'You can only break through the doors or force the selectors to pick you for the Indian team by scoring runs consistently in domestic cricket and that is what he has done in the last so many years.'
New South Wales is Australia's most successful domestic team and one to watch out for in the upcoming T20 tournament. The 15-man squad includes as many as eight current international players, led by pace ace Brett Lee, who played a major role in Australia's ICC Champions Trophy triumph.
Australia named an unchanged squad on Monday for the second and final Test against New Zealand in Adelaide which starts on Friday.
Spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar were both included in the England side while Australia opted to play their only specialist spinner Nathan Hauritz.
After his second century in the CB tri-series, Gautam Gambhir leads the list of Most Valuable Players.
Anil Kumble would be raking in around Rs 60-75 lakh a year for endorsing Manipal Education. Viswanathan Anand would be getting anywhere between Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore. Universities are choosing sports icons as brand endorsers as they not only want to portray themselves as excellent in academics, but extra-curricular performances too.
A year ago most cricket enthusiasts felt that the best days of the Australian ODI team were over. The 2009 Champions Trophy changed all that. Australia easily won the trophy and haven't looked back since then.
The opening Test between Australia and South Africa at Perth is interestingly poised at the end of fourth day's play on Saturday.
Australia will be counting on their pace attack, not spin, to beat India in their four-Test series that begins next month, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said on Friday. Australia named the uncapped Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle in their 15-man squad to provide back-up to the front line trio of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson for the series.
Australia pacer Doug Bollinger, who destroyed India in the sixth ODI in Guwahati, with a five-wicket haul, says the ongoing series is a good learning experience.
India's captain is relieved to have Yuvraj Singh back in the team for the second ODI against Australia on Wednesday.
Australian cricket officials were put on alert after the number of cases in the northern beaches outbreak in Sydney reached 28 on Friday.
Australia repulsed a spirited late charge to record a four-run win over England at the Oval on Friday in the first of seven one-day internationals.
Australia were reeling at 17 for four at the end of the third day in the first Test. A brave century from West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, after he was struck on the head by a Brett Lee bouncer, was the highlight of the hosts' innings of 312 chasing Australia's 431.
Relations between the Indian and Australian cricket team, at an all time low after the acrimonious series Down Under, could be mended during the Indian Premier League, which will start on April 18. Skipper Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee are among a large group of Australians spread across the eight franchises in the cash rich Indian Premier League and it is hoped that the Aussies could regain their lost popularity in India.
Ahead of the blockbuster final in Ahmedabad, a look at how the 2003 World Cup played out between India and Australia.
Muralitharan stirred up controversy when he said the bowling actions of McGrath, Gillespie and Lee could be deemed as illegal.
Matthew Hayden thinks Muralitharan accusing the Australian pace trio of chucking will not get him any favours in world cricket.
They will be joined by former players including India's Virender Sehwag, Australian Brett Lee, Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan and South Africa's Jonty Rhodes for the tournament from February 2-16 across India.
India made two changes to their side with opener Virender Sehwag recalled for Praveen Kumar and S Sreesanth replacing Munaf Patel.
West Indies' captain Chris Gayle smashed the Australian bowlers to all parts of the Oval on Saturday to lead his team to a seven wicket victory in their opening Twenty20 World Cup group C match. Gayle struck 88 with six sixes and six fours from 50 deliveries as West Indies overhauled Australia's 169 for seven with 4.1 overs to spare.
IPL's agent Neil Maxwell warned that the Australian players may retire or simply walk away if they are not allowed to take part.
With the T20 World Cup underway, let us takes a look at interesting facts and trivia about the tournament from its previous editions.
Andrew Symonds said the Indian off-spinner had himself to blame for incurring a three-match ban from match referee Mike Procter.
Adam Gilchrist's decision to move states and stay behind the stumps 13 years ago was rewarded on Saturday when he replaced Ian Healy as Australia's most successful Test wicketkeeper.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against India.
Australia's bowlers backed up captain Ricky Ponting's second successive ODI century to lead their side to a 114-run win and series victory against New Zealand.
The second one-day international between Australia and New Zealand was abandoned due to heavy rain after only six overs on Sunday.
South Africa's Dale Steyn climbed to third in the International Cricket Council Test bowling rankings following his match-winning performances against New Zealand. The 24-year-old fast bowler took 20 wickets in his team's 2-0 series win over New Zealand, moving up five spots to lie just behind team mate Makhaya Ntini in the rankings.
Australia's captain scored a brave unbeaten century in a three-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first Test.
Left-arm seamer Mitchell Johnson was Australia's leading bowler in the recent one-day series in India and is likely to join Brett Lee and Stuart Clark in a three-pronged pace attack for the first Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane starting on Nov 8.
Under heavy criticism for losing the one-day series against South Africa, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting on Tuesday said that his side was hit hard by a string of injuries which kept most of his key players out of action.
Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has lot of reasons to look forward to the upcoming World Cup, having missed the previous edition due to a doping ban, and one of them is the possibility of a duel with Indian batting icon Sachin Tendulkar.
Cricket should be seen as a game only and not be mixed with politics, former Indian Test cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said.
Virat Kohli may have scored a match-winning century against Pakistan in their opening game of the World Cup, but ask former Australian fast bowling great Brett Lee and he would tell you that the Indian ace should try and curb his natural affinity for aggressive strokeplay.
Australia have delayed naming their side for the match at Lord's until just before play begins.
India's Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag also feature in list of ten most destructive ODI batsmen.
