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(CNN) — Nick Heidfeld has improved his chances of standing-in for injured Robert Kubica at Renault after he impressed in testing at Jerez, Spain on Saturday.

The German, who raced for BMW Sauber last season, went fastest of the 11 drivers in action, outpacing Ferraris Fernando Alonso and Fridays pacesetter Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes GP.

McLarens Lewis Hamilton was a place further back in fourth.

I really enjoyed the day. It was fun driving the car, although it obviously takes time to get used to things when its your first time in a car and working with a new team, Heidfeld said, BBC Sport reported.

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Dick Taylers decision to quit as a Halberg Trust judge, in disgust at the All Whites cleaning up on the awards night, is hardly surprising.

Unfortunately, there are many more Dicks who embarrass themselves by being small-minded and ignorant when it comes to contemporary sport.

The walkout and all the controversy that has followed Thursday night is purely to preserve the notion that this is a rugby country and no other team sport has any right to stick its head beyond the weeds.

Hey, Dick, its 2011, and its OK for more than one team to exist in New Zealand. Surely its time we grew up as a sporting nation and realised there is a big wide world beyond our tiny borders.

I think its great that we dominate in rugby, rowing and womans shotput. But as much as many of us dont want to accept, these sports are insignificant on the world stage.

If Dick Tayler had spent any time in Europe, Africa, Latin America or Asia hed understand this.

There is only one sport that is truly global and dominates much of the worlds airtime: football. And footballs biggest stage is the World Cup.

Our boys may not have won a game there, which seems to be the major complaint of Tayler and his cohorts, but nor did they lose and they went to South Africa with the world expecting them to take three humiliating losses.

What they achieved was winning the hearts and admiration of millions of people who had never even heard of the All Whites, perhaps even New Zealand, before. They put us on the map in 2010.

Its sad some people feel the need to diminish their brief time in the spotlight. For those involved in the team it must be a hard pill to swallow. They did the extraordinary, and, even now, they still get more recognition outside their own country then they do from some quarters within.

The All Whites deserved everything they got at the Halberg Awards and will be remembered for many years.

Get over yourself, Dick. Lets get someone else on the panel with a better grasp of accomplishments on a genuine world stage.

Danny Hay is a former All Whites captain.

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Apparently Afghanistans national sport is buzkashi, or riding around on horseback trying to grab the headless carcass of a goat. So its a great shame that they didnt qualify for the Cricket World Cup which is about to be held in their back yard. They came very close, and it could have helped to transform the sporting landscape in the benighted country. Sadly for the Afghans but happily for the rest of us theres no World Cup for buzkashi.

Robert Mugabe once spoke of crickets civilising influence. It didnt do him any good, but as the national coach and guru figure Taj Malik says in Afghan Cricket Club Out of the Ashes (BBC4, Monday): There are a lot of problems in the world. Everywhere there is complex fighting. The solution to all the problems is cricket.

This delightful film, which had the backing of cricket-mad executive producer Sam Mendes, tells the story of Afghanistans efforts to qualify for the World Cup. Its a remarkable rise since most of the team learned to play in refugee camps in Pakistan.

Sport is a symbol of national unity. Sport builds relations between the tribes, says Mr Massoud, the Afghan Cricket Federation president, before blowing his cover by adding: To be honest, I had no idea about this cricket until recently. Well, he talks a good game. And with a man standing behind him holding an AK47, whos going to quibble?

Meanwhile a British embassy official watching them practise gives a suitably colonial perspective. They play cricket like war. They judge each other by how fast they can bowl the ball and how hard they can hit it. All he needs is a pith helmet to dodge the bouncers, if not take the pith.

The first stop on their epic journey is Jersey, where they are unfazed by the genteel surrounds. Tajs brother Hasti looks out over the Channel and says: We have a river that is better than this. Afghanistan has the best places. During the tea interval of their first match, as they pick their way through the classic buffet, one of the team asks: Are you sure theres no donkey meat in this? Given the quality of some of the catering on offer on the village greens of England they are entitled to ask.

The entertainment at their hotel that night consists of a load of old women performing some kind of synchronised aerobics to Is This The Way To Amarillo? When the Afghans crash to defeat against Singapore and face elimination from the ICC World Cricket League Division Five play-off final, they must have thought they couldnt go any lower.

And yet they stumble over the line to beat Jersey in the final, reaching their target at 81 for 8. Geoff Boycott was on hand to present the trophy. Pressure, eh? Pressure, pressure! he grinned at the Afghans, as if they had no idea about tough situations.

Having risen rapidly through the ranks, however, they are outplayed by Canada in the eliminator for the last World Cup place. All seems lost, and then they hear they have been granted full one-day international status and will henceforth be taking on the worlds finest anyway.

They took their bow on the global stage at last years World Twenty20, leading to scary celebrations around Kabul as the menfolk fired their automatic weapons into the air. It may not be long before Afghanistan is known for more than war and drugs. Come on you Poppies?

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By Philip Hersh

My story marking Tuesdays 50th anniversary of the plane crash that killed the elite of US skating — athletes and coaches — is now on the Chicago Tribunes main web site.

Please click here to read it.

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3 days ago

CLEVELAND, Ohio — NBA doormat Cleveland matched the all-time record losing streak in American pro sport history as they suffered their 26th defeat in a row by falling 103-94 to Detroit.

Cavaliers coach Byron Scott kept the locker room closed for more than half an hour after the historic loss, then ripped the woeful squad for being unprepared for Wednesday’s game.

“I’m mad as hell,” Scott said. “I can deal with losing, especially when our guys play as hard as they have in the last couple weeks. But I find it very hard to deal with when guys don’t come out ready to play.

“We’ve got all professional basketball players in there and at some point in time you have to have some pride in what you’re doing.

“We didn’t come out with that pride. We came out just going thought the motions like we were going to win the game no matter what they did.

“Everybody has got to go home and take a good, hard look in the mirror.”

The Cavaliers extended their NBA record losing streak, having broken the old mark of 24 they set over the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons, and equaled US sport’s record run established by Grid Iron’s 1976-77 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Buccaneers went 0-14 in their 1976 debut season and started 0-12 in the 1977 campaign before finally winning.

“Everybody is mad as hell,” Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson said. “To lose like that and for it to get to this point and still sometimes not see a sense of urgency, I can see why it would push you to that point (of anger).

“What are you going to do? It’s either do it or don’t. The guys have to figure that out.”

The Cavaliers, who began an eight-game homestand with the loss, will stand alone with the longest losing streak in American pro sport history if they go down at home Friday to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Sunday provides a solid chance for a victory as the Cavaliers host the Washington Wizards, who are 0-25 this season in road games, four shy of the NBA record for worst road record to start to a season.

“Something has to give when they play the Wizards,” said two-time reigning NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James, who left the Cavaliers last July for Miami to set off a downward spiral that has yet to end.

Cleveland, which began the season 7-9, are now 8-45. The Cavaliers have not won since beating the New York Knicks in over-time on December 18. They have dropped 36 of their past 37 games.

“We took a gigantic step backwards,” Scott said. “We had no sense of urgency whatsoever and that kind of amazes me. When we’ve lost as many in a row as we lost and when you’ve been as close as we’ve been in the last four or five games and to be at home and come out the way we came out — that amazes me.”

No NBA club wants to become the one that allows Cleveland to end the drought.

“You don’t want to be the team that loses to them,” Detroit’s Tracy McGrady said.

“As crazy as it sounds, I want to see them and Washington play. I don’t wish anyone to have a bad losing streak, but I want them to get to Washington, 0-and-whatever they could be, and see whose streak ends. That would be something that would be interesting to watch.”

Detroit, which improved to 20-33, rolled to a 55-43 half-time advantage and while the Cavaliers outscored the Pistons in the third and fourth quarter, it was too little and too late once again.

Rodney Stuckey scored 22 points to lead Detroit while Will Bynum added 17 for the Pistons.

Antawn Jamison led the Cavaliers with 22 points while Ramon Sessions scored 20 and J.J. Hickson added 18.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
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