Sports

LAHORE: An important meeting to resolve the issues of the Pakistan Football Federation is being held in Islamabad on Thursday between the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination and the chairman of the FIFA-appointed PFF Normalisation Committee Haroon Malik, Dawn has learnt through reliable sources. A high-level official in the sports ministry told Dawn that IPC minister Fehmida Mirza may not attend the meeting …

DHAKA: South Korea stamped their authority as a potent force in field hockey on Wednesday when they defeated Japan in shootout in a thrilling final of the sixth Asian Champions Trophy here at the Maulana Bhashani Hockey Stadium. This is South Korea’s maiden Asian Champions Trophy title. Arch-rivals Pakistan and India, the two erstwhile major world hockey powers, besides winning …

The United States scored a famous and deserved T20 cricket triumph over Ireland on Wednesday to get the most important series in their history off to the best possible start. A brilliant 65 from Gajanand Singh helped the hosts reach a competitive 188 for 6 in their 20 overs and some disciplined bowling from Saurabh Netravalkar and Ali Khan helped …

KARACHI: Times were so turbulent after Ramiz Raja was elected Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman that he feels he’s aged 30 years in his three months in the job. Things have calmed down since and as Pakistan looks ahead to an exciting cricketing year, the former captain vowed he will leave no stone unturned in bringing about the game’s renaissance …

GENEVA: Olympic tennis champion Belinda Bencic has tested positive for Covid-19 after her trip to Abu Dhabi and has “severe symptoms”, she said on Tuesday, a day after Rafael Nadal announced he had also tested positive. Both players had travelled to Abu Dhabi to play in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event last week. Nadal also said he was having …

MELBOURNE: Australia added fast bowler Scott Boland to their squad for the potentially Ashes-clinching Boxing Day Test against England starting on Sunday in Melbourne amid concerns over Mitchell Starc’s fitness after he tweaked his back in the second match. Starc sustained the injury while batting in Adelaide but still claimed six wickets in the pink ball contest to help Australia …

JOHANNESBURG: Test captain Dean Elgar says he will not let the allegations of racist conduct that have come to light at Cricket South Africa in recent months become an excuse for failure as his side prepare to host India in a three-match series from Sunday. Director of cricket Graeme Smith, who denies the claims, and national team coach Mark Boucher were among …

DHAKA: Pakistan got off to the perfect start but couldn’t get the ideal finish. In an end-to-end semi-final of the Asian Champions Trophy, Pakistan ended up on the losing side of an 11-goal thriller against South Korea at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday. South Korea’s 6-5 win set up a title clash for them against Japan, who …

India’s third-highest Test wicket-taker Ravichandran Ashwin says that he nearly quit several times between 2018 and 2020 due to injury and because he did not “feel backed”. “I contemplated retirement for a lot of reasons,” the star spinner told ESPNcricinfo. “I felt like people were not sensitive enough to my injuries. I felt like a lot of people were backed, why …

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has again reclaimed the top spot in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 International (T20I) Batting Rankings, a week after slipping to second place behind Englishman David Malan. After the latest update by the ICC, Azam now shares the number one rank with Malan, both having a rating of 805 points. “With scores of 0 …