Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh has lashed out at Australian crowds after being cleared of allegations he made monkey gestures and spat toward fans in the tri-series final win against Australia. Harbhajan was cleared after match referee Jeff Crowe was unable to find any video evidence to confirm the claims by spectators and photographers.
Australia utility back Julian Huxley has been diagnosed with a brain tumour just days after he collapsed during a Super 14 match. The tumour, believed to be benign, was discovered following a series of scans after Huxley began convulsing while playing on Saturday. ”It was a huge shock when the doctor told me I have a tumour,” Huxley said on Tuesday.
India spinner Harbhajan Singh was cleared on Monday of making racist gestures and spitting at fans during his team’s one-day win over Australia on Sunday. Harbhajan was crucial in Sunday’s victory, which gave India a 1-0 lead in the tri-series finals, claiming the key wickets of Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden.
Auckland Blues edged ahead of Canterbury Crusaders to continue New Zealand’s early season dominance of rugby’s Super 14 competition with comprehensive victories in South Africa this weekend. The Blues and Crusaders, who between them have won nine of the 12 Super tournaments back to 1996, maintained their unbeaten starts to the Southern Hemisphere provincial series.
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/ 29 February 2008
Adam Gilchrist produced a scintillating 83 off 50 balls before a batting collapse by Australia gave Sri Lanka a consolation 13-run victory in their triangular series one-day international on Friday. Gilchrist smashed 11 boundaries and two sixes in his final innings at the Melbourne Cricket Ground until the collapse derailed his team’s pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 221 all out.
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/ 28 February 2008
Two armed thieves picked the wrong night to rob a Sydney club, disturbing a meeting of 50 motorcycle bikers, who tackled and hog-tied one of the thieves until police arrived. The Southern Cross Cruiser Club was staging its monthly meeting on Wednesday night in the club in Sydney’s west when two men armed with machetes entered the club.
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/ 28 February 2008
Claims and counter-claims flew on Thursday after senior Australian batsman Matthew Hayden was officially reprimanded for calling Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh an ”obnoxious little weed”. Tensions continue to simmer in a summer of cricket acrimony ahead of Sunday’s first final in the one-day tri-series between the two fiercely-competitive rivals.
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/ 27 February 2008
Australia batsman Matthew Hayden has launched a verbal attack on India’s cricketers, describing Harbhajan Singh as an ”obnoxious weed” and challenging Ishant Sharma to a fight. Hayden said the Australian players were fed up with the constant complaints from the Indians about their on-field behaviour.
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/ 26 February 2008
Australian fast bowler Brett Lee defended his team’s on-field behaviour on Tuesday and played down talk of another rift with India. The lingering ill-feeling between the sides surfaced again when Indian paceman Ishant Sharma was fined 15% of his match fee for a verbal altercation with Australian batsman Andrew Symonds during Sunday’s tri-series clash in Sydney.
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/ 26 February 2008
India thrashed Sri Lanka by seven wickets at Hobart on Tuesday to book their place in the tri-series finals against Australia. India wrapped up a comprehensive victory with more than 17 overs to spare when they bowled Sri Lanka out for 179 before reaching their target for the loss of just three wickets.
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/ 23 February 2008
Wallaby Julian Huxley guided a bare-bones ACT Brumbies to a tense 22-20 Super 14 rugby win over New Zealand’s Otago Highlanders in Canberra on Saturday. The Brumbies, in a rebuilding phase after the loss of experienced halves George Gregan and Stephen Larkham, also went into the match without a further three injured Wallabies.
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/ 22 February 2008
Sri Lanka’s chances of reaching the tri-series finals were dealt a serious blow when Australia beat them by 24 runs in a rain-shortened one-day match on Friday. The visitors’ gamble to bowl first — expecting the match to be shortened by the weather — looked to have paid off and they restricted the hosts to just 184-7 from their 50 overs.
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/ 22 February 2008
Former Australia scrumhalf Matt Henjak had his contract with the Western Force Super 14 side terminated on Friday, but the Australian Rugby Union have not ruled out him returning to the game. Henjak had been found guilty by a Western Australia Rugby Union disciplinary committee of breaking teammate Haig Sare’s jaw after punching him at a Perth hotel.
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/ 20 February 2008
Australia’s postal service has increased the maximum weight for its delivery staff after struggling to attract applicants weighing less than 90kg, local media reported on Tuesday. The old limit was designed to allow "posties", as they are known here, to carry 40kg of mail on their small motorcycles for a total load of 130kg.
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/ 20 February 2008
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd revealed on Wednesday that he is battling the bulge, while his deputy, Julia Gillard, was stunned to be voted one of the country’s sexiest women. Rudd said it is difficult to maintain a fitness regime while coping with the responsibilities of office.
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/ 19 February 2008
Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri has labelled as ”short-sighted” remarks by Springbok flyer Bryan Habana that the new laws on trial in the Super 14 are making rugby union become more like rugby league. Tuqiri also applauded the way the new game requires players to be better all-round athletes.
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/ 19 February 2008
The enigmatic Yuvraj Singh finally returned to form to lead India to a thrilling and crucial two-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their vital tri-series match in Adelaide on Tuesday. The left-hander burst out of his tour-long slump to make a polished 76 as the Indians successfully chased down Sri Lanka’s 238 for six.
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/ 19 February 2008
The class of Kumar Sangakkara once again revived Sri Lanka after a dismal start with the bat in their crucial tri-series clash with India in Adelaide on Tuesday. The Sri Lankan cause wasn’t helped by three runs outs, two dreadfully unlucky, but Sangakkara’s polished 128 helped them recover from a disastrous six for two to make 238 for six.
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/ 17 February 2008
Scrumhalf Matt Henjak has returned home from Western Force’s Super 14 tour of South Africa to appear at a tribunal hearing into an incident which left teammate Haig Sare with a broken jaw. Henjak played in the Force’s 17-10 loss to the Coastal Sharks in Durban on Friday, the first of three matches the Perth-based franchise will play in South Africa.
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/ 17 February 2008
South Africa’s World Cup winner Bryan Habana picked up where he left off last season to help the Bulls make a successful start to the defence of their Super 14 title. Habana, who was named as the IRB’s world player of the year after a magical season in 2007, continued his fairytale run of form.
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/ 16 February 2008
The Blues scored three second-half tries to beat New Zealand rivals the Chiefs 32-14 in an entertaining Super 14 match in Auckland on Saturday. Lock Troy Flavell, winger Joe Rokocoko and replacement Ben Atiga took advantage of the tiring Waikato defence to cross the line after the Chiefs had led 11-8 at the interval.
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/ 15 February 2008
Last season’s wooden spooners, the Queensland Reds, weathered a second-half fightback to cling on to a 22-16 Super 14 victory over New Zealand’s Otago Highlanders on Friday. The Reds, who only won two games last year, opened their season under new coach Phil Mooney with a determined win after playing their best rugby in the first half to lead 12-3 at half-time.
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/ 15 February 2008
Adam Gilchrist hit a century in his final hometown appearance in Perth to lead Australia to a 63-run victory over Sri Lanka in Friday’s tri-series match. Gilchrist bowed out with 118, scoring half of Australia’s all-out total of 236. It was his first one-day hundred since he made a breathtaking ton against Sri Lanka in last year’s World Cup final in Barbados.
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/ 14 February 2008
Matt Henjak is free to play in Western Force’s opening Super 14 rugby clash this weekend after a hearing into his alleged altercation with teammate Haig Sare was adjourned until next week. After scathing criticism from the Australian Rugby Union over the club’s handling of the incident, Force bosses fast-tracked a serious misconduct tribunal to Thursday.
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/ 13 February 2008
The world’s third-largest miner, Rio Tinto, said on Wednesday its full-year net profit fell almost 2% in 2007 to $7,312-billion as it again rejected a takeover bid by rival BHP Billiton. But underlying profit rose 1,4% from 2006 to $7,443-billion as the firm said it produced record amounts of iron ore, bauxite, aluminium, gold and copper.
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/ 13 February 2008
Australia apologised on Wednesday for the historic mistreatment of Aborigines, moving many Aborigines to tears and prompting cheers from huge crowds gathered in cities across the nation. ”Today, the Parliament has come together to right a great wrong,” said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
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/ 12 February 2008
Aborigines playing didgeridoos and smeared with white body paint overturned hundreds of years of British tradition in Australia on Tuesday by taking part in the official opening of the nation’s new parliamentary session. The ceremony came a day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers an historic apology to Aborigines for past policies.
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/ 12 February 2008
Sri Lanka hammered India by eight wickets on Tuesday to revive their hopes in the rain-hit tri-series. Set a revised 154 to win from 21 overs, Sri Lanka reached the rain-adjusted target with two overs to spare for their first win of the series. Rain has played havoc with the series, with the first two matches washed out.
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/ 12 February 2008
Scrumhalf Matt Henjak will go on the Western Force’s Super 14 rugby tour to South Africa this week with a club disciplinary hearing hanging over him, team officials said on Tuesday. Acting Force CEO Mitch Hardy said Henjak would tour despite an incident that left teammate Haig Sare undergoing hospital treatment for a jaw injury.
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/ 10 February 2008
Teenage fast bowler Ishant Sharma reinforced his status as one of the most exciting young talents in world cricket with a man-of-the-match performance to inspire his side to victory in a tri-series match against Australia in Melbourne on Sunday.
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/ 10 February 2008
The Australian Parliament’s apology to Aborigines to be delivered next week will remove a ”blight on the nation’s soul”, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday. Rudd, who was elected to the government in November, has pledged to offer the apology to the so-called ”stolen generations”, who were taken from their families as children.
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/ 9 February 2008
Family and friends of actor Heath Ledger bade farewell at a private service in his Australian home town of Perth on Saturday, with the media kept away and Ledger’s father appealing for mourners to be allowed to grieve in peace. Ledger (28) died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in his New York apartment on January 22.