Lahore, Dec. 3 : Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik has said that the Indian cricket team’s tour of his country in January and February next year should go ahead, saying "cricket diplomacy" would ease existing tensions between the neighbors.

"If we play cricket matches, then the people of both countries will have a chance to divert their attention and the situation will definitely improve. Cricket diplomacy has helped in the past as well in the same manner," The News quoted Malik as saying.

London  - Sometimes a team's greatest strength can be its greatest weakness.

Nicolas Anelka has scored 12 Premier League goals for Chelsea this season, making him the top-scorer in the division by four.

But a curious fact about the distribution of those goals perhaps reveals a greater truth about Chelsea's true strength this season, and explains their comparatively disappointing home form.

SOUTH BEND, Ind., Dec. 2 - Ryan Ayers and Kyle McAlarney hit 16-of-27 three-pointers and combined for 62 points Tuesday in No. 7 Notre Dame's 102-76 win over South Dakota.

Frankfurt - VfL Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath is on a collision course with German football authorities after saying he would not accept a 10,000-euro (12,700 dollars) fine for insulting a referee.

The German football federation DFB reacted angrily Tuesday after Magath criticized the fine imposed last Friday by its control panel and said he would be appealing.

DFB vice-president Rainer Koch said Magath had "trivialized" an insulting comment to a referee and was "stirring up opinion" against match officials.

Hamburg - Mercedes and BMW have both come out strongly in support of Germany continuing to host a Formula One grand prix in the wake of reports at the weekend that the country could be without a F1 race in 2010 for financial reasons.

Hockenheim GmbH, the cash-strapped company that runs the Hockenheim circuit, is considering withdrawing from the 2010 German Grand Prix and officials from the Nuerburgring have already said they would be unable to stage the event, which would leave the country without a F1 race for the first time in nearly half a century.

Johannesburg - The nine South African cities hosting 2010 World Cup matches will bear the brunt of a 3.2-billion-rand (315 million dollars) cost overrun in the construction and upgrading of stadiums for the event, Business Day newspaper reported Tuesday.

The local organizers of the World Cup have been warning since July that the stadiums are likely to overshoot the original budget by more than 3 billion rand.

Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile confirmed the amount of the overrun in a written reply to a question in parliament from the opposition Democratic Alliance.