Mahmood raps Aussie crowd
English pacer Sajid Mahmood has revealed that he was racially abused by the crowd during the Ashes series in Australia last year but insisted that the team themselves never resorted to racial sledging.

“There were a few racist remarks from the crowd about my colour and religion, but there was nothing racist from any of the Australian players,” he said.

Lee rallies to lift title
Home favourite Lee Chong Wei recovered from a second-game lapse to beat South Korea's Lee Hyun-ii 21-15, 11-21, 21-17 in the men's singles final of the Malaysia Open Super Series on Sunday, reports Reuters from Kuala Lumpur.

The top-seeded Malaysian possessed too much power and variety of strokes for his left-handed opponent, although victory was by no means easy with the Korean making all the plays in the second game.
Denmark's Tine Rasmussen stunned China's world champion  Zhu Lin 18-21, 21-19, 21-18 to take the women's singles title.

Abhijeet claims Parsvnath title
Abhijeet Gupta scored a thumping victory over GM Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan to annex the title in the sixth Parsvnath International Chess tournament that concluded on Sunday, reports UNI from New Delhi. Surya Shekhar Ganguly finished second.

It was a seven way tie for the third spot in which GB Prakash’s tie-break was superior for a clean Indian sweep for the first time in the history of Parsvnath chess tournaments.

G B Prakash went on to make his fourth GM norm after another spectacular performance against M R Venkatesh in the final round. C Pravin Kumar, Arjun Tiwari, Debashish Das and VAV Rajesh went on to make their International Master norms from the tournament.

St Stephen’s FA emerge champs
St Stephen’s Football Academy, Chandigarh, lifted the Nike-Manchester United Premier Cup (under-15) India finals 2008 trophy getting the better of Mahindra United 1-0 at the Duler Football Stadium here on Sunday, report agencies from Panjim.

The victory earned the Chandigarh lads a trip to Malaysia, where they will participate in the South East Asia regional finals in Kuala Lumpur later this year.

The all-important goal for the winners was scored by Harpreet Bedi, who found the net in the second session with a low shot from the centre of the field.

In the third-place match, Salgaocar Sports Club beat Sporting Club de Goa 3-0.  

Sharapova to lead Russian challenge
World number five Maria Sharapova will lead champions Russia in next month's Fed Cup first round tie against Israel in Tel Aviv, reports Reuters from Moscow.

In the absence of world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova for personal reasons, Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev also named world number six Anna Chakvetadze, 16th-ranked Dinara Safina, Elena Vesnina (55) and doubles specialist Elena Likhovtseva. Tarpishchev said he would select the four players for the Feb. 2-3 tie during his team's training camp in Israel.

National eves’ hockey tourney
The 55th Rakshak Senior National Women’s hockey championship will be organised at Olympian Surjit Stadium from February 1-9, reports PTI from Jalandhar.

The participating teams include holders Indian Railway, runners-up Haryana, Pepsu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Andra Pradesh, Karnataka, Indian Universities, Gwalior academy and host Punjab.

Modi cautions Kiwi cricketers
BCCI Vice-President Lalit Modi has advised New Zealand players not to jeopardise their careers by joining the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), reports PTI from Melbourne.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is in a crisis with a number of Kiwi players already aligning with ICL and the fresh jolt came with their spearhead Shane Bond too deciding to take the plunge. Modi urged the Kiwi cricketers not to succumb to the lure of the rebel league which, he felt, was not sustainable.

India move to second spot
The historic triumph against Australia in Perth has assured India a rise to the second place in the ICC Test rankings regardless of how the fourth and final Test in Adelaide pans out for the resurgent visitors, reports PTI from Dubai.

After shining with both bat and ball, Irfan Pathan (19th) has has broken into the top 20 of Test bowlers chart released on Sunday.

Among other Indians, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman rose one position each to 13th, 15th and 17th respectively. Sehwag, meanwhile, jumped three places to share the 32nd place. while Dhoni moved up one place to share 41st spot.