Windies players object to pay-cut ahead of World Cup
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, (CMC) Fresh controversy appears to be brewing between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the regional squad preparing to participate in the T20 World Cup in India, Media reports in Trinidad and Tobago suggest. The players, captained by all-rounder Darren Sammy, are objecting to a 75 percent pay cut imposed by the WICB ahead of the World Cup, set to begin on March 8, the Trinidad and Tobago-based radio station, I 95.5 FM, has reported. Sammy has reportedly written to the WICB requesting an urgent meeting as a February 14th Valentine’s Day deadline for the players to sign the contract looms. The I 95.5 FM report quoted from Sammy’s letter to the WICB: “We want to propose that we participate in the T20 world cup 2016 under the same conditions that we have represented the West Indies in previous tournaments”. Sammy has been quoted as saying that the West Indies players will each earn US$21,000 if they participate compared to US 135,000 received from the last tournament. WICB will receive US eight million for the team’s participation and more if they advance. Only one player on the West Indies team is said to be represented by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA). Eleven of the players on the squad were part of the West Indies team that won the T20 World Cup in 2012 in Sri Lanka. The fresh controversy between WICB and the T20 squad is brewing about a year and a half after the regional squad called off their tour of India abruptly over a longstanding payment structure dispute.
WESTERN BUREAU:Hydel High’s Stephen Barnett scored in the second minute for the All-Manning team, who again won their clash with a select All-daCosta Cup team yesterday at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex to maintain their hold on the trophy they also won last year.Winning coach Miguel Coley told The Sunday Gleaner he was happy to be on the winning side again, but was full of praise for the All-daCosta Cup team comprising the likes of Deshane Beckford (Rusea’s), Travar McCulloch, Chris Andrew Dixon and Neville Morgan (STETHS), and Rodave Murray of Dinthill Technical.”It was a great game. We won, but I was also impressed with a number of players from the All-daCosta Cup side,” said Coley.”It shows that Jamaica’s football is in good hands, but the onus must now be on moulding the individual talent and making sure that we get the best out of each player to strengthen the nation’s football,” he added.Barnett’s strike came against the run of play, as the All-daCosta team started with more intent and were unlucky not to have score at least one of their chances.FANTASTIC GOALKEEPINGThe All-daCosta team were kept out by the brilliance of the All-Manning goalkeeper Akeem Chambers. The Wolmer’s Boys goalkeeper was absolutely fantastic and was the difference in the final scoreline.The quality of the players was not lost on the University of Rhode Island football coach Gareth Elliott, who was among the scouts who watched the match.”It’s wonderful witnessing the quality players here in Jamaica. We could use some of their speed and skill in certain areas of our programme,” he said.”We have been looking at several players who could possibly fit into our programme but that all depends on their academic level,” stated Elliot.The ISSA Scholastic XI edged the Jamaica Under-17 team 1-0 in the day’s early game.
KALIESE SPENCER came into the Zurich Diamond League just two points behind series leader Zuzana Hejnova, but was unable to beat the Czech Republic athlete finishing fourth in a thrilling 400m hurdles race.Spencer, 28, has been chasing the Beijing World Champion all season, and despite a gallant effort, fell short once again.Talking to The Gleaner, Spencer said she was in good spirits despite losing out to her rival.UPANDDOWNSEASON”First, I have to give thanks to God, I’m here and I finished the race healthy.”She continued: “It’s been an up and down season. I had an injury to my foot and that stopped me from competing to the best of my ability.”Things didn’t go as I expected them to today, but I am still grateful. I’ll be going back to the drawing board and getting ready for next year. Right now, I am just glad I was able to compete.”I am very determined, very spiritual, and I will go back and train hard in order to get there.”Fellow Jamaican Janieve Russell, 22, finished in seventh place in 55.98.- J.C.
Dr The Honourable Usain Bolt, OJ, the world’s fastest man, has received the inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Alumni Exemplar Sports Award.The award was presented yesterday at a ceremony at the Regional Headquarters of the University of the West Indies (UWI).UWI Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles noted that the award was in recognition of Usain Bolt’s outstanding sportsmanship and record-breaking athletic performances.”Dr Bolt is one of the greatest men of Caribbean times, and it is fitting that the UWI – a highly respected Caribbean institution – acknowledge his legendary athletic prowess and contribution to regional advancement,” Sir Hilary said.The Vice Chancellor’s Award for Exemplary Performance on a regional and international level, he explained, “recognises not only outstandingperformance, but also the importance of being a positive role model to Caribbean youth in the area of sports and good sportsmanship and highlights the awardee’s affiliation with the UWI as a graduate”.Bolt is the fastest man to hold both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records since fully automatic time measurements became mandatory in 1977. He is also the first man to win six Olympic gold medals in sprinting and 11 World Championships.Bolt, who received an honorary doctorate from the UWI, Mona, in 2011, has sports facilities at both the UWI’s Mona and Cave Hill campuses named in his honour.Other awards won by the sprinter include IAAF World Athlete of the Year, Track & Field Athlete of the Year, and Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.
“We have to give him the support that he needs. Lots of sportsmen and women from time to time might not say the diplomatically pleasing thing, but in most cases, the environment of sport, comments are sometimes taken in the wrong way, and I just want to see Chris dust off all of this,” he added. The Barbadian educator was himself at the heart of a controversy involving Gayle in 2011, when during the Sir Frank Worrell Lecture on the rise and fall of West Indies cricket, he referred to Gayle as the “don” of the contemporary West Indies team. “All of us who are educators – and I am first and foremost an educator – I have seen how all of us can sometimes make statements that are not ideal under the circumstances. But he is a cricketer, and he is a sportsman; and like every sportsman, you make mistakes on the field and off the field. “When you make mistakes on the field, you go to your coach and you correct them. When you make mistakes off the field, you go to your support team and you correct them. And when you correct them, you come out and demonstrate that you are much better and much bigger,” Sir Hilary said. While adding that he wished to leave his own controversy in the past, Sir Hilary also said that he believed Gayle to have learnt from the experience, adding that he believes the Jamaican has a role to play in the future of the Caribbean sport. “This event has humbled Chris, and I want to big him up to get back. I have known him for many years, and I wish him all the best, and I say to him, ‘Come back and fulfill your destiny, and your destiny is in the heart of West Indies cricket’,” he said. Vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles, believes that Chris Gayle has been humbled by the consequences of his recent actions in the Australian Big Bash and said that the Jamaican cricketer needs the support of the Caribbean people. Gayle drew the ire sports fans and administrators alike two weeks ago over comments he made to Australian female sports journalist Mel McLaughlin during a post-match interview. While the cricketer later apologised and was fined almost US$10,000 by his Melbourne Renegades, there were calls by some for him to be banned from cricket. Beckles, who said that in his judgement, Gayle is the best cricketer in the world and that he prayed every day for his return to the West Indies fold, added that the player was guilty of a lack of diplomacy. “I take his words for what he said, that he meant no offence. I take his word for that. I think he has given his apology,” Sir Hilary, who was guest speaker at Friday evening’s RJR Sports Foundation Awards ceremony, told The Gleaner. ‘Dust’ it off
Despite not yet in his best physical shape, Calabar’s sprint phenomenon Tyreke Wilson remains confident of breaking the boys Class Two 100m record at next month’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships.The speedster also declared that defending champions Calabar will have no competition come March 15-19, when Champs take centre stage inside the National Stadium.Wilson turned heads with an impressive 10.97 seconds in 100m at the Youngster Goldsmith Classic, last Saturday, and is looking to take his form into next month’s marquee event.”Well, I don’t see any competition. Champs is ours this year again,” he said amid what many expect to be stout challenges from their arch-rivals Kingston College and Jamaica College among others.”We are focused. There is no pressure,” Wilson reiterated.Wilson assured that he is not all talk, however, and courtesy of his four championship medals so far (three gold and one silver) he will be one of the athletes to watch next month.For Wilson, a sprint double gold is on his mind, along with the 100 metre record.”I am very satisfied with my season’s progression. So far I haven’t done any clear sprinting in terms of the season so far, but I am very pleased with my times.GOLD MEDALS”I am going for two gold medals, and to do a repeat of what I did in class three. The one hundred metre record, I have that in mind and hopefully after Champs I will be fit to go to CARIFTA and represent my country,” he told The Gleaner.Wilson, despite being pleased with his 10.97 seconds effort last week, assured The Gleaner that he is still recovering from a slight hamstring injury. He wants to lower that to 10.40 seconds soon, but admits it will be a lot of work because I am just coming back from injury.”My focus and mindset going into champs is just to keep myself fit and healthy and make sure everything is good with my body, knowing that everything is good physically then I know everything will fall into place,” he continued.
LISBON, Portugal (AP):Defending champions Real Madrid advanced from the group stage of the Champions League for the 20th straight time after beating 10-man Sporting Lisbon 2-1 yesterday.Also booking their passage to the knockout stage yesterday were Monaco, who defeated Tottenham 2-1, Juventus, who were 3-1 winners at Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen despite their 1-1 draw at CSKA Moscow and Leicester City, which won 2-1 over Club Brugge.Karim Benzema came off the bench to get the late winner in Portugal, scoring in the 87th minute.A draw would have been enough to get Madrid through to the knockout stages anyway, but victory gave the team a chance to finish first in Group F – with a home victory over Borussia Dortmund in the final round.”It was important that we won here,” Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “We achieved what we came to get. We are going to play a final against Dortmund now.”The German side, which routed Legia Warsaw 8-4, has a two-point lead over Madrid.Benzema salvaged Madrid’s victory with a header after a well-placed cross by Sergio Ramos. That came just seven minutes after Sporting midfielder Adrien Silva equalized by converting a controversial penalty kick. The penalty was awarded after the ball hit Fabio Coentrao’s arm, which he had just thrust into the air to complain of a hand ball by Sporting.Benzema had been doubtful to play during the week because of an injury but his recovery proved crucial. He entered the match in the 67th to replace Francisco ‘Isco’ Alarcon.TWO SHORTPortugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, returning home to play against the team where he started his career, got an assist in Madrid’s first goal when he mis-hit a shot inside the area. The ball bounced off his back foot and moved forward for Raphael Varane’s easy shot from close range in the first half.It was the third straight game for Ronaldo without a goal in the Champions League, keeping him two short of becoming the first player to reach the 100-goal mark in European competitions.Sporting’s Joao Pereira was sent off in the 64th with a straight red after an altercation with Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic.Madrid scored two late goals the first in the 89th in the 2-1 win over Sporting in the teams’ opener in the group stage.The game marked Madrid’s return to Lisbon for the first time since winning the 2014 Champions League against Atletico Madrid at the Estadio da Luz.The victory extended Madrid’s unbeaten streak to 30 matches in all competitions. The Spanish club has scored 25 goals in their last six away games.
The English Premier League (EPL) has steadily evolved in recent years into undisputably the most high-profile and popular football league in the world. It is widely regarded as the most competitive and exciting football league on the planet. In a kind of mysterious phenomenon, fans from all across the globe have adopted teams from the EPL as their own, an index not just of the marketing of the league outside of England, but an effect of the cosmopolitan spread of the player pool in the EPL. There has been expressed amazement at the fact that so many foreigners including many Jamaicans, who despite being domiciled almost 5,000 miles away from these teams, clubs and players, are such ardent and passionate fans of these ‘foreign teams’ with which we have absolutely no logistical connection. We wear the jerseys, we sport the stickers, we sing the songs, and we venture on season by season; fixture by fixture on emotional rides with our teams, as we follow them religiously. My personal connection with my EPL club of choice – Liverpool FC, is perhaps typical of all Jamaican EPL fans. The simple fact of the matter is that Liverpool Football Club were the first which I was exposed to, and got to know. I saw Liverpool playing and winning titles while being a toddler, even before even entering high school or even being aware of the existence of local football clubs. My formative and impressionable years as a young fan were punctuated with images of the great Liverpool teams of the late ’70s and early ’80s and into the early ’90s, with icons such as Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Graeme Souness, Kevin Keegan, Bruce Grobbelaar, the Jamaican John Barnes, and Peter Beardsley, just to name a few. One remembers vividly the weekly big league football features on the then Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. The style and success of Liverpool left an indelible mark on my psyche and significantly advanced my appreciation and early understanding of the game. Liverpool was the dominant team of that era. They won the last of their then record 18 league titles in the 1989-1990 season. The Reds of Anfield are still the most successful English team in elite European completion. Liverpool won the last of five European titles in 2005. For context, Manchester United have won three, Chelsea one, and current pretenders Arsenal and Manchester City are merely dreaming of this level of European success Those Liverpool teams were conspicuously different from the other English teams of the day. With the possible exception of Tottenham Hotspurs with the influence of Argentineans Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa, the Liverpool teams of the ’80s were the only teams in England to play the attractive passing game. Most of the other top teams played the then typical ‘English long ball’, while Liverpool played with flair, skill and style – and they were winners. It was virtually impossible not to fall in love with Liverpool FC. I was a Liverpool fan then and remain a Liverpool fan today, and I will be a Liverpool fan forever. There have been many skids and slips between the last time Liverpool lifted the league title and now. The arrival of colourful German manager Jurgen Klopp has given Liverpudlians renewed hope of breaking the 26 year league title drought. This is the title we really want, but it will not be easy. The English Premier League remains the most difficult league in the world to win. My real wish for 2017 is that Liverpool football club will break the spell and win league title number 19. If Klopp delivers great! If not, we push on and go again. One thing for sure I will never jump off the Liverpool wagon or switch to support another club. I made the decision a long time ago, that I will ‘NEVER WALK ALONE’. ‘SCOUSER FOR LIFE’. GREAT LIVERPOOL
Excelsior High School is planning to go the “Full One Hundred” for the 2017 ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletic Championships as the team’s head coach, David Riley, said the aim is for both male and female teams to earn at least 100 points each next week.”It’s a just a target for the kids to work toward. Last year it was to finish in the top 10. The girls’ team was sixth and the boys’ finished seventh, and this year we want to get 100 points,” Riley told The Gleaner.In 2016, the girls’ team earned 80.5 points, while the boys earned 63 points.The girls’ team was second overall at the Digicel Grand Prix Final earlier this month but Riley said the strategy for Champs will be different.”It’s two different competitions, so our strategies are different. We placed athletes in Champs differently from how we would have placed them for the Grand Prix,” he added.Riley took over at Excelsior five seasons ago two years after leading Wolmer’s Boys school to the 2010 Boys’ championships title.The coach, a past student of both schools, said while some coaches have a five-year plan, he had something different in mind.”The plan was really just to rebuild the track and field programme where the best students were participating in the sport, which was not the case,” he explained.”The football team had won the Manning Cup and was the second-winningest team in the Walker Cup, but track and field was languishing. That means that the students were athletic but they were just not participating in track and field,” he explained.He noted that other schools across the country seem to have a similar problem.MORE INTEREST”There are so many different schools where the kids are participating in one sport at the school, but not in another, so that was one of the challenges that we faced. The first meeting at the school, we had 12 athletes at the team meetingand that was the full team. They said one person was missing,” he laughed.Things have changed over the years and now while students are still not clambering to be part of the team there is a lot more interest.”It’s still very competitive in terms of the national landscape, so you have kids doubting if they can reach those levels, so you have to be dealing with that particular issue but the fact that students see their team mates reaching great levels, that has actually done a lot of good for us,” he said.One former student, Shanice Love, who is now at Florida State University, won the Class One discus with a record throw at the 2016 championships.
Photo by Tristan Tamayo/Inquirer.netBarangay Ginebra didn’t even need its import Justin Brownlee to play in the fourth quarter on Wednesday.Brownlee had already done his work through three quarters and the Gin Kings outclassed an overmatched Kia Picanto side, 120-99, in the 2017 PBA Governors’ Cup at Smart Araneta Coliseum.ADVERTISEMENT Reden Celda had a team-high 21 points for the Picanto, who slid to 0-4.RELATED VIDEO LeBron James scores 31 points, Lakers beat Rockets 787 earthquakes recorded in 24 hours due to restive Taal Volcano OSG plea to revoke ABS-CBN franchise ‘a duplicitous move’ – Lacson View comments Trending Articles PLAY LIST 00:50Trending Articles00:50Trending Articles03:13Robredo pushes back, asks what’s the real figure on drug war01:40Filipinos turn Taal Volcano ash, plastic trash into bricks01:32Taal Volcano watch: Island fissures steaming, lake water receding02:14Carpio hits red carpet treatment for China Coast Guard02:56NCRPO pledges to donate P3.5 million to victims of Taal eruption00:56Heavy rain brings some relief in Australia02:37Calm moments allow Taal folks some respite Ginebra flaunted its depth and had eight players scoring at least eight points led by Brownlee and Slaughter, who finished with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists in just his third game back since being sidelined for 10 months due to an ACL injury.Even the 37-year-old Mark Caguioa, who is in his 15th season in the league, got into the scoring act and came away with a season-high 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field in less than 14 minutes off the bench.The Gin Kings, who climbed to 2-1, never trailed and led by as much as 34, 98-64. They went on a 16-2 run in the first three and a half minutes of the third quarter to take a 74-45 lead and put the game away for food.Ginebra clicked on both ends of the floor, assisting on 39 out of its 44 made field goals and limiting Kia import Markeith Cummings to just 14 points on 6-of-20 shooting from the field with five turnovers in 35 minutes.The Gin Kings’ assist total was the most in 14 years, according the league head statistician Fidel Mangonon. Ginebra guard Scottie Thompson dished out a game-high 10 assists.ADVERTISEMENT LATEST STORIES PSC partners with USANA Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. 
End of his agony? SC rules in favor of Espinosa, orders promoter heirs to pay boxing legend MOST READ McGregor blasts Cerrone in 40 seconds in UFC return ‘I’m out!’: PewDiePie releases last video before taking break from YouTube Indian national gunned down in Camarines Sur Marcosian mode: Duterte threatens to arrest water execs ‘one night’ The versatile forward had his fingerprints all over the game, nearly having a triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists with two blocks to boot in close to 32 minutes of action.The Gin Kings, who are even deadlier than before with the 7-foot Greg Slaughter getting back into top form, just had too much firepower for the Picanto.FEATURED STORIESSPORTSEnd of his agony? SC rules in favor of Espinosa, orders promoter heirs to pay boxing legendSPORTSRedemption is sweet for Ginebra, Scottie ThompsonSPORTSMayweather beats Pacquiao, Canelo for ‘Fighter of the Decade’“We kind of displayed all of our weapons tonight, all of our weapons came in play,” Ginebra head coach Tim Cone told reporters.“I just thought we had too many weapons for Kia, too many people they had to account for,” said Cone. “But I’m really happy with the focus of our guys, coming out and sustaining it for 48 minutes.” Sports Related Videospowered by AdSparcRead Next Kawhi Leonard, Clippers rally to beat Pelicans