Sunday International Sports News

Prince reigns for Proteas
Agence France-Presse . London

England (593/8 dec) lead South Africa (156/4) by 437 runs at tea, day 3
Ashwell Prince marked his first Test innings against England with a fifty as the Proteas staunched the flow of wickets at Lord’s here on Saturday.
South Africa, at tea on the third day of the first Test, were far from out of trouble at 156 for four, a deficit of 437 and needing a further 238 runs to avoid the follow-on target of 394.
But given 31-year-old left-hander Prince had come in at 47 for three, this position represented something of a recovery.
Prince, whose patient fifty came in two hours and 22 minutes off 82 balls with eight fours, was 52 not out with AB de Villiers, who’d so far helped him add 73 for the fifth wicket, unbeaten on 38.
South Africa, who’d lost three of their top order all in single figures, resumed after lunch on 78 for three.
Neil McKenzie hadn’t added to his interval score of 35 not out when he edged fast bowler Stuart Broad between Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, at first and second slip respectively. But his reprieve didn’t last long.
England captain Michael Vaughan, in what is now customary practice for Test teams with a spinner, had given Monty Panesar a couple of overs before lunch.
However, he then kept him going after the break rather than reverting straight away to an all-seam attack.
Vaughan was rewarded for his boldness when left-armer Panesar’s first ball after lunch, the seventh in all, turned sharply and bowled right-hander McKenzie round his pads with the ball clipping the leg stump.
A stunned McKenzie was out for 40 and South Africa were 83 for four.
Prince, 20 not out at lunch, carried on going for his shots when given a chance and expertly steered Broad to the point boundary.
South Africa started Saturday on seven without loss in reply to England’s daunting first innings 593 for eight declared, a total built around Ian Bell’s Test-best 199 and 152 from Kevin Pietersen in his first Test innings against the land of his birth.
The pressure was on the Proteas batsmen, notably captain Graeme Smith who had chosen to field after winning the toss.
He resumed on two not out, with McKenzie unbeaten on five.
Five years ago, Smith made 259 at Lord’s - the highest score by an overseas batsman in a Test at the ‘home of cricket’.
But off Saturday’s twelfth ball, a sharp James Anderson delivery squared up the left-hander and took the shoulder of the bat before lobbing gently to Bell, running round from gully.
Smith was out for eight and South Africa were 13 for one.
Hashim Amla had come into this Test on the back of scores of over 160 in warm-up matches against Somerset and Middlesex.
But having seen his helmet come off and nearly hit his wicket when he was on one, he played at a delivery from fast bowler Broad he could have left and was caught behind for six.
The collective accuracy of England’s quicks was in marked contrast to the waywardness of their South African counterparts.
Left-armer Ryan Sidebottom got in on the act when he angled a delivery across the experienced Jacques Kallis, on seven, which took the outside edge and was brilliantly caught low down by diving first slip Strauss.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fed Cup football
Staff Correspondent
The preliminary round of the Federation Cup football has been deferred for a day and it will now start on July 26 with 11 teams vying for the five final round slots. The final round will kick off on August 3 or 4 instead of July 31.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporate Indoor Soccer Cup
Staff Correspondent
Beximco Phrama registered twin victories in the Ascent 5-A- Side Corporate Indoor Soccer Cup at the STM Hall at Uttrara on Saturday. Beximco Pharama outplayed BanglaTrack 6-1 in their first match and then thrashed Flora Telecom 11-0 in the second game in the evening.
In the other matches of the day, Radio Foorti defeated Flora Telecom 6-1, Ispahani drew with Multimode 2-2, IPDC drew 1-1 with Ogilvy & Mather, Gemcon Group drew 2-2 with Aqua Paints, BanglaCat drew 2-2 with IDLC, Rahimafrooz overpowered Nokia 2-1, Apollo Hospitals conquered GSP Finance 4-1, Banglalink routed Ascent Group 4-1, HSBC trounced Securex 5-3, Brac Bank thrashed IIDFC 10-0, Cirycell beat New Age 6-0, Multimode defeated Ogilvy & Mather 5-2, Ispahani flayed IPDC 5-0, Rahmiafrooz edged past Apollo Hospitals 1-0 and Nokia beat GSP Finance 3-2.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sri Lanka yet to resolve
England tour crisis
Agence France-Presse . Colombo
Sri Lankan cricket’s governing body has yet to resolve the crisis over next year’s England tour that clashes with a more financially lucrative tournament in India, officials said Saturday.
A source at Sri Lanka Cricket dismissed local media reports indicating the board had agreed to allow players to take part in the Indian Premier League despite the clash with the England tour scheduled for April and May.
‘The issue is yet to be finalised and very much at a discussion stage,’ the source said, asking to remain anonymous. He said they were awaiting a response from the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Some 13 Sri Lankan cricketers, including star players Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara, have signed three-year contracts to play in the IPL.
The players argued they received permission to play in the IPL before the ECB came up with the idea of replacing Zimbabwe with Sri Lanka for the early part of the summer 2009.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four-nation T20 tournament
confirmed
Cricinfo
‘There were some teething problems initially but now everything is going according to plan,’ Noman Nabi, chairman of Sports International Marketing - the company staging the August 14-17 tournament - told the News. Nabi said packed stadiums are expected for the event, with approximately 12,000 spectators expected for each game.
The tournament faced major hiccups last month when the original organisers backed out. ‘We only came in the picture last month and signed an MoU with the Pakistan Cricket Board in mid-June,’ Nabi said. He said they had signed an MoU with the Bangladesh Cricket Board while all terms and conditions have been verbally agreed with the top officials of Cricket Canada.
‘They [Cricket Canada] have assured us that they would soon confirm the participation of the West Indies in the tournament,’ he said. Noman said there was a delay in confirming the four-day event as Cricket Canada were a ‘bit apprehensive’ about the venture after the earlier organisers backed out.
‘The PCB has been very supportive,’ he said. ‘The tournament is aimed at building Pakistan’s image in Canada because a successful Twenty20 tournament will help revive cricket in that country.
‘Canada has a big Pakistani community and since the event will begin on August 14 we believe it would be a perfect time to celebrate [Pakistan’s] Independence Day there.’


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rain halts ‘A’ team’s progress
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
Visiting Bangladesh A team scored 183 runs for 6 wickets in 55.5 overs in the 1st innings against Warwickshire when the 2nd day’s play of the 2nd three-day match was halted due to rain at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Saturday.
Resuming with overnight 117/2 in 29 overs, the second string Bangladesh side received early blow as two overnight batsmen skipper Junaed Siddiqui and middle order Rokibul Hassan returned to the pavilion leaving the team score at 122 for 4.
Junaed could add just one run to score 50 off 92 balls with nine fours, while Rokibul contributed 28 runs off 42 balls with six boundaries. Then middle order Nayeem Islam and Rajin Saleh played nicely but failed to produce big scores both throwing their wickets with the at 183.
Rajin was the 5th batsman to get out scoring 29 runs, followed by Nayeem’s 30, both hammering four boundaries each.
AS Miller and LM Daggett grabbed two wickets apiece for 35 and 47 runs respectively.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangladesh face Oman today
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
Bangladesh Under-21 Hockey team play their second match against Oman today in the 6th Men’s Junior Asia Cup Hockey in Hyderabad in India.
The junior Bangladesh side are expected to win the match against their Oman counterparts as Bangladesh recently outplayed Oman by 6-1 goals to clinch the AHF Cup held in Singapore recently.
Placed in Group B, Bangladesh will play their third and last match against a strong Pakistan team on July 14. Earlier in the inaugural match on Friday, Bangladesh conceded a humiliating 0-8 goal defeat to South Korea.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BFF hopes to tie up a sponsor
within a week
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh Football Federation president Quazi Salahuddin vowed to end the sponsorship saga within this week. The BFF executive committee on Saturday handed over the responsibility to Salahuddin for finalising the deal with the intending sponsor.
‘We have some options to select the sponsors and I just wanted to reveal all the aspects to my executive committee, they unanimously handed over the responsibility to me and I hope to tie up a sponsor within this week,’ said the BFF chief.
Since taking over the responsibilities of the BFF as the president Salahuddin has spent a lot of time knocking on the doors of the possible sponsors and he believes he has reached the last front.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur promises SA revival
Agence France-Presse . London
South Africa coach Mickey Arthur didn’t pull his punches after seeing England pile up 593 for eight declared on the second day of the first Test at Lord’s here Friday.
‘It was helluva disappointing,’ said Arthur. ‘We came here full of expectation and we haven’t delivered.’
But he insisted there was still plenty of time for the world’s number two ranked Test side to bounce back in both this match and the four-Test series.
‘The positive is that England have seen nowhere near the best of us,’ he said.
Ian Bell’s Test-best 199 and South Africa-born Kevin Pietersen’s 152 in his first Test innings against the Proteas formed the backbone of England’s commanding total.
South Africa’s quicks didn’t help their cause by being too often short and wayward with only Morne Morkel (four wickets for 121 runs from 34 overs) having reason to be pleased with his efforts.
‘We didn’t get our lines and lengths right, bowled both sides of the wicket and it hasn’t been great,’ Arthur said.
He added that England had been helped by coming into this match on the back of their recent 2-0 Test series win at home to New Zealand, while it had been nearly two months since South Africa drew a Test campaign in India.
‘You could see England have been playing hard Test cricket for the last couple of months and we haven’t. The gap was glaring.
‘But there’s three days to go in this match and it’s a long series.’
Bell was under pressure after making just 45 runs in his last four Test innings and with Andrew Flintoff, on the brink of full fitness, waiting to replace someone in the England team.
Both points were not lost on Arthur, who highlighted each of them in the build-up to this match.
‘I put the kiss of death on him didn’t I?,’ Arthur joked. ‘We wanted to put him under pressure and we gave him four half-volleys to kick-start his innings. But hats off to him, he delivered.’
South Africa will resume on seven without loss and Arthur said: ‘It is going to be really interesting to see how we bat and how England bowl.
‘We’ll certainly be watching with interest.’
Makhaya Ntini, now 31, finished with an analysis of none for 130 in 29 overs and looked a shadow of the fast bowler who returned match figures of 10 for 220 in South Africa’s crushing innings victory at Lord’s five years ago.
‘Makhy’s had a little bit of a topsy-turvey year but I’m confident he’ll get it right,’ Arthur said.
It was easy to criticise Graeme Smith’s decision to field first but Arthur said the South Africa captain had been let down by his pacemen.
‘Unfortunately, we bowled both sides of the wicket and we couldn’t seem to build any pressure.
‘As a bowling unit, you’ve got a problem if you do that and sometimes it makes the captain look a little bit stupid with the fields he sets.’
But Arthur was adamant South Africa, without the now-retired Shaun Pollock and missing the likes of Charl Langeveldt, could adjust to English conditions.
‘These guys can change their lengths. They’ve done it in practice. We’ve set targets for what an English length is and they’ve invariably hit them.’
An upbeat Arthur insisted: ‘I am going to write off this innings. If a trend develops through the series then it will become a worry. But I am sure we can turn it around.
‘Our execution was poor, the players have admitted it themselves. Our strategising and planning was 100 percent correct, it was just our execution that was lacking.’


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taormina makes history
Agence France-Presse . Washington
Sheila Taormina has coped with threats from a stalker, faced down her own self-doubts, started over twice in her sporting career and even sold her house to finance her Olympic dream.
The result is Olympic history.
The 39-year-old motivational speaker will compete in her third different Olympic sport next month at Beijing when she appears in her fourth Games, this time in the modern pentathlon.
‘No one has made an Olympic team in a third sport. I thought it was an interesting challenge and maybe I could do it,’ Taormina said.
It’s not like she is chasing gold. After failing to qualify for the 1988 and 1992 US Olympic swim squads, Taormina won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as the third leg swimmer on the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Taormina switched to triathlon for that sport’s Olympic debut at Sydney and finished sixth, then placed 23rd at Athens after leg cramps while cycling. That looked to be her farewell.
But she explored modern pentathlon in 2005, looking for support but finding little.
‘I was on websites looking up depression. I definitely had anxiety. I would cry all day,’ Taormina said.
Then a former triathlon coach prodded Taormina, saying, ‘This is your dream. Nobody owes you a thing. If you want to sell your house, sell your house.’
She did, leaving Florida two years ago to spend a year training at the US Olympic Center in Colorado before moving back to Michigan, where she grew up.
Now Taormina is ready for the five-sport challenge - shooting, fencing, swimming, running and horse riding. This really will be her Olympic swan song.
‘No other sport in my life ever again,’ she said. ‘I know there will be no desire. Picking up the sports is what led to anxiety. It’s not an obsession. I wouldn’t be competing now if it weren’t my goal to make a third Olympic team.
‘It’s time for me to retire soon. I’m much more interested in life and people and not so focused on my little mission.’
Taormina has endured the death of a older sister when Sheila was a child and a stalker who in 2002 began making threats and harassing with messages and calls. He was sentenced to five years behind bars in 2003 and released last January but has not made contact with Taormina again.
After her swimming gold, Taormina drove 8,000 miles around the United States and made motivational speeches to children. She turned to triathlon to get back in shape after months of junk food took a toll.
‘I truly had no Olympic aspirations. I just wanted to get back into shape,’ she said. ‘It took everything I had to stay in the water. It was exhausting mentally to fight every day.’
After 14 months she was ready for the triathlon challenge.
‘I’m definitely one of the lowest-confidence people you will ever meet,’ she said. ‘The lack of confidence makes me a super-hard worker. What is a weakness, low confidence, morphs into a strength, hard work. When I step up, I know I’ve worked harder than everyone else.’
Now Taormina struggles the most with fencing and still fights her fear on horseback.
‘The riding is super hard because I’m afraid of getting hurt. If I do something wrong in shooting I’m not going to hurt myself,’ she said.
‘Before I started riding, I thought, ‘How hard could it be? The horse does all the work.’ I’ve been bucked. Horses have stopped in front of the jump. The hardest part is the fear. I’ve been fortunate to be healthy. So far.’


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bell comes of age as
Test batsman
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . London
Ian Bell came of age as an England batsman on Friday with a monumental 199 on the second day of the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s.
Bell found an ideal lieutenant in the increasingly impressive Stuart Broad, who stroked 76 at number eight, as England reached a seemimgly impregnable 593 for eight when Michael Vaughan declared. South Africa were seven without loss in reply before rain and bad light brought a premature end to the day’s play.
Although Bell’s abundant talent has never been questioned his reaction to pressure has after a series of soft dismissals when seemingly well set.
His response at Lord’s was to help Kevin Pietersen (152) revive England from a shaky 117 for three on Thursday with a fourth-wicket partnership of 286, a record against South Africa.
After Paul Collingwood (7) and Tim Ambrose (4) had fallen cheaply either side of lunch, Bell and Broad added 152 for the seventh wicket, another England record against the South Africans.
They were assisted by some more inaccurate bowling from the South African pace attack, sloppy ground fielding and stolidly unimaginative captaincy from the world’s most experienced leader Graeme Smith who rotated his bowlers mechanically and rarely altered the field.
South Africa also did themselves no favours when Dale Steyn peppered tail-ender Ryan Sidebottom with some short-pitched deliveries after a rain break in the final session.
Pietersen, 104 not out overnight, survived a caught-and-bowled chance to Jacques Kallis after scoring 133 to reach his fifth Test score over 150.
He was finally dismissed after hitting 20 fours and a six, caught behind by Mark Boucher from an attempted hook off Morne Morkel. Collingwood, to his dismay, was given out caught at short-leg by Hashim Amla off slow left-armer Paul Harris and Ambrose’s wretched international form continued when he edged Morkel to Smith at first slip.
Smith persisted with Harris’s guileless spin, allowing Broad to play himself in, while Bell unveiled a series of exquisite strokes.
He glided Morkel to the boundary and backward point and played two immaculate backfoot strokes for four off Harris and Kallis. An on-drive of textbook perfection against Kallis brought up his 150 and the 50 partnership.
Smith took himself out of the solitary slip position in a totally defensive field setting to Makhaya Ntini’s bowing. Bell responded by cutting a boundary and feathering the next ball past Boucher to the boundary.
Left-hander Broad again looked a batsman of true Test pedigree, dealing competently with short-pitched deliveries at his body and driving fluently.
He reached his second Test fifty from 85 deliveries and a maiden century was a distinct possibility when he was bowled hitting across the line against Harris. His innings took only 124 balls and included 10 fours.
Bell was eventually out hitting a simple catch back to Harris, who rolled on the ground in gratitude. He had batted for 496 minutes and hit 20 fours and a six from 336 balls before becoming the first Englishman to perish one short of a double-century.
‘Hopefully that can turn a corner for me,’ Bell told a news conference. ‘The best players in the world go on and get big hundreds. I wanted to go out there and make a big impact in this series.
‘I think I’ve played like that for England but not gone on. People sit up and take notice when you score big ones, not sixties and seventies. It would certainly be the best innings I’ve played for England so far.’


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hoy aims of triple gold
Agence France-Presse . Paris
If there is one Olympian the British delegation will look to for gold medal glory in Beijing, it is sure to be Scottish track cycling king Chris Hoy.
A total of 10 gold medals will be contested at the brand new Laoshan velodrome, and Hoy - a nine-time world champion - is aiming for three of the seven up for grabs in the men’s competition.
Since beginning his track career full-time in the wake of the construction of the Manchester velodrome in the mid-1990s, Hoy has become the shining jewel in a track squad which - thanks to a long-term plan for sporting excellence which is now being applied to other sports - is considered a world leader.
It is not without a sense of irony, however, that Hoy goes into his third Olympic campaign as arguably Britain’s best hope for multiple gold medals.
Hoy, the last Olympic kilometre champion, began his bike racing career on a BMX - an event which has now replaced the ‘kilo’, albeit in controversial fashion, on the Olympic programme.
When news of the decision filtered through in 2005, only a year after Hoy had produced one of the truly spectacular moments of the Athens Games by beating three Olympic records to claim gold, the Scot could not believe it.
‘I felt as though my career had been cut in half. For a while I felt directionless,’ said Hoy, who since then has reluctantly admitted it could be a blessing in disguise.
‘It might turn out to be the best thing for my career,’ he said, speaking after the Beijing leg of the track cycling World Cup in December 2007.
In the three years that have followed the International Cycling Union’s decision to kill the Olympic ‘kilo’, Hoy has characteristically embraced the chance to remain at the top of his sport.
In Beijing, he will start the keirin and blue riband event of the match sprint as the reigning world champion, and as the man to beat for the likes of flying Dutchman Theo Bos, France’s Kevin Sireau and reigning Olympic sprint and keirin
champion Ryan Bayley of Australia.
Hoy will then join two other riders, from England’s Jamie Staff and Kenny Roberts and Scottish compatriot Ross Edgar, in a bid to challenge the French team’s virtual 10-year domination of the team sprint.
It is where he is likely he could meet old foe, and current friend, Arnaud Tournant - one of the many people in track to have recognised the talent of a rider who has consistently strived for perfection through thousands of hours of agonising training sessions.
As well as embracing the advantages of sports psychiatry, it has not been unknown for Hoy to spend two or three hours training on a road bike on Christmas day, ‘because maybe some of my rivals won’t be.’
It is that kind of commitment that has allowed the 32-year-old to switch his focus on two of the most difficult events in track - sprint and keirin.
It all seems a million miles away from the modest hopes of the aspiring BMXer who travelled around Scotland and the north of England in search of competition.
Hoy also considered rowing and rugby as career options, but even the inspiration of former Scotland professional Gavin Hastings - a former coach at Hoy’s high school - could not stop him drifting towards track.
Australia coach Martin Barras will be hoping his riders can throw a spanner into the British team’s hopes.
If they do, it will be partly down to Hoy.
‘For a coach he’s a dream come true. He’s very easy to work with,’ said the Canadian, who first began working with Britain to help their emerging sprint team several years ago.
‘I show my riders a video of Chris because I want them to copy him.’


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chouhan becomes champion
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
Mohit Chouhan of Dhaka Club emerged champion in the A Division of the 1st Delta
Life National Squash Tournament crushing Omar of Gulshan Club by straight 3-0 sets in the final at the Dhaka Club here Saturday.
In the B Division, Shaheed of Gulshan Club clinched the title thrashing Jonny Ram of Chittagong Club, also by 3-0 sets in the final.
In the Above-40 Division, Commander Gani of Navy Club became champion beating Dinesh Biddopa of Gulshan Club by 2-0 sets.
Meanwhile, the final of the Premier Division will be held today at Dhaka Club.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------