GGOLFOLF | Page 4 NBA | Page 5 Bubba Watson Pacers top takes WGC Heat in overtime, Match-Play clinch berth title in Texas in playoff s Tuesday, March 27, 2018 CRICKET Rajab 10, 1439 AH Stunned Australia GULF TIMES digests cheating shame in S Africa SPORT Page 2 Barshim gears up for long season ahead and Brussels on consecutive days, high jump in all competitions he By Joey Aguilar Doha $100,000 will be at stake in each of took part in, and in August etched the 32 Diamond disciplines, includ- his name in history by becoming the ing $50,000 for each winner. first Qatari to win the gold at the out- fter making 2017 all his own “We have a long and hard season door IAAF World Championships in with his trailblazing exploits, ahead starting with the Diamond London with a jump of 2.35 metres. Qatar’s world-beating high League meeting in Doha and I am With the 2019 IAAF World Cham- Ajumper Mutaz Barshim is preparing hard for it,” Barshim told pionships to be hosted by Qatar, gearing up for another year of domi- Gulf Times on the sidelines of the Barshim is quite enthusiastic about nance when the prestigious Dia- mond League series kicks off in Doha Esrar Race 2018 held at Aspire Park retaining his world title. on May 4. over the weekend. “We are working towards it. After The 14-leg series will take elite track Barshim took part in the race as an this season is done with we will put and field athletes across Asia, Eu- honorary ambassador as he encour- together a plan for 2019,” he added. rope, the US and Africa over a four- aged participants to support the Barshim’s best is 2.43 metres, which month period culminating with the event and lead a physically active is the second-highest leap in history final event in Brussels on August 31. life. after after Cuban Javier Sotomayor’s This being a non-Olympic and “Starting the season with a win in 2.45m set 25 years. non-World Championships year, the front of the home fans is always Barshim has also won the world planet’s best athletes will turn their a great feeling and I hope to do it indoor title and a bronze and silver at entire focus to the Diamond League again this year,” the reigning world the Olympics besides several medals competitions with the ultimate goal champion added. at the Asian level. of winning the season-ending IAAF Last year, Barshim kick-started the The 2018 Diamond League meetings Diamond League Champions prize. season with a winning leap of 2.36 will be staged in Doha, Shanghai, Eu- Athletes earn points in the first 12 metres, which he cleared with his gene, Rome, Oslo, Stockholm, Paris, meetings in the road to the final. At first attempt. Lausanne, Rabat, Monaco, London, the two final meetings, held in Zurich He then went on to win sweep the Birmingham, Zurich and Brussels. RALLYING SPOTLIGHT Bancroft might have got away had Qatar’s Adel takes T2 he not panicked, says broadcaster Reuters it in his pants, we knew that this was Cape Town a major incident. Until then, we were not sure what we were looking at.” victory on 2nd stage Naicker adds they had not been By Sports reporter ustralian cricketer Cam- tracking Bancroft specifi cally, but it Abu Dhabi eron Bancroft may have is standard for the broadcaster to fol- got away with his now in- low the ball from player to player, even famous attempt to alter the when it is not in play. atar’s Adel Abdulla claimed Acondition of the ball in the third Test “We have seven cameras that stay the fastest time in the T2 against South Africa at Newlands had with the ball always, whether it is in category on the 287.92km he not panicked and stuff ed the evi- play or not,” he revealed. “But there second selective section dence down his trousers. are a lot more cameras, we had 30 at Qof the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge That is the belief of Alvin Naicker, the ground.” Naicker says they broad- through the deserts of Liwa yesterday. the head of production at host broad- cast the footage of him rubbing the The Qatari began the day 30min caster SuperSport and the man in ball with the then unknown object al- 33sec behind Saudi rival Ahmed the director’s chair who broke one of most immediately after the incident. Shegawi in his rented Nissan Safari cricket’s greatest scandals. “He (Bancroft) probably saw it two Y61 and he and navigator Nasser al- 15 minutes getting the car out. The start and the Russian incurring time Bancroft was caught on camera minutes after it happened and very Kuwari reduced that gap to 29min leader then came and passed us. penalties after the previous stage. placing sticky yellow tape, which he smartly our cameraman focused on 24.9sec after crossing the dunes of “We got going again and he stopped Competitors will tackle the third used to pick up rough granules off the the coaching staff and we saw the the Rub Al-Khali in a time of 5hrs again and we pushed and passed desert special and the second of three pitch, into the front of his pants when coach (Darren Lehmann) get on the 35min 43sec, despite losing over 10 him again. We managed to take one loops stages through the UAE deserts he believed his cheat had been spotted walkie-talkie to the player down on minutes stuck at the top of a sand minute from him and we will now be today. The timed section will run for by the umpires. the fi eld (Peter Handscomb), who ran dune near the fi nish. in front of him in the stage for tomor- 281.27km. The fall-out from the incident has on to speak with Bancroft. It was then Adel said: “Today we decided to row. This is a good thing. There are cost captain Steve Smith and his dep- he panicked.” push more than yesterday. This car still three days to go and I am sure the 2018 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge uty David Warner their positions, for the big screen at the ground, umpires The ‘follow the ball’ policy is some- is completely diff erent to my car. I next one will be very hard. I hope to – T2 positions after SS2: the remainder of the match at least, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth thing Naicker says is done in every learned a lot about this car yesterday. close the gap soon.” 1. Ahmed al-Shegawi (SAU)/Laurent and thrown both players’ future in the called the player over. test and they were neither asked to do We caught the leader (Ahmed Shega- Adel Abdulla is running his T2 Lichtleuchter (FRA) Toyota Land baggy green cap into doubt, leaving a He produced a black piece of cloth it, nor were driven by any other previ- wi) and we passed him and we pushed programme with the crucial support Cruiser 10hrs 00min 23.7sec nation seething. used to clean sunglasses from his ous suspicious behaviour. more and more. But this stage is un- of the Qatar government, the Qatar 2. Adel Abdulla (QAT)/Nasser al- “We initially just saw that he had pocket and the umpires were, at the “We don’t want it to seem like we believably diffi cult for our cars, as a Motor and Motorcycle Federation Kuwari (QAT) Nissan Patrol 10hrs something in his hand and he put it in time, satisfi ed. are going after the Australian team,” T2. We passed many diffi cult places, (QMMF) and Ooredoo Qatar. 29min 48.6sec his pocket, but we didn’t know what it Naicker believes that had Bancroft he said. “If that was a South African, you cannot believe. Both Russia’s Yuliya Khegay-Mi- 3. Yuliya Khegay-Migunova (RUS)/ was,” Naicker told Reuters yesterday. kept the piece of yellow tape in his we would have broadcast the footage “We were, perhaps, leading by 15 gunova and Romania’s Claudia Lau- Aldis Vilcans (LVA) Toyota LC 200 “It was only when he later panicked pocket and still produced the black for sure. minutes but, in the last 30km, I got rentiu Barbu lost considerable time 20hrs 21min 44.5sec and put it in his underpants that we cloth for the umpires, giving him the “We have a responsibility to enter- stuck in the top of a sand dune. It in the sand dunes and slipped behind 4. Laurentiu-Claudiu Barbu (ROU)/ got sight of the yellow tape.” opportunity to dispose of the tape lat- tain, but just like journalists we have a was my mistake. I did not take the further behind their T2 rivals, with Paul-Nicusor Spirodon (ROU) Nissan After the images of Bancroft putting er, nobody would be the wiser. moral obligation to provide unbiased right gear and we spent maybe 10 or the latter stopping close to the stage Navara 239hrs 01min 34.0sec something in his pocket appeared on “The moment he tried to dispose of editorial.” Gulf Times 2 Tuesday, March 27, 2018 CRICKET SPOTLIGHT Sponsors put Aussie cricket Stunned Australia digests on notice Sydney: Australia’s major cricket sponsors, including Qantas Airways, breakfast cereal maker Sanitarium ball-tampering shame and brewer Lion, said yesterday they were as- sessing their relationship with the country’s favourite Rajasthan Royals announced Smith had agreed to step aside as captain, to be replaced by Rahane pastime as the fallout from a ball-tampering scandal es- Reuters calates.