After being sidelined at the last World Cup, Nani is looking to prove himself at Euro 2012. -File photo

LISBON: Coming off the frustration of a trophyless season, Portugal star Nani will be looking to make amends at Euro 2012, where his silky skills will be sorely needed to get his compatriots out of a tough group.

Drawn with three previous winners in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, the 2004 runners-up will have to click from the outset if they are to reach the knockout phase but in Nani they have a man who certainly knows how to unlock the door.

Coach Paulo Bento will be hoping for the real Nani to stand up after a mixed season at Old Trafford, which started with a brace in the Community Shield at Wembley against rivals Manchester City.

Had he turned in that kind of showing in either league game against the blue half of the city to prevent either one of two painful defeats then the Premier League title may have stayed on the other side of Manchester.

But having been sidelined for the last World Cup with a shoulder injury, he is looking to prove himself in Portuguese scarlet rather than Mancunian red.

If he can pin down his best form, he could prove to be a key figure for Bento’s men as one of just two English-based players, the other being Chelsea’s Raul Meireles.

“We will be out to beat the best teams at the event – we have been drawn in a tough but not impossible group,” Nani told A Bola magazine after the draw.

“We have to believe in ourselves and work hard. I think we can win it.”

That is a defiant stance from the gifted Cape Verde-born star, who has blown frustratingly hot and cold in his five years at Old Trafford.

Nevertheless he has clocked up more than a century of appearances for United while surpassing the half century for his country.

Nani has pinpointed the need to make a flying start against Germany, their 2008 quarter-final conquerors, on June 9 in Lviv – a big ask against the perennial favourites.

“I really hope we can win that first match as that would give us a big injection of confidence for the remainder of the tournament,” indicated the 25-year-old.

With Denmark next up he will reflect on how he netted twice against the Scandinavians in qualifying – he scored five in 10 games across the campaign – only for the Seleccao to lose the return, sending them into the playoffs against Bosnia, where he scored once in a 6-2 victory.

“I am an optimist,” Blatter said. -Photo by AP

BUDAPEST: FIFA is heading into calmer waters after a series of corruption allegations over the last two years, its president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday.    

“I am an optimist,” Blatter told reporters ahead of the world football body’s annual congress.

“I am sure you will see at the congress that we are back in the harbour, not heaven yet, but we are taking more people on board and are heading to calm, clearer waters.

“The change began over the last year, or when the Ethics Committee started to act, and we have lost, directly or indirectly five members of the executive committee. That is a big number and new people have come in.”

A year ago, Blatter was elected for a fourth and final term as FIFA president against a backdrop of bribery and corruption allegations at a tense, acrimonious Congress in Zurich.

This year’s Congress, set for Thursday and Friday in the Hungarian capital, will be presented with a new set of statutes aimed at making FIFA more transparent.

Among the members to go last year were Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, a FIFA vice-president, and Mohamed bin Hammam, who were both disciplined and expelled for their part in a bribery scandal.

Bin Hammam of Qatar, one of the game’s rich power-brokers, was due to stand against Blatter for the FIFA presidency but withdrew his candidature days before the vote and was later banned from football for life by FIFA for trying to bribe Caribbean delegates to vote against the Swiss.

Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, who, like Warner, was involved in repeated corruption allegations, quit earlier this year on health grounds.

The departures followed those of Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii who were caught up in a cash-for-votes scandal before the decision in December 2010 to award the World Cups of 2018 to Russia and 2022 to Qatar.

“New faces have come in, new people – and they speak up, they intervene, they are playing a very big part,” said Blatter, 76.

FIRST WOMAN

New members include young Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, Lydia Nsereka of Burundi – the first woman co-opted to FIFA’s executive committee since it was formed 108 years ago – Jeff Webb of the Cayman Islands and Zhang Jilong of China.

“The Caribbean Football Union have just had their congress and they call it a “congress of reconciliation,” Blatter added.

“Things are moving forwards. It is changing.”

Blatter said he was pleased that change had come to the CONCACAF confederation of countries in North and Central America and the Caribbean, even though several legal issues still had to be settled in the courts.

“For me it’s the end of what was happening there,” he said.

“The dogs may still be barking but the caravan has left town.”

Blatter was also pleased about the addition of Nsereka, who is expected to become a full member of the committee at next year’s Congress in Mauritius.

“There was a big discussion about this,” he said. “It was not so easy to convince a male-dominated committee to have a woman but she has been the president of her country’s FA since 2004. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee, she is a businesswoman, she is a princess, she is very knowledgeable.”

Nsereka is also a member of Mark Pieth’s Independent Governance Committee looking into FIFA reform which has criticised the organisation’s past handling of corruption cases.

FIFA has delayed introducing some recommendations by the Pieth committee, drawing criticism from anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

Asked if having Nsereka as a member of the Pieth committee and the executive would be a problem, Blatter said: “No, this independent group is not making my life difficult.

“It is not going to be an easy task for her on the executive committee but I am absolutely delighted she is on it. It was a memorable day yesterday, the first time in FIFA’s history a woman is on the executive. A fantastic day.”

Pietersen said Gayle is an entertainer and people like watching entertainers. – File photo by AP

NOTTINGHAM: England’s Kevin Pietersen has said it will be “great for the game” if West Indies “superstar” Chris Gayle returns for the second Test at Trent Bridge starting here on Friday.

Gayle, one of the world’s most aggressive opening batsman, has not played international cricket for over a year because of a dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board.

The left-handed opener was not selected for the Test squad and in his absence the West Indies suffered a five-wicket defeat in the first of a three-match series at Lord’s on Monday.

Gayle, who said recently he was making himself available again for international duty, had been expected to return in the subsequent one-day series against England.

But with his commitments in the Indian Premier League having come to an end following the elimination of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the former West Indies captain could yet feature in the Tests against England.

West Indies have suffered a series of top-order collapses during Gayle’s international exile, including in both innings at Lord’s.

Fellow attacking batsman Pietersen, who knows Gayle well from their time together in the IPL, said: “He’s a superstar and he is one of my real good mates in cricket. I love the way he plays.

“It will be brilliant for the game if he comes back to play this Test match. He is an entertainer. People want to watch entertainers. They don’t want to watch people blocking the ball.”

“I’m fit and feeling quite ready. I’ve been training and working hard, looking forward to this.” -Photo by AFP

NOTTINGHAM: Tino Best is ready to make the most of his unexpected recall to West Indies duty after being summoned to England as a replacement for the injured Shannon Gabriel.

Fast bowler Gabriel took four wickets on his Test debut during the five-wicket series-opening defeat by England at Lord’s concluded Monday but was then ruled out of the remaining two Tests with a back injury.

That prompted the West Indies to call-up Best, even though it is three years since the 30-year-old quick last played international cricket.

Best, who had been named in the West Indies A team to face India A next month, was recently a member of the squad for the limited overs internationals against Australia but did not play.

The player, who left the Caribbean on Tuesday ahead of the second Test at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge starting Friday, said: “I’m very happy to be recalled for the Test squad for the series in England.

“I’ve been waiting for my opportunity to reprsent the West Indies again and this is another opportunity to wear the ‘Baggy Maroon’ (cap),” he said in a statement issued by the West Indies Cricket Board.

“I’m fit and feeling quite ready. I’ve been training and working hard, looking forward to this.

“I was in the team earlier this year when we played against Australia and I gained a lot of knowledge from being in the group. I felt I fitted in quite well and I have a good idea of the work ethic and what will be required of me.”

Best is familiar with English conditions, having toured with the West Indies in 2004 and played for county side Yorkshire last year.

“What I have to do, and what I am fully aware of, is how to put that knowledge to work,” he added. “I’m a hard worker and I’m really delighted to get this opportunity.”

Best, who made his debut nine years ago, has won 14 Tests caps, with a modest bowling average of 48.

He is best remembered in England for a verbal exchange with Andrew Flintoff during the Lord’s Test of 2004.

Flintoff, fielding at slip, urged him to “mind the windows Tino” as Best tried to slog spinner Ashley Giles. Best was out next ball.

Heskey joined Villa from Wigan Athletic in 2009. -Photo by AP

LONDON: Former England striker Emile Heskey has been released by Aston Villa, bringing to an end his three-and-a-half-year stay at the club.    

The 34-year-old, who managed just one goal in 29 appearances for the Midlands club this season, joined Villa from Wigan Athletic in 2009 after spells at Liverpool and Birmingham City.

Defender Carlos Cuellar and reserve goalkeeper Brad Guzan have also been released as Villa begin the task of re-modelling a squad that narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier League this season.

The club is currently looking for a new manager after Alex McLeish was sacked after one season in charge.

“It’s a great match-up, the WBC title will be on the line which I’d love to win,” Khan said. -Photo by AFP

LONDON: Former champion Amir Khan will fight undefeated American light-welterweight Danny Garcia on July 14 for the WBC title.    

The Briton’s rematch against Lamont Peterson, scheduled for May 19, was called off after Peterson, who beat Khan in controversial circumstances to win the WBA super-lightweight and IBF light-welterweight titles, failed a drugs test.

Peterson has appealed against his failed drugs test and Khan is still waiting to find out whether or not he will be given back the belts he lost in the defeat.

Should that happen, or the titles be declared vacant, Khan’s fight against Garcia, which will take place in Los Angleses or Las Vegas according to Khan, could be a unification contest.

“It’s a good fight for me, Danny Garcia is unbeaten in 23 fights and has 14 knockouts so it will be a tough test for me,” the 25-year-old Khan told Sky Sports on Wednesday.

“It’s a great match-up, the WBC title will be on the line which I’d love to win. We don’t know what’s going to happen to the other two titles at the moment because the hearing will be in the next couple of weeks and then the governing bodies will make their decision.”

Khan said he was still frustrated at being deprived a chance to avenge his December defeat by Peterson, who was awarded a split-decision after Khan was docked two points.

“I’m still angry because I trained so hard for that fight in the Phillipines and LA then in the last week it was called off and all my training went down the drain,” Khan, who has lost just twice in 28 fights, said.

“I’m still upset because I wanted to win my tittles back and settle the score.”

Philadelphia-based Garcia, 24, took the WBC title when he beat Erik Morales on points in Houston in March.

Photo shows a Pakistan State Oil billboard in Karachi.—File Photo

SINGAPORE: Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) and Pakistan State Oil have finalised the term price for their July-December gasoil contracts, industry sources said on Wednesday.

PSO will pay a premium of about $2.80 a barrel above Middle East quotes for the cargoes, nearly 10 per cent more than its January-June term contract with KPC which was set at a premium of about $2.60 a barrel, the sources said.

Volumes will remain the same at about 1.5 million tonnes of 0.2 per cent sulphur gasoil, they added.

KPC has been a key supplier of gasoil to Pakistan for more than three decades, and meets 75-85 per cent of the country’s requirements.

Both companies signed a three-year deal at the start of this year for the supply of gasoil, and usually negotiate premiums every 6 months.

PSO also intermittently releases spot buy gasoil tenders throughout the year, most commonly during seasonal peak demand periods due to agricultural activities.

It recently issued a tender after more than a year seeking two cargoes of 55,000 tonnes each of 0.5 per cent sulphur gasoil for delivery over June and July.

Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, from left, shake hands during a meeting in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.—AP Photo

AVAZA: Turkmenistan agreed on Wednesday to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India in deals that offer major economic benefits but depend on building and defending a US-backed pipeline across chronically unstable Afghanistan.

The route, particularly the 735-km leg through the Afghan provinces of Herat and Kandahar, will need billions of dollars in funding. It faces significant security problems as the Western Nato alliance plans to hand control of Afghanistan to Kabul’s own security forces by the middle of next year.

Turkmenistan’s state gas company Turkmengaz signed gas sales and purchase agreements with Pakistan’s Inter State Gas Systems and Indian state-run utility GAIL.

“The implementation of this project will give a powerful impetus to the social and economic development of all the participant countries,” Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Baimurad Hojamukhamedov said before the signing ceremony in Avaza on the Caspian Sea.

India and Pakistan are both hungry for gas supplies and Turkmenistan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is keen to free itself from reliance on gas exports to Russia.

Lilit Gevorgyan, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said that while the pipeline could be a lucrative commercial project, it would run through more than one high security risk country, “which puts the actual construction under a big question mark”.

The idea of the TAPI pipeline, an acronym formed from the initials of the four countries through which it would pass, was first raised in the mid-1990s but construction has yet to begin.

Turkmen officials have said the proposed 1,735-km pipeline could carry 1 trillion cubic metres of gas over a 30-year period, or 33 billion cubic metres a year.

Turkmenistan, a desert country of 5.5 million which borders Iran, is viewed by human rights bodies as one of the world’s most secretive and repressive countries.

But Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has a growing personality cult, has moved in recent years to warm ties with the West, whose political support and investment he needs to lay alternative gas export routes.

Security and costs

The major obstacle to the project is the stretch of pipeline that will run through Afghanistan. Nato set an “irreversible” course out of Afghanistan on Monday but US President Barack Obama admitted its plan to end the deeply unpopular war in 2014 was fraught with dangers.

A Nato summit in Chicago endorsed an exit strategy that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its security forces next year but left questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a resurgence of the Taliban after allied troops are gone.

“Ultimately we believe that all the challenges, including security challenges that the project faces, can be managed or overcome,” Daniel Stein, senior adviser to the US State Department’s special envoy for Eurasian energy, told Reuters in Avaza on Wednesday. He did not elaborate.

But IHS Global Insight’s Gevorgyan wrote in comments to Reuters that “the project had a slim fighting chance in the past decade as Nato was still in Afghanistan”.

“With the Western troops’ pullout by 2014 from the still volatile Afghanistan, building an expensive pipeline in country with very weak central government seems almost unattainable.”

The Asian Development Bank said the TAPI pipeline was estimated to cost at least $7.6 billion in 2008. Analysts and officials now say it could cost between $10 billion and $12 billion to construct.

Strained ties between nuclear powers India and Pakistan is another source of concern.

“Given the animosity between the two countries, if TAPI is ever to be built it is likely to be a high-value target in Pakistan, where a number of religious fundamentalist groups will ensure that no energy supply enters India through their territory,” Gevorgyan wrote.

In Avaza, Pakistani Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Asim Hussain showed optimism. “We will forget our past,” he said. “Let bygone be bygone and let’s move into the future.”

Turkmenistan is promoting TAPI as a key element in plans to boost annual gas exports to 180 billion cubic metres by 2030.

BP data show Turkmenistan’s natural gas reserves equal to those of Saudi Arabia and behind only Russia, Iran and Qatar.

The country aims to supply gas from its Galkynysh field, better known by its previous name, South Iolotan. Auditor Gaffney, Cline & Associates has ranked the field the world’s second largest, with gas reserves of between 13.1 trillion and 21.2 trillion cubic metres.

The Indian government said in a statement on May 17 that the pipeline would be operational in 2018. India and Pakistan would each get 38 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas, while the remaining 14 mcmd would be supplied to Afghanistan, it said.

An Egyptian policeman hangs a list of voters’ names outside a polling station in Cairo May 23, 2012. — Photo by Reuters.

CAIRO: Egyptians voted Wednesday in the country’s first free presidential elections, with Islamic and secularists vying for power with competing visions of an Egypt free of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak’s iron grip.

Several hours after polls opened at 08:00 am (0600 GMT), there were still lines of people waiting to vote, many in a festive mood.
“It’s a beautiful day for Egypt,” said Nehmedo Abdel Hadi, who was voting at the Omar Makram school in Cairo’s Shubra neighbourhood.

“Now I feel this is my country and I have dignity,” said the 46-year-old woman, who wears a full-face veil.

Across the city, in the leafy Mohandesseen neighbourhood, Rania, wearing gym clothes and a ponytail under her baseball cap, was at the front of the line.

“It’s the first time in Egypt’s history we choose our president,” she said, preferring to keep her choice “a secret between me and my ballot box.”More than 50 million eligible voters have been called to choose one of 12 candidates wrestling to succeed ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Voting over two days is taking place at 13,000 polling stations, with initial results expected on Sunday. Voting ends at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on both days.

A senior interior ministry official said police were on standby across the country and helping soldiers secure polling stations.

At one polling station in the Rod al-Farag neighbourhood in northeast Cairo, a policeman was shot dead when he was caught up in a gunfight between supporters of two candidates, security sources said.

It was not immediately clear which candidates those involved in the altercation were backing, but the incident underscored concerns about security.

The election marks the final phase of a tumultuous transition overseen by the ruling military council after Mubarak ouster in a popular uprising last year.

Pollsters say the large number of voters undecided between candidates reflecting radically different trends, and the novelty of a free presidential vote, make Wednesday’s election almost impossible to call.

Leading contenders include former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Mussa, who is seen as an experienced politician and diplomat but like Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, is accused of belonging to the old regime.

The powerful Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohammed Mursi faces competition from Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, a former member of the extremist movement who portrays himself as a consensus choice with a wide range of support.

The next president will inherit a struggling economy, deteriorating security and the challenge of uniting a nation divided by the uprising and its sometimes deadly aftermath, but his powers are yet to be defined by a new constitution.

Islamist candidates have promised an Islamic-based project that has prompted fears among secularists and Egypt’s Coptic minority over personal freedoms and raised questions about the future of the country’s lucrative tourism industry.

Shafiq and Mussa have vowed to maintain stability and restore law and order but their ties to the old regime sparked fears of renewed protests by those who will feel their revolution threatened.

The election caps a rollercoaster transition, marked by political upheaval and bloodshed, but which also witnessed democratic parliamentary elections that saw Islamist groups score a crushing victory.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), in power since Mubarak’s ouster, has urged Egyptians to turn out en masse to the polls, while warning against any “violation.”The Scaf has vowed to hand power to civilian rule by the end of June, after a president is elected, but many fear its retreat will be just an illusion.

The army, with its vast and opaque economic power, wants to keep its budget a secret by remaining exempt from parliamentary scrutiny, maintain control of military-related legislation and secure immunity from prosecution.

Mubarak, 84 and ailing, may watch the election from a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo as he awaits the verdict of his murder trial on June 2.

The former strongman is accused of involvement in the killing of some 850 protesters during the uprising and of corruption.

While Australia face Spain, Argentina and Pakistan in matches starting at 8.30am local time, second seeds and defending champions Germany play all their games later in the day. -Photo by AP

SYDNEY: Australia’s men’s hockey coach Ric Charlesworth has slammed London Olympic schedulers for lumbering his team with three early starts in their round-robin matches at the Games.    

The ‘Kookaburras’ are favourites to win the gold medal in London but Charlesworth said the schedule, released on Tuesday, was unfair and would be disruptive to his top-seeded team.

“I don’t expect special treatment, I expect not to be disadvantaged, out of five matches you may expect one 5am start for our athletes not three,” Charlesworth told Hockey Australia’s website.

“It interferes with momentum, as major finals won’t be played at that hour and it interrupts our routine over two weeks. Early games should be fairly distributed between all teams.”

While Australia face Spain, Argentina and Pakistan in matches starting at 8.30am local time, second seeds and defending champions Germany play all their games later in the day.

Charlesworth, who led the Australian women’s team to gold at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics before taking over as coach of the Kookaburras in 2009, also pointed to the fact that the top seeds in the women’s tournament, the Dutch, had no 8.30am starts.

“It’s not that they are number one, again it’s just that it’s not equally shared when some teams have to play three early matches and others none,” he said.

Hockey Australia chief Mark Anderson reflected Charlesworth’s dissatisfaction with the schedule.

“When you look at the schedule it is patently unfair in our opinion,” he said. “None of the teams want to play in this early morning time slot.

“We have been scheduled to play at this time on three occasions. The world ranked number two, three and four teams do not have any matches scheduled for this time. The fifth and sixth ranked teams feature once.

“Out of the 12 teams in the competition, only six teams play at this time and Australia features three times. We are not looking for an unfair advantage, we just want to compete on a level playing field.”

Charlesworth did not like the playing fields in London much either, fuming earlier this month at a test event that the blue and pink surfaces were too bouncy and did not reward skilful players.

The Olympic men’s hockey competition takes place at the Riverbank Arena from July 30 to August 11.