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KARACHI: Renowned national wrestler and Olympian Inam Butt secured gold for Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in the 92kg category here in the 35th National Games on Tuesday.

Inam, 36, created history after winning the national championship for the record 18th time.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Army’s Nouman Zaka remained in the second position with silver, whereas Punjab’s Rana Faizan and Railway’s Haider Ali secured bronze medals.

It is pertinent to mention that Inam boasts an impressive wrestling career, having secured various accolades in multiple international events.

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The wreslter hailing from Gujranwala has eight gold, three silver, and one bronze medal, including the Commonwealth Games, World Beach Championships, World Beach Games, Asian Beach Games, and South Asian Games.

For the unversed, the 35th National Games Karachi are currently underway in the metropolitan city, featuring a range of multi-sport events from 6 to 13 December 2025.

The event is bringing together athletes from across the country in a sweeping programme that spans endurance sports, combat disciplines, precision events, and crowd-favourite team competitions.

The event features Olympic mainstays such as athletics, swimming, gymnastics, and fencing. Moreover, Kabbadi, tug of war, netball, and boxing games are also part of the competitions.

It is pertinent to mention that the National Games, first held in 1948, stand among Pakistan’s most prominent multi-sport events and frequently serve as a pathway to international selection.

READ: Red Bull part ways with influential advisor Helmut Marko: reports

Influential advisor Helmut Marko is leaving the Formula One giants, Red Bull, according to several media outlets on Tuesday.

The 82-year-old Austrian has been front and centre of Red Bull’s remarkable run in F1 since their arrival on the grid back in 2005, helping to oversee six constructors’ championships and eight drivers’ titles.

The 1971 winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours for Porsche is a close ally of Max Verstappen, who missed out on a fifth successive title by only two points to McLaren’s Lando Norris in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Marko was responsible for Red Bull’s young driver programme, and was behind Sebastian Vettel’s four titles, along with Verstappen’s emergence as one of the all-time greats.

The decision to split ways with Marko was said to have been made after talks with Red Bull executives in Abu Dhabi on Monday, including Oliver Mintzlaff, one of the Austrian firm’s managing directors in charge of sports, according to motorsport.com.

His departure comes months after Red Bull sacked team principal Christian Horner, who, like Marko, was at the team for its launch two decades ago.

Red Bull declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

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When quizzed on Sunday over his future, Marko responded: “It’s not in question, but I will have a discussion and then see what I do. It’s a complex set of different things.”

Horner’s replacement, Laurent Mekies, hinted changes were afoot.

“Helmut has been incredible in the support he has given us to help turn things around this year,” the Frenchman said.

“Obviously, the management and he had to make several tough decisions throughout the year, and of course, we still have more to make.

“But Formula One is not a static environment: we are always adjusting the organisation, whether in the technical or sporting domain.

“It is perfectly normal for us to constantly review how we can improve our way of working.

“I’m not saying this specifically about Helmut, but in general, we are in an environment where we continuously question ourselves and look for the next steps, no matter how small, to work together.”

READ: Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi land in Australia for BBL 15

Pakistan’s ace duo Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi arrived in Australia for the upcoming 15th edition of the Big Bash League (BBL).

The highly anticipated edition of Australia’s premier T20 competition will begin on December 14.

The star players’ arrival was confirmed via their respective outfits’ Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers social media handles.

 

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“The number one draft pick has landed. Welcome to Brisbane, @iShaheenAfridi,” the Brisbane Heat wrote in its social media caption.

For those unaware, Shaheen was picked by the Brisbane Heat as their No.1 draft pick, while Babar was signed by the Sydney Sixers.

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Meanwhile, the Sixers released a short teaser video of the star batter walking into the dressing room, simply captioned: “He’s arrived.”

 

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It is worth mentioning that this year, several Pakistani players remained hot picks in the BBL 15 auction held earlier.

The tournament, running from December 14 to January 25, 2026, will feature 44 matches. Notably, most of the tournament’s fixtures will be played primarily in prime-time evening slots.

Alongside Babar and Shaheen, several other Pakistan internationals will feature this season: Mohammad Rizwan and Hassan Khan will line up for Melbourne Renegades, Haris Rauf has signed with Melbourne Stars, Shadab Khan with Sydney Thunder, and Hasan Ali with Adelaide Strikers.

The BBL 15 has confirmed that the finals will retain the traditional four-match format, with the Qualifier scheduled for January 20 and the final to be played on January 25.

READ: Can Virat Kohli reach 100 international centuries?

For more than a decade, the cricketing world has lived with one irresistible desire: that one day, Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli might break legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s iconic record of 100 international centuries.

Kohli’s recent resurgence, back-to-back hundreds against South Africa, taking his tally to 84, has reignited the conversation, but it hasn’t changed the hard mathematics.

As much as fans want the chase to continue, the reality is hard to ignore: Kohli now plays only one format, having retired from the other two.

Kohli, who turned 37 last month, finished his Test career on 30 hundreds, signed off from T20Is with one, and continues to dominate the ODI format with 53 centuries, the most in the world.

However, to reach Tendulkar’s 100, he still needs 16 more. In isolation, 16 might not sound impossible. In context, it looks highly improbable.

It’s worth noting that Tendulkar had a 24-year-long international career, playing 664 matches before retiring at 40.

Kohli, in contrast, retired from two formats even before turning 37 and now features only in ODIs, with an eye on the ICC ODI World Cup in 2027.

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It is widely expected that he will retire from professional cricket after the World Cup, leaving him limited time to chase the milestone.

Assuming India reach the World Cup final, Kohli’s upcoming schedule offers roughly 41 matches: 18 ODIs across six three-match series in 2026, a possible six-match Asia Cup, 11 World Cup matches, and a couple of preparatory bilateral series.

Forty-one games to score sixteen hundreds means a century every 2.56 innings, a rate beyond even Kohli’s peak performance.

Interestingly, Kohli has a career ODI century rate of one every 5.54 innings. But, in his last 42 ODIs, the rate improves to one every 4.66 matches, commendable, yet insufficient for the 100-century target.

At this pace, Kohli might finish somewhere between 91 and 93 centuries, a legendary tally, historic, yet shy of the round number that the cricketing world obsesses over.

There’s another hurdle that Virat Kohli may not feature in every series leading up to 2027, especially against weaker teams, where younger players are given opportunities. This could further reduce his chances.

While retirement timing is never certain, he might extend his playing career beyond the World Cup; however, Kohli’s abrupt exits from Test and T20 cricket suggest that he would not do that.

READ: Struggling England suffer major blow ahead of third Ashes Test

England’s fading Ashes hopes took another hit on Tuesday after fast bowler Mark Wood was officially ruled out of the remainder of the series due to a recurrence of his troublesome left-knee injury.

The veteran pacer, who turns 36 in January, played his first Test in 15 months during the Ashes opener in Perth, which England lost inside two days.

He yielded 11 wicketless overs before he reported pain and was sent for specialist assessment. He subsequently missed the second Test in Brisbane, where Australia cruised to a 2–0 lead.

The fast bowler was aiming to feature in the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

However, discomfort from the same knee that had required extensive surgery earlier this year forced England’s medical staff to withdraw him from the campaign.

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According to an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement, Wood will fly home later this week to continue rehabilitation under the board’s medical team.

“Wood will return home later this week and will work closely with the ECB medical team on his rehabilitation and recovery,” an ECB statement said.

The fast bowler expressed his frustration in an emotional message on Instagram.

“Gutted to be out the remainder of the Ashes,” he wrote.

 

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“After extensive surgery and seven long, hard months of work and rehab to get back into the Test arena, my knee just hasn’t held up.

“None of us expected this. I came here with high expectations about making a big impact… I remain determined to give it another proper go. Never give in. Come on, England.”

To fill the void, the ECB confirmed that seamer Matthew Fisher has been added to the senior squad.

The 26-year-old, who played his only Test in 2022 against West Indies, is already in Australia with the England Lions and will join the main squad ahead of the third Test in Adelaide starting December 17.

England’s updated Test squad

Ben Stokes (captain), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (vice-captain), Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Josh Tongue, Matthew Fisher.

READ: Australia quick Josh Hazlewood ruled out of Ashes after injury setback

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot insisted that his relationship with Mohamed Salah has not broken down, even after dropping the star attacker from their trip to face Inter Milan in the Champions League.

“That’s not the way I feel, but he has the right to feel how he feels things. I haven’t felt that at all,” said Liverpool coach Slot to supporters.

The Egyptian forward was not taken to Italy despite training earlier in the day with the first team, after saying he felt like he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club and no longer had a relationship with Slot.

Salah made those comments after he was left on the bench for the third consecutive game in a 3-3 draw against Leeds.

Asked whether Salah, who has scored 250 times for Liverpool since signing from Roma in 2017, had played his last game for the Reds, Slot said: “I have no clue.”

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“I cannot answer that question at this moment in time,” added Arne Slot. “He has every right to feel what he feels, but he doesn’t have the right to share it with the media.”

Liverpool are struggling in ninth place in the Premier League and are in a crisis of form, which has only been made worse by Salah’s criticism of Slot.

Liverpool have won just four times in 15 matches in all competitions and sit 13th in the Champions League with nine points after being thumped 4-1 at home by PSV Eindhoven in their most recent European outing.

Mohamed Salah is the club’s highest-paid player in history, having signed a new contract in April, and played a key role in Liverpool’s two Premier League titles and one Champions League triumph during his iconic spell on Merseyside.

But Salah has been a shadow of his former self during Liverpool’s struggles this season; the Premier League champions are now ninth in the table, with just four goals in 13 top-flight appearances.

READ: Australia quick Josh Hazlewood ruled out of Ashes after injury setback

Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was on Tuesday ruled out of the rest of the Ashes 2025 against England following an injury setback.

Coach Andrew McDonald told reporters that Hazlewood, who missed the first two Tests, had suffered problems in recovering from hamstring and Achilles injuries and would sit out the remaining three matches.

“Really flat for him. A couple of setbacks that we didn’t see coming,” McDonald said. “We thought he’d play a huge part in the series. But really feel for him that he won’t get that opportunity.”

Josh Hazlewood will now aim to be fully fit for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, which begins in February.

Fellow fast bowler Pat Cummins looks certain to return as captain when Australia look to wrap up the series in next week’s third Test in Adelaide.

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The 32-year-old Cummins has been sidelined since the tour to the West Indies in July with a lower back injury.

McDonald said that Cummins had come through a match-like workload in training last week and was ready to play.

“This is something we’ve done with Pat before with longish layoffs, where we’ve put some time and effort into rebuilding his body,” said McDonald.

“He simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells. So we feel as though he’ll be as best prepared as can be.”

Mitchell Starc, who leads the bowling charts with 18 wickets in the first two Tests, had battled a left side niggle at the Gabba but would be fit for Adelaide, said McDonald.

READ: Shakib Al Hasan admits ‘intentional chucking’ during County stint

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has admitted that he bowled with an illegal action during his County Championship stint with Surrey. 

In September 2024, Shakib’s action was reported by the standing umpires while he was playing for Surrey in the County Championship match against Somerset.

Following that, Shakib completed an independent assessment at Loughborough University, which found that the elbow extension in his bowling action exceeded the 15-degree threshold as defined in the Regulations.

Now, the all-rounder has spilled the beans behind his illegal action and revealed the reason behind bowling with an illegal action.

“For Surrey I bowled more than 70 overs in the match, which I had never done before. I was very tired after bowling long [spells],” said Shakib while speaking on YouTube’s “Beard Before Wicket” podcast.

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“I think I deliberately bowled with some illegal action,” he continued

Shakib stated that he was considering issuing a warning; however, the umpire reported it in accordance with the law.

“I played back-to-back Test matches in Pakistan. We won that series, and then I went to play those four-day matches. The only thing I was thinking the umpire could have done was just warn me first, at least. But it is in the rules, so they had the right. I didn’t complain,” he revealed.

The 38-year-old also recalled that he had gone to take the test but failed, and then he trained for a couple of weeks and returned to Surrey.

“I went to do the test, I failed. And then I saw my test. I was like, ‘okay, so these things are happening’.

Then I had to train for a couple of weeks, so I went back to Surrey again, and they were kind enough to help me. I did two sessions, and I was back to normal. I was like, ‘it’s so easy’,” Shakib concluded.

READ: All-round Iftikhar powers KRL to victory on President’s Cup opening day

KARACHI: Veteran all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed starred in Khan Research Laboratories’ (KRL) seven-wicket victory over Sahir Associates on the opening day of the President Cup 2025-26.

KRL chased down a mere total of 130 runs here at the Naya Nazimabad Cricket Ground on Monday, thanks to a half-century from Shahzaib Khan.

The southpaw hit three sixes and two fours on his way to 59* from 80 balls. Skipper Iftikhar Ahmed also contributed with the bat, scoring 24 from 24 with the aid of a boundary and a six.

For Sahir Associates, Mohammad Suleman picked up two wickets, whereas Saad Bin Athar managed to scalp one.

Earlier, after opting to field first, KRL skittled Sahir Associates for 129 in 33.5 overs as Iftikhar Ahmed and Hamza Nazar shared six wickets between them.

Fahad Usman top-scored with 41 from 47 balls in an otherwise shambolic batting display. The right-hander hit two sixes and a four in his knock.

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Meanwhile, Pakistan Television (PTV), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) also emerged victorious in their respective matches played here on Monday.

SNGPL sealed a 166-run win over Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) on the back of maiden List A centuries by Saad Khan and Muhammad Awais Zafar.

While OGDCL outplayed the defending champion State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in a close contest, thanks to Mohammad Sarwar Afridi’s blazing 82 not out at the UBL Sports Complex.

Shamyl Hussain continued his rich Quaid-e-Azam Trophy form and hit a maiden List A century, steering PTV to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Ghani Glass at the Oval Academy Ground.

Shamyl hit eight fours and half a dozen maximums in his 112 not out off 87 balls, taking his team over the line in the 31st over.

For Ghani Glass, Noman Ali picked up 2-23 in eight overs.

READ: Babar Azam calls PSL ‘stepping stone’ for young players

Mohamed Salah has been dropped from Liverpool squad for their Champions League tie away to Inter Milan following incendiary remarks about his relationship with manager Arne Slot and his treatment by the Premier League club.

The Egyptian forward was not included in the squad announced by Liverpool on Monday, despite training earlier in the day with the first team.

Salah said on Saturday he felt like he had been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and that he no longer had a relationship with Slot after he was left on the bench for the third consecutive game in a 3-3 draw at Leeds and not even introduced as a substitute.

But several British media reports said Salah’s omission for Tuesday’s game in Italy was not for disciplinary reasons but rather a selection decision.

The BBC said his removal from the squad was taken with the full support of Slot.

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It said that it is in the best interest of all parties involved for Salah to have a brief period away from selection, given the nature and timing of the player’s public comments.

The BBC added “it is understood this is a decision which relates solely to squad selection and there will be no formal disciplinary action taken by the club”.

After next weekend’s home match against Brighton, Salah is set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations.

The 33-year-old is Liverpool’s third-highest goalscorer of all time with 250 goals in 420 appearances for the club.

But Salah has been a shadow of his former self during Liverpool’s struggles this season — the Premier League champions are now ninth in the table — with a mere four goals in 13 top-flight appearances.

READ: Babar Azam calls PSL ‘stepping stone’ for young players