London, Feb. 12 : The worldwide economic slowdown has taken its toll on the much publicised Stanford Twenty20 Challenge, as Sir Allen Stanford has shelved plans for going ahead with the 20 million dollar cricket extravaganza.

According to The Telegraph, Stanford has decided to discontinue his existing five-year 100 million dollar contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board , thus putting the multi-million dollar single T-20 match into sports history.

Sydney, Feb. 12 : James Hopes might not have given any stupendous performance in recent Chappel-Hadlee One-day series against New Zealand, but his simple and straight forward approach to the game, has captain Ricky Ponting showering all praise on the all-rounder.

Ponting praised Hopes particularly for his match winning performance against New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee series-levelling win on Tuesday in Adelaide.

Hopes took two wickets for 37 runs from his ten overs.

London, Feb.

London - Nigel Clough will be hoping to take another step nearer to achieving something his legendary father never managed this weekend when his Derby County side take on Manchester United for a place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

The names of Clough and Ferguson clashed many times a generation ago, when Brian led Nottingham Forest against the mighty Manchester United, steered by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Nigel Clough is now in charge at Derby County, and after seeing off Forest in the previous round, he is hoping to cause what would be a huge upset and move closer to FA Cup glory.

Midfielder Chris Porter is hoping to play a part in the game after his move from Motherwell against the side he followed as a boy.

Madrid - Runaway Spanish leaders Barcelona face a tough test on Saturday, away to resurgent Betis.

Barca will be looking for their 11th straight win in Seville, and will be hoping to get closer to Real Madrid's record of 107 goals in 1989/90 season.

Samuel Eto'o, Lionel Messi and company have so far scored 68 goals in 22 Liga games, and so have 16 games left in which to overtake Real's record.

"It will not be an easy game since Betis have improved their play and results recently," Barca coach Josep Guardiola said.

Indeed they have, especially since the return of Ricardo Oliveira.

Los Angeles - The Utah Jazz showed they're a pretty tough team to beat even without two of their top players.

Deron Williams had 31 points with 11 assists, Mehmet Okur scored 22, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 42.8 seconds left and the Jazz snapped the Los Angeles Lakers' seven-game winning streak with a thrilling 113-109 victory on Wednesday night.

"It's a great win for us going into the All-Star break, it's a confidence builder," Williams said. "It just shows that we're a good team despite all the injuries. It just proves we can win against the best teams in the league and we showed that tonight."