Briefly Cricket

Australia began their New Zealand tour with verbal bloopers by coach Tim Nielsen and Twenty20 captain Michael Clarke.

Nielsens big slip

Wellington: Australia began their New Zealand tour with verbal bloopers by coach Tim Nielsen and Twenty20 captain Michael Clarke. Nielsen started the proceedings soon after his arrival at the airport,saying To be honest,we havent had a lot of sex,um,success over here. And once he was through with the interaction,the Australia coach had a humble request to make even though the local media was in no mood to oblige him. Could you wipe the sex bit,I dont really want the wife hearing that, Nielsen said.

No fight with Ricky: Warne

Melbourne: Shane Warne denied having a heated argument with his former captain Ricky Ponting over the Australian cricketers participation in this years Indian Premier League and said he had no apprehensions about playing in its third edition starting next month. There was no heated disagreement between me and Ricky. Were mates,we get along fine, Warne was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.

MCC in IPL queue

London: The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is set to become one of the owners of an Indian Premier League franchise to be sold next month at a minimum base price of $225 million,according to media reports. The Telegraph reported that the MCC is in negotiations to join a consortium bidding to buy one of two IPL franchises,likely to be based in Pune. The newspaper did not reveal the name of other partners of the consortium but said one of them is a major industrial Indian conglomerate.