Sports

 

 

The prize money for the men’s event will be $3 million. 

LAHORE (Web Desk) - Pakistan will play against its traditional rival India on March 21 in the ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday announced the match schedules which will be staged from March 16 to April 6.

According to the ICC website, as many as 35 tournament matches will be played across Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet in the 22-day tournament.

The format for the event in next year’s tournament has been changed following an increase in teams from 12 to 16.

The prize money for the men’s event will be $3 million, with the winner receiving $1.1 million and the losing finalist collecting $550,000.

Format

As the teams’ seeding are based on the ICC T20 Team Rankings as on 8 October 2012, the top eight sides following the conclusion of the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 will play directly in the Super 10 stage, while Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, which finished outside the top eight, will participate in the first round that will be held from 16-21 March.

The first round of the event will include eight sides that will be divided into two groups (Group A, B) of four teams each, with the table-toppers progressing to the Super 10 stage.

In the first round, Group A will feature host Bangladesh alongside three teams that will qualify from the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2013, to be staged from 15 to 30 November. Group B will include Zimbabwe, which will be joined by another three teams from the upcoming qualifiers. As such, the two groups will be finalised on 30 November.

The Super 10 stage will start with an evening match between former champions India and Pakistan in Dhaka on Friday 21 March.

The two groups of the Super 10 stage are:

Group 1 – Sri Lanka, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Group B Qualifier 1 (Q1B)

Group 2 – West Indies, India, Pakistan, Australia, Group A Qualifier 1 (Q1A)

 

 

No buyers for Taiwan’s oldest baseball team

Brother Elephants hope to find a buyer by end of this year and thank fans for support.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan s oldest professional baseball team, Brother Elephants, announced it was seeking a buyer Saturday after its owner decided to quit due to massive losses.
"We hope to find a buyer by the end of this year and we thank all fans for their support in the past 29 years," said general manager Hung Jui-ho before bowing in front of a bank of cameras.
"This is a painful decision ... but the overall environment is changing and this is the decision we have to make," Hung told reporters.
The team has incurred annual losses of up to Tw$50 million ($1.7 million). Those coupled with the huge losses it has accumulated over the years -- which are more than Tw$1 billion -- have become unbearable for its parent company, Taipei s Brother Hotel, Hung added.
Last year, Sinon Corp, whose sprawling business empire runs from chemicals to supermarkets, sold its baseball team Sinon Bulls because of losses that were reportedly around Tw$1.4 billion.
The team was renamed EDA-Rhinos by its buyer E United Group which has businesses in manufacturing, medical care, hospitality and real estate.
Baseball-obsessed Taiwan has a total of four professional teams that also include Uni-President Lions and the Lamigo Monkeys.
The island s baseball league has been plagued by a string of match-fixing scandals in recent years. The latest scandal broke out in 2011 when six former players and a politician were sentenced to jail terms of up to seven years for rigging games.
All betting on domestic sports is banned in Taiwan. There is a government-organised sports lottery, but it is exclusively for games abroad, such as American baseball or European football.

 

 

Crime, fan injuries drop in German football league matches

Number of football fans hurt at German league matches last season dropped by a third.

BERLIN, Oct 14, 2013 (AFP) - The number of football fans hurt at German league matches last season dropped by nearly a third, while crime incidents sank by 20 percent, according to a new report.
In their annual report, Germany s Central Information Office for Sports Deployment (ZIS) said injuries at German first and second division grounds had dropped from 1,142 cases in the 2011-12 season to 788.
During the same period, the number of prosecuted crimes also dropped from 8,143 to 6,502.
"Fewer injuries and fewer crimes amongst the 18 million spectators who attended matches in the previous Bundesliga season is a good figure," said German politician Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, in Duesseldorf.
The news was less than impressive further down the leagues with the number of injuries at third division matches rising by just over 50 percent last season.
"The incidents of violence and riots at third division games is still too high," added Jaeger.
The amount of man hours spent policing German Bundesliga matches in the last ten years has nearly doubled from 900,800 to 1.75 million, something Jaeger has dubbed "unacceptable".
"Our goal is to use fewer police officers at future football matches," he added.

 

 

Vettel silences critics as title beckons

Vettel was accused of sending fans to sleep with his consecutive wins.

SUZUKA (AFP) - Sebastian Vettel is used to dominating from the front but a brilliant, come-from-behind victory in Japan silenced the critics and proved it s not all about his Red Bull car.
The young German has attracted cynicism and even boos this year but if there was any doubt that he belongs among Formula One s greats, he obliterated it at Suzuka.
Vettel was accused of sending fans to sleep with his consecutive wins at Belgium, Italy, Singapore and South Korea, but he had to fight for victory in Japan.
The performance, described as "quite supreme" by his team principal Christian Horner, leaves the 26-year-old all but assured of a fourth successive world title.
Only two men in Formula One history -- Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher -- have won four in a row, and neither managed it at such a young age.
At Suzuka, Vettel qualified second on the grid despite being without his speed-boosting Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), a handicap estimated at 0.3sec per lap.
And at the start of the race, he got away slowly and was clipped by Lewis Hamilton, suffering damage to his front wing.
But he waited patiently in third place and nursed his tyres to the extent that he only needed two pit stops, compared with three for his team-mate Mark Webber.
And when he finally got his chance, late in the race, he pounced on leader Romain Grosjean, darting past and then watchfully bringing his deteriorating tyres home.
Vettel has now won five races in a row, the longest winning streak since Schumacher in 2004, and four of the last five grands prix in Japan.
With a 90-point lead over Alonso and 100 available from the last four races, his coronation is a foregone conclusion, barring an extraordinary turn of events.
Vettel has the statistics of a champion, but does not always get due recognition. Critics point to his superior car, crafted by Red Bull s brilliant designer, Adrian Newey.
His decision to ignore team orders and snatch victory from a fuming Webber this year in Malaysia lowered him in the opinion of some fans.
And others seem to be growing tired of the finger-pointing celebration and excitable yelling from the cockpit that accompanies every win.
"Ichiban (first)!" whooped Vettel over the radio as he took the chequered flag for the ninth time this season. "You re the best team in the world. I love you guys. Yes! Ichiban!"
Boos greeted his victories in Belgium, Italy and Singapore. But great sportsmen are often accused of arrogance -- just ask Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.
Horner highlighted a telling moment in Japan, when Webber had the chance to follow Vettel past Grosjean and challenge his team-mate for victory.
"Seb had DRS (drag reduction system) when he passed Grosjean," Horner said. "There was one lap where Mark got right into the slipstream but because he pushed the button too early, the flap didn t open."
Webber got stuck behind Grosjean, and his chance of winning disappeared. Fine margins that separate the great from the rest.

 

 

Football: Real Madrid to meet PSG in January friendly

Real Madrid will face Paris Saint-Germain in a friendly in Doha on January 2.

MADRID (AFP) - Real Madrid will face French champions Paris Saint-Germain in a friendly in Doha on January 2, the Spanish club confirmed on Friday.
It will be the second time the clubs have met in barely six months after Real emerged 1-0 victors from a pre-season friendly between the two in Gothenburg back in July.
PSG have strong links with the Qatari capital as they are owned by Qatar Sports Investments.
Both sides will be on their mid-season winter break at the time, with Real returning to league action the following weekend, whilst Ligue 1 doesn t return until January 11.

 

 

Nadal can beat Federer's 17-Slam haul, says Becker

Boris Becker has said that Rafael Nadal is capable of beating Roger Federer's 17-Slam haul.

PARIS (AFP) - Rafael Nadal is capable of beating Roger Federer s record haul of 17 Grand Slams, former German number one Boris Becker told AFP on Thursday.
"If you d asked me that a few years ago, I d have said no. But this year he (Nadal) has returned to his top form and now has 13 titles to his credit," Becker said.
"He s 27 and doesn t intend to stop there.
"He s capable of getting more," added the London-based star.
"Nadal is a great competitor. After all that happened to him last season (a long lay-off with a left knee injury) to return and have the success he s had this year in becoming world number one again is almost a miracle."
Becker was talking about Nadal, who has won 10 titles including the French Open and US Open, at an event linked to the German s participation in the Doha Goals sports forum in Qatar in December.

This is Pakistan's fourth win over South Africa in 22 Tests with the last one in 2007.