Sreeshant should focus on cricket not acting: Kapil

India pacer S Sreeshant should concentrate on cricket instead of fiddling his hand in off-field activities if he wants to continue to make a mark in cricket, says former India captain Kapil Dev.

Stating that Sreeshant was a very enterprising cricketer, Kapil said the young Kerala pacer alone would be responsible if his performance suffers because of his off-field activities.

"The boy should come back to cricket, otherwise he will be the sufferer and nobody else," Kapil said referring to his acting and singing ventures.

The country's only World Cup-winning captain said Sreeshant's aggression should be constructive and should be for his own good and for the team.

"Aggression on the field is very good. But, that should help you deliver," Kapil said.

"You should perform and that is the bottom line," he said.

On the criticism that cricket in the country was getting more encouragement than other sports, Kapil said corporates and media should focus more on the development of sports events other than cricket.

"Cricket will survive. I want the corporates to put money on other sports. That did not mean that cricket should be pulled down," he said.

On Indian Premier League and Indian Cricket League, Kapil said the people of the country would judge after watching both though he said IPL was a success in terms of marketing.

Kapil, also Brand Ambassador of West Bengal-based SRMB Udyog Ltd, was talking to reporters after signing an MOU between Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation Ltd and SRMB.

Welcoming the proposed new rules of BCCI for appointing selectors, Kapil said BCCI's move would do good to the game.

"That will bring back cricketers to cricket," he said. The MOU was for marketing the products of SRMB through SIDCO's 140 outlets across the state.

Playing the lead to perfection

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has adapted his game superbly to the needs of his team over the last couple of years and it was again evident in a bristling 76 that helped leave India a win away from their first ODI series triumph in Sri Lanka. On a tough tour like this, India needed their captain to get into some sort of form to lift their spirits. Dhoni delivered, with a different yet no less effective approach.

Coming in with India at 91 for 4 in the 22nd over after another failure by the middle order, Dhoni knuckled down, didn't take any risks, ran like a hare, and finished with a match-winning effort. From the start, his primary focus was on survival. He had to make do with what he had, and had to make it work. Not being a natural cutter and puller, he had to graft for his runs, but showed he was up for the challenge.

Dhoni has said before that the more batsmen faced Ajantha Mendis the more they could establish some sort of command over him. Having faced him twice in three days, handling him well the second time in Dambulla, Dhoni went out to the middle and began in earnest.

Crouched, bat coming down repeatedly, Mendis was watched until the ball spat off the track, and then, with a huge stride, pushed it gently onto the off side. When Mendis once erred in line, Dhoni's bat flashed the ball away for four. "Till now Mendis was never under any pressure and was bowling at his best," Dhoni said. "You need to punish him if he bowls a bad ball. If you continue to defend him, he will always be on top."

There was turn in the track but Dhoni's footwork was positive and he carried an intent that suggested he wanted to give it back to Sri Lanka. He drove the ball handsomely while also showing ingenuity in finding the gaps, and displayed great application in hanging in to make sure that India would reach a good score despite the regular fall of wickets. In Suresh Raina, whose promising knock was kept down to 53 after a bizarre call for a single ran him out, and Rohit Sharma, Dhoni found adequate support.

In his first couple of years in international cricket, Dhoni would usually attack the bowling regardless of the match scenario, scoring at nearly a run a ball. But he has since altered his method; he now scores runs with greater precision and care. Dhoni doesn't hit as many boundaries, but still gets them at a brisk rate, and while his reputation as a finisher is well known, he's now started, as captain, to play smart innings with an eye on the result.

"I'm giving myself a chance," Dhoni said. "I had a different role when I started playing international cricket, batting at a different slot. We had players to play long innings but I was one of those to go out and accelerate and even if I got out, it was okay. There was a transformation, and in the last two years I've been under a little pressure to be more responsible. That's what I'm doing, and I've got a strike rate of nearly 90."

Once Dhoni crossed fifty, he upped the tempo with consecutive boundaries off Muttiah Muralitharan, who went wicketless. A single-run, double-wicket over from Mendis in the 49th took the sheen over how well India had handled him for nine overs. A competitive total was ensured when India passed 220 and Dhoni's effort went a long way in India winning the game.

It wasn't an easy win. India had Sri Lanka at 59 for 6 but allowed them to get within striking distance, dropping five catches along the way. The top order blues continued, but Dhoni showed the way admirably.

"If there's commitment, that's victory for me," he said earlier this year when asked about leading a bunch of young players. When they get it right India are a treat to watch, but this team often hangs back when you most expect them to sting. Dhoni must now focus on getting the message through to his embattled batting order.

Terror fears stump cricket

THE International Cricket Council yesterday postponed for a year the Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan, after teams expressed security concerns and threatened to pull out o f the event .

After meeting in Dubai, the ICC board announced their decision on the most important one-day cricket tournament after the World Cup.

South Africa withdrew on Friday — unwilling to travel to Pakistan for the September 12-28 event .

It had become clear to Pakistani cricket authorities that Australia, England, New Zealand and the West Indies would also pull out .

“There was unanimious decision to postpone it until October 2009 ,” ICC president David Morgan said . “India were quite influential in persuading some other nations .”

Pakistan is fighting Taliban and al-Qaida militants and has endured a string of suicide bomb attacks in the last year that have killed more than 1000 people

Sri Lankan cricketers land Bollywood roles

Sri Lanka's top cricketers had a shot at Bollywood stardom when they were filmed for an upcoming movie that features some of the best players in the world.

Scenes for "Victory," a story of a small town boy who dreams of playing cricket for India, were shot in Colombo last week, with actor Harman Baweja playing against Sri Lanka's national team.

Sri Lankan stars Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya were among those filmed at one of Colombo's oldest cricket venues, the Oval.

Also starring in the 10-million-dollar movie will be the Indian team, plus Australian paceman Brett Lee, England bowlers Sajid Mahmood and Simon Jones, and New Zealander Craig McMillan.

"The film combines what Indians love best - cricket, music and Bollywood movies," Sri Lankan producer Chandran Rutnam, who handled the Colombo leg of the shooting said.

Rutnam said Bollywood names such as Baweja and Amrita Rao play key roles in the movie, but the biggest draw would be 40 international cricketers from seven countries, who all play themselves.

"This was more difficult than actually playing cricket," Sri Lankan paceman Dilhara Fernando told reporters here, after his first Bollywood experience.

The plot centres around a father who dreams his young son (played by Baweja) will rise from a small village in Rajasthan to play cricket for India.

"Luckily, I've always been a cricket fan, but then I think every Indian is born loving cricket," Baweja, 27, told reporters.

Selectors to get paid Rs 25 Lakhs per year

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its working committee meeting on Saturday have decided to pay an annual honorarium of Rs 25 lakhs to each of the five selectors, who would be chosen once the present selection committee completes its tenure that ends on September 30.

The meeting also decided to appoint those who have played for India, or those who have played more than 25 first-class matches as selectors while appointing a senior selector. It will be ensured that he should have retired at least ten years ago.

The meeting also made it mandatory that the selector, at the time of appointment, will not be an office-bearer of the BCCI or any of its affiliated units.

Several key decisions, including distributions of prize money to sportspersons from other game, were also taken during the meeting.

However, all the decisions will come into effect only after the Annual General body Meeting (AGM) to be held here at the Cricket Centre on September 27 and 28.

The BCCI and the Sports Ministry have set up the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) with a corpus of Rs 50 crores, and as per the communication received from the Sports Ministry, Rs 5.34 crores have been utilized from the NSDF to support the sportspersons who had been selected for the Beijing Olympics.

The BCCI reiterated its commitment to participate in the development and promotion of other sports. The Working Committee accordingly decided to increase the Board’s contribution to the corpus from Rs 25 crores to Rs 50 crores for the next three years.

ICC will need a week to reschedule CT venue

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will require at least seven days to reschedule and reorganise the Champions Trophy from Pakistan to Sri Lanka, fuelling speculation that it will announce a tournament shift tomorrow night.

A senior Australian official was told yesterday that the tournament could be successfully shifted on one week``s notice.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cricket Australia is awaiting the announcement of the tournament``s destination, which will be done after a phone hook-up between ICC member nations tomorrow.

It is also understood that security checks of Sri Lanka could be completed to the satisfaction of the countries unwilling to tour Pakistan - Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa - in seven days.

The ICC apparently has realised that it cannot convince these four teams to tour, given that in the last three days there have been bomb blasts across Pakistan, leading to the deaths of over 100 people.
Though ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has said it would be too late for a shift, Australian officials said that they had been told that there was still a "50-50 chance" it could be played in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan cricket board has said that it would be ready at a moment``s notice to host the games.

Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appears entrenched in its view that the tournament should be held in Pakistan.

BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah refused to predict the outcome of the phone hook-up of ICC presidents, but pledged full support for the Pakistan cricket board.

"We are supporting Pakistan. The event must be in Pakistan. I don``t think we will change our stance at the moment. I don``t think the Indian board will change [its view] in the present circumstances," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Shah, as saying.

Pressed on whether a refusal to shift the trophy to Sri Lanka would split the cricket world, he said: "I don``t think it will be divided. I think there will be a solution on this."

Cricket ponders Olympic declaration

When veteran Chinese leader Zhou Enlai was asked in the early 1970s what he thought of the impact of the French Revolution of 1789, he replied: "It is too early to say."

How much harder then to speculate on the future.

And when it came to cricket's possible inclusion as an Olympic sport, International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan, in Beijing for the ongoing Games, weighed his words with a care that would have appealed to both Zhou and the opening batsman deciding on what to play and what to leave.

It is not so much too early as too easy to say that while Adam Gilchrist is in favour of Twenty20 cricket, the shortest international form of the game, becoming an Olympic sport and Ian Chappell is very much against, Morgan is very much sat on the fence.

Unlike the two Australians, Morgan leads a large multi-national organisation which finds it difficult to make decisions without the consent of its most powerful members, who do not always see eye-to-eye.

Add in the fact that the earliest likely date for the return of cricket, which did feature in the 1900 Games, to the Olympics is 2020 and Morgan's caution is all the more understandable.