■ Soccer
Romario to play in Australia
Former Brazilian World Cup star Romario will play four games with Australian team Adelaide United in this year's A-League soccer competition. Romario, a member of Brazil's 1994 World Cup-winning team, will play for Adelaide in November and December, the team said yesterday. His first game will be an away match Nov. 25 against the Central Coast Mariners. The 40-year-old Romario just completed a one-year contract with Miami FC, an expansion club in the United Soccer League in the US. Miami lost a two-match aggregate series 6-1 to Vancouver in the playoffs. Romario formerly played for several big-name teams including Spain's Barcelona and Valencia and Dutch side PSV Eindhoven.
■ Cycling
Landis undergoes surgery
Floyd Landis, accused of doping after his apparent victory in the Tour de France, has undergone surgery on his right hip. The two-hour procedure done on Wednesday by David Chao revealed greater damage to Landis' hip than initially shown in MRI screenings, the cyclist's spokesman Michael Henson said in a statement. There were no complications during the operation, he said. Landis, whose right hip was injured in a 2003 crash and later developed arthritis, returned to his Murrieta, California, home on Thursday and will immediately begin six weeks of physical therapy. He can start low-intensity training on his bike in one to two weeks, Henson said. Landis, who has asserted his innocence in the doping case, hopes to be back to full health in time to train for next year's Tour de France.
■ Cricket
Walter Hadlee dies at 91
Former New Zealand cricket captain Walter Hadlee, the father of bowling great Richard Hadlee and two other Test players, died yesterday at the age of 91. Hadlee, who passed away in Christchurch after suffering a stroke, played 11 Tests for his country between 1937 and 1951 in a career interrupted by World War II. He was a popular captain with a keen strategic sense in an era when New Zealand had yet to win a Test. The tall, bespectacled batsman played 19 innings, scoring 543 runs at an average of 30.16. He was never dismissed for single figures, although he scored only one Test century. His career peaked with the 1949 away series against England when New Zealand, under his leadership as captain, drew all four Tests with a lineup that included batting stars Bert Sutcliffe and Martin Donelly and all-rounder John Reid.
■ Cricket
Third-party tickets nixed
Tickets bought for next year's cricket World Cup on Internet auction sites or from other third-party outlets will not be honored, organizers said on Thursday. Only tickets sold through authorized travel agents and the International Cricket Council's public ticketing program will be valid for entry at the tournament, which is being held for the first time in the Caribbean, World Cup commercial manager Stephen Price said from Jamaica. "We're telling people before they make a bid on eBay that those tickets won't be valid," he said referring to a popular Internet auction site. "We're trying to protect people from price gouging." Price said World Cup officials are working with eBay and Internet monitoring services to identify who is selling tickets. Calls made to San Jose, California-based eBay were not immediately returned.
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