England’s cricket tourists are counting down their three days left in Zimbabwe, two of which they want to spend beating the home side as comprehensively as possible.
England won the first two of the four internationals — the first just comfortably, the second on Wednesday in a wicket spree by Alex Wharf (four wickets) and James Anderson (three) to skittle the young Zimbabweans for 102.

Once again South African rugby is in trouble. Last time it was Straeuligate, which led to Staaldraadhekkie where otherwise respectable Springbok rugby stars were forced to scrum in the nude, cook eggs with nothing but the warmth of their personalities and spend long nights in the bush plucking (sic) dead chickens. Rescue for SA rugby has come in the shape of much needed advice from the African National Congress Youth League.

Kaizer Chiefs are tipped to beat Moroka Swallows in a do-or-die semifinal match at Loftus Versveld Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday night. Kick-off is at 8pm. It will be the two South African football giants’ second clash during the semifinals of a major competition in less than two months.

It has long been a source of debate why there are so few Asian players in English football and none at the top level — until now. Zesh Rehman, whose parents are from Pakistan, is the first British Asian to command a regular place in the top flight.

It is often said of an unexpected football result that the underdogs had not read the script. After the Uefa Cup tie between Panionios and Dinamo Tbilisi in Greece on Tuesday night, however, many bookmakers suspect that the underdogs had not merely read the script, but had helped to write it too.

Iraq’s Shia parties have built a powerful political alliance uniting moderates with extremists and seem likely to dominate next month’s general election. The coalition, formed in weeks of private negotiations, will put forward a joint list of candidates. The process has been overseen by Iraq’s most revered Shia cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

On a roundabout in the centre of Ramallah, the Palestinians’ political capital, young men hang out around a steel structure guarded by plastic lions. Aged between 18 and 30 and dressed in leather jackets and jeans, they should be the kind of voters that the jailed Palestinian militant, Marwan Barghouti, can rely on in next month’s election.

A ”serious incident” has occurred between soldiers from the Sudanese army and members of a commission, led by Chad, monitoring a ceasefire in Sudan’s Darfur region, corroborating sources said on Thursday. According to the rebels’ military spokesperson, the ceasefire commission team was attacked by troops from the Sudanese armed forces.

The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), which has slammed a R502-million deal between an agricultural company and a black economic empowerment (BEE) consortium, on Thursday warned it would take industrial action if its concerns were not addressed. The deal was between agricultural services group Afgri and the consortium Agri Sizwe.