CRICKET
Gazi, Utseya banned by ICC
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has slapped bans on Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi and Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya for illegal bowling actions. The off-spinners were examined in Cardiff after being reported during international matches in August and it was found all their deliveries breached the tolerance limit of 15 degrees for straightening of the elbow joint. “Both players can apply for a reassessment after modifying their bowling actions,” the ICC said in a statement. Gazi, who has played 10 Tests and 20 one-day internationals, was reported after the second one-dayer against West Indies in St George’s in August, while Utseya, a veteran of 160 one-day internationals, was reported after the third one-dayer against South Africa in Bulawayo the same month, the ICC added.
RUGBY UNION
Dan Carter out of Cup match
All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter has lost his race to be fit and will miss the final Bledisloe Cup match against Australia next week. Carter broke his leg playing for the Canterbury Crusaders in the Super XV final and missed the entire Rugby Championship after suffering repeated setbacks in his recovery. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen had hoped to have the world-class pivot back in his side for the match against in Brisbane, but Carter strained his leg in a recent provincial match. “We won’t take him to Brisbane and DC believes this as well, that we are better to get him going and confident, and happy in himself in his game,” Hansen told New Zealand’s Radio Sport yesterday. “If all goes well, then we will take him on the end-of-year tour and he is likely to start against USA,” he added of the one-off match in Chicago next month. New Zealand are already assured of retaining the Bledisloe Cup after a 12-12 draw and 51-20 victory in their first two matches against Australia this year. Carter’s absence is likely to mean a recall for Aaron Cruden, who was dumped for the final two matches of the Rugby Championship after missing a flight to Argentina the morning after a boozy night out.
SOCCER
Portuguesa try hypnosis
A second-tier team in Brazil is resorting to hypnosis to try to avoid relegation. Portuguesa this week announced the hiring of a hypnosis specialist to work with the players, hoping he will help them improve their performance and lead the team out of last place in the standings. In Portuguesa’s first match with the specialist, though, the team lost 1-0 to Vasco da Gama at home on Tuesday. With 10 matches left, Portuguesa are 12 points behind the first team outside the relegation zone. Portuguesa dropped into the second tier last year after a sports tribunal stripped points from the club for using a suspended player in the competition’s final round of matches. The ruling benefited Rio de Janeiro club Fluminense.
TENNIS
Zhuhai to host ‘Elite Trophy’
The expansion of women’s tennis into Asia gathered pace yesterday when it was announced that a new WTA “Elite Trophy” will be played in Zhuhai, China, next year. The 12-player event will replace the current Tournament of Champions, which will be played in Sofia for the last time later this month, and feature players ranked from ninth to 20th who fail to qualify for the WTA Tour Finals. It will add to the six WTA Tour events in China this year, including new tournaments in Hong Kong and Wuhan, while Singapore is hosting the WTA Tour Finals. Zhuhai neighbors Macau and the city is completing a new stadium to host the event from next year to 2019.
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