Cricket and Bollywood,
our two favorite obsessions
and now more than ever
they come together
to support each other

Bollywood film actress-turned-producer Raveena Tandon intends to bowl everyone over with her new project, Stumped.She has roped in Indian cricket greats like Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Ravi Shastri to feature in the film.

The storyline revolves around a nation swayed by cricket as soldiers fight wars on the battlefront.

The first attempt at a World Championship of cricket was in 1912, when a three-way series was arranged between the then current Test playing nations, Australia, England and South Africa. Then in 1975 when, following the success of domestic one-day competitions, the six Test playing nations (England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India and Pakistan) were joined by Sri Lanka and East Africa in the first World Cup. The tournament has taken place every four years since.

In this World Cup, Fourteen teams are separated into groups of seven. Each team plays group opponents once.

Group A: Australia, England, India, Namibia, Netherlands, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Group B: Bangladesh, Canada, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies.

Each team bats for a maximum of 50 overs to get as many runs as possible. Each bowler is restricted to a maximum of 10 overs. Top three finishers in each pool advance to the second round called the Super Six, which starts March 7. Top four meet in semifinals. First-place team plays No.4 on March 18. Runner-up faces the third team on March 20. Winners meet in final on March 23.

South African mines are supplying all the gold in the medals, watches and a special trophy that will be awarded to the top teams in the Cricket World Cup. Major gold producing companies handed over a substantial donation of gold products to the organisers of tournament at the Wanderers. The gold mining industry's contribution consists of 54 single-ounce 24-carat gold medallions, 54 specially manufactured gold watches and a locally designed and fabricated gold trophy.

School children in India made a giant 760 foot card to wish the Indian players luck and bring the World Cup Home

Two of Zimbabwe's most prominent athletes have issued a strongly-worded condemnation of the human rights situation in their country. They made their unexpected statement just before the start of the Zimbabwe team's first match in the Cricket World Cup tournament.

Australia's legendary cricket player Shane Warne has been sent home from the Cricket World Cup in South Africa, after testing positive for banned substances. Warne now faces an inquiry in his home country. Shane Warne tested positive for two different diuretics - drugs which are used to treat high blood pressure and fluid retention, and to help with weight loss.

As we go to press, India has won their first match against Holland by 68 runs.

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