Category: Sports

MUMBAI: Credit card major Visa has been announced as the presenting partner for Team 2012, the 1,200 British athletes training to participate in the London Olympics.

Team 2012, launched by London 2012 – the organisation in charge of the Olympic Games in 2012 in London, is the largest team ever sponsored, comprising athletes from 47 sports and disciplines, Olympic and Paralympic alike.

Team 2012 will help realise the dreams and ambitions of all Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes and is a partnership between the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations (BOA and BPA), the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), and UK Sport. The four bodies came together earlier this year to create this initiative for Olympic and Paralympic sponsors to get behind the nation’s top athletes aiming for London 2012 and beyond.

Locog chairman Sebastian Coe says, “Team 2012 will help bring to reality the dreams of future generations of athletes in competing at the very highest level. We are delighted to have Visa as the presenting partner and driving force behind Team 2012. Their support is vital and complements the crucial funding from the national lottery and government. Team 2012 will help ensure that as Olympians and Paralympians head toward London, they are properly resourced to do the job and make Britain proud.”

MUMBAI: World wrestling Entertainment‘s (WWE) property Friday Night SmackDown will make history on Friday, 2 October, by commemorating 10 years on air with a “Decade of SmackDown” themed episode.

SmackDown! airs every Friday at 5 pm on Ten Sports. As a pop culture staple, Friday Night SmackDown has aired more than 520 episodes, surpassing The Simpsons, Married With Children, and Law & Order in total episodes. Over the years, SmackDown has featured celebrities such as Samuel L Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jimmy Kimmel and Sherri Shepherd among many others in its storylines.

Merriam-Webster dictionary incorporated, the term “smackdown” in 2007, cementing the programme’s relevance in American culture and vernacular. The term is now ubiquitously used by political analysts, columnists, magazine headlines and pundits all describing “the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent.”

The show launched with a PG rating. Over a year ago, its sister WWE programmes also received the PG rating from their network partners. Now, content across all WWE’s platforms is PG.

MUMBAI: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced an extension to its current partnership with Omega through 2020, including the XXII Olympic Winter Games (2014) in Sochi, Russia, the Games of the XXXI Olympiad (2016), the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (2018) and the Games of the XXXII Olympiad (2020).

The announcement, made at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, means that Omega will continue as the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, bringing its relationship with the Olympic movement to a total of 29 Olympic Games.

IOC marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg said, “Omega works in close collaboration with our other technology partners to provide integrated technology support to the organising committees of the Olympic Games.”

Omega president Stephen Urquhart added, “Since 1932 the Olympic Games have provided us with a unique platform to convey our message of precision, quality and innovation in a fitting environment.”

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) will convene in Johannesburg on Thursday for one of its four meetings per year.

The two-day gathering on 1 and 2 October, will make decisions on a range of matters relating to the playing of cricket as well as recommendations on the business of cricket for consideration by the ICC Board’s meeting on 6 and 7 October, which will also be in Johannesburg.

Future Tours Programme post-2012 : With the current FTP due to conclude in May 2012, following feedback received from Members by ICC management, the CEC will consider a revised draft FTP for the period, post 2012. The concept of a Test championship, which has been discussed and debated by both the CEC and the ICC Board during several meetings, will also be considered.

The new FTP remains an important work-in-progress and will continue to receive attention during the course of this CEC meeting.

Members will also be asked to consider ways of enhancing and promoting Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 seedings and groupings : The CEC will receive an update report on preparations for the ICC CWC 2011 and specifically consider the seedings and groupings for the event which takes place in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka during early 2011.

Security Task Force : The CEC will also receive a number of important updates including one from the security task force, which was set up by the ICC Board to conduct a review of security arrangements for all international cricket.

MUMBAI: A Saudi prince is negotiating to buy a stake in Liverpool Football Club in a deal that could be worth $559 million.

Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah, a businessman based in Al-Khobar in Eastern Saudi Arabia, is currently discussing the deal with the owners of Liverpool.

Over the past few years, investors from Gulf Arab countries have shown growing interest in acquiring soccer clubs, mainly in the English Premier League, which culminated last year in the acquisition of Manchester City by Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment.

Liverpool has been at the centre of this interest after its American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett said in January they were in talks to sell the club for ?500 million, including debt, to a group of investors from the region. Before that, UAE-based Dubai International Capital vied a couple of years back for a stake in Liverpool.

MUMBAI: Neo Cricket, in an endeavour to bring to its viewers back-to-back cricketing action, will telecast the Irani Trophy from 1 – 5 October.

Mumbai team, the defending champion of the Ranji Trophy, will play the 5-day test match against the Rest of India team at Nagpur.

Wasim Jaffer, the captain of Mumbai Ranji Trophy team for the 2009-2010 season, would lead the team in their season-opening Irani Cup clash along with Rohit Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar and many more against Rest of India team.

Indian opener Virender Sehwag will make his return to the cricketing arena with the Irani Cup leading the Rest of India team along with Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and many more in the match against Mumbai. Sehwag was out of the cricketing action from the last four months due to shoulder injury.

Neo Sports Broadcast head programming Mautik Tolia said, “To entertain our viewers with non-stop live and exclusive cricketing action, NEO Cricket will telecast the legendary Irani Trophy which marks the beginning of domestic cricketing season in India. The Irani Trophy will be followed by back-to-back exciting cricket series such as the Challenger Trophy and Australia tour of India exclusively on our channel. This season, we will present the game of cricket in its entirety to our viewers.”

As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com the channel recently introduced two new shows Once More and Tata Photon+ Cricket Central.

MUMBAI

: US President Barack Obama and his wife First Lady Michelle Obama will be in Copenhagen to lend their support to Chicago 2016.

This is the windy city‘s bid to win the rights to host the Olympics in 2016.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce the winning city on Friday. Obama will lead Chicago‘s delegation.

Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley says, “President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolise the hope, opportunity and inspiration that makes Chicago great, and we are honored to have two of our city’s most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen,” said Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Chicago 2016 Chairman and CEO Pat Ryan says, “There is no greater expression of the support our bid enjoys, from the highest levels of government and throughout our country, than to have President Obama join us in Copenhagen for the pinnacle moment in our bid.

“We are honored that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be with us to extend a hand of friendship on behalf of our nation and the City of Chicago as we seek to welcome the world for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

In addition to the President, First Lady and Mayor Daley, other senior governmental officials in the Chicago 2016 Delegation include White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.

MUMBAI: Soccer club Arsenal has announced that profits for the year have risen by 24 per cent to ?45.5 million compared to ?36.7 million, a year ago.

This was helped by the sale of more apartments from its redeveloped old ground in Highbury and four extra home fixtures – three FA Cup ties and the Uefa Champions League semi-final.

Group turnover, including from the club’s property arm, rose from ?223 million to ?313.3 million.

Revenues from the football part of the business rose from ?207.7 million to ?225.1 million.

Group debt has come down from ?318.1 million to ?297.7 million.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan is telecasting live the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 being held in South Africa.

Sources said the ad sales is being handled by ESPN Star Sports. The advertisement revenue for the telecast by Doordarshan will be split on a 75:25 basis as specified in the Sports Broadcasting Signals (mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

An agreement has been entered into with the rights holder ESPN Star Sports under the specified Act.

The matches are shown on DD National and are also available on Prasar Bharati’s DTH, DD Direct Plus.

MUMBAI: Cricket site ESPNcricinfo has announced the introduction of the online version of the television feature, Hawk-Eye.

Hawk-Eye online is being introduced as a new feature for the ongoing Champions Trophy, where it would be linked to the ESPNcricinfo Scorecard, as a pop-up, during live matches.

Hawk-Eye online will be similar to the one seen on television, but with added advantages of convenience and choice since it is offered online. This would serve as a convenient utility for all those discerning cricket fans who can analyze in leisure a particular aspect in the cricket field. The service also offers customization feature for users to select specific dimensions for the graphical analysis, making it essentially a desktop query tool.

Hawk-Eye systems are based on triangulation, using images and timing data provided by multiple high-speed video cameras located at different locations and angles around the area of play. The system rapidly processes the video feeds by a high speed video processor and ball tracker.

A data store contains a predefined model of the playing area and includes data on the rules of the game. The system generates a graphic image of the ball path and playing area which means that information can be provided to judges, television viewers or coaching staff in near real time.

The pure tracking system is combined with a backend database and archiving capabilities so that it is possible to extract and analyze trends and statistics about individual players, games or ball to ball comparisons etc. The system was first used during a Test match between Pakistan and England at Lord‘s Cricket Ground, on 21 April 2001, in the TV coverage by Channel 4.

Hawk-Eye in ESPNcricinfo will be an on-demand, customisable feature, which increases interaction and involvement in the game for fans away from television. Aircel, who is the presenting sponsor on ESPNcricinfo for various key international series, is sponsoring the Hawk-Eye offering on ESPNcricinfo during the Champions Trophy.