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Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will miss the rest of this season after having surgery on his right knee, the club said on Thursday.

The 32-year-old Dutchman went to the United States this week to consult surgeon Richard Steadman, who operated on the same knee in 2000 while the player was at PSV Eindhoven.

After tests and arthroscopic surgery, it was decided to operate to try to repair damage to the external meniscus, the club said on its website (www.realmadrid.com).

“Taking all this into account, the estimated length of absence will be between six and nine months, depending on the clinical development,” it added.

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy’s chance of reaching the semi-finals of Tennis Masters Cup went up in smoke after they succumbed to their second successive defeat in the season-ending USD 4,45,000 ATP event.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Czech pair lost their Gold group league match 6-7 (2), 3-6 to Polish duo Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

Only the top two teams of Red and Gold groups will make the semi-final stage.

Paes and Dlouhy had plenty of chances in the first set but squandered all three breakpoints and eventually handed the lead to their opponents after losing the tie-break.

In the second, they dropped serve thrice and that was enough for the players from Poland to win the match.

The second Test between India and Australia has produced scenes that would delight those envious of the seemingly unending domination of the world champions. India are in sight of a famous victory as Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma reduced Australia to 141 for five at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium on Monday.

Australia’s batting caved in on a surface where the Indians scored big at a good pace. The bowlers failed to capture or contain, there were frequent overthrows, the captain lost the plot and the team conceded the psychological game - even in defeat Australia have never looked so disjointed.

Matthew Hayden’s wild batting in the second innings reflected the mental state of a team that had lost focus. For everyone else losing is part of the game, but for Australia it’s next to impossible.

That’s why they have won with amazing success in the last many years, when the stakes were high and even when the matches were inconsequential - showing no dearth of ruthlessness. It doesn’t need rocket science to understand that this team is not equipped on many fronts to make a mark in Indian conditions.

The most obvious is spin bowling. You can’t have a Shane Warne forever, but you must have someone who can at least do a tight job.

The ones Australia have can’t even be used to rest speedsters. They have too many batsmen who are technically inept to handle crafty and imaginative spin bowling from both ends.

Players like Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Cameron White are gritty customers, but they don’t have the technical know-how to decode the secrets Indian spinners possess. That’s why they have looked unsure with their feet movement.

Probably because of the success they have had using their preferred plans, Australia have looked vulnerable when things haven’t gone their way. For instance, in the first innings here, they got night watchman Ishant Sharma with a short-pitched ball.

For nearly an hour after that they persisted with that ploy against Sourav Ganguly and M.S. Dhoni, ignoring that these two are more capable batsmen than the fast bowler and that the slowness of the pitch helped them go untroubled. When the Indian openers were scoring at will in the second innings, all that Ricky Ponting tried was to keep men on the fence and prevent boundaries.

The chance to steal singles and twos didn’t go unnoticed and just 90 of India’s 314 came in boundaries. The bowlers did finally concentrate on bowling wide of the stumps, but India’s lead had been stretched by then.

Overall, plan B either came late or didn’t come at all. They simply couldn’t regroup, as Australian teams are known to, after being outplayed for most of the first three days.

Dhoni indicated this to them silently and surely, when on the second morning he took a Brett Lee bouncer on his shoulder and showed no signs of flinching. The abandon with which the openers scored, the way Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar repaired the innings on the first day and the intelligent aggression of the bowlers, the Australians learnt the hard way over the days that they were facing a lot that believes it can win.

Debutant Kapil Yadav, who was drafted into the under-22 Delhi team for the C.K. Nayudu Trophy in place of Pradeep Sangwan, took seven wickets against Himachal Pradesh at the St Stephen’s ground on Sunday. After Delhi had posted 328, the 21-year-old medium-pacer broke the back of Himachal’s resistance on the second day by claiming six for 23 in the first innings to ensure the visitors were shot out for 106.

The Himachal batsmen refused to learn and were struggling at 71 for four in the second essay. Yadav claimed one for 28 while Rajeev Mahajan, who had two for 12 in the first essay, returned with 1 for 32.

Drama was in store during Himachal’s first innings when skipper Barun Sharma was given out. The visitors were firm the ball had brushed the batsman’s elbow before landing in wicketkeeper Rahul Yadav’s gloves.

Despite a debate, the umpire stuck to his decision. Brief scores: Delhi 1st inn- 328 all out; HP 1st inn- 106 all out (R. Saini 28; K. Yadav 6-23, R. Mahajan 2-12) and 2nd inn- 71 for 4 (V. Sharma batting 38).

Manchester United are hoping to reap a dividend from Wayne Rooney’s goalscoring form for England as they seek to close the gap on Premier League pacesetters Chelsea and Liverpool this weekend.Rooney’s midweek double against Belarus made it five in three internationals and the United striker has also hit the net in his last three matches for his club.

All of which augurs badly for West Brom, visitors to Old Trafford on Saturday.

Having endured a fallow spell, Rooney is delighted with the turnaround in his form in front of goal.

Striker Didier Drogba has pledged his future to Chelsea and would sign a new contract if the club offered him one, he was quoted as saying in British media.

“I would love to finish my career here. Of course, I would sign a new contract if the club offered me one,” the Ivory Coast captain said.

The 30-year-old Drogba also said he would be back in action for Chelsea within three weeks after a knee injury.

He said he was glad he stayed in west London after having been linked with AC and Inter Milan in the last transfer window amid speculation he would leave the Premier League club.

He developed a close relationship with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who signed him from Olympique Marseille in 2004, and media reports had speculated he would follow the Portuguese coach when he took over at Inter Milan.

Drogba helped Chelsea win two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and League Cup twice under Mourinho. They reached the Champions League final last May after Avram Grant took over as manager, losing to Manchester United on penalties.

NEW CHALLENGE

“When I was saying I wanted to leave, even if I went I didn’t know if I would find what I have here,” said Drogba.

“I am not the kind of person who is scared of a new challenge, which is why I was saying that. But I don’t need to move.

“I would love to go until the end of my contract here, which is two years. It’s because of the relationship I have created with the players and the staff.

“Now with (Luiz) Felipe Scolari coming in (as manager), he is talking to the players. I like the way he is dealing with the players. That is important.”

Drogba has seen little action under Scolari, having recovered from knee surgery after the season began only to suffer another knee injury against CFR Cluj in a Champions League game in Romania two weeks ago.

“It (the knee) is feeling good. I’m working to be back on the pitch as soon as possible,” said Drogba. “I have set no targets but it will be a maximum of three weeks.

“I want to be back and fresh. The first few hours after I did it was really frustrating. But, when I knew the cruciate ligaments were safe and it was just a big twist of the knee and ankle, I was really happy and the frustration was gone.”

Hyderabad: The pom-pom girls of the ICL 20s Indian Champions got a rude shock late on Sunday. After the match between the Lahore Badshahs and Royal Bengal Tigers had ended, the girls headed for their bus stationed at the stadium gate.

Little did they realise that danger was lurking nearby. Just as they stepped out of the gate, a motorbike came from behind with the rider honking at them.

Before they could make way, the bike grazed past one of the girls, injuring her in the process. The girl and her friend were quick to react.

They caught hold of the pillion rider and slapped him. Soon, a crowd gathered and the hoodlums were handed to the agency handling security at the stadium.

Though the agency let the men go after giving them a stern warning, the ruffians returned with their associates and started stoning the bus. As a result, one of the girls sustained a minor injury.

Shariq Patel, the marketing and operations head of ICL, said, “It is sad that such an incident has happened in Hyderabad, which according to me is a safer place than Delhi and Mumbai.” Though the incident left her shaken, the girl performed at the stadium on Monday.

Apparently, on the second day of the event, another girl was molested at a popular disco here.

Juergen Klinsmann said on Sunday he had spent a restless night after he and his Bayern Munich team were booed off following a 3-3 draw at home to Bochum.

Bayern squandered a two-goal lead in the second half and now sit down in 11th place in the table, seven points behind the leaders. Media reports even said some fans were chanting “Klinsmann out!” during Saturday’s game.

“That obviously hurts a little,” Klinsmann told reporters in Munich. “But the reaction from the fans is understandable given that the results have been unacceptable.”

Bayern have won only two of their seven league games so far and the last three matches have produced just one point.

In an interview with the Bayern website Klinsmann said the team owed the supporters a big improvement after the international break.

“We’ll identify the errors and individual players will have to accept the criticism,” the coach said.

He added: “I feel deep disappointment and even a little anger. We gave away victory in a reckless way.

“I spent a restless night. It hurts but I am a fighter by nature. I know where the problems are.”

Manager Lou Piniella plans to stick with the Chicago Cubs for a while. The Cubs picked up their $4 million option on Piniella’s contract for 2010 on Tuesday, a day before the NL Central champions open the playoffs against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 65-year-old Piniella guided the Cubs to a 97-64 record, the best mark in the league.

“I’m thankful and I look forward to a couple more years,” he said. “I should be tired, but as long as I have the passion, why not?”

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry announced the move as the Cubs worked out at Wrigley Field.

“We like each other from a business end and from a personal point-of-view, so it’s not hard,” Hendry said. “So it’s a nice thing. Lou’s happy about it. He’s good to go.”

Piniella said the club approached him about his deal 10 days ago, but he shelved the talks to focus on clinching the division title.

“We left it at that,” he said. “Because I was focused on getting the team into the playoffs.”

Piniella signed a three-year, $10 million deal with a club option after the Cubs went 66-96 in 2006 under Dusty Baker. Sweet Lou has been a wild success in the Windy City, going 182-141 and leading Chicago to consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since 1906-08.

That streak famously ended with the Cubs’ last World Series championship. Now, they’re trying to end a 100-year drought.

Piniella hinted again that 2010 would probably be the end of a managing career that dates to 1986, when he briefly managed the New York Yankees. He won a World Series title in 1990 with Cincinnati, had an extremely successful decade in Seattle, and a brief, star-crossed turn at home in Tampa Bay.

“I said basically I’m not going to be a lifer,” Piniella said. “So I would think it would be very close, yes.”

Piniella, who has 1,701 career wins, raised some eyebrows about his future when he told a New York newspaper a week ago, “I don’t know how much longer I want to do this.”

But Hendry, who has grown close to Piniella, doesn’t think the manager is ready to quit.

“I’ve had a couple of conversations with him behind closed doors and he’s never given me any indication that was true,” Hendry said. “It’s a tough job, it’s a grind, and he’s 65 years old. Obviously, he still has a passion to win and get after it every day. He definitely wants to do it. If it works out and it’s longer than that, so be it, too.”

Hendry said Piniella has proven to be the perfect fit for a team that blends youth and experience.

“He’s a tremendous asset from the player-development side,” Hendry said. “I’ve never seen a manager who handles guys coming up from the system better than he does. He’s done a great job as our manager. He’s been terrific.”