12:30 PM After being suspended indefinitely on Wednesday, Tennessee Volunteers TE Cameron Clear has been dismissed from the team after he was charged with stealing a laptop from a UT baseball player.
12:15 PM A man who was arrested for streaking across Busch Stadium during a St. Louis Cardinals game Thursday night said he did it because he lost a bet.
Last year, the Washington Redskins cheerleaders took a trip to India to help teach aspiring rah-rah girls how to entertain fans of professional cricket. It seems to have been a successful visit, as lovely sideline ladies have become a staple of the Indian Premier League.
And one cricket team owner decided to take cheerleading tryouts one step further by turning the process into a reality TV series. Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood actor & co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders (a.k.a. KKR) cricket club, produced the series “Knights & Angels“, where contestants competed to take one of six open slots on the team’s cheerleading squad. The lucky gals were selected in early April, and were all set to peform for KKR during the team’s upcoming trip to South Africa.
If you’ve seen the film Almost Famous, you’re probably aware of a scene in which Billy Crudup’s character takes some drugs at a house party and then ends up on top of a roof shouting “I am a golden god!” before jumping off. Well, British long jumper Jonathan Moore must be a big fan because he basically did the same thing on Saturday in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
The only differences are that Moore didn’t say a word before his leap, nobody knows whether or not he was actually on drugs, there wasn’t any party going on, and, oh yeah — he was naked. He had just finished fourth in the long jump at a meet the previous day in Potchefstroom, and perhaps decided that he wanted to move into high jumping. Confused neighbor Lappies Labuschagne (yeah, that’s his name) described the bizarre scene:
Much was made about Mississippi finally giving in to inevitable pressure and accepting the Emancipation Proclamation a few years ago. Good timing on that, now that the U.S. is about to inaugurate an African-American President (some Barack Obama guy?). Unfortunately, South Africa hasn’t really caught up yet, as it turns out they’re still using the athletic equivalent of Jim Crow laws to pick their cricket teams.
(Herschelle Gibbs: South African cricket’s Rosa Parks.)
It’s true, and we had no idea, either, until we found this story about the country finally abandoning its race-based selection on STUFF.CO.NZ, which cites the South African teams improved performance when it — brace yourself for this one — picked athletes based on talent and ability rather than the color of their skin.
Of course, the fact that the surging South African cricket team currently has seven non-white players among its 15-man squad isn’t enough to make Cricket South Africa, the sport’s governing body in the country, pull the trigger on overall “merit-based selection” overnight. No, CSA is insisting on phasing the policy in over three years, sticking to the slightly less-shocking “target-transformation policy,” a quota system that places four non-white players on every cricket team.
The Sharks, a South African rugby team, slipped an extra man onto the grass for two whole minutes without anyone noticing in their Super 14 match against the Queensland Reds last weekend. The 16th man roamed freely in the Sharks win and made two key tackles. Queensland Reds are protesting now, but you have to catch them in the act, Aussies. So sorry!
Now this is how you catch them in the act:
(Anatomy of a cheater)
The brilliant BALL IN EUROPE spotted ETB Essen trying to secure a promotion to the second division in German basketball by pulling the ol’ Maypole trick on the ref with two seconds left in the game. It’s one thing to sneak a 16th man onto a large field of play; it’s quite another to slip a sixth man back onto a tiny basketball court. Große Hoden, ETB Essen!
• SOCCERLENS focuses in on the real goal for a successful World Cup in South Africa - legalizing prostitution.
• Jason Whitlock of the KANSAS CITY STAR wants his March Madness now, as he’s bored with the college b-ball regular season.
• THE BIG LEAD is rooting for Dudley Hart to win the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, considering he missed a lot of golf time caring for his lung cancer-stricken wife.
• FAN IQ’s 100% INJURY RATE suggests that if the Olympic discus toss doesn’t thrill you, why not try the live-goat-into-the-lions’-den toss?
WORLD CUP CONTINENTAL ROTATION KNOCKED OFF AXIS: The World Cup may not be heading back to South Africa or South Carolina anytime soon:
The DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) reports that FIFA has decided to end its world championship rotation policy.Previously, soccer’s governing body had a system where the World Cup host site would rotate between the six continental confederations (sorry, Antarctica).
The next tourney up for grabs is in 2018. According to the old policy, a country in North America or the Caribbean would be the one rolling out the welcome mats.
However, the policy change means that non-Northwestern Hemisphere nations can now officially bid to host the contest, without having to wait until the next continental go-around.That clears the way for England to make a serious run for the 2018 tourney, along with other European nations who just recently saw the World Cup come to Germany in 2006.
Besides, American interest in the Cup already peaked after Brandi Chastain showed off her own cups.
