Mike Brearley, the president of MCC, has moved to distance the club from the proposals for an English rival to the Indian Premier League that have been outlined by the secretary and chief executive, Keith Bradshaw, in a paper that was leaked to the media last week.

The plan, which proposes a 57-match tournament to be contested by nine teams at England’s established international venues, was intended to be put to the ECB board on July 15. Bradshaw and his co-author, the Surrey chairman, David Stewart, have since expressed their disappointment at the leak, but the upshot has been fury among the county executives, Read the full story

Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro won his first career title on Sunday when he beat French second seed Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5 in the final of the Stuttgart claycourt tournament.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Klitschko knocked out America’s Tony Thompson in the 11th round to retain his WBO and IBF world heavyweight titles. Klitschko, who has held the IBF belt since April 2006, was fighting for the first time Saturday since taking the WBO crown off Russia’s Ruslan Ibragimov in February in New York. The 32-year-old took control of Saturday’s fight from the fourth round before going on to inflict Thompson’s second defeat in 33 fights. Klitschko now has a record of Read the full story

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius has missed out in another attempt to qualify for the Olympics. The South African timed 46.62 seconds to finish seventh in the 400 meter B race at the Golden Gala meet Friday. He must run a 45.55 to qualify for the Olympics. His personal best is 46.36. Pistorius resumed training less than two months ago after a sports arbitration court ruled he was eligible to run in Beijing. The court overturned a decision by the IAAF that Pistorius’ carbon-fiber prosthetics gave him an unfair advantage and that he should be banned from the Olympics and other able-bodied races.

Dwain Chambers won the 100 meters at Britain’s Olympic trials Saturday and now must wait to see if a judge overturns his Olympic ban. Chambers, who is returning from a two-year drug ban, finished in 10.00 seconds. That should also ensure a berth in the 4×100 relay if his legal team can convince a judge at London’s High Court on Wednesday to grant an injunction against the British Olympic Association’s lifetime ban on drug cheats. Britain has to set its squad by July 20 for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. The BOA will argue that the sprinter’s challenge would not succeed at a Read the full story

When Eric Shanteau touched the wall second at the U.S. Olympic trials, he was overcome by the joy of reaching a lifelong goal. The celebration didn’t last long. Shanteau had barely locked up his trip to Beijing when he was forced to deal with a gut-wrenching choice: Should he have surgery for the testicular cancer hardly anyone knew about? Or, should he put it off for another month so he could swim at his first Olympics? Shanteau chose the Olympics. Surgery will have to wait. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Shanteau said he learned just a week before leaving for the U.S. Olympic trials that he has cancer.

Moist air and calmer winds helped firefighters make progress Saturday on a deadly wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the latest hot spot in an unprecedented fire season that has made much of California a disaster area. Thousands of people evacuated from their homes twice during the last month began returning to Paradise for the first time since Tuesday. About 300 homes remained threatened in and around the town, down from 3,800 homes on Friday, Read the full story

A suicide attack in south Afghanistan has killed at least 24 people, many of them children, police say.

The bomb was detonated in a market in the Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan province at about 1030 local time. 19 civilians among dead after car bomb targeted police patrol, official says. The attack in the southern province of Uruzgan also killed five police officers and wounded more than 30 others, said Juma Gul Himat. The bomber struck the police patrol in a busy intersection of Deh Rawood district, Himat said. The bombing also damaged or destroyed about nine shops in the area, he said. Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers and young boys selling cigarettes and other goods in the street, Himat said.

Afghan civilians have suffered from a rash of bombings this month. Around 55 civilians were killed in a massive bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday, while a government commission said this week that U.S. airstrikes killed 47 civilians in Nangarhar on July 6. More than 2,300 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures.

Elsewhere, Taliban militants executed two women in central Afghanistan after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a U.S. base. The women, dressed in blue burqas, were shot and killed late Saturday just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan, said Sayed Ismal, a spokesman for Ghazni’s governor. He called the two “innocent local people.” Taliban fighters told Associated Press Television News that the two were executed for allegedly running a prostitution ring catering to U.S. soldiers and other foreign contractors at a U.S. base in Ghazni city. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a U.S. military spokesman, said he has never heard of allegations “anything close to that nature.” In Logar province, gunmen kidnapped parliament member Abdul Wali and his driver on Sunday, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Mustafa. The Afghan authorities are also investigating a US air strike in Nangarhar province last Sunday, in which 47 people died.

The authorities in Argentina say they have uncovered a multi-million dollar operation in forged Italian passports.

Many of those being investigated are professional footballers. It is thought they use the false passports to overcome the limit on the number of non-European Union foreigners playing in the Italian league. The scandal came to light when the Italian consul in Buenos Aires did not recognise the signatures on Italian Read the full story

A 23-year-old man has been charged with the murders of two French students in south-east London.

Daniel Sonnex, from Peckham, south-east London, has been charged with the murders of Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo, both 23. Their bodies were found stabbed and burnt in a New Cross bedsit on 29 June. Mr Sonnex was also charged with perverting the course of justice and is due to appear at Read the full story