Talking Balls: News, New Seasons Starting & The New Yao Ming?

Spring has sprung and with it the hibernation of Beijing’s sports scene begins to end. We’ll tell you all about what you have to look forward to over the coming months. But first, the sports news of the week.

Pre-season is a time rife with rumour and the Chinese Super League is no exception. As you might have expected, it’s free-spending Shanghai Shenhua who are leading the mutterings and mistruths. Didier Drogba is about to sign (according to French media) or definitely not about to sign (according to Wild East Football). So that’s that cleared up. The Blues (Drogba’s prospective future employers, not his current ones) are also said to be giving sometime-England centre back Matthew Upson the glad eye. It’s clear to see that they hope to make a splash in the market but if you finished 11th in the CSL, you’d want to turn things around.

In more Shanghai-related nonsense, new resident Nicolas Anelka has been revealing all about being forced out of Chelsea. He also states that “Shanghai is Asia's New York. I love the way they live here.” Something tells Talking Balls that Nicolas won’t be riding the subway to work.

Beijing Ducks remain second in the CBA. They are nine and nine, as our American friends have taught us to say. Their subway-riding star man Stephon Marbury will be leading the North in the upcoming All-Star Game.

Jeremy Lin is whatever the current slang for "really quite good" is. He’s been dropping bombs in the NBA at Marbury's old team, the New York Knickerbockers. In the last week or two, he’s gone from guy who was at the Knicks but no one had heard of to "the new Yao Ming." Not bad. Here’s some more on the hype at China Sports Review and China Daily, plus an interview from Sheridan Hoops that we saw on NiuBBall.

The NBA revealed that they drew 96 million viewers during their debut Chinese New Year Celebration. And consider that was before Jeremy Lin got everyone’s knickerbockers in a twist.

Our Man of Guoan, Brandon Chemers, is responsible for another interesting read this week ... in a way. Here his wife tells Wild East Football all about becoming a hardcore Beijing Guoan fan rather than a football widow.

The injured Li Na is out of the Paris WTA Open.

Stephen Hendry was in town to play pool this week. Not at Maggie’s, although he did also play in Mongolia on the tour. Coincidence? Almost entirely. The Scottish snooker legend had this to say of the eight-ball game: “I have come to know that this game with strong Chinese characteristics has become the most popular one among the Chinese people.” Erm, yeah.

Here’s last week’s Who’s Hot & Who’s Not from China Daily. Special attention is paid to Hou Yifan, and rightly so. The 17-year-old chess prodigy has been making pawns out of some of the biggest names in the game.

Liu Xiang heads to Birmingham for an Indoor Grand Prix next week and reckons he’s ready for the leadup to the Olympics and he’s got a new technique to boot. Watch out, Dayron Robles.

Super Dan has said that the reason that China's stars fail to make inroads at global sports awards is that they are not stars in the right sports. He offered this assessment: "China is one of the countries with most world champions, but it is a pity that the categories in which Chinese are competitive are not globally influential."

Now on to the sports you can play ... or at least go to watch.

ClubFootball’s spring season is taking registrations right now. The first installment kicks off on March 6. Get in touch with them at play@wanguoqunxing.com.

Beijing Golfers Club will be kicking off their season with the annual Polar Classic at Huatang Golf Club on March 3. They can be found here. Beijing Ladies Golf are launching their season with a lunch on March 11. You can sign up at beijingladiesgolf@gmail.com.

Beijing Hockey Club are heading outside soon. They’ll be using their practices to prepare for April’s Hong Kong Sixes. Reach them at bjhockeyclub@hotmail.com.

Aussie Rules will start the season on April 14 with a match against Beijing GAA in a game of compromise rules. If you want to get involved with training with either, email Beijing Bombers or Beijing GAA.

Harrowthon (which rhymes with marathon if you come from rather than go to Harrow) is taking place on March 18 at 10am. It’s a 10km cross-country run through Tongzhou that will benefit Fengtai Orphanage. Registration will cost you RMB 100 but all of it goes to the kids. For more information and to sign up for Harrowthon 2012, please email events@harrowbeijing.cn. Entries will also be welcome on the day!

And finally, the final of the Fortune Heights Snow Polo World Cup 2012 takes place on Sunday in Tianjin. There are games on both Saturday and Sunday. Find more information here.

Photo: Fortune Heights Snow Polo World Cup 2012