Harbhajan Singh has admitted he cannot explain the reason why Mumbai Indians start on a losing streak before turning things around as they did last season by losing the first five and then storming to the title.
Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Monday lavished praise on retired Australian Matthew Hayden and Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan for their efforts in the 92-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in Port Elizabeth.
Barely a day after England's tour of India to play two Test matches got final clearance, the first batch of cricketers landed in Chennai on Monday evening amid tight security.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a 'sprightly wicketkeeper batsman, a fresh captain with a remarkable fitness.'
Professional Cricketers Association chief executive Sean Morris will meet England captain Kevin Pietersen and the rest of the team when they come to Heathrow on Saturday evening with the message that 'cricket is no longer at the top of the agenda'. 'We will sit down with the players and discuss the situation. We can't make any decisions at this stage,' Morris said.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field against England in the fifth One-Day International at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack on Wednesday. India brought in left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan in place of Munaf Patel and Rohit Sharma replaced the in-form Gautam Gambhir.
Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer lashed out at match referee Roshan Mahanama, saying his lack of "common sense" resulted in the third One-Day International between India and England at Kanpur being decided by the Duckworth/Lewis system. 'Kanpur has good (floodlights) lights and they should have been used,' he said.
England struggled to impose themselves on the Australian bowlers during the third day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's on Saturday after opting to bat again rather than enforce the follow-on. At tea England were 130 for two, an overall lead of 340, following a slow post-lunch period during which both Ravi Bopara (19 not out) and Kevin Pietersen (28 not out) were restricted by thoughtful pace bowling.
West Indies cruised to a six wicket victory over England in a one-off Twenty20 international in Trinidad on Sunday. The hosts' excellent bowling and fielding restricted England to a modest 121 in 19.1 overs before Ramnaresh Sarwan's 59 put them in control and set up victory with two overs to spare.
England fought their way into the ascendancy on the opening day of the first Ashes Test on Wednesday before two late wickets put Australia firmly back in the match.
Players around the world are getting jittery about playing in the Indian Premier League in the wake of the Lahore terror attack on the Sri Lankan team but Cricket South Africa on Monday said it has no objection in sending it's players for the Twenty20 tournament. The second edition of the cash-rich event is scheduled to kick off on April 10 in Mumbai.
And despite a slowdown, media planners say advertisers are pouring in over Rs 600 crore (nearly half the ad budget for cricket in 2009). This represents a more than 10 per cent increase over last year's spends on television, co-branding of teams and marketing, among others.
Top England stars, including Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, will be available for the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) both this year and the next season after the Indian Cricket Board and their English counterparts reached an agreement on Tuesday.
The Indian skipper joined South African great Hashim Amla as the fastest to 50 centuries in international cricket in 348 innings.
England's selectors will meet on Friday to discuss the squad and captain for their one-day and Twenty20 games against West Indies after confirming that Andrew Strauss would captain the Test team. Coach Peter Moores was sacked on Thursday and England have yet to decide on his replacement for the West Indies tour or the return home series against them and the subsequent Ashes clash with Australia.
As the IPL second season reaches its half-way mark, it's time to take our own strategic break and identify every team's best and worst performers so far.
England named an unchanged 13-man squad for the second Ashes Test against Australia starting at Lord's on Thursday.
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