England Lions' skipper Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat against Indians in their final three-day warm up cricket match beginning here today. Indians are being led by Sachin Tendulkar after skipper Rahul Dravid pulled out yesterday due to calf muscle injury. The visitors have l

The Future Cup win against South Africa in Ireland has pushed India to fifth spot and helped four of its players to jump into the top ten of the Maruti Suzuki ODI rankings. Team India, ranked as low as eighth in April, now has 69 points. World champions Australia continue their dominance i

Sitting on piles of runs in both forms of cricket and with virtually every batting record in his pocket, Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman of the modern era, according to former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns. Enjoying every bit of his stint with the Lashings World XI after

It looked like a stroll in the park as England blanked the West Indies in the recent Test series but life would be difficult against India, host captain Michael Vaughan warned his teammates. Back in the side after a nagging knee injury that kept him out of action for a whole year, Vaughan

Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat against Sussex in their four-day opening match of the England tour here today. The Indians included both VVS Laxman and Yuvraj, who are fighting for the last specialist batsman's slot in the Test squad, while Sachin Tendulkar and

India will have a new captain at the Twenty20 cricket World Cup in South Africa with Rahul Dravid today opting out of the inaugural edition of the tournament, alongwith seasoned campaigners Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, to make way for youngsters. The three stalwarts, in their 30s,

India, grouped with arch-foes Pakistan and minnows Scotland in Group D, will commence their campaign in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup at Kingsmead in Durban, South Africa, on September 13. India, who did not include their top three players - Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly -

Fresh from their one-day cricket series triumph over the South Africans in Ireland, India will launch their gruelling tour of England with a four-day warm-up game against County champions Sussex here tomorrow. The two teams, however, will keep one eye on the quirky weather as it has been ra

Buoyed by their Future Cup series victory against the formidable South Africans, the Indian cricket team arrived here from Glasgow to commence the testing tour of England that starts with a warm-up match against Sussex at Hove from July 7. The team has been joined by senior players Anil Kumb

India's 2-1 triumph over South Africa in the off-shore series has been a tale of two batsmen. If Sachin Tendulkar hogged the headlines at the start with his two 90-plus knocks but Yuvraj Singh put the smiles back on the Indian team by sealing victory in the last two matches. While the ret

Yuvraj Singh's unbeaten 61 helped India clinch an edge-of-the-seat thriller and beat South Afica by six wickets for a rare cricket series triumph abroad on Sunday. Chasing 149 to win in 31 overs in the rain-curtailed series decider, India faltered and fumbled before picking up themselves t

Heaving a huge sigh of relief after India finally recovered from the World Cup debacle to pocket a rare overseas series, victorious captain Rahul Dravid said his side deserves the win. "After the World Cup disappointment, we needed to regroup and get our confidence back. We have worke

With the series levelled 1-1, India will heavily depend on their star-studded batting line-up for a morale-boosting overseas series triumph as they go into the third and final cricket one dayer against South Africa here tomorrow. The six-wicket victory in the second game yesterday has not on

Grappling with a cold bug and struggling to stay afloat in the three-match series, a depleted India face a do-or-die battle when they meet South Africa in the crucial second cricket one-dayer here tomorrow. With a flu virus reducing the dressing room virtually to a medical ward, India stru

India might field a depleted pace attack as spearhead Zaheer Khan was yet to recover from a groin injury and seemed uncertain to play the one-off one-dayer against Ireland at the Civil Service Club ground here tomorrow. "Zaheer Khan has had an injury coming here. So we are trying to

Hit by a virus, which has left half the team indisposed, a worried Indian team management has asked young cricketer Arjun Yadav, son of former Indian test cricketer Shiv Lal Yadav to join the Indian team for the first cricket one-dayer against South Africa here tomorrow. Yadav is the secon

Putting the right infrastructure in place and widening the player base to ensure a steady supply of quality players should be India's priority to keep pace with international cricket, according to Sachin Tendulkar. Talking on the occasion of 75 years of India's Test cricket, Tendulkar salute

India might struggle to put 11 players on the park even as they look for revenge when they take on South Africa in the first one-day international of the three-match Future Cup series here tomorrow. After Mahendra Dhoni pulled out of India's opening game due to high fever, players like Sac

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 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

Recalled to the Indian one-day side, Sourav Ganguly says that apart from his regular role with the bat, he could also be useful as a bowler in the favourable conditions of England and Ireland. "I think I can contribute with the ball. It (conditions) will definitely help the ball to mo

The Cricket Board and the players today appeared to have sorted out differences on the contracts issue with both saying that the contracts would be signed in the next few days. "We had a fruitful discussion with the Board today. We are hopeful of signing it in the next few days,"

The Indian cricket board is hopeful that a solution would emerge out of today's crucial meeting between the board and the senior players to settle the players' contract issue. "We hope to find a solution to the contract issue. Players have some reservation which will be discussed at th

Kenya is likely to host the next Afro Asia Cup which would be held in June next year, the Asian Cricket Council said today. "The next Afro-Asia Cup, the third edition, will be held next June in Africa and the likely venue is Kenya where the facilities and weather would be ideal,"

Team India's cricket captain Rahul Dravid, who lost the race for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna to cueist Pankaj Advani last year, has been recommended again for country's highest sports honour. BCCI has also recommended middle order batsman Yuvraj Singh and former women's team captain Anjum C

Contrary to claims made by sports broadcaster Nimbus that it had walked out of the upcoming Afro Asia Cup cricket series, Asian Cricket Council today said it scrapped the deal with the channel for "not fulfilling contractual obligations". Consequently, ACC has awarded the telecas

Riding on his two centuries against Bangladesh, Sachin Tendulkar jumped back in the top-20 of the latest LG-ICC Player Rankings for Test cricket batsmen. The 34-year-old veteran player scored a hundred in each match, at Chittagong and Mirpur, compiling a total of 254 runs at an average of

Sachin Tendulkar today made way for Sourav Ganguly while Zaheer Khan was included as the sixth Indian in the revised 14-member one-day Asia cricket team for the Afro Asian Cup beginning in Bangalore on June 6. Sri Lankan Dilhara Fernando and Mashrafe Mortaza of Bangladesh were the other tw

Global sports goods giant Adidas today said it has approached MRTPC as it felt its exclusive rights to the use of the name of brand ambassador Sachin Tendulkar was violated by rival Nike. "MRTPC has issued notices to the respondents," Adidas said in a statement, while declining to

Bangladesh picked up two crucial wickets to peg back India in the post-lunch session of on a rain-truncated opening day's play in the first cricket Test here today. Opener Dinesh Kaarthick (56) and skipper Rahul Dravid (61), who were going great guns before lunch, went back in quick succes