London, August 23
England national selector Angus Fraser feels the upcoming five-match ODI series against India will be a tough one as the two teams will not just look to compete but also build up to the 2015 World Cup. The first ODI will be played in Bristol on Monday.

“England lost to Sri Lanka earlier in the summer and India have just been hurt in the last three weeks, and both the teams will want to correct that,” said Fraser. “At the same time, they have to start preparations for the World Cup in Australia-New Zealand, and try to identify players who will be suited to the conditions there. So it is a tough balance between winning this series and getting ready for the World Cup, and both sides will be searching for it,” he added.

England will only be playing ODIs in the run-up to the World Cup with an engagement against Sri Lanka in the winter. India will be playing West Indies at home and the two sides will then again clash in a tri-series in Australia leading to the quadrennial event.

For this series, the hosts have made a couple of changes from their ODI series loss to Sri Lanka, dropping Ravi Bopara, Michael Carberry and Tim Bresnan. Alex Hales was drafted in to open alongside skipper Alastair Cook while Steve Finn was brought in for Stuart Broad who will miss the series owing to his long pending knee-surgery.

“By now, all sides have a nucleus of the players they want to take to the World Cup. There are always six-seven players who will be tried out in the coming months and they can at best fill the last three-four spots,” said Fraser.

Karachi, August 23
Pakistan’s former captain Shoaib Malik has said that it was absolutely unfair to make any comparisons between the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The seasoned batsman was asked what he thought about the pressure being exerted by critics and some former players to replace Misbah in Pakistan and Dhoni in India following their team’s defeats to Sri Lanka and England, respectively.

“Every captain has a bad series but I would not compare these two at all. There is no comparison because Dhoni has won every major ICC title which Misbah has not done,” he said during a talkshow. Malik said Misbah was a good captain and had performed well as a batsman but the Pakistan Cricket Board needed to take a final decision on the captaincy for the World Cup 2015.

“They need to identify who should lead the team in the World Cup including Misbah. Because a decision has to be taken now and this will also give the chosen captain a lot of confidence and boost,” he said.

Malik, who has been sidelined by the selectors after the World T20 in Bangladesh but emerged as a top player in the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League for eventual champions Barbados, said the same principle should apply for the players. Asked if he was disappointed at not being part of the selector’s plans for the World Cup, Malik said obviously he wanted to play in the premier event.

"What I say is whoever the selectors have in mind for the World Cup, they should decide now and form a combination because they need to prepare for this mega event which is not going to be easy," he said. — PTI

Hambantota, August 23
Sohaib Maqsood and Fawad Alam struck quickfire fifties and combined in a record 147-run sixth wicket stand as Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by four wickets with one ball remaining in the first one-day international at Hambantota on Saturday.

Shahid Afridi (14 not out) hit a boundary off Nuwan Kulasekara as the visitors, chasing 275 in 45 overs in the rain-hit match, reached their Duckworth-Lewis revised target to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews earlier bailed his team out of trouble with his highest ODI score as the hosts made 275 for seven in their 45 overs. — PTI

Brief scores: Lanka 275-7 in 45 overs (Mathews 89; Jayawardene 63; Riaz 3/50); Pakistan 277-6 in 44.5 overs (Sohaib 89 not out, Alam 62) 

New Delhi, August 23
With barely a month left for the Asian Games, Hockey India High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans has written to the Sports Authority of India about the artificial turfs at NIS Patiala being in a "dangerous" condition and how it will affect the preparation of the women's team for the mega event in South Korea.

Oltmans wrote that the senior women's team coach, Neil Hawgood, had made a request to shift the training from NIS to another location in view of the poor condition of the pitch.

"Last week I received a request from Neil Hawgood to move to another training location. The pitch in Patiala is dangerous, not well maintained, which will affect the preparations of the women's team for the Asian Games," Oltmans wrote in the letter.

He said that besides NIS Patiala, the turfs in Bhopal and Bangalore SAI centres too were in poor condition, and not suitable for training of the national teams. Oltmans said the only turf good enough for training was in Delhi, but the centre has other issues.

"We left the Bangalore training centre more than a year ago but no action has been taken yet to replace the turf there. In November 2013, Rocky Diaz, the then Regional Director in Bhopal, had submitted a request to replace the turf at the SAI centre in Bhopal, but to no avail."

"We all would like to see more improvement in the performance of the national teams. To achieve this, the basic facilities should be at the same level as the one provided to our competitors or even better. It is recommended to discuss this issue in the interest of the national game".

HI secretary general Narinder Batra said the turfs at Patiala and Bangalore needed to be replaced in 2012, and the one in Bhopal in 2013. "Till date SAI and GOI MYAS officials are sleeping over it," Batra said. He was critical of Delhi being used as the only venue for men team's training in recent times. "The men's team is in Delhi, practicing in 45°C. Besides, the team wastes three to four hours every day in travelling to venue and back to the place they are staying at." — PTI

Chandigarh, August 23
IS Bindra, one of the most respected cricket administrators world over, stepped down as the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) president on Saturday after running the association for close to four decades. DP Reddy, a senior IAS officer and the PCA vice-president, has taken over as the new chief.

Bindra’s long and eventful career has had several highlights, the brightest being breaking England's hegemony over the World Cup and bringing the quadrennial event to India for the first in 1987, selling the cricket telecast rights to private broadcasters and opening up a reservoir of wealth for the sport, becoming the BCCI president and special advisor to the ICC president.

The PCA’s executive committee, which received a request from Bindra to relieve him from the post, met here on Saturday and appointed Reddy as the new PCA president. "The executive committee decided to consider Bindra's request regarding his unavailability to discharge the day-to-day responsibilities of the PCA affairs and his inability to attend to the administrative works of the Association, especially the work relating to the upcoming stadium at Mullanpur,” said PCA secretary MP Pandove, Bindra's long-time ally.

Reddy, the new president, began his association with the PCA in 1994 as an executive member. In 1996, he became the joint secretary and treasurer in 2008.

The Punjab Cricket Association rose to become one of the most prominent state units of the BCCI under Bindra. From that perspective, the new president has pretty big boots to fill.

Jerusalem, August 23
Soccer star Lionel Messi has been dragged into the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, two weeks after the Argentinian wrote in a Facebook post that he was "deeply saddened" by the loss of young lives with a photo of an injured Palestinian boy.

Israeli social media users have exhorted Messi to acknowledge the death of Daniel Tregaron, a four-year-old Messi fan who was killed yesterday by a mortar fired from Gaza. "As a father and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, I am terribly saddened by the images coming from the conflict between Israel and Palestine, where violence has already claimed so many young lives and to injure countless children," Messi wrote in his Facebook post.

Tregaron was the first Israeli child to be killed since the beginning of the Operation Protective Edge on July 8. Messi also plays for the Qatar Airways-sponsored FC Barcelona. Daniel's images on social media show him wearing a Messi jersey. Seeking a response from Messi, Israelis shared photos of the four-year-old in his Messi jersey, and tagged the soccer player.

"Hey Leo Messi, take a look at that boy, wearing the national jersey of the best player in the world," Liran Cohen wrote in a Facebook post yesterday, tagging Messi and FC Barcelona.

On Twitter, Lior Vaknin, along with many other Israelis, shared photos of Tregerman, also making sure to tag Messi.

"Daniel was killed by a terror organisation your team's #1 sponsors is sponsoring," a post read. "The mortar that killed Tregerman was fired by Hamas, the terrorist organisation that rules Gaza. The Strip has been a recipient of generous donations from Qatar", said another. At least 2,097 Palestinians have been killed while on the Israeli side 68 people have died so far. — PTI

New Delhi, August 23
World Kabaddi League (WKL) did not quite succeed in making a connect with urban masses on the first day of the India leg at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here today.

United Singhs beat California Eagles (60-54) in the first match of the day. Baljit Singh, with 19 points out of 20 raids, was declared the man of the match, while Sandeep Sandhu was declared the stopper of the match. The Singhs kept on increasing the lead in the first two quarters but the third quarter saw California Eagles come from behind and equal United Singhs at 30-all. But the United Singhs surged ahead with a slender lead and maintained it till the end.

As expected, there was a sparse crowd inside the stadium and the enthusiasm was missing. To make up for it, the organisers had to repeatedly play out ‘taped cheers’ on the public address system. But it was the students of Guru Harkrishen Public School, Vasant Vihar, who had a Saturday night out as they grabbed seats in a virtually empty stadium just before the start of the game. While the kabaddi players slugged out in the middle, virtually all of the school kids mobbed the pizza shop set-up inside the complex and had a ball. Inside the washrooms, school dandies spiked their hair with gel and water to draw amused looks. Once in their seats, it was the disco lights installed on the sidelines that caught their fancy. What followed was a laser guided dance.

Before the start of the match, the organisers said that they expected this event to be a mix of sport and entertainment where parents would come with their kids to enjoy. On the face of it, the first day of the WKL in India appeared to be more of a picnic for the school kids.

The professional league could have done much better with a running commentary accompanying live action to help city spectators understand the finer nuances of the game. However, cheer-girls were a welcome addition to the Indian leg as a handful of firangi girls tried their best to retain the waning interest in the game. On the very first night of the Indian leg, it was evident that the duration of the matches needs to be cut down. The stadium was virtually empty after the first match as school kids left for their homes.

Katie Ledecky of USA during the victory ceremony for the 400m freestyle in Gold Coast on Saturday. AFP

Sydney, August 23
It’s not often that Michael Phelps gets upstaged in the pool, especially when he wins. But that’s exactly what happened at the Pan Pacific championships on Saturday.

Phelps won his first individual gold medal at an international meet in two years to show that his comeback to swimming is gathering momentum and he is on course to add to his stockpile at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

But the greatest swimmer of all time was overshadowed by his American team mate Katie Ledecky, who smashed her own world record in the women’s 400 metres freestyle final. Just 17 and getting better each time she dives in the water, Ledecky was in a class of her own as she cruised to victory in three minutes, 58.37 seconds.

She slashed almost half a second off the previous world record she set in California earlier this month, despite being under world record pace with 100m to go. “It’s a good feeling,” she said. “I was just racing my best time and trying to swim faster.”

Ledecky also holds the women’s world record for 800m and 1,500m freestyle and is riding high on a wave of success.

Phelps won the 100m butterfly — an event he captured at three successive Olympics — in 51.29 seconds, after reaching the halfway mark in sixth place then unleashing a devastating burst. “I guess it feels good to win again, it’s been a while,” Phelps said.

“I’m pretty happy and it sets my up for a pretty good worlds.” — Reuters

Madrid, August 23
Atletico Madrid striker Mario Mandzukic’s early goal secured a 1-0 win over Real Madrid and a 2-1 aggregate success to clinch the Spanish Super Cup and gain some revenge for last season’s Champions League final defeat.

Croatia striker Mandzukic, who joined Atletico in the close season from Bayern Munich, fired into the corner of the net from the edge of the area after two minutes and Atletico then played the best football, although there were chances at both ends.

It was a fiery game at the Calderon in which Atletico coach Diego Simeone was sent off in the first half for protesting. — Reuters

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Aug 23
Formula One leader Nico Rosberg swept to pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton alongside on the front row after a wet qualifying session.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, last year’s winner here, qualified in third place and was joined on the second row by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. — Reuters