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AFCDoha

Jordan will meet Korea Republic in the quarter-fi nals of the AFC U23 Championship after a 0-0 draw with Australia yesterday

evening took Jamal Ahmad’s side into the last eight at the expense of the Oly-roos.

The draw means Jordan fi nish in sec-ond place in Group D behind the Unit-ed Arab Emirates, who took top spot thanks to a 3-2 win over Vietnam in the other game in the group.

“Both of our last two games were tiring mentally and physically, but we achieved our goal because our objec-tive was to qualify from the group stage and I’d like to thank the players for their eff orts and their concentration during the three games in this group,” said Ahmad.

“Of course I’m satisfi ed with the players and their performance. They have done their best in this game, es-pecially because there was a lot of pressure on us in this game.

“The pressure was huge on all three teams competing in this group unlike in the other groups that were set-tled early. We were playing until the last minute not knowing who would qualify.”

Ahmad made two changes to the team that drew 0-0 with the United Arab Emirates in their previous game, replacing Yousef Raed with Mohannad al-Souliman while Mahmoud al-Mardi took Saleh Ratib’s place.

Australia, meanwhile, switched four from the team that handed Vietnam a 2-0 defeat on Matchday Two, with Cameron Burgess, Joshua Brilliante, goalkeeper Aaron Lennox and Stefan Mauk coming in at the expense of Jack Duncan, Thomas Deng, Ryan Edwards and Andrew Hoole.

With a draw good enough to take them through to the quarter-fi nals, the Jordanians sought to strangle the life out of the game from the very fi rst whistle and it was a tactic that limited Australia’s goal scoring opportunities.

Brilliante was reduced to trying

his luck from long range in the 34th minute, only to see his shot go well over the bar.

Jordan upped the tempo as the end of the half drew near, with Baha Faisal seeing his effort deflected wide

off Burgess while Lennox dropped to save Omar Maanasrah’s attempt in

the final minute of play.The Jordanians had a more lively

start to the second half, with Ahmad Hisham forcing Lennox to push his shot from range around the post in the 50th minute and,eight minutes later, Eshan Haddad tried to fl ick the ball to-wards goal, only to see his unorthodox attempt go straight to the goalkeeper.

Second half substitute Hoole was frustrated when his 66th minute at-tempt was blocked inside the area as the Australians failed to break down the Jordan defence at a succession of set-pieces.

Rajaei Ayed pulled the trigger on his long-range attempt in the 73rd minute, only for the shot to go over the bar while four minutes into injury time Saleh Ibrahim should have won the game for Jordan, only to shoot wide with just Lennox to beat.

Jamie MacLaren almost won the

game right at the end for Australia, but his looping eff ort came back off the crossbar and Jordan took the point required to advance at the expense of Vidmar’s team and keep the country’s Olympic dream alive.

“It was a very diffi cult game for us,

but we knew that coming into the game,” said Vidmar. “We knew we would prob-ably control most of the game, but we weren’t able to break the deadlock. I can’t fault the players, they gave every-thing they could but unfortunately we weren’t able to get the result.”

Thursday, January 21, 2016Rabia II 11, 1437 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Australia win run-fest aft er India meltdown

Messi trial for tax fraud to start May 31, says Court

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TENNIS

Federer wary of ‘Baby Fed’ ambush

Page 6

Jordan qualify for quarters at the expense of Australia‘Both of our last two games were tiring mentally and physically, but we achieved our goal because our objective was to qualify from the group stage and I’d like to thank the players for their eff orts and their concentration...’

AFC U23 CHAMPIONSHIP, DOHA

UAE edge out Vietnam 3-2 in thrilling contestBOTTOMLINE

Ahmed al-Hashmi scored a 78th minute penalty as the United Arab Emirates quali-fi ed for the quarter-fi nals

of the AFC U23 Championship and a meeting with defending champions Iraq as Group D winners after edging out Vietnam 3-2 in an enthralling con-test at Grand Hamad Stadium yeterday.

Ngyuen Cong Phuong had given Vi-etnam, who were unable to progress, a deserved lead midway through the fi rst half only for an own goal from Pham Hoang Lam to level the scores just after the hour mark.

Nguyen Van Dung quickly restored Vietnam’s lead, but after Mohamed al-Akberi again pulled the UAE level with 17 minutes remaining, Luong Xuan Truong was sent off and al-Hashmi converted the resulting penalty as Ab-dullah Misfi r’s side secured top spot after fellow quarter-fi nalists Jordan shared a goalless draw with Australia.

Needing to win to guarantee progress

at the top of Group D, and only a draw to secure a place in the last eight, the UAE were forced onto the backfoot from the fi rst whistle by already-eliminated Vi-etnam.

And Misfi r’s UAE side were dealt a blow inside the fi rst 10 minutes as cap-tain Ahmed Barman was forced off with an injury and replaced in midfi eld by Mohamed Surour.

There was further bad news for Misfi r

as Salim Ali, who had taken the armband from Barman, followed his team-mate down the tunnel after also succumbing to injury in the 21st minute.

And the miserable start for the UAE was made worse just three minutes lat-er as substitute Surour used an arm to block Pham Duc Huy’s cross and Cong Phuong drilled the resulting penalty down the middle as goalkeeper Mo-hammed Busanda dived to his right.

Tran Huu Dong Trieu then shot straight at Busanda from the edge of the area before the UAE, who were playing with 10 men at the time, were incred-ibly forced into a third fi rst-half change as Saif Rashid suff ered an ankle injury and was replaced by Khalfan Mubarak 11 minutes before half-time.

The UAE were fi nally able to settle in the closing stages of the fi rst half, al-though Vietnam were still thoroughly deserving of their advantage.

But after an even start to the second half, the UAE were handed an equal-

iser four minutes after the hour mark as Hoang Lam headed al-Akberi’s cross into his own net despite rising unchal-lenged on the edge of the six yard area.

The UAE, though, were on level terms for just four minutes as Van Dung ex-changed passes with Cong Phuong on the edge of the penalty area, and after skipping past the challenge of Surour, beat Busanda with a defl ected strike.

But just fi ve minutes later the UAE again drew level as al-Akberi’s attempt-ed cross into the penalty area looped over Pham Van Tien and dropped into the net via a defl ection off the foot of the far post.

Then with 12 minutes remaining al-Hashmi’s penalty put the UAE ahead for the fi rst time after Xuan Truong had been sent-off for blocking Abdalla Ghanim’s goal-bound header with his hands.

And Vietnam fi nished the game with 10 men as Nguyen Nam Anh picked up a second yellow card inside the fi nal 10 minutes.

Jordan’s coach Jamal Ahmad is thrown into the air by players after his team held Australia to a 0-0 draw yesterday and qualified for the quarter-finals. PICTURES: Mamdouh

UAE players celebrate a goal yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

Australia coach Aurelio Vidmar reacts during the match yesterday.

January 22Japan v Iran 4:30pmLekhwiya Stadium, Doha

Qatar v North Korea 7:30pmAl Sadd Stadium

January 23South Korea v Jordan 4:30pm Qatar SC Stadium, Doha

United Arab Emirates v Iraq 7:30pm Al Arabi Stadium

Quarter-final line-up

To Advertise hereCall: 444 11 300, 444 66 621

Young residents of Qatar get new chance to get involved in preparations for 2022 World Cup

SPOTLIGHT

By Sports ReporterDoha

Young residents of Qatar have a new opportunity to learn about and get involved in prepara-

tions for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar by joining the Su-preme Committee for Delivery & Legacy’s (SC) Youth Panel 2016 group. This programme will see them accompany the develop-ment of the proposed host ven-ues all the way through to com-pletion, as well as infl uence their legacy use thereafter.

A total of 35 youngsters, all of them residents of Qatar and sharing a passion for contrib-uting to the development of society, were appointed to the Youth Panel in 2015. Now, the SC is looking for another group of young leaders representing Qatari and diff erent communi-ties from across Qatar, who are passionate about the 2022 FIFA World Cup and its impact on the country.

The group meets one Saturday each month for workshops and activities relating to the tourna-ment. Amongst many other ex-citing opportunities, they get to hear from architects, learn about town planning and infrastruc-ture projects and contribute to the plans that will positively im-pact their communities.

The new edition of the SC Youth Panel will have two groups, one delivering work-shops in Arabic and one in English, with a maximum of 35 members each. Applicants must

be between 15 and 21 years old and be passionate about con-tributing to the World Cup.

Khalid al-Jumaily, SC Com-munity Engagement Manager, said: “We encourage all youths in Qatar to apply and enter the recruitment process for an op-portunity to learn about the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Each of you has an important role to play. If you live in Qatar, you are part of our journey.”

In 2015, the 35 SC Youth Panel members had a chance to visit the construction site of Al Wakrah Stadium, one of the proposed host venues for the 2022 tournament, and also vis-

ited Sheikh Faisal Museum for a workshop with the art and cul-ture team to review the strategy for delivering sculptures in each of the stadium precincts. They collaborated in an Iftar tent for SC construction workers dur-ing Ramadan, learned about volunteering, charity and social media, among other monthly activities.

Panellists also attended a leadership workshop delivered by Josoor Institute, a centre of excellence in sports and events industries. The workshop in-spired the youngsters to contin-ue their personal development and explore their personality, interpersonal and communica-tion skills.

A new group of youngsters is now being given the opportunity to get involved in the tournament taking place at their doorstep in 2022. For more information, e-mail [email protected]. The deadline to submit application forms is Thursday 4 February.

Qatar captain Hassanleading by example as hosts hit form

AFC U23 CHAMPIONSHIP

AFCDoha

Abdelkarim Hassan has been in exemplary form at the both ends of the pitch as Qatar stormed

into knockout stage and the Qa-tari captain has vowed to contin-ue to lead by example as the AFC U23 Championship hosts look to maintain their 100% record when they face DPR Korea in Fri-day’s quarter-fi nal clash at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.

After bagging a brace as Qatar came from a goal down to defeat China 3-1 in the group Group A opener, the Al Sadd centre back was on target in the following 2-1 win over Iran and again as the tournament hosts sealed their place in the knockout stage with a 4-2 triumph against Syria.

His four goals have made him the joint top scorer along with team-mate Ahmed Alaaledin but Abdelkarim’s infl uence goes be-yond his goal-scoring exploits, with the 22-year-old skipper keeping the Qatar machine run-ning smoothly on the pitch.

“Being the captain is a big re-sponsibility. I try to talk to my players on the fi eld and make them calm and comfortable but I also have to push them in a positive way when needed,” said the 2012-13 Qatar Stars League Young Player of the Year, who is also one of the youngest ever players to feature in the AFC

Champions League having de-buted against Esteghlal in 2011 aged just 17.

“I try to join the attack and support the front line whenever I can. It gives my team more ad-vantage. By God’s grace we per-formed well [against Syria] and we have qualifi ed to the quarter-fi nals as group winners.

“We are doing a great job and we want to continue the same way.”

Abdelkarim’s appointment as captain of the under 23s is under-standable given that he has already amassed over 40 caps for the sen-ior national team and in addition to the threat he poses in attack he also forms a solid defensive part-nership with Al Annabi teammate Ahmed Yasser Abdulrahman.

“We are the most experienced players in the team. We play in the senior team also, so we have the experience to protect our goal. Inshallah we hope to con-tinue in this way.”

Qatar skipper Abdelkarim Hassan celebrates his goal against Syria.

SPORT2 Gulf Times

Thursday, January 21, 2016

“I try to join the attack and support the front line whenever I can. It gives my team more advantage. By God’s grace we performed well [against Syria] and we have qualifi ed to the quarter-fi nals as group winners”

FOOTBALL3Gulf Times


Messi trial for tax fraud to start May 31

SPOTLIGHT

Lawyers acting on behalf of the tax off ice have asked for both defendants, Messi and his father, to be slapped with prison sentences of 22 and a half months

German FA backs Infantino’s bid, Iraq support for AliFIFA ELECTIONS

AFPBarcelona

Barcelona star Lionel Messi and his father’s trial for tax fraud will begin on May 31 at a court in Bar-celona, a regional superior court

said yesterday. Messi and his father Jorge have been

charged with tax fraud for allegedly fail-ing to declare 4.16 million euros ($4.69 million) in taxes related to his image rights between 2007 and 2009 through front companies in Belize and Uruguay.

The pair are accused of ceding the player’s image rights to the companies in order to avoid declaring money made from lucrative deals with sponsors in Spain. Public prosecutors had asked for the case against the Argentine player to be dropped as they considered the alleged fraud was carried out by his father, who has managed his son’s aff airs since he was a child.

But in October 2015 the judge in charge of the case rejected the request, writing in a court fi ling that “there are rational signs that the criminality was committed by both accused parties.”

Lawyers acting on behalf of the tax of-

fi ce have asked for both defendants to be slapped with prison sentences of 22 and a half months. Both father and son have denied the accusations and instead blamed a former fi nancial advisor.

Jorge Messi made a voluntary cor-rective payment of fi ve million euros in August 2013 which is expected to miti-gate any sentence. Even if convicted it is unlikely that either Messi or his father would enter prison as jail terms of less than two years are usually suspended for fi rst time off ences in Spain.

The trial will run until June 3, the Cata-lan Superior Court of Justice said in a statement, which means it will not inter-fere with Barcelona’s commitment since La Liga and the Champions League will have wrapped up by then.

But it could complicate Messi’s par-ticipation in the three-week centenary Copa America which gets underway on June 3, although Argentina’s fi rst match is on June 6. Messi earlier this month won a record Ballon d’Or for the world’s best player after helping Barcelona to a treble

last season of the Champions League, La Liga and the Spanish Cup.

Last month Messi and his father were cleared of separate allegations relating to charitable friendlies played in 2012 and 2013 after a judge heard testimony from an Argentine businessman who organised the matches. The player had been investi-gated in that case to see if he had failed to declare to the tax man any revenue made from taking part in a series of friendlies in Mexico, Colombia, the United States and Peru.

AFPBerlin

The German FA (DFB) confi rmed yes-terday they will back UEFA’s general secretary Gianni Infantino in his bid to become the president of world football’s

governing body FIFA next month. “Gianni Infantino is the candidate for Europe

and is the best candidate as far as Rainer Koch and the leadership of the association is con-cerned,” said DFB co-president Reinhard Rau-ball, who shares the role with Koch, in Frankfurt.

“Through his job as general secretary of UEFA, he knows all facets of football, is very well networked internationally and speaks six languages. With his reputation and experience, he has the necessary qualifi cations in order to address the structural changes and challenges ahead (at FIFA).

“As well as a change of personnel at the top, reform eff orts must be systematically imple-mented to ensure the credibility and confi dence in FIFA is restored in the long term.”

On Tuesday, Infantino had stepped up cam-paigning for next month’s FIFA election by promising a bigger World Cup, reforms to scan-dal-tainted FIFA to create a “credible” global governing body and more money for member nations in his manifesto for the February 26 vote for a new leader.

The Swiss offi cial, who has been right-hand man to suspended UEFA leader Michel Platini

for the past seven years, said the World Cup should be expanded to 40 countries from the 32 for the 2018 event in Russia.

In the election, Infantino, 45, is up against Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh

Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a former FIFA vice president from Jordan, South African business tycoon Tokyo Sexwale and former FIFA offi cial Jerome Champagne of France.

Platini and FIFA president Sepp Blatter were banned from football activities for eight years last month opening up the election battle when Platini withdrew.

All fi ve candidates have promised to clean up the world body in the wake of the Blatter-Platini investigation and a US inquiry which has left 39 individuals and two companies facing charges over bribes for football deals.

Infantino has proposed a new FIFA Council for key decisions, 12-year term limits for offi cials including the president and more “independent voices” on key FIFA committees. He also wants FIFA to name a chief compliance offi cer and to establish a fully open tendering process for the body’s multi-billion dollar deals.

IRAQ BOOST FOR PRINCE ALI The Iraq Football Association (IFA) have

pledged their support for Prince Ali Bin al-Hus-sein in next month’s FIFA presidential election, the Jordanian royal said yesterday.

“The FA has endorsed Prince Ali in a letter to FIFA,” IFA president Abdul Khaliq Masood said in a statement published by Ali’s bid team. “We have decided that Iraq’s vote will go to Prince Ali because Prince Ali has always supported the development of football in Iraq, Jordan and our region.”

Ali hosted a delegation from Iraq including Masood and Iraq Minister of Sports and Youth Abdul Hussein Abtan on Monday as he at-tempts to drum up support ahead of the elec-tion to decide who will succeed Sepp Blatter

as president of the scandal-hit body. Blatter, who beat Ali in the most recent FIFA

presidential election last May, and UEFA Presi-dent Michel Platini were both handed eight-year bans from football last month for ethics violations.

Both deny any wrongdoing but their absence has left the global game leaderless as it tries to dig itself out of a slew of corruption cases, with criminal investigations under way in the United States and Switzerland.

Ali returned to Jordan at the start of the week to meet the Iraqi delegation after campaigning in Africa and the Caribbean, where his team said he “picked up private commitments of support from several other nations”.

Rival Infantino said previously he had major support in the Caribbean region, which has 25 votes in the 209-member election being held in Zurich. Salman is expected to win the bulk of support among the AFC’s 46 members after the regional body’s executive committee passed a resolution in November urging all Asian repre-sentatives to vote for the Bahraini.

Abtan, though, told Iraqi state television that his country would back Ali. “We are very pleased to support Prince Ali. He is the best man for the job. We greatly appreciate everything Jordan has done to support Iraqi sports and youth over the years,” he told Iraq state television.

Ali said he had held discussions with Abtan and Masood over the lifting of a ban that pre-vents Iraq from hosting home international matches.

Aston Villa set up FA Cup date with Man City

FOCUS

AFPLondon

Late goals by Ciaran Clark and Idrissa Gueye gave Premier League strug-glers Aston Villa a 2-0

win over fourth-tier Wycombe Wanderers in their FA Cup third-round replay on Tuesday.

Bottom of the Premier League and seemingly destined for rel-egation to the Championship, Villa had only managed a 1-1 draw with Wycombe—currently seventh in League Two—when the two teams fi rst met 10 days previously.

The reunion at Villa Park proved a similarly close-fought aff air, but Clark’s 75th-minute header and a last-minute Gu-eye strike earned Villa a fourth-round tie at home to Manchester City. “The most important thing was to win and go through,” Villa manager Remi Garde told BBC.

“We’ve been professional. It was not always easy. That is the fourth game in a row we are not losing, which is very good for momentum.” Villa’s fellow Pre-mier League side West Bromwich Albion also secured a narrow victory, winning 1-0 at second-tier Bristol City.

Venezuelan striker Salomon Rondon scored the game’s only goal in the 52nd minute, chest-ing down Craig Dawson’s cross and slotting home, to earn West Brom a home tie with third-divi-sion Peterborough United. Fifth-tier Eastleigh, the lowest-ranked team to make round three, were eliminated following a lively 3-2 defeat at Championship bottom club Bolton Wanderers.

Eastleigh, of the Football Con-ference, went in front through Joe Partington in the 11th minute

and pulled it back to 2-2 after falling 2-1 down, only for Dar-ren Pratley to net a 58th-minute winner for Bolton. Financially stricken Bolton, who avoided be-ing liquidated at Britain’s High Court on Monday, will host Leeds United in the next round.

Second-tier Milton Keynes Dons -- 4-0 winners against Manchester United in last sea-son’s League Cup—set up a home tie with Premier League champi-ons Chelsea after beating North-ampton Town 3-0 in their replay.

Portsmouth, FA Cup winners in 2008 but now in League Two, face a south-coast derby against top-fl ight Bournemouth after upsetting second-tier Ipswich 2-1 at Fratton Park.

The third-round replays concluded late last night with Liverpool’s home game against fourth-tier Exeter City and Tottenham Hotspur’s trip to Leicester City.

Aston Villa’s Idrissa Gueye (left) celebrates with substitutes after scoring against Wycombe Wanderers during the third round FA Cup match at Villa Park in Birmingham, central England. (AFP)

FIXTURESUpdated draw for the fourth round of the English FA Cup Ties to be played on January 29-31West Brom v Peterborough

Bolton v Leeds

Arsenal v Burnley

Derby v Manchester United

Reading v Walsall

Exeter/Liverpool v West Ham

Aston Villa v Manchester City

Shrewsbury v Sheff ield Wednesday

Nottingham Forest v Watford

Carlisle v Everton

Crystal Palace v Stoke

Oxford v Blackburn

Portsmouth v Bournemouth

Colchester v Tottenham/Leicester

Bury v Hull

Milton Keynes Dons v Chelsea

Messi passport video lands Dubai policeman in courtDubai: Meanwhile, a Dubai policeman could be jailed for at least six months for posting a video showing Messi’s pass-port on social media, reports said.

The incident took place at Dubai air-port where Messi landed last month to attend the seventh edition of the Globe Soccer Awards, in which he received the prize of best team and best player, local dailies said.

The Emirati policeman wanted a photo of himself with the Argentinian footballer but was told the star was

tired from the flight, the National daily reported.

“I then went to the passport control desk and noticed that Messi’s passport had been left there, so I picked it up and shot a video of myself while holding it,” it quoted the policeman as saying.

He posted the video on the Snapchat application and wrote: “This is Messi’s (passport), he is here in Dubai, what do I do? Shall I burn the passport or just put it back! Ok Ok you can go!”

The policeman appeared in court

where he “pleaded guilty and admitted that he was wrong when he posted Mes-si’s passport details on social media,” the Dubai-based Gulf News daily reported.

It said the policeman could face a minimum of six months in jail and a fine of up to 500,000 dirhams ($136,000). Prosecutors accused the policeman of “abusing the telecommunication system”, the daily reported. He was also charged with “breaching Messi’s privacy,” the National said. A verdict is expected next week.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi and his father Jorge have been charged with tax fraud for allegedly failing to declare 4.16 million euros in taxes related to his image rights between 2007 and 2009.

UEFA’s general secretary Gianni Infantino has stepped up campaigning for next month’s FIFA election by promising a bigger World Cup, reforms to scandal-tainted FIFA.

FOOTBALL4 Gulf Times


Mancini blasts ‘racist’ rival who called him a ‘poof’AFPMilan

Furious Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini blasted Napoli counterpart Mau-rizio Sarri a “racist” and

claimed his rival called him a “poof” following a fi ery fi nish to Inter’s 2-0 Italian Cup victory on Tuesday.

Mancini and Sarri clashed on the touchline after Adem Ljajic killed off the quarter-fi nal tie at the San Paolo stadium in Naples in injury time to add to Stevan Jo-vetic’s opener.

“Maurizio Sarri is a racist and men like him have no place in football,” fumed Mancini to RAI TV after the game. “He used rac-ist words. He started insulting me and then shouted at me, calling me a poof.”

Mancini said Sarri had used the words “frocio” and “fi nocchio”, both pejorative terms meaning ho-mosexual. The Inter coach added: “But if he’s a man then I’d be proud to be a poof. From someone like him, who’s 60, I can’t accept that, he should be ashamed.

“You have the right to argue, but not like that. I went to see him in the changing rooms and he apolo-gised. But I told him that in Eng-

land, he wouldn’t be allowed to set foot on a pitch again.”

Sarre brushed off the exchange as part and parcel of the game. “I’ve seen and heard worse on a pitch,” he said. “I hope that in the cold light of day, Mancini will also change his point of view. In

my words, there was no form of discrimination, I have nothing against homosexuals.

“The adrenalin of the pitch can push you to make bad jokes, but the arguments should fi nish at the end of the 90 minutes. I’ve apologised to Mancini, for me everything’s ok.”

During the match, Inter had brushed off their poor league form to storm into the Cup semi-fi nals. Two defeats and just four points from their last four league match-es had seen Inter lose command of Serie A and drop to third, four points behind Napoli.

But now they will face the win-ners of last quarter-fi nal between Lazio and champions Juventus for a place in the fi nal. Inter’s city ri-vals AC Milan will play third divi-sion Alessandria in the last four. The minnows won 2-1 at second tier Spezia on Monday night while Milan defeated Carpi last week by the same score.

Tuesday’s match was a tight af-fair, in part due to Sarri leaving top scorer Gonzalo Higuain on the bench. Despite 20 goals in 20 games this season, the Argentina striker didn’t enter the fray until the 72nd minute but just two min-utes later, Inter struck.

Montenegro international Jo-vetic, a summer signing from Manchester City, hit an unstop-pable shot that left Napoli goal-keeper Pepe Reina rooted to the spot. Two minutes from time, Napoli had Dries Mertens dis-missed and in time added on, Serbian Ljajic sprinted 50 yards to score the killer second on the counter-attack.

That goal sparked the furious touchline altercation that will surely provoke serious ramifi ca-tions once the Italian football league’s disciplinary body looks into it. The semi-fi nals will be played over two legs on January 27 and March 2.

FOCUS

From Hamburg to Milan: Guardiola’s Munich farewell tour

SPOTLIGHT

The Spaniard and his team will hope to complete his tenure with a title treble

DPA Munich

Pep Guardiola starts his farewell tour as Bayern Munich coach in Hamburg tomorrow and hopes to end it in Milan on May 28. To-

morrow’s Bundesliga restart game at SV Hamburg is Munich’s fi rst since the De-cember 20 announcement that Guardiola will be leaving in summer when his three-year contract expires.

The Spaniard and his team will hope for a maximum 27 games between January 22 and May 28 in order to complete his ten-ure with a title treble from the Bundesli-ga, German Cup and Champions League, the last culminating in the Milan fi nal in late May. This treble was achieved un-der similar circumstances by Guardiola’s predecessor Jupp Heynckes in 2013.

Guardiola, who is set to move on to England, has won the Bundesliga in each of his past two seasons, and the German Cup in 2014, but the previous two Cham-pions League campaigns ended in the semi-fi nals against Real Madrid and his former club Barcelona.

The 2013 European Super Cup and Club World Cup are also on Guardiola’s list of merits at Munich for a total of fi ve, compared to the 14 trophies he lifted dur-ing the four years in charge at Barcelona between 2008 and 2012.

While a record fourth straight Bundes-liga title appears all but a formality, given Munich’s eight-point lead over Borus-sia Dortmund, Guardiola will be mainly measured on his success in Europe where the 2015 runners-up Juventus await them in the last 16. For now, Guardiola insists that “the next game in Hamburg is the most important,” and Munich got a wake-up call last weekend when they lost a tune-up game 2-1 against second-division Karlsruhe.

Guardiola has cemented Munich’s do-mestic dominance with possession foot-ball, and he also agrees to their decade-long confi dence and winning mentality. “We are Bayern, we are the best, we must win everything,” Guardiola said. “Bayern Munich will always be special to me.”

But Guardiola’s farewell is not expected to be as emotional as those of Heynckes or Ottmar Hitzfeld, under whom Bayern won the 2001 Champions League.

For forward Thomas Mueller, the facts presented in late December could help the team just as they did three years ago, with Italian star coach Carlo Ancelotti taking over around on July 1. “Until then, every player will give it all he has,” Muel-ler said. “I hope we will go in the same di-rection as with Jupp Heynckes in his last six months. But you can’t predict it.”

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said the team must have found its rhythm by Feb-ruary 23 for the fi rst leg against Juventus, and striker Robert Lewandowski added that this level must at least be kept, if not

raised in the following months. “It will be very important to keep the

attention span until the end of the sea-son. We can only win all three trophies in this way. Team spirit will be as impor-tant,” Lewandowski told Sport Bild.

While admitting it is “a little strange” to know that Guardiola will be depart-ing, Munich midfi elder Arturo Vidal also aims for the top prize in European foot-ball after missing out last year in the fi -nal 6against Barcelona when playing for Juve. “I want to help my team win the Champions League. I believe I can do it this year,” Vidal told broadcasters Sport1.

Injuries could be a factor but Span-ish midfi elder Xabi Alonso is upbeat that

Bayern have no one to fear if all players are on board. “When all players are fi t we

get the feeling that we can beat everyone and fi ght for everything,” Alonso said.

Bayern don’t need new striker: Lewandowski

BUNDESLIGA

AFPMunich

Poland hot-shot Robert Lewandowski said yes-terday that Bayern Mu-nich does not need to

sign another striker as the pros-pect of a rival for his position ar-riving in Bavaria loomed large.

“If I am here, why do Bay-ern need a new striker?” asked Lewandowski in a press confer-ence after Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge sparked transfer rumours recently by praising Napoli’s Argentina in-ternational Gonzalo Higuain.

“I am prepared to play 60 games a season and we have oth-er top players in our attack. I do not need competition in order to train even harder.”

Lewandowski sent Bundesliga records tumbling last September by scoring fi ve goals in just nine minutes in Bayern’s 5-1 drub-bing of Wolfsburg in Munich. The 27-year-old has scored 16 goals in 15 league games this sea-son and is second only to Borus-sia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored 18 goals in 17 games in Germany’s top fl ight.

But Lewandowski insists he is far from the fi nished article in his battle against Aubam-eyang to become the league’s top scorer. “There is no area of my game which is perfect,” insisted Lewandowski, who has a con-tract until 2019 and had an esti-mated market value of 70 million euros ($76.47m).

“I can still improve on my shooting, for example. At the moment, I’m not thinking about who will be the top scorer. If I have a chance going into the last few games, then perhaps I’ll

think about it then.” Bayern are at mid-table Ham-

burg tomorrow night when the Bundesliga returns after the month-long winter break. The Bavarian giants hold an eight-point lead in the table as Pep Guardiola enters the fi nal six months of his contract as head coach.

“We need to attack more. Hamburg will play defensive-ly and wait for a chance,” said Lewandowski. “If we start well, it will be easier.”

But Bayern were rocked by losing 2-1 at second-division side Karlsruhe last Saturday in a friendly. “There is no need to talk up Karlsruhe, we’re not look-ing into the result too much. On Friday, we’ll be ready,” assured Bayern’s Germany defender Holger Badstuber. “We have a good starting position, but Fri-day won’t be easy and it will be a fi ght.”

Meanwhile, mid-table Ham-burg are waiting on the fi tness of two of their key stars for visit of league leaders Bayern Mu-nich. Top-scoring striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga, who has bagged six goals in 16 games, is strug-gling with a shoulder injury while captain and centre-back Johan Djourou has picked up a knee injury in training.

“We can’t draw on unlimited resources,” said Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia, whose side is tenth in the table with Bayern eight points clear at the top. “We need a dream day to beat Bayern and it will be a great challenge.”

Hamburg last beat Bayern in September 2009 and have been defeated 5-0 and 8-0 on their previous league meetings. Lab-badia is defi nitely without Bos-nia defender Emir Spahic, who has torn a muscle in his stomach.

Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini (left) and his Napoli counterpart Maurizio Sarri clashed on the touchline following a fiery finish to Inter’s 2-0 Italian Cup victory on Tuesday.

PROFILE OF PEP GUARDIOLA Born: January 18, 1971 in Santpedor/Spain

Coaching career: Barcelona 2008-2012,

Bayern Munich 2013-2016

Titles won: Club World Cup 2009, 2011,

2013; Champions League 2009, 2011; UEFA

Super Cup 2009, 2011, 2013; Primera Divi-

sion 2009, 2010, 2011; Spanish cup 2009,

2012; Spanish Super Cup 2009, 2010, 2011;

Bundesliga 2014, 2015; German cup 2014

Playing career: Barcelona 1984-2001;

Brescia 2001-2002; Roma 2002-2003;

Brescia 2003; Al Ahli 2003-2005; Dorados

de Sinaloa 2006

Titles won: Olympics 1992; Champions

Cup 1992; Cup Winners’ Cup 1997; UEFA Su-

per Cup 1992, 1997; Primera Division 1991,

1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999; Spanish cup

1997, 1998; Spanish Super Cup 1996. Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has scored 16 goals in 15 Budesliga league games this season.

Ibrahimovic keeps PSG on treble track

Paris: A late and controversial penalty converted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic sealed a 2-1 come from behind win as Paris Saint-Germain edged past Toulouse in the French Cup on Tuesday. Francois Moubandje had given Toulouse an 11th minute lead over a PSG miss-ing several injured stars, but a David Luiz header from a corner on 54th minutes and Ibrahimovic’s 21st goal of the season two minutes from time kept Paris on course to defend their domestic treble.

But the big Swede’s penalty was highly controver-sial as Leyvin Kurzawa threw himself theatrically to the ground in the box under minimal contact.

However, Ibrahimovic was emphatic with his spot-kick and Toulouse’s hopes were dashed. “If that happened at the other end, it wouldn’t have been whistled,” moaned Toulouse coach Dominique Arrib-age. “It’s diff icult, when you referee Paris, to make the right decisions. I don’t blame the referee.”

PSG also won 1-0 at Toulouse thanks to an Ibrahi-movic strike on Saturday to take a 21-point lead in Ligue 1 over second-placed Monaco. And Toulouse must travel to Paris for yet another meeting with PSG in the League Cup semi-finals next week. PSG are now set to embark on a run of eight matches in little over three weeks before hosting Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on February 16.

“In the 88th minute I was a bit afraid we’d have to play extra-time,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said after the game. “We have to get through this month of January, which is diff icult with this crazy schedule.”

Elsewhere, fourth division Sarre-Union caused the upset of the night by stunning second tier Niort 1-0.

Second division Sochaux and Bourg-en-Bresse turned over top flight opponents away from home, re-spectively 2-1 at Bastia and 3-1 at Rennes. Meanwhile, Bordeaux won 2-1 at Angers while Corsicans Gazelec Ajaccio beat Guingamp 3-0.

Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola will be mainly measured on his success in Europe where the 2015 runners-up Juventus await them in the last 16.

GOLF5Gulf Times


No. 1 Spieth hungry for more success

SPOTLIGHT

American is in UAE capital this week for the $2.7 million Abu Dhabi Championship

Indian village boy, 11, seeks glory on world golf stageRISING STAR

AFPAbu Dhabi

Now that Jordan Spieth has won two majors, the world number one golfer said he is desperate to add to that tally in order to

ensure that his name goes down promi-nently in the history books.

The 22-year-old American, winner of the Masters and the US Open last year, is in the UAE capital this week for the $2.7 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Cham-pionship, his second start of 2016 after emphatically winning the PGA Tour’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions by eight shots in Hawaii two weeks ago.

It will be a busy year for Spieth, who is determined to win an Olympic gold med-al and help America win the Ryder Cup later in September in Hazeltine, apart from winning a few more tournaments.

Asked if there was anything diff erent in his thought process now that he is al-ready a major champion, Spieth said: “I think there’s two ways of going forward with that. One is you can be satisfi ed and think about all the stuff you’ve done. Or two, you can look at what these guys

who you’ve looked up to your whole life have accomplished, which is more than you have. So look at Tiger (Woods), Phil (Mickelson)... this is still our generation, Tiger, Phil, Rory, these guys that have done more in the game of golf than I have, and I want to strive to get to what they have done.

“I want my name to go down in history for as many things as it can. That’s where my mind is. I’m less satisfi ed with what’s happened and more hungry to try and keep it going.”

Spieth, who has been drawn with world number three Rory McIlroy and world number six Rickie Fowler in the fi rst two rounds, said it would be impossible to match his winning score of 30-under par in Kapalua, Hawaii, but he felt good about his chances. “I feel great. I came home from Hawaii, took a couple days off , went and saw my instructor, and I actu-ally feel better about the way I’m striking my irons coming into this week than I did going into Hawaii,” said Spieth, who is playing in Singapore next week.

“Trying to maintain my putting and maintain my short game statistics, and the way I drove the ball. I’m not going to shoot 30-under this week. I don’t think

that’s possible on this golf course. That was a dream come true week for me, eve-rything came together and I scored in-credibly well.

“But if I can drive the ball in the places that I was driving it in Kapalua and keep it in the short grass here, I feel very confi -dent about my chances.”

Spieth said he was excited about the pairing with McIlroy and Fowler. “I’m very excited about the pairing, yeah. I fi g-ured that we’d all be split up, so yesterday I was on the course when I found out and I was very excited,” said Spieth.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity for us three. We very rarely get this pairing and very rarely will going forward. So, we will take advantage and try and really feed off of each other. We all want to beat each other pretty bad, so that should help us out within our group.”

The European Tour event has attracted a quality fi eld once again, with Spieth leading a list of four players in the fi eld who are ranked inside the top-six of the world. McIlroy is world number three, Henrik Stenson is number fi ve and Fowler number six.

Meanwhile, former number one McIl-roy said he was excited to start his new

season in the company of the Spieth. McIlroy is playing his fi rst tournament of 2016 - after a gap of almost two months since winning the DP World Tour Cham-pionship in Dubai in November - and he was relishing the prospects of being pushed into a pitched battle straightaway.

“On Thursday morning, it’s my fi rst competitive shot in a couple of months. To tee up alongside those guys - it’s ex-citement. There’s a buzz about it,” said McIlroy. “It was sort of the same last year in Abu Dhabi with Rickie and the previ-ous couple of years it was with Tiger.

“You’re teeing off the fi rst round of your season and it feels like you’re right into the thick of things at the start. It’s a real competitive start to the year, and I feel like Abu Dhabi has really helped me start the year quickly and well over the past few years, and hopefully that’s the same case this year.”

McIlroy was confi dent that the extend-ed break, and the laser surgery of his eyes, is going to help him on the golf course in what is shaping up to be an exceptionally busy year with the Olympics and Ryder Cup on the card. “It’s been great. It was a nice break over Christmas and new year,” said the 26-year-old McIlroy.

AFPNew Delhi

In 11-year-old Shubham Jaglan’s poor Indian village surrounded by sugar cane fi elds, few had ever heard of golf until recently let alone

know someone playing the sport in-ternationally. But Jaglan has stunned his family and village since picking up a club at the age of just fi ve, winning back-to-back junior titles in the US in 2015 and fi nishing sixth in a junior in-ternational event there.

“In our village, boys were either into wrestling or boxing. Hardly anybody in my family had heard about golf,” said Jaglan, whose father earned 10,000 rupees ($150) a month from farming a small plot of land.

Jaglan’s passion for what remains a rich man’s sport in India started when a US-based golfi ng enthusiast opened a coaching clinic in his hamlet, not far from the capital New Delhi.

Although the clinic closed three months later because youngsters were more interested in other, traditional Indian sports, Jaglan was hooked and continued practising his drives in the fi elds. For chipping and putting, his father set up an improvised three-hole green in the family garage, while sand piled on top of the roof served as a prac-tice bunker.

“We knew the sport was expensive, the equipment and all,” said his father

Jagpal Jaglan, who is now his caddie. “It was a big struggle initially. Everything appeared beyond us. But our son was so passionate about this sport that we de-cided to give it our all,” he said.

Jaglan’s achievements—his handicap is already down to zero, or “scratch” in golfi ng parlance—now dominate con-versation in the quiet village where elders spend the days sipping chai (tea) and smoking hookah on charpoys (tra-ditional furniture) outside their homes.

As Jaglan started competing in local junior tournaments, his talent began to dominate talk among Delhi’s golfi ng elite. An intrigued Nonita Lal Qureshi, one of India’s best-known women golf-ers, travelled to Israna village in Hary-ana state for a fi rst-hand look at the young player. “I was really impressed by what I saw. But I wanted to test him further, so I invited him for a nine-hole game in Delhi,” she told AFP. “What I then witnessed just blew me away. I told the family they would have to move to Delhi if they wanted their son to be-come a golfi ng star.”

For the family of three used to ru-ral village life, it was a huge decision to make. But the move has been eased by the Golf Foundation, a local sports charity run by former golfer Amit Lu-thra which helped fi nd them cheap ac-commodation near the Delhi Golf Club.

The prestigious club has given Jaglan free membership, while a reputed pub-lic school has waived his tuition fees. And his trips to the US to compete at

top junior level have also been funded by the same charity.

“Had there been proper facilities back in our village, I think I would have stayed there because that’s my na-tive place, I could get to be with all my friends,” Jaglan said wistfully.

Jaglan, who idolises Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros, knows he faces huge challenges to compete on the world stage, but says he dreams of one day winning the US Masters.

Only three Indians have ever quali-fi ed for the major championship which

takes place in April at Augusta: Anirban Lahiri, the current Asian Tour Order of Merit champion who is ranked in the world’s top 50, veteran Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal.

“He is an exceptional talent no doubt,” Qureshi said, throwing a glance at Jaglan as he practised, wearing a pale green jumper with his name embossed on the collar. “Our job is to keep him grounded,” said Qureshi, who has taken up coaching Jaglan. “God willing if eve-rything goes well, who knows, we have a star in the making.”

McIlroy says majors more important than Olympic gold

FOCUS

ReutersAbu Dhabi

World number one Jordan Spieth and rival Rory McIl-roy begged to diff er

yesterday, on the importance of winning golfi ng gold at the Rio Olympics this August.

While Spieth said stand-ing on top of the podium would rank alongside winning a major tournament, Northern Irish-man McIlroy left no doubt about which one he would rather win given the choice.

“I think a major championship is the pinnacle of our sport,” the number three, who won two ma-jors in 2014 but lost the top rank-ing last year after a slow start and ankle injury, told reporters ahead of the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship starting on Thursday.

“I think I’ll be remembered for my major championships. So all I’ve dreamed of from a little kid is winning majors. I never dreamed of competing in the Olympics or winning an Olympic medal,” he added. “So in my mind, a major will always be more important.”

Golf is returning to the Olym-pics this August for the fi rst time since 1904, although its inclu-sion has divided opinion with some players declaring it little more than an ‘exhibition’ sport. Critics argue that golf, like tennis which returned to the Olympic fold in 1988, already has its four

blue riband events and should not be in the Games.

To accommodate the Olympic tournament, the year’s fi nal ma-jor, the PGA Championship, has also had to be moved to late July from its traditional date in the second week of August, but Spi-eth sounded keen.

“The way I look at it right now, I look at them equal,” said the 22-year-old Masters and U.S. Open champion. “Just because to say you’re a gold medalist—you won a gold medal for your coun-try in the Olympics... It’s very early to tell how they will end up comparing to major champion-ships in the future,” he added. “But if I had not won a major, I would probably still say a major. At this point I would argue that a gold medal would be very, very special.”

Spieth said winning the bi-ennial Ryder Cup with the U.S. team in Minnesota in Septem-ber/October was probably top of his priorities for 2016, however, after playing on the losing side against Europe in 2014.

“We are tired of hearing about changes that need to be made. We are tired of hearing about the past. And we’re ready to believe in kind of a younger, more hun-gry team going forward,” he said.

“It’s still a long ways until Ha-zeltine, but if we can continue what we’ve been doing over this past year in young American golf, we’re going to go in and get in that team room and be pretty excited about who is next to us.”

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy. (Reuters)

India’s No. 1 junior golfer and junior world golf championship winner Shubham Jaglan (right) is watched by his father and caddy Jagpal Jaglan as he practices an iron shot at the Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi. (AFP)

Shubham eats dinner as he and his mother Anjana Jaglan watch television at their home in New Delhi. (AFP)

USA’s Jordan Speith talks to the media ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship yesterday. (Reuters)

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Gulf Times Thursday, January 21, 20166

By Kevin Mitchell in MelbourneThe Observer

Novak Djokovic has vehe-mently denied allegations in an Italian newspaper that he had deliberately lost a match

against French player Fabrice Santoro at the Paris Masters in 2007.

The world No. 1 was speaking after easing into the third round of the Aus-tralian Open for the 10th year in a row with only minor inconvenience in three sets—6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3)—against teenaged French qualifi er Quentin Ha-lys, and seemed surprised by a barrage of questions about a match that took place nine years ago.

Santoro, who was 39 in the world at time and has forged a career as a TV commentator since retiring six years ago, won that match 6-3, 6-2 with yes-terday’s Tuttosport newspaper claim-ing Djokovic “voluntarily lost”.

The late-night exchange between Djokovic and the media was tense, with several embarrassing pauses as he described the allegations as “absurd” and untrue.

Djokovic—who admitted on Monday that he had been off ered $200,000 to throw a match in St Petersburg a month before the Paris Masters and had re-

fused (he did not play in the Russian event in the end)—said he had not had his attention drawn to the latest article.

When it was explained the story con-nected the match with “changing odds that have been discussed here in the pre-vious couple of days”, he said: “My re-sponse is that there’s always going to be, especially these days when there are a lot of speculations, this is now the main story in tennis, in sports world, there’s going to be a lot of allegations, so ...

“I have nothing more to say. I said everything I needed to say two days ago. You know, until somebody comes out with the real proof and evidence, it’s only a speculation for me.”

Indeed, while Tuttosport claimed that the allegations were found in doc-uments that are part of an investiga-tion into match-fi xing by prosecutors in Cremona, they did not present any of the documents or any other sup-porting evidence and stressed that Djokovic was not under investigation.

However, claims of match-fi xing aired on the BBC this week have cre-ated a fevered atmosphere here among administrators, journalists and play-ers. When Djokovic was further asked to elaborate on the circumstances of the match, he replied: “I’ve lost that match. I don’t know if you’re trying to create a story about that match or for

that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds. I think it’s just absurd.”

Djokovic, who was 20 and ranked No. 3 in the world in 2007, had his wis-dom teeth removed before the Paris

Masters. At the time, Djokovic said: “I couldn’t give my 100%, not even 30% of my possibilities. He deserved to win. I’m still on medications. I didn’t prac-tise for a whole week. I only started practising two days ago. Physically, I’m not feeling at all good. It’s been a very long season and I’m really exhausted. I hope people will understand.”

Djokovic subsequently complained of exhaustion after losing three match-es in a row at the 2007 Masters Cup in Shanghai, the forerunner of the ATP World Tour Finals, which now being held at the O2 Arena in London.

Reminded yesterday that the claims about the Santoro match were now in the public domain, he said: “I know. Any-body can create a story about any match. That’s my point. There hasn’t been too many matches where top players lost in last decade or so in early rounds. You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost and just create a story out of it.

“I think it’s not supported by any kind of proof, any evidence, any facts. It’s just speculation. So I don’t think there is a story about it.”

It was put to him that the newspaper was saying he had “lost on purpose”. “It’s not true,” he replied.

If it were not true, he was asked, would he consider taking action over the claims?

“I have nothing more to say, guys. If you have any other questions on any other subject, I’m ready to talk about this. I have nothing more to say.”

He concluded the press conference by agreeing with the suggestion that recent stories about match-fi xing must sadden him.

“Yeah, I mean, of course. You don’t want these kind of subjects or spec-ulations going around. I think that certain media is just trying to create a story out of it without any proofs. So as long as it’s like that, it’s just a story. That’s all.”

His tennis, meanwhile, remains su-perb. He has now won 22 sets in a row and is strongly favoured to equal Roy Emerson’s record of six Australian titles. He next plays Italian Andreas Seppi, who won 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 against the American Denis Kudla.

Halys, slightly built at 6ft 3in, was one of four out of seven original teen-agers still in the draw, and looked to have a lot of skills to work with. He could well force his way into the mix of contenders queueing up for a place at the top table.

He had to save fi ve break points to hold at the start and it didn’t get much easier but he fought all the way, forcing a third-set tie-break before the cham-pion closed it out.

Djokovic blasts ‘absurd’ match-fi xing claimsFOCUS

Federer wary of ‘Baby Fed’ ambush

AFPMelbourne

Roger Federer said he hoped to erase his shock defeat in last year’s Aus-tralian Open third round as he set up an eye-catching last-32 show-

down with Grigor Dimitrov—the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Fed”.

Federer, the 17-time Grand Slam record-holder, was never in trouble against his Ukrainian practice partner Alexandr Dolgo-polov in a clinical 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 win in one hour 33 minutes on Rod Laver Arena yes-terday. While his great rival Rafael Nadal fell at the fi rst hurdle, the Swiss great has now reached the third round in all 17 of his ap-pearances at Melbourne Park.

Next up is 27th seed Dimitrov, the former world number eight and a fi nalist last week in Sydney who was long tagged ‘Baby Fed’ because of his similarities to Federer’s ele-gant game. After last year’s campaign ended at this stage with a stunning defeat to Italy’s Andreas Seppi, third-ranked Federer hopes to avoid another upset this time around.

“Grigor did well in Sydney and that defi -nitely will give him a bit of a lift,” Federer

said. “I think it’s a tough draw. He’s got the game to be really dangerous. He’s fi t enough for a fi ve-setter so I’ve gotta defi nitely bring my best game to the court.

“It’s the least I expect to be in the third round of a Slam, obviously, so I’m pumped up, playing well, feeling good.

“But there’s always a danger, you know. Like last year the third round was the end for me, so I hope to go further this time.”

Federer’s loss to Seppi condemned him to his earliest exit from the season’s fi rst Grand Slam in 14 years. Against Dimitrov, the 34-year-old will be seeking his 300th Grand Slam singles victory as he chases his fi fth title at the Australian Open, and fi rst since 2010.

Yesterday’s win came off the back of an impregnable serve. While he broke Dolgo-polov’s serve fi ve times, he did not face a single break-point on his own serve and hammered 25 aces.

“I thought today I did serve very well. Maybe it just matched up well, maybe Dolgopolov wasn’t seeing it as well,” Fed-erer said. “But also conditions are fast dur-ing the daytime, so that helps to be able to serve through opponents. It’s also harder to return, clearly.

“I’m happy I got the crucial fi rst break in

the fi rst set. I think it was a big set for me. Then second set was the key, because it was close for a while.”

Federer said he was also working on his defensive game under the guidance of new coach and former world number three Ivan Ljubicic, who arrives following the depar-ture of Stefan Edberg.

“I did put in the hard yards in the off season, but then again, I like to work on my strength most of the time,” he said. “The off ensive part of my game, serve and volley, taking the fore-hand early, using my backhand as a variation.

“But, of course, the defensive part is the base. You also need to have that to be able to play the transition game, which I have played so well throughout my career. To go from defence to off ence in the blink of an eye, it’s something I did so well for so many years.”

Federer practised with the pony-tailed Dolgopolov in Dubai during the off -season and took his record over him to 3-0.

“I’m a big fan of Alex’s game. He’s ex-plosive, got a great return, especially on the second serve,” the Swiss said. “He’s got all the shots. Just for him, managing how to use what at what time.”

Dimitrov, who is still living fi rmly in the shadow of the Swiss maestro, will get anoth-

er chance tomorrow to prove that despite a slower-than-expected rise towards the sum-mit of tennis, he can deliver on his promise. While Federer has been sublime so far, Dim-itrov, 10 years younger than the man his game seems modelled on, struggled to suppress wild-haired Argentine Marco Trungelliti be-fore completing a 6-3 4-6 6-2 7-5 victory.

Dimitrov, the former boyfriend of Rus-sian fi ve-times Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova, is not one for hyperbole and has tired of the comparisons between himself and Federer since he won the Wimbledon junior title. “It’s a match that I want to play,” he told reporters. “You never know, one tournament can change everything for you. You never know when that might be.”

Dimitrov was ranked eight in the world in 2014 after beating defending champi-on Andy Murray to reach the Wimbledon semi-fi nals, but since then has fallen behind Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Canada’s Milos Raonic in the new wave of players.

Unlike those two he has never qualifi ed for the ATP World Tour Finals, the end-of-season showdown of the world’s elite, and he went backwards in 2015, eventually split-ting with coach Roger Rasheed after a third-round loss at Wimbledon.

SPOTLIGHT

‘He’s got the game to be really dangerous. He’s fit enough for a five-setter so I’ve gotta definitely bring my best game to the court. It’s the least I expect to be in the third round of a Slam, obviously, so I’m pumped up, playing well, feeling good. But there’s always a danger, you know. Like last year the third round was the end for me, so I hope to go further this time’

An Italian newspaper has alleged that Novak Djokovic (left) deliberately lost a match to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro at the 2007 Paris Masters.

As mobile fuels sports betting boom, corruption concerns mount ReutersSydney

The rise of mobile betting is transforming global sports wagering faster than regulators can react, flooding the industry with cash and po-

tentially contributing to corruption scandals like the one roiling world tennis, experts and insiders say.

Allegations this week that tennis authorities failed to deal with widespread match-fixing has rocked the game, following similar allegations that have blighted cricket, football and other sports.

The ubiquity of mobile phones and tablets has helped transformed bookmakers from operators of dingy, smoke-filled betting shops into multi-billion dollar de facto tech firms, pouring resources into de-veloping apps and complex algorithms and marketing to younger and broader demographics.

“We’re no longer restricted by geography or the limited choices of one betting company. And we have wall-to-wall sport every day of the week from across the globe beamed into our lounge rooms, on our smartphones,” said Scott Ferguson, a wagering indus-try consultant. “Technology is everything.”

The greatest danger for mobile gambling to inter-sect with corruption lies in the ease of fixing a one-on-one sport like tennis, darts or snooker, according to experts and professional gamblers.

Mobile apps that allow in-game betting on indi-vidual points or games allow athletes to stealthily manipulate the results and may strike some of them as less unethical as throwing an entire match, said Sally Gainsbury, a senior lecturer at Southern Cross University who has written a book on the subject.

Most major bookmakers operate from small off shore jurisdictions, making accurate predictions of industry worth extremely diff icult, said Gainsbury.

“There’s a large grey sort of off shore market ... in every country, where it’s actually just not possible for the government to regulate these sites that are based in all these tiny remote jurisdictions,” she said. “So it’s diff icult to get a really accurate size of how much peo-ple are betting because a lot of it is actually illegal.”

Patrick Jay, a betting consultant and former head of trading at Betfair, estimates the global sports betting market is likely worth about $1 trillion a year, having doubled in size in the last five years. He expects it to double again in the next five.

The Australian government, citing a 2015 United Nations conference at which Jay was a speaker, put that figure as high as $3 trillion, of which 90 percent was “illegal” or in contravention of laws regulating gambling in which the bet was placed.

That range of figures, which includes betting on sports from soccer, cricket and tennis to much less widely followed sports like snooker, darts and table tennis but excludes racing, illustrates the diff iculty in accurately valuing the overall market.

“It has grown because of mobile technology. It allows people to place bets anywhere, anytime,” Jay said. “People are also dealing in credit, and therefore accounts are being run all over the world. It has cre-ated a perfect combination.”

Leading bookmakers including Betfair Group PLC, Ladbrokes PLC, Paddy Power PLC and William Hill PLC did not respond to requests for comment. There have not been any allegations of wrongdoing by the bookmakers in the World Tennis scandal.

Worried about the boom in sports betting and incidents of match fixing, countries like Australia and across the European Union are in the process of reviewing laws that experts like Gainsbury say are “hopelessly outdated”.

In Australia, for example, 2001 laws regulating Internet sport betting bar anyone from placing a bet on a sporting event online once it has begun, despite allowing live betting over the phone or at retail bookmakers.

William Hill, an off icial partner of the Australian Open, has a new “Bet-in-Play” feature for its Austral-ian customers that requires access to a smartphone’s microphone while the bet is placed to comply with such laws. “There’s been a lot of stagnation where a lot of countries originally said, ‘Well this is illegal, we won’t let them do this’, but of course with the internet you can’t make things illegal and stop people going online,” Gainsbury said.

Roger Federer stretches to hit a return to Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov during their second round match at the Australian Open yesterday. (Reuters)

AUSTRALIAN OPEN7Gulf Times


Djokovic, Serena on cruise mode; Kvitova sent out by Gavrilova

AFPMelbourne

Defending champions No-vak Djokovic and Serena Williams stormed into the Australian Open third

round yesterday as tennis authori-ties came under fi re over their eff orts to fi ght match-fi xing.

Djokovic had a third-set tussle with French teenager Quentin Ha-lys before winning their night match 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), joining Williams and Roger Federer in the next stage.

As a match-fi xing controversy continued to reverberate at Mel-bourne Park, Williams swatted Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round as she seeks a record-equalling 22nd major title.

Williams eased lingering concerns over the state of her injured knee as she obliterated the Taiwanese, even pulling off possibly her fi rst ever round-the-net shot for good measure.

“It’s always cool to do something fresh and new. I don’t know if I have done that,” said the American world number one, who showed no signs discomfort from her knee. “I moved much better, so slowly but surely feeling a little bit better,” she added.

Federer, who is trying to extend his record number of Grand Slam

crowns to 18, then dismantled his 35th-ranked practice partner Alex-andr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.

Later, Djokovic was no match for Halys, 19, who had a net cord to thank as he broke the Serb in the third set, which went to a tie-break.

Separately, an senior anti-corrup-tion offi cial said that match-fi xing was commonplace in tennis’s lower levels and criticised the “opaque and secretive” Tennis Integrity Unit, which is tasked with fi nding cheats.

Chris Eaton, director of integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security in Doha, was speaking after a report claimed several players sus-pected of being serial match-fi xers had never been punished.

“Integrity is by defi nition open and transparent. The TIU is neither... by operating in the shadows they fail to practice what they preach,” he said, calling for a “new independent and integrated integrity model”.

The controversy is just the latest to hit the tainted sports world after claims of a doping cover-up shook athletics and multiple scandals en-gulfed football’s governing body, FIFA.

Petra Kvitova became the latest women’s top-10 player to fall, join-ing Simona Halep and Venus Wil-liams on the sidelines when she was shocked 6-4, 6-4 by Australian gi-ant-killer Daria Gavrilova.

In a positive evening for the hosts, the combustible Nick Kyrgios over-came a mix-up with his shorts to beat Pablo Cuevas and set up a showdown with world number six Tomas Berdych.

“Just a bit of a mix-up before the game,” shrugged Kyrgios, who had to change his shorts midway after the pockets on his fi rst pair weren’t deep enough to hold balls when he was serving.

Agnieszka Radwanska’s sky-high confi dence took another leap up-wards when she halted Eugenie Bou-chard, back in form after suff ering concussion at the US Open, 6-4, 6-2.

On court earlier was fi ve-time Grand Slam champion Maria Shara-pova, who had little diffi culty dis-patching 105th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1.

Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishiko-ri beat his close friend Austin Krajicek 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 as he pressed his bid for a fi rst Grand Slam title.

And Italy’s Roberta Vinci over-came Irina Falconi to move towards a potential semi-fi nal rematch with Williams—whom she stunned in the US Open last four, ending her bid for a rare calendar-year Grand Slam.

“Yeah, I watch it every day,” dead-panned Williams, when asked if she had seen a recording of the match. “Every night to get ready.”

Venus hit with $5,000 fine for skipping PCElsewhere, not for the fi rst time in her career, Australian Open eighth seed Venus Williams departed a Grand Slam in melodramatic style, apparently happy to wear a US$5,000 fi ne in order to avoid dis-cussing her shock fi rst-round exit at the hands of Great Britain’s Johanna Konta on Tuesday.

The maximum penalty for skip-ping mandated post-match press conferences is US$20,000 but Wil-liams’ latest fi ne actually quali-fi es as a hefty punishment by the standards of those normally meted out on women’s players. Still, for a similar off ence it is bettered only by the $10,000 penalty levied on Marat Safi n for avoiding media commit-ments at the 2001 French Open.

It was left to Williams’ sister Ser-ena to fi eld questions later in the day. “I don’t know. If you want to, you can ask her,” she responded when asked about the walk-out. “I don’t know. I wasn’t here.”

Venus’ latest breach comes after a similar incident at the 2015 French Open, when she was slugged with a US$3,000 fi ne for skipping her press commitments following another fi rst-round loss, that time to fellow American Sloane Stephens.

In 2010, she and Serena were fi ned $4,000 each for a media no-show following a doubles match and joined a varied roll call of past off enders that includes Andre Agassi, Mats Wilan-der, Goran Ivanisevic, Victoria Aza-renka and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

The episode is likely to bring into question the level of disincentive against players simply foregoing their media requirements when the monetary punishment pales in com-parison with the prize money on of-fer at the tournament in question.

For her fi rst-round exit, Venus still pocketed AU$38,500 and a sec-ond-round loser this year will take home AU$67,000.

Australian Nick Kyrgios, mean-while, has been issued a US$3000 sanction for an audible obscen-ity during his fi rst-round win over Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta on Monday. The Australian’s latest in-discretion has no impact on the sus-pended 28-day ban and $25,000 fi ne hanging over him since his infamous comments to Stan Warwrinka last August, which applies only to ATP events and not Grand Slams.

Kyrgios is no lone ranger, with 16 other players in the men’s draw sanctioned for audible obsceni-ties or racquet abuse across the fi rst round and qualifi ers of the Austral-ian Open.

REPORT/ DAY 3

‘It’s always cool to do something fresh and new. I don’t know if I have done that’

By Kevin Mitchell in MelbourneThe Guardian

Her sister Venus is gone, des-patched by Johanna Konta on Tuesday, but Serena Wil-liams is very much alive in

this tournament and, although she is adamant she never looks at the draw, she surely knows she is two wins away from meeting Maria Sharapova for the 21st time in the quarter-fi nals.

Both won handily yesterday, by similar scores in roughly the same time against lesser opposition, but it is Williams who leads her personal bat-tle with the Russian by a commanding 18-2 win-loss record and moves for-ward with most confi dence.

Williams did not surprise with her post-match mantra: “It doesn’t mat-ter who I play, when I play. Win or lose, there is always a next time for me and for them. I don’t really shy away from that.”

She spent exactly an hour dismiss-

ing poor Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan, 6-1, 6-2, shortly before Sharapova beat Be-larusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1 in 71 minutes. In the fi rst round, Williams began the defence of her ti-tle rather more tentatively, and gave herself an “A for eff ort” in beating the Italian Camila Giorgi. On day three, she had recovered her composure and her court presence. She looked scarily strong again.

“That fi rst round helped me because I was really just fi ghting. I gave a big eff ort there,” said the American. “To-day I just wanted to stay focused for the whole time. I don’t think I made that many errors today—and I moved much better. So, slowly but surely, I’m feeling a little bit better.”

Williams arrived in Melbourne with fi tness doubts she tried to downplay, having failed to fi nish a match at the Hopman Cup in Perth, but there was no sign of guarding an injury here.

She even played one of those round-the-post miracle shots, the ball barely reaching the height of the net as it

whizzed down the line. “It’s always cool to do something

fresh and new,” she said. “I don’t know if I have ever done that before.”

Before she gets to a possible match-up with Sharapova, or even the fourth round, she must deal with another

Russian, teenager Daria Kasatkina, who beat Venus in Auckland. Kasat-kina defeated Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-4, 6-3.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy,” the world No. 1 said of her world No. 69 opponent. “Any time someone is beat-

ing Venus they are more than likely playing really good. I defi nitely will be ready for that. I will ask Venus what she thought of the match, and I’m sure Patrick (Mouratoglou, her coach) will know everything about her match. He’s really good at studying.”

Williams always has an edge about her during a major and she bristled when asked if she had ever watched her defeat in the US Open semi-fi nals last year by Roberta Vinci (who is still in this draw). “Every day and every night,” she said, before taking her leave.

There were no surprises in Shara-pova’s victory—under the roof dur-ing a brief spell of rain—as she went into familiar automaton mode to dis-mantle her opponent. Her serve mal-functioned briefl y towards the end of the fi rst set but generally she was her familiar sound self, unemotional and ruthless.

Injury has curtailed the 28-year-old’s preparation for this tournament but she did not seem concerned. “I

feel pretty good. I felt I was more con-fi dent with my left hand today. Espe-cially when it’s like in the hand/wrist area, it’s in the back of your mind. But I didn’t really have much choice, so I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing. I just work with what I have.”

And what Sharapova has is a few more drop shots in her locker, not all of them a success. “It’s something that I have added to my game, and that’s helped me, especially playing against opponents that stay far back,” she said.

“When I’m aggressive and I have depth on my shots, it’s just good to have that variety to bring them in, to move forward myself. I had a couple of good ones; I had a couple of really crappy ones. I’d say it was pretty me-diocre today,” the Russian added.

Barring Sharapova’s path to a show-down with Williams is American Lau-ren Davis, who was gifted a win when Magdalena Rybarikova retired with an injury to her right ankle after losing the fi rst set tie-break.

Sharapova on track for QF meeting with SerenaBOTTOMLINE

Radwanska says confidence sky-high after Bouchard win

Red-hot Agnieszka Radwanska said yesterday her confidence is soaring after she halted the comeback of

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Australian Open third round.

Bouchard, rebuilding her career after a head injury at last year’s US Open, showed glimpses of her old form but could not match the Pole’s ferocity in the night match on Rod Laver Arena.

Radwanska, who this month eased above Maria Sharapova to be fourth on the world rankings, will now play Monica Puig of Puerto Rico in the third round.

“I’m very happy with my game today because getting Genie in the second round was not an easy match,” she said.

“She is playing much better and it was a great challenge. I’m very, very happy I could play my best tennis today.

“I’m confident about my game and I re-ally feel good on court,” she added.

“But it’s not sure I’m going to win the match. So I still need to work hard on that. Nothing’s going to come for free.”

Despite the loss it was an encouraging step on the road back for Bouchard, 21, as she works to pick up the pieces after sustaining a head injury when slipping in the locker room at Flushing Meadow.

It forced her out of her fourth-round match with concussion and she remained troubled for the rest of the season.

The setback was costly for a player who showed huge potential by making her first Grand Slam semi-final at Melbourne Park in 2014 and quickly became a tour favourite with her fearless, take-no-prisoners game style.

She followed up that year by making the French Open semi-final and Wimbledon final, reaching a career-high world ranking of five in October 2014.

Bouchard made the last eight in Mel-bourne in 2015 but then went into freefall, barely able to win a game before the US Open injury.

Now ranked 37, she came out firing and with the crowd firmly behind her, won her opening service game with a smash.

Radwanska also held thanks to some sol-id groundstrokes in a match that became a baseline battle. It went with serve until the sixth game when Bouchard produced a delicate drop shot on her second break point to go 4-2 in front.

But she threw away the advantage immediately with some loose shots and a double fault, allowing Radwanska to break back. A backhand long gave away another break and left Radwanska serving for the set, which she finally won despite Bouchard saving four set points.

The accomplished Radwanska, who has been on a roll, winning the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore and the Shenzhen Open this month, turned the screw by break-ing in the first game of the second set.

It turned out to be decisive with Boucha-rd searching unsuccessfully for a way back, with another break in the seventh game putting Radwanska on course for victory.

Despite losing, the Pole had encouraging words for the Canadian, predicting that “in couple months we going to see her deeper in the Grand Slams”.

While Radwanska has long been among the elite women’s players, she has yet to break through at the majors, coming clos-est at Wimbledon in 2012 when she was runner-up to Serena Williams.

She is seeking to go one better than the semi-finals here, her deepest run in Melbourne which came in 2014.

Maria Sharapova trails Serena Williams 2-18 in head-to-head meetings

Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova in action during her second-round match against Australia’s Daria Gavrilova at the Australian Open yesterday. Kvitova lost 4-6, 4-6. (AFP)

SPORT8 Gulf Times


Durant hot streak extended, Thunder roll past Nuggets

NBA

‘Khris is able to impact the game in several ways. He is able to score and create shots for others, making passes out of the double team’

AFPLos Angeles

Kevin Durant extended his re-markable scoring record with his 28th consecutive 20-point game as the Oklahoma City

Thunder rolled past the Denver Nuggets 110-104.

Durant, who fi nished with 30 points, 12 rebounds and four assists, has now scored 20 points or more in every game since returning from a hamstring injury in late November.

Russell Westbrook also played a star-ring role with 27 points as the Thunder improved to 31-12, the third best record in the Western Conference behind Gold-en State and San Antonio.

Westbrook also had 12 assists but fell just short of his third straight triple-double. He has already notched up fi ve this season, 24 in his career.

Denver’s loss saw the Nuggets fall to 16-26 for the season.

Elsewhere Tuesday the Milwaukee Bucks maintained their recent run of good form against the Miami Heat with a 91-79 defeat of the Florida team.

Small forward Khris Middleton did the damage for the Bucks, scoring 22 points while center Greg Monroe contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds.

It was Miami’s second consecutive de-feat and came despite impressive scoring cameos from Hassan Whiteside and Chris Bosh, who both added 23 points apiece.

Heat guard Dwyane Wade had an un-happy night, fi nishing with just two points on 1-of-6 shooting and looking to still be suff ering from a sore shoulder.

Milwaukee opened up a 49-39 half-time lead before a third quarter points spree saw them stretch away to a 75-57 cushion.

TUTOR GETS SCHOOLED The irony of Middleton’s performance was not lost on Wade, who spent much of the summer tutoring the Miami young-ster.

Bucks caretaker coach Joe Prunty praised Middleton’s multi-faceted per-formance.

“Khris is able to impact the game in several ways,” Bucks interim coach Joe Prunty said. “He is able to score and cre-ate shots for others, making passes out of the double team.”

Middleton meanwhile attributed his performance to the strength of the Bucks defense, which restricted Miami to 36.5 percent shooting from the fl oor.

“We challenged every shot,” Middle-ton said. “We tried to make it diffi cult on them. Once we did that, we were danger-ous on the other end.”

The New Orleans Pelicans meanwhile fought back from a 17-point defi cit be-

fore defeating the Minnesota Timber-wolves 114-99 in the Big Easy.

Anthony Davis fi nished with 35 points as the Pelicans recovered to win a stormy encounter which saw Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett clash with New Orleans forward Ryan Anderson late in the fi rst half.

GETTING PHYSICAL Davis praised the way New Orleans had refused to be intimidated by Minnesota’s physicality, saying the team had been fi red up following the clash between Gar-nett and Anderson.

“That’s what we’ve got to do—we’ve got to be a physical team,” said Davis.

“That says a lot about Ryan,” Davis said referring to the incident with Garnett. “He’s a tough guy. We know how K.G. is. It’s good because it kind of got us going. We just wanted to make sure we’re tough and fi ght back. We just can’t get pushed around. If we’re pushed, we’ll fi ght back without doing anything stupid. Just make our presence felt.”

LeBron says Cavs need to be more focusedBOTTOMLINE

MCTCleveland

When the idea of a June re-union with the Golden State Warriors was fi rst broached to LeBron James

on Monday morning, the Cavs star bristled. He called it “absurd” and “ri-diculous” to be thinking about June in January.

Then the Cavs went out and showed why. Their 132-98 loss to the Warri-ors was still ringing in everyone’s ears Tuesday. The Cavs were buried under an early avalanche of shots from Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and never recovered, never bothered to dig them-selves out.

While they gathered Tuesday for fi lm work and treatment, players and coaches were forced to start looking ahead to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednes-day. But it will be hard to shake how the Big Three has now faded twice within fi ve days, and against the two best teams in the West.

Folks within the organization left San Antonio last week shaking their heads at how poorly the Cavs’ stars played

against the Spurs. They were even worse against the Warriors when Curry outscored the three by himself.

“Against the top teams, you want to play well and we haven’t done that,” James said. “We’ve got to play better basketball.”

James cited the 0-3 record against the Spurs and Warriors this year and threw in the opening-night loss to the Chicago Bulls for good measure.

Including the Bulls requires includ-ing the Raptors as well, since they are ahead of the Bulls in the East standings. The Cavs are a combined 1-5 against those teams this season.

“Mentally, we’ve got to be sharp. We’ve got to be more sharp,” James said. He mentioned teams like the Bulls, Spurs and Warriors who have play-ers that have won championships and who are “sharp mentally at all times.” He clearly isn’t putting the Cavs in that same category.

“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We’ve got some inexperienced guys that haven’t played enough meaning-ful basketball games where they can fall back on. When it gets a little tough sometimes, it’s not like they can kind of fall back on previous experiences to try

and help them get through it.”The Cavs returned their top 12 play-

ers from a team that went to the NBA Finals last season.

The two who didn’t really get to ex-perience it were Love and Irving, who both struggled Monday. Irving at least scored 57 points against the Spurs last season, but was injured in Game 1 of the Finals last spring. Love was hurt in the fi rst round and essentially missed the entire postseason.

James clearly seemed to be pointing his comments at his two stars.

“We’re going to have a lot of bumps, and that’s OK,” James said. “We’ll learn from it and get better from it, but the best teacher in life is experience, and it’s good to go through it.”

Love seems to be fading in this of-fense just as he did last season.

He is averaging 12.4 points and shooting 37 percent since Irving re-turned to the lineup. He was averaging 17.6 points and shooting 43 percent without Irving.

The questions about Love’s fi t on this team are returning, particularly with how badly he struggles defensively, and Love is short on answers. Asked about his diminishing role, Love off ered only,

“I don’t know how to answer that.” Nor did he want to discuss the overall issues on off ense.

“I’m not going to get into that,” he said.

The Cavs’ rough days aren’t over. They had played one of the easiest schedules in the league (based on op-ponents’ winning percentage) before getting the Spurs and Warriors within the past few days. This week, they get the Los Angeles Clippers, who have won 11 of their past 12 games, and the Bulls.

“We’re not defeated, it’s not the worst thing,” Irving said. “Of course, everyone else is going to make it seem like it’s the worst thing possible that we got beat on our home fl oor. But it’s something to learn from and go for-ward. We’ll be just fi ne.”

MCTPhiladelphia

The Flyers have been one of the NHL’s best teams over the last two months, but that has

hidden the fact that they have struggled mightily against the league’s lightweights.

That trend continued Tuesday night as defenseman Matt Hun-wick scored on a point blast with 7.5 seconds left, enabling lowly Toronto to stun the Flyers, 3-2, at the Wells Fargo Center.

Hunwick’s shot may have de-fl ected off a player in front.

The Maple Leafs snapped a fi ve-game losing streak and handed the Flyers their fi rst regulation loss in the last seven games.

The Flyers, who play in Pitts-burgh on Thursday, have just one win in nine games (1-6-2) against the league’s worst seven teams this season.

Defenseman Shayne Gostis-behere stole the puck in his own end and started a three-on-one break that ended with him fi ring a left-circle shot through the legs of Toronto goalie James Reimer, tying the score at 2-2 with 7:01 left. For Gostisbehere, who faked a pass to Jake Voracek before shooting, it was his eighth goal (in just 26 games), tops among NHL rookie defensemen.

Flyers goalie Steve Mason stopped Shawn Matthias as he tried to fi nish a two-on-one with 11:30 left, keeping the Flyers within 2-1.

But after Hunwick’s goal, the Flyers, who used third-period comebacks to register points in their previous three games (2-0-1), ran out of rallies.

Sloppy passing and defensive breakdowns by the Flyers ena-bled the Leafs to take control in the second period.

With 4:50 left in the second, former Flyer Joff rey Lupul gave Toronto a 2-1 lead by scoring on a rebound while the Leafs had an extra attacker ice because of a delayed penalty. It was Lupul’s 10th goal and fi rst in 12 games.

Just 1:20 earlier, with Mason out of position, P.A. Parenteau appeared to have an open net in front, but defenseman Evgeny Medvedev skated into the play and got his stick on the shot at

the last instant, defl ecting it wide.

The Leafs also had a second-period goal negated. Coach Dave Hakstol challenged the goal, and replays showed that Brad Boyes was off sides when the play start-ed, erasing Peter Holland’s tally.

So the Flyers were fortunate to face just a 2-1 defi cit heading into the third period. Entering the third, they were outshot by a 25-10 margin after Matt Read had given them a 1-0 fi rst-period lead.

The odd opening period _ dominated by the Flyers in the fi rst 11 minutes, and by the Leafs in the fi nal nine _ ended tied at 1.

Mason was slow reacting as he tried to cover up Boyes’ defl ec-tion, and defenseman Roman Polak knocked in the rebound that sat under the goalie, knot-ting the score at 1. It was Polak’s fi rst goal in a little over a year.

The Flyers had taken a 1-0 lead when Read scored a power-play goal after taking a slick feed from Medvedev with 8:54 left in the fi rst.

From just inside the blue line on the left, Medvedev threaded a pass that Read, moving from right to left, captured in stride in the slot before scoring on a back-hander. That gave the Flyers the fi rst goal in six of the last seven games.

But after getting 11 of the game’s fi rst 12 shots, the Flyers had numerous defensive break-downs and surrendered the next 10 shots.

Mason made his best save in the fi rst period when he robbed Parenteau from the slot after a dominating shift in which the Leafs played keep-away from the Flyers in the Toronto off ensive end.

The Flyers have carried a lead into the second period just twice in the last 30 games.

Toronto entered the night with a fi ve-game losing streak, dur-ing which it had been outscored, 19-5.

“There’s no easy games,” Fly-ers captain Claude Giroux said before the game. “Toronto was playing very well at one point and you can see they’re well-coached and kind of following the system. They’re a fast team and we have to make sure we’re ready and be responsible defensively.”

Didn’t happen.

Flyers lose to Maple Leafs on goal in closing seconds

NHL

Kevin Durant #35 of the Oklahoma City Thunder celebrates a play with teammates at Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

Tyler Bozak #42 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates as Matt Hunwick (not pictured) scores the game-winning goal past goalie Steve Mason #35 of the Philadelphia Flyers.

File picture of Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James.

ResultsMiami .............................79 Milwaukee .................91 Denver ....................... 104 Oklahoma City ...110 Phoenix ....................... 94 Indiana .........................97 New Orleans.......... 114 Minnesota ............... 99

“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We’ve got some inexperienced guys that haven’t played enough meaningful basketball games where they can fall back on. When it gets a little tough sometimes, it’s not like they can kind of fall back on previous experiences to try and help them get through it”

Uncapped Sayers in Australia squad for N Zealand Tests AFPMelbourne

Australia yesterday named uncapped paceman Chadd Say-ers and recalled Jack-

son Bird to the Test squad to face New Zealand next month, as they look to reclaim the number one ranking.

Selector Rod Marsh said while the batting line-up picked itself, it was a matter of choos-ing the best bowlers for the con-ditions expected in Wellington and Christchurch.

“It’s a matter of horses for courses; we think the condi-tions in New Zealand will suit Chadd,” Marsh said of the 28-year-old who has 145 fi rst-class wickets at 24.82.

“He can bowl. He thoroughly deserves his selection,” Marsh said, adding that speed was not the only selection criteria.

Sayers is the only uncapped player in the 14-man squad, which also had a place for 29-year-old bowler Bird along-side leading paceman James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle.

Marsh said both Sayers and Bird could “swing the ball and operate at a lively pace”.

“Our fast bowling depth is certainly being tested because of injury and retirement,” he said. “But the positive part of that is it means there are op-portunities for other players to stand up in domestic cricket and stake their claims.”

Feared paceman Mitchell Johnson, 34, quit international cricket in November, following Ryan Harris’s retirement, while Mitchell Starc and Pat Cum-mins are sidelined by injury.

Pattinson and Siddle have also had injury concerns, with the former recovering from soreness in his left shin and the latter sidelined since December due to a troublesome ankle.

Added incentive Marsh said he was hopeful

Pattinson would recover in time for New Zealand, and Siddle was “on the verge of playing again”.

Australia dominated the West Indies in their most recent Test campaign at home, trouncing the tourists in the fi rst two Tests before the fi nal rain-aff ected

match ended in a draw. Steve Smith’s team faced

stiff er competition from New Zealand in November, but clinched a 2-0 win in the three-match Test series.

“We know that New Zealand is going to come hard at us, that their players will want some form of payback for the Test se-ries loss,” Marsh said.

The Kiwis also want to give retiring skipper Brendon Mc-Cullum a victorious send-off from internationals, he added.

Marsh said Australia were aware that a series win in New Zealand would lift them to the top spot in rankings.

“The fact that we can move back to the top of the ICC Rank-ings if we win the series is an added incentive for us,” he said.

“But the players will be hun-gry to do well and we are antici-pating a tough but also, hope-fully, a successful series.”

Australia play Tests against New Zealand in Wellington from February 12 and Christch-urch from February 20.

The squad for three one-day internationals to be played in New Zealand ahead of the Tests has not yet been announced. Australia: Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Joe Burns, Us-man Khawaja, Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Shaun Marsh, Chadd Sayers.

NZ seamer Southee to miss Australia ODI series

New Zealand strike bowler Tim Southee will miss the up-coming one-day series against Australia but Blackcaps coach Mike Hesson was optimistic the seamer would recover from a foot injury in time for the sub-sequent Test series.

Southee, 27, has been a spec-tator for the ongoing Twenty20 series against Pakistan after suff ering bruising to the bone in his left foot during the one-day series against Sri Lanka last month. Hesson said the three match one-day series against Australia, starting in Auckland on February 3, was too soon for Southee but the two-test series beginning in Wellington nine days later was more likely.

“Tim is progressing nicely and he’ll be with us this week (in Wellington) to help work with his rehab,” Hesson was quoted as saying by New Zealand media yesterday.

“He’s unlikely (to play the Australia ODIs). We’ll focus on the test series at this stage and make sure that he’s fi ring. We certainly won’t force him play-ing any games earlier than that unless we need him.”

Hesson said Boult could play

a four-day domestic game to shake off the rust and prove his fi tness before facing Australia, who can become the top ranked test playing nation if they win the two-match series.

The coach said that retir-ing skipper Brendon McCullum was also making good progress from a back complaint and should feature in the one-day series against Pakistan before the Australians arrive for his fi nal clash. “Brendon’s likely to be back for (the third one-dayer against Pakistan on January 31),” Hesson said.

“He’s progressing really well and doing plenty of work away from the game, from a fi tness point of view and we’re really pleased with the way he’s track-ing. Hopefully he’ll play a part in the Pakistan series and if he does that will be good prep for the Chappell-Hadlee (against Australia) and beyond.”

CRICKET

‘It’s a matter of horses for courses; we think the conditions in New Zealand will suit Chadd’

AFPDublin

Ulster hooker Rory Best was named as Toulon lock Paul O’Connell’s successor as Ireland

captain in the 35-man Six Na-tions squad that was announced by head coach Joe Schmidt yesterday.

O’Connell, 36, retired from Test duty during the World Cup after a hamstring injury ruled him out of the tournament and Best, 33, has seen off compe-tition from Sean O’Brien and Johnny Sexton to become the new skipper.

Jamie Heaslip has been named vice-captain, while New Zea-lander Schmidt has called up four uncapped players in Ultan Dillane, CJ Stander, Josh Van Der Flier and Stuart McCloskey for Ireland’s defence of the trophy.

“As always there were a number of tight decisions, es-pecially with a number of play-ers not being available to play in recent weeks,” Schmidt said in a statement on the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) website.

“With plenty of new person-nel involved the RBS 6 Nations is going to be incredibly challeng-ing and the players selected will know they will need to be at their best to be competitive.”

South Africa-born Munster captain Stander, 25, is in conten-tion for a back-row spot after qualifying to play for Ireland on residency grounds shortly after the World Cup.

There are two other uncapped forwards in Connacht lock Dil-lane and Leinster fl anker Van Der Flier, while Ulster centre McCloskey is the only uncapped player among the 16 backs.

Ulster wing Tommy Bowe, Ulster locks Iain Henderson and Dan Tuohy and Munster back-row forward Peter O’Mahony have all been ruled out of the Six Nations due to long-term inju-ries.

But Schmidt said that short-term absentees such as props Cian Healy (knee) and Mike Ross (hamstring) and fl anker Chris Henry (shoulder) could return after Ireland’s fi rst two matches against Wales and France.

“Stalwarts such as Mike Ross, Cian Healy and Chris Henry are

all likely to return to play over the coming weeks and they, along with some of the other players not included, will po-tentially return to the squad post these fi rst two matches,” he said.

Schmidt said that he had elected against including young prospects such as 20-year-old Leinster centre Garry Ringrose, who has been likened to Ireland great Brian O’Driscoll.

“There are a few new faces, but at the same time we have resisted the temptation to in-clude some of the very promis-ing youngsters, allowing them a bit more time to develop as well as the opportunity of further game time with their provinces,” he said.

Ireland begin their quest for a third successive Six Nations crown against Wales at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on February 7, be-fore tackling France in Paris the following weekend.

Squad Forwards (19): Rory Best (Ulster, capt), Sean Cronin (Lein-ster), James Cronin (Munster), Ultan Dillane (Connacht), Tadhg

Furlong (Leinster), Jamie Hea-slip (Leinster), Rob Herring (Ul-ster), Mike McCarthy (Leinster), Jack McGrath (Leinster), Martin Moore (Leinster), Sean O’Brien (Leinster), Tommy O’Donnell (Munster), Rhys Ruddock (Lein-ster), Donnacha Ryan (Munster), CJ Stander (Munster), Richardt Strauss (Leinster), Devin Toner (Leinster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Nathan White (Con-nacht) Backs (16): Keith Earls (Mun-ster), Luke Fitzgerald (Leinster), Robbie Henshaw (Connacht), Paddy Jackson (Ulster), David Kearney (Leinster), Rob Kearney (Leinster), Ian Madigan (Lein-ster), Kieran Marmion (Con-nacht), Luke Marshall (Ulster), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster), Conor Murray (Munster), Jared Payne (Ulster), Eoin Reddan (Leinster), Jonathan Sexton (Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Simon Zebo (Munster)

Fixtures Feb 07: v Wales (h) Feb 13: v France (a) Feb 27: v England (a) Mar 12: v Italy (h) Mar 19: v Scotland (h)

Best succeeds O’Connell as Ireland captainRUGBY

AFPManila

Manny Pacquiao said he is looking for-ward to swapping the boxing ring for

the political arena on Tuesday as the countdown began towards his farewell fi ght with long-time American rival Timothey Brad-ley in April.

Pacquiao, whose last bout was the money-spinning ‘Fight of the Century’ with Floyd May-weather last May, insisted he will hang up his gloves for good after the third and fi nal instal-ment of his rivalry with Bradley. The 37-year-old eight-division world champion is planning to run for a seat in the Philippines senate later this year after al-ready serving as a representative in the Asian country’s congress.

“I’m so happy to be hanging up my gloves after this fi ght,” Pacquiao told a press conference at the luxury Beverly Hills Hotel.

“I’m sure I will feel sad but that’s life. You can’t keep on fi ghting all the time. But it’s time I think.

“I started out in boxing be-cause I wanted to help my fam-ily, my mother. Now I’m ending my boxing career because I want to help my countrymen, the Fili-pino people. I’m ending because I want to serve the people.”

Bradley’s WBO welterweight title will be on the line in the

April 9 bout at Las Vegas’s MGM Grand in what is the third meet-ing of the two fi ghters.

Bradley, (33-1-1, 13 KOs), won a highly controversial split de-cision against Pacquiao in their fi rst meeting in 2012.

Pacquiao then won their 2014 rematch in Las Vegas with a comfortable unanimous deci-sion to end Bradley’s undefeated record. The Filipino slugger (57-6-2, 38 KOs) said he is antici-pating a sterner challenge from Bradley in their decisive bout. “I chose Bradley again because he’s diff erent from before,” Pacquiao said. “He’s improved a lot.”

Bradley meanwhile also warned fans to expect a diff erent fi ght to the previous two bouts.

“I’ve heard that Manny Pac-quiao chose me because he knows me,” Bradley said.

“I think it’s diff erent now. I honestly do. “I think this will be a diff erent fi ght than the fi rst two altercations. That’s all I can tell you. It’s going to be a great fi ght—he wants it really badly and so do I.”

SPORT9Gulf Times


Pacquiao eyes fond farewell, looks forward to politics

BOXING

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has suspended Galle stadium curator Jayananda Warnaweera for three years after the former test player failed to co-operate with anti-corruption of-ficials, the global governing body said yesterday. The 55-year-old Sri Lankan, who played 10 tests and six one-day internationals, was previously handed a two-year suspension by his own country’s board in November for the same off ence. The ICC said Warnaweera was charged after he missed meetings and also failed to provide documents to its anti-corruption unit (ACU) for an investigation, the details of which were not disclosed. “Warnaweera failed, on two separate occasions, to attend a scheduled interview with the ACU in relation to an ongoing inves-tigation and failed to provide documents required from him in connection with the investigation,” an ICC statement said. “Warnaweera also failed to respond in any manner to the charge and... he is consequently deemed to have accepted that he com-mitted the off ence charged, waived his right to a hearing, and acceded to the imposition of a sanction.” On Monday, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) banned fast bowling coach Anusha Samaranayake for two months over his relationship with net bowler Gayan Vishwajith, who allegedly approached national team players to under-perform during a test against West Indies at Galle in October. Sri Lanka police’s Financial Crime Investiga-tion Division (FCID) has interviewed wicketkeeper Kusal Perera, spinner Rangana Herath and captain Angelo Mathews about an alleged off er of thousands of dollars to engineer a batting collapse for a West Indies victory in the match. “The ICC takes no pleasure in imposing a suspension but this decision clearly illustrates what the (anti-corruption) Code means to the ICC and how seriously we take matters that relate to cor-ruption,” Ronnie Flanagan, chairman of the ACU, added in the ICC statement. “It should also act as a reminder to participants of the need to comply with their obligations under the Code. “The ICC has a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and it will not hesitate in taking such decisions in its endeavour to eliminate this menace from the sport.”

ICC bans Galle curator over failure to help graft probe

CHADD SAYERS

CRICKET

Gulf Times Thursday, January 21, 201610

India collapse to hand Australia win

ReutersCanberra

Paceman Kane Richard-son claimed his maiden fi ve-wicket haul to script India’s spectacu-

lar collapse and bowl Australia to a 25-run victory in the high-scoring fourth one day interna-tional yesterday.

Three batsmen struck cen-turies in the 671-run match between the world’s top two one-day teams but it was Rich-ardson’s (5-68) incisive bowling that clinched the contest, while also earning him the man-of-the-match award.

Chasing 349 for victory, India were cruising at 277 for one be-fore losing their last nine wickets for 46 runs to succumb to their fourth successive defeat in the fi ve-match series.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan (126) and Virat Kohli (106) featured in a 212-run stand for the visitors before the wheels came off In-dia’s chase at Canberra’s Manu-ka Oval.

Dhawan registered his ninth ODI century and Kohli scored his second

consecutive hundred but India lost three wickets in 11 balls for the addi-tion of one run that derailed them. For them, in-form Ajinkya Rahane came out to bat despite a split web-bing of his fi ngers, but could score only two as India were all out for 323 in the fi nal over.

Earlier, Aaron Finch struck his seventh hundred in a blistering opening partnership of 187 with David Warner to power Australia to 348 for eight wickets.

Finch smashed a run-a-ball 107 while Warner fell on 93 from 92 deliveries as the hosts con-

tinued to make merry against India’s toothless bowling attack after opting to bat fi rst.

Australia had chased down each Indian target to take an un-assailable 3-0 lead in the fi ve-match series and the tourists’ battered bowlers did little better

after fi nally getting the chance to bowl fi rst.

Warner, who missed the last two matches due to the birth of his second child, started off with a maiden against Umesh Yadav but soon hit his stride with three fours in an over against seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Yadav also conceded three boundaries in the next over against the diminutive left-hander as Australia raced to 50 in the seventh over.

Finch was equally destructive and a fi erce straight drive from the right-hander off fast bowler Ishant Sharma (4-77) hit umpire Richard Kettleborough on the shin, forcing the offi cial off the fi eld.

Finch mistimed a pull to be dismissed eight overs after Warner had played Ishant on to his stumps while attempting a slog over mid-wicket.

Australia captain Steven Smith (51) and all-rounders Mitchell Marsh (33) and Glenn Maxwell (41) chipped in with some quick runs.

Sydney hosts the fi fth and fi -nal one-dayer on Saturday.

FOURTH ODI

Finch, Warner add 187 for opening stand; Richardson takes five wickets

AFPKhulna

Malcolm Waller and Vusi Sibanda set up a big to-tal as Zimbabwe crushed Bangladesh by 31 runs in

the third Twenty20 international in Khulna yesterday to stay alive in the four-match series.

Opener Sibanda struck 44 off 33 balls and Waller hammered 49 off 23 as Zimbabwe posted 187-6 before re-stricting Bangladesh to 156-6 in a packed Sheikh Abu Nasir Stadium.

Sabbir Rahman made 50 off 32 balls for the home side, who won the fi rst two matches by four wickets and 42 runs respectively, but found Zimba-bwe’s total too much of an ask.

Sabbir put on 67 runs with Soumya Sarkar (25) for the second wicket to give Bangladesh a positive start before Zimbabwe took control of the game through their spinners.

Leg-spinner Graeme Cremer claimed 3-18 while Sikandar Raza chipped in with 2-7.

After losing the fi rst two matches,

Zimbabwe’s Sibanda came out fi ring with stand-in skipper Hamilton Ma-sakadza, putting on 45 in the opening stand in just four overs.

Mohamed Shahid, playing his debut T20 for Bangladesh, broke the stand, with Mosaddek Hossain taking a catch

at point to dismiss Masakadza for 20. Shakib al-Hasan, who claimed 3-32,

removed Richard Mutumbami (20) and Sibanda in successive overs to bring some respite for the home side.

But Waller, who hit two fours and four sixes, and Sean Williams (32)

added 74 for the fourth wicket to en-sure Zimbabwe did not stall. “Good to be back in the series,” Masakadza said after the match. “Early on, we spoke of the middle order coming together.”

“They did it today; it was a complete performance.”

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mor-taza said brief rain that delayed the toss for 15 minutes helped Zimbabwe’s batsmen because bowlers found it dif-fi cult to grip the ball.

When the home team batted, the ball started to turn off the pitch for the spinners. Apart from Shahid, a string of other Bangladesh players made their T20 debut including Mosaddek, all-rounder Muktar Ali and paceman Abu Hider. Batsman Imrul Kayes has also been brought into the squad, while several others were rested and batsman Mushfi qur Rahim and paceman Mus-tafi zur Rahman are nursing injuries.

The fourth and fi nal match of the se-ries will be on January 22 at the same ground. SCOREBOARD ZIMBABWE H. Masakadza c Mosaddek b Shahid 20 V. Sibanda c Sabbir b Shakib ................44 R. Mutumbami c Sabbir b Shakib ..... 20 S. Williams lbw b Hider ............................ 32 M. Waller c Soumya b Shakib ...............49 S. Raza c Sabbir b Hider .............................7 P. Moor not out ............................................ 10 G. Cremer not out ........................................0 Extras (lb2, w3) .................................... 5

Total (for six wickets; 20 overs) 187 Fall of wickets: 1-45 (Masakadza), 2-80 (Mutumbami), 4-89 (Sibanda), 4-163 (Waller), 5-177 (Williams ), 6-186 ( Raza) Bowling: Hider 4-0-40-2, Shahid 3-0-32-1, Muktar 2-0-17-0, Mortaza 4-0-37-0, Shakib 4-0-32-3, Mosaddek 2-0-10-0, Mahmudullah 1-0-17-0 (w3) BANGLADESH Imrul Kayes b Chisoro ............................................... 1 S Sarkar c Masakadza b Cremer.............. 25 S Rahman c Muzarabani b Raza ............ 50 Mosaddek Hossain b Raza ...............................15 Shakib Al Hasan c Waller b Cremer .........3 Mahmudullah c Mutumbami b Cremer..6 Muktar Ali not out....................................................... 19 Nurul Hasan not out ...............................................30 Extras (b1, lb 2 w3, nb1) ...................... 7 Total (for six wickets; 20 overs) 156 Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Imrul), 2-69 (Sou-mya), 3-92 (Sabbir), 4-100 (Mosaddek), 5-102 (Shakib , 6-107 (Mahmudullah) Bowling: Chisoro 4-0-15-1, Vitori 4-0-45-0 (w1), Muzarabani 3-0-41-0 (w1), Williams 3-0-27-0 (nb1), Cremer 4-0-18-3, Raza 2-0-7-2. Result: Zimbabwe won by 31 runs Series result: Bangladesh lead the series 2-1

Zimbabwe upset Bangladesh to stay in series TWENTY20

ReutersPretoria

England, with a series win already secured, can complete South Africa’s ignominious

fall from the top of the rank-ings when the fi nal Test of the four-match series starts at Centurion Park in Pretoria to-morrow.

Dominant England went 2-0 up after Stuart Broad’s venemous spell set the plat-form for an emphatic win in the third test in Johannesburg.

In contrast their hosts, about to lose top place in the Interna-tional Cricket Council rankings to India, are in a state of disar-ray, having switched captains mid-series and extended a winless streak to nine tests.

The absence of injured key fast bowler Dale Steyn has not helped and he will again not play in the fourth test, having only contributed for just a sin-gle innings at the start of the series in Durban last month.

The likes of Broad, Joe Root and Ben Stokes have all dis-played match-winning bril-liance for England in this se-ries.

“The future of this team could turn into something

special,” said coach Trevor Bayliss in the wake of the sev-en-wicket win at the Wander-ers.

A shell-shocked South Af-rica are set to hand a debut to 33-year-old opener Stephen Cook as they attempt to solve one of several problems in a side that last won a test more than a year ago.

New captain AB de Villiers had promised an aggressive and “in your face” approach for his fi rst game in charge af-ter replacing Hashim Amla but watched his team meekly fold as they were skittled out for a paltry 83 runs in their second innings in Johannesburg to be beaten inside three days.

The obvious lack of confi -dence is exacerbated by un-certainty over De Villiers’ own future in the test arena as he seeks to lessen his workload to continue playing all formats of the international game.

South Africa can only point to past statistics for a glimmer of sunshine. Centurion Park has been their most success-ful home venue since it hosted its fi rst test 20 years ago. South Africa have won 15 times, drawn three and lost only to England in 2000 and Australia in 2014 in 20 previous tests at the ground.

Dominant England aim to complete 3-0 triumph

PREVIEW

Kane Richardson (R) celebrates aft er taking the important wicket of Virat Kohli during the fourth ODI between Australia and India at Manuka Oval in Canberra yesterday. (AFP)

SCOREBOARD

AUSTRALIA D. Warner b I. Sharma ...........................................................................93 A. Finch c I. Sharma b Yadav ....................................... 107 M. Marsh c Kohli b Yadav .................................................................. 33 S. Smith c Singh b I. Sharma ........................................................... 51 G. Maxwell c sub (Pandey) b I. Sharma ...............................41 G. Bailey c R. Sharma b I. Sharma ............................................ 10 J. Faulkner b Yadav .................................................................................... 0 M. Wade run out ........................................................................................... 0 J. Hastings not out ...................................................................................... 0 Extras (lb7 w6) ........................................................ 13 Total (8 wickets, 50 overs) ...............................348 Fall of wickets: 1-187 (Warner), 2-221 (Finch), 3-288 (Marsh), 4-298 (Smith), 5-319 (Bailey), 6-319 (Faulkner), 7-321 (Wade), 8-348 (Maxwell) Bowling: Yadav 10-1-67-3 (2w), Kumar 8-0-69-0, I. Sharma 10-0-77-4 (2w), Singh 3-0-24-0, R. Dhawan 9-0-53-0 (1w), Jadeja 10-0-51-0 (1w) INDIA R. Sharma c Wade b Richardson ...............................................41 S. Dhawan c Bailey b Hastings ..................................................126

V. Kohli c Smith b Richardson ...................................................106 M.S. Dhoni c Wade b Hastings ..................................................... 0 G. Singh c sub (S. Marsh) b Lyon ................................................. 5 R. Jadeja not out .........................................................................................24 A. Rahane c Smith b Richardson ................................................. 2 R. Dhawan c Warner b Richardson..........................................9 B. Kumar c Smith b Richardson .................................................... 2 U. Yadav c Bailey b Marsh ................................................................... 2 I. Sharma c Wade b Marsh ................................................................. 0 Extras (w5 nb1) .........................................................6 Total (10 wickets, 49.2 overs) .......................... 323 Fall of wickets: 1-65 (R. Sharma), 2-277 (S. Dhawan), 3-277 (Dhoni), 4-278 (Kohli), 5-286 (Singh), 6-294 (Rahane), 7-308 (R. Dhawan), 8-311 (Kumar), 9-315 (Yadav), 10-323 (I. Sharma) Bowling: Lyon 10-0-76-1, Richardson 10-1-68-5, Hastings 10-0-50-2 (1w 1nb), Faulkner 7-0-48-0 (1w), Marsh 9.2-0-55-2 (2w), Maxwell 1-0-10-0 (1w), Smith 2-0-16-0 Result: Australia won by 25 runs Man of the match: Kane Richardson (AUS)

Zimbabwe batsman Vusi Sibanda plays a shot as the Bangladesh wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan looks on during the third T20 match at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday. (AFP)

Fast bowler Liam Plunkett has suff ered a thigh muscle injury and must pass a fitness test before joining the England squad for the limited overs series against South Africa next month. Plunkett, called up on Monday to replace the injured Steven Finn, was due to play for England Lions in two 50-over matches against Pakistan A in the United Arab Emirates before heading to Johannesburg but had to pull out of Wednesday’s match in Dubai. He will now have a check on his fitness today, ahead of the second match of the Lions series tomorrow, after which decision on his departure to South Africa will be made, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said. Finn was ruled out of the remaining tour of South Africa with a side strain and is now in a race against time to be fit for the Twenty20 World Cup in India in March.

Plunkett suff ers injury setback ahead of SA series

Stephen Cook (L) with South Africa’s coach Russell Domingo.

SPORT11Gulf Times


Rayyan win thrilleragainst Gharafa, Wakrah down Ahli

Aspire Academy receives Council of International Schools accreditation

Qatar International Rally to kick off Middle East rallying season on Feb 4

QATAR BASKETBALL LEAGUE

FOCUS

RALLYING


Qatar will host the opening round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship

(MERC) February 4-6 with the Qatar International Rally.

Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah, talk-ing a fortnight ahead of the start, said that his organisation is fully ready to host the event and that he welcomes the participants to this important international rally.

“The round in Qatar has opened the MERC season for quite some time and the number of elite level participants has steadily grown over the years,” al-Attiyah said in a statement.

He added: “I would like also to take this opportunity to express my deep sincere gratitude for the support and permanent guid-ance of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani without whom this rally and many other achievements would not have been done in Qatar.

“I would like also to thank all FIA representatives, sponsors, promoters, partners, organis-ers and friends for their ongoing contribution to the success of this event.”

The registration for Qatar in-ternational rally will be closed at 6pm today.

The MERC 2016 will consist of seven rounds. Kuwait Rally will be held 2 weeks later than the 2015 schedule, in the last week of March 2016. Also Jordan Inter-national Rally, which was held as the sixth round in the 2015 sea-son, will be organised in the fi rst week of May as the third round.

MERC 2016 SCHEDULEFebruary 4-6: Qatar Interna-tional RallyMarch 24-26: Kuwait Interna-tional RallyMay 5-7: Jordan International RallySeptember 2-4: Lebanon Inter-national RallyOctober 7-9: Cyprus Interna-tional RallyNovember 3-5: Oman Interna-tional RallyNovember 17-19: Dubai Interna-tional Rally


Aspire Academy recently ac-complished a crucial mile-stone that will be added to its ever-growing list of achieve-

ments and accolades, receiving the Council of International Schools (CIS) accreditation.

This accreditation demonstrates Aspire Academy’s commitment to providing high-quality international education to its student-athletes. The process of obtaining the accreditation involves multiple thorough assessment visits by peers from fellow CIS mem-ber organisations, who evaluate the school’s programme off erings and the quality of education provided, before assessing whether they meet the ac-creditation standards.

These standards place a heavy em-phasis on high-quality international education, resting on three main pillars that urge schools to be mission-driven and vision-led, as well as being heavily focused on student learning and well-being, and committed to internation-alism and inter-culturalism in order to foster global citizenship.

The awarding of the accreditation to Aspire Academy represents the culmi-nation of a fi ve-year long process, which began in 2010, to identify and apply for accreditation from the most relevant in-ternational awarding body. The Academy has since cooperated fully with the CIS in fulfi lling all of the necessary require-ments and criteria, achieving member-ship of the council in 2013.

Commenting on this milestone, As-pire Academy director general Ivan Bravo said: “I have always believed that we off er a world-class education at Aspire Academy, which provides our student-athletes with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to develop into confi dent, responsible, global citizens. To have this validated by the Council of International Schools (CIS) is further proof that we are fulfi lling our mission and vision to be the best school for the young and aspiring athletes of Qatar. Badr al-Hay, his team and the faculty have been very focused in their com-

mitment to the self-evaluation and hard work required by this process, and earning this accreditation places As-pire Academy School fi rmly among the ranks of leading international schools around the world.”

Education and Student Care direc-tor Badr Jassim al-Hay said: “Attain-ing CIS accreditation is a major step forward for the Academy. Achieving this accreditation is a testament to our eff orts over the years in fi nding and de-veloping Qatar’s future sports stars. It is also an important recognition for our eff orts in motivating and supporting

our students to achieve their full aca-demic and sporting potential.”

Principal Jassim Mohammed al-Jabir added: “The CIS accreditation will contribute greatly towards our ef-forts of helping our student-athletes become proactive knowledge seekers, and will help open international doors to our students upon their graduation from the Academy. We are proud of this achievement and are confi dent our co-operation with the CIS and its member organisations will refl ect positively on the academic and athletic growth and development of our student-athletes.”

Aspire Academy fi rst opened its doors in 2004 and is considered to be one of the leading sports institutes in the Middle East. The Academy off ers an integrated educational program of sports development, sports science and academic learning to boys aged 12 to 18. The school develops well-educated sports champions, and aims to become the world’s leading sports academy for young athletes by 2020.

The Council of International Schools (CIS) is a global non-profit, non-national, non-regionally affili-ated organisation that is committed to promoting high quality interna-tional education around the world. It includes more than 660 schools and 475 colleges and universities repre-senting 110 countries, with more than 425 of those having received accredi-tation.

Council of International Schools (CIS) off icials during their visit to Aspire Academy.

QMMF president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah.

Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah won his sixth straight Middle East Rally Championship title last year.


Al Rayyan’s Malek Salem Abdulla had a total of three points to his name against Al Gharafa yes-terday, but two of those points

came off a jump shot right at the buzzer. The two-pointer was enough to clinch a 70-69 thriller for Rayyan in the Qatar Men’s Basketball League at the Al Ghara-fa Sports Club.

Gharafa got on the scoreboard first with Kevin Galloway’s two-pointer moments into the match. Barring a minute-long lead courtesy a three-pointer by Rayyan’s Yasseen Musa, Gharafa kept the momentum with a six-

point advantage at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Rayyan came up with a nine-point scoring run for a four-point advantage at 26-22 but Gharafa moved right back in to fi nish the half on a high at 41-34.

The match turned into a close contest after the break with Rayyan keeping the lead for most of the second half. In the last two minutes, Rayyan’s chances were jeopardised as a four-point lead at 68-64, was turned into a one-point defi cit with Abdulrahman Mohamed Saad and Emmanuel Osaro Adako scoring a two-pointer each and Omar Abdelkader Salem adding a free-throw.

With seconds to go in the match, Ab-dulla came up with a crucial jumpshot,

following some assistance by team-mate Mohamed Hassan, for a match-winning two-pointer.

James Davon was the top-scorer for Rayyan with 21 points, while Musa (18), Alexander Immanuel (12) and Tanguy Ngombo (10) were the other players in double fi gures.

For Gharafa, Adako scored 19 points, while Hassino Ndoye and Saad added 15 points each.

In the earlier game, Terrence Lavalle Joyner Jr. was on top of the scoresheets with a 36-point eff ort but with little help from the rest of the squad, Al Ahli slumped to a 66-89 defeat at the hands of Al Wakrah.

In the initial stages, it looked like the match was going to emerge as a thriller

with Ahli going from a 3-8 defi cit to a 12-8 advantage but from thereon Wakrah, led by Adamu Saaka in the scoresheets, wrestled the initiative.

Saaka had 14 two-pointers under his belt besides three free throws for 31 points. Mame Souleye Ndour added 22 points, while Boney Harold Watson pitched in with 14.

Joyner Jr. had three two-pointers, sev-en three-pointers and nine free throws to show for for his 36 points.

The only other player to get into double fi gures for Ahli was Ndoye Elhadj Seydou with 11 points.

The league will be in action on Sat-urday with El Jaish taking on Al Arabi at 5:30pm and Al Khor facing Al Sadd at 7:30pm.

Al Rayyan’s Alexander Immanuel (left) and Tanguy Ngombo vie for the ball with Al Gharafa’s Kevin Galloway (second from left) during their Qatar Basketball League match yesterday. PICTURES: Nasar TK

Al Ahli’s Terrence Lavalle Joyner Jr. (right) in action against Al Wakrah during their match yesterday.


GULF TIMES SPORT

Ferreira confi dent as Sadd take on Lekhwiya

EurAsia Cup stars set for Qatar Masters

SHEIKH JASSIM CUP

GOLF

‘Everybody knows about the achievements of Al Sadd and what the team is capable of. The players are focused’


Former champion Chris Wood (pictured) is among six of Eu-rope’s victorious EurAsia Cup team confi rmed to compete in

the US$2.5 million Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, which will be held at Doha Golf Club January 27-30.

Wood, 28, and fellow Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, 21, will be joined in Doha by EurAsia Cup teammates Victor Dubuisson of France, Bernd Wiesberger of Austria, Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark and Kristoff er Broberg of Sweden.

Previous winners Henrik Sten-son (2006), Sergio Garcia (2014) and Branden Grace (2015), 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen and reigning US Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau have already been an-nounced.

The towering Wood fi rst made glo-bal headlines when he fi nished fi fth at the 2008 Open Championship as a 20-year-old amateur before under-lining his huge potential by fi nishing joint third the following year. In Janu-ary 2013, his victory at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters prompted an emo-tional reaction as he celebrated his fi rst European Tour title.

After a winless 2014 season that ended prematurely in November due to a wrist injury, Wood bounced back last year. He secured his second title in Austria in June and had seven other top-10 fi nishes on The European Tour – including four in a row from early October – to fi nish 17th on The Race

to Dubai and secure a place in Darren Clarke’s EurAsia Cup team.

Wood is currently second on the cur-rent Race to Dubai following his third-place fi nish at last month’s Nedbank Golf Challenge and he recently enjoyed a career-high ranking of 41st.

“I’m really happy to return to the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters be-cause I had to miss it last year because of my wrist injury. I’ve been playing well since returning from injury and I was really happy to win in Austria, which showed me that I could win again,” Wood said.

“I’ve played really consistently since then and was proud to earn my place on the EurAsia Cup team. Now I’m looking forward to going back to Doha, as it’s a course I can do well on and I’m playing well enough to have another run at the trophy. Winning there remains one of the highlights of my career.”

Fitzpatrick will also be one to watch after a stunning European Tour rookie campaign that featured a memorable win at October’s British Masters, one runner-up, four thirds and a tie for fourth at November’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.

Dubuisson, 25, will return to Doha with confi dence, having tied for ninth for three straight years, from 2011 to 2013. The French star is the only Euro-pean player to have played in both Eur-Asia Cups, while he also played in the victorious 2014 Ryder Cup campaign.

Dubuisson underlined his reputation as one of the continent’s leading lights with his victory at November’s Turkish Airlines Open, which helped him fi nish 11th on The Race to Dubai and boosted

his confi dence for the new season.“I am glad to be returning to the

Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, as I’ve been very consistent here, al-though it would be nice to fi nish above ninth for once! I started to play better at the end of last year, so I want to contin-ue this way in Doha,” Dubuisson said.

Wiesberger, 30, won his third Euro-pean Tour title at the Alstom Open de France last June, Kjeldsen, 40, captured his fourth last May at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, while Broberg, 29, won his fi rst at November’s BMW Masters in Shanghai, where he beat US Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed in a playoff .

Qatar Golf Association president Hassan al-Nuaimi said: “We are always proud to welcome back former cham-pions to the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and Chris Wood is a particular favourite after winning in such dramat-ic style three years ago. He also remains the only English winner of the event.

“We are delighted to welcome Chris and fi ve of his EurAsia Cup teammates, especially as many of these players are aiming to qualify for the Ryder Cup lat-er this year, so it’s a chance for our fans to see genuine rising stars at the begin-ning of an exciting season.”

Stenson, Garcia and Grace are among several big names to have lifted the Mother of Pearl Trophy since Commer-cial Bank began its title sponsorship in 2006. Other big names include former World No. 1 Adam Scott, two-time US Open winner Retief Goosen, 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie, former European Tour No. 1 Robert Karlsson and Thomas Bjorn, a 15-time European Tour champion.

By Anil JohnDoha

If there’s anything Jesualdo Ferreira has in abundance it is confi dence, and yesterday the Al Sadd coach was brimming over with it.

The veteran Portuguese appeared so enthused at the somewhat unexpected prospect of bagging his fi rst trophy in Qatar at the halfway stage of the football season that his press conference yesterday was marked by a refreshing candidness far removed from the drab certainty that football reporters in the country normally encounter on a daily basis.

“I am happy, very happy that the Sheikh Jassim Cup is being held at this time and not at the beginning of the season because at the beginning of the season I was not the coach!” Ferreria declared on the eve of his team’s clash with Lekhwiya at the Al Ahli Stadium.

The Sheikh Jassim Cup, of course, had been the Qatar’s season-opening football tournament since 1977 but had to be re-scheduled this time because for some rea-son the Qatar Football Association could not fi nd a slot for it ahead of the Qatar Stars League that got underway in Sep-tember.

The QFA had already broken from tra-dition last season when it curtailed the tournament to just one match between the QSL winners and the Emir Cup cham-pions, unlike in the past when it was held over several days and even non-QSL teams were allowed to take part.

Ferreira, who was brought in as a re-placement for Moroccan Hussein Amotta, who was rather unceremoniously dumped after the QSL began in September, is keen to use the opportunity to get his hands around his fi rst trophy this season.

“This match is diff erent, so we have to talk about it in a diff erent way. This is a match for the title and therefore very im-portant. It will be followed by fans all over the world,” he said.

Al Sadd have won the Sheikh Jassim Cup 13 times and are also the defending cham-pions but the fact that they would be tak-ing on Lekhwiya, their nemesis of relative-ly recent vintage, has added an extra layer of intrigue and fascination to the clash.

“Everybody knows about the achieve-ments of Al Sadd and what the team is capable of,” said Ferreira. “The players are focused on the defence of the Cup.”

With the AFC U23 Championship also underway, Al Sadd will be deprived of the services of fi ve players, including star per-former Abdelkarim Hassan, but Ferreira is unfazed.

“I and the entire Al Sadd establishment are proud that several of our players are rep-resenting the country in the Asian Cham-pionship. For sure we will be missing them, but it is also an opportunity for some of our

lesser-known players to step up and make the best use of the opportunity.”

Ever since Lekhwiya appeared on the scene, they have stolen the thunder from Al Sadd by winning the QSL four times in the past fi ve years, and Ferreira hopes suc-cess again in the Sheikh Jassim Cup will alleviate some of that pain.

“For sure, Lekhwiya is a champion side and we are trailing them once again in the league, but it is a universal truth that in Cup competitions favoured teams often don’t live up to their promise.’

Meanwhile, Lekhwiya coach Djamel Belmadi said his side were well-prepared for the encounter.

“Surely it would have been better if the match was held earlier but we have no complaints as even Al Sadd are faced with this situation.”

The Frenchman also dismissed sugges-tions that his team would miss some key players who are with the national team.

“Yes they are important players but if you look at the league we won many of our matches while missing two or three play-ers due to injuries. So that is not an issue of major concern.” Lekhwiya coach Djamel Belmadi.

Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira (centre) speaks during the press conference on the eve of the Sheikh Jassim Cup match against Lekhwiya yesterday. PICTURES: Anas Khalid

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