(MENAFN- Arab Times) Once a limited-overs giant, Yuvraj Singh has been in and out of the Indian team in recent years but the all-rounder believes he still has enough cricket in him to look forward to the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.
The 34-year-old left-handed batsman has seen it all in an international career that started as an 18-year-old in the 50-over ICC KnockOut Trophy in 2000.
He was crucial for India during their 2007 World Twenty20 victory in South Africa and was also player-of-the-tournament in the team's 50-over World Cup win on home soil in 2011.
But later in 2011 he was told he had a golf ball-sized non-malignant tumour in his lungs. It was later re-diagnosed as a cancerous condition called "mediastinal seminoma".
That started a phase of comebacks for the hard-hitting middle-order batsman, once considered a certainty in the international limited-overs formats.
"I think it's the passion for the game," Yuvraj told Reuters when asked what kept him going. "I don't want to sit one day and think 'Oh, I should have played a few more years'.
"I want to end where I feel this is it and this is how much I would have played. Given the opportunity, I still feel I have a few more years to excel."
India's cricket board has dropped a $42 million damages claim against the West Indies over an abandoned tour in 2014 after the new World Twenty20 champions agreed to return next year, a report said Friday.
The huge damages claim lodged by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had threatened to cripple its cash-strapped West Indies counterpart which has long been at loggerheads with its own players.
But BCCI president Shashank Manohar told Cricinfo the decision to waive the claim, filed by his predecessor Narayanaswami Srinivasan's regime, had been made after the West Indies agreed to fulfil their original commitments and the schedule for the tour should be finalised next month.
"That is now sorted out because they are going to come back and play here next year," said Manohar.
India is planning to host its first day/night Test match later this year as cricket's global powerhouse seeks to reverse a decline in attendances, according to senior officials.
Anurag Thakur, the secretary of the Indian board, said that matches in the domestic Duleep Trophy would be played in the evening as a trial run and administrators would then decide which ground should host the day/night Test against New Zealand.
New Zealand is slated to tour India in October to play three Tests and five ODIs and Thakur said that "there are a number of factors that need to be taken into account" before the board makes a final decision.
England seamer Mark Wood has undergone a second operation in five months on his troublesome left ankle, it was announced Friday, but officials hope he will be able to return to action later in the English season.
"Durham and England pace bowler Mark Wood has undergone surgery on his left ankle," said a statement issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
"Following successful surgery to the front of his left ankle in November, a further procedure was undertaken yesterday to address ongoing issues at the back of the ankle.
The 26-year-old Wood had to leave England's tour of the United Arab Emirates before Christmas, because of the same ankle problem.
His operation means he is now set to miss England's home series with Sri Lanka in May and June. But he could be available when Pakistan arrive in the second half of the English season.
West Indian leg-spinner Samuel Badree has been ruled out of the rest of the Indian Premier League with an injury that he picked in the recent World Twenty20 final.
Badree, who played a major role in the Windies' triumph over England on April 3 by taking two wickets, was unable to play a single match for his IPL franchise, the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Lancashire have signed big-hitting New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill for the beginning of their defence of the English domestic Twenty20 title, the county announced Friday.
Guptill is due to arrive at Old Trafford following the conclusion of his commitments with the Mumbai Indians in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League and is set to play for Lancashire in the first six games of their Twenty20 campaign.
The 29-year-old was the first New Zealand player to score a double century in a one-day international and is the holder of the highest score in a 50-over World Cup after hitting an unbeaten 237 in the Black Caps' quarter-final victory over the West Indies last year.
West Indian batsman Chris Gayle has raised eyebrows by saying he named his baby daughter "Blush", a nod to an infamous sexism scandal which engulfed him in January.
The self-proclaimed "Universe Boss" left many people wondering whether the name was genuine after his partner Natasha Berridge gave birth this week.
Gayle was pilloried over his remark, "Don't blush, baby" when he asked an irate Australian TV presenter for a date live on air during the Big Bash League.
The 36-year-old was fined $10,000 by his club Melbourne Renegades and later made an apology of sorts, describing his comments as "a simple joke".
Former England batsman James Taylor has been released from hospital after completing the initial phase of treatment for the heart condition which cut short his career. The 26-year-old Nottinghamshire middle-order shotmaker announced his retirement from cricket last week after being diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a condition that stops the right side of the heart pumping blood properly and may lead to sudden death.Taylor spent two weeks in hospital but tweeted a photograph of himself outside the hospital building on Thursday saying: "Well, that has been one hell of an experience! What a beautiful day."
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