Veteran coach Ted Dumitru believes “European influences” are impacting negatively on local football.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq said his opposite number, AB de Villiers, was the difference as South Africa clinched a 3-2 series win in the fifth and final one-day international.

De Villiers hit an unbeaten 95 to guide his side to a six-wicket win after the teams went into the deciding match locked at 2-2. The South Africa skipper made 367 runs in the series at an average of 91.75 and took both the man of the match and man of the series awards.

De Villiers, who was dropped on one, overcame some hostile bowling on an unpredictable pitch as South Africa chased down Pakistan’s 205 all out with six overs to spare.

On a day when most batsmen struggled to time the ball consistently, De Villiers made his runs off just 111 balls, hitting nine fours and a six.

A fourth wicket partnership of 87 off 88 balls with Farhaan Behardien (35) made South Africa’s victory virtually certain after Pakistan’s new ball bowlers, Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan, caused early problems on a pitch where some deliveries bounced alarmingly, while others kept low.

Pakistan seemed headed for a more competitive total when they reached 151/4 in the 35th over after winning the toss. “It was a 250 pitch and the way we started it was gettable,” said Misbah. The Pakistan captain added that his team had fought back well after being trounced in the Test series.

“The team have got some confidence from the Twenty20 series and the one-day series. We have shown we can perform in these conditions against this quality bowling attack.”

Ryan McLaren took three wickets in 13 balls to swing Sunday’s match in South Africa’s favour.

Courtesy- www.sabc.co.za

Durban – Two men have died after they were turned away from a hospital where there was no doctor on duty.
The families of Marius Hayward, 31, and Nico Nel, 27, are furious and demanding answers, reported the Sunday Tribune.
The men were seriously injured in a crash in the Durban city centre early on Sunday morning and rushed to Addington Hospital where paramedics were told there was no doctor on duty and the men needed to be taken to another hospital 30min away.
Both men, who had been flung from a bakkie during the accident, died shortly afterwards.
One of the medics who didn’t want to be identified said Hayward had needed urgent hospital treatment and said he would have survived had he not been turned away by the hospital.  
“I am sure that had a doctor attended to him at Addington, his chances of survival would have improved dramatically.”
Another medic, Rescuecare paramedic Garrith Jamieson said: “This incident is just one of many. In the past month they have turned away dozens of patients. We need to draw the line somewhere.”
Nel’s sister, Anel Meyer, was shocked to hear that her dying brother had been turned away.
“It makes me so angry that I feel physically ill. He might have lived had the hospital not sent them away,” she said.
She said her brother’s handyman business was just taking off.
“He was so ambitious and things were starting to go his way with his business, and he was so happy. I will always remember his smile and how, just by being in a room, he would lift everyone around him. He was very caring,” said Meyer.
Hayward left two children, aged 8 years and 8-months-old.
A spokesperson for the department of healthy said they were looking into the matter.

Kimberley – A judge has denied wanting to protect corruption-accused Northern Cape ANC leader John Block, the City Press reported.

“I have never been a friend of John Block and I am not his friend now,” Kimberley Regional Court president Khandilizwe Nqadala  told the newspaper.

He refuted an allegation that he had been friendly with Block, before he presided over a corruption case involving Block in 2006.

The claim that Nqadala wanted to protect Block is contained in a  preliminary investigation report by two magistrates into a complaint of judicial misconduct against Nqadala.

The complaint against Nqadala was later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

In the report, Vincent Mayisela, an attorney, alleges that Nqadala once mentioned the John Block case – which had not yet been  heard – to him in an informal conversation.

“(He) remarked that he cannot allow the chairperson of the ANC to go to jail,” Mayisela is quoted as saying in the prelimary report.

The 2006 court case related to a visit Block paid to a jazz festival allegedly at the expense of taxpayers. Block was acquitted.

A new graft trial of Block and seven others will begin in the Northern Cape High Court on October 28.

They are accused of fraud, corruption and money-laundering, allegedly involving R49 million, between May 2005 and December 2009. – Sapa

Cape Town – As he lay bleeding from a stab wound to the chest, a promising young rugby player’s mother tried desperately to save him.

But her efforts were in vain and on Saturday 18-year-old Abdul-Hadi Manuel’s family laid him to rest.

The Grade 11 pupil at Alexander Sinton High School was stabbed outside a corner shop near his home in Belgravia in Athlone on Wednesday.

For more details go to www.iol.co.za