Italy's Michel Fabrizio and Canadian Migel Duhamel will stand in for injured Spanish MotoGP rider Toni Elias at the German and US races respectively, the Gresini Honda team said. Fabrizio, 22, will partner compatriot Marco Melandri at the Sachsenring on July 15 while 39-year-old Duhamel will be the oldest rider on the starting grid at Laguna Seca on July 22. Elias, who broke a leg when he crashed in opening practice for last month's Assen GP, was hoping to return at the Czech GP on August 19.

Rugby

Australia recovered from a nightmare start to beat South Africa 25-17 at Sydney's Olympic stadium in their Tri-Nations clash yesterday. The victory handed the halfback combination of George Gregan and Stephen Larkham a dream send-off in their last appearances on home soil for the Wallabies. The Australians followed up their surprise win over New Zealand last weekend with a hard-fought victory, coming from 17-0 down after 10 minutes against a Springbok team missing most of their top players.

Cricket

India's experienced batting trio of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly were not named in a preliminary squad of 30 players for this year's inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September. "They opted out and conveyed their decision to us," Indian board secretary Niranjan Shah said.

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