Ricky Ponting led from the front with a brilliant century to help Australia reach 254 for four at close on the opening day of the first Test against India.
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
Brighton and Hove Albion's Tomer Hemed grabbed the only goal as they ended Newcastle United's three-match winning streak with a 1-0 victory on Sunday in a battle between two of this season's promoted sides.
Shane Watson currently tops the list, with Adam Gilchrist in second place. Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden are still in the top 10 although they played just four matches.
Shane Watson was the most valuable player of IPL 2008. Who will it be this time? Any of the top five ranked players has a chance, with Suresh Raina being the current favourite.
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.
Former Australia vice-captain and wicketkeeper Ian Healy, looking back on the just-concluded tour, says this Indian era should produce some real masters of the game with bat, ball as well as all-rounder status.
India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh left Australia with a parting swipe to his critics and opponents by saying he would not tone down his on-field behaviour.
BCCI has decided not to intervene in the Matthew Hayden-Harbhajan case and leave it on the Indian team management to decide the issue.
India's Harbhajan Singh on Tuesday came under a fresh attack by Australian cricketers with opener Matthew Hayden calling the off-spinner an "obnoxious little weed", a remark which has the potential to create more bad blood between the two teams.
Australia won the toss and elected to bat first in their tri-series one-day international against Sri Lanka.
India were 45 for one at stumps in their second innings, a lead of eight runs after trailing Australia by 37 on the first innings.
Irfan Pathan was handed the job of opening the batting with Virender Sehwag after Wasim Jaffer was left out.
Images from 1st ODI between India and West Indies in Chennai on Sunday.
Shane Warne said Australia cared too much about their image in Perth and lost the edge without their trademark aggression.
India made one change with paceman Zaheer Khan ruled out because of an injured heel and was replaced by Ishant Sharma.
Matthew Hayden completed 8,000 runs in 92 Tests -- 8003 runs at an average of 53.00. He is the fifth Australian player and the 18th in Test annals to have amassed 8000 or more runs.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against India.
A league of this nature will be nothing more than a money-spinning machine, unless it has the added plus of throwing up domestic talent.
Virender Sehwag replaced Yousuf Pathan in the Indian side for the one-off Twenty20 international, while Murali Kartik came in for all-rounder Joginder Sharma.
The world champions, having already sealed the series 4-1, fielded an unchanged side after opener Matthew Hayden failed to recover fully from his hip injury.
India made one change, bringing in leg-spinner Piyush Chawla in place of Munaf Patel for the first of the best of three finals.
The International Cricket Council announced on Monday that Jamtha Stadium, Nagpur, has been given an official warning under the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process following the third Test between India and South Africa.
UEFA said it would replace the pitch at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille after Wednesday's final group E match between Italy and Ireland.
After Hayden, Gambhir is perched at the second spot by accumulating 227 runs at 37.83 in the batsmen's list.
Brett Lee claimed the first hat-trick as Australia thrashed Bangladesh by nine wickets in a Super Eight game of the Twenty20 World Cup.
India recalled Virender Sehwag for Yuvraj Singh and dropped spinner Harbhajan Singh for paceman Irfan Pathan.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
In major embarrassment for the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the International Cricket Council rated the track at the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground in Nagpur, on which the third Test between India and South Africa was played, as "poor", triggering a review of the performance of the pitch under the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process.
The India captain said his five-wicket haul on the opening day of the first Test against Australia is the best of his career.
The second Test against India starts in Adelaide on Friday.
Australia's Phil Jaques will replace the retired Justin Langer in the first Test against Sri Lanka.
'Baggy Green worship made me want to puke'
Finding massive irregularity during "standard fraud checks", the White House has removed at least 85,000 signatures from an on-line petition which asked US President Barack Obama to cancel his planned meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi next month.
South African cricket captain AB de Villiers continued to script statistical history at the ongoing World Cup as he entered the top-10 of all-time scorers' list.
The Aussies won the Group B match at the Twenty20 World Cup by 8 wickets and entered the Super Eight stage.
Australia beat New Zealand by four wickets in the warm-up match ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup.
In the ICC ODI team rankings, India remains in fifth place.
The Kiwis scored a thrilling one-wicket win in the third and final one-day match of the Chappell-Hadlee series.
Team India has already started homework on how to face the world's best left-arm quick bowler Mitchell Starc as Australia come calling in two weeks' time.
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