Dubai wild card for Sania

India’s tennis sensation Sania Mirza will return to action in Dubai as a wild card entry at the Dubai Open after a knee injury prevented her from playing at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships last year.

The Indian star makes a welcome return to the scene of one of her greatest triumphs, where in 2005 she stunned Russian world number seven Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Australia fined for slow over-rate

Australia were on Monday fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during their 18-run victory over India in the cricket tri-series one-dayer in Sydney, reports PTI from Dubai.

International Cricket Council-appointed Match Referee Jeff Crowe imposed the fine after the Aussies were ruled to be two overs short of their target when time allowances were taken into consideration.

In accordance with the ICC Code of Conduct, players are fined five percent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount. Ponting was fined 20 percent of his match fees, while each of his players got a penalty of 10 percent.

Mittal bags gold in clay shooting

Ajay Mittal clinched the gold medal in junior men category and also helped India win the team gold on a day when Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore failed to enter the double trap finals of the Asian Clay Shooting Championship on Monday, reports IANS from Jaipur.

Mittal shot 126 points to clinch the top spot. He along with Sangram Singh Dahiya (114 points) and Chetan Kumar Sanwal (98) helped India garner 338 points to finish clinch the gold medal on a windy day.

Dhoni, Yuvraj move up

Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni climbed four places to ninth position in the latest LG ICC ODI rankings as his deputy Yuvraj Singh also improved by three places to move to the 16th spot, reports UNI from Dubai.
However, little master Sachin Tendulkar’s poor scores in the on-going CB series Down Under resulted in his exit from the top 10 ODI batsmen’s list. Tendulkar lost seven places to slip to 14th spot.

Paes drops to 17th place

Facing an unprecedented revolt from his Davis Cup team, Indian skipper Leander Paes dropped a couple of spots to 17th, while his estranged partner Mahesh Bhupathi clung on to his 19th position in the latest ATP doubles rankings issued on Monday, reports PTI from New Delhi.

Meanwhile, in the WTA rankings, Sania Mirza remained at 32nd in the singles chart. Her doubles’ ranking also remained unchanged at 23rd.

Ryder asked to apologise

New Zealand batsmen Jesse Ryder will apologise to hospital staff for his unruly behaviour after slashing his hand during a wild night out, reports Reuters from Wellington.

Ryder underwent surgery at Christchurch Hospital on Sunday after cutting his hand on a window at a Christchurch nightclub while celebrating his team’s one-day series win over England. The 23-year-old had already been told to pay for the damage and apologise to the bar owner and New Zealand Cricket officials said he also owed an apology to the hospital staff for his "rude and demanding" behaviour.

WI, Pak to play in Abu Dhabi

West Indies and Pakistan will play a three-match one-day series in November in Abu Dhabi, a local official said on Monday, reports Reuters from Abu Dhabi.