Wellington  - New Zealand's All Whites see 2009 as their most important year since the national team reached the World Cup finals 26 years ago, an achievement that gave them their highest ever FIFA ranking of 47th.

After slumping to a record low ranking of 156th last year, New Zealand have risen to 54th after five wins in five games in a successful Oceania Nations Cup campaign, which doubled as the regional qualifier for next year's Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.

Half the players in the current squad were not born when the All Whites beat China 2-1 in Singapore in January 1982 to qualify for the World Cup finals in Spain, and coach Ricki Herbert, who was in that team, is looking for even younger blood for South Africa.

Johannesburg - The advertisements began in local media at the weekend. "The Champions are coming," they say. Come watch Brazil for only 70 rand.

In seven months' time, some of the greatest footballing nations will descend on South Africa for the June 14-28 Confederations Cup, an eight-country tournament held every four years in the World Cup host nation a year before the world's most-watched sporting event.

The United States, Brazil, Spain, Iraq, Egypt and New Zealand - champions of their regions - and World Cup holders Italy and host nation South Africa will battle it out for the title of Champion of Champions in a tournament seen mainly as a dry run for 2010.

Cairo  - While football fans from the participating countries at the Confederations Cup will be looking towards the draw for the competition on November 22 in Johannesburg for answers, Egyptian fans already know in which group they will play.

The reigning African champions will compete in Group B, as the hosts South Africa have been placed in Group A and no two teams from the same confederation can be placed in the same group.

But if the Pharaohs' fans know what group their team will be playing in, they are less sure how good the team will be, even if team officials are optimistic.

Melbourne, Nov 18: Former Australian off-spinner Colin Miller has said that off-spinner Jason Krezja, who took a record 12 wickets in his debut Test against India recently, has the potential of playing for his country for the next decade “provided he keeps his private life in order”.

Miller said that Kreja even outperformed India’s ace spinner Harbhajan Singh in the last Test at Nagpur.

Baghdad  - One of the few positive stories coming out of war- torn Iraq in recent years has been the success of their national football teams.

Since 2003, when the country sent an under-23 team to the Asian Cup and managed to qualify for the quarter-finals, Iraqi teams have been grabbing their fair share of international headlines.

In 2004, the international media followed their Cinderella story at the Olympic Games in Athens as the same under-23 team reached the semi-finals of the Olympic football tournament and finished fourth.

But if Iraqi fans thought it could get no better, they were in for a pleasant surprise as Iraq won the silver medal in the football tournament at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

Sydney, Nov 18: Australian batsman Andrew Symonds, who was included into his national side after being sacked for having “gone fishing” in Darwin instead of attending an important team meeting, has said that he had lately realized that alcohol played a part in his poor attitude this year and getting axed from the squad.

He said that the Darwin episode was the “wake-up call” for him and that he needed to address his behaviour.