In a bid to rescue the Chester Jets, the British Basketball League (BBL) have taken over management of the financially stricken club Jets on a short-term basis.

The BBL confirmed the move to save the club, two days after withdrawing the franchise from new owner Hadyn Cook.

Cook had asked to postpone this weekend’s game against the Mersey Tigers due to ongoing financial problems, but the fixture will now go ahead while the BBL tries to find a new owner.

Cheshire captain Chez Marks encouraged fans to come to Sunday’s game to show the team can remain viable.

“This decision gives the team and the people of Cheshire a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate to any potential new owner how much this club means to the local community,” said Marks.

The Indian Premier League Governing Council has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Deccan Chargers owners, demanding they sort out the club’s financial issues.

The club has been mortgaged to two private banks who now want a stake in the team, which is not allowed by IPL rules.

Neither the IPL council or the club has commented on the story.{jcomments on}

 

American televison channel HBO has announced Miami Dolphins will appear on “Hard Knocks” this summer. 

The Dolphins will be the newest subject of its popular reality series documenting NFL training camps. The seventh season premieres Aug. 7, with four more one-hour episodes airing on subsequent Tuesdays.

Coming off a 6-10 season, Miami has a new coach in Joe Philbin. He said the Dolphins’ involvement in the show was a football decision made with the blessing of owner Stephen Ross.

“Our owner supported this decision but in no way, shape or form forced us to make the decision,” Philbin said in South Florida following an offseason practice Tuesday.

This season marks the 40th anniversary of the Dolphins’ undefeated championship squad – the last team to win the Super Bowl with a perfect record.

Miami’s most recent title came a year later, in 1974.

“Hard Knocks” was not produced last year because of the NFL lockout. In 2010, the Dolphins’ AFC East rivals, the Jets, were the subject of the show, making coach Rex Ryan a reality star.

“It’s a great opportunity to connect with our fans, for the people who aren’t going to be able to come out here daily in 110-degree heat index weather and watch our guys participate in training camp,” Philbin said.

unhealthy helvetica, medstore sans-serif;”>Influential sports teams from across the world are set to gather at Beyond Sport United, stomach a unique event that will bring together the greatest gathering of sports teams ever assembled to address their role in triggering positive social change in the communities they serve.

US sports leagues have backed the event, which will take place on 27th September at Yankee Stadium in New York City, with Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA); the National Football League (NFL); the National Hockey League (NHL); and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) – as Founding Supporters, the first time these organizations have collaborated around the issue of sport in the community.

Influential figures from all these leagues and their constituent teams, from the New York Yankees, New York Giants and New York Jets to Miami Heat, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Steelers, will unite at Beyond Sport United for a day of meaningful, action-focused, and practical sessions to address how teams can further impact their communities.

They will be joined by senior representatives from their counterparts around the world including the likes of English Premier League football teams Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Tottenham Hotspur; the Australian Football League; and Premiership Rugby.

Nick Keller, Founder of Beyond Sport, said: “According to the United Nations, more than 65% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2020. Sports teams are heroic brands with historic resonance that sit at the very heart of these urban communities and as such have a significant role to play in triggering positive social change.

“The opportunity is vast and, with the substantial support of the major US sports leagues, it is our aim that Beyond Sport United will provide the platform from which sports teams can come together for the first time to focus on how they can better impact the communities they serve.”

Beyond Sport is a global organisation that promotes, develops and funds the use of sport to create positive social change across the world.

Irish welterweight boxer Michael O’Reilly won his case in the High Court to be put back up for selection for the European Youth Championships in Dublin this week following a decision by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) which omitted him from the panel due to an alleged breach of discipline at a recent training camp.

The 18-year-old reigning Irish 68kg welterweight champion was dropped for the event, when he failed to show for an afternoon training session at the National Stadium two weeks ago.

He claimed that he only missed training because he went to get his van fixed in Portlaoise after a minor accident occurred when he let a 17-year-old junior boxer without insurance or a licence park the vehicle.

O’Reilly challenged his omission, which he claimed could jeopardise his €5,000 (£4,374/$8,232) sports grant and his chance of competing at the London 2012 Olympics, and High Court ruled that he must be considered by the IABA Central Council..

O’Reilly’s coach Pat Ryan said: “We are very pleased with the outcome. The judge gave two orders in our favour. One is that the disciplinary action withdrawing Michael from the team was incorrect and that they [the IABA] didn’t have the authority to do that.

“The second is that Michael has been reinstated on the panel. That is all we wanted. In terms of discipline, Mr O’Reilly has travelled all over the world; he has won seven all-Ireland titles and his conduct has been exemplary. He is so overjoyed as all he wants to do is box. He is a credit to his parents and his club.”

O’Reilly can’t walk straight in to the team. Another boxer, Christy Joyce, was selected instead to compete in the 69kg division and O’Reilly had also asked the court to order a box-off between him and Joyce for the right to represent Ireland.

But the request was refused as it was decided that the final selection for all international boxing teams must be ratified by the IABA’s Central Council.

The Council will decide whether to select O’Reilly or Joyce.

In his ruling, Justice John Cooke said that the IABA’s Central Council must disregard the original decision to omit O’Reilly when it meets today in order to finalise the team.

The judge added it was regrettable that the matter in dispute could not have been mediated internally.

UK-based Sportsworld, which is selling tickets to Denmark for London 2012, has stopped taking orders following a flood of requests after the Sunday Times alerted British readers to it.

Under EU law all European citizens are entitled to apply for these tickets although London 2012 organisers have warned fans buying tickets from foreign websites to be “extremely cautious” about touts.

UK’s sports fans are still waiting to hear whether they have been allocated tickets in the controversial ballot system and if money is not withdrawn from their accounts by June 10 they will not have received any tickets.

Anyone trying to book tickets via the Sportsworld website on Monday received a message saying: “Please Note: We are currently reviewing existing ticket orders and as a result there are no London 2012 Olympic Games tickets available until further notice.”

It is the official seller to a dozen countries but Denmark is the only one of them which is in the EU. Under EU law all European citizens are entitled to apply for these tickets, in the same way that Danish citizens were entitled to apply via the London 2012 website as part of the main application process.

A spokesman for organising committee LOCOG said one million tickets had been allocated to Olympic committees in about 200 countries outside the UK, adding: “There are a number of unofficial websites claiming to sell tickets, we therefore advise people to be extremely cautious and vigilant when attempting to buy tickets and only purchase from an official source – if in doubt there is a url checker on our website which will identify official sources.”

Kasey Brown, the President of the Women’s Squash Association (WSA), has decided to retire from the WSA World Tour after competing in next week’s Delaware Investments US Open in Philadelphia. 

Brown will continue to serve on the WSA Board until the end of her term of office.

A WSA member for the past 12 years, 29-year-old Brown reached 24 Tour finals and collected 11 titles including the Australian Open. Her biggest success came at the Greenwich Open in the USA in January 2011. Nine months later, she reached the US Open final for the first time and went on to achieve a career-high world No5 ranking in December 2011.

Brown said: “It is very much an honour to serve as President of the WSA and huge thanks must go to Tommy Berden, Elliot Selbyand the WSA Board for all of their hard work. I know the Women’s Tour is in good hands.”

WSA CEO Tommy Berden said: “Retirement decisions are never easy, even more so for such a determined and competitive professional as Kasey. She has been highly successful on the WSA World Tour for many years and has recently also shown her dedication and forward thinking in her new role as WSA President.”

England’s world champion Laura Massaro and fellow WSA board member added: “It’s been a privilege to have Kasey alongside me on the board. Her organisation, commitment and passion for the game have shone through over the last 10 months in her role as President. She always has the best interest of women’s squash at the forefront of her mind and I can’t thank her enough for the work she has done for WSA.”

Matt Beech has increased his stake in Super League club, Widnes Vikings.

Beech joined the board in June and has become the second director, alongside Roddy Snedden, to further his investment in the Vikings this month.

“There’s a real excitement around the Vikings at the moment, it’s not quite a renaissance yet but we are making progress year on year and the club really is in good shape,” Beech said.

“There are significant challenges in the sport and some of our fellow clubs are struggling to make ends meet, but we’re determined to run a sustainable club that will be able to compete well into the future.”

AXE, a leading men’s grooming brand, will return to advertise during the Super Bowlr and will air a 30-second television commercial during the prestigious sporting event.

“The Super Bowl was a big platform for us to launch the AXE Apollo campaign, where more than one million men and women enlisted for a chance to go to space,” said Matthew McCarthy, Senior Marketing Director, AXE & Men’s Grooming for Unilever, based in New Jersey. “AXE is the No. 1 men’s fragrance – and No. 1 male grooming brand in the US and globally**. With the Big Game in our back yard, we want to be there.”

The commercial was created by BBH London.