Expressing his growing concern over the rebel Indian Cricket League, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has warned cricket boards from showing leniency towards players joining the ICL or they might run the risk of losing a lot of international players to its money lure. With rumours of some c

Wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued his progress up the rating charts to be fifth in the latest LG-ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen today. The wicketkeeper-batsman, who turned 26 yesterday, has moved one spot up in the rankings issued today. England's Kevin Pietersen s

Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara has risen to a career-high third position in the latest LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after hitting an unbeaten 200 against Bangladesh. The stylish left-hander, playing as a batting specialist after starting as a wicketkeeper-batsman, scored his fifth

Cricket Australia has urged home fans to treat Muttiah Muralitharan with respect when the Sri Lankan off-spinner tours Down Under in his bid to become the highest wicket-taker in the longer version of the game. Muralitharan, who needs 25 wickets to equal Aussie legend Shane Warne's record

Continuing his rise in international cricket, Monty Panesar became the highest rated England spinner in 30 years by breaking into the top-10 of LG ICC Test Rankings today. With a tally of 23 wickets in the Test series against West Indies, Panesar rose six places in the latest charts to joi

Australian Ricky Ponting today sought to distance himself from a reported international cricketers association's (FICA) threat to boycot the next year's Champions Trophy if the ICC did not change its way of governing the game. FICA had reportedly said that it was not happy with the manner in

Cricket Australia will quiz Ricky Ponting and his men on whether they use recreational drugs as part of its plans to draw up a tougher drug policy. According to 'The Age', Swimming Australia is about to introduce out-of-competition testing for recreational drugs and cricket and rugby boards

Ricky Ponting today said the Indian cricket selectors can take a leaf out of their Australian counterparts' book while managing the transition of players in the team. "I think the Australian selectors handled it very well. Whenever there was a group of players of the same age on the ve

Australian captain Ricky Ponting today diagnosed the ailments of Indian cricket as "mental pressure" and advised the team to learn to cope with it. "India is playing under a lot of mental pressure. They must learn how to cope with it," Ponting said. Ponting, who led Au

Australian captain Ricky Ponting today said he saw no reason why an Australian coach could not do a good job in India when quite a few of them were doing well with teams around the world. "I think Tom Moody has done some terrific job in Sri Lanka leading them to the World Cup final an

Despite his unbeaten 139 in the Afro Asia Cup final in Chennai, Indian wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni remained in the fourth place in the latest LG-ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen. Dhoni, who hit the highest-ever ODI score by a number seven batsman in Chennai, now trails th

Even as the Australian government stepped up pressure on Cricket Australia to boycott its tour of Zimbabwe in September, captain Ricky Ponting said every player should be allowed to make an independent decision on the issue. "There are some issues there and every individual player will

Australian captain Ricky Ponting today admitted that the farcical finish to the cricket World Cup took a bit of the gloss off his side's third consecutive triumph. Australia's win in the final against Sri Lanka was marred by some poor officiating. With the Sri Lankan batsmen accepting an

South Africa captain Graeme Smith won the toss and bat first against Australia in the second World Cup semi-final at the Beausejour Stadium in St. Lucia today. South African pacer Makhaya Ntini will not play in today’s crucial semi-final. Both teams have played 66 matches in which A

Australia has defeated South Africa by 83 runs in their final league match to top Group 'A' at St. Kitts here. Chasing a mammoth total of 378 runs, South Africa was bowled out for 294 in 48 overs. Australia carry forward two points from this match in to the Super Eights round. Ea

Australia cricket skipper Ricky Ponting became the seventh batsman in One Day International cricket history to join the 10,000 run-club. Ponting achieved the milestone while scoring 91 runs against South Africa in St. Kitts on Saturday in a World Cup match. The dashing Aussie batsman n

Reigning champions Australia stormed into the Super Eight with a crushing 229-run win over the Netherland in the World Cup Group 'A' cricket one-dayer here today. After Brad Hodge smashed the Orange attack to post his maiden ODI century to propel Australia to a massive 358 for five, the p

Three-time champions Australia sounded an ominous warning to their World Cup rivals thumping minnows Scotland by a record 203-run margin in the Group 'A' encounter here on Wednesday. The Aussies, smarting under a five-match losing streak and dethroned as world's number one one-day side,

It would certainly not be music to the ears of the rival batsmen as Glenn McGrath asserted that his immaculate spell of fast bowling in Australia's opening World Cup game against Scotland was nowhere near his best. "It could have been better, but I will take it. We are still getting used

Three-time champions Australia sounded an ominous warning to their World Cup rivals thumping minnows Scotland by a record 203-run margin in the Group 'A' encounter here on Wednesday. The Aussies, smarting under a five-match losing streak and dethroned as world's number one one-day side,

Australian captain Ricky Ponting hit his fourth World Cup century registering a 203-run victory over Scotland in their opening Group A match on Wednesday. Ponting batted with determination after being dropped on 23 to make 113 with five sixes before he was bowled by Craig Wright. Tail-en

World champions Australia will today take on minnows Scotland here in the second match of the ICC World Cup 2007. The Aussies, who have seen a series of defeats in the past, are also plagued by injuries to key players. The two-time defending champions lost five matches in a row last mont

Australian captain Ricky Ponting has hit back at Sunil Gavaskar's comments that the World Champions were "an unpopular team" and said the Indian legend was acting "high and mighty" in repeatedly criticising his side for their on-field behaviour.Ponting said it was natural t

Contrary to the view of some of his counterparts, Indian captain Rahul Dravid has said minnows teams should be a part of the cricket World Cup for they add character and charm to the competition. They add a lot of character and charm to the event, Dravid said after helping his team clinc

Bowlers of rival teams in the coming World Cup have to put in extra effort to bowl dot balls against ICC's number two batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who today said he would strive hard to take at least one run every ball he faced in the quadrennial showpiece. "I will try to play well a

Bowlers of rival teams in the coming world cup have to put in extra effort to bowl dot balls against ICC's number two batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who said he would strive hard to take at least one run every ball he faced in the quadrennial showpiece. "I will try to play well and my

Australia's injury problems appear to be easing with fast bowler Brett Lee the only player still in serious doubt for the World Cup. Five of the 15 players in Australia's World Cup squad are struggling with injuries but only Lee is considered to be in danger of missing the tournament.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting has come up with a simple solution to end his team's habit of failing to defend massive totals -- bat second. Australia have been on the wrong end of the four biggest run-chases in one-day cricket history, all in the past 14 months, raising concerns abou

India wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni has moved up to second position overtaking Australian captain Ricky Ponting in the latest ICC Player Rakings for ODI batsmen. The 25-year-old, who had briefly reigned the rankings charts last year, has just completed a successful four-match

England captain Michael Vaughan has vowed a "little hamstring injury" won't stop him leading the side when the World Cup gets underway in the Caribbean next month. The 32-year-old Yorkshire batsman has spent much of the past year sidelined from international action with a longs