CRICKET
McDermott appointed coach
Former Test paceman Craig McDermott has been appointed bowling coach for the Australia team, Cricket Australia (CA) said yesterday in Sydney. McDermott, who took 291 wickets in 71 Tests for Australia between 1984 and 1996, will replace Troy Cooley in the role after being preferred to South African Allan Donald and compatriot Jason Gillespie, among other candidates. “It’s great to be back as part of the Australian team set-up again and I can’t wait to get started working with the bowlers and the rest of the team,” McDermott said. “We’ve got some challenging tours ahead in the coming months, but I’m excited at the opportunity to be part of the group that helps get Australia back to number one in all forms of cricket.” Australia slumped to fifth in the world Test rankings after a humbling Ashes series defeat earlier this year, during which the English tourists hammered Australia’s bowling attack in all but one Test.
SOCCER
Zimbabwe players probed
Zimbabwean police have questioned three national players as part of a probe into an alleged match-fixing scam in Asia, a state daily in Harare reported yesterday. Washington Arubi, David Kutyauripo and Guthrie Zhokinyi from premier league club Dynamos were picked up from a training session by fraud squad detectives and released after giving statements. “The players said they were asked what happened during the tour to Malaysia,” a source was quoted by the daily. “It was just a brief interrogation and they were released.” Criminal Investigation Department spokesman Augustine Zimbili could neither deny nor confirm the players’ interrogation. In 2009, former Zimbabwe Football Association chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya sent the national team to play unsanctioned friendlies in Thailand, Syria and Malaysia linked to a betting syndicate. Rushwaya was subsequently fired for her actions in October last year. She is also said to have cleared former top league champions Monomotapa to travel to Malaysia where they masqueraded as the national team.
RUGBY
Blackadder defends Williams
Canterbury Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder has jumped to the defense of the “unbelievable” Sonny Bill Williams, who has been the target of scathing criticism from Springboks boss Peter de Villiers. Speaking to his home newspaper The Press from South Africa, where the Crusaders are preparing to play the Central Cheetahs this weekend, Blackadder was not prepared to get into a public debate with de Villiers. However, he said rugby needed heroes like Sonny Bill, who was a “fantastic player and a great role model.” Before the Crusaders monstered the Western Stormers last weekend, de Villiers was dismissive of Williams’ flamboyant offloading skills, which he described as “a bad example to aspiring youngsters.” “I hope he will mature his game,” the Springboks coach said. “He’s doing everything wrong what rugby principles require of you in the game. Backhand passes shouldn’t be the norm ... it has become the norm, now everyone wants to do that kind of nonsense.” Williams starred in the Crusaders 20-14 win over the Stormers with his offloads and powerful running, winning praise from Blackadder. “This game needs heroes. All the kids are running around calling offloads ‘Sonny Bill Williams,’” he said.
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