The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced Sachin Tendulkar as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Ambassador. It will be the second successive time that the India maestro will be the Ambassador of ICC’s pinnacle tournament, after he fulfilled the role in the previous event, which was co-hosted by Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka in 2011.

In his role as ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Ambassador, Tendulkar will promote and support a variety of ICC initiatives to enhance the profile of the tournament, which is the third biggest sporting event in the world and will take place in Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March.

Tendulkar retired from international cricket last year after representing his country in 200 Tests, 463 One-Day Internationals and one Twenty20 International. In a career spanning 24 years, the 41-year-old scored a total of 34,357 international runs and 100 centuries.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the six squads that will travel to Namibia for the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 2, which will be played from 17 to 24 January.

Canada, Kenya, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands and Uganda will lock horns in the eight-day round robin tournament, which provides the opportunity for the top teams to progress to the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2015-2017, ICC’s four-day first-class competition for Associate and Affiliate Members, as well as the 50-over Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Championship.


Squads

Canada - Amabir Hansra (captain), Rizwan Cheema, Parth Desai, Navneet Dhaliwal, Satsimranjit Dhindsa, Nikhil Dutta, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Nitish Kumar, Usman Limbada, Umer Nawaz, Cecil Pervez, Durand Soraine, Hamza Tariq, Srimantha Wijeyeratne

19 December 2014 – Bafana Bafana will face Zambia in an international friendly on 4 January at Orlando Stadium - a match that will be used as a farewell match for the Senior Men’s National Team before leaving for Central African nation of Gabon en route to the 2015 CAF Orange Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

The match will kick-off at 15h00.

This will be the first match Mashaba will play in Johannesburg since taking over the reigns of Bafana Bafana.  The clash will also give the fans a chance to see South Africa’s final 23-man squad as it would have been announced four days earlier (30 December 2014).

Sierra Leone Volleyball Association (SLVA) has commenced preparations for the beach volleyball qualifiers competition for the 2016 Brazil Olympic Games.

 

With the regional and zonal qualification set to commence this month, the SLVA has already invited 12 players- six male and six female that have started their training sessions at the Siaka Steven Stadium in Freetown.

Members and stakeholders of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) have on Saturday December 20th in an extra-ordinary congress dissolved the Madam Isha Johansen led executive with immediate effect.

Despite threats from the world’s football governing body, FIFA that any decision reached at the said congress will be illegal and the refusal of the Sierra Leone National Ebola Response Center to grant them clearance due to the current state of emergency in the country, the stakeholders however staged their congress through telephone conference.

NEW YORK (Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014) – Major League Soccer today conducted Stage Two of the 2014 MLS Re-Entry Process. A total of eight players were selected by six different MLS clubs.

 

San Jose Earthquakes made two selections in the draft, picking up defender Marvell Wynne and midfielder Sanna Nyassi. Houston Dynamo also selected twice, choosing forward Chandler Hoffman and midfielder Nathan Sturgis.

Lausanne, 19 Dec 2014 - AIBA Pro Boxing has announced that, following the first three weight categories that competed on 12 December,  the next six “Matches for Champions” of the APB Cycle 1 will take place from 19- 20 December in Novosibirsk (Russia), Baku (Azerbaijan), Astana (Kazakhstan) and Foshan (China) according to the schedule below.

The Bantamweight category will compete on 15 January 2015 in Paris (France).

NEW YORK (Friday, Dec. 19, 2014) – Major League Soccer legend Landon Donovan and Seattle Sounders FC midfielder Marco Pappa were among the winners at the inaugural Premios Univision Deportes (Univision Sports Awards), which aired nationally on Thursday night on UniMás and UDN (Univision Deportes Network). 

LA Galaxy icon and six-time MLS Cup champion Landon Donovan was recognized with the first-ever Premios Univision Deportes’ Lifetime Achievement Award. MLS Commissioner Don Garber was on hand to present the League’s all-time leading scorer and assist man with the award. Footage of Donovan’s acceptance speech and special tribute video can be found here. 

•  UniMás to broadcast season opener as MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy welcome Chicago Fire on Friday, March 6
  
•  ESPN2 and FOX Sports 1 feature triple-header on Sunday, March 8
  
• TSN to carry Canadian rivalry match – Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. Toronto FC; RDS to broadcast Montreal Impact first game against D.C. United on Saturday, March 7
  

NEW YORK (Friday, Dec. 19, 2014) – Today Major League Soccer and its broadcast partners announced the lineup of home openers for the League’s 20th season, as well as the schedule of games available nationally across the U.S. and Canada on opening week. The 2015 season is the first of eight-year landmark television and media rights partnerships with ESPN, FOX Sports and Univision networks.

English Premiership giants Liverpool might be struggling in their domestic league campaign, but they shrugged that off when they hosted a successful soccer training camp in Durban.

Children between the ages of five and 16 from a number of countries that include Egypt, Mozambique and Nigeria participated in the camp that ran from December 6 through to yesterday.

"The children were trained by 12 international and local coaches including some from Liverpool and others from South Africa. The camp is not only an opportunity to see some of the most talented young players showcase their skills but will go a long way toward social cohesion," said Durban Municipality spokesperson, Thabo Mofokeng.

ES Setif emerged victorious from the match for fifth place at the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2014 on Wednesday, defeating AFC representatives Western Sydney Wanderers 5-4 on penalties, following an exciting 2-2 draw. One of the stars of the shoot-out was the Algerian club’s goalkeeper, Sofiane Khedairia.

Khedairia arrived at Setif in 2012, after deciding to turn his back on French football, where his career had stuttered. That turned out to be a pivotal moment in his career, as it is highly unlikely he would have experienced the triumphs he has since enjoyed while sitting on the sidelines at Toulouse and Le Mans. 

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 begins on February 14 when New Zealand takes on Sri Lanka in the tournament opener in Christchurch. With less than two months to go, ICC has launched ‘Your Greatest XI’, which will allow fans a unique chance to pick their Greatest All-Time Cricket World Cup XI from the previous 10 editions of the event.

The ICC database consists of over 100 of the greatest World Cup players of all-time. A photo and a short Pen Profile that describes their World Cup record and their memorable impact at the event is available for each player. The ICC also lists detailed World Cup statistics for each of the players.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that the Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (ICRT) has been awarded the exclusive broadcast rights in Cuba for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio in 2016.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Rio 2016 will be the first time the Olympic Games have been held in South America, and ICRT will work with us once again to bring the sporting action to fans in Cuba. This agreement also means that the IOC has now completed all its broadcast agreements for Rio 2016.”

Rafael Yaech, from ICRT, said: "The broadcast of the Olympic Games in Cuba is a celebration for our hard working people and our quality of life. We are pleased with this agreement with the International Olympic Commitee, with the assurance that we will continue to work together in favour of sports."

The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) is pleased to announce that the media accreditation process for the draw of the African U-17 Championship Niger 2015 and Orange U-20 Championship Senegal 2015 opens on Thursday, 18 December 2014 and ends on Saturday, 20 December 2014 at 22H00 GMT.

The draws will be held at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt at 11H00 local time (09H00 GMT).


The qualified teams for the African U-17 Championship are Niger (hosts), Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia

With the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala 2014 fast approaching, Pia Sundhage found herself a touch short on words when asked how much it means to win one of the coveted annual awards: “It’s something really special,” said the 2012 winner of the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football. “It’s hard to explain, because it’s such a thrilling and overwhelming feeling.”

Fortunately the Swedish supremo does not particularly need to explain. All it takes is a look at the footage from the 2012 Gala, when she picked up the award largely on the back of guiding holders USA to gold at that year's Olympic Football Tournament in London. 

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have recommended that the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 follow the successful formula of the 2013 event with The Oval, Edgbaston and Cardiff being the venues proposed.

Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s Head of Global Events, said: ‘The format and the venues in 2013 proved extremely popular and the fans turned out in record numbers for the event.

‘All three venues will be keen to repeat their success from the last tournament and I am sure they will have learnt from the experience which will lead to the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 being even more memorable.’

After a rollercoaster of a month where Neeskens Kebano scored a goal in his international debut for Congo DR and then thought the Leopards were eliminated from qualifying for the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, it was a dramatic phone call at the airport - as he waited with other European-based team-mates to return to their clubs - that has left the 22-year old midfielder to dream of even bigger things.

The phone call informed him that the central African country had grabbed an unexpected place at next-years' finals in Equatorial Guinea after finishing as the best of the third-placed teams from the seven groups in the qualifying competition. Earlier in the day, the Leopards had won their final Group D game against Sierra Leone 3-1, but as Côte d'Ivoire managed to secure a goalless draw in a match played at the same time in Abidjan against Cameroon, the Leopards finished third behind the Indomitable Lions and the Elephants

ES Setif gave their supporters something to cheer about as the CAF Champions League winners grabbed fifth place at the FIFA Club World Cup Morocco 2014 with a 5-4 penalty shootout win against Western Sydney Wanderers at Le Grande Stade in Marrakech after 90 highly entertaining minutes produced a 2-2 result.

After a bright start from the Asian champions through Romeo Castelen, Setif took control of the match in the second half as Abdelmalik Ziaya starred for the Algerian side, though it was goalkeeping heroics in an eight-round penalty shootout that finally won it for Setif.  

Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers launched a spectacular counter-attack after three wickets had fallen without a run being scored on the opening day of the Sunfoil Test Series between the Castle Lager Proteas and the West Indies at SuperSport Park on Wednesday.

The Proteas, having been put into bat in bowler friendly conditions, were given a spring-heeled start by Alviro Petersen and Dean Elgar who put on 50 for the first wicket in only 10 overs but the belated introduction of Kemar Roach into the attack brought about a dramatic change as the Proteas slumped from 57 without loss to 57/3.

Ekurhuleni and Western Province are neck-in-neck, while Central Gauteng kept their title defence on track as the second round action wrapped up in the A-Division at the 2014 South African U-19 Inter-Provincial at Krugersdorp Golf Club on Tuesday.

Ekurhuleni carried the confidence of a 9.5 – 2.5 result in their opener against Gauteng North to victory against Limpopo by the same impressive margin.

The side took a 2.5 – 1.5 lead in the Foursomes and fired in the Singles, winning all but one game.

Lord’s Cricket Ground in London has been proposed as the venue for the ICC Cricket World Cup final when the tournament is staged in England and Wales in 2019 – and will also host the ICC Women’s World Cup final in 2017.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will also recommend to ICC that the semi-finals in the 2019 World Cup should be allocated to Old Trafford, Manchester and Warwickshire’s home of Edgbaston, with the opening game being staged at The Oval.

The tournament should also see Taunton host international men’s cricket in 2019 for the first time since the1999 World Cup, when two matches were played at the County Ground.

Founder and owner of the Edmond Michael Football Foundation, Rodney Michael have secured a high court injunction as he seeks to clear his name in Civil Court over an alleged involvement in match fixing.

Former Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) Presidential aspirant who was disqualified from the August 3rd  2013 presidential race on his association as a Consultant for sports betting company, Mercury International hopes to prove his innocence in the said SLFA match-fixing allegations.

Michael’s legal team which is headed by Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai-who is also Secretary General of the Old Edwardians Football Club, confirmed the news of the injunction.

Chairman of the Eastern Region Football Association (ERFA), Morrison Sannoh has moved to dismissed rumors that delegate from his regions are planning to boycott the planned December 20th Extra-Ordinary congress.

According to Sannoh, all delegates from the ERFA will be in full attendance at the Siaka Steven stadium in Freetown and that rumors of a boycott are all false just to create a negative impression of him to other stakeholders.

“Such false alarms are no longer strange to us, but these people cannot distract us, as a regional body we will be in Freetown for the congress and we will also play our own role towards to the Ebola symposium which will commence before the congress,” Sannoh said. 

Cape Verde, December 16, 2014 – The Cape Verde Islands recently hosted an African Dream Project course for coaches. 

The course which was held December 4 to 8 featured 15 participants, who came from across Cape Verde.  

The Africa Dream Project was launched in June 2014 under the supervision of FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° with the intention of spreading volleyball and beach volleyball through schools by organising courses for players, coaches and referees.

Kaizer Chiefs head coach Stuart Baxter has finally broken his silence by speaking up against some of the club's fans who have resorted to booing the team when results are against them.

ZImbabwean international striker Kingstone Nkatha has been the main target of the boo boys as he has failed to find the back of the nets. And Baxter testified that he was now fed up with "some idiots" in the stands and even threatened to walk away from the Absa Premier League runaway leaders, unless the fans stopped harassing Nkatha.

Nkatha has had a tough time this season, especially in Polokwane, which is were he made his name playing for Black Leopards. The burly striker was booed after missing a host of chances in the 0-0 draw with Polokwane City some two weeks ago.