SPORTGULF TIMES

Pittsburgh Penguins lose to Flames in shootout

Kumble says he has moved on from DRS controversy

CRICKET | Page 4 NHLNHL | Page 6

FOOTBALL

Conte feud with ‘Judas’ Mourinho boils overPage 3

Tabata double as Rayyan win; Lekhwiya held

Sports ReporterDoha

National team coach Jorge Fos-sati would have gained a few valuable insights into Ira-nian football after Al Rayyan

and Lekhwiya produced dazzling per-formances against opposition from that country in the Asian Champions League yesterday.

While Al Rayyan, who were coached by Fossati before he was picked to head the national team, bounced back from a goal down to beat Persepolis 3-1, Le-khwiya were unlucky to come away

with just a point following a 1-1 draw against Esteghlal Kouzestan in Ahwaz.

Several Lekhwiya and Al Rayyan players fi gure in the Qatar squad, and their show against the Iranians, many of who also play for their national team, would certainly help Fossati draw a plan for Qatar’s key World Cup qualifi er in Doha later this month.

It was captain Tabata who was the star yesterday as he struck twice to help

Al Rayyan jump to the top of Group D with a 3-1 win over Persepolis.

Persepolis had taken a sixth minute lead through Mehdi Karimi on an assist from Mohsen Musalman, but the home side got their act together quickly to dominate the remainder of the match.

Al Rayyan, who are now coached by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Denmark great Michael Laudrup, had accounted for UAE’s Al Wahda 2-1 before losing to

another UAE side, Al Hilal in the sec-ond match of this year’s continental competition.

Yesterday, they once again proved how formidable they can be on home turf by dominating the Iranians despite going down by an early goal.

Tabata, of Japanese-Brazilian herit-age and now a naturalised Qatari citi-zen, put Al Rayyan back in the game with a fi ne left-footed shot from close after a pass from Sergio Garcia on the left fl ank.

Al Rayyan, however had to wait un-til the 58th minute for the lead, Tabata making no mistake from the penalty spot after Seyed Jalal Hosseini brought down Sebastian Soria with a dangerous tackle.

Former Barcelona player Garcia completed Persepolis’ misery with a late goal as the Iranians dropped to third.

Meanwhile Lekhwiya, the second Qatari club in the competition, man-aged to secure a point after a 1-1 draw with Iran’s Esteghlal Kouzestan in Group B.

The draw helped Lekhwiya stay sec-ond in the group with fi ve points from three matches, while Kouzestan have seven.

A foul by Ali Hassan Afi f on Has-san Beit Saeid in the sixth minute saw Kouzestan win a penalty and Saeid himself took the shot to put his team ahead.

However, Ismail Mohamed’s fi ne header just fi ve minutes later saw Le-khwiya draw level, but despite the Qa-tari side’s domination they couldn’t add to their tally and had to be content with one point.

FOOTBALL

Persepolis had taken a sixth minute lead through Mehdi Karimi on an assist from Mohsen Musalman, but the home side got their act together quickly

AFPKarachi

Pakistan yesterday charged and suspended giant fast bowler Mohamed Irfan over allegations of spot-fi x-

ing during a recent Twenty20 league, in a case that has so far ensnared three other current or former national stars.

The widening scandal threatens to take some of the sheen off the re-cently completed Pakistan Super League (PSL), which was hailed as a step towards restoring international cricket in the terror-hit country after the fi nal in Lahore passed without in-cident.

A guilty verdict for the players would prove disastrous for Pakistan cricket, which was last rocked by a match-fi xing scandal in 2010 that deprived it of three top players in-cluding paceman Mohamed Amir, who has since made a comeback.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in furtherance to its investigation is-sued a Notice of Charge and provi-sionally suspended Irfan under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code,” the body said in a statement.

It added: “Irfan has been charged with two violations of the anti-cor-ruption code and now has 14 days to respond to the Notice of Charge,” without giving further details.

“He has also been provisionally suspended with immediate eff ect from participating in all forms of

cricket.”Sharjeel Khan and Khalid La-

tif, fellow members of the Islamabad United team that took part in the tournament, were also provisionally suspended and charged last month over meeting a man suspected of be-ing linked to an international betting syndicate.

Former Pakistan opener Nasir Jam-shed was also provisionally suspend-ed on charges of being a “go between” in the spot-fi xing incident. Jamshed and another unnamed person were arrested in Britain last month but were bailed until April.

The PCB, which has formed a three-member tribunal under re-tired judge Asghar Haider to probe the allegations, said the investigation would continue.

Irfan, 34, appeared before the anti-corruption unit of the PCB on Monday and confessed to being ap-proached by a bookmaker about fi x-ing matches in the past six months.

He admitted he failed to report the incidents because of the death of his father in September followed by his mother’s passing in January.

Irfan made headlines for his ex-traordinary height — seven feet and one inch or 216 centimetres — when he made his international debut in 2010 and stands as the tallest-ever player to feature in world cricket.

He has so far played four Tests and 20 Twenty20 internationals, but has achieved most success in his 60 one-day internationals where he has taken 83 wickets at an average of 30.71.

Pakistan suspends Mohamed Irfan in spot-fi xing case

CRICKET

Al Rayyan players acknowledge fans after their win over Persepolis in the Asian Champions League yesterday. At bottom: Tabata celebrates one of his goals. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

Results

Group BEsteghlal Khuzestan (IRN) 1 (Beytsaied 7,

pen) Lekhwiya (QAT) 1 (Ismail Mohamed 11)

Al Fateh (KSA) 3 (Zaqan 12, 50, Juhaim 45+1)

Al Jazira (UAE) 1 (Mabkhout 38)

Group DAl Rayyan (QAT) 3 (Tabata 19, 58 pen, Garcia

88) Persepolis (IRN) 1 (Taremi 6)

Al Wahda (UAE) 2 (Tagliabue 45+1, Dzsudz-

sak 54) Al Hilal (KSA) 2 (Abid 5, Khirbin 69)

Group EKashima Antlers (JPN) 3 (Suzuki 43, Young

og 76, Endo 79) Brisbane Roar (AUS) 0

Ulsan Hyundai FC (KOR) 0 Muangthong

United (THA) 0

Group GEastern SC (HKG) 0 Suwon Bluewings (KOR)

1 (Johnathan 78)

Guangzhou Evergrande (CHN) 1 (Alan 26)

Kawasaki Frontale (JPN) 1 (Kobayashi pen

90+5)

Sports infrastructure projects related to the 2022 World Cup are progressing according to schedule and will be complet-

ed by 2020, Hassan al-Thawadi, sec-retary general of the Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), said on Monday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Tarsheed 22 competition for energy effi ciency, al-Thawadi said Kha-lifa International Stadium will be the

fi rst venues to complete construction work, with other venues to be ready between 2018 and 2020.

Al-Thawadi said the SC has so far announced the start of the design process for fi ve venues, while two further venues had contracts awarded to the main contractor.

The SC secretary general said work has already begun in fi ve to six current venues, adding that the remaining ones will be announced soon. (QNA)

World Cup projectsto conclude in 2020, says al-Thawadi

SPOTLIGHT

Wednesday, March 15, 2017Jumada II 16, 1438 AH

FOOTBALL2 Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Griezmann keen to end nearly man tag

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREVIEW

‘Simeone is the one who has made me take the leap. In three years, Cholo has helped me take the leap to in 2016 be among the three best players in the world’

AFPMadrid

Propelled by an on-fi re Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid stand on the brink of a fourth consecutive Champions League

quarter-fi nal, determined to fi nally end their tag as Europe’s nearly men.

Griezmann has experienced that feel-ing more than most.

In 2016 the Frenchman proved himself as one of world football’s most deadly forwards, but also missed out in agonis-ing fashion in the Champions League and Euro 2016 fi nals, as well as fi nishing third behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the Ballon d’Or.

Burdened by that disappointment and the physical and mental fatigue of car-rying France to the fi nal of Euro 2016 on home soil, Griezmann’s form tailed off as he failed to score a league goal between October and January.

However, the new year has seen Griez-mann, and as a consequence Atletico’s

form, revitalised with the 25-year-old scoring 12 of his 21 goals this season in 2017.

Once again under the tutelage of Diego ‘Cholo’ Simeone, Atletico are coming good at the right time of the campaign to launch another bid for a fi rst ever Cham-pions League title.

BARCELONA-LIKE COMEBACKBayer Leverkusen will need to launch a comeback of Barcelona proportions when they visit the Vicente Calderon to-day needing to overcome a 4-2 fi rst-leg defeat at home three weeks ago.

The esteem with which Griezmann holds Simeone was key to him remaining at the Calderon last summer and why he says he will stay when Atletico move into the new 67,000-capacity Wanda Met-ropolitano next season despite rumours Manchester United are willing to pay the 100 million euro ($107 million) release clause in his contract.

“Simeone is the one who has made me take the leap I needed. I was promis-ing but in three years, Cholo has helped

me take the leap to in 2016 be among the three best players in the world,” Griez-mann told Television Espanola this week.

“To take that leap, Simeone is the best coach I could possibly have had.

“The weather helps a lot, my team-mates are amongst the best and I have a top coach, so I am very happy here and there is no reason to leave.”

To put the scale of Simeone’s achieve-ments at Atletico into context, Los Roji-blancos had only reached fi ve European Cup quarter-fi nals in their history be-fore the Argentine took over in December 2011.

However, getting so close to glory and

falling at the fi nal hurdle has been all the more painful for Atletico and Simeone, especially as they have lost to cross-city rivals Real Madrid for the past three sea-sons in the Champions League, twice in the fi nal.

Atletico are the only club to ever lose three European Cup fi nals without win-ning the trophy.

And Griezmann, who missed a pen-alty in last season’s fi nal, believes he and Simeone have unfi nished business with the Champions League before they look to pastures new.

“He likes it here, he sees in us a squad that has more to give and he does as well,” said Griezmann.

“He wants to go very far in Champions and La Liga and soon we will have a new stadium. I am sure he will continue with us,” added the diminutive striker.

Monaco turn to veteran Falcao to knock Manchester City out

BOTTOMLINE

ReutersParis

Monaco owe most of their recent suc-cess to their young guns, but when they

face Manchester City looking to overturn a two-goal defi cit in their Champions League last-16 tie today, they will turn to a more experienced player in Radamel Falcao.

The Colombia striker, who endured two dismal injury-plagued seasons in the Premier League, has been near his best since he returned this sea-son from a season-long loan at Chelsea.

“This season, I’ve been play-ing consistently. The club has full confi dence in me, the staff and my team mates make me feel important,” said Falcao, who scored two but missed a poten-tially decisive penalty in Mona-co’s 5-3 defeat in the fi rst leg in Manchester.

“With confi dence, the rest comes naturally. I don’t think players forget how to play foot-ball. I just needed playing time

and continuity. You don’t for-get how to score goals,” Falcao added.

Monaco, who geared up for the game with a 2-1 victory over Girondins de Bordeaux on Sat-

urday, will need to show more focus if they are to go through.

“We’re at a crucial stage in the season. In the Champions League, one mistake in a game can be fatal,” said Falcao, who

has scored16 goals in Ligue 1 this season and six in the Champions League.

“We need to raise our level of concentration to make up for our lack of experience in this com-

petition.”Falcao, who has recovered

from a hip injury, is expected to start in a 4-4-2 forma-tion alongside prodigy Kylian Mbappe with Bernardo Silva, another young gem in the squad, expected to provide them with scoring opportunities.

Monaco’s only concern is the absence of centre back Kamil Glick, who will be replaced by Jemerson.

City, who warmed up with a 2-0 FA Cup win at Middles-brough, have vowed to take the same off ensive approach at Lou-is II.

“We’re not going to change,” said full back Pablo Zabaleta.

“This is the way we’ve been playing until now and I think it would be a big mistake if we went to Monaco to defend. However, defensive improve-ment is needed.

“We have to attack in the same way that we did here at the Etihad and if we do we’ll create chances and score goals,” goal-keeper Willy Caballero said.

“But the most important thing is to defend better than we did in the fi rst leg.”

AFPMadrid

Fernando Torres is ex-pected to return just two weeks after losing con-sciousness in a sickening

head clash as Atletico Madrid look to seal their place in the Champions League quarter-fi -nals today.

Atletico are strong favour-ites to reach the last eight for a fourth straight year as Torres was on target in a 4-2 fi rst leg win against Beyer Leverkusen in Ger-many three weeks ago to give the Spanish side a commanding lead.

Torres returned to full train-ing for the fi rst time on Mon-day since losing consciousness in a challenge with Deportivo la Coruna’s Alex Bergantinos that provoked consternation among those on the fi eld and watching around the world.

However, thankfully the 32-year-old was released from hospital less than 24 hours later having suff ered no serious injuries. “We imagine that for Wednesday he will be available,” said Atletico boss Diego Simeone.

Whether Torres starts depends on Kevin Gameiro’s fi tness as the French international missed Sat-urday’s 1-0 win at Granada with an abdominal injury.

Atletico will defi nitely be without captain Gabi and left-back Filipe Luis as they picked up yellow cards towards the end of the fi rst leg to ensure they will be free to play in the quarter-fi nals.

However, despite that appar-

ent show of Atletico’s confi dence that they already have one foot in the quarters, midfi elder Koke warned against complacency.

“We have a great result from the fi rst leg, but we can’t be complacent. We need to give our all again on Wednesday,” said the Spanish international.

Leverkusen travel to Spain un-der new management as Tayfun Korkut replaced the sacked Roger Schmidt after the Germans fi rst leg defeat was followed up by a 6-2 thrashing at Borussia Dort-mund.

Atletico have only lost one of 20 Champions League games at home under Simeone.

However, Leverkusen are hop-ing for a comeback of Barcelona proportions after the Spanish champions fought back from a 4-0 fi rst leg defeat to beat Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 last week.

“We know it’s going to be dif-fi cult and it’s hardly possible, but we will give it our all and try to make the impossible possible,” said centre-back Omer Toprak.

Leverkusen, though, will be depleted by injury and suspen-sion themselves.

Benjamin Henrichs and infl u-ential midfi elder Hakan Calha-noglu are banned, whilst Toprak, Jonathan Tah, Stefan Kiessling and captain Lars Bender are out injured.

“Everything is possible in football and we know we can do better,” said striker Kevin Volland after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Werder Bremen left Leverkusen languishing in the bottom half of the Bundesliga table.

Torres returns as Atletico eye quarters

GOOD NEWS

File picture of Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann celebrating after scoring a goal against Granada during the Spanish La Liga match in Granada, Spain.

File picture of Atletico Madrid’s Fernando Torres during training.

Monaco’s Radamel Falcao (left) during a training session yesterday.

Fixtures (1945GMT)At Madrid Atletico Madrid (ESP) v Bayer Leverkusen (GER) 1st leg: 4-2

At Monaco Monaco (FRA) v Manchester City (ENG) 1st leg: 3-5

“The weather helps a lot, my team-mates are amongst the best and I have a top coach, so I am very happy here and there is no reason to leave”

Toure insists City will maintain positive approach

Midfielder Yaya Toure sees no reason for Manchester City to change the attacking style of play that has been rewarded by an 11-game unbeaten run as the side reaches a crunch part of the season both domesti-cally and in Europe.“When you’re a winner and when you want to achieve important things you have to work hard,” the 33-year-old Ivorian told British media. “Sometimes it’s diff icult but you have to be positive because we know people are waiting for us to fail.”City hold a 5-3 advantage over Monaco ahead of the away leg in their Champions League last 16 clash today and have risen to third in the Premier League after winning four of their last five matches.“We are playing very well at the moment and we have a team that plays mostly attrac-tive games and sometimes the pundits are waiting to analyse,” Toure added of the Monaco clash.“We are going to attack, we never do it the other way, we will attack and they will expect that as well. The best defence is try to score.”After the European tie, City host fourth-placed Liverpool in a vital Premier League encounter on Sunday.

Man City’s De Bruyne aiming for Champions League fi nal

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne believes the Premier League side can reach this season’s Champions League final as they head into today’s last-16 second leg at AS Monaco with a 5-3 lead.City, who have struggled to translate their domestic suc-cess on to the European stage in recent years, were elimi-nated in the semi-finals by Real Madrid last year but De Bruyne is hoping to go at least one step further this term.“I think we can reach the final, but of course the other teams will think the same. And that doesn’t make it easier,” the 25-year-old told British media.

“It will be very tough against Monaco, they are doing extremely well at the moment, but we are very positive and if we beat them we are through to the quarter-finals, after which the final is not that far away.”De Bruyne also felt that City must improve their perform-ances in high-pressure games if they hope to be fighting for some of the most prestigious trophies on a regular basis.“I think it was important as a team to make the next step. City have had a diff icult time in Europe, which is new for this club, but last year we did great in the Champions League,” the Belgian added.

Jardim channels spirit of Monaco’s 2004 vintage comeback

Leonardo Jardim is draw-ing inspiration from Didier Deschamps’ Monaco side that made an unlikely run to the 2004 Champions League final as his team attempt to reverse a 5-3 deficit against Manches-ter City in the last 16.“It will be diff icult,” admitted Jardim. “One thing is sure, for us to qualify in our current state, we’ll need to score three goals. Two will not be enough. We will play with this target.”Jardim singled out Monaco’s dramatic quarter-final victory over Real Madrid 13 years ago as the reference point for his players.Beaten 4-2 in Spain in the first leg of that season’s last eight Monaco looked doomed when Real grabbed the lead in the principality, but two goals from Ludovic Giuly and one from on-loan Madrid striker Fernando Morientes capped a remarkable turnaround.And like Deschamps, who on that famous night warned his players they would concede “one goal and perhaps the first of the match”, Jardim wants his team to stick to the game plan should a similar scenario arise.“We’re ahead in the league, through to the League Cup final, in the French Cup quar-ters, everyone is in a good frame of mind,” Jardim said.“We were able to score three goals in the first leg. We can do it again, we score a lot,” said full-back Benjamin Mendy.

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Conte battle with ‘Judas’ Mourinho at boiling point

FA CUP

‘This is the truth... It’s not football for me. It could be United’s tactic. Sometimes when you play against players with great talent you try to intimidate them’

AFPLondon

Antonio Conte slammed Man-chester United’s cynical at-tempts to intimidate Chelsea in his side’s bitter FA Cup quarter-

fi nal win, but Jose Mourinho hit back at his rival by insisting he remains the Blues’ best ever manager.

While the Chelsea crowd taunted Mourinho as a “Judas”, Chelsea boss Conte was furious with United’s no-holds barred approach.

Ander Herrera was sent off for two fouls on Eden Hazard in Monday’s 1-0 victory and Marcos Rojo escaped a red card for a spiteful second half stamp on Hazard.

The United defender is likely to face a ban if the Football Association retrospec-tively look at the off ence.

Video of the stamp erupted on social media as did images of Conte embroiled in a touchline row with United boss Mourinho that ended with the rivals be-ing separated by the fourth offi cial.

Asked what he made of United’s tactics, Conte said: “My players want to play foot-ball, but for 25 minutes it was impossible.

“I think only that Eden got a lot of kicks. I don’t think I’m crazy.

“He started the match receiving kicks and he fi nished it receiving kicks.

“This is the truth and I don’t think one person can say this didn’t happen. It’s not football for me.

“It could be United’s tactic. Some-times when you play against players with great talent you try to intimidate them.

MATCH OF JIBES “The referee must try to protect these type of players because they can go out with a bad injury.”

It was a chastening return to west Lon-don for former Chelsea boss Mourinho, who endured his old club’s fans calling him “Judas” and chanting “you’re not special anymore”. Mourinho responded to the jibes by holding up three fi ngers to the crowd to remind them how many Premier League titles he won in his two spells with Chelsea.

And, determined to have the last word,

Mourinho, sacked by the Blues last sea-son, took the opportunity to remind Conte and Chelsea’s supporters that they have a long way to go to match his achievements at the Bridge.

“They can call me what they want. I’m a professional,” he said.

“I feel responsibilities on Chelsea’s bad Premier League last season, but when I left we were in the Champions League, winning the Champions League group.

“Now they don’t play in Europe. It’s not my fault.

“Until the moment they have a man-ager that wins four Premier Leagues, I am number one. If a manager wins four I become number two. Until then, Judas is number one.”

‘JUST A CIRCUS’ Although Conte and Mourinho didn’t shake hands at full-time, the Italian in-sisted he had done nothing wrong in their touchline clash.

“It was hard work for the fourth offi -cial but I controlled my emotion very well today,” Conte said. “It’s normal for the manager to push his players. What hap-

pens outside the pitch is just a circus.” Conte saluted Hazard for refusing

to be intimidated by United’s bullying as N’Golo Kante’s superb second-half winner gave the Premier League leaders a Wembley semi-fi nal showdown with London rivals Tottenham next month.

“For sure, he showed strong character. After the fi rst 25 minutes, every player would have a fear of being kicked. It’s very dangerous to receive a kick from the back,” he said.

Inevitably, Mourinho refused to accept blame for his team’s approach and turned the focus on referee Michael Oliver’s de-cision to send off Herrera for what was one of the less vicious tackles on Hazard.

“Herrera’s second yellow card, com-pare that with (Marcus) Rashford going to attack the ball in a counter-attacking situation. He was fouled and the referee doesn’t give a booking,” Mourinho said.

“We all saw the game. We can all agree there was one match until Herrera saw the red card and another after that.

“I thought we were going to win be-cause everything was under control, then with 10 men it was very diffi cult for us.”

Kante leaves Pogba in his wakeBOTTOMLINE

AFPLondon

N’golo Kante’s sublime performance in Chel-sea’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United in

Monday’s FA Cup quarter-fi nal prompted former England great Frank Lampard to dub him the best central midfi elder in the world.

Kante — whose superb goal ended United’s hold on the trophy — escaped his opponents rough-house treatment of playmaker Eden Hazard and allowed the 25-year-old French international to dominate the encounter.

His performance left his French international teammate and the world’s most expensive footballer, United’s Paul Pogba, chasing shadows and at the re-ceiving end of more criticism.

Kante, though, had former Chelsea midfi eld legend Lamp-ard positively purring.

“I’d go as far to say that he’s (Kante) the best central midfi eld player in the world on current form, I really would,” Lampard

told the BBC.“Looking at the way he’s per-

forming this year, he may not be scoring lots of goals but what he’s giving to the team in the way he’s playing, the driving force that he is, I cannot see anyone else out there in world football

better than him at the moment.”Former England and Barcelo-

na striker Gary Lineker tweeted if Kante became a more regular goalscorer then he would be the undisputed number one.

“Bloody hell, if Kante starts scoring goals as well he’ll be-

come the best midfi eld player ever,” tweeted Lineker.

Former England captain Alan Shearer said for his money there would be no competition when it comes to handing out the two player of the year awards.

“I think you’re looking at the Football Writers’ Player of the Year and the PFA Player of the Year,” Shearer told the BBC.

“We are not used to him scor-ing too many goals but he was absolutely superb, he was all over the park as usual.

“When United did get the ball back he was straight at them and getting it for Chelsea.”

Kante, who has proved an un-qualifi ed success since Chelsea paid £30 million to champions Leicester who have equally felt his loss keenly, outshone French international team-mate Pogba.

The Times player ratings awarded Kante 9/10 while Pogba received just four.

The paper opined of Kante: “buzzed around Pogba when United had the ball....” whilst for Pogba it labelled his perform-ance as “Eff ectively stifl ed by Kante and failed to pick him up

for the goal. Showed little inci-sion and wasted his only good chance”. Pogba, for whom the criticism of his performances have become stronger in recent games, has only been substitut-ed in just one of his 38 appear-ances this term.

Perhaps the only person to disagree with the assessment of the performances of the two players was United manager Jose Mourinho.

“The players were phenom-enal but I would refer to one because he’s the one that the specialists enjoy to go after,” Mourinho told MUTV.

“Probably because in that time they were not getting 10 percent of the money he was getting.

“It probably comes from envy but I have to say, that for me Paul Pogba was by far the best player on the pitch.

“He was a giant.”

AFPKarachi

Brazilian football leg-end Ronaldinho is set to visit Pakistan as part of a goodwill mission to

promote the game in the cricket-mad country.

The recently retired 36-year-old, who won the World Player of the Year twice and was part of the 2002 World Cup winning team, issued a short video message on Twitter saying simply “Pakistan, I am coming” as he unfurled a Pakistani fl ag.

News of Ronaldinho’s visit has generated excitement among fans, and comes as the South Asian nation seeks to revive in-ternational sports fi xtures that were disrupted by a militant at-tack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team in 2009.

Those eff orts were given a boost when the country successfully staged the fi nal of its Pakistan Su-per League cricket tournament in Lahore earlier this month, a rare match featuring prominent inter-national sports stars.

Ronaldinho is being brought to the country by UK-based Lei-sure Leagues — organisers of 5, 6 and 7-a-side tournaments which recently announced plans to ex-

pand to Pakistan.Shahrukh Sohail, a Pakistan

representative for the company confi rmed the visit yesterday, adding the company would be launching tournaments next month in Pakistan’s major cities Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.

He declined to say whether the Brazilian would arrive in time to make an appearance.

Cricket-obsessed Pakistan has a strong base of football fans and players, particularly in south-western Balochistan and the southern city of Karachi.

But its national team has struggled in recent decades and has fallen to a lowly 198th place in the FIFA rankings.

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) offi cials were involved in court wranglings against each other for the last two years, forcing the men’s and women’s teams out of international com-petitions.

The Lahore High Court last month decided in favour of rec-ognising Faisal Saleh Hayat as the federation’s chief, a post he has held on-and-off since 2003 without being able to turn around the team’s fortunes.

Earlier this month, Spanish gi-ants Barcelona announced their former star would return to act as an ambassador for the club.

Legend Ronaldinho to visit Pakistan

HIGHLIGHT

Chelsea’s French midfielder N’Golo Kante (L) vies with Manchester United’s French midfielder Paul Pogba during the FA Cup tie.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte clash as the fourth off icial Mike Jones looks on during their FA Cup match.

“I’d go as far to say that he’s (Kante) the best central midfi eld player in the world on current form, I really would,” said Lampard

Man United’s Rojo in eye of the storm over Hazard stamp

Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo could face a Foot-ball Association charge for what appeared to be a stamp on Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard during an explosive FA Cup quarter-final.The 26-year-old Argentinian international — who had been involved in feisty exchanges with Chelsea striker Diego Costa throughout the game — was caught on camera treading on Hazard’s chest in the second-half of Monday’s match which Chelsea won 1-0 to oust the holders.Former England captain Alan Shearer thought Rojo should have been sent off .“That is a stamp. It wouldn’t surprise me at all. He should have been sent off for that,” said Shearer, who was a pundit for the BBC covering the match.Former England and Man-chester United defender Phil Neville told the BBC he felt Rojo could face the type of retrospective action Bourne-mouth defender Tyrone Mings had for stamping on United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their Premier League match earlier this month.Mings — described by Bourne-mouth manager Eddie Howe as a ‘gentle giant’ — received a five game ban. “After what we saw last week at Old Traff ord with Tyrone Mings, you’d think the FA will have a look at that,” said Neville.

Ex-Chelsea star Essien joins Indonesia’s Persib

Former Chelsea, AC Milan and Real Madrid midfielder Michael Essien has signed with Indonesia’s Persib Bandung, the club announced yesterday, the highest-profile player to join a team in the country for years.The Ghanaian signed a one-year contract for an undis-closed sum to join Persib, which is one of the best clubs in the country.The 34-year-old had not been playing with a team since he left Greece’s Panathinaikos at the end of last season.“I will give my very best to Persib,” Essien, wearing a club shirt, told media at the team’s headquarters in Bandung.When asked what he knew about football in Indonesia, he conceded “not very much” but added that he had visited the country with Chelsea before.However the move to Indo-nesia could turn out to be a shock. Football in Southeast Asia’s biggest nation has been wracked by crisis for years, with an explosive row between the domestic association and gov-ernment prompting FIFA to ban Indonesia from international competition in 2015.The domestic league ground to a halt for a while amid the row, but FIFA lifted the suspension in May last year and football in the country is

slowly starting to recover.Foreign players have also been badly treated by Indo-nesian clubs, with at least two known to have died in recent years after going unpaid and being unable to aff ord medical treatment.Essien is the best-known international footballer to join an Indonesian side since the 1990s, when Cameroon World Cup star Roger Milla and Argentine World Cup winner Mario Kempes both played in the country.The club would not be drawn on how much they had paid for him. “The contract value is large because he is a former Chelsea player, I cannot reveal (the amount),” said Teddy Tjahjono, one of the club’s directors.

Former Rangers boss Warburton named Forest manager

Mark Warburton has been tasked with keeping two-time European Cup winners Not-tingham Forest in the Champi-onship after being appointed their new manager yesterday.The 54-year-old — who has had an unconventional career for a manager having been a city trader — takes over after leaving Rangers in confusing circumstances last month with him claiming he had been sacked and the Scottish giants saying he had resigned.Warburton joins Forest along with David Weir, who was his assistant manager at Rangers.“Nottingham Forest are delighted to announce the ap-pointment of Mark Warburton as the club’s first-team man-ager, replacing Gary Brazil,” read a statement on the club’s off icial website.Warburton takes over a side which sits just two points above the relegation places and coming off a 2-1 defeat by fellow strugglers Burton Al-bion, coached by Nigel Clough son of the late great Forest manager Brian.

Everton’s Schneiderlin lost “joy of football” at Manchester United

Everton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin has admitted he nearly fell out of love with the game at former club Manches-ter United due to his lack of opportunities under manager Jose Mourinho.Schneiderlin, who joined the Manchester club in 2015, was a regular under former United boss Louis van Gaal but was limited to three substitute league appearances under Mourinho before switching to Everton in January.“I did lose my joy of football a little bit because when you don’t play, you don’t play with freedom and everything is very hard,” said the 27-year old.“Since I’ve come here the manager (Ronald Koeman) knows what I’m all about. He placed confidence in me in the past and he has done so again. It’s a joy to work with him every day.”

SPORT4 Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Wawrinka cruises into fourth round, Kerber survives scare

TENNIS

Wawrinka is the highest-ranked player remaining in the top half of the draw after No. 1 Andy Murray lost earlier

AFPIndian Wells, California

Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka continued his dominance of Philipp Kohlschreib-er, rolling past the German 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the fourth round of the

ATP Indian Wells Masters. Wawrinka recorded his fi fth victory over Kohlschreiber in as many meetings in a performance that left him cau-tiously encouraged about his prospects of mak-ing it past the quarter-fi nals in the California desert for the fi rst time.

“It was a really good match,” said Wawrinka, who owns three Grand Slam titles but has won just one of the tour’s coveted Masters titles. “The fi rst set was not easy, for sure, but in general I’m happy with my game. I was serving well. I think I’m moving better and better and it’s all posi-tive so far.” A break in each set was enough for Wawrinka, who didn’t face a break point him-self as he advanced to a meeting with lucky loser Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, who staged a re-markable rally to get past 13th-seeded Czech To-mas Berdych 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.

Wawrinka is the highest-ranked player remain-ing in the top half of the draw after world number one Andy Murray’s shock loss to 129th-ranked qualifi er Vasek Pospisil in the second round. With superstars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all jammed into the bottom quar-ter of the draw, Wawrinka’s path looks wide open. Eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem powered into the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Mischa Zverev. World number nine Thiem next faces 10th-seeded Gael Monfi ls, who dispatched American John Isner 6-2, 6-4 in just 68 minutes.

Elsewhere, Pospisil was unable to build on the best win of his career falling to fellow qualifi er Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 7-5 just two days af-ter toppling Murray. Pospisil served for the match at 5-3 in the third set but was broken to love, then failed to convert a match point in the 10th game as Lajovic won the last four games to take the match.

In the women’s, Angelique Kerber might yet celebrate her return to number one with an Indian Wells title after battling past Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the fourth round. Parmen-tier, the world number 62 from France, had the two-time Grand Slam champion from Germany on the ropes with a break and a 4-1 lead in the third set. But Kerber fought back with a break

in the seventh game and another in a marathon 11th game that gave her a 6-5 lead and a chance to serve for the match. Kerber, who rose to number one in the world with her US Open triumph last year, is set to regain the summit no matter how far she goes this week thanks to the injury with-drawal of Serena Williams.

Kerber next faces Russian Elena Vesnina, a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 winner over Hungarian Timea Ba-bos. Fourth-seeded Romanian Simona Halep, yet to regain peak form in the wake of a nagging knee injury, was dispatched by in-form Kristina Mlad-

enovic 6-3, 6-3. France’s Mladenovic, who has al-ready lifted one trophy and reached another WTA fi nal in 2017, had no trouble notching another top-fi ve win.

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Wil-liams booked a fourth-round berth with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Lucie Safarova. The American next faces China’s Peng Shuai, who ousted sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4. American Madison Keys, playing her fi rst event of the year after surgery on her left wrist, eased past Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4.

THIRD ROUND RESULTS (x denotes seeded player):Men’s: Dusan Lajovic (SRB) bt Vasek Pospisil (CAN)

6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 7-5; Pablo Carreno-Busta (ESP x21) bt

Roberto Bautista (ESP x16) walkover; David Goff in

(BEL x11) bt Albert Ramos (ESP x22) 7-6 (7/3), 6-4;

Pablo Cuevas (URU x27) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA)

6-1, 6-4; Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI x3) bt Philipp

Kohlschreiber (GER x28) 7-5, 6-3; Yoshihito

Nishioka (JPN) bt Tomas Berdych (CZE x13) 1-6, 7-6

(7/5), 6-4; Gael Monfils (FRA x10) bt John Isner (USA

x20) 6-2, 6-4; Dominic Thiem (AUT x8) bt Mischa

Zverev (GER x29) 6-1, 6-4

Women’s: Madison Keys (USA x9) bt Naomi Osaka

(JPN) 6-1, 6-4; Caroline Wozniacki (DEN x13) bt

Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 6-3, 6-1; Lauren Davis (USA)

bt Julia Goerges (GER) 6-1, 6-4; Kristina Mladenovic

(FRA x28) bt Simona Halep (ROM x4) 6-3, 6-3;

Peng Shuai (CHN) bt Agnieszka Radwanska (POL

x6) 6-4, 6-4; Venus Williams (USA x12) bt Lucie

Safarova (CZE) 6-4, 6-2; Elena Vesnina (RUS x14)

bt Tímea Babos (HUN x25) 6-4, 1-6, 6-4;

Angelique Kerber (GER x2) bt Pauline Parmentier

(FRA) 7-5, 3-6, 7-5

Green pitch delights South AfricaAFPWellington

After four days of rain the covers were peeled off the Basin Reserve wicket yesterday and to South Af-rica’s delight it was green ahead of

the second Test against New Zealand. The greener the better in Wellington has been New Zealand’s mantra in the past.

But their tone has been softened for the second Test starting tomorrow given the ruthlessness of South Africa’s pace trio Ver-non Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel. New Zealand’s situation is not helped by the loss of batsman Ross Taylor and injury concerns surrounding fast bowler Trent Boult who has until today evening to prove his fi t-

ness. “I don’t think ideally we want to play South Africa on a seamer friendly surface,” said coach Mike Hesson, who was satisfi ed with the eff orts of his twin-spin attack in the fi rst Test where New Zealand had a chance until rain ensured a frustrating draw on the fi nal day.

South African captain Faf du Plessis, how-ever, could barely contain his excitement at the state of the wicket and New Zealand’s in-jury woes. “We’ve been surprised. New Zea-land conditions have changed since we were last here,” he said, with South Africa confi rm-ing they were bringing in an extra spinner — Dane Piedt — for the third Test in Hamilton next week.

But with the Basin Reserve having it’s tra-ditional green cover, du Plessis said his seam-ers were looking forward to the second Test.

The loss of Taylor means captain Kane Wil-liamson is New Zealand’s sole batting fi gure-head and “if we get through him we can put some real pressure on their batters”.

“So there’s excitement for our seamers and they will enjoy that, but so will New Zealand, they’ve got a good seam attack depending on Boult’s fi tness,” added the South African skipper. The captain who wins the toss is ex-pected to bowl which puts the odds in South Africa’s favour after they called correctly in all fi ve one-day internationals and the fi rst Test. New Zealand have replaced the injured Taylor with 33-year-old Neil Broom who did not have the happiest time in the one-day se-ries against South Africa.

In three innings he had scores of two, two, and a duck and was caught around the wicket at square leg, point and in the slips.

CRICKET

Scottish-born Biagi to start for ItalyAgenciesRome

Scottish-born lock George Biagi has been named in the Italy side that will close a disappointing Six Nations campaign against Scotland

at Murrayfi eld on Saturday. The return of Biagi in place of Dries van Schalkwyk is one of four changes from coach Conor O’Shea for an Italian side that has lost all four of their championship matches to date, con-ceding 172 points in the process.

Biagi came off the bench in defeats by Ire-land, England and France, but started in the opening 33-7 defeat at home to Wales. Flank Maxime Mbanda also returns to the team in place of Simone Favaro while Ornel Gega, back from injury, takes over hooker duties from Leonardo Ghiraldini.

The fi nal change to the starting XV sees Tommaso Benvenuti replace Michele Cam-pagnaro at outside centre. Uncapped loose-forward Federico Ruzza has been named on the bench, along with scrumhalf Marcello Violi, who has yet to play in the Six Nations.Italy team: 15-Edoardo Padovani, 14-Angelo

Esposito, 13-Tommaso Benvenuti, 12-Luke

McLean, 11-Giovanbattista Venditti, 10-Carlo

Canna, 9-Edoardo Gori, 8-Sergio Parisse, 7-Abra-

ham Steyn, 6-Maxime Mbanda, 5-George Biagi,

4-Marco Fuser, 3-Lorenzo Cittadini, 2-Ornel

Gega, 1-Andrea Lovotti.

Replacements: 16-Leonardo Ghiraldini, 17-Sami

Panico, 18-Dario Chistolini, 19-Dries van Schalk-

wyk, 20-Federico Ruzza, 21-Francesco Minto,

22-Marcello Violi, 23-Luca Sperandio

ENGLAND READY FOR ‘WORLD CUP

FINAL’ AGAINST IRELAND - JONESEngland coach Eddie Jones has urged his

side to treat the Six Nations fi nale against Ireland like a Rugby World Cup fi nal as the back-to-back champions target a second consecutive grand slam on Saturday.

A victory in Dublin would also see England set a tier-one record of 19 consecutive wins and Jones believes the pressure on the week-end’s performance is ideal preparation for

the 2019 global tournament in Japan.“For us everything’s about the World Cup,”

the 57-year-old Australian said. “If you look at where we are now, we’ve been together approximately eight weeks. You’re together eight or nine weeks to get to a World Cup fi nal. It’s the team that prepares with the mind-set that nothing’s going to stop them being at their best that wins the World Cup.”

Jones said his squad discussed the pos-sibility of extending the unbeaten run after defeating Italy 36-15 last month to notch up a 17th consecutive win. A 61-21 triumph over Scotland last Saturday matched New Zealand’s record for wins in a row.

ALL BLACKS MILNER-SKUDDER

OUT FOR SIX WEEKSAll Blacks utility back Nehe Milner-Skudder was told yesterday he will be out for at least six weeks with a foot injury, leaving his dream of facing the British and Irish Lions hanging by a thread. Milner-Skudder fell awkwardly in a tackle during Wellington Hurricanes’ Super Rugby loss to Waikato Chiefs on Friday and scans showed a break in his right foot. The Hurricanes said it was a small fracture that required rest, not surgery, but Milner-Skudder would be out for at least six weeks.

The match was only Milner-Skudder’s second outing after a season-long layoff in 2016 due to shoulder surgery. He scored a hat-trick of tries in his comeback against the Melbourne Rebels.

RUGBY

India coach has moved on from review row ahead of third test

Ranchi, India: India’s coach Anil Kumble said attention would be back on the pitch for the third Test against Australia after the last match ended on a sour note over the use of Decision Review System (DRS) technology.

Following the end of the Test won by India, cap-tain Virat Kohli alleged his Australian counterpart Steve Smith had flouted the rules on reviewing umpire decisions.

“I think what was important was to bring the focus back on cricket and I am really glad that the BCCI took a mature call along with Cricket Australia to issue a joint statement that cricket needs to move on and we have moved on from whatever happened in that background,” Kumble said yesterday.

Both captains escaped any charges from the International Cricket Council over the dispute involving the Decision Review System (DRS) in Bengaluru, while the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Cricket Australia released a joint statement to resolve the matter.

India succumbed to their first defeat in 15 Test matches with a humiliating 333-run loss against Australia in the first Test at Pune last month, but clinched the second in Bengaluru last week, beat-ing the visitors by 75 runs.

“We would like to finish the last two test matches in a very good way, and I am sure it will be something that we will be cherishing. I think In-dia have responded really well,” he said ahead of the third match of the four-Test series which starts from tomorrow at first-time Test venue Ranchi. After a series win against West Indies in July, India hosted and won test series against New Zealand and England as well as a victory over Bangladesh.

QUESTION MARK OVER TEST FITNESS OF ‘FREAK’ CUMMINS

A recall for one-Test paceman Pat Cummins has been a long time coming but New South Wales captain Moises Henriques believes it still might be too soon for the bowler he considers a “freak of nature”. Cummins may have only played one Test but his was a pretty impressive performance, tak-ing 6-79 in the second innings to lead Australia to a two-wicket victory over South Africa at Wander-ers in November 2011.

After more than five years of injury setbacks preventing his talent from blooming in the Test arena, the 23-year-old was called up to replace the injured Mitchell Starc in the squad for the last two matches in the series in India. A man-of-the-match performance on his return to first class cricket for the first time in six years last week was enough for selectors to give him the call, but his New South Wales captain was not so sure.

“I think Pat is a very special bowler, so in terms of skill-wise and if you want someone to play cricket for Australia, I think Pat Cummins is your man,” Henriques said. “But whether he’s ready

physically on the back of one Shield game, that’s a completely diff erent kettle of fish. There’s a number of diff erent factors when it comes into selecting guys to play for Australia in those sorts of conditions.”

SOUTH AFRICA DRAFT IN EXTRA SPINNER FOR NEW ZEALAND

South Africa yesterday called up off -spinner Dane Piedt to join their squad for the third and final Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, starting on March 25. The South African selectors packed their original touring squad with seam bowlers and only selected one specialist spinner in left-armer Keshav Maharaj. The drawn first Test in Dunedin was played on a slow, turning pitch and New Zealand picked two spinners, who bowled a combined 106 overs out of a total of 224.4 during South Africa’s two innings.

Maharaj bowled 28.3 overs in New Zealand’s only innings, which lasted 114.3 overs, and took five for 94. Piedt will not arrive in New Zealand in time for the second Test, which starts in Welling-ton tomorrow, but could be drafted into the line-up for the third Test if the Hamilton pitch is similar to the spin-friendly surface that was used for two one-day internationals.

Piedt, 27, took 24 wickets at an average of 36.04 in seven Tests before he was dropped from the squad that won a Test series in Australia in No-vember when two previously uncapped left-arm-ers, Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi were selected.

Head coach of the Indian cricket team, Anil Kumble speaks in Ranchi yesterday. (AFP)

Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland whips a forehand shot during his win over Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in Indian Wells, California. (AFP)

AFPLos Angeles

Kawhi Leonard shrugged off the after-eff ects of a recent concussion to score 31 points as

the San Antonio Spurs downed Atlanta to go level with Golden State Warriors at the top of the Western Conference on Monday.

Leonard, who had been con-cussed after a clash with Okla-homa City Thunder guard Victor Oladipo last Thursday, showed no sign of the knock as he led the Spurs to a 107-99 victory over the Hawks.

The win gave San Antonio an identical 52-14 record to Western Conference pace-setters Golden State, who host Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Leonard was backed by an all-round scoring display from his Spurs team-mates with David Lee, Danny Green, Patty Mills and Pau Gasol all posting double fi gure points tallies.

Leonard also chipped in with fi ve rebounds and four assists as the Spurs claimed back-to-back wins following their victory over an under-strength Golden State on Saturday.

For Atlanta, Dennis Schroder led the scoring with 22 points, with Tim Hardaway adding 17 points and Paul Millsap 16.

The Spurs lived dangerously at times however, and gave up a season-high 23 turnovers during an uneven performance.

“All teams make mistakes — nobody plays a perfect game,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

“But overall, I was pleased with our defense, given the fact that we turned it over 23 times and still held Atlanta below 100 points. I’m really pleased that we continued to guard and hus-tle the way we did despite being sloppy with the ball.”

Leonard meanwhile said he was fully recovered from his concussion which had left him complaining of headaches and blurred vision in his left eye.

“I felt good — it was just like any other game,” said Leonard. “Our trainers did a good job of getting me prepared.”

Elsewhere Monday, Karl-

Anthony Towns poured on 39 points as the Minnesota Tim-berwolves pulled away for a sur-prisingly comfortable 119-104 win over the in-form Washing-ton Wizards.

Ricky Rubio scored 22 points and added 19 assists for Min-nesota as Washington slipped to 41-25 for the season. The Tim-berwolves have now won eight of their past 12 games.

Washington’s scoring was led by John Wall with 27 points while Bradley Beal contributed 20 points despite a wayward shoot-ing performance that saw him make just seven of 21 attempts.

Raptors claw Mavs

In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points with six re-bounds and two assists to guide

the Raptors past the Dallas Mav-ericks 100-78.

The Raptors improved to 39-28 after losing their two previous games.

Toronto eff ectively settled the contest in the third quarter, building a 13-point lead which was soon stretched to 22 points in the fourth quarter after Fred VanVleet’s three pointer.

Norman Powell scored 19 points while Jonas Valanciunas weighed in with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Harrison Barnes with 18 points and Dirk Nowitzki with 17 points were top scorers for Dallas.

In Charlotte, the Chicago Bulls ended a fi ve-game losing streak with a 115-109 win over the Hornets after Rajon Rondo’s 20-point haul.

The veteran added seven points and six assists and was the key fi gure in helping Chi-cago’s sputtering off ense fi nd its rhythm again.

Rondo was brought back into the starting line-up by coach Fred Hoiberg after the Bulls limp 100-80 surrender against Bos-ton on Sunday. It was Rondo’s fi rst start since late December.

“We had to make a change,” Hoiberg said.

“We had fi ve straight losses and we had to shake things up, and that’s what we decided to do to try to inject some pace into our team,” Hoiberg added, sin-gling out Rondo for praise.

“Hopefully he’ll play well the rest of the year and hopefully he’ll continue to inject life into our team.”

Dwyane Wade, who scored 23 points, said Rondo’s speed had been the key to a rejuvenated performance. “What Rondo brings to the game is his pace, which allows us to get the ball up the court and we’re moving the ball and our bodies are moving as well,” Wade said.

“It’s easy basketball to play, so it becomes contagious. It starts at our point guard, and then it goes down the line.”

RESULTSSpurs 107 Hawks 99Grizzlies 113 Bucks 93Timberwolves 119 Wizards 104Bulls 115 Hornets 109Raptors 100 Mavericks 78Jazz 114 Clippers 108Kings 120 Magic 115Nuggets 129 Lakers 101

‘I felt good — it was just like any other game. Our trainers did a good job of getting me prepared’

Leonard inspires as Spurs draw level with Warriors

NBA

Sanders returns to sign with CavsAFPLos Angeles

Free agent Larry Sand-ers ended his two-year exile from the NBA by joining the injury-hit

Cleveland Cavaliers on Mon-day, the team announced.

Former Bucks star Sanders, 28, has not played since 2015, when he walked away from the NBA following multiple posi-tive tests for marijuana.

He later underwent treat-ment for anxiety, depression and mood disorders.

However, he announced in January his intention to re-turn to the sport and Cleveland have swooped following the injury which ruled out Andrew Bogut for the remainder of the season. Aussie big man Bogut was waived by the Cavs on Monday, the team confi rmed.

Sanders was selected by the Bucks with the 15th overall pick in the 2010 draft. In fi ve seasons with Milwaukee he av-eraged 6.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.

Cleveland star LeBron James said at the weekend Sanders would be welcome at the Cavs.

“With his hiatus, I don’t know what he was going through so I can’t comment about somebody’s personal life because I wasn’t a part of it,” James told Cleveland.com.

“But it looks like he wants another opportunity and hopefully if we’re the team, hopefully we give him an op-portunity. Why not?

“Everyone deserves a sec-ond chance and it looks like he wants to get back to playing

the game he loves and hope-fully this is his destination. You don’t know how much you can get out of a guy that’s been out so long, but I’d love to see it. Why not?”

Iguodala fined over racially charged comments

Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala was fi ned $10,000 on Monday for ra-cially charged remarks deemed “inappropriate” by the NBA.

Iguodala incurred the wrath of the league for comments made following the Warriors’ 103-102 defeat to the Minne-sota Timberwolves last Friday.

Asked about a plan by coach Steve Kerr to rest Iguodala and other Warriors stars for Satur-day’s game against San Anto-nio, Iguodala replied: “Nope, no clue. I do what master say.”

He later used a notorious racial slur when quizzed about the Warriors’ loss to Min-nesota. NBA executive vice president of basketball opera-tions Kiki VanDeWeghe said in a statement Iguodala had been fi ned for “making inappropri-ate comments during a post-game media interview.”

Warriors coach Kerr later laughed off the remarks, tell-ing reporters: “You guys just got Andre’d.” “Andre is one of those guys who likes to stir the pot and has a lot of cryp-tic messaging at times,” Kerr added.

“(He) jokes around. I didn’t take anything from it. It’s just Andre being Andre.”

Iguodala scored eight points in 32 minutes after coming on off the bench against the Tim-berwolves.

SPOTLIGHT

San Antonio Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard (No 2) dribbles the ball as Atlanta Hawks small forward Kent Bazemore (left) defends during the second half at AT&T Centre. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Larry Sanders.

SPORT5Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Qatar’s Al Rayyan players celebrate their victory over Bahrain’s Al Ahli in their GCC Club Volleyball Championship match at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena yesterday. Rayyan won 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-21). (R) Bahrain’s Dar Kulaib defeated UAE’s Al Ain 3-0 (25-18, 29-27, 25-12) ). PICTURES: Jayaram

GCC CLUB VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

By Sam WernerPittsburgh Post-Gazette

Until Monday night, the Penguins’ Western Canada road trip had been a masterclass in

overcoming injuries.Combine the litany of absent

players with a red-hot Flames team, though, and it was just a bit too much to weather.

The Penguins lost to Calgary, 4-3, in a shootout Monday night, snapping their fi ve-game win-ning streak and ending what had otherwise been a successful trip out west on a bit of a sour note.

“We would’ve liked to have gotten the two points tonight,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “But, it didn’t work out, but certainly it was a big point for us.”

Kris Versteeg scored the lone

shootout goal for Calgary, which extended its winning streak to 10 games. Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel all missed their shootout attempts.

Crosby did force overtime, though, tying the score at 16:29 of the third period to add some drama late. Conor Sheary and Jake Guentzel assisted on the score, marking the second time of the night the trio combined to put the puck in the net.

Johnny Gaudreau had broken a 2-2 tie earlier in the third with a nifty wraparound goal past Pen-guins defenseman Ron Hainsey and Marc-Andre Fleury.

The frenetic third period proved a fi tting cap to a game that featured plenty of high-quality chances - and high-quality goaltending - on both sides.

The line combination of Jake Guenztel, Sidney Crosby and Conor Sheary - which has been

absolutely lethal off ensively on this road trip - struck again early in the fi rst period to put the Pen-guins on the board fi rst.

Sheary put the Penguins up 1-0 when he fi nished off a se-ries of tic-tac-toe passing from Crosby and Guentzel for his 20th goal of the season.

The 20 goals is, obviously, a career high for Sheary in his sec-ond NHL season. He has 20 goals in 47 games this season after scoring seven in 44 last year.

The Flames tied the game midway through the fi rst on a goal from former Penguin Deryk Engelland. Engelland threw a shot from the point that bounced off a skate and past Fleury, who got the nod in goal Monday over Matt Murray.

Fleury - starting two out of three games for the fi rst time since early February - stopped 26 of 29 Calgary shots.

The Penguins reclaimed the

lead a few minutes after Engel-land’s score with a power-play goal from Evgeni Malkin at 15:51 of the fi rst period.

Malkin worked a picture-perfect give-and-go with Chris Kunitz and beat Flames goalie Brian Elliott for his 33rd score of the season.

Elliott, though, kept the Flames in the game after that, stopping 32 shots. For the fi rst time this road trip, the Pen-guins did not lose a player to injury minutes before the puck dropped. Instead, they waited until late in the fi rst period.

Defenseman Mark Streit blocked a Sean Monahan shot late in the fi rst and had to leave the game. He did not return for the fi nal two periods, and, ac-cording to the SportsNet televi-sion broadcast, left the Saddled-ome for further evaluation.

The Penguins’ lead lasted through the fi rst intermission,

but not much longer. Dennis Wideman tied the score at 2 at 1:34 of the second period. Wide-man threw a shot at the net that seemed to knuckle past Fleury and into the crease.

Flames center Sam Bennett tried to get a stick on it to knock it in, but as he whiff ed, the puck bounced into the net its own to even up the score, where it stayed until the third.

The overtime loss moves the Penguins into a tie with Wash-ington for fi rst place in the di-vision and in the overall NHL standings.

RESULTSFlames 4 Penguins 3 (SO)

Hurricanes 8 Islanders 4

Blue Jackets 5 Flyers 3

Lightning 3 Rangers 2

Predators 5 Jets 4 (OT)

Coyotes 1 Avalanche 0

Blues 3 Kings 1

Bruins 6 Canucks 3

‘We would’ve liked to have gotten the two points tonight, but it didn’t work out’

Pittsburgh Penguins lose 4-3 to Calgary Flames in shootout

NHL

SPORT

Gulf Times Wednesday, March 15, 20176

Japan hammer Cuba 8-5, moving closer to the fi nal stageAFPTokyo

Two-time champi-ons Japan knocked out Cuba 8-5 in the second round at the

World Baseball Classic with two stunning homers by slug-ger Tetsuto Yamada yesterday, moving another step closer to the fi nal stage.

Japan, unbeaten in the tour-nament, got off to a good start when Yamada blasted a lead-off homer in the fi rst inning, to an explosive reaction from 32,700 local fans.

But Cuba, defeated by Japan in the fi rst round, turned the match around as Yurisbel Gra-cial hit a two-run homer in the second inning.

The two teams progressed fairly evenly in the seesaw match, but Japan fi nally took the lead as substitute Seiichi Uchikawa scored the decisive run with a sacrifi ce fl y in the bottom half of the eighth

inning.Yamada silenced the Carib-

beans by smashing his second homer of the game in the same inning before ace closer Ka-zuhisa Makita sealed victory in style.

“It was good to have my own swings,” upbeat Yamada told

reporters. “We are aiming at the world

number one, but fi rst we will beat our opponents at hand,” Yamada said.

Japan manager Hiroki Kokubo said: “It was a tough game today, but our batters held on. What happened so far today is a thing of the past. We will go for a victory tomorrow at any cost.”

Japan will take on Israel on Wednesday, while Cuba will play the Netherlands.

Japan, chasing a third title after scooping the fi rst two editions of the World Base-ball Classic in 2006 and 2009, narrowly beat the Netherlands on Sunday in their second round opener.

In a separate match of the quarter-fi nal pool in Tokyo on Sunday, Cuba was defeated by Israel, who have pulled off a string of upsets, battering South Korea, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands in the fi rst round.

Baseball’s birthplace, the United States, has never won the Classic with Major League clubs refusing to release play-ers, giving rise to questions over the tournament’s future.

This year’s 16-team compe-tition concludes with a fi nal at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, on March 22.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC

By Geoff BakerThe Seattle Times

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is in a bit of a hurry these days.

His biggest urgency is grab-bing hold of the next generation of sports viewers before they latch on to something else. And one of the ways he’s gone about it is trying to speed up the games his sport is presenting to those younger fans.

A fl urry of recent rules chang-es introduced by Manfred his fi rst two years since taking over the top MLB job from Bud Selig are designed to quicken the pace of games. The most recent will see the elimination of the four-pitch intentional walk this season and tweaks to the video replay system to eliminate dead time.

Manfred would also like to implement a 20-second pitch clock, reduce the number of trips to the mound and alter the strike zone so pitchers throw more hit-table pitches. Thus far, not sur-

prisingly, the MLB Players As-sociation has shown resistance to anything that substantially alters what it calls the “nuances” of the game.

While those “nuances” may feel like watching a C-SPAN marathon to many young view-ers, the players see them as com-petitive edges. There’s strategy in stepping out of the batter’s box to disrupt a pitcher, or a pitcher stepping off the rubber to hurt the batter’s focus, that does more than merely drag a game out.

The players will fi ght to keep those intact. And Manfred needs the players onboard, which is why he’s looking to cut as many ineffi ciencies as he can without taking aim at game nuances that have existed for 100 years.

This month, he told Forbes.com he’d even look at shortening television commercial breaks.

“This was the most surpris-ing thing,” said Forbes sports contributor Maury Brown, who interviewed Manfred for the story. “There’s been so much talk about how that’s where the biggest change was in the last 40

years. In that there’s been more television and now every game is broadcast and that if you really wanted to get into the ineffi cien-cies part, you’d go after com-mercials.

“Well, everybody was un-der the impression that there’s no way they’d do that because there’s revenues involved with it.”

But Manfred told Brown that not only was he interested in ex-ploring that, but Red Sox owner Tom Werner also supports the idea.

“I fully agree with the idea of examining our commercial load in our broadcasts and is some-thing that we should be doing,” Manfred said in the story. “There are contractual limitations on

when we can do this; we have existing commitments. But, that certainly should be an issue we look at, as well.”

There are obvious issues to reducing commercial breaks. If you reduce the number of com-mercials shown between in-nings, or cut the time devoted to spots, it reduces the money made off such ads.

Brown mentioned Manfred was looking at alternatives to recouping some of that lost rev-enue. Back in 2013, Brown add-ed, Sportsnet in Canada sold su-perimposed on-fi eld advertising visible only to television viewers during its broadcast of a Toronto Blue Jays game.

“They had used the fi eld as green screen and put advertis-ing in the foul areas and on the batter’s eye just for television,” Brown said. “So, they could do this. That’s one way. They cer-tainly experimented with it even if it was just for a game. It just showed that they were willing to go there.”

Whatever the solution, there is certainly evidence that Man-fred’s urgency isn’t misguided.

MLB has the oldest age demo-graphics of any of North Ameri-ca’s four major sports.

Half its television viewers, according to Neilsen’s annual sports media report, are aged 55 and up. The average age of baseball viewers is 54, compared to 47 for NFL and 37 for NBA – which had the youngest viewers of the four big leagues.

MLB saw some youth gains in the most recent World Series, where the 3.7 million viewers in the 18-34 age category was the highest since 2004.

But that merely dented a much bigger problem. Especially when the number of people between ages 7-17 playing baseball in the US has declined 41 percent since 2002.

Also, studies show the league outpacing all others for gar-nering fans in their teens and younger is Major League Soc-cer. The average MLS game lasts about two hours, compared to three hours for MLB.

Manfred has argued it isn’t the time of the games that matters as much as entertainment value.

There have been thrilling MLB

playoff aff airs that go four-plus hours and keep viewers glued to every heart-stopping pitch. It’s the 3-hour games in mid-August between two teams going nowhere, punctuated by seem-ingly endless mound visits, that most everyone agrees is turning younger viewers off .

“If you sit and watch games, usually the pace between the fi rst and the fi fth innings or maybe the sixth, when your starter is in usually isn’t too bad,” Brown said. But, after that, he added, “you get into a lot of situ-ational lefty-on-lefty, righty-on-righty, a pitcher that’s in for only one batter and then we’re going to make another call to the bullpen.

“And then, you’ve got com-mercial breaks that are associat-ed with all of them, where ‘This bullpen call is sponsored by’ and then basically, you hang a spon-sorship around everything. And so, I think, then, that the diffi -culty is really trying to keep the pace going at the end.”

And so, Manfred is trying to help MLB pick up that pace. Be-fore it gets left behind.

MLB’s Manfred is trying to speed up baseballSPOTLIGHT

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury reacts as Calgary Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman (not in picture) scores a goal during the second period at Scotiabank Saddledome. PICTURE: USA TODAY Sports

Japanese designated hitter Tetsuto Yamada hits a two-run homer in bottom of the eighth inning during the World Baseball Classic Pool E second round match against Cuba. (AFP)

SPORT7Gulf Times

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Birmingham, Liverpool want 2022 CW Games

FOCUS

‘Populist surge impacting on Olympics image’BOTTOMLINE

AFPLondon

The anti-establishment surge that led to Brexit and Donald Trump becoming US President has also impacted on bids to host the

Olympic Games, British Olympic chief Hugh Robertson told AFP in an interview yesterday.

There has been much debate about the health of the Olympics brand with just two bidders left in the race for the 2024 Summer Games — Paris and Los Ange-les.Rome and Budapest dropped out due to a perceived lack of popular support to host them.

Robertson, a former Conservative lawmaker who was Sports Minister in the lead-up to and during the 2012 Lon-don Games, said the present political mood did not see the Olympics in a fa-vourable light.

“All political cycles rise and fall and

we are in a period where establishments are on the back foot,” the British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman told AFP.

“You’ve seen that whether it be Brexit, Trump and also look at what is happen-ing to a lesser extent in Germany and a greater extent in France, indeed right across Europe. “This won’t last for ever. There are establishments for good rea-sons. It’s not because people want to club together and protect themselves as is commonly held to be the case at the moment.

“Establishments are a means of doing politics, doing government and doing business that tends to work for people.

“The sense at the moment is that it has broken down. I sense that at some point there will be a gravitation back to the es-tablishment.”

Robertson, who went on to become a Foreign Offi ce minister before stepping down from his seat in 2015, says with the mood as it is he believes it would be wise for International Olympic Committee

president Thomas Bach and the mem-bers to allocate the 2024 and 2028 Games to Paris and Los Angeles when they con-vene in Lima in September.

“There is a very very strong argument, if members want it, to sit out this present mood by securing their future for as far forward as possible.

“Also looking from the outside the at-traction to the IOC to award two Olym-pics would be to give themselves com-mercial security and knowing what they are doing a decade out must be an ex-traordinarily attractive option.”

Robertson, who said one of London’s innate strengths was that they had an all-Party binding agreement to fi rst sup-port the bid and then the delivery of the Games, said casting the Olympics as part of the establishment was wrong.

“Voting against the Olympics as a tool of the establishment is a profoundly il-logical thing to do,” said Roberston.

“In amongst everything else that hap-pens at an Olympics you can forget what

an Olympics is which is at its core 28 world championships in 16/17 day pe-riod.” Robertson, who was ennobled for his part in the successful delivery and hosting of the Games, said it was time for the IOC to remind people that sport is the essential ingredient of the Games.

“Probably part of the error in as much as an error has been made has been to lose sight of that (the sporting side) and if you brought it back to its DNA that it becomes a sports competition then it would be much more palatable.

“You don’t see too many people re-volting against hosting a football World Cup in anything like the same way.

“So getting it back to its core values is a big part of the solution.

“Even if the IOC were to take my ad-vice and wait for in that great modern phrase the caravan to move on (allocat-ing the two Games at same time) it would be worth going through this process in stripping the Games back so it becomes just 16/17 days of sport.”

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) said Durban, which had hoped to be the first African city to host the Games, had failed to meet bid promises

ReutersLondon

The English cities of Birmingham and Liverpool have expressed interest in hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games after

Durban was stripped of the right on Monday.

“Here in Birmingham we are already in the advanced stages of producing a de-tailed feasibility study on what would be needed for a truly memorable games in the city,” said Ian Ward, the deputy leader of Birmingham City Council in a state-ment.

“That is due to be completed in the coming weeks and we are in close contact with the Government about the develop-ing situation.”

Birmingham had already expressed an interest in staging the 2026 Games, as had Liverpool.

The BBC quoted a spokesperson for Liverpool City Council as saying they had “already indicated to the government that we are very willing to host them (the 2022 Games) instead.”

The Commonwealth Games Federa-tion (CGF) said Durban, which had hoped to be the fi rst African city to host the Games, had failed to meet the promises contained in its bid and the search for a replacement host was now on.

Anticipating trouble with Durban, the CGF recently acquired the power to

choose a new host city without a formal bid process.

Its executive vice president Kereyn Smith, also the head of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, confi rmed the CGF would invite cities seen as willing and capable of holding the Games to step in, and said the next host needed to be set-tled quickly.

“I think the time frame is a matter of months, certainly not longer than that,” she told New Zealand radio.

“The President (of the CGF) Louise Martin is working with cities that have the ability and the facilities and they can quickly get the money together to make a commitment to do that.”

New Zealand, which last hosted the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990, said it had no interest in hosting 2022.

“We have no intention of taking over the 2022 Commonwealth Games,” sports minister Jonathan Coleman told local media.

“There is a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built across the country and this ranks well down our list of priorities.”

Canadian media said Durban’s with-drawal might revive interest in Edmonton which pulled out of the 2022 bid in 2015, leaving the South African city the sole bidder.

“This raises the some interesting possi-bilities... but the city could not undertake this alone,” the Edmonton Journal quoted the city’s mayor Don Iveson as saying.

The 2018 Games will be held on Aus-tralia’s Gold Coast.

Smith held out the possibility of the Gold Coast holding back-to-back Games to host 2022 but city offi cials poured cold water on the idea.

“Council will not consider hosting the 2022 games as we will be working tire-lessly on our legacy outcomes from the 2018 Games experience,” Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said.

Australia has been an enthusiastic par-ticipant in the Commonwealth Games, which take place every four years and bring together athletes from the 52 mem-bers of the Commonwealth, most of which were at one time colonies of Britain.

Melbourne (2006), Brisbane (1982) and Perth (1962) have all hosted the Games before.

Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) said it would “support the CGF in any way required” to ensure 2022 went ahead.

“Commonwealth Games Australia has not been approached by the CGF regard-ing an alternate host city for 2022,” it said in a statement.

“If that approach does come, it is something that we will give due consid-eration.”

Meanwhile, South Africa’s government has expressed disappointment at the de-cision to strip Durban of the right to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, saying the budget it had guaranteed for the event was suffi cient.

The Commonwealth Games Federa-tion said on Monday it was seeking a new host because the coastal city had failed to deliver on the promises it had made in its bid, including on govern-ance, venues, funding and risk man-agement.

But South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Fikile Mbalula, said the fi nancial de-mands of the CGF were excessive, and that in a tough economic climate the country would not leave itself exposed to an “open-ended guarantee” on the event’s budget.

He said the government disagreed with the CGF’s statement, while respecting its decision as the rights holder.

“Our country is regrettably not in a position to make huge fi nancial com-mitments given the current competing socio-economic needs and global eco-nomic downturn,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“In the interests of fi scal discipline and fi nancial prudency, our government has considered all options and remains con-fi dent that we have acted in the best in-terest of South Africa.”

Durban missed deadlines last Novem-ber to sign the host city contract, estab-lish an organising committee and make contracted payments to the CGF.

Mbalula said the government had ap-proved a budget of 4.32bn rand ($327.5mn) which it believed was ample, using the country’s hosting of the All Africa Games 18 years ago as a yardstick.

Double Olympic cycling champ Rowsell-Shand ends stellar career

SPOTLIGHT

AFPLondon

Double Olympic cycling track gold medallist Joanna Rowsell-Shand brought the

curtain down on her stellar ca-reer yesterday.

The 28-year-old — who stood out from her teammates because of the loss of her hair through alopecia — won team pursuit gold both in the London Games in 2012 and in Rio last year.

“Having been part of the GB Cycling Team for over 10 years, travelling around the world racing my bike, today I am an-nouncing my retirement from international cycling competi-tion,” she said in a statement on her website, joannarowsell.com.

Rowsell-Shand — who was also a fi ve-time world champion, four in the team pursuit and one individual pursuit crown — also gave some much-needed praise to British Cycling, the subject of adverse headlines for the past year over sexism and bullying al-legations.

“I want to thank the amaz-ing team at British Cycling,” said Rowsell-Shand.

“From the world class team behind the team who work tire-lessly to ensure we have the best preparation for events, to the very fi rst youth coaches who tal-ent spotted me back when I was 15.

“I couldn’t have done it with-out you!

“I have enjoyed this fabulous career and the decision to step away has been the hardest I’ve ever had to make, but now is the time for me to move on

“I believe I have more to off er the world and I’m now looking forward to the next phase of my life and new challenges.”

British Cycling hailed Rowsell-Shand, tweeting: “One of the best there has ever been. What an incredible British Cycling team career for @JoRowsellShand. #GoodluckJoanna.”

She also received a warm trib-ute from Olympic team pursuit teammate Laura Trott.

“I will miss you @joan-narowsellshand. Congratula-tions on such a wonderful ca-reer,” wrote Trott, now married to men’s track great Jason Kenny, on her Instagram account.

“I have been lucky enough to have you there when my own journey began and have loved every minute of it. Good luck in your next chapter.”

Rowsell-Shand — who was also Commonwealth Games in-dividual pursuit champion in 2014 — is to coach and will com-pete in L’Etape du Jour in July.

“I’m also training for L’Etape du Tour in July — riders take on one of the stages of the Tour de France — which will be my long-est bike ride ever,” she said.

“Being more accustomed to racing for 4km, the challenge of riding 180km in mountainous terrain will be a long way from what I am used to but I am never one for shying away from a tough target.”

‘Pyeongchang Olympics can help unite nation’

Seoul: The 2018 Winter Olym-pic Games in Pyeongchang can help unite politically divided South Korea, Interna-tional Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said yesterday. “After the political diff erences that your country is going through now, the Pyeongchang Olympic Games can unite the Koreans and make them proud again of their country, and of their athletes,” Bach was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

Bach, speaking after receiving an honorary doctorate from the National Sport University in Seoul, was alluding to the corruption scandal that led to former president Park Geun Hye’s impeachment and loss of off ice. Support for the Olympics from South Koreans and the national government is “going beyond all the political diff erences,” Bach said. Bach will be attending the IOC executive committee in Pyeongchang tomorrow.

British Olympic chief Hugh Robertson.

Director General of the South African department of Sport and Recreation Alec Moemi speaks during a media briefing by the Department of Sport and Recreation of South Africa yesterday. South Africa voiced disappointment that Durban had been stripped of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, blaming financial disagreements but vowing to host major tournaments in future.

UAE riders dominate day one of GCC Road Cycling Championship

SPOTLIGHT

Hosts Qatar finished fourth in the 46km Elite class team time trial title

By Sports ReporterDoha

UAE riders made a clean sweep on the fi rst day of the 19th GCC Road Cycling Cham-pionship by winning all the three team time trial titles at the Losail International

Circuit yesterday.The UAE team comprising Badr Neerzra al-

Hamadi, Muhamed Hasan al-Marwi, Jabir al -Mansuri and Ahmed al-Mansuri won the 46km Elite class team time trial title, the feature event of the day, in 58:46 seconds as they accelerated with a speed of 47.21km per hour.

Bahrain team riders – Syed Ahmed Khalil Ibra-him, Mansur Muhamed Mansur, Ali Hasan Jawad and Saad Talal Saad – fi nished runners-up after completing the race in 1:1.23 seconds with a speed of 45.23km per hour. Kuwait came third followed by hosts Qatar.

Qatar riders have been preparing well for this event as they had an extensive summer training camp in Europe last year. After that they also fea-tured in numerous events at the regional and Asian level in the winter.

Earlier in the day, UAE won their fi rst title when Umar Abdurrazzaq, Umar Salim, Rashid Ahmed and Khalil Essa won the 23km cadet class race. They took 33 minutes 49 seconds with a speed of 41.20km per hour to reach the milestone. The Sau-di Arabian team comprising Abdur Rehman, Al-Hasan Momin, Nasir al-Hamd and Mehdi al-Sa-

faar fi nished second with a time of 34:40s. Oman and Bahrain fi nished third and fourth respectively.

UAE also won the 34.5km junior class race as Rashid Abdullah, Abdullah Abdul Karim, Moham-ed Farooq and Hamd Abdullah who took 46:12s to fi nish the job. The Saudi team of Yusuf al-Yusuf, Hasan Ibrahim, Hasan al-Habib and Ahmed al-

Hasan secured second position with a time of 48 minutes and 58 seconds. Bahrain and Oman com-pleted the race in third and fourth positions, re-spectively.

Earlier the four-day competition was kicked off with an impressive opening ceremony. Today 69km junior road race will be held at Losail and on

Thursday individual time trial races for cadet, jun-ior and elite will be held.

The event ends on Friday when the cadets and elite classes have separate road race around Losail Circuit and Katara. The elite class will complete 101kms, the longest race this week, while cadet will have a 34.5km race.

Muirfi eld admits women members aft er 273 yearsSC-sponsored Women’s University Football Cup kicks off in Qatar

AFPLondon

The prestigious Muirfi eld golf course in Scotland voted yester-day to admit women members to the club after 273 years, immedi-

ately making the historic venue eligible to host the British Open again

The Honourable Company of Edin-burgh Golfers overwhelmingly voted in favour of admitting women members for the fi rst time by 498 to 123, club captain Henry Fairweather said. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A), the sport’s joint-governing body with the United States Golf Association, said Muirfi eld could now become a venue for the British Open once again.

Fairweather said: “This is a signifi cant decision for a club which was founded in 1744 and retains many of the values and aspirations of its founding members. The rules of the club will be changed accord-ingly with immediate eff ect. We look for-ward to welcoming women as members who will enjoy, and benefi t from, the great traditions and friendly spirit of this remarkable club.”

The Honourable Company is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world and its Muirfi eld course, east of Edinburgh, is world famous. Women have played golf at Muirfi eld since 1904, though only as

guests, not as members. The club said the current waiting list suggested that new candidates for membership could expect to wait two to three years, or longer, to join the club.

Muirfi eld has staged the Open on 16 occasions since 1892 and most recently in 2013. It was due to host the Open again in 2023 but the R&A dropped it from its 10-course venue roster after a vote last year failed to permit women members,

falling short of the two-thirds majority required to change the rules.

The British Open is the oldest of golf’s four annual majors, dating back to 1860.

Women’s and men’s single-sex golf clubs, although reducing in number, have been a feature of golf provision in Great Britain and Ireland and comply with equality legislation. Ivan Khodabakhsh, the Ladies European Tour’s chief execu-tive, said Tuesday’s vote would “begin to

restore the reputation” of Muirfi eld fol-lowing last year’s ballot.

“Sports refl ect the values of the soci-ety in which we live and today men and women have equal rights. We believe this should be refl ected not only in top-level international tournaments but also at club level,” he said.

Muirfi eld is the last of the clubs on the Open roster — fi ve in Scotland, four in England and one in Northern Ireland — to permit women members. In 2014, St An-drews chose to admit female members for the fi rst time after 260 years, with Royal St George’s in Kent following suit in 2015.

Royal Troon, which hosted the 2016 Open, voted in July last year to admit women members, in the wake of the R&A’s decision over Muirfi eld. Troon had previously considered itself a special case because it shares facilities with The La-dies Golf Club, Troon.

Britain’s sports minister Tracey Crouch said Muirfi eld’s decision had been a long time coming. “Golf has the potential to attract a more diverse audi-ence to the game and this decision sends out an important message. It is vital clubs and sports organisations play their part in promoting equality,” she said.

Scotland’s top female player Catriona Matthew called it a “positive step” for Muirfi eld and golf as a whole. Golf was fi rst played at the prestigious course in 1891. A round costs visitors £235.

By Sports ReporterDoha

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC)-sponsored Wom-en’s University Foot-

ball Cup kicked off this week, as another major milestone was reached in the commitment to bring inclusivity and diversity to football across the region.

The eight-team, fi ve-a-side tournament is being hosted by the Hamad Bin Khalifa Univer-sity (HBKU). It will seek to make the sport more accessible for Qa-tar’s female university students.

SC Education and Sport En-gagement Offi cer, Anfal al-Kandari, said: “The SC’s in-volvement is indicative of the organisation’s mission of pro-moting gender-based inclusive-ness and access in the home na-tion of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The tournament will go a long way towards realising these goals

as well creating an awareness of healthy lifestyle among women.”

The tournament, which runs until 26 March, will also help to nurture women’s football tal-ent in Qatar and further enhance the passion for the sport among Qatar’s women audiences. The tournament will also promote healthy lifestyle among the women of Qatar especially the country’s university students.

The participating teams are divided into two groups of four each with the hosts HBKU drawn in Group A along with College of the North Atlantic, Virginia Commonwealth University and Qatar Aeronautical College. Qa-tar University, Georgetown Uni-versity, Carnegie Mellon Uni-versity Qatar and Northwestern University in Qatar are in Group B. The top two sides in each group will qualify for the semi-fi nals on 21 March with the fi nal, to be at-tended by SC Director of Com-munications Fatma al-Nuaimi, scheduled fi ve days later.

GOLFFOCUS

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

GULF TIMES SPORT

Team UAE won the 46km Elite class team time trial title during the 19th GCC Road Cycling Championship at the Losail International Circuit yesterday. Bahrain finished second, while Kuwait was third.

Qatari riders in action on the opening day of the GCC Road Cycling Championship yesterday.

Registration begins for

Sixes Gully Cricket

CarnivalDoha: In an eff ort to tap into the talent at the grassroots level in Qatar, QPLAYS is conducting a Sixes Gully Cricket Carnival 2017. The two-day event will be held at the Asian Town International Cricket Stadium on March 23rd and 24th.

Gully cricket is a popular norm of cricket, played in the streets and grounds by aspiring cricketers around the world. The tournament will be played with soft ten-nis ball.

Winners will take home a cash prize of QR 5,000 and a trophy, while the runner-up will get QR 2,500 and also a trophy. The registration fee to play in the tournament is QR1,000 with the process already underway.

Interested teams can register for the Sixes Gully Cricket Carnival 2017 by calling up 66501238. They can also contact through WhatsApp at +974-33448203 or log in to www.qatarplays.com/sixes

The event is organised by QPLAYS, in association with Ibn Ajayan Projects, one of the leading facility manage-ment companies in Qatar and QECC – The Largest Cricket Players Community in Qatar. The tournament is managed by Qbiz Events.

Ibn Ajayan have been conducting many cricket tournaments every year, also bringing popular international cricket stars to Qatar, with the game widely followed by the expats.

The aim of QPLAYS is to organise, manage and coor-dinate sporting events with a high standard of excel-lence whilst always placing the needs of players and participant’s at the forefront of our business.

Each match will be played between two teams of six players each. A match con-sists of a maximum of five overs, bowled by each side. A team shall not be permit-ted to declare its innings closed. To be eligible for the QPLAYS Super 6 Series, play-ers must be a minimum of 14 years of age.

Each member of the field-ing team shall bowl, with ex-ception of the wicketkeeper 1 over each. A Batsman must retire not out upon reaching a personal score of 30 runs, but may not retire before reaching 30 runs (except for injury).

Women have played golf at Muirfield since 1904, though only as guests. (Reuters)