Alastair Cook will lead the England team for the first time since taking on the full-time captaincy of the one-day side; and does so after a heavy defeat by Sri Lanka in the recent one-off Twenty20 match in Bristol.

Alastair Cook told BBC Radio 5 live: “We’ve always had the idea that if Bressie came through a few games he would come into the squad. He has been a stalwart in our bowling for the last couple of years.”

Bresnan last played for England in the World Cup after initially getting injured during a one-day international in Hobart in January.  But on his return to playing county cricket for Yorkshire and experiencing recurring pain from the injury he has been sidelined since mid-May.

At the weekend Bresnan returned for Yorkshire and played two Friends Life T20 matches. Against Worcestershire he took 1-47 in his four overs and made 25 not out from 17 balls.  He came through the weekend without any recurrence of pain or injury and this, along with his performances were enough to earn a recall to the England squad.

Alastair Cook didn’t play in the recent Twenty20 defeat but will be well aware of the 5-0 drubbing England received at the hands of Sri Lanka in a home one-day series five years ago.

England One-Day Squad
Alastair Cook (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Chris Woakes.

Sri Lanka One-Day Squad
Tillakaratne Dilshan (captain if fit), Thilina Kandamby, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Suraj Randiv, Dimuth Karunaratne, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Kumar Sangakkara.

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2011 Cricket World Cup

Sadly I missed the live coverage of the dream tie between India and Australia, but managed to catch most of the highlights on TV.

The Australian’s looked to be in decent enough form throughout the majority of the game, but India always looked to be in control of the match, barring a few slapstick moments with the bat when two or three of them seemed intent on getting run out.

India’s win put an end to Australia’s incredible run in the World Cup competition which they have won on the last three occasions, they were also beaten finalists previous to that in 1996.

India now face one of  the nations who were originally going co-host the Cricket World Cup, Pakistan in what promises to be another thrilling game of one day cricket.

In today’s third quarter final tie South Africa collapsed dramatically from a comfortable 108 for 2 off 24 overs, to 172 all out.

Some inspired bowling from New Zealand oversaw the collapse with McCullum 24 for 3 and Oram 39 for 4, skittling the South African batsmen who could manage to add 64 runs between them during the final 20 overs.

New Zealand are the dark horses for me, they may not have the same ability in all levels as the remaining teams in the World Cup, but they have so far done everything they have set out to do in a business like manner.

They will now face the winners of the last quarter final to be played on Saturday between Sri Lanka and England.

2011 Cricket World Cup

In terms of sheer excitement the 2011 Cricket World Cup in South Asia has delivered by the bucket load over the last couple of weeks of group stage matches, some of the most recent highlights being another heroic comeback from England against the West Indies, when their backs were firmly up against the wall and facing elimination from the group.

Following that breathtaking match, Pakistan defied all odds and ended Australia’s World Cup dominance with a stunning victory by 4 wickets to upset the holders and on Sunday India crushed the West Indies spirits with a fantastic 80 run win.

There will be more thrills and spills to come during the knock out stages of the tournament over the next fortnight as the best eight teams in the world do battle for the ultimate One Day International prize, with India and Australia providing the battle of the giants on Thursday March 24th from Ahmedabad, the winners of this match will certainly be the favourites to win the 2011 World Cup.

England will face a tough test in their quarter final clash against 1996 champions Sri Lanka who were runners up in Group A, with the chance of a semi final encounter with the winners from New Zealand v South Africa at stake.

The full 2011 World Cup Quarter Final fixtures:

Wednesday March 23rd – Pakistan v West Indies, Mirpur, 08:30

Thursday March 24th – Australia v India, Ahmedabad, 09:00

Friday March 25th - New Zealand v South Africa, Mirpur, 08:30

Saturday March 26th – Sri Lanka v England, Colombo RPS, 09:00

The semi final games are scheduled for Tuesday March 29th and Wednesday March 30th, with the final to take place in Mumbai on Saturday April 2nd.

Pakistan was among the four original host countries participating in this event, but sadly they were forced to withdraw amid security fears.

The fourteen captain’s of the teams taking part in the tournament were paraded around the Bangabandu Stadium in Dhaka in rickshaws at the opening ceremony while performers demonstrated local cultures to the 21,000 strong crowd.

Further entertainment was provided by Indian singer Sonu Nigam, Bangladesh-based Runa Laila and Canadian Bryan Adams.

Cricket crazy South Asia will be itching for the competition to get underway, but was wait until Saturday when Bangladesh host the favourites India at the Mirpur Stadium.

The South Asia Cricket World Cup will feature eight matches in Bangladesh, twelve in Sri Lanka and twenty nine in India, including the final which will take place in Mumbai on April 2nd.

Addressing the crowd gathered for the opening ceremony ICC president Sharad Pawar said: “Our flagship event provides the stage on which players have the rare opportunity to create legend and to write their own chapter in the history of this great sport. The greatest cricketers in the world will grace this event and I am sure that their ability, whether with bat or ball, will provide excitement and enjoyment for all cricket lovers.”

muttiah muralitharan - 800 test wickets

Sri Lanka off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan became the first bowler to claim eight hundred wickets in Test matches, taking 5 for 63 in the first innings and adding 3 for 128 in the second innings of the first of three Test matches against India.

Having confirmed that this series will be his last Test matches for Sri Lanka, Muralitharan started the game already holding the record for wickets taken in Test matches with 792.

The 800 wicket milestone was reached in only 134 Test matches and will surely overshadow the heavy defeat inflicted on India who were forced to follow on and ended losing the match by 10 wickets.

Thirty eight year old Muralitharan will continue to torment the Indian team during the next two Test matches after which he will retire from the long game claiming that after 19 years of international bowling he is ‘getting tired and getting old’ adding, “There are a lot of good spinners waiting for their chance, and hopefully they can become like me one day.”

The bowler whose unique bent arm bowling action, caused by a defect at birth, has courted controversy over the years and led Australia’s Prime Minister Jon Howard at one time calling the Sri Lankan a ‘chucker’, a comment that he later apologised for.

Indeed it was Australian spinner Shane Warne who fought hardest with Muralitharan to claim the title of Test cricket’s leading wicket taker, but even when Warne retired, his 708 wicket haul required 145 Test matches to be acheived.

Muralitharan passed that number in 2007 taking his 709th wicket against England when his bowling claimed Paul Collingwood on the bowlers home ground in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

But the world has not seen the last of the King of Spin, he will continue to play limited overs cricket at international level and is almost certain to be involved in next spring’s World Cup which will take place in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India.

virender sehwag

India’s unbelievable blitzing of Sri Lanka in the third Test, by an innings and twenty four runs has moved them to become the world’s top ranked Test team for the first time.

And how they deserve to have reached such a pinnacle, made all the more fitting by their recent performances in the final home Test match against Sri Lanka.

Virender Sehwag’s blistering innings of 293, deservedly earned him the man of the match and man of the series awards as India won the series 2-0.

Captain Sachin Tendulkar said of the current Indian team;

“I would not hesitate to say this is the best team I have ever played with, if you look at the batting line-up, right from the number one batsman to the number seven batsman which is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, it’s a solid line-up.”

I think the process of getting to the number one spot really started when (coach) Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton took over, along with Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh.

The aim of the whole team then was to get to be the top in the world. All credit to Kirsten, he handled the team brilliantly and credit also to the other players who have been a part of this team over the last 18-20 months.”

When they are in full flow, India are a true delight to watch, possessing some of the most in form batsmen in world cricket at present, if they can maintain this level of cricket they will be at the top of the rankings for a long time to come.

rahul dravid

Rahul Dravid’s 144 runs for India in the second day of the second test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur took him past Australian Allan Border’s 11,174 runs in Test cricket and into fourth place in the all time scorers list.

Dravid sits behind his Indian team mate Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies’ Brian Lara and the current leader Australian captain Ricky Ponting on the list.

It was also Dravid’s 28th test century, coming in an innings in which India’s two opening batsmen had already scored well over a century each themselves, Sehwag getting 131 and Gambhir a brilliant 167, as the home side built an impressive lead.

India did finally succumb to the bowling of Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath who claimed five of the last six wickets as India finished on 642 all out. It might have been worse for Sri Lanka but at last the wicket appeared to be showing signs of some turn and the spin bowler Herath was able to take advantage.

Things did get worse for Sri Lanka as they came out to bat, Zaheer Khan took the wicket of Tillakaratne Dilshan, before Sri Lanka had scored a run. But the visitors rallied and finished the day on 66 for 1, with both  Paranavitana and  Sangakkara on 30 not out.

Sri Lanka braved the early menace of India’s Zaheer and quickly took a hold on the game, particularly off the superb batting of Dilshan who managed an excellent 112 to put his country back into the match.

It was the second consecutive century for Dilshan since being elevated to opener for his country and it is his tenth test hundred.

Dilshan had formed solid partnerships with both Paranavitana (35) and Sangakkara(31) during the day, before Zaheer snared both Dilshan and Sangakkara leaving Sri Lanka on 194 for 3.

Samaraweera and Mahela then picked up the gauntlet for Sri Lanka by putting on an unbeaten 81 runs between them and ending the day with the scores:

First Innings

India – 426 all out    Sri Lanka – 275 for 3

The match looks quite finely balanced ahead of the third day and you wonder which way it will twist next. Both India and Sri Lanka have put on some excellent displays with the bat, you have to wonder if either side can conjure some magic with the ball.

rahul dravid

Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni assumed control for India in the first Test match against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad, after Sri Lanka’s Chanaka Welegedara claimed three wickets in his first four overs with the new ball to leave the hosts reeling at 32 for four.

In only his second Test match,  Welegedara made the most the moisture in the pitch in the morning to prise out Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar cheaply, while Dammika Prasad added the fourth Indian wicket of WS Laxman.

Dravid joined by Yuvraj managed to take stock of the situation and piece together an innings worthy of the best as weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s bowling became evident during the day with their inexperienced attack.

There was no respite for Sri Lanka when they did eventually snare Yuvraj (68) with the score at 157 for 5, as it was Dhoni who came on and quickly settled into his stride to continue to build the score alongside Dravid.

Dhoni fell for 110, with three overs to go by which time India had built up an incredible 381, ending the day on 385 for 6, with Dravid scoring an incredible 177 not out.

wankhede stadium mumbai

The 2011 Cricket World Cup final will be held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai it has been announced today. The event is being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

India’s cricket board have announced eight venues for the 29 matches that they will be hosting and have included Eden Gardens in Kolkata which will host four of the group games despite not being used for a one day international since 2007.

India have also named Mohali as one of the venues for the semi final games as well as hosting two group games. Sri Lanka who will host twelve games and Bangladesh eight, have yet to announce venues although the opening ceremony will take place in Dhaka in Bangladesh on February 18th.

Group stage venues: Ahmedabad (2 games), Bangalore (4), Chennai (4), Kolkata (4), Mohali (2), Mumbai (2), Nagpur (4), New Delhi (4), plus venues TBA in Bangladesh (6) and Sri Lanka (10)

Quarter-finals: Ahmedabad plus venue TBA in Bangladesh (2) and Sri Lanka

Semi-finals: Mohali plus venues TBA in Sri Lanka

Final: Mumbai

The full schedule for the tournament will be announced on November 9th in Mumbai.