Sports

MELBOURNE: The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is under pressure to produce a pitch that delivers a fairer contest between bat and ball in the Boxing Day Test between Australia and South Africa after the series-opener at the Gabba was over within two days. Australia won the Brisbane Test by six wickets as batters struggled on a green-top pitch that was …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan captain Babar Azam has attained a career-best second position in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) men’s Test player rankings after notching two half-centuries in the final Test of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) series against England in Karachi. Babar’s knocks of 78 and 54 have helped him overtake Steve Smith, who managed 36 and six in …

ISLAMABAD: In a major top-level change in Pakistan cricket administration, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday nominated a 14-member management committee headed by Najam Sethi to run the affairs of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) till the elections to be held within the next four months. “The Prime Minister has seen and is pleased to approve the proposal at para …

New Zealand’s cricket team returned to Pakistan on Thursday to play two Tests and three one-day internationals, a year after abandoning their tour over a security threat. The arrival of the Kiwis comes just days after England whitewashed Pakistan at home in a three-match Test series that has seen the hosts’ cricket board chief sacked. New Zealand sparked deep frustration in Pakistan in September last …

If 2021 was the year of ‘mauka’ revenge for cricket fans, 2022 will be remembered as the year of near misses — or wasted maukas. The recurring theme throughout the year was the pursuit of glory that ended up in anguish for Babar Azam and Co. But where men’s cricket disappointed, others sprang some wonderful surprises despite getting a mere fraction of attention …

Najam Sethi, who is heading a panel governing the Pakistan Cricket Board’s affairs till a chairman is elected, said on Thursday that the government’s “advice has to be taken” in cricket-related matters concerning India. Talking to the media in Lahore, he answered a reporter’s question that it was “too early” for him to comment about “strategic issues” regarding India, sporting …

KARACHI: England head coach Brendon McCullum said removing the fear of failure has helped the talent in his team come through after they became the first test side to complete a 3-0 whitewash in Pakistan on Tuesday. England comfortably chased a target of 167 to win the third and final match in Karachi, adding to their wins in Rawalpindi and …

Hundreds of thousands — millions by some estimates — of ecstatic Argentines flooded onto the streets of Buenos Aires on Tuesday to cheer the country’s World Cup-winning football squad led by Lionel Messi after their plane landed in the pre-dawn hours. The team arrived in the early hours at Ezeiza airport where despite it being around 3am, thousands were waiting with banners, …

Millions of jubilant fans turned out on Tuesday to welcome home Argentina’s World Cup winners led by Lionel Messi, but most were left disappointed when an open-top bus parade had to be abandoned due to the massive crowds, in favour of a hastily organised helicopter tour. Vast crowds of ecstatic fans cheered on their heroes along every meter of the planned 30-kilometer …

The completion of England’s 3-0 series success over Pakistan on Tuesday was the latest chapter in a remarkable revival, all the more extraordinary for the woeful run of red-ball results that preceded the ‘Bazball’ era. Inflicting the first home whitewash suffered by Pakistan in Test history, courtesy of an eight-wicket win in Karachi on Tuesday, was striking enough in itself. It also …