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INTERNATIONAL

Symonds remains uneasy about CT visit to Pakistan:
Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds said he had yet to be convinced Pakistan would be a safe venue for the ICC Champions Trophy in September. Players from Australia, New Zealand and England have expressed concern over playing in Pakistan after a deadly suicide blast in Rawalpindi, one of three venues for the tournament. Symonds arrived home from a West Indies tour recently and told reporters that while keeping an open mind he was yet to be convinced it was safe to play in Pakistan. “My feelings haven’t changed a great deal,” said Symonds, who first raised objections about Australia’s scheduled Test tour of Pakistan in April, which was eventually cancelled following a wave of suicide bombings. “I don’t mind the odd game of cricket for Australia, but it is only a game at the end of the day, and putting yourself in a position where you’re not safe, to me is ridiculous,” he said. Acting captain Michel Clarke, deputising for injured skipper Ricky Ponting, refused to express an opinion, instead preferring to leave the call up to the game’s administrators. Clarke said he would wait to hear what Cricket Australia, the Australian Cricketers’ Association and the International Cricket Council decided on the issue. Shane Watson, who revived his international career in the West Indies after being drafted in to replace injured Matthew Hayden, said he would play for his country wherever he was asked. “Personally, I’d go anywhere, I’ll play anywhere, I just want to play for my country,” Watson told reporters. “That’s what I’ve worked so hard for. I’d do anything to play for my country so wherever we have to go, I’ll go.” Australia are drawn in a pool comprising India, Pakistan and the West Indies, and are scheduled to play their first match against India in Lahore on September 13. The final is to be played in Lahore on September 28, with Australia to follow the tournament by making a four-Test tour of India in October. Fast bowler Shaun Tait was named in a preliminary 30-man Australian squad as he continues his lengthy fitness and rehabilitation programme following a self-imposed break from the game earlier this year.

Korean archers say success is in their blood:
For South Korea’s female archers, Olympic gold medals are like family heirlooms — passed down from one generation of competitors to the next. South Korea’s women have created one of the great Olympic dynasties by winning every archery gold medal since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. They are heavy favourites to extend their streak to a seventh consecutive Games in Beijing. Athens Olympic champion Park Sung-hyun and Yoon Ok-hee, who set a 12-arrow world record of 119 points in May, are expected to vie for gold in the individual event, while in the women’s team competition South Korea appear untouchable. The athletes are confident about their chances in Beijing but under no illusions about what the Korean people expect of them. Anything less than a sweep will be construed as failure. “If we win two gold medals, they say it’s expected. If we don’t win two they will be disappointed,” said 23-year-old Yoon, who will get her first taste of Olympic action in Beijing. “So we have quite a bit of pressure.” Korean women hold every world record in the outdoor recurve discipline, the standard used at the Olympics, but it is getting increasingly difficult to maintain such dominance, says South Korea’s most successful archer. Kim Soo-nyung, who won four Olympic gold medals between 1988 and 2000, said the current team were still the best in the world but the gap was narrowing. “I think we’re half a notch ahead,” Kim told to the media. “In the days when I was playing, we used to be a full notch ahead.” Kim, who won two golds in 1988 in Seoul aged 17, and retired after the 1992 Games before making a comeback for Sydney 2000, said the Korean team had become a victim of their own success. “Other countries have come a long way because there are many Koreans coaching other national teams,” she added. South Korea’s success seems to be built on exhaustive preparation coupled with state-of-the-art training techniques and a secret ingredient — archery DNA. The National Training Centre in Taeneung has been instrumental in making South Korea a force in sport and producing athletes capable of putting the country in the top 10 of the medals table in Beijing. One of the innovations for the upcoming Games was to remodel the archery practice grounds to recreate the Olympic venue in Beijing, complete with mock seating and spectators. Coaches shout and stamp around in the stands to get the archers accustomed to possible distractions from the crowd, even turning on blaring music to interrupt their concentration. It seldom does. Kim said making it through training just to be selected for the South Korean national team was worthy of a medal itself. “It’s almost like the qualifiers are tougher than winning the gold medal at the Games,” she added. “So when you’re playing in the real thing you play with the confidence that you’ve already been through the toughest part of it.” Training is only part of the equation though and some of the Korean archers believe they have physiological, mental and spiritual traits that set them apart from the rest. World record holder Yoon said Korean women were dextrous due to heightened sensitivity in their fingers, making them more adept at “feel” sports such as archery. That theory may also go some way to explaining why South Korea continues to produce an abundance of top-class women golfers. “Our sensitive fingertips, descended from our ancestors, and our spiritual strength and willingness to fight until the very end — they are the secrets,” Yoon said.

Montgomery pleads guilty to heroin charges:
Former US track and field star Tim Montgomery pleaded guilty to heroin distribution charges at a recent federal court hearing. Montgomery, who was once dubbed “the world’s fastest man,” appeared briefly before American judge Jerome Friedman. The Olympic gold medallist was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of over 100 grams of heroin. Already serving a four-year prison sentence for his role in a check-fraud conspiracy, Montgomery faces a minimum of five years in prison on the heroin charge. His sentencing is set for October 10. Montgomery also could be fined up to two million dollars and faces at least four years of supervised release. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Montgomery sold 111 grams of heroin for nearly 8,500 dollars to an undercover DEA informant. Four meetings between Montgomery and the informant were videotaped and recorded by the DEA. In spite of being led into Norfolk’s US District Courthouse in handcuffs, Montgomery was smiling and laughing with his lawyer James Broccoletti. But there is very little for Montgomery, 33, to smile about these days. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan in April 2007 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud in a counterfeit check scheme that also embroiled fellow Olympic champion sprinter and former partner Marion Jones. Montgomery’s world record-breaking 100 metre run of 9.78 seconds, set in Paris in 2002, also was erased from the historical lists.

Woods to become a
billionaire by 2010:
Tiger Woods is on pace to pass one billion dollars in career earning by 2010, becoming the world’s first billionaire to accumulate his fortune by playing sports, says a leading business magazine. The 14-time major championship winner earned 115 million dollars in 2007 alone.
English footballer David Beckham was the No 2 sportsman on the list with earnings of 65 million dollars. “It will be an unprecedented occurrence,” the magazine said. “There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports like Switzerland’s richest man and champion sailor Ernesto Bertarelli. But there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports.” The magazine goes on to say in its recent edition that while tycoons like Bill Gates accumulated his wealth by holding a stake in a company with soaring profits, Woods is unique because his massive fortune was earned through pay cheques.

Turkish football chief
Dogan dies:
The head of the Turkish Football Federation died on 5th July, 2008 after suffering a heart attack while holidaying in the southwest of Turkey. Hasan Dogan, 52, was having a meal with national coach Fatih Terim in the popular resort of Bodrum when he was hospitalised with a cardiac arrest, said a statement on the federation’s Internet site. Dogan, a prominent businessman, had been the head of the federation since February this year and last month saw the national team make it to the semifinals of the Euro 2008 championships for the first time ever.

Aussies seek mediation course in racism abuse cases:
Cricket Australia is lobbying the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a mediation phase in cases of racial vilification in international cricket. The move is seen as an attempt to avoid a repeat of the political crisis that erupted when Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh was accused of racially taunting Australian Andrew Symonds during their Australian tour early this year. Melbourne’s newspaper said the proposal was debated at the ICC’s annual meeting in Dubai recently, where Australia argued the existing process failed all parties. Cricket Australia is advocating a system in which mediation would ideally be confidential, and prosecution as a last resort, the newspaper said. “The ICC is understood to have been unconvinced, but CA is determined to keep pushing for a less combative process that, in the first instance, aims for the offender to understand why a particular remark is unacceptable,” it said. “We think this is important, and we’re continuing to argue the case,” Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young told the newspaper.

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