London  - Claudio Ranieri tasted defeat on his return Wednesday to Chelsea, but the Italian said that he still had fond memories of his time as head coach at Stamford Bridge.

Ranieri was back five years after his departure and received a standing ovation from the London club's fans, who still hold him in high regard.

Didier Drogba's first-half goal rather spoiled his enjoyment of the evening as Chelsea beat his Juventus side 1-0, but Ranieri will fancy his chances of orchestrating a turnaround in the return leg in a fortnight's time in Italy.

London, Feb. 25 : After his eight-month lay-off due to a knee surgery, Tiger Woods is back to action and feeling “stronger than ever.”

The 33-year-old golfing superstar will mark his comeback with the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship — his first tournament since winning the US Open last June.

The world No. 1 had reconstructive surgery on a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee days afterwards, The Sun reports.

Woods insists he is back in business as he takes on Australia’s Brendan Jones, the 64th and lowest-ranked player in the field.

Barbados (West Indies), Feb. 25 : England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff expects to be fit to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League.

Though he has been ruled out of the Fourth Test against West Indies due to a strained hip muscle, and may not also play the Fifth Test and limited-overs games which follow, Flintoff is confident he will join up with the Chennai Super Kings, who paid over a million pounds for him, when the IPL starts on April 10.

Brisbane, Feb. 25 : Australian all rounder Shane Watson is all set to stage a comeback on the first-class cricketing arena when he takes the field in Queensland’s Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales at the Gabba on Thursday.

Watson will be returning as a ‘batsman only’ in the game after stress fractures in his back forced him to remain out of action for nearly two months.

He is currently training under batting legend, Greg Chappell to improve his chances of making it to the Ashes squad later.

Melbourne, Feb. 25 : The International Cricket Council and the MCC have commissioned a research by Cricket Australia, Griffith University and the Australian Institute of Sport into developing a device to detect chuckers.

Once in the pipeline, the device can measure degrees of flex in the bowling arm.

Crucially, the device will be small enough to sit comfortably on a bowler''s arm during delivery in a match, allowing accurate readings when he is straining every sinew.

Johannesburg, Feb. 25 (ANI): South African middle-order batsman AB De Villiers has warned the visiting Kangaroos to get prepared to have some smell of leather in the first Test starting Thursday as the Wanderers pitch is supposed to help pace bowlers.

De Villiers said Aussie openers will face some fiery spells from the Proteas fast bowlers if Ricky Ponting wins the toss and decides to bat first.

“I definitely won''t mind seeing Australia bat and having Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel running in on the first morning,” Fox Sports quoted De Villiers, as saying.