Sydney, Feb 1 : Former New Zealand all-rounder Craig McMillan has warned that Andrew Symonds had provided Brendon McCullum with the perfect motivation to take the game to Australia in the Chappell-Hadlee series starting in Perth today.

And South African coach Mickey Arthur added it was up to the likes of McCullum to help drive the stake further into Cricket Australia's heart by taking the fight to the hosts, who lost their world No. 1 one-day ranking to the Proteas.

Symonds was fined 4000 dollars by Cricket Australia for describing the Kiwi batsman-keeper as a "lump of s-t" during a radio interview in the lead-up to last weekend's domestic Twenty20 final between eventual champions NSW and Victoria, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Perth, Feb. 1 : The International Cricket Council (ICC) has awarded the controversial 2006 Oval test match to England.

In a meeting of the ICC Board here today, England was declared the winner of the Test match against Pakistan played in 2006 at the Oval Cricket ground

"After reconsideration of the matter, which included consideration of legal advice and input from the MCC, the custodians of the Laws of Cricket, the Board decided that the original umpires' decision to award the match to England, should apply," an official statement from the ICC said.

Earlier in July 2008, the ICC had reversed the decision of the field umpires and termed the match as " abandoned as a draw".

Karachi, Feb. 1 : Pakistan will be playing a three nation one-day international series in Dubai in April 2009.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be the other two teams taking part in the tournament, The Nations reports.

According to the Pakistan Cricket coach Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai Sports City, and the proposed tri-series is a part of the same.

Commenting on the refusal of the Australian cricket team to tour Pakistan due to security concerns, Alam said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is ready to host the Kangaroos on any neutral venue also.

Perth, Feb. 1 : In what may be seen as a major jolt to the Pakistan Cricket Board's hope of reviving international cricket in the country, the International Cricket Council
(ICC) has decided to relocate the 2009 Champions Trophy from Pakistan.

In a meeting of the ICC Board here today, it was decided that due to the reluctance of several teams to visit Pakistan, it would be prudent to relocate the event, scheduled for September/October 2009.

However, the ICC said that it would send a delegation to visit Pakistan and work with the PCB to find ways to bring back international cricket in the country.

Dubai, Feb 1 : Yuvraj Singh has been found not guilty of breaching the International Cricket Council (ICC) Code of Conduct following a hearing in Colombo today.

Yuvraj had been charged under Level 1.3 of the code, which refers to "showing dissent at an umpire's decision". But at the resultant hearing, Chris Broad of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees cleared him of the charge.

The charge related to an incident that took place after the first ball of the 33rd over of the second ODI of the current series between Sri Lanka and India when Yuvraj was given out lbw.

Sydney, Feb 1: Skipper Ricky Ponting believes that Australian selectors should stick with experience as two strenuous tours of South Africa and England are in the offing over six months.

Ponting said he would be advising the team's selection panel that the exhausting schedule would better suit accomplished players such as Phil Jaques.

"I'm not sure if it's a time for us right now in Test cricket to really go all out looking for youth," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ponting, as saying.