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Yubraj singh

One of the major concerns for Kings XI Punjab ahead of the third season of the IPL is a long injury list, but they will be relieved that Yuvraj Singh, one of their most important players, is likely to be fit in time for the first game against Delhi Daredevils.

Yuvraj tore a ligament in his left wrist in late January and missed the second Test against Bangladesh and the entire series against South Africa that ended two days ago. He had been to Australia last week for treatment and is now looking forward to resuming batting. “I will start batting in three days,” he told 22yardscricket. “It’s been five weeks (since the injury), so yes, I should be good for the first game.”

Punjab were one of the best teams in the inaugural IPL, cruising into the semi-finals, but had a tough time in the second season, affected by the injuries to fast bowlers Sreesanth and Jerome Taylor, and the unavailability of Australian players for much of the competition.

Yuvraj has targeted at least a semi-final spot this year, and believes one of the keys to a strong performance will be having the entire squad fit and available for the tournament. “We had a good first year, made the semi-finals easily when we had our full bench of players,” he said. “So if we have our full bench of players not injured, we have a good chance of going through to the semi-finals.”

They have several important players struggling for fitness, though. Australian batsman Shaun Marsh, their standout performer in the first IPL season, became the latest worry after he was ruled out of the upcoming one-day internationals against New Zealand due to a back problem.

Their most expensive overseas player, fast bowler Brett Lee, is also beset with fitness problems. (However, IPL chairman Lalit Modi said in his Twitter page that Lee is arriving in India tomorrow). Lee is recovering from a painful elbow surgery that ruled him out of the entire Australian home summer campaign, and said a couple of weeks ago that he might never bowl again. He has only played two matches since spearheading New South Wales’ march to the Champions League title last October.

“We have a few injuries but we still have a bit of time to get fit for the first game,” Yuvraj said. Besides fitness issues, the lack of quality Indian batting back-up for Yuvraj is another of Punjab’s drawbacks, which makes it vital that allrounder Irfan Pathan recovers from the back injury that has kept him out of the preliminary squad of the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

Sachin Tendulkar and Vangipurappu Laxman struck half centuries as India continued to torment Sri Lanka in the third and final test on Friday after Virender Sehwag fell seven runs short of a record-breaking third triple century.

Sehwag resumed on his overnight score of 284 but was caught and bowled by Muttiah Muralitharan for 293, before Tendulkar (53) and Laxman (62) helped India carve out a commanding first innings lead of 236 by tea on the third day.

Sri Lanka struck back by claiming four wickets after lunch before skipper Mahendra Dhoni (21) and Zaheer Khan (3) guided India to 629 for seven in their pursuit of a victory that would secure their spot at the top of the test rankings.
Starting the day on 443-1 in reply to Sri Lanka’s first-innings 393, India lost Sehwag in the fourth over, much to the disappointment of an expectant and packed Brabourne Stadium.

Left-arm paceman Chanaka Welegedara struck in his first over of the day when he had overnight batsman Rahul Dravid caught behind for 74 to briefly raise Sri Lankan hopes of a revival.
However, Laxman, who hit eight fours, and Tendulkar shared in a 71-run stand for the fourth wicket to pile on the agony before Nuwan Kulasekara broke the stand after lunch when Tendulkar played on to the stumps.

Muralitharan, playing in his last overseas test, had Laxman caught at mid-on before Rangana Herath forced a chancy Yuvraj Singh to be caught at mid off for 23.
Muralitharan then bowled Harbhajan Singh, who bottom edged a reserve sweep onto the stumps, for one before Dhoni and Zaheer guided the hosts to the break.

Sehwag, only the third batsman to score two triple centuries after Australia’s Don Bradman and West Indian Brian Lara, had shared in double century stands with opener Murali Vijay (87) and Dravid on the second day to put India in command.
India hold a 1-0 after they won the second test by an innings and 144 runs. The first test ended in a draw.

India Will Miss Explosive Batsmans Spinning Skills Too

Another subdued practice session, another day of eerie silence. Team India is still coping with the unexpected loss of Yuvraj Singh and rejigging the middle order is on top of their list of priorities. However, with the Pakistan clash looming, the absence of Yuvrajs big-hitting talents could prove easier to tide over than his recently-developed skills as a part-time slow bowler.

yuvraj singh

Kevin Pietersens pie-chucker took two hat-tricks during the second edition of the Indian Premier League on South African soil and has bowled 194 overs in 56 games in the last two years. It is in the past year, though, that his bowling skills have gone up a notch as he bagged 12 wickets at 30.91. In the past 17 ODIs, he has even bowled his full quota of 10 overs twice, both away from home, at Christchurch and at Colombo, where he finished with a three-wicket haul against New Zealand at 3.10.
In Hamilton this year, he bowled nine overs in the fourth ODI at an economy rate of 4.44, picking up one wicket. Yuvrajs loopy tweakers have enabled MS Dhoni to play one specialist spinner in Harbhajan Singh more often than not and that luxury would have come in handy on a dry surface like at the Supersport Park in Centurion , where India play two crucial league games against Pakistan and Australia.
Now, either Yusuf Pathan or Suresh Raina will have to step up, with the only other part-time option being replacement Virat Kohli, who is expected to arrive only on Friday morning.
While Dhoni finds his hands tied on this fifth-bowler dilemma, there will be discussions aplenty on how to plug the yawning gap in the middle order. Dhoni might have to step up to the plate and return to his aggressive ways, but then who will play finisher as skillfully as the skipper has in the recent past Sachin Tendulkar too might have to attempt to play steadfastly throughout. Gambhir is back as opener but with Yuvrajs match-winning presence unavailable in the latter stages, will Dravid be under more pressure to up the ante
In the context of the upcoming Pakistan game, too, Yuvrajs absence acquires relevance. He was man of the series in Indias last full series against Pakistan. Besides , during the memorable 2003 World Cup game at Centurion, in a match made memorable by Sachin Tendulkars 98, Yuvraj had scored a crucial, unbeaten 50 as India successfully chased 273. The ground will miss his presence in this reprise of that big clash.
Incidentally, the batsmen is expected to stay back in South Africa for a while and has been advised rest.

Blow for India as injury rules Yuvraj Singh out of Champions Trophy

• Vice-captain breaks finger in fielding practice
• Joins Sehwag and Gambhir on India’s casulty list

India have been dealt a blow after it was confirmed that their vice-captain Yuvraj Singh has had to withdraw from the Champions Trophy after breaking a finger during fielding practice on Wednesday.

He will be out for six weeks because of the injury to his right hand, and will be replaced in the squad by Virat Kohli.

Yuvraj is the third Indian players to have sustained an injury in the run-up to India’s participation in the Champions Trophy – which begins against Pakistan on Saturday – following the withdrawal of Virender Sehwag [shoulder] and fellow opener Gautam Gambhir [groin].

Gambhir did not play in the practice match against New Zealand, while Sehwag did not make the trip to South Africa.

The icon status of Indias most cher ished cricketers will soon come to an end. From 2010 onwards, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh, who enjoyed this special status the inaugural two seasons, will be like any oth er player in the Indian Premier League (IPL) In the original plan itself, icon status was only for two years. That time IPL was a new concept and we wanted to build a strong base for teams. But it is not mandatory to keep these players after the next season, IPL commis sioner Lalit Modi said here on Tuesday. They can be traded or other teams can bid for them in the fresh auctions after the 2010 season. They will not be icon players anymore, he added.
Abolishing the icons tag would mean that these players no more stand to earn 15% more than the highest-earning player from his fran chise. The fees will be at the discretion of the franchise. This was among the many decisions taken during the IPL governing council meet ing held in Mumbai on Tuesday.
It also decided to add four new venues the IPL tournament, Nagpur, Ahmedabad Dharamsala and Vishakapatnam, which will act as home venues for Mumbai Indians, Team Jaipur, Kings XI and Team Hyderabad re spectively. The franchisees can decide the num ber of matches at these venues. IPL season will be played from March 12-April 25, for which the schedule has already been charted out.
The opening match will be between Team Hyderabad and Knight Riders in Hyderabad while the total number of matches has been increased from 59 to 60, to include a third place play-off after the two semifinals. The schedule has been prepared eight months in advance to help franchisees and sponsors get ready in time for the event, Modi said.
The IPL has also brought a change in strategy (time-out ) breaks that were introduced in 2009. Instead of a seven-and-half minute break per innings (which equals to 15 minutes per game), there will now be two twoand-half minute breaks per innings (equaling to 10 minutes per game). The first break will be called by the bowling captain between the sixth and the tenth over while second by the batsman at the crease between the 11th and 15th over.The IPL has also decided to tweak the NOC rule a bit to deal with players not signing their board contracts in time and missing out on FTP commitments.

Yuvraj Singh has hit back at the criticism over the Indian cricketers’ decision to reject the World Anti Doping Agency’s regulations concerning drug testing, asking for cricketers to be treated differently from other sportsmen.

“Their sports and our sport is different,” he said. “We play more and we get very little time with our families and I feel we are travelling more. We are playing a lot of time in a year and we should be given more space, with due respect to other sports.”

The 11 Indian cricketers in the ICC’s testing pool have raised concerns that the code’s ‘whereabouts’ clause that will require them to divulge information about their location three months in advance and say that this that could violate privacy and threaten their security. However, several top Indian athletes previously tested by WADA have said the code does not infringe on privacy.

The extensive travelling, Yuvraj said, gave India’s cricketers too few days to spend at home each year. “After nine months of playing, we come home for just ten days,” he told news channel CNN-IBN. “We don’t want somebody to intrude upon our privacy for dope tests during that small period. We have put out our points in front of the BCCI and they will speak to the ICC.”

The Indian sports minister MS Gill endorsed the view, saying all national sports bodies and players should support the WADA and adhere to its regulations. The BCCI plans to ask the ICC to walk out of the WADA umbrella and develop a cricket-specific anti-doping code, but cricket’s governing body is unlikely to support such a suggestion.

ICC Vice-President and Chairman of the Central Organising Committee Sharad Pawar: “The unveiling of the logo is an exciting and significant landmark as the event now has a formal identity.”

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat: “The ICC Cricket World Cup is the game’s biggest and greatest showcase with nation-versus-nation action and a rich history stretching back to 1975.. We must now write the next page of that history to show our great sport in the best possible light.”

A celebration of cricket – that is the idea behind the event logo for the ICC Cricket World Cup (ICC CWC) 2011, unveiled at a ceremony in Mumbai on Tuesday evening.

Designed by Australian creative firm Witekite, one of 12 companies from all over the world that submitted concepts, the logo, in the shape of a cricket ball, is intended to reflect all that is best about cricket in the sub-continent – colour, movement and action.

And the design is also based on the idea of the supporters and players from the host nations, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, coming together and joining the rest of the world to create a special event.

It will be used on an ongoing basis to stimulate awareness and interest in the tournament over the next two years and will feature on publicity and promotional material both during the build-up and throughout what will be the tenth ICC Cricket World Cup.

The unveiling was attended by the ICC Vice-President and Chairman of the tournament’s Central Organising Committee Sharad Pawar, ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat and Tournament Director Professor Ratnakar Shetty.

And also present were ICC Cricket World Cup heroes from the past – Clive Lloyd, who led the West Indies to victory in the first two editions in 1975 and 1979, Sri Lanka’s Aravinda de Silva, man of the match for an unbeaten 107 and 3-42 in the 1996 final, Michael Bevan of Australia, regarded as one of the greatest One-Day International players of all time and a key member of the side that won in 1999 and 2003, Dilip Vengsarkar and Balwinder Singh Sandhu, who were integral components of the India side that denied the West Indies a hat-trick of World Cup titles in 1983, and present-day stars Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma.

ICC Vice-President and Chairman of the Central Organising Committee for the ICC CWC 2011 Sharad Pawar said: “The announcement of the event logo is an exciting and significant landmark for all of us involved in preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the whole cricket world.

“The event now has a formal identity which we can look to build upon and use to stimulate interest and awareness as 2011 draws closer.

“We now need to build on this and press on in our preparations to ensure the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is the success that we all want it to be.”

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: “We are delighted with the event logo for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 as it sums up the nature of our great sport in the host nations through its vibrancy, colour and action. It is something we want everyone to become familiar with over the next two years.

“We see those characteristics in every match that takes place in the region and we have also seen them in the two previous ICC Cricket World Cups there, in 1987 and 1996. Both were staged successfully and we look forward to the 2011 edition being no different.

“Those previous tournaments and the cricketing greats with us in Mumbai are reminders of the rich history of the ICC Cricket World Cup, stretching back to 1975 when Clive Lloyd led the West Indies to the inaugural title in a thrilling final against Australia at Lord’s.

“The ICC Cricket World Cup is the game’s biggest and greatest showcase, bringing together as it does teams from all over the world in nation-versus-nation action. And it is also the event that generates the majority of the revenue used by our Members to grow our global game.

“What we must now seek to do through hard work is to write the next page of the event’s history by ensuring the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is something that shows our great sport with its great spirit in the best possible light.”

Witekite’s design of the event logo was the unanimous choice of a selection panel made up of representatives of the host nations, ICC management and stakeholders.

The event logo story – a celebration of cricket

The crowd is part of the action, hands up and cheering and shouting for their heroes. The circular shape makes a cricket ball hurtling down the pitch, seam up. Different player silhouettes and the crowd form a pattern around the seam.

The green seam indicates the one day ball and the green of the pitch and ground. The players and crowd surround this with motion and activity. The colours and figures on each side of the ball represent the event host nations coming together along with the world of cricket.

The colour and movement creates a festival, players and fans coming together from around the world to celebrate cricket in the sub-continent.

Having decided to support its players on the World Anti-Doping Agencys contentious whereabouts clause, the BCCI has now told the ICC that any negotiations on the issue would be between ICC and WADA, and not with BCCI. Indias top cricketers have refused to accept the international clause requiring sportspersons to disclose their whereabouts in advance.
Board president Shashank Manohar refused to be drawn into stating whether India was once again gearing up for a clash with the sports parent body. However, as much as Manohar sought to bring peaceful negotiations to the table, it remains clear that BCCI is treading a path which no other member board of ICC was openly willing to take.
It is not just the Indian players who are apprehensive about WADAs out-of-competition testing clause. Players from other countries too felt equally insecure before signing up. However , it is only the Indian cricketers who have openly spoken about the subject.
We believe the clause with regard to whereabouts of cricketers is unreasonable for three reasons. First, some (Indian) cricketers have security cover, and when you have such cover, you cannot disclose your whereabouts to a third person. Second, the privacy of individuals cannot be invaded. Third, the Indian constitution guarantees every citizen his privacy, Manohar said after BCCIs working committee meeting on Sunday where five senior cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were present along with ICC officials.
Manohar subsequently also provided a solution to the deadlock in the meeting, certainly the players point of view, when he added: We can appreciate players being tested even when they are not playing. But if ICC or WADA want to test the players, they can inform the board which will get the players at the required location within 24 hours. This is our suggestion.
A couple of things Manohar said might not find many takers in the international sporting community. He referred to some Indian cricketers having security cover because of which their whereabouts were difficult to divulge. But the biggest names in world sport, like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Lance Armstrong, too have agreed to the same WADA norms. They have done so despite being as apprehensive about it as Indias superstar cricketers.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies was declared Player of the year at the ICC awards ceremony held in Dubai. Another maverick pacer Dale Steyn of the SouthAfrica was named Test player of the year. While the hard hitting M.S.Dhoni won the ODI player of the year award.

Of the Pakistanis Mohammad Yousaf was one of the nominees for the ODI player of the year , while umpire Aleem Dar was nominee for the best umpire.

Here is the list of awards won by player in different categories.

Cricketer of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Test Player of the Year
Dale Steyn

ODI Player of the Year
Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Emerging Player of the Year
Ajantha Mendis

Associate Player of the Year
Ryan ten Doeschate

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year
Yuvraj Singh

Women’s Player of the Year
Charlotte Edwards

Spirit of Cricket
Sri Lanka

Umpire of the Year
Simon Taufel

ICC Test Team of the Year Graeme Smith (SA, capt), Virender Sehwag (Ind), Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL, wk), Brett Lee (Aus), Ryan Sidebottom (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL). 12th man: Stuart Clark (Aus).

ICC ODI Team of the Year Hershelle Gibbs (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Ricky Ponting (Aus, capt), Younis Khan (Pak), Andrew Symonds (Aus), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind, wk), Farveez Maharoof (SL), Daniel Vettori (NZ), Brett Lee (Aus), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Nathan Bracken (Aus). 12th man: Salman Butt (Pak)