Briefly cricket

WADA sets time limit for ICC
New Delhi: The WADA on Tuesday gave ICC time till November 2011 to convince its member boards to accept the vexed 'whereabouts' clause. WADA director general David Howman also served a veiled warning to BCCI when he
indicated that India could be barred from participating in this year's Asian Games in Guangzhou, where cricket in the form of Twenty20 would make its debut in the multi-sport extravaganza if the stand-off continues. "It will be Olympic Council of Asia's decision," he said.

SA win despite Sammy's knock
Antigua: South Africa withstood a late West Indies fightback led by Darren Sammy's 58 from 24 balls to prevail by 17 runs in the second one-day international on Monday and take a 2-0 lead in the five match series.
Brief scores: South Africa 300 for 5 in 50 overs (G. Smith 37, H. Amla 92, J Kallis 85, AB de Villiers 41;Taylor 2/50, Pollard 2/39) vs West Indies 283 all out in 48.1 overs (D. Richards 51, D Bravo 74, D Sammy not out 58; Morkel 3/58).

ICC gives Sydney Test clean chit
Melbourne: The ICC has stopped investigating the Australia-Pakistan Sydney Test after finding no evidence of match-fixing, a Cricket Australia spokesman said. "The ICC has replied, saying it has seen no evidence of match-fixing and that there is no current investigation of match-fixing," CA spokesman Peter Young was quoted as saying by The Australian. "Haroon Lorgat has assured James Sutherland that Australia won the match on its merits," Young added.

Afridi to lead in all formats
Lahore: Pakistan on Tuesday named Shahid Afridi captain for next month's Asia Cup and the subsequent full tour of England, opting for a single skipper for all three formats of the game. "Afridi will lead Pakistan in one-day and Test cricket and is our best choice," Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt told reporters.

Swann voted best English player
London: Off-spinner Graeme Swann beat competition from his skipper Paul Collingwood among others to clinch the 'England Cricket of the Year' award at Lord's. Selected by the British media, Swann claimed the award beating the likes of Stuart Broad, Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and James Anderson. Swann played 45 matches in all formats of the game, taking 99 wickets at an average of 26.26.

BCCI puts Team India sponsorship up for grabs

With its deal with Sahara coming to an end next month, the BCCI on Monday invited bids from companies through a tender notice for sponsoring four Indian squads, including the much sought-after men's outfit.
The tender notice, issued by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, called for firms to bid for sponsorship of the men's, women's, India A and India under 19 teams, indicating the documents would be available from May 24 for a non-refundable payment of Rs 5 lakh.
It said all bidders need to fulfill the eligibility criteria set up by the Board as well as other requirements as mentioned in the bid document.
Submission of the bids also has to be done as per conditions outlined, the Board also reserved its rights "to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any and/or all bids without providing any reasons, including calling for a re-tender."
BCCI's deal with existing sponsors Sahara is set to come to a close next month.
Sahara, which has supported the Indian team for several years as its main sponsor, recently bid successfully for the new Pune IPL franchise for a staggering Rs 1700 crore.
Sahara will review its sponsorship to the Indian cricket team, Group chief Subroto Roy had said after winning the IPL franchise bid on March 23.
Sahara had bagged the sponsorship for the Indian cricket team for Rs 400 crore for a four-year period ending December 2009, and had agreed to continue for six more months as BCCI could not find any sponsors.
"No, it will not. Only thing we will see is our continuation of sponsorship to the Indian cricket team. We will sit on that and we will discuss on that. But on all other sports nothing will be affected," Roy had said on the impact of the Group's aggressive bidding to acquire the IPL's Pune franchise.
Asserting that the Group, which is also sponsoring the Indian hockey team, would seriously consider (limiting) exposure to the BCCI and the women's cricket, he said then that the Group "will take a conscious decision about it."