Mithali Raj: “We have a talented pool of players and over the next nine months I would like to see improvement in fielding and match planning” © Tigercricket.com

Mithali Raj, who led India to their fourth successive Asia Cup title, has said the squad, which includes four Under-21 players, was picked keeping in mind the World Cup in Australia next year.”I am happy to say that we have a good pool of players with whom we will work over the next nine months not only to give them the required experience but also to find the combination which will help us in Australia,” Raj said. “We wanted to provide the right platform for the youngsters to show their talent and Sri Lanka was the best place because of the similarities in the Asian subcontinent conditions which made it relatively easy for the new players to show their skills.”Among the new players who did well in the tournament are offspinner Pujare Seema, left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana and batsman Priyanka Roy. While Seema led the wicket-taking list with 14 from five matches, Sultana picked up six, and Roy scored 116 runs in six games. But keeping in mind the hard and fast tracks of Australia, India also gave chances to medium-pacers Snehal Pradhan and Devika Palshikar.Their next assignment is a tour of England in August-September and according to Raj, India had to be careful with their preparations as each tour is played in different conditions.”Our next assignment is in England and the conditions in England are different as compared to Sri Lanka or Australia. But the basics remain unchanged and the bottom line is that we have to train and work hard in every single match we play in the lead-up to the World Cup. We have a talented pool of players and over the next nine months I would like to see improvement in fielding and match planning.”Raj reached 3000 ODI runs during the tournament and became the first Indian woman to reach the landmark. “I didn’t give it a thought while I was batting in the final as my focus was on collecting as many runs as possible in the final overs until I got a message from the dressing room that I was close to the 3000-mark. To be in the top five leading run-getters’ list is a big honour and I hope to score many more runs for India.”

West Indies 228 for 9 (Brathwaite 82, Senior 50) beat Pakistan 139 (Azam 51, Senior 4-24) by 89 runs
Scorecard

	West Indies celebrate victory © The Nation

Eight years after the West Indies first lifted the International Under-15 trophy, a new batch of youngsters proved that they have what it takes as they defeated Pakistan by 89 runs in the 2008 CLICO International Under-15 Championship final at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain.Pakistan, who defeated the West Indies by two runs in the Knockout final of the competition in St Kitts last month, were dismissed for 139 after the home team, led by a patient 82 from prolific Kraigg Brathwaite and a dominating 50 from Man of the Match Raman Senior, reached 228 for 9 after winning the toss and electing to take first strike.Openers Brathwaite and John Campbell again laid a solid foundation for the Windies, posting a stroke filled 61-run partnership at more than a run-a-ball for the first wicket. Campbell was the aggressor in the stand which at times was frustrated by spinners Hafiz Usman Qadir and Mirza Ahsan Jamil when they were introduced from the 11th over.Qadir went for one run in his opening over and Jamil followed that with a maiden which forced Campbell to hit out. Qadir eventually had him caught inside the long-on boundary by Zafar Gohar for 37 which included five boundaries.After Campbell departed, the runs quickly dried up, with Qadir bowling two consecutive maidens and Jamil containing the runs on the other end. But that was all the time that new batsman Roman Senior needed to get into his groove.Senior played the spinners well in compiling his runs and started to grow in confidence as he approached his 50. Gohar was then brought back into the attack with Senior having plundered a four and then a six, which was pushed over the ropes by the fielder on the boundary, to bring up his half century in 79 minutes from 84 balls. Gohar got his revenge with his next ball when Senior was stumped. But his 85-run stand for the second wicket with Brathwaite pushed the Windies to 151 for 2.At that stage, the Windies’ batting began to wobble. Sunil Ambris was run out by a direct throw from midwicket for two and Kyle Mayers sent an easy catch to Gohar off Qadir for 5. Akeem Saunders then struck two fours to take the home team past the 200-run mark but he was run-out shortly after.Brathwaite played a key role in holding the innings together during his stay of 128 balls. But as the overs began running out, he decided to take some risks and was run out with three overs left in the innings. Offspinner Qadir finished with figures of 3 for 25. Donovan Nelson and Kaveem Hodge then exploited the last over bowled by Jamil, collecting 18 runs, with Hodge getting off the mark with a six and Nelson hitting the last two balls for a six and a four respectively.The West Indies put themselves in further control when Kyle Mayers struck with the first ball of Pakistan’s innings to remove Muhammad Naeem via the lbw route.Pakistan were in more trouble after Ahsan Ali was run out for 8 after putting on 32 runs with the skipper Muhammad Babar. The visitors went further adrift when off-spinner Senior took two wickets in three balls when he trapped Ahsan Ali Abbasi lbw for two and bowled Muhammad Nawaz (0) in the seventh over of the innings. But he could not pull Pakistan out of trouble and after bringing up his half century, he played a lofted drive to Senior at long-on off the bowling of Derone Davis for 51.Qadir made a menacing 21, while Jamil contributed a stubborn 17 as Pakistan crossed the hundred mark. However, that was their only consolation as they were all out in 42.4 overs thanks to Senior’s four for 24.Young West Indies had evened the score in a most convincing way.

Graeme Smith has confirmed that his role with the South Africa squad is on an ad-hoc basis although added that he was pondering further involvement having been asked to helpSmith spent New Year’s Day at South Africa’s net session ahead of the second Test against England where he worked with the batsmen and Hashim Amla, South Africa’s captain, said although he wasn’t aware of the details of the agreement, he understood Smith would be with them, “for the rest of the series.” But with commentary commitments to and host broadcaster , Smith clarified that there was no official agreements as yet.”There has been a request to join up with the guys and help a little bit. I am considering it, but I had made commitments before the start of this series that it’s important to stick to,” he said during commentary on the first morning. “Obviously my heart will always be with the Proteas and I want to see them as successful as possible, if I can add value. But it’s got to work itself out, it’s not a role that’s been committed to yet.”But Smith and Amla are on the same page about what’s ailing the South African line-up and they agree that it’s lack of confidence. Both the former captain and the current one have spoken about the need for an injection of self-belief to break the streak of seven Tests without a win.”Naturally they’re a bit uncertain I would guess,” Smith said. “The challenge when you’re short of runs and confidence is that you become a very internal person. You almost go into self-preservation mode, you can spend hours in your hotel room thinking about it.”Sometimes you can get out of it by helping your teammates and share the load. I had a few chats with the guys and you can feel there’s a real hunger to be successful.”Smith also spent time with Amla discussing the challenges of leading, both with the bat and on the field. “I had quite a nice chat with Hash about his gameplans with the captaincy, and how he is managing all the new information that’s coming into his head,” he said. “We spoke a lot in Durban of just managing that space, when you’re under pressure with things coming at you from all over the park. As a batter you have to clear your head out. He’s got to find his way, his routine to get that all out of his head so he can focus on scoring runs.”

Former Pakistan allrounder Israr Ali died in his hometown of Okara on February 1 at the age of 88. He was Pakistan’s oldest living Test cricketer and had played four Tests for the country between 1952 and 1959. He died of a pneumonia attack.Ali played 40 first-class games, taking 114 wickets at 22.63 and scoring 1130 runs at 20.54. He had begun his career playing for Punjab in 1946-47 before Pakistan and India were partitioned, and then toured India as part of the Pakistan Test side in 1952-53. He played only two Tests on that tour, and was then was recalled to the side for two Tests against Australia in 1959-60. While interacting with ESPNcricinfo in 2012, Ali recalled how he had dismissed Australia opener Les Favell in all four innings without the assistance of fielders.He had said that one of his biggest regrets was a fallout with Pakistan captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar, which Ali believes shortened his international career.After his playing career, Ali stayed involved in cricket administration and was president of the Multan region from 1981 to 1982, and a member of Pakistan’s selection committee in 1983 and 1984, before he decided to move away from the game. “I parted from cricket after 1987, maybe because I was losing the passion, and decided to stay back in Okara,” Ali had said when he was 85 years old.Israr had been living a humble life in Okara, nearly 85 miles away from Lahore. The agricultural town has fertile land with fields of potato, tomato, sugarcane, wheat, rice and corn and in sports it is a significant nursery for hockey. Ali had been living a quiet life up until the time of his death.

Anrich Nortje was just about finishing his pre-match media press conference ahead of South Africa’s fourth T20I against India in Lucknow when he received word that the city is also his new IPL home.Nortje was picked up by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the IPL mini-auction for his base price of 2 crore (US$220,000 approx) and moves from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where he played two games last season. “This is news to me,” Nortje said, on being told he would be seeing a lot more of the Ekana Stadium. “I’ll see you guys soon then. I’m very happy.”The new IPL deal comes on the back of a challenging year for Nortje, who has only played 13 matches in 2025 and had not played international cricket for 17 months before this series. He played no cricket from October 2024 to May 2025 after suffering a back injury and missed both the SA20 and the Champions Trophy. He then appeared in two IPL 2025 matches before another stress reaction ruled out him of action for almost six months with a recurrent stress reaction. It was only last month, when he made his domestic comeback for the Dolphins, that Nortje was able to get consistent game time. He has since earned an international recall albeit without a wicket yet.Nortje’s four overs in the opening match of the T20I series in Cuttack cost 41 runs as he struggled to find rhythm but maintained speeds close to 150kph. He was rested in new Chandigarh and had a much better return of 0 for 14 in three overs in Dharamsala where the only boundary he conceded was an edge off Shubman Gill. Again, Nortje reached top speeds and appeared more comfortable with his disciplines as he found his way back at highest level.Related

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“It’s nice to be back, I really missed it and really enjoying my time here,” Nortje said. “I’m sort of happy with the progress. There’s still a lot of cricket to play. For me, it’s just to try and focus game by game, day by day, and just try and get better every day but I’ve really been enjoying the time back and it’s been great to be with the team.”This is Nortje’s first South Africa assignment under all-format coach Shukri Conrad, who was originally considering Nortje for a Test comeback last summer when Gerald Coetzee was injured against Sri Lanka. Nortje, who is no longer nationally contracted by his own choice, was then also sidelined with a niggle. Now that he has the opportunity to work with Conrad, much like another player who has returned – Quinton de Kock – he finds the environment welcoming and fun with a focus on playing with freedom.”With a new coach and how he’s been going about things, it seems to be going really well,” Nortje said. “I’m happy to be here. The team’s been doing unbelievably well the last year or two. There’s some fresh faces, there’s some old faces and guys have been sort of on the fringes for a while, are getting to play more cricket more consistently. Coming in and seeing how basic they keep things, trying to be as basic as possible, let the moment play out, assess on the park what to do. Guys are jamming really well, getting along very well, and everyone knows their role in the team. And I think that’s very important.”Under Conrad, South Africa have worked on creating depth around the national squad and adopted a horses-for-courses selection approach which has widened the pool of players that appear for the national side. That’s why Nortje came into consideration when express quick Coetzee was injured. It’s also why Nortje won’t play every match in the ongoing series as South Africa look for their best T20I bowling combination.”There’s a lot of competition as well, which creates opportunity and also creates a little bit of pressure for guys in the team, which is good. It’s what you want,” Nortje said. “That’s something that’s built up over the last year or two and it just puts guys under pressure, and a lot of guys have to fight for a spot, which is great. All in all, it’s just a lot of things coming together.”In the current T20 squad, Nortje is one of six seamers alongside Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman, Lutho Sipamla and allrounders Marco Jansen and Corbin Bosch. Add the injured Kagiso Rabada, Kwena Maphaka and Nandre Burger into the mix – along with the likes of Coetzee and Lizaad Williams – and South Africa have an impressive pace battery that will leave them spoilt for choice when they select the T20 World Cup squad. Given that Nortje was their standout performer in the last edition of the tournament, in 2024, it would seem likely that, if fit, he’d be a shoe-in but the man himself is not so sure.”We go back into SA20 as well, which is quite a few games back-to-back, so I’m just trying to focus on every game and improve as much as I can, but obviously be realistic as well. So far I’ve been really happy with the progress,” he said. “Hopefully I can be in the squad but if not, for me it’s just to try and focus game by game, day by day, and just try and get better.”Nortje will play for Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) in this year’s SA20, after being part of Pretoria Capitals (PC) for the first three seasons.

Fabio Capello will decide whether to stand by Robert Green following his goalkeeping blunder against the United States during training in the build-up to Friday's second Group C game against Algeria.

Green allowed a tame 40th minute shot from Clint Dempsey to cross the line after fumbling the ball as England were held to a 1-1 draw in the opening game of the World Cup.

Capello could turn to veteran David James or rising star Joe Hart for Friday's second game should he decide in training that Green has been affected by his high-profile mistake.

"We have time to decide and to speak with him and I will decide," he said immediately after Saturday's stalemate at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium.

Captain Steven Gerrard had given England a fourth-minute lead but afterwards Capello lamented his side's inability to make more of the chances they created.

"We played a good match and created a lot of chances but the result is not okay for us," he declared.

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"We played better than USA but the USA are very good. I saw the spirit of England and the team. They fight every time to win back the ball.

"I am not worried for the next game about their physical condition. We ran better in the second half than the USA. But now we have to look forward for the next game."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Manchester United have settled their dispute with Le Havre over the controversial transfer of Paul Pogba to Old Trafford.

The 17-year-old prospect found himself at the centre of a disagreement between the two clubs following his move to England last summer.

Le Havre claimed United had broken FIFA rules by offering Pogba financial inducements to break his contract with them.

The Red Devils always denied any wrongdoing and the matter has now been resolved.

"Le Havre AC and Manchester United FC are pleased to announce that following discussions between the two clubs, an agreement has been reached in relation to the registration of Paul Pogba with Manchester United in July 2009," read a United statement.

"The terms of the agreement will remain confidential.

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"Paul is an exciting young talent who Manchester United hope can prove to be a great success at Old Trafford.

"Le Havre would like to wish the player well in his future career."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

You either love Vuvuzelas or you hate them; personally I detest them and I am absolutely delighted to see Tottenham have had the good sense to ban the plastic horns at White Hart Lane next season.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got frustrated with them this summer. The sound is horrendous and watching England in South Africa brought back horrible memories of the Blackburn defeat at the Millennium Stadium in 2002 where the stadium was filled with similar contraptions that were equally deafening should you be in the vicinity of them.

The official line coming out of Tottenham is that they are in danger to public safety and I am not surprised, given that during bad results at football clubs all around the country there will be a minority of supporters who will undoubtedly be tempted to launch them at rival fans.

“Following discussions with the police and representatives from the local licensing authorities, the club will not be permitting vuvuzelas or similar instruments into White Hart Lane on match days.

“We are concerned that the presence of the instruments within the stadium pose unnecessary risks to public safety and could impact on the ability of all supporters to hear any emergency safety announcements.” Daily Telegraph

Hopefully it won’t take long for other clubs to follow suit, for not only will they make for a terrible atmosphere (in my view of course), but the fact that these could be used as possible missiles in moments of frustrations. While I appreciate that some would like to see them in football grounds across the country next season to replicate the carnival atmosphere they created in South Africa this summer, they should also appreciate that in the most part the atmosphere between rival clubs in England is anything but carnival, especially when the stakes are high.

Should the Premier and Football League’s insist that Vuvuzelas are banned from all stadiums in the country? Or do you believe they represent little harm at all?

Click on image to see a gallery of the BEST BABES at the World Cup this summer

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In-demand France striker Loic Remy will take his time before deciding who to join this summer.

The 23-year-old Nice frontman recently visited Stoke City to take a look at their facilities, having also been linked with West Ham and Liverpool, as well as a number of clubs on the continent.

Remy will now ponder his options before making a decision about his final destination.

His agent, Frederic Guerra, told Sky Sports:"Loic is a polite person and after Tony Pulis and Dave Kemp came to see him in France he felt it was right to come and look at Stoke.

"Loic did not know much about Stoke, but he was very impressed by what Tony and Dave had to say to him.

"He was also impressed by Stoke's training ground and he was amazed by the enthusiasm of the club's fans after arriving there.

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"Loic is thankful for Stoke for showing an interest in him and he wishes them all the best for the future.

"However, Loic is in no rush to make a decision on his future. There are eight clubs – four in the UK – who are all chasing Loic and he will take his time before deciding what is the best move for him."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan has reiterated his view that Marlon King will never play for the club again but hopes the striker can resurrect his career away from the Latics.

King moved to Wigan from Watford in a £3million deal in 2008 but was jailed last October for 18 months after being found guilty of sexual assault and actual bodily harm.

Whelan terminated King’s contract when the forward was convicted, and has now told TalkSPORT: “I paid £3million for that lad and I don’t think Steve Bruce would have signed him had he known his record.

“He’s coming out today, he’s served his sentence, I’m sure he’s learned a lot and I forgive him and I wish him well if he gets back into the game.

“A lot of people commit crimes and go to prison and what they say is they’ve served a sentence and they’ve paid the penalty. It would be wrong of me to say ‘no, he should never play football again’.

“I was very upset at the time, but I really think you’ve got to forgive people because we all make mistakes and, if he can get back into the game, good luck to him. If the club know his record beforehand and they want to take the chance, then it’s up to them.

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“I think it would be wrong to punish Marlon now – I’ve forgiven him and I hope the young lady who he offended has forgiven him. It wouldn’t bother me if he came to play against us. But he’ll never play for Wigan, I’ll say that.”