The Indian Premier League (IPL) are set to look into adding a tenth franchise to the Cricket tournament, chairman Rajiv Shukla announced.

“The issue of tenth team in the IPL would be discussed after the end of the current edition,” Shukla was quoted as saying by PTI.

The IPL originally had eight franchises, before Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala were added in the fourth edition, in 2011. However, Kochi Tuskers were dissolved after just one season, and the IPL has consisted of nine franchises since.

Deccan Chargers, the tournament’s original Hyderabad franchise was also dissolved ahead of the 2013 season, but was immediately replaced by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The current edition consists of: Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors India.

The World Yacht Racing Forum (WYRF) will return to Gothenburg, sales Sweden on the 10-11 December 2013. 

Supported by host partners, Brandspot, the World Yacht Racing Forum will address the major challenges in the yacht racing world and will gather the key players from yacht racing event organisers, teams, sponsors, agencies and sailors to help shape the future of the yacht racing industry. Once again the event will be co-located with the Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium which will take place concurrently with the WYRF on December 10th.

Knut Frostad, CEO Volvo Ocean Race said: “The Volvo Ocean Race is delighted to partner with the WYRF 2013. The event is a must for anyone that genuinely cares about the yacht racing industry. We look forward to seeing you in Gothenburg this December.”

Orhan Gorbon CEO The Bosphorus Cup  commented; ” We are really pleased to be returning as Official Race Partners again in 2013. We really enjoyed and benefitted from our participation in 2012 and look forward to meeting  again with so many passionate and influential people across the industry.”

Marc Blees, MD GAASTRA Pro Gear,” GAASTRA is happy to once again confirm our successful partnership with the WYRF. We have been Official Partners of the event for 5 years now and it provides us with an excellent platform and opportunity to meet the key players within yacht racing.

The WYRF is the leading yacht racing industry conference, and is the only occasion in the year where the leaders of the industry gather, away from the wáter, to discuss their mutual challenges and opportunities. 2012’s event saw over 250 attendees including key note speakers such as Ben Ainslie and Juan Kouyoumdjian and participating companies including; Volvo, SCA, Stena, Volvo Ocean Race, OC Sport, Vendee Globe, Alpari World Match Racing Tour, America’s Cup Event Authority, Mirabaud, Virtual Regatta, GAASTRA, Capitalize, Farr Design, Oracle Racing, Atlant Ocean Racing, Multiplast and more.

“We are delighted to be returning to Gothenburg and to have Brandspot, Volvo Ocean Race and The Bosphorus Cup  supporting the WYRF this year. Gothenburg is hosting some fantastic sailing events over the next few months and years and it is wonderful to be holding the Forum in a city with such passion for yacht racing.” Commented James Gradwell,Event Director for the World Yacht Racing Forum. “With such a busy year for the industry, including the America’s Cup taking place in September, it  will be a fantastic 2 days of learning and networking and we look forward to working closely with our partners.”

The conference will include high level, engaging and motivating speakers presenting within the programme, as well as interactive sessions and new networking formats to ensure participants get the best value across the two days. Speakers include: Peter Bayer, current CEO of Open Sports Management and former CEO Innsbruck Youth Olympic Games; Knut Frostad, CEO Volvo Ocean Race; Mark Turner, Executive Chairman OC Sport; Guillaume Verdier, Designer; Guillaume Henry, Director General Vendee Globe and many more.  This year the YRDTS will run over 1 day giving delegates the opportunity to join the WYRF on day 2 and discuss the challenges that face the sport as a whole from design to race.

Rebecca Adlington will help launch the Glasgow 2014 mascot on Thursday — her first duty as an official ambassador for the next Commonwealth Games.

Adlington will reveal the highly-anticipated mascot, whose identity is being kept a secret, when it makes its first public appearance at BBC Scotland’s studios in Pacific Quay, Glasgow.

Glasgow 2014 launched a UK-wide design competition with CBBC’s Blue Peter and BBC Radio Scotland’s MacAulay and Co for a child aged between five and 16 to create the mascot.

At the launch event, the young winner of the competition will be joined Adlington and 150 Glasgow schoolchildren to meet the mascot.{jcomments on}

A decision allowing mobile communications company Optus to broadcast almost-live broadcasts of National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Fooball League (AFL) matches on its mobile platform has been overturned.

Today the Federal Court ruled the Telco’s showing of free-to-air coverage on its TV Now service breached copyright, viagra overturning a previous judgement in February.

The Australian Football League, the most popular spectator sport in the country, and the NRL sought to protect broadcasting rights valued at more than $2 billion. The main point of dispute was who creates the electronic files that are sent to the customer for viewing. The AFL, NRL and Telstra Corp., Australia’s biggest phone company, said Optus’s service infringed their copyrights because it makes the recordings, stores them on its servers, and passes them on to customers.

In a statement it said: “This judgement is a great result for everyone who cares about the financial health of Australian sport. It ensures that sports bodies, and Australian content owners more generally, are able to receive a fair return from their property.

“Protecting intellectual property allows rights holders to invest in improving the quality of their content.

“The investments Telstra has made under its agreement with the AFL have produced a great product for AFL fans.

“The Telstra AFL live app has everything an AFL fan could want including live games, live score updates, radio broadcasts of the games, team lists and player profiles, match previews and post game reviews all unmetered for Telstra Customers.”

British bike brand, viagra sale Raleigh, maker of the Chopper and Vektar brands, has been bought by fellow bike maker Accell for £62m.

The acquisition is currently in the hands of the competition authorities, as the deal will see Accell owning not just the Raleigh brand but also the Diamondback range. But, unless this proves a spoke in the wheel, the deal should go through by the end of May.

Raleigh has been making bikes for 125 years. Founded in Nottingham, it was the biggest bicycle maker in the world in its post-war heyday, employing 8,000 people and producing a million cycles a year. These days, however, it’s more of a design house than a manufacturer. The last bike to be made by Raleigh in Britain was sold more than a decade ago and the firm now manufactures its 850,000 or so cycles a year in Vietnam, Korea and Bangladesh. 

Its survival through tough times has been credited to current chairman and former chief exec Alan Finden-Crofts, who led a $20m management buy-out of Raleigh back in 2001 after the parent company Derby Cycle went bankrupt. Still one of Raleigh’s largest shareholders, Finden-Croft is set to make a multi-million pound windfall from the sale.   

Accell is hoping that the Raleigh acquisition will bring some instant heritage to its portfolio, as well as helping it to break new ground in the UK and US.

The Detroit Lions improvements on the field in 2011, medicine have led to the team raising their ticket prices in 2012.

The ticket increase, which will see ticket prices increase 7.9% on average for the 2012 season, is the team’s first ticket price increase since after the 2007 season. While suite-seats will be unaffected by the price increase, the Lions season tickets will range somewhere in between $35 and $99 for the 2012 season, with an average ticket price of $72.04.

The Lions had the 28th lowest average ticket price last season.

“It’s a decision we don’t take lightly,” president Tom Lewand said. “But after a lot of consideration and hopefully intelligent thought, for us the focus was on the value proposition and the desire we have to provide a top tier product in the NFL for a mid-level or below investment.”

“It’s been since after the 2007 season that we’ve raised prices and we weren’t going to do that until we had a product we felt merited this kind of increased investment,” Lewand said. “But it becomes a cycle. In order to stay competitive, we have to be able to invest back into the product. And that’s exactly where these dollars go, right back into re-signing our players and keeping the team together.

“Thankfully we have an ownership (the Ford family) that allows us to charge below average prices that provide, hopefully, a well above average product. They give us the resources we need to spend up to and over the (salary) cap every year.”

While Lions fans will pay more to see their team in 2012, they will still remain one of the better deals in the NFL, 22 other teams charged more in 2011 than the Lions average ticket price for the 2012 season.

American Football side Dallas Cowboys have teamed up with Marvel Comics to produce a new clothing range.

The Cowboys play in the National Football League (NFL). Under terms of the agreement, no rx Marvel Comics characters such as Captain America, anesthetist Spider-Man, look Iron Man, Thor, and many other super heroes will feature in a range of officially licensed apparel. The unisex range will feature clothes for all ages.

Paul Gitter, president of consumer products for North America, Marvel Entertainment, said: “We continue to expand our consumer products into new distribution channels through this exciting partnership with the NFL’s most popular franchise. The co-branded programme with the Dallas Cowboys, ‘America’s team’, helps further establish Marvel’s presence within the sports industry.”

Mike Jerchower, Marvel’s director of licensing added, “Captain America and the Marvel super heroes are excited to join the Cowboys on their quest for the Super Bowl.”

Jerry Jones Jr, chief sales and marketing officer for the Dallas Cowboys said: “We are excited to team up with Marvel Entertainment to create such a unique line of apparel for our fans. We are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to energise our fans, and what better way than to combine our brand with some of the all-time great super heroes that everyone has grown up with.”

The Cowboys are the only major sporting franchise in America to entirely produce their own merchandise. They consistently have the highest sales in the NFL.

Former president of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Texas Rangers, J. Thomas Schieffer has been hired by the league’s Commissioner Bud Selig to run the Los Angeles Dodgers after the MLB stepped in to take control of the club in turmoil last week.

MLB took over operation of the franchise from owner Frank McCourt who is part of an ongoing divorce settlement with his wife whom he sacked in her role as chief executive of the side.

Schieffer has taken over immediately according to the Associated Press. In seizing control of the franchise, MLB told the Dodgers that any expenditure of USD$5,000 or more would have to be approved.

Selig stated: “Tom (Scheiffer) is a distinguished public servant who has represented the nation with excellence and has demonstrated extraordinary leadership throughout his career. The many years that he spent managing the operations of a successful franchise will benefit the Dodgers and Major League Baseball as a whole.”

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said the appointment wouldn’t affect his team’s approach, adding: “It has nothing to do with us. It doesn’t change anything about what we do or how we get ready, making pitches, making plays, being in the right spot, playing baseball. This is kind of year two of it. The fact MLB came in doesn’t really change anything for us.”