Ministers of Youth & Sport from the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) have signed an agreement with the Int'l Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) to strengthen and enhance the integrity of sport across CPLP Member States. The agreement will see the ICSS and CPLP work across several projects to safeguard the integrity, safety and transparency of sport, as well as protect young players and promote the highest ethical standards in sport across all nine member states in the CPLP region (ICSS). ... The Int'l Equestrian Federation (FEI) has suggested that the "failed dope tests for the two horses ridden by the Olympic show jumping champion Steve Guerdat might have been caused by poppy seeds contaminating their feed." The Swiss's winning ride at London 2012, Nino de Buissonets, and Nasa, both showed "high levels of painkillers when they failed dope tests at the Nations Cup show in La Baule, France, in May." The sport's governing body is "now suggesting that this case might be similar to that of the Queen's racehorse, Estimate, who tested positive for morphine" after winning the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup. The result was "eventually blamed on poppy seed contamination at a milling plant" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/21). ... The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced its tie-up with the British Council "to enhance the communication skills of its umpires as part of a development programme on Wednesday."
The BCCI "will be hosting an English language upskilling course as part of its umpire development programme." The 10-day course "will be conducted in Mumbai from Thursday by trainer Richard John Cox." The first batch of the course "will have 20 umpires" (IANS, 7/22). ... As the inquiry continues into the alleged use of cobalt in racing, "we may be seeing a crisis unfolding in the sport the scale of which has not been seen for decades."
If the allegations prove correct, the cobalt crisis "threatens to rival the jockey tape affair and the Fine Cotton ring-in scandal in terms of its impact on the sport." Both those cases "resulted in people being banned for years, even decades" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 7/22). ... The word "umpire" will be translated into seven languages on Australian Football League umpires' jerseys "in the name of multiculturalism." The AFL's multicultural program tweeted an image on Wednesday "showing new jersey designs featuring both Mandarin characters and Arabic script" that will be featured during this season's multicultural round. Other languages to be displayed include Greek, Hindi, Vietnamese, Italian and Spanish (THE AGE, 7/22).
