa will be eliminated after the Super 8

[usman_mugal89]

England meet New Zeland in today’s Tie

England's Cricket World Cup opener against New Zealand today is too close to call, according to England allrounder Andrew Flintoff, a veteran of 115 one-day internationals.

``The two sides are pretty similar and had some success in the winter,'' Flintoff told a televised press conference in St. Lucia. ``It could be a great and intriguing contest.''

U.K. bookmaker William Hill can't separate the teams either, pricing both at 10-11 to win their Group C match. The day's other contest, between top-ranked South Africa and The Netherlands, is proving easier for bettors to forecast with the Proteas rated a 1-66 chance. Yesterday, Ireland tied Zimbabwe in the only surprise so far, and Sri Lanka crushed Bermuda.

England's match will be broadcast live from about 1.30 p.m. U.K. time, tempting office-bound cricket fans to take a long lunch or skip work for the afternoon. The Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates that the nation's productivity will drop 5 percent on England match days, cropping the $2.4 trillion U.K. economy by about 270 million pounds ($523 million) over the seven-week tournament.

``Watching cricket is one of the best ways of avoiding work known to man,'' said Douglas McWilliams, the report's author.

England, which hosted the first three World Cups, has never won the tournament and hasn't even reached a semifinal since finishing runner-up in 1992. Perennial losers in the game's shorter form last year, captain Michael Vaughan's team lifted their chances by winning a tri-nation competition also featuring New Zealand and Australia last month.

Anderson Scare

``The World Cup is a massive stage with every team playing with all their stars,'' Vaughan told reporters. ``If we get to the final and win that, it would be an amazing achievement.''

England paceman James Anderson faces a late fitness test after he broke the little finger of his bowling hand in training two days ago. Anderson took a hat-trick in the 2003 tournament.

``It depends how well he can protect it and how well he can do all the stuff in the nets and how he feels pain-wise,'' Flintoff said. ``We'll see how he rocks up in the morning.''

New Zealand, known as the Black Caps, has reached four semifinals. It came into the event buoyed by a 3-0 sweep of defending champion Australia, its neighbor and fiercest rival.

England and New Zealand have met six times at the World Cup, with the English winning the first three and the Black Caps the three most recent contests. Both suffered setbacks in warmup matches last week with England losing heavily to Australia, while New Zealand was upset by Bangladesh.

Source: Bloomberg

[usman_mugal89]

Ireland, Zimbabwe share thrilling tie

Group D rivals Ireland and Zimbabwe shared the spoils in their opening cricket World Cup match when a last-ball run-out by Ireland earned them a tie.

The game had looked lost for the Irish just a few overs before when the Zimbabweans, chasing 222 to win, needed just 15 runs from 36 balls with four wickets in hand.

However the African side could add only one more run as they lost three wickets in quick succession, leaving them needing nine runs off the final over.

They looked to have achieved the feat though, when facing the last ball of the match and needing only a single, but batsman Stuart Matsikenyeri missed a yorker from Andrew White and Ed Rainsford (1) was run out at the non-strikers end.

Earlier Ireland had struggled to come to terms with the bowling of the Zimbabwe side, with only opener Jeremy Bray making more than 30 runs.

Bray batted superbly however and compiled an excellent 115 to hold the Irish innings together and post a competitive total of 221-9.

Zimbabwe's reply looked on course after Vusi Sibanda (67) and Matsikenyeri (73 not out) both enjoyed impressive innings at the top of the order but their tail fell apart under pressure.

After the dismissal of Brendan Taylor (24) to an unfortunate run-out, Gary Brent (3) went with the score on 212 and Prosper Utseya (1) then Christopher Mpofu (0) both soon followed after a collective rush of blood to the head as they struggled to score.

That set up a pulsating final over, which went according to form for the first five balls until Ireland's heroics with the last delivery sent the green-clad hordes into wild celebrations.

[usman_mugal89]

Sachin joins Superman league

India will have a new comic hero. A character based on Tendulkar is set to hit bookstores - games and merchandise to follow.

Imagine Sachin Tendulkar as the saviour of the world -- fighting the baddies and averting catastrophes! Virgin Comics' new superhero character Master Blaster will have Sachin Tendulkar donning superhero garb and will hit the bookstores by September.

Master Blaster will also find its way to video and mobile games, besides the usual apparel and product merchandise, by the end of this year.

Sharad Devarajan, CEO, Virgin Comics, hopes that the Sachin effect will translate into a dramatic upswing in the sales of the comic books, when they hit the stores later this year.

"In a $40 billion character entertainment industry, Asian content is fast claiming its share, with Pokemon itself raking in close to $30 million last year," he says.

Master Blaster, a character that was conceptualised and developed in India, will soon join Virgin Comics' line up of Indian characters like Devi, Sadhu, Ramayana and Snakewoman.

"We are in the process of finalising the storyboards for Master Blaster, which will be followed by discussions to sell gaming rights and merchandising deals," adds Suresh Seetharaman, president, Virgin Comics.

Unwilling to reveal more about the storyline of Master Blaster, Devarajan adds, "It's not your typical man versus science story. The character has a mythical background but is very contemporary in outlook."

Both Seetharaman and Devarajan believe that exporting Indian characters will be a "profitable venture". Virgin Comics is planning to complete 2007 with a minimum of 10-12 Indian characters.

Says Devarajan, "By the end of this year, we expect to have 25 characters with Virgin Comics internationally, of which at least 10 will be Indian characters, developed out of India."

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Comics is not your regular comic book factory. "What Virgin has in mind is a whole new take on Hollywood and Bollywood's time-tested relationship with the character entertainment business," points out Devarajan.

Until now, successful comic-to-film franchises, like Spiderman or Harry Potter began with characters, plots conceived by comic book artists whose stories were later acquired by studios and picked up by well-known directors.

Virgin is developing films with filmmakers, actors and musicians like John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Terry Gilliam, Dave Stewart and Duran Duran. Feature films based on Virgin Comics' characters are also in the works, including an animated feature, The Secrets of the Seven Sounds and The Sadhu starring Nicolas Cage.

Internationally, a comic title that sells 1 lakh copies a month is deemed a blockbuster while in India if even 5,000 copies move out in a month, it would be a good bargain for the comic book.

Source: Zee News Site

[usman_mugal89]

Cricket-mad India laps up World Cup

The cricket-crazy country is rooting for its team known popularly as the "men in blue" after the colour of their kit and the fever is peaking on the eve of the team's first match against Bangladesh on Saturday.


One fan in Jharkhand state has threatened to commit suicide if he is not allowed to sell his kidney to get the money needed for a ticket to the West Indies, where the tournament is being held.

Another fan, Zaheer Merchant, saved money to buy a 29-inch television set for the tournament and has literally put his life on hold for the next two months to watch the matches.

In pictures: Fan fervour

"My wife knows I am unavailable when cricket is on. I will be going in to work late so that I can stay up until late evening to watch the action. I haven't asked for any leave but I am expecting some illness in the next few days," he said.

Many companies, especially business outsourcing firms, have set up large screens in their cafeterias so that people can track the matches during work that begin late in the evening in India and continue into the early hours.

Indians are crazy about cricket and Bollywood movies and follow both with an almost religious passion.

It is common for people to walk up to complete strangers and ask "what's the score now?" and bond over beers at pubs debating whether captain Rahul Dravid made the right decision by changing the batting or bowling order.

Mania

India's matches are expected bring in television audiences in excess of 280 million.

Shops are selling saris signed by the cricketers

And this has pushed big companies to cough up millions of dollars on special products and advertisements as part of their marketing campaign around the cricket frenzy.

An international credit card company hired Bollywood music directors Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy to compose a special "Inspire India" song that has been released on radio and a television commercial that exhorts the team to win.

A soft drinks giant launched a gold-coloured cola that, according to the company, "symbolises every Indian cricket fan's desire to bring home the gold-coloured World Cup trophy".

The cola company even organised a glitzy farewell evening for the team with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and actress Priyanka Chopra wishing them good luck.

To add to the excitement, an international sportswear brand has released its first-ever cricket advert on television which has become a talking point with fans of the game.

The advertisement shows a bunch of boys stuck in a traffic jam who suddenly begin playing cricket on the roof of a bus and passers-by getting involved in the game and playing it as well.


Mobile games, access to scores, match updates and cricket clips on cell phones, soft drinks, sporting merchandise, even special birthday cakes in various shapes related to the game - anything and everything at this point in time is related to the big cricketing event.

A juice shop in Mumbai has even begun serving juice in a replica of the World Cup trophy while a restaurant in Amritsar has gone blue by dressing its staff in the team's shirts.

Bollywood calling

Not to be left behind, Bollywood is launching three movies with cricket themes.

Indian fans are getting their hair styled after their idols

The first of them, called Hattrick, will be released this week - a comedy about five people whose lives revolve around the game.

Siddharth Roy Kapur of producers UTV said it was timed to chime with the public mood.

Mr Kapur also said he did not think the film would fail to attract audiences who would be too busy watching matches and live action at home.

"The quality of matches revs up in the later rounds such as Super Eight and the finals, rather than in the elimination rounds, and that's when we are trying to get people to watch the film."

There are two other films also based on cricket but they are still in production and are expected to be released later in the year.

Some multiplexes are also exploring the idea of showing the semi-finals and finals on the big screen.

Expensive destination

Travel agents, however, seem to have missed out on some of the initial action as not many people have chosen to travel all the way to the West Indies.

Fans sign messages wishing the team good luck

Most travel agents have introduced special packages and expect business to pick up closer to the finals but at present, it is all about answering queries.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook, Sachin Rampal, said the distance and cost of travel had been two major deterrents to people packing their bags and heading off to the West Indies.

"If it was South Africa, Europe or Australia, the response would have been better because these destinations are closer. It costs about 300,000-500,000 rupees ($6,800-$11,300) for the ticket alone and infrastructure in the West Indies in terms of hotels and places to stay is not all that good," he said.

Mr Rampal said they had received queries from some of their corporate clients who have shown interest in travelling in the latter stages of the World Cup and they expect other customers to do the same.

Amidst all this cricketing craze and advertising blitzkrieg, ad film maker Prahlad Kakkar says everyone has "completely lost the plot".

"No one is watching the game that they claim they are so crazy about, it's all about winning. There is so much pressure being put on the boys that if they buckle then it is all over," he said.

Mr Kakkar said while cashing in on the obsession of people around the game is all very well, the biggest sufferer is cricket itself because people will stop watching and enjoying it as soon as the Indian team loses.

As for the advertising millions riding on the event, Mr Kakkar said it is always a big gamble and most companies are aware that their two-month campaign could easily end in two weeks.

Meanwhile, the game goes on. While all the action is taking place halfway around the world from India, the country is tracking it ball by ball and the cheers sometimes may be loud enough for the team to hear.

COURTESY: BBC NEWS