■Cricket
Sarwan told to get in shape
West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan has been told to get in shape by the national selectors after failing to earn a central contract for the coming year. Sarwan, pace bowler Jerome Taylor and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin were the most notable absentees from the list of 15 players handed the retainers. “The team management, the selection committee and the West Indies Cricket Board are concerned about Mr Sarwan’s extremely indifferent attitude and sporadic approach towards fitness, particularly in recent years,” a statement released by the board said. Injuries have kept Sarwan out of Test action throughout this year. “Ramnaresh’s less than satisfactory and fluctuating fitness levels have directly contributed to multiple injuries thereby causing him to be unavailable for selection to the West Indies team,” the statement said. Chief selector Clyde Butts said that the absence of a contract did not have a direct impact on team selection. “He is a world-class batsman and our view is that had he been in better shape over the years he would have had even more runs,” Butts said.
■Soccer
France players urged to sing
New France coach Laurent Blanc passed the words of the French national anthem on to his players so they could sing La Marseillaise before their Euro 2012 qualifier against Belarus yesterday. Many French fans felt the players tarnished the country’s reputation when they refused to train during this year’s World Cup. Few French players usually sing the national anthem before their games and Blanc wants that to change. “It’s a quite sensitive issue here and I’ve personally prompted the players to sing La Marseillaise tomorrow,” Blanc told reporters on Thursday. “They perfectly know what I think. I’ve passed the lyrics on to them so I think they’ll be able to sing tomorrow,” he said. “Everybody is free to do what he wants but when you know La Marseillaise, you sing it.”
■SOCCER
Cops hunt Cabanas shooter
Colombian police are searching for a Mexican fugitive wanted for the shooting in January of Paraguay soccer player Salvador Cabanas, a senior officer said on Thursday. Finding Jose Jorge “JJ” Balderas, whom a drugs lord captured in Mexico this week identified as the shooter, was a priority, Judicial Police chief Carlos Mena said. Cabanas, who had been set to go to the World Cup in South Africa with the Paraguay team in June, was shot in the head in a Mexico City bar, according to some reports during an argument over his form for local club America. The forward still has the bullet lodged in his brain and was moved from a Mexico City hospital after a month to a Buenos Aires clinic where he is now an out-patient.
■Shooting
Rat bite ruins Games bid
Indian shooter Sanjeev Rajput is blaming the sharp teeth of a rodent for robbing him of his shot at glory on home soil at next month’s Commonwealth Games. The 29-year-old was perceived as a medal prospect for the Oct. 3-Oct. 14 Delhi Games but lost out in the race for a place in India’s highly-competitive shooting squad following a poor performance at the June trial in Pune. “I was staying in the camp hostel in Pune where a rat bit me in the night,” Rajput said yesterday. “I did not take any chances and immediately visited the doctor. He gave me anti-rabies shots and soon I was running a high fever. I was just not at my best and shot 1155 and 1149, both of which were below-par. It brought down my averages,” the shooter said.
■FIELD HOCKEY
Rain forces delays
Rain has wiped out the three Pool B games scheduled at the women’s field hockey World Cup. The postponed matches on Thursday were: South Africa-China, England-South Korea and Spain-Argentina. England and Argentina won their first two pool matches and were hoping to win three straight before the rain and chilly weather came. Tournament officials did not immediately say when the postponed matches would be played. The final and third-place game of the World Cup is Sept. 11.
■ICE HOCKEY
Sharks sign Niemi
The San Jose Sharks have signed free agent goaltender Antti Niemi to a one-year, US$2 million contract, the team said on Thursday. Niemi became the Chicago Blackhawks starter midway through last year’s season and went 26-7-4 in 39 games with a 2.25 goals-against average and seven shutouts. He then backstopped the Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup since 1961 with a six-game series win against the Philadelphia Flyers. “Antti’s play last season speaks for itself,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson told reporters. “Our goal this summer was to create the best goaltending unit we could and we feel we have successfully done that.” The 27-year-old Niemi became a restricted free agent on July 1 and took the Blackhawks to arbitration when the two sides could not reach agreement on a contract. An arbitrator awarded Niemi a US$2.75 million salary, and Chicago exercised its right to walk away from the award, making the goaltender an unrestricted free agent.
■DELHI GAMES
Bring your earplugs
Loved and loathed in equal measure, the drone of the vuvuzela will resonate in India for the first time at the Commonwealth Games next month. The plastic horn, which went on to become soccer’s World Cup soundtrack in South Africa this year, will be part of Delhi’s noisy celebration for the Oct. 3-14 multi-sports gathering, organizers said on Thursday. Even though the cacophony received a resounding thumbs-down in Europe, the chairman of the event’s official merchandising partner, Premier Brands, said the high decibel level should not be a problem in India. “In India we enjoy sports with lot of noise. We are not like the Europeans,” Suresh Kumar said yesterday. “The organizing committee only needs to ensure that the fans are allowed to enter the stadiums with the vuvuzelas and it is not perceived as a security issue.” Unlike the ones sold in South Africa, the vuvuzelas would be decorated in Indian colors and priced at a little less than US$4. The vuvuzelas are expected to be a hit in a country where loud celebrations are part of life and where cricket crowds are often so noisy that umpires struggle to detect edges.
■MOTORCYCLING
Baron dies aged 56
Motorcyclist Jean-Michel Baron died on Thursday at the age of 56, after 24 years spent in a vegetative state following a crash on the Dakar Rally. Baron was 31 when he fell heavily during his second Paris-Dakar, after which he spent several months in hospital before being taken home, where he lived for 23 years “in a vegetative state,” his wife, Jocelyne, said. “Motorbikes were his life,” she said of Baron, the French 250 Inter motorcross champion in 1980 who finished 20th riding a Honda in his first Paris-Dakar in 1985.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
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