Singaporean businessman ERIC DING SI YANG "was sentenced to three years in jail on Thursday after being found guilty of bribing three Lebanese soccer referees with prostitutes to fix a match."
Local media said that Ding's defense counsel, HAMIDUL HAQ, "told the court his client planned to appeal both the conviction and the sentence" (REUTERS, 7/24). ... Former cricket senior national coach ANDY FLOWER "will lead England Lions in their triangular series against New Zealand A and Sri Lanka A next month."
Flower, who stood down as England head coach following the disastrous Ashes tour last winter, "remained as technical director of elite coaching at the England and Wales Cricket Board and will now play a key role in developing players for the top team" (PA, 7/24). ... Britain's KATE CAITHNESS "is set to retain her position as president of the World Curling Federation" after being named on Wednesday as "the only candidate for the next four-year term." Caithness is "the first female president of any Olympic Winter Sports Federation" (INSIDE THE GAMES, 7/23). ... ANDY MURRAY "is set to continue his ground-breaking partnership" with coach AMELIE MAURESMO. The pair "initially teamed up just for the grass-court season but had talks immediately after Murray's quarter-final loss to Grigor Dimitrov at Wimbledon." The key factor for Murray "will have been the amount of time Mauresmo is prepared to travel with him."
But photographs from Murray's training camp in Miami "showed Mauresmo with him and the rest of his team, indicating an announcement of an agreement is close" (London INDEPENDENT, 7/24).
