Sri Lankan team relying on Muralitharan to help square series

November 29th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralithran, who is struggling for form in the ongoing cricket Test series against India, said he may retire from both forms of the game before the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent. Muralitharan said the workload is taking a toll on his body.

November 28th, 2009 MUMBAI - Indian cricket team members arrived here on Saturday in Mumbai ahead of the third and final test against Sri Lankan team. India won the second Test played in Kanpur on Friday (Nov.27) to take one-nil lead.

November 23rd, 2009 KANPUR - Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said injury to their right-arm pacer Dammika Prasad could force them to go with three spinners in the second cricket Test against India here Tuesday. Prasad had strained his hamstring during the first Test in Ahmedabad last weeek.

November 21st, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan and fast bowler Dammika Prasad suffering from fractured nose and a hamstring niggle respectively may not be able to take to the cricket field in the second Test against India to be played in Nagpur on Tuesday. Dilshan reportedly suffered the injury during a practice session after colliding with a team-mate, when they were playing football, while Prasad pulled his hamstring muscle on the final day of the first Test at Ahmedabad, following which he could bowl only four overs.

November 9th, 2009 MUMBAI - Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara has said the islanders would be able to upstage India in the upcoming three-match Test series. Addressing reporters here on Sunday, Sangakkara said India would be under pressure to maintain their home record of not losing a single Test to Sri Lanka in their previous 14 encounters.

November 8th, 2009 MUMBAI - The Sri Lankan cricket team has arrived in Mumbai for their upcoming three-match Test series against India, starting on November 16. The Kumar Sangakkara-led squad will begin their tour with a three-day match against the team, Board President's XI beginning November 11 in Mumbai.

November 5th, 2009 KANPUR - After the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan earlier this year, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board is leaving no stones unturned to ensure their team's safety during the island nation's Test and ODI tour in India starting this month. A special Security Consultant, Lorence Fernando, has flown to India and is visiting various States to review the security arrangements in the stadiums where the Sri Lankan team is scheduled to play.

September 6th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday said that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was the mastermind behind the attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3. The Pakistan Prime Minister's statement was in complete contrast to what the Government had claimed before, that Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was behind the attack.

September 6th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Sunday there were indications that the Tamil Tigers were involved in the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. Gilani told reporters that investigators have got indications to suggest that the Tamil Tigers had financed the attack in which a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers was fired at by gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

August 24th, 2009 CHRISTCHURCH - Former New Zealand opener Mark Richardson has accused the Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan of breaching the 15 degree flexion rule. Richardson said Muralitharan often bends his arm beyond the 15-degree norm even though he felt it was not the spinner but the indifferent International Cricket Council (ICC), which was at fault.

July 4th, 2009 COLOMBO - Veteran Sri Lankan cricketer Chaminda Vaas has decided to retire from Test cricket, chief selector Asantha de Mel said Saturday. The 35-year-old left-arm bowler, who has served Sri Lanka at the top level for 15 years, will however be available for the One-Day Internationals (ODI) and Twenty20 cricket, the official said.

July 3rd, 2009 MELBOURNE - Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is all set to sign for Victoria Bushrangers for the Twenty20 Big Bash and play as local hero at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the same venue where 14 years ago he was labelled a chucker by umpire Darrel Hair. "Murali has been in touch with the authorities in Cricket Victoria, he is pretty keen to represent Victoria.

June 30th, 2009 LAHORE - The bus driver of the Sri Lankan cricket team, Meher Mohammad Khalil, who by his presence of mind and prompt action saved the lives of the Lankan cricketers during the Lahore terror strike, has said that he would be praying for Pakistan's victory during the forthcoming Test and one-day series between both the countries. Khalil has been invited by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) to watch the series, but will not be able to visit Sri Lanka as he is going for a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

June 17th, 2009 LAHORE - Police have arrested the mastermind of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus outside the Gaddafi Stadium, according to CCPO Lahore Pervaiz Rathore. Naik Muhammad alias Zubair is described as the mastermind behind the gruesome attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March which led to abandonment of all international cricket in Pakistan, including the 2011 World Cup.

May 30th, 2009 LONDON - Security concerns have forced members of the Sri Lankan cricket team, Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara, to cancel their visit to Oxford University. Both the players along with team manager Brendon Kuruppu were scheduled to visit the Oxford Union debating society, but their visit was cancelled after a Times report claimed that over 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the final days of Sri Lanka's offensive against the Tamil Tigers, The News reports.