Category: Sports

All the usual suspects have gathered for the World Cup at the home of cricket, and yet something is missing. The rest of the world. When the first ball is bowled at The Oval on Thursday, only 10 teams will be vying to be world champion, the smallest number since 1992. After the hugely popular, […]

KARACHI: Qatar will get the first action of the FIFA World Cup it hosts in about three-and-half years’ time on June 11 after it was announced that Pakistan will play the home leg of its first-round qualifier for the 2022 showpiece against Cambodia in Doha. The announcement came in the early hours of Thursday by […]

LONDON: England captain Eoin Morgan believes the tournament hosts have done everything they possibly could to get themselves ready for a tilt at the World Cup. One-day cricket has long been the poor relation of the international game in England in terms of status. But a humiliating first-round exit at the 2015 World Cup in […]

DHAKA: Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has poured cold water on fan hopes for this month’s World Cup, warning that the seventh-ranked team was facing an uphill battle in the group stage. Supporters were jubilant after a tri-nation series win against Ireland and West Indies on the weekend handed Bangladesh its first ever multi-team tournament trophy. […]

SOUTHAMPTON: The bowling side of Glenn Maxwell’s status as an all-rounder is often forgotten amid the fireworks of his power hitting but the mercurial Australian hopes his off-spin can tie a few batsmen in knots at the World Cup. Although used sparingly during Australia’s 2015 triumph on the pace-friendly pitches of home, Maxwell chipped in […]

BELFAST: Mohammad Shahzad smashed a blistering 101 as Afghanistan fine-tuned their World Cup preparations with a 126-run thrashing of Ireland to draw the ODI series on Tuesday. Afghanistan were put in to bat by the hosts in Belfast and Shahzad made them pay with his 87-ball century. Together with Rahmat Shah, Shahzad put on 150 […]

LONDON: Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has said victory over Arsenal in next week’s Europa League final would complete a wonderful season for the club, despite speculation about his future. The Italian came in for fierce criticism from the Stamford Bridge fans during his first campaign but ended up steering Chelsea to a third-place finish in […]

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday unveiled the kit of the national team for the ICC World Cup being staged in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14. The kit has different shades of green from dark to a lighter one. Sharing the news on Twitter, a PCB statement said: “As […]

CANNES: Asif Kapadia initially passed when, in 2012, producer Paul Martin approached him about making a documentary on Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona. Kapadia had just finished “Senna,” his ground-breaking 2010 documentary on the late Brazilian Formula One racer Ayrton Senna. He didn’t want to do another sports doc, especially about another South American sports […]

LAHORE: A last-minute call-up to Pakistan’s World Cup squad has given paceman Wahab Riaz fresh impetus to give his best. Out of the team’s plans since its Champions Trophy triumph in 2017, the left-armer was picked on Tuesday as Pakistan announced their final squad for the cricketing showpiece in England. It came as a surprise […]