Yuvraj, Kohli and Ishant promotes to Grade A contracts

The cricket control board of India BCCI Working committee has announced the contract grades of players in Kolkata. The all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and pacer Ishant Sharma were named in the Grade A contract list. Surprisingly Ashish Nehra has been omitted from the list of Contract players.

Yuvraj Singh was back to Grade A list of contract, after being demoted to Grade B following his disastrous form where he almost loses his place in the team. Yuvi was to Grade A after his Man-of-the-Series performance in the World Cup. While Virat Kohli consistent performance scored 995 runs in 2010 and over 1000 runs in 2011ensured his place as Grade A player. Ishant Sharma has raised his game standards and been performing well at the highest level for India gained him Grade A. 

However, the surprising omission was Ashish Nehra, who was part of India's winning World Cup campaign and a B-Grade player last year. Earlier he was ignored for England one-day series, where he expressed his disfavor over exclusion. He even publicly claimed his wonder after also being announced he was fit to play.

The spinners who were showing most significant performance in recent times, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja were promoted to Grade B, in addition with Rohit Sharma who moved from Grade C. Rahul Sharma, whe need to make his debut for Team India was also earned a contract, coming in at Grade C after being part of the T20, ODI and recent Test squads for India. 

The other important major decision taken by BCCI committee was IPL matches will now be a List A matches. Until now the domestic 50-over competitions, with some 40-over ones also included recently are under List A matches, but now IPL matches will now be added to the list.

Contracted Players List: 

Grade A: (Rs. 1 crore per annum) MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma. 

Grade B: (Rs. 50 lakhs per annum) Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, R Ashwin, Rohit Shamra, Ravindra Jadeja. 

Grade C: (Rs. 25 lakhs per annum) S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wridhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Kartik, Jaidev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron. 

Inaugural ICC World Twenty20 Rankings list

Teams:

Team	Position	Ratings
England	1	127
Sri Lanka	2	126
New Zealand	3	117
South Africa	4	113
India	5	112
Australia	6	111
Pakistan	7	97
West Indies	8	89
Afghanistan	9
Zimbabwe	10	54

Player Rankings:

                                                                         

Rankings	Batsmen	Bowler	All-Rounder
1	Eoin Morgan (ENG)	Ajantha Mendis (SL)	Shane Watson (AUS)
2	Brendon McCullum (NZ)	Graeme Swann (ENG)	Shahid Afridi (PAK)
3	Kevin Pietersen (ENG)	Saeed Ajmal (PAK)	Davis Hussey (AUS)
4	Mahela Jayawardene (SL)	Nathan McCullum (NZ)	Mohammed Hafeez (PAK)
5	Suresh Raina (IND)	Johan Botha (SA)	Chris Gayle (WI)

England tops inaugural ICC Twenty20 Rankings

ICC has launched the ranking system for Twenty20 today, where England, the World Twenty20 champions have topped the rankings in ICC’s inaugural Twenty20 Rankings.

Eoin Morgan, England middle-order T20 specialist batsmen tops the batsmen ratings, Sri Lankan mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis is the top bowler and Australia’s all-rounder, Shane Watson is announced as the No. 1 all-rounder in ICC Twenty20 Rankings.

The England team sealed top spot with 127 points followed by Sri Lanka placed just below them with 126 points. The reaming teams New Zealand in third place with 117 points, South Africa with 113, India with 112, Australia with 11 and Pakistan at 7th place with 97 points, followed by West Indies, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

England will lose its No.1, if they lose only T20 in the ongoing India tour which is scheduled on Oct, 29. If England wins their T20 against India they will have a 4-point lead over Sri Lanka, if they England will slip below Sri Lanka and India.

Since August 2009, England has played 20 T20s, where they won 12 and they lost 6 games while 2 ended in no results. Whereas Pakistan played the most matches i.e., 24 during the same period, as the lost more than 50% of matches where placed 7th in the rankings.

England Coach Andy Flower said that the evolution of ranking system for international Twenty20 cricket provides real context to the various series played between member countries on an ongoing basis. He added that until now they haven't had the chance to play a large number of Twenty20 Internationals so this will offer a benchmark as to who is performing at international level.

Bangladesh, along with Associate Members Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Scotland, which have T20 international status, will join the table as soon as they have played at least eight T20s since August 2009 to qualify for a ranking.

Eoin Morgan tops the batsmen ratings followed by Brendon McCullum, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene and Suresh Raina. In the bowling department spinner dominate the ratings as seven spinners were toped in ICC T20 rankings, as Ajantha Mendis topped the bowlers followed by Graeme Swann, Saeed Ajmal, Nathan McCullum and Johan Botha. While Shane Watson ranked No.1 in ratings for all-rounders lined-up along with Shahid Afridi, Davis Hussey, Mohammed Hafeez and Chris Gayle.

ICC World T20 2012 schedule unveils

The World Twenty20 Champions England will enter the tournament with a tag of defending champions.  The 2012 World Twenty20 is scheduled from September 18 to October 12, 2012 in Sri Lanka. ICC has confirmed Colombo, Pallekele and Hambantota as the venues for the tournament.

ICC WORLD T20 scheduled released

The World Twenty20 2012 all 12 teams are divided into four groups and each group is having 3 teams in a preliminary round. England, the defending champions, and India are in Group A and will be joined by one of the Associate teams that qualify in the qualifiers. The other second qualifier will join with West Indies and Australia in Group B. While Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe make Group C, and Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh finishes up the Group D.

The top two teams from each group will make it through the group stages, after which there will be a Super Eight stage, featuring two groups. The format is same as the last edition of 2010. The tournament will include two teams qualifying from the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2012, the qualifying tournament, which features 16 teams held in the United Arab Emirates from March 13-14 2012.

However, as everyone can expect top eight teams will reach Super eight’s until some miracles happen and the super eights will be interesting fight to see as all the teams will be fancying their chance to clinch the trophy.

ICC World Twenty20 2012 Schedule:

Group A: England, India, Qualifier 2

Group B: Australia, West Indies, Qualifier 1

Group C: Sri Lanka, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Group D: Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh

Super Eight Groups (S8)

Group 1: A1, B2, C1, D2

Group 2: A2, B1, C2, D1

Group Stage

Sept 18

Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe, Hambantota (19:30 local time)

Sept 19

Australia v Q1, Colombo (15:30)

India v Q2, Colombo (19:30)

Sept 20

South Africa v Zimbabwe, Hambantota (19:30)

Sept 21

New Zealand v Bangladesh, Pallekele (15:30)

England v Q2, Colombo (19:30)

Sept 22

Sri Lanka v South Africa, Hambantota (15:30)

Australia v West Indies, Colombo (19:30)

Sept 23

Pakistan v New Zealand, Pallekele (15:30)

England v India, Colombo (19:30)

Sept 24

West Indies v Qualifier 1, Colombo (19:30)

Sept 25

Pakistan v Bangladesh, Pallekele (19:30)

Super Eights

Sept 27

C1 v D2, Pallekele (15:30)

A1 v B2, Pallekele (19:30)

Sept 28

D1 v C2, Colombo (15:30)

B1 v A2, Colombo (19:30)

Sept 29

A1 v D2, Pallekele (15:30)

C1 v B2, Pallekele (19:30)

Sept 30

B1 v C2, Colombo (15:30)

D1 v A2, Colombo (19:30)

Oct 1

B2 v D2, Pallekele (15:30)

A1 v C1, Pallekele (19:30)

Oct 2

B1 v D1, Colombo (15:30)

A2 v C2, Colombo (19:30)

Oct 4

Men’s semi-final: Group 1 winner v Group 2 runners-up, Colombo (19:00)

Oct 5

Men’s semi-final: Group 2 winner v Group 2 runners-up, Colombo (19:00)

Oct 7

Men’s final, Colombo (19:00)