Dubai: The Indian cricket board has taken a major step towards resurrecting cricketing ties with Pakistan by recommending that the nation’s Twenty20 (T20) team be allowed to play in the annual Champions League.
The working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made the recommendation to the Champions League governing council following a meeting in Chennai yesterday.
The working committee also approved a limited number of friendly matches to be played by Indian Premier League (IPL) teams with Associate and Affiliate countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC) — subject to guidelines approved by the BCCI.
This will pave the way for countries like the UAE and Afghanistan to play against IPL teams in the long term.
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Dubai: The name of the lone women’s weightlifter to represent the UAE at the 2012 London Olympic Games will be made known sometime soon.
Jassim Abdul Rahman Al Awazi, member of the board of the Emirates Weightlifting Federation (EWF), told Gulf News that the board of directors is scheduled to meet later next week to decide on the name.
"It will be quite a process as we will first consult the technical committee and then the board of directors will decide on the candidate for London 2012," Al Awazi told Gulf News.
The UAE women’s squad of six earned enough points in four different weight categories to end in fifth position among the 15 participating nations and claim one of six individual qualifying spots at the end of the 2012 Asian Championships – Continental Olympic Qualification held in Pyeongtaek, South Korea last week.
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Sheffield: Stephen Hendry’s retirement after his exit at the World Snooker Championship on Tuesday brought an end to a glittering career in which the Briton won a record 32 ranking titles.
After becoming the youngest player to compete in the tournament in 1986 aged 17, Hendry won his first world title four years later when he beat Jimmy White 18-12.
The Scot dominated the game in the 1990s, adding a further six world titles and a host of other tournament victories to his haul. His seventh world title, which set a record, came in 1999 when he beat Mark Williams 18-11.
Viewed by many pundits as the game’s greatest-ever player, he will be remembered as a supreme competitor and superb break-builder whose style revolutionised the game.
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However, Hendry’s form dipped in recent years and he was forced to qualify for this year’s World Championship.
He made a superb start to the tournament, compiling a maximum 147 break in his first round match against Stuart Bingham on his way to victory.
A comprehensive 13-4 win against defending champion John Higgins followed, leading to suggestions that Hendry might emerge as a surprise contender to win the tournament.
Commitments in China
But his hopes of defying the odds were effectively ended when he found himself 7-1 down at the end of the first session in his quarter-final against fellow Scot Stephen Maguire.
After the 43-year-old Hendry failed to mount a comeback, suffering a 13-2 defeat at the Crucible Theatre, he announced his decision to retire.
"I am officially retired now from tournament snooker," he said.
"It was not a spur-of-the-moment thing. I thought about it last year but two or three months ago I just decided enough was enough.
"I didn’t tell many people. I only told two or three people, but this is me finished from tournament snooker.
"It was quite an easy decision. There’s a few reasons. The schedule didn’t help and the fact that I’m not playing the snooker I want to play didn’t help. The fact I’m not enjoying practice doesn’t help.
"I want to do other things. I’ve got a lot of commitments now in China, which I’ve signed up for, and I can’t do that and play snooker because I would never be at home. I’m delighted I made a maximum here, that’s why I was more animated than normal when making it. I was delighted to do it on my last appearance here."
Hendry, who won his final full ranking title in 2005 when he lifted the Malta Cup, banked about £9 million (Dh53.5 million) in prize money.
When it was clear that he was no longer a serious contender to win major tournaments, Hendry decided it was time to bow out.
It was fitting that he made his farewell appearance at the Crucible — the scene of his greatest triumphs.
RESULTS
Quarter-finals (best of 25 frames):
Stephen Maguire (SCO) bt Stephen Hendry (SCO) 13-2
Unfinished:
Matthew Stevens (WAL) leads Ryan Day (WAL) 11-5
Ali Carter (ENG) leads Jamie Jones (WAL) 5-3
Neil Robertson (AUS) leads Ronnie O’Sullivan (ENG) 5-3
Day 1 of SI.com’s inaugural Data-Based Coaching Awards was a success on most fronts: The awards show, on an obscure cable network, received respectable enough ratings to get carried for a second day, and the winners seemed happy — other than the parts where John Calipari kept refusing to admit that it meant anything to him, even though he won in three of eight categories. Players-first, not numbers-first, he kept saying. Oh well. We move on.
The second day of awards are NCAA tournament-specific, all based on efficiency data rather than, say, how well a certain coach performed in comparison to the expectations of the average office-pool bracket. Thanks go out to Andy Cox of Crashing the Dance, who provided Net Efficiency Margin data that determined a few of the categories. (Net Efficiency Margin is the difference between a team’s performance and the expected performance of a D-I average team, and is a great quality-of-play indicator on a game-by-game basis.)
1. Best Defensive Tournament: Bill Self, Kansas
Over their six-game run to the finals, Self’s Jayhawks posted a tournament-best average defensive NEM of 23.5, which meant they yielded 23.5 fewer points per 100 possessions than a D-I average team would have against the same competition. In the title game, they held Kentucky to its lowest PPP (1.014) of the tournament. I imagine that stat doesn’t provide consolation for not, you know, winning the championship, but it’s something.
Self famously used a triangle-and-two defense for key stretches against North Carolina (the final six-and-a-half minutes) in the Elite Eight and Purdue in the third round, but Kansas’ success was based on more than junk-scheming. According to Synergy Sports Technology, KU played the best overall half-court defense of any Final Four team, allowing 0.724 PPP in its six games, compared to 0.778 for Louisville, 0.811 for Ohio State and 0.819 for Kentucky. Even more impressive were some of the numbers within Synergy’s half-court numbers:
• In the 51 isolations KU faced in the NCAAs, it allowed just 19 points, or 0.373 PPP. This was, by a massive margin, the best of any NCAA tournament team that saw at least 20 iso possessions. Louisville was the second-best Final Four team at defending iso possessions, and it allowed 0.607 PPP.
• In the 45 post possessions KU faced, it gave just 27 points, or 0.600 PPP. This was the best of any Final Four team, and the best of any tourney team that saw at least 30 post possessions. The Jeff Withey Effect was strong during the dance.
2. Best Offensive Tournament: John Calipari, Kentucky
Would you believe that Wisconsin actually had the best average offensive NEM (25.6) in the NCAAs, just ahead of the Wildcats (25.4)? The Badgers did, but their run ended at three games, which falls below the Data-Based Awards’ minimum for official recognition … so yet another honor goes to Mr. Calipari. He earned it, in large part, by orchestrating an absurd offensive performance against Indiana in the Sweet 16 — a game in which Kentucky posted tourney bests in PPP (1.401) and offensive NEM (44.8). In back-to-back games in the NCAAs, the Wildcats handed Iowa State and Indiana their worst PPP-allowed figures of the season.
According to Synergy, of teams that played at least four tourney games, Kentucky had the best half-court offense (0.975 PPP) and the second-best After-Timeout Efficiency (0.975). Neither of those facts are surprising, but this one is: Of the Wildcats’ six rotation players, it was senior reserve Darius Miller who had the best individual offensive efficiency rating in the tournament, averaging 1.273 PPP. Kentucky players, in order of tourney efficiency: Miller, Doron Lamb, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones, Marquis Teague. Miller was almost forgotten amid all the one-and-done mania, but he had a phenomenal postseason.
3. Best Tourney Game Plan: Rick Pitino, Louisville (vs. Michigan State, Sweet 16)
The Cardinals had a strong defensive rep coming into the Sweet 16, but no one expected them to hold Tom Izzo’s Spartans to 0.728 PPP and just 44 points, the lowest scoring total by a No. 1 seed in the shot-clock era. According to NEM, Louisville allowed 42.4 fewer points per 100 possessions than a D-I average team would have in this game. Although Pitino alternated between zone and man-to-man during the tournament, it stuck almost exclusively to its matchup 2-3 against State, using it on 45 of 48 possessions, during which State shot just 22.2 percent, according to ESPN’s research.
I was at this game in Phoenix, and the Spartans’ frustration was palpable from press row, for a few reasons. Louisville’s transition defense was excellent; watching it live as well as on film, you saw State’s running opportunities get thwarted time and again by sprinting-back Cardinals. The Spartans were the nation’s best rebounding team in 2011-12, but Louisville put such a huge emphasis on controlling the defensive glass that it held State’s offensive rebounding percentage to just 22.2 — 14.2 points below its average. Their active post defense kept Draymond Green from doing damage on the blocks, and center Gorgui Dieng was a dominant primary and help defender, blocking seven shots, which according to StatSheet, accounted for 25.0 percent of the two-point attempts taken while he was on the floor.
The Cardinals put on their signature press after most makes, but more in an effort to tire out the Spartans than create turnovers. Pitino opted against trying to create havoc with traps, instead focusing on playing stellar, one-shot-and-done half-court D in a low-possession game. It was a strategic masterpiece, especially given that it came against the sport’s most renowned tournament game-planner.
4. Tournament After-Timeout King: Thad Matta, Ohio State
Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg won the full-season ATO Efficiency award, but among teams that played at least four tournament games, no one beat Matta’s Buckeyes, who averaged 1.058 PPP, scoring 73 points on their 69 ATO possessions. It helps, obviously, to have Jared Sullinger as a dump-it-into-the-post option, but Matta deserves credit for devising effective ways to get Sullinger the ball on set plays.
(If all game minimums were lifted, then Georgetown’s John Thompson III would take this prize. His Hoyas scored 34 points on 26 ATO possessions in two tourney games … but one of those was a very disappointing loss to 11th-seeded N.C. State in the third round.)
5. Most Improbable Upset: Anthony Evans, Norfolk State (vs. Missouri)
Norfolk State probably should have been a No. 16 seed, not a 15. It was the least efficient team in the entire tournament field, ranking 212th nationally. Kenpom.com’s win-probability chart of the Spartans’ second-round game against Mizzou gave the Tigers initial victory odds of 94.6 percent — whereas Duke, in the game it lost to fellow No. 15 Lehigh, only started with odds of 78.6 percent. The efficiency numbers gave Evans’ team just a 5.4 percent chance of winning … and they somehow pulled out an 86-84 upset.
They exploited Mizzou’s suspect, undersized defense with a barrage of threes, shooting an effective field-goal percentage of 62.7, and dominated the offensive glass, grabbing 43.8 percent of their misses. Tigers coach Frank Haith was not especially gracious in the post-game press conference — he praised Norfolk’s center, Kyle O’Quinn, but brought up the Spartans’ "banked threes" and "airball rebounds" twice each, while never name-checking Evans, who deserved to be commended for pulling off the upset of the tournament. Here, he gets his due.
6. Most Improbable Tournament Run, Sweet 16 & Beyond: Rick Pitino, Louisville
Before looking at the numbers, I assumed this would go to Ohio’s John Groce, who took the Bobcats to the Sweet 16 as a No. 13 seed. But this is based off of kenpom.com’s pre-tournament Log5 analysis, which gave Ohio a 10.8 percent chance of reaching the Sweet 16, because it faced the least-efficient No. 4 seed (Michigan) and was paired with the least-efficient 5-12 game in the bracket (Temple-South Florida). The Bobcats’ run was still quite an achievement, but according to Log5, the odds of Louisville reaching the Elite Eight (10.5 percent) and the Final Four (just 4.7 percent!) were even lower, so Pitino takes the award.
Even though we saw a 4.7-percent-chance team make it to New Orleans, this year’s tournament was significantly chalkier than 2011′s. Log5 gave Butler just a 1.0 percent chance of reaching the Final Four, and gave VCU just a 0.03 percent chance. UConn was assigned a 1.0 percent chance of winning it all — compared to 19.7 percent for Kentucky in 2012. The Wildcats made history with their precociousness, but they were a very predictable champ.
Chennai: Defending champions Chennai Super Kings chalked up their fourth win in seven matches as they beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets off the last ball in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here yesterday.
Opener Francois du Plessis (73, 52b, 6×4, 2×6) yet again proved to be the Super Kings’ mainstay as the hosts overhauled Royals’ modest total of 146 for four that was built around a 92-run stand between Owais Shah (52, 43b, 4×4, 3×6) and Ashok Menaria (36, 34b, 2×4, 1×6).
The Super Kings just about clinched a win after Royals seamer Kevon Cooper took two wickets in one over before skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (15 off 12) and Dwayne Bravo (16 off 10) scripted a thrilling win as the hosts moved to eight points, the same as the Royals.
Strong note
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The Super Kings’ chase began on a strong note with du Plessis taking 12 runs off seamer Stuart Binny, playing his first IPL game this season, in the second over.
South African du Plessis was particularly severe on the bowlers as he set the tone for another big partnership following their century stand in the previous game with a six over extra cover off left-arm spinner Menaria being outstanding.
The 50 came up with that shot, but in the next over, Badrinath, rather subdued, was stumped off left-arm spinner Brad Hogg, the best of Royals’ bowlers, while attempting an ambitious inside-out shot.
It was not long before du Plessis completed his third half-century in four games as the Super Kings cruised untroubled towards victory.
At the other end, Suresh Raina, woefully short of form, struggled, but with du Plessis looking solid at the other end, the southpaw was not under undue pressure to get a move on.
With the duo adding 61 runs at a good clip, the Super Kings seemed to have the game all sewn up, but Cooper removed both du Plessis and Raina in the 17th over to shift the momentum in favour of Royals.
But then skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bravo, two of the best finishers in this format, ensured no further shocks for the Super Kings as they took 13 off the next over bowled by Amit Singh, leaving the hosts to get 16 off the last two overs.
In the tense last over bowled by Binny, Dhoni ran a two off the last ball to clinch the issue for the Super Kings.
Decent start
Earlier, the Royals enjoyed a decent start against some tight bowling. Nuwan Kulasekara, in particular, was quite outstanding while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin backed him with a very economical spell.
Rahul Dravid (26) and this season’s leading scorer Ajinkya Rahane (15) put on 36 runs for the first wicket with 15 of those coming in the third over bowled by Dwayne Bravo, before the pair was separated.
Ashwin dismissed Rahane in his very first over with the batsman getting impatient and holing our tamely to Kulasekara and soon after Dravid departed attempting a big heave in Jakati’s first over and getting caught in the deep by Doug Bollinger.
Thereafter, Shah and Menaria batted with understandable circumspection before opening their shoulders to provide some momentum to the innings.
Seamer Bravo and Super Kings’ expensive signing Ravindra Jadeja, the left-arm spinner, proved costly as Shah and Menaria showcased their big-hitting ability. So much so that the pair put on 92 runs for the third wicket as the Royals looked at a 150-plus total.
However, Kulasekara, returning for his second spell, sent down two tight overs to peg the Royals while at the other end, Bollinger got rid of Menaria in the 19th.
Shah was the last to be dismissed off the final over conceding just four runs to peg the Royals to 146, perhaps a good 20 runs short against a team that boasted of a strong battling line-up.
Scoreboard
Rajasthan Royals
Rahul Dravid c Bollinger b Jakati 26
Ajinkya Rahane c Kulasekara b Ashwin 15
Owais Shah c Dhoni b Kulasekara 52
Ashok Menaria c Jakati b Bollinger 36
Brad Hodge not out 3
Extras: (B-1, LB-2, W-11) 14
Total: (For 4 wkts in 20 overs) 146
Fall of wickets: 1/36 2/50 3/142 4/146
Bowling: Kulasekara 4-0-17-1, Bollinger 4-0-31-1, Bravo 3-0-32-0, Ashwin 4-0-19-1, Jakati 2-0-12-1, Jadeja 3-0-32-0.
Chennai Super Kings
S. Badrinath st Goswami b Hogg 15
Faf du Plessis c Goswami b Cooper 73
Suresh Raina c Rahane b Cooper 26
Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 15
Dwayne Bravo not out 16
Extras: (LB-1, W-1) 2
Total: (For 3 wkts in 20 overs) 147
Fall of wickets: 1/55 2/116 3/117
Bowling: Menaria 2-0-10-0, Binny 2-0-20-0, Singh 4-0-45-0, Cooper 4-0-23-2, Hogg 4-0-18-1, Trivedi 4-0-30-0.
Monte Carlo: Tomas Berdych was as giddy as a little boy after overpowering world number four Andy Murray in their Monte Carlo Masters quarter-final yesterday to set up a clash with top seed Novak Djokovic.
The sixth seed made the Briton dizzy as he relied on his powerful forehand to prevail 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 in the season’s first big clay court event, where Rafa Nadal is still on track to defend his title after seeing off Stanislas Wawrinka last night.
Czech Berdych, who already reached the semi-final of the Mediterranean glamour tournament in 2007, will face world number one Djokovic after the Serb thrashed Dutchman Robin Haase 6-4, 6-2 in 77 minutes.
‘Fantastic’
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London: London entered the home straight in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics during a wet and windy spring day on Wednesday with celebrations across the world to mark the 100 days’ countdown to the Games.
The day began at Kew Gardens, where London organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe helped plant one of 40 oak trees which will be installed around the country to recognise Britain’s role in the birth of the modern Olympic movement.
The trees were grown from acorns taken from an oak planted in 1890 by the founder of the Games, French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin, at the Much Wenlock Games in the county of Shropshire.
Twenty thousand flowers in the shape and colour of the five Olympic rings were revealed and a giant sandcastle, also featuring the rings, has been built at Weymouth and Portland, venue for the sailing events. More than 250 guardsmen formed the figure 100 at the Horse Guards Parade where the beach volleyball will be staged.
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The manic hitting witnessed towards the end of the second week’s action in the IPL has left me somewhat breathless. The way A.B. De Villiers hurtled down the crease to hit his ‘reverse pull’ for six against Pune Warriors and the way Albie Morkel bludgeoned half-volleys from Virat Kohli earlier in the week makes you wonder if it’s actually cricket or baseball that you are watching.
It’s in this light that the efforts of Ajinkya Rahane comes as a refreshing change as he and teammate Owais Shah of Rajasthan Royals proved to be the toast of the week. The batting style of the two may be quite a study in contrast, but both have played their parts to the hilt in propping up the Royals in the unlikely table leaders’ position.
For the unassuming Rahane, it’s been a dream IPL so far. This Rahul Dravid clone, who moved to Royals after a patchy stint with Mumbai Indians, restores faith that one can be as successful in T20 cricket by playing cricketing shots. While most of his boundaries come from drives to either side of the wicket, his gift of timing leaves you in awe as most of Rahane’s sixes usually come to the longest parts of the ground.
A bit of number-crunching here will help you understand the impact of the Rahane-Shah duo. In the away match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the two put up a 121-run partnership in just 8.2 overs, enabling Rahane to reach his and the first century of this IPL, while Shah was brutal in his 26-ball 60. Rahane also dispatched a hapless S. Arvind for six boundaries in an over — a rarity of sorts in the history of IPL.
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Dubai: Bangladesh have agreed to tour Pakistan for two matches later this month — the first full internationals in the country since March 2009, when Sri Lankan cricketers and officials were attacked by gunmen in Lahore.
Foreign teams have shunned Pakistan since the attack, which killed six Pakistani policemen, meaning they have had to play their "home" matches at neutral venues.
Several Sri Lankan players were also wounded in the incident, which also led to matches at the 2011 World Cup being taken away from Pakistan.
As part of the short tour, Bangladesh will play one One Day International on April 29 and one Twenty20 international the next day in Lahore, the International Cricket Council said in a statement yesterday.
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Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has opened the doors for more associate and affiliate counties to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament from 2014.
The ICC Executive Board meeting held in Dubai has confirmed the Chief Executive Committee’s recommendation to increase the number of countries from 12 to 16 from 2014.
The board meeting also confirmed UAE as the venue for the ICC World Twenty20 2014 qualifiers.
Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said: "UAE, by successfully staging the Twenty20 World Cup qualifiers this year, has proved that it will be an ideal venue for the next edition of Twenty World Cup qualifiers too. The qualifiers will be held in UAE during October 2013."
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