[attach id=530998 size="medium"][/attach]
Rugby Union: Warren Gatland (picture, right) will be in charge of the British and Irish Lions for next summer’s tour of New Zealand after being named as head coach yesterday. Gatland, 52, will relinquish his duties with Wales for a year before resuming the job he has done since 2007. New Zealander Gatland will lead the British and Irish Lions for the second time in his career having masterminded the series win over Australia four years ago. The Lions have won only one of their 11 series against the All Blacks, in 1971.
Snooker: The English Open has moved up to second place in the league table of ticket sales among the new Home Nations events, World Snooker said. The tournament runs from October 10-16 in Manchester and it will be the opening event of the series. The Northern Ireland Open leads the way on ticket sales so far. It will take place in Belfast from November 14 to 20. Dropping down from second to third is the Welsh Open (February 13-19). And in fourth it’s the Scottish Open, in Glasgow from December 12 to 18. Any player who wins all four events will bank a massive £1 million bonus.
Rugby League: Australian police have launched a major investigation into allegations of match-fixing in the National Rugby League and expect to interview “dozens” of players and officials in the latest scandal to rock the top flight competition. New South Wales police said they had set up a special task force to conduct the probe, three months after making initial enquiries into allegations surrounding a number of championship matches last year. A police statement gave no details of the matches involved.
Boxing: Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight title rematch with Wladimir Klitschko will take place in Manchester on October 29, the British fighter’s camp confirmed yesterday. Fury ended Klitschko’s 11-year unbeaten run on points in Dusseldorf last November to claim the WBO, WBA and IBF belts but pulled out of a July rematch with an ankle injury. Ukrainian Klitschko, who had held the belts since 2006, also confirmed the fight, saying on Twitter that he would avenge his surprise defeat. Fury was stripped of the IBF belt after he failed to face the mandatory challenger. That belt is owned by fellow Briton Anthony Joshua.
Cricket: A Test champion could be crowned every two years under new proposals discussed by the International Cricket Council in Dubai. An ICC working group emerged from a two-day meeting yesterday with tentative plans to overhaul the international cricket calendar, amid fears players could be lost to free agency and the riches of domestic Twenty20 leagues. Chief among those was an agreement on key principles for a Test competition that would provide much-needed context to the five-day game, with a play-off to be staged every two years to crown a champion team. The specifics of the new Test competition were not thrashed out at this week’s meeting.