TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014 SPORTS Ryder, Bracewell axed Socceroos face Ecuador Pistons fire head coach for late-night drinking in World Cup warm-up Cheeks in half a season WELLINGTON: Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell have been dropped from the New SYDNEY: Australia will play fellow 2014 World Cup finalists Ecuador NEW YORK: The Detroit Pistons have fired head coach Maurice Cheeks after barely half a Zealand squad for the second test against India starting on Friday as punishment for in an international friendly in London next month, Football season in charge of the National Basketball Association team, the club announced on going on a late-night drinking session on the eve of the first test in Auckland. Federation Australia (FFA) said yesterday. Sunday. Cheeks became the first NBA head coach fired this season. “This was a difficult deci- New Zealand coach Mike Hesson told reporters in Auckland yesterday that team It will be the final match Socceroos’ coach Ange Postecoglou will officials had lost confidence in the pair and they would not be considered for the sion for the organization to make but we needed to make a change,” President of Basketball have to give any fringe players an opportunity to push their claims Wellington match, although Bracewell was already ruled out with a broken foot. Operations Joe Dumars said in a statement. The Pistons are ninth in the Eastern Conference “We need to make sure that all our players prepare themselves accordingly for test for his squad at the tournament in Brazil before they re-assemble in this season at 21-29, though they have won their past two games. “Our record does not cricket, and at the moment we don’t have confidence that that’s the case,” Hesson said May ahead of the June 12-July 13 showpiece. reflect our talent and we simply need a change,” said Pistons owner Tom Gores. of the visit to an Auckland bar until the early hours of Thursday. “Both Jesse and Doug “Were excited to have secured the match against Ecuador, which “We have not made the kind of progress that we should have over did not prepare themselves well for the test match and we’re certainly offers us a good test against South American opposition leading the first half of the season. This is a young team and we knew there very disappointed about that. into the World Cup,” Postecoglou said in a FFA statement yesterday. would be growing pains, but we can be patient only as long as “We’re dealing with grown men. If a player was to have a beer “This is also the last match we will play before we get together in there is progress.” Cheeks, 57, was appointed coach in June on a with their meal before a game, we don’t have an issue with that at all. May for our final World Cup preparations so its important that we two-year deal. An NBA point guard for 15 seasons, primarily with “But there’s a big difference between that and what occurred the can build on the first positive steps we took in the match against the Philadelphia 76ers where he was part of the 1983 champi- night before the test match.” Costa Rica late last year.” onship-winning team, Cheeks previously served as head coach of New Zealand won the first match of the two-test series by 40 The clash will be the first between the two teams and will be at the Portland Trail Blazers and 76ers. “The leadership and player runs late on the fourth day on Sunday and Hesson was annoyed that English Championship (second division) side Millwall’s ‘The Den’ sta- development qualities he brings as a former player and coach Ryder and Bracewell’s behaviour was still detracting from that per- dium in southeast London on March 5. blends nicely with the roster we are building for the future,” formance. “The fact that we’ve won a test match yesterday and Dumars said at the time of the hiring. Australia are in Group B at the World Cup with defending cham- the fact the first few questions are based around off-field “He’s won an NBA championship, coached in two NBA Finals as incidents is clearly an extreme disappointment for the pions Spain, the Netherlands and Chile, while Ecuador are in Group an assistant coach and mentored some of the top young play- team,” Hesson said. — Reuters E with Switzerland, France and Honduras. — Reuters ers in the NBA.” —Reuters Zimbabwe cricketers on strike again HARARE: Zimbabwe’s cricketers went on strike again yesterday and refused to start a domestic Twenty20 tournament after payments promised by the national board to end a two-month standoff weren’t received. A representative of Zimbabwe’s players’ asso- ciation said they also wouldn’t hesitate to pull out of next month’s World Twenty20 in Bangladesh if they aren’t paid. He said the national board, Zimbabwe Cricket, had been “insincere” with its players. Players from all the five provincial sides decided to boycott the T20 competition due to open Monday after a meeting at Harare Sports Club, the venue for the tournament. They decid- ed to go home after payments didn’t appear in bank accounts in the morning, as agreed by ZC at a meeting over a week ago to end the strike. “ZC has been insincere in their dealing with the players,” Eliah Zvimba, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers Association, said. “At the moment we have reached a boiling point.” Zvimba said the problem needed to be dealt with “once and for all.” Zimbabwe’s national squad briefly returned to training last week, but the latest strike will have more ramifications for HARARE: Zimbabwe domestic franchise cricket players sit back as players boycott a domestic their preparations for the Twenty20 World Cup T20 tournament ahead of the T20 World Cup. — AFP starting on Mar. 16. against South Africa. There has been no domes- poor state. They have huge debts,” Streak said. Zimbabwe hasn’t played international cricket tic cricket in Zimbabwe for two months. ZC “To get yourself out of that is hard. There are in a since September, when the home test series owes a total of around $217,000 to its centrally trap. With the reputation ZC has no one can give against Pakistan was also undermined by contracted players, Zvimba said, and more to them things on credit. It’s virtually impossible threatened strikes over non-payment. The franchise players. Former Zimbabwe captain for them to get things back to normal again.” struggling board recently canceled tours by Sri Heath Streak said the national body’s finances Zimbabwe Cricket reportedly has debts of Lanka and Afghanistan because of its financial were in a mess. $18 million and has requested a loan from the problems and also turned down a one-off test “The thing is ZC allowed things to get to this International Cricket Council. — AP ECB: Pietersen axed because team need to ‘trust each other’ QATAR: Tom Boonen (left) of Belgium and the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team LONDON: Kevin Pietersen’s international lic comment was contained in the original runs in one-day internationals but he was receives his trophy on the podium after winning stage two of the Tour of Qatar from career was ended because captain Alastair statement announcing his sacking, during never far from controversy. the Camel Race Track to Al-Khor Corniche. — AFP Cook needed to be able to trust and rely on which he said he regretted he would not be His impact on and off the field was dra- the support of all his players, the England playing for England again. “Following the matic and he was dropped over “provocative” and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on announcement of that decision, allegations text messages sent to opposition players Boonen wins Tour Sunday. The controversial batsman’s have been made, some from people outside during a test series against South Africa in England career finished on Tuesday when he cricket, which as well as attacking the ration- 2012 before being reintegrated into the was left out of the squad for this month’s ale of the ECB’s decision-making, have ques- squad. Following England’s drubbing in of Qatar stage one-day tour of West Indies and the World tioned, without justification, the integrity of Australia, however, media reports emerged Twenty20 in Bangladesh in March. “The team the England team director and some of of more problems. Pietersen, for his part, said DOHA: Tom Boonen claimed the Tour of reported Boonen. needs to rebuild after the whitewash in England’s players,” the ECB said on Sunday. he wanted to keep playing in all three for- Qatar second stage yesterday, the former He added: “Towards the finish we were Australia,” the ECB said in a statement, refer- “Clearly what happens in the dressing mats of the game until at least 2015. The ECB world champion fending off Denmark’s all dead, you could see that by the fact that ring to the 5-0 Test defeat Down Under. room or team meetings should remain in offered additional support for Cook, Prior Michael Morkov in a sprint finish. only five or six riders took part in the sprint “To do that we must invest in our captain that environment and not be distributed to and Flower on Sunday. The 33-year-old Belgian’s Omega finish.” This was Boonen’s 21st stage win in Alastair Cook and we must support him in people not connected with the team.