Bangladesh are eagerly waiting for coach Dav Whatmore to take over the team, which will be on its own for the two-Test series against South Africa, starting on Thursday.

"Dav is a very professional man and will definitely bring a change to Bangladesh cricket," said captain Khaled Mahmud, who took over from Khaled Mashud after the World Cup.

The former Australian player and Sri Lankan coach's two-year assignment begins on June 1. He has the most difficult of tasks of bettering Bangladesh's reputation. The country lost all but one of their 17 Tests they've played since gaining Test status in 2001, salvaging a lone draw in a rain-hit match against Zimbabwe. They also went down in their last 40 one-dayers over a span of four years.

He might have disappointed Indian fans with an ordinary display at the World Cup, but middle-order batsman Dinesh Mongia says his exploits with the bat in the Dhaka tri-series belied the common belief that he is not a dasher at the crease.

"I was overall okay with my performance in Dhaka, especially with my strike rate," said Mongia, who aggregated 103 runs at 51.5 with a strike rate of 99.03 during the tri-series in Dhaka, where India and South Africa shared honours after rain marred the final.

He was in the starting line-up in all of India's matches during the World Cup in South Africa but came in for flak for his slow-scoring, especially in the league game against England, where he made 32 runs from 66 balls.

"I batted slowly in that innings because I was asked to stay at the wicket. I batted under instructions," said Mongia, who managed only 120 runs, with 42 as his highest, in the World Cup.

The left-handed batsman from Punjab said his poor aggregate in the World Cup was due to the fact that he did not get a chance to bat in five out of 11 innings.

"I did not get to bat at all in five games, and then a couple of games were against Australia in full flight."

Mongia, who has so far played 48 one-day internationals and compiled 1028 runs with one century and three fifties at 27.78, intends to play for Chemplast Club in Chennai this summer despite getting offers to play league cricket in England.

"I didn't get an offer to play for any county. There were offers for league cricket but I feel it wouldn't serve my game."

At six feet 10 inches tall, Essex opener Will Jefferson is more than a foot taller than the average cricketer. Even the legendary West Indies paceman Joel Garner, known as 'Big Bird' to friend and foe alike, stands two inches shorter.

Many may feel that a batsman of Jefferson's stature may struggle with footwork, especially to short balls from fast bowlers. But the man reckons his height is an advantage rather than a hindrance.

"I can have a lot of advantages over batsmen of a normal height," he told BBC Sport.

"I've been working on how to play shots to good balls that other people will be playing defensively to.

"If I can carry that on I've got every chance of scoring runs against all types of opposition in the future so I love being this tall and being a batsman as well.

"I think bowlers will have to adapt their lines and lengths when they come up against me."

Banned cricketer Shane Warne is considering making a comeback to one-day international cricket when he returns to the game next February.

Warne announced in January that the World Cup in South Africa would be his last one-day international tournament.

He planned to retire to prolong his Test career for a further five years.

But the following month he was thrown out of the game for 12 months after testing positive to a diuretic.

The 33-year-old today admitted his enforced absence had made him reconsider his options.

"I retired from one-day cricket to prolong my Test career and at this stage that's something I am reconsidering with the enforced layoff," Warne told Channel 10.

Warne's name was among the 25 players who received contracts today from Australian Cricket Board for 2003-04.

Newly-appointed Sri Lanka Test captain Hashan Tillakaratne announced his retirement from limited-overs international cricket after a career spanning 15 years.

"I'm not going to be there when the 2007 World Cup comes. It's better to groom a young guy with the World Cup in mind," Tillakaratne told a news conference in the capital Colombo.

The 35-year-old left-handed batsman was appointed test captain after Sanath Jayasuriya quit following Sri Lanka's early exit from Sharjah tournament earlier this month.

Tillakaratne, who will remain Test captain, has scored 3,789 runs in 200 one-day appearances, including 13 50s and two centuries.