The newspaper England captain Michael Vaughan accused of misquoting him placed an audio excerpt of its interview with Vaughan on the Internet yesterday, contradicting the cricketer's assertion that his remarks about a teammate were blown out of proportion.
Although Vaughan insisted that he, rather than all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, had played a major role in the team's failure to reach the World Cup semi-finals, the Guardian had quoted him as saying that an incident involving "Freddie" Flintoff's drinking exploits had damaged team morale.
He was quoted as saying: "You have to be honest: the `Fredalo' incident did affect the team. It did affect morale," referring to Flintoff being found on a pedalo, or paddleboat, at 4am in the morning after their opening group match defeat against New Zealand in St Lucia.
PHOTO: AFP
Vaughan insisted on Wednesday that he never used the word "Fredalo," as he wouldn't want to single out an individual for an incident which saw six players in all disciplined for late-night drinking, though an audio file on the Guardian's Web site seemed to prove otherwise.
In it, the England batsman is heard to say: "We had a great preparation week and then unfortunately incidents happened which did affect the team. You've got to be honest, it affected the morale, it affected the spirit."
The Guardian journalist said: "Was it ... ?" to which Vaughan replied: "`Fredalo.' It's bound to affect team spirit. From then on suddenly you've got players I'd like to see go out and enjoy themselves, but no one would dare go out after that and you don't feel you can create a spirit."
Vaughan had earlier denied that he had used the word "Fredalo" while speaking at Old Trafford where the third Test against West Indies started yesterday, adding that he still had a good relationship with Flintoff.
"We are good mates," added Vaughan, who shares an agent with Flintoff. "I have a huge amount of respect for Andrew Flintoff."
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite