India to tour England in 2011

London: India will tour England in 2011 to play four Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 International, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Sunday. India will be in England for a return visit after that country’s tour of India in November this year to play two Tests and seven one-dayers. During India’s tour of England, the Tests would be at Lord’s, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and The Oval, though the exact schedule will be finalised later. The ODIs will be played in Cardiff, Durham, Lord’s, The Oval and Hampshire’s Rose Bowl — but the venue for the Twenty20 International has not been announced yet. England will play two Tests and seven ODIs during their tour of India later this year and although the ECB wanted an extra Test, the BCCI failed to accommodate it because of the preceding home series against Australia.

Murali out of top 10

Calcutta: Muttiah Muralidharan has slipped out of the top 10 bowlers in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI rankings for the first time in over a decade while West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul has returned to the top five on the batting list.

ODI RANKINGS

Teams

1. SA (127); 2. Aus (127); 3. NZ (113); 4. Ind (113); 5. Pak (110); 6. SL (105); 7. Eng (105); 8. WI (99); 9. Ban (47).

Batsmen

1. G. Smith (SA 792); 2. S. Tendulkar (Ind 777); 3. R. Ponting (Aus 770); 4. M. Yousuf (Pak, 763); 5. S. Chanderpaul (WI 740); Matthew Hayden (Aus, 740); 7. M. Hussey (Aus, 736); 8. K. Pietersen (Eng); 9. AB de Villiers (SA 733); 10. MS Dhoni (Ind, 728).

Bowlers

1. D. Vettori (NZ, 790); 2. N. Bracken (Aus, 770); 3. S. Bond (NZ, 736); 4. C. Vaas (SL, 683); K. Mills (NZ, 683); 6. A. Nel (SA, 682); 7. D. Powell (WI, 680); 8. J. Taylor (WI, 678); 9. B. Lee (Aus, 671); 10. S. Afridi (Pak, 662);

Pak win

Karachi: Misbah-ul Haq led Pakistan’s charge in guiding the home team to a comfortable 102-run win in the one-off Twenty20 International at the National Stadium here on Sunday. The 33-year-old scored a career-best 87 to lift Pakistan to their record Twenty20 total of 203 for five in 20 overs before the home bowlers folded the Bangladesh innings to 101 in 16 overs.

Binny concern

Chandigarh: With more and more cricket being played these days, it is bound to take a toll on the fitness of cricketers whose career will reduce from 10-15 years to 4-5 years, former India allrounder Roger Binny said on Sunday. “Such a lot of cricket has already started taking toll on players’ fitness.