-Barça semifinal analysis: “The best defensive part was the first half. We defended very low but because they were better but the team had support. In the second half the opposite. We defend worse and attack better. In the second goal void to them there was an aura in the stadium that I saw my players think: ‘If we tie it we win it’. They lost their fear of the game. Then Llorente, Correa, Vitolo with the driving… ”-What movie do you expect from tomorrow’s game?: “Madrid is a team that we know very well, very important in the hierarchy of its protagonists. He has an absolutely winning coach. He transmits every time he plays that he has to win and he wins. Neither Benzema nor Bale nor Hazard came here and nothing changes them, they seek to strengthen themselves. They did it from the circulation, from the arrival of the second line. They have Vinicius and Rodrygo there, if they play they will have more speed but more possession and we have to think about how to attack those positions to harm them the way we want. ”-Party scenario: “It’s fantastic. With two teams looking forward to winning this Super Cup they will face their weapons to take the game where it suits them best. ”-Zidane, looks better coach than when he won the three Champions, you ?: “This is like life, we are better with the years. All the accumulated experiences we manage to develop. I consider having grown both in life and in sport since, I think, there is no separate relationship from life with football. ”-Valverde, position in which he left the defeat against Atlético: “A lot of respect for the opinions that everyone gives. For me Valverde is a great coach and has shown his ability to support the club. ” -Do you have the equipment and cruise speed for a title ?: “We continue in the same place of growth, of improvement, of looking for our players to take experience. The youngest and those who have more time have, to transmit to them what Atlético is and the moment we are living. Always face rivals like Madrid, Barça or Liverpool makes us better. Tomorrow we have a nice opportunity. ”-Change at Real Madrid from the derby: “In LaLiga it’s different, we already talked about it in the previous game. There you have three results, here only three. Any mistake that occurs in the game leads you to have less chance to recover it because the result is only one, both in the direct semifinal and in the final. ”-Players played: “Oblak and Correa are well beyond the coup and José (Giménez) yesterday trained very well. Let’s see how his fitness progresses in this afternoon’s training and from there we will decide who starts tomorrow’s game. ”-How can you convert all the sticks you get into gasoline: “Believing in my players and always looking to empower the club. I think the club has always done a great job with an institution since we arrived. From the Falcao that stayed to give us as a coaching staff the possibility, then very difficult, now an obligation, to enter the Champions League. With the young boys now. Yesterday afternoon when they spent the game on TV I saw them watching him with admiration and wanting to improve. My energy is my soccer players. When I see them well, I am not afraid of anything. ”– Mid-season title, what does it mean?: “It would not seem right to make an analysis of what could happen. Winning is always very beautiful and I don’t want to say what would happen if I won. There is nothing more important than tomorrow’s game. ”
“Offensive for Xavi” or “Xavi earthquake” are the covers of Sports world Y Sport, but the two newspapers disagree on when Ernesto Valverde’s cycle can end. Sports world ensures that the technician has stayed “no credit”, while Sport keeps going “until the end of the season”. L’Esportiu, meanwhile, he does not choose a photo of Xavi but of Valverde and talks about the end of the Valverde cycle, but also leaves the date open. It is clear that the defeat of Barça against Atlético de Madrid has unleashed a gigantic storm at Barça. Ernesto Valverde and Xavi Hernández are the main protagonists of this Saturday in the press of Barcelona. The startle of the information advanced by RAC this Friday for the presence of Eric Abidal Y Oscar Grau in Qatar to meet with Xavi It was taking shape until it was consolidated as a news of tremendous weight and significance for the future of the club.
Garbiñe Muguruza, who gained the reappeared Belgian Kim Clijsters in the first spherical, mentioned about the new coaching system on the monitor: “I don’t think it’s a bad thought. Conchita (Martínez) had extra freedom to speak to me. They do it in all sports activities, the coach is all the time screaming in soccer, in basketball … Sure, not bad. Let’s see how others are doing. “The Spaniard didn’t use the recommendation of the Aragonese in the hottest moments of a sport that received a little sophisticated in the second set, when she misplaced her service twice. Each gestures and phrases are allowed inside an order and with out disturbing the rivals. If it really works, it’s going to proceed in upcoming tournaments as a substitute for on-site face teaching. For the first time and as a check measure, at the Dubai Premier, coaches and trainers can instruct their gamers from the stands. The teaching, which was beforehand allowed solely in some tournaments however on the bench if the tennis gamers requested the presence of their technicians, has taken a new step ahead with this initiative of the WTA, which has already been examined in the first matches of the Arab championship.
Midfielder Vishinul Harris on Monday night knocked even harder on the door to a Reggae Boyz invite with another fine display as he spurred defending champions Arnett Gardens to a 2-1 win over leaders Portmore United in the Red Stripe Premier League.The 22-year-old could not have chosen a better stage than in front of a capacity crowd with national coach Winfried Sch‰fer in attendance. Blessed with the languid movement, deceptive skill of former national player and coach Theodore Whitmore at his best, Harris glided through opposition defenders at will and sprayed passes long and short, almost to perfection. The only ‘negatives’ displayed by Harris was a tendency to hold on to the ball a little bit too much, which contributed to his failure to score.For Harris, though, the important thing was getting the three points for his team.THREE POINT AIM”The three points are what we wanted. That was the aim before this match started, to get the three points, and we are happy that we got them,” the national Under-23 player said.The win pushed Arnett Gardens to 42 points, just one below Portmore United.Both of Arnett Gardens’ goals resulted from Harris assists. In the ninth minute, he made a slide rule pass to Leon Strickland, who collected with his back to goal, spun around and steered to the opposite corner from where goalkeeper Shaven-Sean Paul was rooted.For the second goal, which came in the 42nd minute from the boot of Newton Sterling, Harris found him with a long pass – which he collected while off balance – and managed to get the shot off while going down.Jovan East scored a beauty for Portmore United in the 48th minute to give them more belief, as Arnett Gardens hung on for the win.GELLING”The main thing in the camp right now is to push for another title and this win will help us as we are just a point behind Portmore now. We normally gel properly in about December so we are in a good spot to make a run now,” admitted Harris of his team’s standing.His own performance, he said, could have been better.”It was a good performance, but not for me, enuh. But I should have killed off the game before it got to stoppage time, and I am a bit disappointed with that,” said Harris, who failed to score after cutting through the backline and dismissing ‘keeper Paul, but hesitated in firing and had his eventual cutback blocked.The former Charlie Smith High School player said he was denied a clear foul in the dying minutes when he was cut down just outside the 18-yard box.”Actually, it was a foul. It was definitely a foul. My feet were hurting me, but I had to keep on pushing,” he said.Despite not adding to his goal tally, Harris said he showed national coach Sch‰fer enough to convince him that he deserves a look.”I think I would have shown him some of the things that I can do. Actually, I was the MVP for the game, so definitely I was the player for the night,” he said confidently.StandingsTeams P W D L GF GA GD PtsPortmore 22 13 4 5 27 17 10 43Arnett G 22 13 3 6 34 19 15 42MoBay U 22 11 8 3 34 13 21 41Humble L 22 8 8 6 18 17 1 32H View 22 7 9 6 23 22 1 30UWI FC 22 8 6 8 24 29 -5 30Cavalier 22 7 6 9 18 21 -3 27Boys’ T 22 7 6 9 23 30 -7 27Reno 22 5 9 8 20 30 -10 24W house 22 4 8 10 20 28 -8 20Tivoli G 21 5 4 12 23 30 -7 19Rivoli U 21 4 7 10 20 28 -8 19
Everyone wants to play T20 cricket to the extent that a No Objection Certificate is required from the country of a player who wants to play it. The No Objection Certificate is to prevent a drain of players on Test cricket, otherwise players would leave the Test game for the lucrative T20 game at the drop of a hat. Right now, especially in the West Indies, there is a war going on between Test cricket and T20 cricket, so much so that many fans believe that the West Indies Test team would have been much better had they had the services of the likes of Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, and Lendl Simmons. The West Indies, because of the schedule of their domestic tournaments and the lack of money to pay their players reasonably well, suffer most of all the Test-paying countries and more than the likes of New Zealand and South Africa. Many of the world’s cricket people lament the fall of the West Indies, however, or so they say, and they keep trying to find a solution to the problem, with many suggesting a “window” for T20 cricket. Nothing has worked. NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE These are changing times. West Indies cricket is in a bind. It needs money to help itself grow, to properly pay the players, and to develop the sport. West Indies cricket was once the best in the world. If the West Indies is to get more money for cricket, it must come from West Indies cricket. It must come from their own sweat and blood, not from handouts, or gifts, or what have you. Hardly anybody watches cricket in the West Indies these days, and in Jamaica especially, hardly anyone remembers cricket, except whenever the West Indies lose a Test match and all the cursing starts. Why, therefore, should other people pay the West Indies to play the game? West Indies cricket will only get stronger if it stands on its own two feet. It must stop employing foreigners in an effort to solve the problem of poor structure and poor performance, stop paying local people to do nothing, and start running a clean and lean ship. The days of bringing in people from England to show the West Indies the way is long gone, by at least 66 years. Money is needed, very much so, but it must come from within, from utilising good, honest, hard-working and knowledgeable administrators at all levels. It must come from the hard work, improved skills, and performances of the cricketers, all the cricketers, from full houses at matches, and from the support of sponsors and others who can benefit from the glory, from the triumphs of a successful and wonderful team. CHANGING TIMES Once upon a time, cricket was played mostly for entertainment and for fun, first-class cricket and Test cricket for a little pay, for one’s country, and for glory. Times have changed, however, and while cricket is sometimes now played for fun, today, it is looked upon as a profession for some, especially the recently popular T20 version. Test cricket, still considered the best of cricket by a vast majority of players and fans, is, however, gradually losing ground, or has lost ground in the popularity stakes. Whereas Test cricket still means something to those in cricket, T20 is the order of the day. It is the thing to play, for young and old cricketers alike, it is the thing to watch, and the thing which everyone wants to play. And the reason for that, apart from the entertainment, the music, including the drums, the dancing girls, the flashing lights, and all the things that greet a towering hit for six or a blinding bit of fielding, is money, lots of money. PAY TO PLAY TEST CRICKET Recently, however, the former England player Kevin Pietersen came up with a suggestion. He called on the powers that be to change the order of things, to improve the pay to play Test cricket in the poorer countries, and Jason Holder, the young captain of the West Indies, quickly supported it. The suggestion was to improve their pay to compete with the pay to play T20 cricket so that the players would play both versions of the game, or at least would not leave Test cricket to play T20 cricket. That sounds good, except for a few things. Cricket, it has always been said, especially recently, is business, big business, and no business pays out what it does not make. Cricket is poor in Jamaica, and the West Indies these days. Hardly anyone watches cricket at any level in Jamaica or in the West Indies these days except when it comes to the privately-owned T20 competition, and West Indies cricket makes no money, at least hardly anyone pays to see cricket in the West Indies. Why, it may be asked, should those countries who love cricket and those who pay to see cricket subsidise those countries who do nothing to develop the game, those countries which do not even go to see it being played? Cricket is no different from anything else in life. What you put in is what you get out, most times. If you put in nothing, you get back nothing. It is as simple as that. On top of that, there is no guarantee, at least not in Jamaica or the rest of the West Indies, that with more money will come greater responsibility and, therefore, more development. The more money, from whatever quarter, will probably, more than likely, only bring greater swagger from the players. Holder has since been denied a No Objection Certificate to play in the Pakistan T20 League by the West Indies Board, and from all reports, he is an angry man. It was a tough call, and it must be rough on both sides. As a young man, Holder needs to look about his future, but as the West Indies Board, the board members must look about West Indies cricket, and as the West Indies captain, Holder is also obligated to do so. He is expected to play in the West Indies domestic competitions so as to get to know the players and also to protect the integrity of West Indies cricket.
Speaking at the launch of the inaugural Racers Grand Prix yesterday, club patriarch Glen Mills is promising a meet with a difference, while his top draw, Usain Bolt, says he will be using the June 11 event to show his readiness ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.”I’m looking forward to it, I am excited. I don’t get to compete here that often, so the fact that I will be competing this year is a motivation to work even harder to make sure that I will be in top form and run fast times to show the country that I am ready to go to Rio and do big things,” Bolt told The Gleaner after yesterday’s launch at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.”This helps a lot of athletes; a lot of athletes really want to compete here. I think it’s a well-positioned meet because it’s just before the trials, so they can go out and compete and know where they are just before the trials, so it will be the right time for me,” he added.A long-time ambition of Mills, the IAAF Area Permit-certified Racers Grand Prix – which gets under way at 6:30 p.m. inside the National Stadium just a few weeks before the National Senior Championships, the Olympic trials – will boast some of the biggest names in local and international track and field, including Bolt.Mills, the driving force behind Racers Track Club, promised that the meet will bring together the largest collection of Olympic and World Championships medallists ever to compete on our shores, and believes it will serve as a catalyst for the formation of a regional circuit of international athletics meetings.EXPECTED PARTICIPATIONOrganisers are expecting the participation of 112 athletes in 15 events – the 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, javelin, and discus for male athletes, and the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 100m hurdles, high jump, and triple jump for females.In addition to local stars Bolt, Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell, Danielle Williams, Warren Weir, Hansle Parchment and Rasheed Dwyer, several international standouts such as 400m World Champion Wayde van Niekerk (South Africa); American stars LaShawn Merritt, Jason Richardson, Queen Harrison, Lolo Jones, Tori Bowie and Isaiah Young; Caribbean standouts Shaunae Miller, Michelle-Lee Ahye, and Kelly-Ann Baptiste; plus Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, are among the confirmed athletes.”We are currently having negotiations with several other big names in the sport and are awaiting confirmation from others who have expressed strong interest in competing at Racers Grand Prix,” Mills shared.”I am excited, I’m very excited about it,” Mills added. “This region is the most powerful in the athletics world and boasts a number of world stars and emerging future champions in the sport. The potential of success is great and will bring meaningful benefits to the region.”BROADCASTING MEETMills mentioned plans to broadcast the meet in the European, North American and regional markets, and hopes that its growth will help the club to secure much-needed technical equipment and facilities such as electronic starting systems, high-speed cameras for biomechanics analysis, and a treatment centre to aid in its continued success.Newly returned sports minister, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, welcomed the meet and believes it presents several benefits to the country’s sporting brand.”We are delighted and extremely proud that our country is staging another major track and field event of international repute,” Grange said.”The inaugural Racers Grand Prix is testimony as well as further proof that we are a major force in global athletics. It provides yet another opportunity for brand Jamaica as the world will be watching some of the best athletes on show,” Grange added.Organisers have promised to confirm ticket and entertainment package information at a later date.
French hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde says Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt is the best athlete he has ever seen.Martinot-Lagarde, the 2010 World Junior 110-metre hurdles champion, says Bolt has brought fun to the sport of athletics. The 24-year-old Frenchman made his opinion known in an interview in the IAAF Personal Best series.Asked who was the best athlete he has ever seen, Martinot Lagarde said: “Without doubt, it is Usain Bolt.”Our sport became more fun since he burst on to the scene at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,” he continued, in an interview that appeared on the website of the International Association of Athletics Fede-rations, www.iaaf.org.Martinot-Lagarde was just 17 when Bolt won the Olympic gold medals in the 100 and 200m, with world recordsin Beijing. The charismatic Jamaican unveiled his now famous ‘To Di Worl’ pose there and danced to reggae music after each stunning victory.The Frenchman is an accomplished senior athlete now with silver and bronze medals from consecutive visits to the World Indoor Championships in 2012 and 2014. He is the latest in a line of French hurdlers who began with 1976 Olympic champion Guy Drut.Martinot-Lagarde placed fourth in Beijing at the recent World Championships in the 110-metre hurdles final in which Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment placed second.
All FRANFIELD FRANFIELD, running at odds of 7-1 with leading all-time jockey Winston Griffiths riding for big-race trainer Richard Azan, won the 37th running of the Burger King Superstakes – an eventful race which left the large crowd in a tizzy – over 2000 metres at Caymanas Park yesterday. After passing the post five lengths clear of 18-1 outsider HOVER CRAFT in the $4.5 million race for three-year-olds and up, FRANFIELD had to survive a lengthy stewards’ enquiry, as well as objection from jockey Robert Halledeen, who rode third past the post PERFECT NEIGHBOUR (4-5) in the nine-horse field. It was the 7-1 chance, UNCLE TAF, who led for most of the way under former champion jockey Wesley Henry, but he was chased relentlessly by FRANFIELD, followed by PERFECT NEIGHBOUR on the rails and the 3-5 marginal favourite, TYPEWRITER, seeking his third consecutive Superstakes win, with customary rider Shane Ellis aboard. What looked to be developing into an interesting race at the halfway stage took a dramatic turn from the half mile when Griffiths pushed his mount past the early leader, UNCLE TAF, who hauled up sharply at this stage, interfering with the Wayne Dacosta trained PERFECT NEIGHBOUR, who lost valuable ground. Thereafter, it was all FRANFIELD, as the four-year-old chestnut colt by Traditional out of Supa Lei kept on strongly to win by five and a half lengths from the late-closing HOVER CRAFT (18-1) from the Dacosta Stable. For Azan and 57-year-old Hall of Famer Griffiths, it was a day with the “kings and his horses”, as the race was billed. Azan saddled an unprecedented ninth Superstakes winner, including four straight by MENUDO from 1999 to 2002, while Griffiths was notching his eighth. FRANFIELD, who finished fourth to TYPEWRITER last year, raced in the silks of reigning champion owners Elite Bloodstock Limited. Azan, who also posted his unbeaten colt, ZUGULU, to win the $1 million two-year-old Juvenile Stakes with Ellis aboard, said: “Franfield is a better horse this year, and I was encouraged by his previous run with a fast-finishing second to Campesino over six furlongs on October 24. “I took him to task in preparation for the Superstakes, and given the easier pace, I am happy that he has delivered, and he will be back for the $13.5 million Diamond Mile on December 5.” On a day when star apprentice Linton Steadman rode three winners, POKER STAR (8-5) romped the Glen Mills Caribbean Sprint, while PHINEAS (3-1) got up on the line to pip derby winner SEEKING MY DREAM in the Coca Cola Invitational Mile.
KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC): Cricket superstar Chris Gayle will miss a couple of matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after flying out to be with his partner for the birth of his first child, media outlets in India are reporting. Several media outlets have quoted a source close to Gayle’s franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), as confirming that the flamboyant opening batsman left with the team’s blessing. Media reports from Jamaica also quote local sources as saying that Gayle and his partner, Natasha Berridge, are expecting the child to be delivered this week. Gayle, 36, is expected to rejoin RCB on Monday and will be absent for their games against the Mumbai Indians and the Rising Pune Supergiants this week. Gayle has not had the best start to the IPL, scoring just one and a duck in the first two matches. “I am confident that Gayle can come up with runs when the team needs it,” said Virat Kohli, the RCB captain. “You can certainly be rest assured that Gayle will come good as the tournament progresses. He would score a century when the team will need it. I am not too worried about Gayle because the other guys are stepping up nicely,” added Kohli. Gayle’s team management has not commented on his departure, but a picture he posted on his Instagram page stated: “I’m on my way Baby.” Gayle is also reported to have thanked Qatar Airways for its services, which included a congratulatory cake.
JANEIRO (AP):The CEO of the Rio Olympics said yesterday his privately funded operating budget needs just under $30 million in public funding to meet its obligations.Chief executive officer Sidney Levy had pledged that only private money would be used to run the Games. That promise was broken just over a month ago when the committee requested a bailout from the city of Rio de Janeiro and the federal government to run the Paralympic Games.Levy, speaking on the final day of the Paralympics, said “we committed ourselves to hosting the Games without any public funds, but during the journey there were a lot of ups and downs” that led to the overrun.The operating budget is for running the Ggames themselves and does not include roads and stadiums built to prepare the city. In a conservative estimate, Rio spent between $10-12 billion in public and private money readying the city much of the private money lured in by tax concessions and favourable loan terms from government lenders.Levy, who promised early in his term to run an operating committee free of corruption, said the final figure for the operating budget was $2.8 billion. He said the final government contribution would not be more than one percent of that.The dollar-denominated budget number has fluctuated over the years because of wide swings in that currency’s value against the Brazilian real.The Rio organising committee received a last-minute reserve fund of 150 million reals ($45.9 million) from the city of Rio de Janeiro. Levy said he expects to use about two-thirds of that fund.Brazil’s federal government also came up with another 100 million reals ($30.6 million). This comes in the form of “sponsorships” from three state-run entities, including the scandal-plagued oil company Petrobras.Levy said he does not regard the “sponsorship” as government money, although organising committee members acknowledged they lobbied Brazil’s federal president Michel Temer for the outlay.NOT GOVERNMENT MONEY”This is a right Petrobras has to purchase this sponsorship as many other privately owned and other state-run companies do,” Levy said. “It is not government money that could be used for other things. It’s their advertising money.”Levy then added: “By the way, they paid very little for it. It was very cheap for them.”Levy said the annual salaries for its eight top directors would be available at the end of the year. The Brazilian newspaper Estadao reported last month the eight were paid an average of $25,000 per month in 2015.Levy also said the audit results of his budget would be made available.”We follow the rules of all private companies that are listed on the stock market in Brazil,” Levy said. “Our (financial) statement cannot be doubted because they are audited and published. I insist on that.”