London: The ICC’s recently-promised crackdown on sledging might make it seem that players are behaving badly more often right now but former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff feels the on-field altercations were 10 times worse a couple of decades ago. The ICC has warned of strict action, including bans, if playersRead More

London: England one-day captain Eoin Morgan was recently the target of a blackmail attempt by an Australian man, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) revealed in a statement on Thursday. The ECB said it had received an email from the man demanding a “five-figure sum” to prevent him revealingRead More

Melbourne: The Indo-Taiwanese pair of Sania Mirza and Hsieh Su-wei got their Australian Open tennis tournament campaign off to a strong start, winning their first round match 6-2, 6-0 against Maria Irigoyen of Argentina and Romina Oprandi of Switzerland here on Wednesday. Sania, who recently reached her career best doublesRead More

Melbourne: Andy Murray got some payback on vocal local hope Marinko Matosevic, who criticised his coach Amelie Mauresmo, as he cruised into the Australian Open third round with a straight sets romp Wednesday. The British sixth seed had few problems in winning 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in 1hr 42min in hotRead More

Mumbai: Notwithstanding the absence of a regular national hockey coach since the exit of Australia’s Terry Walsh, selector Arjun Halappa sounded upbeat here about the Indian squad’s future following its good show over the last year-and-a-half. “Some things are not in our control. We should not take it in aRead More

Adelaide: Australian opener Aaron Finch has backed teammate David Warner over sledging saying the latter’s ability to take on opponents verbally benefits the team. “Having a guy like that (Warner) in your team is fantastic,” Finch was quoted as saying by the Cricket Australia website Wednesday. The explosive right-hander alsoRead More

Melbourne: India’s Leander Paes and South Africa’s Raven Klaasen entered the second round of the Australian Open doubles tennis tournament beating American pair of Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram 6-4, 7-6 (6) here on Wednesday. The Indo-South African duo, seeded 10th, took 91 minutes to win the match, breaking theRead More

New Delhi: india hockey skipper Sardar Singh and former captain Ajit Pal Singh on Monday said that the players from Pakistan should be allowed to be a part of the Hero Hockey india League (HIL) as it would improve the overall standard of the league. However, both Sardar and AjitRead More

Karachi: Pakistan’s suspended off-spinner Saeed Ajmal does not believe that the national cricket team will be able to make the semi-finals of the upcoming World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Speaking on Geo Super channel, the seasoned campaigner tipped Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and india to be inRead More

Brisbane: Slamming Australian opener David Warner for his “thuggish” behaviour in recent times, former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe has said that it’s time cricket takes a cue from football and introduces yellow and red cards for on-field misconduct. “Watching from the luxury of my couch and after hearing numerousRead More