Mahanama dropped
Stand-in skipper Hashan Tillekeratne and seasoned bat Roshan Mahanama have been omitted from the pruned Sri Lankan World Cup squad of 18 while former England all-rounder Ian Botham has been hired to train their bowlers ahead of their title defence in England this summer.

Anand slips
Russia's Garry Kasparov recorded his fifth win at the City of Linares chess tournament here to lead nearest rival Vladimir Kramnik by 1.5 points as India's Vishwanathan Anand slipped to third position after his eighth draw at the end of nine rounds. Kasparov beat Vassily Ivanchuk to reach seven points while Kramnik (5.5) beat Peter Svidler and Anand (5) drew with Peter Leko.

Rathore hits ton
A skipper's knock of 120 by Vikram Rathore on a wicket that began taking turn in the first hour itself guided Punjab to a commanding position fo 309/6 on the first day of the Group A Ranji Super League match against Vadodara at the IPCL ground in Vadodra on Thursday.

Double for Tara
It was S K Tara's day. The top seed won the double crown at the Reynolds AITA All-India (National) Women's Tennis Tournament in Kochi. Tara won the singles event overpowering Jasleen Randhawa 6-0, 6-0 of Punab and later she combined with Sumitra Rao to beat Nikhila Natarajan and Jasleen 6-1, 6-1.

Kannan survives
Top seed Vijay Kannan (Del) survived a scare from qualifier Meenakshi Sundaram (TN) to make it to the last four while other seeded players had a comparatively easy time in quarter-final matches of the Goldflake Aces Tour tennis championship in Chennai on Thursday. Kannan managed to prevail 6-2 1-6 7-5.