CricketBriefly

Abbas confirmed as ICC president

barbados: Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has assumed the role of the ICC president on day three of the apex cricket body’s Annual Conference week here.

Zaheer began his one-year term and thanked the ICC Board and the Full Council for confirming his nomination. He said: “I feel truly honoured to be appointed as the President of the governing body of our great game. This is the sport which has given us friendship, respect, recognition and an opportunity to serve our countries in different capacities. Personally speaking, it has given me more than I can ever possibly repay. “I am thankful to all of you for the support and confidence placed in me by confirming my nomination. I am also grateful to the PCB for proposing my candidacy as the ICC President. I assure you all that I will stand shoulder to shoulder with all the ICC Members as we continue to strive to inspire more and more people to fall in love with the game we cherish.”

India fall, Bangladesh rise

dubai: India dropped two points but managed to retain their second position despite losing the three-match series 1-2 to Bangladesh, who moved a place to seventh in the latest ICC ODI rankings. The 2-1 series win in Mirpur has put Bangladesh on 93 ratings points — five behind sixth-ranked England and five ahead of eighth-ranked West Indies. Mashrafe Mortaza’s men had entered the series in eighth position on 88 points, fraction of a point behind the West Indies. In contrast, the defeat means India have dropped from 117 to 115 but still retained the second position on the ODI table. However, the series result means only 28 points separate second-ranked India from ninth-ranked Pakistan. World champions Australia lead the field and are sitting pretty on 129 points.

HC refuses to stay GCA poll process

panaji: The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused to stay the election process of the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) on a plea alleging non-transparency even as it appointed a committee headed by a retired judge to oversee polls scheduled on June 28. The petition was filed by GCA’s former president Vinod Fadke, incumbent secretary Chetan Desai and several clubs seeking setting aside of the election process initiated by the cricketing body’s managing committee headed by Dr Shekhar Salkar. A Goa bench of the high court comprising Justices F M Reis and K l Wadhane today appointed the panel to monitor the election process.

The committee will be headed by Justice (retd) A P lawande, and comprises two members — Nitin Sardesai and Rajnikant lavanis. The petitioners had argued that several clubs have been left out of the election process by the Salkar-led group and that entire process is not transparent. The HC allowed all 104 clubs to vote in the polls on Sunday.

Prasad, Joshi to feature in KPl 2015

bengaluru: Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad and left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi will make an on-field return with the fourth edition of the Karnataka Premier league (KPl) Twenty20 tournament. Apart from Prasad and Joshi, former cricketer David Johnson will also be seen in action, playing for All Stars Celebrity team (Rockstars) led by Sandalwood star Kiccha Sudeep. Top national and IPl cricketers — Vinay Kumar, Stuart Binny, Robin Uthappa, K l Rahul, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, S Aravind, Karun Nair, CM Gautham, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Gopal, Ronit More, KC Cariappa, J Suchith and Shishir Bhavane will also participate in the tournament.

‘No conflict within Indian team’

kolkata: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Thursday rubbished reports of internal conflict within the Indian team following a humiliating One-Day International (ODI) series defeat against Bangladesh. “You get to hear all these when a team loses and has not played to their potential. I believe there is no conflict within the team, all of these things have been made up,” he told media persons here. Expressing disappointment over India’s performance, Ganguly credited Bangladesh for outplaying India.  “It is disappointing (the result). But Bangladesh have played brilliant cricket credit should be given to them,” he said. Ganguly also supported Dhoni’s decision to bat up the order. The keeper-batsman, who usually comes in at number six, came out to bat at number four in the last two games of the series scoring 116 runs including a 69. The southpaw also asserted everything was fine with BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya.