China Sports Today

"Young" China team ousted from World Championships

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:44:00 +0800

After a 1-4 start set them up to face one of the tournament's top teams in the knockout round, China made its exit from the FIBA World Championships (basketball) last night, losing to Lithuania, 78-67.

The highlight of the tournament for Team China was the play of Yi Jianlian, who averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds, and took it to the competition with some aggressive play inside. His performance has Washington Wizards bloggers buzzing about what he might bring to their team this year—but playing well in international tournaments has never been Yi's problem. It's when he goes up against NBA bodies that he seems to wither. And he's already a little banged up, sitting on the bench for China's game against Turkey with a sore Achilles tendon.

The low point of the tournament for Team China was a 47-point loss to Turkey. With Yi out of the lineup, China only managed to scrounge up an anemic 40 points—and just 6 and 7 in the first two quarters. Not surprisingly, the loss led to some questions in Chinese sports media as to whether new coach Bob Donewald is the right man for the job.

As he starts facing more scrutiny from Chinese media. Donewald is benefiting from a misguided "young and inexperienced" label placed on China by lots of sports media. It's true that they are playing without veteran centers Yao Ming and Mengke Bateer, and elder statesman Li Nan has finally traded his jersey for an assistant coach's polo shirt, but the average age for the starting lineup is over 27. And that's before you take into account the rampant downward adjustment of ages that goes on in Chinese basketball. All of the starters played in the 2008 Olympics, and four of them—Yi, Wang Zhizhi, Liu Wei and Sun Yue—have NBA experience (point guard Liu only played in some pre-season games, but the rest al signed with teams for the regular season). Despite all of that, most Chinese media describe the team as young—a convenient excuse for its 1-5 record in Turkey.

Next up for China is the Asian Games in Guangzhou this November. Yi will stay with the team through then, before returning to the Wizards.

Li Ning picks up Evan Turner and USA Diving

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:45:00 +0800

In what could be its biggest get yet, China's leading sportswear brand, Li Ning, signed NBA rookie Evan Turner to an endorsement deal Monday. Turner, the 2010 NCAA National Player of the Year, was selected second overall in the draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. Li Ning already has bigger NBA names in Shaquille O'Neal and Baron Davis, but both were signed when they were well past their prime.

USA Diving has also inked a contract with Li Ning , making it the team's official apparel sponsor through 2012. The brand's other non-Chinese national team sponsorships include Spain and Argentina's basketball teams, and USA Table Tennis.

Although these signings and Li Ning's opening of an Oregon concept store and R&D center have all lead to speculation that this could be China's first brand to become an international powerhouse, I've always said that these moves are more about creating an appearance for Chinese customers than about seriously competing with Nike and Adidas globally. Quoted in People's Daily, Ben Cavender of China Market Research Group puts it pretty clearly: ""What they don't admit to and what they are being slightly cagey about is that their strategy is to firm their position in China as a domestic brand. They can appeal to a certain Chinese nationalism by playing on being able to compete head-to-head with the major international brands because they have these big-time athletes."

Related: Can China's hottest sportswear brand go global?

Evan Turner image: Hi.baidu.com

China Sports Update: Huang, Yi Jianlian, MLB, Starbury

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:26:00 +0800

Sometimes we get a little bit behind at keeping you up to date here at CST. Sorry about that, but below are a few of the top recent stories:

Huang and QSL never made a formal bid for Liverpool FC

Kenny Huang, Marc Ganis and their company QSL are completely out of the Liverpool FC buying discussion. And accoring to a recent report in the Telegraph, they never made a formal bid. QSL seems to be blaming the deal's evaporation on all the publicity, claiming it caused their key investor to walk away. Hmm… A Chinese investor thought it was going to quietly buy an English Premier League team? Huang's now 0-2 on these big-league bids, and he was confident enough about the first one to name his company after it (QSL stands for Qishi Lianmeng, Cavalier Group, a name chosen while the company was hoping to buy a stake in the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers). With these high-profile fails in two of the globe's biggest sports leagues, he's sure to be viewed more skeptically in the future.

Yi Jianlian eludes NBA China's grasp, again

Every October, two NBA teams come to play exhibition games in a few Chinese cities. Last year, the Denver Nuggets played the Indiana Pacers. In 2008, the Milwaukee Bucks played the Golden State Warriors—a matchup that would have brought Yi Jianlian back home to play, if he hadn't been traded to the New Jersey Nets on the eve of the 2008 NBA Draft.

Yi's slipped through the NBA marketing department's fingers yet again. This spring, the NBA scheduled the Houston Rockets to play the New Jersey Nets, in what would have been an historic opportunity to see China's two current NBA players go head-to-head in Beijing and Guangzhou. But the Nets sent Yi to the Washington Wizards, so Yao Ming, if he's actually back on the court by then, will be the only Chinese national in the game.

Right now, Yi's busy in Turkey, where he's leading the Chinese national team at the FIBA World Championships. China is 1-1 with a loss to Greece and a win over Cote d'Ivoire (who are sponsored by Chinese basketball apparel brand Peak). He's averaging 26 and 11. In the next game, August 31, China faces Puerto Rico and Yi has a chance to avenge his dismal 3-for-15, 11-point performance against them at Madison Square Garden two weeks ago.

MLB still swingin'

Despite its sport being dropped from the Olympics, Major League Baseball has not given up on China. The Washington Post just ran a great update (with some nice photos) on the MLB's China activities, which are largely focused on a training academy in Wuxi, where players learn the game under the direction of Rick Dell, who has been key to MLB's Asia efforts for years now. Interesting takeaway from this piece: It implies that the teenagers training in Wuxi now are being groomed with the hopes not that they will make the big leauges, but that they will train the players from the next generation who will.

Starbury to return, with more shoes

Stephon Marbury's coming back to Taiyuan this year, to play for the CBA's Shanxi Zhongyu, with whom he's signed a two-year contract with an option for a third. This time, Marbury's taking a more strategic approach to marketing his Starbury shoes in China, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Yi Jianlian in a Bullets jersey image: Hi.baidu.com

More than window shopping? "Kenny" Huang Jianhua and the Liverpool bid

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:21:00 +0800

Earlier this week, "Kenny" Huang Jianhua entered the UK media spotlight when "it emerged" (The Times' words) that he was trying to lead a purchase of the English Premier League's Liverpool FC. Several reports indicated that he was working on behalf of the Chinese Investment Corporation (CIC), China's sovereign wealth fund. Midweek, Huang's PR people issued a press release saying that he "has registered interest in investing in Liverpool FC but has made no formal bid."

Kenny Huang buying Liverpool FC? Certainly not on his own. Chinese government buying Liverpool? Very unlikely. This story already has too many unnamed sources, but I have to add one more: This morning I spoke to someone close to the CIC, who says that people there who would be involved in such a deal if it were in the works, and that person "have never heard of Huang Jianhua."

As Gady Epstein, Forbes' man in Beijing, explains, it seems to make no sense for CIC to get involved in English soccer. The CIC's job is to make money, and despite being high-passion and high-profile organizations, soccer clubs are not high-profit. But China Daily reports that over the past two weeks, CIC has divested almost precisely enough of its investments to raise the 351.4 million pounds that The Guardian says is a rumored sale price for Liverpool. Matt Scott at The Guardian suggests that CIC is interested in Liverpools' TV rights and is speculating that the team can improve its finances by better leveraging media. There is also wide speculation that the club is undervalued, meaning that whoever buys it could possibly make a quick profit reselling it soon.

Huang clearly has interest in buying the club—or, more accurately, helping an investor or a group of investors make the purchase. He's no Mikhail Prokhorov, the self-made Russian billionaire and new majority owner of the New Jersey Nets. He needs other people's money to get this done.

As for the CIC/Huang connection, Epstein wisely guesses that someone got wind of a relatioship Huang has or says he has with CIC, and blew it out of proportion. But I'm inclined to think that Huang leaked the information himself. Though he shies away from direct media contact, he likes to manipulate the media. When he held a rare press conference in Beijing last year to announce his partnership with the Chinese Baseball Association, as reported here, the whole affair seemed targeted at potential sponosors who could help fund the Chinese Youth Baseball League, for which his company, QSL, had no actual plans. Also, Huang is a broker who seems unsatisfied with hanging in the background—he wants to be the face of the deals that he's involved in, and self-promotes accordingly.

Could it be that he leaked the Liverpool story to generate some buzz, and signal to potential investors that he was in a position to help them bid for Liverpool? Or maybe he learned that CIC was liquidating in preparation to make a bid, and he hopes to bluff his way into representing them.

Whatever is going on, Liverpool fans should know soon who their team's next owner will be, as the current owners are trying to get the deal done by next week.

Beijing bars hosting charity benefits on Olympic anniversary

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:43:00 +0800

Two years ago today, Beijing was the most nervous city on the planet. Its Olympic venues were ready, but—depending on who you asked—either negative coverage by the international media, or problems like air pollution, forced relocations, ethnic unrest and Internet censorship cast some doubt over the days, weeks and months before the games.

While many still argue that the Olympics in general, and Beijing's Olympics in particular, do more harm than good, the 2008 Games were largely viewed as a success in terms of event management, athletics and entertainment.

In honor of the two-year anniversary of the Beijing Olympics, this weekend a few Beijing bars will be holding theme nights benefiting local sports charity, CAI, which provides sports and arts programming to schools for the children of migrant workers in the capital. So if you think the Beijing Olympics were a boon to the country and the planet, come on out and celebrate. If you think they were a crime, come out and be part of the solution by supporting a charity that gives Beijing's most disadvantaged young people the chance to play organized basketball and soccer.

Here, cribbed with permission of the man behind Beijing Boyce, is a breakdown of the weekend's festivities:

Saturday, August 7
China Doll, 11 PM-2 AM

This Sanlitun nightclub was a party spot for some of the games' biggest stars. This Saturday, according to Boyce, it will "show footage and photos from its Olympics parties and display its flag decorated with the signatures of scores of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, including Usain Bolt.

"Flaming gold medal" shooters on Saturday are RMB30, with RMB15 going to CAI.

Sunday, August 8
Fubar, 6-8 PM

Fubar wasn't around during the Games, but its owner managed another Beijing bar then, and its location inside an Olympic venue (Workers' Stadium) makes it a great place to celebrate this weekend.

The bar's mixologists created the Fu Wa cocktail for this occasion. The Fu Wa is RMB25, and RMB15 goes to CAI.

George's, 8 PM-

Located very close to Fubar, George's will screen the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, starting at 8 PM.

All martinis are RMB30, with RMB15 going to CAI.

For more information, go to Beijing Boyce.

Zero Tolerance for Sloppiness: China's Age-faking problem

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:42:00 +0800

China is taking a zero-tolerance stance and adopting new measures to ensure its athletes meet age requirements for international competition, said Cai Zhenhua, vice president of the State General Administration of Sport, according to this report in China Daily. Cai says that the new approach starts with the upcoming Youth Olympics August 14 to 26 in Singapore. Athletes have been asked to furnish six different forms of ID, listed by China Daily as: "birth certificates, ID cards, passports, domestic athlete registration cards and domestic and international authentication for competitions."

The article adds that "athletes under 16 have also undergone bone-age checks through nuclear magnetic resonance." China Daily not explain why athletes who claim to be over 16 aren't required to take the tests.

But how much can these new regulations really do to solve China's age-faking problem? The country's national teams aren't generally thought to be the source of the practice. It begins much earlier in athletes' careers, when they are competing for their provinces. Leaders of those teams receive bonuses tied to performance in national and international competition. These bonuses can represent a major portion of their pay, so there is a strong incentive to shave a couple of years off (in sports like basketball and soccer, so players can enter youth competition for longer) or tack a couple on (in sports like diving and gymnastics, where young girls' flexible bodies are an advantage).

No doubt China wants to avoid future embarrassment like it experienced when the International Olympic Committee stripped its 2000 Olympic women's gymnastics team of a bronze medal after determining Dong Fangxiao had competed under a falsified age.

But I have a hard time believing that sports administration officials really care whether athletes are telling the truth about their age—they just want them to stop getting caught.

Dong was busted because of her own careless mistake. When she applied to be an official at the 2008 Olympics, she provided her real birth year, 1986, instead of the 1983 date that she had used to register for the Sydney Olympics. Others have been caught with a secondary form of ID that carries their real age. In 1999, Wang Zhizhi was picked up by the Dallas Mavericks despite his reported birth date making him too young to be drafted by an NBA team. The Mavericks had access to the center's military ID, with correct age (two years older), thanks to a Beijing-–based Nike employee. Yi Jianlian, who plays for the NBA's Washington Wizards, is widely thought to be two years older than his official birth year of 1987 indicates; two years ago, Chinese reporters dug up an old high school ID that listed his birth date as 1984. In all of these cases, a more careful scrubbing of history would have kept the athletes' secrets buried deeper.

Whether the administration really wants to make sure that its teams are compliant, I can't say for sure. But I am willing to bet that what lower-ranking and provincial sports officials will hear is this: "If you want to fake ages, you'd better start covering your tracks."

Yi Jianlian high school ID image: Sohu.com

Yi traded to Washington

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:41:00 +0800

Yi Jianlian will start his fourth NBA season playing with his third team, after being traded by the New Jersey Nets to the Washington Wizards earlier this week.

The Nets acquire Quinton Ross, who has a $1.2 million contract, in the trade, and get rid of Yi's $4.5 million salary. That will leave them with about $30 million in salary cap space to try and lure some of this summer's top free agents. Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and David Lee are some of the players still up for grabs.

Yi, who averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds this season, joins number one draft pick John Wall at Washington (Wizards' roster), as well as late-round pick Hamady Ndiaye from Senegal via Rutgers University, and like Yi, 7 feet tall. Any team that picks up Yi is taking on a project—the forward is still unpolished, and missed more than a third of this season due to various injuries.

Where to Watch the World Cup: Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:01:00 +0800

Don't see your Chinese city on here? Want to tell us where you're watching? Leave a comment!

The closest that China's favorite team is getting to the FIFA World Cup this time around is last week's warmup game against France, which underdog (understatement!) China won 1-0 on a free kick goal from Deng Zhuo Xiang in the 68th minute.

But this country has had plenty of time to adjust to its absence from the 2010 World Cup, and there are plenty of fans here supporting Italy, Argentina, England, Brazil and Spain—any team that's a contender has a fan base in China.

This is the biggest sporting event since the Olympics, and bars are looking to cash in with viewing parties galore over the next month. Here's a quick breakdown of some great sources of information on where to watch:

Beijing Boyce is the capital's most prolific eating and drinking blogger. Lucky for us, Boyce is also a sports fan. Here's his extensive list of place to watch the World Cup. He's also got recommendations on where to buy country flags and gear, and no doubt will be reporting on the viewing experience once the games start.

The Beijinger doesn't seem to have a direct link to a list of viewing options, but bars will upload their promotions here, and users will chime in on
the best places to watch.

City Weekend's Beijing and Shanghai sites both have World Cup pub guides. Charles Silverman (Beijing) highlights the best places to watch outdoors, the hidden sports spots, and some swanky joints for fans with deep pockets. CW Shanghai offers a quick list of bars, and tips on where to buy face paint and jerseys.

Finally Kunming, my Chinese hometown, seems to have come a long way in sports broadcasts in the past two years. GoKunming's list is evidence that Chapter One now has a lot of competition for fans who don't want to watch alone at home.

This Week in China Sports: NFL Draft, new CBA champion, Olympic gymnasts stripped of Sydney medal

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:29:00 +0800

Ed Wang was, indeed, picked up in the NFL draft. He went to the Buffalo Bills with the 140th pick, becoming the first Chinese-American drafted by an NFL team. Titan Sports News, China's top sports newspaper, featured Wang on its front page.

The Guangdong Southern Tigers beat the Xinjiang Flying Tigers 103-94, winning their sixth Chinese Basketball Association title. Guangdong took the series 4-1. Only the Bayi Rockets, the Chinese army team, have won more titles (8), and Guangdong has been the CBA champion all but one of the last seven years. (Xinhua)

Bob Donewald, coach of the Yao Ming-owned Shanghai Sharks of the CBA, was tapped to coach the Chinese men's national basketball team through the end of the year (Washington Post). Donewald coached NCAA basketball at several different Midwestern universities throughout the 80s and 90s. He will lead a Yao-less team at the world championships in August and the Asian Games in November.

The International Olympic Committee stripped China of its bronze medal in the gymnastics team competition in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, after Dong Fangxiao was ruled to have been underage. The bronze now goes to the United States team. Ironically, Dong was outed by her accreditation papers for working as an official at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. That paperwork has her birth date as January 23, 1986, and not January 20, 1983, as she had declared in Sydney. Olympic gymnasts must turn 16 in the year they compete in an Olympics, per restrictions set by the Federation Internationale Gymnastique (AP via ESPN).

Kenny Huang is NOT denying rumors published in the Sunday Mirror that he is in talks to buy Liverpool Football Club. He only denies speaking to a reporter from the paper, and said he would not comment on the rumor.

China may not have a team in the FIFA World Cup, but they do have a presence. Many of the South African flags currently selling well in the host country, are made in China and apparently the imports were not quite printed right (Mail & Guardian)

Ed Wang: First Chinese player in the NFL?

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:10:00 +0800

The NFL, despite rumbles you may have heard about that canceled Patriots game in Beijing and visits by the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders to the capital, has virtually no presence in China. And while Ed Wang can't change that on his own, the left tackle from Virginia Tech can help the league turn a few heads in the Middle Kingdom. After impressing at the NFL Combine and Virginia Tech's Pro Day, his prospects of going somewhere in the third round or beyond look good.

Wang is 6'5" and 315 pounds. He grew up in Virginia and moved from tight end to the offensive line at VT. He graduated with a business degree before the 2009 season. And he's just one generation removed from China—his parents were track and field athletes on the country's Olympic team in 1984.

This report from Northwest Asian Weekly has some great background on Wang. He speaks Mandarin, and his teammates call him Godzilla (wrong East Asian country, guys...). While he says he experienced racism on the field as a very young player, things apparently smoothed out by the time he reached high school. It probably helped that he pushes guys around like he does in these videos at CBSports.com and YouTube.

In this NFL video, Wang talks about the draft his Chinese heritage. Follow his pursuit of his pro football dream at his NFL Players blog.

Like Yao Ming, Wang is really tackling a stereotype by excelling at a big man's position. Unlike Yao, he's chosen a sport that almost no one in China plays.

Ed Wang NFL Combine image: NFLPlayers.com

Fines, no suspensions in the CBA's "Slapgate" Finals

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:21:00 +0800

The Chinese Basketball Association has fined both the Xinjiang and Guangdong teams, but not suspended players, in response to an ugly incident that took place at the end of Guangdong's home court win in Game 2 of the CBA finals (report of decision in Chinese).

Charles Gaines, an American who plays for Xinjiang, got into an altercation with Du Feng of Guangdong under the basket, and threw a knockout smack that put the forward on his back. As this video shows, trainers covered Du head-to-toe in towels (extra airtime for CBA uniform sponsor Anta!), confusing fans about how seriously he was hurt. He was then moved to a back room and put on oxygen support.

A phalanx of cops escorted Gaines and the Xinjiang team out of the arena. Incidentally, in a league where emotions frequently boil over into player and fan violence, the Guangdong team recently had to be ushered from the Shanghai Sharks' arena after a playoff game. Angry about a (completely justified) foul call in the final seconds, fans threw objects on the court and directed their anger at the officials (Yao Ming's fans punch referee). To see that foul and get an idea what an arena full of angry CBA fans looks like, cue this video.

The CBA handed down its judgment on the incident this morning, fining both teams 50,000 yuan (about $7,000) and clearing the players for Game 3 in Urumqi.

The Du-Gaines incident is being called "Slapgate" (掌击门) by the Chinese media (hard to believe that American "-gate" suffix has found its way into the Chinese media lexicon, but there it is). Despite being frequently referred to as a punch, Gaines's blow appears to have been delivered with an open hand. That and the way that Du goes down—holding his head up, saying something to Gaines—makes me wonder if Gaines actually KO'd him, or if Du didn't ham it up a bit to extract the maximum penalty for Gaines.

While hitting an opponent like that is unsportsmanlike and never justified, all of the different TV reports I watched only played Gaines's smack over and over again; none of them rewound further to look into what might have set him off, or called attention to the fact that Du raised a closed fist in Gaines's face and gave him a small headbutt to the forehead before getting drilled. Nor did anyone seem to seek out Du or Gaines for a comment on the incident.

Game 3 of the Chinese Basketball Association finals has been moved from tonight to Thursday night, in observation of China's national day of mourning for victims of the earthquake in Qinghai province.

Image: Xinmin.cn

NBA greats Horry and Mullin to play Chengdu charity game

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:00:00 +0800

Editor's note: the following story was originally posted on our sister site in Sichuan, GoChengdoo.

The NBA is coming to Chengdu.

In collaboration with the Chengdu Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, the Chengdu Charity Federation, and the Red Cross, the NBA will bring legends "Big Shot Bob" Robert Horry and Chris Mullin, as well as NBA Development League players to Sichuan from April 16 to 18.

The event is billed as "part of the NBA's continued commitment to support rebuilding efforts in the earthquake stricken Sichuan Province."

The NBA Cares charity event includes two exhibition games in which seven-time NBA champion Horry and former Olympic Dream Team member Mullin will play alongside the Beijing Aoshen team, including former Laker Sun Yue, against the D-League players.

To round out the entertainment, the New Jersey Nets dance team and the team mascot, will "provide fans with an authentic NBA game experience ... designed to maximize fans [sic] enjoyment and experience at the game." One hundred students and orphans from the Dujiangyan Qingcheng Mountain Advanced Secondary School will be invited to attend the exhibition games.

Prior to the games, NBA Cares, "the league's global social responsibility program," will unveil four refurbished courts at the school.

Exhibition games
Saturday, April, 17, 7:25 p.m. at the Shuangliu Sports Center. Tickets: RMB 80 to 380.

Sunday, April 18, 5:30 p.m. at the Sichuan Provincial Gymnasium. Tickets: RMB50 to 380

Tickets for the two exhibition games can be purhcased online at Piao or by calling 400-610-3721 or 66510500/600 or
66510588/555/566.

Ding Junhui and snooker hot in China, China Daily sports coverage lukewarm

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:59:00 +0800

This was supposed to be a post about Ding Junhui, China's popular snooker sensation, and his performance in the finals at the past weekend's China Open. Instead, it's a post about something that's bothered me for a long time—sports coverage on China Daily's Web site.

Since I'm not in China at the moment, and therefore couldn't watch CCTV-5, I went online Monday to find out how Ding had fared over the weekend. He played his way into the semis Friday, and beat Mark Allen in the semis Saturday. He lost the final to Welshman Mark Williams, but to look at China Daily's online sports page Monday, you would think he hadn't played it yet:The latest news there was stuck on last Thursday, Ding's birthday and the day he won his second round game.

As the official state-run English-language newspaper, China Daily isn't somewhere that those in the know go for hard-hitting investigative journalism—but four days behing on something as innocuous as a snooker tournament? By the time they get the news up, will anyone who cares about it not know already? And it's not unusual for China Daily's coverage to lag like that.

China Daily's biggest online competitor, Xinhua, has better sports coverage, and did have up-to-date news from Beijing:

And if you're wondering why we're even talking about snooker, it's because the game has quite a following in China. As Sam Pearson wrote in a post here in December, "The increasingly popular [cue] sports have a rare combination of Chinese world beaters, government support, affordability, a fashionable image and excellent domestic TV coverage." (Pot the Reds: Cue sports in China). Ding Junhui, 24, is the face of snooker in China, having burst onto the scene with big wins in 2005. He's even inspired the creation of an animated TV series based on the adventures of a young Ding in snooker competitions. The game ranked fourth in sports television broadcast hours in 2009, after soccer, basketball and tennis, according to TNS Sport China. And Ding is sponsored by Mengniu Dairy, one of China's biggest consumer goods companies.

MLB to air Yankees-Sox on Chinese provincial stations

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:11:00 +0800

With baseball out of the Olympics, the Chinese professional league on the rocks and the ball fields built for the Beijing games now long gone, America's favorite pastime faces an uphill battle in China.

But Major League Baseball clearly hasn't given up—the league recently announced that the season opener between the Yankees and Red Sox will broadcast live in China this year, for the first time ever. The game takes place at 8 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, April 4, which is 8 a.m. the next day in China. That's not exactly prime time, but Monday is a national holiday in China, so people should at least be home. And as the Hollywood Reporter so nonchalantly points out, thanks to the prevalence of cremation in the space-starved nation, few people have grave sites to visit this Tomb Sweeping Day, a holiday for honoring deceased relatives.

With no deal to air games on CCTV-5, the national sports channel that has a near monopoly on the market, MLB is taking an alternative route to broader exposure in China—agreements with a bundle of the country's biggest provincial TV stations. The league has added Chongqing TV and Shaanxi TV to existing contracts with Guangdong TV, Shenzhen TV and Jiangsu TV. Guangdong TV will air This Week in Baseball, Championship Season games and the World Series, according to BizofBaseball.com.

For the tiny number of diehard baseball fans in China, MLB last year made great improvements to its local Web site, MLB.cn including high-quality free streaming of games. The league's youth development program, Play Ball, continues this year with programs in 120 schools in five cities.

Paralleling the league's efforts, the New York Yankees act independently to push their own brand in China. A few small Yankees stores market pinstripes inside big-city malls, and the team works closely with Kenny Huang of QSL, which has an agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association to develop youth baseball. QSL arranged for the Yankees to tour China earlier this year to do photo ops with young people and the Commissioner's Trophy.

Related:

NYT: Yankee Emissaries seek fans in China

Around the Web: A basketball MVP, a tennis upset, and an unpopular proposal for soccer

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:15:00 +0800

Mengke Bateer who, unbeknownst to many a casual fan, was the first Chinese player to win an NBA championship, was selected as this season's MVP for the Chinese Basketball Association. The big guy averaged 13.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. It looks to me like this is a chance to honor one of China's most historically important players who will probably retire soon (Bateer is 35) than it does like a recognition of a stellar 2009-10 season. Bateer's Xinjiang Guanghui are in second place in league standings, with league playoffs starting next Wednesday. All-Star Weekend is March 20-21 at Wukesong Arena in Beijing.

China's Zheng Jie (seeded 18th) beat Maria Sharapova (seeded 10th) at the BNP Paribas Open, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Sharapova was battling injuries in the match at Indian Wells.

Wei Di, the new chief of the Chinese Football Association, has introduced the apparently unpopular idea of entering China's under-21 national team as the 17th side in the Chinese Soccer League, to give those young players more time playing together. He hopes the plan will help him reach his self-imposed goal of qualifying a team for the FIFA World Cup in 2014, without dismantling the centrally planned football development system. The CSL begins play next week.

Gold medal-winning speed skater Zhou Yang angered some sports officials when she thanked her real mother and not Mother China (Reuters). David Yang at China Sports Review argues that the state has a point.