SYDNEY: Captain Ricky Ponting says victory over the top-ranked Indians in next month`s Test series would be a major step in Australia`s bid to return to the number one spot.The Australians are scheduled to arrive in India later Monday in an unaccustomed position as the fourth-best Test

NEW DELHI: The chief organiser of the Delhi Commonwealth Games told AFP Monday that the event would be safe and that a gun attack at the weekend was not related to the October 3-14 showpiece."Yesterday`s shooting was a one-off incident which was not targeted at the Games," said Suresh

NEW DELHI: Ricky Ponting`s Australian side flew into India Monday to play two Tests and three one-day internationals against the hosts.The Australians, placed fourth in the official Test rankings, will leave for Chandigarh later Monday to play in a three-day warm-up game against a Board

MILAN: Samuel Eto`o shone once again with both goals in Inter Milan`s 2-1 comeback win at Palermo to send the champions joint top of Serie A on Sunday.Inter have seven points from three games, level with promoted Cesena, who beat Lecce 1-0 despite the referee saying he had wrongly sent

MADRID: Barcelona`s Argentine star Lionel Messi will miss at least the next two matches after injuring his ankle at the weekend, the club said on Monday.Barcelona revealed that tests carried out on Monday confirmed that the forward suffered ligament damage to his right ankle in his side`s

NEW DELHI: Pakistan cricket chief Ijaz Butt has launched an extraordinary attack on England`s players, saying they may have thrown a one-day international in return for "enormous" sums of cash.Pakistan beat England in Friday`s one-dayer at the Oval by 23 runs after the home side, chasing

MADRID: Barcelona got their bid for a third consecutive La Liga title back on course when Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique struck to lift the champions to a 2-1 win at Atletico Madrid on Sunday.Ten-man Valencia earlier made it three wins out of three and went clear at the top of the

LONDON: Dimitar Berbatov scored a brilliant hat-trick to give Manchester United a 3-2 win over Liverpool and Chelsea maintained their goalrush by thrashing Blackpool 4-0 in the Premier League on Sunday.United were dominant for the first hour with two goals for the Bulgarian striker, but

GUANGZHOU: Australia`s Jarmila Groth on Sunday claimed her first WTA title with an easy 6-1, 6-4 victory over Russia`s Alla Kudryavtseva at the Guangzhou Open in southern China.The 23-year-old Groth powered 11 aces past Kudryavtseva to notch the win and take home the 37,000-dollar

ROME: Filippo Inzaghi scored his 123rd AC Milan goal to rescue a point in a disappointing 1-1 draw with Catania at the San Siro on Saturday.After opening their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win over French side Auxerre in midweek, Milan started without injured Brazilians Alexandre

BEIJING: Football legend Diego Maradona is due in China in November for a charity tour that will see him lunch with fans and sing in a concert, the organiser said Sunday.Maradona, who was dismissed as Argentina`s national team coach in July, will travel to China with 11 players to raise

LONDON: Darren Bent scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to earn Sunderland a 1-1 home draw after 10-man Arsenal had scored a freak goal but also missed a penalty in a thunderous Premier League clash on Saturday.Arsenal had led through a bizarre early Cesc Fabregas goal, had Alex

MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo scored a fortunate first goal of the season with his deflected 75th minute free-kick proving the winner in a 2-1 win at promoted Real Sociedad as Real Madrid moved to the top of La Liga for the first time under Jose Mourinho.Ronaldo saw his free-kick take a huge

BUENOS AIRES: Football legend Diego Maradona met with ex-Argentine president Nestor Kirchner on Friday, his first public appearance after bitter words exchanged over his dismissal as the country`s national team coach.Maradona, 49, has been largely out of the media spotlight since his

DALLAS: French star Thierry Henry has apologized for an incident during a play stoppage in an Major League Soccer game that injured the goalkeeper for FC Dallas.New York Red Bulls player Henry apologized for injuring Kevin Hartman`s knee by taking an extra kick at the ball in the Dallas`

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has launched an investigation into Friday`s one-day international between England and Pakistan, the sport`s governing body said on Saturday.The decision was taken after the ICC received information from a British newspaper on a scoring

DURBAN: Michael Klinger hit his third successive half-century as the South Australia Redbacks became the first team to qualify for the Champions League Twenty semi-finals with an eight-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore at Kingsmead on Friday.Redbacks captain Klinger hit 69 not

LONDON: Umar Gul produced a devastating spell of swing bowling taking six for 42 as Pakistan won the third one-day international against England here at The Oval by 23 runs on Friday.Set 242 to win, England were in control as Eoin Morgan (61) and Luke Wright (48 not out) put on 98 for the

LOS ANGELES: Corey Pavin knows Tiger Woods will want to play the maximum number of matches at the Ryder Cup, but the US captain will sit the superstar down if he thinks it`s in the best interest of the team.Pavin, discussing his final preparations for the biennial match play showdown

LONDON: Coach Waqar Younis has urged his Pakistan side to go on and win the current one-day series against England after their stunning display at The Oval on Friday.Their 23-run victory, built on Umar Gul`s brilliant show of reverse swing bowling, left the series 2-1 in England`s favour