by HAYDN GILLFOR THE second time in three years, the eyes and ears of the cricket world will be on Barbados and Kensington Oval.A packed ground of 14 000 and a global television audience of more than one million viewers will turn their attention to the finals of the ICC World Twenty20 today.A short, snappy tournament packed with drama, intrigue and excitement on the field and filled with entertainment, energy and enthusiasm beyond the boundary will climax with decisive matches in the men’s and women’s competitions.After 40 games spread over 16 days at four venues, there was a huge sense of anticipation yesterday in the build-up to the day of decision.The men’s final, which bowls off at 11:30 a.m., is a showdown between awesome Australia and title-starved England in a match where no one will dare call a winner because of the unpredictable nature of the shortest form of the game.At 4 p.m., the women’s final will be a battle between Trans Tasman rivals Australia and New Zealand.While Kensington, which was also the venue for the World Cup final three years ago, was going through its final preparations, those involved in the action were waiting for the moment.Paul Collingwood is leading an England side which has never won a global title.“This is literally the ultimate. You’ve got through to a World final, you’re playing against the old enemy Australia. It doesn’t get much better than this,” he said.England were losing finalists in the 1979, 1987 and 1992 World Cup finals and the 2004 Champions Trophy. Victory here will mean the world to their many supporters.In contrast, Australia have an outstanding record – having won the last three World Cups and two Champions trophies. The only missing piece of the puzzle for Michael Clarke’s team is a World Twenty20 title.“It would be fantastic [if we won]. We came here to try and win. We haven’t won it before. We’d be much happier leaving Barbados with that one last trophy,” Clarke said.

WASHINGTON, DC – Include President Obama as another Chicago Bulls fan rooting for LeBron James to move to Chicago, Illinois.

“He doesn’t want to tamper,” senior adviser to the president – and former Bulls season-ticket holder – David Axelrod said.

“But as a Chicago fan, the president thinks LeBron would look great in a Bulls uniform.”

James, whose Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the play-offs pn Thursday by the Boston Celtics, becomes a free agent on July 1.

Many believe he could be headed to the Bulls.

The president, a former United States senator from Illinois and state senator from Chicago, has never shied away from his sporting roots. 

He frequently wears his Chicago White Sox cap; has attended a Washington Wizards victory over the Bulls last season; and also hosted the Bulls on a tour of the White House. (AP)

EL SEGUNDO, California – When the Los Angeles Lakers clinched a berth in the Western Conference finals on Monday, Lakers coach Phil Jackson had nothing but praise for his team’s upcoming opponents, the Phoenix Suns, saying that the Suns are playing their best basketball of the season.

On Friday, Jackson retreated from praise and started posturing when asked if it was difficult to simulate the Suns and their star point guard Steve Nash in practice during the long lay-off before Game 1.

“Yeah, because you can’t carry the ball like he does in practice,” Jackson said, smiling as he moved his arm and turned over his palm, the symbol for an illegal carry in the unofficial sign language of basketball.

“You can’t pick that ball up and run with it.”

The 36-year-old Nash is averaging 17.8 points and 9.0 assists per game in the post-season after averaging 13.8 points and 9.0 assists in four regular-season games against LA.

Jackson called Nash the Suns’ “provocateur” in their offence and said the point guard was an equal threat as both a scorer and a distributor, so the Lakers’ defence would have to “balance out,” stopping both aspects of the 14-year veteran’s game.

“He’s a great passer, great penetrator and he’s a great shooter,” Kobe Bryant said.

“You put those things all in one player and now you’re in a situation where you have to pick your poison. They surrounded him with great shooters and finishers to make things very challenging.” (AP)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Cavaliers are keeping coach Mike Brown – for now.

Team owner Dan Gilbert refuted a report on Friday that Brown had been fired.

“That’s not true,” he said during a news conference. “We are right now just going through the evaluation process.”

He said the team expected to have answers in the next week to ten days.

“I don’t think it’s a secret coaching is one of the things we’ll look at,” Gilbert said.

Brown was the league’s Coach Of The Year last season when the Cavs won 66 games.

Cleveland lost to Orlando in the conference finals, however, and it was assumed Brown would have to get the team closer to a championship to keep his job.

Instead, the Cavs regressed.

They were badly outplayed by the Celtics, who won the last two games played in Cleveland by a combined 50 points. But Gilbert insisted the team didn’t quit against Boston.

“It’s one of those things that you can’t believe it after it’s happened,” Gilbert said. “I feel bad for the fans more than anybody.”

The loss opened up the possibility of a major shakeup as two-time MVP LeBron James prepares for free agency.The LeBron watch began at 10:53 p.m. on Thursday, when Rondo dribbled out the last 14 seconds and the Celtics began celebrating their 4-2 victory in the best-of-seven series.

James is eligible to opt out of his contract this summer, a move that would make the two-time MVP – and zero-time NBA champion – a free agent and set off a scramble for his services from New York to Miami to Los Angeles and, of course, back in Cleveland.

“Of course, we fully believe that, sweepstakes, in the running, whatever, I think this is the best franchise for him to play at,” Gilbert said. (AP)

SYDNEY – An Australian teen completed her around-the-world trek yesterday, becoming the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world after a seven-month journey.

Thousands cheered as 16-year-old Jessica Watson manoeuvred her pink 34-foot yacht into Sydney Harbour, the finale to an adventure in which she overcame 40-foot waves, homesickness and critics who said she’d never make it home alive.

“She said she’d sail around the world and she has,” a tearful Julie Watson said as she watched her grinning daughter cruise past the finish line from a nearby boat. “She’s home.”

Jessica Watson was set to touch land for the first time in 210 days when she docked at the Opera House, where she was greeted by her parents, whose decision to let their daughter attempt such a feat was highly criticised.

“I don’t think any of us would ever doubt Jessica Watson again,” said New South Wales state Premier Kristina Keneally, who was waiting at the Opera House to welcome the teen.

“I’m completely overwhelmed. I just don’t know what to think and what to say at the moment,” Watson said, her voice trembling, in an interview broadcast live on a screen outside the Opera House.

“It’s all a bit much but absolutely amazing.”

Watson, from Buderim, north of Brisbane in Queensland state, sailed out of Sydney on October 18. She travelled northeast through the South Pacific and across the equator, south to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean and around southern Australia.

Australian Jesse Martin holds the current record for the youngest person to sail around the world solo, nonstop and unassisted, after he completed the journey in 1999 at the age of 18.

He boarded Watson’s boat and took over as she cruised toward the Opera House, so she could relax and wave to the fans – many wearing pink clothes and waving pink flags in honour of her pink yacht.

Watson’s feat, however, will not be considered an official world record, because the World Speed Sailing Record Council discontinued its “youngest” category. (AP)

DOHA, Qatar – A solution to the controversy over the gender of South African runner Caster Semenya will be reached by the end of June, says president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, (IAAF) Lamine Diack.

The 19-year-old Semenya has not run competitively since winning the women’s 800 metres title at last year’s World Championships in Berlin.

She underwent sex tests to determine whether she was eligible to compete as a woman.

“We are on the way to finding a solution not later than the end of June,” Diack said on Friday, ahead of the season’s first Diamond League meet.

“This girl is in a difficult situation and it’s difficult for everyone.”The IAAF has repeatedly said it will not make any public comment on Semenya until the medical process was complete, and Semenya has agreed to wait for the results of her gender test to be released before competing.

Return

Semenya, however, has said she plans to return to competition on June 24 at a meet in Zaragoza, Spain, though that remains uncertain until results of her medical tests had been analysed.

In April, shortly after she was prevented from taking part in a meet in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Semenya insisted she would fight to compete but acknowledged she had not taken any decision for a long-term career in the sport.

Semenya destroyed the field to win the 800 at the Worlds last August. Her dramatic improvement in times and in muscular build led the IAAF to order gender tests.

The IAAF has refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that the tests indicate Semenya has both male and female sex organs.

On a separate matter, Diack said he would step down as head of the IAAF if elected president of Senegal in 2012.

Diack, who has held the IAAF presidency since 1999, confirmed he will stand for re-election of the athletics body next year in Daegu, South Korea – venue for the 2011 World Championships.

“I’m as enthusiastic as I was when I was 36,” the 77-year-old Diack said. “I’m in good health and I will try to demonstrate that we are not in bankruptcy.”

Budget

Diack said he will propose cuts of US$8 million as part of a commitment to reduce the budget to US$47 million by 2011. Cuts will be discussed and agreed at an IAAF executive board meeting in Monaco this month and then proposed to a full council meeting in Kiev in August which would then approve the budget.

Asked about a presidential bid in Senegal, Diack said nearly everyone in his homeland wants him to run.

President Abdoulaye Wade announced last year that he would run for a third term – a move that came after lawmakers in 2006 removed term limits.

There have also been reports that Wade’s son would run, which Diack opposes over concerns that it would be undemocratic.

Diack said that if he were to become president of Senegal, he would step down from the IAAF and an interim president would serve out the remainder of his four-year term. (AP)

WEMBLEY – Didier Drogba scored his 37th goal of the season yesterday to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Portsmouth in the English FA Cup final and complete the Premier League champions’ first domestic double.

Chelsea hit the frame of the goal five times and Portsmouth missed a penalty before Drogba curled a free-kick in off the post in the 59th minute.

“It’s fantastic we achieved the double. It was difficult to come back and stay focused for this game because last week we celebrated the title,” Drogba said.

“You start to think that you won’t score . . . I saw a little gap. I hit the post again, but it went in this time.”

Salomon Kalou missed an easy chance in the first half, hitting the ball against the crossbar six metres out in front of an open goal.Portsmouth could have gone in front just before Drogba’s goal but Kevin-Prince Boateng’s weak penalty kick was saved by Petr Cech’s legs.

Frank Lampard also missed a late penalty for Chelsea, with the England midfielder dragging the ball wide.

That Portsmouth survived so long without conceding was unexpected.

The 129th final pitted one of English football’s wealthiest clubs – the Roman Abramovich-bankrolled Chelsea – against Portsmouth, who have been relegated from the Premier League and are still fighting for their existence while in bankruptcy protection.

“It’s a day that I am very proud and very sad – proud because we could [have won] the game,” said Portsmouth manager Avram Grant, who is set to leave the club.

“We closed them [down], we played tactically very well, we gave everything.”

Recent routs by Chelsea, who ended the championship-winning league season with an 8-0 thrashing of Wigan, raised fears that it could be the most one-sided final in decades.

Chelsea’s line-up was unchanged from last weekend and took less than four minutes to threaten Portsmouth’s goal.

Lampard shot just wide from the edge of the penalty area, and the England midfielder unleashed a dipping strike that hit the goal frame ten minutes later. But having upset the odds to reach the final, Portsmouth weren’t going to capitulate.

And having survived intense pressure for 20 minutes, they were only prevented from taking a shock lead by Cech’s reflex save. Boateng’s deflected volley reached Frederic Piquionne, but the resulting shot from close range was blocked by Cech.

While fine goalkeeping denied Portsmouth, Chelsea only had dire finishing to blame for not going in front in the 27th. Ashley Cole forced Portsmouth keeper David James to cover the near post before squaring to the unmarked Kalou.

The Ivory Coast forward had an unguarded goal to tap into from close range, but inexplicably lifted the ball against the bar.

Chelsea captain John Terry headed against the bar from Florent Malouda’s free-kick in the 30th, and the goal frame denied Drogba again just before the break. (AP)

DYNAMIC former Barbados and Caribbean Junior Squash Champion Bryant Cumberbatch produced a significant upset at the semi-final stage of the 36th annual National Squash Championships on Friday night at Marine Gardens in Hastings, Christ Church.

The talented Cumberbatch, 21, the No. 3 seed, put his charismatic older brother Gavin Cumberbatch, the second seed and defending champ, in the shade in their semi-final match with a comprehensive display of attacking squash for an 11-13, 11-4, 11-8, 11-4 victory in just 22 minutes.

Long first game

The result was never in doubt after a long and punishing first game that took the wind out of the older brother’s sails. The rallies in that first game were very fast with both players playing their shots at extreme pace and moving each other to every corner of the court.

Bryant lost that game 11-13 but the damage had been done and Gavin thereafter never tried to attack with pace again, trying to slow things down in the remainder of the match to save his legs and lungs from further punishment. 

Unforced errors

This tactic didn’t work and he was also undone by several unforced errors at crucial times and was never able to mount a further challenge as his younger brother ran away with the next three games.

In the other men’s semi-final, the top seed and Caribbean No. 3 seed Shawn Simpson started out very slowly, then picked up the pace to oust No. 4 seed Mark Sealy 3-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-0 in 31 minutes.

When Simpson did warm up, things became a little easier as his pace of shot and court coverage allowed him to dominate most of the rallies from about halfway in the second game.

In the women’s semi-finals, top seed and Caribbean No. 2 Karen Meakins moved smoothly into her tenth straight national final with a straightforward three-set victory over local radio personality Alex Jordan, who has made a return to the local squash scene. 

In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Cheri-Ann Parris was pushed hard by Lilianna White, but survived 9-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-5. (PR/BA)

• Australia are five-time winners of the Women’s World Cup, with the most recent victory in 2005.

• New Zealand were runners-up in the 2009 World Twenty20 after making just 85 against England in the final.

• Australia had a disappointing campaign in the 2009 Women’s World Cup, where they finished fourth, losing twice to India, although they were the only side in the competition to defeat  England, the eventual winners.

• New Zealand captain Aimee Watkins was the leading run-scorer at the 2009 World Twenty20, scoring 200 runs in five innings.         

• Ahead of the 2010 World Twenty20, Australia had won only ten of their last 20 matches.     

• Ahead of this tournament, New Zealand won 14 of the 22 matches in the Twenty20 format.