Indian sports broadcaster Star Sports has secured the rights to telecast the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL).

“The acquisition of IPTL rights is in line with the Star Sports’s objective of fulfilling India’s growing appetite for non-cricketing sports such as tennis, cough hockey, pharmacy badminton and kabaddi,” the company said in a statement.

The league, created by Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi, will begin on November 28 in Singapore and conclude on December 13 in UAE.

“The IPTL is an unprecedented opportunity for sports fans across India to experience the game played by its legends. This is the first time India will play host to some of the biggest names in tennis, and we at Star Sports are extremely proud to be associated with this league,” Star India President–Sports Nitin Kukreja said. Matches will be telecast live on STAR Sports, STAR Sports HD and starsports.com.

“We’re very excited that Star Sports has acquired the rights to broadcast over the long term. Given their network strength and their commitment to growing sport in the country, our decision to partner with them was an easy one. We’re confident that the IPTL’s quicker and more exciting format, bundled with Star Sports’ strength in packaging and promotion will lend greatly to delivering a great viewing experience to sports fans,” said Bhupathi, the founder and Managing Director of IPTL. 

Cardiff City are looking for more footballing expertise on their board according to chairman Mehmet Dalman.

Dalman told the Cardiff Evening Post he wants: “Somebody who has done it all, seen it all would be great value to the club.”

But, he says an appointment is not ‘imminent, adding: “It could take five years or five hours and will be done when we meet the right person.

“It would be nice, and I mean no disrespect to my boardroom colleagues, to have some grey-haired chap experienced in football matters we could bounce ideas off. It is a great idea.

“When I grew up in the world of finance I was always lucky that I had a great mentor, somebody I could go to and ask ‘What do you think?’

“We are missing that on our board in football terms. It would be nice to add that somebody who has done it all, seen it all.

“That would be great value to the club.

“It’s about somebody having experienced enough to see the bigger picture.

“That could be somebody who knows football in Asia, somebody who knows football in Latin America or anywhere.

“It’s important to add value. We need to be a sustainable Premier League football club and this would help us.”

Dalman also down played talk of instability at the club under owner Vincent Tan.

“Cardiff City right now is stable,” said Dalman.

“We are debt free. Vincent Tan wrote off interest (on loans) and is in the process of converting loans into equity. The club is in no debt.

“We have an extremely-talented team and a board who are stable, motivated and ambitious.”

Majority shareholder Kelvin Bryon has rejoined the board for RFU Championship team London Welsh as Deputy Chairman.

Kelvin’s association with the club goes back 20 years and he has previously held the position of Chairman. His former company, ampoule Basildon Chemicals, ask was the club’s principal sponsor for many years and he remains a key financial backer.

“Kelvin has been the mainstay of the club for many years and we’re delighted that he has decided not only to rejoin the board but to take an active role as Deputy Chairman, recipe ” said current London Welsh Chairman Bleddyn Phillips.

“This move underlines Kelvin’s continued commitment to the club and our strong belief that we have an excellent squad with a great team spirit and with high expectations for the season ahead.”

London Welsh have also announced David Jenkins has come on board as Commercial Director. Jenkins joined the club in December 2012 as Team Manager.

David was previously involved with Bath Rugby from 1970-1999. His playing career was cut short at the age of 22 due to serious injury.

He fulfilled various roles at the club during the amateur era and became commercial director in 1996, with the advent of professional rugby.

In 1999 he moved to Cardiff as CEO until 2003, and held a similar position at the Dragons (2003-2005) and the Cornish Pirates (2005-2006).

In 2007 David returned to the healthcare industry in a sales and marketing role, and continued in that capacity until joining Welsh.

“David has a wealth of experience to draw upon in assuming the role of Commercial Director at London Welsh having fulfilled that role at Bath at the advent of the professional era when that club enjoyed regular success at the very highest level,” added Bleddyn Phillips.

“His time as Chief Executive at clubs such as Cardiff, Newport Gwent Dragons and more latterly the Cornish Pirates underscores his knowledge of the rugby scene and we are very fortunate to have him on board.”

Japanese automaker Honda has unveiled a new racing engine that it will use in its Word Touring Car Champion (WTCC) cars that are based on the Civic model during the 2013 season.

The ‘HR412E’  engine was developed at the Honda Research and Development Center in Tochigi.

It is a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine with a turbo charger and gasoline direct injection. Honda will test its car and engine in three races during the 2012 WTCC season, Suzuka, Shanghai and Macao, before fully joining the racing series for the 2013 season.{jcomments on}

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has begun investigations into allegations that some national Olympic committee officials and authorized ticket resellers violated its rules on ticket sales for the 2012 London Games.

“After claims that several NOCs and ATRs were reportedly willing to break the rules by offering to buy or sell tickets outside their territory, allergy sell tickets at inflated prices, arthritis or sell tickets to unauthorized resellers, pills the IOC has ordered an immediate inquiry and referred the allegations to its independent Ethics Commission,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

The move stemmed from a report by British newspaper The Sunday Times, claiming that agents and officials representing 54 countries ignored guidelines surrounding the sale of tickets to Olympic events, some offering to sell tickets up to 10 times their value and on black markets.

“The IOC takes these allegations very seriously and has immediately taken the first steps to investigate. Should any irregularities be proven, the organization will deal with those involved in an appropriate manner. The NOCs are autonomous organizations, but if any of the cases are confirmed the IOC will not hesitate to impose the strongest sanctions,” Adams further said.

Adams added that the IOC investigation will be used to improve the way that tickets are allocated and sold internationally in the future.

Leading into the 2012 Games, IOC officials distributed tickets to NOCs based on demand in their respective countries and have specific sets of rules regarding how the national committees are to then distribute them within their own countries.

The Times alleged that officials and agents violated IOC guidelines by selling tickets outside of their assigned territories, sold tickets at inflated prices or sold tickets to unauthorized retailers on black markets.

It also alleged that ATRs were the tickets to the men’s 100-meters final and other especially popular events.

The paper also reported that Greek Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos had “pulled strings” with London organizing chairman Sebastian Coe to obtain an extra batch of premium tickets for official agents in Greece.

The allegations supported a BBC News report last month that Volodymyr Gerashchenko of Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, had told an undercover reporter that he was prepared to sell tickets. He resigned after the report.

The television report alleged that Greg Haney, a former United States Olympic Committee official who now works at a travel company, told reporters how to hide an illegal ticket deal.

Trilochan Singh, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Vice President has defended the body’s shamed chief Suresh Kalmadi, after he was relielved of his duties as chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee last month.

Singh insisted that the under-fire administrator will remain in his post despite allegations of corruption for another year at least and criticised the Clean Sports India (CSI) Foundation for demanding Kalmadi’s resignation due to corruption allegations.

The IOA’s vice-president stated: “He (Kalmadi) is our President till 2012. And the IOA fully backs him. What is CSIs contribution to the sports? Why don’t they do some good work elsewhere?”

CSI is a newly-floated forum by former internationals like hockey Olympian Pargat Singh and former athletics stars Ashwini Nachappa and Vandana Rao. Kalmadi had yesterday said that the IOA had plans of including former sports persons in sports organisations.

The Annual General Body meeting of the IOA was held today, February 14, in Ranchi where the 34th National Games opened the same evening.

FIFA is looking to take the international to more global stages by unveiling India as host for the Under-17 World Cup in 2017.

India has never yet hosted an international football tournament and will stage the U17 event in six venues from a shortlist of eight – Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Cochin, Kolkata, Delhi and Guwahati.

South Africa, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan had originally applied to stage the U17 event.

India and Qatar are not the only current ventures into new territories for FIFA as Blatter on Thursday announced that the women’s under-16 World Cup will be played in Jordan in 2016.

“It’s another landmark for FIFA to organise a women’s tournament in an Arab country,” said Blatter, who also revealed he had good news to report on the divided island of Cyprus.

Blatter said FIFA was pleased to report “the signature of a provisional arrangement between the Cyprus Football Association and the Cyprus Turkish Football Association” made at FIFA’s Swiss headquarters last month.

“The arrangement aims to unify and facilitate the progress of football within the football communities on the island of Cyprus,” divided for three decades into the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-controlled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

“The Cyprus Football Association and the Cyprus Turkish Football Association have now ratified the memorandum of understanding and in the near future we will see that football will be played between these two entities,” said the FIFA chief.

National Hockey League team Carolina Hurricanes have fired the son of team owner Peter Karmanos Jr. according to the Canadian Press

The team said Sunday that it had relieved Jason Karmanos of his duties as executive vice-president and assistant general manager, but no reason was given in a two-paragraph news release announcing the move.

The younger Karmanos had been the team’s assistant GM for 15 years.

Ron Francis, the team’s vice-president of hockey operations, and Darren Yorke, its video scout and hockey operations assistant, will take over Karmanos’ duties.

Protests groups London Mining Network, abortion UK Tar Sands Network and Bhopal Medical Appeal held a demonstration outside the head office of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) in Canary Wharf.

The groups, drugs behind the Greenwash Gold 2012 campaign, viagra said they held the protest because LOCOG has refused to meet them over their concerns about sponsors of the Games.

The group said LOCOG refused to meet with them again this morning, but a spokesman for London 2012 said: “We were not aware that anyone requested a meeting with us today concerning this.”

The protesters, who say they have concerns over the human rights and environmental records of Olympic sponsors Dow, BP and Rio Tinto, held giant dummy megaphones and carried a banner for their organisation.

Emily Coats from the UK Tar Sands Network said: “We’ve been trying since February to arrange a meeting with LOCOG to discuss the inappropriateness of fossil-fuel giant BP being Sustainability Partner.

“LOCOG’s refusal to meet us confirms that they are more concerned about greenwashing their corporate clients than about real green issues.”

Colin Toogood from Bhopal Medical Appeal added: “LOCOG and Lord Coe have been ignoring the Bhopal Medical Appeal’s request for a meeting since last August when the The Dow Chemical Company’s sponsorship of the stadium wrap was announced.”