WORLD OF SPORT
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‘Quick before Steve Smith buys it all up’ Steve Smith and his Australia cricket colleagues may be in the middle of the biggest crisis of their respective careers, but that has not discouraged people from having a bit of fun at their expense, or in one case, having a bit of fun at their expense while selling a product online. Australia captain Smith has been given a onematch ban and fined 100 per cent of his match fee by the International Cricket Council for his part in balltampering incident during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town. But a New Zealand-based auction website posted a picture of a piece of sandpaper describing it as “perfect for cheating”, according to The Times of India newspaper. The strip has drawn considerable interest, and the website has asked prospective bidders to “get in quick before Steve Smith buys it all up!”. Ouch.
▷▷▷ Paraplegic ‘humbled’ by Everest base camp trek A wheelchair-bound Australian who reached Everest base camp under his own power said yesterday he was “humbled” to be the first paraplegic to make the gruelling journey mostly unaided. Scott Doolan, 28, took 10 days to reach the foot of the world’s highest peak. He suffered a stress fracture while navigating the rocky terrain and extreme altitude – in his wheelchair where possible, on his hands and occasionally being carried. Doolan reached the camp, 5,364 metres above sea level on Sunday, taking barely longer than many able-bodied trekkers. “I was struggling to breathe at that time because I was walking on my hands but I just remember looking up and seeing a crowd of about 20 people. Once I actually got there they all start cheering and that was pretty damn humbling,” Doolan said of the moment he reached base camp.
Volvo Ocean Racing sailor lost at sea A British Volvo Ocean Race crew member who fell overboard in the Southern Ocean is presumed lost at sea, organisers said yesterday. John Fisher, 47, had been competing with Hong Kong entry Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag on Leg 7 of the race from Auckland to Itajai in Brazil and was reported missing in extremely rough seas on Monday. The 65-foot yacht’s location was some 1,400 nautical miles west of Cape Horn, and 1,200 miles from the nearest safe landfall in South America. The nearest competitors were 200 miles away downwind. Fisher, a Sydney-Hobart veteran who was born in Southampton but based in Adelaide, had been on watch and was wearing appropriate survival gear.