Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles, who hasn’t played since 2018, was arrested and jailed this week when police found him sleeping behind Key West Airport in South Florida.

Toles, 28, was charged with misdemeanor trespassing Monday night. Police listed his address as “streets of Key West.” The Miami Herald reported he ignored requests by the police to leave.

His arraignment is scheduled for July 2.

Toles didn’t report to spring training last year and has since been on the club’s restricted list.

It was the latest of several setbacks for Toles, who has dealt with anxiety during his baseball career.

Toles was dismissed from Tennessee’s team as a sophomore in 2011 and suspended while at Chipola College. He missed two months of the 2014 season because of personal issues.

The Dodgers signed Toles in September 2015 after the Tampa Bay Rays released him. He made his major league debut the following season and became a valuable contributor.

He appeared in 46 regular-season games in 2016, batting .314 with an .870 on-base-plus-slugging percentage before making the postseason roster. He batted .364 in 26 plate appearances in the playoffs.

A FORMER New York Knicks player was recently arrested three times in the span of 10 days.

Gerald Wilkins, 56, faces charges stemming from three different incidents — on three separate dates.

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According to WGCL-TV in Georgia, Wilkins allegedly threw an object at a colleague and “aggressively” chased the colleague with a screwdriver on Tuesday.

He was reportedly charged with simple battery, theft by taking, and aggravated assault.

Days before on June 6, Wilkins was involved in a domestic dispute during which he apparently barricaded himself in the victim’s bedroom.

Police claim that when they arrived on the scene, they had to break into the room.

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When they managed to get in, Wilkins had allegedly poured accelerant out and disabled the smoke alarm.

Wilkins was charged with criminal trespassing and hindering law enforcement.

Less than two weeks ago on May 31, Wilkins allegedly tried to force his way into a woman’s house and pushed her.

The 56-year-old has been charged with simple assault in that case.

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Wilkins is the brother of Dominique Wilkins, a former player who mostly played for the Atlanta Hawks, and who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2006.

In 1985, Gerald Wilkins was a second-round pick for the Knicks and played with the team until 1992.

He also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, and Memphis Grizzles before he retired after the 1998 season.

KAIT TV reports that Nathan Page, an Arkansas State football player, has been arrested for felony domestic battery. He’s been suspended from the football team.

Page, from Roland, is a graduate of Robinson High School and earlier this week he was named Sun Belt Conference defensive player of the week. KATV reports that the woman who’s accused Page of battery is pregnant.

Gina Kim covers crime and courts for Santa Maria Times. Follow her on Twitter @gina_k210

Gina Kim covers crime and courts for Santa Maria Times. Follow her on Twitter @gina_k210

PORT ELIZABETH (South Africa): South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada will face a disciplinary hearing on Saturday that could result in a ban from the third Test against Australia.

Cricket South Africa said Rabada, who devastated the Australian batting order on the first day of the second Test on Friday, has been charged with a level two offence following an incident with Australian captain Steve Smith.

Level two offences are for conduct of a serious nature. In Rabada’s case the alleged offence is that of making inappropriate or deliberate contact with another player.

Rabada shouted in celebration and approached Smith aggressively after winning a leg before wicket decision against him and the shoulders of the players made contact.

It is the second incident of a bad-tempered series after Australia’s vice-captain David Warner was fined 75 percent of his match fee for an altercation in a stairwell with the home side’s wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock.

The charge against Rabada was brought by the on-field umpires, Kumar Dharmasena and Chris Gaffaney. The hearing will be conducted by International Cricket Council match referee Jeff Crowe.

A Cricket South Africa spokesperson said Rabada would defend the charge and argue that the contact with Smith was accidental.

If found guilty Rabada could be fined between 50 and 100 percent of his match fee and could be penalised three or four demerit points. Because he already has five demerit points, which led to him being suspended for a Test match against England last year, Rabada could be liable to serve another suspension, which could rule him out of the two remaining Tests in the series.

BARCELONA: La Liga side Villarreal said on Saturday they have suspended defender Ruben Semedo and taken him off their payroll, a day after the Portuguese player was charged with offences including attempted murder and held in custody without bail. “While always respecting the notion that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, the club has decided to suspend the player from duties without pay until the ongoing case has been settled,” Villarreal said in a statement on its website (www.villarrealcf.es). “Villarreal would like to show its horror at the grave crimes the player Ruben Semedo was charged with,” it said. The 23-year-old defender was arrested on Tuesday for alleged involvement with others in holding a man who they threatened with a gun, according to media reports.

 Published in Daily Times, February  25^th   2018.

Posted

January 05, 2018 06:06:39

You become ever more sceptical about sport’s relentless cause merchants.

You reflexively gag at the thought of another themed round where a major sports organisation extols the virtues of Indigenous or women’s rights in order to justify lavish government funding or sponsorship.

You cringe at the sight of a young footballer preaching down at you from a giant screen about LGBTI rights when he plays in a league where no male player has yet felt safe coming out.

Then you find a place that is not merely selling good causes but making a significant difference. Instantly, your faith in sport’s ability to help build relationships and even entire communities is restored.

This does not happen at a big stadium before a vast audience but at the local basketball court where your kid and his friends play.

The heartening sight is dozens of Australian-African children who were initially enticed from a nearby housing commission flats to join the club.

Once we might have said these kids were being helped and even “saved” by those who entered the Australian-African community, earned their trust and quite literally delivered them to the court.

The ABC’s Australian Story last year told the tale of Mayor Chagai, a South Sudanese refugee who came to Australian aged 19 and has built the Savannah Pride Basketball Club in western Sydney.

Chagai convinced kids who once gathered for “fight nights” to instead play ball and, subsequently, a strong and vibrant club has grown — albeit one still struggling for funding.

He is just one of many community leaders from all walks of life, and in many different sports, with similar stories to tell.

People who have worked tirelessly to give Australian-African kids a sporting chance.

Similar tales of redemption are still occurring. But the cycle turns quickly.

New players becoming clubs’ lifeblood

At our club in inner-suburban Melbourne, the Australian-African players are, with their energy, enthusiasm, personality and the increasing involvement of their families, now far more than a worthy cause.

They are part of the club’s lifeblood. Just as those from other immigrant communities drawn into sport, the arts, education and every other endeavour help form the fabric of society.

The assumption is that professional sports are eager to recruit African-Australian kids to increase the stock of “first choice” athletes in a very competitive market. At the highest level this is true.

The emergence of stars and role models such as NBA draftee Thon Maker and Sydney Swans defender Aliir Aliir is obviously a potent force in encouraging children to play. There are more such stars in the making.

But at the grassroots where thousands of kids will participate without reaching the top, an even greater benefit comes from what community sport does best — bringing people together to pursue a common goal.

Kids playing, parents arguing about who was rostered to score or collect the subs. Smashing down barriers and forming firm friendships.

Gangs debate results in battle lines drawn

Yet the task of those of who have worked hardest to use sport as a means of integrating Australian-African children into our clubs and communities has been made more difficult.

The increasingly sensational stories of “African gangs” in Melbourne have obvious social and political overtones.

Battle lines have been drawn between those who claim these “gangs” present a significant danger to public safety and those who believe the Victorian state opposition is whipping up an atmosphere of fear and mistrust in the hope of being elected on a law and order agenda.

Australian-African leaders do not deny there is some problem youth crime. But they are pleading with governments and the police to take a bipartisan approach and to work with them.

They want to ensure any rogue element is correctly identified so that the entire community is not vilified and victimised.

So when Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton fanned the flames this week by claiming Melburnians were afraid to go out to restaurants at night for fear of being attacked by “African gangs”, he risked compromising the efforts of those working productively and harmoniously with Australian-African youth.

Community faces more challenges from angry rhetoric

Again, this is not to dismiss the reality that this community faces some challenges. It is a plea for those charged with finding solutions to remember the untold damage they can do with their inflammatory rhetoric.

Confronted by politically motivated stereotyping, how many people will look at one of the exemplary kids at our club and cross to the other side of the street out of ill-founded fear?

Will some parents and even coaches now harbour misgivings about African-Australian kids entering clubs?

How long before some of kids, confronted and isolated by such prejudice, start to conform to those unfounded stereotypes?

These are the issues that those doing the most to build strong communities through sport and other means must face. The mess they will have to clean up when the politicians have moved on to the next issue.

In modern times the sports pages are full of problems. Performance enhancing drugs, appalling off-field behaviour and even trivialities such as drop-in cricket pitches mean our games can sometimes bring more anguish than joy.

In that context, watching a local basketball club embrace and be enhanced by a new section of the community has been enriching; a demonstration of the genuine, commercial-free power of sport.

Surely this is something for the next politician trying to score cheap points from the parliamentary free throw line to consider.

Topics:

basketball,

sport,

community-organisations,

immigration,

race-relations,

sydney-2000,

nsw,

melbourne-3000,

vic,

australia

MUMBAI: India skipper Virat Kohli and his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni are among the top players who are set to be retained by their respective IPL franchises, Royal Challengers Bangalore and comeback outfit Chennai Super Kings respectively.

The retention list of players is to be announced by BCCI on Thursday.

Kohli, yet to taste a triumph as captain in IPL in spite of his extremely successful run as national captain, and 2011 World Cup-winning skipper Dhoni are expected to be shoo-ins when RCB and CSK decide which players they are retaining in the squad for the next three seasons – 2018 to 2020.

Among other top Indians who are almost certain to be retained are Rohit Sharma, who led Mumbai Indians to their title triumph last season, exciting MI all-rounder Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, who is set to go back to CSK after playing for Gujarat Lions over the last two seasons, and Australian pocket dynamo David Warner for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Another franchise making a return after serving a two-year suspension, Rajasthan Royals, will certainly go for Australia captain Steve Smith, considering the form he has been in.

Each team can opt for up to five players by virtue of a combination of Player Retention (Pre Player Auction) and Right to Match (RTM) (during the Player Auction), according to the decision of the IPL GC at its meeting in New Delhi on December 6.

There can be a maximum of either three retentions or three RTMs at the discretion of the franchises and if there is no retention before player auction, then franchises can have up to three RTMs, as per the norms put in place by the IPL GC.

The break-up is: Maximum number of 3 capped Indian players, 2 overseas players and 2 uncapped Indian players each.

The player pool available for CSK and RR for retention/RTM will be the players who played for them respectively in IPL 2015 and who were part of Rising Pune Supergiant and GL squads in IPL 2017, as per the norms.

The salary cap has also been raised. For the coming season, it’s fixed at Rs 80 crore and will increase to Rs 82 and 85 crore respectively in 2019 and 2020.

The minimum spend has been fixed at 75 per cent of the salary cap for each season.

The player retention price guideline for salary cap charged has also been set as Rs 33 crore (for 3 players pre auction), Rs 21 crore (for 2 players pre auction) and Rs 12.5 crore (for 1 player retained pre-auction).

Each squad can consist of a maximum number of 25 players (up to 8 overseas players) and a minimum of 18.