Mathews, SL fined for slow over-rate

Stand-in Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has been fined 20% of his match fee, for maintaining a slow over-rate in the final ODI against India in Pallekele. Match referee Chris Broad found Sri Lanka to be one over short, after taking allowances into consideration, and fined the rest of the team 10% of their fees.

According to the ICC code of conduct, players are fined 10% of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that. If Mathews is found guilty of one more minor over-rate offence in ODIs over the next 12 months, he will receive a one-match suspension.

Sri Lanka, who bowled first in Pallekele and went on to lose the match by 20 runs, had already lost the series and so rested their fulltime captain Mahela Jayawardene for the game. In his absence, vice-captain Mathews was in charge.

Earlier in the series, MS Dhoni and India had been fined for their slow over-rate in the first ODI in Hambantota.

Olympics: 8 badminton players charged with throwing matches

London, Aug 1: The World Badminton Federation (WBF) will shortly decide whether the eight women players who participated in two 'fixed' matches at the London Games yesterday should be expelled from the competition.

With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) taking a dim view of the manner in which two pairs from South Korea conspired with their respective Chinese and Indonesian opponents to manipulate the quarter-final lineup, the WBF is under pressure to take stringent action against the players.

World champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang apparently wanted to avoid their counterparts Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei, ranked no 2, until the final. Hence Wang and Yu deliberately lost to Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na of South Korea. The spectators did not get their money's worth as Wang and Yu either served into the net or hit the shuttlecock out of the court. The Korean pair played poorly too.

Not even a single rally in the entire match extended beyond four shots. No wonder the referee issued a stern warning in the middle of the match. When Indonesia's Greysia Poli and Meiliana Jauhari squared up against Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jing of South Korea, things were more or less the same. Both pairs showed no interest in winning the match.

Though angry spectators booed loudly to show their resentment at the farcical proceedings, it had no effect on the players. Tournament referee Torsten Berg flashed a black card to disqualify all four of them but the Korean and Indonesian coaches convinced him to rescind their dismissal.

Though Jung-eun and Min-jing emerged victors in the end, their head coach Sung Han-kook admitted that the intention of his wards was no different from that of the Chinese.

He said that Jung-eun and Min-jing did not want to face Kyung-eun and Ha-na in the quarter final. Han-kook also accused Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of setting a wrong precedent. Later the WBF said that the eight players concerned have been charged "...with not using one's best efforts to win a match and conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport." Incidentally, IOC president Jacques Rogge was present in the Wembley Arena here and watched the four pairs present an unedifying spectacle.

Sangakkara out for four-six weeks

Kumar Sangakkara has been ruled out of cricket for four to six weeks after fracturing his finger during the third ODI against India in Colombo. The injury has put doubts on Sangakkara's participation in the inaugural season of the Sri Lanka Premier League that starts on August 11, apart from missing the remaining two ODIs against India.

Sangakkara had scored 23 runs when he was hit by a quick Ashok Dinda bouncer in the fifteenth over of Sri Lanka's innings. He went on to score another 50 runs and pulled Sri Lanka from a precarious 20 for 3 to safety after a 121-run stand with captain Mahela Jayawardene. After eventually getting out to Dinda, Sangakkara was sent for a scan that confirmed the fracture.

The news will come as a blow to Sangakkara's SLPL franchise Kandurata Warriors, for whom he has been appointed the captain. Kandurata are scheduled to play their first match on August 11.