Paes, Stepanek win US Open men's doubles title

NEW YORK, Sept 8: Leander Paes made history becoming the oldest man, at 40, to win a Grand Slam event in the open era, partnering Radek Stepanek to win the US men's doubles title on Sunday.

They beat Number 2 seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares easily in straight sets to win 6-1, 6-3, in New York. They never looked in the fight for the title at all.

The last over-40 player to win a major title was the legendary Martina Navratilova, who was 46 when she won the Australian and Wimbledon mixed doubles with Paes in 2003.

This was Paes's third US Open title -- his previous two were with Martin Damm in 2006 and Lukas Dlouhy in 2009.

When asked about his secret, Paes said at the post match interview, chose a great partner. "Find someone from the Czech Republic," he said, pointing to Stepanek.

Stepanek, who has had heath problems -- surgeries, pointed to Paes as his secret.

"Lee was aways in my corner, waiting for me," he said, getting an indulgent fist bump from his partner.

The pair had surprised everyone beating the top seeded Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike in the semi final.

Paes and Stepanek had come back after losing the first set. He said at a post-match news conference: "We're very hungry. Especially with the year we have had we're even more hungry.

"You leave that door a little ajar, I will find my foot through it. Once I get my foot through it, I got (sic) my body through it. Once I get my body through it, I get him through it. Once he gets his body through it, we both have our minds through it."

India to host Test Championship in 2021, T20 Cup in 2016

LONDON, june 30: In a triple bonanza for India, it will host the World Twenty 20 Cup competition in 2016 and World Test Championship 2021, both for the first time, and the 50-over World Cup for the fourth time in 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced in London on Saturday.

The three competitions were allotted to India by ICC at its annual conference which finalized its global events from 2015 to 2023.
According to an ICC media release, the first edition of the World Test Championship will be staged in 2017 by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in June-July 2017 while the second edition will be held in India in February-March 2021.

ICC's chief executive David Richardson also put speculation to rest about ICC Champions Trophy being continued.

"The ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales was highly acclaimed and appreciated by all. However, the principle of one pinnacle global event for each of the three formats over a four-year cycle is a good one and, as such, the ICC Board has agreed to replace the Champions Trophy with the ICC World Test Championship," Richardson was quoted as saying in the press release.

The ECB will also host the 2019 World Cup and Cricket Australia (CA) got the right to host the 2020 World Twenty20.

The ICC Board supported the strategy of ensuring an optimum balance between the three formats of the game -- especially Test cricket -- and approved the recommendation that the full member-countries should play a minimum of 16 Tests in each four-year cycle.

In order to ensure that all ODIs played over the four-year cycle between ICC Cricket World Cups count towards a team’s ranking, the ICC Board agreed to change the ODI rankings period from three years to four years.