eSports Log

Saleem Altaf, the PCB’s Chief Operating Officer, has said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is only considering neutral venues to avoid cancellation of tours that dogged Pakistani international cricket in 2008. He said PCB lost the opportunity to host the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2008 mainly on account of a rigid stance adopted by the previous PCB top brass. However, Pakistan is now supposed to host Australia for a proposed one-day series in the month of April 2009, although Ijaz Butt, PCB chief, has already said the Aussies will not come to Pakistan. On the other hand, the News reported that the proposed series is likely to take place at some offshore venue.

Altaf said, “We want to be more flexible because a rigid attitude won’t help. It’s better to have cricket at some neutral venue than not having it at all.” He added the Pakistan is considering neutral venues such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur for the series. He said the PCB believes that India has only postponed its tour of Pakistan. India will honor the commitment as soon as possible to improve relations between the two neighbors. He more added that PCB and BCCI officials will sit down soon to manage a slot for the series that was supposed to take place in January-February 2009 when Indo-Pak relations commence to show any improvement.

PCB already suffered enormous losses after the International Cricket Council (ICC) postponed the Champions Trophy 2008 after five of the eight competing teams refused to go Pakistan due to security apprehensions. At that time, the proposal of shifting the tournament to Sri Lanka, the event’s reserve venue, was discussed but PCB managed to shoot down that proposal. And PCB entirely ruled out hosting the Champions Trophy at some neutral venue. However, this proposal mostly depends on BCCI’s decision.

From the recent performance of Bangladeshi cricketers it can be said that, Shakib is the only consistent performer from Bangladesh’s side at this moment. And he has confirmed his consistently extraordinary performances by heading the ICC’s ODI all-rounder rankings, the first time any Bangladesh has topped any ICC rankings. Sakib-AL-Hasan the Bangladeshi all-rounder is ranked No. 1 in the world after leaving all good players like J.D.P. Oram, A. Flintoff, Shoaib Malik, and also Jacque Kallis!

Shakib was the leading scorer in the tri-nation series and the 2nd-highest wicket taker for Bangladesh. He scored 153 runs in the three matches at 76.50, with a strike-rate of 101.32, and picked up five wickets at 13.80 avg. His shows in the home tri-nation series, took him to 380 rating points, which helping him to reach the top position. Moreover, very next bilateral three-match series with Zimbabwe, Sakib got the player of the series award, which shows his consistent performance too. After climbing on the first position Sakib-al-Hasan said,

It feels great to be ranked No. 1. My only goal is to keep performing and win matches for the Bangladesh team and I feel more inspired and motivated to give my all in the field. I also know that retaining the top spot will be even tougher and it will require lots of sacrifices, consistency, hard work and dedication. (Quote from cricinfo.com)

For upcoming India vs New Zealand home series in March-April New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has decide to add an additional Test match against Indian cricket team. According to the decision the additional Test will be held in Napier, a port city of NZ, as the tour for the series was rescheduled. Consequently, now Hamilton will host the first Test from March 19 in lieu of March 26. After that Napier will hold the second one from March 26 whereas Wellington will be the venue for the third Test from April 3. According to local media reports the Test series will begin one week earlier. India’s tour will start with a Twenty20 international in NZ on March 6. So, NZC is going to reschedule the subsequent five-match ODI series.

NZC added the additional Test match on request of The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as BCCI had wanted an extra Test to be included to facilitate recover profits lost from several cancelled events. The cash-rich BCCI said a revenue loss of roughly $25 million from the two cancelled one-day games against England and the tour of Pakistan in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks last year. That’s why, they offer to NZC to organize an extra Test match and NZC agreed with them.

After losing every test match amid the miserable condition minnows Bangladesh are in threat of losing their Test status because most of the top teams are unwilling to play the five-day test match against the tiger (Bangladesh Team)  in a tight international cricket schedule that is facing demands for the addition of lucrative, multi-million dollars Twenty20 matches. According to the Daily Telegraph reports complaints about the tiger’s on-field performances and results have been a regular theme of the last eight years. However, it is financial logic that has, at this moment, led the leading cricket powers to turn against them. On the other hand, with an increasing number of Twenty20 tournaments competing for room in the international cricket calendar, most of the top teams such as Australia and England are no longer prepared to play any loss-making and financially unproductive series against a weak team like Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has failed to improve performance since their first Test in November 2000 against India and now their overall record stands at only one win against Zimbabwe among 58 matches. David Morgan, president, International Cricket Council (ICC), said ‘There is no reason why a team should have to play Test matches just because it is a full member of the International Cricket Council.’ He added, ‘If a team is not gaining anything from the experience, then perhaps it might be better to settle for one-day international status.’

Bangladesh is not likely to draw enough support from James Sutherland, chief executive of Cricket Australia. Sutherland said he believes they (Bangladesh Team) are driving down the quality of international cricket at a time when it is more important than ever to keep standards high. ‘With the growth in the Twenty20 market, it is important to take the clutter out of the game,’ he said. He added ‘We need to make sure we are playing cricket for quality’s sake, not for quantity, and in recent times I’m not sure that the quality has always been there’. He further added, ‘The Bangladesh team that came here this year performed far worse than the previous team, which toured in 2003. It’s a difficult balancing act, you want to help them develop, but we lost a lot of money hosting them and I don’t think their presence is doing anything for the game.’

Some one-day series – for example the one played in Australia in the month of August and September – could be difficult for the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to organize in the current environment. On the other hand, England, who are owing to host two Tests against Bangladesh Team at the start of the 2010 summer, are particularly keen to get some better replacements who might be much commercially viable.

Hopefully enough, Bangladesh may be the seventh-most populous country in the world; nevertheless its development plan and system has completely failed to produce any convincing or promising international cricket players for several years now. Additionally, it has been weakened seriously by a spate of recent defections to the Indian Cricket League (ICL), including that of former Bangladeshi captain Habibul Bashar. According to news later this month in Perth, Australia a meeting of ICC executive board will discuss ways of making Test cricket more attractive to protect it from aggression of Twenty20 match.

Recently, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has created pressure on the four host countries of the 2011 World Cup to speed up their all types of preparations and restorations program for the event, because ICC think that four host were running approximately ten months behind the official schedule. The four host countries are Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for the event.

The remarked came out 8 November when Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Director General (Operations) Salim Altaf as telling to the press after a joint World Cup committee meeting. The joint World Cup committee 2011 met formally last 8 November for the first time though it was formed for in June 2007.

According to the Daily Times, Salim said, “ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told representatives of the Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cricket boards during a meeting in New Delhi this week that they needed to fast track preparations that are running 10 months behind schedule.” He added, “The ICC had advised us to go into overdrive. The budget for the World Cup would be approved next year in June.” He also said that the ICC would be contacting the respective authorities and governments to discuss a common visa for World Cup 2011 visitors as well. As his word, “They want a common visa like the one issued for the last World Cup in West Indies in 2007.”

in this tournament India, former world cup champion, is due to host 22 matches, including the final match of the tournament whereas Pakistan, another ex-champion, host for 14 matches in; on the other hand, nine matches will be held in Sri Lanka and six matches in Bangladesh. Among the matches, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will host the two semi-finals whereas Bangladesh, the youngest member of test family, will host the opening ceremony on 20, February 2011.