The Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson as their new cricket coach at press conference in Karachi today whereas BCCI is still looking for the options after being declined by Graham Ford . Board chairman Nasim Ashraf told a news conference that Lawson had been preferred over two other short-listed candidates, Dav Whatmore and Richard Done. He dismissed claims that Arjuna Ranatunga's comments regarding Whatmore played a part in the decision, or that the players, many of whom were in favour of Lawson, had exercised their influence unduly. Ashraf said,  Lawson is our choice and we are confident he will help the Pakistan team into a new era of success. Geoff Lawson, a level 3 qualified ...

The footballer Thierry Henry has split with his English wife Claire who is also known by her modelling name Nicole Merry after four years of marriage. The couple have a two year old daughter called Téa There had been claims their marriage was put under strain by Henry's £16 million transfer to Barcelona last month and that the 27-year-old Claire,who was born in Croydon, Surrey, wanted to stay in London. Henry, who is French, had been seeing Claire for two years at the time of their wedding. They were married in a lavish ceremony at Highclere Castle, Berkshire, in July 2003. Henry Family in happy days  A statement through his lawyers said, Thierry is extremely saddened by the breakdown of his marriage. ...

After getting naked with wife Victoria for the latest edition of America’s trendy W magazine, the 32-year old former England Captain, David Beckham, has finally joined the World Wide Web and has launched his own website, www.davidbeckham.com, which also have a blog. The website covers News, Football/Soccer, Blog, Lifestyle (must be Posh's idea), David Beckham Academy and Charity. The England star, who was unveiled as a Los Angeles Galaxy football club player last week, admits on site it took him a long time to getting round to setting it up. The Football ( now Soccer ) Star writes on his blog, Hi everybody,Thanks for joining me on davidbeckham.com – it does seem incredible ...

Muttiah Muralitharan has set his eyes on taking 1000 Test wickets after becoming only the second bowler in history to reach 700. He is now only nine wickets away from surpassing retired Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne's world record of 708 to become the most successful bowler ever in the game. The champion off-spinner achieved the landmark with the last ball of the third and final Test against Bangladesh in Kandy when he had Bangladesh's last man Syed Rasel caught in the deep by Farveez Maharoof to secure a Sri Lanka's victory by an innings and 193 runs. Muralitharan told reporters It is a big achievement taking 700 wickets but I think I can achieve a little bit more, I anyway knew I ...

Unbelievable but true incident - Brian Bennett, a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter had to leave the stadium during a Louisville-Oklahoma State baseball game for posting live updates of the NCAA baseball tournament game on his website. The National Collegiate Athletic Association says reporting on the "game in progress" violates the exclusive broadcasting rights it sold to ESPN and CBS SportsLine.com. The NCAA says, Bloggers can write about the game before it starts or after it's over. In between, they can blog about "the atmosphere, crowd and other details," but not about the game itself. Does the NCAA really think anyone wants to read about the "atmosphere, crowd and other details" at a college baseball game? Hardly anyone cares about college baseball, period. ...

The English Football Premiership Club Manchester United's boss Sir Alex Ferguson has forbidden his young players to use Social Networking websites especially Facebook in an effort to protect them from want-to-be WAGS. A number of young stars – including England's Kieran Richardson cousin of Big Brother 8 UK housemate Charley Uchea - at Old Trafford have set up sites on social networks like Facebook but have been ordered to go offline. Ferguson is worried they will be stalked by girls and get themselves into trouble with revealing photos or wall messages. Fergei felt a few of the players could get themselves into trouble on those websites. 'He trusts them but didn't want them to run the risk ...

Saqlain Mushtaq says he has got back his confidence and self-esteem after his performance against India for Sussex and is open to the idea of donning the England cap to satisfy his desire to return to top flight cricket. The 30-year-old Pakistan's forgotten off-spinner made a successful comeback to competitive cricket this week with a four-wicket haul against India in a tour match. It was his first proper match in two years time after he underwent two surgeries to correct knee injuries that have haunted him since 2004 when he last played for Pakistan, ironically also against India in Multan finishing with the unimpressive figures of 1 for 204. Saqlain, who was also last week granted a ...

Brazil's 1970 World Cup winning team have been voted the best of all time in a global poll of experts conducted by World Soccer magazine. World Soccer magazine described Brazil's 1970 winners as "more than a team", adding: "the Brazilian side that won the 1970 World Cup in such style have become a myth, a team to be held up as the ultimate exponents of the beautiful game". The greatest goal of all time was judged to be Diego Maradona's mesmerising second against England in Argentina's 2-1 quarter-final victory in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals in Mexico City. The vote for the greatest match of all time completed a hat-trick for events that took place in World Cups in Mexico. The experts ...

Texas billionaire Allen Stanford has given West Indies cricket USD 100 million over three years. Stanford told that most of the funding would go towards grassroots development to prepare for the second Stanford Twenty20 tournament early in 2008. The announcement came with the news that two new sides, Cuba and Turks-Caicos, would join the existing 19 teams for the month-long Stanford 20/20 tournament to be held from January 25 to February 24 . Turks and Caicos will receive USD 100,000 in capital investment funding and USD180,000 to spend on the development of players and coaches, and the maintenance of facilities and equipment. Stanford said international policies meant the same funding could not be given to Cuba, but the Stanford 20/20 board would offer ...

Serena Williams has revealed her belief, the positive thoughts that will help her to win Wimbledon. The US Tennis Star keeps a notebook in which she writes inspirational messages to herself. These empowering thoughts must have been the secret behind Serena William's miraculously recovery against Daniela Hantuchova. Suddenly during the second set, Williams collapsed behind the baseline, from calf cramp. But with a taped-up leg she continued  and managed to beat Daniela with 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 score in rain interrupted match. After the match, she said, I decided I was going to die trying, I just had to go back on court, no matter what. It would have been weird if I hadn't tried. Extracts from the double Wimbledon champion's inspirational notebook:   My good thoughts are powerful My only negative ...