Basketball Australia (BA) chief Kristina Keneally is looking for the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) to follow on the footsteps of the men’s competition and complete a similar type of online broadcast deal.

The chief executive will make her first visit to Townsville today to attend tonight’s Townsville Fire season launch.

Keneally signalled Basketball Australia’s (BA) intent to raise the profile of the women’s competition.

The former New South Wales Premier – who took over the role at BA in August – said she was confident a deal securing an improved ABC viewing timeslot for the WNBL was only weeks away.

The goal was to seek more opportunities in digital media, similar to NBL, including a TV online broadcast deal for live and on-demand games on mobile and tablet devices.

“There are slightly more challenges in that … some of our WNBL teams are often more regionally based, but nonetheless we’ve made clear to our broadcast partners, Perform Media, that’s the next step we see in this relationship,” she said.

Keneally said the creation of the WNBL Commission – of which Townsville Fire chairwoman Jayne Arlett is a member – and the combined NBL/WNBL launch and pre-season tournament next week showed BA was committed to creating an equal focus on the two leagues and to promote them as strongly as possible.

“Right across the spectrum – whether you’re talking basketball or any other sport – it is always a challenge to secure the same profile for the men’s and women’s competitions,” Keneally said.

“I think we’re seeing that change in Australia with the success of the Opals at the Olympics and the recognition that some of the best female basketball players in the world play in the WNBL.”

Keneally said the work done by the Fire with attendance numbers, and other factors, set a great example for the rest of the competition to follow.

Ireland and Scotland have been given a financial helping hand by the ICC after being the first two Associate nations to receive a US$500,000 funding bonus.

The two countries will received the cash injection, which has come from the ICC’s targeted assistance and performance programme (TAPP), for the next three years and it is part of the ICC’s aim to develop greater competition below the Full Members.

Ireland have been the stand-out Associate in recent years with notable scalps at the last two World Cups by beating Pakistan in 2007 and England in 2011 and have recently stated an ambitious ten-year plan to become a Test nation.

Warren Deutrom, the Cricket Ireland chief executive, said: “We are delighted and grateful to ICC for this award which will help Cricket Ireland achieve their stated objectives. We shall be exploring in greater detail the award and terms of the grant with ICC management in order to ascertain how to prioritise the funding towards the proposals that we outlined in our applications.”

Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith said: “We are obviously delighted by today’s ICC board decisions. The additional support will enable us to enhance our national team programme over the next three years and support our young developing side in continuing their recent progress.

“Since 2009 we have been in the top three associate sides in 50-over and multi-day cricket and this fact along with our ambitious application has enabled us to be one of the first two members to be awarded TAPP funding. The hard work will start now in putting these additional plans into action.”

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) said Wednesday it will conduct its own review of the New Orleans Saints’ bounty program, saying admissions by team personnel show they “engaged in improper and coercive activities.”

The NFL said last week that between 22 and 27 Saints defensive players, as well as at least one assistant coach, maintained an illegal bounty program from 2009-2011 that included payments to players for inflicting game-ending injuries on competitors.

Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, now in the same position with the St. Louis Rams, has apologized for his involvement in the bounty program while reports have surfaced of similar activities during his stints as defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins and head coach of the Buffalo Bills.

On Tuesday, Saints head coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis released a joint statement taking “full responsibility” for the violations in the NFL’s report from last week.

In its release Wednesday, the NFLPA said it “negotiated vigorously to protect our players from coercive actions that compromise health and safety.”

“The current CBA contains detailed rules on what clubs and coaches can and cannot do in terms of practice schedules and places limitations on the amount of contact,” the NFLPA said. “These rules include how clubs and coaches can be punished for violations of those safeguards. The statements made by New Orleans Saints management and coaches confirm that they engaged in improper and coercive activities.

“We will vigorously protect the rights of all players. Until the facts are known, judgment based on reports in the media is speculative. That is why the NFLPA is undertaking a comprehensive review of the circumstances surrounding these reported violations of League rules. As part of this review, the NFLPA has requested that the NFL help facilitate interviews with members of New Orleans Saints management and coaching staff that were employed by the club in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

“We recognize that this investigation was conducted over the course of many months. Accordingly, we have requested that the NFL provide us with sufficient time to complete our internal review as counsel to the players.

“If the facts prove that players voluntarily and willingly participated in conduct that jeopardized health and safety, we will work with them and the league to put in place additional safeguards to prevent this in the future. Dangerous play and acts on the field by players intended to injure have no place in football. We must do better to ensure that this activity is not a part of our game.”

by Ismail Uddin

According to European soccer’s governing body UEFA, the 2012 European Championships co-hosted in Poland and Ukraine has received more than 12 million ticket applications, a new record figure.

The initial application deadline for fans worldwide has passed, with a total of 12,149,425 ticket requests made, surpassing the previous record for the tournament, when 10.4 million people applied for tickets to the Euro 2008 championships in Austria and Switzerland.

More than 550,000 tickets are available to the general public for next years competition, and UEFA will stage a lottery from April 19-22 to determine the ticket recipients. 

This year fans were limited to applying for a maximum of four tickets each at UEFA’s official website with the body confirming that almost 88 per cent of ticket applicants were from Poland and Ukraine, and overall ticket sales are expected to generate Eur100m (US$142m).

With just over three months to go until the Delhi Commonwealth Games, cough the R K Khanna tennis complex became the first stadium to be officially handed over to the Organising Committee as completed.

Union minster for urban development Jaipal Reddy said that, despite delays and cost overruns to many of the venues for the Games, Delhi would be ready in the end. He said: “In India, we have the habit of doing everything nicely, but at the last moment. We end up doing well. Commonwealth Games has generated a lot of interest throughout the country.

“It [the Games] will attract a lot of foreign and domestic tourists. We will have the best accommodation for all classes, and the people of Delhi will be great hosts.”

The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games will take place from 3 to 14 October.

Marisol Casado, President of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) and IOC Member, this weekend set out her vision for the organisation, highlighting the desire for Triathlon Mixed Relay to be added to the Olympic Sports Programme

The ITU President, speaking at a press conference following a World Triathlon Series event in Yokohama, Japan, said: “Looking ahead, the ITU remains committed and passionate about seeing Triathlon Mixed Relay added to the Olympic Sports Programme and we are keen to promote it in the context of Agenda 2020 and President Bach’s desire for positive change.

“With unpredictable drama and the display of team pride, the format appeals tremendously to youth. If added to the Olympic Programme, the Mixed Relay discipline has the ability to showcase triathlon to a new generation, while also bringing a new youthful audience to the Olympic Games.”

Casado also praised the Japanese Triathlon Union and the local organising committee for hosting a highly successful, multi-discipline event that saw elite athletes compete in both Triathlon and Paratriathlon.

Speaking in Yokohama, Japan, Marisol Casado, said:

“Yokohama has played an important role in the history and the positive development of the World Triathlon Series. Since the first race here in 2009, the local organising committee and the Japanese Triathlon Union have put on a phenomenal race and the Japanese people are amongst the most enthusiastic and welcoming in the world. This all bodes well for our sport coming to Japan for Tokyo 2020.