ICC ODI Rankings
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Team --Matches-- Points-- Rating
Australia -28 -3658 -131
South Africa -29 -3451 -119
India- 41 -4865 -119
Pakistan -28 -3182 -114
New Zealand -24 -2714 -113
England -32 -3469 -108
Sri Lanka -29 -3068 -106
West Indies -24 -2178 -91
Bangladesh -32 -1494 -47
Ireland -10 -190 -19
Zimbabwe -22 -280 -13
Kenya -7 -75 -11
ICC Test Rankings
Team Matches Points Rating
Australia 34 4409 130
South Africa 37 4331 117
India 40 4659 116
Sri Lanka 28 3032 108
England 38 3965 104
Pakistan 19 1895 100
West Indies 22 1791 81
New Zealand 27 2183 81
Bangladesh 20 0 0
Cricket Shedules DEC-08
Date Team Match Venue
Tue, 02 India vs England, 7th, ODI Delhi
Thu, 11 India vs England 1st, Test Ahmedabad
Sat, 11 New Zealand vs West Indies 1st, Test Dunedin
Web, 17 Australia vs South Africa, 1st, Test Perth
Fri, 19 India vs England, 2nd Test Mumbai
Fri, 19 New Zealand vs West Indies 2nd Test Napier
Fri, 26 New Zealand vs West Indies Ist, T20 Auckland
Fri, 26 Australia vs South Africa 2nd Test Melbourne
Sun, 28 New Zealand vs West Indies 2nd T20 Hamilton
Wed, 31 New Zealand vs West Indies 1st, ODI Queenstown
India needs cricket at the moment: Collingwood
London: England batsman Paul Collingwood said his team was hoping that it gets a green signal from ECB's security delegation to play the first Test in Chennai as the players realised that terror-struck India needed cricket at the moment.
"Hopefully, we all get on that plane and play cricket, which is what we want. Hopefully, we send a team out there that is safe and plays cricket because that is what India needs at the moment -- cricket. We need to get back to playing because they're a cricket-loving nation," he said after the team's practice in Abu Dhabi.
The England team which had left India after playing only five of the seven ODIs following the terror attacks in Mumbai will return to play two Tests, beginning Thursday, if their security delegation was satisfied with the security situation at the two venues.
"We all have concerns for obvious reasons but we are leaving it at the hands of people who know what's going on. What has happened there is absolutely unbelievable but at the end you have to put your trust in security officers who are gauging whether it is safe enough to go," Collingwood said.
Collingwood said the team was awaiting security delegation's decision which will be informed to them on Sunday but there was no pressure on anyone to go to India.
"Sunday night is D-Day. It is the time we get all the information back and there will be no pressure put on anybody to go back to India. Everybody knows that and everybody will have to make their own mind up. Hopefully, it's a team thing," he was quoted as saying by 'The Times'.
"Obviously, the timing is not ideal but what we've got to do as a group of players is be 100 per cent mentally attuned to starting on Thursday," Collingwood said.
I still have 4 to 5 years of cricket left in me: Lee
Melbourne : Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee has scotched all theories about his immediate retirement plans and said he still possess the firepower to prolong his career for at least four to five years.
Lee, 32, bounced back in style from a mediocre India tour, ripping apart New Zealand batting line-up last week with best figures of 9/171 in his 74-match Test career.
"I'm confident in my own mind. If I keep doing the right things, if I look after my body, there's at least another four or five years left in me. It all comes down to staying away from injury and looking after myself," Lee was quoted as saying by the 'Herald Sun'.
"Being a fast bowler, things will go wrong with your body, it's the nature of the beast. But I've got a great strength program I'm working on. The game has changed a lot in the last 10 years. It's gone to a new level. Blokes are fitter and stronger," he added.
The New South Wales pacer further said that his run-ins with injuries and stint as a 12th man in the national side has forced him to lose crucial time of his playing days.
"I know I'm 32, but the truth is I have missed a fair bit of cricket with injuries, plus I was 12th man for the Test side for 18 months.
"I only feel 27 or 28 in bowling terms. I'm still improving. I don't feel I'm ready for that (retirement) just yet," Lee said.
With 309 Test scalps at 30.12 under his belt, Lee is fast approaching towards the elite club of 400-Test wicket bowlers and is also on the verge of overtaking his idol, Dennis Lillee's haul of 355 Test wickets.
"To think I'm about 40-odd wickets from going past Dennis Lillee, I find it hard to comprehend. It feels like yesterday I was playing for the Oak Flats under-8s.
"Dennis was the bloke I emulated in the backyard. When I was 16, I met him at a fast bowlers clinic in Sydney. I remember him saying: 'You have good pace, if you stay strong, you never know, one day you might play for Australia', " said Lee.
Labels: I still have 4 to 5 years of cricket left in me: Lee
Cricket Australia just wants to be nice to BCCI : Gillespie
Melbourne: Former right-arm pacer Jason Gillespie has accused Cricket Australia of not supporting its players as the Board officials are too occupied maintaining their cordial relationship with their Indian counterparts.
Gillespie, who was banned from first-class cricket after signing a three-year deal with the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League, termed CA's stand to always abide by the Board of Control for Cricket in India as a big ‘joke’.
"Unfortunately they'll side with (India's) board rather than support players like 'Kasper' (Michael Kasprowicz) and myself, who've played for our country for many years.
"They're far too worried about the ramifications of not being nice to the BCCI, that's all they're worried about and it's a joke," Gillespie was quoted as saying in 'Daily Telegraph.'
"They've basically said 'no, we don't want you'. Cricket Australia are only concerned about their relationship with the BCCI," he added.
With the escalating number of Twenty20 leagues, Gillespie believes it is just a matter of time before countries completely shun playing the longest version of the game.
"Test cricket is in trouble, there's no doubt about that," Gillespie said.
"I can see a time where countries will be bypassing Test cricket altogether.
"With more Twenty20 leagues, it will go the way where representing your country will take a back seat. For Australian and English players it will always be the pinnacle, but I'm not sure it's the pinnacle for any other countries.
All other countries don't see Test cricket as the be all and end all anymore.
Labels: Cricket Australia just wants to be nice to BCCI : Gillespie
Amjad named Sidebottom's replacement in England team
Abu Dhabi : Kent pacer Amjad Khan, so far a member of the performance squad, will replace injured pacer Ryan Sidebottom in the England team for the two-Test series against India.
Young Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid will also travel to Chennai for the first Test even though he is yet to be officially named in the Test squad.
Incidentally, England will miss the service of Stuart Broad in the Chennai Test with the Nottinghamshire pacer recovering from a hamstring injury.
Amjad, who was born in Copenhagen and was a Danish international before he got the British citizenship in 2006, pipped Sajid Mahmood and Liam Plunkett for a place in the side.
Though the team is here awaiting for a green signal from security expert Reg Dickason before flying to India, coach Peter Moores conceded Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff are reluctant to tour the country following the terror attacks in Mumbai.
"Fred has had issues and it's fair to say Steve Harmison has as well," Moores said.
"The important message from me is that we respect people and allow them to have their views. That's okay - they are human beings," said the England coach.
Harmison, meanwhile, described it as one of the greatest decisions of his career and said he has a right to return home if he deems it right.
"As we prepare to make one of the biggest decisions of our careers this evening, it is sad to think that the England players here may not be remembered at the end of their career for what they did on the field as much as whether or not they went back to India.
"Whatever we hear at our security briefing tonight in Abu Dhabi, I reserve the right to make my own decision to fly home on Monday if it is the right thing to do," he wrote in his column for The Mail on Sunday.
Sharing his dilemma, the England pacer said, "On the one shoulder a voice has been telling me: 'Stuff the terrorists.
Get in there, play the Test and give it your best shot'.
"Then the man on my other shoulder pipes up: 'Think about this. You are going into a country some are describing as a war zone. You've got a family and four kids. Is it right to put yourself at risk?'
"Although I've still got a load of questions about the rights and wrongs of going back, on the balance of probabilities I reckon I will if the security report is positive," added the pacer.
In case both Harmison and Flintoff pull out, England can turn to the performance squad to find replacements in Mahmood or Plunkett, besides having a look at either Samit Patel or Ravi Bopara.
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Labels: Amjad named Sidebottom's replacement in England team
Pak dismiss report on 48-hr deadline by India to act
Islamabad, December 7: Pakistan distanced itself from a report that said it had agreed to a 48-hour deadline set by India and the US to act against LeT, saying Islamabad do not have to respond to each and every ‘provocative statement or comment’ in media.
"We do not have to respond to each and every provocative statement or comment in the media," Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told PTI when asked about the report in the Washington Post that Pakistan had agreed to a 48-hour deadline to act against the LeT and to arrest at least three Pakistanis who Indian authorities say are linked to the November 26 attacks.
Babar said the Pakistan Government had already made its position very clear in the wake of the attacks in Mumbai by offering to cooperate with India in probing the incident.
President Asif Ali Zardari has offered to assist India in probing the incident and pledged to act against any Pakistani national found to be linked to the attacks.
Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq could not be reached for comments.
The Post quoted an unnamed Pakistani official as saying that India had asked Pakistan to arrest and hand over LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhwi and former Inter-Services Intelligence agency chief Lt Gen (retired) Hamid Gul in connection with the probe into the attacks that killed nearly 200 people.
Labels: Pak dismiss report on 48-hr deadline by India to act
Boy, 9, writes book on how to talk to girls
A nine-year-old boy has had a book published in the US - called How to Talk to Girls.Alec Greven's book began life as a creative writing project in school at Castle Rock, Colorado.
His handwritten pamphlet was then sold for $5 at a school book fair where it was the surprise bestseller.
Local news outlets took up the story, Alec was then invited on to a TV talkshow which led to him sealing a publishing deal with HarperCollins.
And his book is now available as a 46-page hardcover version across the US."I saw a lot of boys that had trouble talking to girls," Alec told the New York Post's Jennifer Fermino.
"If I say hi and you say hi back, we're probably off to a good start," he said.His advice to boys includes - stop showing off, go easy on the compliments and be wary of "pretty girls"."It is easy to spot pretty girls because they have big earrings, fancy dresses and all the jewellery," he writes in chapter three. "Pretty girls are like cars that need a lot of oil."And he continues: "The best choice for most boys is a regular girl. Remember, some pretty girls are coldhearted when it comes to boys. Don't let them get to you.
"Alec's mother, Erin Greven, says her son's insight is down to his avid reading: "He reads non-stop. At dinner, I say, 'Put your book down," she said.