Stephen Fleming's 10-year reign as one of world cricket's most admired Test captains ended yesterday when he was replaced as New Zealand skipper by his former deputy Daniel Vettori.
At the same time, Fleming announced his retirement from limited-overs cricket after leading his country to 98 wins in 218 matches over the past decade. No player in cricket history has captained his national team more often in the one-day game.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan paid tribute to Fleming as New Zealand's "greatest captain," but said it was the organization's decision to switch the Test, one-day and Twenty20 captaincy to Vettori, who is six years Fleming's junior.
"The selectors are looking to the future and have recommended that Daniel assume captaincy of the Test team as well as the one-day team," Vaughan said from South Africa.
"Daniel has demonstrated real leadership during his time with the [New Zealand team] and through his occasional performances as one-day captain, has shown he is ready to take over captaincy ... in all forms of the game," he said.
Fleming, 34, led New Zealand to 28 wins and 25 draws during his term as captain. Elevated to the captaincy in 1997, three years after making his Test debut aged 20, he led the team in 80 of his 104 Tests.
While debate has raged over Fleming's standing as a batsman both in New Zealand and world terms -- he has scored more Test runs than any other New Zealander but only nine centuries in 177 Test innings -- his acumen as a captain has been widely praised.
Fleming said while he had made the decision to retire immediately from the one-day game, after previously stepping down as New Zealand's one-day captain, he hoped to continue playing Tests in the near future. He added the coming New Zealand summer is likely to be his last at the top level.
"I am fully committed to the [New Zealand team] and New Zealand Cricket but feel that the time is right for me to retire from the one-day game," he said.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB