India captain Rahul Dravid said England had played the ”perfect” one-day game after defeating his side by the huge margin of 104 runs in the opening match of a seven-match series at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday. Dravid, who sent England in to bat, saw the home team pile up 288-2 with Ian Bell and Alastair Cook both scoring their maiden one-day international hundreds.
Senegal striker El-Hadji Diouf impressed a host of Premiership managers and scouts as his predatory strike earned Senegal a 1-1 draw against Ghana in Tuesday’s friendly international in London. Birmingham manager Steve Bruce, West Ham boss Alan Curbishley and several representatives from other English clubs were in the crowd at Millwall’s New Den.
South Africa stuttered to a narrow 18-3 win over Irish provincial side Connacht on Tuesday. Fresh from last week’s 105-13 hammering of fellow World Cup team Namibia, the Boks laboured against the weakest of the four Irish teams, who won only four games from 20 in last season’s Celtic League.
Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has told the United Kingdom media that he expects an exciting clash when South Africa takes on Scotland in the Tennent’s International Challenge match at Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen on Wednesday. ”I think this will be a game of contrasting styles, which I think will make the whole affair exciting,” said Parreira.
Hurricane Dean raced through Mexico’s southern Gulf on Wednesday, whipping up wild winds and roaring seas around oil platforms that produce crude for export to the United States. Dean hammered Mexico’s Caribbean resort of Tulum and swallowed sand from the famous beach at Cancun before crossing the Yucatan Peninsula out into the Gulf of Mexico.
Zimbabwe’s government will table a proposal in Parliament on Wednesday to give majority control of foreign-owned firms to locals. The new parliamentary session will also debate a Bill giving President Robert Mugabe room to pick a successor if he retires. If passed, the Bills could tighten Mugabe’s grip on power.
Seeing buses full of tourists looking for a glimpse of South African poverty, squatter camp resident Lawrence Rolomana decided to try to earn a share of the cash they were spending. Bored and jobless, the 22-year-old approached the tour guides and asked: ”Can you please share your guests with us?”
Neither food nor food supplements are alternatives to drug therapy in treating people with HIV/Aids, South Africa’s top scientific advisory panel said on Tuesday, amid a controversy over the nation’s Aids policies. The report by the Academy of Science of South Africa was issued as President Thabo Mbeki faced new criticism over support for his health minister.
Publishing allegations of alcohol and power abuses by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang formed part of a national debate, the Sunday Times contended on Tuesday. ”There is a debate in South Africa … as to whether or not the first applicant is a fit occupant of the high office she holds,” the paper says in an affidavit.
A Japanese game maker said on Wednesday it would withdraw arm-wrestling machines from arcades after three players — two of them foreigners — broke their arms. Players would choose a strength level from 10 characters, ranging from a maid to a professional wrestler, and face off with an artificial arm on the other side of the table.