Players Photos Biography Videos: June 2011

Thursday, 30 June 2011

Michael Carrick

Michael Carrick Biography
Michael Adrian Carrick (born 28 July 1981 in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear) is an English footballer who currently plays for Manchester United as a midfielder.
Tottenham Hotspur
Carrick first became involved with football when he was five years old, playing five-a-side football with Wallsend Boys Club on Saturday nights, courtesy of his father's volunteer work at the club. Football became more serious for him at the age of 12 when he was selected for Wallsend Schools' and later on North Tyneside Schools'. Whilst playing for Wallsend Boys' Club under 16s, he was capped for the England Boys' club side. During the school years, and the years up until his move to West Ham United, Carrick actually played as a centre forward; it was only at West Ham where he started to play more often as a midfielder.
Having studied at Wallsend's Western Middle School and Burnside Community High School until completing his GCSEs in 1997, he was courted by many clubs before being taken to West Ham by Wallsend-based North East scouts Dave Mooney and Bill Gibbs, who had watched Carrick for a few years playing for Wallsend Boys' Club. Thus, Carrick's professional career began at the famous youth academy of West Ham United in 1998. A notable contribution during the season 98-99 came from him in the FA Youth Cup final, where he helped, alongside another rising star Joe Cole, West Ham to a 9-0 victory over Coventry City, scoring two goals himself.
Carrick made his senior debut as a substitute replacing Rio Ferdinand in a 3-0 win at Bradford City in August 1999. But for the most part of season 1999-2000, Carrick played on loan at Swindon Town. He was loaned again the next season, 2000-2001, this time to Birmingham City. There his exploits gained widespread recognition, with him being eventually nominated for a PFA Young Player of the Season award (Steven Gerrard of Liverpool FC was the winner).
2002-2003 was a season to forget for Carrick, as much of it for him was plagued by injury and West Ham were eventually relegated from the FA Premier League at the end of the season. Carrick decided to stay with the club, playing for them the subsequent season 2003-2004 in the division now called Coca-Cola Championship. At the time, a number of clubs were credited with an interest in Carrick, such as Portsmouth, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. It appeared that Arsenal were winning the race to sign him, before Patrick Vieira decided to stay at the club, thus stopping any potential transfer.
Gifted with two strong feet, Carrick is equally adept at hitting long and short range passes with either foot. His vision is another attribute which he is credited with, splitting midfields and indeed defences with a single pass.
Before the beginning of season 2004-2005, keen to ply his trade in the highest league, Carrick then moved to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £2.75m. The following two seasons at Tottenham were a major success for him as Spurs enjoyed an upturn in footballing fortunes with major investments in new players and a new management. Under the guidance of Spurs manager Martin Jol, Carrick rose to fame with Spurs during the seasons 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, gaining the sort of reputation that eventually lead to his transfer to Manchester United on 31 July 2006.
On 31 July 2006, Carrick moved to Manchester United. An initial bid of £10 million by United was rejected, though a later bid with a £14 million basic fee, potentially rising to £18.6 million depending on club and player success, was accepted. This potentially makes Carrick the fifth most expensive player acquired by Manchester United.
Carrick wears the famous number 16 shirt for Manchester United, previously worn by former captain and Manchester United great Roy Keane.
He made his Premiership debut for United on August 23, 2006, coming on as a substitute in United's 3-0 away win over Charlton Athletic. He had sustained an injury in his original debut against Porto in the Amsterdam Tournament. He made his starting line-up debut against Watford on August 26, 2006 at Vicarage road, which United went on to win 2-1.
As of January 2007, Carrick had started almost every game for United in the 2006/7 season, including a Man-of-the-Match performance against Chelsea. He was briefly injured in late December, at which point his 'holding' role was filled in by John O'Shea or Darren Fletcher.
Carrick scored his first goal for Manchester United on January 13, 2007 - the second goal in a 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford in the Premier League. He scored his second United goal and his first in the FA Cup scoring the opener just before half time against Reading F.C. on February 17, 2007
International career
He made his first senior international start in May 2005 during England's tour of the USA, having made two substitute appearances in 2001. England national football team manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson considered Carrick to be a good option as a holding midfielder with others such as Scott Parker and Ledley King. On 8 May 2006, Carrick was named in England's squad for the 2006 World Cup by manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. Carrick played in one World Cup game, the second round match against Ecuador, which England won 1-0. Carrick was named Man of the Match in this performance but for the next game against Portugal, it was felt that a more cautious approach was needed, thus Owen Hargreaves replaced him.
source: wikipedia.org
GNU Free Document

Michael Carrick

Michael Carrick's game

Michael Carrick -- The Excellence of Execution.

Jehan Mubarak

Jehan Mubarak Biography
Jehan Mubarak (born January 10, 1981 in Washington, DC, United States) is an American-born Sri Lankan cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman with an array of strokes and a right-arm offbreak bowler. Mubarak was rushed into the 2003 Sri Lankan World Cup Squad though only playing a couple of first class games. He has been a prolific run scorer in school cricket. However, he has failed to perform up to his standards in the country's relatively short cricketing history. His poor performance continued since his debut at the 2003 Cricket World Cup- where he was put into the No. 3 position. He subsequently reinvented himself as an opener. He is one of two Test cricketers to be born in the U.S., the other being the West Indian Ken Weekes. In February 2006, he was fined after showing dissent towards an umpire in an ODI against Bangladesh [1] In August 2007 he was rushed into the Sri Lankan Twenty20 squad following the departures of Marvan Atapattu and Russel Arnold, following man-of-the-match performances against Bangladesh[2]. He performed admirably during this tournament which included a 13-ball 46 against Kenya. Mubarak is one of the overseas players of Brothers Union Chittagong for their campaign in the Habib Group Port City Cricket League (PCL) tournament being held in Chittagong, Bangladesh between May 2nd and 10th 2009.

Jehan Mubarak

Men too can make a difference" - Jehan Mubarak

Sri Lanka Cricket World Cup 1996

Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara Biography
Sangakkara was born on the 27 October 1977 at Matale, Sri Lanka , he was born to Kumari and Chokshanada Sangakkara. He is the youngest of four siblings and has a brother and two sisters and he is 33 years old. His full name is Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara. He is an all rounder , Left hand batsaman and the Right arm off break bowler. He is the top-order batsman and can play tremendously in all forms of the game. Sangakkara showed talents in both cricket and tennis at school.
He is married to his longtime partner, Yehali. He is currently a law undergraduate and his father is also a leading lawyer in Kandy. He is multilingual as he is able to speak in Sinhalese, Tamil and English and is often seen as the unofficial spokesman of the cricket team. Sangakkara is currently a law student at the Sri Lanka Law College.
Sangakkara is the athelet from the Trinity College, Kandy, over there he got the coveted Trinity Lion for Cricket and was the Ryde Medalist of his year. He also has the honor of being the Head Boy of Trinity College in 1996.Mr. Leonard De Alwis the principal of the school, advised his mother to encourage him to take cricket seriously for future game.
Sangakkara started his career being the batsman but than he was made the wicket keeper for the team. He is extraordinary batsman as he once topped the LG ICC Test batting rankings. In the year 2006 he succeed over the Prasanna Jayawardene in Tests and from that time he’s been playing being the skilled batsman.
Sangakkara skill and performance got fame worldwide when he won selection for the ICC World XI One International Day team. This team competed against Australia in the Johnnie Walker Series in October 2005. May 2006, he was named the vice-captain of the side. In March 2009 he was appointed to captain the Sri Lankan team for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20.During the 3 March 2009 terrorist attack Sangakkara was also inured with other team players.
In 2009,Sangakkara was ranked 1st on the Test batting rankings and peaked at 6th on the ICC all-time Test batting rankings. On the 6 December 2007 he was named as the new Number 1 batsman in the LG ICC Test player rankings with a rating of 938, the highest rating ever achieved by a Sri Lankan player, and became the first batsman ever to score in excess of 150 in four consecutive tests. He holds the record for fastest 8000 runs (152 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Sachin Tendulkar (154 innings) during the third test against India on 6 August 2010.

Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara 103 Vs India 1st Test 2010

Kumar Sangakkara takes a fantastic catch

Marvan Atapattu

Marvan Atapattu Biography
Full Name: Marvan Samson Atapattu
Date of Birth: Nov 22, 1970, Kalutara
Major Team: Sri Lanka, Asia XI, Delhi Giants, ICL World XI, Sinhalese Sports Club
Playing Roll: Batsman
Batting Style: Right
Bowling Style: Legbreak
International Debut: 1990
Batting and fielding records
M Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct St
Test 90 156 15 5502 249 39.02 0 - 16 17 685 4 58 -
ODI 268 259 32 8529 132* 37.57 12594 67.72 11 59 74 15 70 -
T20I 2 1 0 5 5 5.00 8 62.50 - - - - - -
Bowling records
M Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Eco SR 4W 5W 10W
Test 90 5 48 24 1 1/9 1/9 24.00 3.00 48.00 - - -
ODI 268 2 51 41 - - - - 4.82 - - - -
T20I 2 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Career Statistics
Test Debut: India v Sri Lanka at Chandigarh, 23-27, Nov 1990
ODI Debut: India v Sri Lanka at Nagpur, Dec 01, 1990
Twenty20 Debut: New Zealand v Sri Lanka at Wellington, Dec 22, 2006

Marvan Atapattu

Marvan Atapattu century VS RSA in WC 2003

Marvan Atapattu: "Selectors are a bunch of muppets" | 07/08

Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya Biography

Sanath Teran Jayasuriya (born 30 June 1969 in Matara) is a Sri Lankan cricketer. An all-rounder, he has been a member of the Sri Lankan cricket team since 1989. He is the only player in the world to score over 13,000 runs and capture over 300 wickets in ODIs. He is also regarded by many critics and supporters as one of the best ODI players to ever play the game. Jayasuriya is also part of the Mumbai Indians team in the Indian Premier League. He made his Test debut against New Zealand at Hamilton in February, 1991 and his ODI debut against Australia at Melbourne on December 26, 1989. Along with partner Romesh Kaluwitharana,Jayasuriya revolutionised one day international batting with his aggressive tactics during the 1996 Cricket World Cup.He Is An Ambidextrous.The tactic used was to take advantage of the early fielding restrictions by smashing the opening bowlers to all parts of the cricket ground, rather than the establishment tactic of building up momentum gradually. This was a novel but potentially match-winning tactic at that time, and Sri Lanka, who had previously never made it out of the preliminary rounds, went on to win the World Cup without a single defeat. Pretty soon this tactic became the standard opening batting strategy in world cricket. Glenn McGrath cited Jayasuriya in his toughest XI batsmen, noting \"it is always a massive compliment to someone to say they changed the game, and his storming innings in the 1996 World Cup changed everyone's thinking about how to start innings.\" Jayasuriya is known for both cuts and pulls along with his trademark shot, a lofted cut over point. Jayasuriya was promoted to the top of the batting order for ODIs during the 1995-96 tour of Australia, and, with Romesh Kaluwitharana they made use of the early over fielding restrictions to score freely. He was instrumental in Sri Lanka's victory in the 1996 Cricket World Cup, where he was adjudged Man of the Tournament in recognition of his all-round contributions. His philosophy towards batting is summarised by an all-aggression approach and over the years he has dominated almost every one day bowling combination that he has faced at one stage or another. Batsmen such as Adam Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag have similar styles. This is because of his incredible record to make huge match-winning contributions once he gets in, he holds the record for the second highest amount of one day centuries and has scored the most 150+ scores. His devastating performances have ensured that Sri Lanka have won almost 80% of the matches that he scores over 50 in. This is due to the rapid rate in which he scores his runs as well as the psychological effect he has on opposition bowling attacks. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1997 and served as captain of the Sri Lankan team in 38 Test matches from 1999 to 2003. He is a very useful all-rounder with a good batting average in both Test cricket and One Day Internationals, and an excellent batting strike rate in One Day Internationals. As a left-arm orthodox spin bowler, he has a reasonable bowling average and economy rate. He regularly helps to decrease the workloads of strike bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas and as of August 2007 has 400 international wickets. Jayasuriya is a skillful infielder, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the seventh highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the eleventh highest success rate. Jayasuriya held the record for the highest Test score made by a Sri Lankan, 340 against India in 1997. This effort was part of a second-wicket partnership with Roshan Mahanama that set the then all-time record for any partnership in Test history, with 576 runs. Both records were surpassed in July 2006 when fellow Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene scored 374 as part of a 624-run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara against South Africa. He also holds the world's second highest ODI score, jointly with Viv Richards, which is 189 runs against India. As of February 2007 he holds the four highest individual scores by a Sri Lankan, and seven of the top nine. He currently holds the record fastest fifty in ODIs, scored off just 17 balls. Jayasuriya was the previous record-holder for the fastest century (off 48 balls), before losing that claim to Shahid Afridi of Pakistan. He has hit 258 sixes in one day internationals (ODIs) and currently holds the world record for most ODI sixes. He has become the fourth batsman to score more than 10,000 runs and the second batsman to score more than 12,000 runs in the history of ODIs. He also is the second highest century getter in ODIs with 27 centuries. On 20 September 2005, during the Second Test of the home series against Bangladesh, Jayasuriya became the first Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests, and the 33rd Test cricketer to achieve this feat. He used to hold the record of scoring most runs in an ODI over (30; he has achieved this remarkable feat twice).This record is now with South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs (36 runs in an over). Jayasuriya announced his intention to retire from Test cricket following the Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka in April 2006. He reversed his decision soon after, however, joining the Sri Lankan cricket team in England in May 2006. Missing the first two Tests, Jayasuriya returned in the Third Test at Trent Bridge. Although his test performances were not notable, he scored two centuries in the one-day Natwest series, including scoring 152 off 99 balls in the final match. In that innings, he and Upul Tharanga (109) put on 286 runs for the first wicket, a new one-day international record. Jayasuriya's batting display earned him the Man of the Series award as Sri Lanka won the series 5-0. Following the Natwest Trophy, Sri Lanka travelled to Holland for a two-match one-day series. In the first game, Jayasuriya scored 157 off 104 balls as Sri Lanka posted the highest team total in limited-overs cricket (443/9), beating the 438/9 South Africa scored against Australia in March 2006. Sri Lanka won the match by 195 runs. On a personal note the innings was his 4th score of over 150 in ODI cricket and he is currently the only player to do so. It was also his second successive score of 150 plus, another first in ODI cricket. He also scored 2 centuries and 2 half-centuries in the 2007 Cricket World Cup held in the West Indies. During the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, Jayasuriya appeared to break his tradition of using Kookaburra bats by wielding a normal Reebok sponsored bat. He achieved two half centuries in the group stages against New Zealand and Kenya in this tournament. He also achieved a dubious record of having the most expensive figures in a Twenty20 international, having been hit for 64 runs in the maximum of 4 overs. After the Twenty20 World Cup, Jayasuriya played in Sri Lanka's 3-2 One Day International series defeat against England, achieving limited success and then in the 2-0 Test series defeat in Australia. After scoring a half-century on day three of the first Test against England in Kandy, he announced he was to retire from Test cricket at the end of the match, but that he would continue to play in One Day Internationals. He also hit six fours in one over against James Anderson in his last Test innings of 78. In December 2007, Jayasuriya confirmed that he has signed for Warwickshire for the 2008 Twenty20 Cup. In April 2008, he joined the Mumbai Indians to play in the IPL. After scoring a devastating 114 not out off just 48 balls for the Mumbai Indian against Chennai Jayasuria regained his position in the one day side after he had been dropped for the West Indies tour. He then followed up his century with a 17-ball 48 not out to surpass the Kolkata Knight Riders score of 67 in just the 6th over resulting in the biggest victory in twenty20 history (in terms of balls remaining. He currently leads the six-hitting board and is the tournament's 3rd highest run scorer with 514 runs at a strike rate of about 160. His one-day career was all but over when he was omitted for the ODIs in the West Indies in 2008. However, a stirring performance in the IPL - finishing the third-highest run-getter with 514 runs - prompted his country's sports minister to intervene in his selection for the Asia Cup. He ultimately shaped Sri Lanka's title victory with a blistering hundred under pressure.

Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya | 152 Off 99 Balls vs England | 2006

Jayasuriya Vs Shohaib Akhtar 22 Runs from 5 Balls

Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain Biography
Nasser Hussain OBE (born March 28, 1968, Madras, India) is a former Essex and England cricketer. He was born of an Indian father, Jawad (also known as \"Joe\"), and an English mother, Patricia, who changed her name to Shireen on conversion to Islam. He became the first captain of England to be of mixed English and Indian descent. Hussain was the captain of the England team for 45 Test matches from 1999 to 2003, only exceeded by Michael Atherton and Michael Vaughan. He also has the fourth most Test victories as England captain, with 17, behind only Vaughan (26), Peter May, (20) and Mike Brearley (18). His percentage of Tests won was higher than any of the previous five captains, since Bob Willis. In first-class cricket, he scored 20,698 runs in 334 matches at an average of 42.06, including 52 centuries. A pugnacious right-handed batsman, Hussain's highest Test score was 207, scored in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes at Edgbaston[1]. Hussain became Test captain when English cricket was at a low point, and his first series in charge saw England lose to New Zealand at home, after which he was booed by the England fans. However, in 2000 he led England to a 3-1 victory over the West Indies at home, and that winter the England team beat both Pakistan and Sri Lanka away. Hussain was captain of both the Test and One Day International England teams until after the 2003 Cricket World Cup, when England failed to make the second round after boycotting the match against Zimbabwe in Harare, citing security concerns. Immediately after the 2003 Cricket World Cup, after coming under heavy criticism, he stepped down as one-day captain, passing on the reins to Michael Vaughan. Later in 2003, Hussain announced his retirement as Test captain after England had been on the receiving end of Graeme Smith's 277 but had narrowly clung on for a draw in the first Test against South Africa, again being replaced by Vaughan. Vaughan's captaincy career would subsequently echo Hussain's: Vaughan resigned the one-day captaincy after a poor showing at the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and subsequently resigned the Test captaincy after a series loss instigated by Graeme Smith's batting. Hussain continued as a batsman in the Test team until May 2004; in a symbolic changing of the guard, Hussain's final Test, against New Zealand at Lord's, was Andrew Strauss' debut Test. Strauss scored 112 and 83, and Hussain scored 34 and 103 not out; although Hussain ran Strauss out in the second innings, he had the honour of hitting the winning runs. Satisfied with his replacement, Hussain announced his immediate retirement from international and first-class cricket on May 27, 2004. His father, Jawad \"Joe\" Hussain, and brother, Mehriyar Hussain, have both played first-class cricket, for Madras and Worcestershire respectively. Since his retirement he has taken up a career as a television commentator for Sky Sports. Hussain was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow and then received a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Durham. Nasser Hussain's Test career performance graph.

Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain Diving Catch

Nasser Hussain 207 Runs 1997 1st Test

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Cameron White

Cameron White Biography
Cameron Leon White (born 18 August 1983 in Bairnsdale, Victoria) is an Australian cricketer. A powerful middle order batsman and occasional right-arm leg-spin bowler, White made his first-class cricket debut as a teenager in the 2000-01 season for the Victorian Bushrangers. This brought comparisons to leg-spinner Shane Warne, the second highest wicket-taker in Test history, and team mate in the Victorian state team. However, White's bowling style is more reminiscent of Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble with little spin and a reliance on top-spinners and googlies. White's progress as a bowler has stagnated in recent years and he is currently viewed to be a batting all-rounder. White first represented Australia at Under-19 level in January 2001 at the age of 17. In January-February 2002 he captained the Australian team to victory in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. After touring Pakistan with the Australia 'A' team in September 2005, White made his full international debut in the following month against the ICC World XI in the Johnnie Walker Super Series in Melbourne. He was previously selected on the cancelled 2004 national team tour of Zimbabwe. He was chosen as the Supersub in the first two matches, and played in the final, however he had no chance to bat or bowl, except in the second match in which he bowled 4 overs without a wicket. He was selected to play in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy matches against New Zealand in December 2005, where he made his full starting debut. He became the captain of Victoria at 20 - the youngest player to do so in the state's long first-class history - and is widely tipped to be a regular Australian Test player of the future. It is anticipated that he will play a role similar to that of the Pakistani allrounder Shahid Afridi, a strongly-built big hitting late-middle order batsman, with some useful quickish legspin which concentrates on bowling topspinners rather than legbreaks. White joined Somerset for the 2006 English domestic season, alongside fellow Australian Dan Cullen (South Australia). This county stint proved valuable for his development as a cricketer. He is the scorer of the 2nd highest score in Twenty20 history, scoring 141 for Somerset Vs Worcestershire in 2006, eclipsed only by Brendon McCullum's mark of 158 for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. In August 2006 his 260 not out against Derbyshire was the highest ever individual score in the fourth innings of a first-class match. White returned to Somerset in 2007 as one of their two overseas players alongside Justin Langer. White scored 1,083 runs at 72.20 in first-class cricket, but left the club at the end of the season as the club preferred to keep Langer. In 2008, White signed to Indian Premier League side Royal Challengers Bangalore for $500,000. White was a surprise pick for the Australian Test Team to tour India as a replacement for fellow Victorian legspinner Bryce McGain, who was sent home injured. The main spinner in the squad Jason Krejza went wicketless and conceded almost 200 runs in the tour game against the Indian Board President's XI. This made the team management exclude Krejza and include the more experienced White in the first Test in Bangalore. Through that appearance, he became the 402nd capped player for Australia. His first Test wicket was Sachin Tendulkar in the second innings of his debut Test. Tendulkar was, at the time, only 15 runs from breaking the record for the most Test runs in history.

Cameron White

Cameron White Runs Out Lan Bell

Shane Bond vs Cameron White