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16

Football / Sepp Blatter declared 'the father of world football' by advisor who launches

« on: October 14, 2015, 03:31:53 PM »

epp Blatter's long-time confidant has declared that the suspended FIFA president is deserving of more respect, while also deriding the "robber barons" of UEFA and European football.

Klaus Stohlker has leapt to the defence of Blatter, who he says is the "father of football", before launching an astonishing attack on his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini, and both the French and German football federations.

Blatter and Platini were both recently suspended by FIFA's independent Ethics Committee for a period of 90 days, acting in response to Blatter being placed under criminal investigation by the Swiss Attorney-General.

Blatter is being investigated regarding a contract he signed that was "unfavourable" to FIFA and is also accused of making a "disloyal" payment to UEFA president and FIFA vice-president Platini.

Blatter has denied any wrongdoing, amid widespread criticism and according to Stohlker, "nobody understands what this man has done for world football".

“Joseph S. Blatter has built world football’s governing body FIFA into a global corporation over the past 40 years," declared Stohlker, writing for financial news outlet Inside ParadePlatz.

“Now FIFA is in a growing crisis for which everybody wants the head of Sepp Blatter.

“I am of a different opinion: Sepp Blatter is the father of world football, which did not exist before him. In 40 years he has built an organisation with 1.6 billion fans, 300 million active participants and 209 national associations with a worldwide turnover of more than 300 billion Swiss francs. While the wolves howl in Europe and the US, the fans flock to the stadiums; 2015 is also the growth of the football industry globally over 20 percent."

Stohlker also added that Blatter, the 79-year-old FIFA president of 17 years, should take the credit for the "explosive growth" of world football - and the success of its governing body - in the last decade.

He points to Blatter as the man who sought to bring in 'ethical rules' within the governing body's framework, but who saw Platini and powerful European nations hold back his drive for reform, and says UEFA are now hanging Blatter out to dry, as they seek to conserve their own power.

“FIFA has become rich enough to afford an investment of 1.5billion Swiss franc a year, in football development. Sepp Blatter has built this.

"Where such a lot of money will be implemented, it needs ethical rules, not robber barons taking possession of the game.

“Who stood in his way? UEFA president Michel Platini and many European national associations, especially Germany and France.

“Sepp Blatter believed everyone in the world had the right to play football. Hence the Latin Americans adored him, even more the Africans whom he brought up to world standard as well as Asia and Oceania who consider him the ‘father of football’. The Europeans saw their control ebb away.

“UEFA is the home of the richest clubs in the world and wants to keep control of the world game through the help of Michel Platini. The Asians, Africans and Arabs see a unique opportunity to use the power of their majorities within FIFA to dominate world football.

"The United States, with its own stagnating 'football’, sees how their immigrant Latinos and Asians are achieving fabulous growth rates with ‘soccer’.

"I demand respect for Sepp Blatter".

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17

Cricket / International cricket prize money rises in boost for teams, top players

« on: October 14, 2015, 03:28:53 PM »

The ICC have revealed that associate and affiliate countries will receive a cash boost as well as doubling the prize money for the top men's and women's teams.

Cricket's governing body made the decision during a two-day meeting of the International Cricket Council board that concluded in Dubai on Tuesday.
An ICC release said: "The board approved an increased allocation of $US65 million ($NZ97.3 million) prize money for the top-ranked test sides and for men's and women's ICC events during the period 2016-2023."

That means prize money paid to players will increase by 41 per cent compared to the previous eight-year cycle and the  No 1-ranked test team, by April 1 2016, will receive $US1 million ($NZ1.5 million) – up from $US500,000 ($NZ750,000) in 2015.

"This prize money is in addition to the Test Cricket Fund of $US70 million ($US105 million), which the ICC board introduced last year to help ensure test-playing sides are able to sustain a home program of test cricket through to 2023," added the ICC.

The extra funding will be available next year to all test members except the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The ICC board have also increased funding for the 38 associate and 57 affiliate members by up to $US208 ($NZ312 million) for 2016-2023, compared to the $US125 million ($NZ187.5 million) they received in the previous cycle.

Women's cricket will also have a five-fold increase in prize money in the six women's events between 2016 and 2023 and the ICC has acknowledged developments in the game.

"The women will compete for total prize money of $US4.4 million ($NZ6.6 million) during the period, including a prize money pool of $US1 million ($NZ1.5 million) for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017."

The 2017 Women's World Cup will also have a new format, with eight teams competing in the event to be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Teams will play a round-robin format before the top four sides progress to the semifinals, followed by the final.

The ICC also noted their developed relations with the suspended United States Cricket Association

They said: "The board was pleased with the work undertaken, in conjunction with the wider US cricket community, to start developing a meaningful strategy for cricket in the USA, which includes the unification of all stakeholders."

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18

Cricket / India under pressure to regain lost ground

« on: October 14, 2015, 03:26:52 PM »

 If there is a place for India to get their groove back after falling behind early against South Africa, Indore's Holkar Stadium is it. They have won all three ODIs played at the venue, which has not seen international cricket since 2011.

The South African visit threatens to very quickly go downhill for India after they lost the T20 series and the first ODI. They have also lost their premier spinner and the only bowler who really troubled the South Africa batsmen, R Ashwin, to a side strain and have to find both the motivation and the right men to get things back on track.

The captain, MS Dhoni, has to be one of those men especially because, so far, his tactics have been questioned. Dhoni's use of his bowlers have, at times, given South Africa's batsmen a free passage, and he will have to be attacking and aggressive if he wants his team to draw level.

Dhoni need look no further than the opposition camp to see how to do that. South Africa are batting with intent and bowling with energy and the results are falling in their favour. They'll be careful not to think that means nothing can go wrong because, they know that as soon as they get too comfortable, they will likely pay the consequences.

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19

English / White author under fire after using Asian pen name to be published more often

« on: October 14, 2015, 03:25:11 PM »

The newly published The Best American Poetry 2015, an esteemed literary anthology, features a poem from "Yi-Fen Chou," the pen name of a white author named Michael Derrick Hudson.

Inside the 2015 edition, the author says that there's a "very short answer" for his reasoning. He's been rejected a "multitude of times" under his real name and using the Asian identity was a "successful" strategy for him.

"The poem in question, 'The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve,' was rejected under my real name forty (40) times before I sent it out as Yi-Fen Chou (I keep detailed submission records). As Yi-Fen the poem was rejected nine (9) times before Prairie Schooner took it. If indeed this is one of the best American poems of 2015, it took quite a bit of effort to get it into print, but I'm nothing if not persistent," he writes.

"I realize that this isn't a very 'artistic' explanation of using a pseudonym. Years ago I did briefly consider trying to make Yi-Fen into a 'persona' or 'heteronym' a la Fernando Pessoa, but nothing ever came of it."

Writers responded to Mr Hudson, shortly after poet Saeed Jones posted the excerpt to his Facebook page.

Franny Choi, a Frederick Bock Prize winner, told The Independent that the author’s deception is cultural appropriation at it’s purest, as Asian-Americans are forced to change their names to survive racism.

“When I was in the second grade, I stopped going by my Korean name, Jeong Min, because at seven years old, I already felt the shame of being foreign and the exhaustion of hearing my name butchered over and over again. As a kid, I tried to imagine myself as an author but worried about how to hide my obviously Korean surname,” she said.

“For Asian-Americans, changing our names is a strategy to survive a racist and nativist America. Michael Derrick Hudson's pseudonym is cultural appropriation at its purest — it’s stealing from the struggle of people of color for a white man's personal gain.”

Author Danez Smith told The Independent that he hopes the author's "antics" doesn't continue to hurt writers of color and that his actions "distract (a function of racism) from the work of amazing writers of color published under their real names."

"Michael’s theatre has already taken up space a writer of color could have filled, his antics trivialize the experience of people of color, of growing up with a name that many white Americans refuse to fit in their mouths," he said.

"I hope his actions don’t continue to hurt writers of color, specifically writers from the Asian diaspora. I hope editors don’t use this as an excuse to continue to marginalize actual People of Color, but rather teach us a lesson about responding appropriately when racism announces itself, especially when that announcement is plain, clear and in the author’s note."

The Angry Asian Man blog also accused Mr Hudson of yellowface in poetry and predicted that the author wouldn't be enjoying his newly discovered privilege much longer.

The anthology's editor Sherman Alexie responded to his critics in a lengthy blog post. He explained why he chose to publish the "poetry colonist" after he discovered that the author was a white man.

"I only learned that Yi-Fen Chou was a pseudonym used by a white man after I'd already picked the poem and Hudson promptly wrote to reveal himself," he began, admitting he was angry after being fooled by the "colonial theft."

"But I had to keep that pseudonymous poem in the anthology because it would have been dishonest to do otherwise. If I'd pulled the poem then I would have been denying that I gave the poem special attention because of the poet's Chinese pseudonym.

"If I'd pulled the poem then I would have been denying that I was consciously and deliberately seeking to address past racial, cultural, social, and aesthetic injustices in the poetry world."

Mr Alexie said that in keeping the poem he commit "an injustice against poets of color and against Chinese and Asian poets in particular."

However, Mr Smith responded to the blog post by saying that the editor's response made little sense.

"I can’t imagine how a writer of color, one who claims to be about literary justice for people of color, could muster the logic to reward a white man for his racist act. If being called out for 'racial nepotism' (read: our imaginary friend Reverse Racism) is the price of having one less white male voice, one masquerading as a Chinese one (for the what? mediocre poetry fame? Infamy as a catalyst for stardom?), then let them call you what they will," he said.

The [insert] Boy author and Lambda Literary Award winner recalled a conversation with poet Joshua Bennett, where the pair discussed how out of character Mr Alexie's explanation was. They agreed that the editor had previously displayed a "long track record of being critical of whiteness and its offices."

"His unfortunate actions and reasoning hopefully show us that we can’t just talk shit about dismantling racism in our world, our publishing reality, but we have to be willing to make the brave, and I believe also sensible, choice when the moment arrives."

The Independent's calls to Simon & Shuster and Michael Derrick Hudson were not immediately returned.

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20

Cricket / Redbacks prevail in Matador thriller

« on: October 11, 2015, 04:55:22 PM »

A brilliant display of late hitting from Alex Ross has guided South Australia to a thrilling one-wicket win in their Matador BBQs One-Day Cup clash against Queensland.

Ross had been joined at the crease by Adam Zampa in the 32nd over of the run chase with the Redbacks struggling at 5-132, needing more than eight runs an over to chase down Queensland's total of 9-279.

The leg-spinning allrounder launched a brilliant counter-attacking innings, smashing two sixes and seven fours in reaching his half-century from just 30 balls.

With rain in nearby suburbs and dark clouds surrounding the ground, Zampa smacked two more boundaries before he lobbed a catch to backward point to depart for 61 from just 38 deliveries.

WATCH: Bulls powerless against Zampa fightback

The Redbacks were 6-219 in the 44th over when a short rain delay of around 10 minutes reduced the target to 275 in 49 overs, with Ross unbeaten on a composed 51 and the key to SA's chances of victory.

And the right-hander delivered in stunning fashion, shepherding the tail and then hitting a six and three fours in the final over from veteran James Hopes to secure the win with one wicket and one ball to spare.

Towering Queensland quick Billy Stanlake had earlier announced himself on the domestic scene with a starring role in the early overs of the run chase.

The 20-year-old marked his second-ever game for the Bulls with the crucial scalp of SA captain Travis Head in just his second over, hurrying the left-hander into a top-edged pull shot that went straight to Michael Neser at fine leg.

WATCH: Big Billy lands maiden Matador wicket

He then removed Sam Raphael in identical fashion two overs later and claimed the wicket of Tom Cooper LBW for 5 in his second spell.

But Callum Ferguson (58 from 78 balls) and Ross slowly rebuilt the innings before Zampa's brilliant cameo.

The win is South Australia's second of the tournament ahead of the their next match against Tasmania on Wednesday.

The Bulls have now lost two of their three matches ahead of Friday's match against a rampant NSW Blues side at Drummoyne Oval.

A 168-run partnership between Nathan Reardon and Chris Hartley was the foundation of Queensland's 9-279, an innings that started and finished with a flurry of wickets.

Left-handers Reardon (87 from 97 balls) and Hartley (79 from 113) scored more than half of their side's runs as SA quick Kane Richardson starred with 5-35 in the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup clash.

Reardon's most likely mode of dismissal early on was timed out, Queensland's No.4 forced to frantically pad up and make his way to the middle after Richardson had taken a wicket with the first and second balls of the match.


Test batsman Joe Burns chipped the opening delivery to mid-wicket to record his second first-ball duck at North Sydney Oval inside a week, before Marnus Labuschagne was trapped plumb in front the very next ball.

Reardon survived the hat-trick ball, although he did play and miss twice more in an extraordinary opening over that left the Bulls 2-0.

The Redbacks would have to wait 33 overs for their next breakthrough however as Reardon and Hartley, who had watched the first over from the non-striker's end, combined for a match-turning stand.

Reardon was the more fluent of the duo, striking 10 boundaries before he attempted an ambitious swipe across the line to fall just 13 runs short of a second List A century and hand Richardson his third wicket.

WATCH: Reardon's rescue act for Queensland

Big-hitting allrounder Ben Cutting was elevated in the order ahead of captain Peter Forrest and the right-hander took a liking to the leg-spin of Adam Zampa, depositing him over the pavilion at the southern end of the ground.

But Zampa got the crucial wicket of Hartley for 79 before Forrest was unlucky to be run out for 4, caught short when his bat got stuck in the centre wicket and dislodged from his hand before he'd made his ground.

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21

Cricket / Chris Cairns perjury case takes cricket to a bleak place in more ways than one

« on: October 11, 2015, 04:54:16 PM »

rick and all rectangles, London's bleak and forbidding Southwark Crown Court is far removed from the thwack of willow-on-leather on a grassy English village green; it's simply not cricket in any sense.

Yet on Monday and for the next few weeks it will be more about cricket and its image than the traditional and elegant Lord's cricket ground across the Thames River, or The Oval it shares the south bank with.

Southwark, a building so concentrated on serious legal business it was built with its back to majestic views across the Thames to the Tower of London, will host evidence about the dark art of match fixing, as the perjury trial of former Black Caps captain Chris Cairns gets underway, after a stuttering start last week.
Former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent will give evidence.
Getty Images

Former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent will give evidence.

This is serious business, worse than match fixing. Perjury is a criminal charge. Cairns, 45, is accused of lying under oath in court when he said "I have never, ever, cheated at cricket. Nor would I ever contemplate such a thing".

If found guilty, the maximum sentence is seven years' jail. Cairns has denied all charges, saying he stands by his evidence.

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The words in question were uttered by Cairns as he saw off Lalit Modi in a London case in 2012, when he took the Indian businessman to court for libel and won. Modi had to pay him damages and costs said to amount more than NZ$3 million.

As a result, Cairns is now facing a more deadly attack, the British Crown Prosecution Service with its immense resources.

Crown prosecutor Sasha Wass QC has already had a free hit at Cairns in her opening statement last week, in which she outlined what various witnesses would say.

She played a Skype interview between the cricketer's legal adviser Andrew Fitch-Holland and Lou Vincent in which he appeared to be cajoling Vincent to give false evidence to the libel case. Vincent is to give evidence from the witness box on Monday.

Wass will have to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that Cairns did lie.

Cairns risked his reputation taking the libel case against Modi, and will remain intent on preserving it this time.

His defence tactics are yet to be revealed, though Wass warned the jury he was likely to try to attack the reputation of key witnesses Vincent and Brendon McCullum, an old friend he has fallen out with.

McCullum is expected to say Cairns talked to him in India in 2008 about spread betting - where punters bet on brackets of scores, such as under or over 50 runs being scored in the first 10 overs.

McCullum will in evidence say he declined to get involved, then Cairns made another approach later that year in England. Cairns rejects that there was any such approach.

Cairns was a world cricketing great, a Wisden player of the year in 2000, which heightens world interest in the trial outcome.

The son of Lance Cairns, a New Zealand cricketing cult hero, he took more than 200 test wickets and hit more than 3000 runs, in 58 tests.

He was three times awarded player of the year by the New Zealand Cricket Almanack, and once held the world record for most sixes in tests (87).

Only Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori and Chris Martin have taken more test wickets for the Black Caps.

His test debut was in 1989, his last test in June 2004, and his last ODI in 2006.

After retiring from the international game he played professionally in England and the cricketing hot-bed India, so cricket officials across the world will be nervous about what will be revealed in Southwark Crown Court.

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22

Football / Oregon's future looks in jeopardy after loss to Washington State

« on: October 11, 2015, 04:52:34 PM »

The most shocking game of this college football season included one program’s largest margin of defeat in more than a decade. On Saturday, that program, Oregon, suffered an equally stunning loss, only instead of a blowout it was decided in double overtime. The Ducks lost 45–38 to Washington State at Autzen Stadium to fall to 3–3 on the season and 1–2 against Pac-12 competition.

If the Utah defeat was written off in some quarters as a hiccup for an otherwise steady program, this loss made clear that interpretation was too generous. It’s not just that the Ducks won’t even come close to competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff a year after they fell one game short of winning it all. It’s that Oregon’s performance this season suggests it’s no longer the program that can be expected to stockpile double-digit win seasons and big-time bowl appearances while lording over one of the nation’s top conferences.

Those things were easy to take for granted when a brilliant tactical mind (Chip Kelly) stalked the sidelines and a once-in-a-generation quarterback (Marcus Mariota) piloted a devastating offense.

By guiding the Ducks to consecutive double-digit win seasons and a national championship game appearance in 2015, Kelly’s successor, Mark Helfrich, provided evidence that he could keep the machine humming at high speed. Yet this season offered an entirely different challenge: Could Helfrich win without the best player in program history?

The haphazard manner in which Oregon went about acquiring Mariota’s heir didn’t inspire confidence. It wasn’t until the middle of August, after Oregon had already started preseason workouts, that Vernon Adams was able to join the program when he passed his last math test at Eastern Washington. Adams arrived with impressive credentials—consecutive runner-up finishes for the Walter Payton Award and a track record of picking apart Pac-12 defenses—but the fact that Oregon’s offensive plans seemingly hinged on the addition of a Big Sky conference transfer who received zero FBS scholarship offers out of high school was telling.

How much blame Oregon deserves for not recruiting and/or developing Mariota’s successor in-house misses the point. What’s clear is that the Ducks failed to execute a smooth transition from the end of his college career into the future. In the past, Kelly’s offensive acumen may well have been enough to cover up a major deficiency at the most important position on the field. Absent that, Oregon came up with an underwhelming backup (Jeff Lockie), a walk-on (Taylor Alie) and the 11th hour importation of an FCS player (Adams) with no prior experience running the offense and precious little time to learn it before Week 1.

Pinning Oregon’s poor start on bad quarterback play—and the lack of an offensive wizard to overcome it—is reductive. For one, Oregon entered Saturday ranked 23rd nationally in yards per play and 20th in Football Outsiders’ S&P + ratings. That’s not bad—it’s just not Oregon-level good. The Ducks’ defense, under second-year coordinator Don Pellum, remains porous. Oregon entered Saturday ranked 47th nationally in yards allowed per play and 91st in Football Outsiders’ S&P+ Ratings.

Then there’s Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel’s report that Oregon players feel “entitled.” A lot has to go wrong for a program accustomed to squashing subpar conference opponents like Washington State to confront the very real possibility of missing a bowl game before Halloween.

There is time still for Oregon to recover, to make something of a season seemingly headed for more disappointment. At this point, with all meaningful postseason goals out of reach, the most encouraging development would be evidence of progress. Oregon probably can’t compete for a Pac-12 North title this season, but a strong finish, with multiple wins against the conference’s upper crust—games remain against Cal, Stanford, Arizona State and Washington—would provide hope that the Ducks can right the ship and enter 2016 on more solid ground.

Oregon is playing for the future now. The problem is no one’s quite sure what the future holds.

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23

Football / Scottish Gossip: Strachan to make Scotland decision this week

« on: October 11, 2015, 04:51:16 PM »

 Gordon Strachan is poised to make a decision on his future as Scotland manager next week, but he has given the strongest indication to date that he will stay on and orchestrate the bid to reach the World Cup finals in Russia in 2018. (Sunday Herald)

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan has been heartened by the response from those members of the general public he encountered on Friday as he cleared his head on a walk round the golf course at his squad's base in Renfrewshire - and by the professionalism of the players, some of whom were involved in an "inspirational" training session on Friday. (Scotland On Sunday)

Gordon Strachan said "we hope to make the nation happy quite soon" as he considers his future as Scotland manager after failure to reach the Euro 2016 finals. (Sunday Mail) 

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24

Cricket / SA in India 2015-16 October 9, 2015 Agarkar questions Dhoni's place in the team

« on: October 10, 2015, 09:47:34 AM »

 Former India fast bowler Ajit Agarkar has called for the selectors to scrutinise MS Dhoni's role in the Indian team, and not merely as captain. Agarkar felt the selectors should look at Virat Kohli's performance as the Test captain by comparison, and make a call on Dhoni's role in the limited-overs format after the ongoing South Africa series.

Ahead of the five-match ODI series against South Africa, Agarkar said he was "delighted" that India's squad was boosted by the genuine pace of Umesh Yadav, something he felt was lacking in the T20Is.

"MS Dhoni keeps saying you don't need to be a fast bowler, you need to be a good bowler, but it has been shown in T20s, you need bowlers with quality. They [ fast bowlers] can and will have bad days in the shorter format. And that's where I think the selectors need to almost put their foot down at times with MS Dhoni. He is, at times, way too practical, which doesn't work for the team anymore.

"You would rather have someone [like Umesh] who can make a difference with those one or two wickets which can change the game rather than someone who is going to bowl line and length all day."

India's medium-pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma and S Aravind collectively managed just the one wicket in the two T20Is played, while conceding over eight, nine and 12 an over respectively.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of India's ODI series against South Africa, Agarkar said "the selectors need to have a closer look at what MS Dhoni is doing, not just as captain, but as a player as well".

Agarkar was especially concerned by Dhoni's declining individual form. "He has been a great player for India, but you don't want him to become a liability for the team. And he needs to perform a lot better than he has [been]. Just because he has done it over the years, doesn't mean it's okay for him to fail."

Agarkar was also highly critical of Dhoni's decision to bat at No.4 in the one-day format, insisting that such a move would be "unfair" on somebody like Ajinkya Rahane and "would not work for the team."

'I'm not convinced he should bat at four," Agarkar said. "Just after a World Cup, you're now trying to develop your team for the next World Cup. Four years is a long time, but for Dhoni, towards the end of his career, to put himself up, I'm not sure about it. You can understand if there are batsmen who can't bat 3 and 4. But there is Ajinkya Rahane, who has been one of your best players in Test cricket and I don't think he can bat lower than four in ODIs yet, unless he changes his game over his career.

"Dhoni seems to have lost that ability of going out there and smashing it from ball one. He obviously takes his time. But he batted up the order in Bangladesh, and India still lost the series. All his career when people wanted him to bat up because he is so good and has that destructive ability, he has always maintained that he wants and needs to bat at No.6, where he can handle the pressure.

"It's a hard job batting at 5, 6 and 7. I've seen Yuvraj and MS himself do it for so long, but that doesn't mean that it changes at this stage in his career. You've got to have guys who are good at certain numbers. And at the moment MS by promoting himself, is getting a Rahane or anyone else who bats there, into trouble. I would still have Raina and Dhoni at 5 and 6, so contrary to what a lot of people have said, I don't think Dhoni should be batting at four at this stage in his career."

Agarkar believed the selectors might have some big decisions to take at the end of the ODI series against South Africa, on the future of the Indian team in ODIs and T20Is.

"Looking at the results, India have generally been good in ODIs, but you've lost the World Cup semi-final, then you've lost in Bangladesh where Dhoni was captain twice, and you've now lost a T20 series. Yes, the T20s can go either way very quickly so you don't want to judge someone, but for Dhoni this is a big series," he said.

"The selectors maybe need to look at where the Indian team is heading because Virat Kohli has done well as captain in Test cricket so maybe the selectors need to make that call after this series.'

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25

Football / Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero suffers grade-two tear

« on: October 10, 2015, 09:45:52 AM »

Sergio Aguero suffered grade-two muscle tear while playing for Argentina and could face up to eight weeks on the sidelines

The Manchester City striker was stretchered off with a hamstring problem during the first half of Thursday's 2-0 defeat to Ecuador.

"The studies we did today show that Sergio Aguero has a grade-two muscle tear," the Argentine Football Association said in a statement on Friday.

Argentina ruled Aguero out of next week's World Cup qualifier against Paraguay but did not speculate how long he would be sidelined for.

However, a grade-two tear to the hamstring can require anything from two to eight weeks to recover from and the striker has a history of hamstring problems.

The injury is expected to see Aguero miss the Manchester derby on October 25 and Champions League matches with Sevilla on October 21 and November 3.

Aguero is Argentina's fourth highest all-time scorer and his absence comes at a bad time for his country, who are already missing injured Lionel Messi and face Brazil in a key qualifier on November 13.

The 27-year-old, who scored five goals against Newcastle last weekend, has suffered several hamstring injuries during his time in the Premier League.

He was replaced as a precaution after his five-goal haul and later admitted he had felt his hamstring in City's previous game against Borussia Monchengladbach.

However, Argentina boss Gerardo Martino claimed his latest problem was unrelated.

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26

English / Svetlana Alexievich wins 2015 Nobel prize in literature

« on: October 10, 2015, 09:40:03 AM »

Svetlana Alexievich, the Belarusian writer whose oral histories have recorded thousands of individual voices to map the implosion of the Soviet Union, has won the Nobel prize for literature.
The Swedish Academy, announcing her win, praised Alexievich’s “polyphonic writings”, describing them as a “monument to suffering and courage in our time”.
She becomes the 14th woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. The last woman to win, Canada’s Alice Munro, was handed the award in 2013.
Speaking by phone to the Swedish broadcaster SVT, Svetlana Alexievich said that the award left her with a “complicated” feeling.
“It immediately evokes such great names as [Ivan] Bunin, [Boris] Pasternak,” she said, referring to Russian writers who have won the prize. “On the one hand, it’s such a fantastic feeling, but it’s also a bit disturbing.”
The academy called while she was at home, “doing the ironing,” she said, adding that the 8m Swedish krona (£775,000) prize would “buy her freedom”.
“It takes me a long time to write my books, from five to 10 years. I have two ideas for new books so I’m pleased that I will now have the freedom to work on them.”
Alexievich was born on the 31 May 1948 in the Ukrainian town of Ivano-Frankovsk into a family of a serviceman. Her father is Belarusian and her mother is Ukrainian. After her father’s demobilisation from the army the family returned to his native Belorussia and settled in a village where both parents worked as schoolteachers. She left school to work as a reporter on the local paper in the town of Narovl.
She has written short stories, essays and reportage but says she found her voice under the influence of the Belorusian writer Ales Adamovich, who developed a genre which he variously called the “collective novel”, “novel-oratorio”, “novel-evidence”, “people talking about themselves” and the “epic chorus”.
According to Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Alexeivich is an “extraordinary” writer.
“For the past 30 or 40 years she’s been busy mapping the Soviet and post soviet individual,” Danius said, “but it’s not really about a history of events. It’s a history of emotions – what she’s offering us is really an emotional world, so these historical events she’s covering in her various books, for example the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, these are in a way just pretexts for exploring the Soviet individual and the post-Soviet individual.”
“She’s conducted thousands and thousands of interviews with children, with women and with men, and in this way she’s offering us a history of human beings about whom we didn’t know that much ... and at the same time she’s offering us a history of emotions, a history of the soul.”
In Voices From Chernobyl, Alexievich interviews hundreds of those affected by the nuclear disaster, from a woman holding her dying husband despite being told by nurses that “that’s not a person anymore, that’s a nuclear reactor” to the soldiers sent in to help, angry at being “flung ... there, like sand on the reactor”. In Zinky Boys, she gathers voices from the Afghan war: soldiers, doctors, widows and mothers.
“I don’t ask people about socialism, I ask about love, jealousy, childhood, old age,” Alexievich writes in the introduction to Second-hand Time, which is due from independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2016. “Music, dances, hairstyles. The myriad sundry details of a vanished way of life. This is the only way to chase the catastrophe into the framework of the mundane and attempt to tell a story.
“It never ceases to amaze me how interesting ordinary, everyday life is. There are an endless number of human truths … History is only interested in facts; emotions are excluded from its realm of interest. It’s considered improper to admit them into history. I look at the world as a writer, not strictly an historian. I am fascinated by people.”
Danius pointed new readers towards her first book U vojny ne ženskoe lico (War’s Unwomanly Face), based on interviews with hundreds of women who participated in the second world war.
“It’s an exploration of the second world war from a perspective that was, before that book, almost completely unknown,” she said. “It tells the story of the hundreds and hundreds of women who were at the front in the second world war. Almost one million Soviet women participated in the war, and it’s a largely unknown history. It was a huge success in the Soviet Union union when published, and sold more than 2m copies. It’s a touching document and at the same time brings you very close to every individual, and in a few years they all will be gone.”
According to her close friend, the Belarusian opposition leader Andrei Sannikov, Alexeivich writes about “the history of the Red Man”.
“She claims he is not gone,” Sannikov said. “She argues that this man is inside us, inside every Soviet person. Her last book, Second-hand Time, is dedicated to this problem.” Alexeivich is “wonderful at interviewing” he continued. “She doesn’t avoid difficult issues or questions. Mostly she writes about human tragedy. She lets it go through her and writes with surgical precision about what’s going on within human nature.”
Bela Shayevich, who is currently translating Alexievich into English for Fitzcarraldo, also paid tribute to her skills as an interviewer which leave her work “resounding with nothing but the truth”.
“The truth of life in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia is not an easy thing to swallow,” Shayevich said. “I’m thrilled that this win will mean that more readers will be exposed to the metaphysical dimensions of her subjects’ survival and despair through the tragedies of Soviet history. I hope that in reading her, more people see the ways that suffering – even suffering brought on by geopolitical circumstances foreign to many readers – is also something that can bring people closer to one another if they are willing to take a risk and listen.”
Although Alexievich is widely translated into German, French and Swedish, winning a range of major prizes for her work, English editions of her work are sparse. Fitzcarraldo editor Jacques Testard came across her work in French a few years ago.
“It’s an oral history, as are all her books, about nostalgia for the Soviet Union,” said Testard. “She went around Russia interviewing people after the fall of the Soviet Union, in an attempt to surmise what the collective post Soviet psyche is. As with all her books, it’s really harrowing – a story about loss of identity, about finding yourself in a country which you don’t recognise any more. It’s a micro-historical survey of Russia in the second half of the 20th century, and it goes up to the Putin years.”
“She’s been a big deal in Europe for a long time, but she’s never really been picked up in England,” he said.
“Her books are very unusual and difficult to categorise. They’re technically non-fiction, but English and American publishers are loath to take risks on a book just because it’s good, without something like a Nobel prize.”
Alexievich led the odds for the 2015 award, ahead of Japan’s Haruki Murakami, Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse.

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Hockey / Flyers place D Andrew MacDonald on waivers despite $25M left on contract

« on: October 08, 2015, 03:32:35 PM »

The Philadelphia Flyers handed out some regrettable contracts during the latter years of Paul Holmgren's run as general manager, especially when it came to their defense.

The most regrettable of the bunch has to be the six-year, $30 million extension they gave to Andrew MacDonald back in 2014.

How bad of an investment did it turn out to be?

Well, consider this: The Flyers announced Monday, one year into the contract, they are placing MacDonald on waivers. He still has five years and $25 million remaining on the deal, and it is almost certain that he will go through waivers unclaimed.

It is expected that MacDonald will play in the American Hockey League, if he clears waivers. He would still count $4.05 million against the Flyers' salary cap at that point.

MacDonald was acquired by the Flyers from the New York Islanders late in the 2013-14 season. After appearing in a handful of games, was given his massive contract extension.

What makes it especially damaging for the Flyers, aside from the size of the contract, is that the team has had its share of salary cap problems (due in large part to contracts like this) in recent years. It also cost them two draft picks -- a third-round pick in 2015 and a second-round pick in 2014 -- and a prospect to acquire him.

The Islanders used the second-round pick in 2015 they acquired from the Flyers as part of their package to trade for a significantly better defenseman -- Johnny Boychuk -- from the Boston Bruins prior to the 2014-15 season.

You can't blame MacDonald for this situation because he is what he is: A defensive-defenseman that doesn't provide any offense or much of a puck-moving presence on the blue line. He simply did what any other person would do in the same situation and took the huge payday that was offered to him. The blame lies entirely on Flyers management for simply making a bad decision and a bad investment.

Even as NHL teams transition to more mobile, puck-moving defensemen, there can still be a place for players like MacDonald on a roster. However, you can't pay them $5 million a year over six years and expect them to be top-pairing guys.

The Flyers' defense is easily the weak link of the roster heading into the season. With MacDonald on waivers, his future with the team is obviously uncertain. The Flyers are prepared to open the season with a 37-year-old Mark Streit leading the unit, while Luke Schenn, Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz, Radko Gudas and free agent Evgeny Medvedev (signed out of the KHL) round out the group.

They're going to need another great season from goalie Steve Mason to stay competitive in a tough Metropolitan Division.

Earlier this summer, the Flyers sent two more of their problem contracts on defense -- the ones belonging to Chris Pronger, who will never play another NHL game, and Nicklas Grossmann -- to the Arizona Coyotes for Sam Gagner and a conditional draft pick.

All of these deals -- Pronger, Grossmann, MacDonald -- were signed when Holmgren was still general manager.

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Hockey / Why suspending Raffi Torres 41 games was the right decision

« on: October 08, 2015, 03:30:29 PM »

We had a feeling Raffi Torres wouldn’t play hockey again for a long, long time the minute Jakob Silfverberg fell to the ice Saturday night.

Torres had every conceivable strike against him. He’d run up a significant tab of suspensions in recent seasons. He got 25 games, appealed down to 21, for a devastating head shot that knocked Marian Hossa out of the 2011-12 post-season. Torres also earned a rest-of-playoffs ban for a head shot on Jarret Stoll in 2012-13. So Torres was in trouble the second he caught Silfverberg with a questionable hit Oct. 3. If the league deemed the play suspendable, Torres’ history of repeatedly violating one particular rule – 48.1, illegal check to the head – would greatly expand his sentence length.

But did anyone expect 41 games? Half a season? It’s a staggering punishment – and a staggeringly strong decision by the NHL Department of Player Safety.

It’s important to understand Torres’ history had no impact on the decision to suspend or not suspend him. Repeat offenses, and injuries to a victimized player, can only impact suspension length. Before the league reaches that juncture, it first must decide whether the play was illegal at all. So if Torres hit Silfverberg in a way the league deemed acceptable, Torres would’ve been off the hook, regardless of rap sheet. Alas, the hit wasn’t legal. Have a look:
As outlined in that explanatory video, Torres hits Silfverberg 0.8 seconds after Silfverberg loses the puck. That falls under the league’s official designation of “late hit.” Torres takes four strides toward Silfverberg and delivers a “high hit,” making Silfverberg’s head the main point of contact. Even though Silfverberg’s arm is up, and there may be some arm-on-arm contact first, the principal impact zone is the head. That made the hit suspendable before Torres’ history even came into play. Damian Echevarrieta, the NHL’s vice-president of player safety, told THN the league even could’ve flagged Torres for charging on top of the two official infractions, interference and illegal check to the head.

Then it was time for the department to factor in Torres’ past offenses. Thanks to a major knee injury, Torres had barely played in the past two years, which theoretically could’ve cleaned his slate under the CBA rules because he wasn’t suspended during that time. But, as Echevarrieta noted, Torres only played five regular season games and seven playoff games in that two-season span. Including three pre-season contests, that’s just a 15-game window between the suspension for the Stoll hit and the new 41-game ban, which Torres has the right to appeal. It’s a tiny gap between incidents, suggesting Torres hasn’t changed his behavior.

“Raffi is so unique in his situation,” said Stephane Quintal, the NHL’s senior vice-president of player safety. “I know he came and tried to change his behaviour, and he only played 15 games since he got hurt, but he obviously doesn’t get it. A warning, fine or suspension 11 times. He’s put us in a tough position.”

It’s also important not just that Torres has been suspended so often, but that the bans are for the same act. Echevarrieta points out certain players haven’t seen their suspension lengths escalate because they’re not committing the same act each time. That’s how Chris Pronger, now a member of the DOPS, got by during his playing career. But Torres consistently committed the same foul: late hit, high hit, head targeted. It was a highly specific behavior, and he wasn’t changing it. The league had no choice but to come down hard. Excluding lifelong bans, it’s the longest suspension in league history in terms of specific number of games. Todd Bertuzzi, for example, earned a seemingly more severe “indefinite” ban for the Steve Moore attack in 2004 but ended up missing 20 games.

Echevarrieta insists the league took no pleasure doling out the punishment. A perfect world, he said, would not be a league with many suspensions, but one with no suspensions, meaning player behavior had finally changed for the better.

The league did not consider a lifelong ban for Torres during the decision-making process. What happens if Torres returns to the NHL and commits another head shot? Would that bring about a permanent suspension? Quintal declined to comment on that hypothetical and said he simply hopes the league never ends up in that position.

The DOPS members believe Torres genuinely wants to change. After his previous suspension, he visited the their offices. They shared video with him. He watched it to learn his habits. He looked them in the eyes and showed a willingness to learn.

“I’m disappointed, because I thought we made some headway with him,” Echevarrieta said. “And to see it, it was, ‘Aw, come on, him?’ I thought of all the guys he’d be the one who wouldn’t do this. I thought he got it.'”

The league still believes it’s less a matter of malice on Torres’ part than it is being unable to kick a habit, a muscle memory of how to hit.

“He offers the league something, he offers the team something,” Echevarrieta said. “He scored 27 goals in this league. He can skate. He’s an effective player. We don’t want to ruin his career. We just want to make sure he doesn’t ruin anybody else’s.”

That’s why the decision was the right one. Whatever Torres is – vicious or clumsy, malicious or careless – his behavior is unsafe. And the only hope of teaching him anything was to drastically increase his punishment.

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29

Cricket / Cricketers turn on ‘match-fixing’ hero Chris Cairns

« on: October 08, 2015, 03:28:55 PM »

The “golden boy” of international cricket promised players up to £80,000 a game if they helped him to fix matches for gamblers, his perjury trial heard on Wednesday.

Chris Cairns, a former New Zealand captain, is accused of lying during the £1.4 million libel action he brought against an Indian cricket official who used Twitter to accuse him of cheating.

Southwark crown court heard that Brendon McCullum, the current New Zealand captain, would claim that his predecessor tried to recruit him for match fixing.

Sasha Wass, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Mr Cairns is described by his fellow cricketers as a hero and role model. He was the golden boy in the cricket world whom every cricketer wanted to emulate. The prosecution can demonstrate Mr Cairns had been involved in cheating at cricket, or match-fixing, for some time.”

Mr Cairns denies perjury and perverting the course of justice. Andrew Fitch-Holland, his friend and a barrister, also denies perverting the course of justice.

Mr Cairns played for New Zealand for 17 years. After retiring in 2006 he became captain of the Chandigarh Lions in the Indian Cricket League but was suspended in 2008 due to an ankle injury.

Two years later Lalit Modi, chairman of the rival Indian Premier League, claimed that Mr Cairns had been removed from the “auction list” of players “due to his past record of match-fixing”.

Mr Cairns sued Mr Modi in the High Court in London and repeatedly said in statements and on oath that he had never cheated at cricket. He was awarded £1.4 million in damages and costs.

Ms Wass said that despite Mr Cairns’ denials other players claimed that he “openly boasted” that match fixing did not matter in the Indian league. He believed that he was “untouchable”, she said.

Mr McCullum claims that he was playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders when Mr Cairns said that he could get him £30,000 to £78,000 per game for match-fixing. He did not report this immediately because Mr Cairns was a “hero of his”, the court heard. However, he did tell fellow New Zealand players Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond, the court heard, and made an official report during the Cricket World Cup in India in 2011.

Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, recalled Mr McCullum taking a phone call which he said later was Mr Cairns making a “business proposal”.

Lou Vincent, another former New Zealand international who played for Chandigarh Lions, admitted to match-fixing at the request of Mr Cairns, the court heard.

The trial continues.


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30

Cricket / Chris Cairns trial: Former cricketer accused of perjury

« on: October 08, 2015, 03:27:38 PM »

Chris Cairns is being prosecuted for perjury after declaring under oath that he had never cheated at cricket during a libel case in 2012.

He successfully sued Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi over a tweet accusing him of match-fixing.

Mr Cairns, who is also charged with perverting the course of justice, denies all the charges against him.

Counsel for the Prosecution Sasha Wass QC said Mr Cairns had been "the golden boy in the cricket world whom every cricketer wished to emulate".

But his reputation was shattered after Mr Modi accused him on Twitter in January 2010 of match-fixing while playing for the Chandigarh Lions in the Indian Cricket League in 2008.

During England's first Twitter libel trial, Mr Cairns said under oath that he had never ever cheated at cricket, which the prosecution claims is untrue. Mr Cairns won damages of $130,000 (£90,000).

Ms Wass told the jury it would hear evidence from the current New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum and former team-mate Lou Vincent, who were both "targeted" by Chris Cairns to help him fix matches.

Mr McCullum, she said, refused to have anything to do with it while Lou Vincent was "corrupted by him".

Mr Cairns is also charged with perverting the court of justice. It is alleged that he and co-defendant Andrew Fitch Holland, a barrister friend who had given him legal advice, asked a witness to give false evidence.

The court heard a tape of a recorded Skype conversation between Mr Fitch Holland and Mr Vincent, who also played for the Chandigarh Lions under Chris Cairns and has admitted being involved in match-fixing. The prosecution claims the conversation was an attempt to induce Mr Vincent to lie to the court in order to help Mr Cairns's case.

"What all of this recognised was that Chris Cairns was indeed guilty of match-fixing," Ms Wass said.

Chris Cairns and Andrew Fitch Holland deny all charges.

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