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Friday, February 18, 2011

ICC insists on elite World Cup in future

DHAKA: The International Cricket Council on Friday backed their decision to restrict the next World Cup to 10 top teams, saying minnows were better suited playing the Twenty20 format.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said the World Twenty20 will be increased to 16 teams instead of 12, while the 50-over World Cup will be trimmed down to 10 from the current 14.

"We have felt in the past few years that Twenty20 is the best format to develop the game world-wide and it provides a better environment for competition," Lorgat said.

"The 50-over format is more skill-based and suitable for the top teams."

Lorgat's views, ahead of the 50-over World Cup starting on Saturday, is bound to further anger the minnows, who believe they are being muscled out in favour of the Test-playing nations.

Cricket Kenya chief executive Tom Sears said on Thursday the ICC will not be acting in the interests of the game if the smaller teams were locked out of the next World Cup.

"If we have to improve on the standards, there is no point of denying us the opportunity of competing at the top level," Sears said.

"We had a meeting with the other associate countries during the World Cup training camp in Dubai last week, and we plan to raise the matter again at the World Cup. 

Advani says sorry to Sonia

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader L K Advani has apologised to Congress President Sonia Gandhi for a party-appointed task force report, which had alleged that she and her late husband Rajiv had accounts in Swiss banks.

BJP had appointed the task force on unravelling the amount of black money stashed by Indians in foreign banks and ways to bring it back.

The report had alleged that Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were among Indians who held Swiss bank accounts.

This had led Sonia Gandhi to write a letter to Advani denying the allegation.

Sources said in the letter, Gandhi had said that neither she nor her husband held Swiss bank accounts.

In his reply to the Congress President's letter, Advani expressed regret of her name and that of her late husband being mentioned in the task force report.

However, Advani also stated in his reply that the Gandhis should have denied this publicly when there were murmurs that names of her family members could figure in the report.

Advani said had she done so, the name of her family members would not have figured in the task force.

The four-member task force comprising S Gurumurthy, former IB director Ajit Doval, Professor R Vadiyanathan and advocate Mahesh Jethmalani has put the figure of money stashed in safe havens to be 25 lakh crore.

On February 1, NDA leaders had released a booklet 'Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens', the second report of the task force appointed by the BJP.