WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2012
S P ORT S
Braun’s tale is spring training’s juiciest NEW YORK: Of all the story lines threading their way across spring training, Ryan Braun’s is the most delicate, not to mention the juiciest. Braun is scheduled to report to Milwaukee Brewers camp Friday, coming off the best season of his career and still awaiting word on whether he’ll be suspended for the first 50 games of this one. To say he’s had an awkward offseason doesn’t tell the half of it. Braun learned about his positive test in October and, without breathing a word of it, was voted the National League MVP in November. In December, he confirmed the positive test in response to an ESPN report, maintained his innocence and has done an admirable job of laying low ever since. Last month alone, Braun filed his appeal, showed up at the baseball writers’ dinner in New York to collect his MVP hardware and bowed out of the “Brewers On Deck” fan festival with little more than a peep. All that changes the day he reports to Maryvale Park in Phoenix. Not surprising, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke was hoping for the best while at the same time bracing for an entirely different outcome. “He’s been doing good all winter through this,”
Roenicke said Monday. “He’s excited to get going in spring training, and hopefully the outcome will be how we all want it. “I know everybody thinks it’s really hard but it’s not something that I dwell on,” the manager added a moment later. “I know it happens during the course of a season where you lose key players and you have to move on. It’s part of baseball. Every year somebody goes down who you’re not expecting, you miss them for months or you miss them for an entire season and you deal with it.” If it’s any consolation to either man, there will be plenty of distractions available elsewhere. Around the same time as Braun shows up, 40-yearold, two-time offender Manny Ramirez is supposed to report to the A’s camp some 10 miles away. And the soap operas already unfolding on the other side of the country - one featuring new Boston manager Bobby Valentine and his truculent Red Sox team; the other pitting new Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen against his truculent superstar, Hanley Ramirez - are sure to siphon off their fair share of reporters. Expect plenty of dispatches, too, heralding the American League West as the new center of power,
now that Albert Pujols is an Angel and the Rangers handed over nearly $108 million for the right to talk to and then sign Yu Darvish, the latest Japanese import. Bet Braun goes through the ringer first. Nearly three dozen major leaguers have been suspended after testing positive since 2005 and not one has overturned the verdict on appeal. All told, 11 MVPs from the past four decades have been linked to performance enhancers at one time or another during their careers, but only seven-time winner Barry Bonds has shown up at spring training the season after receiving one with a PED cloud hanging over his head. And you probably remember how that went. One year, he scolded reporters for scaring his kids; another year he dismissed all the investigators from MLB looking into steroid use as Keystone cops. “Let them investigate. Let them, they’ve been doing it this long,” Bonds said.” It doesn’t weigh on me at all - at all. It’s just you guys talking.” Braun is a different guy altogether. He says he’s avoided giving his side of the story for fear of being a distraction, and his supporters hint that when the case becomes public, it will be different
in both fact and substance than any one that’s gone before it. Until then, they’re asking everybody to withhold judgment. In the meantime, it’s left the field wide open to speculation. He’s promised to address the matter thoroughly once the decision by baseball arbitrator Shyam Das is issued and then plans to be done with it. Yet even if Braun is suspended, he can still train with the Brewers and play in Cactus League games, which opens him up to questions from fans who can be less deferential and a whole lot more insulting. Either way, it’s likely to make for an interesting few weeks. MLB likes to say the steroid era is effectively over because of its tightened-up drug testing program, but that’s probably far from true, given the range of new drugs and masking substances that are constantly being developed to replace the old performance enhancers. But the reaction to Braun, who came off as one of the good guys in baseball before the positive test, will tell us a lot about whether fans think the era is over, too. It means there’s one less guy left to bust that would make most fans give a damn. — AP
Sri Lanka defeat India
Ricky Ponting
Ponting hopes to cling to Test spot MELBOURNE: Whether it be pulling a short delivery to the fence or plucking a lightningquick catch in the slips, Ricky Ponting’s formidable powers of anticipation have rarely been questioned throughout his storied career. So it is something of a surprise that the former Australian skipper, who scored just 18 runs in five games in the ongoing Triseries against India and Sri Lanka, failed to spot the selectors’ axe swinging at him. Ponting, the second-most prolific scorer in the format after Sachin Tendulkar, said Monday’s decision to drop him from Australia’s one-day international side had come out of the blue but that he accepted his ODI career was over. The axe fell a day after Ponting, standing in as skipper for the injured Michael Clarke, led Australia to an emphatic 110-run win over India in Brisbane to regain top spot in the triangular one-day tournament. Darting around the field to chop off singles and cajole his team mates into wrapping up victory quickly, the spry 37-yearold appeared in no hurry to call time on a career of 375 one-day matches and three World Cup victories. Despite the praise lavished on him by selectors as a brilliant fielder and mentor to the next generation in a re-building team, his 165th win as captain could not gloss over his fifth consecutive failure with the bat. Ponting had been bowled over when chief selector John Inverarity delivered the decision but the defiant Tasmanian quickly regained his composure and is now focused on keeping his test career alive. “I’ve got no bitterness at all as to what’s happened,” said Ponting, who will return to the domestic Sheffield Shield competition to prepare for Australia’s tour of West Indies. “I’m still firmly of the belief that I’ve got a lot to offer any cricket team that I play with, any team I’m a part of. “Did the thought of (retirement) come into my mind? The thing that I thought about most yesterday was just how I was going to manage my time and to be well prepared to play every test match I play for the rest of my career. “That obviously, now with no one-day international cricket, that becomes a little bit more difficult for me, but there are other players around Australia at the moment who play test cricket only.”
A poor run of form at test level coming into the Australian summer had the knives out for Ponting, who merely gritted his teeth and got on with the job of crushing India as the hosts charged to 4-0 whitewash in the test series. Ponting blasted 544 runs at an average of 108 for the series, but appeared strangely out-ofsorts from the start of the oneday tournament. His coach Mickey Arthur, also a selector, said he was “jaded” and in need of a rest and warned him to make runs in his final match against India. Ponting brushed off notions that fatigue after a long summer of cricket had taken its toll, saying his body was fine and that it was his mind that had failed to keep pace. Despite being denied the chance to choose the manner of his exit, or even play a farewell ODI in front of home fans in Hobart against Sri Lanka on Friday, Ponting was philosophical as he addressed reporters, relaxed and looking dapper in a sports jacket and white shirt. “Of course I felt there was still room in the team (for me),” he said, smiling. “But when you don’t make runs in five consecutive games you understand that there’s an opportunity for selectors to leave you out.” Their decision was unanimous, according to panel chief Inverarity, meaning Clarke and Arthur both had a hand in pushing him towards the exit. For all the raging debate in Australia about his place in the side in recent months, it is unlikely to be a popular decision. “Ricky Pontings Omission from the National 1 Day side is an outrage!” former Australia Open Matthew Hayden said on his Twitter site. While the decision to drop him will not sit well with Ponting, he may well respect the selectors’ cold-blooded execution, having been nurtured in a succession of champion teams and carrying on their culture of winning, at all costs, into his time as captain. “Everyone understands where they sit now in the Australian cricket team,” said Ponting, who smashed 30 ODI centuries, including an unbeaten 140 against India in the final of the 2003 World Cup to win Australia a second successive trophy. “I think in international sport, if you’re not performing for a short period of time now you’re a chance to be left out of the side. “And that’s the way it should be.” — Reuters
BRISBANE: Nuwan Kulasekara claimed three wickets and two important catches as Sri Lanka beat India by 51 runs yesterday to replace the World Cup champions in second spot in the Tri-series. Skipper Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat, then scored 45 in a 95-run opening stand with Tillakaratne Dilshan (51) to set Sri Lanka on course for an imposing 289-6. Lahiru Thirimanne contributed 62 and Angelo Mathews finished unbeaten on 49 as the Sri Lankans piled on 91 in the last 10 overs. India’s reply started badly, losing stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag on the second ball before slipping to 54-3 when Kulasekara dismissed Sachin Tendulkar (22) and Gautam Gambhir (29). He finished with with 3-40 and Thissara Perera had figures of 4-37, finishing with a sharp return catch from Irfan Pathan (47) as India was bowled out for 238 in 45.1 overs. Virat Kohli top-scored with 66 for India and shared a 92-run fourth-wicket stand with Suresh Raina (32), but was dropped twice in an unconvincing middle period. Sri Lanka improved to 11 points in the tournament, three behind Australia and one in front of India, which slipped from first to last following back-to-back losses. “We made a few mistakes - dropped a few catches - we should have been able to push for the bonus point ... but I thought our boys did really well,” Jayawardene said. “It was a crucial game for us. We didn’t have a good start to this tournament and we had to come back strongly, which we’ve done.” India struggled without captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was suspended for a match due to a slow over-rate in Sunday’s 110-run defeat by Australia at the same venue. Sehwag, returning from a back complaint to deputize as skipper, took a tremendous diving catch but didn’t direct the bowling changes to contain the Sri Lankan innings. Parthiv Patel, Dhoni’s replacement as wicketkeeper, was sloppy with the gloves and missed a routine chance late on that could have curbed the onslaught of late runs. Thirimanne was spared a potentially controversial run-out before he scooped a catch to Raina off Ravi Ashwin’s last ball. He was on 44 and backing up out of his crease at the non-striker’s end in the 40th over when Ashwin whipped off the bails during his delivery action, a rare and unpopular mode of dismissal commonly known as a Mankad. India appeared to withdraw the appeal after Sehwag and Tendulkar consulted with match officials, saving umpire Paul Reiffel from having to adjudicate. Jayawardene said he wouldn’t have appealed in the first place if he was in a similar position, but thought the situation was handled adequately on the field. “It was just a small incident which happened in a very crucial game, and I think we should move on,” he said. “I think they did the right thing in the middle, the seniors got together.”
Thirimanne continued and posted his second ODI half century before he mistimed a pull shot at the end of the 46th over and Raina took a good, diving catch in the outfield. Pathan (2-54) and spinner Ashwin (2-50) took two wickets apiece for India in humid conditions and with storm clouds looming to the north of the stadium. Sehwag conceded India had missed Dhoni’s influence and his batting in the middle and said his lineup didn’t bat or bowl particularly well. Kulasekara had a hand in each dismissal in the key first three wickets. Sehwag slashed rashly to a wide and short ball from Lasith M alinga and edged to Kulasekara at deep third man. Tendulkar was in commanding form, stroking 22 from 23 balls before bottom- edging a Kulasekara ball onto his stumps to make the total 38-2 and ensuring his quest for a 100th international century will drag on. Tendulkar hasn’t scored a hundred since last March and has now gone 30 innings since reaching triple figures in tests or one - day internationals. Kulasekara struck again when Gambhir guided a good-length ball to Perera at gully in the 12th over. Raina was on four and the total was 69-3 when Dilshan put down a sharp chance at backward point off Mathews in the 16th over, then Kohli had two repreives - on 14 and 32 - both times when Dinesh Chandimal dropped regulation chances at deep mid-wicket before he was finally caught by Kulasekara off Perera’s bowling. Sri Lank a will play Australia on Friday in Hobart. It will be Australia’s first match since former sk ipper Ricky Ponting was dropped from the squad. — AP
BRISBANE: Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara (left) celebrates with teammate Thisara Perera after the wicket of India’s Virender Sehwag during their One Day International cricket match. — AP
SCOREBOARD Scoreboard in the eighth match of the one-day international Tri-series between India and Sri Lanka at the Gabba in Brisbane yesterday: Sri Lanka innings M. Jayawardene c Sehwag b Pathan 45 51 T. Dilshan c Patel b Ashwin K. Sangakkara c Tendulkar b Yadav 8 D. Chandimal b Pathan 38 L. Thirimanne c Raina b Ashwin 62 A. Mathews not out 49 T. Perera b Raina 10 F. Maharoof not out 4 Extras (b-1 lb-2 w-18 nb-1) 22 Total (for six wickets, 50 overs) 289 Did not bat: N. Kulasekara, L. Malinga, R. Herath Fall of wickets: 1-95 2-104 3-124 4-195 5-244 6-265 Bowling: Kumar 8-1-48-0 (1nb), Pathan 10-0-54-2 (4w), Yadav 8-0-58-1 (2w), Jadeja 10-0-43-0 (1w), Ashwin 100-50-2 (4w), Sehwag 2-0-9-0, Raina 1-0-10-1 (1w), Kohli 1-0-14-0 (2w)
India innings V. Sehwag c Kulasekara b Malinga 0 22 S. Tendulkar b Kulasekara G. Gambhir c Perera b Kulasekara 29 V. Kohli c Kulasekara b Perera 66 S. Raina c Thirimanne b Maharoof 32 R. Jadeja b Kulasekara 17 I. Pathan c & b Perera 47 P. Patel c Malinga b Perera 4 R. Ashwin c Sangakkara b Malinga 5 V. Kumar c sub b Perera 0 U. Yadav not out 0 Extras (lb-7 w-9) 16 Total (all out, 45.1 overs) 238 Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-38 3-54 4-146 5-172 6-191 7-215 8-232 9-233 Bowling: Malinga 8-0-55-2 (2w), Kulasekara 9-0-40-3 (4w), Maharoof 10-1-52-1, Mathews 4-0-12-0, Perera 7.1-0-37-4, Herath 7-0-35-0 (1w)
Klitschko says he’d like another shot at Chisora
Vitali Klitschko
BERLIN: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko said he wants to fight British boxer Dereck Chisora again so he can knock him out. Klitschko knows he doesn’t need a rematch, “but my ego, something deep inside, tells me quite clearly that I still need to give this man real punishment,” he told Tuesday’s edition of Die Welt newspaper. “I want to knock him out in the ring. This account is still open,” he said. However, Klitschko’s manager Bernd Boente has ruled out a rematch. Klitschko beat Chisora on points in Munich on Saturday night, but the win was overshadowed by the challenger’s conduct outside of the ring. It culminated in a post-fight brawl with former WBA champion David Haye, for which the 28-year-old has apologized. “I saw everything from the podium. I thought I was in the wrong film,” Klitschko said. “You can’t behave like this, neither in a sporting way nor as a
person. It was below the bottom drawer.” Chisora slapped Klitschko at their weigh-in on Friday, and spat water in younger brother Wladimir’s face before the bout. “Before the fight I still thought that how he was presenting himself, how he behaved, was a show. But then I realized he wasn’t acting. He must be crazy. When I think about all he’s done ... then he threatens to shoot someone, to kill. How can you be like that as a person? Unbelievable. I cannot believe it. “Everything I had to do with him seems like a nightmare.” Klitschko partially tore a ligament in his left shoulder during the fight, but said he would “never” have given up against Chisora. “I’d rather have died than to give him anything,” he said. The World Boxing Council fined Chisora a reported $50,000 for the slap, and Klitschko said any further punishment “has to really hurt. It can’t be that this lout drags the sport of boxing into such
disrepute.” The 40-year-old said he had no immediate plans to retire and that he still has dreams to realize. He did not say what those dreams are. “I’m superstitious and believe that when you speak of dreams before they’re realized, they won’t come true,” he said. Klitschko harbors political aspirations in his native Ukraine, where parliamentary elections will be held in October. “For now I am concentrating on Wladimir’s title defense and getting back to full health as quickly as possible,” he said. Wladimir Klitschko was declared “super” WBA champion after beating Haye in Hamburg last July and will defend the belt, and the IBF, WBO, IBO titles, against Jean-Marc Mormeck of France in Duesseldorf on March 3. The older Klitschko said Chisora and Haye were “both cut from the same cloth,” but he did not categorically rule out a muted bout against the latter. “For him (Haye) the same goes as what I said about Chisora.” — AP