■ Cricket
Sri Lanka tour rescheduled
Sri Lanka's abandoned tour of New Zealand has been rescheduled for April. New Zealand Cricket officials announced yesterday that two Tests would be played from April 4 to April 8 and April 11 to April 15 at venues still to be decided. The Tests were originally scheduled to take place this month but were postponed because of the south Asian tsunami disaster. New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden announced the Kiwis would host three one-day matches later this month against a Rest of the World team, captained by Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne to raise money for tsunami victims.
■ Cricket
Butcher out of tour
England batsman Mark Butcher's tour to South Africa ended on Monday when he was ruled out because of a wrist injury. "Mark will see a specialist in Johannesburg and fly home in the next few days," England media manager Dave Clarke said. "He tried to have a bat in the nets this morning but was unable to grip the bat." Warwickshire's Ian Bell will replace Butcher for the rest of the tour.
■ Tennis
Hrbaty fined for oranges
With a diamond-encrusted tennis ball in his luggage, Dominik Hrbaty could easily afford to smile about the NZ$200 (US$139) fine a pair of mandarin oranges in his pocket attracted at Auckland airport. The Slovak who, with Daniela Hantuchova, won the diamond trophy at last week's Hopman Cup, flew into New Zealand on Sunday to complete his preparation for next week's Australian Open and was fined by New Zealand customs for attempting to illegally import the fruit. "It was the most expensive mandarins I've ever had," he smiled.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later