Former International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya was formally charged by police on Wednesday with allegedly misappropriating funds during the 1996 World Cup. Dalmiya was chief organizer of the tournament jointly staged by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and has been accused of misappropriating around 29 million rupees ($0.72 million). The 67-year-old, who is also a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was briefly arrested before being granted bail by a Mumbai court. The case is based on a complaint filed two years ago by a rival group after it took over the running of the Indian board. “This is a political vendetta ... everyone knows at whose behest the investigation is being carried out,” Dalmiya's lawyer Satish Maneshinde told reporters. Dalmiya's group was ousted from power by President Sharad Pawar's camp in a bitterly-fought election in 2005.‘Spirit' pledge for IPL India's cricket board hopes to keep offensive language and rude gestures out of the Indian Premier League by having the eight team captains take a pledge to abide by the “spirit of cricket”. The BCCI, which is also campaigning for a ban on sledging, hopes to avoid the same kind of unsavoury incidents that marred their tour of Australia. “We (India) are the first to adopt the spirit of cricket,” IPL governing council member Inderjit Bindra told Thursday's Hindustan Times. “And to ensure players abide by it, the captains of all eight teams in the IPL will take a pledge to play by the spirit of the game before the tournament gets rolling.” A preamble on the spirit of cricket was formally added to the laws of the game at the turn of the century on how it should be played and viewed both on and off the field. However, following India's acrimonious tour of Australia, the ICC announced this week a “zero tolerance” crackdown on offensive language and gestures in the sport as part of its drive to eradicate “sledging”. During the tour, India's Harbhajan Singh was accused of racially abusing Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds, while Matthew Hayden was reprimanded for calling the Indian spinner an “obnoxious weed”.NZ's IPL worries Five New Zealand players have been given permission to miss the start of this year's tour of England to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has agreed to let its IPL-signed players: Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills and Ross Taylor arrive in England a week later than their teammates. The players have been told to report for duty by May 1, two weeks before the start of the first Test at Lord's. The IPL starts April 18. They will miss New Zealand's first two practice matches. __
