CRICKET
Ballance hits historic ton
Gary Ballance on Tuesday became only the second Test batsman after Kepler Wessels (South Africa and Australia) to score a century for two countries, hitting an unbeaten 137 for Zimbabwe against the West Indies at home in Bulawayo. Ballance, who was born in Zimbabwe, scored four centuries for England, but last played for them in 2017. “I cannot even describe how proud I am, firstly to represent Zimbabwe, and secondly to get the hundred,” Ballance told reporters.
FOOTBALL
Rodgers to meditate on job
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Tuesday said that he plans to make a decision on his career after spending four days in a “darkness” retreat. He told The Pat McAfee Show that he plans to head into his four-day, four-night isolation soon after this weekend’s Super Bowl. Rodgers’ future is set to be one of the main talking points of the NFL off-season, with speculation he may seek a move to the Las Vegas Raiders or the New York Jets. The 39-year-old said retirement is also an option, but added that no decision would be made until after completing his unorthodox retreat. “It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts ... just kind of sitting in silence, which most of us never do,” he said.
OLYMPICS
Four held over Tokyo bids
Japanese prosecutors yesterday arrested a former senior Tokyo Olympics official and three businessmen over alleged bid-rigging linked to the Games, the latest twist in a growing corruption scandal. In a statement, Tokyo prosecutors said they arrested Yasuo Mori, 55, a senior Tokyo 2020 organizing committee official, for allegedly contravening the anti-monopoly law. Prosecutors also detained Koji Henmi, an official at advertising giant Dentsu, Masahiko Fujino of television production and sales company Fuji Creative Corp and Yoshiji Kamata of events operator Cerespo. Prosecutors accuse the four men of rigging a string of supposedly open competitive bids and limited tender contracts for Olympic events, reportedly worth a total of ￥40 billion (US$305.9 million), local media said.
STANDING HEAD
Qataris plan United bid
Qatari investors are planning to make a huge bid to buy English Premier League club Manchester United, the Daily Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. The report described the investors as “a group of private, high-wealth individuals” from Qatar. Jim Ratcliffe’s company INEOS last month formally entered the bidding process to buy United.
TENNIS
Venus out for a while
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams faces a long spell on the sidelines due to a hamstring injury that ended her hopes of playing in last month’s Australian Open, but the 42-year-old is determined to get back on court at some point. “To be honest, I was super overwhelmed by the injury,” Williams said on her YouTube channel. “This is the kind of injury that you have to let it rest a bit before you can start to do serious rehab ... You have to walk before you run and I’m starting to walk pretty good. Hopefully, I’ll be running soon, but for now, I’ll not be playing tennis.”
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
With a hat-trick on Wednesday, Victor Osimhen moved atop the UEFA Champions League scoring table, with the Nigeria striker netting all three goals in Galatasaray’s 3-0 victory over Ajax in Amsterdam. Osimhen moved to six goals this season in Europe’s elite club competition, one more than Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. The Istanbul club signed Osimhen to a permanent deal from SSC Napoli in the summer for a record transfer fee in the Turkish League reportedly worth US$86 million. The 26-year-old striker needed less than 20 minutes to complete his first hat-trick in the competition. He headed in the opener in the
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
Amanda Anisimova on Wednesday pulled off a stellar comeback to get the better of Iga Swiatek 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2 and book her spot in the last four of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei won in the doubles at the women’s year-ending event. Making her tournament debut this week, the fourth-seeded Anisimova secured the runner-up spot in the Serena Williams Group behind Elena Rybakina. Rybakina completed round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 record, thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 success against Russian alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova earlier in the day. Anisimova improved her three-set record this season to an impressive
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