Dreaming of victory
LASITH Malinga received a suspended one- year cricket ban after the fast bowler pleaded guilty to a charge of speaking to the media without permission, Sri Lanka’s cricket board said yesterday.
The sanction is suspended for six months and Malinga will also be fined 50 per cent of the match fee from his next one- day international, Sri Lanka Cricket said. The charge against Malinga came from his response to criticism by Sri Lanka’s sports minister over the team’s fitness levels.
Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara castigated players for allegedly being overweight after Sri Lanka failed to reach the semi- finals at the Champions Trophy. IT’S Sunday afternoon at Suncorp Stadium and more than 50,000 people are cheering as Jeff Horn’s hand is raised in victory over Manny Pacquiao and the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt is being strapped around his waist.
It’s the scene that propelled Horn through his final strength and conditioning session for the fight yesterday – 16 rounds of skipping, shadow sparring, bag punching and target practice – as Horn launched rapid jabs and right hands at a wire circle, representing Pacquiao’s head, being waved in front of him by fitness guru Dundee Kim.
With fellow Queensland sporting greats Ian Healy and Chris Johns watching on and News Corp given exclusive media access, Horn said he had used visualisation and positive thinking techniques throughout his career and they’d never let him down.
“I don’t know if you call it a dream or a vision but I just keep picturing in my head the scene of my hand being raised in the ring and the belt being wrapped around my waist,’’ he said.
Horn will go through a light training session today with boxing coach Glenn Rushton before concentrating on “cutting weight’’ to make the 66.7kg limit on Saturday morning ahead of the big fight.
“Even though Pacquiao is the smaller man he’s the biggest mountain I’ve had to climb,’’ Horn said.
But Horn looked Pacquiao dead in the eye yesterday and declared the world welterweight champ was still traumatised by a knockout loss in 2012. PORTUGUESE rider Andre Cardoso was kicked out of the Tour de France by his Trek team yesterday after failing a dope test.
The disgraced rider ( pictured) is a teammate of top contender Alberto Contador and will be a tough blow for the Spanish star. Just four days before the Tour de France begins in Duesseldorf, the world’s most prestigious cycle race already has its first doping scandal. The 32- year- old Cardoso, who finished 14th at the Giro d’Italia in May, had tested positive for the banned blood- booster EPO in an out- of- competition test on June 18, the sport’s world governing body the UCI said in a statement.
He says the all- time boxing great remains afraid to “pull the trigger’’ on his big punches.
Pacquiao, a raging favourite to retain his title, hasn’t scored a KO in eight years and Horn says he suspects Pacquiao fights more cautiously these days out of fear of being KO’d again.
The pair shaped up to each other at yesterday’s official press conference at Suncorp.
“Ever since that knockout loss against Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny doesn’t pull the trigger like he used to when he was on his big run of wins,’’ Horn said.
“He’s looked good in his last two fights but he hasn’t been able to win inside the distance for a long time and I think that’s because of the KO loss he suffered against Marquez in 2012.
“I don’t know if he has lost his knockout punch and I hope I don’t find out on Sunday.’’
Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton, whose 10- point plan for victory is topped by avoiding Pacquiao’s big straight left, said that the sixth- round KO loss in Las Vegas would still “haunt’’ Pacquiao.
“Getting knocked out cold so horribly by Marquez must affect him,’’ Rushton said. “It has to be traumatic and he must think about it a lot.
Pacquiao denied that his power had diminished even though his run of big knockout victories ended with his stoppage of Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto way back in 2009. All his wins since have been on points.
“For me nothing has changed,’’ Pacquiao said.
“I’m still a boxer, still a fighter.” MAIDEN centuries by Natalie Sciver and Heather Knight helped England post their highest- ever Women’s World Cup total on their way to beating Pakistan by 107 runs on the Duckworth- Lewis Method at Grace Road.
Sciver hit 137 off 92 balls and captain Heather Knight scored 106 off 109 balls as England finish at 7- 377, the second- highest total in competition history behind Australia’s 3- 412 in 1997. The 213- run partnership equalled England’s third- wicket record stand set back in 1993, while Pakistan left- arm spinner Nashra Sandhu finished with figures of 1- 82 – the most expensive in the ICC Women’s World Cup history.