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Today's other stories in brief

Pakistan board pulls quick U-turn

CRICKET: Former captains Younus Khan and Muhammad Yousuf had their international futures cast aside and then restored just as quickly after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) backtracked on its decision to ban the two.

Early yesterday the PCB said the two “should not be part of the team in any format” following reports of in-fighting during the unsuccessful tour of Australia ending last month.

That prompted protesters in Hyderabad to burn bats in a brief demonstration, but a few hours later the PCB clarified its position saying there was no timeframe on the bans imposed on the two.

“The PCB wishes to clarify that the recommendation of the committee is not a life ban on these cricketers,” the PCB’s second statement of the day said.

“There is no specified term in the recommendation for these two players. As and when the PCB deems appropriate, these players will be considered for selection for the national team.”

The change came hours after it announced Younus and Yousuf would no longer be considered for selection after an inquiry into Pakistan’s defeat in every match of their three-Test, five one-day and Twenty20 series in Australia.

Venue for 2015 Walker Cup named

GOLF:Royal Lytham and St Annes is to stage the 2015 Walker Cup match between Britain and Ireland's best amateurs and America.

The Lancashire links are where Bobby Jones became only the third amateur to win the British Open in 1926, and in its most recent staging of the championship David Duval won nine years ago.

In all it has staged 10 Opens and the course will do so again in 2012.

Next year’s Walker Cup is at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland and the 2013 match is at the National Links of America on New York’s Long Island.

O'Halloran gets U-20 chance

RUGBY: Irish Under-20s coach Allen Clarke has made two changes ahead of tomorrow's match against Wales in Athlone.

Tiernan O’Halloran, who has broken into the Connacht backline this season, gets his chance after recovering from injury.

Stewart Maguire was recruited from the Welsh system last summer, by the Leinster Academy, as a tighthead prop so his selection forces former Clongowes schoolboy Jack O’Connell to loosehead and Bryan Cagney onto the bench.

IRELAND: A Conway (Blackrock College); D Hudson (St Mary’s College), B Macken (Blackrock), N Spence (Ballynahinch), T O’Halloran (Galwegians); J McKinney (Queen’s University), J Cooney (UCD); J O’Connell (Lansdowne), N Annett (Belfast Harlequins), S Maguire (Old Belvedere); D O’Callaghan (UCC), B Marshall (UCD); R Ruddock (capt, UCD), D Ryan (Lansdowne), P Butler (Shannon). Replacements: R Byrne (UCD), B Cagney (UCC), B Hayes (Cork Constitution), R O’Sullivan (Bective Rangers), M Heaney (Belfast Harlequins), G Quinn McDonogh (Shannon), E Griffin (Corinthians).

Ballesteros recovering after fall from golf buggy

GOLF: Seve Ballesteros was rushed to hospital in a new health scare after falling from a golf buggy and banging his head.

The five-time major winner, recovering from four life-saving brain operations, yesterday told how he spent three days under observation following the accident last weekend.

Ballesteros (52), said: “I’m fine now, but over the weekend I fell from a buggy and hit my head on the curb. I was under observation for three days, but I’m recovered now.”

The father-of-three fell from the buggy at a course near his home in Pedrena, in Cantabria in northern Spain.

The golfing legend spent more than a month in intensive care in a Madrid hospital after collapsing at Barajas airport in the Spanish capital in October 2008.

He is set to make an emotional return to St Andrews for the British Open’s 150th anniversary celebration this summer.