Sydney: Australia are rightly underdogs for the upcoming Ashes series in England but will do everything they can to bring the coveted urn back home, skipper Michael Clarke said on Wednesday. There was more talk of aspiration than expectation as the Australia squad officially bid farewell to the country in a ceremony at Sydney airport before their departure for England at the weekend.
England hold the Ashes after a convincing 3-1 series win in 2010-11 and Australia's recent 4-0 drubbing in India has not persuaded many that they have much chance of wresting back the trophy. "I think it's a fair indication of where both teams are at," Clarke said of the underdogs tag. "England have a lot of experience. A lot of the guys have been involved in Ashes series before and they're playing some really good cricket.
"Our recent series in India wasn't nearly as good as we would have liked so I accept that we are the underdogs but we'll be doing everything in our power to have success. "Our goal is to win the series, we know it's going to be tough, but we're going to have a red-hot crack at hopefully winning the Ashes for the Australian people," he added to reporters in a chilly hangar.
While Australia's pace attack will be licking their lips at the prospect of bowling on English wickets, the batsmen had a torrid time in India and, despite his own excellent form over the last two years,
11:22 AM, May 22, 2013
Los Angeles: Supermodel Miranda Kerr likes to wear her husband Orlando Bloom's clothes because it makes her feel closer to him. The 30-year-old steals items from her husband's wardrobe also because she likes his relaxed rock 'n' roll style. "Sometimes I wear my husband's jacket or T-shirt. It feels good because it's his and it's fun to mix it up," contactmusic.com quoted Kerr as saying. Kerr, who is known for...
10:44 AM, May 22, 2013
Kolkata: To ensure added importance to tribals in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced a separate department of tribal affairs, which would be under her. "Tribal people have many grievances, but they don't know where to lodge complaints to draw attention immediately. Therefore, a separate tribal affairs department will be created just like the minority affairs department and it will remain under me," Banerjee told...
02:49 AM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: India and Switzerland will soon sign a pact to give further impetus to cooperation in the field of healthcare. Health & Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of World Health Assembly at Geneva and discussed various issues of cooperation. Azad said in the continuum of strong Indo-Swiss bilateral cooperation, an MoU between the two countries...
01:11 AM, May 22, 2013
Ranchi: Aadhaar will be mandatory as proof during land deals in Jharkhand from January 1 2014, an official release said on Tuesday. The decision was taken to bring in transparency in the sale/purchase of land and prevention of registering the same land more than once, the release said quoting Chief Secretary RS Sharma. Now onwards land could be registered showing Aadhaar or other relevant documents, but from January 1, 2014...
12:56 AM, May 22, 2013
Washington: The United States and India on Tuesday asked the international community to take effective steps towards eliminating sanctuaries and infrastructure that support terrorism. After talks between visiting Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, a joint communique said the two countries also agreed to enhance bilateral co-operation to combat terror financing and currency counterfeiting. The communique, issued after Napolitano and Shinde co-chaired...
12:30 AM, May 22, 2013
Melbourne: Four Indian-origin men accused of gangraping a young girl today appeared in a court in New Zealand. The men - Amir Chand, 25, Harvinder Singh, 22, Kamaljeet Singh, 27, and Sumit Vermani, 26 - are defending the charges of raping the girl in April 2011, Fairfax NZ News reported. The woman, then aged 19, was raped on the day of the famous racing event in Hamilton, she said during...
07:18 PM, May 21, 2013
London: England named an unchanged squad for the second Test against New Zealand starting on Friday after batsman Ian Bell was declared fit following a bout of tonsillitis. Bell climbed out of his sick bed to take his place at the crease in the first Test won in stunning fashion by England on Sunday but had been a doubt for Headingley. Yorkshire batsman Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root will get...
03:06 PM, May 21, 2013
London: A Sikh bus driver in Finland is fighting for his right to wear a turban while at work. Gill Sukhdarshan Singh, who works at the Veolia bus company at Vantaa near the Finnish capital of Helsinki, is trying to set a precedent by making the authorities allow him to wear a turban at work, a Finnish public broadcasting company reported on Tuesday. "I have a right to my turban,...
02:40 PM, May 21, 2013
Sydney: Chief executive James Sutherland says Cricket Australia may consider implementing a social media policy after opening batsman David Warner became embroiled in an expletive-laden Twitter exchange with two journalists. Warner is reportedly expected to plead guilty at a hearing on Wednesday to breaching Cricket Australia's Code of Conduct after expressing anger in a series of tweets at newspaper articles. The 26-year-old opening batsman could be fined, suspended or ordered...
12:24 PM, May 21, 2013
Indore: Lokayukta Police on Monday submitted a charge sheet against BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola and 16 others in a 2004 land scam case. The charge sheet was submitted in the court of special judge DN Mishra under Sec 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court, meanwhile, granted bail to Mendola and 14 others on a bond of Rs 1 lakh...
12:45 AM, May 21, 2013
London: New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori could return to action in the second Test against England this week after Bruce Martin was ruled out of the rest of the tour with a calf injury. Vettori has not played for the Black Caps for almost a year because of a hamstring injury and was left out of the squad for the two-Test series in England. But with Martin sidelined by the...
07:15 PM, May 20, 2013
Bridgetown: The West Indies will kick off preparations for next month's Champions Trophy in England when they embark on a five-day camp at the High Performance Centre (HPC) at the 3Ws Oval starting here on Monday. The sessions will be overseen by West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson with assistant coach Tony Radford and the HPC's Andre Coley, also involved in the squad's preparation. The players are expected to begin...
01:15 PM, May 20, 2013
Wellington: New Zealand's media were muted in their reaction to their side being bundled out for just 68 runs to give England a 170-run victory in the first Test at Lord's on Sunday, instead turning their focus towards the second match in Leeds. Their second innings score, sparked by Stuart Broad's career-best figures of seven for 44, was New Zealand's ninth-lowest in their 83-year Test history. Unlike the furore that...
11:25 AM, May 20, 2013
Zagreb: Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on a fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined. Now, unlikely heroes may be coming to the rescue to prevent similar tragedies: sugar-craving honeybees. Croatian researchers are training them to find unexploded mines littering their country and the rest of...
07:40 AM, May 20, 2013
London: England captain Alastair Cook was satisfied with his team's performance after they beat New Zealand by 170 runs in a fluctuating first Test at Lord's on Sunday. Widely criticised following the recent 0-0 series draw in New Zealand against a side ranked six places below them, England produced a disciplined bowling display to skittle the touring side for 68 in their second innings. "It was a good Test win...
09:45 PM, May 19, 2013
Edinburgh: Pakistan's one-day international against Scotland was washed out on Sunday due to a waterlogged playing surface in Edinburgh. The match was due to start at 0945GMT but heavy rain in the Scottish capital in the preceding 24 hours had left the outfield sodden. Match officials Mark Hawthorn and Ian Ramage ordered five pitch inspections, while Grange ground staff were given until almost 1400GMT to address the problem but it...
08:51 PM, May 19, 2013
London: With nearly two days to beat England in the first Test at Lord's, New Zealand looked like they might not last two hours after reaching lunch at 29-6 on the fourth day. Tasked with defending 238 to prevent their first loss to the Kiwis in 14 years, England were set to win big and with more than a day to spare. Stuart Broad caused most of the carnage, snaring...
07:22 PM, May 19, 2013
