CRICKET
Australia chief to step down
Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland yesterday announced he would stand down in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal that rattled the game. Sutherland, who has been chief executive for 17 of his 20 years with Cricket Australia, has given 12 months’ notice and is to continue in his role until a suitable replacement is found. “After nearly 20 years at Cricket Australia, the time is right,” he said.
GOLF
Selling rare club membership
China Fishery Group’s bankruptcy case enters its second anniversary this month with no resolution in sight as a key auction of its fishing assets in Peru stalls. It might have better luck selling its corporate memberships in the famed 129-year old Hong Kong Golf Club. At no less than HK$17 million (US$2.2 million) each, it might be a small price and rare chance for the territory’s golfers to own a certificate, Tony Chan at Everfine Membership Services said. “There’s a 20-year waiting list at the club for individual applications,” he said by telephone on Tuesday.
CYCLING
Impey takes overall lead
South Africa’s Daryl Impey took the overall lead in the Criterium du Dauphine on Tuesday, moving ahead of Team Sky rider Michal Kwiatkowski who crashed 2km from the finish line of the second stage. Impey’s overall time at the end of the stage between Montbrison and Belleville, France, was 8 hours, 51 minutes and 46 seconds. Kwiatkowski picked himself up and finished the stage, which left him second in the overall standings. The Pole trailed Impey by two seconds ahead of yesterday’s 35km sprint. The event is the main warm-up race for the July 7 to 29 Tour de France.
SOCCER
Escort scandal jolts Mexico
Members of Mexico’s national squad held a farewell party with about 30 prostitutes before the team traveled to Europe ahead of the World Cup, reports said on Tuesday. According to the TVNotas gossip magazine, nine members of Mexico’s World Cup squad partied with dozens of escorts at a private compound in Mexico City on Saturday last week following the team’s 1-0 win over Scotland at the Aztec Stadium. The players would not be punished because “they have not missed training,” Mexican Football Federation general secretary Guillermo Cantu said. The Mexico team is already in Copenhagen, where they are preparing for a friendly against Denmark on Saturday before heading on to Russia.
SOCCER
Argentina drops Israel match
Argentina has called off a friendly against Israel after pro-Palestinian groups protested. Argentina’s last friendly match before the World Cup in Russia was scheduled for Saturday, but a senior source at the Argentine Football Federation on Tuesday told reporters that it had been canceled. The head of the Palestinian Football Association had urged Argentina earlier this week to cancel the match. It also called on Arab soccer fans to burn posters and T-shirts of Argentina captain Lionel Messi if he participated. The cancelation of the match came hours after pro-Palestinian activists staged a demonstration in front of the sports complex in Barcelona where Argentina are preparing ahead of the World Cup.
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