Super League rugby side Hull KR sacked head coach CHRIS CHESTER "just three matches" into the season. Assistant coach WILLIE POCHING has been placed "in temporary charge for Friday's home game" against St. Helens. Chester, 37, was in charge for 18 months. He signed a three-year contract when he was appointed to replace CRAIG SANDERCOCK in '14 (BBC, 2/24). ... ANDREW FLINTOFF has been appointed as the new president of the Professional Cricketers' Association. The PCA is a representative body for "first class cricketers and former cricketers in England and Wales." Flintoff replaces fellow Lancastrian DAVID LLOYD, who succeeded CHRIS BROAD in the role in '13 (SKY SPORTS, 2/24). ... HSBC is “beefing up its investment bank” by hiring MATTHEW WESTERMAN, a senior exec at Goldman Sachs, to run an enlarged global banking operation. Westerman, Goldman’s chair of investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will become co-head of global banking at HSBC, alongside ROBIN PHILLIPS, “according to an internal memo” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 2/24). ... Discovery Communications is losing CFO ANDREW WARREN. Warren, who has held the job since ’12, “plans to leave at the year’s end.” The company hired Howard Fischer Associates to “lead the search for a replacement.” There is “no word yet” on why Warren is leaving. He came to the TV company from Liz Claiborne, but before that he served as exec VP and CFO of the NBC Universal Television Group and “in other capacities during a long stint at GE." Discovery credits Warren with "helping to engineer its acquisitions of SBS Nordic and Eurosport," a joint-venture acquisition of All3Media, raising $3B in debt and acquiring European multi-platform rights to the Olympics beginning in '18 (DEADLINE, 2/23).
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