Ricky Ponting Resigned From Captaincy

Australian captain Ricky Ponting has resigned from captaincy but he will continue his play as player. He was having pressure on him since the defeat against Pakistan and India. There were some news that he might step down from captaincy and so he do.

On Tuesday he announced that he is stepping down the captaincy and will be available as a player. Ponting also favored the Vice Captain Michael Clark as a captain. He added that the decision of retirement is his sole decision and no one has asked him to do so.

Ponting said that he is leaving the captaincy of both ODI and test cricket and will be available for both formats of the game. He added that now team has to do a lot to get back the Ashes in 2013-14 and world cup in 2015.

He looked confident and said that he will give his full support to his captain and he will always behind the new captain and helps him in all ways. Ponting took over from Steve Waugh and played 228 matches as captain and won 164 matches. He also won 2003 and 2007 world cup for Australia. Bad Ashes performance and world cup defeat has made him to step down as captain.

I will be captain in Bangladesh tour: Ponting

The captain of Australian cricket team Ricky Ponting is not ready to withdraw from captaincy even after the criticism on him and has said that he will be captain in the Bangladesh tour, starting from 8th April. The criticism on the captain started in the Ashes series when Australia lost the three Tests in a row against England.

36-year-old Ponting was an important player of Kangaroo side in winning three successive World Cups 1999, 2003 and 2007. In last two mega events, he was leading the team. However after the defeat of his side in two important World Cup matches make hard of him to continue as captain. Kangaroos lost their last group match against Pakistan by four wickets. This defeat ends the unbeaten record of Aussie from 34 matches of World Cup.

After, that on Thursday, Ponting-XI was beaten by India by five wickets in the quarter final at Ahmedabad. This defeat ended the mega event campaign of Australia. Although Ponting scored a century in this match, but as a captain his progress is a question mark.

Ponting said that he don’t think so that with two defeats Australian good regime is over. He further said that I am disappointed but injuries became the major cause of defeats.

Paul Collingwood retires from Test cricket

England batsman Paul Collingwood said on Thursday that he will retire from Test cricket after the final Sydney Ashes Test against Australia.

The England and Wales Cricket Board said Collingwood, 34, would remain as England’s Twenty20 captain and play for England’s one-day team. Collingwood’s announcement comes in the midst of a poor Ashes series, scoring just 83 runs from six innings at the number five batting position. Collingwood’s announcement comes in the midst of a poor Ashes series, scoring just 83 runs from six innings at the number five batting position. Representing England at Test level has always been a dream of mine and I’ve been fortunate enough to have enjoyed some amazing highs throughout my Test career, Collingwood said in a statement. I am proud of the fact that I have always given my all for the England Test team, he added. Collingwood made his Test debut in 2003 against Sri Lanka at Galle and has earned 68 caps. The Durham right-hander has scored 4,259 runs in Tests at 40.95 and taken 17 wickets. England retained the Ashes after beating Australia in last week’s fourth Melbourne Test and is on top in the current final Sydney Test, set to become the first England team to win a series in Australia for 24 years. Collingwood led England to their first-ever success in a global tournament when his team defeated Australia by seven wickets in the World Twenty20 final in Barbados last May.

Collingwood, England’s ‘Blue Collar’ man

SYDNEY: Paul Collingwood earned a reputation as a flinty ‘blue collar’ competitor and an outstanding fielder in his 68 Tests for England.

Collingwood, who announced his retirement from Test cricket during the final Sydney Test on Thursday, was an integral part of England’s Ashes series victories in 2009 and in the current contest in Australia.

Collingwood, 34, will remain as England’s Twenty20 captain and play in the one-day team at next month’s World Cup on the sub-continent.

He played in the last Test of the 2005 home series as Michael Vaughan’s team won back the Ashes and played in all five Tests of the 2009 and 2010/11 series. He also was in all five Tests on the 2006/07 Down Under, which Australia won 5-0.

Ashes referrals infuriate Ponting, save Prior

MELBOURNE: Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s frustration over a TV referral decision boiled over into an ugly row with umpire Aleem Dar on the second day of the fourth Ashes test on Monday.

Ponting, whose team faces a huge task to save the test and keep alive their hopes of winning back the Ashes, spent more than a minute remonstrating with Dar after demanding a review of a not out decision against England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin had launched a loud but solo appeal for caught behind, convinced Pietersen, who was on 49, had nicked the ball from quick Ryan Harris.

A review of the decision revealed no “hot spot” where the ball passed Pietersen’s bat but a furious Ponting, who was joined by finger-jabbing seamer Peter Siddle, argued long and hard with Dar, prompting jeers from the crowd.

Aussies bounce back in Ashes with Johnsons magical spell

Mitchell Johnson produced a devastating display of swing bowling as Australia roared back into Ashes contention on day two of a riveting Perth Test.

Swing bowler Mitchell Johnson took six wickets to help Australia bowl out England for 187, giving the hosts an 81-run first innings lead in the third Ashes test. Then, Shane Watson scored 61 not out as Australia, trailing 1-0 in the series, reached 119-3 for a lead of 200 runs at the end of play.

In reply to Australias 268, England collapsed from a 78-0 to be bowled out just before tea on Friday, with Johnson taking 6-38.

Ian Bell top scored for England with a defiant 53 but the day belonged to Johnson and Australia, which positioned itself to push for a victory that would square the series. Johnson was supported by Ryan Harris who took 3-59.

England seamers rout Australia top order, smell Ashes victory

PERTH: England’s seamers obliterated Australia’s top order early in the third test in Perth on Thursday to leave the hosts reeling at 65 for four at lunch and buoy the tourists’ hopes of sealing the Ashes before Christmas.

Andrew Strauss, bidding to become the first English captain since Mike Gatting 24 years ago to bring the Ashes home, landed the first psychological blow by winning the toss and sending Australia in to bat on a green-topped pitch at the WACA.

The call proved a masterstroke as towering seamer Chris Tremlett celebrated his return to the test side by bowling Phillip Hughes for two with his sixth ball and removing vice captain Michael Clarke for four in his fourth over.

In between, James Anderson clinched the key wicket of captain Ricky Ponting for 12, while Steve Finn trapped Shane Watson lbw for 13 to leave the large English contingent in the

Liz Hurley confirms separation, Warne ”affair” revealed

LONDON: Liz Hurley and her husband have separated, the British actress announced, as a newspaper reported she has been having an affair with Australia cricket great Shane Warne.

“Not a great day,” Hurley told her followers on social networking site Twitter. “For the record, my husband Arun and I separated a few months ago.

“Our close family and friends were aware of this.”

Hurley, 45, who has an eight-year-old son, Damian, married Indian businessman Arun Nayar three years ago.

Britain”s News of the World tabloid reported Sunday that Hurley had spent two nights with Warne, 41, in his London hotel suite last week.

She had been flirting with him for months via Twitter, it said in an article accompanied by photographs of Warne and Hurley embracing.

Divorced former leg-spin bowler Warne arrived in Britain on Wednesday to shoot interviews for his new television show, Warnie, the newspaper said.

He has been commentating on the ongoing Ashes series for Australia”s Channel Nine television network.

Previous affairs cost Warne not only his marriage but the vice-captaincy of the Australia Test side in 2000 and the opportunity to become his country’s one-day captain two years later.

In 2005 his behaviour saw him sacked from a previous contract with Nine.

The continuing controversy surrounding his private life could well put paid to whatever slim chance there was of a comeback for Warne, who retired from Test cricket in 2007.

A number of former Test players have called for him to return to bolster an Australia side now 1-0 down in the Ashes series.

Hurley and Nayar married in a civil ceremony at Sudeley Castle in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, south-west England in 2007 and held a blessing and party at the castle the following night.

They then had traditional Indian wedding celebrations at the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur.

Hurley and actor Hugh Grant were one of Britain”s leading celebrity couples in the 1990s before they split after his arrest in 1995 for consorting with a Hollywood prostitute.

Also a model, Hurley was well-known for her daring choice of clothes at various red-carpet events and in 1994 wore a Versace dress held together by safety pins.

Cook joins select company in England run feast

BRISBANE: Alastair Cook became only the fourth Englishman to score a Test double-century in Australia as the first Ashes Test headed for a draw on the final day at the Gabba on Monday.

Cook joined Wally Hammond (3), Reg Foster and Paul Collingwood as double centurions with his unconquered 235 to ensure the Ashes holders avoided defeat after trailing by 221 runs on the first innings.

Skipper Andrew Strauss finally called a halt to England’s run pillage at 517 for one, 40 minutes before tea, with Cook and Jonathan Trott, unbeaten on 135, sharing in England’s highest partnership in Australia of 329 runs.

Australia lost the wicket of Simon Katich for four in the seven overs to tea and were desperate to avoid further damage ahead of this week’s second Adelaide Test.

At tea, Australia were 11 for one with skipper Ricky Ponting on six and Shane Watson yet to

Bell blasts 192 in England’s final warm-up

SYDNEY: England’s Ian Bell dispelled any doubts about his ability to produce big scores on Australian soil by completing an innings of 192 against Australia A in Hobart on Friday.

The 28-year-old batsman resumed on 121 on the third morning of England’s final warm-up match for the Ashes and rattled off another 71 runs before being caught by Ed Cowan off the bowling of leg spinner Steve Smith.

Bell struggled in his first Ashes series in England in 2005 and four half centuries in Australia in 2006-7, while failing to make his mark with a really big score as England crashed to a 5-0 whitewash.

After a run of poor form, he missed the first two tests of last year’s series in England but returned with two more half centuries in the last three matches, including a 72 in the decider at the Oval.

On Friday, England were finally bowled out for 523 giving them a

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