■ Cricket
Piper pinched for pot
Warwickshire's Keith Piper was suspended for the rest of the English county cricket season Friday after testing positive for cannabis. The wicketkeeper, who tested positive at a county match against Glamorgan on April 14, was banned until Sept. 30 by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Piper, 35, had a one-day contract with the county champion, and the suspension could end his playing career. Piper pleaded guilty to using cannabis at a May 12 hearing and had been suspended from all cricket since then. The ECB also ordered Piper to attend a drug counseling course and undergo another doping control check. He could be target-tested as many as six times in the following 18 months. Piper, who toured India and Pakistan with the second-tier England A team in 1994 and 1995, also paid £250 (364 euros) toward the cost of the hearings by a three-man disciplinary panel. In 1997, Piper was banned for one match and fined £500 by Warwickshire after testing positive for cannabis.
■ Soccer
China league failing
China's ailing professional soccer league faces collapse unless a management crisis is stemmed, a top official for the sport was quoted as saying. Asian Football Confederation General Secretary Peter Velappan said he was seeking talks with Chinese officials following allegations of mismanagement and corruption made by the recently sacked coach of last year's league champions Shenzhen Jianlibao. "The crisis at Shenzhen must be solved urgently, or Chinese football would collapse," Velappan was quoted as saying in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. He was in the city Friday to announce new programs to boost soccer in the region. Shenzhen fired coach Chi Shangbin earlier this month after a disastrous winless start to the season. Chi blamed failures on the team, saying players were deliberately performing poorly after salary cuts. Chi's assistant, Yang Saixin, who resigned in protest, went further, calling players "ruffians" and accusing them of fixing matches and gambling. Most of the teams in China's one-year-old super league are mired in financial woes following the loss of major sponsors. Velappan said poor management was behind the crisis.
Omar Marmoush’s stunning long-range strike on Tuesday upstaged Kevin de Bruyne on the Manchester City great’s Etihad farewell. Marmoush let fly from about 30m to put City ahead in their 3-1 win against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. The victory moved Pep Guardiola’s team up to third in the standings and left qualification for the UEFA Champions League in their own hands heading into the last round of the season. “It’s really important. To be in the Champions League after what happened [this season] will be really nice,” the City manager said. De Bruyne was making his final home appearance for City before
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
RSS