Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 19 February 12:30 pm

Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:

# We start off with cricket: The remaining group matches of the T20 World Cup won’t have any bearing on the Super Eights stage. The West Indies and Italy opened today’s action in Kolkata, with the Windies through to the next round. Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, who both qualified, play in Colombo later, followed by already eliminated Afghanistan and Canada in Chennai. Tomorrow’s final group match will feature Australia and Oman, with both teams also out. The Super Eights starts on Saturday, with South Africa playing co-hosts India on Sunday.

Meanwhile, it’s back to the drawing board for Australia after their early elimination. The champion of 2021 lost two of their first three group matches and couldn’t qualify for the Super Eights. Australia’s problems are reportedly ascribed to the lack of succession for their ageing superstars who are reaching the end of their careers. Their World Cup woes could also have an influence on their world rankings and could mean Australia doesn’t qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

# Rugby: Springboks legend JP Pietersen has been appointed as permanent head coach of the Sharks following a successful spell in an interim capacity. The Durban-based team has won five out of seven matches since Pietersen took over from John Plumtree in November. Former Griquas coach Scott Mathie will join Pietersen’s staff as the team’s new attack coach next season. Former attack coach Dave Williams has been made general manager, and former director of rugby Neil Powell is now the head of junior rugby.

Meanwhile, French captain Antoine Dupont is embroiled in a storm regarding a salary cap breach. He and Toulouse team-mate Anthony Jelonch were mentioned in a report by sports newspaper L’Equipe over suspect payments they allegedly received in order to help prevent the team from breaching salary cap regulations. The company 3S-Alyzia reportedly paid Dupont almost 29-million-rand and Jelonch about 3.2-millon-rand since 2017 for imaging rights and promotions, but the newspaper couldn’t find significant evidence of the company using them for that purpose.

# And tennis: World number one Carlos Alcaraz is through to the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open in Doha. The Spaniard defeated France’s Valentin Royer and will face Russia’s Karen Khachanov for a last-four spot. World number two Jannik Sinner of Italy beat Australia’s Alexei Popyrin to book his spot in the quarterfinals. Defending champion Andrey Rublev of Russia brushed aside Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, while Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to his first tour-level quarterfinal in ten months by downing Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.

Stay tuned for more news………….