Injury ends Bichel's season
Former Test bowler Andy Bichel will miss the remainder of the Australian season after surgery on his right shoulder yesterday, Queensland Cricket said. The surgery will sideline the 37-year-old paceman until the start of next summer. Bichel injured his shoulder throwing a ball while fielding during a club match at the start of the southern summer.
■ Basketball
Scandal-hit star dies
Ralph Beard, an All-American guard for the University of Kentucky in the 1940s and a key figure in college basketball's biggest betting scandal, has died. He was 79. Beard, who helped the Wildcats win national championships in the 1948 and 1949 died early on Thursday. After two years in the NBA, and before the start of the 1952 season, Beard was among several players involved in a point-shaving scandal that rocked college basketball and admitted to shaving points while at Kentucky. He received a suspended sentence, but was banned for life from the NBA.
■ Rugby Union
Players in quokka shocker
Two players from Australia's Western Force Super 14 club have been disciplined after mishandling small animals during a team bonding session. Scott Fava and Richard Brown were fined and ordered to undergo counselling for alcohol abuse after being found guilty of handling quokkas, a rare Australian marsupial listed as a protected species. Although investigators found there was no evidence to suggest the players intended to harm the quokkas, RugbyWA's Misconduct Committee found them guilty of offenses including being drunk in public at a pre-season training camp on Rottnest Island.
■ Sumo
Asashoryu back in Japan
Troubled grand champion Asashoryu returned yesterday to Japan where he was bracing for an earful from the sumo world, three months after he fled to his native Mongolia. He arrived at Narita airport near Tokyo to a crowd of more than 100 waiting reporters and photographers. Asashoryu was banned from the sumo world until the end of last month after he infuriated sumo fans by cheerfully playing a soccer match after skipping a regional tour, an obligation for all sumo wrestlers. Asashoryu fled to Mongolia to wait out his time after doctors said he was depressed. He was scheduled to speak to the press at the Ryogoku National Studium in Tokyo later in the day for the first time since July 30 amid calls for an apology over his conduct.
■ Soccer
Okada to lead Japan
The Japan Football Association said yesterday it had picked Takeshi Okada, who coached Japan at their first World Cup in 1998, to return to the job to replace the ailing Ivica Osim. He takes charge as Japan prepare for next year's campaign to win a berth in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Okada will be formally appointed by an executive board meeting next Friday, an association spokeswoman said. Osim suffered a serious stroke on Nov. 16 and is only now emerging from a coma. Okada was first appointed Japan's coach in 1997 and despite limited experience at the time, developed a reputation for being able to take tough decisions and sideline senior players if necessary. After coaching the national team, Okada managed Consadole Sapporo in the J-League second division in 1999. He then moved to the Yokohama F Marinos, winning two championships before he stepped down last year.
RSS