CRICKET
Wyness faces difficult task
Former Everton and Aberdeen soccer chief executive Keith Wyness was on Friday handed the imposing job of trying to convert the US to Twenty20 cricket. The 54-year-old will be responsible for the delivery of a business plan that will include the sale of Twenty20 franchises for a league planned to start in the summer of next year, Cricket Holdings America LLC announced. Wyness has extensive experience in managing the business of elite-level sport, having worked on the Sydney Olympics of 2000 and as the chief executive of English Premier League club Everton and Aberdeen in Scotland. “I am delighted to take up the role of chief executive officer of Cricket Holdings America,” Wyness said. “It is very rare for an opportunity as exciting as this to come along within sport, to have a clean page to develop what I believe will become a major sport in the USA. Cricket is already the second-biggest sport in the world and the USA is the biggest commercial market for sport. My role is to marry those two factors together and there is plenty of potential and opportunity to do that. Cricket is already played extensively across the United States, with close to 50,000 regular players and it [the US] is the world’s second-biggest consumer of Internet cricket behind India.”
BASEBALL
Braun says testing is flawed
National League MVP Ryan Braun, who successfully appealed a positive doping test that would have brought him a 50-game suspension, said on Friday the protocol process was “fatally flawed” and that he was totally innocent of wrongdoing. The Milwaukee Brewers outfielder said his urine sample was not sent to the lab for a period of 44 hours and subsequently revealed levels of testosterone that were three-times higher than ever previously found in Major League Baseball testing. “If I had done this intentionally or unintentionally, I’d be the first to step up and say: ‘I did it,’” Braun said from a podium on the diamond at the Brewers spring training field in Arizona. “I truly believe in my heart and I would bet my life that this substance never entered my body at any point.” Braun said he took a doping test on Oct. 1 during the MLB playoffs and was told on Oct. 19 that he tested positive, which automatically brings suspension. On Thursday, an arbitrator ruled in favor of Braun’s appeal and, for the first time in MLB testing, overruled the finding of a positive test and then voided the suspension. “The program in the way that it was applied to me was absolutely fatally flawed,” Braun said.
SOCCER
Zenit sign Andrei Arshavin
Zenit Saint Petersburg have signed Arsenal’s Russian midfielder Andrei Arshavin on loan until the end of the season, the player and the Russian outfit said on Friday. The Arsenal player, who cost the Gunners ￡15 million (US$20 million) when he arrived in London two-and-a-half seasons ago, tweeted “it’s done” as he prepared to head back to his former club amid reports Zenit had agreed to pay a fee of about US$1.5 million and also pay his wages. Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger had previously insisted that the Russian would be staying put, although the 30-year-old has come in for criticism from fans for some recent below-par performances. This season he has been a fringe player, generally appearing from the bench. With the Russian transfer window shutting on Friday night Zenit made their move, saying in a statement on their Web site: “Arshavin is back!”
GOLF
Auction could fetch US$3m
The global economy may be in the rough, but bidders are expected to chip in up to US$31,000 to buy an old golf ball at a major sale of golf memorabilia at Christie’s in May. The auction of the collection of Bolivian tin baron Jaime Ortiz-Patino, who acquired the famous Valderrama Golf Club in Spain in 1984, is expected to fetch more than ￡2 million (US$3.15 million) in London on May 30. The most valuable item in the collection, billed as the world’s most important of its kind, is expected to be a painting of the Scottish golf course of North Berwick by John Lavery dating from the 1920s, expected to fetch between ￡200,000 and ￡300,000. Among the golf clubs is the Morris Putter, a 19th century club used by the fabled father-son duo of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris, who between them won eight Open Championships.
MOTORCYCLE RACING
Rider, 17, killed in race
A 17-year-old rider was killed in a support race for the World Superbike Championship event at Phillip Island, Australia, yesterday. Race organizers said Oscar McIntyre of Queensland State was competing in the opening round of the Superstock 600cc championship. The crash, which also involved two other riders, occurred on lap two of the scheduled 12-lap race. A medical team worked unsuccessfully to revive McIntyre, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Luke Burgess was treated at the circuit’s medical center and released. Michael Lockhart remained under observation with non-life-threatening injuries. The Superpole session for today’s two Superbike races was not held, with the grid to be based on yesterday’s earlier qualifying session.
ALPINE SKIING
Bode Miller rests knee
Bode Miller skipped a second World Cup super-G race in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, yesterday to rest a knee injury that was treated with minor surgery in the US this week. US team coach Sasha Rearick said Miller had a “scope to clean up” his left knee, but opted not to start on Friday in a super-G race won by Didier Cuche of Switzerland. Rearick said Miller “really wanted to go, but he made the right decision to be a little bit smarter.” Miller could start in today’s giant slalom. Miller competed in a GS last weekend at Bansko, Bulgaria, despite likely damaging his knee days earlier on an icy course at Sochi, Russia.
ATHLETICS
Bolt pulls out of Gibson
Usain Bolt pulled out of yesterday’s Gibson Relays in Kingston, Jamaica, another delay to the start of his campaign pointed toward his defense of his Olympic sprint titles in London. “Due to Usain’s unscheduled trip [to Europe,] which resulted in his training disruption, the coach, Glen Mills, has decided that Usain will not take part in the Gibson Relays,” Bolt’s camp said in a one-line release. It was the second local meeting Bolt missed this month after he had left the island days prior to his traditional opener, the Camperdown Classic, two weeks ago. Bolt, the reigning 100m and 200m Olympic champion, was slated to race a 400m at the low-key Camperdown meeting, but was seen in Germany where he reportedly went to see renowned sport medicine doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt. However, Bolt has downplayed rumors of an injury and reported up to last Sunday that he was fine. Meet organizers said Bolt would open his pre-Olympic season in Europe with the Golden Spike event in Ostrava on May 25. He will then compete in Rome on May 31, and in the Oslo Diamond League meeting on June 7.
American rugby sevens star Ilona Maher is to join 15-a-side club Bristol next month in a bid to play in next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, the English club announced on Monday. Maher, 28, helped the US to a bronze medal at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris and is the seven-a-side sport’s most popular player on social media. “This is a huge coup to be able to bring Ilona Maher to Bristol Bears on a short-term deal,” Bristol head coach Dave Ward said. “She is one of the biggest names in women’s sport, let alone rugby, and we believe she will
US skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she sustained an abrasion on her left hip and that something “stabbed” her when she crashed during her second run of an Audi FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday, doing a flip and sliding into the protective fencing. Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd before going to a clinic for evaluation. “Not really too much cause for concern at this point, I just
HISTORIC VICTORY: Botafogo are the last of the four big Rio clubs to win the Copa Libertadores and they earned a spot in next year’s FIFA Club World Cup Botafogo on Saturday overcame playing with 10 men to win their first Copa Libertadores title after beating fellow Brazilian side Atletico Mineiro 3-1 in the final at Estadio Monumental. After just 30 seconds, midfielder Gregore, one of Botafogo’s best players, hit the head of Fausto Vera with his foot and was given a straight red card. “It was so hard to have one less so early in a final. It was an unfortunate move,” Botafogo defender Alexander Barboza said. “But Gregore deserves this title as much as we do. We made history and that won’t ever be erased.” Winger Luiz
LeBron James is in quite the shooting slump — especially from long distance, highlighted by his zero-for-four effort from three-point range for the Los Angeles Lakers in their 109-80 loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. That return stretched the nearly-40-year-old’s skid to zero-for-19 from deep over his past four games. James’ birthday is on Dec. 30. After going four-for-16 from the floor overall with six of his team’s 20 turnovers for a season-low 10 points against the Timberwolves, James was asked to reflect on the Lakers reaching the quarter mark of their 2024-2025 schedule under rookie coach J.J. Redick at 12-9. “I
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