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| Police pass spot-fixing file to CPS • Police say evidence handed to CPS for consideration• Spokesman: 'Met investigation continues'An initial file of evidence on claims that Pakistan cricketers accepted cash bribes to fix matches has been passed to prosecutors. Police said evidence that there was a conspiracy to defraud bookmakers would be considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.Detectives interviewed four players under caution and arrested a businessman, Mazhar Majeed, as part of the inquiry. Majeed is accused of accepting ÂŁ150,000 to fix the actions of several players during last month's England v Pakistan Test at Lord's.A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "The Metropolitan Police Service has today delivered an initial file of evidence relating to conspiracy to defraud bookmakers to the Crown Prosecution Service. The file will now be subject to CPS consideration. This is an initial file and the Met investigation continues."Allegations of match-fixing were made in the News of the World. Majeed is accused of accepting cash to ask players to deliberately bowl no-balls during their tour of England.The Pakistan captain, Salman Butt, and the bowlers Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz have been interviewed under caution. The players have been suspended by the International Cricket Council but deny any wrongdoing.The former Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield was charged with fraud yesterday at the conclusion of a separate inquiry. He will go on trial accused of fraud over claims that he deliberately played poorly in a one-day 40-over match between Durham and Essex last year.Pakistan cricket betting scandalPakistan cricket teamEngland v Pakistan 2010Cricketguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Inspired Edfors blows away Harrington • Swede 'a bit disappointed' after scoring 61• Harrington not even in the top 20 after day of low scoresPadraig Harrington shot seven birdies and yet still found himself seven off the lead after the opening day of the Vivendi Cup in Paris. Left as the only member of next week's Ryder Cup side in the field after the withdrawal of Peter Hanson with a chest infection, Harrington signed for a four‑under‑par 68.An hour later, however, the Swede Johan Edfors completed a 61, which equalled the lowest round of the European Tour season and knocked two strokes off his best score on the circuit. Edfors had five birdies in an outward 31 and then started for home with three more birdies and an eagle.The Tour's first 59 was a possibility at that stage, but the former Scottish Open and British Masters champion bogeyed the next before finishing with two more birdies. It gave him a two-shot lead over England's David Dixon, while the scoring was such that Harrington did not even make the top 20.Originally hoping to be in Atlanta for the Tour Championship and its ÂŁ7.2m jackpot, controversial wild-card pick Harrington fell out of the FedEx Cup play-offs at the halfway stage and decided to add this far smaller event to his schedule.He was three under after six, but mixed three bogeys with his four other birdies playing alongside his elder brother Fergal in the pro-am format. Harrington said: "If I had putted well it would have been a tremendous score – you have to hole putts to shoot a low number."I could see the two weeks of practice I've just done and I got stalled over the ball a bit, but another three rounds will do me no end of good."Dixon's compatriot John Parry and the twice French Open champion Jean-François RemĂ©sy, now 46 and without a European Tour card, shared third following eight-under rounds of 64."I've been driving it great, hitting the driver really good and putting myself right up by the greens," Dixon said. "And my wedge play has been really good as well, been working on that a bit. It's easy when you're hitting it off the fairway with a wedge in your hand and getting the yardages spot on and then the putts drop, as well. That's a bonus, isn't it?"I got a bit of confidence early on. I hit a bad tee shot on the 1st into the forest and hacked it out and put it on the green and holed about an eight-foot putt for a par. And then I thought: 'That's just nice, made a really good par,' and that just feels good and gives you that bit of confidence over the next few."The top four all played the Marly course. On the adjoining Retz, the left-hander Chris Gane and France's Julien Guerrier did best with 65s. The field switches lay-outs tomorrow before the event drops the amateurs and concludes with two more rounds on the Marly.Edfors said: "I'm still a little bit disappointed. I don't think I'll ever get a better chance to shoot 59 than I had today. I was 10 under with five to go, had 80 metres left on 14 in the middle of the fairway and I three-putted. I had a really good chance for a 59. I was playing really nice." Padraig HarringtonGolfguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
NHL bullish on next rights deal Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has an interesting way to describe the 93-year-old NHL this season. feeds.bizjournals.com |
LaDainian Tomlinson back in old form with Jets hitting stride When Marty and Brian Schottenheimer spoke during the offseason, it was hardly a typical father-son chat. "Dad, what do you think about LT?" asked ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
The Ashes 2010: Alastair Cook was a natural at 13, says Derek Randall One of Alastair Cook's mentors tells of his role in the grooming of the batsman who beat the best of BradmanAs the last traces of snow melted from the outfield of the cricket ground at Bedford School yesterday morning, one old Ashes hero, Derek Randall, took a break from a coaching session in the warmth of the squash courts to reflect on Alastair Cook's development into another.Randall, the much-loved former Nottinghamshire and England batsman, has been employed by Cook's former school as cricket professional for over a decade. "Derek is probably the most wonderfully eccentric man I have ever met," Cook wrote two years ago in his autobiography."Has he written a book already?" Randall responded yesterday, revealing that he had not stayed up all night to follow his protege's historic progress beyond Bradman's Brisbane record, just "watched little bits of it on the highlights". The Gabba is a ground Randall knows well: he scored important innings of 75 and 74 not out there when England beat Australia in the first Test of the 5–1 series win in 1978‑79. In all he scored three Test centuries in Australia."I helped Alastair as a young boy, but he gave me more pleasure at this school than I gave him help, if I'm honest," said Randall. "He's really moved on since he was here. It's just fantastic."Cook arrived at Bedford School on a music scholarship aged 13, having spent the previous five years at the St Paul's Cathedral Choir School in London – singing as a treble in Holland, Brazil and once with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. But he quickly changed his priorities."You could see as soon as you saw him batting, and how quickly he saw the ball, that he was a natural," said Randall. "At that age they're learning technically, and I could only take him so far as a young boy. He was never one of those flamboyant players. But there was one time before he'd even played for the first team that he scored a century against them – for the MCC, when they'd turned up one player short."Randall confirms Cook's recollection that "he would have me on the bowling machine twice a week at 8am because it was the only time those sessions could be fitted in". The teenager was already being watched closely by another England middle-order batsman, Keith Fletcher, who was part of the coaching and scouting set-up led by Graham Gooch at Essex."I saw him when he was a tiddler, playing for our age group teams and also in club cricket with Maldon," said Fletcher, the former Test captain and coach whose experiences on Ashes tours were not as happy. "He obviously had the ability but also the temperament – he was very sensible and mature for his age, that was one of his real plus points, and the sort of thing you're looking for when you're weighing up whether a lad has a chance of making it. He was already quite capable of making big 100s, and the major thing I did to help his career was convince Goochy to put him in the [Essex] first team."That was in June 2003, when Cook made his senior debut as an 18-year-old in a 50-over match against a Pakistan team captained by Yousuf Youhana, as he was still known. Cook came in at No8 to face the last ball of the Essex innings. He failed to score, then returned to the pavilion with a certain Andy Flower, who had carried his bat for 115.Randall highlights the presence of Flower and especially Gooch on this tour as a key reason behind Cook's record‑breaking triumph at The Gabba. "I tell you my impressions of it – first of all, Goochy has been a fantastic influence on him," he said. "Can you imagine the pressure leading up to Brisbane? There's been an awful lot of hype. You can lose yourself in that, but obviously Graham's done a lot of work in getting him prepared for it."What Graham has also been doing is expanding his game. Allowing him to play one-day cricket has been important. Whereas earlier in his career he'd be batting all day and just getting to 100, now he can take the game to the bowlers a lot more, and that's why he can go on and get big 200s like this. If England can find a way to play him in a bit more one-day cricket and develop his strokeplay a bit more, it could be 300s next. He's not at the top of his career is he? He's still only mid-20s."Randall remains surprisingly bitter about the criticism Cook received for much of the summer, when he was struggling for runs and his place was deemed under threat. "Last year was ridiculous, the way the press put pressure on a young bloke who's obviously got all the talent in the world, who's been the England captain, and suddenly he had one innings to save his career. They've got a lot to answer for. Fortunately he had the talent and character to come through it, and doing that did him a world of good." With that Randall returned to his throwdowns in the squash court for a couple of under-11s from Bedford's prep school."There's a good feeling all around the school this morning, because Alastair has stayed in touch with us and been back a few times," said Peter Sherwin, Bedford's Australian head of cricket who therefore had slightly mixed feelings. "He was here for an old boys' game in July when he came along to see a few of his old mates, and a lad in our current side called James Kettleborough broke his school run-scoring record."Breaking Bradman's best score at The Gabba will hopefully come as some consolation for that.The AshesAlastair CookEngland cricket teamCricketAndy Wilsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |