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TURKS AND CAICOS SUN
WORLD SPORTS
SEPTEMBER 29TH - OCTOBER 6TH, 2012
NBA finalizing flopping procedures ELIZABETH, N.J. -- The NBA is about to act in hopes of stopping the floppers. Spokesman Tim Frank said Thursday the league is finalizing procedures to deal with flopping, the art of falling down when little or no contact was made in an effort to trick referees into calling a foul. Frank said the competition committee met two weeks ago and discussed plans that would go in place this season. Commissioner David Stern believes too many players are deceiving referees by flopping and has been seeking a way to properly penalize them.
The procedures likely will involve a postgame review of the play by the league office, rather than an official calling an infraction during the game, Frank said. Players likely would be fined if the league determined they flopped. The proposed plan mirrors a "postgame analysis" option Stern discussed after the competition committee met in June. The league already retroactively reviews flagrant fouls to determine if they need to be upgraded or downgraded. "If you continue to do this, you may you have to suffer some consequences," Stern said about flopping during the
NBA Finals. "What those exactly should be and what the progression is, is to be decided, because ... we just want to put a stake in the ground that says this is not something that we want to be part of our game, without coming down with a sledgehammer but just doing it in a minimalist way to begin stamping it out. And I think there are ways we can do that and we'll have to wait and see exactly what we come up with." The league's 62-person referee staff is holding its training camp, its first under the leadership of former NBA player and longtime league executive Mike Bantom. Bantom
Tiger has struggled at Ryder Cup MEDINAH, Ill. -- For the better part of his Ryder Cup career, Tiger Woods was the clear No. 1-ranked player in the world, his prowess in major championships looming over the sport. But that success never translated to the Ryder Cup. Woods, a 14-time major winner who makes his seventh Ryder Cup appearance for the United States this week at Medinah Country Club, has played on just one winning team, in 1999 -- when the U.S. made the biggest final-day comeback in the event's history. And he more or less took on the burden for the lack of American victories in the biennial competition against Europe. (Woods missed the only other U.S. victory during that period in 2008 because of a knee surgery.) "I certainly am responsible for that because I didn't earn the points that I was put out there for," Woods said Tuesday during a Ryder Cup news conference. "I believe I was out there for five sessions each time, and I didn't go 5-0 on our side. So I certainly am a part of that, and that's part of being a team. I needed to get my points for my team, and I didn't do that." Woods never has missed a Ryder Cup session for the events he has played dating to his first in 1997. His record is 13-14-2, with a 4-1-1 singles mark. In 2010, the event had just four sessions due to weather, and he went 3-1. The lack of Ryder Cup success is not limited to Woods. None of the eight players on the U.S. team with previous experience has a winning record. And the other veterans -- Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk -- also have not fared well. Mickelson played in his first Ryder Cup in 1995 and is 11-17-6. He lost all three of his team matches in Wales and captured just 1 out of 4 with two ties four years ago at Valhalla. Furyk is 8-15-4 in seven appearances with a brutal 1-8-1 record in four-ball. That puts their combined record at 32-46-12. In 2006, the trio went into the Ryder Cup ranked 12-3 in the world -- and the U.S. lost for the second straight time to Europe by a record margin, 18½ to 9½. "In order to win Cups, you have to earn points and we certainly have not earned points," Woods said. "And on top of that, I think that Phil, Jim and myself have been put out there a lot during those years. So if we are not earning points, it's hard to win Ryder Cups that way."
replaced Gen. Ron Johnson as executive vice president of referee operations earlier this month. "I think one of the things that I'd just like to focus on is I think there's a perception out there that kind of throws into question sometimes the competence of our officials and even the integrity of them at times, and I think that that's not true to begin with and unfair, and I want to try and change that perception," said Bantom, who had been the league's senior vice president of player development since 1999.
Field is wide open at Twenty20 Cricket Championship Tiger Woods
Starting in 1995, the U.S. has won just two Ryder Cups -- both at home. Twice, the Americans have been defeated by record margins in that span. "As dominant as he was through most of those years, I think anyone would be a little surprised to see .500," said Furyk of Woods' Ryder Cup record. "But also that has a lot to do with -- no one has an extremely good record on our team and that would be because we haven't won a lot of these matches." Former European Ryder Cup player and 2010 winning captain Colin Montgomerie said it typically gave his side a boost to knock off Woods, hence some extra motivation and yet a feeling of nothing to lose. "He's found a couple of partners now and I think it used to drag down the Americans when the momentum was wanting to be gathered by the fact that Tiger Woods was going to win," said Montgomerie, who is doing commentary this week for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. "And it is amazing how he was going to that degree. I think that anybody playing Tiger Woods has just got to play his own game; that's all they can do." Graeme McDowell, who clinched the Ryder Cup for Europe at Celtic Manor two years ago when he defeated Hunter Mahan in the final singles match, believes his teammates have raised their games to take on Woods. "I liken it to playing Premiership football (soccer)," McDowell said. "Any lesser team that comes to play these guys, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal ... they have a tendency to raise their game, because it's a huge game for an underdog to play a Tiger Woods. "And they get up for it. They are not expected to win. When expectation levels drop, game tends to improve. A guy who plays Tiger Woods, or a player of that caliber, doesn't expect to win, so he lets it all go and he plays out of his skin and gets the upset." For all the talk of Woods' record in the Ryder Cup, he has not lost a singles match since his first appearance in 1997. And he is 6-3 in his past two Ryder Cups.
The only surprise so far in the World Twenty20 championship in Sri Lanka is that there has been no surprise. Although the shortest form of the game has the potential for upsets, there were none in the opening pool stage. The top eight teams duly took their appointed places in the second stage of the tournament — the Super Eights — which starts Thursday. Pakistan completed the lineup when it defeated Bangladesh in the final pool match Tuesday. Bangladesh produced the best batting performance by any of the eliminated teams when it scored 175 in its 20 six ball overs, with Shakib al Hasan striking a brilliant 84. But this was nowhere near enough to contain Pakistan’s batsmen, who reached their winning target with eight wickets and eight balls to spare. It completed a pool stage in which only Afghanistan, which worried India in its opening match, ever really threatened to upset the established order. “There are still a lot of areas we could improve on,” said Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore, who was concerned that some of his key bowlers were not at their best. “It is a work in progress all the time,” said Whatmore, an Australian. The decision to slot the two four-team groups in the Super Eight stage according to their pretournament seedings, rather than their pool stage performances, has produced a somewhat lopsided draw. All four pool winners — Australia, South Africa, India and Pakistan — are in Group 2, which starts on Friday in Colombo. The four runners-up — Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand and West Indies — start on Thursday in Pallekele. Each team will play the others in its group, with the top two progressing to the semifinals Oct. 4 and 5. The final will be held in Colombo on Oct. 7.