Cricket World Cup 2011 Teams, Groups, Players, Schedule

The 2011 edition of the World Cup will be played in the Indian sub-continent from February 19. There are 14 teams involved in the competition and they are distributed into two groups of seven each with the round-robin in each group deciding which four going ahead into the quarter-finals. Full Schedule Squads with Players Profile There will be 49 matches in the tournament and one can see all the World Cup 2011 games live on ESPN and Star...

Mashrafe Mortaza not in World Cup squad

Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh allrounder, has not been included in the 15-man squad for the World Cup. Mortaza had injured his right knee while playing club cricket in Dhaka in December and was striving to recover in time for the tournament. He had begun bowling off a short run-up during net sessions in the last few days but the selectors decided against including him in the campaign. Shakib Al Hasan was named captain of the squad and Tamim Iqbal...

Kenya a mix of the old and the new

Kenya have announced their 15-man squad for next month's World Cup and it is a combination of youth and experience under newly-appointed captain Jimmy Kamande. The announcement was more of a rubber-stamping exercise than a surprise, given it is the same group who are currently preparing for the tournament with matches in India. Steve Tikolo, the 41-year-old allrounder who led his country to the semi-finals in 2003, will be taking part in his fifth...

Tanvir Ahmed, Mohammad Yousuf left out of World Cup

Pakistan's selectors have displayed an unusual consistency in their ODI squad, retaining all players bar one involved in the New Zealand ODIs for their World Cup campaign. Fast bowler Tanvir Ahmed, who is part of the 16-man ODI squad in New Zealand, is the unlucky one, missing out. In opting for continuity, the selectors have not picked the veteran Mohammad Yousuf, indicating that his career is all but over. And as had been widely expected, they...

Ireland pick Ed Joyce for World Cup

Ed Joyce, the former England batsman who also plays for Sussex, has been picked in the 15-man Ireland squad for the 2011 World Cup. Ireland, led by batsman William Porterfield, have also selected allrounder Alex Cusack and seamer Boyd Rankin, players who didn't feature in their last ODI assignment, a lost series against Zimbabwe in September. Rankin, who was Ireland's leading wicket-taker in the 2007 World Cup, has recovered from a stress fracture...

Lee and Tait win World Cup berths

Australia will risk both Brett Lee and Shaun Tait at the World Cup after they were chosen in the 15-man squad for the trophy defence beginning in India next month. Peter Siddle and Xavier Doherty were not included while John Hastings, the Victoria allrounder, was named along with the injured duo of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey. Hussey picked up a serious hamstring tear in Sunday's ODI win over England, while Ponting is recovering from surgery...

No Rohit Sharma in World Cup squad

The exclusion of middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma was the surprise in India's 15-man World Cup squad announced in Chennai. The other bone of contention had been the second specialist spinner's slot, and the selectors have picked both offspinner R Ashwin and legspinner Piyush Chawla, ahead of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. Most of the other names in the squad were along expected lines. India's major concern ahead of the team selection was the injuries...

ICC World Cup 2011: Zimbabwe 15 men squad for WC 2011

Harare: All-rounder Sean Ervine has been recalled to the Zimbabwe squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 after a gap of six years. Ervine last played for Zimbabwe in an international game in 2004. In the interim Ervine has played domestic cricket in Australia for Western Australia. He currently plays for Hampshire in the English county cricket. Ervine joins younger brother Craig in the final 15-man squad named on Wednesday by the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) selection panel. Batsman Vusimuzi Sibanda has been named one of the five non-travelling reserves. WC...

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: WC theme song is for masses: composers

Dubai: With little more than a month to go for the ICC Cricket World Cup, the official song -- De Ghumaa Ke -- is already making a big impact in the sub-continent and the composers of the number Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy said they created it keeping in mind every section of the society. As popular and critically acclaimed music directors of Bollywood, the trio has created an upbeat song, with versions in Hindi, Bangla and Sinhalese that will feature widely in the build-up to and during the tournament to be hosted jointly by India, Bangladesh and...

ICC World Cup 2011 Sri Lanka 15 Men Squad: Jayasuriya, Vaas not in WC squad

Colombo: Sri Lanka's selectors have been unable to find a place for veterans Sanath Jayasuriya or Chaminda Vaas in the 2011 World Cup squad. Announced late on Friday afternoon, the side is a predictable one led by Kumar Sangakkara minus Suraj Randiv, who at one stage was looked on as the leading spinner in the squad. Now he has been replaced by Ajantha Mendis with Muttiah Muralitharan in the fifteen names approved by the local Minister of Sport. As Sri Lanka will play the bulk of their games on the island, with the one exception that against New...

Bangladesh World Cup 2011 team gets new sponsors

Dhaka: The Beximco Group has replaced Grameenphone as the official sponsors of Bangladesh's cricket team for the forthcoming World Cup. Grameenphone, a joint venture between Norway-based Telenor and Grameen Bank's sister concern Grameen Telecom Corporation, is out because of a conflict of interest with the International Cricket Council (ICC) sponsor Reliance Communications, an Indian mobile operator. In keeping with the ICC rules, no team is allowed to take a sponsor in any of their events that is conflicting with its commercial partners. Beximco,...

Bangladesh reduce preliminary WC squad to 23

Bangladesh have reduced their preliminary 30-man squad for the World Cup to 23. Nazimuddin, Shamsur Rahman, Sahagir Hossain, Mithun Ali, Nasir Hossain, Shuvogoto Chowdhury and Enamul Haque Jr are the players who have been left out. The remaining 23 players will be of a preparatory camp that begins on January 9 at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur. All 14 teams participating in the tournament have to announce their final fifteen before January 19. Preliminary Squad: Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Imrul Kayes,...