Its Only Cricket

Filed under Cricket News 2008

Plenty of clouds on Thursday & Saturday - friday's Australia vs Srilanka onedayer at Sydney, if weather man can to be believed, is expected to escape with full length one day match unlike Match 1 & 2 of current commonwealth bank triangular series in Australia.

Good aspect of this trination series is that it composites 12 league games for all three teams (Match table) before best of 3 finals. Rain at this time of year in Australia is untimely and weather should clear by next week and then, hopefully - cricket should flourish.

Lankan trump : Muthiah Muralithran, is fast chasing world record for most wickets in one day internationals but his form on Aussie pitches has never been great. Do you know Muralitharan once conceded 99 runs off his 10 overs, making it third most expensive spells in an ODI? No wonder it was at Sydney cricket ground cause Murali has never been as lethal on an Aussie ground like he is everywhere else..

Now enough with today's match preview : in following, itsonlycricket brings a look into what cricket series, tours or tournaments would be played around the world post month of March..

Srilanka tour West Indies
Only two previous tours by Srilankan cricket team to West Indies = 4 tests = 0 wins & 2 losses. no doubt - srilankan cricket were deserving winners of 1996 world cup but their test match record away from home demands an improvement. First Srilanka vs West Indies test match starts on 22nd March 2008 at Providence ground.
Note : Australia tour of West Indies starts 22nd May 2008 with first test match at Kingston in Jamaica.

South Africa play in Bangaldesh
for the second time. On their 2003 tour - Proteas team had won both the test matches against Bangaldesh (by innings). In fact, South Africa have won all the 4 test matches they've played to test match minnows & would be looking to make it 6 in a row.. specially when Proteas cricket team travel straight to India for another test series before boarding flight back home. first South Africa v Bangaldesh test match (2008 series) starts 22 February whereas first Ind v RSA test match starts on 26 March. There's also a provision of tri-series between india bangladesh & South Africa towards very early March but that's not confirmed as yet. full schedule.

Australia tour Pakistan
Australian team should be in Pakistan by early March 2008 but because of security concerns - Aussie board is rethinking their tour itinerary. Recently, Zimbabwe completed no-fuss 5 ODI tour to Pakistan which has raised the chances of ACB finally sending their team.. but, only time would tell.

Asia Cup, involving India, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, UAE and Hong Kong, is scheduled to start June 24th 2008 in Pakistan.

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