Sport

Don't dare write us off yet ­ Waqar
DURBAN -- Pakistan skipper Waqar Younis rallied his side yesterday by warning his critics that his team will come good when the two-Test cricket series against South Africa gets underway here tomorrow. Having lost the one-day series 4-1 and with...

Pressure on captains in 4th Ashes Test
MELBOURNE -- The dead fourth Ashes cricket Test offers differing pressures to Australian captain Steve Waugh and his English counterpart Nasser Hussain. The Ashes are long gone for England: 11 playing days was all it took for the Australian jug...

SA can top ICC Test championships
LONDON -- South Africa will displace Australia at the top of the ICC Test Championship table, if they win the forthcoming two-Test series against Pakistan. A win for Shaun Pollock's team would improve its series points average to 1.59, moving it a...

I deserve my place in Test team -- Waugh
MELBOURNE -- Steve Waugh says he's one of Australia's best players and deserves his place in the Test line-up -- as captain. The 154-Test veteran dismissed speculation that his 17-year Test career was all but over, saying yesterday that he'd ...

Gerrard won't escape tackle issue
LONDON -- Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard looks unlikely to get away with his two-footed tackle on Everton's Gary Naysmith even though the referee didn't see it. The challenge near the end of Sunday's 0-0 tie at Anfield left the Scot with a g...

Azzie's star will be the horse to beat
By David Mollett JOHANNESBURG -- Trainer Michael Azzie's talented sprinter, National Currency, will be the star attraction in the R125 000 Johannesburg Sprint (Grade III) at Turffontein here tomorrow. Winner of five of his seven starts, the ...

Kiwis rely on pace against India
AUCKLAND -- New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming is expecting his fast bowlers to maintain their supremacy over India's batsmen in the upcoming one-day series also. New Zealand were indebted to their pacemen for wrapping up the recent two-Test s...

Lee's bowling action questioned by media
Ponting, Waugh come to express bowler's defence MELBOURNE -- Questions about the legality of Australian demon bowler Brett Lee's action would likely be spared were it not for his speed, Australian one-day cricket captain Ricky Ponting said earlie...

Love covers for Lehmann
MELBOURNE -- Australian batsman Darren Lehmann was in hospital here being treated for a serious leg infection and Queenslander Martin Love was called into the Australian squad yesterday as cover for the fourth Ashes Test against England. Australi...

Lesotho provides warm-ups for Amagluglug
JOHANNESBURG -- The South African U23 natio-nal soccer squad have lined-up two international friendlies against Lesotho in Bethlehem and Maseru later this week. Team manager Barney Kujane said the first game will be played at Goble Park in Bethle...

Former All Black dies
WHANGAREI, New Zealand -- Joe Morgan, a former New Zealand rugby wing who played 22 games and five Tests for the All Blacks in the 1970s, has died after suffering severe head injuries in a fall. Morgan, 56, was injured at a construction site here...

Liverpool defender called up
LONDON -- Liverpool defender John Arne Riise has been called up by the Norwegian army early in the new year after a mixup over his deferment application, TheSun reported yesterday. National service is still complusory in Norway, but deferments ar...

Supersport United top PSL log
JOHANNESBURG -- Supersport United will go into the Premier Soccer Leagues' mid-season break as the Castle Premiership log-leaders even though they ended the year 2002 with a defeat. Pitso Mosimane's United came a cropper in last weekend's Pretori...

Ronaldo brightens gloom of soccer 2002
Violence, rioting, racism erupt during year LONDON -- Ronaldo brightens the gloom. Try to forget the cheating, crowd violence, racism and backstabbing of 2002. Ronaldo, Brazil and a World Cup full of surprises gave soccer hope for a brighter fu...

Rugby team win top French award
PARIS -- The Six Nations Grand Slam winning rugby union team were named as France's team of the year by readers of L'Equipe newspaper yesterday. The team led by scrum-half Fabien Galthie ensured France's seventh clean sweep of the matches when th...

Busy part of season for English soccer
LONDON -- While the rest of European soccer has a mid-winter break, English soccer goes into its busiest stage of the season at the halfway point and everything can change with three games in the next week. At least not much should change at the ...

Amajita squad for African champs
JOHANNESBURG -- The South African U20 natio-nal soccer coach Boebie Williams has recalled three overseas-based players for the 2003 African Youth Championship finals in Burkina Faso next month. The trio are defender Marvin Abrahams, midfielder La...

Telemachusfor derby
CAPE TOWN -- Western Province have named paceman Roger Telemachus in their 14-man squad for the all-important Pool B match in the Standard Bank Cup derby at Paarl on Sunday. Telemachus made a return to action last Sunday, after a two month lay-of...

Faster courts will assist players at Aussie Open
MELBOURNE -- The coach of Mark Philippoussis said that speeding up the courts for next month's Australian Open could be justifiably beneficial to the games of the host nation's players. Peter McNamara told Melbourne's Age newspaper in yesterday's...

Leading UK goalscorers
LONDON -- Leading scorers in the English Premiership after the weekend: 11-James Beattie (Southampton), 10-Alan Shearer (Newcastle), 9-Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Gianfranco Zola (Chelsea), 8-Harry Kewell (Leeds), Michael Owen (Liverpool), Sylvain W...