CRICKET
Afghanistan reach final
Favorites Afghanistan and seventh-seed Namibia have reached the first final of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 qualifying tournament after topping their groups in the United Arab Emirates. Both sides were unbeaten over seven matches in the competition in Dubai, in which two places are up for grabs for the World Twenty20 series in Sri Lanka later this year. Afghanistan beat Bermuda by 15 runs, while Namibia won by 27 runs against Italy. Group A leaders Afghanistan batted first and reached 177 for five, with Mohammad Shahzad unbeaten on 64. Asghar Stanikzai (26), Mohammad Nabi (22) and Karim Sadiq (22) also chipped in with the bat. In response, Bermuda finished on 162 for seven, with Janeiro Tucker scoring a quick-fire 37 off 16 balls, including four sixes in an over from Samiullah Shenwari. Shahzad said after the game: “I’m very happy, my team is happy, because we have qualified for the next stage. We want to qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 2012 because the players have worked very hard together and the trainers, coaches, physios and everybody involved is working very hard to do well.”
RUGBY UNION
Ioane, Braid suspended
Queensland Reds wing Digby Ioane was on Tuesday suspended for five weeks and Auckland Blues flank Luke Braid for three weeks after incidents during Super 15 matches in South Africa last weekend. Ioane was guilty of a tip tackle on Coastal Sharks loose forward Marcell Coetzee, lifting the player and then dumping him to the ground during a match title-holders Reds lost by five points in Durban. Braid struck an unnamed Western Stormers opponent twice, on the back of the neck and the head, during the second half of a Cape Town game in which the Blues suffered a 10-point defeat.
GOLF
Iberdrola Open canceled
Open champion Darren Clarke and Javier Ballesteros, the son of the late Seve Ballesteros, have been denied the chance to compete in Mallorca because the Iberdrola Open in May was canceled. The Iberdrola Open was to take place from May 10 to May 13, but Keith Waters, the chief operating officer with the European Tour, said it couldn’t survive without a sponsor. “It’s just a reflection of the tough economic times everyone is facing at present,” Waters said. Clarke’s three-shot success at Pula Golf Club ended a three-year winless drought and eventually led to success two months later in The Open at Royal St Georges, England. Ballesteros, the 21-year old son of Seve Ballesteros, who plays off a handicap of 0.0, was invited by tournament host Jose Maria Olazabal to tee up as an amateur and on the one-year anniversary of his father’s passing.
GOLF
USPGA drops Q-school
The USPGA Tour has pulled the plug on nearly 50 years of Q-school as a way to get to the big leagues. In a massive overhaul of its structure and season, the tour’s policy board approved starting the official season in October and making the Nationwide Tour the primary path to getting a USPGA Tour card. Still to be decided are the details. USPGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said on Tuesday his staff still had not decided how to combine Nationwide Tour players with the USPGA Tour players who fail to keep their cards. They will play a three-tournament series with 50 cards at stake. Finchem says Q-school will still be held, but it would only offer Nationwide Tour cards.
BOXING
Lopez doesn’t recall words
Former WBO featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez said he has no recollection of accusing a referee of betting following his second career loss to Mexican Orlando Salido. Lopez said at a news conference on Tuesday that he did not know what he said or did following the March 10 fight until he saw a video of himself the following day. He said he was embarrassed and asked the people of Puerto Rico to forgive him. Lopez spoke just days after Puerto Rico’s Professional Boxing Commission suspended him as it investigates the allegations. Lopez is scheduled to meet with officials on Monday. He said if the commission suspends him for a year, it would force him into early retirement.
BASEBALL
US squad to play in Cuba
US collegiate baseball players will square off with a Cuban squad in a five-game series in Havana in July, officials said on Tuesday, setting up the first friendly matches between the Cold War rivals in 16 years. “We could not be more excited or proud” to re-establish what was an annual series between 1987 and 1996, USA Baseball executive director Paul Seiler said in Havana, where officials signed a letter of agreement scheduling the friendlies. The five games will be played from July 5 to July 9 at Latin American Stadium as a warmup for the Haarlem Baseball Week tournament in the Netherlands later that month.
FOOTBALL
Steelers’ Hines Ward retires
Hines Ward, the all-time leading receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, retired from the NFL on Tuesday after 14 seasons, all of them spent with the Steel City club. Ward caught 1,000 passes for 12,083 yards and 85 touchdowns, all of them Steeler records, and his tenure with the team was eclipsed only by 15-year center Mike Webster. After being released by the Steelers, Ward said he did not want to play for any other NFL club. “Today I’m officially retiring as a Pittsburgh Steeler,” Ward said. “And as much as I will miss football, my teammates, coaches and the game, I don’t want to play in any other uniform.” Ward helped the Steelers win the 2006 Super Bowl over Seattle, earning MVP honors, and helped bring Pittsburgh a record sixth Super Bowl title by defeating Arizona in the 2009 Super Bowl. Ward, a third-round selection in the 1998 NFL Draft, caught 14 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns in three Super Bowl appearances.
BASEBALL
Cabrera suffers fracture
Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera suffered a minor fracture below his right eye after getting hit by a grounder in a spring training game, but is hopeful for the regular season opener, the team said on Tuesday. Cabrera will be shut down for a week and re-evaluated after that, but is expected to be fit for his team’s season-opener on April 5. The slugger may have been spared a more serious injury from the grounder on Monday, as the ball deflected off his sunglasses during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. “I don’t think there’s any question that his sunglasses helped him a great deal yesterday,” Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said in a report on the team’s Web site. “Who knows what would’ve happened yesterday if he didn’t have the sunglasses on, because you could see the imprint of the baseball on his sunglasses, the seams on there.”
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