■ Cricket
Sri Lanka to play Kiwis
A New Zealand A team will play Sri Lanka A in a home series of three matches in March of next year, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) said yesterday. The series will be played on the South Island and will consist of three five-day tests followed by a three-match one-day series. New Zealand Cricket says it is negotiating with other International Cricket Council member countries to establish an annual A team playing program, which will involve a mix of home and away tours. The Pakistan tour will open with three-day matches against Canterbury and Auckland starting on Dec. 8 and 13 respectively. After their two-test series against New Zealand before and after Christmas, the tourists will play a one-day match against Wellington on Jan. 1 before the five-match one-day series. South Africa begins with a one-day match against Northern Districts on Feb. 12 before its six-match, one-day series against New Zealand.
■ Sumo
Musashimaru takes a rest
Struggling grand champion Musashimaru will sit out the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament, officials from the Musashigawa stable said yesterday. Hawaiian-born Musashimaru, who pulled out of July's Nagoya tournament after suffering three straight losses, missed the previous three tournaments while recovering from surgery on his left wrist. The 32-year-old is one of the sumo's most successful foreign-born wrestlers. Following fellow Hawaiian Akebono, he was second to reach the ancient sport's highest rank, and has won 12 Emperor's Cups, more than any other wrestler currently in the ring. But Musashimaru has been unable to return to form since undergoing surgery on his wrist.The 15-day Autumn tourney begins on Sept. 7 at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
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