Monday, Mar 25, 2002
Monday, Mar 25, 2002 |
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FOOTBALL: SEOUL: Football referees will turn surgeons at this year's World Cup finals, determined to cut out what some call the ``cancer'' of cheating by glory seeking stars. The 72 referees and their assistants who will control the finals in South Korea and Japan in June were given strict instructions by FIFA last week to clamp down on the growing number of players who dive to secure a penalty or feign injury to get an opponent sent off, officials said. Referees from Europe's top leagues at a World Cup seminar in Seoul all said they had noticed the rise in what the international governing body diplomatically calls ``simulation'' and have welcomed FIFA's warning. ``FIFA have been very clear that they will support us in this effort to rid the game of this cancer,'' said Graham Poll, one of England's top referees after the seminar. Football's growing riches could be behind the phenomenon, according to top officials who promised a major campaign at the 32 nation World Cup which starts in under 10 weeks. FIFA director of development George Cumming, Coordinator of the referees seminar, said the clampdown will be ``a major focus for FIFA at this World Cup as we think that simulation is a major problem in the game. ''They are not just trying to cheat the referees, they are also trying to cheat the game of football,`` he said. Cumming blamed a desire to win that ''becomes winning at all costs in some cases`` for the increased cheating. There is a tremendous pressure because of the prizes in the game. There are tremendous salaries and prizes''. CRICKET: DURBAN: One of the world's most-loved cricketers, Jonty Rhodes, has decided to retire from the game after the World Cup in South Africa in February next year. Rhodes, considered by many the finest fielder in the world, told a website that he did not think he would let his country down if he quit after the World Cup. ``After 10 years I've put in my pound of flesh and the time has come to put my family first,'' said Rhodes who retired from Test cricket two years ago to spend more time with his wife and daughter although he continued to play one-day matches. ``It would be great to go out after winning, but if we don't I'm not going to feel I need to give it another shot,'' Rhodes said. ``Not many things would make me change my mind.'' And he will not follow the lead of some other famous former players by taking up TV commentary or the job of a columnist. ``If I was commentating I'd rather be playing and you're still spending as much time away from home,'' the 32-year- old said. Rhodes has played 221 ODI matches, including World Cup semifinals in 1992 and 1999. He has averaged 34.15 in one-day matches and 35.66 in 52 Tests. His most spectacular contribution, however, has been in the fielding. Rhodes, a bachelor of commerce degree, has built a beautiful house in the Mount Edgecombe golf estate, located outside Durban. During his cricketing career Rhodes has proved a huge crowd-puller not only in South Africa but in other parts of the world, most notably in India. LAHORE: Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq and captain Waqar Younis on Saturday said they were shocked to learn about England's Test and one-day cricket star and their Surrey county team-mate Ben Hollioake's tragic death in Perth, Australia. ``It's a personal loss of a friend because for the last five years I have been so close to Ben,'' Saqlain said. All Pakistan players, currently in a training camp here for Sharjah tri-series next month, learned of the news at the stadium and showed grief. GOLF: PONTE VEDRA BEACH (Florida): Jeff Sluman birdied the par-three 17Th hole early on Saturday to grab a share of the six-under-par second-round lead of the PGA Players championship. Forty-six players returned to the TPC at Sawgrass stadium course to finish their second rounds after Friday's suspension of play due to darkness. One of the players was Sluman, the 1988 PGA champion, who birdied the 17th for a second straight round and joined Carl Paulson at the top of the leaderboard at 138. Both players have posted back-to-back 69s. At the start of third-round play off the first and 10th tees at 1600 GMT, Sluman and Paulson were to begin with a one-shot lead over World No. 2 Phil Mickelson, New Zealand's Craig Perks and Mark Calcavecchia. Two shots off the lead is New Zealand's Michael Campbell. All 62 players are within six strokes of the lead, including World No. 1 and defending champion Tiger Woods, who is at one-under-par. The cut fell at two-over-par 146. Among those who missed the cut by a stroke were two-time Players champion Hal Sutton, 2000 Masters champion Vijay Singh, 1998 Masters and British Open champion Mark O'Meara and 1992 Players champion Davis Love III. MOTOR SPORTS: MOSCOW: A proposed Moscow Grand Prix will not take place until 2004, Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone said. The race on a circuit yet to be built had been set for 2003 but a signing ceremony was delayed at the last moment on Friday. ``We have postponed the signing for a month because we do not agree on several points in the contract,'' Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov said. The big hitch came at the last minute as a crowd of television crews prepared to film the signing ceremony. Ecclestone, who arrived in Moscow earlier this week especially to seal the agreement, said on Friday: ``we changed the date from 2003 to 2004.'' He explained they needed to be satisfied that all would be ready in time and in any case six months were needed for testing for a race to be able to go ahead. On his first trip to the Russian capital last May, Ecclestone promised a Formula One Grand Prix as soon as a suitable track was built. Work has yet to start on the circuit, projected to cost more than $ 100 million. After a deal is signed, it is due to be built at Nagatino on a bend in the Moskva river a few kms southeast of the city centre.
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