Africa

Michael Rotich, manager of the Kenyan athletics team at the 2016 summer Olympic Games, has been provisionally suspended by the Ethics Board of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), while a sprinting coach at the centre of another doping incident has protested his innocence after returning home.

The Kenyan Olympic Committee (KOC) has ordered a sprinting coach to return home from the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after he posed as an athlete and gave a urine sample to drug testers, while Chinese swimmer Chen Xinyi and Bulgarian runner Silvia Danekova have both reportedly failed doping tests.

Four more South African cricketers, including former international player Thami Tsolekile, have been banned from the sport for conspiring to fix matches in the 2015 edition of domestic Twenty20 competition the T20 Challenge Series.

The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has said it will investigate fresh allegations concerning doping in the Kenyan athletics system.

Organisers of the annual Rugby Championship, which features rugby union’s top four southern hemisphere national teams, are set to explore the possibility of staging more games in the northern hemisphere.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is to introduce racial quotas as part of a wider effort to address concerns over a lack of transformation across some of the country’s national sports teams.

TV Sports Markets' Richard Welbirg looks at Cricket Australia's media rights in sub-Saharan Africa 

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) have said they are cooperating to investigate allegations that athletes have been provided with prohibited substances while training in Kenya, while the Ethics Board of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has rejected appeals lodged against suspensions by three senior Kenyan athletics officials.

Federico Rosa, an Italian agent who represents top track and field athletes, has been detained by Kenyan police on suspicion of facilitating doping.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has confirmed the calendar for its 2017 World Triathlon Series (WTS), with Cape Town excluded from next year’s line-up.

London’s Twickenham Stadium has been formally confirmed as one of the host venues for this year’s Rugby Championship after the full schedule for the national team tournament was unveiled today (Thursday), with Nelspruit in South Africa also set to stage a game for the first time.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has today (Tuesday) ruled that any competitor from Russia or Kenya that intends to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will need to be individually assessed against doping and declared eligible by their sport’s international federation (IF).

South Africa’s Sports and Recreation Minister, Fikile Mbalula, has confirmed that the country’s government has received financial guarantees from the national treasury that will ensure the 2022 Commonwealth Games take place in Durban.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and local officials have denied reports that hosting rights for the 2022 Commonwealth Games could be stripped from Durban amid ongoing concern about finances for preparations for the multi-sport event.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is reportedly holding talks with its global broadcast partner, pan-Asian pay-television broadcaster Star Sports, over the potential staging of extra editions of its World Twenty20 national team tournament, while the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is said to be considering launching a smaller version of its Indian Premier League (IPL) overseas.

Sanzaar chief executive Andy Marinos has said the umbrella body for the Argentinian, Australian, New Zealand and South African rugby unions will put together a 10-year strategic plan with a view to overhauling its Super Rugby club competition.