Cricket Calls for Tough New Laws on Ticket Touts

The England and Wales Cricket Board has called for tough new laws against ticket touts, after private investigators employed by the board tracked down more than 1,900 "black market" tickets for the ICC World Twenty20 made available through internet sites such as eBay.

It is understood that the government, which up until now has favoured a voluntary solution to the problem of ordinary fans being priced out of major sporting events, is increasingly considering legislation as an option.

In its submission to a government ­consultation that closed this week, the ECB said it was forced to take drastic action to deal with the thousands of tickets bought up by both organized touting operations and so-called "bedroom touts".

It is understood that more than 1,900 tickets have been investigated, traced through 400 different sellers on eBay. Although the sellers are often anonymous, the ECB said its investigators had been able to track them down to their home address and cancel their tickets.

In a strongly worded letter, they are offered the option of a refund if they return the ticket promptly. But they are told that anyone attempting to use them will be ejected. If the ticket holder is subsequently found to have sold their tickets, the ECB said it would take them to court.

In its submission, which has been seen by the Guardian, the ECB said it had proved that websites were unwilling to engage in finding a voluntary solution and called on the culture secretary Andy Burnham to legislate.

Last year, Burnham said that reselling tickets at inflated prices adds nothing to the cultural life of the country but rather "leeches off it and denies access to those least able to afford tickets". His belief that legislation may be necessary is understood to have hardened since.

The ECB's preferred option is for a new law, similar to one proposed by the Tories earlier this year, that would ­automatically give major events the same protection afforded to football matches and the 2012 Olympics.

The discussions around major sporting events have also taken on an added urgency in light of the Rugby Football Union's decision to bid for the 2015 World Cup. The resale of football tickets is banned under existing legislation.

The ECB and other ­sporting bodies, including the RFU and the All England Club, believe their argument that legislation is necessary for major events is gathering pace.

When it launched the consultation in February, the government called on sporting bodies, websites such as eBay and ­Seatwave, and the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers to work on a self-regulated way of stopping tickets for a defined list of "crown jewels" events being offered for resale.

It also called on the governing bodies to ensure tickets were made available to a wide range of consumers at a variety of price levels and to explore ways of ­preventing touts buying up thousands of tickets within minutes of them going on sale, as well as developing their own exchange mechanisms.

The ECB will say it has done all it can, including staggering on-sale dates, releasing tickets at a variety of price points and offering refunds within a certain window. It will also claim that the World Twenty20 tournament director Steve Elworthy has written to the major online resellers but they have refused to work with the ECB.

An eBay spokeswoman robustly defended its business model, saying that the ECB's own official exchange mechanism offered only "very limited resale". "In short, fans who find they can no longer attend the event for whatever reason would be unable to recoup their money if they had spare or unwanted tickets," she said. "Even if eBay were to agree to such voluntary measures, these tickets would simply be sold elsewhere – either on the internet or on the streets, where there is less consumer protection for fans if there is a problem with the transaction."

Sky's Limits Leave Cricket's Fans in the Dark and Grass Roots Cut Short

For dramatic tension the 2009 home Ashes series has continued where 2005 left off – with one glaring difference. Not a second of live televised action has been available to anyone who has not paid a subscription to BSkyB (which begins at £27.50 a month). As a consequence, the nailbiting last stand between James Anderson and Monty Panesar on Sunday evening in fading Welsh sunlight was watched by a fraction of the potential audience.

Official television industry viewing figures show that Sunday's cricket was watched by 358,000 people on average between 10am and 2pm, then after two, until that absorbing close, by an average of 800,000. The peak audience, at 6.30‑6.45pm, to watch Panesar and Anderson successfully see England to the draw, was 1.47m.

That is considered a respectable pay-television audience by the England and Wales Cricket Board, Sky and TV insiders. It does not, however, compare with the huge audiences drawn to the Ashes on free-to-air Channel 4 in 2005. Then, the peak periods of the third, fourth and fifth Tests, all similarly thrilling closing moments, were watched by 7.48m, 8.2m and 7.2m people respectively. Cricket garnered huge, growing audiences; the 8.2m fourth Test peak drew a 47% share of people watching television at the time.

Any comparison with this year must allow for the fact that we have had only the first Test but the ECB's decision to sell the rights exclusively to BSkyB has dramatically cut the television audience for its sport. Despite the oceans of top action BSkyB has bought up exclusively, with not a single Premier League football match having ever been shown live on free-to-air television in 17 years, and despite the universally recognised quality of its coverage, under a quarter, 6m, of British homes subscribe to Sky Sports.

The Ashes is serving as a timely demonstration of Sky's hold on British sport, as a government-appointed panel, chaired by David Davies, considers which sporting events should be considered "crown jewels" and reserved for free-to-air television. The panel will conclude hearing submissions on Monday with a visit from the BBC.

Cricket will occupy more of the panel's deliberations than any other sport because its removal in 1998 from the A list – events that must be available live on free-to-air – and relegation to the B list, which stipulates mandatory free-to-air highlights, has been most controversial.

Critics argued, when the ECB first sold the rights exclusively to BSkyB for 2006-09, that it betrayed a gentlemen's agreement made in 1998 between Lord MacLaurin, then the ECB chairman, and Chris Smith, the culture secretary, that some live cricket would remain free-to-air even if it was taken off the A list.

A campaign was launched, Keep Cricket Free. Its founder, the media consultant David Brook, formerly at Channel 4 and now Scottish Television's director of programmes, maintains his view. "Sky is a good partner for cricket, providing comprehensive and high-quality coverage," he says. "A committed pay-TV partner is essential. But every sport needs free-to-air exposure and the ECB is missing that opportunity, for cricket to reach really large audiences at the moments of high drama."

Perhaps surprisingly the ECB does not substantially disagree. Giles Clarke, the ECB's chairman, says the Cardiff viewing figures are respectable – the Channel Five highlights had a 926,000 average on Sunday evening, a peak of 1.1m – but he argues that the BBC should have bid for the rights.

The ECB is understood to have asked Davies' panel not to recommend Test cricket be compulsorily restored to the A list but it argues that the BBC's public service remit, to provide for everyone who by law must pay £142.50 for a colour TV license, should include showing live cricket. The BBC has said it did not bid last time due to the problems of scheduling so many hours of cricket across four busy years of sport but the ECB does not believe the BBC demonstrated any real desire. Clarke has been scathing about the BBC's decision last year to pay £200m for five years of Formula One rights.

The ECB also justifies the Sky deals by arguing that the £220m the satellite broadcaster paid for 2006-09, followed by £300m for 2010-13, provides significant investment in grass-roots cricket. Clarke told this column last week that 23% of the ECB's income, which was £94.5m last year including the BSkyB money, is allocated to cricket development via clubs, counties and the 39 county cricket boards. Clarke has also quoted a slightly lower figure, it is understood, to Davies' review panel – that 21% of all revenue goes to grass-roots cricket.

Those figures, it turns out, appear to be an exaggeration. The ECB's finance director, Brian Havill, noted in the 2008 accounts that expenditure on "enthusing participation at grass-root and recreational level" amounted to £12m. That was 12.6% of the ECB's total income. "I am happier talking about the actual money spent rather than percentages," Havill said this week.

Some ECB sources argue that the 21% figure comes from treating the £12m as a proportion purely of the ECB's broadcasting revenue and point to other spending which could be classed as providing for the grass roots. Clarke, however, has explicitly stated it as 21% of the ECB's total income. The figure for grass-roots cricket, however it is defined and calculated, is dwarfed by the amount paid to the 18 first-class counties. That was £32.8m last year, described by Havill as "by far the largest of the [ECB's] expenditure items".

The counties overall run at a significant loss, and are subsidized by the ECB, which makes its money largely from the England international team, including the Sky deals. William Buckland, author of Pommies, a powerful critical analysis of English cricket, compares the game's governance here unfavorably with the Australian model where, along with other differences, all Test matches are available on free-to-air Channel Nine.

"The ECB justifies the Sky deals on the grounds of development," Buckland argues, "but it has removed television access for most people, and the bulk of the money goes to the counties, not the grass roots."

Buckland points out that the ECB is controlled by representatives of the counties, so has an inherent interest in maintaining the system that allocates most money to supporting the counties which are run at a loss. Senior cricket figures, notably Bob Willis, have argued strongly for reform, saying too much mediocre professional cricket is played at county level, which saps talent at the top and sucks up too much money that could go on development.

The ECB, however, argues that the county structure maintains a strong basis for senior cricket. "If we want a first-class structure, the center has to subsidize it," Havill said. "We have 400 professional players; you can argue we could have 300, but a pyramid of talent is necessary in all sports. If we did not subsidize the counties, they would operate at a much lower base."

England and Australia join battle again at Lord's tomorrow, a high point of a momentous sporting summer. Every ball can be followed live, thanks to the miracle of TV – but only by those who have paid a subscription to BSkyB.

Dubai Stands By to Host Test Cricket

The terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore could lead to Dubai and Abu Dhabi becoming the "home" venues for the subcontinent's cricket-playing countries for the ­forseeable future, according to leading officials in England and worldwide. It would be the first time that Tests have been played regularly outside the ­traditional top cricket-playing countries.

Following last week's shootings, in which eight people were killed, and the Mumbai atrocities before Christmas, there are serious doubts over the venues for the 2011 World Cup, which is due to be co-hosted by India, ­Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The ­forthcoming Twenty20 Indian ­Premier League is also under threat, as are a number of ­international tours.

Kevin Pietersen, who has signed for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, admitted last night that he might withdraw from the IPL. "If I don't think it's right then I'll not be going," he said. "I'll be speaking to Bangalore, to the ECB, to my agent, and to security advisers. Hopefully, the security will come right for India but if everybody pulls out of the IPL then world cricket would really be on a down."

Sean Morris, chief executive of the domestic players' union, the Professional Cricketers' Association, said: "I can't paint the entire subcontinent under one brush, but today everyone is asking about playing in that region, full stop."

Tim May, head of the global ­players' union, Fica, said: "The viability of ­playing there will certainly be guided by ­security experts. It's easy to have a knee-jerk reaction but the risk factor for holding [the World Cup] in this area has risen."

The England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, Giles Clarke, when asked directly about England playing a nation from the subcontinent in the United Arab Emirates, said: "The answer is we should be able to consider anywhere. The Middle East – Abu Dhabi, Dubai – is a perfectly viable option."

International cricket has been played in the Gulf since 1983 and Sharjah, another Emirate, has hosted 198 one-day games, more than anywhere else, as well as four Tests. The Gulf states have invested billions of dollars in building new cricket facilities and their ­population is made up largely of ­expatriate workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are seen as safe havens should any of the subcontinent countries – or their opponents – wish to move fixtures. Pakistan have already agreed to play their one-day internationals in Abu Dhabi and are ­talking about moving Tests there. Dubai's £4bn Sports City complex, which ­features a new 25,000-capacity cricket stadium, is nearing completion, and the ICC's new offices will be on site, too.

The teams would receive a warm welcome from their prospective hosts. "We're not here to exploit anyone's misfortune. But as far as we're concerned we'd say we have two excellent, world-class venues. We're here for the cricket," said Dilwar Mani, president of the Abu Dhabi Cricket Association and brother of Ehsan Mani, the former ICC chief who has extensive connections throughout the game.

Another consequence of the Lahore shootings could be Test series played by three or four nations rather than two, in countries where security fears are comparatively low. "You have to be open-minded to ideas," said Morris, who mooted the idea when he made a ­presentation to the ECB in January on the feasibility of triangular series. "Let's have the debate rather than ­dismissing them instantly."

Morris said the PCA would be open to discussing a quadrangular Test ­competition that could be suited to the short English summer. He also raised the possibility of playing floodlit Tests.

Day of Cricket That Turned Into 30 Minutes of Terror

In the early morning sunshine over Pakistan's cultural capital, Lahore, the Sri Lankan cricket team's coach glided out of one of the city's most luxurious hotels, the Pearl Continental, and edged into the morning traffic. The squad were to take to the field of Lahore's Gaddafi stadium, one of the subcontinent's cauldrons of cricket, in the third day of their Test match against Pakistan.

Winding through, the coach stopped at the junction of Liberty roundabout, a landmark noted for its sculptured pond. Mohammad Khalil, driver of the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team, remembered thinking how quiet the roads were.

But at 8.30am the city's roar was replaced by a deadlier boom: that of a rocket launcher.

"As we approached the Liberty Roundabout, I slowed down. Just then what seemed to be a rocket was fired at my coach, but it missed and I think flew over the top of the vehicle," said Khalil. "Almost immediately afterwards a person ran in front of the bus and threw a grenade in our direction. But it rolled underneath the coach and did not seem to cause that much damage ... I was shocked and stunned."

What had begun as a day of cricket turned into half an hour of terror. The first explosion had in fact missed the cricket convoy by 20ft. From the shade of the trees that line the main boulevard in eastern Lahore a dozen men came armed with rockets and guns in their hands.

Raking bullets into the side of the coach carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, a dozen young men were intent on causing bloody mayhem in the upmarket avenues of the city. The first three gunmen on the scene, captured by television cameras, calmly opened fire with AK-47s on the coach - mowing down Pakistani police.

They then turned their attention to the bus, coolly aiming first at the tyres, then the chassis before shattering the windows. The coach quickly filled with shards of glass and pools of blood.

Injured players hit the floor and there were cries of "Go! Go!" as the coach zigzagged its way through the ambush. "We all dived to the floor to take cover," said Sri Lanka's team captain, Mahela Jayawardene.

What saved the lives of the test cricketers and umpires was the lightning reflexes of Khalil, who kept his foot on the accelerator as bullets ripped into the vehicle and explosions filled the air.

"[The rocket] missed us and hit an electric pole, after which all hell broke loose," he said. "All of us were taken aback ... I did not stop and kept moving."

The driver of a bus following behind, carrying the Australian umpires, was killed. The attack was an audacious, commando-style guerrilla operation. The gunmen wearing backpacks, believed to be full of grenades, split into pairs and moved swiftly to take positions at the roundabout.

The rocket that narrowly missed the oncoming Sri Lankan bus had slammed into a parade of shops - reducing one shopfront to cinders. Malls around the roundabout were punctured by high-calibre bullets that apparently missed their targets.

Muhammad Hashim, a security guard at the Big City shopping centre, told the Guardian he and seven other colleagues ran for cover behind the building at the sound of gunshots. It may well have saved his life. Just a few feet from where he was sat back at his post was a large bullethole on the shopping centre's steps.

The militants continued shooting for another 30 minutes - with little resistance from local police. Seven people, including six police, were killed.

The wounded included seven players, an umpire and an assistant coach. The Sri Lankan team saw its new star batsman, Tharanga Paranavitana, rushed to hospital to have a bullet removed from his chest. The bowler Ajantha Mendis had surgeons pick shrapnel from his torso and vice-captain, Kumar Sangakkara, saw his thigh riddled with shards of metal and glass.

Sangakkara was stoic in the face of the terror. "I don't regret coming to play cricket. That is what we have done all our lives. That is our profession ... I regret what has happened and the situation that we have gone through. All we want is to go back home to our families and get back home and be safe. That is all I can think now," he said.

There were tales of individual heroism. Chris Broad, an English match referee who was supposed to be officiating the Test, dived on top of another umpire to save his life. Broad, father of England fast-bowler Stuart, was one of several officials and umpires travelling in a minibus directly behind the Sri Lankan vehicle.

He leapt upon Ehsan Raza, a local umpire, in an effort to save him from the hail of gunfire. Raza, who was shot in the back, was said to be in a critical condition in hospital. Dominic Cork, the former England cricketer who was in Lahore to commentate on the match, said Broad had told him he had suffered "the most frightening experience of his life".

Inside the vehicle, fear mingled with uncertainty. Sri Lanka's assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, who is British, told the BBC: "People have talked about grenades, rocket launchers and all sorts, but I have to say I wasn't aware of too much because I was lying on the floor of the coach and just hoping to God I wasn't going to be struck."

It could have been much worse. Because the onslaught began before the shops opened, shopping crowds were thin.

Police arrested four men in connection with the assault but the dozen militants simply dropped their weapons and appeared to melt away into the crowds. TV footage of the attack showed gunmen with backpacks firing as they retreated from the scene.

It took police an hour to arrive on the scene and much of the evidence appeared to have been carted away by locals. An abandoned car was found with a stash containing three Kalasknikovs, 12 grenades, a pistol and remote-control bombs was found in a nearby park in Lahore.

The Guardian saw a young boy gleefully pull a cartridge out of the pond in the centre of the roundabout and flash it to TV cameras. On the streets lay bullet casings apparently missed by local law enforcement.

Several damaged vehicles were left behind as well as a lone, unexploded grenade. The bodies of three people lay crumpled on the ground. Associated Press reported police handling what looked like two suicide jackets. Officers also recovered two backpacks, as well as walkie-talkies.

Last night Lahore's police were searching buildings and stopping cars in a massive security sweep, but admitted they had lost track of the gunmen.

Like the tragedy in India's financial capital, Mumbai, yesterday's terror strike was planned to cause maximum mayhem and grab headlines. Not since the Munich Olympics in 1972 have athletes and sports-people been specifically targeted.

In both Mumbai - where the body count topped 170 over three days - and Lahore, the gunmen launched a coordinated strike using multiple assailants who were armed with explosives and assault rifles with little fear of death or capture.

"I want to say it's the same pattern, the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai," Salman Taseer, the governor of central Punjab province, told reporters at the site of the attack. "They are trained criminals. They were not common people. The kind of weaponry they had, the kind of arms they had, the way they attacked ... they were not common citizens, they were obviously trained."

There does not appear to be any immediate connection with Sri Lanka's war with the separatist Tamil Tigers in the island's north-east.

Others speculated that Pakistan's homegrown Taliban, who consider sport unIslamic, were behind the attack.

Wasim Akram, one of Pakistan's best-known fast bowlers, said the future for this cricket-mad nation was all but over. "How do you expect a foreign team to come to Pakistan now?" he said.

Whatever the truth is, the attacks have dealt another blow to a city that has seen foreign tourism disappear, and a country that appears to be teetering on the brink.

Dubai to Provide Cricket's New Oasis

A week tomorrow David Morgan, president of the International Cricket Council, will host a tele­phone conference between the member boards of the sport's world governing body to discuss the ramifications of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore last week.

It will be the first of many conversations that might – some say will – lead to a seismic shift in the landscape of world cricket. Until now the main considerations in organizing Test series and other international cricket fixtures have been commercial and, with the power base moving east, political. Now, at least as far as the players are concerned, there is only one consideration: safety. The point was made last night by Kevin Pietersen, who said he might not go to India for the Twenty20 Indian Premier League due to start next month.

"If I don't think it's right then I'll not be going," he said. "I'll be speaking to Bangalore, to the ECB, to my agent, and to security advisers."

The main losers are Pakistan, but the other three Test-playing countries on the subcontinent – India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – also have much at stake. Standing by to profit are Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and, above all, Dubai, home of the ICC's headquarters. The Gulf states could become a new home for cricket.

Cricket is of immeasurable cultural importance throughout the subcontinent and, as the gunmen in Lahore showed, the sport is an easy target for terrorists. Those who represent professional cricketers around the world have told the Observer that players, with Pietersen prominent among them, are harboring serious reservations about traveling not only to Pakistan, but to the entire region. All forms of the international game may be forced to move.

The Gulf region is close enough, being a couple of hours by air from parts of India and Pakistan. Nearly half of those living in the Gulf states are of Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi origin, so the audience is there. So are the pitches, stadiums and facilities, most notably at Dubai's billion-pound Sports City complex – where Australia play Pakistan next month – and Abu Dhabi's new state-of-the-art cricket center. The climate is favorable, too, with play possible for seven months of the year. English county sides have not been slow to take advantage: six will head east later this month to step up their pre-season preparations at the Pro Arch Trophy, staged at venues in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

There has also been talk of English grounds staging "neutral" Tests, for example between Pakistan and Australia, while England are playing home series. A further potential shift in the landscape has been identified here, with the traditional format of Test series between two nations being challenged. If Pakistan and Australia were here while England were playing South Africa, say, why not stage a four-team Test contest?

"Why not? You've got to be open-minded," says Sean Morris, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association, the players' union for domestic cricket. Morris told Observer Sport that he had proposed a change to the England and Wales Cricket Board in January, suggesting the introduction of triangular series in future. That was before the Lahore attack and now Morris would not rule out a quadrangular Test competition that would suit the short English summer even more, and would also be a viable option in the Gulf.

"The problem is the Future Tours Programme," he says of the Test-playing fixture list that the ICC's member boards agree for years in advance. The current FTP runs until 2012, with 22 Test and one-day series due to be played in the subcontinent by then. England are next due there against Pakistan (2010) and Bangladesh (2012). According to the players' representatives, all those series are under threat – certainly Pakistan's games will be moved – as well as the 2011 World Cup, originally due to be co-hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and the forthcoming IPL Twenty20 competition.

"It's quite tricky to get the availability of the teams," Morris says. "But there is no reason why a quadrangular series wouldn't work – after all, the [proposed] Stanford series here this summer involved four nations." By coincidence, 2012 is the centenary of the previous Test series with more than two teams, when England hosted Australia and South Africa.

The thinking is that a quadrangular Test series would tap into the large immigrant and expatriate population on these shores. That would also be the case in the Gulf. And with player safety now the prime objective – "playing in the subcontinent will certainly be guided by security experts," confirmed Tim May, head of the worldwide cricketers' union, Fica – it would allow a greater concentration of international cricket to be played in a secure location.

Pakistan will stage no international cricket for the foreseeable future. "Obviously the landscape has changed. We will clearly not be sending cricketers to Pakistan until a significant change occurs there," Morgan says. "The priority of the ICC is to find ways of providing international cricket away from Pakistan on neutral territory."

Asked about the future of international cricket elsewhere in the region, Morgan denied there was any likelihood of moving games. "To extend that [relocating] to all of the subcontinent would be a mistake," he says.

Because of the delicate political sensitivities in cricket, though, he has no option but to say that. The game is effectively ruled from India, and the ICC president will not want to upset the Indians. Here, though, is a starker view, painted by one of Morgan's colleagues, who did not wish to be named, who has been involved in all the major discussions within the ICC.

"Two weeks ago there was an army mutiny in Bangladesh. After the Mumbai bombings, before Christmas in India, Pakistan cricketers are not allowed to play in the IPL. Also, remember that that competition had a big bomb attack during it last year in Jaipur. Colombo [the Sri Lankan capital] can be as bad as Pakistan. And never mind last week's attack on the Sri Lankan players, it should be remembered that Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed less than 18 months ago."

The insider also confirmed that debate had long been underway within the ICC about all forms of the international game being played in the Gulf. Why else would the sheikhs be investing so much money in cricket grounds?

"There will be three state-of-the-art cricket grounds at Sports City in Dubai, where Australian, Pakistani and English soil has already been imported for use," he says. "Abu Dhabi is ready right now. Don't think these conversations are only just starting. For the past two years the ICC have been thinking of expanding the game. The Middle East also has plenty of money – think of the recent Asian Games in Doha, where the facilities were built very quickly. There are contingency plans in place."

How realistic is the prospect of all forms of the international game being played in the Gulf region? "Why not? That's what we are have built these facilities for," says U Balasubramaniam, chief executive of Dubai's Sports City, whose director of sports business, Malcolm Thorpe, confirmed: "We've had conversations with every board of the Test playing nations."

Could the subcontinent nations play cricket in Abu Dhabi, which hosts Australia and Pakistan in a one-day series next month? "We're not here to exploit anyone's misfortune. But as far as we're concerned we'd say we have two excellent world-class venues. We're here for the cricket," says Dilwar Mani, president of the Abu Dhabi Cricket ­Association and brother of Ehsan Mani, a former ICC president.

"The facilities [in Abu Dhabi] are absolutely first class," says Morris, a view echoed by the ECB's chairman, Giles Clarke, who says: "Abu Dhabi and Dubai are perfectly viable options."

Thorpe describes what Sports City had on offer, thanks to huge investment by the Dubai royal family.

"Pakistan play Australia next month in the 25,000-seat stadium. The ICC Global Cricket Academy has Rod Marsh as its head, who is supported by Dayle Hadlee, brother of Sir Richard, and Mudassar Nazar. The academy has two ovals, indoor and outdoor nets, and a mix of different soils from England, Australia and Pakistan – the wicket for the stadium is from Pakistan. And the ICC's new offices, which open soon, are next door.

"The complex also has the Ernie Els golf club, a 15,000-seat multi-indoor arena similar to the O2, a 60,000-capacity facility for football, rugby and athletics, a field hockey stadium and a whole range of academies, including the Butch Harmon golf and Manchester United soccer schools." Sports City ranges over five square kilometres and, being purpose-built, gated and in a country with no history of terrorism, is very safe. "There will be a population of anything up to 60,000 living and working there. We are building a community around sport."

Investment in sport in the Gulf region has reached mind-boggling levels. Since the Dubai World Cup race meeting began in 1996, prize money has risen from $5m to more than $20m. Sports City has a fund of $4bn – Manchester United alone were paid $50m to locate a soccer school there – while in Qatar the cost of the Aspire football academy was $1.3bn. The European golf tour now stages more events in the Gulf than in England, and the season is built around the "Race to Dubai", venue for the season finale.

Morgan was careful to state that it would be "a mistake to think that the world outside the subcontinent is safe. I have a very clear visual memory of Australia being here in 2005 while I was at a one-day international in Leeds and bombs were going off in London.

"It is a good thing that England and India continued," he added of the series interrupted by the Mumbai attacks in which more than 170 people died.

But Morris, while also pointing to that positive experience, had reservations. "I can't paint the entire subcontinent under one brush. But today everyone is asking questions about playing in that region, full stop. Decisions should no longer be made on a political or commercial basis. Players make their choices based on safety." And the IPL? "People are asking pretty big questions over that. You need experts to do their reviews of safety. You have to be tapped into the advice each day."

The IPL's commissioner, Lalit Modi, is praying he can call in enough favours to persuade the Indian government to provide the level of security needed during a time when the potentially volatile national elections are taking place.

Andrew Flintoff, Pietersen, Morris and the wider cricket community will be dismayed to know that the IPL have so far refused two requests from Fica for a detailed plan of their security arrangements. The requests were made, before the Lahore atrocities, by Tim May, who says: "We recently conducted a survey of all the players who took part in the 2008 IPL and 83% said they wished to have an independent review. There have been significant incidents, including the Jaipur bombing [which nearly caused the match between Rajasthan Royals and the Bangalore Royal Challengers to be postponed]. Players have raised concerns about playing in those areas."

Those concerns could lead to some of the biggest changes to the cricket calendar since Test matches began.

Time to Make Cricket the Only Religion on the Subcontinent

Just down the corridor from me at the Hotel Plaza in Havana is the suite where George Herman Ruth – Babe or the Bambino to baseball fans – stayed 90 years ago. It's a shrine of sorts to the first of baseball's marquee names, a supreme slugger who captivated fans and divided opinion wherever he went. In so many ways, Ruth was an iconic symbol of pre-Depression America, just as Sachin Tendulkar became the face of post-liberalization India. But while the Babe was a larger-than-life character in every sense, Tendulkar's time in the spotlight has been notable mainly for the near-complete absence of controversy and an almost painful shyness.

Baseball runs through the veins of people on this island. While a small number of top players have defected to the major leagues across the water, the vast majority of those who have played for a wonderfully talented amateur side have lived by the Teófilo Stevenson adage that a few million dollars is nothing compared to the love of eight million compañeros.

Having just covered the climactic stages of the ICC World Twenty20, it is enough to make you wonder why Cuba is nowhere in the picture when it comes to cricket. Certainly, there is an awareness that such a sport exists. At immigration I was grilled on account of being a journalist, until the young man asking the questions inquired which topics I covered. When I said sport, and cricket in particular, he took a step back and imitated a big hit that would have gone a fair distance over cow corner.

Given how the Chappell brothers played baseball as a winter sport, and how naturally athletic Cubans are, they'd have a crack Twenty20 outfit in no time with the requisite guidance. That, in turn, leads to the ICC and promotion of the game worldwide. The sooner they reduce the farce of a 50-over World Cup to a manageable four weeks or less with fewer teams the better. For spreading the gospel, the only format that works is Twenty20. Rugby realized that nearly two decades ago with Sevens and cricket has to follow suit if it harbors serious ambitions of being an Olympic sport.

Test cricket may be the pinnacle when it comes to skill and even drama but it's never going to rival the slam-bang version for popularity. To expect that would be to expect Vivaldi to outsell the Beatles. There's a place for the purist but snobbery is something the game can ill afford if it wants to be globally relevant.

Ideally, the World Cup would be restricted to just the top eight or 10 teams (once the anomaly of a tournament called the Champions Trophy disappears from the calendar) and the World Twenty20 could then be thrown open to more teams. Had Afghanistan or Kenya been able to play this time, we might have seen even more upsets. In a 50-over game, a team like Kenya wouldn't have a prayer against Australia or South Africa but in the abbreviated form anything's possible. You only have to look at Fiji's magnificent Sevens side and the emerging Kenyans to see how much deeper the talent pool becomes when an additional element of chance is introduced.

Perhaps in the future, teams touring the Caribbean could play a one-off Twenty20 game at a non-traditional venue such as Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Plant the seed and see how it germinates. Unlike many of the world's big banks, the ICC and some of the individual boards certainly have enough cash to spare.

Fortunately, though, money isn't everything. The sweetest aspect of the World T20 was the early exit of Australia, India and England, the three countries that seem to regard the Future Tours Program as some kind of personal fiefdom. While it could be said that the security situations in Pakistan and Sri Lanka have prevented more matches being scheduled there, it still doesn't explain the reluctance to invite them. The Pakistanis were once Asia's biggest draw card, while the Lankans have reached the final in two of the past three global events.

A recent study revealed that the Indian Premier League has already become one of the world's most lucrative sporting properties but it was probably their exclusion from it that provided one of the spurs for Pakistan's players on the world stage. The players who had their contracts torn up, including a certain Shahid Khan Afridi (Deccan Chargers), had a point to prove and they did so to thrilling effect. Like the Cubans, the Pathans have a natural aptitude for ball sports – the squash Khans, Jahangir and Jansher, both hail from Nawankali, Umar Gul's home town – and it would be foolish to underestimate the role cricket could play in keeping restless youth away from guns and other malignant influences.

The Taliban may have succeeded in shutting down girls' schools and hairdressing salons but if the reaction to the World Twenty20 triumph is any indicator they will need to fight a thousand years or longer to eradicate cricket's grip on the nation. "It means everything to us and our nation," said Younus Khan, another Pathan, and that's not hyperbole. Given the game's power to unite and the tendency of religious leaders to divide, maybe it's time to abolish all other faiths and make cricket the only religion on the subcontinent. Once that happens, maybe we can send a few missionaries over to Cuba.

The Role of Temperament in Cricket

Temperament seems to be the one factor which distinguishes the men from the boys. In cricket when a situation gets tough, when the pressure is mounting, its easy to hang up the gloves and take the easy way out. It takes patience and guts to survive a pressure intensive cricket match and gain victory. Extremely talented players fail to impress under pressure situations and average cricket players perform heroically to take their team home to a victory. That is the strength of a good temperament. Youngsters practicing cricket should start developing this attitude in their game. Along with developing their cricketing skills it is imperative to develop the strength of temperament. Here are a few values which go a long way to building a strong temperament in cricket.

Controlling excitement

In cricket, as in any other sport, the adrenaline rush is huge. When you swing your cricket bat and deliver a bone crushing sixer it is usual to feel extremely pumped up. The tendency to give away your wicket by playing for another six is a possibility. When you allow a situation to take control of your mind that’s when excitement takes over. Seasoned cricket players grow out of such excitement. Their nerves are never unsteady and they are not carried away with the momentum. Face each ball at its merit, don’t get carried away by your previous shot. The same is true when you reach a half century or a century. There is a tendency to get over excited and throw your wicket away. As long as you have the energy to perform you should stay in the middle and put a high price on your wicket. That’s the stuff cricket’s legendary batsmen are made of.

Developing the Art of Patience

Seasoned cricket player are great at patience. They don’t give in to the pressure of the moment but wait it out till an opportune time comes around when they start playing their shots. When faced with a huge total its usual for rookies to give away their wicket by going for the big shots starting from ball one. The seasoned players know that a few quick boundaries towards the later part of the game or a few sixers towards the last overs can totally change the drift of the game. They work through a steady start and ensure that wickets are held intact. They work through their singles and doubles. Steady runs build up slowly and reach a point where they give you a solid platform to start the attack. That’s the secret of consistent cricket players.

Immunity to Distraction

Practice sessions are very different from the actual game. While practicing there are no distractions to contend with. When you cross the line to enter the field on the day of the game, things are very different. You have hundreds of distractions to contend with and the mind can get very noisy. Seasoned cricket players learn the art of silencing their mind while on the field. Imagine taking a high catch with the crowd roaring behind you. It’s not easy. You would require nerves of steel to execute such a feat. Young players, around the age of 17 to 18, go on to play professional cricket and show strength of temperament. You don’t require to age to acquire a good temperament. You just need to train the mind.

From the Author
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Expensive Air Travel? It's Just Not Cricket

What would you say was the purpose of the England and Wales Cricket Board? To encourage people to watch or play cricket? To force people to watch or play cricket against their will? To destroy all cricket except for English cricket (and some Welsh cricket, but only as a sort of Vichy-style puppet cricket)? To nail every cricket in England and Wales to a board? To promote golf?

It turns out it's the last. Thanks to the ECB's sale of the cricket TV rights to Sky, the live sport on terrestrial television this weekend is the Open, not the Lord's Test. In 2005, 8.4m watched the Channel 4 coverage of the climactic Sunday of an Ashes Test match. Last Sunday's nail-biter in Cardiff peaked at only 1.5m, which may be massive for a subscription channel, but is shit for cricket and its chances of attracting new fans.

Why did the ECB make this insane choice? For money. It forgot about building on Test cricket's growing popularity after 2005's triumph, about keeping it a presence in our national life on a channel people receive automatically, and it took a big check. It's as if it was getting out of cricket - selling up for a fast buck, taking the money and running. But it can't run - it's English cricket's governing body - so it's left holding the money while it stares at the diminished popularity and, therefore, significance, of English cricket as a result of its actions. If it's not run by golf enthusiasts, it's run by fools.

Ed Miliband is not a fool, but last week showed himself just as fond as the ECB of short-term gain when he promised to safeguard cheap air travel despite the need to cut carbon emissions. Otherwise, he said, it would mean "you would go back to 1974 levels of flying". Well, if he thinks that's the worst the environmental future could hold, he hasn't been doing his boxes. "I don't want to have a situation where only rich people can afford to fly," he continued. Who does? But then it wouldn't be the end of the world. Whereas ...

Miliband clearly thinks that being seen to jeopardize the annual British exodus to drink colder lager somewhere hotter is political harakiri. He's probably right. While he may not be the most statesmanlike steward of our environmental future, he clearly knows how to keep his head above water in a sinking government (and if he has that skill literally as well as metaphorically he's got less to fear from climate change than most).

He may represent a political class that wouldn't tell you if the room in which you were standing was on fire because predictions of smoke inhalation play badly in key marginals, but his remarks give an unsettling insight into our national obsession with cheap foreign holidays.

To deny us them is like a Roman emperor running out of bread and circuses, a French president failing to defend the Common Agricultural Policy or a Russian leader being pleasant: the people won't stand for it.

Think of the other sacrifices combating climate change may involve - massively more expensive electricity; severely rationed water; a landscape humming with wind farms or hundreds of nuclear power stations, each threatening to China syndrome western Europe if a senior technician has a bad hangover day; removing the very tea from the used teabags and recycling the perforations; having to get up to turn the television on.

And think of what we could face if we don't make those sacrifices: the sea advancing up the Kilburn High Road; hurricanes alternating with droughts; all the fish and bees dying; weird Mediterranean insects and aggressive freshwater lobsters finding their perfect habitat in the Yorkshire Dales; more English wine.

Yet, to the British, neither eventuality is half as terrifying as losing our easyJet privileges. Apparently we feel there's no point keeping the planet habitable unless we've still got quick access to Disney World and Ibiza. This is bizarre and depressing. It makes me need a holiday. Are our existences so miserable that we're only living for two weeks of escape? Have we given up on the other 50, like people who give to animal charities have presumably given up on humans?

The media reaction when there's, say, an air traffic controllers' strike in August, certainly implies some kind of national neurosis. Stranded holidaymakers are spoken to, and behave, like victims of an atrocity. The cameras pan along queues of heartbroken Britons in flipflops. "I don't know how they can do this to people!" complains someone with a tragic expression and a Hawaiian shirt as if he's talking about extraordinary rendition. Don't these thoughtless foreign trade unionists understand that it's not just people's lives or livelihoods or children or homes that they're toying with, but their holidays?

What makes all this even sadder is that so many holidays are a huge disappointment. Hotels don't look like the photos, the beaches are crowded, the food gives you the runs, you're more stuck with your bloody family than ever. And however idyllic the destination, what series of experiences can live up to such rabid expectations of joy? This is why I don't think I'll ever watch The Wire - it literally cannot be as good as people say unless it turns out not to be a TV program but a cream-cake-bottle-of-whisky-orgasm combo.

Holidays aren't for going on, still less for feeling rested by, but for looking forward to. They distract us from the daily grind because they're a light at the end of the tunnel, just before the next tunnel. As soon as we return from a trip, exhausted, broke and disappointed, we feel the overwhelming urge to book another one so we can look forward to that.

So it surely doesn't much matter what holidays actually involve. Even in Miliband's 1974 dystopia, when fewer of us went abroad, the prospect of trips to Cornwall or Blackpool kept us at least as sane as our hopes for Gatwick-launched escape do today. We've randomly fetishised "sunshine" and "abroad". But fads change. If we could only switch to "drizzle" and "model villages" then politicians might pluck up the courage to make burning kerosene as costly for us as it is for the environment.

• David Mitchell chooses his Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 FM today, 11.15am

Rajasthan Royals (Indian Premier League : Cricket )

Rajasthan Royal in Indian Premier League tournaments, 2009, represents the Pink City of Jaipur of the State. Bollywood Queen, Shilpa Shetty being the new owner of Rajasthan Royals has put on her heartily effort in Royal Rajasthan Team. She , accompanied with her beloved-Mr.Raj Kindra has spent $15.4 million for a 12% stake in the team for Season II of IPL'09. As of now, she will be seen propagating the ballot from the Emerging Media, bought up in exchange of $67 million, recently in 2008.

With extending the conversations about Shilpa and Raj, Cricket lovers will receive chance to have a glance of the glamor world and too add more, Priety Zinta will be seen supporting the Mohali Kings XI Team in IPL Cricket'09.

As per the latest updates, Shane Warne's Indian Premier League (IPL) team is marching forward so as to be nominated for an alarm at Laureus World Awards. AS per the fixed schedule, the venue date and nominees for 2009 Laureus World Sports Awards will be announced on April 16, lately. The prestigious award function will recognize the sporting achievement during 2008 calendar year and will be featuring the celebrities of the sports and entertainment world.

Associates in Rajasthan Royals in IPL Team
Captain: Shane Warne
Head Coach: Shane Warne
Assistant Coach: Jeremy Snape
Psychotherapist:John Gloster
Owner: Emerging Media Group
C.E.O: Fraser Castellino
Team Logo: The logo includes two lions, symbolizing royalty-RR, the team name, all in golden color, on a blue colored Royal Medallion.
Home Ground: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Rajasthan Royal Squad:
Royal Rajasthan shimmers with having its 28 Team Squad

-Shane Warne
-Graeme Smith
-Shane Watson
-Tyron Henderson
-Shaun Tait
-Sohail Tanvir
-Mohammad Kaif
-Yusuf Pathan
-Munaf Patel
-Kamran Akmal
-D. Mascarenhas
-Morne Morkel
-Justin Langer
-Swapnil Asnodkar
-Siddharth Trivedi
-Ravindra Jadeja
-Mahesh Rawat
-Niraj Patel
-Dinesh Salunkhe
-Anup Revandkar
-Aditya Angle
-Parag More
-Rob Quiney
-Shane Harwood
-Lee Carseldine
-Naman Ojha
-Siddharth Chitnis
-Paras Dogra

Upcoming Sports Events 2009

Date: Event Venue
14th June'09: ICC World Twenty 20 : Lord's Cricket Ground

15th June'09: ICC World Twenty 20 : The Brit Oval

19th June'09: ICC World Twenty 20: The Brit Oval

21st June'09: ICC World Twenty 20: Lord's Cricket Ground

8th -12th July: 1st npower Ashes Test Match: Glamorgan Cricket Club, Cardiff

16th -19th July: 2nd npower Ashes Test Match: Lord's Cricket Ground

25th July'09: Friends Provident Trophy: Lord's Cricket Ground

30th July- 3rd August'09: 3rd npower Ashes Test Match: Edgbaston

7th to 11th August'09: 4th npower Ashes Test Match: Headingley Carnegie

20th to 23rd August'09: 5th npower Ashes Test Match: The Brit Oval

30th August'09: ICC World Twenty20 2009: Old Trafford

1st September'09: ICC World Twenty20 2009: Old Trafford

4th September'09: Natwest Series ODI: The Brit Oval

6th September'09: Natwest Series ODI: Lord's Cricket Ground

12th September'09: Natwest Series ODI: Lord's Cricket Ground

15th September'09: Natwest Series ODI: Trent Bridge

17th September'09: Natwest Series ODI: Trent Bridge

What If Hollywood Played Cricket?

These are heady days for cricket. England's triumph in the Ashes was overseen by increasingly high-end celebrity cognoscenti, with both Lily Allen and Russell Crowe putting in appearances at the BBC's Test Match Special commentary box. Plus, this week Sam Mendes announced that he will be adapting Joseph O'Neill's novel Netherland, a story about cricketing expats in New York, into a major film. A century after its first great golden age, the most sedentary, self-deprecating and immovably weather-bound of summer sports is about to go Hollywood. But does cricket really have a big-screen future? And if so, what kind of scripts can we expect to see punted about in the next few months?

Stumped!

Classic fish-out-of-water caper starring Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy in an unconvincing fat suit and Eddie Murphy pretending to be a woman by speaking in a shrill voice. Follow the hilarious fortunes of the England Lions squad on its winter tour: getting lost at the airport in Sri Lanka, posing awkwardly with an elephant in Lahore and sitting in the hotel in Chittagong watching DVDs, eating baked beans and complaining that the bread won't toast. Stars Eddie Murphy as dysentery-ridden medium-fast bowler Rory Cake-Bread and Eddie Murphy as lots of other people too, many in fat suits.

The Deckchair Effect

Chilling M Night Shyamalan supernatural drama based around a series of unusual events on a drizzly May afternoon watching Sussex bat out a slow four-day draw. A sausage roll goes missing. One of the members can't find his hat. And there's some confusion over the bus times into Hove. Stars Zooey Deschanel as a mysterious lady reading the Daily Telegraph in a cagoule.

The Ball Tamperer

Jason Statham stars as a bicep-rippling rogue opening bowler who isn't afraid to bend the rules. Mainly by rubbing a little hair oil into the surface of the ball in order to generate additional swing through the air. He rolls over the bonnet of his sponsored Peugeot. He crouches behind the Cornish pasty van next to the pavilion. He gets told off by the umpire. He says sorry.

Legbreakz and Googliez

Sizzling teen urban dance-off based in the steamy underworld of the LV County Championship Division Two. Rival satchel-toting middle-aged spectator gangs engage in high-kicking, arthritic minor disagreements over their favored lunchtime sandwich filling at a series of semi-deserted County out-grounds. Features the music of 50 Cent – and faint strains of Handel and the Jeremy Vine show heard over a battered transistor radio headset.