Cricket: Australian star Shane Warne and West Indian international Marlon Samuels were yesterday charged with misconduct after an ugly, foul-mouthed clash during a Twenty20 match in Melbourne. Warne, captaining the Melbourne Stars against city rivals Renegades in the domestic Big Bash tournament on Sunday, was furious that Samuels pulled back David Hussey when the batsman was turning for a second run. And when Samuels was batting later in the game, Warne confronted the West Indian. The two players squared up and had to be separated by the umpires.
Basketball, NBA: Ty Lawson posted a double-double of 21 points and 10 assists on Sunday to help Denver hand the Los Angeles Lakers a third straight NBA defeat, 112-105. Danilo Gallinari scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Nuggets, draining a big three-pointer with 13.8 seconds rema-ining to stretch Denver’s lead to 108-102. Bryant led the Lakers with 29 points.
Horse Racing: Trainer Venetia Williams is to hand Saturday’s Sandown winner Katenko an entry in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. The seven-year-old French import was having just his third start for Williams, having previously gone close at Ascot when runner-up to Wyck Hill. “He’s come out of the race absolutely fine and the owner may get a surprise but I am going to put him in the Gold Cup,” said Herefordshire-based Williams. “He will go up the best part of a stone in the handicap.”
Tennis: Serena Williams (picture) is poised to regain the WTA World no.1 ranking she lost in October, 2010, following her win in Brisbane at the weekend. The American was named WTA World Player of the Year last year for winning the Wimbledon and US Open titles as well as Olympic gold in London, but that was still not enough for her to overtake Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova ahead of her. But she is close on their heels and, having being knocked out early at last year’s Australian Open, is well placed to pick up big ranking points in Melbourne later this month.
Rugby Union: Scotland’s most-capped scrum-half Mike Blair has announced he has retired from international rugby at the age of 31. Blair was capped 85 times for his country and was captain of the side on 14 occasions. In a statement released by the Scottish Rugby Union, Blair said: “I’m in the very fortunate position of being able to decide myself when my international career ends. For me, that time is now. I have enjoyed immensely representing my country for more than 10 years and will miss that exhilarating feeling of running out to a capacity crowd with the whole country behind you.
Rallying: Carlos Sainz was reinstated as leader of the Dakar Rally at the expense of defending champion Stephane Peterhansel, of France, after organisers admitted that a satellite problem had hindered the Spaniard during the second stage. Peterhansel was initially credited with taking his Mini to victory on the second stage in 2hr 35min 38sec. Sainz endured a nightmare session, getting lost as he tackled a tricky dune at the 75km mark, and finished outside of the top 10. But the reason behind Sainz losing that time was not his on-board GPS but the satellites used by the race organisers, the latter said.