Official song of Pakistan WC 2011, by Ali Zafar

Pakistan Cricket Team now inspired by the Official song presented by Ali Zafar.

Video: Ponting briefs on world cup 2011

Ricky Ponting, Captain of Australian Cricket is briefing on their preparation and expectation in the ICC world cup to be opened first time in the soil of Bangladesh.

However, Mr. Ponting speaks in a very modest way keeping open the chance of winning for other as they won in the last two consecutive world cups. He did not show any thing that may hit any other country raising his country's position at a very high which is very laudable also.

Ricky Ponting, a Charismatic Leader in cricket world

Ricky Thomas Ponting, born on 19th December 1974, is the current captain of the Australian cricket team. Ponting is also nicknamed Punter.  He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. Third Australian to score 10,000 Test runs.

Punter is considered the most successful captain in the world. He is going to lead his side for 3rd time in ICC World Cup this year. He also led his team in 2003 and 2007 world cup as captain and made exceptional winning both. However, he might be the lone  for all time one man if his team wins in world cup 2011 marking himself Hectic Winning Captain.

He is regarded as one of Australia's finest cricketers in the modern era. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. 

However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. 

His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. 

He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.

Although the Test team had continued to perform well, sweeping South Africa 3–0 in the home series in 2001–02, the One-Day International (ODI) team suffered a slump, failing to qualify for the finals of the triangular tournament, leading to the dropping of Steve Waugh from the one-day team in February 2002.

Ponting was elevated to the captaincy, ahead of then vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. The fortunes of the ODI team revived immediately, and the Ponting's men won their first series during the tour of South Africa, defeating the team that had won the tournament that ended Waugh's reign.

Following his elevation to the ODI captaincy, Ponting played a prominent role in the Test tour of South Africa. He scored 100 not out to steer Australia to a four-wicket win in the Second Test in Cape Town. 

After being involved in 151 Tests and 352 ODIs, Ponting is Australia's leading run-scorer in Test and ODI cricket, with more than 25,000 international runs as of July 2010. 

He has scored 39 Test centuries-behind only Indian Sachin Tendulkar (50), and South African Jacques Kallis (40)-and third for most runs in ODIs behind Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Ricky Ponting remains the most successful Australian captain of all time, with 48 victories in 77 Tests since 2004 - 31 December 2010, while as a player he has taken part in 99 victories, the most by anyone in history.

Ponting was prominent in the 3–0 whitewash of Pakistan on neutral territory in late-2002. He struck 141 in the First Test in Colombo and 150 in the Third Test in Sharjah to end with 342 runs at 85.50.

Ricky Ponting was destined to lead his country – I couldn't have handed Australian cricket's ultimate individual honour to a more capable and deserving man. A leader must earn respect and lead from the front, and on both of these counts Punter has undoubtedly excelled. 

When the one-day leadership duties were passed over to Ricky in South Africa, my main piece of advice to him was, 'Make sure you take care of your own game and maintain your form, because everything else will follow from that.' 

Since assuming the mantle, Punter has shown himself to be among the top three batsmen in the world in both forms of the game, and has elevated his hunger and desire for runs to a level most can only aspire to.

After winning the toss and electing to bat in the First Test in Kingston, Jamaica, Ponting recorded his 35th Test century, before he was eventually dismissed in the final session of the opening day for 158 from 224 balls (16 fours and a six). Despite forcing their way back into contention, the West Indies were defeated by 95 runs. In the Second Test, Ponting became the seventh player and third Australian to score 10,000 Test runs in 2007. It took Ponting 118 Tests and 196 innings' to achieve the feat, one slower than Tendulkar and Lara.

Ponting in his personal life is also a very happy one in the world. Born in Launceston, Tasmania on 19 December 1974, Ricky Ponting is the eldest of Graeme and Lorraine Ponting's four children. Graeme was "a good club cricketer" and played Australian rules football, while Lorraine was a state vigoro champion.

His uncle Greg Campbell played cricket for Australia in 1989 and 1990. Ponting's parents first lived in Prospect 4.1 km (2.5 mi) south of city centre; however, they moved into the working-class area of Newnham, 6 km (3.7 mi) north of central Launceston.

After marrying long-time girlfriend—law student Rianna Jennifer Cantor—in June 2002, Ponting credited her as the reason for his increased maturity. Their daughter Emmy Charlotte was born in Sydney on 26 July 2008.

2 days vacation for Students during WC in Bangladesh

All educational institutions in the two main cities - Dhaka and Chittagong- in Bangladesh will remain closed on Feb 19 and Mar 19 because of Bangladesh's World Cup matches scheduled to be held in Dhaka, the capital city of the country, sources said.

The decision came from a meeting of the organisational committee of the ICC World Cup Cricket on Thursday night at the Bangladesh PM's official residence Ganabhaban..

The biggest cricket event starts with an opening gala ceremony on Feb 17. Bangladesh takes on India in its maiden match on Feb 19, and South Africa in another match on Mar 19.

The meeting was chaired by Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the chief patron of the committee. She was updated on the preparations .

Chairman of the organisational committee of ICC WC 2011 in Bangladesh and Finance Minister of the country Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Home Minister Shahara Khatun, Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, State Minister for Sports Ahad Ali Sarker, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President A H M Mustafa Kamal, among others, were present at the meeting.

England defeated even scoring highest against Aussies

Australia beat England by two wickets as they achieved their highest one-day international run chase and took a 5-1 lead in the seven-match series.

In an improved England batting display in Sydney, Jonathan Trott scored 137 to set a total of 333-6 - their highest against Australia in one-dayers.

The home side's reply began positively, thanks largely to Shane Watson's 51.

England halted the hosts' progress with regular wickets, but Michael Clarke's 82 helped his side to a final-over win.

Australia's score of 334-8 is also their highest one-day total against England and the fourth highest run-chase by any side in ODI history, emphasising further the gulf that exists between these two sides.

Fuelled by their Ashes success, England came into these one-day internationals looking to build towards what seemed a genuinely realistic 2011 World Cup challenge, but due to poor form and fitness, such buoyant optimism has diminished in conjunction with their hopes of victory over these seven limited-overs matches.

Four defeats from the first five games made this, and the final encounter in Perth on Sunday, dead rubbers, but with pride to restore and World Cup starting places to secure, they remain important fixtures. And despite the defeat, the tourists can take many positives from an improved showing to that in Brisbane last Sunday.

That they were able to do so was largely thanks to Clarke, who put his recent poor form firmly behind him and built on the 54 he scored at Brisbane with a superb 82 off 70 balls.

He was ably assisted by Hussey, who scored 38 before he was caught behind by Prior off Finn - one of two wickets for the Middlesex seamer who finished with figures of 2-51 in 10 overs.

Smith - for whom Haddin was a runner - was run out by Finn for a duck to briefly raise England's hopes and Clarke fell soon after to another run out, this time by Trott, but Lee and John Hastings kept cool heads to see Australia to victory with four balls to spare.

Japan confirms Asian Cup final

Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima was the hero as Japan reached the Asian Cup final by beating South Korea 3-0 on penalties at Al Gharafa stadium.

South Korea had been celebrating wildly at the end of extra time after defender Hwang Jae-won hammered home an equaliser with just seconds to play to make it 2-2.

But Kawashima saved two spotkicks and saw another sail wide of his post before Yasuyuki Konno scored his kick to put the Samurai Blue in sight of their fourth Asian Cup trophy.

The win in Qatar was the first time Japan had beaten South Korea in six years, and they had earlier fallen 1-0 behind when Ki Sung-yong scored from the penalty spot in the first half.

But Ryoichi Maeda levelled later in the first half, before Hajime Hosogai pounced on a rebound from Keisuke Honda's controversial penalty in the seventh minute of extra-time after a goalless second half.

The Koreans, hunting their first Asian Cup in more than 50 years, grabbed a reprieve when Hwang forced home the ball seconds from the final whistle.

But South Korea blew their lines in the shootout to send Alberto Zaccheroni's Japan into a final with either Australia or Uzbekistan - their fourth final appearance in six tournaments.

The early exchanges of the East Asian derby saw Japan's precise passing moves almost bear fruit as Yasuhito Endo played Yuto Nagatomo behind the Korean defence.

The free-running left back whipped in a cross that Shinji Okazaki powered low towards the corner, but Jung Sungryong dived to his left to claw the ball onto the inside of the post.

South Korea were winning possession through the tenacity of captain Park Ji-sung, whose commitment in the challenge was barely toned down by a yellow card for an elbow on opposing skipper Makoto Hasebe.

Their graft was rewarded on 23 minutes when Konno obstructed Manchester United midfielder Park in the box, with Ki hammering the penalty past Kawashima.

That gave the Korean half of a colourful and noisy East Asian crowd of 16,171 the upper hand in the decibel stakes, and they could have seen their side go two up when Ji Dong-won went on a teasing solo run down the middle before his shot was blocked by Nagatomo.

Some delightful Japanese passing soon gave the Samurai Blue an equaliser.

After a quiet performance in the 3-2 quarter-final win over Qatar, CSKA Moscow midfielder Honda patiently held up play before threading a pass through for Nagatomo, who charged into the box before squaring for Maeda to force the ball into the net.

Honda set up Maeda again a minute before half time, but the Jubilo Iwata striker's chested volley was fired over the bar.

That was the story of the second half, as the Koreans in particular peppered the general area of the goal.

Ji took off on another solo run, but Koo Ja-cheol could only pop the ball into the side netting after latching onto the forward's pass.

It took extra time before the deadlock was broken in Japan's favour via a controversial penalty decision from Saudi referee Khalil Al Ghamdi.

A through-ball to Okazaki saw the Japan striker deliberately bodychecked by Hwang as he charged into the area, but replays showed the original contact was just outside the box.

South Korea's appeals to the linesman were of no avail and after Jung Sungryong saved Honda's kick, Hosogai hared forward to slam the rebound high into the net.

Hwang looked to have gone from zero to hero as he slammed home the last-minute equaliser, but Koo, Lee Yong-rae and Jeong Ho-hong all missed their chances as South Korea extended their long wait for a continental trophy.

Leaders in World Cup 2011

Australia

Captain:   Ricky Ponting

 Coach:    Tim Nielsen

Bangladesh

Captain:   Shakib Al Hasan

Coach:     Jamie Siddons

Canada

Captain:   Ashish Bagai

Coach:     Pubudu Dassanayake

England

Captain:   Andrew Strauss

Coach:     Andy Flower

India

Captain:   MS Dhoni

Coach:      Gary Kirsten

Ireland

Captain:   William Porterfield

 Coach:     Phil Simmons

Kenya

Captain:   Jimmy Kamande

 Coach:    Eldine Baptiste

Netherlands

Captain:    Peter Borren

Coach:      Peter Drinnen

New Zealand

Captain:  Daniel Vettori

 Coach:   John Wright

Pakistan

Captain:Shahid Afridi

 Coach: Waqar Younis

South Africa

Captain:  Graeme Smith

Coach:    Corrie van Zyl

Sri Lanka

Captain:  Kumar Sangakkara

 Coach:    Trevor Bayliss

West Indies

Captain:  Darren Sammy

 Coach:   Ottis Gibson

Zimbabwe

Captain:   Elton Chigumbura

 Coach:    Alan Butcher