State-controlled television interrupted its coverage of Pakistan's nail-biting World Cup cricket match with arch-enemy India to break the news.
The recent World Cup of cricket has occupied the attention of a lot of smart people, mostly outside of America, just as the March Madness college basketball tournament in the U.S. did.
London has already hosted a stage of the Tour de France and an NFL game at Wembley, and will host the world gymnastics championships and the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup.
It's the final of soccer's European Cup in Barcelona, but the cricket World Cup, held every four years, is just starting at Lord's.
Last year, Muralitharan said he intended to focus on playing one-day cricket until the 2011 World Cup, and would thereafter concentrate exclusively on Twenty20 cricket.
The ICC Cricket World Cup, held every four years since 1975, is comprised of 50-over matches.
Australia play Zimbabwe in their first match of the Cricket World Cup in Ahmedabad on 21 February.
He is expected to be fully fit for the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Meanwhile, fast bowler Tim Bresnan said he is "definitely confident" he will be fit ahead of next month's Cricket World Cup.
Dehring, the managing director and chief executive of the tournament organising committee, wants to make it the "best Cricket World Cup ever".
An important factor in this appointment is the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
The winner of the 1992 cricket World Cup tapped into the frustrations of many Pakistani youths fed up with the country's traditional politicians.
The apathy felt by West Indies cricket supporters has now become real anger, especially with the 2007 Cricket World Cup on the horizon.
Keith Mitchell, the prime minister, badly wants this project completed in time to host matches for the 2007 cricket world cup, an important if short-lived tourist attraction.
The South Asian rivals continued to play each other on overseas grounds, with their last match taking place in the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka last month.
He is quick to add that these games cannot quite be compared to South Africa's hosting of the Cricket World Cup in 2003 because that "was a matter of national pride".
Callum Ferguson has been called up as a replacement for the Western Australia left-hander although, like Ponting, Marsh is expected to be fit for Australia's first match of the Cricket World Cup.
The Dubliner played for England in the 2007 World Cup and under International Cricket Council rules he should be unable to switch allegiance back to the country of his birth until April 2011.
Khan earned legendary status in the country when he led the underdog national team to a 1992 cricket World Cup victory, and had injected new energy into a political system long dominated by dynasties.
He also steered Australia to two ICC Cricket World Cup triumphs -- as well as playing in a third -- during which time they set a record of 34 consecutive victories: yet another record.
But despite the changes, Miller believes future England players would be underprepared for one-day internationals and major tournaments like the Cricket World Cup and Champions Trophy, which are all played 50 overs a side.
Their inconsistency is frustrating and makes it impossible to predict how much further they will go in the Cricket World Cup, but Andrew Strauss and his team-mates can take a deep breath and just start again.
Last month he dispensed the man-of-the-match award at Sri Lanka's opening game of the cricket world cup, which took place in a newly built stadium in by happy coincidence his own constituency, Hambantota, in the south of the country.
Cardiff has recently hosted a Rugby World Cup final, FA Cup finals, world championship boxing and rallying, Grand Prix speedway and Ashes Test cricket.
Olonga retired from international cricket after the World Cup, and said he could not return to Zimbabwe because he feared for his safety.
Cricket fans were savouring India's spectacular win in the World Cup which preceded the tournament, and had little appetite for more cricket.
"As much Twenty20 cricket going into that World Cup will obviously benefit the side, " he said.
The tour was to take place in February and March but was rescheduled mutually after the International Cricket Council switched the World Cup start to March.
Talk of the awards and honours that invariably follow World Cup triumphs (England Women's cricket captain Charlotte Edwards received an MBE following her team's triumph in 2009) is quickly quashed.
In 2009 the England women's cricket team won the World Cup, the World Twenty20, and retained their Ashes, with batsman Claire Taylor the first woman named in Wisden's Cricketers of the Year.
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