Pacquiao: Accept Floyd's offer and I'll be laughing stock - ESPN.co.uk
Manny Pacquiao has revealed that he is praying for Floyd Mayweather Jr as he embarks on the early days of his 87-day jail term.
Last week Mayweather started his sentence in Las Vegas, having pleaded guilty to domestic battery charges.
Pacquiao has not always seen eye-to-eye with Mayweather down the years, with negotiations over a fight breaking down more than once, provoking a war of words between the two sides - however, the Filipino has stayed magnanimous over Mayweather's plight.
"I'm praying for him," Pacquiao said. "I'm not treating him as my opponent, my enemy or anything. I'm treating him as my friend, my brother. I'm praying for him that all things will be fine for him."
The most recent stumbling block to a bout was the issue of how to distribute the pay-per-view money between the pair: Mayweather wanted to keep all of the cash, and offered Pacquiao a flat $40 million fee, which was refused.
Pacquiao feels there is no way he could have agreed to those terms. "Well, if you are a fighter, would you fight if I give you 40 million and nothing to share in the PPV?" Pacquiao said.
"I would not fight for that. He will be laughing [behind] my back if I do that. It's not a proper negotiation if you're a businessman."
Pacquiao fights Timothy Bradley, another unbeaten American, on Saturday in Las Vegas.
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Trott backs decision to rest Anderson - ESPN.co.uk
Jonathan Trott did not earn his reputation as a cricketer through playing an array of dashing shots, so it should be of little surprise that he took a similarly cautious approach to a tricky off-pitch episode at Edgbaston on Tuesday.
Placed in a potentially awkward position - charged with talking to the media a few days after the retirement from limited-overs cricket of Kevin Pietersen and the enforced resting of James Anderson - Trott adopted a characteristically dead bat to all questions in a safety-first display which a generation of bowlers would recognise in an instant. Indeed, had Trott paused the press conference to mark his guard, it would have hardly have seemed incongruous.
"You can understand it in a way, but it's a huge disappointment as well," Trott said of Pietersen's decision, thereby ensuring he neither offended Pietersen nor the England team management. "It wasn't a huge surprise. Kev is his own guy and has to make his own decisions. The team fully support his decision. Whatever he decides to do with his cricketing career is fine."
Trott's diplomatic response - as admirable as it was sensible - did inadvertently highlight the uneasy truce that pervades within the England camp at present. It will take careful management over the coming months to ensure that the constructive working environment that helped England to No. 1 in the Test and T20I rankings is maintained.
A recurring theme of the next 18-months or so will be the schedule. Those members of the squad who play all three formats of the game can expect to spend less than two weeks in the UK between mid-October and April. Those involved in the World Twenty20 will be absent for several weeks before that. Irrespective of the actual amount of cricket the squad play or of the comparison with teams of the past, the fact of the matter is that men with young families - be they players or coaches - are uneasy with those demands.
Trott's situation is somewhat different from Pietersen's. Trott is not currently in the England T20 side and he did not even enter the draw for the 2012 IPL season. His T20 record is better than might be presumed, too: only five men (Marcus Trescothick, Darren Stevens, Darren Maddy, Murray Goodwin and Owais Shah) have scored more runs in English domestic T20 cricket and none of their averages comes anywhere near Trott's 39.20. Indeed, no England-qualified player with more than a dozen games behind them has a higher T20 average than Trott, while the 525 runs he scored in the 2009 T20 Cup was a then-record.
"Not being involved in T20, you get that little break," Trott said. "You have to speak to the guys who play all three about how they feel, but I'm really happy with the scheduling for me. It's really busy but that's part of being an England cricketer. We're the only country who play constantly from April through until September and there are always places to go in the winter. It has got a little bit busier, but it's part and parcel. You have to accept and get on with it.
"I didn't put my name forward for this IPL because I knew the workload. I'd been in international cricket for a year at the point when I did, but you now realise it is a lot of cricket. You make a decision and you've got to live with your own decision. Kevin's made his mind up about what he wants to do and that's fine. The guys support and understand the decision he's made. There's plenty of talent to come in and take his place. It's a bit of a blow, but you have to pick yourself up and get on with it.
"Kev was playing all three formats and he's been doing it since 2004, a lot longer than myself. He'll have his reasons. It is quite strenuous but you accept that when you get selected, you go there knowing what's ahead of you. From my side, I've no complaints about how the schedule has been."
Trott did admit, however, that he could see the logic in rotating players. "It's happened in the past, and probably will in the future with the schedule getting busier and busier," he said. "It's only right that these things happen.
"Jimmy Anderson would have liked to have played and quite rightly. He's the spearhead of our bowling attack, and you can understand that he will probably be a little bit disappointed. But with the bowlers and their heavy workload, it's going to happen from time to time. But it's not as if you're giving away international caps. We have guys who are vying to play and whoever takes his place should do a great job."
George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
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The Platters founder Herb Reed dies at 83 - BBC News
Herb Reed, the last surviving founding member of the US vocal group The Platters, has died in Boston aged 83.
The singer's manager said he died after a period of declining health that included chronic heart disease.
Founded by Reed in 1953, the group had hits with songs including Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Only You and The Great Pretender.
Following the replacement of original band members, he was the only singer to appear on all 400 recordings.
Reed continued touring, performing up to 200 shows per year, until last year.
Formed as harmonising street singers in Los Angeles, The Platters were the most popular black singing group of their time.
Reed is credited with coming up with the group's name - inspired by disc jockeys who referred to their records as "platters".
The original line-up included Reed, female vocalist Zola Taylor, David Lynch, Tony Williams and Paul Robi, who went on to have four number one hits in the US between 1955 and 1958.
Reed credited his survival in the music industry to the poverty he experienced as a child.
Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, he said in his biography he was careful with money because he did not want to assume the group's success would continue.
The Platters continued to record until the late 1960s and tour in various incarnations, with more than 100 different members, until the present day.
The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
Michigan House votes to accelerate small income tax cut - Detroit Free Press
LANSING The state House approved today a small income tax cut criticized as an election-year ploy by Democrats, who mostly voted in favor of it.
House Bill 5699, sponsored by Rep. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, would accelerate by three months from Jan. 1 to Oct. 1 a scheduled cut in the state income tax rate, from 4.35% to 4.25%. For a person earning $50,000 a year, accelerating the tax cut would mean about $12 extra this calendar year, officials said.
It passed 103-5, with Democrats Timothy Bledsoe of Grosse Pointe; Phil Cavanagh of Redford; Douglas Geiss of Taylor; Rudy Hobbs of Lathrup Village, and Ellen Cogen Lipton of Huntington Woods voting against it.
House Bill 5700, sponsored by Rep. Holly Hughes, R-Montague, increases the personal exemption from $3,700 to $3,950, effective Oct. 1, and to at least $4,000, effective Jan. 1, 2014.
It passed 107-2, with Bledsoe and Geiss voting no.
The bills would reduce state revenue by about $103 million in the 2013 fiscal year, with $91 million of that lost to the general fund and the remaining $12 million lost to the School Aid Fund, according to a House Fiscal Agency analysis.
Weve gone from a decade of deficits to a small surplus, said McBroom. We can move forward with returning some of that surplus to the people of the state of Michigan.
On Tuesday, Democrats tried without success to amend the bills to reverse income tax changes the Republicans pushed through in 2011, such as an increased tax on public and private pension income and reduction or elimination of several tax credits.
Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills, described the changes as another slap in the face to Michigans working families.
And Cavanagh denounced the legislation as a political gimmick, as all 110 House seats come up for election in November, with Republicans now holding a 64-46 majority.
Rep. Jud Gilbert, R-Algonac, said any political posturing was by Democrats, who trashed the legislation and then voted in favor of it.
Its not clear when the Senate, whose members dont face election until 2012, will take up the legislation.
Country artists win US radio royalties victory - BBC News
A new deal between media giant Clear Channel and a leading Nashville music label could pave the way to all artists being paid for US radio airplay.
The agreements gives artists on the Big Machine label payment for songs played on traditional radio stations for the first time.
In exchange, artists have agreed to a cap on payments from tracks played on digital stations.
Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw are among artists who will benefit from the deal.
"We're going to more than double our income from Clear Channel in the short term," said Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta.
"They'll make it up on the back end as digital continues to grow."
Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman called the deal "an opportunity... to align our interests in all of our revenue streams and grow digital listening to its full potential."
The deal is a significant coup for the record industry, which has been trying to secure royalties from songs played on traditional radio for decades.
Songwriters receive a small amount when their songs are played on US radio, whereas performers do not.
But they are paid royalties for online usage, placing a heavier financial onus on digital radio platforms than their terrestrial counterparts.
Rather than compensating artists every time a song is played, the Clear Channel agreement will pay them a share of advertising revenue generated across all platforms.
Clear Channel's 850 stations make it the largest radio group in the United States and a major influence on broadcasting practice.
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