NATWEST CRICKET SERIES .

The NatWest Series is the name used for One Day International cricket tournaments held in England since 2000. The tournaments are sponsored by the National Westminster Bank.NatWest Series is an annual one day international cricket tournament held in England involving the home side and two of the season's touring teams.

A series of usually nine matches are played across England at the seven test match grounds; Lord's, London, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Headingley, Leeds, Old Trafford, Manchester, The Oval, London, Riverside, Durham and Trent Bridge, Nottingham plus other county grounds such at Canterbury, Cardiff and Bristol, with a final at Lord's.

NatWest Series Competition

The NatWest Series has brought the most exciting cricket competition in its premier format for over twenty years now, but since 2000, the NatWest Series is even more challenging for both teams, as well as cricket fans! Ever since England and Australia played out a stunning final at Lord’s in 2005, the NatWest Series competition has become world-famous for explosive matches which are won in the last second.

NatWest Challenge

For three seasons, from 2003 to 2005, three extra one day internationals were arranged for the England team in addition to the NatWest Series.

In 2003, Pakistan came to England for the three match series. In 2004, India played the NatWest Challenge as a prelude to the ICC Champions Trophy held in England that year.

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CRICKET MANIA IN INDIA .

Cricket is the de facto national sport of India, and its development has been closely tied up with the history of the country, mirroring many of the political and cultural developments around issues such as caste, religion and nationality. Though cricket is indubitably the most popular sport in India, it is not the nation's official national sport (a distinction held by field hockey).Although cricket is not the official national sport in India .

A short history
The British brought the game of cricket to India. Initially only the Parsi community of western India, who were rather close to the British Officials, started playing the game. In course of time the game found favor with the Indian royalty. Some of the Indian Maharajahs even gained favor with the British for their cricketing merits. After India gained Independence in 1947, the British left, but the legacy remained. It did not take long for Indians to make it to the international arena.

Organization of Cricket in Modern India

International Cricket:-

International cricket in India generally does not follow a fixed pattern. For example, the English schedule under which the nation tours other countries during winter and plays at home during the summer. Generally, there has recently been a tendency to play more one-day matches than Test matches. Cricket in India is managed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the richest cricket board in the cricket world. Indian International Cricketing Squad has also provided some of the greatest players to the world. Indian cricket has a rich history.

Ranji Trophy - Founded as 'The Cricket Championship of India' at a meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India in July 1934. The first Ranji Trophy fixtures took place in the 1934-35 season. Syed Mohammed Hadi of Hyderabad was the first batsman to score a century in the tournament. The Trophy was donated by H.H. Sir Bhupendra Singh Mahinder Baha-dur, Maharajah of Patiala in memory of His late Highness Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji of Nawanagar.

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SHAHID AFRIDI " BOOM BOOM STYLE ".

Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi (Pashto: صاحبزاده محمد شاهد خان افریدی, Urdu: (born 1 March 1980 in Khyber Agency), popularly known as Shahid Afridi (Pashto: شاهد ‏افریدی) is a Pakistani cricketer currently playing for the Pakistani national team in the international circuit. He made his ODI debut on 2 October 1996 against Kenya in Nairobi and his Test debut on 22 October 1998 against Australia at Karachi.He is known for his aggressive batting style, and currently holds the highest career strike rate in the history of international cricket. In a recent survey, Afridi was named as the most popular cricketer in Pakistan.

Profile

In cricket, Shahid Afridi is the maddest of mad maxes. A flamboyant allrounder introduced to international cricket as a 16-year-old legspinner, he surprised everyone but himself by pinch-hitting the fastest one-day hundred in his maiden innings. Afridi is a compulsive shot-maker and although until 2004 it was too often his undoing, causing him to float in and out of the team, a combination of maturity on and off the field and a sympathetic coach in Bob Woolmer, saw Afridi blossom into one of modern-day cricket's most dangerous players and a vital cog in Pakistan's revival in 2005.

Style

His general style of batting is very aggressive and attack oriented and has earned him the nickname "Boom Boom Afridi" for his fastest One Day International century just in 37 balls. As of 22 May 2007, he has an ODI strike rate of 109.38 runs per 100 balls, the highest in the game's history. This attitude has been transferred to Test cricket as well, with Afridi scoring at a relatively high strike rate of 86.13 in Tests.

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ICL Makes Cricket History In India .

The Indian Cricket League (ICL), is a private cricket league that runs parallel to the Indian Premier League (IPL) managed by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The biggest tournaments with international players follow the Twenty20 format, while there is also a domestic 50-over tournament Matches were initially held at Tau Devi Lal stadium in Panchkula, near Chandigarh, Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad, and at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. However, since 2008 games are played at more venues across India.The Indian Cricket League (ICL), brain child of Subhash Chandra of Zee Television .

History

Zee Telefilms, part of the Essel group promoted by Subhash Chandra, had bid for the telecast rights to the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Although the highest bid, it was unsuccessful. In 2004, Subhash Chandra again bid for telecast rights and ended up in an inconclusive court battle. He made another bid for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy rights and once again lost. He responded by creating the ICL. “They denied us the cricket content,” said Himanshu Mody, business head of ICL and Zee’s sports, “so, we had to create our own content.”

The Future of the ICL

The ICL is an obvious rival to the BCCI. In a poll conducted by a leading online cricket website, 68.9% of those voted said the ICL will do better than BCCI in the coming years, 14.9% said they will work together with ICL having a supportive role, while 16.2% said that ICL will be a failure.

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YUVRAJ SINGH " A MATCH FINESH PLAYER ".

Yuvraj Singh pronunciation (help·info) (Punjabi: ਯੁਵਰਾਜ ਸਿੰਘ, born 12 December 1981 in Chandigarh, India) is a cricketer from India, and the son of former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi movie star Yograj Singh.^[1] He has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000 (ODIs) and played his first Test match in 2003. He was the vice captain of the ODI team from late-2007 to late-2008. At the 2007 World Twenty20 he hit six sixes in an over against England's Stuart Broad - a feat only performed three times previously in any form of senior cricket, and never previously in an international match between two Test cricket nations.

PROFILE:- At 19 ,yuvraj is already all-rounder who has proven himself. one need look no than his performance in the domestice youth compitition and in the under 19 world cup in sri lanka . in the final of the cooch behar trophy in the 1999 , 2000 season , yuvraj made 358 aganist bihar .He was named player of the series for scoring heavily through the world cup , including a tremendous half century that came off just 20 ball in the semi final match against Australia rofile:

Early career

Yuvraj first came to attention when he captained the U-19 Punjab cricket team in the final of the Cooch-Behar Trophy against Bihar U-19s, in which he scored 358.^[2] He then gained selection for the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in January 2000, where he was part of a team lead by Mohammed Kaif which won the tournament .

PLAYING STYLE :- Yuvraj is primarily a left-handed batsman but can bowl part-time left-arm orthodox spin. He is regarded as being better at batting against fast bowling than spin bowling, and cites the Indian Oil Cup 2005 as a turning point in his career.^[23] He is one of the better fielders in the Indian team, fielding primarily at point, with a good aim at the stumps. A Cricinfo report published in late 2005 showed that since 1999, he was the fourth most prolific fielder in effecting ODI run outs, and of those on the list of prolific fielders, he had the second highest rate of effecting a run out.


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SHARJAH CRICKET TOURNAMENT

The Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium is in the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It was originally constructed in the early 1980s and has been much improved over the years.Sharjah Cricket Council, one of the constituents of its parent body Emirates Cricket Board is engaged in various activities related to the conduct and promotion of the game of Cricket in the Emirate of Sharjah .

LOCATION

The Council operates from its offices based at the famous Sharjah Cricket Stadium that is also the main hub of the international cricket activities.

HISTORY

The Sharjah Cricket Council was formerly known as the Sharjah Cricket Association and came into the existence after the organisational changes resulted in the creation of the Emirates Cricket Board in the year 1989.

The induction of the game of Cricket in UAE can trace its origin to the mid-sixties when the Royal British Armed Forces stationed in Sharjah were actively involved with the game.

Cricket patrons of the likes of Abdulrahman Bukhatir, Galadari Brothers, Abdul Rahman Falaknaz, Mohammad Redha Abbas and others, who picked up their game in the sub-continent during their stay for studies, promoted and developed the game here.

Match fixing

Sharjah was at the centre of Sir Paul Condon’s investigations into corruption in cricket. Although the report did not conclusively single out the venue much controversy raged. BBC Cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said in 2001 : “Sharjah has been pinpointed as being the centre of this activity [match fixing] and, again, this is entirely plausible. I would swear under oath that two of the dozen or so matches I have witnessed on that desert ground over the years were fixed”. On the other hand Sharjah tournament organiser, and former Pakistan cricketer, Asif Iqbal:”To my mind, all the matches in Sharjah were fair and honest cricketing encounters”.

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ASIA CUP ' A CRICKET TOURNAMENT".

The Asia Cup is an international cricket tournament. It was conceived in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was created as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years. The first edition was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE where the council's offices were based (until 1995). The International Cricket Council has ruled that all games played for the Asia Cup have official One Day International status. India along with Sri Lanka has lifted the Asia cup the most times (4). India appeared in every final apart from the 1986 (India pulled out due to strained cricketing relations with Sri Lanka), 1993 (when it was cancelled due to strained political relations between India and Pakistan) and 2000 cups. Sri Lanka, however, have appeared in every final since the cup's inception.

History

The first edition of the Asia Cup was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE, the location of the headquarters of the newly formed Asian Cricket Council. The first match was Pakistan vs the new ICC member Sri Lanka. The tournament was a round-robin tournament between India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. India won this tournament with two victories.

A look back at the Asia Cup:

1983 - Asia comes together
The Asia Cup was conceived in 1983 with the creation of the Asian Cricket Council. It was housed in Sharjah and that's where the first tournament was held. Called the Rothmans Asia Cup, the tournament featured India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in a round-robin format.

1990-91 - India's third title
The Asia Cup traveled to India for the first time. This time Pakistan pulled out of the tournament and Bangladesh yet again proved no match for the sub-continental seniors. India again beat Sri Lanka in the final to lift the trophy for the third time.

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