CRICKET
Pakistan, India settle series
Pakistan are to play six series against India from 2015 to 2023 as part of a deal which will see Pakistan support India-led changes to the International Cricket Council. The Pakistan Cricket Board’s chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed said there will be up to 14 Tests, 30 one-day games and 12 Twenty20s across the six series. While Pakistan will be the nominal home team for four of the six series, the security situation in the country means they will be played in the United Arab Emirates or another neutral country if games in Pakistan are deemed too dangerous. Pakistan toured India in late 2012 for a short one-day series, but the neighbors have not played in a full bilateral series since the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008.
OLYMPICS
Ukrainian athletes get fund
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set up a US$300,000 fund to assist crisis-affected Ukrainian athletes and called on political leaders to hold a top-level peace summit. IOC president Thomas Bach said conditions for athletes had deteriorated dramatically since the crisis with neigboring Russia had escalated and the emergency fund would pay for training and competitions, with the money going through the National Olympic Committee. “The IOC is following the political, economic and social developments in Ukraine with the greatest attention and growing concern,” Bach said in a statement. “Also the situation of Ukrainian athletes, including those who have so successfully represented their country in the recent Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, has dramatically deteriorated.” Ukraine’s Lviv is bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics, though its candidacy is unlikely to advance further due to the ongoing turmoil.
SOCCER
Fans must pay Bayern
Four young fans responsible for a homophobic banner which saw Bayern Munich fined by UEFA will repay the club and undertake community service, according to reports on Wednesday. European soccer’s governing body UEFA fined Bayern 10,000 euros (US$13,774) after the youths from Bayern’s Tirol-based fan club displayed a “Gay Gunners” banner, aimed at opponents Arsenal during their Champions League last-16, second-leg match on March 11. Because of the banner, Bayern were also ordered to close part of their stadium for their quarter-final at home against Manchester United, meaning the loss of 150,000 euros in revenue on unsold tickets. Bayern officials have told the parents they must each pay the Bavarian giants 2,000 euros toward the fine and do 10 hours of community service in Munich, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said. The Bayern spokesman said their reaction highlights changing attitudes in soccer and served as a warning to others.
SOCCER
Zenit gets stadium ban
Zenit St Petersburg have been handed a two-game stadium ban for next season over an incident in which fans stormed the pitch, one of them attacking an opposition player. Dynamo Moscow defender Vladimir Granat was treated for a head injury after a fan punched him during the pitch invasion, which forced the Russian Premier League game to be abandoned. The Russian Football Union’s disciplinary committee handed Dynamo a 3-0 win, in a game which they had been leading 4-2 before fans took to the field. Zenit’s first two home games of next season will be played behind closed doors. The club was also fined 1 million rubles (US$28,800).
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed