■ Cricket
Bevan announces retirement
Michael Bevan announced his immediate retirement from first-class cricket yesterday, ending a career that included two World Cup wins with Australia. The 36-year-old Bevan said persistent injuries had prompted him to end his career after scoring 6,912 runs in 232 limited-overs internationals for Australia, including six centuries, at an average of 53.58. Bevan also played 18 tests for Australia, scoring 785 runs at 29.07, and appeared in 237 first-class matches for New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania. He also played for English county sides Kent, Leicestershire, Sussex and Yorkshire and was a useful left-arm spin bowler. He was part of the 1999 and 2003 World Cup-winning sides and had a reputation as one of the best late-innings batsmen in the game, but was dumped from the Australian team in early 2004.
■ Rubgy Union
Toulon hire Tim Lane
Big-spending French second division club Toulon, fresh from hiring ex-All Blacks captain Tana Umaga on a lucrative short-term deal, have hired Australian coach Tim Lane. Lane, who was assistant coach to the Australia team that won the 1999 World Cup, takes over as general manager and backs coach of the side that the now-departed Umaga helped hoist up to third in the competitive second-tier division. Toulon, relegated from the Top-14 division last season, currently stand fourth after going down 26-13 to Mont-de-Marsan at the weekend.
■ Cricket
Moin Khan arrested, bailed
Former Pakistan cricket captain Moin Khan was briefly arrested in the southern city of Karachi after his wife told police that he was drunk and beating her, police said yesterday. Khan, 36, was arrested at his home in the Clifton neighborhood of Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province before dawn on Tuesday. He was later freed on bail, said Azad Khan, an area police chief. Khan yelled at the police officers as they tried to arrest him, Azad said, adding that police produced Khan before a judge, who granted him bail. Khan, a wicketkeeper-batsman, made his international debut against the West Indies in 1990-91, and was with the national team for more than 10 years.
■ Motor Racing
Series returns to Europe
The Champ Car World Series will return to Europe for the first time in five years with races this season in the Netherlands and Belgium. The series, which last raced in Europe in 2003, added races on Sept. 2 at the TT circuit in Assen, Netherlands, and on Sept. 9 at the Zolder circuit in Belgium. It will be the first time that Champ Car has raced in either of those countries. The addition of the two events brings the number of races on this year's Champ Car schedule to 17, marking the most races in the US open-wheel series since 2003.
■ Skiing
Snow airlifted to slopes
Artificial snow has been airlifted by helicopters to the upper reaches of the Olimpia delle Tofane course in preparation for this weekend's World Cup women's alpine ski races. "On Sunday we made 51 flights in two hours," organizing committee president Enrico Valle said. Cortina, like the rest of the Alps, is experiencing its warmest winter in years. Organizers produced artificial snow at the base of the course before transporting it by helicopter to the top portion of the course, which is located beneath jagged mountain peaks. "This snow costs as much as gold, but it's worth it," Valle said.
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