2011 Nov 04 Talking Balls: Farmer Fraud, White Witchdoctors & Ping Pong Problems
It's harvest time and you know what that means: Farmers' Games. A whole crop of them. Last week we told you how Shenzhen came out smelling of roses by refusing to participate but it's not such a positive tale this week. Shanghai held its Seventh Annual Farmers' Games and the tournament was rocked by a scandal. The ping pong competition was discovered to be a hotbed of deception. The champion was found to be ... not a farmer at all but a professional ping pong player who had faked his agricultural credentials. Disgusting enough on its own but this was just one of seven pro players who had smuggled their way into the top level of Shanghai-based agrarian community sporting competition.
From one form of cheating to another: Zhou Mi, the former number one in women's badminton, has appeared this week to protest her innocence. She's in the middle of a two-year ban for testing positive for clenbuteral. Her case is based on her "unknowing consumption of clenbuteral tainted pork". We don't doubt that she could well be innocent. No one trusts the pigs.
Performance-enhancing pork can't be healthy; nor is complete domination of a sport by one country. That's the thinking of the International Table Tennis Federation as they labelled China's stranglehold on the sport as "unhealthy." They've tried to amend this by upping sticks to Singapore in a bid to engage more nations into whiff-whaff. Don't be surprised if the game's name is changed to that at the London Olympics.
The Victorians inventing table tennis is a lie and so was Philippe Troussier's promise to lead Shenzhen Ruby to a top six finish this year and a CSL title in the next three. That claim at the start of the season was rendered ridiculous when the league climaxed this week. Shenzhen, much like a tongue-tied Warren G, got relegated. The Frenchman, who is also known as the White Witchdoctor, is staying put and putting a brave face on it by claiming that this could be good for the team. At the other end of the table, Guangzhou Evergrande won the CSL by some stretch. Elsewhere in the league, Beijing Guoan finished top of the chasing pack. That means Gongti gets Champions' League football next year.
Photo: Sina
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Talking Balls: Shame On Shanxi, Ghastly Guoan & Some Sports Shorts
The Beijing Ducks and Shanxi Brave Dragons have gone to game five in their CBA playoff semi-final. The game was originally set for March 14 but was postponed until March 18 so that everyone could enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. No, actually it was put back because of a near-riot in game four. Shanxi’s fans also took that meeting as an opportunity to shower the court with debris. They've been fined nine times for similar incidents over the last four years. They have just added another RMB 60,000 to the CBA's Christmas party fund. You stay classy, Shanxi.
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Football Fever! CSL Fixture List Announced
The preliminary fixture list for the upcoming season of the Chinese Super League has been announced. Beijing Guoan are scheduled to start with a home game against Guangzhou Fuli on the weekend of March 10/11 and then follow it up with an early season grudge match against Shanghai Shenhua on March 16. It doesn't really get any better than Friday nights watching Beijing take on Shanghai under the floodlights - and with their new signings including the likes of Nicolas Anelka and Guoan's Joel Griffiths there's added spice. Come on you greens.
Below are some big games to look out for and Wild East Football have started to list the the full season here. Bear in mind that this is preliminary and subject to change. One factor that will certainly affect it is Beijing's AFC Champions' League progress (or not, based on previous campaigns).
