The "war of nerves" between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and its former president N. Srinivasan ended in a "farcical draw here on Friday when the working committee meeting was adjourned without transacting any business," draining lakhs of rupees from the BCCI's coffers. In the "absence of clarity on the legal status of Srinivasan," BCCI President Jaghoman Dalmiya adjourned the meeting "immediately after calling the house to order." The BCCI will approach the Supreme Court to "seek direction on Srinivasan's issue before calling an emergency working committee meeting" in the first week of September to finalize the date of its AGM, which is "likely to be held" in Kolkata on Sept. 27 (TIMES OF INDIA, 8/29). ... Sprinter Justin Gatlin has moved to "head off the wave of criticism directed at him" during the World Athletics Championships by releasing letters that "reveal the extent to which he cooperated" with U.S. anti-doping investigators and apologized for his own offenses. The letters show that Gatlin told the IAAF in '10 that he had "great remorse" for his past mistakes, "which had led to testing positive for the banned steroid testosterone four years earlier, and that he was determined to atone by doing more to promote anti-doping in sport" (London GUARDIAN, 8/30). ... SANZAR has written to the Japan Rugby Football Union "seeking clarification of media reports that it has signed sufficient players to guarantee its place in next year's 18-team Super Rugby competition." JRFU General Secretary Noriyuki Sakamoto said that Japan would meet the Aug. 31 deadline SANZAR had set to have signed a "certain proportion of its 35-strong playing roster." SANZAR acting CEO Brendan Morris said that it did not "necessarily mean Japan was off the hook." Morris: "We're proposing they compete in the toughest cross-border rugby competition in the world so I've written to them asking for clarification of who they've signed" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/31).
