Cricket: India picked Yuvraj Singh, who is recovering from cancer, in a 30-man preliminary squad for the World Twenty20 to be played in Sri Lanka later this year. The 30-year-old, regarded as one of the most flamboyant batsmen in world cricket, completed chemotherapy in April after being diagnosed with a rare germ-cell tumour between his lungs early last year. Yuvraj only recently began light training at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Basket, NBA: The New York Knicks confirmed they will not match Houston’s offer for Jeremy Lin, allowing the hugely popular point guard who spawned “Lin-sanity” to leave for the Rockets in the off-season. New York Knicks announced their decision less than two hours before a midnight deadline on Tuesday and several hours after the New York Times reported the decision had already been made.

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Tennis: Estonian Kaia Kanepi (picture) has been forced to pull out of the Baltic nation’s Olympic team due to a heel injury that also sidelined her from Wimbledon. “An ultrasound examination showed that Kaia’s heels have not recovered as fast as hoped and she has to withdraw from the London Olympic Games,” said a statement on the world number 16’s website. Kanepi, 27, was one of the biggest names in Estonia’s 34-member Olympic delegation and the country’s lone London-bound tennis player.

Boxing: Former WBA super flyweight champion Nobuo Nashiro will challenge current title-holder Tepparith Singwangcha, of Thailand in Osaka on September 1. Nashiro, now 30, became champion in July 2006 and held the title until his loss to Hugo Cazares in May 2010, following a draw with the Mexican seven months earlier. “It will be my last fight as a challenger. If I lose, I’m going to retire. I’m determined to pour everything I have into it. I don’t want to regret,” said Nashiro, ranked 14th in the WBA.

London 2012: Britain has drawn up contingency plans to deploy another 2,000 troops for the London Olympics after a private security firm said it could not provide enough guards, a minister said yesterday. Sports minister Hugh Robertson said that the government would ensure security giant G4S would foot the bill for any further use of service personnel to guard the Games, which start on July 27.

Sportswear: German sportswear giant Adidas said it was closing its only company-owned factory in China, although the country would continue to be its “main global production site” via subcontractors. A spokeswoman confirmed that the site in Suzhou, near Shanghai, which employs 160 people, would close at the end of October for “efficiency” reasons. She said this was part of a broader strategy on the part of the firm to subcontract production, with the company now owning “only a handful” of plants itself worldwide.

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