Donington Park has confirmed they will be on the World Superbike Championship calendar for 2014 becoming the sole British host following Silverstone’s withdrawal.

One of the most popular events on the calendar, Donington Park will retain a similar place on the timetable with the event taking place on May 23-25, 2014.

The Leicestershire venue has been a mainstay of the calendar since it hosted the first-ever WSBK event back in 1988, but temporarily lost its slot to Silverstone in 2010 when Donington Park ran into financial difficulties as a result of its failed attempt to snare the rights to the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.

Managing director Christopher Tate said: “Dorna (the championship organisers) are aiming to make something special out of the series.

“I think they will feel some real synergy with the group of people we have here at Donington.

“It is our biggest international event and an important race meeting at a true motorcycle circuit.”

Reinstated from 2011, Donington Park has hosted the ‘European’ round of the series since then, with Silverstone billed as the British event. 

However, with its WSBK contract ending in 2013, Silverstone has since confirmed that it has not extended its agreement into 2014, leaving Donington Park as the sole British event on the calendar.

Silverstone will continue to host Britain’s round of the MotoGP championship.

Managing director Richard Phillips said: “We believe it is only commercially viable to stage one round of the championship in the UK at the moment. As a result, we will be focusing our efforts and attention on hosting MotoGP and the British Superbike Championship next year.”

Umpire Nadir Shah has been banned by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for 10 years for corruption.

Shah, who umpired in 40 one-day internationals between 2006 and 2011, was handed the punishment following an investigation by a special inquiry committee.

Shah and other officials from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan were shown allegedly negotiating deals with under-cover reporters to affect the outcome of matches, in footage shown on Hindi-language news channel India TV in October.

A BCB statement said: “Umpire Nadir Shah will not be considered for a BCB retainer for 10 years.”

“During this period he will not be eligible for any assignment under the jurisdiction of the BCB.”

Shah, a member of the International Cricket Council’s panel of umpires, also officiated in three Twenty20 internationals.

ICC chief executive David Richardson, added: “The ICC takes no pleasure from the fact an umpire has been found to have acted inappropriately and sanctioned accordingly, however, the decision reflects the commitment of the ICC and its members to root out corruption from our great sport.”

The world’s top male tennis players could boycott January’s Australian Open because they want a larger percentage of Grand Slam revenues to be paid in prize money.

The issue was the top priority at a mandatory meeting for all ATP world tour players in New York Saturday night.

It has been rumoured that the ATP is considering staging an alternative event, probably in Dubai, if the players don’t receive higher percentage of tournament revenue, which currently stands below 20 percent.

World Number 1, Roger Federer said: “Obviously always going to be rumours flying, but I think we’re on the right track for many things We are making sure everybody is on the same page and understanding the situation.”

On average, first-round losers at this year’s three Grand Slam events received US$22,000 each with the Australian Open being the least lucrative at US$21,650. All of the majors have increased their prize levels this year- Wimbledon has announced a 26 percent pay rise for first-round losers.

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Australian Open director, Craig Tiley said: “We are working on a compensation plan for the 2013 event and are keen to ensure it addresses a lot of the issues players have been raising with us in our ongoing discussions.”

“Our relationship with the playing group is very strong and I’m absolutely confident we’ll see all the players in Melbourne for Australian Open 2013.”

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The British Olympic Association (BOA) conceded for the first time on Monday that athlete support for its lifetime doping ban has dwindled significantly ahead of a hearing that will determine the sanction’s future.

BOA chairman Colin Moyinhan has consistently maintained that at least 90 percent of British Olympians supported world sport’s toughest sanction for doping cheats.

But now Moyinhan acknowledges that support dropped to 70 percent in a recent poll of athletes.

Backing for the bylaw in Britain has waned since the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year overturned an IOC rule barring any athlete who has received a doping suspension of more than six months from competing in the next Olympics.

Marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe was one of the first leading Olympians to publicly change their stance, pills announcing in an Associated Press interview that the BOA ban now unfairly penalizes compatriots like sprinter Dwain Chambers.

Chambers, adiposity who served a two-year ban after testing positive for THG in 2003, could be the main beneficiary of the CAS hearing in two weeks which will determine whether Britain can remain the only country that enforces a lifetime ban for doping cheats.

“A recent poll showed 70 percent in favor (of the bans) and 12 percent don’t knows,” Moyinhan said. “If it is 70 percent or more then we are very pleased.”

Britain could be forced to drop the rule ahead of the London Olympics if it loses its CAS case, with a verdict expected to be issued in April after the March 12 hearing in London.

The BOA filed an appeal to CAS, challenging a decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency to declare the British body “noncompliant” with the global anti-doping code because the 20-year-old rule amounted to a second punishment. The BOA maintains its bylaw is an eligibility issue.

by Ismail Uddin

International Cycling Union (UCI) President Pat McQuaid, generic his predecessor Hein Hein Verbruggen and the governing body itself are reportedly suing former pro cyclist turned author and journalist Paul Kimmage for defamation.

According to a report in the Irish Independent, McQuaid, Verbruggen and the UCI claim in papers said to have been filed at the Swiss district court that stories by Kimmage published principally in The Sunday Times and L’Equipe have seriously damaged their reputations. Each is claiming damages of 8,000 Swiss Frances (£5,540).

According to the newspaper, the 49-year-old Kimmage, whose award-winning autobiography Rough Ride, published in 1990, shed light on doping within the peloton, is said to have been “dishonest” in his allegations against McQuaid, Verbruggen and the UCI.

Those are said to include having accused them of “having knowingly tolerated tests, of being dishonest people, of not having a sense of responsibility, [and] of not applying the same rules to everyone.”

Should Kimmage lose, he could be required to take out advertisements in newspapers worldwide to communicate the court’s decision, paid for out of his own pocket.

As the Irish Independent notes, one curiosity of the case is that it is Kimmage being sued, not the newspapers that published the articles.
However, it should be pointed out that in November it was reported that he was to lose his staff position at The Sunday Times.

McQuaid was Kimmage’s manager in the Ireland cycling team that took part in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and there are a number of similarities between the two men.

Both are from Dublin and belong to Irish cycling dynasties, with fathers who had been national road race champion and brothers who also entered the sport – six in McQuaid’s case, two in Kimmage’s.

Each won the Irish national road race title during successful amateur careers before going on to brief but unspectacular professional careers – their biggest impact on the sport coming through the activities they chose to undertake post-retirement.

In their current roles, each have regularly clashed, including over the allegations Floyd Landis has made about doping by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team. Last year, the UCI confirmed that McQuaid and Verbruggen were to sue Landis over his accusations that the governing body had covered up a positive test for EPO involving seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong.

There have been no further developments in that case, but one theory being advanced on forums is that in taking action against Landis and now Kimmage, the UCI and its past and current president are attempting effectively to gag them ahead of any revelations that may result from the ongoing enquiry in the US into doping that is centred around Armstrong and US Postal Service.

In November 2010, Landis gave a five-hour interview to Kimmage that formed the basis of an article in The Sunday Times in which the former US Postal Service and Phonak rider, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France, made a series of allegations against Armstrong and the UCI.