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.

Melbourne, Feb. 6 : Cricket Australia officals have said that all rounder Andrew Symonds knows what he has to do to regain his spot in the Australian cricket team, and added that they will offer him all the support he needs to get back.

This message was conveyed to Symonds at a meeting at Cricket Australia's Jolimont headquarters.

Karachi, Feb 6 : New Pakistan captain Younis Khan wants his players to forget the bitter memories of an embarrassing 234-run loss at the hands of Sri Lanka in a one day international and instead focus on the Test series that gets underway in Karachi from February 21.

"It was just a bad day. We should forget all about it and concentrate on the Test series," Younis told reporters at the inauguration ceremony of the Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA) here on Thursday

Melbourne, Feb. 6 : Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke says he and his young team will relish the challenge of fighting their way out of the mire that they are in now.

After the controversial decision to rest regular skipper Ricky Ponting, Clarke''s two-game stint in charge against New Zealand has started today at the MCG.

Clarke needs to quickly restore confidence to a side on its longest losing streak in more than a decade. Sunday''s loss to the Kiwis in Perth was Australia''s fourth in succession.

Sydney, Feb. 6: There is palpable excitement around the selection of New South Wales batting prodigy Phillip Hughes, who is among four uncapped Australians in a squad charged with defending Australia''s No. 1 Test ranking in South Africa.

Hughes, 20, is poised to become his country''s youngest Test debutant since Craig McDermott pulled on a Baggy Green cap in 1984, and 36-year-old leg spinner Bryce McGain the oldest since Bob Holland in the same year.

Sydney, Feb. 6 : Since the upheaval of World Series Cricket, only two batsmen have made their Australian Test debuts before their 21st birthdays. The third will be New South Wales opener Phillip Hughes during the first Test in Johannesburg in South Africa three weeks from now.

The two other 20-year-old batting debutants proved hard to shift. Stephen Waugh played 168 Tests and Ricky Ponting is still entrenched, 14 years after his debut.