Sports

PARIS: Lille, who climbed to the top of the French first division last weekend by demolishing Lorient, maintained top spot on Saturday but only after an injury time goal downed bottom club Arles-Avignon.
With second-placed Paris Saint Germain keeping the wheels on their title push with a 2-1 win at Valenciennes, Lille were in danger of seeing their capital rivals depose them at the summit.
But after minnows Arles had manfully held their own Tulio De Melo popped up with a

LAHORE: Pakistan's chief coach Waqar Younis wants the spot-fixing scandal to be quickly resolved so that his team can play in the forthcoming NZ series with a free mind and prepare properly for the next year's World Cup.
Waqar said that he was not clear about the availability of the players. "We need a clear picture so that whoever is eligible to play for Pakistan can focus on the job ahead," Waqar said. He added that the spot-fixing allegations surrounding Salman Butt, Mohammad

LAHORE: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi plans to hang his shoes after leading his team to the 2011 World Cup title.
"It is my desire to win the World Cup title for Pakistan before leaving the cricket scene," he said on the sidelines of the training camp here at the National Cricket Academy.
He said that although they won T20 World Cup in England but his ultimate desire is to lead Pakistan to the World Cup title next year in the sub-continent.
Afridi pointed out that 2010

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board has not only refused to let two of its cricketers play in Bangladeshi league but has also rejected an offer put forward by BCB to play a series against the tigers.
However, Pakistan will be playing warm up matches in Bangladesh just before the World Cup. This is the second time PCB refused to play a series against Bangladesh. The relations between the two boards were strained due to BCB's tilt towards India over the issue of allotment of

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board and the BCCI are at loggerheads over the ICC's new Future Tours Program, as PCB claims that the Indian board is reluctant to give definite time frames for upcoming tours.
Reports confirmed that India has agreed to play against Pakistan between 2012 and 2020, but has not given specific dates. "The PCB's biggest issue is that India has said it would play against Pakistan twice, at neutral venues, but has given no dates. Also, BCCI is unwilling to

LAHORE: Faizan Khurrum, Samir Iftikhar and Rashid Malik moved to the quarterfinals of the Servis Cup Punjab Tennis Tournament here at the Bagh-e-Jinnah.
All these players had an easy sailing to the last eight stage of the championship, which saw another 16 matches played on day three under chilly conditions. All matches in the men's singles finished in straight sets, except the day's opener that went to three sets after Asad Abdul Sakoo came from one set behind to win.
In

LAHORE:Wleed Zubair of Lahore Gymkhana emerged as the front runner by upstaging the overnight leaders Wasim, Hamza and Omer Salamat at the end of the second round in the 27th Millat Governor's Cup Golf Championship at the Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course.
Waleed surprised the most accomplished zero handicap amateur, Wasim Rana of Karachi and many other aspirants like Omer, Ali Anwar and Danyaal Jehangir. owever, there is a final round of 18 tricky holes still to go and those lagging

LAHORE: Lahore and Karachi qualified for the final of the National Women's Under-19 T20 Cricket Championship 2010-11 on Saturday. Lahore beat Sialkot by 108 runs while Karachi defeated Multan by 19 runs in the semi-finals. The final will be played on Monday, December 13 at the Lahore Country Club, Muridke.
Pakistan national player Bisma Maroof hammered an unbeaten 92 in Lahore's 168-run innings while Sidra Amin also contributed handsomely. Later Lahore bowlers reduced Sialkot to

LAHORE: Pakistan Boxing Federation President Doda Khan Bhutto has been appointed vice chairman of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) youth commission while Secretary Pakistan Sports Board Anti-doping Commission Dr. Waqar Ahmed has been selected as member of AIBA Medical commission by AIBA.
Doda said that it would be an honour to work with AIBA and he will do his best for the promotion of the game in countries like Pakistan. Doda is currently in Muscat as a chief-de

BIRMINGHAM: Stewart Downing and Emile Heskey eased the pressure on Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier as their goals clinched a 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. Downing's first half strike set Villa on their way to only their second win in 11 matches and helped boost Houllier's popularity levels after his Liverpool love-in.
And Heskey notched a fortunate second ten minutes from time at Villa Park to secure a memorable end to a nightmare seven days for the

LAHORE: Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi wants his players to give their best against New Zealand. Talking to journalists here during the camp training at the National Cricket Academy, Afridi said his comments recently on the World Cup preparations were taken out of context and he did not mean that the team was selected against his wishes.
He said that the team was facing many challenges and his main focus would be to keep the team united and not let the controversies

CHENNAI: India completed a 5-0 whitewash over New Zealand in their one-day series on Friday when they won the final match by eight wickets after bundling the Kiwis out for 103. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin led the Indian spinners with three wickets while part-time spinners Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan took two each on a dry pitch at the M.A.
Chidambaram Stadium. Only a 43-run partnership between Scott Styris (24) and Jamie How (23) for the fourth wicket ensured New Zealand

LAHORE: Pakistani racing driver Adnan Sarwar finished 4th at the Sodi World Series Masters Cup final race at the Dubai Autodrome. This remains the best finish for a Pakistani driver in an international race.
Qualifying and starting from 5th place, Adnan fell back to 8th after an incident in turn one but then climbed back up the grid, overtaking four drivers to finish only 0.2 seconds behind third place finisher Fabian Lunz of South Africa and ahead of drivers from Germany,

LAHORE: Former PCB COO Wasim Bari has been appointed as Director Education and Training on contractual basis. He will be based at National Stadium Karachi. This is a new position created to implement PCB's new code of conduct and anti corruption programme.
After taking over he said, "Cricket is facing new challenges but as custodian of the game we are committed to fight for its integrity and survival. Players need to be trained and educated on problems they may face while

SYDNEY: Australia dropped three players on Friday and gambled on left-arm spinner Michael Beer after just five first-class games for next week's crucial third Ashes Test against England in Perth.
Marcus North, Xavier Doherty and Doug Bollinger paid the price for Australia's crushing innings and 71-run defeat to England in this week's second Adelaide Test, while opener Simon Katich was forced out with injury.
Beer, 26, who is playing his first Sheffield Shield season with

LAHORE: All the seeded players of the country advanced to the next round of the Servis Punjab Tennis Championship here at the Bagh-e-Jinnah Courts on Friday. National singles and junior champion Samir Iftikhar, junior Davis Cupper Faizan Khurrum and Pakistan's non-playing captain Rashid Malik won their matches.
Samir and Faizan clinched their under-18 and men's games while Malik won in the open category. All the seeded players have now reached the pre-quarterfinals stage of the

LAHORE: Shah Shamyl Alam won duel with brother Shah Qublai Alam as he led Silk Bank to the final of PSS Asia Cup here at the Lahore Polo Club on Friday.
Silk Bank with their 7-6 win over PSS International qualified for Sunday's against Monnoo Polo.
Qublai provided lead to PSS International in the opening chukker with Hamza Mawaz Khan doubling it by the close of the first quarter.
Shamyl easily converted a 60 yarder but Hamza and Adnan Jilal Khan consolidated the PSS