World Sport in Brief Windies toil, Butt, Yasir shine

LAHORE – Opener Salman Butt hit an attractive century and Yasir Hameed piled up 92 runs as West Indian bowlers toiled hard in their two-day tour opener at Bagh-e-Jinnah stadium yesterday.

Butt, who smashed 106 before retiring at tea, scored 175 runs for the opening wicket with Hameed as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Patron’s XI made 305-4 after winning the toss on the first day. Captain Asim Kamal (33) and Misbahul Haq (38) were unbeaten at stumps.Butt, who lost his place in the Pakistan team early this year, hit 19 boundaries during his 244-minute knock as none of the West Indian bowlers could find any assistance from an easy paced wicket.Crawford leaves coach SALVO – Olympic 200 metres champion Shawn Crawford said on Tuesday he was no longer training with indicted coach Trevor Graham.”All this stuff that’s going on, I just don’t want to be bombarded with it,” Crawford told Reuters in a telephone interview from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked with Graham for the past three seasons.”I’m doing my own thing now and getting my workouts from my dad,” added the 28-year-old Crawford, who in addition to the 200 metres gold medal won a silver medal in the 4×100 metres relay and took fourth in the 100 metres at the 2004 Athens Olympics.Gazza arrested LONDON – Troubled former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday on suspicion of assault at a London nightclub, police sources said.The recovering alcoholic was taken into custody after the alleged incident in South Kensington, west London, in which a 43-year-old man claimed he had been assaulted.A spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called at about 03h40 by the man who said he had been attacked in a local nightclub.”Following inquiries, a 39-year-old man was arrested at a separate club nearby at 4:15am on suspicion of actual bodily harm and is currently in custody at a southwest London police station,” she said.Ponting offers apology SYDNEY – Australia cricket captain Ricky Ponting offered to apologise yesterday to any Indian officials who felt insulted by his team’s victory celebrations after the Champions Trophy final this week.Ponting said the Australians intended no offence and admitted the flak they had received for allegedly manhandling Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar off the presentation stage had marred their first successful Champions Trophy campaign.”It probably has had a little bit of the gloss taken off, but I’ll be doing the best I can to get my point across to the concerned people in India and let them know we were not trying to embarrass them or anything like that,” he told reporters.”We were all pretty keen to get our hands on the trophy and celebrate accordingly.”Australia send reinforcements SYDNEY – Australia on Wednesday called lock Mitchell Chapman and back-rower Scott Fava into the injury-hit Wallabies squad touring Europe.The Australian Rugby Union said the pair would fly to Europe Thursday, with Chapman replacing Dan Vickerman and Fava standing in for Hugh McMeniman.Vickerman needs a shoulder reconstruction and McMeniman injured his neck in Australia’s 29-29 draw with Wales last weekend.The Wallabies will play Italy this weekend.Proteas retain squad DURBAN – South Africa have taken a wait-and-see approach to their one-day series against India by retaining their ICC Champions Trophy squad for the first match of the rubber.Selection convenor Haroon Lorgat told Reuters yesterday that his panel had left the squad intact for the first game, in Johannesburg on November 19, in anticipation of good performances from other players in imminent matches.The semi-finals of the domestic one-day championship will be played on Friday and Sunday with the final scheduled for next Friday.Nampa-Reuters and AFPCaptain Asim Kamal (33) and Misbahul Haq (38) were unbeaten at stumps.Butt, who lost his place in the Pakistan team early this year, hit 19 boundaries during his 244-minute knock as none of the West Indian bowlers could find any assistance from an easy paced wicket.Crawford leaves coach SALVO – Olympic 200 metres champion Shawn Crawford said on Tuesday he was no longer training with indicted coach Trevor Graham.”All this stuff that’s going on, I just don’t want to be bombarded with it,” Crawford told Reuters in a telephone interview from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked with Graham for the past three seasons.”I’m doing my own thing now and getting my workouts from my dad,” added the 28-year-old Crawford, who in addition to the 200 metres gold medal won a silver medal in the 4×100 metres relay and took fourth in the 100 metres at the 2004 Athens Olympics.Gazza arrested LONDON – Troubled former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday on suspicion of assault at a London nightclub, police sources said.The recovering alcoholic was taken into custody after the alleged incident in South Kensington, west London, in which a 43-year-old man claimed he had been assaulted.A spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called at about 03h40 by the man who said he had been attacked in a local nightclub.”Following inquiries, a 39-year-old man was arrested at a separate club nearby at 4:15am on suspicion of actual bodily harm and is currently in custody at a southwest London police station,” she said.Ponting offers apology SYDNEY – Australia cricket captain Ricky Ponting offered to apologise yesterday to any Indian officials who felt insulted by his team’s victory celebrations after the Champions Trophy final this week.Ponting said the Australians intended no offence and admitted the flak they had received for allegedly manhandling Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar off the presentation stage had marred their first successful Champions Trophy campaign.”It probably has had a little bit of the gloss taken off, but I’ll be doing the best I can to get my point across to the concerned people in India and let them know we were not trying to embarrass them or anything like that,” he told reporters.”We were all pretty keen to get our hands on the trophy and celebrate accordingly.”Australia send reinforcements SYDNEY – Australia on Wednesday called lock Mitchell Chapman and back-rower Scott Fava into the injury-hit Wallabies squad touring Europe.The Australian Rugby Union said the pair would fly to Europe Thursday, with Chapman replacing Dan Vickerman and Fava standing in for Hugh McMeniman.Vickerman needs a shoulder reconstruction and McMeniman injured his neck in Australia’s 29-29 draw with Wales last weekend.The Wallabies will play Italy this weekend.Proteas retain squad DURBAN – South Africa have taken a wait-and-see approach to their one-day series against India by retaining their ICC Champions Trophy squad for the first match of the rubber.Selection convenor Haroon Lorgat told Reuters yesterday that his panel had left the squad intact for the first game, in Johannesburg on November 19, in anticipation of good performances from other players in imminent matches.The semi-finals of the domestic one-day championship will be played on Friday and Sunday with the final scheduled for next Friday.Nampa-Reuters and AFP