Ashwin has been in brilliant form in the ongoing Test series against Australia.
Former Test cricket umpire Darrell Hair has been handed an 18-month good behaviour bond by an Australian court after pleading guilty to charges of embezzling and stealing money from a liquor store where he worked, local media reported on Tuesday.
Virender Sehwag missed out on a rare feat of scoring three triple centuries in Test cricket when he was dismissed on 293 by Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan during the third Test in Mumbai on Friday.
Frustrated with his failure to provide Sri Lanka the breakthroughs in the ongoing Test series against India, ace off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan says he is no longer the dreaded bowler he used to be and might even retire completely before the 2011 World Cup.
India may have flopped in the opening Test against Sri Lanka but opener Virender Sehwag held on to the number one spot, while Sachin Tendulkar gained a place to be seventh in the latest ICC rankings for batsmen issued on Friday.
Muttiah Muralitharan became the first bowler to take 800 wickets in Test cricket when he dismissed Pragyan Ojha caught in the slip by Mahela Jayawardene. The chronology of first player to reach every important milestone in Test cricket.
Images from the fifth day's play in the first Test between Sri Lanka and India, in Galle, on Thursday.
Muttiah Muralitharan claimed the wicket of Pragyan Ojha on Day 5 of the first Test against India on Thursday to breach the 800 wickets mark and sign off as the highest Test wicket-taker of all time. It is highly unlikely that anyone in contemporary cricket, or in the near future, will even get near that feat.
Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara conceded Muttiah Muralitharan's slump in form has become a worry for the team but sounded confident of squaring the three-match series when they take on India in the final Test in Mumbai.
Images from the Day 4 of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka in Galle.
Firecrackers went off in the stadium as Muttiah Muralitharan stepped out to bat in his swansong Test and players from both India and Sri Lanka also did their bit to make the spin wizard's farewell match a memorable affair.
Legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne showered accolades on retiring Muttiah Muralitharan, his arch rival during his playing days, by describing the Sri Lankan as one of the game's great competitors whose world record of Test wickets will be hard to be broken.
Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara on reminded his team-mates to focus on the job at hand and not get carried away by emotions in Muttiah Muralitharan's swansong cricket Test against India.
Veteran Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan does not consider his swansong Test against India a "big match" and says he would not feel sad if he retires without touching the unprecedented 800-wicket mark.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has planned a grand farewell for Muttiah Muralitharan, who will play his swansong Test against India from Sunday, but will not prepare a tailor-made pitch to assist the spin wizard.
Harbhajan Singh applauds Sri Lanka spin legend Muthiah Muralitharan, who will retire at the end of the first Test against India. He also assesses the team's chances in the island nation.
Sethupathi said he was happy to be associated with the biopic of an iconic sportsman like Muralitharan, adding it would be a challenge to portray the Lankan off-spinner.
Paying glowing tribute to retiring Muttiah Muralitharan, former Pakistani star Saqlain Mushtaq on Friday said the Sri Lankan spinner is the best of his era and world cricket may not see a bowler like him in next 100 years.
Retiring Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan on Wednesday said among the current crop of slow bowlers, only Harbhajan Singh can match his record of scalping nearly 800 Test wickets.
Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan created history on Thursday, becoming the highest wicket-taker in one-day cricket. He eclipsed Pakistani pace legend Wasim Akram's world record of 502 one-day scalps.
Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will be within striking distance of another world record in the third and final one-day international against Pakistan on Saturday.
Muttiah Muralitharan swapped spin wizardry for batting fireworks, smashing 33 runs from 16 balls to guide Sri Lanka to a two-wicket win over Bangladesh in the tri-series final on Friday.
Australia's unprecedented workload could actually help him get back in the Test team, feels fast bowler Brett Lee.
South Africa and Sri Lanka are set to play two frontline spinners apiece on what promises to be a turning wicket at Centurion Park for their Champions Trophy opener on Tuesday. The hosts, the International Cricket Council's top-ranked one-day team, have off-spinner Johan Botha and left-armer Roelof van der Merwe while Sri Lanka will counter with off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the unorthodox Ajantha Mendis.
It was on 7th February 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match. He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.
Sri Lanka's world record holder spinner Muttiah Muralitharan announced on Thursday he is planning to retire from Test cricket in 2010. However, the spinner plans to carry on in the shorter forms of the sport.
What do you think? Should the Aussies' call to ban the 'doosra' be heeded? Should it stay as just another delivery in the armoury of off-spinners? Have your say.
Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan may sign for Australian domestic side Victoria Bushrangers for the Twenty20 Big Bash and play as a local hero at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where he was labelled a chucker 14 years ago.
Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan has pulled out of the first Test against Pakistan with a knee injury. The ace spinner, who holds the record for the most Test wickets, injured his patella tendon.
Legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who has the highest number of Test wickets under his belt, is planning to quit cricket's longer version after the tour of West Indies in October.
Sri Lanka's spin wizard and Test cricket's highest wicket-taker will play for Bengal in their Ranji Trophy campaign this season.
"It's obviously an amazing feat while it is not very nice being a victim. Maybe I will look back at my career I think I was his 709th," he added.
Sri Lanka would not emulate India's ultra-aggressive tactics against Australia during their upcoming two-Test series, ace off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan said.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat in the fifth and final one-day international against India in Colombo on Friday. Having already won the series, India left out Subramaniam Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar and drafted in Pragyan Ojha, R P Singh and Irfan Pathan.
Brainchild of former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, the iconic bowling duo, who have signed a three-year contract, will spend at least 30 days with a pool of Bengal youngsters for a development programme aimed at creating supply line for the senior team.
After dismissing India for 146 in 46 overs, the hosts raced to the victory target with 15.1 overs to spare.
Wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara on Sunday sympathised with Indian batsmen for the humiliation they received at the hands of Sri Lanka's dreadful spin combination -- Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis -- in their first Test at the SSC.
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.
Harbhajan Singh does not doubt mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis' potentials but the star off-spinner believes it is old trickster Muttiah Muralitharan who would pose bigger threat for the Indian batsmen in the forthcoming Test series. Harbhajan heaps praise on Mendis, who ran through India's batting order in the Asia Cup final in Karachi, and said it was an extraordinary display of quality spin bowling.
Sehwag, with 491 runs, at an average of 122.75 in four innings, including two hundreds and one fifty, is the leading run-getter in the present series, a record for India against Sri Lanka in a Test series.
