Kenyan athletes "backed a plan for a team of six internationally accredited doctors to take care of the country's top-level runners and be responsible for examining samples in an effort to end a series of doping scandals." The doping cases "threatened to derail Kenya's participation in last year's Rio Olympics, but its athletes were eventually allowed to compete and brought home a haul of long-distance running medals." Athletics Kenya, the governing body for track and field in the East African country, said that elite athletes "should only use the six doctors vetted" by the IAAF if they want to compete (REUTERS, 1/16).
Officials of the visiting Malaysian cricket team termed Pakistan a safe country for holding int'l cricket events and said that "they will be visiting Pakistan again in April on a preparatory tour." Malaysian Manager Shankar Retinam said, "Pakistan is an ideal country to hold top cricket events. As far as security is concerned, it was perfectly fine. We enjoyed playing cricket here." He added that Pakistan has been "deprived of international cricket in the last many years and called for its revival there" (DAWN, 1/16).
The Rugby Football Union warned that "verbal abuse of officials is increasing at grassroots levels of the game." The RFU reported "a rise in numbers playing and watching the game" since the World Cup was held in England in '15. Rugby Development Dir Steve Grainger said that those new to the sport "need educating on behavioural standards" (BBC, 1/16).