THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015 SPORTS Burns plots Aussies comeback in India

MELBOURNE: Queensland batsman Joe the chance to play.” Burns is determined to avoid membership Australia’s recent history is littered with of the burgeoning club of Australian bats- batsmen who have been thrown into the men who have made brief cameos in the spotlight after years of toiling in the test team before permanently falling into fringes, then promptly banished after a obscurity. The 25-year-old was the only handful of games. member of the team that defeated India 2- batsman Alex Doolan had a 0 in the 2014-15 series not to be picked for brief flirtation with Australia’s number three the 17-man tour squad for the Caribbean spot in the batting order last year but was and England in June and July. dumped after his fourth test produced con- The highly-rated right-hander’s spot was secutive failures. usurped by 35-year-old Western Australian Erstwhile one-day George Bailey Adam Voges, who amassed more than failed to perform in the 2013-14 Ashes and 1,300 runs in Australia’s domestic Sheffield has not had a look-in since. Three-test all- Shield to lead the run-scorers in a stand- rounder Moises Henriques enjoyed a prom- out season. ising debut in India with two half-centuries Though Voges dazzled selectors, Burns but was discarded before the end of the ill- also had a decent Shield and might feel fated 2013 tour that saw Australia white- unlucky after scoring consecutive half-cen- washed 4-0. turies in his second and last test against On his 2012 debut against South Africa India in January. in Brisbane, Victoria left-hander Rob Quiney “Sometimes tough calls are made and scored nine, which was memorably 50-50 calls can go against you but you can’t described as “the best nine” then-coach get too down about it,” two-test Burns told Mickey Arthur had seen. the Brisbane Times. He was dropped one test later after two “You have to focus on what’s important consecutive ducks and Arthur was sacked and the things that you need to continually the following year. Burns will head to India keep doing to keep performing. “I think I’m with Australia A and other test discards, not going to get too caught up in getting including Bailey, Usman Khawaja and spin- down in the dumps about it. ner Ashton Agar. “I think it’s natural to be disappointed “I want to play for the next decade for when you get left out of the Australian Australia and I think being able to perform team. It’s a great team to be a part on the sub-continent is going to play a big of and I guess that’s why it hurts not to get part in that,” he said. —Reuters WASHINGTON: Eric Fehr No. 16 of the Washington Capitals skates past Ryan Murphy No. 7, Eric Staal No.12 and goalie Cam Ward No. 30 of the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period. —AFP Sri Lanka urges Sangakkara to reconsider retirement Capitals stop Hurricanes

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s sports minister yes- the World Cup. WASHINGTON: Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL- Rangers rallied to beat Winnipeg. Lundqvist, in the Pacific Division with their second win in terday urged the world’s number one bats- Sangakarra scored an unprecedented leading 50th goal, reaching that mark for the playing for the second time since missing 25 two nights. They did it by killing off a five-minute man Kumar Sangakkara to reconsider plans four successive ODI hundreds during the sixth time and tying a team record with the games with a neck injury, stopped 32 shots and major penalty that carried into overtime. to retire from and urged him to tournament in Australia and New Zealand, 472nd of his career, and added an assist to help earned his first win in his return. The playoff- Eddie Lack stopped all four Nashville shots in play on for another year. racking up a total of 541 in seven innings at the Washington Capitals beat the Carolina bound Rangers (48-21-7) also got goals from overtime, then turned away attempts by Mike Navin Dissanayake told reporters that he an average of over 108. Hurricanes 4-2 Tuesday night. Mats Zuccarello and Derick Brassard, snapped a Santorelli and Filip Forsberg in the shootout. hoped a government-ordered overhaul of As well as being the number one bats- With his team pushing to make the playoffs, two-game skid, and moved one point ahead of Alexandre Burrows had a goal and an assist Sri Lanka Cricket might persuade the 37- man in the world rankings for Test cricket, the three-time NHL MVP got No. 50 at 11:12 of Montreal atop the Eastern Conference. Jim Slater for Vancouver. Chris Higgins, Linden Vey and year-old to stick around a bit longer after the former captain is also the number two the first period, giving Washington a 2-0 lead and Lee Stempniak scored for Winnipeg (39-26- Jannik Hansen scored a goal each, and Bonino he again underlined his class at the World in the ODI rankings. when he took a pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov and 12). Pavelec made 21 saves in the loss. had two assists. Cup. Although Sangakkara had announced sent a shot from just inside the left circle past Mike Fisher, Cody Franson, Taylor Beck and “As sports minister, I humbly appeal to before the World Cup that it would be his goalie Cam Ward. SENATORS 2, RED WINGS 1 Viktor Stalberg scored for Nashville, which lost Kumar to reconsider (retirement) and play swansong in one-day international cricket, On Tuesday, after Carolina made it 2-2 with Mark Stone scored the final goal in the its second straight at home. for the country for at least one more year,” he caused a stir during the tournament by goals from Eric Staal and Nathan Gerbe, shootout, and Ottawa beat Detroit. Mika the minister said in Colombo. speaking of his intention to quit Tests with- Washington went back in front on goals 82 sec- Zibanejad and Kyle Turris also had shootout BLUE JACKETS 3, DEVILS 2 Dissanayake said he hoped that the in months. onds apart late in the second period by Brooks goals for the Senators. Clarke MacArthur scored Jack Johnson’s backhander 56 seconds into appointment of an interim management “There are Test matches in June and Laich and Joel Ward. Braden Holtby made 23 in the third period, and Andrew Hammond, who overtime helped Columbus top New Jersey and team, headed by former Test player Sidath July, and I will be done by the end of saves for Washington. missed the previous two games because of a extend its winning streak to seven. It was the Wettimuny, would demonstrate the new August,” he told the ESPNcricinfo website. lower-body injury, returned and made 16 saves. Devils’ sixth straight loss (0-5-1). New Jersey has government’s determination to “clean up” “A series or two in June and in August, and MAPLE LEAFS 3, LIGHTNING 1 Petr Mrazek stopped 33 shots for Detroit, scored seven goals during the skid. Brandon the governing body which has been beset hat’s it.” Sri Lanka are due to play both Nazem Kadri had a goal and assist, and the which got a regulation and shootout goal from Dubinsky scored on a penalty shot, Nick Foligno by accusations of corruption and misman- Pakistan and India over the summer, Toronto played the role of spoiler in a win over Gustav Nyquist. Tomas Tatar also scored in the had a power-play goal, and Sergei Bobrovsky agement. “I spoke with him (Sangakkara) in although the exact dates are yet to be playoff-bound Tampa Bay. shootout. made 24 saves. Ryan Johansen had two assists, New Zealand during the World Cup,” the finalised. Sangakkara has already signed up One day after the Lightning secured a playoff giving him at least one in seven straight games - minister said in Colombo. to play for English county side Surrey in spot, they fell behind 2-0 after a sluggish spell CANUCKS 5, PREDATORS 4 one off the franchise mark. “He was very disappointed and unhap- 2015 and 2016, complicating the prospects midway through the first period. Nick Bonino and Radim Vrbata scored in the Mike Cammalleri scored a power-play goal in py (with the cricket administration) and of a u-turn. He has scored 12,203 runs in Kadri’s goal at 8:53 marked the first time the shootout, and Vancouver avoided being swept the first period and added a short-handed tally now that there is a change, I think there is a Test cricket, more than any other active Maple Leafs (29-42-6) had the lead in a game in by Nashville. The Canucks padded their lead to with 2:29 left in regulation for New Jersey. Eric possibility that he will change his mind.” player, putting him at number five on the 541:08 of action. David Booth and Morgan Rielly four points over Calgary to stay in second place Gelinas added two assists. —AP The minister said he had “asked Sidath all-time list. There was no immediate com- also scored for Toronto, which got a fine 40-save to talk to Kumar” about staying on after the ment from Sangakkara to the minister’s performance from James Reimer in winning its left-hander’s outstanding performances at appeal.—AFP second straight. NHL results/standings Ryan Callahan scored for Tampa Bay, which has lost three of four on its road trip. The Boston 3, Florida 2; Washington 4, Carolina 2; Columbus 3, New Jersey 2 (OT); Toronto 3, Tampa Bay 1; Ottawa 2, Lightning, with 101 points, are one behind Detroit 1 (SO); Vancouver 5, Nashville 4 (SO); Montreal for first place in the Atlantic Division. Western Conference Tampa Bay 47 24 7 250 204 101 Pacific Division Detroit 40 23 13 221 208 93 BRUINS 3, PANTHERS 2 WLOTLGFGAPTS Boston 39 25 13 204 198 91 Milan Lucic scored the tiebreaking goal with Anaheim 49 22 7 227 216 105 Ottawa 38 26 12 220 204 88 1:09 left as Boston rallied to beat Florida. Tuukka Vancouver 45 27 5 224 208 95 Rask kept the puck out during a final scramble at Calgary 42 28 7 229 204 91 Florida 35 27 15 192 210 85 the buzzer with Florida on a power play and Los Angeles 37 25 14 201 192 88 Toronto 29 42 6 201 245 64 using an extra skater. David Pastrnak scored the San Jose 37 30 9 212 215 83 Buffalo 21 47 8 148 255 50 tying goal midway through the third and had an Edmonton 23 40 13 185 255 59 Metropolitan Division Arizona 23 46 8 161 256 54 assist on Lucic’s goal. NY Rangers 48 21 7 231 179 103 Central Division Loui Eriksson also scored and Rask had 22 Nashville 47 22 9 224 193 103 Pittsburgh 42 23 11 210 190 95 saves for the Bruins, who moved six points St. Louis 46 23 7 229 190 99 NY Islanders 45 27 5 235 215 95 ahead of the Panthers. Brandon Pirri and Brad Chicago 46 24 6 217 176 98 Washington 42 25 10 227 190 94 Boyes scored in the second period to give Minnesota 44 25 7 219 186 95 Columbus 37 35 4 210 234 78 Florida a 2-1 lead. Roberto Luongo made 26 Winnipeg 39 26 12 217 204 90 Philadelphia 30 29 17 198 219 77 Dallas 37 30 10 239 248 84 saves. New Jersey 31 33 13 170 197 75 Colorado 35 29 12 206 213 82 Eastern Conference Carolina 28 37 11 176 208 67 RANGERS 3, JETS 2 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the Chris Kreider scored with 3:46 left in the third Atlantic Division Montreal 47 22 8 203 174 102 standings and are not included in the loss column (L). period, and Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Snubbed ICC president quits

DHAKA: The International Cricket Council (ICC) The ICC had criticised Kamal for his outburst and demanded the governing body looked into was left red-faced yesterday when its president last month against a controversial no-ball deci- the dismissal. ICC Chief Executive Dave Mustafa Kamal resigned claiming he was sion in the World Cup quarter-final match. Richardson termed Kamal’s outburst as “very snubbed at the presentation ceremony after India opener Rohit Sharma was caught in the unfortunate”. “Any suggestion that the match Sunday’s World Cup final in Melbourne. deep and umpire Aleem Dar deemed it was an officials had ‘an agenda’ or did anything other Kamal, as the head of the governing body, above waist-height no-ball though replays con- than perform to the best of their ability are base- was expected to present the trophy but ICC tradicted his opinion. After India won the match, less and are refuted in the strongest possible chairman Narayanaswami Srinivasan awarded it Kamal questioned the motive of the umpires terms,” Richardson had said. —Reuters to the victorious Australian side at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Many believe it was a price Kamal paid for his outburst against a con- troversial umpiring decision that went against his country Bangladesh in their World Cup quar- ter-final defeat by India, the country Srinivasan hails from. Kamal has been quoted in the local media flaying Srinivasan and the former Bangladesh Cricket Board chief, on his return from Australia, said “people with ugly mindset” had no business running the ICC. “I was supposed to present the trophy to the winners after the Melbourne final. But I couldn’t do that,” he told reporters at the Dhaka airport on his arrival from Australia. “I’m again requesting-these type of people should be away from cricket, otherwise cricket will be spoiled, cricket will not move forward,” Kamal said. “My earnest request to ICC is to revisit those things. I’m sure people will find out why I have resigned and they will unearth the truth-who are these people, what are they doing and how they are running ICC,” he added. The governing body confirmed Kamal’s departure, saying that his resignation letter stated he was leaving “on personal grounds” LAHORE: This is a Sunday, March 4, 2012 file photo of Bangladesh Cricket Board President and that “he had no complaints to make Mustafa Kamal (right) as he speaks as Pakistan’s Cricket Board Chairman Zaka Ashraf, looks on Kumar Sangakkara against anyone”. during a press conference. —AP