Karachi, Mar 4 : Sri Lanka''s national cricketers have dropped a controversial pay demand, clearing the way for them to play against Bangladesh in a forthcoming series.

Chief Selector Sanath Jayasuriya said he held talks with the rebellious players who agreed to the conditions offered by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and would be available for selection for the first Test starting March 8.

Johannesburg, Mar 4 : South Africa batsman Faf du Plessis, after suffering an embarrassing Twenty20 defeat on Sunday at the hands of Pakistan, has said his team can learn a thing or two from the Pakistani players.

Pakistan beat South Africa by 95 runs - their lowest ever total in T20 cricket. Du Plessis said that when Pakistan are on fire like they were during the match, they can put the best in the world under pressure.

Hyderabad, March 4 : Shane Warne feels neglect of Australian spinners at the domestic level is ruining them, which is the reason for the dearth of top-class talent.

Pained at the uninspiring performance of the Australian spinners in India, the spin wizard is upset at the lack of backing young spinners get at the domestic level, from their captains, coaches and curators.

Hyderabad, March 4 : India took a 266-run lead after being bowled out for 503 at tea in the first innings of the second cricket Test against Australia at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, here Monday.

Australian spinners came to life with the ball taking prodigious turn and bounce. Glen Maxwell ended with four wickets with three coming in the second session of the day. Xavier Doherty too was among the wickets accounting for three Indian batsmen.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (44) and Virat Kohli (34) were the only batsmen to put up a fight in the tea session.(IANS)

London, Mar 1 : English county cricket team Lancashire will rename their headquarters as Emirates Old Trafford, under a record-breaking sponsorship deal worth close to 10 million pounds with a Dubai-based airline company.

The 10-year deal with Emirates Airlines, reportedly the biggest in county cricket, will attach a sponsor's name to Old Trafford for the first time in the 156-year-old history of the ground, which will host two of this summer's Ashes games, the Telegraph reports.

Johannesburg, Mar 1 : AB de Villiers has claimed constant squad rotation in South Africa''s limited-over squads is affecting their performance in the one-day and Twenty20 formats.

De Villiers admitted that the Proteas are finding it difficult to match their global Test stature in Twenty20 cricket because of the limited amount of time they spend together and constant squad rotation in the short format, Sport24 reports.

Sydney, Mar 1 : Former all rounder Darren Lehmann has emerged as a firm favourite to become Australia''s next limited-overs coach following reports that country''s cricket board is contemplating splitting the roles of Test, one-day and Twenty20 coach in the future.

It is understood that Cricket Australia (CA) is looking at splitting the roles of Test, one-day and Twenty20 coach in the future and Lehmann is in the box seat to be a national limited-overs coach, News. com. au reports.

Johannesburg, Mar 1 : Former wicket keeper Moin Khan has urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to sack national team coach, Dav Whatmore, whom he branded overrated, following their 3-0 Test humiliation against South Africa.

Pakistan flopped miserably against the world number one Test team, losing the first Test by 211 runs, the second by four wickets and the last by an innings and 18 runs, Sport24 reports.

Whatmore masterminded Sri Lanka''s triumph in the 1996 World Cup and led minnows Bangladesh to their first-ever Test series victory and their first appearance in the World Cup Super Eights in 2007, but Khan said he was not up to the job.

Sydney, Mar 1 : Australian selectors are pondering over replacing Mitchell Starc, who went wicket less during the Chennai Test, with experienced Mitchell Johnson in the second Test match against India in Hyderabad, starting on Saturday.

The Australian think-tank is also set to resist any urge to rest James Pattinson in a move that leaves Starc fighting to retain his place in the Test team, News. com. au reports.

Back-up pace man Johnson has entered the frame to replace Starc, and his selection prospects will improve further if the tourists desist from picking a second spinner at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, the paper said.

Sydney, Mar 1 : All rounder Shane Watson is desperate to prove he is worthy enough of a spot in the Australian Test team as a specialist batsmen, and the vice-captain is confident he would score big in the remaining three Test matches against India.

Watson, who has endured a lean run with the bat in the past two years, is determined to prove he''s capable of playing as a specialist batsman by scoring heavily in this series, News. com. au reports.

The 31-year old said he feels like he has got a big innings coming, adding he also feels in these conditions and in general that he is batting as well as he ever has.

Sydney, Feb 28 : Former England captain Michael Vaughan has said that the horrific death of Surrey batsman Tom Maynard will be a stern lesson for other cricketers who are still using recreational drugs.

According to a coroner’s inquest, Maynard had taken both cocaine and ecstasy and was almost four times above the legal alcohol limit for driving before getting electrocuted and then hit by a train, killing himself in June 2012, News. com. au reports.

Sydney, Feb 28 : Shane Watson has revealed he was itching to bowl at Mahendra Singh Dhoni while the Indian captain was smashing Australian bowlers all over the ground during his swaggering double ton in the Chennai Test.

The Australian all rounder will now tell Cricket Australia (CA) hierarchy he is unequivocal in his desire to resume bowling after helplessly watching Dhoni bludgeon the Australian attack in the first Test, the Herald Sun reports.

Melbourne, Feb 28 : Cricket Australia (CA) Thursday announced that Ellyse Perry had been diagnosed with a stress fracture in her ankle.

CA physiotherapist David Beakley said: "Ellyse underwent further investigations on her return to Sydney after the ICC Women's World Cup, which revealed a stress fracture in her distal left tibia.

After consultation with a specialist orthopaedic surgeon Ellyse will not require surgical intervention but instead will enter a period of rehabilitation that should see her make a return to sport in around 10-12 weeks."

Lahore, Feb 27 : Former chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Ijaz Butt, has said that appointing Hafeez as T20 captain, and bringing in Dav Whatmore as head coach in place of Mohsin Khan despite the latter''s tremendous contribution, has "backfired quite badly".

The Dawn quoted Butt, as saying that the national team''s 0-3 drubbing at the hands of South Africa in the three-Test series has posed serious questions about the captaincy, adding that it indicated that their confidence level has gone down considerably which could harm the team spirit in days to come.

Hyderabad, Feb 27 : Indian and Australian cricket teams arrived here Wednesday for the second cricket Test match from March 2.

Both teams flew in from Chennai where India won the first Test. After landing at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, the teams drove to the hotel.

After a day's rest, both teams would practice Thursday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Uppal.

Meanwhile, unprecedented security arrangements are being made at the stadium in the wake of Feb 21 terror attack here that killed 16 people and injured 117.

Chennai, Feb 26 : Australian captain Michael Clarke on Tuesday conceded that it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni''s double century that turned out to be a game-changer as they were completely outplayed by India in the first Test.

"They outplayed us. Mahendra Singh Dhoni certainly led the charge and I thought Virat Kohli was outstanding as well with his hundred. But it certainly was Dhoni, who changed the game," a dejected Australian captain told mediapersons at the post-match conference.

Dubai, Feb 26 : Opening batsman Johnson Charles has achieved the biggest gain for West Indian batsmen in the latest ICC ODI rankings.

Charles has climbed 30 places to number 63 after separate centuries for the West Indies in Australia and in the Caribbean earlier this month.

The St. Lucian batsman, who got to three figures in the final game of the five-match ODI series against Australia and again in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Grenada last Friday, has now soared to 439 ratings points.

St. George's (Grenada), Feb 26 : West Indies middle order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan says his confidence has returned after scoring an unbeaten century in the second One Day International against Zimbabwe.

The experienced 32-year-old was recalled for the recent five-match One-Day Series in Australia but scored few runs including a series of ducks.

However, Sarwan responded with an impressive batting display Sunday to guide the West Indies to a seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe at the Grenada National Stadium.

Dubai, Feb 25 : India have taken an outright lead on top of the ICC ODI rankings with 119 ratings points.

With India and Australia not scheduled to play any ODIs before the April 1 cut-off date, fourth-placed South Africa are the only side that can push India and England down the order when they take on Pakistan in a five-ODI series from March 10.

Chennai, Feb 25 : In a severe frustration to India, Australia gained a valuable 40-run lead, reaching 232/9 on the fourth day of the first Test against India at Chennai as Oz players Moises Henriques and Nathan Lyon supplied the tourists with an unbeaten 57-run stand for the last wicket.

Helping his team to outdo the 192-run trail, the debutante Henriques showed his skill with a bat as he scored a half-century in the first innings and added a century stand with captain Michael Clarke to help Australia reach a score of 380.