■ Cricket
Former Aussies to get shirts
British supermarket chain Asda is cashing in on the rare misfortunes of the Australian cricket team to offer free England Test cricket shirts to any Aussies who can prove they have changed nationality. Asda, part of the Wal-Mart empire, says it will give a free shirt to any Aussies who bring in their old Australian and new British passports to one of its stores -- and recite the first verse of God Save the Queen. This almost unheard-of marketing opportunity follows the unprecedented defeat of the world's top cricket side in a one-day international on Saturday against Bangladesh, as well as two losses to England in the past week. "We thought we'd give Aussie expats the chance to save face and go the whole hog when it comes to British citizenship," Asda non-food director Tony Page said.
■ Tennis
Cash's petty remarks
Lleyton Hewitt said on Wednesday he was not offended by Australian compatriot Pat Cash's remarks about his pregnant girlfriend, which were broadcast live on television. Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, was commentating for the BBC on Hewitt's second-round match against Jan Hernych on Court One. When the cameras turned to Hewitt's fiancee, soap-opera actress Bec Cartwright who was sitting in the stands, Cash, thinking his microphone was switched off, was heard my millions of viewers saying: "I bet she's up the duff." But Hewitt, who is set to marry the 21-year-old Cartwright on July 21 in Sydney, shrugged off the gaffe. "Pat's always come out with some loose comments now and then," said Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion. Hewitt and Cartwright, a star in the popular Australian television series Home and Away, announced their engagement in late January after dating for just six weeks. Last month Cartwright announced she was expecting a baby.
■ Racing
F1 compensation mooted
French company Michelin should compensate US Grand Prix fans for Sunday's six-car race at Indianapolis, the head of Formula One's governing body suggested on Wednesday. International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley also said free tickets should be offered for next year's event. "My personal view ... is that Michelin should offer to compensate the fans on a fair basis and ask the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to coordinate this," he said in a response to written questions. Some 120,000 fans turned up for a fiasco on Sunday with the seven Michelin teams -- Renault, McLaren, Williams, Toyota, BAR, Red Bull and Sauber -- withdrawing because of safety fears about their tires.
■ Racing
F1 harmful to drivers?
Former Formula One driver Mika Salo will be examined by the sport's governing body after his lungs were found to contain large amounts of carbon-fibre dust from the cars' brakes, a Finnish newspaper said on Wednesday. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) will examine Salo, 38, to determine the possible health risks of the dust for other drivers, Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported. "There was really a lot of that dust in my lungs. If I have this much of it, how much will Michael Schumacher, who has driven 10 years longer than me, have?" Ilta-Sanomat quoted Salo as saying. Salo drove in 111 Formula One grands prix between 1994 and 2002.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier