Organisers of Rally Australia have agreed a deal with the Federation Internationale del’Automobile (FIA) to hold a round of the FIA World Rally in 2013.

The date has not been set for the event, medicine which will be one of 13 in the 2013 World Rally Championship (WRC) schedule.

Rally Australia chairman Ben Rainsford said the contract had been forwarded to senior management at the FIA for presentation.

Further discussions with the FIA would focus on an annual event and the specific dates.

“We’re delighted to have a place on the 2013 calendar, but there is still plenty of work ahead before we can formally confirm the date and logistics for the event,” said Rally Australia chairman, Ben Rainsford.{jcomments on}

Formula One recent expansion is set to continue after Bernie Ecclestone, the president and CEO of Formula One Management revealed the sport will return to South Africa by 2013.

The last South African Grand Prix was held in 1993, when Alain Prost secured victory at Kyalami. It would mark another step in the sport’s global expansion, with venues such as China, Abu Dhabi, India and Singapore either returning to the calendar or appearing for the first time in recent years.

A Grand Prix in Sochi is also expected from 2014, the year that the Russian city hosts the Olympic Winter Games, while Bahrain is also expected to return to the schedule following the cancellation of the race this year.

The USA, though, is proving slightly more challenging for Ecclestone and his team, despite races planned for both Texas and New Jersey.

“Formula One will not be big in America. But Formula One will be in Russia for 2014, and in South Africa by 2013 even,” Ecclestone told Al Jazeera English.

“We’ve got a maximum of two races in America and when you consider the country is as big as Europe and we’ve got several races in Europe, it’s difficult. If we had a lot more races there and a lot more television it would be okay,”

“The USA has been slow to get F1 because they want to see a profit before they start,” he added.

Lancashire County Cricket Club have reported a loss of £2.114 million ($3.37m) for the financial year ending 31 December 2010.

The County Champions’ financial performance was influenced by the development of Old Trafford, the failure to be allocated a major Test match, as well as the impact of the global recession and the numerous challenges presented by the ongoing battle to secure the club’s legally granted planning permission for the remaining redevelopment of Old Trafford.

Despite the financial loss, phase one of the redevelopment of Old Trafford was successfully completed and included a new grandstand incorporating The Point, a state of the art conference and events facility, along with the successful turning of the cricket square.

Since the year end and following the final approval of the planning for phase two after the costly legal delays, the club has started further building work and has been allocated numerous international games through to 2016, which includes an Ashes Test in 2013.

Lee Morgan, the club’s finance and operations director, said: “The necessary redevelopment of Old Trafford was critical in securing the future of Old Trafford. The transitional period in building the new stadium was always going to create huge challenges, although the investment will result in the club being well placed for the long-term in ensuring international cricket remains at Old Trafford in a competitive and tough market.

“The majority of the club’s current debt has been raised to fund the building of The Point, which has already, and will continually prove to be, an important revenue generator for the business.

“It is important to note that the club will not take on any further debt to fund the rest of the redevelopment of Old Trafford which is scheduled for completion in early 2013.

“Although challenging times do remain for all county cricket clubs, with the certainty provided by our international match staging agreement and also the redevelopment of the stadium into one of the best in world cricket, we have every reason to be optimistic for a successful future of Lancashire County Cricket Club.”

NBA players and owners still have found no resolution on their last ditch attempts to secure a deal to start the season on time after a meeting on Sunday.

Negotiators for the sides agreed to meet Sunday and then talked for more than five hours before breaking for the night. They agreed to resume discussions Monday afternoon, but union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers believes that the sides are “not necessarily closer” to a deal than they were when talks stalled last week.

Not many details of the meeting were revealed as the emerged Sunday night, though union officials confirmed that they have postponed a planned Monday meeting with membership in Los Angeles so they can remain in New York to talk with league officials again.

NBA commissioner David Stern said last week that the first two weeks of the regular season will be canceled Monday if the parties don’t have the framework of a new labor agreement in place. The entire exhibition schedule has already been canceled and training camps have been postponed indefinitely, but the Nov. 1 scheduled start to the regular season has not yet been ruled out.

That is expected to happen later Monday if talks scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. (about 7pm GMT) don’t generate telling progress. Stern, though, offered little to reporters after Sunday’s hastily arranged meeting, saying only: “No comment other than we are going to reconvene tomorrow morning.”

Fisher said: “Another intense meeting, similar process. We’re going to come back at it tomorrow afternoon. We’re going to continue to try to put the time in to if we can get closer to getting a deal done.”

Talks dissolved last week when the players rejected the league’s offer to try to make a deal work by splitting annual revenues — known as Basketball Related Income (BRI) — at an even 50-50. In 2010-11, which was the final year of the NBA’s previous six-year labor agreement, players earned 57 percent of BRI.

Yet sources close to the talks indicated late Sunday that the BRI split was not a prime topic during Sunday night’s session, when the parties focused on system issues (such as the specific salary-cap and luxury-tax mechanisms) instead.

An attempt Friday to get the two sides together broke down when, according to union sources, NBA officials demanded consent to a 50-50 revenue split with players before the meeting. The league denies that such a demand was made.

Upon walking away from the negotiating table last Tuesday, union officials have insisted that they would not drop below a 53-percent share of BRI. Sources told ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard on Sunday that NBA owners have no intention of going above the 50-50 split they broached with the players last week.

Players have proposed lowering their previous 57-percent share of BRI to 53 percent in a new deal, but that remaining 3 percent represents an unbridged gap of about $120 million.

Before the late cancellation of Monday’s meeting in Los Angeles, Fisher sent a letter to players Sunday night reiterating that every union member in the league was invited to attend. In the letter, obtained by ESPN.com, Fisher urged “each of you to attend if at all possible.”

Fisher also informed union members in the letter that he and New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul plan to take a leaf out of the NFL union’s lockout primer Monday by sending out a “LET US PLAY” message via their respective Twitter feeds.

“Chris Paul and I will also be utilizing our personal social networking channels to show the fans and you all that we are united and want to get back to work under a fair deal,” Fisher added.

“We invite you each to do the same. To show our unity and to remind the fans that this (is) not our choice and we would like to go back to work and play the game they love to support.”

Among those participating in Sunday’s session include Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt and Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor on the league side and Fisher, Players Association chief Billy Hunter, lawyers Jeffrey Kessler and Ron Klempner and union vice president Maurice Evans on the players’ side.

According to sources cited by ESPN.com, unless a last-minute agreement that no one around American Football expects, the National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA) plans to decertify by Thursday in an effort to pre-empt an owners-generated lockout.

The National Football League’s (NFL) current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) states that the union “in effect must wait six months to decertify if it does it after” the CBA expires, which will occur at 11:59pm ET Thursday, March 3.

If the union decertified, it will no longer be a union, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) loses its hold over the NFLPA.

If the decision to decertify is carried through, the league’s owners are expected to claim that it is a sham and challenge it in the NLRB.

Organisers of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games have said they expect the opening ceremony to be a 60,000 sell-out, despite tickets costing up to US$1,000 each.

Chairman of the Games’ organising committee, Suresh Kalmadi, has said all tickets priced at 1,000 rupees (US$22) and 5,000 rupees (US$110) are sold-out, and he was predicting that all tickets costing 25,000 rupees (US$555) would be gone by the end of yesterday.

The opening ceremony will take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on 3 October and will showcase 5,000 years of Indian culture. It will include dance from across the country as well as a giant helium balloon which will float above the stadium.

Kalmadi also insisted the Games would be a success, despite widespread criticism its preparations. He said he believed the event would act as a springboard for an Indian Olympic Games bid on the not too distant future.

The 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships will be held in Cable, USA, starting next January and will attract 180 athletes from 20 countries, it has been announced today.

At a press conference during the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, representatives of the Local Organising Committee and IPC Nordic Skiing spoke of their desire for the competition to be the biggest and best world championships yet.

In addition, Xavier Gonzalez, the IPC’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Here in Sochi we have seen some amazing performances by skiers in their quest for Paralympic medals.

“Cable 2015 will be the first major gathering of the world’s best skiers since the Paralympic Winter Games and I am confident that organisers can stage the best World Championships yet by providing the perfect conditions for athletes to inspire and excite the world.”

Yuriy Gusev, Executive Director for CXC will serve as the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee: “It is a privilege for our organisation to host such an event and we are looking forward to welcoming the world, the athletes, coaches and officials to Wisconsin. We had the great honour of hosting two IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup events in 2012 and 2013, and we will do our absolute best to deliver the highest quality event in 2015 and to welcome the world’s best here.”

The venue for the world championships will be the Telemark Trail System in Cable, a town famed for being the starting point of the American Birkebeiner cross-country skiing marathon or ‘Birkie’, which ends on Main Street in Hayward.

“It is the highest honour for our state to host an event of this international profile,” said Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker. “Next year, we look forward to warmly welcoming the world’s best Nordic athletes to one of the best trail systems in the nation.”

The last world championships were held in 2013 in Solleftea, Sweden, where Russian athletes dominated the medals table with 56 golds, including five each across biathlon and cross-country events for Roman Petushkov and Mikhalina Lysova.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) have announced the World Championships, medstore | held in Barcelona (ESP), adiposity from July 19 – August 4, 2013 were the most watched ever in the FINA history, reaching a cumulative TV audience of almost 4.5 billion viewers worldwide.

According to an independent report made by the company Kantar Media, specialised in media and TV monitoring, the Championships reached a total of 4.487 billion TV viewers, distributed over six categories of programmes: Live, Sports Magazine, Highlights, News, Repeat and Delayed. This is a significant improvement from the previous edition of the FINA World Championships, in 2011 in Shanghai (CHN), where a total of nearly 3.7 billion TV viewers had followed the competition.

Moreover, for Barcelona 2013, there was a total of 5,156 hours of dedicated coverage (against 4,448 hours in 2011) and the competition was broadcast in 185 territories.

“These impressive figures definitively improve the value and prestige of our main event, the FINA World Championships. FINA and Aquatics are definitively top players in the very competitive sport business market. These results are due to our superb Stars and their outstanding performances, and to the great support received by our 203 National Member Federations around the world,” said the FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione.