The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have announced that England women’s team have joined  the Professional Cricketers Association in a historic agreement.

The nation’s women’s team have risen to the forefront of women’s international cricket over the past decade, aided initially by lottery funding to allow the players to edge closer to being ‘full-time’ athletes, and latterly ECB training grants and England Women Coaching Ambassador contracts through The Cricket Foundation.

Greater off-pitch support for the players played a role in the team winning the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2009 and lifting the inaugural ICC Women’s World Twenty20 trophy later that year.

Clare Connor, Head of England Women’s Cricket for the ECB, said: “Joining the PCA takes the England Women’s game further towards a professional era. ECB do everything they can to support players to be the best they can on the pitch, and PCA membership will only help that process. Huge credit must go to PCA CEO Angus Porter, who has been tremendously supportive.”

Porter added: “The PCA looks after the interests of all professional cricketers. The England women are highly professional and very successful and it’s absolutely right that we should embrace them into our organisation.”

American National Football League (NFL) side, the St Louis Rams has a new official airline after Delta Air Lines signed a two-year deal to replace American Airline.

The deal between the previous partner, American Airlines has not been renewed after 20 routes between Lambert – St Louis International Airport were cut from their operations.

Delta will now be responsible for transporting the Rams players and staff to all away games in the NFL calendar. In return the airline will receive signage during the Rams home games as well as in the matchday programme and on the teams official website.

Bob Reif, the Rams’ executive vice president of sales and marketing stated, “We appreciate Delta’s commitment and growing presence in the St Louis market and look forward to a long partnership”.

Senior vice president and chief financial officer at Delta, Hank Halter added: “This partnership demonstrates Delta’s ongoing commitment to St Louis as we continue to invest in the market with new service and enhanced facilities for our customers.”

Ladies European Tour (LET) have appointed Mike Round as their Director of Development and Membership.

Round leaves the Golf Foundation after 14 successful years as the charity’s Chief Executive.

Ivan Khodabakhsh, herbal Chief Executive Officer of the Ladies European Tour, symptoms said: “We are delighted to welcome Mike to the team and believe that his experience in growing the game will be a valuable asset as the LET aspires to richer integration with amateur and grass roots organisations as well as stronger development of member education and services.

“The Ladies European Tour is one of the world’s leading professional golf tours and with golf’s inclusion in the Olympic programme, remedy it is important that we take a leadership role in the game’s development. The LET wants to enable more young people to become involved with the sport and support their career progression.”

Mike commented: “I have really enjoyed my time at the Golf Foundation and am grateful to the staff, Trustees and others for the help and support I’ve been given over the years.  I’m now looking forward to taking on this exciting new challenge with the Ladies European Tour.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have revealed today they will have an ad hoc tribunal at the Sochi Olympics to resolve disputes during the Games quickly.

“The CAS ad hoc division will provide all participants in the Games with free access to justice rendered within time limits that keep pace with the competitions, allergist ” CAS said in a statement on Monday.

The CAS office at the Olympics will open on January 28 and operate until the last day of Games on February 23.

The Olympic opening ceremony is February 7.

The Sochi tribunal will be headed by American Michael Lenard and Swiss Corinne Schmidhauser, and and nine arbitrators will be in Sochi to resolve cases within 24 hours.

The CAS has had an ad hoc division at all Olympics since 1996.

It also operates at the football World Cup, European football championships, Commonwealth Games, and will make its Asian Games debut this year in Incheon, South Korea.

At the World Curling Federation’s (WCF) Annual General Assembly on Monday, members approved a new constitutional structure for the WCF which will see the Executive Board reformed to include a president, three zonal vice-presidents and four directors from the WCF’s Americas, European and Pacific-Asia zones.

It was also announced that the World Women’s Curling Championship in 2015 has been awarded to the city of Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan.

Federation members also voted to accept three new provisional Member Associations: Israel, Georgia and Ukraine.

Bulgaria was re-instated as a member, with the WCF now recognising the Bulgarian Curling Federation. Armenia remains suspended.

The 3rd Annual World Curling Congress will take place at the Peppermill Resort, Reno, Nevada, USA from 4-8 September 2014. The 2014 WCF Annual General Assembly will be on the 7 September.

The support of the Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the Sports Minister Senator The Hon Kate Lundy for Moya Dodd’s candidacy to become the first Australian elected to the Executive Committee of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has been hailed by Football Federation Australia (FFA).

If successful, Dodd would also be the first woman elected to world football’s governing body.

The Prime Minister said: “I am delighted to provide an endorsement, on behalf of the Australian Government, for your nomination to the FIFA Executive Committee. Football unites people all over the world and Australia is no exception.

“To be elected to this role would be a great honour for you personally, but also for the many millions of football players and fans across Australia, Asia and the world, particularly among women.”

FFA CEO David Gallop added:“We welcome the recognition by the Australian Government of Moya’s strong candidacy for the FIFA Executive Committee. Moya is an experienced and respected board member of FFA and the AFC, and FFA supports the AFC’s nomination of her for the FIFA Executive Committee.”

Senator Lundy commented: “Moya has been a dedicated and passionate contributor to football, both internationally and in Australia. I believe that she would be an outstanding global advocate for the game.”

Dodd, a former Matildas vice-captain, said, “I am honoured to receive the endorsement of the Australian Government. I am looking forward to the opportunity, if elected on 31 May, to support football’s growth and popularity, particularly women’s football, in our region and around the world.”

The World Olympians Association (WOA), symptoms the member organisation established to help support Olympians around the world and promote Olympism in the community, cough has launched a tender process to recruit a digital agency partner.

The successful digital consultancy will be tasked to re-design and modernise the organisation’s online platforms, including creating a new website and integrating social media tools. The appointed agency will also have a broad range of responsibilities to develop and manage the WOA’s online content such as a new Online Olympic Reunion Center, the President’s Blog and the WOA Twitter and Facebook presence. Seven agencies have been invited to pitch for the business.

Developing the WOA’s global brand and profile, including its digital and online presence, is a major priority for the organisation and the intention is to set this out in greater detail at the forthcoming SportAccord International Convention in St. Petersburg, Russia in May. New WOA projects will also include the inaugural World Olympians Forum, scheduled to take place later in 2013.

Mike Miller, Chief Executive of the WOA, said: “The WOA will play a vital role at the heart of the Olympic Movement so it is crucial to have a digital content management partner with the right international experience to help us implement our new programmes and ensure the work of the WOA resonates with the most important people to us – the global network of Olympians, the Olympic family and fans of the Olympic movement.

“By recruiting a digital agency partner, the WOA will now be in a better position to capitalise on the latest online platforms and channels to promote our new initiatives to Olympians worldwide and help us engage with them effectively.”

English Premier League team, Wigan Athletic have announced redevelopment plans for their Christopher Park training ground to turn it into a high quality academy facility.

Chairman Dave Whelan, acting head of the academy Matt Jackson and chief executive Jonathan Jackson discussed plans with local residents on Tuesday night.

The Wigan first team currently train at Christopher Park but will move to a purpose-built site out of town with the existing facilities redeveloped to focus solely on the club’s young players.

“Our continuing development both at first-team level and as a community club relies on our ability to attract and retain good quality professional players, develop young talent through our academy and the football club being a focal point of the community,” the chief executive has said.

“These exciting new plans are the first part of a major new development aimed at creating a Category 1 Football Academy at Wigan Athletic.

“With this facility we intend to attract and develop young players into the next Leighton Baines,someone who came through the ranks at Wigan and now regularly represents England at full international level.

“Our dream is for the club to become synonymous with excellence on and off the pitch and this first stage of our development is a huge step in the right direction to make that dream come true.”

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) have reached a new four-year England Elite Player Squad agreement with the Rugby Players’ Association and Premiership Rugby.

The EPS agreement covers England senior, Saxons and Under 20 squads until June 30, 2016 and includes confirmation of squad and match fees and performance bonuses.

Together with the existing eight-year Heads of Agreement between the RFU and Premiership Rugby, it ensures a stable future for club and country beyond the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

RFU Chief Executive Ian Ritchie said: “This agreement is another major step forward for the RFU, players and the clubs, and I would like to thank the RPA and Premiership Rugby for their cooperation and for reinforcing the partnership we enjoy.

“One of the strengths of the English game is that we have enshrined in contract the release of players from their clubs which gives Stuart Lancaster and his coaches confidence in their availability.

“Now this new agreement has been reached, we have stability and everyone pulling in the right direction through to the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and beyond.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the clubs for allowing us to add an additional player to the senior EPS for the forthcoming RBS 6 Nations.” 

RPA Chief Executive Damian Hopley said: “In agreeing this new four-year deal on behalf of the EPS, all parties wanted to ensure that we built on the foundations and progress made by Stuart Lancaster and the squad in the last 12 months.

“The new contract duly recognises the efforts made by all 33 of the Senior EPS as well as the increasing overall value of the players to the RFU and their partners.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with the England squad and the RFU to deliver these rights, and I would like to thank the England Players Committee for their invaluable and professional input throughout these good natured negotiations.”

Agenda Online B.V. has joined forces with the European Golf Course Owners Association as a business partner to further expand the reach of their successful online golf lesson management system “iGolfinstructor”.

Agenda Online B.V. was started in the Netherland sin 2006 by entrepreneur Tom Mulder & has fast become the recognised system used by over 50% of Dutch golf professionals. The successful launch in the Dutch market led to significant interest throughout Europewith the system now being sold in 22 countries.

iGolfinstructor allows golf professionals the ability to manage all their lesson bookings on and off the course with the use of an application. The system is also interactive, case golf professionals can now upload their lesson summaries, order videos and comments directly to the account of each student which can then be accessed and review at any time.

“We are delighted to welcome Agenda Online B.V. to the EGCOA community” says Lodewijk Klootwijk, viagra EGCOA director.” Technology plays a key role now in the efficient running of modern day golf facilities. iGolfinstructor is a fantastic advance in the area of online lesson reservations and is a great asset for any golf professional or club.”

Tom Mulder founder and CEO of Agenda Online B.V. commented: “What started as a simple online lesson booking platform has now developed into a complete interactive tool for golf professionals and their students. Working with iGolfinstructor allows you to communicate 24/7 with your students. The system is a valuable resource for golf professionals and a great tool for developing golfers allowing online access to all lesson materials. He added “We are looking forward to working together with the EGCOA in the coming years, we aim to share our experience and to educate their extensive network of members in the benefits of the iGolfinstructor system.”