Nel told not to act in haste

Fiery South African fast bowler Andre Nel’s reported decision to consider his future with the national team has led to the Cricket Players Association advising him not to make hasty career moves. Nel was omitted for the tour of India on the basis of colour, and protested by not turning up to receive his man of the match award in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Sridhar, Saina crash out

India’s Anup Sridhar had to retire due to injury from the men’s singles event, while Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Super Series badminton tournament in Basel on Friday, reports DHNS.

Sridhar retired with a foot injury when trailing 9-11 against Indonesian seventh seed Taufik Hidayat and conceded his second-round match.

Saina went down to top-seeded Chinese Xie Xingfang 13-21, 10-21 in women’s singles second round. Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien lost to Vita Marissa and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia 18-21, 17-21 in the first round.

Rastogi loses in quarterfinals

Karan Rastogi lost in straight sets to top-seeded Matwe Middelkoop in the quarterfinal of the $15,000 ITF men’s event at Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Friday, reports PTI from New Delhi.

The Dutchman carried far too many guns for the fifth-seeded Indian, scoring a crushing 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Pak stumper Arif passes away

Former wicketkeeper-batsman Taslim Arif of Pakistan died on Thursday night after losing a long battle against a lung infection, reports PTI from Karachi.

Arif, who was hospitalised three times in recent months, was 54 and one of the most colourful characters in Pakistan cricket.

Chandhok tops time sheets

India’s Karun Chandhok started his warm-up session for the next weekend’s GP2 races in  Kuala Lumpur on a perfect note by topping the time sheets at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet near Marseille, France, during the two-day test session, reports IANS from Chennai.

Chandhok was the fastest on the first and fourth quickest on the second day of the test session.

Lin Dan escapes sanctions

China’s world champion Lin Dan and others involved in the bust-up in January's Korean Open final escaped punishment on Friday after the sport's governing body said biased line judging had triggered the unruly scenes, reports Reuters from London.

A Badminton World Federation review team concluded Lin's behaviour had been unacceptable but said the problem had been the standard of local line judging.