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If your man is a sports enthusiast, you may have to resign yourself to his spouting off in a monotone on a prize fight, football game or pennant race. –Marilyn Monroe
South africa Star aMla SiGnS for Surrey
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Friday, 16 August, 2013
fawad added in australia’s limited overs squad MELBOURNE
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LONDON: South Africa’s star batsman Hashim Amla has joined Surrey until the end of the season, the English county side announced on Wednesday. The 30-year-old will be available for the last six games of the County Championship and is expected to make his debut against Durham on August 22. Amla, who has previously played county cricket in England for Essex and Nottinghamshire, currently leads the world batting rankings in both Test and one-day internationals. He has been signed to take the place of his international team-mate JP Duminy, who is due to play for Hyderabad Sunrisers in next month’s Champions League Twenty20. “It is a great pleasure and honour to have been asked by (director of cricket) Alec Stewart to play for Surrey County Cricket Club,” Amla told the Surrey website. “The Kia Oval holds a lot of fond memories for me personally. I look forward to returning there this year and hopefully enjoying similar success.” Surrey are battling to avoid relegation to Division Two of the County Championship and Stewart believes Amla’s arrival represents a huge coup. “I’m very pleased to have secured the services of Hashim Amla, unquestionably a world-class batsman, for the last six games in the County Championship,” he said. “I would like to thank Hashim and Cricket South Africa for the excellent communication and professional manner which has enabled us to complete this deal.” AGENCIES
honourS even in woMen’S aSheS teSt
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USTRALIA have named Fawad Ahmed in their 18-man squad for the one-day and Twenty20 series in England and Scotland. Ahmed was only granted citizenship in July, having previously played 10 first-class matches in his native Pakistan before seeking asylum in Australia in 2010. The spinner, though, has been included in the limited overs side after impressing on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa. “Fawad has been a consistent wicket-taker on the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa,” said national selector John Inverarity. “He is a mature and very good leg-spin bowler and the national selection panel is keen to see how he fares in international competition.” Michael Clarke will skipper the side, while Shane Watson and Steve Smith are the only other players from the side that lost the fourth Test included in the squad. Australia will play two Twenty20 games and five ODIs against England, while they will also take on Scotland in a one-day game in Edinburgh. Australia ODI squad: Michael Clarke (capt), George Bailey, Fawad Ahmed, Nathan CoulterNile, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazelwood, Phil Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Clint McKay, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Shane Watson.
BrAdmAN BAT FETchES A$65,000 AT AUcTioN MELBOURNE AGENCIES
LONDON: England and Australia drew their one-off Ashes Test, with neither side able to force a result on the final day of four at Wormsley in Buckinghamshire, southern England on Wednesday. Australia did their best to open up the game, with captain Jodie Fields hitting 78 not out before declaring at 231 for five. England were set a target of 249 to win from 45 overs but never got going in pursuit of that target and a draw was agreed with the hosts 93 for two. The result saw both sides take two points apiece in a series, which unlike the Test-only ongoing men’s Ashes, also comprises three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 matches. AGENCIES
A bat used by Australian great Donald Bradman and signed by his 1948 “Invincible” team sold for A$61 000 at auction in Melbourne on Thursday, reports said. Bradman used the Sykes bat to score 115 in his final first-class innings at home before the team traveled to England 65 years ago. It sold for well above its anticipated value of A$20 000, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said. The bat was signed by Bradman and his teammates, who included Lindsay Hassett, Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller. The Invincibles went on to become – and remain – the only Australian side to go through an entire Ashes tour unbeaten. The item had spent 20 years on display at the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) and is mounted in a wooden display case. The bat was sold by Leski Auctions. Legendary Australia batsman Bradman, who died aged 92 in 2001, played his last match in England in 1948 and retired with a yet-to-be-topped test batting average of 99.94, despite scoring a duck in his final innings.
Pietersen set for Ashes finaledespite knee trouble LONDON AGENCIES
England batsman Kevin Pietersen remains available for next week’s final Ashes Test despite undergoing a scan on his troublesome right knee on Wednesday, the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement. Pietersen’s prospects of playing in the fifth Test, which will take place at The Oval, his Surrey home ground, were called into question when it emerged he was having a scan on his knee. However, an ECB statement said it was a routine part of his recovery from an injury suffered earlier this year. “Kevin Pietersen had a precautionary scan on his right knee today (Wednesday) as part of an ongoing monitoring process following
Sri lanka walk will be My MoSt deMandinG: bothaM
the bone bruising injury that occurred in February,” said the statement. “Kevin remains available for selection for the fifth Ashes Test and will continue to receive treatment on his right knee as part of his rehabilitation programme over the course of the remainder of the series and beyond.” This has been a largely frustrating year for 33-year-old South Africa-born Pietersen, sidelined for several months after returning home early from England’s tour of New Zealand in March with a knee injury. However, he has featured in all four Ashes matches, helping England retain the urn and win the series at 3-0 up, despite also suffering a calf problem in a mammoth 347-run win over Australia in the second Test at Lord’s. Pietersen made 113 as England
avoided the follow-on in the drawn third Test at Manchester’s Old Trafford and in the hosts 74-run fourth Test win at Chester-le-Street contributed an important second innings 44 in partnership with century-maker Ian Bell. Former England captain Pietersen is arguably the team’s most talented batsman but, with the Ashes won, coach Andy Flower won’t want to take any undue risks with one of his key players. Prior to Wednesday’s statement, Flower had already made it clear Pietersen would not be released for Surrey’s appearance in English county cricket’s Twenty20 finals day at Edgbaston on Saturday. It was a decision accepted by Surrey caretaker coach Alec Stewart, himself a former England captain and wicketkeeper/batsman.
COLOMBO: Ian Botham’s latest charity walk is to take him 160km from the north to the south of Sri Lanka and will be his toughest to date, the England great said on Thursday. The eight-day walk, arranged to raise funds for those affected by the 30-year war in Sri Lanka, begins at Killinochchi on November 1 and is due to end at Seenigama. “It’s going to be like nothing I have ever attempted before and it’s going to be my most demanding,” the 57-year-old Botham told a news conference on Thursday. “I have really strong connections with Sri Lanka and I know if I can raise a lot of money it is going to do so much good for young people here. I am determined to make a success of it.” Dubbed ‘Beefy’s Big Sri Lanka Walk’, it will raise funds for projects supported by the Laureus Sports Foundation for Goodness. Each day Botham will be joined by cricketers such as Shane Warne, Michael Vaughan, Sourav Ganguly, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Botham has been walking for charity since 1985 when he first pledged to raise millions of pounds to help people suffering from blood cancers. He visited Sri Lanka in 2005 soon after the Asian tsunami and played a key role in the establishment of the Foundation for Goodness project. AGENCIES