Category: Sports

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, March 5, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable 172-run win over Scotland at the Three Ws Oval here on Monday in their opening World Cup warm-up match.Mahela Jayawardene’s team then move on to Trinidad for their first round Group B matches where they will take on India, Bangladesh and Bermuda […]

ARNOS VALE, St Vincent, March 6, 2007 (AFP) – Bermuda captain Irving Romaine insisted his side deserved their place at the Cricket World Cup despite losing their opening warm-up match against England by the huge margin of 241 runs. Bermuda’s second and final warm-up match is against Zimbabwe on Thursday.“Today the plan was to field […]

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, March 5, 2007 (AFP) – Penpix of Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad Mahela Jayawardene (RHB/RAM/Capt.) Age: 29. ODI appearances: 236. First cap: v ZIM, Colombo, Jan 24, 1998 A fine technician with an excellent temperament, he has settled in as captain after Marvan Atapattu was injured. Under him, Sri Lanka are a well-knit […]

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, March 4, 2007 (AFP) – Hosts West Indies, England, South Africa and Sri Lanka will fire the opening shots in their World Cup campaigns on Monday at the start of series of warm-up matches. West Indies, bidding to become the first host nation to win the title, face Kenya in Jamaica, England will […]

SYDNEY, March 2, 2007 (AFP) – Shane Warne Friday rated New Zealand and Sri Lanka as Australia’s biggest threats at this month’s World Cup but gave recently-crowned world number one South Africa no chance of claiming the title.Warne said he expected Australia to overcome their recent slump of five straight one-day international losses to win […]

NEW DELHI, March 2, 2007 (AFP) – Where there’s cricket, there’s controversy and at the 2003 World Cup the phrase “It’s not cricket” vied for attention with on-field contests. The tournament, jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, was not only the biggest in the history but also had more than its fair share […]

SYDNEY, Feb 28, 2007 (AFP) – Australia captain Ricky Ponting warned Wednesday that despite some recent poor form the world champions will be “extremely hard to beat” at the upcoming cricket World Cup. Speaking to reporters at Sydney airport as the team flew out to the Caribbean in search of a third straight World Cup […]

NEW DELHI, Feb 28, 2007 (AFP) – When a rain-ruined Test between Australia and England in 1971 resulted in the first one-day international at Melbourne, few believed that this new form of cricket would become a global, money-spinning affair.Cricket: Born 1971, one-day cricket grows into giant The first one-dayer was not a pre-planned affair as […]

Feb 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene goes to the World Cup in the Caribbean hoping to erase bitter memories of the previous tournament. The 2003 World Cup in South Africa ended in a nightmare for Jayawardene, who scored just 21 runs in nine matches. His form was so poor that he […]

SYDNEY, Feb 26, 2007 (AFP) – Australia will gear their World Cup training sessions towards targeting star rival batsmen, coach John Buchanan said Monday, as alarming statistics reveal their bowling woes.Australia head to the World Cup in the Caribbean this week with figures showing that since the start of last year their bowlers have performed […]

KINGSTON, Feb 26, 2007 (AFP) – Around 30 people so far have been denied entry to the Caribbean with two weeks to go before the official opening ceremony of the World Cup.Peter Phillips, Jamaica’s national security minister, who is leading the Caribbean community’s security programme for the cricket showpiece, said the measures were taken by […]

COLOMBO, Feb 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cricketers want to play aggressive cricket, like they did in 1996, to secure their second World Cup success, captain Mahela Jayawardene said Monday.“We have been playing a pretty exciting brand of cricket in the past couple of years, as our results have shown,” Jayawardene said ahead of […]