Strauss ready to go again in 2012

Posted: Saturday, November 26, 2011 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , ,
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England captain Andrew Strauss has spoken positively about the tough challenges ahead for his team in 2012.
Strauss hasn’t played international cricket since the 4-0 victory over India in the summer and he will next lead out England’s test team in January in a test series against Pakistan.
This is swiftly followed by a test series against Sri Lanka in March, before the English summer sees England take on West Indies and South Africa.
2012 is the first year that England will begin as the No.1 test team in the world of course and Strauss is ready for the task ahead of his team in the next 12 months.
The England skipper said: “The next 12 months will be the biggest test we've had yet, it's a different mindset being the hunted rather than the hunters. We'll have to retain that desperate desire to improve if we want to stay on top.”

"It's an exciting time for us. I'm certainly very excited about it, but we don't underestimate the size of the challenge. There are a lot of teams below us who want to knock us off our perch.”
Strauss then spoke of how keen he was to look forward rather than back when England take on Pakistan in January, the first time the two sides have met since the spot-fixing scandal.
He continued: “It will be a keenly contested series as they always are and the focus will be on the cricket. It is an opportunity to move on and that's the right way to go.”
Strauss finished by talking about the West Indies, a team he thinks are on the up and will offer a tough challenge for England in the first part of the England summer and South Africa, who are contenders to take England’s No.1 ranking in the future.
“We've seen a resurgence in West Indies cricket in recent times, so that will be a challenge for us. Hopefully early-season conditions will suit us more than them.”
“And we all know about the qualities of South Africa, they've just finished an outstanding series against Australia.”
"They have a very good bowling attack and their record here is very good.”
It will certainly be good to see test cricket return in January. It seems like ages since the India series and with the Ashes underway this time last year, the sport seems a bit empty without an England series at the moment.
As for Strauss, he has had plenty of time off to play texas hold-em and is now raring to go again. Bring it on!

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A true legend within cricket: Shane Warne

Posted: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , ,
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This is a guest post. Hence it is not written by blog author jimmymycrushie.

There have been a lot of great cricket players throughout the years, but one that really sticks out would be Shane Warne. He’s known as a great cricket player, but equally famous for his activities off the pitch.

Today Shane isn’t playing cricket anymore, but playing poker for a poker site called 888. He’s become the team captain for their live poker team they have. The team participated in the WSOP, one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world and Shane participated.

But when Shane played he was known as one of the best bowlers of all time with over 1000 wickets behind him. Warne was born in Australia in 1969 and started playing first-class cricket back in 1991. His premier though was back in 83/84 for his university (University of Melbourne Cricket Club). He has played both in Australia for Victoria as well as for England in Hampshire. Shane retired from first-class international cricket in 2007, but made a small comeback to play in the Indian team Rajasthan Royals in March 2008. With a win in the Indian Premier League, a lot of fans wanted Shane back in international cricket.

Banned from cricket
Back in 2003, Shane was banned from play due to a positive drug test. The test showed that there was a sign of a banned diuretic in the system and Shane was reviewed by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) and they imposed a one year ban. During the ban Shane could play in charity matches, a rule that was highly criticized by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Warne returned to international cricket in February 2004. As soon as March the same year, Shane became the second cricketer of the West Indies to take 500 test wickets.

From a personal view
Shane was married to Simone Callahan and they had three children together. In 2010 Shane announced on Twitter that he and Simone are going through a divorce.  Lately there have been photos and articles about Shane and Liz Hurley are an item.

There’s a lot to the Shane Warne story and we all look forward to see the next adventure of his amazing life.

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