Johannesburg - Former French coach Henri Michel has parted ways with South African Premier Soccer League club Mamelodi Sundowns, the team announced late Monday.

In a statement the club said that the two parties had agreed to part ways with "a gentleman's agreement."

However, Michel's axing had been widely expected after the club had lost a league match against city rivals SuperSport 4-1 last week and then been knocked out of the cup on the weekend.

Lahore, Mar 24: Shoaib Akhtar is hopeful the Indian Premier League (IPL)’s impending move to South Africa or England could pave the way for Pakistani players to return to the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.

In an interview to a cricket website, Shoaib said he and his Pakistani counterparts were holding out hope of an eleventh-hour call-up to the IPL, now that the tournament seems destined to be shifted out of India.

London, Mar. 24: Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton was last night warned to expect a Kimi Raikkonen backlash this season.

Grand Prix chief Bernie Ecclestone reckons Finn Raikkonen will want to prove a point after a nightmare defence of his drivers’ crown last year, reports The Sun.

Ecclestone believes this year will be a different story, especially if Raikkonen gets a flier when the season starts in Australia on Sunday.

Barbados (West Indies), Mar. 24: England and Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara is hell bent on becoming a big-hitting sensation in the Indian Premier League, no matter where it is played.

Both England and South Africa want to stage the event, and a decision is expected within 72 hours, The Sun reports.

The Essex all-rounder is to play for Kings XI Punjab for 309,000 pounds, three times his reserve price.

Napier, Mar. 24: India’s batting machine has dented the confidence of New Zealand’s fast bowlers so much, that a majority of them have owned up to not possessing the required counter-attacking skills.

One of them is New Zealand’s most experienced bowler, Kyle Mills.

In the wake of a master class 42nd Test hundred by India’s Sachin Tendulkar (160) at Hamilton, Mills made little effort to mask his inadequacies as he reflected on the least-memorable episode of his 19-test career.

Brisbane, Mar. 24: Out of favour Australian cricket all rounder Andrew Symonds alcohol-related woes continue.

On Sunday, he was kicked out of a Brisbane bar. The Daily Telegraph can reveal that, five days earlier, Symonds had to be woken by his Queensland team-mates after a bender so he could make his flight home from the Sheffield Shield final in Melbourne.

Symonds, 33, appears to have learnt little from being stood down by Cricket Australia in January when told to seek counselling for his off-field behaviour.