LONDON, Nov 30: The International Cricket Council has offered to extend tomorrows deadline for a decision from the Board of Control for Cricket in India on whether Virender Sehwag will play in the first Test against England at Mohali.
The ICC President, Malcolm Gray, has offered to extend the deadline given to the BCCI and fly with the ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, to Kuala Lumpur for a final summit meeting with Mr Dalmiya on Saturday.
"We are making progress and given we are making progress it is worth extending the time before that deadline," Speed said at a media briefing this afternoon.
"The meeting will happen on Saturday morning.
At this stage I am unable to say whether we get to that stage, things may break down or we may resolve the matter without having to get on the aeroplane.
"We dont want this going down to the last moment, the teams being presented by either captain and to an excited cricket ground full of fans.
That would put safety in jeopardy.
"If the match is to be cancelled it must happen well before the proposed start of play on Monday.
"We recognise that there is a very serious international issue here, we are very concerned about the safety of players, fans and officials and the future of cricket and we will do what we can to resolve the matter." Meanwhile the player at the centre of the controversy, Virender Sehwag, says he is desperately keen to play in the Test, which is due to start on Monday.
Sehwag, 23, was banned for one match by referee Mike Denness for excessive appealing in Indias second Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth.
The ICC insist Sehwag has not served his ban, as they have ruled Indias third Test against South Africa (which Sehwag missed) to be unofficial, after both teams refused to accept Denness as referee.
"To sit out a Test match can be extremely depressing," Sehwag said.
"For five days you see your team-mates slog it out for six hours at a stretch daily and I just sit with a glum face in the dressing room.
"I cant comment on the ban but whether I have liked it or not, I have taken it in my stride.
I hope the miseries for me are over.
I just want to play the first Test against England in Mohali.
"I dont want to be in the news for the wrong reasons any more.
Why should a ban destroy my happiness? Yes, its depressing to miss a Test match but I am looking ahead in life and thats why I want to play the England series," Sehwag told the Times of India.
"Its a new series for me and playing at home will give me a real big boost." The BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, has said he will not confirm whether India intend to play Sehwag until the morning of the match, which would be too late to save the Test.
First Asian world cup finals about to take shape VOLLETTPUSAN (South Korea), Nov 30 (Reuters) : Asias first world cup will take shape tomorrow when the draw for next years tournament in South Korea and Japan will separate the 32 finalists into their eight first round groups.
The finals, the first to be co-hosted by two nations, start on May 31 in the South Korean capital Seoul and conclude with the 64th and final match in Yokohama, Japan on June 30.
Fifa general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen, who will conduct the draw in front of an expected global TV audience of more than one billion people, has declared Saturdays proceedings as "Open and Pure although, as ever, it is not quite that simple.
What is already determined is that eight seeded nations will be placed in each of the eight groups and that China will play their first round matches in South Korea.
As a result of FIFAs decision to send China to South Korea and Saudi Arabia, who also qualifed through the Asian preliminaries, will have to play their three first round games in Japan.
World champions France, who start their campaign in the opening match, will play all their opening round games in South Korea, while both South Korea and Japan will be based in their respective home countries.
Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Spain complete the list of seeds.
For the first time, the remaining 24 qualifiers have all been grouped along geographical lines rather than seeded in terms of presumed ability.
After the seeded nations are allocated a group France have already been assigned to group a, South Korea to group D and Japan to group H eight of the remaining 11 European nations will be allocated a group in a straight draw from group A across to group H.
The three remaining European teams will then be drawn into groups that do not already contain two European teams.
After a brief interval during which the official world cup song "boom will be sung by the singer Anastacia, the draw will continue with the remaining teams from South America, Africa and Central and North America.
Zen-Ruffinen said FIFA wanted to ensure the draw was as balanced as possible between the two co-hosts.
"It would never have been practical, for example, to have lots of European teams playing in one country and not in the other, or to have all the South American teams in one country either, he said.
"The way the draw is designed we can go as far as is possible in ensuring it is balanced at the same time ensuring it is as open and pure as possible.
This means that countries which met in the qualifying competition could also meet again in the finals pitting perhaps England and Germany together again, or Belgium and Croatia, Ireland and Portugal, Russia and Slovenia and Turkey and Sweden.
Apart from the four debutants Ecuador, Senegal, China and Slovenia and Turkey, who last appeared in the finals in 1954, most of the qualifiers are experienced campaigners at this level with 23 of them having taken part in the last two world cups.
Ronaldo needs to take it slowly, inter coach says MILAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) Ronaldo needs more time before he can play a full part for Inter Milan after spending most of the last two years out through injury, his coach Hector Cuper said.
"To play from the start he needs minutes and minutes and minutes, Cuper said yesterday.
"The idea is that all those minutes need to be effective.
The double world player of the year made a low-key 20-minute second-half substitute appearance as inter drew 2-2 at home to Udinese in the Italian cup second round on Thursday, a result that put Udinese through to the quarter-finals 4-3 on aggregate.
The Brazilian also played for 18 minutes of Inters 2-0 league win over Fiorentina on Sunday.
Udinese coach Roy Hodgson, who managed Ronaldo during his spell with Inter, said the 25-year-old clearly needed more matches to gauge his progress.
"His passes and his control were fine but he needs more games, Englishman Hodgson told reporters, "it is not easy coming on for the last 20 minutes.
The most important thing is that he is on the pitch.
Ronaldo is hoping to get back to full strength to play in next years world cup finals in South Korea and Japan.
English fans cancel tickets for Mohali test match MOHALI, Nov 30 (UNI) : Even as the English cricket team arrived here today amid crisis over the International Cricket Councils ruling for ineligibility of Indian batsman Virender Sehwag for the December three test match, the expected number of fans from England has reduced from 2,000 to about 200.
We were expecting about 2,000 spectators from England but with the cancellation of tickets amid this controversy, the number of English visitors has reduced to somewhat between 150 to 200, Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) President IS Bindra told reporters at a press conference here.
The PCA president said that he hoped for the best out of the scheduled conversation between BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya and the ICC officials over the controversy so that the test match could begin well as scheduled.
Both Indian and English teams will be practicing here (PCA stadium) from tomorrow, he confirmed.
The 16-member England team arrived here this afternoon and is scheduled to practice at the nets at the PCA stadium from tomorrow morning.
Mr Bindra said that the Indian team would also begin its practice session tomorrow late afternoon.
Sehwag was given a one-match ban in the second test in South Africa and the ICC has ruled him ineligible for Mondays test against England.
