Sachin looks set for ODIs

New Delhi: As Sachin Tendulkar has not said that he is unavailable for the one-day series against Pakistan, it is being assumed that he will play the three matches. Sachin struggled in the recent four-match Test series against England, averaging a poor 18.66. Pakistan will arrive in Bangalore Saturday to play the first bilateral series against India in five years.

January date

Karachi: Bangladesh have agreed to tour Pakistan next month in the first visit by any country since armed militants attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009, PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf said on Friday.

Cricket meet

Calcutta: SBCA beat Bournvita CA by 8 wickets, in the Manthan Cup, on Friday.

Brief Scores

Bournvita CA 186/8 (Avishek Roy 58, Manas Mondal 3/20). SBCA 187/2 (Sarosij Mukherjee 97 n.o.). SBCA won by 8 wkts

Top billing

Chennai: Mahesh Bhupathi and his new partner Daniel Nestor will be the top-seeded pair at the Chennai Open, starting December 31.

Fed Cup

New Delhi: Sania Mirza will lead the four-member Indian side in the upcoming Asia/Oceania Group I tie of the Fed Cup. The other members are Kyra Shroff, Rutuja Bhosale and Rishika Sunkara.

Win for India

Doha: VR Raghunath yet again scored a brace as defending champions India fought hard to post a 3-1 win over a fighting Japan in the Asian Champions Trophy, here on Friday. Gurwinder Chandi scored the other.

Good start

New Delhi: Parimarjan Negi got off to a good start as he held top seed Radoslav Wojtaszek of Poland to a draw in the AICF-AAI Chess Cup at the AAI institute on Friday. Abhijeet Gupta held Krishnan Sasikiran and Ukrainian Anton Korobov also signed peace with Evgeny Alekseev of Russia.

Shreyasi best

New Delhi: Shreyasi Singh of Bihar won the gold in the women’s trap event even as Abhinav Bindra slipped a place to second in men’s 10-m air rifle competition at the 56th Shooting National Championship.

Iraq denial

Baghdad: The Iraqi Football Association on Friday denied media reports that it was negotiating with Diego Maradona to take over as a coach of the national team.

New secretary

Calcutta: The Bengal Hockey Association (BHA) will see a new general secretary in Salil Basu. Gurbux Singh, who had held the post from 1996, will now be one of six vice-presidents. This was decided at a meeting, on Friday.

The Office Bearers

President: Gautam Mohan Chakraborty; Vice-presidents: Gurbux Singh, Swapan Banerjee, Surojit Kar Purakayastha, Gopinath Ghosh, Noomi Mehta, Dilip Bhattacharya; General secretary: Salil Basu; Treasurer: Nand Kishore Rai

Agencies