Cricket News Latest: Bomb Threat Does Not Stop Match

Lahore, May 30 (Cricket news latest, curated from Indo-Asian News Service): A blast that took place near Gaddafi Stadium here during a One-Day International (ODI) between Pakistan and Zimbabwe was confirmed as a suicide attack by Pakistani authorities, who said a sub-inspector and a civilian lost their lives. However, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official confirmed that the third and final ODI of the ongoing series will be played on Sunday according to schedule. (Read: Two killed in suicide attack bid near Gaddafi Stadium)

Pakistan Information and Broadcasting Minister Parveiz Rashid said on Saturday that an attempt to attack the stadium on Friday was foiled by the police official, who lost his life while trying to stop a suicide bomber near Kalma Chowk, adding that six people were wounded in the incident, Dawn reported.

Rashid praised the Pakistan Broadcasters Association for “covering up” the news while the cricket match was going on so as not to spread panic as there were over 20,000 spectators in the stadium. The media had at first reported an explosion close to the ground but reports were taken off air after it was asserted that the explosion was caused by an electricity transformer.

Later, the provincial inspector general of operations said two people — Sub-Inspector Abdul Majeed and a civilian Rizwan — were killed in the blast. He added that the blast happened in a rickshaw and that forensic samples had been collected from the site to determine the nature of the explosion. The blast occurred at 9 p.m. when the day-night match was under way. The match continued uninterrupted and was won by Pakistan, who sealed the series 2-0.

The incident took place beside a checkpost for public entry to the ground, near the outermost ring of the three-tier security at Nishtar Park complex on Ferozpur road, about 800 metres from the stadium. The blast was audible to those in the ground and even inside the enclosed press box. After the blast, paramilitary forces guarding the first layer cordoned off the area. Within 30 minutes, the entire area in a radius of two km was locked down and closed for general traffic....More

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Ronda Rousey--UFC Latest News and Cash Phenom

Forget Mayweather, forget LeBron---the biggest cash flow and buzz machine in sports these days is Ronda Rousey, UFC champion, model and actress, who some are saying may be one of the biggest crossover stars ever. A check of any UFC latest news round-up will unvariably include references to Rousey’s latest matches, appearances, movies and interviews. How long will it last, ask industry observers?

Rousey is 11-0 in pro MMA fights, her most recent bout ending in 14 seconds on Feb. 28. Her next match is in August, vs. Bethe Correia. An upcoming opponent, Cris “Cyborg” Justino, is reported to be busy slimming down to be in the right weight class to fight Rousey. Her movie credits in the last few months alone include Fast & Furious, Expendables 3, and Entourage. Headlines about her range from celebrating her as a role model for strong, confident women, to embarrassing admissions that she is afraid of experiencing a wardrobe malfunction (Reebok, a major UFC sponsor, is working with her on designing anti-camel-toe gear.).

Here are just a few of the UFC latest news and cross media snippets about Ronda:

UFC President Dana White, predicting a potential 2 million buys for Rousey-Justino: “I don’t know [who wins], I think that’s why the fight is so exciting. There’s no denying that Cyborg’s a beast, man. She’s tough, and many people believe — including me — that Ronda’s the best in the world and the best female fighter ever. So it’s one of those fights that’s very intriguing. And I’ll tell you this, Jim, when that fight happens I guarantee you that fight does over two million pay-per-view buys. It will be massive.”

Upcoming opponent Bethe Correia, about her upcoming fight with Rousey Aug. 1 at UFC 190: “I want to demoralize her, show the world she has no MMA game,” Correia said. “She doesn’t have a good mind-set, she needs to get help. There are a lot of people around her, because she is winning, when she realizes she is not all that, I don’t even know what could happen. I hope she doesn’t commit suicide.”

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Latest Wrestling News: The Shield Generation Taking WWE to New Places

Professional wrestling organizations such as the WWE have been moving towards a greater emphasis on superior in-ring talent and originally independent performers, say observers of the industry. Among leading talents of the 2015 generation of “wrestling entertainment” who have emerged are Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, formally members of a clique called the Shield, who have since evolved into singles performers, and are now the company’s new “main event” attractions. So exciting have the three been to fans that one audience was recently observed to go into euphoria, when the trio momentarily appeared to re-form during a pay-per-view event.

The latest wrestling news making the rounds asserts that plans are in development to possibly reunite the Shield group for real over the next year, perhaps through an emerging feud between Seth Rollins and “HHH” over the direction of the promotion. Other new lights are being worked into the show like Kevin Owens, who has received praise for smoothly moving in to the spotlight immediately, facing off against John Cena. Owens has a 15 year background in the industry, almost all of it from independent organizations, who value in-ring wrestling skills above “entertainment” considerations.

His rapid promotion to a top position in WWE represents the company going into a new direction, drawing from the same independent pool of grapplers from where they signed Daniel Bryan, to give the promotion a more “authentic” look and feel for what HHH has christened “the Reality Era” of WWE. Female performers (or ‘Divas’) also represent this latest wrestling news trend, as the most talked about emerging newcomers Charlotte, Sasha Banks or Becky Lynch are each noted for their prowess and diversified moveset.

The WWE’s developmental property, NXT, has been a major contributing factor to the wrestling company’s changing direction.  Officials and new talent have been able to test out and perfect wrestling personas that exhibit compelling athletic competence and skills, while still being viable for mass entertainment purposes. The success of the Shield members and other upcoming superstars indicate the promotion’s developmental company is proceeding well.

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Maine Adopts Transgender Policy in Sports News First

AUGUSTA, Maine (curated by Sports News First, from Bangor Daily News) — Dick Durost was attending a national conference a few years ago when the idea of developing a policy to facilitate transgender high school students participating in interscholastic sports came to the forefront.

 By March 2013, Maine was one of a handful of states across the country with a transgender participation policy after its approval by the the general membership of the Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees interscholastic sports in the state.

“At that time, Colorado was in the process of putting together a policy and several New England states, including Connecticut and Vermont and us, started to have the conversation about getting in front of this issue,” said Durost, the Maine Principals’ Association’s executive director.

“We felt it just made good sense to put good policy in place without the emotion that would go with having a particular student be the one coming forward and requesting to do this,” he said.

Momentum for such policies has continued to grow during the last two years, with the Minnesota State High School League’s vote in March to open up girls sports to transgender student-athletes marking the 33rd state to adopt a transgender student participation policy. Minnesota law already had permitted girls to compete in boys sports.

“Certainly it’s been a rather common topic at [National Federation of State High School Association] meetings,” said Durost, “and I think we’ve tried to give the same advice to other states.

“That was to hopefully get in front of this before you had a court case or those kinds of things so you could adopt policy for policy’s sake. I think as a result that’s the approach most states have taken,” he said.

Maine Principals’ Association attorney Meg LePage, a partner with Pierce Atwood in Portland, studied the few state high school policies that existed at the time as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s policy and other related literature in helping to develop Maine’s transgender student-athlete plan.

“We created a presumption that a transgender student would be able to participate on the team that the student identified with,” she said, “but also a process that would ensure that the policy couldn’t be misused to gain some sort of athletic advantage, so there is a requirement that the student make an application and go to a confidential meeting where they demonstrate that this is a bona fide request and not something that is being easily manipulated.”...More

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FIFA Soccer Officials Arrested in Corruption Probe

ZURICH (Football breaking news, curated from AP) -- The U.S. government launched a corruption attack on soccer's global governing body Wednesday, pulling FIFA executives out of a luxury Zurich hotel to face racketeering charges and raiding regional offices in Miami.

Swiss officials also invaded FIFA headquarters, seizing records and computers to investigate whether the decisions to award World Cups to Russia and Qatar were rigged.

Scandals and rumors of deeper corruption have dogged FIFA throughout the 17-year reign of its president, Sepp Blatter, but he was not named in either investigation. He is scheduled to stand Friday for re-election to fifth term, and the organization said the vote would go ahead as planned, despite the latest turmoil.

FIFA also ruled out a revote of the World Cup bids won by Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

''We welcome the actions and the investigations by the U.S. and Swiss authorities and believe that it will help to reinforce measures that FIFA has already taken to root out any wrongdoing in football,'' Blatter said in a statement. The organization said it was cooperating fully with the investigation.

Authorities conducted early morning raids in Zurich at FIFA headquarters and the five-star Baur au Lac Hotel downtown in the investigations. In Miami, evidence was seized at the headquarters of CONCACAF, the governing body of North and Central America and the Caribbean, whose past and current presidents were among 14 defendants under indictment for corruption.

Swiss police arrested seven soccer official at the request of American prosecutors and threatened them with extradition to the U.S. Four other soccer and marketing officials agreed to plead guilty.

''Beginning in 1991, two generations of soccer officials ... used their positions of trust within their respective organizations to solicit bribes from sports marketers in exchange for the commercial rights to their soccer tournaments,'' U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said at a news conference in New York. ''They did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament.''

American prosecutors said they will seek forfeiture of more than $151 million the government alleges was illegally obtained.

Richard Weber, head of the IRS Criminal Division, called the developments ''the World Cup of fraud.''

Two current FIFA vice presidents were among those arrested and indicted, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay, the Justice Department said. The others are Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, Julio Rocha of Nicaragua, Costas Takkas of Britain, Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Jose Maria Marin of Brazil.

All seven are connected with the regional confederations of North and South America and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

FIFA suspended 11 people, including Webb and Figueredo, from all soccer-related activities following the U.S. announcement.

Webb called himself a reformer when he was elected as CONCACAF president in 2012 to replace Jack Warner, who also was named in the indictment.

The seven soccer officials arrested are connected with CONCACAF or CONMEBOL, South America's governing body. Each faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The Swiss justice ministry said six of the seven officials arrested oppose extradition to the United States, adding that U.S. authorities now have 40 days to submit the formal extradition request.

One of those detained, who was unidentified, agreed to ''a simplified extradition procedure,'' meaning he can be sent to the U.S. in the coming days.

Four of the men indicted are sports marketing executives and another works in broadcasting. Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice president from Trinidad and Tobago, was among those indicted.

The case involves bribes totaling more than $100 million linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for soccer tournaments in the U.S. and Latin America, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said. The Justice Department cited bribes and kickbacks involving media rights deals involving World Cup qualifying matches in the Caribbean and Central America, the Copa America - South America's continental championship - plus the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Champions League.

''They were expected to uphold the rules that keep soccer honest and to protect the integrity of the game,'' Lynch said. ''Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves.''

U.S. prosecutors said they had uncovered a dozen different schemes, including $10 million in payments from a FIFA account in Switzerland to an account in New York for credit to an account controlled by Warner. South Africa, with the backing of Nelson Mandela, beat rival bids from Morocco and Egypt to host the tournament in 2010, four years after narrowly losing out to Germany for the previous tournament.

The Swiss prosecutors' office said the U.S. probe was separate from its investigation but that authorities were working together.

The votes to award the World Cups to Russia and Qatar have been surrounded in controversy and accusations of corruption.

The Swiss prosecutors' office said in a statement it seized ''electronic data and documents'' at FIFA's headquarters Wednesday as part of the probe. Swiss police said they will question 10 FIFA executive committee members who took part in the World Cup votes in December 2010.

The Swiss investigation against ''persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering'' again throws into the doubt the integrity of the voting....More

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