Melbourne, Apr 24 : Star Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has revealed his joy playing alongside Matthew Hayden in the IPL, comparing the opener's performances to God.

After watching his Chennai Super Kings teammate smash 57 of 27 balls against the Delhi Daredevils last night, Muralitharan said: "It's a joy to watch him bat like that. He is a dangerous batsman. Hayden is batting like God here."

The Chennai Super Kings' off-spinner said he was confident that his team could win when Hayden was at the crease, The Age reported.

Nairobi -Malaria is a vector-borne, infectious parasitic disease transmitted from human to human by mosquitoes. It is the leading killer of children under five and infants in Africa. According to the World Health Organization's latest figures, an estimated 247 million cases of malaria worldwide led to nearly 881,000 deaths in 2006.

Some 91 per cent of those deaths were in Africa and 85 per cent of the deaths were children under the age of five. This is equivalent to 2,051 children dying each day.

Rome - A few years ago, la Repubblica columnist Vittorio Zucconi wrote that only madmen would continue calling the Italian Serie A the best league in the world. Time proved the veteran journalist to be right and today, despite a fourth World Cup won in 2006, it is hard to find someone who feels like comparing Italy's top flight with that of England or Spain where the best players in the world tend to go these days.

Madrid - Valencia veteran midfielder David Albelda will be out of action for around three weeks due to injury, the Spanish football club said on Thursday.

Albelda, 31, twisted a ligaments in his left ankle in training on Thursday and had to be stretchered off.

He will miss upcoming matches of "Los Ches" against Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Valencia consolidated themselves in fourth place in La Liga on Wednesday with a 2-1 win away to Betis, with two goals from Euro 2008 top scorer David Villa.

Barcelona - Seventh seed David Nalbandian completed a hat-trick of quarter-final placings at the Barcelona Open on Thursday as he beat Spain's Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4.

The Argentine also reached the last eight at the Real club in 2004 and in 2007 but stalled in the third round a year ago.

The former Wimbledon finalist is more than likely to line up against king of clay Rafael Nadal if the world number 1 came through as expected later on Thursday in his third-round match with Belgian Christophe Rochus.

Dubai, Apr. 23 : Former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer will help Cricket España and Madrid Cricket Club catch the spirit during ICC centenary year celebrations from April 25 to 27.

The man who played 46 Tests for his country between 1961 and 1975 will run three one-hour coaching sessions over the three days. These sessions will coincide with the Madrid Cricket Club hosting its second Solidarity Twenty20 Tournament at La Manga Club, Murcia in southern Spain.