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DUBAI (Reuters) - The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rejected an application from the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) seeking approval for their Twenty20 competition.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble took five for five as Bangalore Royal Challengers crushed champions Rajasthan Royals by 75 runs on the opening day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Newlands on Saturday.

REUTERS - Scoreboard after the Bangalore Royal Challengers beat the Rajasthan Royals by 75 runs in their Indian Premier League match at Newlands, South Africa on Saturday.

Zimbabwe's wicketkeeper and former captain, Tatenda Taibu, believes that Andy Flower's natural leadership qualities will come to the fore now that he has been confirmed as England's full-time coach

Clare Connor, the former England captain, has been invited by the ICC to join its cricket committee as a representative of women's cricket

Cricinfo previews the IPL game between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab

Steffan Jones, the Somerset seam bowler, has joined Kent on a month-long loan deal

James Hildreth wrote his name into the record books at Taunton by recording the earliest triple-century in an English season

After defending champions Rajasthan Royals, it is now the turn of the Chennai Super Kings to send back five from their IPL squad in South Africa

A round-up of the opening matches of the county season from Division Two of the Championship

As the dust settles on the ICC World Cup Qualifiers we highlight what each team comes away from South Africa with

Dwayne Leverock, Bermuda's most recognisable player, has hung up his boots after the side lost their ODI status and failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup

One doesn’t know the motive behind the ICC’s latest rankings; but it is not impossible that they were trying to conjure a controversy out of nothing.

This year the IPL franchisees are behaving like 'glumdog' millionaires; it is almost like they have suddenly realized the virtue of every penny.

In all the euphoria over IPL, interestingly, a significant development has gone virtually unnoticed: the slide of Australia.

It may be pure irony, or indeed a bad omen, that India's team for the upcoming tour to New Zealand has been selected on Friday the 13th.

I never thought I would see the day when cricketers would return in the arms of their families as soldiers often do after a protracted battle at the front.

Fresh from a rare Test series victory in New Zealand, Harbhajan Singh believes India have what it takes to beat the best in the world on their home soil.

Well so, the multiple-captain theory was nothing but a decoy: Sourav Ganguly has finally been divested from the Kolkata Knight Riders' throne.

Former captain Michael Vaughan expects he will have to regain his place in the England team by next month if he is to make the Ashes squad.

Virender Sehwag took the occasion to shower praise on Gautam Gambhir, describing the left-hander as the best Indian opener since Sunil Gavaskar.

Harbhajan Singh knows his craft well and people better keep their opinions to themselves.

Andrew Flintoff said that he wanted to play in the IPL so that he could improve his skills ahead of the T20 World Cup.

In 1996, Lankan players left Lahore's Gaddafi stadium with glowing faces after winning the World Cup. 13 years later, the same ground hosted a nightmare for them.

Sustaining a great sporting dynasty is in itself a difficult task as Ricky Ponting has found since taking over as Australia captain five years ago.

Out of the 27 state cricket associations in India, 19 are either headed by politicians or their kith and kin or have some political affiliation.

Days after a complaint that MS Dhoni's name was missing from the electoral rolls, the cricketer has been enrolled in the voter list of Ranchi Lok Sabha constituency.

Little-known cricketers and underdogs go into the Indian Premier League in South Africa with keen expectations as the event is not all about favourites.

Andrew Strauss was initially disconcerted by the huge cultural divide he discovered after joining the Middlesex dressing room.

Buchanan has tipped upcoming young batsman Clarke to become captain after Ponting's time was up if he made right choices in that direction.

West Indies will announce a new captain, to replace the retired Brian Lara, when their board meet on Sunday.

Outgoing Australian coach Buchanan has said his greatest regret as the coach was his strained relationships with Warne and Stuart MacGill.

Pakistan's top cricket officials and players slammed the decision by ICC to strip their country of its 2011 World Cup matches, saying the decision was "unjust."

Australia regained their world number two ranking with a comfortable 47-run win over South Africa in the fifth and final ODI at the Wanderers Stadium on Friday.

With some consistent bowling in display, Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 19 runs to win the Indian Premier League opener at the Newlands.

For a month-and-a-half all eyes will be on the IPL, not just because of the cricket but also Bollywood and the entertainment that comes with T20.

'Kolkata' Knight Riders and no Sourav Ganguly at the helm! as they launch their campaign in IPL-II with a match against Deccan Chargers from Hyderabad.

The hottest opening pair in the game - Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir - join into IPL Season Two action as Team Delhi begin their campaign against Yuvraj Singh's King's XI Punjab on Sunday.

Matthew Hayden top scored for the Chennai Super Kings, but it wasn't enough as his side was comfortably beaten by the Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the Indian Premier League.

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne was disappointed with his side's thrashing at the hands of Bangalore Royal Challengers in its opening match of the Indian Premier League but took heart from the not-too-dissimilar start it made last season.

The Australia Under-19 side got home in a close finish by 15-runs against India Under-19 at the WACA on Friday, thanks to some good performances from some new players in the side.

The 26-year-old bowler, who has been named in country's 30-man preliminary squad for the World Twenty20 scheduled in June, was stopped by CA as it doesn't want to risk his availability in Twenty20 World Cup in England later this year.

Kenya, Canada and the Netherlands joined Ireland in qualifying for the one-day World Cup to be staged in South Asia in 2011. Ireland topped the league standings in the ongoing World Cup qualifiers in South Africa, where the top four nations will join the 10 full-member countries in the 14-team event, to be hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said on Saturday it estimated financial losses of $10.5 million following the International Cricket Council decision to shift the 2011 World Cup matches from the country. 'We lose out on earning the hosting fees of the matches...the ICC pays out the host country $750,000 for each match,' Saleem Altaf, chief operating officer said.

Sachin Tendulkar led from the front with a sparkling unbeaten 59 and young Abhishek Nayar clobbered a quickfire 35 as Mumbai Indians scored a stunning 19-run victory over last year's runners-up Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of the Indian Premier League in Cape Town on Saturday.

The paisa vasool index (PVI) first appeared on Rediff.com last year - although variants with the same name also appeared later in other publications. As IPL2 prepares to take off, the PVI, with all its associated statistical analysis and charts, will take off too.

The ICC said the ICL Twenty20 event does not meet its criteria for approving "unofficial cricket". 'The ICC Board considered an application for the ICL to be approved as unofficial cricket. The Board went through the application carefully, including assessing it against the criteria within the ICC regulations for approving such events. "After due consideration, the Board resolved that the application should be rejected," the ICC said in a statement.

Reader Mehak Vashist sent us this picture from Auckland.

Anil Kumble bagged five wickets for five runs and Rahul Dravid scored a fighting 66 as Royal Challengers Bangalore shocked defending champions Rajasthan Royals in their opening match of IPL 2.