Spanish Basketball League (ACB) side Real Madrid's NIKOLA MIROTIC has announced via Twitter that he is leaving the club to play for the NBA Chicago Bulls during the upcoming season. Mirotic was drafted by the NBA Houston Rockets in '11 and his rights were later traded, first to the Minnesota Timberwolves and then to the Bulls. Mirotic, 23, will join fellow Spaniard PAU GASOL, who has also signed with Chicago (EL MUNDO, 7/14). ... British cyclist BRADLEY WIGGINS said that he "will stay at Team Sky for another season, despite the 2012 Tour de France winner being overlooked for a spot in this year's race."
Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport quoted the 34-year-old as saying "he was targeting the Paris-Roubaix one-day race and possibly the hour record on the track, but his time as a tour contender was over." He said,
"My time as a Grand Tour rider is over. I’ll still ride them but not to win them" (REUTERS, 7/14). ... CHRISTIAN NERLINGER "has turned down the chance to return to" Scottish Championship side Rangers as the club’s new football operations officer.
Nerlinger, who had been offered the post and had held talks with Ibrox CEO GRAHAM WALLACE, "was concerned about the ongoing financial crisis at the club and had decided to decline the offer" (SCOTSMAN, 7/14). ... Olympic speed skating champion LEE SANG-HWA and short track Gold Medalist PARK SEUNG-HI on Monday "were named the goodwill ambassadors for the upcoming Incheon Asian Games" (YONHAP, 7/14). ... The Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) said that retired former Giro d’Italia winner DENIS MENCHOV "has been handed a two-year ban dating back to 2013 after irregularities were found in the Russian’s biological passport." The UCI said in a statement, "The rider is declared ineligible until 9 April 2015 and is disqualified from the Tour de France 2009, 2010 and 2012, competitions during which abnormalities were identified" (SHANGHAI DAILY, 7/14). ... Former Sri Lanka cricketer MAHELA JAYAWARDENE announced his "retirement from Test cricket following the home series against South Africa and Pakistan this year" (PTI, 7/14). ... Two-time champion ALBERTO CONTADOR "has pulled out of the Tour de France after a heavy crash on stage 10." Contador "is the second of the pre-race favourites to withdraw." The 31-year-old Spaniard, who "appeared to snap his bike frame in a crash on the Col du Platzerwasel, tried to continue after treatment but soon pulled up" (BBC, 7/14).
HEAD HUNTING: The England & Wales Cricket Board "will begin on Monday the hunt for a new chief executive." The board "is likely to turn to the specialist headhunters Sports Recruitment International."
The two previous CEOs, DAVID COLLIER and TIM LAMB, "had lengthy careers working or playing in county cricket before taking over at the board." If the ECB follows a similar recruitment policy then Surrey CEO RICHARD GOULD "is the favourite to land the job."
Gould, the son of football Manager BOBBY, "is a former commercial director at Bristol City and has worked his way up the county game after starting at Somerset before moving to Surrey" (London TELEGRAPH, 7/13).
