India captain Virat Kohli on Monday lost his number one position in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen, dropping to second after a forgettable performance in the second Test against England.
"All the players have played there before (and) played IPL (Indian Premier League) there. Whatever team is selected, that will be the right team for those conditions and I really do think this could be one of our best chances to win the Twenty20 World Cup.
Australia's Aaron Finch will not require surgery on his injured hamstring, the country's cricket board said on Monday, raising hopes that the captain will be fit for next month's World Twenty20 in India.
India and Australia play their opening T20 match In Ranchi on Saturday. And, although the visitors have added fresh faces to their squad for the three-match series, India are clearly the dominant side in this match-up.
The West Indies included pacemen Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards for Ian Bradshaw and Dwayne Smith in the team for the match against England.
Former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming was on Monday named chief coach of the new Pune franchise of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament. With this the former Chennai Super Kings coach will renew his long and most successful partnership with his former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was picked in the December draft.
Following Rising Pune Supergiants batsman Faf du Plessis's exit, Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com takes stock of the players forced out of the cash-rich Twenty20 extravaganza by injury.
Australia coach Darren Lehmann will step aside to allow Justin Langer to guide the team during a one-day tournament in the Caribbean next year.
FIFA slapped the Mexicans with a CHF 10,000 fine for what it called "discriminatory and insulting chants" during their surprise 1-0 win over Germany on Sunday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Mumbai will clash with Group C toppers Maharashtra at the Wankhede stadium, in Mumbai, while Bengal, who beat formidable Tamil Nadu in their last group match, will meet Railways at the Eden Gardens, in Kolkata, in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals from January 8 to 12.
The Kiwis left out Scott Styris and Shane Bond, who was ruled out on Sunday itself because of stiffness in the back.
The incident happened on Monday as the players were travelling back to their hotel after the first day's play in the second and final Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong's Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
England must ignore talks about their Euro 2016 prospects and focus instead on getting off to a good start in their tournament opener against Russia on Saturday, midfielder Adam Lallana has said. Warm-up victories over Turkey, Australia and Portugal have raised hopes of Roy Hodgson's charges ending the country's 50-year wait for a major international trophy since England's World Cup triumph in 1966. "All the team's focus will be on Russia now. It's the first game, you don't want to lose your first match and it's important we get off to a good start and build from there," Lallana told British media. "I think it's important to treat it as much of a normal game as you can. There's always going to be hype but if we concentrate on our football and don't get too caught up in the emotion and what comes with it then I'm sure we'll be fine."
Jose Mourinho had a smile back on his face after his Manchester United side comfortably beat Burnley 2-0 at Turf Moor on Sunday to end a week of intense scrutiny in positive fashion.
Joe Root's side completed an emphatic victory halfway through the third day when Mohammed Abbas was caught in the slip off Stuart Broad, his third wicket of the innings.
The dazzling Lionel Messi returned from illness to score yet another double to help Barcelona ease into the knockout stages of the Champions League for a 13th successive year with their 2-0 win at Celtic on Wednesday.
The 60,000-seat arena will host its first Test after a rich 47-year run at the nearby WACA, located on the opposite bank of the SwanRiver, and the grassy drop-in wicket unveiled on Thursday has fuelled anticipation of a pace bowler's paradise.
England and New Zealand have both had to ride out the storm to make this year's ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final. It has been far from smooth sailing for either side, but in the end it is Kane Williamson and Eoin Morgan's side who have emerged on top, and deservedly so.
India put up yet another clinical display to best defending champions West Indies with a commanding seven-wicket victory in a group league encounter to brighten their chance of a semi-final berth in the ICC World T20 in Mirpur on Sunday.
In view of rumours surrounding an Indian conglomerate's attempt to start a possible rebel league, the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations chief executive, Tony Irish, has said that mainstream cricket should be 'on their toes' to keep their players away from being lured to an another potential T20 league.
France is slowly but gaining momentum when it mattered most.
Jordan technical director Mark Smith has quit the Formula One team after their takeover by Midland last week.
Darren Lehmann has extended his contact as Australia's head coach until 2019 to cover the World Cup and the Ashes series in England that year, the country's cricket board (CA) said on Monday. The 46-year-old former left-handed batsman took on the role on the eve of the 2013 Ashes and despite losing 3-0 in England, he went on to guide the team to series wins over South Africa, England, India, New Zealand and West Indies. He also won the 2015 World Cup on home soil with Australia, who currently top the ICC rankings in both test and one-day international cricket.
'The Tata group will need for its new leader to show the same foresight and willingness to go against conventional wisdom at times to keep the group's aspirations high and uphold the values of innovation, ethics, corporate responsibility, trust and leadership that are frequently associated with the Tata name.'
Images from Sunday's action in the Premier League.
Pacer John Hastings has provided fill-up to Australia's ambitions of notching up a 5-0 whitewash in the ODI series against India, saying he is thriving on the extra responsibility following a few impressive performances. Hastings took the important wickets of centurion Shikhar Dhawan and India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to play a key role in the home team's victory in the fourth ODI in Canberra yesterday, their fourth in a row. With his show in the Australian capital, Hastings has proved that leadership is something that comes naturally to him.
'Yes, I was sure this was the right decision. We brought Roberto Firmino on for Mo Salah. We could have scored before, we could have scored afterwards, we could have scored all the time. We lived more or less in their box'
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has written to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to raise the issue of religious freedom in India during his meeting with PM Modi.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
Batsmen Usman Khawaja, Adam Voges and Joe Burns have been rewarded for their strong form over the past 12 months by being awarded central contracts by Cricket Australia on Friday.
India's hero at the 2011 World Cup believes Hardik Pandya will be the one to watch out for in the 2019 World Cup.
Eight teams have formed some of the best combinations from a pool of 64 top cricketers in the players' draft for T10League -- the limited ten-over format cricket -- that will be played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Opener Prithvi Shaw credited the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting for guiding the team to a commanding position in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
No Indian cricketer figures in the ICC's World Cup XI, which is dominated by runners-up New Zealand rather than champions Australia.
Australian left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc has said that India were scared of losing the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Australia opener Marcus Harris, on Saturday, rued missing out on a hundred and said batsmen unable to convert starts have left his team with a mountain to climb in the fourth Test against India.
