Uma Bharti sees no hurdles for India's participation in ICC KnockOut

The Union Sports Minister Uma Bharti on Wednesday said in Ahmedabad that there would be no hurdles in India's participation in the ICC KnockOut tourney next year. Talking to reporters, Bharti said the decision not to allow the team to participate in Sharjah was a collective decision of various ministries. Bharti denied that the Sports Ministry had unilaterally decided not to permit the Indian cricket team to participate in the triangular series.

"Cricket is played for commercial considerations in Sharjah", Bharti said. She added that other ministries like the External Affairs had also influenced the decision. Moreover, together with Singapore and Toronto, Sharjah was not recognised as a cricket venue by the ICC, she added. On the recent notice by the IT department to the BCCI seeking details, the sports minister said she was unaware of it.

We have a very good seam attack: Tendulkar

Former Indian captain and master player Sachin Tendulkar said he was in favour of the board's decision to include seven seamers in the list of probables for the forthcoming tour against Zimbabwe. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, the batting maestro said "The ball in Zimbabwe might seam around and probably spinners will not be assisted by the wicket there, so it is better to have seamers in the attack." Tendulkar, who was in Delhi to inaugurate a sport-goods showroom, said India could now boast of a "very good seam bowling attack". He added "We have got a lot of youngsters who have experience at the international level and we can expect a good performance from them...I am sure we will have an even better attack in years to come."

On the recently concluded Australian tour, Tendulkar said "In the previous Australian series, I had scored 440 runs. This time I have scored 330 plus...So both the series were good for me personally. In the last six Test matches against Australia, I have scored three hundreds and four or five 50's..It's not a bad performance," the star batsman said.

On breaking milestones, the little master said "Once you have achieved something, obviously you feel proud of it and feel happy that after playing for so many years you have achieved some goals," he said. On the youngsters, Tendulkar opined that "the junior players in the last series really played well. The Australian series was big one for all of us and the way youngsters like Shiv Sunder Das, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan performed is really commendable. They all contributed a lot to the team."

Marsh calls for high standard of wickets

The BCCI consultant and former Australian coach Geoff Marsh on Wednesday said in New Delhi the quality of the three Test wickets that produced a fantastic series between India and Australia should hold good for all the wickets in the country if India were to excel in world cricket. "All the three wickets on which the Test matches were played during the recent Australian series were excellent. But every wicket in the country needs to be of a very high standard. It is also important that the trainees, selected for various zonal cricket academies for a two-month training stint, are provided with good wickets if good results are to be achieved," Marsh said.

Marsh, on a whistle-stop visit here, examined the pitch and interacted with the 20 trainees of the North Zone cricket academy undergoing practice at the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds. "The best 120 kids are undergoing training at academies all over the country - the results can only be good, to say the least. This is going to do a lot for Indian cricket," Marsh said. The ex-Aussie opener said the boys were extremely fortunate to undergo training under former cricketers of great repute. "India is lucky to have former cricketers who have immense experience and knowledge of the game. The boys are really lucky to have this opportunity to interact with the best cricketers at the age of 16 or 17". He said the boys must appreciate this and make full use of it. "They are already enjoying their training stint. They are very enthusiastic and I did not see them complain about anything."

ICC anti-corruption unit submits preliminary report

The International Cricket Council's (ICC)anti-corruption unit has submitted its preliminary report to Lord Griffiths, head of ICC's code of conduct committee. Confirming that it has been submitted, an ICC spokesman said in London on Wednesday that Lord Griffith would now convene a panel to consider the report, which would be forwarded to the ICC board scheduled to meet here on June 15.

The board would consider the confidential report on June 18, the spokesman said. He, however, said that details of the report would not be made officially known till then. According to sources, the scourge of match-fixing was still going on in international cricket and at least a couple of the matches in the recent one-day series between Pakistan and New Zealand might have been affected, quotes PTI.

Sir Paul Condon, head of ICC's anti-corruption unit said the probe into the match-fixing scandal would go beyond allegations made in India's CBI report on bribery and corruption in the game. His team's investigation would cover a "whole realm of charges not contained in the CBI report and it will expand to further material not in the public domain."

Sir Paul, who is currently in Sri Lanka as part of the world-wide investigation, said he would not be part of any cover-up. "I can assure you that our investigation will be independent. Nobody will be spared. Nothing will be kept from my inquiry," he told journalists in Colombo. Condon said two ICC investigators, both former Scotland Yard detectives, would remain in Sri Lanka for a week to help the local cricketing authority conduct its own probe. Sir Paul will travel to Pakistan in a few weeks to monitor the inquiry there.

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