LONDON (Reuters) – Iron man Nicolas Mahut began exorcising his grasscourt demons by racing into the second round of the Queen’s Club tournament in just 70 minutes Monday and immediately made a heartfelt plea to Wimbledon organisers.

Mahut was left feeling sore, tired, ragged and delirious 12 months ago after he was locked in battle for 11 monumental hours with American John Isner in a first round match that spanned over three days on Wimbledon’s Court 18.

Now he hopes the All England Club match schedulers will not send him back to the same stage where a 70-68 defeat in an epic fifth set plunged him into depression for three months.

“I hope organisers will try and avoid that situation (of scheduling one of my matches on Court 18),” Mahut told Reuters in an interview after handing British wildcard Oliver Golding a 6-3 6-4 dressing down on his ATP debut at Queen’s.

“But if I have to go back out there, then I don’t know. It will be a strange feeling because it will be impossible for me not to think about that match.”

The Frenchman’s first singles outing in London since that battle of wills was rather uneventful.

But he knows that shaking off memories of the Wimbledon marathon, dubbed “the endless match” will be a near impossible task as the grasscourt major looms closer.

LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) – Iron man Nicolas Mahut began exorcising his grasscourt demons by racing into the second round of the Queen’s Club tournament in just 70 minutes on Monday and immediately made a heartfelt plea to Wimbledon organisers.

Mahut was left feeling sore, tired, ragged and delirious 12 months ago after he was locked in battle for 11 monumental hours with American John Isner in a first round match that spanned over three days on Wimbledon’s Court 18.

Now he hopes the All England Club match schedulers will not send him back to the same stage where a 70-68 defeat in an epic fifth set plunged him into depression for three months.

“I hope organisers will try and avoid that situation (of scheduling one of my matches on Court 18),” Mahut told Reuters in an interview after handing British wildcard Oliver Golding a 6-3 6-4 dressing down on his ATP debut at Queen’s.

“But if I have to go back out there, then I don’t know. It will be a strange feeling because it will be impossible for me not to think about that match.”

The Frenchman’s first singles outing in London since that battle of wills was rather uneventful.

But he knows that shaking off memories of the Wimbledon marathon, dubbed “the endless match” will be a near impossible task as the grasscourt major looms closer.

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Only one person in the world was not surprised when England and India shared a 676-run feast at the World Cup that ended with a heart-stopping tie off the last ball.

Shane Warne is a man who could do wonders with the ball but who could have guessed the Australian spinning genius was also an amazing soothsayer?

“Looking forward to the game between India and England today (Sunday) should be a cracker. My prediction a tie!” Warne tweeted before the Group B match started at 0900 GMT on Sunday in Bangalore.

For everyone else, there was sheer disbelief at the result.

But it was not long before England and India fans began weighing up the ‘what ifs’ about a match that had more twists and turns than a Dan Brown thriller.

* What if an in-form Stuart Broad had not missed the match with a dodgy stomach — then England could have restricted India to a lower total.

* What if the wayward James Anderson (1-91) had not given away four wides in the last over when India were batting?

MUMBAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Only one person in the world was not surprised when England and India shared a 676-run feast at the World Cup that ended with a heart-stopping tie off the last ball.

Shane Warne is a man who could do wonders with the ball but who could have guessed the Australian spinning genius was also an amazing soothsayer?

“Looking forward to the game between India and England today (Sunday) should be a cracker. My prediction a tie!” Warne tweeted before the Group B match started at 0900 GMT on Sunday in Bangalore.

For everyone else, there was sheer disbelief at the result.

But it was not long before England and India fans began weighing up the ‘what ifs’ about a match that had more twists and turns than a Dan Brown thriller.

* What if an in-form Stuart Broad had not missed the match with a dodgy stomach — then England could have restricted India to a lower total.

* What if the wayward James Anderson (1-91) had not given away four wides in the last over when India were batting?

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Warring cricket officials, the shortage of public tickets for India’s high-profile matches and violent clashes between fans and baton-wielding police took the spotlight away from the players at the World Cup on Thursday.

On a day when the cricket community should have been hailing Imran Tahir’s four-wicket haul on his ODI debut and AB de Villiers’s brilliant century as South Africa thumped West Indies by seven wickets, the World Cup looked like it was turning into another public relations disaster for India.

The tournament’s top official was severely criticised after police battered hundreds of fans with bamboo sticks outside Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium as anger at the lack of tickets for the clash between India and England boiled over.

In a letter leaked to the media, the governing body of the sport (ICC) accused its own president Sharad Pawar of mismanagement and said he was “threaten(ing) to undermine” the whole tournament with the way tickets were being distributed — or rather not being distributed — in India.

Pawar, who is also the chairman of the tournament’s Central Organising Committee, was under attack for bringing ICC’s relationship with its corporate sponsors to “breaking point” as they had yet to receive their allocation of tickets despite investing millions of dollars into the Feb 19-April 2 event.

In Bangalore, meanwhile, violence erupted after thousands of fans who had camped outside the 50,000-seat stadium since Wednesday were told all 7000 tickets allocated for public sale for Sunday’s India v England game had sold out.

“The policemen are torturing the people. What the hell is going on?” an anguished fan called Tony told Reuters TV.

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Warring cricket officials, the shortage of public tickets for India’s high-profile matches and violent clashes between fans and baton-wielding police took the spotlight away from the players at the World Cup on Thursday.

On a day when the cricket community should have been hailing Imran Tahir’s four-wicket haul on his ODI debut and AB de Villiers’s brilliant century as South Africa thumped West Indies by seven wickets, the World Cup looked like it was turning into another public relations disaster for India.

The tournament’s top official was severely criticized after police battered hundreds of fans with bamboo sticks outside Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium as anger at the lack of tickets for the clash between India and England boiled over.

In a letter leaked to the media, the governing body of the sport (ICC) accused its own president Sharad Pawar of mismanagement and said he was “threaten(ing) to undermine” the whole tournament with the way tickets were being distributed — or rather not being distributed — in India.

Pawar, who is also the chairman of the tournament’s Central Organizing Committee, was under attack for bringing ICC’s relationship with its corporate sponsors to “breaking point” as they had yet to receive their allocation of tickets despite investing millions of dollars into the Feb 19-April 2 event.

In Bangalore, meanwhile, violence erupted after thousands of fans who had camped outside the 50,000-seat stadium since Wednesday were told all 7000 tickets allocated for public sale for Sunday’s India v England game had sold out.

“The policemen are torturing the people. What the hell is going on?” an anguished fan called Tony told Reuters TV.

MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Cricket World Cup’s top official was severely criticised on Thursday after police battered hundreds of fans with bamboo sticks outside Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium as anger at the lack of tickets on sale for the clash between India and England boiled over.

In a memo leaked to the media, the governing body of the sport (ICC) accused its own president Sharad Pawar of mismanagement and said he was “threaten(ing) to undermine” the whole tournament with the way tickets were being distributed — or rather not being distributed — in India.

Pawar, who is also the chairman of the tournament’s Central Organising Committee, was under attack for bringing ICC’s relationship with its corporate sponsors to “breaking point” as they had yet to receive their allocation of tickets despite investing millions of dollars into the Feb 19-April 2 event.

In Bangalore, violence erupted after thousands of fans who had camped outside the 50,000-seat stadium since Wednesday were told all 7000 tickets allocated for public sale for Sunday’s India v England game had sold out.

“The biggest challenge we face today is to meet the expectations of the people, that is not possible, that is never possible,” former player Javagal Srinath, who is now the secretary of the Karnataka Cricket Association responsible for the Bangalore match, told a news conference.

“There is a limit where we can keep people happy. There is not much we can do. Around 7,000 tickets were all sold out in three hours,” a bizarrely grinning Srinath added as he exchanged jokes with the assembled media.

MISSED OUT

MUMBAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) – The Cricket World Cup’s top official was severely criticised on Thursday after police battered hundreds of fans with bamboo sticks outside Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium as anger at the lack of tickets on sale for the clash between India and England boiled over.

In a memo leaked to the media, the governing body of the sport (ICC) accused its own president Sharad Pawar of mismanagement and said he was “threaten(ing) to undermine” the whole tournament with the way tickets were being distributed – or rather not being distributed — in India.

Pawar, who is also the chairman of the tournament’s Central Organising Committee, was under attack for bringing ICC’s relationship with its corporate sponsors to “breaking point” as they had yet to receive their allocation of tickets despite investing millions of dollars into the Feb 19-April 2 event.

In Bangalore, violence erupted after thousands of fans who had camped outside the 50,000-seat stadium since Wednesday were told all 7000 tickets allocated for public sale for Sunday’s India v England game had sold out.

“The biggest challenge we face today is to meet the expectations of the people, that is not possible, that is never possible,” former player Javagal Srinath, who is now the secretary of the Karnataka Cricket Association responsible for the Bangalore match, told a news conference.

“There is a limit where we can keep people happy. There is not much we can do. Around 7,000 tickets were all sold out in three hours,” a bizarrely grinning Srinath added as he exchanged jokes with the assembled media.

MISSED OUT

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Tickets for the Cricket World Cup final will be sold via a ballot after the official website crashed under the pressure of huge traffic.

“There will be a ballot and we’re working with the BCCI (Indian cricket board) and our official online ticket agents Kyazoonga to finalise all the details. They will still be sold via the website,” an ICC spokesman said.

Not a single ticket for the April 2 final to be held in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium was sold to the public after the official website went into meltdown on Monday, sparking furious complaints from fans.

“We apologise to anyone who was trying to get on but these are exceptional circumstances when 10 million people were trying to get on the website at one time,” the ICC spokesman said earlier on Tuesday.

“They (Kyazoonga) were working throughout the night to get it up and running and not one ticket has been sold from the quota we had.”

Of the 33,000 seats at the Wankhede, around 4,000 are available to the public — 1,000 online while another 3,000-odd will be sold later for those who queue up at stadium box offices. The rest are distributed among the ICC and clubs affiliated to the Mumbai Cricket Association.

On Tuesday morning, the website was back up and at first glance it looked as if all the tickets had sold out since those matches were not showing up on the ‘tickets for sale’ schedule.

MUMBAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Tickets for the Cricket World Cup final will be sold via a ballot after the official website crashed under the pressure of huge traffic.

“There will be a ballot and we’re working with the BCCI (Indian cricket board) and our official online ticket agents Kyazoonga to finalise all the details. They will still be sold via the website,” an ICC spokesman said.

Not a single ticket for the April 2 final to be held in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium was sold to the public after the official website went into meltdown on Monday, sparking furious complaints from fans.

“We apologise to anyone who was trying to get on but these are exceptional circumstances when 10 million people were trying to get on the website at one time,” the ICC spokesman said earlier on Tuesday.

“They (Kyazoonga) were working throughout the night to get it up and running and not one ticket has been sold from the quota we had.”

Of the 33,000 seats at the Wankhede, around 4,000 are available to the public — 1,000 online while another 3,000-odd will be sold later for those who queue up at stadium box offices. The rest are distributed among the ICC and clubs affiliated to the Mumbai Cricket Association.

On Tuesday morning, the website was back up and at first glance it looked as if all the tickets had sold out since those matches were not showing up on the ‘tickets for sale’ schedule.