Melbourne done, but Sydney matters more for Indians

CRICKETCRICKET | Page 3

Tuesday, January 1, 2019Rabia II 25, 1440 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

TENNIS

Federer excited about ‘once in a lifetime’ Serena clashPage 2

FRIENDLY CONTEST

No Djoke as Serb siblings fi nally break doubles duckBy Sahan BidappaDoha

Novak Djokovic and his young-er brother Marko fi nally broke their losing streak as doubles partners. The Djoko-

vic siblings had previously partnered each other fi ve times and ended up on losing side on every occasion.

The Court One at the Khalifa In-ternational Tennis and Squash com-plex fi nally brought them some luck though, as Novak and Marko won their opening round match at the Qatar Exx-onmobil Open, which began yesterday.

It wasn’t a cake walk for the Serbian pair as they had to comeback from a mid-match slump to register a 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 win over Qatar’s Mubarak Shannan Zayid and his Turkish partner Cem Ilkel.

The packed crowd got a rare glimpse of the Djokovics in action together. The last time the two had played together was when they lost to Nikolay Dav-ydenko and Dick Norman in 2013 at the Dubai Open fi rst round. The Djokovic brothers had debuted as a pair at the Croatia Open Umag in 2007 – when they lost to France’s Mathieu Mont-court and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the fi rst round.

It turned out to be sixth time lucky for Novak and Marko, as they cele-brated each point like they would have done in their Belgrade backyard during their childhood.

“Well, I’m glad to end 2018 with a win with my brother on the court,” beamed Novak, the World No 1 singles player, later. “That was a very special moment. We played so far I think may-be four or fi ve tournaments together, doubles, and we’ve never won a match, so today was a day we will remember together,” he added.

The real Novak will be on show today though, as he bids for this third Qatar Exxonmobil Open singles title, with a fi rst round match against Bosnain Damir Dzumhur. Novak, a champion here in 2016 and 17, is on a 10-match winning run in Doha and is the over-

whelming favourite for the golden Fal-con trophy.

But Novak had bigger things on his sights as the 31-year-old opened up

about his ambitions in the New Year. The 14-time Grand Slam champion felt that big four of tennis – himself, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray

– were still the favourites to win Grand Slam titles in 2019, but did not rule out the younger generation to spring a sur-prise in the majors.

“Judging by the last ten years and the dominance of the four guys in the Grand Slams, I think still if we are healthy and if we are playing well, the four guys still have probably the best chance to always win Slams because of the experience and just understand-ing of what it takes to win that title,” he said.

Novak was quick to add that the next generation is already in contention and singled out Germany’s World No 4 Al-exander Zverev, Croatia’s No 12 Borna Coric and Greece’s No 15 Stefano Tsit-sipas as the ones to most likely make a breakthrough.

“And in terms of the next genera-tion, they are already there in terms of the rankings. You have Zverev who is now an established top fi ve player in the world. For several years in a row he’s been winning Masters events and he won World Tour Finals in 2018, which is a great win.

“And then you have Tsitsipas and

Coric and guys like that proving they can win against the top players of the world. And it’s a matter of time when we will see some of them competing in the last stages of Grand Slams. Wheth-er that’s going to happen the next sea-son or not, nobody knows, really,” the Serbian noted.

Novak also hinted that he may adopt a lighter schedule in the upcoming years in order to spend more time with his wife and two kids.

“Obviously, main focus and objec-tives are Grand Slams. That’s where I want to be able shine and play my best. And the top ATP tournaments, of course, I will try to play with full sea-son as I have in the past, but things are diff erent nowadays with two kids and a family. That is obviously a priority for me. So, I have to always try to fi nd a balance between the two and kind of try to satisfy both the professional needs, but also the private ones,” he said.

TENNIS/QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

‘That was a very special moment. We played so far I think maybe four or five tournamentstogether, doubles, and we’ve never won a match, so today was a day we will remember together’

This handout picture released by the Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF) shows Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic dressed in a traditional Arab costume and standing next to a camel in Doha on December 30.

Novak Djokovic (L) and his brother, Marko, in action against Qatar’s Mubarak Shannan Zayid and his Turkish partner Cem Ilkel in the first round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open doubles competition yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayi

Qatar’s Bassem al-Rawi (15) congratulates his captain Hassan al-Haydos after he scored in the 42nd minute against Iran in a pre-Asian Cup friendly yesterday. However, Iran — seen at right, celebrating — won the match 2-0 with goals from Mehdi Taremi and Sardar Azmoun. The match was played behind closed doors in Doha . Qatar will open their Asian Cup campaign with a match against Lebanon on January 9 in the UAE.

TENNIS

Gulf Times Tuesday, January 1, 20192

Tennis stars attend gala ExxonMobil dinner

Serena wins Perth opener ahead of Grand Slam tilt

Federer relishing ‘once in a lifetime’ Serena clash

FOCUS

HOPMAN CUP

SPOTLIGHT

AFPPerth

Serena Williams overcame a sluggish start to win her opening match of the new season in Perth

Monday, two weeks out from 2019’s fi rst Grand Slam.

The 37-year-old was a long way off her commanding best and was visibly frustrated with her own game early in her Hopman Cup singles match, but still did enough to beat Greece’s Maria Sakkari in straight sets.

However, it was Sakkari and her team-mate Stefanos Tsit-sipas who had the last laugh as Greece beat the USA 2-1 in the mixed doubles Group B tie.

In her fi rst tournament out-ing since the controversial loss to Naomi Osaka in the US Open fi nal in September, Williams struggled early and her ground-strokes were erratic in the fi rst set.

Sakkari, ranked 41st in the world, gained an early break and served for the fi rst set but couldn’t capitalise despite sev-eral gilt-edged opportunities.

That opened the door for Williams, the bookmakers’ fa-vourite for the upcoming Aus-tralian Open in Melbourne, to power back and ultimately win

7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in an hour and 44 minutes.

Williams had her left ankle worked on at the end of the fi rst set but it didn’t stop her domi-nating the second, in which she looked more like the player who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

“I was making a lot of errors and I’m like ‘it’s okay, it’s your fi rst match, it’ll get better’,” she said.

“It’s never easy (fi rst match), there are lot of errors that are going to be made and I think we both did pretty good.”

Williams said her taped ankles weren’t a concern so soon before 2019’s fi rst Grand Slam, blam-ing a little discomfort with her shoes.

Williams won her last Grand Slam in Melbourne in 2017, but wasn’t able to defend her title due to the birth of her fi rst child.

Bidding to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 titles, she was beaten in last year’s Wim-bledon and US Open fi nals.

Williams said she was looking forward to facing Swiss cham-pion Roger Federer today, when the USA plays Switzerland and the pair will be opponents for the fi rst time in the mixed doubles.

“I have been looking forward to it, this is so cool,” she said, adding it was “like a dream come true”.

AFPPerth

The Hopman Cup might have saved its best for last as excitement builds for the most anticipated

tennis match involving a man and woman since the “Battle of the Sexes” in the 1970s.

Roger Federer and Serena Wil-liams, two of the greatest play-ers in history, will face off across the net for the fi rst time today when United States go up against defending champions Switzer-land in the mixed doubles of the unique two-player, mixed teams event.

This year’s tournament is ex-pected to be Perth’s fi nal Hop-man Cup and today’s group tie is an early sellout on the back of the prospect of seeing two of the all-time greats, with 43 Grand Slam singles titles between them, on the same court.

“It is very exciting for both of us and I hope a lot of tennis fans tune in and watch it,” said Feder-er after opening his Hopman Cup campaign with an easy singles win on Sunday.

“I admire everything she’s done on and off the court, we are both fi erce competitors and we always want to win,” added the

20-time Grand Slam champion of the once-in-a-lifetime match.

“It is going to be one time, probably never again. She is one of the biggest champions in our sport ever, men and women combined, so it is great to be playing against her.”

The original “Battle of the Sexes” saw Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in an exhibition sin-gles match in 1973.

Federer said he had plenty of experience playing against women, going back to his days as a teenage tour hopeful in Swit-zerland.

Despite their long concurrent careers and having attended a few Wimbledon champion din-ners together, Federer said the pair barely knew each other.

“I don’t know her that well,” he said.

“In the corridors and cafes, walking by each other, some-times in the past she has asked me how are the kiddies and how is everyone doing, but if I said I know her it would be a bit of an exaggeration.”

Williams has said in a televi-sion interview that she was look-ing forward to getting a picture with Federer for her Instagram page.

“It is the age of social media,” said Federer, with a grin.

By Sports ReporterDoha

ExxonMobil Qatar and the Qatar Tennis Federation hosted a gala dinner on Sunday to celebrate the

launch of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open’s 2019 edition.

The event was attended by Qatari offi cials, key business and community leaders, and several tennis stars competing in this year’s tournament including No-vak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Stan Wawrinka and David Goffi n.

Each year, the gala features a variety of unique activities and performances by world-re-nowned entertainers. This year’s programme included a thrilling dance performance by the Gau-chos, a funny act by Marc Métral and his talking dog Wendy, and a spectacular magic show by Imad the Magician.

Nasser al-Khelaifi , President of the Qatar Tennis Federation, and Alistair Routledge, President and General Manager for Exx-onMobil Qatar, welcomed the evening’s guests.

“It is an honour to welcome

guests to the tournament’s gala dinner that celebrates the launch of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2019,” said Routledge.

“This event marks the start of another exciting tournament and one more great year of partner-ship with the Qatar Tennis Fed-

eration. The success of our tour-nament is made possible through the hard work of our combined teams of diverse and driven in-dividuals who are united by a common passion for sport, and an enthusiasm for Qatar and everything it stands for in terms

of excellence, ambition and ac-complishment.”

Al-Kheleifi said: “It gives me great joy to welcome our tennis stars to Doha once again. I know that they are here for the busi-ness of tennis but at the same time, we believe that all work

and no play, as they say, makes Jack a dull boy, hence the essence of an evening of relaxation, fun and enjoyment.

“I wish everyone a wonder-ful night as they enjoy the great hospitality of Qatar,” al-Khelaifi added.

Alistair Routledge, President and General Manager for ExxonMobil Qatar (fourth from left), Qatar Tennis federation President Nasser al-Kheleifi (sixth from left), Tournament Director Karim Alami (extreme right) and Secretary-General Tariq Zainal (extreme left) pose with ten-nis stars Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and others at the gala dinner.

Serena Williams of the US hits a return against Maria Sakkari of Greece during their Hopman Cup match in Perth yesterday.

Roger Federer of Switzerland.

Berdych starts new season in style aft er injury-hit 2018

TENNIS/ QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

Berdych will next play Fernando Verdasco, who beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi

By Sahan BidappaDoha

“That winning feeling after long time,” tweeted Tomas Berdych with a smiley emoji after last night’s win in the fi rst round of the Qatar Exxon-Mobil Open yesterday. The Czech had not played

since last June after struggling with back injury, which put an end to his 2018 hopes.

Berdych had to rely on wild card to enter the $1.4mn ATP 250 event here in Doha. And the former World No 4, now fi tter and fresher, made a good start to his new season as he overcame Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germa-ny 6-4, 7-6(5) at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash complex.

Berdych, ranked 71 now, was not at his fl uent best but it was enough to get past Kohlschreiber, whom he had beaten on eight of 10 attempts coming into yesterday’s fi rst round match.

Berdych will next play eighth-seeded Spaniard Fern-ando Verdasco, who beat lucky loser Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-3, 6-4. Verdasco, the 2017 semi-fi nalist in Qatar, relied on his strong service game as he struck nine aces in a routine victory on centre court.

Seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut, too, had little trouble on the day as the Spaniard avenged his loss to Italian Matteo Berrettini in last year’s Gstaad fi nal with a 6-1, 6-4 win in 69 minutes.

Last year’s runner-up Andrey Rublev, who received a late entry after No 53 Mikhail Kukushkin withdrew, made good use of his fortune to beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

Russian Rublev snatched a tough fi rst set 7-5, break-ing Seppi in the last game, before cruising in the second set 6-1.

Elsewhere, fi fth-seeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilas-

hvili lost just fi ve of his fi rst-service points in beating Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 in one hour and 38 minutes. Chile’s Nicolas Jarry, making his tournament debut, scraped past Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-6(4) in two hours and 38 minutes.

Today, all the top seeds will be in action, with sixth seed David Goffi n kicking off the proceeding against qualifi er Ricardas Berankis. But all eyes will be on World No 1 Novak Djokovic who will take on 47th ranked Bos-nian Damir Dzumhur. Djokovic is bidding for his third Qatar title, after winning here in 2017 and 17

The match to look forward today is though between Paris Master winner Karen Khachanov and former World No 3 Stan Wawrinka.

Russian Khachanov fi nished 2018 as one of the hottest players on the ATP Tour, beating Djokovic in the Paris fi nal. Wawrinka came out on top in their only previous encounter in St Petersburg three months ago, but the big-hitting Khachanov will be hard to beat for returning Swiss, who has struggled with series of injuries recently.

Meanwhile, second seed Dominic Thiem from Austria takes on Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

RESULTS (Singles 1st Round))Andrey Rublev (RUS) bt Andreas Seppi (ITA) 7-5, 6-18-Fernando Verdasco (ESP) bt Paulo Lorenzi (ITA) 6-3, 6-47-Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) bt Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 6-1, 6-45-Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) bt Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP) 6-1, 1-6, 6-1Tomas Berdych (CZE) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5)Nicolas Jarry (CHI) bt Robin Haase (NED) 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)

Maximilian Marterer (GER) bt Peter Gojowczyk (GER) 6-1, 6-4Doubles (first round)Damir Dzumhur (BIH) & Dusan Lajovic (SRB) bt 1-Mate Pavic (CRO) & Oliver Marach (AUT) 6-4, 1-6, 10-7Guido Pella (ARG) & Marton Fucsovics (HUN) bt 2-Jamie Murray (GBR) & Bruno Soares (BRA) 6-3, 6-43-Alexander Peya (AUT) & Nikola Mektic (CRO) bt Mar-ius Copil & Horia Tecau (ROU) 6-4, 7-6 (4)Marco Djokovic & Novak Djokovic (SRB) bt Mubarak Shannan Zayid (QAT) & Cem Ilkel (TUR) 6-3, 3-6, 10-6David Goff in (BEL) & Pierre-Hughes Herbert (FRA) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS) & Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 7-5, 6-3 TODAY’S ORDER OF PLAYFirst round (prefix denotes seeding)Centre Court3:30pm: (6) David Goff in vs (Q) Ricardas BerankisFollowed By: (3) Karen Khachanov vs Stan Wawrinka(1) Novak Djokovic vs Damir Dzumhur Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs (2) Dominic Thiem Court 13:30pm: Guido Pella vs (WC) Cem IlkelFollowed By: (WC) Mubarak Shannan Zayid vs (Q) Guill-ermo Garcia-LopezMarton Fucsovics vs Marius CopilCourt 23:30pm: Sergiy Stakhovsky vs (4) Marco CecchinatoFollowed By: Dusan Lajovic vs Adrian MannarinoMarco Cecchinato and Andreas Seppi vs Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq QureshiCourt 3:3:30pm1st Rd: Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop vs (4) Dominic Inglot and Franko SkugorFollowed By: Maximo Gonzalez and Nicolas Jarry vs Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Fernando Verdasco

Spaniards Fernando Verdasco (L) and Roberto Bautista Agut in action in their respective first round matches on the opening day of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil

Melbourne done, but Sydney matters more for IndiansBy Geoff LemonThe Guardian

You can’t spell ‘magic’ without MCG. I’m not sure that’s signifi -cant in any way, but it’s nice. In some ways, India’s Test win this

week at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was magical.

The last time India won there, none of the current players from either team were born. Nor were any of the Guardian’s OBO commentators for the match. Most of the television commentators were children, except for Allan Border, who sprang from the womb with a moustache and a fi rst-class batting average.

It hasn’t been a pretty history for India in Melbourne. They got smashed there twice in a month in 1948 when Bradman was at his most ruthless and Test venues were in short supply. They lost fi ve in a row from 1991 to 2011, then drew on a life-less pitch in 2014 while trailing 2-0.

So this result meant a lot to the play-ers, confi rmed by the celebrations that came audibly through the wall from their change room while Australian captain Tim Paine gave his press conference next door. The fast bowlers posed with souve-nir stumps, the crowds stayed for pho-tographs, and batsman Mayank Agarwal posted on Twitter: “Firsts are always spe-cial. In Australia, against Australia. On Boxing Day. The debut couldn’t have been any sweeter.”

It was. And also, in a way, it doesn’t matter at all. Because Virat Kohli is here to lead his team to a series win, and 2-1 with one to play doesn’t lock that in.

Winning away from home has become the holy grail for Test teams trying to prove their true objective worth. A No1 ranking doesn’t tell you much when it swaps between whichever side has most recently hosted a long season at the right time in a four-year cycle. For Asian teams, wins outside their continent are as rare as wins in Asia for visitors. Kohli has eight wins outside Asia in his career: two came in this series, and four this year. Sachin Tendulkar, for all his matches played and achievements recorded, won nine. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman lead the list for India with 13.

So as sweet as the Melbourne win will have been, it’s worth nothing to the In-dian captain if Australia win in Sydney to square the ledger. A Melbourne draw would have left things in almost the same position: with the visitors needing to dominate the fourth Test to ensure that series win.

It was instructive that in the celebra-tions after Nathan Lyon’s wicket on the fi fth day, retaining the Border-Gavaskar

trophy seemed almost incidental. India hold it, having won as they should have done at home in 2017. The contrast is with England, who played out almost the iden-tical series as Ashes holders in 2010-11. A big win in Adelaide was followed by Aus-tralia levelling things in Perth, then Eng-land retaining the trophy with a big win in Melbourne. At that point, England’s play-ers pulled out their notoriously naff sprin-kler dance and celebrated like the job was done. With the Ashes kept in hand away from home for the fi rst time since 1987, the series win in Sydney was a cheerful afterthought.

But for Kohli and company it means a whole lot more. Indian teams have won

series in New Zealand, South Africa and England only fi ve times, and never in Aus-tralia. In 2018, Kohli looked at his three upcoming trips and set a target of winning them all. In South Africa last January his team came close on some vicious pitches but just missed out 2-1. In England mid-year he and his bowlers were supreme, but lacked support from the batsmen around him. The eventual 4-1 result could so eas-ily have been 2-3 or even 1-4 the other way.

Close calls don’t make the stats col-umns: Australia is the last chance to take a touring prize, and a historically weak and scattered Australian team is one that this well-drilled Indian outfi t should take ad-vantage of. What happened in Melbourne

was merely that disparity made manifest. From the outset, anything less than a se-ries win would have been a disappoint-ment. From this point, having led twice, a draw would feel as good as a loss.

For Australia, the SCG Test is impor-tant as a chance to claw back some pride, showing the fi ght that was evident in Ad-elaide and Perth. For India though, it’s a lot more momentous. As Kohli walked down the race beneath the MCG after that win, he was still roaring and revving his play-ers. Don’t expect any less ferocity from the moment he walks on in Sydney. By com-pleting the job, this would be a side forever remembered as the fi rst Indians to do it. As Agarwal said, fi rsts are always special.

QUEST FOR HISTORY

Prospect of becoming the first Indian side to win a Test series in Australia drives Kohli

CRICKET3Gulf Times

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

ReutersMelbourne

A troubled Australia side will head to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the fourth

Test against India hoping to turn over a new leaf in 2019 but still plagued by the fall-out of their annus horribilis.

Tim Paine’s side suffered a huge reality check at the Mel-bourne Cricket Ground where they were outplayed with bat and ball before slumping to a 137-run loss on Sunday.

The defeat not only left them trailing 2-1 in the series but also made their defiant win in the second match in Perth ap-pear something of a false dawn instead of a turning point in a rebuilding team’s fortunes.

Since the ball-tampering scandal exploded in Cape Town in March, leading to long suspensions for former captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Ban-croft, Australia have laboured to five defeats and a draw in seven Tests.

Tim Paine’s side has become defined almost as much by its absentees as the available players out on the field.

While Bancroft’s nine-month ban expired on Satur-day, Smith and Warner still have three months to serve on their 12-month suspensions.

Their replacements have failed to cement themselves and Australia have been unable to move on, Paine admitted af-ter defeat at the MCG.

“The guys have nearly fin-ished their bans and nearly done their time, so I think it’s time we started focusing on the fact that they’re coming back and from that there are some real positives,” he said after defeat at the MCG.

In the short-term, Paine’s team are in danger of becom-ing the first Australian side to lose a test series to India on home soil, having already con-ceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Virat Kohli’s men.

With the Sydney Cricket Ground reliably Australia’s most spin-friendly wicket, the hosts may find it tough going to manufacture a face-saving victory and square the series.

Ravindra Jadeja captured five wickets on the MCG’s drop-in pitch, comprehen-sively winning his duel of spinners with Nathan Lyon, who took just one.

The left-arm spinner proved

a menace for Australia’s pa-rade of left-handed batsmen and in Sydney could pose one half of a dual-spinning night-mare if Ravichandran Ashwin is fit to bowl.

No Australian batsmen have scored a century in the series and number five Travis Head is alone in the top six with an average of above 30.

One-day specialist Aaron Finch, dismissed for eight and three in Melbourne with a pair of poor shot choices, has con-vinced no-one outside of the Australia camp that he can succeed as a test opener.

Seam-bowling all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who replaced the out-of-form batsman Pe-ter Handscomb at the MCG, failed twice with the bat and went wicketless.

His spot may be under pres-sure from part-time legspin-ner Marnus Labuschagne, who has been drafted into the squad for Sydney.

Throwing the rookie all-rounder into the pressure of a series-decider could prove a big gamble.

However, with all bets off and no-one else performing in the number six spot, Austral-ia’s selectors could be forgiven for electing to roll the dice.

Familiar demons to follow Australia into New Year’s Test

India’s players celebrate after winning the third Test match against Australia at the MCG in Melbourne on Sunday.

Australia a ‘soap opera’ and ‘I feel like a director’: coach LangerAFPMelbourne

Australia cricket coach Justin Langer admitted he feels like a “director of a soap opera” as speculation grew around the future of banned Steve Smith and David Warner.

Debate about the pair reared again during the third Test against India in Melbourne, after Smith and Cameron Ban-croft gave television interviews about the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March.

Their comments were widely interpreted as defl ecting all blame onto Warner, with some former players slamming them for unnec-essarily dredging it back up on Boxing Day, the most revered day in the Australian cricket calendar.

Australia’s woeful batting in the match, which they lost by 137 runs, also focused attention on how much Smith and Warner were missed. Langer, who has previously described the Australia team as a “dysfunctional family”, said the headlines were yet another headache.

“It’s all just part of the soap opera we’re in every day,” he said in Melbourne before heading to Sydney for Thursday’s fourth and fi nal Test, with India leading the series 2-1.

“I feel like a director of a soap opera at the moment, I honestly do.

“Coaching is about man management and looking after people, caring for people, and that was just another distraction last week,” he added.

Bancroft, who was banned for nine months, made his return on Sunday evening for the Perch Scorchers in the Big Bash League, but only lasted three balls. Smith and Warner’s suspensions run out in late March.

Captain Tim Paine admitted on Sunday it was “pretty clear” they were being missed, with no batsmen other than tailender Pat Cummins scoring more than 50 in Melbourne.

Langer said cricket authorities were “in touch with the boys all the time”. “There’s a really good process we’re going to go through to get the boys back into the team,” he added of the trio.

They could possibly return for a one-day international in late March, when Australia have pencilled in a series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

According to the Cricket Australia website, the series was tenta-tively set for March 15-29, but Pakistan have reportedly proposed pushing it back to March 31-April 13.

Smith and Warner’s exile has left a big void in the Test team.Aaron Finch has been unable to reproduce his limited overs form

in the red ball game, Usman Khawaja has struggled and newcomer Marcus Harris at the top of the order is yet to post a big score.

“We’ve got a lot of guys learning on the run at the same time,” said Langer, acknowledging a lack of experience. “That’s not easy for them, but we’ll collectively be better for it over time.”

Langer, a former opener who played 105 Tests and earned a rep-utation as a fi ghter, pointed to India’s Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli as the consummate Test batsmen who Australia should be looking to emulate.

“Probably at this time the diff erence in the series has been Pu-jara and Kohli. Pujara averages 53 and Kohli 45 or 46. The lesson we learn from that is keep absorbing the pressure,” he said.

“We have one of the best bowling attacks in the world and they keep rocking up and absorbing the pressure. Our guys are learning that, or hopefully they are learning that.”

SPOTLIGHT

AFP, New Delhi: India’s Sm-riti Mandhana was crowned women’s cricketer of the year yesterday by the sport’s world governing body, cap-ping off a prolific run-scoring season for the opener.The left-handed batswoman was also named ODI cricketer of the year for accumulat-ing 669 runs off 12 one-day internationals. She scored 622 runs in 25 T20 matches this year.Mandhana, 22, is only the sec-ond Indian woman to win an International Cricket Council award after fast bowler Jhu-lan Goswami who was named the women’s player of the year in 2007.“The awards are pretty spe-cial because as a player when you score runs, you want the team to win, and then when you get acknowledged for your performances through these awards, it motivates you to work harder and do well for your team,” Mand-hana was quoted as saying in the ICC release.“The century I scored in South Africa (in Kimberley) was quite satisfying and then I had good home series against Australia and Eng-land. A lot of people used to say I do not score that much in India, so I had a point to prove to myself.”

ICC chief executive David Richardson congratulated Mandhana, saying she was “a worthy winner” of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award, named after the legendary English player.Australia’s wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy was voted T20 player of the year after playing an important part in her team’s World T20 triumph in the West Indies.She finished with 225 runs from six matches as Australia beat arch-rivals England in the final.England’s teenage spin-ner Sophie Ecclestone was named emerging player of the year.

Mumbai: India batsman Ro-hit Sharma left Australia after his wife had a baby girl and will miss the fourth and final Test starting on Thursday in Sydney, the country’s cricket board said.“The BCCI congratulates Rohit on the beginning of a new chapter in his life,” the board said in a statement yesterday.“Rohit will miss the fourth and the final test against Aus-tralia at Sydney. There will be no replacement player in the

Test squad.” The 31-year-old will return to Australia to join India’s one-day international squad on Jan. 8 ahead of their three-match series, the BCCI added.Rohit missed the second Test against Australia in Perth with an injury but returned to the side for the third in Melbourne, which India won by 137 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series.He scored an unbeaten 63 in India’s first innings of 443-7 declared.

India’s Mandhana named ICC women’s cricketer of the year

New dad Rohit Sharma to miss India’s final Test in Sydney

Sri Lanka cricket rated most corrupt by ICC: ministerAFP, Colombo: Sri Lanka has been rated as the most corrupt cricket nation by the world governing body, the country’s sports minister said yesterday.The International Cricket Council feels “Sri Lanka’s cricket administration is corrupt from top to bottom”, Harin Fernando said, adding that he had been shown a con-fidential report on the matter at a Dubai meeting.A host of scandals have rocked Sri Lankan cricket in re-cent years including a match-fixing controversy revealed in a sting operation carried out for a TV documentary.The ICC anti-corruption unit has regularly investigated cases in the island nation.The crisis-ridden Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to hold de-layed elections in February, which were due last May when the term of president Thilanga Sumathipala ended.Sumathipala has been ac-cused of violating ICC rules by holding office despite alleged links to gambling. He denies the charges.“Unfortunately Sri Lanka is be-ing ranked as one of the worst or the top worst country for

cricket corruption,” Fernando told reporters after returning from the meeting with ICC anti-corruption chief Alex Marshall.“They told me that the prob-lem was not limited to book-ies, but even the local game’s links with the underworld,” he said, adding that the cor-ruption was more to do with cricket administration than players. Last month former Sri Lankan fast bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige was suspended for corruption during a limited over league in 2017.Lokuhettige was the third Sri Lankan player charged for vio-lating the anti-corruption code following cases against former captain and ex-chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya and former paceman Nuwan Zoysa.Jayasuriya was charged for failing to cooperate with a match-fixing probe and con-cealing information. Zoysa was suspended over match-fixing accusations.The minister said the ICC would grant an amnesty to Sri Lankan players who disclose details of wrongdoing in the game. He added that the gov-ernment wanted to prepare anti-match fixing legislation.

BOTTOMLINE

SPORT4 Gulf Times

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Colts clinch playoff spot with easy victory over Titans

NFL

Tennessee snapped a nine-year playoff drought last year, but weren’t able to repeat the feat this time

ReutersNashville, US

Andrew Luck threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns Sunday night as the Indiana-polis Colts claimed the AFC’s

fi nal playoff spot with a 33-17 win over the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadi-um in Nashville.

Luck, who completed 24 of 35 pass-es, fi nished the regular season with 39 touchdown passes, the most for a play-er who missed the previous season.

He also enabled Indianapolis (10-6) to cap a comeback from a 1-5 start and earn a trip to AFC South champion and divisional foe Houston for a wild-card round game on Saturday. Tennessee (9-7) snapped a nine-year playoff drought last year with a home win over Jackson-ville in Week 17, but wasn’t able to re-peat the feat this time.

The short-handed Titans played without quarterback Marcus Mariota (stinger, plantar fascia) and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jurrell Casey (knee), and their absences were clearly felt. Casey’s injury left a massive gap in the interior defence that Indianapo-lis exploited with consistency. Besides Luck’s passing, the Colts also pounded out 158 yards on 36 carries, enabling them to possess the ball for more than 40 minutes.

PATRIOTS 38, JETS 3Tom Brady tossed a season-high four touchdowns and became the fourth quarterback in NFL history to complete 6,000 career passes as New England clinched the No. 2 seed in the AFC by cruising past visiting New York. New England (11-5) clinched a bye for the 13th time in the Bill Belichick-Brady era since 2001 and the ninth straight season.

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Oak-land Raiders later Sunday to clinch the top seed in the AFC playoff s and lock the Patriots in to the No. 2 seed. The Jets (4-12) fi nished the season by los-ing nine of their last 10 games and fi red coach Todd Bowles with two years re-maining on his contract. The Jets were 24-40 under Bowles, who took over in 2015 following Rex Ryan.

EAGLES 24, REDSKINS 0Nick Foles tied an NFL single-game record with 25 straight pass comple-tions and visiting Philadelphia found a way into the NFC playoff s with a blow-out win at Washington. The Eagles (9-7) clinched the second wild card spot when the Minnesota Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears 24-10.

Philadelphia will visit Chicago, the NFC’s third seed, Saturday afternoon. After throwing an interception on the opening drive, Foles recovered to fi nish 28 of 33 for 221 yards, two touchdowns

and the pick before leaving with a chest injury in the fourth quarter.

He was perfect in a stretch that began in the fi rst quarter and ended late in the third. Washington (7-9) lost six of its fi nal seven games as it was forced to use four diff erent starting quarterbacks.

BEARS 24, VIKINGS 10Jordan Howard had 21 carries for 109 yards and two touchdowns and Chica-go held on to eliminate host Minnesota from playoff contention. Tarik Cohen also had a rushing touchdown for Chi-cago (12-4), which fi nished with its best regular-season record since 2006.

The Bears locked up the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoff s and will host the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday af-ternoon. Stefon Diggs scored the lone touchdown for Minnesota (8-7-1).The Vikings could have earned a wild-card playoff berth with a victory — which would have created a rematch in Chi-cago next week — but instead will go

home early for the third time in fi ve sea-sons under head coach Mike Zimmer.

RAVENS 26, BROWNS 24Lamar Jackson rushed for two touch-downs and accounted for 269 all-pur-pose yards as Baltimore clinched the AFC North title with a narrow win over visiting Cleveland. The Ravens (10-6), who went 6-1 with Jackson at quar-terback after veteran Joe Flacco was injured midseason, will host the Los Angeles Chargers next Sunday.

Jackson completed 14 of 24 passes for 179 yards with no touchdowns or inter-ceptions while rushing 20 times for 90 yards. Kenneth Dixon piled up 117 yards on 12 carries and Gus Edwards chipped in 76 yards on 12 attempts as the Ravens fi nished with 296 yards on the ground against the Browns 7-8-1). Cleveland’s Baker Mayfi eld set a new NFL record for rookie touchdown passes with his 27th.

STEELERS 16, BENGALS 13

Rookie kicker Matt McCrane’s third fi eld goal, from 35 yards with 1:56 left, gave Pittsburgh a win over visiting Cincinnati, but it was not enough to ensure the Steelers’ season would con-tinue. With Baltimore beating Cleve-land, the only way Pittsburgh (9-6-1) could make the playoff s was if the Tennessee-Indianapolis game Sunday night ended in a tie.

The Colts won 33-17. The Steel-ers played without receiver Antonio Brown, who has a knee injury. Without a double threat, JuJu Smith-Schuster faced stiff coverage, with fi ve catches for 37 yards and a tying touchdown against the Bengals (6-10).

CHIEFS 35, RAIDERS 3Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes be-came the second quarterback in NFL history to pass for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a season as the Chiefs bashed visiting Oakland to lock up the top seed in the AFC playoff s.

An 89-yard scoring bomb to Demar-cus Robinson with 8:33 left in the third quarter was Mahomes’ 50th TD strike of the season and pushed the fi rst-year starter past the 5,000-yard plateau. The only other quarterback to reach both milestones in the same season was Denver’s Peyton Manning in 2013, when he set records for touchdown passes (55) and passing yardage (5,477) in a season.

Mahomes punctuated his MVP candidacy with 281 yards against the Raiders (4-12), going 14 of 24 with two touchdowns and one interception. Tyreek Hill led the Chiefs (12-4) with fi ve receptions for 101 yards and scored touchdowns on a 67-yard reception and 15-yard rush.

CHARGERS 23, BRONCOS 9Philip Rivers passed for 176 yards and a touchdown, linebacker Kyle Emanuel returned a fumble for another score and Los Angeles beat host Denver Broncos

to end the regular season. With Kansas City’s win over Oakland on Sunday, the Chargers (12-4) are locked into the No.

5 seed and will play at Baltimore next Sunday at 1:05 ET on CBS. Mike Wil-liams had 65 yards receiving and a score and Austin Ekeler ran for 58 yards and a touchdown for Los Angeles, while Case Keenum was 31-for-48 passing for 292 yards, a touchdown and an interception for Denver (6-10).

RAMS 48, 49ERS 32The Los Angeles defense set the tone with four fi rst-half turnovers and a touchdown on the way to a victory over visiting San Francisco that earned LA a fi rst-round bye in the playoff s. The Rams (13-3) clinched the No. 2 seed in the NFC with the victory over their longtime rival and fi nished undefeated against the NFC West in the process.

The opening-round bye is the fi rst for the Rams since the 2003 season when the team was in St.

Louis. Jarred Goff passed for 199 yards and four touchdowns and CJ An-derson rushed for 132 yards and a score against the 49ers (4-12) as the Rams were without starting running back Todd Gurley for a second consecutive week as he works his way through knee infl ammation.

SEAHAWKS 27, CARDINALS 24Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 33-yard fi eld goal as time expired to give Seat-tle a win against visiting Arizona. Chris Carson rushed 19 times for 122 yards and a touchdown for the Seahawks (10-6), who had already clinched an NFC wild-card berth but cemented the No. 5 seed. Arizona (3-13) clinched the league’s worst record and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft.

TEXANS 20, JAGUARS 3Deshaun Watson capped his second season with a unique statistical accom-plishment and host Houston claimed its third AFC South title in four seasons with a victory over woeful Jacksonville, becoming the second team to earn a di-vision title after starting a season 0-3.

With 234 passing yards plus another 66 yards on the ground with a touch-down, Watson is the fi rst quarterback in NFL history to total 4,000 yards (4,165) and at least 25 touchdowns (26) pass-ing while rushing for 500 yards (551) with another fi ve touchdowns on the ground.

Led by defensive end JJ Watt, the Texans (11-5) harassed Jacksonville quarterback Blake Bortles throughout what likely was his last appearance with the Jaguars (5-11).Watt recorded 1 1/2 of the three sacks of Bortles, clos-ing his season with 16. Watt and Hall of Fame member Reggie White are the only players in NFL history with four 15-plus sack seasons.

Tiger’s 15th and Semenya’s CAS case – predictions for 2019SPOTLIGHT

By Sean IngleThe Guardian

“It is dangerous to make predic-tions, especially about the fu-ture.” Some attribute that quote to Mark Twain. Others to the leg-

endary baseball player and coach Yogi Berra. Either way it is useful advice for anyone daring to decipher what 2019 might hold. With that in mind, consid-er what follows as less of a forecast and more of a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Hopefully, in 12 months’ time, I will not look like look back in shame.

TIGER WOODS TO WIN HIS 15TH MAJOR – IF HIS BODY HOLDS UP

Anyone betting that Tiger Woods would win anything more than his lo-cal pitch and putt 18 months ago would have been laughed out of the bookies. Now, after recovering from a fourth back surgery, all bets are on. Woods is as short as 9-4 to win a major in 2019 and, while he turned 43 on Sunday and has not won a major in just over a dec-ade, would you dare bet against him? Especially as he has won at Augusta four times and has victories at Pebble Beach, which will stage the US Open, and Bethpage Black, which will host the US PGA. If his back holds up, watch out: his 15th major is on.

THE HEAVYWEIGHT PICTURE WILL REMAIN FRAGMENTED

If boxing followed the rules of logic or the free market, Anthony Joshua would fi ght Tyson Fury at Wembley in April, followed by the winner meeting Deon-

tay Wilder in an autumn mega-fi ght for the unifi ed heavyweight title. It sounds so simple – the best taking on the best at their best – yet a swamp of boxing politics and arguments over money needs to be waded through fi rst. With Joshua most likely to face Dillian Whyte (again) next, the prospect of him taking on his two biggest rivals before 2020 looks slim.

ENGLISH CRICKET TO HAVE A GREAT YEAR … THE WIDER POPU-LATION TO REMAIN AMBIVALENT

Growing up, I spent summers with a cricket bat in hand and winters listen-ing to Test Match Special and playing Test Match – the “authentic action-packed table top cricket game, offi cially endorsed by the England Test team” – the game’s original Big Bash. I bet there were thousands of others like me, too.

And while cricket is not nearly as loved or cherished these days, there is an ob-vious chance for a recalibration in 2019 given that England are favourites for a home World Cup and an Ashes series is also looming.

Whatever happens, any measure of success must go beyond victories and trophies. And with no free-to-air matches on TV, how many kids will be able to distinguish Joe Root from Joe

Bloggs or want to pick up a bat them-selves?

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL WORLD CUP TO SHATTER RECORDS

Providing England’s Lionesses do well – and they are ranked No 4, accord-ing to FIFA – then the Women’s World Cup should be a breakthrough moment for women’s football in England. Al-ready there is a powerful momentum – when England reached the semi-fi -nals in 2015 a peak audience of 2.4 mil-lion watched them lose to Japan, while their Euro 2017 semi-fi nal against the Netherlands on Channel 4 had over four million viewers, the biggest ever British audience for a women’s football match. With the BBC holding the rights for France 2019, expect the game to take another big leap forward if England can do at least as well again.

ONE LAST GOLDEN HURRAH FOR TENNIS’S GOLDEN GENERATION

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and No-vak Djokovic have won an astonishing 50 of the 60 grand slam titles between them since the start of the 2004 season, with Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka picking up another six. Yet with Fe-derer, now 37, and Nadal and Murray struggling with injuries for much of 2018, some believe the golden genera-tion is fi nally losing its lustre. I do not see it myself, at least not yet. Remem-ber Djokovic lost only three times in the past six months (although all three came against players aged 22 and un-der) while Nadal is still a monster on clay. Meanwhile Serena Williams will expect fi nally to surpass Margaret

Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles in 2019 – even at 37.

RUSSIA WILL NOT BE BANNED BY THE WADA

Despite all the twists of the past four years the Russian doping scandal will linger in 2019. For while the Russian Anti-Doping Agency was controver-sially reinstated by Wada in September it still had not handed over all the data stored in its Moscow laboratory by 31 December as promised and faces be-ing suspended again. Rusada’s director general, Yury Ganus, has warned that Russia is “on the brink of the abyss” and faces having athletes banned from major events but I do not see that apoc-alyptic scenario playing out. The In-ternational Olympic Committee does not want Russia out in the cold, after all, so expect some goalpost-shifting or messy compromise again.

CASTER SEMENYA DECISION TO PROVOKE MORE RANCOUR

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will fi nally rule on Caster Semen-ya’s case against athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, in March. But whatever it decides it will provoke anger – and possibly chaos. The IAAF argues that intersex athletes have a huge and unfair advantage because their bodies pro-duce far more testosterone than other women. Semenya’s supporters point out that is hardly her fault. Either way the IOC will be watching closely – for CAS’s ruling over how much testoster-one matters in sport could have rami-fi cations not only for intersex athletes but for transgender ones, too.

Tiger Woods has recovered from a fourth back surgery and all bets are on him to win his 15th major title in 2019.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Dontrelle Inman (second left) celebrates after catching a pass for a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans. (USA TODAY Sports)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Vegas cruise past Arizona Buccaneers fi re head coach KoetterNHL NFL

ReutersGlendale, Arizona

Paul Stastny and Brandon Pirri each had a goal and an assist and Marc-Andre Fleury had 29 saves as the

Vegas Golden Knights moved into a tie for fi rst place in the Pacifi c Division with a 5-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday night in Glendale, Arizona.

Ryan Carpenter, Cody Eakin and Reilly Smith also scored goals for Vegas which also moved into a tie with Winnipeg and Cal-gary for most points in the West-ern Conference with 50. Howev-er, the Central Division-leading Jets still have four games in hand on the Golden Knights while the Flames have three games in hand.

It was the third straight victory for the Golden Knights who ex-tended their games with a point streak to six (4-0-2). Fleury picked up his league-leading 22nd victory in net as Vegas im-proved to 14-3-3 in its last 20 games. Alex Galchenyuk scored for Arizona. Darcy Kuemper fi n-ished with 33 saves while losing for the seventh time (1-7-1) in his last nine starts. Stastny gave Vegas a 1-0 lead at the 3:35 mark of the fi rst period with his fi fth goal of the season, backhanding a shot from the right side of the net off a pass from Pirri.

The Coyotes appeared to tie the game on a Nick Schmaltz goal midway through the second period but the Golden Knights successfully challenged that Vinnie Hinostroza was off side on the play. Vegas then increased its lead to 2-0 fi ve minutes later on

Smith’s ninth goal of the season, tapping in a Brad Hunt pass into a wide-open right side of the net.

Arizona cut it to 2-1 with a power play goal during a 5-on-3 advantage after Alex Tuch was penalised for an illegal check to the head of Nick Cousins and Stastny was called for slashing Schmaltz just 33 seconds later.

Galchenyuk needed just nine seconds during the two-man advantage to score his sixth goal of the season, fi ring a wrist shot from the right circle inside the far

post past Fleury’s blocker side. But Vegas broke the game open with three goals in the span of 7:23 in the third period.

Eakin made it 3-1 with his fi rst goal in 13 games, reaching behind Kuemper to poke in a loose puck by the goal line. Pirri followed with his fi fth goal in six games with a breakaway goal, fi ring a wrist shot from the right circle past Kuemper’s blocker side. Carpenter then added a short-handed goal, his second of the season, to end the scoring.

By Rick StroudTampa Bay Times

Dirk Koetter’s off ense shattered a lot of team records this sea-son. Unfortunately, the won-loss record didn’t show the same im-

provement. The Bucs fi red Koetter on Sun-day after a 34-32 loss to the Falcons. His three seasons as head coach produced only one winning record and no postseason ap-pearances. The Bucs fi nished the 2018 sea-son 5-11. Koetter’s fi ring means the Bucs will be looking to hire their sixth head coach since 2008.

General manager Jason Licht, whose fi ve-year record is 27-53, will return. Koetter, who turns 60 in February, produced some of the Bucs’ best off enses in franchise history. Their 414.3 yards per game heading into Week 17 ranked third in the NFL. Five times this season the Bucs had at least 500 yards in a game, one short of tying the NFL record for a single season.

But all that didn’t necessarily always translate into points. Koetter also didn’t see much improvement this season in quarter-back Jameis Winston, who was suspended the fi rst three games of the season for vio-lating the league’s player conduct policy.

Koetter managed to go 2-1 during a bru-tal three-game stretch to start the season behind veteran backup Ryan Fitzpatrick, who stunned the Saints on opening day with 417 yards passing and four touchdown passes while running for a score. He passed for 402 yards and four TDs in a win over the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles and was named the NFC Off ensive Player of the Week for the second straight time.

But Fitz-magic wore off in a Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers when he threw three interceptions in as many passes but also ral-lied the team late in a 33-30 loss.

Winston then started three games but won only once before he was benched for throwing four interceptions, including a

pick six, in a loss at Cincinnati. By the time Winston got his job back, the Bucs were 3-7.

Tampa Bay lost 11 of its fi nal 14 games this season. The Bucs also suff ered through Koetter’s decision to stick too long with de-fensive coordinator Mike Smith. They were on a historically bad pace on points allowed after a 48-10 loss at Chicago. But Koetter was defi ant, saying fi ring Smith wouldn’t make that much of a diff erence.

“For those people who think snapping your fi ngers and changing your coordinator a quarter of the way through the season, ok, what would you do after that?” Koetter said. “If we fi red Mike Smith, what would the next move be, all right?”

But when the Bucs fell to Atlanta in their fi rst meeting of the season, even Koetter had seen enough and he fi red Smith, his long-time coaching buddy, and hired linebackers coach Mark Duff ner as defensive coordina-tor. The Bucs were allowing an average 34.6 points per game before he took over. The defense had allowed 25.7 since going into the fi nale. But Koetter said last week he had no regrets about keeping Smith. “You can’t play the what-if game,” Koetter said. “Asked

and answered. I don’t play the what-if game ever because it doesn’t do any good. You can’t change what’s already done.”

The Glazers could take their time to re-place Koetter, but frequently they target a big-name or outside-the-box candidate. Two weeks before Tony Dungy was fi red, they had an agreement with Bill Parcells to coach the team. When he backed down, they spent a month interviewing candidates be-fore trading for Jon Gruden.

Raheem Morris was hired as head coach the day after Gruden was fi red. The Bucs targeted Oregon coach Chip Kelly, but when he backed down, they hired Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. Koetter, who was the Bucs of-fensive coordinator, was hired about a week after the team fi red Lovie Smith.

Among the candidates the Bucs may be interested in would include former Cardi-nals coach Bruce Arians, Patriots off ensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, former Vikings off ensive coordinator John DiFilippo, Rams quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor, University of Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, former Colts and Lions coach Jim Caldwell and former Raiders coach Jack Del Rio.

Leonard powers Raptors to victory over Bulls

NBA

ReutersToronto

Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the Toronto Raptors de-feated the visiting Chicago

Bulls 95-89 on Sunday. Pascal Siakam added 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors while Fred VanVleet and Danny Green added 10 points each.

Lauri Markkanen scored 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls. Wendell Carter Jr. added 16 points and 11 re-bounds, Kris Dunn had 14 points, Zach LaVine scored 13, and Justin Holiday and Chandler Hutchison had 11 each.

The Raptors, whose biggest lead of the game had been seven points, opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run to lead by nine points.

TRAIL BLAZERS 129, 76ERS 95CJ McCollum scored 35 points in just 28 minutes as Portland pounded visiting Philadelphia as Al-Farouq Aminu added 16 points, Damian Lillard 15 and Jusuf Nurkic 14. The Trail Blazers posted sea-son bests in fi eld-goal percentage (.590) and 3-point percentage (.545) in roll-ing up their largest margin of victory of the season. Portland beat the Minne-sota Timberwolves 111-81 on Nov. 4. Ben Simmons scored 19 points for the 76ers, who shot only.354 from the fi eld, includ-ing.185 (8 of 43) from beyond the arc. The Blazers won the rebound battle 59-36.

LAKERS 121, KINGS 114Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 26 points off the bench and Brandon In-gram was key down the stretch with 21 points as host Los Angeles rallied to beat Sacramento. The Lakers won for the fi rst time in three games without an in-jured LeBron James while also avenging their last-second defeat at Sacramento on Thursday when Bogdan Bogdanovic hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

De’Aaron Fox scored 26 points while Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield added 21 each as the Kings lost for the second time in three games, with both of the defeats in Los Angeles. The Kings lost to the Clippers 127-118 on Wednesday.

MAGIC 109, PISTONS 107Evan Fournier scored 13 points and made his second game-winning shot of the season to lift Orlando over visit-ing Detroit. Nikola Vucevic continued his hot streak with 22 points and 11 re-bounds. He is averaging 24.7 points and 14.7 rebounds over the last three games.

Detroit tied the game at 107 when Reggie Bullock was fouled on a 3-point

attempt with 2.5 seconds remaining and made all three free throws. Orlan-do inbounded the ball at the other end to Fournier, who drove to his right and hit a fl oater from the free-throw line at the buzzer. “I really embrace those moments and I’m glad that coach drew up a play for me and the execution was great,” said Fournier, who was mobbed by teammates after the shot fell.”I had a little bit of space on my right side and I decided to use my fl oat game.”

MAVERICKS 105, THUNDER 103Harrison Barnes turned a last-minute

steal into a pair of free throws and Den-nis Smith Jr. hit a go-ahead shot with 24.8 seconds remaining to rally host Dallas over Oklahoma City. Paul George saved 13 of his game-high 36 points for the fi nal 3:54, but missed a potential go-ahead jumper with four seconds left as the Mavericks held on for just the second win in their last nine games.

Luka Doncic had 25 points to lead the Mavericks, who were coming off a home-and-home split with New Or-leans on Wednesday and Friday. The Mavericks and Thunder will meet again

at Oklahoma City.Thunder coach Billy Donovan said

he wasn’t worried about Westbrook’s shooting numbers. “He’s getting clean looks, and he’s got to keep taking those shots,” Donovan said.

“Clearly he has shot below what he’s capable of shooting. I’m not worried about it. As long as we’re getting good shots, that’s the biggest thing.”

TIMBERWOLVES 113, HEAT 104Karl-Anthony Towns produced 34 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists and a career-high-tying six blocks to lead

Minnesota past host Miami, whose 20 turnovers led to 24 Timberwolves points. Towns, who made 12 of 24 shots from the fl oor and half of his six 3-point attempts, fouled out with 34 seconds left. It was his fourth foul-out of the season, but he had already done enough to lead Minnesota to victory.

“I wanted to make the right plays that we needed to win,” Towns said. “I’m glad I was able to make them.”

The Heat, looking to go over.500 for the fi rst time since their fi fth game of the season, fell to 17-18. Even so, Miami is 6-2 in its past eight games.

McCollum scores 35 points in just 28 minutes as Portland beat visiting Philadelphia

Benn, Seguin respond to criticism from Stars CEO

FOCUS

By Matthew DeFranksThe Dallas Morning News

After Stars CEO Jim Lites publically and force-fully criticised captain Jamie Benn and top-

line center Tyler Seguin, the two franchise cornerstones re-sponded by saying they needed to be better, but also expressed surprise and disappointment at the comments.

On Friday morning, Lites reached out to local media mem-bers to tear into Benn and Seg-uin’s performances this season, which have fallen short of pre-vious career production. During a 20-plus minute conversation, Lites said the team was “getting terrible play from our top two players” and that they “are con-sistently out-eff orted and out-performed by everybody else’s best players.”

Following Saturday’s morn-ing skate before the Stars match against Detroit, Benn was asked if it was tough to play for Lites following his comments a day prior. “I don’t play for him,” Benn said. “I play for every play-er in this room and the coaching staff . I come to the rink and, like I said, I’m proud to be a Dallas Star and proud to go out there every night and battle with these guys in games. I’ve really put my teammates fi rst.”

Both Seguin and Benn said they had not heard from Lites this season. “A little bit of a surprise there, because I didn’t know how he felt,” Seguin said. “It came as a bit of a surprise. I said it yesterday at practice. I understand I need to be better. Jamie understands he needs to be better. We need this team to be better, the organization to be better. I think everyone is frus-trated over the last few years, and it came out yesterday.”

Benn and Seguin are the two best players on the Stars ros-ter, and currently their lead-ers in goals (Benn with 15), as-sists (Seguin with 21) and points (Seguin with 32). The only other Stars player with more than 20 points is Alexander Radulov.

Seguin has suff ered from some poor luck this season, and his 11 goals in 38 games puts him on pace to score about 24 goals this season. That would be Seguin’s lowest total since the lockout shortened season in 2012-13. The Stars are tied to both players via long-term contracts. Benn is in the second year of his eight-year, $76 million contract extension he signed two years ago. Seguin begins his eight-year, $78.8 mil-lion next year. Benn wears the “C” as the team’s captain.

Toronto Raptors Kawhi Leonard (centre) drives to the basket between Chicago Bulls' Justin Holiday (left) and Robin Lopez during the NBA game. (USA TODAY Sports)

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (left) of Vegas Golden Knights and Nick Cousins of Arizona Coyotes battle for the puck. (AFP)

SPORT

Gulf Times Tuesday, January 1, 20196

AFPLisbon

In some ways, says Portu-guese ex-boxer Jorge Pina, the loss of most of his sight was the making of him.

“I didn’t lose my sight, I just see things diff erently,” he says.

Forced to abandon his world title dreams, Pina devotes his time to helping troubled kids from rough neighbourhoods stay on the right path by channelling their energy into sport.

“Before, I was a selfi sh and troubled person from a diffi cult neighbourhood,” he says. “But now I want to help young people, win the combat of life.”

His sight problem developed in training in 2004 and even-tually put an end to his boxing career. An operation two years later failed to fi x his detached retina and he was left with only 10-percent vision.

But even before he had fully recovered, Pina was asking his doctor whether he could run.

“When I lost my sight I need-ed something positive, despite

my limitations,” he said, still breathing hard from a training run with his sighted guide on a Lisbon athletics track.

“I chose what I was best at: running and sharing,” he said.

The running has already taken him to three Paralympics and he is also aiming to be at Tokyo in 2020.

The sharing saw him set up shop in Bensaude, one of Lis-bon’s more deprived neighbour-hoods, where he operates his own sport association for local kids.

‘JORGE TAUGHT ME

DISCIPLINE’In a spartan hall, the former middleweight contender warms up, shadow-boxing in front of a full-length mirror before calling the assembled kids to order.

“Listen up kids, right now - or I’m off !” he growls. Tall, lean and muscled, 42-year-old Pina still cuts an imposing fi gure, and the kids, mostly from the local gypsy community, quieten down and listen.

Wherever he goes, the kids at-tach themselves to him, whether

they are taking his hand to guide him or just giving him a hug. “Jorge taught me discipline and how to channel my energy,” says one regular, 13-year-old Xavier Pereira, after sessions on the punchbag and some pad work.

“Before I met him I got into trouble at school and I didn’t go there very often,” he admits.

Pina has been running such sessions since 2011, also working with autistic kids.

“Jorge coming here really helped us,” says senior social worker Vanessa Madeira. “Our kids learn values and how to live as a community, and that builds trust with the parents.”

And the success of his work has convinced the city authori-ties to back a new base for his as-sociation with 60 percent of the funding.

The new Jorge Pina Associa-tion building will provide 1,700 square metres of space for sport and local community activities.

‘THE STRENGTH TO SURPASS MYSELF’

Partly to help raise the rest of the money for the centre, Pina keeps

up his running, with the help of his sighted running partner Helio Fumo.

But he also has to stay in shape for the next Paralympics, to make sure he can make the qual-ifying times.

And for that, he is up early every morning for his training run.

His apartment bears witness to his dedication: the trophies on the shelves; the energy drinks, food supplements, fruit and ce-real bars fuelling his next sport-ing challenge. Much of what he does today is also informed by his Christian faith.

And backing him every step of the way for the last 10 years is his partner, Raquel Pedro. She makes sure he has everything he needs to pursue his dreams.

At 42, Pina still feels in top physical form and even speaks in terms of the rebirth of his sport-ing career.

“As a boxer, I saw other people as enemies. Today, I am my own adversary and those who sur-round me give me the strength to surpass myself. I’m happier than I was before.”

Near-blind ex-boxer puts troubled kids on right pathSPOTLIGHT

Josoor continues to develop talent in lead-up to Qatar 2022

By Afraa al-Noaimi, Executive Director, Josoor Institute

During 2018 we have de-livered a series of suc-cessful programmes and continued to create

productive partnerships as we explore every available resource to empower the people who will be instrumental in the organisa-tion of a historic FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Qatar’s mission to deliver an outstanding mega-event re-mains our guiding light when it comes to developing our train-ing sessions, programmes and workshops, along with estab-lishing key partnerships.

Each step we take must con-tribute to the professional advancement of exceptional individuals who will help to re-alise the full potential of people across Qatar and the region

in the sports and events in-dustries.

To succeed in this mission, we continually strive to increase the knowledge of our delegates. We ensure the best sessions, men-tors and opportunities through

partnerships and collaborations with organisations which dem-onstrate a proven track record of excellence in their respective fi elds, and one such partnership we agreed this year was with KPMG in Qatar.

KPMG’s access to experienced sports advisory experts from around the world supports the Josoor Institute in its mission to develop the sports industry in Qatar. This partnership also enables us to share international best practices, which can lead to the discovery of innovative tech-niques that facilitate the growth of the sports and events indus-tries in this region.

Additionally, we have also en-tered into a strategic partnership with the International College of Engineering and Management in Oman to ensure we continue to reach our regional audience.

One of our fi rst successes this year was the completion of our second cohort of professional certifi cate and diploma pro-grammes, which witnessed the graduation of 82 delegates from 25 countries, including Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Tuni-sia, Syria, Palestine, Australia,

Canada, India and Somalia, in “Major Events Management” and “Football and Sports Man-agement”.

After a 12-month programme, these delegates left the Josoor Institute fully equipped to de-liver world-class sporting and non-sporting events across Qa-tar and the region.

During the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, two of our delegates, Hamad al-Kuwari and Eman al-Khamiri, took part in the Su-preme Committee for Delivery & Legacy’s (SC) observation pro-gramme.

This valuable experience of-fered fi rst-hand insight of what it takes to deliver a ma-jor sporting event. In return, al-Kuwari and al-Khamiri have been equipped with mega-event knowledge that they’ll be able to share with other delegates.

Throughout the year, we delivered various workshops packed with learning activities, customised for diff erent talents and addressing specifi c skillsets.

A fi ve-day workshop called “Writing Skills and Styles for Sports Journalism”, tailor-made for Al Kass Sports Network, ac-

quainted our delegates with the growing role that local media will play in the lead-up to Qatar 2022. An interesting aspect of this workshop was the practical simulation that instilled skills in reporting, writing and produc-ing high-quality sports media content.

The workshop “Planning and Organising Major Sports Events” focused on providing delegates with a comprehensive under-standing of the diff erent com-ponents of hosting a success-ful major sporting event from a broadcasting perspective.

The networking portion of the workshop was highly appreciat-ed by delegates for the perspec-tive it gave them on the diff er-ent aspects of broadcasting and production, along with insights on how to resolve issues that can arise from lack of co-ordination or poor communication.

“Developing Skills in Organ-ising and Sponsoring Football Tournaments” was another highly informative workshop we conducted this year. This two-day programme, which included international delegates, was de-signed to empower tournament

organisers by imparting key skills in organising and operat-ing successful sports events, and in sourcing funds. The delegates were also taught how to build and manage sponsors and stake-holder relations.

Back at Al Bidda Tower, and as part of our mission to provide SC employees with a stream of learning opportunities, we re-cently hosted two experts in glo-bal football – David O’Conner from InFront Sports & Media and Alexey Vlasov, Head of Marketing Rights Delivery for Russia 2018 – to conduct a session focused on Russia 2018. It examined the highlights of this summer’s tour-nament and studied key aspects relevant to Qatar 2022.

We are already looking for-ward to 2019, which promises to be another key year on the road to 2022 – and beyond. As Qatar’s journey towards hosting the World Cup accelerates, the Josoor Institute will continue to work on bridging the skills gap as we herald an unprecedented transformation in the sports and events industries across Qatar and the region.

sc.qa

FOCUS

Qatar’s mission to deliver an outstanding mega-event remains our guiding light when it comes to developing our training sessions and workshops, along with establishing key partnerships

Underhill injury a concern for England

RUGBY

Josoor Institute supports Qatar Football Association in its pursuit of excellence.

AFPLondon

England were left facing an anxious wait to dis-cover the full extent of an ankle injury suff ered

by Sam Underhill while the back-row forward was playing for club side Bath on Sunday.

Underhill, one of the stars of England’s November interna-tional programme, was forced off during Bath’s 23-16 win over Leicester in the English Premiership. Bath coach Todd Blackadder was unable to shed much light on the extent of Un-derhill’s injury, a concerning development for England given their blockbuster opener to the 2019 Six Nations, against reign-ing champions Ireland in Dub-lin, is just over a month away

“He (Underhill) was bril-liant. He and Francois Louw were all over the ball tonight,” said Blackadder.

As for Underhill’s injury, the former New Zealand in-ternational added: “He’s just rolled his ankle. It was serious enough for him to come off .”

Victory saw Bath move up into fi fth place in the table fol-lowing a poor start to the sea-son and a delighted Blackadder said: “I was really pleased with our persistence and resilience in playing at the right end of the fi eld, just keeping attacking.”

By contrast, defeated Leicester, once the undisputed kings of the English club game, are in ninth place and still very much involved in a battle to avoid relegation. “It feels re-ally raw at the moment,” said Leicester boss Geordan Mur-phy. “It’s tough in this league at the moment. It’s a dogfi ght,”

the former Ireland interna-tional added.

Elsewhere, Bristol moved six points clear of the lone relega-tion place after a second-half revival saw them beat base-ment club Newcastle 35-28.

Bristol were 10 points behind at the break but Tom Pincus’s try three minutes from time capped an excellent fi ghtback, with Charles Piutau, Luke Mo-rahan, and Harry Randall also scoring tries for the southwest side. Ian Madigan converted two and kicked two penalties with Callum Sheedy adding a penalty and a conversion.

Newcastle scored tries through Vereniki Goneva, Adam Radwan and Callum Chick, with ex-England play-maker Toby Flood kicking two conversions and three penal-ties. Bristol coach Pat Lam said a “simple message” to his side at the interval had pro-duced the desired response. “In that fi rst half we made er-ror after error, there were 12 turnovers from us, which gave them easy fi eld position so they could hang on the ball for long periods and although our defence was good, eventually the pressure told,” Lam explained.

Harlequins have given Dave Ward a one-game ban for stamp-ing but cleared the hooker of spitting at an opponent, the London club announced on Sunday.The incident that led to Ward’s suspension took place in the 11th minute of Quins’ 20-13 English Premiership win over Wasps on Saturday.Ward appeared to spit in the direction of Thomas Young before stepping on the ankle of the Welsh flanker, who was lying on the ground.The Harlequins front-row forward has apologised for the stamp on Young, which drew a yellow card, but denied spitting and later on Sunday it was confirmed he had avoided further action from Premiership off icials. “I apologise unreservedly to Thomas Young, Wasps and every-one at Harlequins for my yellow card,” Ward said. “I would also like to make clear that I did not spit on another player during the match yesterday.“Regardless of what the television footage looks like, I know that I have never spat on a player in all my career and will never do so.”Following the incident, which took place soon after Ward performed a neck roll on Young in a fiery clash, Harlequins decided to take their own disciplinary action.The 33-year-old Ward could have been cited for any one of three possible off ences - the neck roll, stamping and spitting - but an 1800 GMT Sunday deadline came and went without citing off icer Buster White deciding to take matters further.Harlequins’ move means Ward will miss Saturday’s league match away to strugglers Newcastle.As for Ward’s stamp on Young, the son of Wasps boss Dai Young, Quins coach Paul Gustard said: “We do not coach, condone or accept foul play and on behalf of the team and the club, I apologise to Thomas, Dai and Wasps for this incident.“It was an unnecessary and regrettable incident in what was a tightly contested match at Twickenham.”

Harlequins issue Ward with ban for stamping but he denies spitting

Jorge Pina (right) during a training session with the kids of his foundation, Fundacao Jorge Pina, in Lisbon on February 22, 2017. (AFP)

Sam Underhill

Coach Solskjaer tells two-goal Pogba to cut out showboating

AFPManchester

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer encouraged Paul Pog-ba to cut showboating from his game to rec-

reate the “effi cient” display that saw the Frenchman score twice for the second straight game in a 4-1 thrashing of Bournemouth at Old Traff ord.

A third consecutive victory since Solskjaer took caretaker charge until the end of the sea-son keeps United eight points adrift of Chelsea in the fi ght for a top-four fi nish.

Pogba has been key to all three wins, but this was arguably his best display as he also teed up Romelu Lukaku’s fourth goal and struck the post late on to just miss out on a fi rst career hat-trick. “That is a top, top per-

formance for a midfi eld player because it’s all-round: work rate, dangerous in the box, no show-boating. It’s touch, pass, move,” said Solskjaer.

“It’s an effi cient game and Paul knows he’s at his best when it’s an effi cient game.”

The change in mood around United in the 12 days since Jose Mourinho was sacked is palpa-ble, no more so in the perform-ances of Pogba, who was dis-carded from the Portuguese’s starting line-up for his fi nal three league games in charge. “We are Manchester United and we need to be at the top of the league. It is just a reaction of all of the players and everyone is enjoying them-selves,” said Pogba.

“It is diff erent, we still won games with the old manager but it is just a diff erent style of play-ing, we are more off ensive and we are creating more chances

and that is how we want to play.”United have now scored 12

times in three games under the Norwegian, but Solskjaer insist-ed he has just tried to instil what he learned under Alex Ferguson during 11 seasons as a player at Old Traff ord. “This is how it was. I’ve just gone about the job as I experienced it as a player, and a coach,” added Solskjaer.

“We want to go attacking. We’ve been at home two games and we have to entertain the fans. I love working with good players and good people.”

Pogba played a part in four of United’s fi ve goals at Cardiff last weekend to get Solskjaer off to a fl ying start before scoring twice against Huddersfi eld on Boxing Day.

Solskjaer has spoken of his desire to see Pogba break into the box more regularly and he had the simplest of tasks to prod the

ball into an empty net after Mar-cus Rashford had bewildered the Bournemouth defence.

Nathan Ake and Diego Rico were left beaten by Rashford’s combination of fl eet-footed dribbling and pace before his cross perfectly picked out Pog-ba’s run. Pogba then made it 2-0 with a bullet header from Ander Herrera’s cross.

Unlike Pogba, Nemanja Matic was one of Mourinho’s most trusted lieutenants but the Ser-bian has also epitomised the change in tack orchestrated by Solskjaer with the former Chel-sea midfi elder much more will-ing to look for a forward rather than sideways pass.

And Matic began the move for United’s third when he picked out Anthony Martial’s run and the Frenchman’s cross with the outside of his boot was turned home by Rashford. For all the

improvements of late, though, Solskjaer is still waiting for a fi rst clean sheet since November as Ake beat Matic to power home David Brooks’s cross.

Rashford should have added to his tally when put clean through by Pogba, but didn’t get enough elevation on his attempted chip over Asmir Begovic before mak-ing way for Lukaku 20 minutes from time.

And the Belgian netted almost instantly when he squeezed the ball past Begovic on his weaker right foot from another Pogba pass.

Only the post then denied Pogba a fi rst ever hat-trick when his low strike from the edge of the box came off the woodwork.

But United had to see out the fi nal 11 minutes a man light after Eric Bailly needlessly lunged in on Ryan Fraser to see a straight red card.

FOOTBALL

‘It’s an eff icient game and Paul knows he’s at his best when it’s an eff icient game’

SPORT7Gulf Times

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

By Sports ReporterDoha

City Exchange outclassed Selex by fi ve wickets to win the Division ‘A’ title of the Qatar Cricket As-

sociation (QCA) T20 tournament.Man-of-the-match Na-

zim picked three wickets, while Bukhari and Nishad collected two each as Selex collapsed at 96 in 16 overs. Jackson steered City to a fi ve-wicket triumph with 31 in 40 balls. He slammed a six and a four in his responsible knock.

In a Premier Division match, a superb team eff ort set up a thrilling 10-run victory for Commercial Bank Qatar (CBQ) against Tusker Club. In another match of the same division, Fer-oz Youngsters scripted an easy 49-run triumph against War-riors Club, riding Tanveer’s fi ne all-round display.

Batting fi rst, CBQ put up a healthy 185 for six, little realising the rivals would up off er a stiff chase. Dharmang Patel was the mainstay of the batting, along with Qamar. Patel smashed 48 off 27 balls with two sixes and two fours. Qamar’s run-a-ball 24 had two boundaries. Mudasir

and Bipin shared four wickets. Tusker Club’s spirited chase

was led by Akash, who cracked an unbeaten 39. His 26-ball knock included two sixes and three fours. Shaqir added 33 in 26 balls and Sanu contributed 29 with four boundaries in 21 balls.

However, their eff orts were spoilt by Gayan (three for 29) and Zaheer, who grabbed fi ve wickets between them. Man of the match Qamar also picked a wicket and his all-round performance con-tained 24 runs and two catches.

Feroz Youngsters, after mak-ing a big 168 for six, skittled Warriors Club out for just 119 in 19.1 overs as Nadeem struck four blows and Tanveer snapped three wickets. Tanveer, who earlier made 27, was adjudged the man-of-the-match. Inam-Ul-Haq and Noman played well to place their team in strong position. Haq cracked a six and three fours in 40 off 36 balls and Noman hammered three sixes and a boundary in 19-ball 36.

The Qatar Cricket Associa-tion, under the presidency of Yousef Jeham al-Kuwari, is hosting the event to provide competitive atmosphere to pre-pare the national team for future challenges.

BRIEF SCORESPremier Division: CBQ beat Tusker Club by 10 runsCBQ: 185 for six in 20 overs (Dharmang Patel 48 in 27 balls, Qamar 24 in 24 balls; Mudasir 2/23 Bipin 2/24)

Tusker Club: 175 for seven in 20 overs (Shaqir 33 in 26 balls, Akash 39 not out in 26 balls, Sanu 29 in 21 balls; Gayan 3/29, Zaheer 2/31). Man of the match: Qamar (CBQ).Feroz Youngsters beat Warriors

Club by 49 runsFeroz Youngsters: 168 for six in 20 overs (Inam-Ul-Haq 40 in 35 balls, Noman 36 not out in 19 balls, Tanveer 27 in 20 balls; Taimoor 2/20, Imraz 2/28)Warriors Club: 119 all out in 19.1

overs (Taimoor 26 in 16 balls, Ad-nan 26 in 24 balls, Asad 22 in 23 balls; Nadeem 4/12, Tanveer 3/28). Man of the match: Tanveer (Feroz Youngsters)Division ‘A’ final: City Exchange beat Selex by 5 wickets

Selex: 96 all out in 16 overs (Sha-hid 14 in 12 balls; Nazim 3/10, Bukhari 2/18, Nishad 2/20)City Exchange: 98 for five in 15.3 overs (Jackson 31 in 40 balls; Salim 2/27). Man of the match: Nazim (City Exchange).

City Exchange emerge ‘A’ Division championsCRICKET

Manchester United’s French midfielder Paul Pogba (right) celebrates after scoring the opening goal against Bournemouth at Old Traff ord in Manchester on Sunday. (AFP)

Dinnage turns her back on Premier League chief exec roleAFPLondon

Susanna Dinnage has shocked English foot-ball by deciding she no longer wants to be the

chief executive of the Premier League despite previously ac-cepting the post.

Dinnage, a television execu-tive, was announced as the suc-cessor to the long-serving Ri-chard Scudamore in November, with her appointment hailed as a major step forward for wom-en in sports administration. It was planned that Dinnage, currently the global president of Discovery’s Animal Planet brand, would take over from Scudamore, in charge for 19 years, early in 2019.

Quite why she has rejected the high-profi le position re-mains unclear, with a Pre-mier League statement issued Sunday simply saying: “De-spite her commitment to the Premier League in early No-vember, Susanna Dinnage has now advised the nominations committee that she will not be taking up the position of chief executive.”

This was a far cry from Din-nage’s comments following the initial announcement of her appointment last month, when she said: “With the support of clubs and the team, I look for-ward to extending the success of the League for many years to come. When Scudamore took over as chief executive in 1999, the Premier League’s domes-tic television rights deal was worth around £670 million.

The latest deal for rights be-tween 2019 and 2022 sold for more than £4.5 billion.

While the vast majority of that money still comes from television giants Sky and BT, it also includes the sale of 20 matches to retail giant Ama-zon’s streaming service for the fi rst time. Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, Burnley chairman Mike Garlick and Leicester chief executive Susan Whelan led the recruitment process,

with Buck describing Dinnage as “the outstanding choice” from a “very strong fi eld” of candidates. Now, however, the Premier League will have to re-open the search for Scuda-more’s successor.

“The committee has recon-vened its search and is talking to candidates,” the Premier League statement issued on Sunday also said. “There will be no further comment until an appointment is made.”

MARADONA SHOWS SUPPORT FOR RACISM

VICTIM KOULIBALY Diego Maradona has given his backing to Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly after the Senegalese international was subjected to racist abuse by In-ter Milan supporters last week.

Argentina great Maradona, who won the Serie A title with Napoli in 1987 and 1990, post-ed a picture of himself on social media holding up Koulibaly’s No.26 shirt with a message of support for the player, who was targeted with monkey chants by Inter fans during Napoli’s 1-0 defeat at the San Siro on Wednesday.

“I played for Napoli for seven years and I also suff ered from racist chants from some fans,” said Maradona, who is coach of Mexican second divi-sion outfi t Dorados and adored by Napoli fans.

The 58-year-old, currently on holiday in Buenos Aires as the Mexican league is on a break, said he feels “even more Neapol-itan today and that he wants “to be close to” Koulibaly. “I hope this incident signals a turning point to eliminate, once and for all, racism from Football.”

Maradona’s gesture of soli-darity comes after thousands of Napoli fans wore Kouli-baly masks in support of the 27-year-old during their side’s 3-2 win over Bologna on Satur-day. On Friday, European Foot-ball governing body UEFA said its anti-racism protocol had not been followed during the match in which Koulibaly, who was also sent off , was abused.

SPOTLIGHT

Division ‘A’ title winning team City Exchange and runners-up Selex pose with their respective trophies.

Former Liverpool winger Peter Thompson, part of the club’s successful team of the 1960s, has died at the age of 76, the club said yesterday.Thompson won two league championships, in 1964 and 1966, and was part of the club’s first FA Cup win in 1965.The speedy Carlisle born winger was signed by manager Bill Shankly from Preston North End, where he made 121 appearances.He scored 54 goals in 416 appearances for Liverpool before going on to end his career at Bolton Wanderers

where he helped them to the second division title in 1978.His former team mate Ian Callaghan told the Liver-pool Echo that Thompson had been a key part of the successful era created by Shankly.“It’s such sad news. Peter was such a fantastic player and a big part of the club’s success in that era.“He had a real gift for drib-bling with the ball and hold-ing on to it. Peter was a really special player, he really was.”Thompson won 16 caps for England.

Former Liverpool winger Thompson dies, aged 76

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

GULF TIMES SPORT

ReutersSydney

The 17th Asian Cup fi nals will be the biggest in the 62-year history of the tournament but even

with 24 teams battling it out, it is hard to look much beyond re-gional powers Iran, Japan and South Korea as potential cham-pions.

Australia will be hoping to join that trio and Saudi Arabia as multiple winners of the conti-nental crown as they defend the title they won on home soil four years ago.

The Socceroos triumph came at the end of a highly successful staging of a tournament played out in front of bumper crowds that has left the United Arab Emirates much to live up to.

The Emiratis, playing hosts for a second time after 1996 when they reached the fi nal, showed with their recent staging of FIFA’s Club World Cup, though, that there is a passion for the game that can be awoken by lo-cal success.

Al Ain’s run to the fi nal against Real Madrid brought passionate crowds to the stadiums of Abu Dhabi and provided a welcome pre-tournament boost to a na-tional team that has hardly set the world alight under Italian Alberto Zaccheroni.

It is fair to say, though, that Real also brought more world class footballers to the Emirates than the Asian Cup will with only South Korea skipper Son Heung-min likely to register

with many casual football fans outside the Asia-Pacifi c.

That does not mean there will not be plenty of skilful football on display as the cream of the world’s most populous conti-nent contest the equivalent of the European Championship and Copa America.

The world’s most populous countries will both be represent-ed but neither China nor India are expected to be around at the business end of the tournament.

The Indians would probably not have qualifi ed without the expansion from 16 teams, while China appear to have stagnated under the guidance of Italian World Cup winner Marcello Lippi.

Under an agreement with his club Tottenham Hotspur, Son will only join the fray for the third and last Group C match against Lippi’s side as well as the knockout stage.

The Taeguk Warriors should have more than enough quality to seal one of the top two spots in the group without him, though, given the other two teams in it are debutants in the shape of Kyrgyzstan and Sven Goran Eriksson’s Philippines.

South Korea, who won the fi rst two Asian Cups and fi n-ished runners-up to Australia in 2015, look like the form team in Asia going into the tourna-ment, having gone unbeaten in six matches under Portuguese coach Paulo Bento since their World Cup exit.

Japan, who made the last 16 in Russia before going out to a thrilling Portugal comeback,

also look to have a reasonably straightforward passage having been drawn with Uzbekistan, Oman and Turkmenistan in Group F. Hajime Moriyasu has had the Samurai Blue playing an attractive attacking style since he took over after the World Cup and even without Shinji Kagawa and Shinji Okazaki they have enough quality to challenge for a

fi fth title. The importance of midfi elder

Aaron Mooy to Australia’s chal-lenge was illustrated when coach Graham Arnold included him in the squad even though Hudders-fi eld Town had ruled him out of tournament because of a serious knee injury.

For all the class on the ball that Mooy can provide when

fi t, though, Australia’s title de-fence is most likely to rest on their ability to fi nd the net now that the totemic Tim Cahill has fi nally hung up his personalised boots.

DIPLOMATIC BOYCOTTA continent as vast as Asia can rarely have put on any sporting event without the backdrop of some political turmoil - aston-ishing as it may now seem, Israel won the title in 1964 - and the 2019 Asian Cup will be no ex-ception.

There are representatives of troubled countries and territo-ries of the west of the continent with Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen all looking to bring cheer to people who have endured much hardship in recent years.

Iraq did just that with their fairytale run to the title in 2007 and the Lions of Mesopotamia have been drawn to play neigh-bours Iran in Group D.

Iran have had their traditional uncertain run-up to the tourna-ment but are always a force to be reckoned with in Asia and an end to their 43-year wait for a fourth title cannot be discounted.

Carlos Queiroz’s side went out of the last Asian Cup on penal-ties to Iraq in a thrilling quarter-fi nal played out in a magnifi cent atmosphere in Canberra.

If their January 16 group match in Dubai comes anywhere close to matching that, and the tournament can produce a few more clashes with similar drama and passion, the fans that do turn up in the Emirates will be in for a rare treat.

Usual suspects in the frameASIAN CUP FOOTBALL

Mayweather fl oors Nasukawa three times in two minutesAFPTokyo

Floyd “Money” Mayweath-er beat Japanese kickbox-ing phenomenon Tenshin Nasukawa by a technical

knockout yesterday after just two minutes of a New Year’s Eve “ex-hibition” bout that brought the US boxing superstar out of retire-ment for a big pay day.

In a mismatched contest, Mayweather fl oored Nasukawa, a kickboxer less than half his age, three times in the fi rst round of the three-round contest before the Japanese fi ghter’s trainer rushed in to stop the fi ght.

“Money” Mayweather has hint-ed on social media he was pocket-ing $9 million for the fi ght, mean-ing he earned around $4.5 million per minute for the spectacle.

The American boxer at fi rst appeared not to be taking the fi ght seriously, grinning at his opponent and aiming only soft punches at him.

But he then demonstrated his power, launching a series of jabs and hooks to the head of the 20-year-old Japanese fi ghter, sending him to the canvas after just one minute with a left hook.

Sensing his opponent was struggling, Mayweather stepped in for the kill, unleashing a fl urry of punches that left Nasukawa reeling again within just two minutes of the bout and facing his second standing count after a huge right hook to the head.

With the Japanese fi ghter clearly battling to stay on his feet, the trainer rushed in and stopped the fi ght with less than one minute of the fi rst round re-maining.

“It was all about entertain-ment. We had fun,” Mayweather said in the ring after the event.

“I’m still retired. I don’t look forward to coming back to box-ing but I did this just to enter-tain the fans in Japan,” added the 41-year-old.

The rules were very strictly defi ned: three, three minute bouts and boxing only - kick-boxer Nasukawa was report-edly facing a $5 million fi ne if he aimed a kick at Mayweather.

There were no judges, with only a knockout or technical knockout considered a victory in the bout, promoted as a pure

exhibition match. Crucially, the match did not feature on the record of either man, allowing them both to retain a cherished unbeaten record.

“This won’t go on my record. This won’t go on Tenshin’s record. Tenshin is still undefeat-ed. I’m still undefeated. This is just entertainment for the peo-ple,” he added.

$9MN FOR 9 MINUTES

The purse for the event was not

disclosed but “Money” hinted on Instagram that he would be making $1 million per minute.

“What if I told you I was mak-ing $9,000,000 for nine minutes of sparring in Tokyo, Japan,” he wrote on his offi cial page.

“Would you do the same if you were me? I like to call it a nine-minute walk thru,” the post added.

Mayweather, a legend in the boxing world, has a perfect 50-0 record with 27 knockouts. He

won world titles in fi ve diff er-ent weight divisions and was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the sport.

Virtually unknown outside the kickboxing ring in his own country, Nasukawa from Chiba near Tokyo also boasts an un-beaten record.

He won the world junior kara-te championship, made his pro-fessional kickboxing debut at the age of 16 and has a 28-0 record with 21 wins by knockout.

Promoters RIZIN have hailed him as “perhaps the best com-bat sports prospect the country has ever seen” and the 20-year-old himself had claimed he has a “punch that boxers don’t have”.

But he hardly penetrated May-weather’s defences and barely made the older man break sweat.

This is the second time May-weather has been coaxed out of retirement. Last year, he knocked out mixed martial arts fi ghter Conor McGregor in the

10th round of a super-hyped boxing match.

There are also unconfi rmed rumours Mayweather could take on reigning UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmago-medov, who said last month any match-up would be “twice as in-teresting” as the McGregor fi ght.

Monday’s Tokyo fi ght was on-off from the start. It was an-nounced out of the blue on No-vember 5, with Mayweather say-ing it had “always been a goal of

mine to go outside out of the US and display my talent”.

However, just as abruptly as it was announced, it was called off just three days later.

Mayweather said he had been “blindsided” into the contest by the organisers.

But the promoter fl ew to the US to meet Mayweather and an-nounced a week later that the fi ght was back on, saying that a “misunderstanding” had been resolved.

BOXING

‘I’m still retired. I don’t look forward to coming back to boxing but I did this just to entertain the fans in Japan’

US boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr (left) knocks down kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa of Japan during their exhibition match at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama yesterday. (AFP)

Arsenal manager Unai Emery was fined 8,000 pounds ($10,200) yesterday but avoided a touchline ban for kicking a plastic bottle at a Brighton and Hove Albion supporter, the English Football As-sociation (FA) said. The Spanish coach immediately apologised to the supporter following the incident during the closing moments of Arsenal’s 1-1 Premier League draw at the Amex Stadium last Wednesday. Emery admitted an FA improper conduct charge and accepted the standard penalty.“I kicked it for me and it went near the supporters. I said my apologies ... I kicked it because it’s near me and not because of this intention,” Emery had said following the incident.Arsenal, who are fifth in the table following a 5-1 defeat by leaders Liverpool on Saturday, host Fulham today.

EVERTON’S HOLGATE SEALS WEST BROM LOAN SWITCHEverton defender Mason Holgate will join Championship (second tier) side West Bromwich Albion on loan until the end of the sea-son when the transfer window reopens on Tuesday, the Premier League side announced yesterday. The versatile 22-year-old can play as a centre back or a right back but has managed only five league appearances this season, with Yerry Mina and Kurt Zouma ahead of him in the pecking order at 10th-placed Everton. Holgate, who has 48 senior appearances for Everton since he signed from Barnsley in 2015, is unavailable for West Brom’s league clash at Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday but could make his debut in their FA Cup game against Wigan Athletic on January 5.

PIQUE’S INVESTMENT GROUP TAKES OVER FC ANDORRABarcelona defender Gerard Pique has expanded his business stable by taking over tiny Spanish lower-league Soccer club FC Andorra, the player’s Kosmos investment group said on Saturday.“The General Assembly of FC Andorra has unanimously approved the transmission of its assets in favour of an Andorran company jointly managed by diff erent investors, including Kosmos,” said the company’s statement. “Kosmos welcomes the decision made by the club. The company adds this project to its global portfolio linked to sports, media and entertainment ventures.”FC Andorra, founded in 1942, play in the First Regional Catalan Division and spent 14 seasons in Spain’s regionalised third tier, Segunda Division B. Kosmos, founded by Pique, who is also the CEO and president of the firm, is most famous for its takeover of tennis’s Davis Cup, injecting $3 billion dollars into the 118-year-old competition over the next 25 years and creating a week-long for-mat akin to a World Cup due to start next November in Madrid.The company’s portfolio also includes the television production company Kosmos Studios. Pique, a four-time Champions League winner with Barcelona and Manchester United who quit the Spain national team last July, also founded a video game and mobile app developer Kerad Games.

Arsenal’s Emery fined for kicking bottle at Brighton fan

South Korea skipper Son Heung-min will only join the fray for the third and last Group C match against China as well as the knockout stage. (Reuters)