IGNOMINY is not exactly a new emotion to the British Davis Cup team. Embarrassments have been too frequent in recent years for the team supposedly buoyed by the economic profits from Wimbledon.
But John Lloyd now admits the factor that will determine whether his lineup slips to its lowest level in nearly 15 years is the involvement of Andy Murray.
With the world No 4, Lloyd insists Britain has a chance of avoiding the drop to the third tier of Euro/Africa Zone Group Two and potential encounters with Monaco, Moldova, Montenegro and Ireland.
Without the younger of the two Murray brothers, Lloyd can promise nothing and the paucity of other talent at his disposal was again brought starkly into focus as Britain suffered defeat within two days against Ukraine.
Glasgow’s Braehead Arena was meant to showcase Murray’s talent. As he finally returned tentatively to a practice court 400 miles south at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, reportedly almost a stone lighter after falling ill in Dubai, his supposed doubles partner Ross Hutchins and fellow Scot Colin Fleming battled nobly but were ultimately unable to turn the tide set a day earlier.
Britain have now lost three ties in succession and a September date against Poland, with relegation for the loser, now looms. At least Britain will have home advantage in that tie, meaning Lloyd can at least furnish a court surface that will appeal to Murray after he has played the US Open on a fast hard court.
“With Andy in the team we are a potential World Group side and good enough to be well established in the Euro African Group One,” said Lloyd, insisting his mood was boosted by the showings of Hutchins and particularly Fleming in the 6-4 3-6 6-3 5-7 6-4 defeat by the Ukrainian duo of Sergiy Stakhovsky and Sergei Bubka Jr. “Without him it’s always going to be tough.”
Stakhovsky, successful in the opening day singles against Chris Eaton, said elation spread through the Ukraine team at the news of Murray’s incapacity and saw them through the tie. “It was a great relief for us when we heard he wasn’t going to be in the team and Josh Goodall would be the British lead player instead,” said the 23-year-old, whom Murray beat just before falling ill. “Playing Andy is a pain in the butt.”
Source:the times
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Paul Casey reaches desert final
Perhaps this will be the year in which Paul Casey demonstrates c o n c l u s i v e p r o o f o f h i s prodigious talent. The 31-year-old from Cheltenham, now based a 90-minute drive from Tucson in Scottsdale, Arizona, will become the first Englishman to contest a final of the Accenture Match Play Championship after he overcame the Surrey-based professional Ross Fisher in an encounter that was more a battle of attrition than one of those gunfights that lent these parts enduring renown.
Casey and Fisher were two of the sharpest shooters all week at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, near where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday left several victims lying in the dust in the infamous Gunfight at OK Corral. The desert heat and the sheer physical toll of playing two matches in one day made the Englishmen two tired gunslin-gers and when Fisher missed a 12ft par putt for a half on the 14th hole to fall two down he looked as doomed as Billy Clanton.
When his ball finished amid the Saguaro cacti on the next hole he struggled to extricate himself from the trouble but Casey failed to capitalise and they halved with bogey sixes. Fisher staged a late rally with successive birdies on the 15th and 16th to narrow the gap to one hole but Casey secured a 2&1 win with another birdie on the penultimate green.
His victory in Abu Dhabi and a fourth-place finish at the Dubai Desert Classic made for an encouraging start to the season and he has carried his confidence all the way across to the Sonoran Desert. “The goals are the same, the majors and the big tournaments,” confirmed Casey, who has not improved on his tied-for-sixth finish at The Masters in 2004 in 18 majors since then.
His performance level has been the most consistently reliable of the past week. In his five matches he was never behind at any point. Shaun O’Hair had suffered a bout of food poisoning on Friday after eating a pepperoni pizza and was in no shape to halt Casey in the morning quarter-finals, which the European Ryder Cup stalwart won 4&3. Fisher, the 2008 European Open winner, had followed a seven-bird-ie haul on Friday, which secured a remarkable 4&3 victory over former US Open champion Jim Furyk, with another seven-birdie round in his quarter-final against Justin Leonard, who won the Open Championship at Royal Troon in 1997, for a 2&1 win.
But the birdies dried up in the afternoon, with Casey and Fisher producing only six between them and one more bogey.
Mental strength, more than the brute strength inherent in his game, pulled Casey through. “I know what it is like to play 36 holes of match play in a day through playing in three Ryder Cups, the most extreme and most fatiguing I have ever felt on a golf course, and that experience helped to pull me through,” he said. “This isn’t quite as bad but it was tough and gruelling and Ross made it as hard for me as he could.”
In today’s 36-hole final Casey will play Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion from Australia who won this event in 2006 before finishing runner-up in 2007 to Hen-rik Stenson. Ogilvy was a convincing 4&2 winner over the American Stewart Cink, whom Tiger Woods battered 8&7 in last year’s final. Ironically, Ogilvy played a practice round here with Casey two weeks ago. “I think that was very useful,” Casey acknowledged. “It was going to be useful just playing any round I played down here but especially so playing with Geoff because he knows desert golf very well, having lived out here for a while. I took a lot out of that one round. We didn’t keep score, we just played and it was all very casual but it will be different tomorrow.”
Life may be different, too, for Rory McIlroy after he wooed the American galleries with several precocious performances, including a win over “Tiger-slayer” Tim Clark. His week culminated in a courageous 2&1 defeat by Ogilvy in yesterday’s quarter-finals. He was midway through his round with Hunter Mahan on Thursday when a spectator cried out, “Hey, Ronald McDonald, I’ll have a quarter-pounder with cheese.” The teenager laughed – “It was funny and I’ve probably been called worse because of my hair” – before he birdied three of the final four holes to beat his American opponent on the final green. Nothing much fazes the 19-year-old from Holywood, Co Down.
After seven birdies and just one dropped shot, Ogilvy left McIlroy with a downhill, left-to-right putt from 12ft on the 16th hole to stay in the match, precisely the kind of challenge to test the young man’s character. His nerve held, his putting stroke was true and the putt dropped. An eighth birdie in a blistering round on the penultimate hole secured a 2&1 victory for Ogilvy but, by breaking into the top 15 of the world rankings ahead of former US Open champion Jim Furyk through his efforts here, McIlroy has made his mark.
His progress and the striking maturity of his play and demeanour coincided with Ernie Els, a former world No 1, proclaiming that McIlroy will soon challenge Woods for this distinction. “I think that you’re looking at the next No 1 in the world with him,” said Els of the Northern Irishman. “He’s got all the tools and he’s probably got the current No 1, hopefully, not going to do what he’s been doing the last three years.”
Source:the times
Casey and Fisher were two of the sharpest shooters all week at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, near where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday left several victims lying in the dust in the infamous Gunfight at OK Corral. The desert heat and the sheer physical toll of playing two matches in one day made the Englishmen two tired gunslin-gers and when Fisher missed a 12ft par putt for a half on the 14th hole to fall two down he looked as doomed as Billy Clanton.
When his ball finished amid the Saguaro cacti on the next hole he struggled to extricate himself from the trouble but Casey failed to capitalise and they halved with bogey sixes. Fisher staged a late rally with successive birdies on the 15th and 16th to narrow the gap to one hole but Casey secured a 2&1 win with another birdie on the penultimate green.
His victory in Abu Dhabi and a fourth-place finish at the Dubai Desert Classic made for an encouraging start to the season and he has carried his confidence all the way across to the Sonoran Desert. “The goals are the same, the majors and the big tournaments,” confirmed Casey, who has not improved on his tied-for-sixth finish at The Masters in 2004 in 18 majors since then.
His performance level has been the most consistently reliable of the past week. In his five matches he was never behind at any point. Shaun O’Hair had suffered a bout of food poisoning on Friday after eating a pepperoni pizza and was in no shape to halt Casey in the morning quarter-finals, which the European Ryder Cup stalwart won 4&3. Fisher, the 2008 European Open winner, had followed a seven-bird-ie haul on Friday, which secured a remarkable 4&3 victory over former US Open champion Jim Furyk, with another seven-birdie round in his quarter-final against Justin Leonard, who won the Open Championship at Royal Troon in 1997, for a 2&1 win.
But the birdies dried up in the afternoon, with Casey and Fisher producing only six between them and one more bogey.
Mental strength, more than the brute strength inherent in his game, pulled Casey through. “I know what it is like to play 36 holes of match play in a day through playing in three Ryder Cups, the most extreme and most fatiguing I have ever felt on a golf course, and that experience helped to pull me through,” he said. “This isn’t quite as bad but it was tough and gruelling and Ross made it as hard for me as he could.”
In today’s 36-hole final Casey will play Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion from Australia who won this event in 2006 before finishing runner-up in 2007 to Hen-rik Stenson. Ogilvy was a convincing 4&2 winner over the American Stewart Cink, whom Tiger Woods battered 8&7 in last year’s final. Ironically, Ogilvy played a practice round here with Casey two weeks ago. “I think that was very useful,” Casey acknowledged. “It was going to be useful just playing any round I played down here but especially so playing with Geoff because he knows desert golf very well, having lived out here for a while. I took a lot out of that one round. We didn’t keep score, we just played and it was all very casual but it will be different tomorrow.”
Life may be different, too, for Rory McIlroy after he wooed the American galleries with several precocious performances, including a win over “Tiger-slayer” Tim Clark. His week culminated in a courageous 2&1 defeat by Ogilvy in yesterday’s quarter-finals. He was midway through his round with Hunter Mahan on Thursday when a spectator cried out, “Hey, Ronald McDonald, I’ll have a quarter-pounder with cheese.” The teenager laughed – “It was funny and I’ve probably been called worse because of my hair” – before he birdied three of the final four holes to beat his American opponent on the final green. Nothing much fazes the 19-year-old from Holywood, Co Down.
After seven birdies and just one dropped shot, Ogilvy left McIlroy with a downhill, left-to-right putt from 12ft on the 16th hole to stay in the match, precisely the kind of challenge to test the young man’s character. His nerve held, his putting stroke was true and the putt dropped. An eighth birdie in a blistering round on the penultimate hole secured a 2&1 victory for Ogilvy but, by breaking into the top 15 of the world rankings ahead of former US Open champion Jim Furyk through his efforts here, McIlroy has made his mark.
His progress and the striking maturity of his play and demeanour coincided with Ernie Els, a former world No 1, proclaiming that McIlroy will soon challenge Woods for this distinction. “I think that you’re looking at the next No 1 in the world with him,” said Els of the Northern Irishman. “He’s got all the tools and he’s probably got the current No 1, hopefully, not going to do what he’s been doing the last three years.”
Source:the times
Kevin Pietersen voices IPL fears after Lahore attack
KEVIN PIETERSEN, the most expensive player at last month’s Indian Premier League auction, is considering withdrawing from the lucrative Twenty20 tournament, due to start next month, because of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan side in Lahore last week.
The former England captain, speaking to the News of the World, has said that he will “be consulting as many people as I can but if I don’t think it is right, then I will not be going”.
Pietersen was signed by the Bangalore Royal Challengers for a record £1.1m and was due to be with them for three weeks but he is now clearly having doubts about his personal safety. “After this final Test against the West Indies, I will be speaking to Bangalore, to the ECB, to my agent and to security advisers. Then I will be a lot clearer in my thoughts than I am now. Since the terror attacks in Mumbai we are all now more mindful of our own security arrangements.
“Hopefully, the security will come right for India, but if everybody pulls out of the IPL then it would be a disaster, a catastrophe and world cricket would really be on a down.”
Fellow England players Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara and Paul Collingwood are also contracted to take part in the competition but there must be doubts about their willingness to travel to India.
The cricket community outside Pakistan seems determined to categorise the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore as a problem specific to that country. Reflecting on what was happening in Pakistan, Pietersen said: “I think, at the moment, it is unlikely people will be comfortable travelling there. It is very, very sad - I feel sorry for the Pakistan cricketers. I feel sorry for everybody in Pakistan but everybody thought sportsmen were safe, they thought cricketers were safe but obviously they are not.” Security will be upgraded for high-profile events everywhere but the administrators’ message is clear: the game goes on, from Mumbai to Manchester, from Brisbane to Bloemfontein.
Yet as long as Muslim radicals in Pakistan condemn cricket as a distraction from religion, the sport’s future there is questionable. The ECB has already offered to host Pakistan’s series next year against England in this country.
Whether Pakistan are really a case apart, time will tell, but cricket’s men in suits don’t have a great track record at averting crises. There were many who were keen to play the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in October, despite a critical report from Nicholls Steyn & Associates about security failings at the Asia Cup, which was designed to prove Pakistan’s ability to stage a tournament safely. As events in Lahore proved, their judgment was seriously awry.
Cricket’s first big test in the post-Lahore world is whether the IPL goes ahead. There must be a chance that the Indian government will pull the plug - with regional elections parallel to the IPL, the risks are high, for policing the cricket and for them to suffer at the polls should there be a terrorist incident at a game.
Cancelling the IPL would hurt India’s case for staging the 2011 World Cup, but such is India’s clout that only the most severe setback would drive the World Cup to its stand-by venue, Australasia.
“There is a feeling everything is ad hoc,” said Tim May, chief executive of Fica, the players’ global union. “Risks are assessed and then procedures rolled out. We need a more streamlined process, some standard basic guidelines. We need to take government advice and leave no stone unturned to develop best practice.”
ICC president David Morgan argues that the world governing body cannot be responsible for security everywhere, but it can agree ground rules to which all member countries sign up. If the ICC cannot unite behind this issue, then it cannot unite behind anything.
Source: the times
The former England captain, speaking to the News of the World, has said that he will “be consulting as many people as I can but if I don’t think it is right, then I will not be going”.
Pietersen was signed by the Bangalore Royal Challengers for a record £1.1m and was due to be with them for three weeks but he is now clearly having doubts about his personal safety. “After this final Test against the West Indies, I will be speaking to Bangalore, to the ECB, to my agent and to security advisers. Then I will be a lot clearer in my thoughts than I am now. Since the terror attacks in Mumbai we are all now more mindful of our own security arrangements.
“Hopefully, the security will come right for India, but if everybody pulls out of the IPL then it would be a disaster, a catastrophe and world cricket would really be on a down.”
Fellow England players Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara and Paul Collingwood are also contracted to take part in the competition but there must be doubts about their willingness to travel to India.
The cricket community outside Pakistan seems determined to categorise the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore as a problem specific to that country. Reflecting on what was happening in Pakistan, Pietersen said: “I think, at the moment, it is unlikely people will be comfortable travelling there. It is very, very sad - I feel sorry for the Pakistan cricketers. I feel sorry for everybody in Pakistan but everybody thought sportsmen were safe, they thought cricketers were safe but obviously they are not.” Security will be upgraded for high-profile events everywhere but the administrators’ message is clear: the game goes on, from Mumbai to Manchester, from Brisbane to Bloemfontein.
Yet as long as Muslim radicals in Pakistan condemn cricket as a distraction from religion, the sport’s future there is questionable. The ECB has already offered to host Pakistan’s series next year against England in this country.
Whether Pakistan are really a case apart, time will tell, but cricket’s men in suits don’t have a great track record at averting crises. There were many who were keen to play the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in October, despite a critical report from Nicholls Steyn & Associates about security failings at the Asia Cup, which was designed to prove Pakistan’s ability to stage a tournament safely. As events in Lahore proved, their judgment was seriously awry.
Cricket’s first big test in the post-Lahore world is whether the IPL goes ahead. There must be a chance that the Indian government will pull the plug - with regional elections parallel to the IPL, the risks are high, for policing the cricket and for them to suffer at the polls should there be a terrorist incident at a game.
Cancelling the IPL would hurt India’s case for staging the 2011 World Cup, but such is India’s clout that only the most severe setback would drive the World Cup to its stand-by venue, Australasia.
“There is a feeling everything is ad hoc,” said Tim May, chief executive of Fica, the players’ global union. “Risks are assessed and then procedures rolled out. We need a more streamlined process, some standard basic guidelines. We need to take government advice and leave no stone unturned to develop best practice.”
ICC president David Morgan argues that the world governing body cannot be responsible for security everywhere, but it can agree ground rules to which all member countries sign up. If the ICC cannot unite behind this issue, then it cannot unite behind anything.
Source: the times
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