CRICKET: Australia's Damien Martyn thanked the selectors for sticking by him after scoring his sixth Test century of 2004 on the third day of the second Test against Pakistan at Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday.
Martyn's 142 had helped to lift Australia's first innings total to 379, before Pakistan collapsed to 85 for five in reply, to lead by 47 runs.
His place in the Australian side looked in jeopardy at the start of the year after criticism for performances in 2003, but Martyn was delighted to silence the doubters.
"The selectors showed faith in me at the end of last year. Hopefully, I have rewarded them and Rick (captain Ricky Ponting) for sticking by me and giving me the chance this year," the 33-year-old said.
"We are always going to go through patches. You can't just consistently make hundreds week in, week out."
Martyn is the second-leading scorer in Test cricket this year with 1,353 runs at an average of 56.37, trailing team-mate Justin Langer's 1,476 at 56.76.
Martyn's stop-start career now includes 11 centuries in 52 matches and he becomes only the eighth player to score six Test hundreds or more in a year, joining a list which includes team-mates Matthew Hayden and Ponting.
"It's a year they can't take away from me. It's something special to score six centuries in a season, to see your name up there with some of the greats who have made so many runs in a calendar year," he said.
"I try to keep level-headed. It's that sort of game, it can be up and down next week. When your career is over, those sort of things you can look back on."
The Sri Lankan tour of New Zealand will continue despite the tsunami which has killed tens of thousands in their homeland, officials have said.
The tour was put on hold on Monday for five days in recognition of a Sri Lankan period of mourning, but the players had said earlier yesterday they wanted the tour to be delayed indefinitely.
"Sri Lanka Cricket, whilst sharing some of the views expressed by the players, have not had much option but to continue with the tour," a Sri Lanka Cricket statement said.
"We appreciate the understanding of the New Zealand Cricket Board who have agreed to reschedule the tour and allow the postponement of two one-day internationals."
According to International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations, a tour can only be cancelled if there is a security threat to the players or the government of the nations involved calls the teams back.
"I understand that the players are not too keen on playing," Sri Lanka Cricket president Mohan Silva had said earlier. "If individual players are affected, they can take a conscious decision to fly back home, but the team will have to stay back as we are trying to negotiate with the ICC to reschedule the series."
Bangladesh's tour of India, scheduled for April, is likely to be postponed because of a packed international calendar, an Indian board official has said.
"The tour may be delayed since we have to host Pakistan in February and there are some other commitments. We don't want the players to be overworked," Karunakaran Nair, secretary of the Indian cricket board, said.
However, he added there had been no official discussion with the Bangladesh cricket board so far and a final decision would be taken in the next few days.
Pakistan travel to India in February-March for their first full series in six years, and Bangladesh go for their first Test tour of England in May.
India had pushed back their tour of Bangladesh earlier this year to December so they could visit Pakistan instead.
They finally played two Tests and three one-dayers in Bangladesh this month, sweeping the Tests 2-0 and winning the one-day series 2-1 after a shock loss in the second match.
