Brett Lee retires from international cricket - ESPN.co.uk
Brett Lee has confirmed his retirement from international cricket, but he has declared his intention to play on in the Big Bash League and the IPL. Lee, 35, had originally planned to retire after the ICC World Twenty20 in September, but after flying home early from the ODI series in England due to a calf injury, he decided the time was right to make way for Australia's young fast bowlers.
He will depart the game as the equal leading wicket taker for Australia in one-day internationals, having moved level with Glenn McGrath on 380 victims, although McGrath also took one wicket for the ICC World XI, taking his career tally to 381. Lee retired from Test cricket in February 2010, but remained a valuable player in the shorter formats, for his country and his various domestic teams around the world.
Lee's final appearance for Australia came in Durham last week, when he hurt his calf while bowling the third over of his 221st one-day international. Lee said he wondered as he was clapped off whether it would be the end of his international career, and he made his decision on Friday morning before making the retirement official with an announcement at the SCG.
"I guess you ask yourself a lot of questions when you've been injured or been through a tough time," Lee said. "It's been the last two or three nights I have thought about it a lot. I woke up this morning and I knew this was the right day to do it.
"In a team environment you have to be committed 100%, both mentally and physically. Looking at the next two months I just didn't have that desire any more. It wouldn't be fair on me or the rest of the team if I was to go over there with that attitude - not lack of commitment, but you just get to a point in your life when you decide enough is enough.
"The great run must end. It was going to be post-World Cup [Twenty20]. We had spoken about that with the selectors and that was the time I was going to walk away from the game. But I woke up this morning and just felt like I was ready. It was time to go."
Lee made his debut for Australia in the 1999 Boxing Day Test against India and he will retire as international cricket's tenth leading wicket taker of all time, with 718 victims across all three formats. He has been involved in a World Cup triumph in 2003 and three successful Ashes campaigns, and although he will leave on the low of a 4-0 one-day loss to England, Lee said he was confident Australia were heading in the right direction.
"What I can say about the Australian cricket team right now is that we are guided by a terrific guy in Michael Clarke," Lee said. "I think he's been a terrific captain. He's got a great cricket brain. We've just got to back the guys we've got around us and realise that we don't make superstars overnight.
"We can't expect guys to go out there and get five-for in their first match, or a hundred. The guys need to take time to get used to their spot. There's a lot of unfair pressure coming from all angles on the players these days. Pick a group and try to stick with them I reckon is the best advice."
One of those young men who will play a key role in Australia's fortunes over the next decade is Pat Cummins, the 19-year-old fast bowler. Cummins has already been struck down by a number of injuries and has taken advice from Lee, who said he was excited to see what Cummins could deliver over the next few years.
"He's got so much talent. If I had half his talent that he's got at 19, you'd take a million Test wickets," Lee said. "He's a wonderful guy, he's a guy that listens, he's got a great body to bowl fast. The thing I told him the other day is that you are going to get injured, unfortunately. If you put yourself and your body on the line every single time you bowl a ball, the chances are you will get injured.
"You've got to learn how to deal with that, learn how to deal with the media saying you're injury prone, how to deal with people saying you've got to bowl 150ks every single ball. It's tough, it's challenging. I know that he can do it."
Lee was in and out of Australia's side so often due to injury in his career that he said he'd had "more sequels or comebacks than Rambo". He missed the 2007 World Cup due to a serious ankle injury and also suffered back, abdomen, side, elbow and foot problems throughout his 13-year international career, but he said he had no regrets about the toll his style had taken on his body.
"It may be a little bit crazy to be a fast bowler, to put your body on the line every single time," Lee said. "I've always said that if you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space. That's the way I've always played my cricket. If I've done something I've done it pretty well [injuries]. This calf tear is the first proper torn muscle I've had in 20 years of cricket, so I can't really ask my body for much more than that.
"There's still the Big Bash, there's the IPL. I'm not totally losing my cricket thrill or the chance to play cricket. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to play here [the SCG] again. Obviously it won't be for the Australian cricket team, which will be sad. But I know I've made that right call."
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Rangers to discover SFL fate - Football
Published: 13 Jul 2012 - 06:47:02
Rangers newco will discover today whether they will be playing in the First Division or Third Division of the Scottish Football League next season.
The SFL clubs meet at Hampden this morning to vote on the fate of Charles Green's Sevco Scotland Limited, who were refused admission into the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
The vast majority of SFL clubs who have made their views known favour putting Ally McCoist's side into the bottom tier, including Dunfermline, who refused to change their stance despite the package of radical reforms which were revealed on Wednesday as a carrot for clubs to ensure Rangers newco would start afresh in the second tier.
Pars chairman John Yorkston told Press Association Sport that "there was no dissent and the vote was unanimous" at a board meeting yesterday to discuss the proposals. He said: "We are not against the proposals but we are against them being linked to Rangers being put into the First Division. It is time to change Scottish football for all, not just for one or two."
According to Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan, the placing of the Govan club into the Third Division would bring financial catastrophe and a "slow, lingering death" of the game. To that end, the SFA, the Scottish Premier League and the SFL announced a series of proposals which would see the SPL increase to 14 teams for the beginning of season 2013/14.
Changes to the size of the other leagues as well as the merging of the ruling bodies, the redistribution of monies, parachute payments, play-offs and a pyramid system are also on the agenda. However, there are no guarantees that those proposals have turned the tide in the favour of Rangers being voted into the First Division.
Clyde added another layer of uncertainty when they claimed insufficient knowledge of Rangers newco made it "impossible" and "irresponsible" for any of the SFL clubs to consider admitting the Ibrox club into the organisation at all, never mind straight into the First Division.
"We discussed that issue as well and there will be questions asked at the meeting before the vote takes place," said Yorkston.
Dundee have been asked not to vote which suggests the Dark Blues, who were runners-up to First Division winners Ross County, and not Dunfermline, who were relegated out of the SPL, will be asked to take the place of Rangers.
Airdrie will abstain due to a conflict of interest. If Rangers newco are forced to play in Division Three then Airdrie stand to be promoted. The Lanarkshire club lost out in the end of season play-off final to Dumbarton for promotion to the First Division.
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Syrian activists allege new massacre - CBC
Syrian activists have posted videos they say show at least 17 of the dozens of people reportedly killed in heavy government shelling of a farming village in central Syria.
If confirmed, the massacre in the village of Tremseh would be the latest in a string of deadly assaults by President Bashar Assad's regime as it tries to crush dissent since a nationwide uprising erupted over a year ago.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said early Friday it had reports of more than 150 killed in heavy government shelling there the previous day, though it had collected only 30 names of the victims.
One of the posted videos shows the dead bodies of 15 men lined up on a floor. Some are covered in blood and have wounds to their heads and chests. A second video shows a man's body lying on a hospital gurney.
Yet another video shows a young man wailing over the body of an elderly grey-haired man wrapped in a blanket and lying in the street.
"Come on, dad. For the sake of God, get up," the man sobs. A boom is heard in the background.
Much remains unclear about Thursday's killings in Tremseh, a farming village some 15 kilometres northwest of the central city of Hama. Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, said Friday the dead numbered more than 200. It gave no information on how it arrived at that number.
One resident, Laith al-Hamwi, said by phone midday Thursday that government troops were shelling Tremseh with tanks from nearby locations and that many people had fled. He said he thought more than 60 people had been killed but that no one could enter the village because of the shelling.
"There is no way we could take the wounded to the hospital because all the roads are blocked," said al-Hamwi, who had fled the village hours earlier.
Residents could not immediately be reached by telephone on Friday, and activist claims and videos could not be independently verified.
Government blames "armed terrorist groups"
The Syrian government gave a very different story of the Tremseh killing, with the state news agency saying that dozens of members of "armed terrorist groups" had raided the village and were randomly firing on residents.
Security forces clashed with the armed men, killing and capturing many of them, the report said. It said three soldiers and some 50 residents were killed.
The agency provided no photos or videos. Assad's regime has denied popular calls for political reform since the start of the country's revolt in March, 2011, and refers to those seeking its overthrow as terrorists.
According to activists' estimates, the conflict is believed to have killed more than 17,000 people, most of them civilians. The government says more than 4,000 members of the security forces have been killed. It does not provide numbers of civilian dead.
Canada's Teachers' to buy majority stake in Helly Hansen - Reuters UK
* Teachers' to buy 75 pct of clothing maker Helly Hansen
* Fund to buy stake from Nordic private equity firm Altor
* Deal terms not disclosed; Altor to retain 25 pct stake
By Euan Rocha
TORONTO, July 13 (Reuters) - One of Canada's largest pension funds has agreed to buy a majority stake in Norwegian outdoor clothing brand Helly Hansen from Nordic private equity firm Altor.
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan -- better known simply as Teachers' -- said on Friday it was buying roughly 75 percent of the Nordic company, which designs and markets high-performance outdoor apparel. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The pension fund, which is buying the stake through its private equity arm Teachers' Private Capital (TPC), said Altor would retain a 25 percent equity interest in Helly Hansen.
Altor put the clothing brand up for sale earlier this year.
A number of major retailers including apparel giant VF Corp, , U.S. consumer products maker Jarden Corp, French luxury and retail group PPR -- owner of both Gucci and Puma -- and Columbia Sportswear Co all expressed some level of interest in the company, according to banking and industry sources.
Oslo-based Helly Hansen, with roughly 500 employees, drew in revenues of 1.58 billion Norwegian crowns ($257 million) in 2011.
"We see excellent opportunities to continue growing revenues and international awareness outside the core European markets," said Jo Taylor, TPC's European head, in a statement.
With roughly C$117 billion ($114 billion) in net assets Teachers' is the largest single-profession pension plan in Canada. It invests and administers the pensions of about 300,000 active and retired teachers in Ontario, Canada's most populous province.
TPC manages a global portfolio valued at about C$12 billion. Teachers' private equity investments over the last two decades have achieved an average annualized return of close to 20 percent.
Teachers' and Canadian peers like Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and Caisse de depot et placement have been among the world's most active dealmakers in recent years, making major bets both in Canada and overseas. The investments have focused largely around real estate, natural resources and infrastructure projects.
HELLY HANSEN DEAL
Altor bought Helly Hansen in 2006 for reportedly around 800 million Norwegian crowns. At the time the company had launched a reorganization plan based on integrating production with sales, and cutting underperforming staff and stores.
The private equity firm reportedly recovered its initial investment in Helly Hansen over a year ago, when it sold Helly Hansen Pro -- a subsidiary that focused on survival suits, boat canopies and textile-based products for agriculture, industry and health sectors -- to Montagu Private Equity.
Helly Hansen traces its roots back to a Norwegian mariner of the same name, who produced his first oilskin weather protective waterproof jacket in 1877. It today produces specialty sailing, skiing and outdoor gear.
"We are pleased to have Teachers' as a long-term owner of the company," said Helly Hansen Chief Executive Peter Sjolander in a statement.
"The fund's strong financial backing and established global footprint will be invaluable as we look to expand the Helly Hansen brand internationally, particularly in North America."
($1 = 6.1302 Norwegian krones)
($1 = 1.0248 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Mark Potter)
SAP software revenue increases by over a quarter - CIO UK
SAP's software revenue grew to €1.06bn (£837m)in its second quarter, an increase 26 per cent. The report comes in at the high end of expectations.
SAP, which will release its full second-quarter results on 24 July said software and software-related services revenues rose 21 percent to €3.12bn.
Operating profit was up seven per cent to €0.92bn, SAP said.
The results were reported according to IFRS (international financial reporting standards).
"Our record performance speaks for itself. We delivered double-digit growth in all regions driven by strong momentum from the core as well as SAP HANA, mobile and the cloud," co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe said in a statement.
SAP's HANA in-memory database and other database technologies had significant deals in all regions in the quarter.
HANA was first released last year and is being positioned as a future convergence point for all of SAP's software.
The company recently acquired SuccessFactors to improve its hand in the cloud software marke, which has contributed to a growth in the company's headcount by about 5,000 this year.
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