Thousands of police and paramilitaries have been deployed and helicopters will be buzzing over Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, which has been turned into a fortress for Friday’s Twenty20 cricket game against lowly Zimbabwe.
Authorities have mounted an unprecedented operation to guard insurgency-hit Pakistan’s first home international in six years.
The fixture is Pakistan’s first on home soil since 2009, when militants launched a gun attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore, killing eight police and civilians and leaving seven players wounded.
Roads around the stadium will be closed and shops and restaurants have been shuttered for the duration of the series, consisting of two Twenty20s and three ODIs, all in Lahore.
Jammers are in use to cut out radio signals, hampering wifi at the stadium, and fans will have to go through metal detectors at three security checkpoints, raising the prospect of hours of queuing.
Zimbabwe have been under tight wraps since their arrival early on Tuesday, when they were whisked from the airport to their hotel watched by thousands of security personnel.
They are far from the usual arrangements for a cricket match, and Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said it was a new experience for him and his team.
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi hoped the first ball on Friday will refocus attention on cricket as he attempts to lift his team after a poor World Cup and series in Bangladesh.
Despite the tight security and the late confirmation of the series, following a massacre in an attack on a bus in Karachi, organisers say the 27,000-capacity venue is a sell-out for Friday’s game.
Knicks executive and former player Larry Johnson had a strong reaction to the racial remarks Clippers owner Donald Sterling is alleged to have made.
On Saturday night, Johnson tweeted: “Black people your Focusing on the wrong thing. We should be focusing on having our own, Own team own League! To For Self!!’’
The initial indication was Johnson was calling for an all-African-American league complete with black ownership. It wasn’t the first time Johnson, who is black, concerned himself with the fact the NBA’s ownership is mostly white while its players are mostly black.
During the 1999 NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs, Johnson caused a stir by saying: “We’ve got a lot of rebellious slaves on this [Knicks] team.”
When asked at the time why he referred to his teammates as slaves, Johnson said: “I’ve got to explain that to you? We don’t go with the mainstream.’’
Johnson was hired by the Knicks two years ago and serves many roles as a basketball and business operations representative.
When Donald Sterling’s comments surfaced this week, they caused an uproar. The basketball franchise owner is also a Jew. Sterling attempted to justify his racism by invoking Israel.
“DS: It’s the world! You go to Israel, the blacks are just treated like dogs.
V: So do you have to treat them like that too?
DS: The white Jews, there’s white Jews and black Jews, do you understand?
V: And are the black Jews less than the white Jews?
DS: A hundred percent, fifty, a hundred percent.
V: And is that right?
DS: It isn’t a question – we don’t evaluate what’s right and wrong, we live in a society. We live in a culture. We have to live within that culture.”
(via Deadspin)
Spain’s Pedro Rodriguez in a happy mood after Spain took the lead yesterday
World champions Spain got their Confederations Cup campaign off to a winning start on Sunday with a 2-1 win over South American champions Uruguay in the northern Brazilian city of Recife.
The Spaniards dominated throughout but after Pedro Rodriguez’s deflected opener had cause to be grateful to Roberto Soldado’s 32nd-minute clincher as Luis Suarez netted a late freekick for the Uruguayans.
Although the Uruguayans came closer to pinching a point than they deserved, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque was exultant afterwards as his side laid the foundation for reaching the last four from a group also containing Uruguay and minnows Tahiti.
“These are three magnificent points which stand us in great stead when it comes to reaching the semi-finals,” said Del Bosque.
“It was a great match played out in conditions which sapped the players’ strength,” he added, referring to the warm, humid weather.
“We dominated almost the whole match but the margin was a slim one in the event. At 2-0 we thought we had it won already and we stepped off the gas a little.”
Uruguay counterpart Oscar Tabarez said: “Spain were superior and they deserved to win – we lacked a bit of discipline. In the second half it was a little more balanced as we dug deep to play for our pride.”
Cesc Fabregas came within the width of a post from giving Spain the lead in the 10th minute with a low strike before the favourites made the breakthrough after just 20 minutes — Lady Luck smiling on them as Diego Lugano deflected home Pedro’s shot to bamboozle keeper Fernando Muslera.
As is their habit, Spain were giving the Uruguayans almost no chance to touch the ball in the opening quarter and Xavi almost made it two when he sent a freekick whizzing just off target after 26 minutes.
Without the ball, Uruguay grew frustrated and resorted to some strong-arm tactics as first Edinson Cavani earned a booking for clattering into Sergio Ramos as they challenged for a header.
Ramos responded by shoving Gaston Ramirez before Uruguayan Cristian Rodriguez caught Jordi Alba with his elbow.
Suarez, in the news for intimating he would be partial to a move from Liverpool to Real Madrid, tried to rally the Celeste, who qualified for this event by winning the 2011 Copa America in Argentina, finding Cavani with a freekick, but the latter’s header was too close to Iker Casillas.
Del Bosque elected to keep faith with his veteran keeper despite Casillas missing a chunk of the second half of the season with a hand injury –once he had recovered the then Real coach Jose Mourinho left him on the bench.
After 32 minutes it was 2-0 courtesy of beautiful vision from Fabregas, who shimmied away from two defenders, then played in Soldado, who took one touch before drilling the ball into the roof of the net.
Uruguay made a change at the break with Ramirez giving way to Alvaro Gonzalez but Spain were still on fire as Xavi and Iniesta interlinked brilliantly before Xavi’s flick fed Pedro and his cross just eluded the diving Soldado.
Pedro then mishit an effort wide after a neat Fabregas through ball sent Alba into space.
With 20 minutes left Uruguay sent on veteran striker Diego Forlan for Diego Perez.
That sparked a revival of sorts for the South Americans and Suarez drove home a curling freekick with two minutes remaining to give the scoreline a more respectable look and also join Forlan as his country’s joint all-time scorer on 33 goals.
Spain came to the event having already become the only team in history to win three major events on the bounce – the 2010 World Cup sandwiched by Euro 2008 and 2012.
A win in this dress rehearsal for next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil would see the Spanish join Argentina and France as the only countries to win the trio of World Cup, the Olympics and the Confederations Cup. – AFP
Western Province produced a fine display of running rugby in their six-try 45-21 win over Griquas in their Currie Cup match at Newlands on Saturday afternoon.
The crowd of just under 10 000 rejoiced as the match produced seven tries, five of which were scored in the first half.
Both sides made several handling errors, and Province probably left another four tries out on the field.
Given the favourable underfoot conditions at the kick-off there was every prospect of the teams running the ball at every opportunity and that was very much the order of the day in the first half.
Province needed only three minutes at the start to take play up to the Griquas 22-metre line and came good when they ran in a tap-penalty for fullback Joe Pietersen to score. Flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis goaled the conversion from the touchline to give Province a 7-0 lead.
It took Griquas some time to wrest the initiative and when they did they cracked the Province midfield defence nine minutes later for flanker Marnus Schoeman to run in unchallenged from 25 metres out. Flyhalf Francois Brummer converted to level the score at 7-all.
In the next 20 minutes, Province took the match by the scruff of the neck and ran three in three unanswered tries to record a rare first-half bonus point. The three-try burst followed concerted Province pressure, both on defence and attack.
Wing Gerhard van den Heever and centre Marcel Brache scored after interceptions, and flanker Deon Fourie dotted down after a rolling maul.
Catrakilis was in splendid form with the boot, goaling all three tries from the touchline to crown the 21-point burst.
In between Van den Heever and Brache’s try Pietersen scored a long-range penalty, to help Province secure a commanding 31-7 lead at the break.
Neither team managed to strike a measure of rhythm in early second-half play, especially as the defence was considerably tighter on both sides.
Griquas held a territorial advantage and managed several sorties into the Province 22-metre area where they managed one particularly good scrum in the 53rd minute which resulted in a penalty try. Brummer converted to reduce the deficit 31-14.
Province managed to put the setback behind them and despite several substitutions their game started to flow again and their efforts were rewarded when the hardworking hooker Scarra Ntubeni snatched up the ball from broken play, ran in from 25 metres out and dotted down in the corner. Again Catrakilis converted splendidly (38-14).
This advance seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Griquas’ challenge and they were never in the game again. Instead Province kept probing away with strong ball-in-hand runs and grubber kicks through the opposition defence.
Most of their raids into the Griquas 22-metre area looked promising but only one try emerged, thanks to fine finishing by eighthman Jebb Sinclair.
Catrakilis added the conversion to round off Province’s scoring in the match.
Wing Rocco Jansen scored a converted try in the final minute of the match.
Scorers: Western Province: Tries: Joe Pietersen, Gerhard van den Heever, Marcel Brache, Deon Fourie, Scarra Ntubeni and Jebb Sinclair. Conversions: Demetri Catrakilis (6). Penalty: Pietersen.
Chad le Clos with his gold medal, not good for South Africa's image as a "black" country
While white South African swimmers, Cameron van den Burgh and Chad Le Clos, have won gold medals at the Olympic games in London, complaints that “Team SA” is “too white” have surfaced. In a country where affirmative action requires black majorities everywhere, even racial quotas for sports teams, the sight of two young white men winning gold medals have jarred local sensibilities.
On Twitter, one member of the black elite tweeted “Whites will be hugged by the likes of @Sentletse @Mabine_Seabe @khayadlanga because of that Gold. #2012London I’ll wait for Caster’s Bronze”. Caster refers to Caster Semenya, the black female 800m athlete whose career has been marred by a controversy about her gender.
Whereas white faces are almost never shown in leadership positions on state TV, many of the black presenters for the Olympic games have enthused about “our gold medals” won by the the two white swimmers.
Sapa reports that former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has defended the racial make-up of the SA Olympic team after suggestions that it was too white.
Malema was asked about the team during an interview with British Sky News on Tuesday.
The Sky News interviewer said: “It did strike me that there weren’t many black faces in the group for a black majority country.”
Malema said the team members were chosen because they were qualified.
“We think that we’re a non-racial country and all South Africans who have qualified to make Team SA should carry the flag proudly, and we support them,” he said.
“It’s not [any] more about the issue of colour.”
Malema said there was still a problem with poor communities not having access to sport. Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula was working to resolve this.
“It’s quite a serious challenge, but we’re still very proud of our Team SA,” Malema said.
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