Sporting briefs

Palombo: Sampdoria captain Angelo Palombo yesterday extended his contract with the club until 2015. Samp parted with Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini last month triggering the ire of their fans. However, the club hope to calm the situation by formally adding another two years to the contract of midfielder Palombo.

Hamann: Former Liverpool and Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann has left MK Dons to become Leicester’s first-team coach. The 37-year-old, who was player-coach at the League One club, has become part of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s backroom team, replacing Chris Powell who left to take over as manager of Charlton last month.

Young dies: Neil Young, a striker in Manchester City’s trophy winning teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s, has died aged 66. Young, who scored the winning goal in the 1969 FA Cup final, was also a member of the City side that won the league title in the 1967/68 season and was also on target when the club won the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1970.

Pezzaiuoli: Hoffenheim coach Marco Pezzaiuoli signed a contract which will keep him at the Bundesliga side until 2014. Pezzaiuoli, 42, took over as head coach last month after stalwart Ralf Rangnick quit in early January after four-and-a-half years in charge.

Metsu: Bruno Metsu has been sacked as Qatar coach less than a week after the end of the Asian Cup where the hosts failed to get past the quarter-finals. Metsu’s contract was to have run until 2014.

Szalai: Mainz suffered a blow this week as Hungarian striker Adam Szalai was ruled out for the rest of the season because of injury. The 23-year-old tore right knee ligaments when he collided with the Kaiserslautern keeper during the 1-0 win last Saturday.

Sacked: Sheffield Wednesday chairman Milan Mandaric has confirmed manager Alan Irvine has been sacked after just over a year in charge at Hillsborough. Irvine, 52, has been axed by the League One club following a six-game winless run.

Auto Racing: English racer Mike Conway, who suffered major injuries in last year’s Indianapolis 500, will return to the IndyCar Series with Andretti Autosport in 2011. Conway suffered leg and back injuries last May while running ninth on the penultimate lap at the Indy 500 and missed the remainder of the 2010 campaign, but will join Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Ryan Hunter-Reay in driving for team owner Michael Andretti. Conway, 27, has competed in 23 IndyCar races over the past two seasons.

Cycling: Germany’s main broadcasters said they are set to end live broadcasts of the Tour de France in 2012, blaming a drop in viewing figures for the decision. German broadcasters ARD and ZDF said they will not renew their contract with the European Broadcasting Union to screen the event live and will only air highlights in the future from cycling’s showcase stage race in 2012. The networks say live broadcasts over several hours can no longer be justified because fewer Germans are watching the race live.

Cricket: Forgotten spinner Jason Krejza has emerged as a candidate for the World Cup after being recalled to the Australian one-day team. The attacking off-spinner has not played for Australia for more than two years, but was added to the squad for Sunday’s seventh and final one-day international against England at the WACA Ground in Perth. Krejza famously took 12 wickets in his Test debut in India, but then a month later was banished after a poor Test against South Africa in December 2008.

Basket, NBA: Cleveland’s woeful Cavaliers moved to the brink of matching the longest one-season losing streak in NBA history by dropping their 22nd game in a row, falling 117-112 to Indiana on Wednesday. The Cavaliers fell to a league-worst 8-41 – their 32nd loss in their past 33 games. If the Cavaliers lose tonight at Memphis, they will match the NBA all-time one-season record losing streak of 23 games set by the 1995-96 Vancouver Grizzlies and matched two seasons later by Denver Nuggets.