Talking Balls: Patriots, Stars and Subsitutes
Tickets are now on sale for the Sanyuan Foods China Open 2010. That’s snooker for the uninitiated. Tickets are priced at RMB 20-2,010 and available by clicking here. To have a look at the schedules and find out when you might see Ronnie O’Sullivan click here.
There’s been more fall-out from the Winter Olympics. Gold medal winner Zhou Yang has come under fire for thanking her parents when everyone knows that you should thank your country above all. To remind her of this was State Sports General Administration deputy director Yu Zaiqing who said “Thanking your parents is not a problem, but should thank the country first. Must put the country first, don’t just thank your parents and that’s it.”
One man who took this on board was rally driver Han Han. The speedster who also blogs offered up the following introduction at the Mohe Rally press conference, “First of all, I'd like to thank my country, the party and the committee! Right, who else, right, my parents...”
Liu Xiang came in seventh at the World Indoor Championships in Doha. In his first event since he came a cropper in the Olympics in 2008 Liu clocked 7.65 seconds over 60 metres.
Stephon Marbury has been confirmed to play in the upcoming CBA All-Star game. Tickets for the spectacular can be got from here.
In more basketball news there was a bit of fisticuffs at the recent game between Beijing and Liaoning. Mr Brown of Beijing Ducks got called for a technical foul on Liaoning’s Nigerian player. Brown then thought this a good time to hit the African in the head (pictured above). As a result Beijing lost and are no out of the finals.
Yet more basketball news, in a way. The internet is ablaze with speculation as to what nationality Yao Ming’s impending daughter will be. Yao’s wife, Ye Li is now in the States so the thinking is that the child will be born there. My money is on a quick relocation to basketball powerhouses Slovenia before the due date.
Football news and what’s a week without scandal? No week at all. This week it’s the turn of the referees. Four refs have been “helping police” including “gold whistle” Lu Jun. Good, that’s what I say.
More soccer, and this time it’s a Socceroo. Joel Griffiths is apparently frustrated that he is not getting a fair shot from Australia coach Pim Verbeek. See his comments here then see Goal.com’s positive news for Griffiths here. Really though, if he wanted to go to the World Cup he might set his sights on a better club side.
ZZ/HJ Watch: Neither Zheng Zhi or Hao Junmin got to play this weekend. The Schalke man was an unused sub in their win over Stuttgart. ZZ did not even make the bench for Celtic.