crazycricketers

Zee Telefilms Limited have won the global media rights to broadcast India's overseas cricket series on neutral venues.Zee won the tender after quoting a bid of US$219.15 million for five years - from April 1, 2006 to Mar 31, 2011 - during which they will show a minimum of 25 matches.

The first series Zee will broadcast is for India's brief one-day trip to Pakistan at Abu Dhabi on April 18 and 19. The neutral venues identified by the BCCI include Dubai, Holland, Singapore, England, Canada, the USA, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

Sachin Tendulkar has returned to India following a successful operation on his right shoulder.He was assessed prior to leaving London by the surgeon, Dr Andrew Wallace, who was reported to be very happy with his progress to date.

He said that the tissue to fully heal and bind, Tendulkar will begin to initiate more movement through light jogging and swimming, under the supervision of the team physio, John Gloster. It is expected that he should be able to pick up a bat by the beginning of May.

India wins the match and with it the series over England in kochi, taking an unassailable 4-0 lead in this seven-match series with a four-wicket win at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. The stifling heat and humidity had its say on both teams but where most of India's gambles paid off.

Indian captain is rested for the next two one day matches and Sehwag will lead the team, and one can expect both Uthappa and Venugopal Rao need to be given their chances in the upcoming games. With the exception of Yuvraj and Irfan Pathan, no man in this batting line-up is irreplaceable, and a break from the tour merry-go-round will probably help both Sehwag and Kaif to get their head around what's been going wrong.

Man of the match : Yuvraj Singh
India 238 for 6 (Dravid 65) beat England 237 (Pietersen 77) by 4 wickets

Jason Gillespie has been recalled to the Australian squad for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh. Gillespie, 30, was dropped from the side during last summer's Ashes in England, but has been added along with Phil Jaques and Mitchell Johnson, who could make his Test debut. The trio will replace Shaun Tait, Michael Kasprowicz and Justin Langer.

The two-Test series starts in Fatullah on Sunday.

Pakistan registerd the vicory in second test and with it the series 1-0.The day didn't start that well for srilanka, as they main stay in the batting line up couldn't turn up as he was badly injured while fielding in the first innings.

Half-centuries from Younis Khan and Imran Farhat, Pakistan strolled to an ultimately comfortable eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka on the third afternoon of the final Test. With it they won the series - their third in succession - and kept their remarkable record of not having lost a series, or even a Test, in Sri Lanka for 20 years.

Result: Pakistan won by 8 wickets
Series: Pakistan wins the 2-Test series 1-0

Man of the Match: Mohammad Asif
Player of the Series: Mohammad Asif

Australia want 44 runs and South Africa need three wickets(Langer Injured) - to win a tense final Test at Johannesburg. Damien Martyn's unbeaten 93 guided Australia towards their target of 292, but what seemed like a comfortable chase turned when Makhaya Ntini knocked over Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne as the tourists lost 4 for 39 late on day four.

Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz with a 19-run eighth-wicket partnership to secure a gripping victory and earn a 3-0 cleansweep against South Africa.Man of the Match Lee batted beatufully in both innings and bowled well, to bring Australia a memorable victory, which they could not acheive (clean sweep) in their previous two encounters in South Africa.


Man of the Match : Brett Lee
Final Score:
Australia 270 and 294 for 8 (Martyn 101, Lee 24*, Kasprowicz 7*) beat South Africa 303 and 258 by two wickets

The groupings were decided by the current one-day rankings table, which has Australia first, India third and England sixth. They form group A and will be joined by one of the teams from the qualifying tournament which consists of West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

The second qualifier who makes it through will join Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand in group B for the tournament. The competition is scheduled to start on October 7, with the qualifying matches, finishing on November 5 and includes 22 matches in 21 days.The groups were announced by Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, at a press conference in Goa.

ndia's selectors made only one change to their 15-man squad for the remaining four ODIs against England, bringing in Robin Uthappa for Gautam Gambhir. The squad will be the same for the two ODIs in Abu Dhabi which immediately follow the conclusion of the on going England series.


Team India:

Rahul Dravid (capt), Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Venugopal Rao, S Sreesanth, RP Singh.

Yuvraj Singh played an inspired innings after Rahul Dravid won an important toss on a sluggish pitch as India posted a mammoth 294 and overwhelmed England by 49 runs to take an impressive 3-0 lead in this seven-match series.

Dravid went into open the innings with Sehwag and and realised that protecting his stumps was priority No.1 with the ball being up and down. Another thing that worked for India was pushing Irfan Pathan up the order. His uncomplicated technique worked well, and a partnership of 78 for the second wicket set things up nicely before Dravid (46) dragged Paul Collingwood back onto his stumps.

Soon England sniffed a chance as Pathan failed to clear the infield and the out-of-form Mohammad Kaif tickled one to the keeper and India wobbled at 131 for 4. What they would not have accounted for was Yuvraj Singh playing as superbly as he did, using his power and free-stroking ability to best effect on a pitch where run-making was desperately difficult. Suresh Raina chipped in with a vital half-century

Yuvraj's knock of 76-ball 103 that included 10 fours and 3 sixes, made a mockery of the tough batting conditions. He was assisted by Raina, who shared in a 142-run partnership in making 61 very compact runs of his own, Yuvraj had taken India to a score that would take some getting on a flat deck, forget about a slow crumbler. Mahendra Dhoni had his say in the few balls that he faced and India ended very comfortably placed.

With a big score on the board India only had to bowl sensibly given the conditions to put the pressure firmly on England. Pathan showed that he was the man for the job, his well-disguised slower deliveries proving to be the undoing of the top order. With the ball gripping the surface all Pathan had to do was put the ball in areas where a mistake in timing would create problems and he did just that.

Three slower deliveries accounted for Andrew Strauss, who tickled one to the 'keeper, Ian Blackwell, who was bowled playing and missing early, and Owais Shah, who failed to get to the pitch of the ball and chipped to point. Matt Prior had battled hard for 37 and when he was run out in a mix up with Andrew Flintoff, England were in deep trouble at 48 for 4.

Collingwood batted well for his 93 but there was just too much for him to do after the top-order had failed. After he holed out going for a big one England folded for 245 and India closed out the match by 49 runs.

Jayasuriya, 36, has been one of the stars of Sri Lanka's batting for over a decade. His decision means he won't be touring England this summer, he is Sri Lanka's most prolific batsman in both forms of the game.

Sanath Jayasuriya, the Sri Lankan opener, has announced that he will retire from Test cricket following the current series against Pakistan. However, he will continue his one-day international career and is available for the World Cup next year.

Jayasuriya of late has injury problems and only made the first Test against Pakistan after a late fitness test. However, he made just six and 13 in Colombo and that performance, along with the development of young batsmen such as Upul Tharanga, probably played a part in his decision.