World Cup buildup begins for Aus

The continent-hopping buildup to the cricket World Cup will start this week for Darren Lehmann and his Australia squad, who’ll test themselves against five countries in six months. The Aussies head to Zimbabwe to take on the hosts and South Africa in a limited-overs series. Next stop after that is in the Middle East against Pakistan in October, then limited-overs matches at home against South Africa in November before a test tour by India and a tri-series against the Indians and England that will finish just ahead of the World Cup which Australia is co-hosting with New Zealand. “It’s a good little tournament leading into obviously a pretty big 12 months for us,” Lehmann said of the Zimbabwe trip, where Australia will play at least four ODIs. “It’s good to have all the lads back together. They all look fit and firing.” Openers David Warner and Shane Watson aren’t traveling to Zimbabwe, with top-order batsman Phillip Hughes earning a recall after scoring a pile of runs for Australia A and Nathan Lyon getting another chance as Lehmann looks for an attacking spinner for the one-day format. The Australian team has had time off since April after a heavy schedule that included a 5-0 Ashes sweep of England and a test series win in South Africa.
Skipper Michael Clarke said some of the Australian players were at breaking point before the rest, but were now recharged and prepared for the long haul. Lehmann said the squad picked for the Zimbabwe tour — Australia’s first to the African country in a decade — was part experiment, part building on combinations with up to 20 ODIs to play between and around two test series before the World Cup. “A bit of both. Have a look at some young guys, get prepared for February, but still we’ve got to win the series over in Zimbabwe,” he said. “That’s our primary focus at the moment.” Lehmann emphasized his desire for Australia to play positive cricket in all formats leading up to the World Cup. That’s something India and Pakistan have struggled with in recent series. India was humbled in a 3-1 series defeat in England, skittled for 94 in the last match at The Oval in an innings and 244-run on Sunday. It sparked heavy criticism from the likes of India great Sunil Gavaskar, who described the performance as “jelly-like” and said it embarrassed the nation. Pakistan was swept in a two-test series in Sri Lanka. Lehmann said India was “obviously having a bit of a form slump” but still had a lineup of class players and he expected them to rebound in Australia. “They’re still a good side … the wickets were quite, ahh, sporting over there,” Lehmann said of the seaming pitches in England. “The last couple of test matches — The Oval, I can’t remember that sort of wicket being produced for an Australian test match over (in England in) the last 50 or 60 years. I’m looking forward to those wickets next year” for the Ashes.
The former test batsman said Australia had trouble adapting to Indian conditions at times — being swept 4-0 in a test series on the subcontinent last year — so India’s problems in England weren’t unique. “So we’ve got to improve that — like they have to when they come here,” he said. Some critics have accused India, the reigning World Cup champion and host of the cash-rich Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition, of being too focused on limited-overs cricket, and suggested results in the five-day format would be no indication of form ahead of the World Cup. “They’re a very good one-day side, India. Full stop. But test cricket is still the pinnacle for us as an Australian team,” Lehmann said. “Obviously it’s a big year in the four-year cycle because it’s World Cup. So (India) will come out with their plans — they’ll probably play a few guys that do a bit of both in the test series. But I can’t worry about what they do. We’ve got to worry about getting the test series right, and getting the one-day series right.”
Source-http://www.crictoday.com/

Casanova Warne The real lover boy of cricket

There is just something about Shane Warne and his love for the opposite sex. The man seems to cause more of a stir there than on the cricket ground. This has been the case with him since last few years. It won’t be wrong to say that he is the real playboy from the gentlemen’s game. And these days he is seeing playboy model Emily Scott. They recently became a “committed couple”. While the two have been friends for a long time but they recently took the “next step” of hanging out and going on dates. Warne and Scott were together all over Europe, snapping pictures of themselves in London, going to a Coldplay gig and watching Aussie tennis ace Nick Kyrgios’s fantastic win against Rafael Nadal in the 2014 Wimbledon. This was the time when Warne broke the news on Twitter about his latest love interest. “Ps And yes I’m taking my girlfriend @EmilyLScott to the Wimbledon, who’s looking smoking hot too hahaha!!!” Warne had tweeted. After seeing Warne’s tweet, Emily Scott too wrote about her relationship with the former cricketer on Twitter. According to her, this was the right time to go ahead with Warne as they have been friends since long. 30-yearold Emily Scott had also accompanied the cricket legend to Jeff Fenech’s 50th birthday party and the couple wasn’t shy about locking lips in front of onlookers.
Who is Emily Scott?
She is a model who has graced the covers of several magazines, from FHM, Maxim and even Playboy. The beautiful looking blonde has appeared on TV shows like I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here and Love Island. Apart from this, she also happens to be a professional DJ who has played in clubs and at music festivals around the world. Much like Shane Warne, she has changed partners over the years. She dated David Walliams from Little Britain in 2006 while got married to Ritchie Neville from boy band Five for just four months in 2008.
No end to relationships
Shane Warne is one man who is never satisfied with one woman in his life. His private life has been beset by scandals. He came under criticism for text messaging a woman while on tour in South Africa, accused of sending lewd and harassing messages in 1997. However, the woman who made the claims was subsequently charged with extortion in her own country. In 2000, he lost his Australian vice-captaincy after sending erotic text messages to a British nurse. Allegations of his extramarital affairs broke in 2005 as Australia began its tour of England in preparation for The Ashes. On 25 June 2005, Warne and his wife Simone Callahan announced that they had decided to separate. However, they decided to get back after he issued an apology to her in 2007. But, Simone returned to Australia from England after her husband had accidentally sent a text message meant for another woman to her phone in September 2007. He has three children—Brooke, Summer and Jackson—with his exwife Simone Callahan. He fell in love with British actress Elizabeth Hurley after moving on from his divorce. He started dating Hurley in the late 2010 after she separated from her husband of four years, Indian textile businessman Arun Nayar. Warne was engaged to her in October 2011, and the couple confirmed the news via Twitter. Hurley was photographed by British newspapers wearing an engagement ring at the Dunhill Links Championship golf tournament in Scotland that week, in which Warne was participating. In December 2013, however, the couple called their engagement off, with Warne adding a philosophical tweet after the announcement, “Live life for what tomorrow has to offer, not for what happened yesterday.” It was reported that Warne was not willing to settle down with Hurley which led to the ugly breakup. She was interested in marrying him but the cricketer star was not ready to confirm the date. His name was also associated with millionaire businesswoman Michelle Mone. He spent four hours in her hotel room after breaking up with Liz Hurley. The 44-yearold former cricketer, who split from the actress in 2013, reportedly met up with Mone at her suite in London’s Dorchester Hotel. However, they both denied that they were involved. The entrepreneur took to twitter to confirm that she has been single for the past 18 months, while Shane had also tweeted denying the claims. If this was not enough, his name was linked to some hairdresser as well. The 44-year-old former cricketer was utterly smitten by Sydney salon owner Zanbagh Khalili. But like always, there was a denial from the personality concerned. He is now officially linked with Emily Scott and it would be interesting to see the outcome of Warne’s new relationship in the time to come.
Source-http://www.crictoday.com/magazine/feature/12513-casanova-warne-the-real-lover-boy-of-cricket.html