England 103-2 against Pakistan
AFP, Nottingham, England

England, after winning the toss, were 103 for two at lunch on the first day of the first Test against Pakistan at Trent Bridge here on Thursday.Jonathan Trott was 35 not out and Kevin Pietersen one not out. Pakistan quick Mohammad Aamer carried on from where he left off against Australia by removing both England openers on the first morning of the first Test at Trent Bridge.
England, at lunch, were 103 for two after teenage left-arm paceman Aamer had taken two wickets for 19 runs in eight overs.
Aamer, who took seven wickets in Pakistan's dramatic three-wicket second Test win over Australia at Headingley last week, had Alastair Cook caught at first slip and eventually had England captain Andrew Strauss, who won the toss, caught behind for 45. South Africa born batsmen Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were 35 and one not out respectively in the first of this four-Test series.
Strauss had a huge reprieve when, on 15, he edged an outswinger from the 18-year-old Aamer only for wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal to drop the routine chance despite getting both hands to the ball.
England were then 22 without loss in the fifth over.
Cook struggled in overcast conditions similar to those in which Pakistan bowled Australia out for just 88 in the first innings at Headingley.
Cook, scraped eight in 38 minutes before giving Aamer a deserved wicket when, squared up, he edged to first slip Imran Farhat, with England 42 for one in the ninth over.
Trott then got a fortunate edge first ball to a swinging Aamer delivery. Strauss's off-drive against Umar Gul brought up England's fifty. Trott then took advantage of the fact the Decision Review System (DRS) was in use for this series when, on 13, he fell lbw to leg-spinner Danish Kaneria by Sri Lankan umpire Asoka de Silva.
Trott immediately signalled for a review and replays showed he'd got an inside edge, prompting de Silva to reverse his original verdict. Pakistan did have another wicket though when Aamer, returning for a second spell, induced a flat-footed Strauss to playing loosely outside off-stump and this time a gleeful Kamran Akmal made no mistake as a 75-ball innings featuring six fours came to end and with it a second-wicket stand of 51. Pakistan players wore black armbands in memory of the 152 people killed in after an airplane crashed near the capital city of Islamabad on Wednesday.

  Emotional Maradona lashes out at ‘treason’, ‘lies’
AFP, Buenos Aires

Diego Maradona has accused Argentina football chief Julio Grondona of lying and team manager Carlos Bilardo of treason in a bitter attack on the two men he insists plotted his downfall.
"Grondona lied to me. Bilardo betrayed me," said an emotional Maradona, whose colourful and controversial reign as Argentina coach came to an abrupt end on Tuesday.
"Grondona, in the dressing room after we had been knocked out of the World Cup in South Africa, told me in front of witnesses and the players that he was very happy with my work and that he wanted me to carry on. "On our return to Argentina, things started to take on a bizarre twist and on Monday I met with Grondona.
"After five minutes, he told me that he wanted me to continue, but that seven of my technical staff could not stay. When he told me this, he was saying that he didn't want me to carry on in the job. "He knows that it is impossible for me to stay without my assistants."
As well as having Argentina Football Asso-ciation (AFA) president Grondona in his sights, Maradona, reading from a prepared statement, also hit out at Bilardo who coached the 1986 World Cup winning team which Maradona skippered.
"When we were in mourning, Bilardo was working in the shadows to get me fired," he said. Maradona was close to tears as he listed his grievances.
"I was called in with the squad divided and split by internal problems.
"They asked me to put out the fire and we did it. I have given everything. Treason is everywhere. There are people who do not want the best for Argentine football.
"They only have their own personal interests at heart."
Maradona, who took charge in October 2008, has been replaced for the time being by under-20 coach Sergio Batista who will lead the team for the August 11 friendly against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin. Before the meeting with Grondona, Maradona, whose final game in charge was the 4-0 World Cup quarter-final defeat by Germany, had made it plain he wanted to stay as long as he could keep his staff.

   IOC chief hails London example of regeneration  
AFP, London

IOC president Jacques Rogge said London 2012 was a "beautiful example" of what the Olympics should be about, with a Games that breathe life back into a tacky part of a host city.
The International Olympic Committee chief said the regeneration of the "polluted, derelict" quarter of east London at the heart of the Games was a "remarkable" project. The Belgian said he was confident London would be able to fix the IOC's concerns about transport problems, and insisted the new Olympic Stadium must remain as an athletics venue as 2012 chiefs work out what to do with it later.
"It's a beautiful example of city regeneration and I would say of a positive legacy," Rogge told AFP in London, at the signing of a 10-year sponsorship deal between the IOC and US consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble.
"East London was totally polluted, derelict, and we are going to revive it.
"We are going to put back a heart, a soul, life, housing and a local population. That's what's remarkable.
"They will revamp it with new access roads, building and social housing. That is a positive legacy of the Games. "We always demand that there is a legacy which is not purely sporting, with one or two stadiums, but also has an economic, urban and human legacy."
At the IOC's latest check-up on London earlier this month, Olympic chiefs said they were happy with the progress but said their chief concern was the British capital's congested road network. "It's true that transport in London is difficult because there is lots of traffic but the roads are not very wide," Rogge said. "But the organisers, along with the city and the public authorities, have come up with a transport plan which, in my opinion, could work well. I'm not worried."
The original Olympic Stadium pledges presented to the IOC in London's 2005 bid had the 80,000-seater venue's top tier removed to leave a 25,000-capacity athletics arena.
But its future is still uncertain, with local English Premier League football side West Ham interested, and other plans for concerts, entertainment use and even cricket have been mooted. But Rogge was adamant the athletics function would remain.
"We insist that they should not leave 'white elephants' and the scale and size of the venues must be really meant at after Games use," the 68-year-old said.
"We are sure that there will be an athletic legacy and another one-could be football, could be entertainment, could be something different. "You can perfectly have a football pitch of highest quality with an athletic track around.
"You can combine both, which in terms of legacy is absolutely perfect, so we have no concerns about that." The London Games are on schedule and running within their budget of 9.3 billion pounds (14.5 billion dollars, 11.2 billion euros). "I expect that budget to be on balance," Rogge said. "We're not speaking about overspending."

  Murray hopes sacking of coach will energize his game
AFP, Los Angeles

World number four Andy Murray says he sacked his coach Miles Maclagan because they no longer saw eye-to-eye and he needed to do something to help galvanize his game.
Murray fired Maclagan this week after two-and-a-half years of working together. The surprise move comes just four weeks before the start of the US Open.
"It obviously was a hard decision and one that wasn't the nicest thing to have to take," Murray said Wednesday in between practice rounds at the ATP Los Angeles tournament. "It wasn't that tough to make up my mind because we were quite far apart in what we thought." It has been a season of mixed results for the 23-year-old Scot who is the top seed at the Farmers Classic. This is his first tournament since his Wimbledon semi-final loss to Rafael Nadal. "I lost direction a little bit," Murray said of his progress this season.
In singles play in Los Angeles Wednesday, Germany's Rainer Schuet-tler needed three sets to beat American Robby Ginepri 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, third seed Marcos Baghdatis rallied to beat Ryan Sweeting of the US 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and Serbian sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic stopped India's Somdev Devvarman 7-6 (9/7), 6-2.
For now, Murray plans to work with former Spanish star Alex Corretja pending the appointment of a new coach. "It wasn't necessarily something that Miles wasn't bringing," Murray said. "We had a chat when we were in Miami about how we saw things. We all saw things pretty differently.
"Between the three of us, we obviously had different ideas and different ways of seeing things-what I felt was beneficial to me and what Miles and Alex felt was beneficial to me.
"The last few years have gone very, very well. But I want to try and get to No. 1 in the world and try to win Grand Slams."
Murray is still waiting to break his Grand Slam duck and it remains to be seen if the sacking Maclagan so close to the season's final major championship pays dividends.

  Broad keen to match father’s Ashes exploits
AFP, Nottingham, England

Stuart Broad has admitted his father will have family bragging rights until he too is a member of an England team that has won an Ashes series in Australia.
England begin their defence of the Ashes in Australia in November knowing that not since 1986/87 have they won a Test series 'Down Under'.
Chris Broad, now an International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee, but then an opening batsman played a key role in that series in Australia with hundreds in three successive Tests.
Stuart Broad, primarily a right-arm seamer but also, like his father, a left-hand bat, was just a few months old when Chris set off for a tour that has become etched in English memories.
Broad junior has already followed in his father's footsteps once by moving from his original county (in his case Leicestershire) to play for Nottinghamshire, at whose Trent Bridge headquarters he is set to feature for England in the first Test against Pakistan here on Thursday. Now Stuart, whose five-wicket haul in last year's final Test against Australia at The Oval helped England regain the Ashes 2-1, wants to be on the winning side in Australia as well.
"We had a video called 'On Top Down Under', which was about the (1986/87) series and I always used to watch it," Stuart Broad told the Independent newspaper. "With pride too, because of my dad's role. "Whenever we talk about our careers, dad will always have the upper hand until we have won in Australia," added Broad, who heads into the Pakistan opener on the back of a first- class best of eight wickets for 52 runs for Nottinghamshire against Warwickshire. He also said Australia, held recently to a 1-1 series draw in England by Pakistan, now looked a less formidable side than the one that dominated Ashes contests throughout the 1990s until England won in 2005 only to lose 5-0 on the subsequent tour.
"Any team that loses (Shane) Warne, (Glenn) McGrath, (Matthew) Hayden, (Justin) Langer, (Adam) Gilchrist in the space of two years is not going to be as strong as when these boys were in their pomp.
"But they still have world-class players."
"Even so, I feel this England team has an opportunity to create a legacy for the future in the same way as my father's team."
And England batsman Paul Collingwood insisted: "Everybody in the team is very confident that we can do it this time round. That's genuine confidence.
"We've had a good 18 months. We've had the building blocks, continued to grow and get things right."
He added: "I think we're ready. It really has come at a time when we can say we'll be as ready as we can ever be. "We've just got to make sure in these next two months we continue in that same manner."

  Defiant Lennon backs Celtic to hit back
AFP, Braga, Portugal

Defiant Celtic manager Neil Lennon believes the Old Firm giants can overturn their 3-0 defeat against Sporting Braga and reach the Champions League play-off round.
The Celtic coach's European debut ended in disaster as he watched his side concede two late goals in the third qualifying round first leg to leave themselves with a mountain to climb in the Parkhead return next week. "Some people may think the tie is over - we don't," he declared.
"We've got a good record at home, we've been in this position before and we'll just have to go and be at our very best next week." The Portuguese side, playing in the Champions League for the first time, took a first-half lead when Brazilian Osorio Alan converted a controversial 25th minute penalty after South Korean international Ki Sung-Yeung appeared to block a cross in the box with his arm. Second-half goals from Nigerian defender Uwa Elderson Echiejile and Brazilian substitute Nascimento Matheus, who scored a sensational free-kick from nearly 35 yards in the 88th minute, means the Glasgow side will have a tough task in front of them at Celtic Park.
With no safety net of a place in the Europa League qualifiers available to the losing side Celtic face the prospect of exiting European competition before the Scottish domestic season has even started.
Celtic managers have had unhappy times in their European debuts in recent seasons with Gordon Strachan going down 5-0 to Slovakian minnows Artmedia Bratislava while Tony Mowbray lost his first competitive game in charge to Dynamo Moscow at this stage last year.

   Ton-up Raina, Tendulkar help India save follow-on
AFP, Colombo

Suresh Raina scored a century on debut and Sachin Tendulkar built on his 48th hundred as India averted the follow-on in the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka on Thursday.
India, replying to Sri Lanka's mammoth 642-4 declared, carried their overnight total of 382-4 to 477 without further loss by lunch on the fourth day at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
Tendulkar and Raina, who came together on Wednesday afternoon with India struggling at 241-4, have so far added 236 runs for the fifth wicket on a pitch still favouring stroke-making. Left-hander Raina went to lunch unbeaten on 112, becoming the ninth Indian to score a century in his first Test, while Tendulkar was on a masterly 152 not out.
Tendulkar, the world's leading run-getter, equ-alled West Indian Brian Lara's record of 19 scores of 150-plus. Australian legend Don Bradman did it on 18 occasions.
Raina, 23, already a veteran of 98 one-day internationals, was awarded his Test cap only after Yuvraj Singh reported sick on the opening day of the match.
He has so far hit two sixes and 11 boundaries, reaching the landmark with a fluent off-drive against seamer Dammika Prasad that raced to the fence. Sri Lanka missed the wicket-taking abilities of the retired Muttiah Muralitharan and injured fast bowler Lasith Malinga as the young crop of bowlers failed to contain the Indians. Debutant off-spinner Suraj Randiv and unorthodox slow bowler Ajantha Mendis, who dismissed two batsmen each on the third day, went wicketless on the fourth morning.
Randiv has so far conceded 159 runs from 49 overs, while Mendis has given away 98 runs in 28 overs. Muralitharan and Malinga claimed 15 of the 20 Indian wickets in the first Test in Galle last week, which Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

   Nigeria women strike African sprint double
AFP, Nairobi

Blessing Okagbare and Seun Adigun sealed a double victory for Nigeria in the women's 100 metres and 100-metre hurdles on the second day of the African Athletics Championships here on Thursday.
Okagbare made up for a poor start to record a convincing victory that equalled her personal best mark of 11.03 seconds, well clear of Perennes Pau Zang Milama of Gabon, who took the silver medal in 11.15sec.
Former champion Damola Osayemi of Nigeria came third. "Whatever championships I have won this year, I have worked hard for it. I have trained hard and am really grateful to God that everything is in place for me," said Okagbare, who is also an Olympic long jump bronze medallist. "My goal this year is to break the African record at the Commonwealth Games," she added.
But there was disappointment for the Nigerian men's champion Obinna Metu, who finished seventh behind the surprise race winner, Ben Youssef Meite of the Ivory Coast, who timed 10.08sec.

  Lemaitre wins European 100m title, Chambers fifth
AFP, Barcelona

France's Christophe Lemaitre won the European 100m title here on Wednesday.
Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis took silver with Martial Mbandjock of France claiming bronze.
Lemaitre, who became the first sprinter of European origin to break through 10sec three weeks ago, timed 10.11sec with both Lewis-Francis and Mbandjock clocking 10.18sec. "I gave it everything I had, it was a very good race," said the 20-year-old Lemaitre.
"I was worried at the start, but after that I ran the kind of race I normally run. I knew I had a chance of a medal, even winning gold."
Britain's controversial sprinter Dwain Chambers, the world indoor 60m champion who once served a two-year doping ban, finished in a disappointing fifth place. "Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but I'm happy for Mark, he has had to fight hard to get here," said Chambers. "I had to rely on my experience which kept me relaxed but it wasn't enough to win. I just got to keep on ploughing at it until my opportunity prevails." Lewis-Francis was stunned by his silver medal performance.
"I came here on a lucky star - I was told I wouldn't make the final. I'm so happy now. It is the biggest comeback, the biggest confidence boost," he said. "People still had doubts, let's hope I have answered some of them."

  Russia investigates 12 cases of corruption
AFP, Moscow

Russian investigators are probing 12 cases of corruption at the Vancouver Oly-mpics after a report exposed lavish spending by sports officials, the head of the federal audit chamber said Thursday.
"We are talking about a number of contracts and improper use of funds, allocated to train elite sportsmen," Sergei Stepashin told the Interfax news agency.
The investigative committee of Russia's prosecutor general's office "has launched criminal probes into 12 episodes," Stepashin said, without elaborating.
"I am sure that these criminal cases will be implemented in concrete terms." A report published by the federal audit chamber earlier this month found that Russia spent a total of 6.2 billion rubles (200 million dollars) on the 2010 Winter Olympics, which reaped a mere three gold medals.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko claimed for five breakfasts per day, while staying in a hotel suite that cost 1,400 US dollars per night for 20 nights, the report revealed.
A visit by Russian pop star, Dima Bilan, the winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, cost Russia 77,000 US dollars.

  Argentine president saddened by Maradona sacking
AFP, Buenos Aires

Argentina President Cristina Kirchner has expressed her sadness at Diego Maradona's sacking as national football coach, saying the star did not deserve his treatment.
Kirchner personally phoned Maradona after his press conference on Wednesday evening during which he lashed out at Argentine Football Federation president Julio Grondona and team manager Carlos Bilardo.
The 49-year-old Maradona has accused Grondona of lying and Bilardo of treason in a bitter attack on the two men he insisted plotted his downfall.
"I'm very saddened by his departure. I thought he was very dignified with the team," said Kirchner. "He always defended the colours of his country with a lot of heart."
The captain of the 1986 World Cup winners read from a prepared statement and refused to answer questions at the press conference.