CRICKET
Brathwaite favored for Test
West Indies allrounder Carlos Brathwaite is favored by captain Jason Holder to make his Test debut tomorrow against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Holder yesterday said that Brathwaite was ahead of fast bowler Miguel Cummins as the likely replacement for Shannon Gabriel, who injured an ankle in the first Test, which the West Indies lost by an innings and 212 runs. “Carlos has been in the squad for a little while now and he’s waited for his opportunity, so he’s probably pretty much front-line to go in ahead of Miguel,” Holder said. Brathwaite has played seven one-day internationals for the West Indies. Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo could also be recalled, with selectors likely to wait until a pitch inspection before finalizing their lineup.
TENNIS
Soderling retires
Two-time French Open finalist Robin Soderling is retiring at the age of 31 due to illness. The big-serving Swede, who ended Rafael Nadal’s 31-match winning streak at the French Open in 2009, has never fully recovered from contracting glandular fever in 2011, when he last played competitively. Soderling, who rose as high as No. 4 and has a 310-170 win-loss ratio, reached the Final at Roland Garros in 2009 and 2010. He had hoped to return to competitive action next year. Soderling wrote on the Swedish Web site tennis.se: “I want to inform you that I have decided to end my career as a professional tennis player. With the disease it has been impossible for me to train 100 percent and I was forced to rest after any physical effort. In some periods I felt so bad that I was completely bed-ridden.”
ATHLETICS
IAAF to make inspection
A taskforce from the governing body of world athletics will make a first visit to Russia on Jan. 10 and Jan. 11 to check on progress toward cleaning up the doping scandal that led to the nation’s suspension from the sport last month. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has set out a series of steps that Russia must take to be reinstated before the Rio Olympics in August. “We have established a good working relationship as the basis of our future discussions and meetings together. I look forward with my fellow members of the IAAF taskforce to visiting Moscow in three weeks’ time,” Rune Andersen, independent chairperson of the taskforce, said in a statement. The suspension followed a report by an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency that exposed widespread, systematic state-sponsored doping and related corruption.
FOOTBALL
Jets make unusual signing
Joe Anderson, a would-be NFL receiver who stood outside a stadium with a sign last month asking for a job, has been signed to the New York Jets’ practice squad. Anderson took his NFL job plea to Instagram as well as outside the home stadium of the Houston Texans seeking NFL work, trying to attract the attention of clubs that might need late-season help. “Not homeless — but STARVING for success. Will run routes 4 food,” read the hand-drawn message on the cardboard sign Anderson carried last month and in the social media photograph he posted. NFL practice squad players are not eligible to play in games, but any club can sign a player from any team’s practice squad. Anderson played nine games over two seasons with the NFL Chicago Bears in 2012 and 2013 and the 27-year-old Texan spent time on Philadelphia’s practice squad last year.
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