IPOH: Asia’’s best hockey teams will line up against world champions Australia at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, which starts in Malaysia’’s north on Thursday.

Asian champions South Korea head the regional cast along with India, Pakistan, Malaysia and China. Former African champions Egypt are the seventh team in the fray.

The Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the first major international tournament since the World Cup in New Delhi ended in March, will shine a spotlight on the changes made by teams that played there.

The Kookaburras, who are the world’’s number-one team following their thrilling 2-1 victory over Germany in the World Cup finals, will see two players make their debut - Tim Deavin and Trent Mitton.

A number of other young players like Matt Gohdes, Jason Wilson, Glenn Simpson and Ian Burcher have also been included.

“We have purposefully chosen a young squad for this tournament. It will go a long way in exposing our squad to a number of quality teams, giving us even more experience and help add to the depth of our squad,” said coach Ric Charlesworth.

The younger players will be well balanced by veterans such as Grant Schubert, Russell Ford and Kiel Brown.

South Korea, which finished sixth at the World Cup, have only won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup once, in 1996, but have made the finals five times.

Like all the Asian teams in the tournament, the Koreans are starting their preparations for the Asian Games, which will be held in Guangzhou, China in November.

The Asian Games is the first step for teams in the region to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Only the gold medal winner will gain an automatic berth while the others have to go through a qualifying process.

For India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Australia, the Commonwealth Games is another major assignment waiting for them in October in New Delhi.

“There is still a lot of work to be done and the eighth place finish in the World Cup is just the starting point,” said India’’s coach Jose Brasa.

“We are the defending champions here at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup but winning it is not the priority,” he added.

The Indians have 10 players from the World Cup squad and have included several new players with the aim to expose them to the big stage.

Pakistan, which finished in last place at the World Cup, are keen to put that episode behind them.

Gone are the likes of Sohail Abbas, Rehan Butt, Shakeel Abbasi and Mohamed Saqlain, and new coach K.M. Junaid is determined to use the younger players to form the core unit.

“But it will take time. We have rested several senior players while some have retired. We want to forget the World Cup and move forward. We need to bring back the fun to the game and hope that the players redouble their efforts to help rebuild our team,” he said.

Junaid is looking forward to the match with India. In the World Cup the Pakistanis were beaten 1-4 and that defeat rankles for the Pakistanis.

“Yes I want to reverse that result here in Ipoh. I think a good win over India will be the inspiration the team needs to start their rebuilding,” he added.

India are the defending champions after beating Malaysia 3-1 in the 2009 final.

All five Asian teams will be in action on the opening day. The Koreans meet Egypt, followed by an India-China match. Host Malaysia opens against Pakistan in the last match of the day.

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PROVIDENCE, Guyana: Two more matches will be played in the third ICC World Twenty20 here today at the Providence Stadium.

The first match will be played between New Zealand and Zimbabwe in Group B whereas in the second match, England will take Ireland in their Group D fixture.

Geo Super will telecast both these matches live from West Indies.

The Group B?s important contest between New Zealand and Zimbabwe will be held from 6-30 pm (PST).

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said that his team is not taking Zimbabwe easy as they have defeated Australia and then Pakistan in warm-up matches due to magnificent batting.

These two teams have never played any T20 International before against each other.

Today?s second match between England and Ireland will begin at 10-30 pm (PST).

Eoin Morgan who displayed hurricane batting for England in their first match in this event had represented Ireland in the 2007 World Cup.

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GROS ISLET, Saint Lucia: Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan invited cricket?s leading nations to help his side build on their remarkable rise following thei

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ISLAMABAD: Water and Power Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf has given a 24-hour ultimatum to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) for running the Bim Qasim Power Plant.

Chairing a meeting called to review actions on energy conservation plan Wednesday, he flayed the Karachi utility for its failure to run Bin Qasim Plant, which has the generation capacity of 300MW.

He told the KESC authorities that people were faced with the worst power crisis due to non-implementation of energy conservation initiatives.

Ashraf said that the government would pay the price difference of gas and furnace oil to KESC.

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Pakistan News

GROS ISLET, Saint Lucia: Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan captain, told Salman Butt he was his ?main guy? before the opener produced a man-of-the-match per

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ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Wednesday that no arrest was made in Pakistan regarding Time Square attack plot.

He said Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistan-born US national, had visited Pakistan for seven to eight times during the past eight years, including his last visit in Feb 2010.

However, the federal minister added there was no evidence of his (Shahzad) contacts with militant groups in Pakistan.

Shahzad has been formally charged with terrorism and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with a failed car-bomb attack in New York’’s Times Square on Saturday.

He was detained by the US authorities on Monday night on board a plane to Dubai, shortly after it had left the departure gate at John F Kennedy airport.

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KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Q General Secretary Mushahid Hussain Syed said Wednesday that under a deal President Asif Ali Zardari had returned to the country and his predecessor Pervez Musharraf was given a safe exit.

This deal was not a usual one as it had the support of international powers; he said this at a press conference in Karachi.

?I advised the government to constitute a high-level committee with the instructions to find out solutions of the lingering energy and economic crises in 30 days,? he said.

The PML-Q leader quoted a US newspaper saying that former US President Bush and President Asif Ali Zardari had made an agreement, which allowed US to continue drone attacks in tribal areas and let Pakistani government criticize the attacks publicly.

About 850 people, he said, lost their lives in 114 US drone strikes carried out during the present government.

The government has wasted Rs600 billion in two years, he added.

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Pakistan News

Karachi

Renaming the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has reinforced the identity of the people of that province, Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh Pr

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Pakistan News

LAHORE: As the government continues to block the media industry?s outstanding bills amounting to over Rs 900 million in an era otherwise characterised

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PROVIDENCE, Guyana: Two more matches will be played in the third ICC World Twenty20 here today at the Providence Stadium.

The first match will be played between New Zealand and Zimbabwe in Group B whereas in the second match, England will take Ireland in their Group D fixture.

Geo Super will telecast both these matches live from West Indies.

The Group B?s important contest between New Zealand and Zimbabwe will be held from 6-30 pm (PST).

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said that his team is not taking Zimbabwe easy as they have defeated Australia and then Pakistan in warm-up matches due to magnificent batting.

These two teams have never played any T20 International before against each other.

Today?s second match between England and Ireland will begin at 10-30 pm (PST).

Eoin Morgan who displayed hurricane batting for England in their first match in this event had represented Ireland in the 2007 World Cup.

More: continued here