Sports Digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Richards lands coveted award

RUGBY LEAGUE: Wigan's prolific goalkicking winger Pat Richards is the 2010 Engage Super League Man of Steel.

The 28-year-old was last night named as the winner of rugby league’s most coveted individual prize. Wigan’s Michael Maguire won the coach of the year award in his first season and stand-off or full-back Sam Tomkins was named young player of the year for the second year in a row. The Warriors were also named club of the year.

Butt defends spot-fixing decision

CRICKET:Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt has defended his decision not to suspend the three players accused of spot-fixing during the recent tour of England, claiming it would have sent out the wrong message.

Butt insisted the players – skipper Salman Butt and pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer – had simply been withdrawn, not suspended, from the side due to allegations of spot-fixing in the fourth npower Test against England.

“We didn’t take action against them and let the ICC follow its course of action,” Butt said in a Pakistani newspaper.

“We didn’t want to send out a message to the world that we believed our players were tainted. The world would have believed that the trio was indeed guilty of spot-fixing.”

The ICC responded to claims over the players’ alleged links to illegal betting scams by suspending the accused trio pending appeal.

Saracens apologise for Borthwick’s absence

RUGBY:Saracens apologised yesterday for sending captain Steve Borthwick to a beer festival in Munich instead of Monday's Heineken Cup launch in Cardiff.

Former England skipper Borthwick was the only captain missing from the 12 English, Welsh and Scottish qualifiers at the Millennium Stadium to promote a tournament that is itself sponsored by a beer brand.

The club, who now face a four-figure fine, had told the European Rugby Cup (ERC) that the virtually teetotal Borthwick had an “important club meeting” that turned out to be a team-bonding day trip to the Oktoberfest.

“It is disappointing that he hasn’t come,” ERC chief executive Derek McGrath said.

Saracens chief executive Edward Griffiths said the decision was his and apologised. “The decision that Steve Borthwick should attend a pre-arranged squad function was entirely the club’s decision, and nothing to do with Steve,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Nantuchova falls to Date Krumm

TENNIS:Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm celebrated her 40th birthday by beating Daniela Hantuchova to reach the Pan Pacific Open third round yesterday.

The former world number four won 2-6 6-0 4-0 after her Slovakian opponent retired with a shoulder injury. “It’s a miracle I was able to stand up after yesterday’s match,” said Date Krumm, who stunned defending champion Maria Sharapova in the opening round.

Second seed Vera Zvonareva overpowered Italian Sara Errani 6-3 6-3 to underline her title credentials at the $2 million tournament.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki thrashed Hungary’s Greta Arn 6-1 6-3 but fourth seed Samantha Stosur of Australia was eliminated 7-5 6-3 by Germany’s Julia Goerges and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova also lost.

The 10th seed went down 6-3 7-5 to German Andrea Petkovic in another upset but 11th-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli avoided a potential banana skin by crushing Serb Ana Ivanovic 6-2 6-1.

England players visit Nazi camp

CRICKET:England's Ashes squad ended a five-day bonding trip to southern Germany yesterday with a visit to a former Nazi concentration camp. The players and management travelled to the memorial site at the Dachau camp where more than 40,000 people died from 1933-1945.

“Following our trip to Flanders last year, this was an opportunity for the players to spend time away from the cricketing environment, learn more about the wider world and develop ourselves both individually and collectively,” captain Andrew Strauss said.

The ECB said the “development camp”, near Nuremburg, presented players with a range of mental and physical challenges.

England travel to Australia on October 29th, with the first Test of the five-match Ashes series starting in Brisbane on November 25th.

Ireland hammered 7-1 by England

GOLF:After such a stunning performance in the European senior women's team championship, Ireland were humbled 7-1 by England in the Home Internationals in Norfolk yesterday.

After a 3-0 whitewash in the early morning foursomes, there was no way back for the Irish team with Donabate’s Pat Doran, runner-up in the recent British seniors championship, saving her country from an embarrassing 8-0 defeat with an impressive 4 and 3 victory over Jo Ashmore.

Sheena McElroy of The Grange battled all the way to the wire against Susan Dye before slipping to defeat while the other players all lost out.

Defending champions Scotland drew 4-4 with Wales.

Ireland will attempt to pick up the pieces today when they face Wales.