Wahab Riaz signs for ‘short’ T20 stint at Surrey
Karachi
Pakistan speedster Wahab Riaz confirmed that he has signed a deal with Surrey for its domestic Twenty20 campaign. The left-arm pacer will be joining sacked England batsman Kevin Pietersen at the county for a very short period before returning to the national squad for its series against Sri Lanka. Riaz said that he was having some visa issues at the moment but hopefully they would be sorted soon, adding that he has signed with Surrey to play a couple of T20 matches. The 29-year-old pacer further said that his stint at Surrey would be very short as his priority was to play for the national team, who would be busy playing in Bangladesh and then in Sri Lanka.
New Delhi
Indian football team jumps 26 places to be at 147th
The Indian football team reaped a rich harvest of a win and a draw against Nepal last month in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers Round 1 as it made a huge jump of 26 places to occupy the 147th spot in the latest FIFA rankings. India beat Nepal 2-0 and drew 0-0 over the two legs on March 12 and 17 respectively to gain 87 average points from the previous month when it was lying at a lowly 173rd among 209 countries. This was the best ranking for the Indian team in the FIFA charts in nearly a year after its identical 147th in the May 2014 list. India, who got a new coach in Stephen Constantine just before the Nepal matches, now has 161 points to be placed at 24th among Asian countries. Among the SAFF countries, India is at third spot behind Afghanistan (135th) and Maldives (141st).
Singapore
Hazlewood pulls out of IPL to stay fresh for national duty
Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood has pulled out of the IPL after a hectic summer of cricket and a busy national schedule ahead. The World Cup-winning pacer was retained by the Mumbai franchise at $100,000 contract for the 2015 season after being bought in 2014, but Hazlewood decided to give this edition a miss. “Josh's workload has changed significantly since he first began attending the IPL,” Cricket Australia (CA) General Manager of Team Performance Pat Howard was quoted as saying. — Agencies
