Karachi, Apr. 18 : Cricket South Africa (CSA) has refused to host Pakistan `A' team's tour citing a busy cricket calendar, the Dawn reports.

The CSA has informed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

"The South Africans have informed us that they will be unable to host our A team this year as they are hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Champions Trophy," PCB's Director (Game Development) Aamir Sohail said.

Eindhoven, Netherlands  - Fred Rutten signed a three-year contract as PSV Eindhoven coach in his native Netherlands on Friday, with the job starting on July 1.

Rutten, 46, put pen to paper three weeks after being fired at German club Schalke 04, where he didn't last a full season.

At PSV, Rutten will take over from Dwight Lodeweges, who acted as caretaker since the January retirement of Huub Stevens.

Lausanne, Switzerland  - Abdel Mohamed Halim of Sudan, a former African football supremo and International Olympic Committee member, the IOC said on Friday. He was 99 years old.

Halim was an IOC member 1968-1982 and later an honorary member of the Olympic body.

He made a big contribution to African football as founding member of the continent's football federation in 1957, organizer of the first African Nations Cup the same year in his native Sudan, and African football supremo 1987-1988.

Monte Carlo - Rafael Nadal was due to continue his clay campaign Friday with an afternoon quarter-final against Ivan Ljubicic after finishing off a rain-interrupted contest over Nicolas Lapentti at the Monte Carlo Masters.

Officials at the season clay kick-off were riding a lucky streak of perfect weather before more rain was forecast for the weekend.

Nadal completed a 6-3, 6-0 third-round crushing of the Ecuadorian after getting through only one game on Thursday.

Lausanne, Switzerland  - The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday cancelled a fine of 10,000 dollars imposed on Peru striker Claudio Pizarro by his nation's football federation (PFF) for allegedly misbehaving after a 2007 match with Brazil.

The CAS said in a statement that "the facts put forward by the PFF in relation to Pizarro were not supported by concrete evidence" and added that "the incidents reported by the PFF were not dealt with either in the PFF regulations, or in the FIFA regulations."

London, Apr. 17 : Wayne Rooney and his Manchester United team-mates know they are within touching distance of the Premier League title and now have semi-finals in the FA Cup and Champions League.

The Sun quoted Rooney as saying: "We're so close to glory now but just one defeat could shatter our dreams. We have to make sure we stay focused and prepare properly for the games we have left. Over the last few weeks we've had some terrible results - but maybe that has helped by reminding us what we had to do, by getting back to basics and defending as a team."