Sports

Exciting times lie ahead of us! The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is almost here and the Men in Green have flown off to the venue ahead of their first match with India. Fans are on the edge of their seats and the team is adding to that excitement by giving us a look at what they’re up to. The …

MUSCAT: It’s a far cry from Lord’s, the MCG and Eden Gardens, but the modest Al Amerat Ground, 15km to the south-east of the Omani capital of Muscat, will on Sunday briefly become the beating heart of international cricket as the Twenty20 World Cup gets underway. “How often does an Associate nation get to host a World Cup?” Pankaj Khimji, …

LAHORE: Top seed Aqeel Khan was made to work before he beat Mudassir Murtaza 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Sapphire National Open Tennis Championship at the Punjab Lawn Tennis Association courts here on Thursday. Mudassir’s brother Muzammil made it to semis with a 6-0, 6-1 cruise past Yousaf Khalil, Shoaib Khan toppled seasoned campaigner Heera Ashiq …

DUBAI: New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson on Thursday said he will be back to full fitness after dealing with a hamstring and elbow injury ahead of the T20 World Cup. Williamson missed the final league match of the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad with a hamstring niggle before joining his national side for T20’s showpiece event starting on Sunday. The Black …

LAHORE: Everything that Iftikhar Ahmed had been touching over the last few days has turned into gold in the National T20 Cup. It was no different on Wednesday night at the Gaddafi Stadium either. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s ‘Captain Marvel’ was at it again to help his side retain their title. Riding on Iftikhar’s superlative all-round display, the champions crushed Central Punjab’s …

Former New Zealand cricketer Grant Bradburn has decided to step down from the role of Pakistan cricket’s head of high-performance coaching “to pursue further coaching opportunities”, it was announced on Friday. During his three years with the PCB, Bradburn served Pakistan cricket as the national side’s fielding coach from September 2018 to June 2020, before taking on the development of …

MELBOURNE: Australian cricket remains driven by governance feuds three years after ‘Sandpaper-gate’, with the country’s most powerful state demanding further change to the board a day after the resignation of chairman Earl Eddings. Cricket New South Wales chairman John Knox took aim at Cricket Australia’s executive board, saying the member states were not given enough say in how the game …

DUBAI: Charles Amini’s two brothers, his parents and a grandfather all played cricket for Papua New Guinea, and there’s even a stadium named after the family. But he is the only one to reach a World Cup — and happily claims bragging rights. The leg-spinning all-rounder is a crucial cog in the Pacific nation’s team at their first global tournament, …

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday provisionally suspended Zeeshan Malik of Northern Cricket Association under Article 4.7.1 of the PCB Anti-Corruption Code, which means he cannot take part in any cricket-related activity pending the investigation being carried out by PCB’s Anti-Corruption Unit. It was immediately unclear where and when the offence took place. Former Pakistan under-19 batter Zeeshan was …

Shahid Afridi, the box office trailblazer of white-ball cricket, believes that “unpredictable” Pakistan can summon the spirit of 2009 and win a second T20 World Cup. Afridi was man of the match in a nail-biting seven-run semi-final win over South Africa in the tournament 12 years ago where he made 51. He then starred again in the eight-wicket rout of …