US and Iran faced off at the World Basketball Championships here on Wednesday night, electrifying Iranian fans and offering a rare opportunity for people of the two arch-enemy nations to meet face to face. It was the latest instance of sports diplomacy first used by both sides in the late 1990s to ease US-Iran hostility.

Cheerleaders donned black leggings and white T-shirts for a world championship basketball match between Iran and the United States in Istanbul on Wednesday to respect cultural sensitivities...Patrick Baumann, secretary-general of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), said "special arrangements" had been made with the dancers' dress on Wednesday.

India's decision to host the Commonwealth Games seems to have become less popular in the country for its reported oganisational failures in the run-up to the Games. Staging the Games will not help much to advance its soft power.

Coaches and players often travel the globe -- Asia, Africa, Europe -- this time of year to spread the NBA gospel, promoting basketball camps that attract adoring youngsters eager to learn the game. Rarely do they find anything as diverse and far-reaching as they do in the little hamlet of Zofingen, Switzerland, which becomes a very popular basketball melting pot for two weeks every summer.

The country that gave the world table tennis is aiming to be one of the sport's superpowers...In London, local table tennis promoters are making fresh attempts to bring this overlooked sport back into the mainstream.

Youth exchanges between Russia and the USA in the field of sports are gaining speed. They are organized by the US-Russia Presidential Commission, Obama-Medvedev, as part of numerous programmes in the field of sports. This commission was set up by the presidents of the two countries on July 6th, 2009, during the visit of the US leader to Moscow and it is aimed at improving the relationships and cooperation between the governments of Russia and the USA.

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard is in Bangalore and Delhi from next Tuesday training the senior men’s national team and carrying out basketball clinics as part of the Mahindra NBA Challenge, a basketball league started up this summer to get young people interested in the game.

It was a moment of sports diplomacy— two groups of boys separated by language, culture and food but united in their love for an American game that only recently has been exported to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.