South Africa will be seeking to bounce back in the second Test against Sri Lanka, starting at St George's Park on Thursday, after Kusal Perera'a heroics handed them a chastening defeat in the first Test.
Perera became a national hero in Sri Lanka after scoring an unbeaten 153 in Durban to guide his country to a sensational first Test victory in South Africa.
Although it was Perera who stole the headlines in the team's dramatic one-wicket win, the rest of the players rose to rookie captain Dimuth Karunaratne's challenge to "compete in every session".
With Sri Lanka having a largely unheralded bowling attack, it seems South Africa seriously under-estimated their opponents.
In consequence, South Africa are likely to have a change of strategy after going into the Durban match with a four-pronged pace attack as well as spinner Keshav Maharaj. It left them with only six recognised batsmen.
Left-arm swing bowler Vishwa Fernando and debutant left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya took eight and .

South Africa seek to bounce back after Perera heroics

PTI Automatic

Indonesia has submitted a bid to host the 2032 Olympics, officials said Tuesday, after the Southeast Asian nation's widely lauded handling of the Asian Games last summer.
Muliaman Hadad, Indonesia's ambassador to Switzerland, submitted a formal bid letter from President Joko Widodo to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne last week, the foreign ministry confirmed Tuesday.
"This is the right moment to show Indonesia's capability as a big country," Hadad said in a statement made public this week.
Widodo publicly expressed Indonesia's interest in hosting the 2032 event in the capital, Jakarta, during last year's Asian Games -- the world's second biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympics.
India has also expressed an interest in hosting the 2032 games while North and South Korea have said they might enter a joint bid.
The IOC will announce the 2032 host by 2025. If successful, Indonesia would be the fourth Asian Olympics host after Japan, South Korea and China.
The next 

Indonesia submits formal bid to host the 2032 Olympics

Myanmar set up a committee to discuss reforming the country's military-drafted constitution on Tuesday, pitting Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government openly against the powerful armed forces for the first time over the incendiary issue.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide in 2015 elections, but was forced into an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the armed forces.
Under a 2008 charter it drafted, the military controls all security ministries and is gifted a quarter of parliamentary seats.
That hands the army an effective veto over any constitutional change.
Suu Kyi's party has promised to reform the controversial document.
With 2020 polls looming, parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to form a cross-party committee to debate reforms of the charter.
The main purpose of the "all-inclusive" panel will be to "write a bill to change the 2008 constitution", deputy speaker and committee chair Tun Tun Hein, an NLD lawmaker, told parliament.
The NLD will ..

Myanmar picks panel to reform army-scripted constitution

The arrest in Russia of prominent US and French investors on suspicion of fraud has sent shockwaves through Western business circles and sparked fears of cutbacks in foreign investment sorely needed for economic growth.
The founder and employees of the Baring Vostok private equity firm were arrested on Friday in a case brought with the help of the FSB security service.
The arrest took place on the same day Russia hosted leading business people in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for a major economic forum which trumpeted the country's openness to investment.
Michael Calvey, a US citizen and the founder and director of Baring Vostok, has been placed in pre-trial detention in a Moscow jail for the next two months for alleged fraud, along with five others - including Philippe Delpal, a French citizen.
They are accused of defrauding Vostochny Bank of at least 2.5 billion rubles (USD 37.7 million). All of them deny any wrongdoing and blame the case on a shareholder dispute.
In an opinion ...

Russian arrests of foreign businessmen shocks Western investors

The founder of Chinese telecom giant Huawei has hit back at US efforts to blacklist the company, saying defiantly that the world cannot do without Huawei and its "more advanced" technology.
"There's no way the US can crush us," Ren Zhengfei said in an interview with the BBC.
"The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced." Ren, 74, also denounced as "politically motivated" the December arrest of his daughter, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, who is accused of violating US sanctions against Iran and faces an extradition hearing in Canada next month.
"We object to this," he said.
"But now that we've gone down this path, we'll let the courts settle it." The normally media-shy Huawei founder has been forced to step into the limelight in recent months as the company has come under increasing pressure over espionage concerns and the US-led campaign to persuade other countries to ban its technology.
Last year, security concerns prompted Australia to ban Huawei equipment .

Huawei's founder says world can't live without it

After years of struggling alone or finding support in national groups, survivors of sex abuse by priests have formed a new international alliance to pressure the Catholic Church to face up to its crimes.
The group, called Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA), brings together activists from dozens of countries on several continents, and will be mobilised in Rome this week when Pope Francis hosts a hotly awaited summit on tackling the wave of child sex abuse scandals shaking the Catholic Church.
"It's a momentous and a historic movement... to bring a global and unified voice," one of its co-founders, Peter Saunders, told AFP. "This is the first truly global initiative."
Saunders' personal story is among countless others suffered by people who grouped together to form ECA last June, including survivors from Chile, Poland, Switzerland, France, Italy, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.
"I was abused at seven years old by a family member. I was also sexually abused by two Jesuit ..

Victims of Church sex abuse go global with fight for justice

The North Korean special representative for the US arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, apparently en route to Vietnam to meet his Washington counterpart ahead of a second scheduled summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
Kim Hyok Chol arrived in the Chinese capital at around 10 am (0200 GMT) and was expected to board a plane bound for Hanoi later in the day.
Kim's trip comes three days after Kim Jong Un's de-facto chief of staff, Kim Chang Son, landed in Hanoi to discuss protocol and security matters with the US team ahead of the summit on February 27-28.
Kim Hyok Chol and his US counterpart Stephen Biegun were engaged in three days of talks in Pyongyang earlier this month, exploring each side's positions on denuclearisation ahead of the much-anticipated meeting.
Biegun said they had been productive, but more dialogue was needed.  "We have some hard work to do with the DPRK between now and then," Biegun said, adding that he was "confident that if 

N Korean envoy en route to Hanoi ahead of Trump-Kim summit: Yonhap

Sudanese protester Osman Sulaiman has taken to the streets of Khartoum chanting "overthrow, overthrow" almost daily since demonstrations erupted against President Omar al-Bashir's iron-fisted rule in December.
And he insists he has no intention of stopping now.
"We have to fight our battle if we have to secure our future and the future of our country," Sulaiman, an engineering graduate who has been unemployed for years, told AFP.
As the protest campaign against Bashir's regime enters its third month on Tuesday, demonstrators are pressing on with rallies despite a show of defiance from the veteran leader and a sweeping crackdown by the authorities.
Officials say 31 people have died in protest-related violence so far, while Human Rights Watch says at least 51 have been killed including medics and children.
Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists have been jailed by agents of the feared National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).
"The protesters' ...

Sudan protesters remain resilient, but Bashir unbowed

Players will be allowed to wear shorts in PGA Tour practice and pro-am rounds under a change in player appearance guidelines unveiled Monday.
The change, effective immediately, applies only to tournaments on six tours operated under the PGA Tour umbrella.
Long pants will remain required attire for all official competition rounds.  This week's World Golf Championships Mexico Championship and the US PGA Puerto Rico Open will be the first tournaments offering golfers the apparel option.
The move follows years of discussions about shorts being worn during non-competition days with positive feedback from players, fans, sponsors and tournaments for the change.
"It makes the guys a lot more comfortable," four-time major winner Rory McIlroy said of wearing shorts.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with professional golfers showing the lower half of their leg."
James Hahn, co-chairman of the PGA Tour Advisory Council, informed PGA players of the rule change in a video posted on ...

PGA Tour approves shorts for practice, pro-am rounds

Tiger Woods, a 14-time major winner, is paired with Mexico's Abraham Ancer and American Bryson DeChambeau in the first two rounds of the WGC Mexico Championship, organizers announced Monday.
Woods, whose 80 career US PGA titles are two shy of Sam Snead's career record, shared 15th in last week's tour event at Riviera and remains a fan favorite at age 43 even though he last won a major crown at the 2008 US Open.
His group was among four featured threesomes announced early for the first two rounds of the matchup at Club de Golf Chapultepec, which will be the first competitive event played by Woods in Mexico.
Woods owns a record 18 WGC titles from nine different locations worldwide. DeChambeau has won four of his past 10 worldwide starts, two of them in last year's PGA Tour playoffs.
Ancer won last December's Australian Open and ranks sixth on the list of Internationals team qualifiers for the team showdown later this year in Australia against an American squad to be guided by ...

Tiger joined by DeChambeau, Mexico's Ancer in WGC opener

Italian third-tier side Pro Piacenza were on Monday excluded from Serie C after fielding a team of just seven players in a 20-0 defeat by league rivals Cuneo, governing body Lega Pro announced.
Financially troubled Pro Piacenza, a side from northern Italy, have been unable to pay their players and staff, who have been on strike for several weeks.
Before Sunday's game at Cuneo in Piedmont, northern Italy, bottom club Pro Piacenza had already forfeited three matches and a fourth would have seen them kicked out of Serie C.
So they took to the pitch with seven players, all teenagers born between 2000 and 2002. An eighth player could not initially start having forgotten his identity papers, and came on after an hour.
One of the two players born in 2000 was named on the match sheet as the coach, with a team physiotherapist even taking to the pitch at one point to substitute a player who was suffering from cramps.
Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina had slammed the match ..

Italian side kicked out of Serie C after 20-0 defeat

Leeds United have escaped a points penalty in their quest to be promoted to the Premier League after it was announced Monday they had been fined GBP 200,000 (USD 259,000, 229,000 euros) and reprimanded for spying on their opponents.
Leeds faced an investigation by the English Football League after veteran manager Marcelo Bielsa admitted sending someone to spy on Derby at their training ground ahead of a match last month.
The club formally admitted a breach of Regulation 3.4 which states: "In all matters and transactions relating to the League, each Club shall behave towards each other Club and The League with the utmost good faith."
Many were uncertain, however, whether Bielsa had committed a specific offence and the EFL now plan to clarify the situation by introducing a new rule that bans teams from viewing opposition training in the 72 hours immediately before a match, unless invited to do so.
EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey, announcing the punishments against Leeds, said Monday: ..

'Spygate' Leeds fined 200,000 pounds but no points deduction

Inter Milan's Chinese president Steven Zhang on Monday ruled out selling unsettled Argentine forward Mauro Icardi to Serie A rivals Juventus.
It follows comments from Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici that the champions would keep an eye on the striker's situation in the summer after he was stripped of the captain's armband during the week.
"Will Icardi ever join Juventus? No, never," said Zhang after a shareholders' meeting at the San Siro on Monday.
"This has been spoken about a lot in the past week and a lot of confusion has been created. I would like to put an end to this topic because the club has already made a decision and continuing to talk about it doesn't help us to achieve our goals.
"Icardi is a great player, he's a professional and a very important member of our family. We are in negotiations to renew his contract, and he's an important player for this club."
Icardi, who turns 26 on Tuesday, watched from the stands with his wife and agent Wanda Nara as Inter beat .

No chance Icardi going to Juventus, says Inter president Zhang

Portuguese winger Nani, a four-time Premier League champion and 2008 UEFA Champions League winner with Manchester United, signed a three-year contract Monday with Orlando City of Major League Soccer.
The 32-year-old who helped Portugal win the 2016 European crown joined the Florida side on a free transfer from Sporting Lisbon.
"This is an exciting day for our organization," Orlando City executive vice president of soccer operations Luiz Muzzi said.
"Nani brings tremendous experience to our roster. He's a dynamic winger with quality abilities to move and cross the ball, impact games and lead the offensive play."
The Lions need all those things after a miserable 2018 campaign, with only eight wins and four drawn from 32 matches for the second-worst record in MLS, last in the Eastern Conference with 28 points.
Nani had nine goals in 58 appearances with Sporting as a teen star before joining compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo in 2007 at Old Trafford, where he would remain through 2014 with 41 ..

Orlando signs Portuguese winger Nani to three-year deal

Los Angeles Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic set an exceptional challenge for the upcoming Major League Soccer season on Sunday, vowing to rewrite the league record book this year.
The 37-year-old Swedish superstar unveiled new Galaxy jerseys in a flashy entrance, then told a crowd of fans his ambitious plans for the 2019 campaign.
"This season I will bring something to you. I will break every record in the MLS this season," Ibrahimovic said.
Zlatan scored 22 goals and set up 10 others in 27 MLS contests last season, launching him into the new season with great expectations.
The Galaxy, who host their season opener against Chicago on March 2, went 13-12 with nine drawn last season to miss the MLS playoffs by a single point.
Among the more impressive MLS records Zlatan would be trying to shatter are goals in nine consecutive games, an assist in eight consectuve matches and four goals in one half.
Josef Martinez of Atlanta set the one-season MLS goals record with 31 in 34 games played .

Zlatan vows to 'break every record in MLS this season'

Defenders Aleksandar Kolarov and Federico Fazio both scored in the second half as Roma closed in on the Champions League places with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Bologna on Monday.
Eusebio Di Francesco followed their Champions League last 16, first-leg win over Porto last week by consolidating fifth position and are now just a point behind AC Milan in fourth.
"We couldn't afford to fall behind today. We're happy with the three points, less so with the performance," said Di Francesco.
Champions Juventus are 13 points clear of second-placed Napoli after Cristiano Ronaldo sealed a 3-0 win against Frosinone on Friday.
Napoli lost points after being held to a goalless draw against Torino while Inter Milan are a further seven points behind in third after beating Sampdoria 2-1.
Atalanta and Lazio are three points behind the Romans in sixth after losing to AC Milan (3-1) and Genoa (2-1) respectively at the weekend.
Roma could thank Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen for keeping them in the game ...

Kolarov, Fazio score to edge Roma closer to Champions League berths

Under-fire Maurizio Sarri admitted his Chelsea flops played "confused" football as they crashed out of the FA Cup with a tame 2-0 defeat against Manchester United on Monday.
Sarri was subjected to calls for his sacking from angry Chelsea fans during the troubled team's fifth defeat in their last 10 games.
Booed off at the final whistle, the beleaguered Blues manager felt Chelsea deserved better after the FA Cup holders started the fifth round clash on top.
But he conceded they lacked direction and focus in a tepid second half surrender.
"Tonight we were unlucky because we played a very good first half and at the end of the half the score was 2-0," Sarri said.
"We gave them a few opportunities. We played confusing football in the second half. After the first half it wasn't easy to play with that score."
Toothless Chelsea managed only two shots on target all night and the limp second half display suggested the players are hardly doing everything in their power to save Sarri.
Sarri has ..

'We were confused': Sarri frustrated as Chelsea woes mount

Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund dropped more points in the title race on Monday when they were held to a goalless draw at bottom side Nuremberg.
Dortmund are now just three points ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich, the defending champions who won 3-2 at Augsburg on Friday, with their lead slashed from nine points after drawing their last three league games.
"That was definitely too little from us, we have to pick up points again," said forward Mario Goetze.
"They didn't make it easy for us by standing deep, but we must improve."
Even without injured playmaker Marco Reus, plus defenders Lukasz Piszczek and Manuel Akanji, this was another below-par display from the league leaders.
Nuremberg were hammered 7-0 at Dortmund last September, but this was a vastly improved display from the hosts and the draw was celebrated like a win on the home bench.
It was their first game under caretaker coaches Marek Mintal and Boris Schommers after both head coach Michael Knoeller and director of 

Dortmund drop more points at bottom side Nuremberg

Paul Pogba drove Manchester United into the FA Cup quarter-finals and pushed Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri closer to the sack as the troubled holders crashed to a 2-0 defeat on Monday.
Pogba set up United's opening goal for Ander Herrera with a majestic cross and the France star added the second himself as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side produced a commanding display at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea's lacklustre fifth round exit -- their first FA Cup defeat since the 2017 final -- was another painful blow for Sarri, who is facing a fight to save his job following a dismal debut season.
Chelsea suffered their heaviest defeat for 28 years when they were thrashed 6-0 at Manchester City earlier this month, an indignity that came just weeks after a humiliating 4-0 loss at Bournemouth.
Amid claims Sarri has lost the support of his players, the former Napoli boss watched ashen-faced as Chelsea collapsed again for a fifth defeat in their last 10 games.
Sarri was subjected to chants of "you don't know 

Sarri on the brink as Pogba fires United into FA Cup last eight

Having been rejected as an eight-year-old by Schalke 04, Ilkay Gundogan is relishing returning to Gelsenkirchen with Manchester City in what could potentially be a one-sided Champions League clash.
While Pep Guardiola's high-flying City are top the Premier League table, Schalke, Wednesday's opponents in the last 16, first-leg clash, are just above the Bundesliga's relegation places and struggling to score goals down in 14th place.
Like City's Germany winger Leroy Sane, Gundogan, 28, began his career at Schalke's academy, but despite having been rejected as a child after only one season, there will be no element of revenge come kick-off at the Veltins Arena.
"I have (forgiven them), but it wasn't always so," Gundogan told German magazine Kicker with a grin.
"At the time, due to growth spurts, I had physical problems and couldn't play any sports for half a year, so I dropped out. Three or four years later, Schalke attempted to contact me, but I was a bit resentful.
"I just wanted to ...

Gundogan relishing coming home with Man City after Schalke snub

As their Premier League title rivals Liverpool sunned themselves in Marbella last week, Manchester City were getting muddy in Newport on Saturday to keep alive the prospect of a historic clean sweep of four trophies.
City's focus switches from south Wales to Schalke on Wednesday for the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie before a Wembley final against Chelsea on Sunday for the right to lift the first silverware of the season in the League Cup.
A decade into the club's Abu Dhabi ownership, the importance for City to win the Champions League for the first time would have made it easy for the English champions to prioritise Europe this season.
However, after romping to the league with a record 100 points last year, it is another piece of history that Pep Guardiola's side now crave by outdoing even Manchester United's treble of league, Champions League and FA Cup in 1998/99.
Two weeks on from smashing Chelsea 6-0, City will be heavy favourites to retain the League Cup this ...

AFP

AFP

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