■BASEBALL
Pro league to go green
South Korea’s professional league plans to go green this season by cutting game times and installing electricity-saving equipment to reduce energy use. The league would phase out the local tradition fans call “half-time” where in the fifth inning players take a five-minute break, the field is cleaned and cheerleaders entertain the crowd, officials said yesterday. Solar panels will be coming in to stadiums along with new lighting systems designed to use less power, but there will be no move to reduce the number of night games and play more games in daylight instead. “We have no plans for that,” said Kim Yu-jin of the Korean Baseball Organization. On the field, pitchers will be under the clock to deliver the ball to the plate quickly. Under new rules, a pitch must be thrown within 12 seconds after the batter is set in the box. A pitcher will be warned for a first tardy delivery and batters will earn a “ball” in the strike count for each subsequent late pitch.
■CRICKET
Black Caps beat Bangladesh
New Zealand beat Bangladesh by 121 runs in their one-off Test in Hamilton yesterday. The Black Caps dismissed the tourists for 282 shortly after lunch on the final day after setting Bangladesh 404 to win. Shakib Al Hasan held up the home team victory push by scoring 100 before being bowled by Tim Southee, who wrapped up the win by dismissing the last two batsmen in successive balls to finish with 3-41. The victory keeps New Zealand in sixth place in the International Cricket Council Test rankings.
■GOLF
Writers snub Tiger
The Golf Writers Association of America’s (GWAA) board of directors voted on Thursday not to take part as pool reporters yesterday when Tiger Woods was due to make his first public remarks in nearly three months. “I cannot stress how strongly our board felt that this should be open to all media and also for the opportunity to question Woods,” said Vartan Kupelian, president of the 950-member group. “The position, simply put, is all or none. This is a major story of international scope. To limit the ability of journalists to attend, listen, see and question Woods goes against the grain of everything we believe.” Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg announced on Wednesday that Woods would make a statement to a select group of media at 11am yesterday at the clubhouse of the TPC Sawgrass, headquarters of the US PGA Tour. But access was strictly limited. Steinberg stressed the event was not a press conference and that Woods would not take questions. Journalists who were not among the invited could watch on closed circuit television from a hotel conference center.
■RUGBY UNION
Sackey joins Toulon
England winger Paul Sackey will join RC Toulon from London Wasps for the next two seasons, the French club said on Thursday. Sackey, 30, will play alongside fellow England player Jonny Wilkinson. “This was the hardest decision I’ve had to make because my heart is in Wasps and I will always support the club,” Sackey said in a statement on Wasp’s Web site. “I have spent some great years here and my heart is here, but I feel the opportunities put in front of me were just too good to ignore.” Tony Hanks, Wasps director of rugby added: “Paul leaving the club is obviously a disappointment. In terms of his departure he has received offers from France that we simply cannot compete with. This is a situation that currently exists in professional club rugby.”
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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