Today's other stories in brief
Sterling invited to ICC training camp
CRICKET:Teenager Paul Stirling is among four Ireland players picked to attend next month's ICC batting camp in Pretoria, South Africa, writes Emmet Riordan.
Alex Cusack, Kevin O’Brien and Gary Wilson, who yesterday signed a new two-year deal with Surrey, will also make the trip, along with national coach Phil Simmons.
Stirling (19), sees it as a great opportunity to work on his game ahead of the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in January.
“The coaches are some of the most experienced and highly rated in world cricket, and I’m hoping they will be able to advise me on various aspects of my batting,” said Stirling.
“It’s perfect preparation for me ahead of the Under-19 World Cup. I’m sure they’ll identify any weaknesses in my technique and work on rectifying it.”
The batting camp, which runs from November 16th to 28th, allows players from the top six Associate nations undergo coaching from former international stars such as Australian wicketkeeper Rod Marsh and Pakistan opening batsman Mudassar Nazar.
McGee and King reach final in Cardiff
TENNIS: Ireland's James McGee yesterday put himself in line for a possible third men's doubles title this year when he partnered Barry King to the final of the ITF Futures final at Cardiff.
McGee and fellow Dubliner King, the number three seeds, edged unseeded British duo Daniel Evans, who played for Britain in last month’s Davis Cup relegation play-off loss to Poland, and Joshua Milton – 6-1 0-6 10-6. In today’s final, McGee and King face the number two seeds, British duo Tim Bradshaw and Alexander Slabinsky.
There was no joy for McGee, however, in the Cardiff singles quarter-final, the Castleknock man losing 3-6 0-6 to fellow unseeded player Marcus Willis of Britain.
SJI reveal drug testing numbers
EQUESTRIAN:Figures released by ShowjumpingIreland (SJI) reveal that five of the 132 samples taken from horses under its medication control programme this competition season returned positive results, reports Margie McLoone.
The organisation carried out significantly more tests this year than previously, with samples taken from animals of all levels at 22 venues. Testing of 98 samples was carried out in conjunction with the Irish Equine Centre. with some samples sent for further testing at the FEI-approved laboratory in Paris.
The names of the horses which returned positive results were not made public but, in a statement, SJI stated that it had “implemented its disciplinary measures in relation to all the results”.
The drugs involved were non-steroid anti-inflammatories and corticosteroids.
No British Grand Prix at Donington
F1: Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed there will be no British Grand Prix at Donington Park. "There's no Donington. They've missed the deadline, which we kept extending for them." he said at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix yesterday.
Meanwhile, the driver salaries for every competitor in Formula One in 2009 have been published.
Full list of F1 salaries for 2009
1 Kimi Raikkonen €30.5 million
2 Lewis Hamilton €12.2 million
3 Fernando Alonso €10.2 million
4 Nico Rosberg €5.7 million
5 Felipe Massa €5.4 million
6Jarno Trulli €4.4 million
7Sebastian Vettel €4.1 million
8Mark Webber €3.7 million
9Jenson Button €3.4m
10Robert Kubica €3.1m
11Heikki Kovalainen €2.3m
12Nick Heidfeld €1.9m
13Timo Glock €1.3m
14Giancarlo Fisichella €1m
15Sébastien Buemi €1m
16Rubens Barrichello €670,000
17Jaime Alguersuari €335,000
18Vitantonio Liuzzi €0
19Adrian Sutil €0
20Romain Grosjean €0
21Kazuki Nakajima €0
Yankees vow to regroup after Lee overpowers them
BASEBALL:The New York Yankees tipped their caps to Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee, who was brilliant in winning Wednesday night's World Series opener 6-1, and then turned their focus on levelling the Fall Classic in Game Two last night.
“It’s big, we need to win it and take it to Philly 1-1,” Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez told reporters about the game in New York that has AJ Burnett opposing Phillies starter Pedro Martinez.
The best-of-seven series shifts to Philadelphia on Saturday for three games, if needed.
Lee humbled the powerful New York line-up and quieted a crowd of more than 50,000 by yielding just six hits and striking out 10 without a walk in the complete-game victory.
Derek Jeter, whose three hits represented half the Yankees total, said there was no need to panic.
“We’ve just got to win a game, it’s nothing more complicated than that,” the Yankees captain said. You don’t do anything different.”
