Live telecast of “ICC Cricket World Cup 2007”

Ok, seeing the amount of people requesting to know who is showing the matches in various countries, here is the breakdown.

Canada

ATN is showing it on their new channel ATN CRICKET PLUS. You can get the complete Cricket World Cup 2007 package (including all Group Stage Matches, Super Eight Series, Semi Finals and Final match) on ATN Cricket Plus channel for $179.99 only. This channel is available through Bell ExpressVu or Rogers Digital Cable.

US

For us Dishnetwork as well as Direct TV are showing it. Dishnetwork is offering the complete coverage of world cup for $199.95 which includes restricted broadband access as well.

DirecTV is also offering the same package i.e. all the games for $199.99.

India

In India, the private sports channel SetMax, in collaboration with Nimbus Communications, has signed an agreement with public broadcaster Prasar Bharti (Doordarshan) to provide live feed of the cricket World Cup matches. So this means both SetMax and Doordarshan are going to show the matches in India.

Online/Broadband

You can view all the matches online anywhere in world by subscribing to WillowTv’s package again for $199.99.

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Harbhajan apologises, hits back at SGPC

 

 Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has apologised to the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) for wearing his hair open in an advertisement. “I apologise if I have hurt Sikh sentiments. It was not my intention to do so. In future I will take care of this,” he said. However, he also criticised the SGPC for taking up the issue in media.

“It’s bad that the SGPC took up the issue in media. If they had any problem, they should have called me like a son and told me. But, their action was wrong,” he said.

Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), considered to be mini-parliament of the Sikhs, demanded an apology from off-spinner Harbhajan Singh for wearing his hair open in the advertisement. “Harbhajan Singh should apologise for appearing in the advertisement if he considers himself to be a Sikh. Our religion prohibits keeping one’s hair open. We also strongly object to his appearing in the advertisement in this fashion,” SGPC President Avtar Makkar said.

He said that since Harbhajan was born and brought up in a Sikh family, he should have known that his religion did not permit keeping free-flowing hair. “We are not even supposed to eat if our hair is not tied,” he said. SGPC chief said Harbhajan should have refrained himself from appearing in the advertisement of the company, which is associated with a well-known liquor brand.

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Set Max to “live telecast” ICC Champions trophy 2007 in India

Channel Set Max for Indian viewers :-

Sony Entertainment television Network won the ICC rights for cricket telecast during the Cricket World Cup in 2003 and thus, they have broadcasting rights of all the cricket tournaments which will be played under ICC’s tags. They won this honour at a price of USD 255 million whereas the previous World Cup’s telecast rights were sold at just 2 million dollars. This includes the coming ICC Champions Trophy and also the ICC Cricket World Cup in West Indies in March 2007.

The Hindi films and cricket channel of Sony, called as “Set Max” or “Sony Max” will do the telecast as they have been doing during the last two Champions trophies.

Commentary both in English and Hindi .

Well yes, its true. Set Max will telecasting the matches in Champions trophy in English while the other channel of Sony – Sab TV will telecast the cricket matches in Hindi. But Sab Tv will only show 6 matches – 3 matches of India, the two semi-finals and the final on 5th November. Here’s the schedule of 2006 Champions trophy.

The Commantators :-

As I said that Champions trophy matches will be shown both in Hindi and English, the commentators are bound to be different. To me, it matters a lot to whom I’ll be hearing during those tense moments in cricket matches and if you do care about them – here’s the list.

English Commentary
John Wright (New Zealand), Tony Greig (England/Australia), Geoffrey Boycott (England), Novjot Singh Sidhu (India), Ian Chappel (Australia), Barry Richards (South Africa), Sanjay Manjrekar (India), Arun Lal (India) and Donna Symonds – The female Commentator from West Indies.

Hindi Commentary
Atul Wassan, Maninder Singh, Saba Karim and Nikhil Chopra – Of Course, all from India.

What they will be showing :-

Remember Mandira Bedi. From a soap opera called “Shanti” on DD1, and a “not so lucky” actress in Bollywood, Mandira Bedi finally made a name for herself by sitting among cricket analysts during the World Cup in 2003. It was the first time a lady was involved in a game which is driven by gentlemen for so many years… and this trend is not breaking during ICC Champions Trophy as well.

She will be supported by Charu Sharma – a well know cricket presenter who never played the game and together they will be presenting a show called “Extraa Innings”, which will be starting 2 hours earlier to every match and will run through the Innings interval to an hour from the match’s end.

So the show “Extra Innings” on Setmax will be starting at 12.30 every match day while the actual match in Champions trophy will start at 14.20 IST.

Prizes to be won though Set Max.

Set Max will be hosting plenty of contests for its viewers during this ICC Cricket tournament and if you are interested in it, read this.

How to get Set Max on my television :-

Set Max is one of the channel that you get through OneAlliance if you are using Dish Tv or Tata Sky satellite network. In fact, Set Max is a very popular channel through local cable operators in India, provided you are not living in Indian cities like Chennai and few others because Set Max is not available in those parts of our country.

You will have Set Max though “direct to home” methods anywhere in India but though local cable operators – you better check it out first.

For Cricket lovers living outside India, the offer for Set max might a little costly but here are the options – Set Max is available in USA, UK and Europe, South Africa, Middle east, Australia and New Zealand. I have found the following contact methods which might be able to help you find ways to get Set Max in your home —

The Contact address :
Sony Pictures Europe house,
25 Golden Square,
London,
W1F 9LU.

The email to contact Set Max :
Mr. Rajan Singh : rajan_singh@spe.sony.com

Alternatively :

Bharti Kabre
Tel : +912267081323
Mob : +919820346384.
Email : bhartia@setindia.com

Will Doordarshan show these matches :-

Cricket is in veins of India people. And now when festival season on Dussera, Diwali and Eid has come, cricket might be the answer for people who will be spending little bit more time at home than office.

Although Cable Tv has penetrated into 48 million Indian homes, and over 65 million world Wide, The question of DD National showing the matches remains very important. The news is half good for cricket viewers in rural area’s of India, or at the places where Set Max doesn’t reach because DD1 – the national channel of our country will be showing the matches in ICC Champions trophy but only those involving India, the semi-finals and the final.

This means that you can watch India vs England on 15th October, India vs Wet Indies/Sri Lanka on 26th October and India vs Australia on 29th October on Doordarshan along with the Semi-finals on 1st and 2nd November 2007 and the final on 5th.

What about All India Radio :-

News is again good for people who like listening to the runniing commentary on Radio as AIR (all india radio) will be bradcasting the commentary for all the matches in ICC champions trophy.

Important notes :-

1. There will be two “Combination matches” which will be played between two teams formed among all the international players who will be here in India for ICC champions trophy. These two matches will be played in Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur and will be scheduled sometime after the ICC champions trophy final on 5th of November.

Here’s how you can buy the tickets for Champions Trophy and also for these two combination matches.

2. Doordarshan will “live telecast” the four day Nissar Mohammad Trophy cricket match between the winner of domestic championships in India and Pakistan. that is – between Ranji Trophy champions Uttar Pradesh and Pakistan’s national champions – Sialkot from 27th of September.

This Four day match will be played in India at Dharamsala. HPCA Cricket Stadium at be precise. Cricketers like Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and Naved ul Hasan has already agreed to play the match between the national champions of the rival countries and school children will have a free entry into this match.

3. The above informtion is very much limited to cricket lovers living in India.

Source:- It’s Only Cricket

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Was this the end of Ganguly?

This was the image that was carried in the daily telegraph about a year ago. This made big headlines at the time and people from West Bengal were furious at the paper for displaying this image. Well, it all seems to be true one year after the news first made healines. We all have seen him play for years, first as a regular player and then as the Captain of the Indian side. But the Bengal tiger’s days seem to be over. If there were any doubts of him making a comback to the Indian side for the World Cup, then the Challenger Trophey has put those doubts to rest. I can clearly see that Saurav Ganguly will not be able to make it to the Indian side for the Wolrd Cup. Call it politics, call it a conspiracy of Dravid and Chappel, call it his poor form but Dada will soon be history for Indian Cricket.

I am/was a big fan of his captaincy and always admired his guts to back his players. But you can’t stay in the side just for your captaincy. You have to lead the side from the front and that’s something that he wasn’t doing at the time he was stripped of his captaincy. Though I always felt that the way he was shunned out of the team was a little too disgraceful for a player of his stature. He was the most successful Indian captain and the selectors should have asked him to step down as a captain and given him atleast two series to see if he can recover from his poor form.

If this Challenger Series held the public’s imagination at any stage, it certainly didn’t beyond 7pm on Tuesday, when the tournament ended for Sourav Ganguly. The one thing that the public was keen to see – if they could manage to tune in to Neo Sports, the newly launched television channel that is broadcasting this series – it was how Ganguly would bat. And if he did not last long enough during his 24 against India Blue, it was even more disappointing today in his game against the Reds.

Only 3 runs from 9 balls before an angled bat outside off redirected the ball back onto the stumps via the inside edge, and suddenly the question surrounding Ganguly changed slightly. It was now not so much whether he could make it back to the Indian team, but whether he still deserved a place in the Rest of India team that would take on Uttar Pradesh in the Zal Irani Trophy match at Nagpur, starting October 9.

Truly sad days for the former skipper and in my honest opinion he should just retire and concentrate on his business.

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Cricket – Challenger Trophy (Series)

The Challenger series is sandwiched between the Indian team’s return from Malaysia and the commencement of the ICC Champions Trophy, in India, beginning October 7. The Challenger trophy has been renamed Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy and will be held from Oct 1 to Oct 4. Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan will be seen in action in the Challenger Trophy tournament in Chennai next week. The national selectors included them in the ‘India Green’ and ‘India Red’ teams respectively.

V V S Laxman, Ashish Nehra and Laxmipathy Balaji also get a chance to prove their credentials in the three-team tournament, which has ‘India Blue’ as the third team. India Blue will be led by Rahul Dravid, while Venugopal Rao and Mohammad Kaif will captain the Red and Green teams respectively.

Telecast:
The Challenger Series, like last year’s edition, will be telecast live in the UK through Sky Sports, Fox Sports in Australia, Super Sport in Africa, Astro in Malaysia and on the internet through Willow TV. In India, the Challenger Trophy matches will be telecast live on Doordarshan. In India, the Challenger Trophy matches will be shown on Neo Sports, the channel of Nimbus group.

For US and Canada, there is no official word so far but more than likely Dishnetwork in US and ATN’s CBN in Canada will be showing it live. For US and Canada, no one is showing it on TV but Dishnetwork is offering the telecast through Willow TV on internet. Read here for more details.

Teams:
India Blue: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Wasim Jaffer, M S Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravinder Jadeja. Coach: Ian Frazer

India Red: Vengupal Rao (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, T P Singh, D Karthik, V R V Singh, S Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Karthik, C Raghu. Coach: Robin Singh

India Green: Mohammad Kaif (captain), Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Hemang Badani, Suresh Raina, Tanmay Srivastav, Piyush Chawla, Parthiv Patel, Saurasish Lahiri, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji, Pravin Kumar, R S Sodhi. Coach: Lalchand Rajput.

Fixtures:

October 1: India Blue vs India Red
October 2: India Blue vs India Green
October 3: India Red vs India Green
October 4: Final

Also Read: Major domestic tournaments to be telecast live

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GURU Greg Chappa(e)l – Enough of his experimentation !

Hmmm, don’t you think Greg Chappel is doing a little too much of experimentation with the Indian cricket team. Getting Dravid to open by dropping Sehwag to No. 3 or No. 4 position, getting Pathan to come at No. 3 position in one match and then not play him at all in others, have Sreesanth play Malaysia tri-series knowing that he has been dropped for the Champions trophey would definately be making some people in the Indian cricket team quite nervous about their standing in the team. As seen before, even experienced players like Kumble, Zaheer and Ganguly are having trouble getting back into the Indian team, the new faces in the Indian team would definately have that in the back of their mind. I feel specially sorry for Sreesanth as he did wonderfully well in West Indies and deserved a place in the playing eleven.

Greg’s experimentation should stop now and he should concentrate on making the current unit a winning side which needs to have the confidence that they can win any match, against any team and at any place in the world. Each player should be given the assurance of his place in the team so that they can concentrate on performing in the match rather than just thinking about maintaining their place in the side. The Champions trophey would be a good test for all the teams to see their standing for the World Cup next year. As it stands right now, Australia are the favourites to lift the trophey which has eluded them in the past.

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Cricket (Malaysia Tri Series) – India sneak low-scoring thriller

 

The second last match of the Tri-series (DLF Cup 2006) between India and West Indies was a close affair. Bowled out for 162, India’s bowlers breathed life into the team’s campaign in Kuala Lumpur as they pulled off an improbable 16-run victory over the West Indies in the fifth ODI of the DLF Cup tri-series on Wednesday. Sachin’s seventh wicket patership with Harbhajan of 78 runs provided some respect to the final score of 161 all out. Harbhajan Singh scored 37 runs before returning with bowling figures of 3 for 35 to be deservedly adjudged man of the match.

India’s quest for self-preservation in the tri-series got off to the worst possible start as they lost captain Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag in quick succession. The famous batting line up failed to show any class apart from just one individual whom we all call THE MASTER, Sachin Tendulkar. The other bastmen also didn’t do much and went back into the pavilion one after the other. India were struggling at 78-6 when Harbhajan Singh joined Tendulkar in the middle.Harbhajan Singh’s all-round performance proved crucial. The off-spinner gave a dazzling display of his talent with the ball and also proved a stoic batsman in the company of Sachin Tendulkar. He scored 37 runs and India had recovered from 78-6 to 156-6, when Harbhajan fell to Chris Gayle. India were all out for 161.

The West Indies shuffled the batting order to give the fringe players opportunity. Chris Gayle and Brian Lara were dropped down the line-up; result: the top-order cracked open at the slightest hint of pressure. Munaf Patel drew first blood for India when he had Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the space of two overs. Chanderpaul’s attempted pull ballooned in the air before dropping into the hands of a waiting Sehwag, while Sarwan nicked the ball to the wicketkeeper. Those two wickets set the ball rolling, and Sreesanth, Agarkar and R P Singh chipped in to give India a serious chance in the match. Harbhajan bowled to a packed close-in cordon and brought in all the variation to have the West Indians in a tangle. He finsihed the day with the figures of 3 for 35. The West Indies, chasing 162, were bowled out for 146 in 41 overs.

Defending a modest target, the Indian bowlers came up with a spirited team effort to post an incredible win and keep their chances alive in the series. The West Indies, having already qualified for the final, paid for complacency as they were bowled out for 146 runs in 41 overs while chasing a modest 162 runs.

Indian bolwing finally came good and showed that on a given day they can beat any team and defend even the modest targets. Indian team need to learn a few lessons from this DLF cup as they have showed inconsistency in both batting and bolwing. They bat good in one match and bowl badly, where as in another match they do the opposite. For India to have a fair chance of winning the Wold Cup next year, they need to be consistent in both the departments.

Sources: Rediff & Cricinfo

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Cricket (Malaysia Tri Series) – Rain saves India from Johnson

Australia were denied a certain victory in the third match of the DLF Cup, as the wet weather played havoc for the second match in a row at the Kinrara Oval. After Australia mustered 244, India, set a revised target of 170 in 29 overs, were decimated by an outstanding spell of fast bowling by Mitchell Johnson, who ripped out the heart of the Indian batting in two hostile overs. He returned magnificent figures of 4 for 11 to have the Indians reeling at 35 for 5 in eight overs, before the rains returned to save India the blushes.

 

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Cricket (Malaysia Tri Series) – Sachin back with a bang but India loose due to rain…

 

The MASTER is back with a bang but India loose the match beacuse of the lousy Duckworth-Lewis method that came into play after the much talked weather showed its colors. No matter what the venue, an anticipatory buzz accompanies Sachin Tendulkar’s every walk to the middle. And even though only a few hundred turned up at the Kinrara Oval on a gloomy afternoon, there was no mistaking the eagerness with which they settled into their seats once it was known that India would bat. Sachin Tendulkar dismissed any doubts of form and fitness as he registered his 40th One-Day International hundred against the West Indies, in the second match of the DLF Cup tri-series in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

But his comeback hundred was overshadowed by the result: a 29-run victory for the West Indies courtesy the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Electing to bat, India scored 309 for 5. In reply, the West Indies raced to 141 for 2 before rain stopped play. When the D/L calculation was made, the West Indies needed 112 for the loss of two wickets in 20 overs.

The 33-year-old Tendulkar, playing his first ODI since February, hammered five sixes and 13 fours to score an unbeaten 142 from 148 balls. He was well-supported by Rahul Dravid (26), Irfan Pathan (65) and Suresh Raina (34).

The West Indies had lost the first match of the tournament, going down by 72 runs to Australia on Tuesday.

 

Sources: – Rediff & Cricinfo

 

 

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Cricket (Malaysia Tri Series, ICC champions trophy) webcast in North America

For those of you who don’t have access to Dish Network (US) and ATN CBN (Canada) and are big fans of cricket, you can watch the matches on your computer through Willow TV site. They have various packages with the Highlights package as cheap as $13. You check them out.

This Season’s Blockbuster Package!

The Tri-Nation Series (India, Australia and West Indies) PLUS The ICC Champions Trophy

DISH Network and Willow TV present live video streaming and Highlights of the Tri Nation series to be played in Malaysia, and the ICC Champions Trophy 2006. Watch the best cricket action this season for a single price!

Interactive Video Highlights of all events in brought to you in association with Cricinfo.

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