New Delhi, January 12, 2006: ESPN STAR Sports, Asia's premier sports broadcaster, will telecast LIVE & exclusive the first One day international series of the year 2006 involving South Africa, Sri Lanka and hosts Australia starting 13th January 2006. The sports network will showcase all the 15 ODIs including the customary best of three finals for cricket lovers in the country.

After being almost invincible in 2005, Australia prepares to take on South Africa, one of their closest rivals in the game today and the mighty Asian Lions Sri Lanka. The South Africans have been on tour in Australia since December and will prove to be tough competition for the mighty Aussies in Australian Cricket Summer's customary VB Series. The Lankans, beaten and bruised from their tour of New Zealand, will be looking to take the New Year with a new approach and prove their mettle, which took them to the No.2 spot in ICC's ODI rankings last year.

Aussies have a formidable record in the VB series having lost just three matches in winning the series for the last three consecutive years. The in form captain, Ricky Ponting, who has had an outstanding 2006 with the bat will look to continue his dominance over the opposition starting the series at home. The Proteas under their confident and aggressive captain, Graeme Smith, definitely tested the Aussies in the test series late last year. The Safs have proved to be tough competition to Australia at home, winning 10 of their 22 matches in the country. They had outclassed Australia in their last VB series clash in 2002 winning 3 of the 4 matches thus calling for Steve Waugh's retirement from One Day cricket.

Catch the action live & exclusive on ESPN.