Hameed says sorry over cricket-fixing 'interview'

Former Pakistan opener Yasir Hameed said on Friday he had apologised to cricket authorities over an interview with a British tabloid in which he accused fellow players of fixing matches.

"I was trapped into it but I should not have said all that before a stranger and I apologise to all the players who were hurt because of that," Hameed told AFP.

Hameed was secretly filmed telling undercover reporters from the News of the World in September that his fellow players fix matches with impunity.

"They were doing it (fixing) in almost every match," Yasir said. "God knows what they were up to.

"Scotland Yard was after them for ages. It makes me angry because I'm playing my best and they are trying to lose."

The conversation was broadcast two days after three Pakistani players -- Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer -- were suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on charges of spot-fixing during the team's Lord's Test against England in August.

The trio will find out at the ICC's anti-corruption tribunal in Doha, Qatar, from January 6-11 whether the suspensions are to be turned into bans or they are absolved.

Hameed initially denied he had given any interview but admitted he was trapped by an undercover reporter who was in the guise of an airline representative who wanted him and other players to sign up to a commercial.

Hameed, 32, has not been picked since the scandal erupted.

"I have been doing well in the domestic matches and still hope that I will be selected in the team for the future series," he said.

Ind Vs SA: Sehwag ruled out of ODI series

In a big blow to Team India's preparations for the 2011 Cricket world Cup, Virender Sehwag was on Thursday ruled out of the forthcoming one-day series against South Africa due to his nagging shoulder injury.

According to a statement issued by the BCCI, Rohit Sharma will replace the opener, while Murali Vijay will stay back in South Africa for the ODI series as the 17th playing member of the squad. It is still unclear if Sehwag's injury is serious enough for him to be withdrawn for the third Test scheduled to be played from January 2 at Cape Town.

This is the third time in the calendar year that Sehwag has had to pull out of a tournament becuase of his shoulder injury. Earlier in the year, he missed out on the World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies and was rested for the subsequent tour of Zimbabwe as well. Also, during the Asia Cup he was ruled out of the final with a strained hamstring.

Even in 2009, Sehwag missed out on a place in India's squad for the World Twenty20 event in England after injuring his shoulder during the second season of the Indian Premier League that was played in South Africa.

The India-South Africa Test series is even as 1-1 with the deciding Test to be played in Cape Town from January 2. The two sides will then play a T20 game on January 9. The five-match ODI series starts on January 12.

Saheba, Tarapore to officiate in cricket World Cup

Indian umpires Amiesh Saheba and Shavir Tarapore were on Saunday named among the umpires who would officiate in the upcoming cricket World Cup scheduled to begin in Dhaka on February 19. Apart from Saheba and Tarapore, umpires Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka), Bruce Oxenford (Australia), Richard. Kettleborough and Nigel Llong (both from England) have been named to stand alongside umpires of ICC's Elite Panel during the quadrennial event.

While Saheba has officiated in 44 One Day Internationals, three Twenty20s and two Test Matches, Tarapore has stood in 16 ODIs and three T20s.

These six have been identified as emerging and talented match officials, who have already officiated at international level with experience of conditions in the Asian sub-continent and are now ready to umpire at cricket's flagship event, ICC said in a statement.

The reserve umpire for the tournament has been named as Enamul Hoque-Moni, also from the international panel. He will officiate during the warm-up phase of the tournament and be available, if required, during the event proper.

The match referees for the event will be: Chris Broad, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Roshan Mahanama and Andy Pycroft (all from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees).

The umpire selection panel consists of David Richardson (ICC General Manager – Cricket), Ranjan Madugalle (ICC Chief Match Referee), David Lloyd (former player, coach, umpire and now television commentator) and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (former elite panel umpire).

The full list of umpires is: Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Billy Doctrove, Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Daryl Harper, Tony Hill, Asad Rauf, Asoka de Silva, Simon Taufel, Rod Tucker (all from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires), Kumar Dharmasena, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Amish Saheba and Shahvir Tarapore (all from the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires).

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Sri Lanka-West Indies ODI series postponed

Sri Lanka and the West Indies have postponed their five-match limited-overs cricket series and a Twenty20 match citing bad weather.

Sri Lanka Cricket announced on Thursday that the one-day series has been rescheduled for next year but the dates have not been decided yet.

Most of an earlier three-Test series was disrupted by rain and ended in a 0-0 draw.

Indian team leave for South Africa

Nine members of the Indian cricket team, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar, left for South Africa in the wee hours here on Wednesday.

Apart from Dhoni and Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, S. Sreesanth, Wriddhiman Saha, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma and Team manager Ranjib Biswal also departed for Cape Town via Dubai for the three-match Test series beginning December 16.

Sehwag was supposed to leave with the first batch of the touring party members on December 6 but changed his plans as he was indisposed.

The first batch comprised of players Cheteshwar Pujara, Jaydev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav and coach Gary Kirsten.

V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid left for South Africa on Tuesday.

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India vs New Zealand live cricket score, 4th ODI, Ind favorite to win against NZ

India vs New Zealand live cricket score, 4th ODI, Ind favorite to win against NZ as they have failed to inspire confidence by repeated bad performances

Bangalore: India and New Zealand are going to meet in the fourth match of the one day international series and the only thing that people want to know is whether New Zealand is capable of winning a single match against a capable opponent like India.

I am bemused by the way New Zealand players have completely failed to deliver during their Indian tour.

If they came up with some good performances during the test series when some of the players performed well, in the one day series, they have completely given up without any fight at all.

They have lost three matches of the series and if we include the one day series disaster in Bangladesh they have already lost seven matches in a row.

Vettori has failed to inspire his team. Individual players too have failed to take their team forward and lift the morale. So far no player of the team has come up with any exceptional or match winning knock.

On the other hand the Indian bowlers have come up with terrific performances in match after match amazing both admirers and detractors. The best performers during the series is captain Gautam Gambhir and the emerging powerhouse of Indian batting Virat Kohli. Both have played well constantly and given a head start to their team in all the three matches.

Indian bowlers particularly Sreesanth, Zaheer and spinner Ashwin have amazed many in the cricket world with their dazzling performance.

Indian Team

G Gambhir, R Ashwin, RA Jadeja, Z Khan, V Kohli, P Kumar, A Nehra, MM Patel, PA Patel, YK Pathan, RG Sharma, SS Tiwary, M Vijay, Yuvraj Singh

New Zealand Team

DL Vettori, GD Elliott, JEC Franklin, MJ Guptill, GJ Hopkins, JM How, BB McCullum†, NL McCullum, AJ McKay, KD Mills, TG Southee, SB Styris, LRPL Taylor, KS Williamson

Kochi To Play In IPL 2011

The IPL Governing Council confirms that the Kochi franchisee has satisfactorily responded to the notice issued to them by the BCCI | By Yentha

Trivandrum: The Board of Cricket Control of India has finally given the green signal for the team to play in the fourth edition of IPL, scheduled to begin in April 2011. Kochi IPL team will play in the 2011 edition of the much popular T20 tournament.

After investigating the documents and confirmation from all the owners over the issue of ownership and holdings, N Sreenivsan, Secretary, BCCI, said in a statement that the Kochi franchisee had satisfactorily responded to the notice issued to them by the BCCI and decided that the franchisee, Kochi Cricket Private Limited, would play in the Indian Premier League from 2011 onwards.

Earlier, in November, the BCCI had issued a termination notice to the Kochi team. The Board of Cricket Control also asked the Rendezvous consortium to sort out all the disparities among the stakeholders.

Cricket News: Tendulkar in fray for Laureus award

Come February and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar could join a very select and privileged group of sportsmen, which includes Roger Federer, Usain Bolt and Michael Schumacher, who have been honoured with the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award.

But first he has to beat the likes of Muttiah Muralidharan, one of the world’s greatest spinners, tennis star Rafael Nadal, Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel, star footballers Diego Forlan, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, and boxer Manny Pacquiao. Six nominees will be chosen from this elite list before the Laureus Media Selection Panel votes to chose the 2011 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award.

The other sportsmen in the nomination ring are golfer Graeme McDowell, MotoGP racer Jorge Lorenzo, swimmer Camille Lacourt and jockey AP McCoy. The names of the final six nominees will be announced in early January.

Tendulkar along with Vettel, Nadal are the favourites to get nominated. Tendulkar has had an amazing year. In February, he became the first man to score a double century in a one-day international, hitting an unbeaten 200 for India against South Africa. Then in October he became the first man to score 14,000 runs in Test cricket during the second Test against Australia in Bangalore. It was in this match that he scored his 49th Test century.

Unsurprisingly, he was named International Cricket Council Player of the Year. Muralidharan, on the other hand, is unarguably one of the greatest spinners of all time. The Sri Lankan took his world record 800th Test wicket on the final day of his career in Galle in July 2010. It left him 92 wickets ahead of his nearest rival, Australian's Shane Warne, now also retired.

Star footballers Forlan, Iniesta and Messi will also hope to become the first ever team sport players to win this individual award.

The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during 2010, are the premier honours on the international sporting calendar.

The eventual winner will then be chosen from the final list of nominees by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, and will be unveiled during a televised Awards Ceremony in Abu Dhabi on February 7.

Cricket-Australia 159-5 v England - second Ashes test - tea

Australia had made 159 for five wickets in their first innings at tea on the first day of the second Ashes test against England on Friday.

Score: Australia 159-5 (S. Watson 51, M. Hussey 71 not out; J. Anderson 3-31) v England.

Live updates: India make early breakthrough

New Zealand made a disastrous start against India in the second One-Day International at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur, on Wednesday.

After four overs, the visitors had made 15 for one.

Sreesanth had opener Jamie How (5) caught behind in the fourth over. For How, who had survived a loud leg before appeal off Nehra in the previous over, it was a second successive failure.

Earlier, India captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to field. Gambhir said he was worried about dew affecting the bowlers in the second half and therefore had elected to bowl first.

India, who won the opening match by 40 runs, opted the retain the same side.

Daniel Vettori was back to lead New Zealand, replacing all-rounder Grant Elliott, while Tim Southee came in for the injured Daryl Tuffey.

However, the groundstaff are hoping to reduce the impact of dew by using the ropes and super sopers at regular intervals during the second innings.

Teams:

India: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Murali Vijay , Virat Kohli , Yuvraj Singh , Suresh Raina , Yusuf Pathan , Wridhimann Saha, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra , S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori, (captain), Jamie How, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Kane Williamson , Gareth Hopkins, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Andy McKay, Tim Southee.