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Filed under Afro-asia cup

Once in a while, a cricket blogger has to turn into news reader. and rest of times, we just compile cricket need-to-know for other our fellow fans. Doing so, If you are looking for any information on 6 days but 4 matches long Afro-asia cup, to be played in India ~ following must help.

The matches
Starting with a twenty20 International at Bangalore, followed by 3 onedayers - Dates = 5th June (20/20) and 6th, 9th & 10th June for ODIs.

The history
Swing just a while back to August 2005 when Jagmohan Dalmiya's idea of making two teams of different continents, none speaking English was first played in South Africa. South Africa, Kenya & Zimbabwe made African team whereas India, Pakistan, Srilanka & Bangladesh complied Asian squad. That in 2005 ~ 1-1 was the result with final onedayer being washed out.

The two squads
Team Asia for ODIs = Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Virendra Sehwag, Upul Tharanga, Sourav Ganguly, Mohammad Yousuf, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Dilhara Fernando, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Asif & Mohammad Rafique.
Team Africa for ODIs = Graeme Smith (captain), Steve Tikolo, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, Elton Chigumbura, AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Mkhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Vusi Sibanda, Hiren Varaiya, Thomas Odoyo & Peter Ongondo.
Team Asia for twenty20 = Shoaib Mallik (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Ashraful,Tilakaratne Dilshan, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Farveez Maharoof, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, S Sreesanth.
Team Africa for ODIs = Gulam Bodi, Loots Bosman, Keith Dabengwa, Friday Kasteni, Tanmay Mishra, Morne Morkel, Tawanda Mupariwa, Alex Obanda, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Maurice Ouma, Thandi Tshabalala.

The live telecast channels
From Nimbus to ESPN-star because of Zee - Africa vs Asia cricket matches will be live on either ESPN, Starsports or a brand new channel from the same group. This live telecast of Afro-asia cup caused long debates (as nearly all series involving India do) but people in UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, and of course in India can watch this cricket series almost without any trouble.
All other interested cricket fan in not-mentioned countries are welcome to itsonlycricket forum where I & you can find your channel.

Latest scores
Finding what is the latest scores in a cricket match is pretty easy. Several sites offer live scorecards, and will do the same for all matches in Asia verses Africa one day Internationals this June. Try these.

Buy Tickets
for such a sort series won't be easy, more so because it will be played in India. As an experienced cricket blogger, I can tell you that match tickets should be available 2 days before each match at the venue, or try the BCCI official site for latest announcements, which actually is in making for over a year.

Few notes
-Official One day Internationals status has been granted to this 3 onedayer tournament. Recall that World XI vs Australia matches last year were official too. Records made will also be treated as International. Looks like ICC will continue to recognize these complied teams of different countries.
-Broadcasting rights for Africa-asia cup is a tough cookie to understand. Take my word - not many International channels will telecast this series, but Nimbus should've shown it for Indian fans on television. They didn't because Doordarshan have hurt them bad by force-fully taking feeds of live cricket matches. 2 days ago - Nimbus announced that reason as 'lack of big names' but some claimed DD1. I tell you - Nimbus has big backing of BCCI, and cable operators running away from Neosports must take it now. Even India-South Africa series in Ireland from June end is in hands of Neosports. There's no running away from it, till year 2010.

All about Asia vs Africa (afro-asia)cup 2007

Imported Kiwi curators, Road roller n yes - Bangalore ready

Experience drives Asia to victory over innocent Africa

Africa slipped n slipped, but again made a match of it.

Asia XI cruise to second victory

Asia send Africa back home empty handed