BASKETBALL
Lin craves night market time
Jeremy Lin, the first NBA player of Taiwanese descent, on Monday said that he hopes to spend more time at Taiwan’s night markets — his favorite places in the nation. Visiting Taiwan for the fourth consecutive year as part of an Asian tour, Lin said at a news briefing in Taipei that he had spent only 10 to 15 minutes at the nation’s night markets on his previous trips. “So I hoped that there would be a year when I could stay longer and look around at night markets, which have been my favorite places since my childhood,” said Lin, whose contract with the Los Angeles Lakers expires today.
SOCCER
Guangzhou sign Paulinho
Brazil midfielder Paulinho has signed for Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande for 14 million euros (US$15.6 million), the club said, the latest big-money transfer for the cash-rich Chinese Super League. The 26-year-old signed from Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur in his former national team manager Luiz Felipe Scolari’s first deal at the Guangdong outfit after taking over earlier this month. Guangzhou are aiming to clinch a fifth successive league title this year, but sit third in the league behind leaders Beijing Guoan, following a run in which they have won just once in four games.
OLYMPICS
Group issues Boston details
The group trying to bring the 2024 Olympics to Boston has released the most detailed look yet at its bid for the Summer Games. It said its US$4.6 billion plan would create jobs and housing, expand the tax base and leave behind an improved city with a US$210 million surplus. The announcement is designed to answer critics who say the privately funded Boston 2024 has withheld details of the bid to prevent the public from assessing whether the games could be staged without taxpayer money. Bid chairman Steve Pagliuca, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics, said the new plan goes deeper than the proposal that convinced the US Olympic Committee to pick Boston in January over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington.
CRICKET
ICC fines Sri Lanka for pace
Sri Lanka have been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during the second Test against Pakistan in Colombo, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday. ICC match referee Chris Broad of England imposed the fines after the hosts were found to be one over short of the target during the Test, which they won by seven wickets on Monday. Skipper Angelo Mathews was fined 20 percent of his undisclosed match fees and the rest of the team 10 percent according to regulations governing Test cricket, the ICC said in a statement. “Mathews pleaded guilty to the offense and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing,” Broad was quoted as saying in the statement.
CRICKET
World Cup surpasses record
The Cricket World Cup generated more than A$1 billion (US$767.6 million) for the economies of host countries Australia and New Zealand when it was held in February and March. An economic impact study released yesterday by the ICC also said the tournament created the equivalent of 8,320 full-time jobs and attracted 145,000 visitors to the countries solely to watch cricket. It said total attendance at tournament matches was 1,016,420, including 93,013 for the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a world record for the largest attendance at a cricket game.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS