Stealth SME, an integrated consultancy, sports, media, and entertainment company has announced today the appointment of Rob Ponger as President.

Mr. Ponger will oversee the Sports, Media House, Entertainment and Consultancy divisions of Stealth. Most recently, Mr. Ponger served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Financial Operations at IMG Worldwide.

Mr. Ponger formerly served as Business Unit CFO of IMG’s media division from 2001 until 2007. In 2008, he moved into a senior vice president of IMG corporate financial planning & analysis role as well as served as the Senior VP, finance director — IMG Fashion / Models.

“I am excited and honored to be joining the talented team at Stealth SME,” said Ponger. “Stealth has aggressively moved into the Sports, Media and Entertainment space and my goal is to work with the team to develop a plan for growth, both organically and via strategic acquisitions and partnerships while building a global infrastructure that has the bandwidth to handle rapid growth. My vision is to build a world class organization and create a team culture that can be dynamic and strategic in developing new platforms for revenue.”

“We are fortunate to have Rob join Stealth at the helm, as he has an exceptional strategic finance and operations expertise in the industry,” said Stealth SME partner and co-founder, Christopher Aden. “Rob understands the agency business model and will bring value to Stealth SME across all of the platforms.”

“Rob Ponger is an outstanding operating executive with proven leadership skills. Over his 20-year career at IMG, Rob touched all aspects of the sports and fashion business and, like the best leaders, led by example. Without Rob, we could not have achieved what we did at IMG,” said Michael Dolan, interim CEO of Bacardi and former CEO of IMG.

Mr. Ponger will be based in New York City at the Stealth SME headquarters.

Diversified automotive, ambulance heavy manufacturing and engineering firm, viagra sale UMW Group, has expanded its Malaysian golf sponsorship programme by partnering with the Glenmarie Classic tournament, which starts this week.

The Glenmarie Classic tournament is run by Professional Golf Malaysia, a not-for-profit organisation set up in 2010 to help develop golf in Malaysia.

The deal is worth US$82,000 and the company has said it would also contribute US$164,000 to golf next year, making its total sponsorship of the sport from 2011 to 2013, a total of US$326,000.

The company will review its sponsorship of the Professional Golf Malaysia organisation at the end of next year.{jcomments on}

Motorcycle racing organisers Dorna Sports and Infront Sports & Media have reached agreement to bring both their motorcycle racing interests under a single umbrella organisation.

Dorna is the organiser of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP), prostate whilst Infront organises the eni FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) through its subsidiary Infront Motor Sports.

As a consequence, capsule MotoGP and WorldSBK, prostate will be integrated within the Dorna Sports group but managed as separate events with a view to enhancing the two distinct championships. The objective is to allow both series to develop and enhance their championship personalities, retaining their leadership positions in the arena of world motorcycle road racing – WorldSBK, with its focus on production-based racing, and MotoGP with its focus on prototype racing. At the same time, both championships will benefit from joint marketing and commercial strategies.

Alongside this re-organisation, Infront has been appointed as marketing partner and global advisor to both championships.

Philippe Blatter, President & CEO of Infront Sports & Media, said: “Under the new structure, the two leading motorcycle road racing events are now set for sustainable further growth and development. A true win-win situation has been created. Both Dorna and Infront can now further strengthen and focus on their core competencies and, in addition, achieve leading positions in their specific area of expertise.”

Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports, added: “We’re very excited to have the two top motorcycle road racing series under one roof. We fully expect to develop and strengthen the distinct nature of both MotoGP and WorldSBK as separate properties and remain committed to working with teams and manufacturers, circuit owners, sponsors and broadcasters to give fans the best experience yet.”

Commenting on the re-organisation, Bridgepoint said: “This is a logical and exciting development which should ensure that both these fantastic Championships continue to flourish.”

Formula One team, HRT, are considering a name change in the future acccording to team principal Luis Perez Sala.

Originanlly named the Hispania Racing Team when it first came into Formula 1 as part of its mid-2011 reconstitution, it has continued with the HRT chassis name.

But this could be dropped in the long-term as part of the team’s ongoing changes.

“We are thinking about that,” Perez Sala told AUTOSPORT. “But no decision has been taken about changing the name.

“Now, we are HRT. In the future we will see. There is no plan at the moment but it is true that we are thinking about it.”

International Cricket  teams may soon play up to 15 Twenty20 games in the year preceding a World Twenty20 – which is set to expand to a 16-team event.

World champions England play just seven matches this year before they defend their title in Sri Lanka in September.

They have already won a three-match series against Pakistan, and next summer face a one-off clash with West Indies and three against South Africa shortly before they set off for Colombo.

But after a two-day meeting of the International Cricket Council’s chief executives’ committee in Dubai, a recommendation is to be made to the full board that an increase in fixtures is permitted in any year when an ICC World Twenty20 is scheduled.

The CEC discussed the future of Twenty20 international cricket among several topics, and also concluded that the number of teams participating in the tournament should rise from 12 to 16 starting from the 2014 edition in Bangladesh.

That would increase the opportunities for non-Test-playing countries such as Ireland and Scotland.

Twenty20 will also be at the forefront of the ICC’s intention to find out whether cricket has a place in multi-sport global events such as the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

An ICC press release read: “The CEC decided to further explore an invitation for cricket to take part in the Commonwealth Games to be held on the Gold Coast in Australia in April 2018.

“The CEC also supported the key initiative in the ICC strategy to independently evaluate the pros and cons of participating in the Olympic Games.”

In the much shorter term, the ICC may be prepared to ditch established protocol in an attempt to help Bangladesh’s proposed tour of Pakistan to go ahead next month.

No visiting ICC opposition has set foot in Pakistan since the fatal attacks led on officials and the touring Sri Lanka team being transported to the abandoned Lahore Test of March 2009.

Bangladesh are still considering becoming the first to do so, but it seems the chances of ICC clearing their own neutral umpires and match referees to attend are much more remote.

The ICC release added: “The CEC recognised that the ICC board had determined that a decision as to whether a particular tour should take place or not is one for the participating countries and the ICC’s role was limited to considering the safety and security of the match officials after a tour had been confirmed and a security plan produced.

“The CEC also noted that in the event of the participating countries deciding that the tour should proceed and the ICC determining that it was unsafe to appoint match officials to the tour, a special dispensation to depart from the standard playing conditions to allow non-neutral match officials to participate in the matches would be required from the ICC Board.

“While acknowledging that the granting of such dispensation must involve a wide range of important considerations, the CEC agreed to recommend to the ICC board that, from a cricket perspective only, the granting of the special dispensation would be justified.”

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: “Bearing in mind that safety and security is the sole responsibility of individual member boards for bilateral matches, the CEC regarded this as an exceptional circumstance in which the appointment to matches of non-neutral match officials could be justified but stated clearly that it should not to be regarded as a preferred option or precedent if the dispensation were to be granted.”

by Ismail Uddin

New York Knicks Point Guard Jeremy Lin rising popularity is making the Knicks must-see TV in Asia.

The NBA says its Asian TV partners have added Knicks games to their broadcast schedules following the emergence of Lin, the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

Sina in China will show Friday’s game against the Lakers, while stations in Taiwan will televise Knicks games this month against Toronto, Sacramento, New Orleans, New Jersey and Atlanta. ESPN Philippines also added the Feb. 17 Hornets game in New York.

Lin, an undrafted guard from Harvard, has led the Knicks to three straight wins, scoring more than 20 points in each game.

Ironically, his performances are missed by many in New York. A dispute between Time Warner Cable and MSG Network is keeping the Knicks off that system.

MSG said its ratings are up 36 percent over its season average in the two games since Lin moved into the starting lineup on Monday.

by Ismail Uddin