Category: Sports

COLOMBO, Sept 25, 2006 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan woman sprinter denied Monday taking performance enhancing drugs during the South Asian Games in Colombo last month, investigators said. If proved guilty, Silva would lose both her 4×100 metres relay gold medal and the 100metres silver. Sri Lankan officials had earlier said that athletes from Pakistan, […]

COLOMBO, Sept 21, 2006 (AFP) – Athletes from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal tested positive for banned substances at last month’s South Asian Games here, an official said on Thursday. “We have sent the preliminary investigation reports to the four countries and are awaiting their response”, Sri Lanka’s National Olympic Committee president Hemasiri Fernando […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19, 2006 (AFP) – Asia remains a vast area of untapped commercial possibility for cricketing authorities but all the elements are in place for this to change.That’s the way Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief executive Syed Ashraful Huq sees the future for a sport he believes is on the cusp of being […]

Sept 10, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s domestic cricketers will get a handsome raise in match fees for the coming season in a bid to make local competition more professional, a top official announced here on Sunday.“We have a 300 percent pay hike earmarked for players in a new domestic competition for the 2006-07 season,” […]

MUMBAI, Sept 7, 2006 (AFP) – The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Thursday that Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq’s hearing in the ball-tampering controversy will be held on September 27 and 28.including Test captains Brian Lara of the West Indies and Rahul Dravid of India. The much-awaited hearing will be conducted by chief match-referee Ranjan Madugulle […]

WELLINGTON, Aug 29, 2006 (AFP) – Champion New Zealand disabled athlete Kate Horan is back on track for next week’s world championships after her special running leg was found Tuesday, more than a week after an airline mislaid it.Horan, who until recently held the world record for the 400 metres in her class, used to […]

LONDON, Aug 25, 2006 (AFP) – Australian umpire Darrell Hair is no stranger to controversy. Hair, who sparked international cricket’s latest crisis after Pakistan’s forfeiture of the fourth and final Test, is a love-hate figure within the cricket world.He also delivered a bouncer to the ICC on Friday by revealing he had offered his resignation […]

COLOMBO, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cricket chiefs and media slammed South Africa on Thursday for pulling out of the tri-series as India looked forward to playing three matches against the hosts. The Proteas abandoned the tri-series on Wednesday, saying “the current risk to the team is at an unacceptable level” following a […]

Aug 16 (AFP) – South Africa have pulled out of the limited-overs tri-series against India and hosts Sri Lanka due to security concerns after a deadly bombing, a Sri Lankan cricket official said on Wednesday. Australia and the West Indies refused to play their World Cup matches in Sri Lanka in 1996 when a powerful […]

COLOMBO, Aug 13, 2006 (AFP) – South Africa’s cricket team on Sunday ridiculed suggestions they had nicknamed Muslim team-mate Hashim Amla a “terrorist”, a jibe that cost Dean Jones his television job. Jones, a former Australian Test star, was sacked as a commentator last week after being heard on air saying “the terrorist has got […]

Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – As the bloody ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka escalates, people in the island nation are turning to their top-flight cricket team to provide a balm for the misery.When Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels were locked in the bloodiest ground battle since 2002 on Monday, the nation’s cricketers were […]

NEW DELHI, July 29, 2006 (AFP) – A frail-looking man named Diosiam jogs on to a football field in an upmarket New Delhi suburb, followed by a band of keen-looking players — all of them ex-drug addicts or living with HIV/AIDS.They warm up on the slushy field as a small crowd gathers to see them […]