Sports

Sydney, June 14: Australia's limited-overs tour of England and Ireland represents the start of a two-year campaign to make them the top nation in all three forms of the game, captain Michael Clarke said on Thursday. Australia head the one-day ratings, but are third in the Test standings and sixth in the T20 format. "We've been the number one ODI team in the world for a while now but we need to

Jakarta, June 14: India's Saina Nehwal overcame a spirited challenge from Aprilla Yuswandari of Indonesia to enter the women's singles quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open Super Series badminton event on Thursday. The World NO.5 got past her 46th-ranked opponent 21-17, 14-21, 21-13 in a second round match, lasting 59 minutes. The Indian next plays higher-ranked Chinese Shixian Wang, who beat

Germany are on the verge of the Euro 2012 quarter-finals following their 2-1 win over Holland on Wednesday as Mario Gomez scored twice, while the Dutch are heading for a first-round exit. World Cup finalists Holland will bow out on Sunday unless they beat Portugal in their final game here at the Metalist Stadium and hope Germany defeat Denmark the same day in Lviv to give them a chance of reaching

Temperamental pacer S. Sreesanth on Wednesday landed in a controversy when a co-passenger in a Bangalore-Delhi flight alleged him of "boorish behaviour" on board the aircraft. The co-passenger, T R Ravichandran alleged that Sreesanth got into a "childish argument" with flight attendants when he was asked not to sit near the emergency exit. Ravichandran said other passengers, including himself

India remained fourth even as England took an outright lead as the number one team after claiming the three-match Test series against the West Indies 2-0 in the latest ICC Test Championship table. England (117) now lead second-placed South Africa (116) by one ratings point, while Australia are placed at No. 3 with 112 points and India are down at number four with 111 points. If England had managed

Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza's win in the French Open gives a fresh twist to India's London challenge. India's best chance for a medal in tennis, after all, is in the mixed doubles and not in the men's doubles. An Olympic field is stronger than a Grand Slam lineup in doubles. In the majors all the top singles players sit out of doubles. In the Olympics, where the country equation comes into

Sydney, June 12: Australian batsman Simon Katich on Tuesday announced his retirement from first-class cricket in Australia, citing family reasons. Katich, 36, is currently playing with Hampshire in the English county season and is committed to play for the Perth Scorchers in the Champions League Twenty20 in October. He was axed from the Australian team after the 2010-2011 Ashes series defeat to

Mumbai, June 12: The International Cricket Council's (ICC) anti-corruption officer Alan Peacock was in Mumbai on Monday to question small-time Bollywood actress Nupur Mehta, whose name has figured in the recent match and spot-fixing allegations. The questioning took place at a suburban hotel in Mumbai, following which Mehta told TOI that she has been "given a clean chit by the ICC". However

Rafael Nadal clinched a record seventh French Open title on Monday, defeating world number one Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 and shattering the Serb's dream of Grand Slam history. In a fractious final pushed into a third week for only the second time because of Sunday's rain, the Spanish world number two, playing in his 16th Grand Slam final, also took his Paris record to a staggering 52 wins

Dubai, June 11: Senior Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was presented the Wisden India Outstanding Achievement award for completing a century of 100 international hundreds. Tendulkar had achieved the milestone while playing against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in March. The event was organised by FidelisWorld and the iconic batsman was presented with a trophy. Made from crystal, it features a