All Sport Live

Wes Brown is not a household name in the world of football and at 28 years, he has have had just 12 international caps for England and there is a considerably good chance that he may not get many more. And also distinctly possible is the fact that he will have to search for a new club at the end of the season.

The Manchester United defender have had his full share of chances so far this season in the absence of right back and Man United captain Gary Neville who is still trying to recover from a string of injuries. In this context Brown’s snub of a new four-year deal proposed by the club is quite mysterious.

Wes Brown has been a Man United player since he left school and although he has not always been a first choice defender, he did have had his chances and United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had kept faith in him. But now that Brown’s contract runs out at the end of the season and the player’s agent has disagreed on a new four deal, Sir Alex is contemplating on letting the player go.

This is what Sir Alex had to say on the Brown affair:

He has not agreed anything, which is entirely up to Wes, we feel we have made him a good offer. We’ve met with his agent. They’ve rejected our last offer so that is the end of it. We won’t be going back.

So is Brown soon to be come an ex Manchester United player? Sir Alex says:

It’s a possibility. It would be a disappointment.

Disappointment indeed, as much as in losing the player as in losing a transfer fee on the player. Although Sir Alex denies that he is mulling over of selling the player during the January transfer season for a transfer fee, he must have realized that Brown would become a free agent in the summer and Manchester United would lose out on any transfer fee.

So is Wes Brown’s not-so-illustrious career at Old Trafford finally over? If so, which club would he be heading to? Would Man United be able to replace Wes Brown? And more importantly, would the player himself be able to develop himself more and become better at a club other than Old Trafford?

Source: Is Wes Brown’s Career Over At Manchester United?

THERE was a sense of keen anticipation in the corporate tents at Coolum when Peter Lonard charged towards his third Australian PGA title.

It was not just the prospect of an Australian victory that was making pulses race; it was the prospect of free beer afterwards.

Last time that Lonard won at Coolum, in 2004, he shouted for the bar at the Hyatt Column and invited all comers.

"I checked out the next morning and my complimentary room cost me $8000," Lonard said.

"There must be a few people back today because I’ve had more people ask me if the bar was on me tonight than have ever spoken to me in my life."

After whimsically claiming "I’ve matured" and saying he would toast his win with ice water, he admitted he would be "coaxing as many people to the devil as I can".

Lonard is that rare breed of professional golfer who has combined two often incompatible traits by playing well and having a good time along the way.

On the way home from the Cricket World Cup tour in May, I had the good fortune to be seated beside English golfer Lee Westwood, and I asked him why he preferred playing in Europe than America.

"It’s because they take it all a bit seriously in America," he said.

"The last hotel I stayed in on the US tour I looked down the hallway before I went to bed and saw 10 room service trays outside the rooms of other pros. Blokes don’t even have a beer in the bar. It’s quite sad, really."

Though he devotes much of his time to the super-serious US circuit, it certainly could not be said that Lonard has been sterilised by its culture. Unlike many Australian golfers who play there, his accent has no American twang.

His sports hero is not Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus but the late Peter Brock.

His favourite football team is not the New York Jets but the Bulldogs.

Had life pointed him in a different direction when he was going through school in Sydney, it’s not difficult to picture him playing for the Bulldogs as a bustling backrower.

He has the build for it, right down to his Popeye-like forearms.

Lonard looks to be the last type of person who would be bothered with petty superstitions, but golf can take a man’s mind into strange places - and his latest win has a quirky sub-plot.

Lonard felt the green marker he was using for the first three rounds was cursed so he changed to a 5c piece, with spectacular results.

He putted beautifully, a major relief because he had said only a few days earlier "I would stick my head up a dead bear’s bum to find the right putter".

Lonard, who once said he would be mowing lawns or digging ditches if not for golf, has three PGA wins, but he modestly claimed that all it proved was that "I am not a bad golfer … but that’s about it".

Lonard’s caddy was long-time friend Sean Somers, a club professional from Sydney, who said one of Lonard’s greatest achievements was not to be swept away by the priliveged life of the successful professional golfer.

"He is a normal bloke - a boy from Parramatta," Somers said.

"They get so spoilt on the tour in America it is unbelievable. But he has always been pretty grounded.

"He is normal. He is not one of these blokes who has a massive entourage.

"That’s why people like him. He doesn’t try to be any sort of rock star."

Lonard was in such a clear-thinking zone that Somers felt almost redundant.

"I didn’t have to do anything," he said.

"I just had to carry the bag. He’s brilliant. He has all the shots.

"All he needs is affirmation."

Lonard is such a consistent player with such a reliable swing that his name was everywhere before play on the final day.

He may be well below overnight leader Rory Sabbatini in the world rankings but it seemed every on-course tipster fancied his chances.

He was very much a favourite with Australian punters, including several who followed him for the entire round and said "C’mon Pete, we’ve got you at $17 (to win) . . . keep it going".

Sabbatini had a back-nine meltdown which left him eight shots adrift of Lonard.

Though several players questioned the merit of the six-figure appearance fee paid to Sabbatini, he did his best to liven up the show.

From forthright press conferences and his Steve Irwin impersonation with a local kangaroo to the quality of his play, he added something special to the tournament.

Even yesterday, when he appeared on the first tee, he playfully told two sponsorship girls: "I know you have been stalking Adam Scott but girls, you really must get over it He has a girlfriend, you know."

Source: Lonard just ‘boy from Parramatta’

Manchester City’s Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra is looking for additional investors to help subsidise his ambitious plans for the club – the latest of which might be a swap deal which would see Internazionale’s Brazilian striker Adriano arriving, with Rolando Bianchi conceivably heading back to Italy in his place.

Thaksin, whose eye-catching public pronouncements about his new club and possible purchases have contrasted with the discretion of his manager Sven Goran Eriksson, gave a colourful verdict on Adriano during a public appearance in Hong Kong. “[He] was a top player, but he lost form when his father died, and he put on weight,” Thaksin said. “Now he’s returning to form. We’re looking to see whether we’ll do a swap deal or not.”

A swap deal would overcome the high wage demands which have prevented other clubs from signing him. He is on £110,000 a week at Inter and though the club would be happy to have someone else take over that burden it was certainly too much for West Ham earlier this year.

Thaksin was also quoted as saying that City needed a midfield holding player, eventually to replace German midfielder Dietmar Hamann. “Hamann is getting old,” said Thaksin. “We’re looking at a new midfielder who we think will play very well with Elano. We’re going to play in a classic style.” These comments will please neither the German nor Eriksson, who has been delighted with Hamann and is in discussions with him about a new contract.

But the Adriano deal does seem to fit with Eriksson’s thinking. It is an open secret that the City manager wants a new striker but it is also understood that overseas players are far more likely to form a part of Eriksson’s plans than Englishmen. The view from within the club is that neither Michael Owen nor Peter Crouch will arrive.

Eriksson expressed for a second time yesterday his view that good English players are too expensive for City. “If you want an [English Javier] Garrido, where do you go,” he said. “You have to go for Wayne Bridge or Ashley Cole. You can’t compare the process [even] though you can compare the players. That’s the problem we have with talking to English players.”

Eriksson also seems unlikely to sign players the their late 20s. “We’ve not discussed how much money will be available,” Eriksson said. “But once we see what kind of players we want then [Thaksin] will decide if we put that money in – if they are young players. If they are older players he will be less willing to spend.”

Despite the talk about players, Thaksin’s musings about the cost of running a football team seem the most significant aspect of yesterday’s pronouncements. “The fact is I’ve just found out that running a football club, especially at the Premier League level, is very expensive,” Thaksin said. “Normal revenue from TV, sponsors, kit sales, ticket sales is never enough. That’s the reason why Premier League clubs keep changing hands, you need to find deeper and deeper pockets all the time,” the billionaire telecoms tycoon added.

Securitisation of gate receipts – making payments against ticket sales to bondholders in return for investment in the club – is the solution, according to Thaksin. “If we want to own and manage Manchester City football club forever, we have to find other sources of income. You have to know how to use modern financial instruments – and that’s what we’re planning.

“Securitisation is the name of the game they are playing in Western countries. We have to work on that. If we manage clubs in the old style, it’s not going to work. The Premier League is global by nature.”

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: Thaksin reveals interest in Adriano

Ashton (second right) scores for the Hammers

Dean Ashton earned West Ham an impressive away victory at Blackburn.

Ashton tapped in from close range after George McCartney’s pull back to bring a low-key game to the boil.

Rovers keeper Brad Friedel kept out a Luis Boa Morte strike to keep his side in the game but Roque Santa Cruz headed wide and blazed high at the other end.

Ashton should have sealed it late on only to sidefoot high but the visitors held on, despite Tugay’s stinging shot being saved by keeper Robert Green.

West Ham skipper Lucas Neill left Rovers for Upton Park in January 2007 and he was cast as the villain of the piece when the game kicked off as he was booed with every touch.

He lost possession early on and Blackburn almost capitalised with David Dunn’s 25-yard shot clipping the top of crossbar.

Blackburn settled the quicker and played some neat football before again going close with a long-range strike as Tugay saw his effort curl narrowly above the angle of the goal.

West Ham also produced promising passages of play but both teams lacked the cutting edge in the final third of the field to engineer a breakthrough.

Both defences were coping too easily with their opponents as neither side took the game by the scruff of neck.

But Stephen Warnock misjudged a ball to allow Nolberto Solano a free run down the right flank.

The Peru international was not helped by the poor movement of team-mates Carlton Cole and Luis Boa Morte and, after his cross found its way back to him, he blazed a shot high.

The lack of goalmouth action showed little sign of improving after the break before Ashton breathed renewed life into the game.

Hammers right-back McCartney pulled a ball back from the goal-line and Ashton, who came on for the injured Matthew Etherington at half-time, was waiting on the six-yard line to apply the finish.

Blackburn belatedly upped their intensity and forced Green into a smart double save.

Christopher Samba saw a header parried before Andre Oojer’s turn and shot from the rebound was also blocked by Green.

Morten Gamst Pedersen fired well high after a well-worked Rovers move gave him a sight of goal on the right of the box as the Hammers started to come under increased pressure.

Santa Cruz glanced a header narrowly wide and then controlled a beautifully lofted ball from Tugay to give himself a clean sight of goal.

But he uncharacteristically shot high from 12 yards before Ashton spurned an equally gilt-edged chance when he side-footed over with the goal at his mercy.

Green did well to parry clear a fierce Tugay strike near the end as West Ham won for the fourth time on their travels this season.

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes:
“It’s frustrating. We didn’t play particularly well, especially in the first half.

“The way we conceded was disappointing but their goal shook us up and we did better. Although we haven’t played that well we created a number chances.

“David Bentley’s (suspended) got a little bit of craft and guile that we maybe missed.”

West Ham manager Alan Curbishley:
“To go to Blackburn and get the result we did is fantastic. Over the last three years they have been very consistent.

“It is a big win for us. Great credit has to go to players as everyone knows the injury list we have.

“The players in the team who may not have thought they would play are grabbing their chance.”

Blackburn: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Ooijer, Warnock, Dunn, Mokoena (Savage 46), Kerimoglu, Pedersen, Santa Cruz, McCarthy.
Subs Not Used: Brown, Reid, Derbyshire, Roberts.

Booked: Ooijer.

West Ham: Green, Neill, Gabbidon, Upson, McCartney, Solano, Parker, Mullins, Etherington (Ashton 46), Cole, Boa Morte.
Subs Not Used: Wright, Noble, Spector, Camara.

Ref: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire).

Source: Blackburn 0-1 West Ham

Challenging gender barriers, teen girls in Afghanistan enter the boxing ring
Nov 18, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - A group of teenage girls is taking up fisticuffs to challenge Afghanistan’s gender barriers.

“Move, move, move,” coach Saber Sharifi shouted as the 20-odd girls sparred recently. “Steady, watch your left shoulder.”

The boxers belong to a new generation of Afghan youth, challenging stereotypes that persist five years after the fall of the Taliban. They train in a room in Kabul’s main sports stadium, a venue for public executions during Taliban rule in the late 1990s.

Boxing is helping them gain confidence and self-respect, the girls say. Their goal: to be Afghanistan’s first women’s boxing team.

“Many people are trying to stop us from participating in sports by saying it is not good for women,” said 15-year-old Shabnam, who uses only one name. “But I think if you are interested in doing something, you should avoid listening to what people think about you. Sports is a way out of violence for Afghanistan.”

The girls - who also include Shabnam’s sisters, Fatima, 17 and Sadaf, 14 - practise separately from boys and wear warm-up suits. Some cover their heads with scarves or bandanas.

Their effort is a brave one in this male-dominated country, where females start wearing the powder blue burqa, which covers them from head to toe, in public at puberty.

full story:
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5giNtNV-Nd2MeJ882MpawW_TwOhaQ

technorati tags: sports boxing,boxing matches,sport boxing,boxing fights,pro boxing,boxing pictures,professional boxing,boxing,boxing news,boxing info,women boxing,girls boxing,female boxing

Source: Challenging gender barriers, teen girls in Afghanistan enter the boxing ring

Sophomore guard Osiris Eldridge scored 20 points as Illinois State improved to a perfect 6-0 record at Redbird Arena Saturday night, holding on for a 62-52 win over Cincinnati.

The Redbirds (6-3) held off a stiff Cincinnati rally late in the game after pulling ahead by as many as 19 points in the second half.

Filed under Cincinnati

Source: Illinois St. 62, Cincinnati 52

Outside the Lines: No Garden Party

Despite back-to-back losses against the woeful Sixers, New York Knicks head coach Isiah Thomas was reportedly told by owner James Dolan that his job is not in jeopardy.

After Saturday night’s 105-77 loss at Madison Square Garden where fans were chanting “Fire Isiah”, Dolan continued to support his embattled coach, a high-ranking team official told The New York Post.

Dolan had not been seen in his courtside seats the past three games but he was in attendance Saturday night and spoke to Thomas after the game, according to the paper. Madison Square Garden president Steve Mills also attended the meeting with Thomas.

Before the consecutive losses to the Sixers, the Knicks had won four of their last six games. One of the two defeats during that stretch included a 45-point thrashing from the now 17-2 Boston Celtics.

Through Saturday, the Knicks are 6-13 and languishing in last place in the Atlantic Division. Only the 4-15 Miami Heat have a lower winning percentage (.211) than New York (.316) in the Eastern Conference.

Source: Report: Knicks owner says Thomas’ job safe

AUSTRALIA’S Horse of the Year Miss Andretti ran one of the worst races of her life in the Group One Hong Kong Sprint, finishing 10th behind local champion Sacred Kingdom in the 1200m dash.

In a race which still provided significant joy for Australian racing, the Victorian mare was never comfortable racing in the clockwise direction and gave ground from the top of the straight after being four wide for most of the trip.

Trainer Lee Freedman said Miss Andretti had been on the wrong leg throughout, despite his efforts in educating her in the right-handed direction.

"Despite all the work we’ve done going right-handed, as soon as she hit the first bend she was getting her head up and wanting to hang, she was never on her right leg," Freedman said.

"That was one thing I wasn’t counting on being a big problem."

Miss Andretti jumped well from her wide gate, but jockey Craig Newitt tried to restrain her in the first 200m, only to then have to ride desperately as horses underneath him went forward.

Newitt said he’d tried to get Miss Andretti onto her right leg before arriving at the first turn.

Under the pressure of the race, Miss Andretti reverted to what she was used to and nothing Newitt could do could get her to lead with her inside leg.

"I couldn’t ride her into that turn because she was already hanging," Newitt said.

Freedman agreed with his jockey’s opinion, suggesting her fast getaway may have been to her disadvantage.

"She began probably too quickly and then got no peace and then she didn’t help herself by wanting to get her head up," he said.

The defeat hasn’t caused Freedman to lose faith in his mare and he is already planning more international expeditions.

The first could be to Singapore next May followed by a return to England for the Royal meeting at Ascot where she was successful last year in the Group Two King’s Stand Stakes.

Despite Miss Andretti’s defeat, the result still had a strong Australian flavour with local breeders supplying the trifecta.

The winner Sacred Kingdom is a Victorian-bred son of Encosta De Lago who was sold to his Hong Kong owners for $200,000 before he raced.

He has now won HK$13 million ($5.9 million), doubling his previous earnings with the victory.

AAP

Source: Miss Andretti puts in a shocker

Victory, and a bonus point in this Heineken Cup Pool Two game, came at a high price for the Gloucester coach, Dean Ryan, here last night as three of his key players, Olly Morgan (shoulder again), Mike Tindall (left leg) and Chris Paterson (ribs), were helped to the dressing-room with bad knocks.

With the second half of the Bourgoin encounter scheduled for Kingsholm next Saturday, his backs are to the wall. The president of Bougoin, Pierre Martinet, is in the food preparation business and the speciality of the Martinet maison is usually miserable, pouring rain out of a black Friday night with a kick-off time so late that many would be contemplating a last cup of cocoa before bed.

A couple of pre-match torrents ensured there were plenty of spare seats, but it all dried out in time for Alain Rolland to start the match with Bourgoin looking prepared to respond to the words of their coach, Eric Catinot, to be bold and adventurous.

Bougoin have a reputation for being lukewarm about the European Cup, often fielding less than full-strength sides and concentrating, instead, on success in the domestic First Division. That has changed, and the way they came back from behind against the Ospreys was testimony to that.

But if, at first, the skies were not going to provide the ammunition, Gloucester, sittong on top of the Premiership, were more than prepared to pour cold water on such ambitions. It was in the fifth minute that, from a scrum 10 metres out from the Bourgoin line, Rory Lawson linked with Ryan Lamb, who put Anthony Allen, helped by some feeble tackling, in for a try.

With both sides kicking for territory as handling moves with a still greasy ball were fraught with risk, Gloucester resorted to more bump and grind mid-way through the first half and Lamb picked up another three points from a penalty.

He also engineered an outrageous jink to give James Simpson-Daniel, up in support in the centre, a perfect run to the try-line. That made it 17-0 at half-time and Gloucester were in control up front, applying ever more relentless pressure and reducing Bougoin to a game of hoof it and hope.

They came out for the second, again pumped by dressing-room fervour, only for Lamb to inflict more pain with a 45-yard interception run, pouncing on a pass by his opposite number, Benjamin Boyet.

That triggered a heavy drenching of sauce Martinet and in the torrential downpour Julien Frier completed a forward drive to the line, Boyet converting from far left.

Anything Bourgoin could do, Gloucester could do better and in stair-rods, and Andy Titterrell plunged over for their fourth and final try.

Bourgoin: Try Frier; Conversion Boyet. Gloucester: Tries Allen, Simpson-Daniel, Lamb, Titterrell; Conversions Lamb 4; Penalty Lamb.

Bourgoin: A Forest; D Janin, R Coetzee, S Laloo (M Viazzo, 59), M Nicolas; B Boyet, M Parra; K Wihongi, B Cabello, P Cardinali (O Sourgens, 52), J Pierre (capt), D Fevre (C Wyatt, 46), J Frier, M Rennie (S Nicolas, 59), W Jooste.

Gloucester: O Morgan (L Lloyd, 50); J Simpson-Daniel, M Tindall (C Paterson, 54; G Cooper, 62), A Allen, I Balshaw; R Lamb, R Lawson; N Wood, O Azam (A Titterrell, 54), C Nieto, P Buxton (capt), A Brown, A Stokosch (L Narraway, 60), A Qera, G Delve.

Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).

* Ospreys scored six tries in last night’s 48-17 Pool Two rout of Ulster, their biggest-ever Heineken Cup win.

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: Bourgoin 7 Gloucester 31: Gloucester triumph comes at high cost

Didier Drogba is “90 per cent certain” to miss today’s Premier League encounter with Sunderland because of a chronic knee problem that may soon require surgery which could keep him out for several weeks, Chelsea’s manager, Avram Grant, confirmed yesterday.

Chelsea are trying to nurse the striker through the injury, originally diagnosed as tendinitis but which now involves damage to the meniscus joint in his left knee, without him having to undergo an operation. But the concern over his fitness has led to fears from the Ivory Coast that the club may try to withdraw him from the African Nations Cup which starts on 20 January.

Even if he undergoes surgery for the problem, which has plagued him for the past year, it is not clear whether it will totally eradicate the pain. Given the 29-year-old’s importance to Chelsea the situation will only sharpen further the need to find another striker in the January transfer window.

The most obvious candidate remains Nicolas Anelka who is keen to leave Bolton Wanderers and can go if the price is right while a move for Benni McCarthy, who is unsettled at Blackburn Rovers and was a target at Stamford Bridge for previous manager Jose Mourinho, cannot be discounted. McCarthy, although South African, will not be at the ANC tournament after being left out of the squad.

Chelsea have also been in talks about signing the Croatian international midfielder Luka Modric. His club, Dinamo Zagreb, would want up to ¿22m (£16m) for the 22-year-old play-maker who ruined England’s chances of qualifying for Euro 2008. The agent Soren Lerby, who has close links with Chelsea’s chief scout and head of youth development Frank Arnesen, has been in Zagreb this week.

Lerby also works for the Dutch club Ajax but they are unlikely to be able to compete with Chelsea for Modric although, according to reports in Croatia, it may be that the player is loaned to PSV Eindhoven for a spell before moving to the Premier League.

Chelsea are working on several other targets but the most pressing issue is Drogba, who scored 33 goals in the last campaign and has already struck nine times this season. Neither Andrei Shevchenko nor Claudio Pizarro can be considered adequate replacements for the powerful Ivorian whom Grant hailed as the “best striker in the world”.

Chelsea will certainly want him available for next Sunday’s league meeting with Arsenal before the busy Christmas schedule after which, it’s likely they will try and persuade Drogba to have an operation if it’s deemed necessary. That could prove tricky given his commitment to playing for his country – he is captain and leader on and off the field – and could lead to further conflict with the club. Drogba spoke earlier this season, following the departure of Mourinho, who he was close to, of his unhappiness at Chelsea.

Of the prospect of an operation, Grant said: “We are keeping an eye on the situation but we don’t know yet. We will know better in the next few days. We are doing everything with Didier. In the last one or two months he has had a problem but he always pushed to play and is pushing to play even now.”

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: Drogba injury may force Blues to buy