West Indies to host World T20 Championship in 2010

The West Indies will host the World Twenty20 Championship in 2010, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced in Mohali on Saturday.

The event will be held in place of the Champions Trophy that was to be hosted by West Indies in 2010, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said at a press conference.

“With the Champions Trophy set to be hosted by Pakistan in 2009 after its cancellation this year, we decided to have a Twenty20 World Championship instead in April-May 2010 in West Indies,” he said.

“Although World Twenty20 is to be held every second year, we decided to hold it on the trot to set the calendar right and ensure a better spread of tournaments.”

The event, slated to be held from April 23 to May 9, will be staged at three venues to be chosen by the ICC Board in January 2009 following nominations from the West Indies Cricket Board.

“With the ICC Champions Trophy being the final major ICC event of 2009, and the ICC Cricket World Cup being the 50 over event in 2011, it makes perfect sense to have a tournament of a different format in between,” Lorgat said.

“It means we will avoid staging the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Cricket World Cup close together, as happened in 2002-03 and 2006-07.

“We will aim to make both those events special to ensure we have a great blend of the ICC’s three majors, with two ICC World Twenty20s (2009 in England and 2010 in the West Indies) as well as an the ICC Champions Trophy (in 2009) and an ICC Cricket World Cup (in 2011) over the next three years.”

India won the inaugural World Twenty20 Championship in South Africa in 2007.

Singapore Grand Prix Qualifiers Standings

Pos.	Driver	Team
1	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari
4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber
5	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes
6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber
7	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari
8	Timo Glock	Toyota
9	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota
10	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota
11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota
12	Jenson Button	Honda
13	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault
15	Fernando Alonso	Renault
16	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault
17	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari
18	Rubens Barrichello	Honda
19	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari
20	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari

Tendulkar to play in Aus Tests, says BCCI

Batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar will be available for India’s upcoming Test series against Australia despite racing against time to be fit, an official said on Monday.

Tendulkar, 35, opted out of a five-day trial match starting in Vadodara on Wednesday after being advised to take a week’s rest to recover from an elbow injury sustained during the recent Sri Lanka tour.

The news sent shockwaves across India, but cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah denied media reports that Tendulkar could miss the four-Test series against the world champions starting on October 9.

“The physiotherapist wants him to take another week off as a precautionary measure, but he will certainly be available for the Test matches,” Shah said.

Tendulkar will be replaced by Subramaniam Badrinath in the India squad that takes on Ranji Trophy champions Delhi in the five-day Irani Cup match in Vadodara.

The Indian squad for the first Test in Bangalore will be named after the match.

Tendulkar, a veteran of 150 Tests, needs 77 runs to overtake retired West Indian Brian Lara’s record tally of 11,953 runs and become Test cricket’s highest run-getter.

The Indian already has a record 39 Test and 42 One-day centuries and is also the world’s leading ODI batsman with 16,361 runs from 417 matches.

Tendulkar is hoping to make amends for a poor series in Sri Lanka, where his highest score was 31 in three Tests which the hosts won 2-1.

The world’s most senior cricketer, who made his Test debut in 1989, has been plagued by a spate of injuries in recent times and underwent corrective surgery on his left elbow in 2005.

Tendulkar injured the elbow again while attempting to take a catch in the third Test in Sri Lanka in August and missed the subsequent ODI series.