Konta sweeps Miami WTA title

Johanna Konta defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 to win the Miami Open on Saturday - the biggest title won by a British woman in 40 years.

Konta, who had never won an elite WTA premier mandatory event, will move to number seven in the world rankings with the victory.The Sydney-born 25-year-old, who beat Venus Williams in the semis, began superbly, breaking to love in the opening game before Wozniacki swiftly broke back to level at 2-2.After another break each, the Briton took advantage of two double-faults from the Dane to break to 5-4 and serve out for the set.There was a similar pattern to the start of the second set, with the pair exchanging breaks in the first two game. The key moment came when Konta broke to go 4-3 up, with a little help from the net cord.Clearly full of confidence, Konta then broke again, with a lob on match-point, to secure the biggest win of her career and the best by a British woman since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977.
No British woman had ever won a premier mandatory event since the elite tier was introduced in 2009 and this was only the second time that Konta had even qualified for the Miami tournament.The Briton said her quick start had really helped her in what was just her second premier mandatory final, following her loss to Agnieszka Radwanska in Beijing in 2016.“Going into any match but especially against someone like Caroline who is such an athlete and can really stay out there as long as she needs, I think it was important for me to assert myself right away in the manner that I wanted to play ... to give myself the best chance of executing what I wanted tactically,” Konta said.Konta conceded that there was little to choose between herself and her Danish opponent, who she also beat in the Australian Open in January.
“Until the end there wasn't too much in it. I tried to not wish time away and to really stay out there as long as possible and really enjoy competing. I think even when it was finished I was expecting more points to come,” she said.It was Wozniacki's third final of the year and third defeat following her loses in Dubai and Doha.“I was hoping it was going to be third time lucky in my third final but we will go for the fourth one,” said Wozniacki, who nonetheless said she was pleased with the consistency she has shown in the first quarter of the season.
“I think I can take a lot out of this first part of year in general. I think I can take a lot of positives from that and just build on it.
“That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to learn from the things that I can do better, but at the same time not beat myself up too much and just keep working and doing what I'm doing.”

What next for our cricket?

The Tigers' head coach Chandika  Hathurusingha, while speaking to the media  on conclusion of the New Zealand-Bangladesh cricketing series, gave his assessment of the performances under his mentorship with  panache: “It is not all doom and gloom”. Some maybe; for, how could he have sloughed off the effect of eight defeats in a row! “There are a lot of positives to build up on'', he added. One could not have agreed more with him on that, but only wished he had elaborated on 'the positives' keeping the broader picture or the whole team in view.Actually  his words of  confidence swirled  around, to be exact, two newcomers: Kamrul Islam and Mehedi Hassan. Indeed they showed promise in their first tour of Bangladesh. “How their demeanour changed in the field from the England series to this one”, noted the Bangladesh coach, adding “I can see them learning quickly”. One could not help thinking though that Miraj was not even half as effective in New Zealand as he had been against England. The fury was missing; a large number of runs were scored off his bowling.

This tour has been touted as a ground-breaking one in that five players made their international debut across three formats. In addition, as many as seven embarked on their first tour away from home. All this is fine and dandy but what begs question is: with what outcome?

By being fixated on individuals, the selection procedure was sometimes opaque and to an extent proved counterproductive. But the controversy around team selection does not exonerate top order batsmen of their failings at demanding moments.

We have been rightly critical of individualistic flashes of performances falling short of making partnerships corresponding to fluctuating game situations. The same went for bowling where after an initial or important  breakthrough, the charge would fritter away.   

Well, it could be argued that a large contingent was taken as an investment in future. Even solvent countries take compact teams because the aim is to remain focused to deliver the goods.  

Tamim has taken responsibility for the defeat in the second Test. In two ODIs and one T-20, we came pretty close to clinching victory. For those debacles, would someone come forward and take responsibility thereof? Again, does the matter rest with taking responsibility for a defeat ? What matters is avoiding repeating the same. With competitive games it is counterproductive to be making goody-goody admissions of failure to plaster one's bruised image. The proof of the pudding will always be in the eating, not in its décor.

The plain fact is no sooner had our batsmen adjusted to short balls at good pace, they were upset by deliberately bowled high bouncers one after another as a ploy to ruffle our batsmen. Bouncers are not forbidden but subject to regulations that need to be applied scrupulously so that none is hurt. A line has to be drawn between excitement of the contest and the physical safety of players. When the top quarter of the Bangladesh side was hurt to be hospitalized, the team cohesion broke down. In this dismal injury scenario, it is good to know that pacer Mustafizur is healing to full fitness. Also, Taskin's brilliant bowling in Tests is going to be an asset moving forward.

Mental strength training among the cricketers is emerging as a priority issue with the BCB and perhaps BKSP. This is why - in the opening Test in Wellington , Bangladesh was bowled out  for 160 after taking a 56-run lead in the first inning. As though in a pattern, in the second and final 5-dayer in Christchurch, we suffered a similar fate in the second innings eventually capitulating with a day to spare.

We played the New Zealand series after a two-year time lag. But we are well and truly into loaded successive fixtures to be playing with India, South Africa and England –all in 2017. Depending on our performances in these games, our ranking will be determined. This is also key to our heading for the World Cup directly without having to play in the qualifying rounds.

Just see, New Zealand because of their straight wins against Bangladesh have been elevated over Pakistan in Test ranking!

Atletico edge Sociedad

Atletico Madrid's fine form continued as Filipe Luis scored the winner in a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad to close to within seven points of La Liga leaders Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Luis had scored his first goal of the season in Saturday's 2-0 win at Malaga and netted for the second consecutive game for the first time in his career by rounding off a fine team move on 28 minutes.

Fernando Torres, Yannick Carrasco and Angel Correa all passed up chances to add to Atletico's advantage, but they held on to move three points clear of Sevilla in the battle for third.Real Madrid still have two games in hand on Atletico, but the two face each other in the Madrid derby on Saturday.

Atletico will travel to the Santiago Bernabeu brimming with confidence after a fifth straight La Liga win.

"Other than the opening 15 minutes when they dominated the ball, we imposed our tempo, pressed well high up the pitch and created chances," said Atletico boss Diego Simeone.

"It is a very important win."

Antoine Griezmann came close twice in quick succession against his former club as his first effort was deflected behind before Geronimo Rulli got down well to save low to his right.

The French international was also involved in the only goal as Luis exchanged passes with he and Torres before slotting home.

Torres then somehow failed to double Atletico's lead as he turned Carrasco's low cross onto the post with the goal gaping an then fired the rebound into the side-netting.

Carrasco was also then wasteful as he shot too close to Rulli after an unselfish cutback by Griezmann.

Griezmann was replaced by Angel Correa with 19 minutes remaining.

Fizz clears the air about IPL

Indian online media is currently agog with the news that Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman will likely not participate in the 2017 edition of the Indian Premier League after Sportstar quoted the left-armer as saying ‘I don’t think I will be able to make it for the tournament this time around’, in a piece published online on March 30.

However, answering a question about the issue to Bangladeshi reporters during team practice at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo this afternoon, Mustafizur suggested that he was caught unaware by an Indian reporter who called his hotel room through the hotel intercom at the Taj Samudra in Colombo last evening.

“A person called me on the room intercom, and wanted to know about the IPL,” Mustafizur said. “I told him that there are three matches [third ODI and two T20Is on the tour of Sri Lanka] left and I am not able to say anything before that. Whether the cricket board will clear me or not, I don’t know. Let me finish the matches and then we will see.”Mustafizur played a starring role in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s march to the championship in IPL 2016 last season.

Kohli named Wisden's best

India captain Virat Kohli has been named the "Leading Cricketer in the World" in this year's edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, the publication announced on Wednesday.

Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq and senior batsman Younis Khan were among the five "Cricketers of the Year", a group which includes the English trio of Ben Duckett, Chris Woakes and Toby Roland-Jones.

Barring the just-concluded home series against Australia, Kohli had a fairytale year in which the batsman averaged more than anyone in all three formats.

Hassan's incontinence hurting Tigers

As successful as this tour of Sri Lanka by the Bangladesh cricket team has been, it has also been one marred by off-field controversies and more than a little cloak-and-dagger. At various stages, manoeuvrings behind the scenes, which have barely ever stayed behind the scenes, have taken a life of its own as it tumbled through the media machine. There has been one constant in all of these off-field distractions -- Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan.  

The latest has been Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's retirement from the T20I format. Hassan yesterday took his well-worn place behind the microphones to address the issue and as usual, assumed a central role. “I had a meeting with Mashrafe, Tamim [Iqbal], Mushfiqur [Rahim] and Shakib [Al Hasan] day before yesterday [Monday night]," Hassan told reporters at the Taj Samudra hotel in Colombo yesterday morning. "I told them that they had such a contribution to the nation's cricket that barring a disciplinary issue, no one, not me, not anyone could drop them. They would have to make their own exit plans.”

Despite his proclamations that he only knew that Mashrafe would step down and was unaware of his plan to retire, the mention of 'exit plans' is something that might raise eyebrows. It has been learnt that the meeting mentioned above was not altogether savoury, and to avoid adding to the innuendo let it just be said that the whole matter could have been handled better when it came to dealing with a cricketer of Mashrafe's standing. One has to wonder if someone like Mashrafe, who has lifted the country's cricket from the depths of despair in 2014, has to endure an unsavoury retirement from a format, what message this sends to even other senior players, not to mention juniors.“It is more than what he is as a player. I made him captain in 2014, and he did not even play the previous year. I made him captain because there is something extra in him,” these words of Hassan may seem like praise for Mashrafe, but as far as pattern of behaviour goes, it also seems like Hassan taking credit for the decision to promote Mashrafe and the successes that it brought. One can imagine that it is not something that a proud player like Mashrafe would be happy to hear. 

Inserting himself into the middle of team dynamics is something that Hassan has been doing for a while, and it has happened a lot during this tour. He did it with Mahmudullah Riyad's exclusion from the team for the second Test, and also with Mehedi Hasan Miraz's eleventh hour inclusion into the ODI squad. It will be difficult to name another board president in cricket who involves himself to this extent in the running of the team. “I would have gone home today [Wednesday] if we won yesterday, but since we lost I have to stay behind,” Hassan said before the press conference started.

He was more than ready to answer the rumour that has been doing the rounds that Shakib Al Hasan was to be captain in the T20Is. He denied that, saying that if Mashrafe had decided to quit before the second T20I, then Shakib as vice-captain would have had to lead by default. He also strongly denied the rumour that there was a plan to jettison seniors like Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim from the format.Before that, however, he also said that there were plans afoot to keep separate teams with separate captains with four or five specialists in each format, something that he added could not be enforced because there are performers in the team who could not be removed. Both of those cannot be true; if plans were afoot to have separate teams with separate captains, then Mashrafe could not have been the captain of choice in either ODIs or T20Is. If specialists were the order of the day, then some seniors, not just Mashrafe, would have to fall by the wayside. It is in such contradictions that Hassan has often dealt.

Hassan has overseen the convolution of the selection process to an extent that the captain was excluded from the decision and the team manager made his representative. He then went on to have major public and private say behind each decision. The public part is the problem. If decisions like bringing new players into a format are made, then it should be discussed behind closed doors and the change should follow a process, preferably not one that involves the board president making contradictory statements to the media.

“I told the coach not to disturb the team now, and to make a parallel team of developing players,” Hassan squeezed that in to the conversation. It undermines the coach, the captain, the seniors and also the equilibrium of the side. The most unfortunate thing is that it is coming from the highest official in Bangladesh cricket. 

Why Apps Like Fox Sports Go Are Great for Baseball Fans, Terrible for Employers

As Fox Sports 1 gears up for its first nationally televised baseball game of the season on Wednesday night, the network’s mobile app Fox Sports Go is taking advantage of changing consumer habits — but employers might not love the concept.

As it turns out, the average Fox Sports Go user spends more time on the app when watching a day game, as opposed to a night game.

Fox Sports senior vice president Clark Pierce told TheWrap the ability to stream local games is a service to fans, but admitted it could be a disservice to employers because most people use the app at work.

“There are a lot of day games. Especially during the work week,” Pierce told TheWrap. “You have a fair amount of day games on Wednesday and Thursdays… that is work primetime.”Fox Sports Go is free and will allow fans to stream over 2,060 regular-season MLB games during the 2017 season. This includes regional games televised on a variety of local Fox Sports stations across the country. Another 72 regular-season games will be available to stream on the app when Fox broadcasting or FS1 airs a nationally televised game. Many of these games are during office hours.

MLB has a competing product, MLB.TV Premium, that streams the majority of out-of-market games for $112.99 per season – but blacks out local games that are streamed by Fox Sports Go.Though apps like this allow fans to access games wherever they are, Pierce believes that sports remain “appointment TV,” because the results of any live game will typically be spoiled if a fan attempts to record it for later viewing.

That’s likely why Fox’s internal research indicates that Fox Sports Go is used to stream baseball during the first three innings more than any other part of the average game. Typically, that means the afternoon when most people don’t have access to a television. According to Pierce, TV ratings tend to go up later in the contest.

Re-Picking the 2009 NBA (Stephen Curry/James Harden) Draft

The 2009 NBA draft brought in guards Stephen Curry (out of Davidson) and James Harden (from Arizona State University). Both faced a modest amount of expectations as top-10 picks, but nobody expected those guys to finish 1-2 in MVP voting six seasons into their careers.

And while the 2009 class featured a collection of future All-Stars, scouts didn’t exactly do their homework. The Minnesota Timberwolves, for instance, passed on Curry (the 2015 MVP) twice in favor of selecting two lesser point guards—Ricky Rubio (injury prone, can’t shoot) and Jonny Flynn (undersized, out of the league by 2012 due to a hip injury).

The Memphis Grizzlies rolled the dice by taking towering 7’3” center Hasheem Thabeet No. 2 overall. He’s now toiling in the D-League.

By re-picking the draft based on career win shares (with a few exceptions), PointAfter set out to right those wrongs by showing where Harden, Curry and others should have been drafted back in 2009.

Korea Republic edge Syria

Korea Republic returned to winning ways in Group A as they secured a 1-0 victory against Syria in their World Cup qualifier at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Tuesday.

• Korea Republic 1 Syria 0
• Hong Jeong-ho opens scoring
• Kim Jin-Su misses his chance
• Firas Al Khatib hits crossbar

Match Summary

Hong Jeong-ho's early strike was enough to hand the Koreans victory against Syria in their World Cup qualifying encounter on Tuesday.

Full Report

The home side got off to the best possible start and took the lead as early as the fourth minute, when Hong reacted quickest in the box from a corner and rifled home a sweet left-footed strike.

Syria immediately upped the tempo of their attacks, but a mixture of good defending by Korea and wasteful-finishing by the visitors ensured the scoreline remained the same.

Kim Jin-Su came close to having doubled the lead in the 14th minute after being brilliantly teed up by Son Heung-Min, but his resultant shot was saved by the goalkeeper.

The visitors struggled to pose a meaningful threat and were reduced to long-range efforts in the latter stages of the first half.

Korea adopted a more cautious approach in the second half and were content on defending their one-goal advantage, which allowed Syria a host of opportunities but they failed to capitalise.

Firas Al Khatib should have levelled the score in the 71st minute when a good passing move resulted in him finding space in the area, but his shot was fired straight at the goalkeeper.

Omar Kharbin played an integral role in the Syrian attack as he dictated play from the midfield, however, he was let down by his fellow attackers.

Korea proved wasteful in the latter stages of the game with both Choi Chul-soon and Ki Sung-yueng missing chances to put the game to bed with two one-on-one chances.

Firas Al Khatib came agonisingly close to having levelled matters in the 91st minute, when his fierce left-footed strike thundered against the crossbar.

Postecoglou proud of Socceroos

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou heaped praise on his team following their comprehensive win over the UAE in their World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.The crucial win sees them move into third in Group B of the qualifiers, one step closer to reaching the main draw or at least making it to the next round of qualifiers.

The Socceroos were dominant on attack, firing 16 shots at goal and earning nearly 60 percent of possession.

“Very proud of the players, it was a challenging ten days for us,” Postecoglou told the Socceroos website.

“We always know at home we’re a dominant team. We worked awfully hard, we pressed the way we wanted to and created opportunities.Jackson Irvine would score the opener for Australia in the seventh minute, netting his maiden goal for his country with an accurate header.

“To get us off the mark with a goal was perfect,” the 24-year-old said afterwards.

“We’ve shown how lethal we can be from set plays over the course of this qualification campaign.”

Irvine added that the nearly 30 000 strong crowd at the Sydney Football Stadium certainly gave them an extra edge.

“I think in any international competition people will always tell you what an advantage it is playing at home and the crowd were brilliant tonight,” he said.

“They really lifted us through times in the game, when they were trying to slow it down and frustrate us, to have the crowd on your side at those moments is a massive help.”

AFC Asian Cup wrap: The good, the bad, and the lucky!

AFC Asian Cup 2019 qualifying got underway on Tuesday (as long as you forget about the Taiwan-Turkmenistan clash from last week) with 10 games producing a lot of goals and more than a few interesting incidents.Smash and grab of the round
Despite being under the cosh for most of the game in Yangon, India managed to escape from Myanmar with the win and three points thanks to an injury time winner from goal machine Sunil Chhetri.
Credit to Chhetri, who started the move in his own half before sprinting the length of the pitch to tuck away the winning goal from substitute Udanta Singh’s cross. Not bad for a 32-year old!It was a three points the Indians barely deserved after Myanmar dominated for most of the game, but they won’t be complaining and neither will coach Stephen Constantine.

Most dogged defending
You have to give credit to Singapore coach V Sundramoorthy, Mr Ultra-defensive been trying to get his team to keep a clean sheet for more than four months (their last one was in a friendly against Cambodia back in November), and he finally achieved it on Tuesday as the Lions managed to grind out a 0-0 draw in Bahrain.

Keeper Hassan Sunny was the hero, making several crucial stops.

Now all Sundram has to do is solve Singapore’s most ‘striking’ problem – their lack of goals. The goal-shy Lions have scored a measly seven goals in 14 games since Sundram took over in May 2016. Oh, how the Dazzler wishes he was still young enough to put his boots on!

School children killed in Japanese avalanche

Seven Japanese high school students and their teacher have been killed in an avalanche at a ski resort.

The avalanche occurred early on Monday near Nasu in Tochigi prefecture, 120km (75 miles) north of Tokyo.

Another 40 people, mostly students, were hurt including two who were in a critical condition, reports said.

The victims were part of a 70-strong group from several schools who were on a three-day mountain climbing training trip.

Dozens of troops were involved in rescue efforts, amid bad weather and heavy snowfall.

All the people have been carried down from the mountain and they are now being transported to hospital," a prefecture official told AFP news agency.

Officials said the eight victims had no vital signs. In Japan, rescue officials wait for a doctor at a hospital to pronounce victims dead instead of doing it at the scene.

The region had received heavy snow over the past two days and avalanche warnings had been in effect.

"We have avalanche incidents once or twice a year around here, but haven't had anything this big," a fire department official told Reuters news agency.

Another official told Reuters that there would be an investigation into why the group were out during an avalanche alert.

The area around the town of Nasu has several ski resorts, but these had closed for the season. The area had seen more than 30cm of fresh snow since Sunday and recent warm weather had further raised the avalanche risk.

Bangladesh