Lasith Malinga to Undergo Ankle Surgery Before World CUp 2015

The leading strike bowler for Sri Lankan cricket team Lasith Malinga has to undergo an ankle surgery. Malings has been suffering from some problem with his ankle from quiet a long time. The orthopedic surgeon he has been consulting has advised the fast bowler that he must undergo a surgery reason being that the ankle has detoriated to the extent where surgery is the only treatment option. Methods like cortisone injections and load monitoring which has worked till now might not help any further.

This means the the surgery will keep Malinga out of action for around 16 weeks and he is expected to recover and be available for training in January.  Malinga said that he is hopeful and give his best to be fit and play for the team in the upcoming cricket world cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. "I will do everything I can to be back for the World Cup" is his statement to the press. However at the same time he suggested that Sri Lanka cricket board might groom some your fast bowler so that team has someone prepared to play in his absence.

According to physicians is everything goes well, the fast bowler can get a chance to play few games against New Zealand in Sri Lanka teams tour to NZ and find his form and fitness. Sri Lanka is to play the world cup opening match against New Zealand on Feb 14. See the complete match details of 2015 world cup here.

We wish Lasith all the best for the operation and hope he will recover quickly and play for Sri Lanka in the world cup. It'd be nice to see Malinga Slinga yorkers in world cup. Wonder what a slinga is take a look in the view below:

World Cup Final Match Today - Sri Lanka to Bat First

Today is the ICC world cup final match between India and Sri Lanka and the latest news is that Sri Lanka has won the toss and elected to bat first. The pressure and intensity of the match can be realised from the fact that when M S Dhoni tossed the coin first the match refree, Ravi Sastri and Dhoni were unable to hear the voice of Sri Lankan Cpatain Sangakara. M. S. Dhoni has to toss the coin again and toss was won by Sri Lankan captain who immediately said they are gonna bat first. You must also not forget his statement in the toss when asked by Ravi Sastri what score he think will be good enough to which Sangakar replied, "anything we score will be sufficient enough" As far as teams are concerned India is playing Sreesanth in place of injured Nehra, whereas Sri Lankan has a different team today they are playing 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers to tackel stron Indian battign line. Mathews, Mendis, Herath and Chamara Silva are not included in the playing 11 today and Perera, Randiv, Kulasekara and Chamara Kapugedera replace them for the finals.

ICC Cricket World Cup Final 2011 - India Vs Sri Lanka

The grand day 2 April 2011, India and Sri Lanka will face each other in the final of the ICC cricket world cup 2011. This is the first time that two Asian team will meet each other in the finals of the cricket world cup. This will be the third time both the team have reached the finals of the world cup and interestingly both India and Sri Lanka have won once and lost once in the finals.

Any of the team who wins the game on Saturday will carry home the world cup for the second time. Now one more record can be created if India manage to win the final match it will be first time in the history of the world cup that a host country wins the world cup.

No doubt Sri Lanka will be the toughest opponent India will face in the world cup. Let wait and watch the results of the match which are less than 48 hours from now. Keep yourself tune for the live score updates.

ICC Cricket World Cup Semi Final Match Live

Just one hour more and the first semi final match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 will beplayed between Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Sri Lanka is the one time world cup winner long back in 1996 whereas New Zealand is yet to win the title. This time New Zealand team looks quiet balanced side under the captain ship of Daniel Vettori, thus New Zealand team might not be willingly to loost this golden opportunity to play in the finals after winning this battle against Sri Lanka.

Please note that New Zealand is the only non-Asian team to enter the semi finals thus it would be intersting to see if the final of the cricket world cup will be played between two Asian team or one asian team play against New Zealand in the finals.

I will keep you update in few moments. Till then bye bye

India Vs south Africa Match Live Updates

Today will be the real test of team India as they take on South Africa in the world cup group matches. Though India have already qualified for the quarter finals it wil be very much important if team India can attain the top sport in the points table so that they have to play relatively less competitive team in the quarterfinals.

Lets wait and watch as the match will begin in one hour from now. It'd be interesting to see which players will be choosen for playing 11 for the Indian team.

Yesterday I was expecting Ireland to win the game against West Indies but one decision changed the game for Ireland and Bangladesh win over England made the tournament matches more intersting oncxe again. Now Englan and Bangladesh both will have to win the next matches so as to secure the place for the next round.

Sreesanth replaces Praveen Kumar in World Cup squad

Indian selectors played a gamble by selecting pace bowler Praveen Kumar in the world cup squad. However the gamble didn’t turn up well and the bowler has been ruled out of the upcoming World Cup with just 10 days left for the tournament to begin. He is now replaced by S. Sreesanth.

This is a golden chance for Sreesanth which came from nowhere, perhaps this can make him perform 200% now. But I am still in doubt if he will make his way in the playing 11 in the knock out matches if he fails to do extraordinarily well in the group stages.

"Honestly speaking, I play with a lot of passion and people misunderstand my passion for aggression. I will play with passion and try to win for my country," he told CNN-IBN channel on Tuesday.

World cup points table updated

Points table of the cricket world cup 2015

World Cup Updates - Nations start declaring 15 members squad

With just 30 days left for the world cup to start. Masimum number of the particiapting nations selecting commitees have declared the team for the world cup. Few nations like Canada were quick to declated the teams and that I have already posted on the ICC cricket Blog.

Blow the the teams of other nations who just declared the 15 members world cup squad:

1. NewZealand World cup squad:
Daniel Vettori, Hamish Bennett, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock.
Players to watch for: Daniel Vettori and Jesse Ryder

2. England: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy
Players to watch for: Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood

3. Ireland world cup squad: William Porterfield (capt), Andre Botha, Alex Cusack, Niall O'Brien (wk), Kevin O'Brien, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, John Mooney, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Gary Wilson (wk), Andrew White, Ed Joyce.

4. India world cup team: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin
Players to watch: Sachin, Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan

5. Australia squad : Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Cameron White, Tim Paine (wk), Steven Smith, John Hastings, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Doug Bollinger.
Players to watch: Hussey brothers

6. South African team for the world cup: Graeme Smith (capt), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk (wk)
Players to watch: Hamla, Duminy, Kallis, Steyn

ICC World cup 2011 tickets sale - Buy Cricket World Cup Tickets

In the previous post I added world cup 2011 countdown widget where visitors can watch the time left for the most awaited cricket tournament. Now once again there's a good news for those who want to watch the match live and enjoy the thrilling environment of the cricket stadium.

For those who have busy schedule ICC Cricket blog is always there to watch the live cricket scoreboard. Coming back to match tickets ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 tickets are now on sale at http://www.icccwc2011.kyazoonga.com

So no waiting book your tickets now

Countdown to the ICC Cricket World cup 2011

Countdown to the ICC Cricket World cup 2011 has begun and with around 4 more months left for the tournament I today added the world cup 2011 countdown timer to my ICC Cricket blog. I am sure all the cricket overs will like this script. You need not to calculate number of days left for the world cup you can see automated and live countdown timer.

At the same time sports lover can also watch the highlights of Commonwealth games 2010 that are currently being hosted in India.

ICC Cricket World Cup Opening Match - World Cup 2011

ICC Cricket World Cup Opening Match - World Cup 2011
Feb 19, 2011 will be the day when the opening match of the ICC cricket world cup 2011 will be played between the two co-hosts India and Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh. Sri Lanka is the third hosting country, initially the other country Pakistan was also one of the co-hosts for the world cup but later ICC ruled out any possibility of world cup matches in Pakistan due to security concern, remember Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by terrorists in Pakistan while they were on there way to the Stadium and many players had a narrow escape.

Coming back to the first match of the cricket world cup 2011 between India and Bangladesh. Both the teams are in Group B. England, West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa are the other teams in the Group B.

India may seem to be the favorites for the world cup opener match however If you go by stats then the only world cup match played between India and Bangladesh was won by Bangladesh, also match in being played in Bangladesh thus the Bangla team can be a surprise package in the opening of the 2011 cricket world cup.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 News & Updates

Now all the teams are preparing for world cup and the domestic and international cricket tournaments of all the teams will be closely watched by all the selection committees of respective countries. To catch all the latest news of the ICC cricket world cup 2011 please bookmark the world cup 2011 section of this blog.

This time I see West Indies as a good chance to win the wold cup, last they played world cup in Indian subcontinent they were unlucky to lost the knock out match. Apart from this India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has the home advantage that all the three teams can capitalize. I can't say much about team India till the playing squad for cricket world cup is declared.

In the mean time latest news is that ICC will soon be inspecting the stadiums and pitches of the world cup venue and given the quality of cricket played in these countries hardly any issue can be raised.

In the next post I will write about world cup fixtures and after that the future posts will features one by one prediction of the match results. Till the second round. So keep visiting.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 official mascot

Stumpy is the official mascot for ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Have look at the pics below for stumpy cricket worlc cup 2011 mascot.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - Revised format for the world cup

The 2011 worl cup will have a new format, unlike the previous format that saw exit of asian teams India and Pakistan out of the tournament and caused low earnings. This time format is designed so that the major teams will stay longer and don't have an unlikely exit of main teams.

Total 14 teams will be participating which includes 10 test playing nations and Kenya (ODI status) and three qualified teams (Canada, Netherlands and Ireland). All fourteen teams are divided in two groups of 7 teams each:
Group A: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada, Kenya
Group B: India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands

I hardly saw the major teams exiting from the group stage as top four team from both groups will qualify for the quarter finals. The winners of the quarterfinals would face off in the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the grand final.