Shoaib Akhtar is being sued by the Pakistan Cricket Board and its chairman for defamation over allegations he made after being banned for five years.A notice served by PCB lawyers accuses Shoaib of claiming in a TV interview that PCB chief Dr Nasim Ashraf tried to “extort” payments from him.Dr Ashraf denies the claims and has demanded that Shoaib, 32, retract them, apologise and pay damages of £1.6m.
The PCB banned him on Tuesday for publicly criticizing the Board.
Ashraf intends to seek “all legal remedies under the civil and criminal laws of Pakistan” unless Shoaib withdraws his allegations. Shoaib had hoped to play for Kolkata Knightriders in the new Twenty20 Indian Premier League but IPL chairman Lalit Modi said they would now not allow Akhtar to compete while he was banned by the PCB. “Shoaib has been banned from playing and until his ban is lifted he cannot play in the IPL,” said league chairman Modi.”We know his appeal against the ban is coming up for hearing,” he said. “We’re hoping his ban will be lifted. He is a great player and we want him to play. Read the rest of this entry »

English cricket chiefs have softened their stance on the Indian Premier League, insisting centrally-contracted players are not banned from playing.They had been told the earliest they could play in the IPL was 2010.An ECB spokesman said team director Hugh Morris will decide which players can be released - but England fixtures will always take precedence.He said: “The ECB has never stated that centrally-contracted players are banned from the IPL.”The head of the Professional Cricketers’ Association Sean Morris said: “There will be a little bit of a window when the England players return from the West Indies.

“They will then be able to participate in possibly the last two weeks of that (IPL) tournament in 2009.”The first six-week competition, which starts in Bangalore on Friday, features most of the world’s top players, including Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Symonds, Jacques Kallis and Chris Gayle. Read the rest of this entry »

Indian Premier League co-founder IS Bindra has warned England players not to reject their central contracts to take part in next year’s competition.England’s centrally-contracted players have been told they cannot play in the IPL until 2010 at the earliest.But Bindra does not want them to take matters into their own hands.He told BBC Sport: “We will not have any player revolting against their establishment and becoming part of the Indian Premier League (IPL).” England star Kevin Pietersen has described the ECB’s stance as “ridiculous” and there has been speculation that England players could refuse to sign their contracts when they come up for renewal in September.English players are currently the only international stars prevented from competing in the competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Sections of the Indian media have blamed the distraction of the upcoming Indian Premier League for the national team’s worst home Test loss since 1959.
The Hindustan Times claimed: “The Indian cricket board does not seem to care that the players have to focus on the Test series now, not on the IPL.”
The IPL Twenty20 league begins on 18 April, three days after the third and final Test in Kanpur is due to end. Read the rest of this entry »

NBA - Miami Heat will face the New Jersey Nets in a pre-season game at London’s O2 Arena, the NBA has confirmed.

Last year, a sell-out crowd filled the O2 Arena to watch Boston Celtics defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 92-81. And on 12 October the venue will host another pre-season game, this time between the Heat and the Nets.

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Premier League

FootBall Latest: Liverpool strengthened their grip on fourth place after Fernando Torres’ 28th goal of the season gave them victory in the Merseyside derby.

The Spaniard expertly slotted the ball beyond Tim Howard for the only goal of the game after just seven minutes.

With Yakubu deployed as a lone striker Everton created very little, while Liverpool spurned several chances.

A rasping Steven Gerrard volley hit the post Read the rest of this entry »

Sports News 

Virender Sehwag celebrated the fourth anniversary of his only prior triple century in Test cricket by repeating the feat.

Sehwag reached 309 at the close of the third day’s play at Chennai to help take India to 468-1, 72 runs behind South Africa’s first-innings total of 540.

“The wicket was so good, so true,” the batsman told Sky Sports. “The ball was coming onto the bat nicely. I tried to play my shots because I knew if I played my shots I could get a triple century.”

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