CYCLING: Australian professional cycling team Orica-GreenEDGE yes-terday sacked disgraced Matt White as sports director over his role in the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. White last month admitted he took drugs when he rode on the Armstrong-led US Postal Service team from 2001 to 2003 and GreenEDGE said it was severing ties as part of a range of initiatives to reaffirm its hardline stance on doping.

BASKET, NBA: Jeremy Lin was a winner in his NBA debut with the Houston Rockets, but it was fellow newcomer James Harden who lifted the squad in a 105-96 triumph on Wednesday at Detroit. The Rockets obtained Harden in a deal with Oklahoma and signed a five-year contract worth $80m with Houston only hours before he took the court with his new team-mates. Joining Lin in the Rockets backcourt, Harden scored 37 points on 14-of-25 shooting from the field.

CRICKET: South Africa cricket captain Graeme Smith has joined Surrey as their new skipper with “immediate effect”, the English county announced yesterday. Smith, currently leading the Proteas on their tour of Australia, will join Oval-based Surrey after the conclusion of South Africa’s home series against Pakistan in March – ahead of the start of the 2013 English domestic season.

WATERPOLO: Over a dozen members of the Kuwaiti men’s waterpolo team were injured in a road accident near Thessaloniki. Fourteen of the athletes and the team’s Greek driver were hospitalised in Thessaloniki overnight, though none are in immediate danger. Four were still in hospital yesterday, including 31-year-old Adnan Khan who has multiple fractures. The accident occurred on Wednesday on a rural road outside the city when the team’s minivan glanced off an incoming car and overturned.