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ARJUNA RANATUNGA, the Sri Lanka captain, has claimed he never wants to tour Australia again following the barracking that blighted his team's appearances in the Carlton and United triangular one-day series.

``I don't think I will go back to Australia to play cricket,'' he said from Colombo. ``I don't want to lose a couple of years from my life.

``Australia and England, whenever they tour the sub-continent, complain about crowd behaviour but they can't see the behaviour of their own crowds. I must say that the conduct of Indian and Pakistani crowds is a thousand times better than Australian crowds.''

Ranatunga added that he did not regret ordering his team to the boundary and holding up play for 12 minutes after Australian umpire Ross Emerson no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan in a match against England.

Pakistan begin a three-day game against a President's XI in Kochin today that could decide whether Waqar Younis will be dropped for the opening game of the Asian triangular Test tournament in Calcutta next week against India.

In the two-Test series against India, Waqar took only two wickets. Shoaib Akhtar is likely to get his chance in Kochin and, with a livelier pitch promised for Eden Gardens, the tourists may prefer him to Waqar.

Sussex have reported a record loss of £193,070 for the year. The two major items showing a big increase were administration costs of £469,974, up £137,000 from the previous year, and an investment of £278,511 in youth development, up £105,000.

Peter Moores, the 36-year-old former Sussex wicketkeeper who is now the county's cricket manager, collected £104,000 from his benefit year, a record for a Sussex player.

Cardigan Connor, the Hampshire bowler, has announced his retirement from first-class cricket.

Connor, 37, took a record 1,019 wickets in all competitions for the county after making his debut in 1984 but a knee injury over the last two seasons has limited his appearances.