World Sports Briefs Cricket

Bangladesh cricketers Tamim Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza have turned down offers to join the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL), the pair said after the first test against New Zealand concluded yesterday.

Tamim said he had rejected a three-year US$900 000 deal while Mortaza said he had refused an undisclosed offer “without giving a second thought”. Last month 14 Bangladeshi cricketers, including former captain Habibul Bashar, joined the ICL to form a new team named the Dhaka Warriors.The cricketers were subsequently banned for 10 years by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.Football * Prosecutors have charged the president of Bulgarian premier league club Spartak Varna with organising and running a crime gang, the Bulgarian state agency reported.A Varna prosecutor said that Ivan Slavkov, who was arrested in hospital while recovering from gall bladder surgery, has been accused of money laundering, human trafficking, prostitution and drug trafficking.Boxing * The rise of “savage” mixed martial arts has sullied the name of boxing and sent the sport back to the caveman era, according to the head of the world’s biggest boxing organisation.Jose Sulaiman, who is entering his 33rd year in charge of the World Boxing Council (WBC), slammed the sport popularly known as ‘cage fighting’ and suggested its fans have no class.”I oppose 100 per cent this ultimate fighting.It has taken boxing to the era of the caveman and the Roman circus,” the outspoken Mexican told Reuters in an interview.Golf * Twice US Open champion Retief Goosen will replace the injured Vijay Singh at next week’s US$500 000 Johor Open.The South African has signed up after Fiji’s world number three Singh pulled out with an arm injury.Leading Thai players Thongchai Jaidee and Thaworn Wiratchant will also compete at Royal Johor Country Club.Football * Former World and European player of the year Rivaldo has dismissed speculation that he plans to leave Uzbek side Bunyodkor to return to play in Brazil.”It’s a complete lie.I have heard about these rumours but I am not going to leave now for Brazil,” he told the Asian Football Confederation’s website (www.the-afc.com).”I don’t have any desire to return home now.”Cricket * Nigel Plews, one of the few test-match umpires never to have played first class cricket, died on Sunday from kidney cancer at the age of 74, Nottingham County Cricket club have announced.Plews, a 6ft 6ins (1.98m) former policeman, stood in 11 tests and 16 ODIs between 1988 and 1996.Football * Bolivian Jaime Moreno, the all-time top scorer in US Major League Soccer with 122 goals, will play his last game for his country in a friendly with El Salvador today.”The time has come for me to say goodbye to the Bolivia national team after 17 years,” the former Middlesbrough striker was quoted as saying on the website of his team, DC United.”It’s time to step aside and let the new group of young Bolivian players take over.”Cycling * Alberto Contador is confident new Astana team mate Lance Armstrong will race in next year’s Tour de France despite the American expressing doubts due to his unhappiness with organisers.”I cannot imagine that he doesn’t want to be at the Tour,” the Spaniard told Gazzetta dello Sport, adding that he was worried when Armstrong came out of retirement to join his team.”It is true, I was dubious.The announcement was made while I was fighting to win the Tour of Spain and it risked distracting me.I still haven’t spoken with Armstrong but …there won’t be any problems.”* Football A trio of football players from the island of Borneo have been invited to hone their skills at English League One club Hartlepool United.The trip is the first step towards collaboration between the Sarawak team and Hartlepool in development programmes, Malaysia’s The Star newspaper reported.Nampa-Reuters and AFPLast month 14 Bangladeshi cricketers, including former captain Habibul Bashar, joined the ICL to form a new team named the Dhaka Warriors.The cricketers were subsequently banned for 10 years by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.Football * Prosecutors have charged the president of Bulgarian premier league club Spartak Varna with organising and running a crime gang, the Bulgarian state agency reported.A Varna prosecutor said that Ivan Slavkov, who was arrested in hospital while recovering from gall bladder surgery, has been accused of money laundering, human trafficking, prostitution and drug trafficking.Boxing * The rise of “savage” mixed martial arts has sullied the name of boxing and sent the sport back to the caveman era, according to the head of the world’s biggest boxing organisation.Jose Sulaiman, who is entering his 33rd year in charge of the World Boxing Council (WBC), slammed the sport popularly known as ‘cage fighting’ and suggested its fans have no class.”I oppose 100 per cent this ultimate fighting.It has taken boxing to the era of the caveman and the Roman circus,” the outspoken Mexican told Reuters in an interview.Golf * Twice US Open champion Retief Goosen will replace the injured Vijay Singh at next week’s US$500 000 Johor Open.The South African has signed up after Fiji’s world number three Singh pulled out with an arm injury.Leading Thai players Thongchai Jaidee and Thaworn Wiratchant will also compete at Royal Johor Country Club.Football * Former World and European player of the year Rivaldo has dismissed speculation that he plans to leave Uzbek side Bunyodkor to return to play in Brazil.”It’s a complete lie.I have heard about these rumours but I am not going to leave now for Brazil,” he told the Asian Football Confederation’s website (www.the-afc.com).”I don’t have any desire to return home now.”Cricket * Nigel Plews, one of the few test-match umpires never to have played first class cricket, died on Sunday from kidney cancer at the age of 74, Nottingham County Cricket club have announced.Plews, a 6ft 6ins (1.98m) former policeman, stood in 11 tests and 16 ODIs between 1988 and 1996.Football * Bolivian Jaime Moreno, the all-time top scorer in US Major League Soccer with 122 goals, will play his last game for his country in a friendly with El Salvador today.”The time has come for me to say goodbye to the Bolivia national team after 17 years,” the former Middlesbrough striker was quoted as saying on the website of his team, DC United.”It’s time to step aside and let the new group of young Bolivian players take over.”Cycling * Alberto Contador is confident new Astana team mate Lance Armstrong will race in next year’s Tour de France despite the American expressing doubts due to his unhappiness with organisers.”I cannot imagine that he doesn’t want to be at the Tour,” the Spaniard told Gazzetta dello Sport, adding that he was worried when Armstrong came out of retirement to join his team.”It is true, I was dubious.The announcement was made while I was fighting to win the Tour of Spain and it risked distracting me.I still haven’t spoken with Armstrong but …there won’t be any problems.”* Football A trio of football players from the island of Borneo have been invited to hone their skills at English League One club Hartlepool United.The trip is the first step towards collaboration between the Sarawak team and Hartlepool in development programmes, Malaysia’s The Star newspaper reported.Nampa-Reuters and AFP