Sports

LAHORE: The duo of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Rohan Bopanna of India popularly known as 'Indo-Pak Express' is through to quarterfinal of the Kremlin Cup ATP World Championship in Moscow.
They were up against a strong pair of L Fridle of Czech Republic, a former top 10 doubles player, and Victor Hanescu of Romania. In the first set Aisam and Rohan totally dominated their opponents and clearly dictated the play as they broke Friedl & Hanesecu's serve twice on the way of

LAHORE: Former captain Younis Khan was cleared to play for his country on Wednesday after resolving a long-running battle with the cricket board.
"Younis has given a written undertaking which was required to clear him and he will be soon be back in the team," Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi told AFP.
"Younis has got a letter of clearance," confirmed close friend, Basit Ali. The 32-year-old batsman had been banned indefinitely on charges of violating

NEW DELHI: India's main opposition party on Tuesday accused the government of corruption surrounding the just-finished Commonwealth Games, saying it would stall parliament next month unless an impartial probe was ordered.
The threat from the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes as the government struggles to find political support for tough reforms bills in parliament which opens on November 9. The government is also preparing for a visit by US President Barack

MANCHESTER: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed on Tuesday that star striker Wayne Rooney wants to leave the club, expressing "shock and disappointment" at the player's stance.
"I had a meeting with him. He intimated to me in his own way that he wanted to leave," Ferguson said at a dramatic press conference ahead of United's Champions League tie with Turkish side Bursaspor on Wednesday.
Speculation about Rooney's future had raged for days after Ferguson

SYDNEY: Australian veteran Lleyton Hewitt will play January's Kooyong Classic for the first time in a revamped preparation for the Australian Open, which he still hopes to win, organisers said Tuesday.
Hewitt, 29, joins a strong field for the January 12-15 event in Melbourne although Open champion Roger Federer has opted to play Dubai instead and world number one Rafael Nadal is another likely no-show. Hewitt, the former world number one, US Open and Wimbledon champion, was a

WELLINGTON: New Zealand media on Tuesday said the national cricket side had plumbed new depths with a 4-0 series loss to minnows Bangladesh and predicted a mauling when the hapless side tours India.
"A nightmare beyond compare" ran a back-page headline in the New Zealand Herald, while Wellington's Dominion Post labelled the one-day side's performance in Bangladesh "a debacle". "How much lower can the sport go before someone acts?" asked the newspaper, calling for a clean-out of

MELBOURNE: Embattled Australian captain Ricky Ponting is the right man to regain the Ashes from England, according to former leg-spinner Shane Warne.
Ponting returned to Australia to fierce criticism from former players and media pundits after their 2-0 series loss to India, which saw them slump to fifth in the test rankings, and suggestions he should relinquish the test captaincy.
Warne himself had questioned Ponting's tactics on Twitter during Australia's seven-wicket loss

LAHORE: The Pakistan hockey team and board have attributed crowd behaviour as the major reason for the team's poor performance in the Commonwealth Games hockey event.
The captain of Pakistan hockey team along with the Pakistan Hockey Federation stated that the abuses hurled at them by the Indian fans in their 7-4 loss to India were a decisive factor in the context of the game.
Accusing the Indian audience for the loss, PHF secretary Asif Bajwa asserted that the Pakistani

LAHORE: Former PCB chairman Lt Gen (r) Tauqir Zia has criticised the International Cricket Council of playing games with the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Talking to journalists, he stated that the ICC president is a seasoned politician and has been treating the PCB in a political manner. He also advised the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt not to resign at this point in time. He further said that he will not go to anybody or plead anyone for PCB's top slot but if his services were required, he

DANVILLE: Spain's Beatriz Recari captured her first US LPGA title on Sunday, shrugging off difficult damp conditions and a late bogey for a one-shot victory over France's Gwladys Nocera.
Recari, a 23-year-old in her rookie season on the US circuit, carded a two-under 70 for a 14-under par total of 274 in the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge. Recari bounced back from a bogey at 17 with a par at the final hole that was good enough for the victory.
Nocera birdied the final hole to

MADRID: The two most decorated teams in European football Real Madrid and AC Milan, face off at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday with both teams looking to seize the upper hand in Champions League Group G.
At present record nine-time winners Real are two points ahead of seven-time champions AC Milan having won all three of their matches without conceding a goal and victory would virtually put them in the knockout stage.
The other Group G teams Auxerre and Ajax have just one

SHANGHAI: Roger Federer tried Sunday to put a brave face on his Shanghai Masters performance despite losing the final to Andy Murray in a crushing 6-3, 6-2 defeat.
The Swiss uncharacteristically felt the gods of tennis were set against him in the match, in which fourth-ranked Scot Murray defeated Federer in their second consecutive Masters final meeting.
"Every time it got important, it was not going my way," the 16-time grand slam champion said. "You feel like it's a wave

WELLINGTON: Australian fast bowler Brett Lee has signed to play domestic Twenty20 cricket in New Zealand later this year with the Wellington Firebirds, the club said Monday.
Lee, looking for as much match-time as possible as he seeks a career swansong at next year's World Cup, will debut for Wellington against Auckland on December 14, Cricket Wellington chief executive Gavin Larsen said.
"It's tremendous to have secured the services of Brett and his record speaks for

LAHORE: Pakistan's tennis ace, Aisam ul Haq Qurieshi, has broken into the top 20 of the world doubles rankings for the first time in his career.
The tennis star, who recently started to play specialist doubles events, has found great form in the later part of his career. Despite turning professional in 1998, Aisam won his first ATP title this season when he managed to reach a grand slam final during the US Open 2010.
Aisam's ascent began after he found a permanent tennis

LAHORE: Pakistan selectors were Monday forced to add opener Shahzaib Hasan and paceman Wahab Riaz to their limited over squad for the series against South Africa.
Hasan, 20, was declared as the best batsman in the National Twenty20 tournament, which concluded in Lahore on Saturday, while Riaz, 25, was named the best bowler at the same event. But neither had been included in the limited over squad when it was announced beforehand.
Pakistan play two Twenty20, five one-day and

LAHORE: Pakistan's cricket board said Monday it had drawn up a new players' code of conduct outlining stricter rules on corruption following sharp criticism from the sport's governing body.
Pakistani cricket has been rocked by allegations of spot-fixing during the national team's recent tour of England. The team's tour of Australia in March was also marred by disciplinary problems and match-fixing allegations.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) last Wednesday told the

Leisel Marie Jones became the only third woman to win nine gold medals in the Commonwealth Games history. The Australian swimmer achieved this feat by winning the women's 100m Breaststroke at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Aquatics Complex, Talkatora Gardens on Friday, October 8. She has now won this event three times in a row at the Commonwealth Games. Australian Susie O'Neill and Petria Thomas are the other two women to have won nine or more gold medals in the Commonwealth Games.