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■CRICKET

Twenty20 game called off

England’s Twenty20 International against South Africa yesterday evening was called off following heavy rain at the Chester-le-Street ground in Durham. Authorities made the decision to call off England’s only competitive Twenty20 game before their Stanford match in Antigua on Nov. 1 after arriving at the ground on Tuesday to find the outfield saturated. It means England will be without any practice in this format before they fly out to the West Indies to compete in the £10 million (US$18.6 million) game against a Stanford All Stars team. The first of five one-day international matches between England and South African start at Headingley tomorrow.



■CRICKET

Cheerleaders dropped

Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities have withdrawn a squad of foreign cheerleaders from the ongoing one-day series against India after protests over the scantily clad women. Sri Lankan Cultural Minister Yapa Abeywardena said he had asked organizers to drop the squad of 24 eastern European women, despite their part in rousing the home team to an easy victory over India in the first match on Monday. “It is not in keeping with our tradition,” the minister told reporters. “I have asked the Cricket Board to drop this item immediately.” Several politicians in conservative Sri Lanka protested against the colorful addition to the matches, officials said, adding that they decided to respect requests to scrap the performances. The first two of the five matches are being played at the Dambulla International Stadium near the fifth century Sigiriya rock fortress, a World Heritage site known for its frescoes of bare-chested women.



■AMATEUR SPORT

Filthy club wins contest

A sports club in the town of Elmshorn, Northern Germany, has won the filthy changing room competition sponsored by a cleaning product manufacturer, officials from the club announced on Tuesday. The SV Lieth club stands to gain 20,000 euros (US$29,500) for renovations to its facilities after coming top in the contest organized jointly by a firm producing anti-fungal cleansing cream in partnership with German second division soccer club, FC Hamburg St Pauli. SV Lieth officials are delighted with the result. Their club, founded in 1934, was chosen on the basis of “mildew infested window panes and rusty showers dating from the pre-war period,” the competition Web site said. Clubs entering the competition were invited to post photos and videos of their sanitary installations on the Web site to be judged by the public.



■CRICKET

Blundering ref suspended

Bulgaria’s Football Union (BFU) has suspended referee Nikolay Yordanov for four matches after he made a series of blunders in a game that ended a 33-match unbeaten league run for champions CSKA Sofia. CSKA lost 3-1 to promoted Sliven in a tense affair on Friday that featured two red cards and three penalties. “We were convinced of the accuracy of the match delegate’s report after watching a video of the game and we decided to ban him,” BFU referees’ commission chairman Borislav Alexandrov told reporters on Tuesday. Referee bans are not uncommon in the Balkan country and Alexandrov had issued a pre-season warning that his commission would be even stricter with officials who made mistakes.


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