England opener’s duck in first Test has left his Ashes spot in doubt – unlike a certain KP

The England and Wales Cricket Board could face a costly counter-claim from Danish Kaneria because of a delay in hearing the spinner’s appeal against his lifetime ban for fixing.

Neil McCorkell was a regular in the Hampshire cricket XI from 1932 to 1951, a quiet man of no great height who kept wicket and, for much of his career, opened the batting, a demanding combination in the six-day-a-week schedule of those years.

Sinkhole exposed after demolition teams removed final walls of house

More than 500 chasms have opened up in this part of Florida over the past 60 years

Deaths came during fight with insurgents in Uruzgan province

Jeff Bush is presumed dead after being swallowed by opening

His first Festival as a jumps trainer could hardly have left John Ferguson better versed in the extremes of his new calling. He arrived at Cheltenham with a strike rate that reflected the high standards – both in the quality of horses, and their preparation – he had introduced from his continued service as bloodstock manager to Sheikh Mohammed. But he came away only with bittersweet satisfaction: in one of the novice hurdles, Cotton Mill had still been going great guns when running out at the second last; while New Year's Eve ran a blinder in the bumper, only to bump into a Willie Mullins special.

Success in New Zealand and their qualified failure in India have yielded a novel conundrum for England. Along the way, this winter they exchanged wicketkeepers in one-day cricket.

The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has ordered American special forces to leave a province of Afghanistan within two weeks, amid allegations that locals working on behalf of the foreign troops have committed acts of torture.

Suspected insurgents have detonated two bombs that wounded 10 people and staged a series of minor attacks in nearly 30 spots in Thailand's violence-plagued south, police said.

Preliminary results of a post-mortem examination confirm that US country music star Mindy McCready's death was suicide, authorities in Arkansas said today.

The former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has signed a short-term deal to play for Surrey in a significant coup for the county.

The former England batsman and Yorkshire captain Anthony McGrath has retired from cricket after battling against a thumb injury, his county has confirmed.