Dubai: England captain Andrew Strauss stressed a 3-0 hammering inflicted by Pakistan was not all doom and gloom for his team, hoping they learn from their mistakes and move on. Pakistan thumped England by 71 runs in the third and final Test on Monday to seal an emphatic 3-0 win - the first whitewash in all Tests between the two countries. Strauss, under whom England had not lost a Test series since their 1-0 defeat in the Caribbean in February 2009, said analysis would follow on the team's defeat. "It's very important we debrief this tour very thoroughly, like we do on any tour and learn so

Dubai: Captain Misbah-ul-Haq wants Pakistan to be recognised as a power in world cricket after leading his country to its first ever clean sweep against England in a Test series on Monday. Few gave Misbah and his team much of a chance against top-ranked England as Pakistan's recent Test successes had come against lowly-ranked Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, along with a Sri Lanka team in transition. But Pakistan never let England settle against their spin duo of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman once Andrew Strauss' side was reduced to 43 for 5 before lunch on the first day of the first Test last month.

New Delhi: Former South African paceman Allan Donald, who was recently appointed as bowling coach of the Pune Warriors, on Monday said it will be a "pity" if the reconciliation efforts between the BCCI and his IPL side fail. Sahara Group have ended their financial ties with the BCCI and pulled out of the IPL, saying they were not treated well by the cricket board. BCCI on Monday offered an olive branch to the aggrieved group by saying that it was ready for a dialogue to resolve the matter. "We hope something can come of it. I met some really good people there and it will be a pity if it doe

They were not in a hole, it was a ravine full of muck. Terrorist attacks, spot-fixing, team politics, retirements, players going to jail – you name it. It took a root-deep shovel to find the firm ground where Pakistan cricket stands today, having swept the No. 1 Test side 3-0 in a home-away-from-home series in the UAE. A terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankans in Lahore shook the foundations of world cricket in 2009. The repercussions were severe. The ICC slapped a ban on international cricket in Pakistan, but the skeletons didn't stop tumbling out. The year 2010 was perhaps the w

Melbourne: Around 30 percent tickets meant for the general public are still available for the Australia-Sri Lanka ODI at Perth, in contrast to the Big Bash final which sold out in a record 16 minutes, but Cricket Australia says it should not be understood as a sign of a dwindling interest in the 50-over format. About 7,000 of the 10,000-to-11,000 public-seating tickets have been sold and a crowd of about 15,000-to-16,000 is expected. That attendance would be equal to the fans presence at WACA for the Big Bash final but the response to the tickets sale for the Friday's ODI is nowhere near the

Melbourne: Sachin Tendukar's aura as a batsman will not diminish even if he does not score his much-awaited 100th international century, feels Australian great Steve Waugh. "I think it's a huge statistic and India is obsessed by stats. The whole country wants him to get his one hundredth 100, so maybe that's where the real pressure is coming from." "It will be nice if he could get it down the road, but if he doesn't get it, I certainly won't think any less of him as a player," Waugh said. Waugh said Tendulkar's failure to score his hundredth 100 so far this summer might have a parallel with

Melbourne: India should draft in all-rounder Irfan Pathan and Manoj Tiwary in the side for the next tri-series match, even if it means dropping a spinner along with Suresh Raina, suggested former skipper Sourav Ganguly. India will play Sri Lanka on Wednesday after losing the fist match to Australia by 65 runs. India had rested Virender Sehwag and included two spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul Sharma for the first match, a ploy with which Ganguly was hardly impressed with. "In the next game, India should play Irfan Pathan instead of a spinner, as that will add variety to their attack

Dubai: Pakistan have narrowed the gap with the top-four sides in the ICC Test rankings after inflicting a humiliating 3-0 a whitewash on world number one England although they remained stationed at number five in the table. Pakistan had entered the series in fifth position on 99 ratings points and moved to 108 points and within striking distance of the top four for the first time since 2007. Misbah-ul-Haq's men are now just three ratings points behind India and Australia, and nine ratings points behind number-two ranked South Africa. England, in contrast, has retained its number-one ranking

Chennai: Naman Ojha and Robin Bist scored a century each as the Central Zone virtually sealed a place in the Duleep Trophy final by taking a mammoth 488-run lead against South Zone with just one day to go in their semifinal. Starting at a solid 127 for one, Central ended the day three at 378 for five in their second innings with Ojha and Bist scoring 104 runs each. Even if Central declared their innings in the morning, it will be an impossible task for South to chase such a huge total with just 90 overs, 15 mandatory, at their disposal on the last day on Monday. Ojha, who was 79 overnight,

England have aspired to be the best Test team in the world for some time, but once they reached the top they suffered a severe bout of vertigo. The No. 1 ranked-Test team has been humiliated 3-0 in the UAE by a superb Pakistan bowling attack led, admirably, by Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman. No team has stumbled so suddenly after scaling the heights of the ICC's Test rankings. As the old cliché goes, it's often harder to stay somewhere than it is getting there. Taking a start is crucial in any series but when it comes away from home, it becomes extremely important. England have not been