Wednesday, 1st August 2007

HEADLINE NEWS

Total Sports Gets Involved in Military World Games

Source: Indian Television, 31st July 2007
Total Sports & Entertainment India (TSEIPL), a subsidiary of Total Sports Asia (TSA), has been appointed as event manager for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 4th CISM Military World Games 2007. The 4th Military World Games will be held in Hyderabad from 14 - 21 October. The Military World Games are conducted under the aegis of International Military Sports Council (CISM).

This is the first time that the games are being held in Asia with 13 sporting disciplines namely - boxing, wrestling, judo, triathlon, sailing, shooting, volleyball, handball, football, pentathlon, track and field, swimming and parachuting. The games will be held over 14 venues in Hyderabad. There are 4500 athletes participating from around 90 countries, out of which about 20-25 per cent athletes represent their countries in the Olympics. The theme of the MWG Games is Friendship through Sport.

TSEIPL MD, Indian subcontinent and Middle East Navneet Sharma said, " We are proud to be working with the Indian Military and on being appointed as Event Managers for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 4th Military World Games to be held in Hyderabad from 14 to 21 October 2007 and are committed as an organisation in striving to enrich peoples lives through creative sports and entertainment solutions".

The chairman of the Ceremonials Committee Brig. R G Krishnan said, "We are happy to have appointed Total Sports and Entertainment India Pvt Ltd as the event managers in managing the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 4th Military World Games after a lengthy selection process in which over 20 companies participated. "We look forward to a successful creative execution of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies by TSEIPL. This is the first time in Asia that the 4th Military World Games are being held and it is an excellent opportunity to showcase India to the world in truly military style and finesse."

Source: Sportcal, 31st Jul 2007
Total Sports & Entertainment India, a subsidiary of sports marketing firm Total Sports Asia, has been appointed as event manager for the opening and closing ceremonies of this year’s Military World Games. The fourth edition of the event will take place in the Indian city of Hyderabad from October 14 to 21. The quadrennial games are organised by the Brussels-based International Military Sports Council.

It is the first time that the games are being held in Asia and 13 disciplines will be contested at 14 different venues. Some 4,500 athletes from around 90 countries are expected to take part in the games.


DID YOU KNOW…?

Brazil's former Formula One racer Nelson Piquet, holder of three world championship titles (1981, 1983 and 1987), had to go back to driving school in order to recover his driver's license. Piquet, 54, is currently attending lessons at a unit of the National Traffic Department (Detran), in the federal capital of Brasilia, where he lives.

The champion explained that he lost the right to drive after scoring 29 points on his license, exceeding his infraction quota. The Brazilian law establishes that, each time a driver commits a traffic infraction, he/she is attributed points. If the score exceeds the maximum quota of 20 points, the license is automatically cancelled. If the driver does not attend a number of driving lessons, his license will remain suspended.

According to Piquet, he achieved such score by exceeding the speed limit and parking illegally. He complained about the duration of the course, which will last until Friday, with three hours of classes per day. However, he admitted to having learned something. "No one wants to spend seven days sitting in a classroom," said the retired racer, who added that he got shocked by the images of traffic accidents exhibited in the class. "We start to see the images and get impressed. There is much recklessness in traffic," he said.

The champion's biography reveals that it was not the first that he got in trouble with traffic authorities. As a 19-year-old, he was chased by the Police after participating in a street race in Brasilia and almost got shot, which led him to quit illegal racing. Source: Xinhua News, 1st Aug 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Real Madrid will later this week offer AC Milan €90-million (around R877-million) for Brazilian star Kaka, Spanish sports daily Marca reported. If the deal goes through it would be the most expensive transfer in football history. The offer will be made this week in Milan during a meeting between officials of the two clubs which officially will discuss the possible transfer of Real Madrid forward Julio Baptista, the newspaper said. Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has put Kaka, inspirational in Milan's Champions League triumph last season, on the top of his wish list. Source: IOL South Africa, 31st Jul 2007

* ESPN Star Sports’ reality show format, Dream Job (Harsha Ki Khoj), involved searching for an anchor with strong presentation skills, like Harsha Bhogle. Now the sports broadcaster has announced the second edition of the show called Clinic All Clear Dream Job. The prize is a one-year contract with ESS. The winner will become a presenter on Star Cricket. Actor and cricket presenter, Mandira Bedi, is the celebrity judge for the show. The jury includes stars like Ravi Shastri, Wasim Akram, Harsha Bhogle and Alan Wilkins. The show will air Thursdays from 20 September on Star Cricket. Source: Indian Television, 31st Jul 2007

* India’s Zee TV will make its content available to a second mobile operator, following a deal between sister company Digital Media Convergence Ltd (DMCL) and telco, Idea. DMCL will make its Isee application available to Idea subscribers to download, enabling them to watch Zee content on their phones. Zee TV earlier agreed a deal with BSNL and has said that it is seeking further deals, including in the US and the UK. Content available to Idea subscribers will be different to that available to BSNL subs, which signed up 7,000 subscribers to the Isee service in three weeks. Source: Rapid TV News, 31st Jul 2007

* Brazil, the only confirmed bidder to host the 2014 World Cup, officially presented its candidacy to Fifa in Zurich, today. The delegation, headed by Brazil soccer federation president Ricardo Terra Teixeira, handed over a 900-page dossier, including all the guarantees demanded by Fifa to host the event. Colombia withdrew its rival bid in April, but It emerged this month that Venezuela, the host of the recent Copa America, could yet challenge Brazil. The deadline for bid submissions was April 16, but Venezuela hoped Fifa would make an exception and allow it to join the race. Source: Sportcal, 31st Jul 2007

* The Latin America golf tour, the Tour de las Americas, was made an associate member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. The Tour, with offices in Florida and Venezuela, focuses on development of the sport and organises tournaments throughout the region. The TLA joins the Canadian Tour in becoming an associate member of the federation and will be eligible to host World Golf Championships events and contribute ideas for consideration at meetings of the full members. Full members are the US PGA, European, Asian, Australasian, Japan Golf and South African Tours. Source: Sportcal, 31st Jul 2007


MORE NEWS

WWE: McMahon Asked to Hand Over Records

In a move that significantly widens the impact of wrestler Chris Benoit's murder-suicide case, two congressmen who opened steroid hearings into Major League Baseball have requested that World Wrestling Entertainment provide records pertaining to the WWE's testing policies and practices. In a three-page letter, Rep. Henry Waxman and Tom Davis asked WWE to provide a series of documents intended to give the committee and its investigation a detailed look at WWE's drug-testing policy, including information about the results of performance-enhancing drug tests on pro wrestlers.

The letter from Waxman and Davis described WWE wrestlers as "multimedia stars that have an influence on the behavior and attitudes of the nation's youth." The records request is wide ranging, and parallels what was asked of Major League Baseball. It seeks a list of drugs covered by its policies; the entity that conducts its drug testing; the number of tests it conducts annually; the protocols followed after a positive test; and the procedures for awarding exemptions.

It also wants hard figures about the number of tests that the WWE conducts each year; the numbers of wrestlers tested; positive results for each specific drug; and the number of positive tests for which wrestlers were penalized. In an attempt to investigate the WWE's reaction to past scandals, the committee is also seeking "the results of investigations prepared [by WWE] regarding deaths, injuries or illnesses of current or former wrestlers that may have been related to the use of steroids."

WWE chairman Vince McMahon was given until Aug. 24 to comply.

In a June 28 interview on the Today show, McMahon defended his employees, saying: "Everyone that's in this organization, to my knowledge, is well-adjusted, family people. They go to work like everybody else, except their definition of what their job is, is to put a smile on somebody's face. They're performers and they do their jobs very, very well."

The congressional request is the most direct approach on the WWE since 1994, when federal prosecutors charged McMahon with steroid distribution. A jury found him not guilty. In the years since, McMahon has regained widespread respectability, selling shares in the WWE to the public and luring celebrities like Donald Trump to his shows. But the double murder-suicide in late-June involving Benoit, one of his company¹s biggest stars, has refocused attention on the issue of wrestler deaths and steroid use. Source: ESPN, 27th Jul 2007

Asia/General: Iraq Victory Boosts Asian Cup but Fine Tuning Needed

The victory of war-torn Iraq in soccer’s Asian Cup served to raise the profile of the tournament, which was staged in four countries for the first time, but critics say it could still benefit from improvements. The Asian Football Confederation’s decision to award the tournament to Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand was widely seen as a positive move.

AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam said: ‘There were difficulties in the beginning but by the time the competition started, most of these difficulties had disappeared. ‘There is a lot to be learned if ever again we were to try to organise the competition in more than one country.’ The event concluded on Sunday with Iraq defeating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

The only major embarrassment in the competition was a 25-minute power failure that caused the lights to go out late in the group match between Saudi Arabia and South Korea in Jakarta.

The overall level of play was considered high, although of the host nations only Vietnam made it through to the knock-out stages, losing 2-0 to Iraq in the quarter-finals. Vietnam and Indonesia attracted large crowds to their home matches, but attendances for neutral games throughout the tournament were disappointing. Television ratings were strong, although some believe this may have been a factor in the small crowds in more prosperous Thailand and Malaysia. The next Asian Cup will take place in Qatar in 2011. Source: Sportcal, 31st Jul 2007