Sportsdesk | May 28, 2013
Are you suffering from a bout of Indian Premier League hangover? Fret not, writes Ahmed Rizvi. Just drive over to the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Shahid Afridi will be there, along with a number of Pakistan’s top stars, such as Abdul Razzaq, Imran Nazir and Faisal Iqbal, to help supply a dose of mighty heaves and monstrous sixes. If you are an Afghan, there is Shahpur Zadran for you. And you don’t even have to sit through 20 overs to get your fix. They will deliver it in just five. The inaugural Grand Midwest Sharjah Sixes has brought these stars to [...]
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Sportsdesk | May 27, 2013
Crystal Palace meet Watford on Monday in the Championship play-off final, with promotion to the English Premier League the prize. Here is a look at five memorable play-off games. 1 – May 31, 1993 Leicester City 3 Swindon 4 Inspired by player-manager Glenn Hoddle, right, Swindon had charged to a three-goal lead in the opening 53 minutes, only for Leicester to fight back with three goals of their own. But Hoddle’s men went up as Paul Bodin scored a penalty six minutes from time. 2 – May 29, 1995 Bolton Wanderers 4 Reading 3 It had looked ominous for Bolton after they [...]
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Sportsdesk | May 26, 2013
With the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters a roaring success this year, Charlie Whebell is optimistic for its return to the Emirates in 2014. The first ever Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters went down so well that its organiser plans to bring the tournament back to the UAE next year. Barry Hearn, chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation, was uncertain as to how successful the inaugural tournament – which ran on Thursday and Friday – would be. As he stood in the Dubai Tennis Stadium waiting for the fans to arrive on the first night, worry lines were growing on [...]
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Sportsdesk | May 23, 2013
Well, not so much flying as much as breeding. And no, we’re not talking about Usain, the now-legendary Jamaican Olympian. It’s a pigeon. We explain: Like his human counterpart, “Bolt” the racing pigeon is a record-setter in every sense, fetching €310,000 (Dh1.4 million) from a Chinese buyer impressed by his winning pedigree and successes. Named after six-times Olympic champion, Jamaican Usain Bolt, the pigeon was put up for auction on the Belgian specialist site pipa.be — which comes in several language versions, including Japanese and Chinese, reflecting the sport’s global appeal. “Bolt is a super pigeon,” owner Leo Heremans was [...]
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Sportsdesk | May 22, 2013
Manchester City have headed west for a Major League Soccer tie-up with the New York Yankees. We look at some statistics that define the sport in the US. 18,807 The average attendance in Major League Soccer cited for the 2012 season, across 19 teams. That put the sport third in the list of best-attended professional sports in the United States, behind NFL and MLB but ahead of the NHL and NBA. 10 The first MLS season, in 1996, was competed by 10 different teams. Of those, only one, the Tampa Bay Mutiny, no longer exists, having folded in 2001. Four of [...]
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Kumar Motwani | May 21, 2013
In the slam-bang Twenty20 format of cricket many reputations can be tarnished, and then some can be enhanced given the huge amounts of money and fan following the Indian Premier League attracts. As the sixth season draws to a close with the knockout stages left, we look at those who had a successful outing over the last two months, as well as those who flopped given their experience or the hefty price tags that they carried: HIT XI MS Dhoni (captain, w.k) – Chennai Super Kings A must-have name to lead a side in any pressure-cooker situation even if Chennai [...]
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Chitrabhanu Kadalayil | May 17, 2013
2008 Differences with ECB The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) refused to sign No Objection Certificates permitting its contracted cricketers to play in the IPL’s inaugural season. What is essentially a domestic tournament, the IPL’s dates coincided with those of the County Championship, which is organised by the ECB. England players, with a few exceptions, continue to skip the annual competition while the two boards still share an awkward equation. Media restrictions The IPL surprised media outlets when it enforced guidelines on covering matches. They restricted the use of images during the event unless they were purchased from cricket.com, [...]
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Gary Meenaghan | May 14, 2013
Our man in Dubai, Gary Meenaghan, comes face to face with ‘the blonde falcon’ who will help generate publicity for October’s Fifa Under 17 World Cup, to be held across the Emirates. He did not quite fly in through the window of the Burj Al Arab’s 27th floor, but he did seem to magically appear from nowhere. Yesterday, in a plush ballroom close to the top of the world’s only seven-star hotel, local organisers unveiled a furry falcon that will become increasingly familiar as the UAE’s Fifa Under 17 World Cup approaches. Following a short, untranslated speech in Arabic by [...]
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Graham Caygill | May 13, 2013
Troy Deeney, whose goal ensured the English Championship side are one win away from Premier League qualification, empathises with Leicester, who they beat in the semi-finals of the second-tier competition. Hull City rode the emotions of despair and joy before achieving their place in the English Premier League last weekend, and the side they edged out to achieve automatic promotion, Watford, went through the same levels of drama in the space of 20 seconds on Sunday to keep their own aspirations of elevation alive. While Hull claimed the second of two automatic promotion spots on the final day of the [...]
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Paul Oberjuerge | May 10, 2013
As an American fan of football, I am predisposed to like David Moyes for this: he twice brought over Landon Donovan for winter spells with Everton, in 2010 and 2012. Donovan is the greatest player in the history of the American game, easily better than Clint Dempsey, who is erratic and less-than-selfless when playing for the national side. Donovan, however, had been dogged for much of his career by a segment of US fans for his perceived failures in Europe, particularly in regards to his signing with Bayer Leverkusen at age 16, when he pined and withered during a winter [...]
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