MELBOURNE: Australian Open players were given the green light to begin exiting Covid-19 quarantine on Thursday after spending two weeks strictly confined to a bio-security hub. The first group among the 960 players, coaches and officials isolating at three Melbourne hotels were allowed to leave from 6 p.m. local time (0700 GMT), with the rest expected to depart by Sunday, …

COLOMBO: The International Cricket Council (ICC), the game’s global governing body, on Thursday found former Sri Lanka fast bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige guilty of three charges relating to corruption during the inaugural T10 tournament in Sharjah. Lokuhettige was found guilty on all three counts after being formally charged in November 2019 before a three-member tribunal, the ICC said. It said sanctions …

KARACHI: South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada took his 200th Test wicket against Pakistan in Karachi on Thursday, saying it was a massive feat to join a club of great players. The 25-year-old dismissed Pakistan’s Hasan Ali for 21 on the third morning of the first Test to reach the milestone in his 44th match. Rabada made his Test debut …

AMONGST the cricketing nations, South Africa is uniquely placed. It is not only one of the three founding members of the ICC, like England and Australia, it made headlines across the world when it was expelled from international cricket because of its government policy of racial segregation known as the ‘Apartheid.’ Apartheid is a law which did not allow the …

DURBAN: Pakistan women’s national cricket team will face South Africa in a three-match T20I series, which will be played at Durban’s Kingsmead Cricket Stadium from Friday. This will be the national side’s first international T20I format assignment since the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia last year. Pakistan have played eight T20Is in South Africa to date and faced …

Nauman Ali made a spectacular debut with five wickets and fellow spinner Yasir Shah grabbed four to give Pakistan a seven-wicket victory in the first Test against South Africa in Karachi on Friday. Nauman, making his Test bow at the age of 34, finished with 5-35 and Yasir took 4-79 as South Africa slumped to 245 all out in their …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday expressed the hope that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global illicit financing watchdog, would delist Pakistan from its grey list at its next plenary meeting. The meeting is scheduled to take place virtually from Feb 22 to 25. Briefing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the foreign minister said he was …

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar on Thursday announced that the government had retrieved 22 “illegal” properties wroth over Rs200 billion owned by opposition leaders, mostly belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “The Qabza mafia (land grabbers) benefiting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members have also been arrested,” Mr Akbar said …

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide about $5.4 billion assistance to Pakistan over the next three years. This is part of the ADB’s five-year Country Partnership Strategy (CPS). “The indicative resources available for commitment during the first three years of the CPS period (2021-2023) total $5.4bn,” said the ADB on Thursday. This include $3.6bn for regular OCR (ordinary …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday reconstituted the board of directors of the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) under the chairmanship of former managing director of K-Electric Naveed Ismail. According to a notification issued by the Power Division, seven out of 11 members of the existing board have been replaced. All the independent directors are new faces on the board …