Category: Sports

NEW DELHI, April 22, 2011 (AFP) – Injury-prone paceman Lasith Malinga on Friday stunned Sri Lanka by quitting Test cricket in a bid to prolong his career in one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches. Chief selector Duleep Mendis hit out at the 27-year-old’s handling of the announcement, saying the bowler — who has pierced eyebrows, dyed […]

April 18, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities on Monday named big-hitting all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan as captain for the upcoming tour of England. Dilshan will lead the side in all three formats of the game — Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20s — on the tour, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement. The 34-year-old, […]

MUMBAI, April 15, 2011 (AFP) – Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene hit robust half-centuries as Kochi Tuskers Kerala posted an eight-wicket win over Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday. Skipper Tendulkar hammered an unbeaten 100 off just 66 balls for his maiden IPL hundred to help his side reach […]

NEW DELHI, April 16, 2011 (AFP) – A Sri Lanka cricket board demand that national players involved in the Indian Premier League (IPL) return to prepare for an England tour has reopened the long-running club versus country debate. Eleven Sri Lankan cricketers are playing in the money-spinning IPL, including Tillakaratne Dilshan, who is likely to […]

LAHORE, April 13, 2011 (AFP) – Pakistan hopes to launch a new cricket league based on the lucrative Indian Premier League in a bid to win back its status as an international host, an official said on Wednesday. International cricket has been suspended in Pakistan since March 2009 when gunmen attacked a convoy carrying the […]

April 11, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Cricket said Monday it is saddled with a -million-dollar debt after cost overruns and hefty bills incurred building stadiums for the recent World Cup. “We spent a lot of money to host the World Cup, to build two stadiums and rebuild one stadium. The World Cup left us […]

April 9, 2011 (AFP) – A campaign by fans of Sri Lanka’s World Cup-losing skipper Kumar Sangakkara to demand his reinstatement ended in a flop Saturday, with only a handful of supporters turning up. The wicketkeeper-batsman, currently in India to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, has said he has no plans […]

April 6, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who was worried about Britain’s new visa regulations, has secured a work permit to play county cricket, his manager said Wednesday. Kushil Gunasekera said the British authorities had expedited his visa as he had to leave for India on Wednesday to play in the […]

April 6, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Cricket on Wednesday promoted assistant coach and former Australian batsman Stuart Law to guide the national team ahead of next month’s tour of England. “He will be the new interim coach,” a spokesman for Sri Lanka Cricket, the governing body of the sport in the island, said. Law […]

April 7, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s outgoing coach Trevor Bayliss on Thursday said the country needed a strong and stable cricket administration to allow players to focus only on the game and not be distracted by politics. “On the field, we’ve done pretty well for past 18 months,” Bayliss said in an interview with […]

April 6, 2011 (AFP) – Veteran batsman Mahela Jayawardene quit as vice-captain and a three-member selection committee also resigned en masse in a major shake-up in Sri Lankan cricket following the team’s World Cup defeat. “I think it’s time to move on, give the reins to someone younger in the team,” Jayawardene told AFP. The […]

April 5, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara said on Tuesday he was resigning from the job three days after his team lost to India in the World Cup final. Sangakkara said he told the national selectors that he would quit as one-day and Twenty20 captain with immediate effect, but offered to […]