No image available
/ 6 February 2006
Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody knows his team are lucky to be in the hunt for a berth in the finals of the triangular series and this time he wants to make sure there are no mistakes. The Sri Lankans have host-nation Australia to thank for keeping their prospects in the limited overs competition alive after they scored crushing wins over South Africa in the last two matches.
No image available
/ 6 February 2006
The Super 14 governing body on Monday told the New South Wales Waratahs not to wear their controversial initialled jerseys in the new season’s provincial rugby competition, which kicks off on Friday. The team experimented with players’ initials instead of numbers in a trial game against Canterbury Crusaders in Sydney on Saturday, which the Waratahs lost 32-30.
No image available
/ 5 February 2006
Opener Adam Gilchrist smashed 88 runs from 66 deliveries on Sunday as Australia compiled a record target of 344 for six wickets on its way to a 57-run win over South Africa in a tri-series limited-overs international. South Africa scored 287 for six in reply with Mark Boucher scoring 76 and Herschelle Gibbs adding 46.
No image available
/ 5 February 2006
Opener Adam Gilchrist smashed 88 runs from 66 deliveries on Sunday to lead Australia to a record score of 344 for six wickets against South Africa in a tri-series limited-over international. Australia’s total was its highest against South Africa and the second-highest at the Sydney Cricket Ground in one-day matches.
No image available
/ 5 February 2006
Australia won the toss and opted to bat first in their triangular series limited overs match with South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath was again rested for the match after deciding to spend time with his family. McGrath’s wife was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer last week.
No image available
/ 4 February 2006
Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan has asked Australian crowds to stop taunting him after his controversial bowling action was again declared legal following a new series of tests. Muralitharan said on Saturday he was again contemplating not returning to Australia due to the amount of abuse he receives, stating ”99%” of the taunts over his action occur in Australia.
No image available
/ 3 February 2006
Brett Lee added to his growing reputation as a lethal limited-overs bowler as he snared 4-30, including three wickets in one over, as Australia crashed and bashed their way to an 80-run win over South Africa in Melbourne on Friday. Batsmen Michael Hussey and Andrew Symonds softened up Australia’s opponents.
No image available
/ 3 February 2006
The world’s largest consolidated miner BHP Billiton was on Friday drawn into an Australian probe into the United Nations oil-for-food scandal. A commission of inquiry into the programme is investigating the payment of -million in kick-backs to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein by Australia’s monopoly wheat exporter AWB.
No image available
/ 2 February 2006
Australian Olympic and world champion Ian Thorpe said he would have to swim faster to beat a South African challenge at next month’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, after winning the 100m freestyle final at the trials on Thursday. Thorpe overhauled tearaway leader Ben Hawke to win in 49,28 seconds.
No image available
/ 2 February 2006
This was an auto accident with a difference. A 2m saltwater crocodile leapt out of a roadside culvert and slammed into the side of a passing car, Australian authorities said on Thursday. The crocodile died in the collision and was given to local Aborigines, who ate it, said a crocodile-management officer at the Kakadu National Park.
No image available
/ 1 February 2006
Sri Lanka has the right ingredients to win next year’s World Cup but the senior players will need to step up to the plate to secure victory in the Caribbean, coach Tom Moody believes. Speaking after his team suffered a five-wicket loss to South Africa in their triangular series match in Perth on Tuesday, Moody remained upbeat about the Sri Lankans’ prospects.
No image available
/ 1 February 2006
South African captain Graeme Smith backed a get-tough approach to fight the racial abuse of players on Tuesday, saying cricket authorities needed to crack down on the problem the way soccer had. Smith, whose players have complained of racists taunts during their tour of Australia, said it was up to the International Cricket Council, the sports governing body, to rein in the problem.
No image available
/ 31 January 2006
Sri Lanka’s batting went from sizzle to fizzle as South Africa all but ended their hopes of playing in the limited-overs triangular series finals with a five-wicket win at the Waca ground on Tuesday. After an opening partnership of 94 off 97 balls between Sanath Jayasuriya and Jehan Mubarak, Sri Lanka lost their last eight wickets for 85 runs.
No image available
/ 31 January 2006
Opener Sanath Jayasuriya set the table for a feast, but a stunning middle-order collapse saw Sri Lanka starved of runs as they stumbled to 222 in their triangular series limited-overs match against South Africa on Tuesday. South African skipper Graeme Smith claimed his best-ever one-day figures of 3-30 off 10 overs.
No image available
/ 31 January 2006
Australian Libby Lenton broke the world record in the women’s 100m freestyle with a time of 53,42 seconds at Australia’s Commonwealth Games swimming trials in Melbourne on Tuesday. The former world record holder lowered compatriot Jodie Henry’s mark by 0,10 of a second.
No image available
/ 31 January 2006
A bit of decorum, please. Prime Minister John Howard wants Australia’s television networks to clean up their acts, bemoaning the ”marked deterioration in good manners”. ”I think there are certain vulgar expressions that have no place on television,” Howard told reporters on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 30 January 2006
South Africa and Sri Lanka are bracing for a make-or-break encounter when they clash in Tuesday’s triangular series limited overs match in Perth with Australia already sewing-up one of the two finals berths. South African skipper Graeme Smith said Monday that his team were treating the match as their most important of the tour.
No image available
/ 30 January 2006
Roger Federer is chasing four straight Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and a personal milestone, but the world number one is not consumed by breaking through at this year’s French Open. The Swiss master won his seventh slam title and second Australian Open crown with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Cypriot bolter Marcos Baghdatis..
No image available
/ 30 January 2006
Going into the first Grand Slam of the season, men’s tennis was desperate for new personalities, and it found the answer in young Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. Little-known before the first Grand Slam of the season, the long-haired lad from Limassol burst on to the stage to establish himself as a legitimate star.
No image available
/ 29 January 2006
A tearful Roger Federer claimed his seventh grand-slam title on Sunday, overcoming an early challenge from unseeded Marcos Baghdatis to win the Australian Open 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2. Federer will try to win his fourth straight major later this year on clay at the French Open — the only grand-slam event he has never won.
No image available
/ 28 January 2006
France’s Amelie Mauresmo won the Australian Open to snare her first Grand Slam title on Saturday, but it came in anti-climactic fashion when Justine Henin-Hardenne retired sick. The victory, which came when the scores were 6-1, 2-0 in Mauresmo’s favour, makes up for the world number three’s devastating loss in the 1999 final, when she was thrashed by Martina Hingis.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander has some advice for today’s players as they struggle to keep up with Roger Federer — get into his head and under his skin. Wilander said it was sad to see so many players almost expecting to lose to the world number one and they needed to adopt more ruthless tactics.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
Four-time Grand Slam winner Justine Henin-Hardenne believes her big-match experience could be a crucial factor in Saturday’s Australian Open final against French third seed Amelie Mauresmo. The Belgian is a veteran of five Grand Slam finals, while Mauresmo has contested only one, when she received a straight sets drubbing in the 1999 decider at Melbourne Park.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
A ”brutally honest” review of the Wallabies disastrous 2005 season has highlighted a raft of shortcomings that must be overcome by a new coach if Australia is to have a chance in the 2007 World Cup. Australian Rugby Union chief Gary Flowers said the review had already influenced selectors tasked with picking a replacement for sacked coach Eddie Jones.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
A Hungarian hang glider who spent an uncomfortable night dangling from the branches of a 12-metre tree was on Friday rescued unharmed by emergency services, police said. The 42-year-old had been competing in an international hang gliding competition in the southeastern state of Victoria when he crashed into trees on Thursday.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Simon Katich made 52, the only half-century in a low-scoring match, to lead Australia to a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a tri-series limited-overs cricket match on Thursday. Sri Lanka’s innings of 218 for eight was built around a series of modest scores and minor partnerships.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Twelve towns in the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria were on high alert on Thursday against raging bushfires that have already destroyed 27 homes and killed two people and thousands of farm animals. Dozens of fires fuelled by scorching temperatures and rising winds were burning around the state.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Belgium’s eighth seed Justine Henin-Hardenne came through a tough three-set fight against fourth seed Maria Sharapova to reach the final of the Australian Open on Thursday. The Belgian came from behind to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 with a backhand down the line to end the Russian’s drive to reach her first-ever Australian Open final.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Kim Clijsters hoped to celebrate her new world number one ranking with a place in the Australian Open final. Instead she hobbled from Melbourne Park on crutches bemoaning the low point of her career. After coaxing her battered body to take her as far as the final four of the tournament, second seed Clijsters finally succumbed to injury in Thursday’s semifinal with Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
Kim Clijsters ended Martina Hingis’s gallant run in her grand-slam comeback with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win on Wednesday in the Australian Open quarterfinals. She next plays number three Amelie Mauresmo, who reeled off the last nine straight games in a 6-3, 6-0 quarterfinal win over number seven Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has waded into the debate over the playing conditions at Melbourne Park, calling them ”a joke, ridiculous and unfair”. He joins others including Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer, Lindsay Davenport and James Blake who have expressed reservations about the rubberised courts used at the Australian Open.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
A pumped-up Nicolas Kiefer and an ice-cool Amelie Mauresmo drove vastly different roads to park themselves in the Australian Open semifinals on Wednesday. Kiefer was on court for four hours and 48 minutes against Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, while Mauersmo was back in the dressing room in less than an hour against Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder.