Cyclist Lambrecht dies, Stage 4 cancelled
Warswaw (poland)
Organisers of the Tour of Poland have cancelled today’s scheduled fourth stage following the death of Belgian rider Bjorg Lambrecht. “Out of respect for Bjorg, the organisers with the officials and the teams have decided that the fourth stage of the Tour of Poland will be cancelled,” said a statement on the Tour website. The 22-year-old died after colliding with a concrete structure around 30km into the third stage on Monday following rain. He was resuscitated on the spot and then taken to a hospital in the southern city of Rybnik, where he died on the operating table.
London
Rooney to join Derby as player-coach in January
Wayne Rooney will join Derby County in January from MLS side DC United, with the former England captain set to continue his playing career while working towards his goal of becoming a manager, the Championship club said today. In a major coup for the second-tier club, Derby said the 33-year-old had signed an initial 18-month contract with the option of another year and would also work as a coach with the first team and academy.
London
Koscielny leaves Arsenal to join Bordeaux
Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny will end his nine-year spell in north London and join French Ligue 1 side Girondins Bordeaux for an undisclosed fee, the Premier League club said. Agencies
New Delhi
ICC to trial TV umpires on front-foot no-ball calls
The ICC will soon empower TV umpires to take a call on front foot no-balls on a trial basis, the world body’s General Manager (Cricket Operations) Geoff Allardice said. ICC will test the new system in a few indentified limited-overs series over the next six months and if the experiment pans out to be a success, on-field umpires could lose the right to call no-balls for overstepping in future. “Broadly, yes (the same technology as 2016 will be used,” Allardice, said. “The idea is the third umpire will be presented an image of the front-foot landing within a few seconds. He would communicate to the on-field umpire that a no-ball has been delivered, so every delivery on the field would be played as a fair delivery until called otherwise,” he added. The system was put to test before in the ODI series between England and Pakistan in 2016. “The footage is shown on a slight delay, it goes to super slo-mo as the foot approaches the point of landing and then it freezes,” Allardice said.
Dubai
Pollard fined for disobeying umpire during second T20I
West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee and handed one demerit point for disobeying the umpire’s instructions during the second T20I against India in Florida. The International Cricket Council said that Pollard’s conduct was in breach of Level One of the ICC Code of Conduct. The incident occurred after Pollard called a substitute on to the field despite having been repeatedly told by the umpires that a request must be made first. He was advised to wait until the end of the next over but Pollard failed to follow the umpire’s instructions, an ICC statement said. — Agencies
