Sports

When Bangladesh battle India in the Champions Trophy semifinal on Thursday and it will be the consecration of a new Asian cricket rivalry.

Few of the millions of Bangladeshis following at home expected Mashrafe Mortaza’s side to reach the last four — that they are playing India has made the achievement even more special and surprising to the players.

Mortaza sent his family home last week and other Bangladesh players were doing their shopping in expectation of flying back, according to Bangladesh media.

But sparkling batting by Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah helped Bangladesh to an epic win over New Zealand that saw them reach a first ICC tournament semifinal.

Now Mortaza says the team have to brush aside pressure so they can play with a “free mind” against India to prove their worth.

While India-Pakistan is one of the world’s biggest sporting rivalries, Bangladesh are fast emerging as a worthy competitor.

Bangladesh raged over umpire decisions when they lost to India in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final. They lost their World Twenty20 group match to India last year by just one run.

In between, the Bangladesh ‘Tigers’ beat India at home in a three-match one-day series. They have also beaten Pakistan and South Africa in one-day series to send them up the world rankings and earn them a place in the Champions Trophy for the world’s top eight teams for the first time in 11 years.

‘Hungry and talented’

Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara said ahead of the tournament that Bangladesh are “a very hungry and talented bunch of players”.

“What you see in Bangladesh right now is a growing confidence and enhanced game-awareness. It is learning how to win matches and that makes it very dangerous opponents.”

Mortaza’s side only started believing in their chances after impressive displays in New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and Ireland in the past few months.

“We did not win a match in New Zealand but we played well there. We created chances in all our matches,” said chief selector Minhajul Abedin.

Bangladesh defeated New Zealand during a three-nation tournament in Ireland before the trophy campaign. It was their first away victory against the Kiwis in 17 attempts.

Against the Kiwis in Cardiff last week, Bangladesh raced to 268-5 from a tottering 33-4 to eliminate Kane Williamson’s team.

Luck also played a role with Bangladesh heading to almost certain defeat against Australia until rain washed out the match.

England then beat Australia and let Bangladesh into the semifinal with the host.

“You could argue about the luck if we would have played badly. But we won a match while Australia and New Zealand failed to do so. Even to utilise the luck you need some base,” said Minhajul.

“The cricket we are playing, we deserve to be in the semis. We played well against New Zealand, we made 300-plus against England but Australia failed to do so in the same ground against the same opponents,” he said.

Minhajul said Bangladesh would need everyone to be on top form against India to have a chance of making the final.

Pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman, one of their most exciting talents, has failed to live up to expectations while youngsters Sabbir Rahman and Soumya Sarkar have struggled with the bat.

Mustafizur, nicknamed ‘‘Fizz’’, vowed to do justice to his reputation in the semifinal.

“My cutters were not as effective here as in our home soil. There is no end of learning. And I’m still trying to bowl well in these conditions,” Mustafizur told reporters.

“We always believe that our pacers can do well against India. If everything goes right, it will surely happen.”

MADRID — Football star Cristiano Ronaldo faces a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Spain’s prosecutor’s office in Madrid for allegedly defrauding Spanish tax authorities of 14.7 million euros ($16.48 million) between 2011 and 2014.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the Real Madrid forward had knowingly used a business structure created in 2010 to allegedly hide his image rights income in Spain.

This involved a “voluntary” failure to comply with his tax obligations in Spain, the statement from the office’s economic crimes section said. The four counts of tax fraud were based on a report from Spain’s tax agency, it said.

Real Madrid declined to comment and calls to the agency representing Ronaldo, Gestifute, went unanswered.

Ronaldo, who led Real Madrid to their 12th European Cup earlier this month, is the latest in a long line of football players in Spain — among them Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Neymar — who have been caught up in cases over tax or transfers.

Between 2005 and 2010, foreign players in Spain were protected under the so-called “Beckham law” allowing them to curb their taxes. But as the financial crisis bit deeper, that exemption was lifted, paving the way for the cases. 

The prosecutor’s office alleges that Ronaldo had defrauded the tax authorities of 1.4 million euros in 2011, 1.7 million euros in 2012, 3.2 million euros in 2013 and 8.5 million euros in 2014.

Ronaldo, who is from Portugal, became a Spanish tax resident in January 2010 and in November 2011 opted to follow the Spanish tax regime that applies to foreigners working in Spain, the statement said.

He should have paid a tax rate of 24 per cent in 2011, and 24.75 per cent in the three following years, it said.

Image rights

The prosecutor said that after Ronaldo signed a contract to join Real Madrid in December 2008 he ceded his image rights to a company called Tollin Associates Ltd., domiciled in the British Virgin Islands and in which he was the only stakeholder.

Tollin Associates then ceded his image rights to a company in Ireland called Multisports&Image Management Ltd. which was responsible for managing them. Tollin Associates itself had no business activity, the statement said.

“Ceding image rights to [Tollin Associates] was completely unnecessary and it’s only purpose was to create a screen to conceal the totality of his image rights income from the Spanish tax authorities,” the statement said.

The prosecutor’s office filed the lawsuit against Ronaldo on Tuesday to a court in the Madrid district of Pozuelo de Alarcon.

Ronaldo finished the football season scoring two goals in a 4-1 victory over Juventus in the Champions League final to become the tournament’s top scorer with a total of 12 goals. 

Afterwards, Spanish sports newspaper Marca called Real Madrid, who also won La Liga this year, “masters of the universe”.

In May, Spain’s supreme court rejected an appeal by Messi and stood by a Catalan regional court’s 21-month prison sentence for defrauding authorities of 4.1 million euros on image rights. He is unlikely to go to prison as under Spanish law sentences under two years can be served under probation.

Spain’s high court in May cleared Neymar of fraud but he still faces a corruption trial in Spain in connection with the value of his 2013 transfer from Santos to Barcelona. He has denied wrongdoing. 

MONTREAL — The goalposts may have moved in Formula One this season but, after a dominant one-two in Canada on Sunday, triple world champion Lewis Hamilton feels Mercedes are back on target.

The champions looked their old selves in Montreal as Hamilton led teammate Valtteri Bottas to their first one-two since the Finn joined in January as replacement for retired champion Nico Rosberg.

The Briton’s 56th career victory was his sixth in Canada and third in a row, and he turned the tables on Ferrari with a peerless performance.

Hamilton qualified on pole, the 65th of his career to equal the tally of his late Brazilian boyhood idol Ayrton Senna, led from start to finish and also set the fastest lap to complete the ‘‘Grand Slam’’.

Coming two weeks after Monaco, where he had qualified badly and finished seventh as Ferrari enjoyed their first one-two since 2010, it was the perfect weekend.

“I think for us, we really solidified our strength, we’ve got a better understanding of the car and hope we can put it in the same spot in the following races,” he told Sky Sports television.

“Also we know now, after the last race, where to develop this car moving forwards which I think is really going to make a difference in winning this championship.”

Hamilton warned, however, that there was still much to do and it would take time.

“I don’t think we’ve completely got rid of all the issues we have,” he said.

“We’ve understood the tyres, utilised the tyres a lot better this weekend, but I think there’s still things we’ve understood but that you can’t just fix in two weeks.

“So in terms of where we direct the development, the guys now in the factory have a much better goal. The goalposts have moved, but they know where it is and now they can work full steam ahead towards that.”

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, a four times champion, finished fourth on Sunday and saw his lead over Hamilton cut to 12 points with 13 races remaining.

The German and Hamilton now have three wins each, with Bottas taking the other.

Vettel had also qualified on the front row in Montreal but the expected battle between the two title contenders failed to materialise with the German having to fight through the field after his car’s front wing was broken on the opening lap.

Hamilton had no doubt Ferrari would be back to speed immediately.

“They are still very, very quick. They’ve been so consistent all year. This is the only weekend they’ve had not the greatest result but they’ve not had a seventh or something like we’ve had,” he said.

“So they are still very much there, they are still going to be very hard to beat.”

AMMAN — Jordan plays Vietnam in Saigon on Tuesday in its second Asian Cup Group C qualifier for the 2019 Asian Cup.

The national team leads Group C after it scored 7-0 win over lowly Cambodia while Vietnam held Afghanistan 1-1 in its opening qualifiers.

After elimination from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, advancing to the Asian finals is a priority. The Kingdom has steadily slid down FIFA rankings to 109th and the team has had an inconsistent two years compared to 2013 when Jordan was on the verge of qualifying to the 2014 World Cup for the first time.

The squad held a training camp and played Hong Kong in a friendly this week with coach Abdullah Misfer telling the media it was the intention to “win both matches. Nothing less”. However, the squad was held 0-0 with Hong Kong after they beat them 4-0 in a friendly in Amman. Jordan earlier lost 1-0 to Iraq 1-0 in a friendly in Basra. 

Team coaches underline the importance of taking each match at a time as beating Vietnam will maintain Jordan’s Group C lead with teams playing in six groups and group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advancing to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals as well as the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Teams already having qualified include Australia, China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan and the host the UAE.

Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, Jordan reached the Asian Championship three times: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA ranking of 37th in August 2004. They also reached the Asian Cup in 2011

PARIS — Claycourt king Rafa Nadal regained his Roland Garros throne after two years in exile with a brutal 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 mauling of Swiss Stan Wawrinka to complete ‘‘La Decima’’ on Sunday.

Rewinding the clock to the days when he was untouchable on the crushed brick dust, the 31-year-old turned 2015 champion Wawrinka into a human punch bag, winning in just over two hours.

This title, a record 10th at a single grand slam in the professional era, was arguably the most impressive of his 15 majors, though, as it arrived three injury-plagued years after the last one when he beat Novak Djokovic here in 2014.

He also did it without dropping a set and conceding only 35 games in seven matches. Only Bjorn Borg, who conceded 32 on his way to the 1978 title, has been a more ruthless champion.

Third seed Wawrinka, having beaten world number one Andy Murray with a majestic display of firepower in a gruelling semifinal, arrived full of hope as, at 32, he tried to become the oldest French Open winner since Andres Gimeno in 1972.

But the barrel-chested ‘‘Stanimal’’ was powerless as Nadal turned the final into an exhibition of his claycourt supremacy — taking his French Open record to an eye-watering 79-2.

As a weary Wawrinka sliced a volley into the net on match point Nadal collapsed on his back on the baseline.

Emotional Nadal

"I'm a little emotional," Nadal said before his tearful uncle Toni, his career-long coach who will take a back seat at the end of the year, handed him La Coupe des Mousquetaires.

"The nerves and adrenaline I feel on this court is impossible to compare."

Wawrinka said he had not found his best level but paid tribute to the man he beat to win the first of his three Grand Slam titles in Australia in 2014.

"For sure he's playing the best he's ever played. That's for sure. Not only here," Wawrinka said. "It's a tough loss. But I played against the biggest clay-court player ever."

Straw hats and fans were de rigueur for an expectant Court Philippe Chatrier as the final began with temperatures hovering around the 30 degrees Celcius mark — optimum conditions for Nadal's monstrous topspin game.

Wawrinka, who spent nearly five hours more on court than Nadal to reach the final, looked confused and heavy-legged although he did have a glimmer in the third game when Nadal, still settling down, saved a break point.

First blood 

Nadal failed to convert any of the four break points he had in the following game, but drew first blood the next time an opportunity arose to take a 4-2 lead.

Then he switched on the afterburners, taking Wawrinka out of the equation, and minutes later the Swiss wafted a forehand long to hand Nadal a second break of serve and the opening set.

Wawrinka was flat, striking not a single winner off his glorious single-handed backhand in the first set, and with less than an hour on the clock his task already looked forlorn.

Nadal got a time violation at the start of the second, but Wawrinka could not slow the Spaniard's charge as he bounded into a 3-0 lead in the second having won seven games in a row.

With the crowd attempting to lift Wawrinka he stopped the rot to hold, firing himself up with a roar of "C'mon".

Nadal was relentless though, pinning Wawrinka back behind the baseline. Even when he was stretched the response was emphatic, one astonishing forehand, whipped from close to the front row of seats to land in a blur of yellow in the corner, drawing gasps from the crowd and applause from Wawrinka.

Social media lit up at that point with women's semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland tweeting "OMG!"
Wawrinka, who had been on an 11-match winning streak on clay, was being hunted down mercilessly and his frustration boiled over as the Spaniard closed in on a two-set lead, the Swiss wrecking his racket frame after a missed forehand.

A brief lull as the court staff watered down the red dust failed to extinguish Nadal's fire and, despite Wawrinka's best efforts to extend the contest, the final set was little more than a coronation for Paris's favourite Spaniard.

AMMAN — Hot on the heels of the news that 3x3 basketball is being included in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics programme, the Jordan Olympic Committee is supporting a major tournament which got under way on Sunday night, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

Hosted at the new state-of-the-art Trax venue, the 3x3 event will welcome 30 teams competing in three categories including Professional, Amateur and Women category.

The tournament manager is former national team icon Zeid Al Khas who underlined the added importance of these tournaments now that the shortened version of the sport has received the ultimate acknowledgement from the International Olympic Committee.

“It will be a great chance for our amateur players to rub shoulders with the more established professional players, and to benefit from the experience to improve the game as a whole here,” he said.

“We expect good crowds to come down with it being held during the Ramadan nights and we encourage anyone interested to show their support as it will be a very entertaining event.” The action starts at 10.30pm each night with the tournament running through to June 14.

PARIS — When the time comes, proud champions are supposed to relinquish their crowns after fighting and snarling to the last moment. Novak Djokovic effectively waved the white flag, bowing out of the French Open with a whimper on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old Serb, who has prevailed in some of the sport’s epic battles on the way to 12 major titles, was barely recognisable as he capitulated in a 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-0 defeat by Austrian Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals.

After squandering two set points in the opener on a blustery Court Suzanne Lenglen, Djokovic’s renowned fighting spirit ebbed away quickly and he surrendered the third set in 20 minutes.

The result was all the more remarkable as in five previous matches with the 23-year-old he had lost one set and last month thrashed him 6-1, 6-0 in Rome — a result that suggested Djokovic had found his mojo, missing since he won the French a year ago.

Sixth seed Thiem, who to be fair played superbly in the first set but must have thought he was facing a Djokovic impersonator thereafter, is yet to drop a set at this year’s tournament but his next task is a daunting one.

“It doesn’t get any easier,” Thiem, beaten by Djokovic in last year’s semifinal, said on court when asked to comment on the prospect of facing favourite Rafa Nadal in the semis.

While Thiem’s part in Djokovic’s downfall should not be overlooked, it was the Serbian world number two’s astonishing collapse that was the talk of Roland Garros.

Double French Open champion Jim Courier, commentating on the match, said the Serb had shown ‘‘no fight’’.

Listless Djokovic

That was certainly true after the first set as Djokovic, whose new coach Andre Agassi had already flown home, appeared lost and listless, misfiring a succession of lame backhands.

“Obviously nothing was going my way and everything his way. Just pretty bad set,” said Djokovic, who split with his long-term coaching crew last month and announced shortly before the French he would be working with eight-times major winner Agassi.

“It was decided I think in the first set today. I tried. I lost that crucial break in the beginning of the second, and he started serving better, backing it up with the first shot. He deserved to win. He was definitely the better player.”

It was Djokovic’s first defeat before the semifinals in Paris since 2010 when he was also beaten by an Austrian, Juergen Melzer in the quarter-finals.

The danger signs were already there in the early stages when Thiem broke the Djokovic serve in the third game. However, Djokovic responded to break back twice in a row, only to drop his own serve at 4-2 with a forehand error.

Djokovic piled on the pressure when Thiem served at 4-5 and he had his man in trouble at 15-40. Thiem saved the first set point with a volley, then forced a backhand error on the second.

The tiebreak was nip and tuck with a succession of points against the serve but Thiem took it when Djokovic shovelled a tight-looking backhand into the net.

Djokovic dropped serve at the start of the second set and the expected backlash never materialised as Thiem marched towards the last four with unexpected ease.

Djokovic raised his fist to the crowd after winning a point early in the third but it was a hollow gesture.

He did save one match point but was already walking towards the net to shake hands when Thiem sent a backhand fizzing past him a few seconds later.

Thiem, who has 22 wins in claycourt matches this year and reached finals in Barcelona and Madrid where he lost to Nadal, is the second Austrian man to reach multiple grand slam semifinals after former French Open champion Thomas Muster.

AMMAN — Jordan’s U-23 squad plays Oman in Muscat on Thursday as part of a training camp in preparation for qualifiers for the 3rd Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championship in 2018.

Jordan is set to meet Oman again on June 11 in their second encounter with the July 19-24 qualifiers nearly a month away. 

The team was drawn in Group E with Tajikistan, Bangladesh, and host Palestine as 40 teams playing in 10 groups with the top team from each group, in addition to the top five second place teams, will move to the championship finals.

Head coach Iain Brunskill’s line-up played an eight-nation tournament in Dubai earlier this year where they finished third after they beat Singapore 2-0, held China 0-0, lost 1-0 to the UAE before beating Malaysia 4-0. 

In 2016, Jordan was eliminated from the quarterfinals of the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship in Qatar and failed to make it to the top four and a possible Olympic slot as the continent’s top three advanced to the Rio Olympic Games football tournament later won by Brazil.

In the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship in 2014, Jordan took third place when they beat South Korea while Iraq won the title after defeating Saudi Arabia.

In 2015, Jordan’s U-23 squad was eliminated from the 1st West Asian U-23 Championship and in 2014 the line-up represented Jordan at the Asian Games where they made to the quarter-finals.

The Kingdom’s younger squads are also training for their respective Asian qualifiers. The U-19 team, which qualified to the Asian Championship four times and previously reached the FIFA Youth World Cup in Canada in 2007, was last eliminated from the qualifying rounds of the 2016 Championship. This year, they are set to play in Group E alongside Syria, Palestine and hosts Iran.

Jordan finished fourth in 2006, but exited the group stages in 2008 and 2010 and reached the quarters in 2012. Jordan failed to qualify to the 2014 championship. 

Similarly, the U-16 team is now preparing for their Asian qualifiers in which they will play in Group A alongside hosts Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Bahrain and Sri Lanka. In 2015, the U-16 squad failed to advance to the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship.

AMMAN — Jordan plays Hong Kong on Wednesday in their final friendly before resuming Asian Cup Group C qualifiers when it plays its second qualifier against Vietnam on June 13 in Saigon.

Jordan leads Group C after they scored 7-0 win over lowly Cambodia while Vietnam held Afghanistan 1-1 in opening matches of the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers.

The national team, which was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, now aims to advance to the Asian finals. “We will aim to win both matches. Nothing less,” coach Abdullah Misfer told the press at the team’s practice.

Misfer underlined the importance of being mentally and technically focused. He noted that “circumstances surrounding the team’s line-up regrouping late or training circumstances in Ramadan had to be overcome.” 

The match against Hong Kong is important for Misfer to put finishing touches on the line-up. In their latest match, Jordan lost 1-0 to Iraq in a friendly in Basra. The team earlier beat Hong Kong 4-0 in a friendly in Amman.

Asian teams in the qualifiers are playing in six groups with group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advancing to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals as well as the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Teams already having qualified include Australia, China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan and host the UAE.

Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, Jordan reached the Championship three times: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA ranking of 37th in August 2004. They also reached the Asian Cup in 2011 and 2015.

Jordan is now 109th in the latest FIFA rankings. The squad is still out of the Asian top 10 trailing Iran (30), South Korea (43), Japan (45), Australia (48), Saudi Arabia (53), Uzbekistan (62), UAE (75), Syria (77), China (82), Qatar (88) and India (100). 

The Kingdom has steadily slid down FIFA rankings and the team has had an inconsistent two years compared to 2013 when Jordan was on the verge of qualifying to the 2014 World Cup for the first time.