Ponting’s emotional pre-match talk inspired Oz win

October 19th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan's former captain Ramiz Raja has asked chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on sports, Jamshed Dasti, to apologise to the nation for accusing the team of match-fixing. Raja backed skipper Younus Khan's decision to resign from the captaincy of the national team.

October 16th, 2009 BANGALORE - Former Australian opener Justin Langer, who now plays first class cricket for Sussex, has described Twenty20 cricket as a huge emotional, but brilliant exercise. ''It's a massive emotional rollercoaster, Twenty20 cricket, and that was highlighted again here.

October 8th, 2009 LONDON - England captain Andrew Strauss has revealed that the Royal Armed Forces had inspired him during England's dramatic 2-1 Ashes victory against the mighty Australians. He also revealed how he wore a 'Help for Heroes' wristband throughout the series, which gave him the strength to lead from the front.On the Saturday, we were five wickets down in our second innings and still miles away from making Australia bat again.

August 21st, 2009 LONDON - Australian captain Ricky Ponting has said that he hasn't thought about the final Ashes Test match at The Oval being his final Test match against England on their soil. Ponting is unlikely to play in the next Ashes series on English soil, which would be held in 2013, but he avoided declaring The Oval Test as the last.

August 20th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Former New Zealand fast bowler Richard Hadlee is spending his days trying to boost sales for his 13th book. According to the Dominion Post, Hadlee has been in hiding for a year, putting the finishing touches on "Changing Pace" his third biography, which took him eight years to complete.

August 12th, 2009 KARACHI - Pakistan cricket captain Younis Khan refused to talk to journalists gathered at the Karachi International Airport, when he returned home after the Sri Lankan tour on Tuesday. The Daily Times quoted Younis as saying: "I don't want to make any comments now, we will talk later." It is believed that Younis was unhappy at the negative media coverage showered on the side during the Sri Lanka tour.

August 11th, 2009 LONDON - With Australia handing out an innings and 80 run defeat to England to level the Ashes series one-all, a relaxed left arm fast bowler Mitchell Johnson revealed Tuesday that his performance in the Leeds Test was a career-saving one. Johnson said that he feared being dropped and candidly admitted that he had failed to cope with the increased on the field expectations and the tensions related to his mother and his girlfriend.

July 31st, 2009 LONDON - Australian captain Ricky Ponting Friday became the highest Australian Test run scorer in history. Ponting passed Allan Border's former record of 11,174 runs during the first innings in the third Test against England at Edgbaston and is now third on the all time Test run scorer list behind Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, with 12,773 and 11,953 Test runs, respectively.

July 22nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Former Australian cricket captain Allan Border has defended Ricky Ponting's captaincy in the face of criticism following Australia's dismal performances in both the Test matches of the Ashes series. "When Ricky took over with the likes of Warne and McGrath, the team wasn't all that different and he kept the ball rolling after Steve Waugh.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff is determined to lift the Ashes urn no matter what is the state of his troublesome left knee. Flintoff courage inspired England to win the second Test against Australia at Lord's here Monday and go up 1-0 in the series.

July 15th, 2009 LONDON - Australian cricketers haven't received the guidelines set by Cricket Australia (CA) to uphold the spirit of the game during the Ashes. Last month, CA commissioned a survey among fans, who asked Ricky Pontings team not to sledge, swear, cheat and spit during the ongoing Ashes Test series.

July 14th, 2009 LONDON - Off-spinner Graham Swann has said that England saved the first Ashes Test fair and square, and the Australians can talk all they like about delaying tactics. In an article for The Sun, Swann said: " We will go to Lord's on Thursday with the series locked at 0-0 because of a brilliant rearguard and an amazing partnership between Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar." He admitted that the match was tough, but absolutely straight.

July 10th, 2009 CARDIFF - Australia captain Ricky Ponting and opener Simon Katich, who scored unbeaten centuries on Thursday to take their team to a formidable 249 for one at stumps in reply to England's score of 436, said they were inspired by the painful memory of the 2005 Ashes series loss. Both veterans combined for an unbroken 189-run partnership in an attempt to bat England out of the first Test.

May 31st, 2009 LONDON - Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting is cleared to play the Twenty20 warm up game against Bangladesh Monday as the hit he took on his wrist at the nets Saturday was not as serious as feared initially. A Cricket Australia (CA) spokesman said Ponting was never in doubt for the game against Bangladesh at Nottingham as the hit was only a whack.

May 28th, 2009 LONDON - England may scupper Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting's plans to field an extra player in each of Australia's two Ashes warm-up matches. In what would be the first shot across Australia's bow, the hosts are reportedly opposed to allowing Ponting to play an extra man in both games as he seeks to give all five quicks an opportunity to push for selection.