'Sai Ratna' award for Sachin Tendulkar

Cricket is a popular game which is famous around the world. I have lots of Cricket World Cup 2011 images in my cell phone. People are very crazy for this game. World cup is a great event for all cricket lovers who wait for it madly. Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni told in an interview that Sachin Tendulkar deserves a Bharat Ratna Award. According to him, no other player deserves this great honor. He is playing from twenty one years and he has all the qualities which one good player should have. Sachin is the only player who has made successful double century in one day international match. He is also the leading run scorer in test cricket. Sachin Tendulkar is the 1st player who has made 50 centuries in international cricket matches. He has also got Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri. I think it’s a good decision by Indian cricket team.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken  said that his ministry would ask the Home Ministry to include sports in the criteria for Bharat Ratna, after calls for bestowing Sachin Tendulkar with the coveted award got louder following India’s World Cup triumph.

“Bharat Ratna is given only to those who have done eminent work in the field of art, literature, social service, science and technology but sports is not included in it.

“And now that we want India to do well in Olympics and other international events, the sportspersons must also be considered for this honour. And if any sportsperson gets Bharat Ratna it would be a matter of pride for all the Indians. We will take up this issue with the Home Ministry,” he said.

However, the government has already stated that bestowing ’Bharat Ratna’ to sportspersons would require tweaking of criteria that has been laid down for the country’s highest civilian honour.

The ‘Bharat Ratna’ was started in 1954 and has so far been given to 41 eminent personalities, none of whom are sportspersons, the reason being the criteria for the coveted honour.

Pakistani Cricketers Defeated by India - A Show in PAKISTAN in PUNJABI

ICC CONFIRMS 2015 AND 2019 WCS WILL BE 10-TEAM AFFAIRS

The ICC Executive Board  confirmed that the next two World Cups will be 10-team events and also announced that teams will be relegated and promoted on the basis of performance in the ODI league after the 2019 World Cup in England.

The Board had decided in October 2010 to reduce the number of participating teams in the flagship event of the game, which means that small nations, mostly Associate members will not get the chance to play at the big stage. The 2015 tournament will be held in Australia and New Zealand.

"The Board agreed that the 2015 World Cup will comprise the existing 10 Full Members, however, they gave notice to all Full Members that participation in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup will be determined on the basis of qualification," an ICC statement said.

INDIANS NOT AS LARGE HEARTED AS PAKISTANIS: AFRIDI

Days after winning the hearts of numerous Indian fans with his remarks after his team`s loss in the World Cup semi-final, Pakistan cricket captain Shahid Afridi has said Indians are not as large-hearted as Pakistanis.

Afridi also slammed the Indian media for its "very negative approach" and said the Pakistani media was a "hundred times better" than its Indian counterpart. "In my opinion, if I have to tell the truth, they (Indians) will never have hearts like Muslims and Pakistanis. I don’t think they have the large and clean hearts that Allah has given us," Afridi said during a talk show on a news channel when he was asked about relations between the two countries.

"It is a very difficult thing for us to live with them (Indians) or to have long-term relationship with them. Nothing will come out of talks. See how many times in the past 60 years we have had friendship and then how many times things have gone bad," he said as the audience in the TV channel`s studio applauded him repeatedly. "We don`t want to fight with each other but a third country everyone knows which one it is is trying to spoil our relations. (This country) is taking advantage of Pakistan and wants to take advantage of India. I don`t want to go into details but these people will not let us come together," he added.

Asked about the Indian media`s coverage of the Pakistani team during the semi-final with India at Mohali on March 30, Afridi replied: "The Indian media has a very negative approach and very negative thoughts. The people may not be like that but I think the media had a very dirty role in spoiling relations between us and India.” "Our media, which is criticised by people, is hundred times better than theirs," he said. India beat Pakistan in the semi-final, which was watched by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, who used cricket diplomacy to boost the peace process between the two sides.

Afridi also criticised Interior Minister Rehman Malik for warning the Pakistani team not to get involved in match-fixing and Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir, who vowed to dedicate victory in the World Cup final to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. "I think they were both very stupid comments by Rehman Malik and Gautam Gambhir...I wasn`t expecting this from Gautam...This is all politics, what do you know about who carried out the Bombay attacks?" he said. The Mumbai attacks, which left 166 people dead, were carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

After 14 Years, Cricket World Cup is finally returned to Asia (India-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh). Last time World Cup was hosted in Asia in 1996 and Sri Lanka emerge winners of the ICC Wills World Cup. Unfortunately, this time Pakistan will not host any games of 2011 world cup because of security concern.

ICC has tried their best to shorten the 2011 world cup as compared to 2007 world cup. So there will be 49 number of games will be played in 2011 as compared to 51 in 2007. Also the length of the tournament will be shorten by a week. Out of forty nine games, India will host 29 matches, Sri Lanka will host 12 matches and 8 games will be hosted by Bangladesh.

India will host one quarter final in Ahmedabad, one semi final in Mohali and Final of World Cup 2011 in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. While Sri Lanka will host the 2nd quarterfinal and 1st semi final in R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo and Bangladesh will host 1st and 3rd quarterfinal in Mirpur, Dhaka.

Fourteen teams will participate in 2011 World Cup with 14 teams divided into two groups each containing seven teams. Group A contains Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada while Group B includes India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.

The tournament will start with the game between India and Bangladesh on February 19th at Mirpur, Dhaka and tournament will ends with the Final on April 2 in renovated Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. There will be total 13 venues will be used for the tournament.

First quarter final will be played on March 23rd in Mirpur, while second quarter final will be played on March 24th in Ahmedabad. Third quarterfinal will be played in Mirpur on 25th March and fourth quarterfinal will be hosted by Sri Lanka in Colombo on March 26th 2011. First semi final will be played on 29th March in Colombo and second semi final will be played on March 30th in Mohali.

Groups for the 2011 World Cup

Group A - Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Canada.

Group B - India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands.

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