SHANE COSTELLOE shot a one-over-par 73 to claim the men’s championship division, for golfers with a handicap of 0-8, as the Sagicor St Andrew’s Invitational Golf tournament ended yesterday.
With two-time winner Carlos “Sexy” Baynes absent from the contest, Costelloe was an easy winner on the greens at the St Andrew’s Golf Course, Moka, Maraval, with a two-day tally of 147. Kevin Ragoo was second, five shots adrift of Costelloe, on 152 with Carlos Beckles third on 153. Louis De Meillac was victorious in the seniors championship, with a score of 153, followed by Vishnu Pooran and Edward “Teddy” Grell on 155.
Other Results –
Men’s 1st Flight (9-12 handicap): Asgar Ali 159, Glen Redhead 160, M Samaroo 164.
Men’s 2nd Flight (13-17 handicap): Louis Ottley 168, Noel Kallicharan 172, Rodney Phillip 174.
FORMER LEEWARD Islands and West Indies allrounder Keith Arthurton made a stroke-filled 128 yesterday but it was not enough to guarantee his club CLICO Preysal first innings points against defending champs Ceramic Merry Boys as second round action of the Carib National League Division One continued.
Three matches ended in draws yesterday while the Tile It Central Sports/Alescon Comet encounter — with Central Sports reeling on 107/6 in response to Comet 197 on Saturday — will resume on March 22. Preysal, resuming from their precarious overnight score of 35 runs for five wickets in pursuit of 261 at their home ground — Inshan Ali Park — rallied to 221 all out midway into the second session. The left-handed Arthurton, who was unbeaten on 18, received vital support from Hollister Pajotte who made 41. The Diego Martin-based squad were inspired by the pace of Dale Douglas, who grabbed three wickets for 43, and ex-Barbadian and Windies youth player Ryan Best 3/64.
At their second turn at the crease, Merry Boys were 171/5 when the match was called off as a draw with national youth team player Richard Kelly slamming 88, ex-Trinidad and Tobago batsmen Denis Rampersad adding 29 and captain Keno Mason an unbeaten 28. Another ex-TT representative, Eugene Antoine, followed up his first innings haul of 6/53 with 2/29 while Kwesi Roy took 2/70. Merry Boys walked away with 16 points with Preysal claiming nine. Queen’s Park, with contributions of 59 from Deepak Kumar, 55 from Earnil Ryan, 52 from Shakeer Ali, 46 from Jerome Beepath and 40 from Ricardo Paty, captured first innings points away to Police at the St James Barracks. The Parkites, resuming on 65/2, were dismissed for 358 in response to the lawmen’s 320 with Imtiaz Rojan snaring 4/118, Saeed Mohammed 4/100 and Anstey Alleyne 2/31.
Ali, with his left-arm orthodox spinners, returned figures of 4/16 but Police were 115/4 at the close of play with first innings centurion Damian Hanooman topscoring with 35 and Ryan Jones 34 not out. Queen’s Park copped 18 points and Police 10 at the end of the two-day fixture. And the FCB Clarke Road spinners stole the show at Syne Village as the Penal-based squad took 16 points for their first innings advantage over neighbours PowerGen Sports, who captured 10 points. Tottering on 66/5 in response to Clarke Road’s 215, PowerGen were skittled out for 155 with an undefeated 41 from Rajkumar Mahadeo and 22 from Afzal Dean. But the PowerGen batsmen had no answer to the off-spin trio of Rishi Bachan 4/25, Guyanese Damodar Dasrat 3/21 and ex-national player Mukesh Persad 2/39. Clarke Road were 245/8 when stumps were drawn with Dasrat notching 83 and Sean Siloch 75, while West Indies “B” team off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth grabbed 3/82 and the evergreen David Williams 2/48.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is not yet confident that Ramnaresh Sarwan can be the next West Indies captain.
They believe incumbent Carl Hooper should stay in the job at least until the end of the Sri Lanka series. If not, a leading executive member of the West Indies Cricket Board, Chetram Singh believes that Shivnarine Chanderpaul should get the job. Singh said Sarwan was still too young to be given the job of West Indies captain. “He needs to improve his overall game first and work on certain areas of his batting. As well, he has not as yet had any experience in captaining Guyana, so it may be asking too much. “In fact, I have to say that asking Sarwan now could be like killing him, giving him such a large amount of burden at this time, we must be fair to the youngster. “He is indeed a quick learner and he can be anything in the future. But he needs time,” said Singh, who is also President of the Guyana Cricket Board. Singh believes that the underrated Chanderpaul should be considered.
“After Hooper, the next most qualified person has to be Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He has a fine cricketing mind and has been a very successful captain of the Guyana national team, he thinks about the game and has a lot of experience,” said Singh. “In terms of his talking to the media and other matters, there is a manager and a coach and there are ways to work around those things. We have to be aware of that, but we should not let that hold him back,” he noted. Singh revealed as well that when Chanderpaul, with the overs running down in the crucial one-day match against Sri Lanka was caught on the boundary going for runs, he did not know then that Ramnaresh Sarwan was going to be able to bat. “He was never given that message, but instead he asked Vasbert Drakes to play a holding innings, and that he would take the chances,” said Singh
“As far as Chanderpaul understood it, Sarwan was said to be okay and not seriously hurt but he was never told he was padded up, otherwise things would have been different and he would have probably allowed Drakes to go after the bowling instead at that stage,” Singh remarked. As to the current match with Guyana and Windward Islands, Neil McGarrell was retained as captain because there was only one match left in the preliminaries. “Chanderpaul and Sarwan, before his injury, attended our last meeting and you could hear the way that Chanderpaul spoke that he knew what needs to be done to win a match in cricket,” he added. Hooper is expected to return to captain the Guyana team if they reach the last four, following the enforced two-week break recommended by the medical staff of the WICB.
JOHANNESBURG: At least one South African will appear in a World Cup semi-final.
Umpire Rudi Koertzen and England’s David Shepherd were appointed by the International Cricket Council to officiate the Australia/Sri Lanka semi-final at Port Elizabeth tomorrow. Billy Bowden, the theatrical umpire from New Zealand, will be the third umpire and former West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd will be the match referee.
West Indies umpire Steve Bucknor and Australian Daryl Harper were appointed for the India/Kenya semi-final at Durban on Thursday. Another Australian, Simon Taufel, will be the third umpire in Durban and another South African, Mike Procter, will be match referee. “These appointments reflect the consistently high standards of decision-making and match management achieved over the course of the tournament,” ICC general manager David Richardson said in a statement. “All officials have been assessed on a match-by-match basis, and the eight umpires selected for the finals are the men who have performed best in the opinion of the captains, match referees and the ICC.”
LONDON: Steven Gerrard set up two goals and scored the winner as Liverpool beat Tottenham 3-2 in the Premier Football League yesterday, their first win at White Hart Lane in seven years.
Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier kept faith with the team which drew 1-1 at Celtic in the UEFA Cup on Thursday. That meant Senegalese striker El Hadji Diouf, who faces an UEFA and police inquiry for allegedly spitting at a fan during that match, kept his place. Also yesterday, Robbie Fowler scored his first Manchester City goal as the Blues beat Birmingham 1-0. A goalkeeping blunder from Liverpool’s Jerzy Dudek helped Tottenham’s Argentine defender Mauricio Taricco score his first goal for Spurs in the 49th minute. Taricco hit a low drive from 25 yards (metres) which Dudek dropped and the ball dribbled over the line.
Two minutes later, Michael Owen scored his 21st goal of the season to equalise from a Gerrard cross. Emile Heskey, who overcame a hamstring injury to play, headed Liverpool’s second in the 72nd minute, from Gerrard’s accurate pass. Gerrard made it 3-1 ten minutes later, taking the ball against the run of play to score 20 yards (metres) past Tottenham ’keeper Kasey Keller. Spurs scored a consolation goal three minutes from time through Teddy Sheringham.
In Manchester, Fowler’s 72nd minute strike, from an Ali Benarbia curling cross, was his first for City since he moved from Leeds on January 30. City’s Niclas Jensen was sent off in the 79th minute for two yellow cards. Fowler, 27, moved to Leeds from Liverpool in November 2001 but never made an impact and was often slowed by injuries. He has missed much of this season with injury and scored two goals for Leeds. Birmingham striker Robbie Savage picked up his 10th yellow card of the season, for taking a free kick too quickly, giving him an automatic two match ban.
CAPE TOWN: Opening batsman Graeme Smith was confirmed as Shaun Pollock’s successor as South African captain when the United Cricket Board announced a revamped touring squad yesterday.
Pollock was unceremoniously dumped as Proteas skipper on Saturday, when the UCB released a statement saying the 29-year-old allrounder had been “relieved” of the captaincy. “I have spoken to Graeme and I have wished him well. I believe he has a lot of potential and could be a great captain for the country and he will have my full support,” said Pollock. Pollock, a second-generation South African international who replaced disgraced Hansie Cronje as captain in April 2000, had refused to resign, forcing the UCB to fire him. He had been the target of harsh criticism since South Africa’s first-round exit from the World Cup.
Smith will lead a South Africa squad missing four veterans on upcoming tours to Sharjah and Bangladesh. Opener Gary Kirsten, 35, has retired from One-Day international cricket, following the departure of veteran paceman Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes. Lance Klusener was not considered for the touring squad. Smith, 22, is the youngest skipper in international cricket and the seventh captain of South Africa since their reintroduction in 1991 following the apartheid era. He wasn’t daunted by being among the youngest in the team and being captain. “It is something I enjoy and thrive on and I think it will effect me in a positive way,” Smith said. “Passion, discipline and togetherness is something I want to install into the national team.” He has little experience as a captain in First-Class cricket, although he did lead a South Africa “A” team on a tour of Zimbabwe earlier in the year.
The left-handed opener made his Test debut during the 2-1 series loss to Australia in South Africa last year. Smith wasn’t included in South Africa’s original squad for the World Cup but was drafted in as a replacement for the injured Rhodes. South Africa have risen to No. 1 in the international Test rankings, although former No. 1 Australia have two series in hand. Smith is relatively new in the team and has not yet made a major tour with the Proteas, who are set to tour Sharjah, Bangladesh and England later this year under his leadership. However, in only eight Tests, he has shown himself to be a formidable competitor, averaging 55.09 with two centuries — including a double hundred against Bangladesh — to his credit. In 22 One-Day Internationals, he has an average of 41.14. The South African squad, which leaves March 28 for Sharjah, was announced in Cape Town yesterday.
Squad: Graeme Smith (captain), Paul Adams, Mark Boucher, Allan Dawson, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Rudolph, Charl Willoughby.
JOHANNESBURG: Fast bowler Henry Olonga, reportedly in hiding to avoid treason charges, has again been rebuked by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union for using the World Cup to make political statements.
Olonga quit international cricket following Zimbabwe’s loss to Sri Lanka in a Super Six match on Saturday, saying it was too dangerous for him to return to Harare. He was reportedly seeking asylum in England in the wake of his “death of democracy” protest against Robert Mugabe’s regime that gained international headlines during Zimbabwe’s World Cup opener against Namibia in Harare. The Sunday Telegraph newspaper of London reported that Olonga was hiding in a “safe house” after Zimbabwean secret police officers travelled to East London, South Africa, to “escort” him to Harare, where he could face treason charges.
The maximum penalty for treason in Zimbabwe is death. “He was pretty shaken but he seemed to be coping as well as anyone can in a situation like that,” reported the newspaper, quoting an unnamed Zimbabwe player. However, a Zimbabwe cricket spokesman said Olonga was with the squad and rejected reports that the 26-year-old paceman would be escorted home. “It think it’s all lies,” Babu Meman, the team’s media manager, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Henry is with the team, we’re all at the hotel.
The squad will fly back to (Johannesburg) and then return to Harare … some players are staying on for a little longer.” Olonga said he’d been receiving threats since his protest. He played only one match —- in the Super Six loss to Kenya —- after the win over Namibia and was again sidelined against Sri Lanka.
President Arthur NR Robinson is leaving office but he vowed that his spirit would remain to inspire others.
He is demitting the office of Head of State with a feeling of pride tinged by sadness, he disclosed at the Farewell Ceremonial Parade in honour of him as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces held yesterday at President’s House. President Robinson said: “I have been made proud by the response of people everywhere, not just in this country but in the Caribbean and the world…The response to my record for what I have been able to do for peoples everywhere. It is a matter of pride for Trinidad and Tobago that we have been able to produce persons of quality in many fields to sit side by side with people in other parts of the world”. He said he had been filled with pride on hearing young people sing at yesterday’s parade and at the recent installation of the International Criminal Court (of which he was a founder) at the Hall of Knights, The Hague, Netherlands.
Telling the soldiers they were equal to any in the world, he said: “However small you may be, however limited your numbers, what matters most is the quality you produce. As we speak, the cloud of war hangs over us. The threat of terrorism exists throughout the world. You know what you are called on to do. You have dedicated yourself to the defence and protection of your country”. Recalling the national anthem, he effused that women were finding an equal place in the Defence Force and were also now starting to find an equal place in Parliament, especially the Senate.
Offering a personal insight, Robinson said: “I leave you in body. I do not leave you in spirit. My spirit will always be with you. I hope my spirit will encourage and inspire you. “I, like others, see a bright future for this country of many creeds and races. I go with a feeling of confidence for the future. I have no pessimism for the future of the country. You encourage that optimism which I have”. President Robinson added: “I will try to do whatever little I can to add to the peace, development and happiness of the people of Trinidad and Tobago”. He said that the name of Trinidad and Tobago was now widely respected in the world. He recalled a returning national say this country was highly regarded in Rwanda. “You may find many parts of the world clouded by grey times, but you go with the experience of a small country that can make a difference”. Recalling the theme of a song sung earlier in his honour, he urged: “Go light your candle, Take it to the darkness. Go light up the world”. Apparently responding to Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier Ancil Antoine’s warm praises, President Robinson said: “Thank you for the honour you have bestowed. I will be eternally grateful. I will remember that I left with your blessing”.
Earlier, Brigadier Antoine had praised President Robinson, saying that during his six years as Commander-in-Chief, he had always been available and accessible to discuss any matter concerning the military. Antoine said the military had done its best to justify the great faith which the President had reposed in it. Antoine praised Robinson for his famous words uttered under terrorist threat during the 1990 coup attempt: “Attack with full force”. The Brigadier said military men admired the President’s qualities of courage, fortitude and resolve, and felt privileged to have served under a true officer and gentleman. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries including President of the Senate Dr Linda Baboolal, Minister of National Security Howard Chin Lee, Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy, Coast Guard Commander Garnet Best, NEMA head Colonel Dave Williams, Chief Fire Officer Lennox Alfred, retired Brigadier Carl Alfonso, the Defence Force’s Colonel Dillon.
OUTGOING President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Arthur NR Robinson, was yesterday hailed as a “colossus” who through the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has ensured that world leaders will be accountable for their actions. This was the glowing tribute paid to Robinson by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Dr Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, when she addressed the launch of a series of commemorative stamps at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to honour Robinson and the inauguration of the ICC.
Dr Ebong-Harstrup observed that during Robinson’s 45 years of public service, he held the nation’s three highest public offices and was “one of the most experienced statesmen in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and the Commonwealth”. She declared: “Within the UN system, his Execellency President Robinson will always be recognised as the acknowledged visionary with his relentless endeavour and championing in the establishment of the ICC. Perhaps because of President Robinson’s collective history in the Caribbean borne out of slavery, injustice and a denial of human rights that he was able to see clearly the need to fight the long hard fight for the establishment of the ICC- now established in the Hague. It is with great pride that we see before us a man from a relatively small island who has walked like Colossus across the stage and put in place a mechanism which will hold all world leaders accountable for their deeds.” The UNDP Representative said Robinson’s persistence in ensuring that the ICC became a reality, more than justified his reputation as the “Comeback Kid From Castara”.
Ebong-Harstrup said for her it was “a great honour as a historian to meet someone of his stature, who influenced and built upon the faltering steps of Nurenburg to lay in place mechanisms that will define and hold us all accountable in the 21st Century and beyond”. She added that as “a daughter of Africa and the Caribbean, I am very proud that one of our own has made such an outstanding contribution to world governance, world order and world civilisation.” Listing several post-World War Two attrocities Ebong-Harstrup said Robinson, through the creation of the ICC, had initiated a historic response to the “heinous reality” that is genocide.
A POLICE corporal was on Friday night shot in the right thigh by men who then stole his blue Honda Civic vehicle, which had not been recovered up to late evening.
Reports are that around 11.50pm Cpl Theodore, attached to the Besson Street Police Station, went to Salvia Drive, Malabar, Arima. There, police said, the officer was approached by three armed men. Cpl Theodore is reported to have put up a fight with the men and was subsequently shot once. The three assailants then stole the officer’s vehicle, in which they escaped. The policeman went to the nearby Malabar Police Post and was taken to the Arima Health Facility for treatment. Cpl Theodore was kept overnight and discharged yesterday morning. No arrests had been made up to late yesterday and Sgt Samai of the Malabar Police Post is continuing investigations into the shooting.
