London, Feb 7 : English all rounder Ravi Bopara was happy to be picked by an Indian Premier League team to play this year, but was a bit surprised to fetch 450,000 dollars in the IPL players auction.

The Kings XI Punjab bought the Essex all-rounder for 450,000 dollars in the player auction on Friday.

And after seeing England teammates Samit Patel and Luke Wright failed to get any interest, Bopara admits he was simply relieved to get picked at all.

Sydney, Feb 7: The Australian selectors in a surprise move have recalled Ricky Ponting for the February 8 ODI at the SCG against New Zealand, despite giving him a two-game break after the opening loss in Perth last weekend.

Ponting's mid-season holiday has been cut short in an effort to end Australia's horrible one-day campaign, which threatens to include a Chappell-Hadlee Series loss to an under-strength New Zealand.

Melbourne, Feb 7: Former Australian cricket players claim the leakage of the ugly dressing room spat between Michael Clarke-Simon Katich, is a sign of a disintegrating Australian cricket team.

Former pacer Mike Whitney insisted there had been similar physical spats like the Clarke- Katich clash in the past, but said there had always been a private pact to keep blow-ups behind closed dressing room doors.

Dhaka, Feb. 6 (ANI): The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided to review the bowling action of spinner Abdur Razzak before he faces an International Cricket Council's (ICC) assessment.

The BCB will be sending the video footage of Razzak's action to experts in Australia.

"As per our bowling review committee's observation his action has improved but we need to take suggestions from experts, which is why we sent the footage to Australia," The Daily Times quoted the BCB's cricket operations committee chairman Enayet Hossain, as saying.

Panaji, Feb 6 : Star England players Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have become the costliest players of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after being sold for a whopping 1.55 million dollars in the second edition.

Pietersen was bought by Bangalore Royal Challengers while Flintoff went to Chennai Super King.

Bangalore Royal Challengers spent most of their 1.95 million dollars on Pietersen who had base price of 1.35 million dollars.

Among other players, Australia''s Shawn Tait was purchased by title holders of the inaugural edition Rajasthan Royals for 375,000 dollars while South African batsman Jean Paul Duminy went to Mumbai Indians for 950,000 dollars.