Snooker: Ali Carter clinched victory in his comeback tournament yesterday with a thrilling 7-6 triumph over former world champion Shaun Murphy in the final of the General Cup in Hong Kong. Essex cueman Carter has been undergoing treatment for lung cancer and he was making his first competitive appearance since last season’s World Championship. The 35-year-old was last year treated for testicular cancer and has battled Crohn’s disease for over a decade.
Motor Racing: Malaysian aviation entrepreneur Tony Fernandes has followed up the sale of the Caterham Formula One team by offloading his GP2 outfit to Canadian-based businessman Teddy Yip’s Status Grand Prix. The sale will see Caterham Racing, which competes in the feeder series to Formula One, leave the Caterham F1 factory in central England and relocate to Silverstone before being renamed next season.
Rugby Union: Under-fire Australia coach Ewen McKenzie resigned yesterday a few hours before the Wallabies were beaten 29-28 by world champions New Zealand in Brisbane. McKenzie, who took over from Robbie Deans just over a year ago, had come under pressure over the last two weeks for his role in the row over offensive text messages Kurtley Beale allegedly sent to a team official in June. The defeat to the All Blacks was a third straight loss for the Wallabies and left McKenzie with a 50 per cent winning record in his 22 matches in charge.
Basket, NBA: The NBA Board of Governors approved modifications to the instant replay rules currently in place. Replay was expanded to include situations where officials are not sure a team had an improper number of players on the court during game action. Current rules also were modified to allow instant replay review during the final two minutes of overtime rather than the entire overtime period.
Cricket: India may scrap their tour of West Indies in 2016 after the Caribbean team’s abrupt pullout on Friday, said an angry Indian cricket board which is also considering legal actions and seeking intervention of the game’s world governing body. The tourists abandoned the series with another one-dayer, a Twenty20 international and three test matches left to play over a protracted payment dispute between the players and their board.