India have called off their planned cricket tour of Pakistan next year amid simmering tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors over last month’s Mumbai attacks, an official said yesterday.
“We received a communication from the government stating that in the present circumstances, it is not feasible to tour Pakistan,” Ratnakar Shetty, the chief executive of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said.
India has blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for last months attacks in India’s financial heart which killed at least 179 people.
The Jan. 13-Feb. 19 tour was to have involved three Tests, five one-day games and a Twenty20 international, but required government approval.
Political commentators said the decision would further harm relations between India and Pakistan, which are both passionate about cricket.
“India is reducing its contact with Pakistan and the cricket tour had to be the first casualty,” political analyst Amulya Ganguli said.
“There is no immediate chance of any improvement of relations between the two countries now,” he said.
Others thought the tour should have gone ahead.
“I wish the tour had gone ahead as it could have generated some goodwill at a time when it is needed the most,” said political commentator Kuldip Nayar.
US and British officials have joined New Delhi in calling Pakistan to do more to stamp out militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, which they blame for the Mumbai attacks, from operating its soil.
They have also urged restraint from India in its response to the attack and offered help in investigations as well as in the fight against militancy in both countries, which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
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