FEBRUARY 2003

1 Robert Pires scored in injury-time to snatch a 2-1 win over Fulham to extend Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Barclaycard Premiership to six points.
Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale stepped up his personal security after receiving death threats from fans following the sale of Jonathan Woodgate.
Australia batsman Darren Lehmann admitted he nearly quit the game after being branded a racist and banned for five one-day internationals.

2 For the first time England cricket captain Nasser Hussain hinted his players were ready to boycott their controversial World Cup match in Zimbabwe.
England stunned the two superpowers of the sevens game - Fiji and New Zealand - on their way to winning the World Series event in Brisbane.
Snooker’s Mark Davis plundered two century breaks on his Benson & Hedges Masters debut at Wembley - but still lost.

3 Terry Venables confirmed he was prepared to fight on as Leeds manager. The club also reached a settlement with former boss David O’Leary over his sacking the previous summer.
Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard was banned for three matches after being found guilty of violent conduct by the Football Association following his lunge on Everton’s Gary Naysmith in the Merseyside derby at Anfield on December 22.
Wales coach Steve Hansen called the previously uncapped Matthew Watkins and Ceri Sweeney into his 31-man squad for the RBS 6 Nations campaign.

4 Last-minute preparations for the World Cup went well with Paul Collingwood hitting a half-century as England beat Eastern Province by five wickets. But the England and Wales Cricket Board announced they were to make a formal request to the International Cricket Council to move the World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare to South Africa for “safety and security reasons”.
Tottenham first-team coach Chris Hughton was confirmed as the new part-time assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland team.
Southampton striker James Beattie signed a new contract which tied him to the club until 2006. Leeds forward Alan Smith also pledged his future to the club by signing a new three-and-a-half year contract.

5 France prop Pieta De Villiers failed a drugs test and was dropped from the squad for the RBS 6 Nations clash with England at Twickenham.
Liverpool were dumped out of the FA Cup, losing their fourth-round replay to Crystal Palace at Anfield 2-0.
Reading defender John Mackie admitted to the Football Association that he made racist comments towards Carl Asaba during a game against Sheffield United in December.

6 England’s request for their match against Zimbabwe in Harare to be rescheduled was declined by the ICC’s Cricket World Cup technical committee. The ECB immediately lodged an appeal.
Arsenal winger Robert Pires was recalled to the France squad for the first time in almost a year for the game against the Czech Republic.
Leeds and Scotland defender Dominic Matteo decided to retire from international football because of injury problems.

7 England lost their appeal against an ICC ruling that their controversial World Cup match against Zimbabwe must go ahead in Harare.
Newcastle’s Sir Bobby Robson - just 11 days short of his 70th birthday - collected the manager-of-the-month award for the fifth time.
Davis Cup debutants Alex Bogdanovic and Alan Mackin lost their opening matches against Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis to leave Britain trailing Australia 2-0 in the five-rubber series.

8 Everton 17-year-old Wayne Rooney was named in the England squad along with fellow new boys Jermaine Jenas, Sean Davis, James Beattie, Matthew Upson, Francis Jeffers, Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky.
Arvind Parmar and Miles Maclagan won a set against Lleyton Hewitt and Todd Woodbridge but could not prevent Great Britain slipping to defeat in the Davis Cup in Sydney with a day to spare.
Leeds and England defender Danny Mills agreed a new three-and-a-half-year deal with the Elland Road club.

9 England cricket chiefs delayed a decision on whether to go to Harare to play Zimbabwe in the World Cup because “specific information regarding the safety and security of the England players and officials” had come to light.
Brian Lara’s brilliant 116 helped West Indies to an impressive 278 for four as they beat hosts South Africa by four runs in the opening World Cup match.
Newcastle’s French winger Laurent Robert was sent off in the 1-1 draw with Premiership leaders Arsenal at St James’ Park.

10 The ICC gave the ECB a 2pm deadline to give an answer on whether they would play their controversial World Cup opener against Zimbabwe in Harare. The deadline expired with the ECB still requesting the match be moved.
Zimbabwe players Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands during their game against Namibia to mourn the “death of democracy” in their country.
First Division Ipswich filed for temporary administration because of on-going financial difficulties.

11 Australian leg spinner Shane Warne was sent home from the World Cup after failing a drugs test for a diuretic.
England’s match against Zimbabwe in Harare was cancelled after the ECB decided not to fulfil the fixture because of security concerns.
Manchester United captain Roy Keane announced his retirement from international football despite hopes of new boss Brian Kerr of persuading him to return to the Republic of Ireland fold.

12 England were humiliated 3-1 by Australia in the friendly international at Upton Park as coach Sven-Goran Eriksson played two completely different teams in each half - with 17-year-old Wayne Rooney becoming the youngest ever player to be capped by his country.
Pakistan wicketkeeper Rashid Latif was cleared by the International Cricket Council of racially abusing his Australian counterpart Adam Gilchrist during their game at the Wanderers.
Mark Bosnich launched an appeal against the Premier League ruling that he was not unfairly dismissed by Chelsea after his positive drugs test for cocaine.

13 Manchester City announced they were not pursuing legal action against Roy Keane for his tackle on Alfie Haaland in the 2001 Manchester derby at Old Trafford. The club also gave him six months’ notice to terminate his contract.
Following a successful takeover at Leicester, incoming chairman Jon Holmes launched a campaign to change the Nationwide League Division One club’s name back to Leicester Fosse - as the city’s original team was known until 1919.

14 Sri Lankan left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas made cricket history with an astonishing hat-trick off the first three balls of his side’s World Cup game against Bangladesh. Vaas added a fourth wicket in the same over before finishing with six for 25.
South African super-fielder Jonty Rhodes retired from international cricket after a broken bone in his hand ruled him out of the World Cup.
Sydney Roosters inflicted more Australian humiliation on British sport with a 38-0 victory over St Helens in rugby league’s World Club Challenge.

15 England captain Nasser Hussain revealed he was considering his future after the World Cup after the ICC’s technical committee ruled his side must forfeit four points for pulling out of their opening match against Zimbabwe.
Holders Arsenal knocked Manchester United out of the FA Cup with a 2-0 victory at Old Trafford, while First Division Watford sprung a surprise by beating Premiership Sunderland at the Stadium of Light with a controversial twice-taken penalty.
England’s rugby side, mourning the death of 21-year-old Harlequins scrum-half Nick Duncombe of meningitis just hours earlier, opened their RBS 6 Nations campaign with a 27-17 victory over France. Elsewhere, Wales slipped to an embarrassing 30-22 defeat in Italy.

16 England cruised to a comfortable six-wicket win over Holland to get their World Cup belatedly under way.
Leeds, Chelsea and Wolves all booked their places in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with respective victories over Crystal Palace, Stoke and Rochdale.
Tiger Woods, playing for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in December, cruised to victory in the Buick Invitational in California.

17 David Beckham was spotted with plasters covering a cut over his left eye after being hit with a boot kicked by Sir Alex Ferguson following Manchester United’s FA Cup defeat to Arsenal.
English umpires Peter Willey and Neil Mallender withdrew from the World Cup matches they were appointed to officiate in Zimbabwe because of security concerns. The pair escaped censure from the ICC.

18 Sir Alex Ferguson’s response to the Beckham incident was to say: “It was a freakish incident. If I tried it 100 times or a million times it could not happen again - if it did I would have carried on playing.”
Newcastle kept their faint hopes of qualifying for the Champions League quarter-finals alive with a 3-1 victory against Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.
Derby manager John Gregory was charged by the Football Association with using abusive and/or insulting words to a match official during his team’s 6-2 defeat at Portsmouth on February 8.

19 David Beckham was picked in the starting line-up as United beat Juventus 2-1 at Old Trafford to move to the verge of their seventh successive Champions League quarter-final.
Sri Lanka set a new world record by bowling out minnows Canada for just 36 - the lowest-ever one-day total - in the World Cup.
Jonathan Humphreys, 34, was handed a sensational international recall as Wales’ captain for the game against England - having not played since 1999.

20 Captain Sami Hyypia scored the only goal as Liverpool won 1-0 in the first leg of their UEFA Cup tie in Auxerre, while Celtic’s 3-1 home victory over Stuttgart increased the possibility of a ‘Battle of Britain’.
Zimbabwe bowler Henry Olonga was expelled from his domestic cricket club Takashinga following his black armband protest during the match against Namibia.

21 Sir Alex Ferguson claimed Sven-Goran Eriksson was on the brink of walking out on England after the World Cup to join Manchester United before the Old Trafford manager’s U-turn over his proposed retirement.
Sunderland manager Howard Wilkinson bizarrely claimed his bottom-of-the-table team were not in the relegation battle.
Super League champions St Helens launched the new season with 46-22 victory over Bradford.

22 Lancashire fast bowler James Anderson grabbed four for 29 as England demolished Pakistan by 112 runs in Cape Town.
Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne was banned from cricket for one year after failing a drugs test.
Arsenal hammered Manchester City 5-1 to stretch their lead at the top of the Premiership to five points.
England maintained their quest for the Six Nations grand slam with a 26-9 victory in Wales.

23 Canada’s John Davison smashed the fastest century in the history of the World Cup - just 67 balls - but could not prevent West Indies winning by seven wickets.
Mike Tyson took just 49 seconds to put himself in line for another crack at the heavyweight world title after flooring Clifford Etienne with a right hand in their non-title contest in Memphis.
Manchester United captain Roy Keane revealed he had taken the first tentative steps towards becoming a coach.

24 Minnows Kenya produced the biggest upset of the World Cup with a stunning 53-run win over Sri Lanka in Nairobi to put them on the verge of an unprecedented place in the Super Six.
Northampton manager Terry Fenwick was sacked after just seven weeks in charge of the Division Two strugglers.
Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier dismissed reports he was set to leave the club to take up a post with Monaco.

25 England batsman Graham Thorpe announced a U-turn on his decision to quit one-day international cricket.
Pakistan’s Wasim Akram became the first man to claim 500 one-day international wickets in his country’s World Cup game against Namibia.
West Ham revealed they had given Paolo di Canio permission to talk to an unnamed Scottish club.
England’s Lucy Pearson became only the second player in the history of women’s Test cricket to take an 11-wicket haul in a match, equalling a record which stood for 46 years, in the second Ashes Test in Sydney.

26 An Alan Shearer hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen kept Newcastle’s dreams of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals alive, while Arsenal struggled in a 1-1 draw at home to Ajax.
Burnley breezed into the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time in 20 years after a 3-0 victory over 10-man Fulham.
India’s Ashish Nehra claimed the third-best World Cup bowling figures with six for 23 as England’s hopes of qualifying for the Super Six were dimmed by an 82-run defeat.

27 Glenn McGrath produced the best bowling in the history of the World Cup with seven for 15 as Australia sent records tumbling in their 256-run victory over Namibia, who were skittled for just 45.
Liverpool and Celtic set up a highly-anticipated ‘Battle of Britain’ UEFA Cup quarter-final after progressing against Auxerre and Stuttgart respectively.
Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association following his clash with West Ham’s Lee Bowyer on January 19.

28 Arsenal defender Ashley Cole was ruled out for six weeks following an operation - making his participation in England’s Euro 2004 qualifiers against Liechtenstein and Turkey unlikely.
Reading defender John Mackie was banned for three matches by the Football Association after admitting making racist remarks to Sheffield United striker Carl Asaba in the game on December 14.
Chris Brasher, co-founder of the London Marathon, died aged 74.

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