TONY Hand is the man chosen to lead Manchester ice hockey into an exciting new era. The 39-year-old Scot – probably the greatest-ever British born and trained player – has been appointed player-coach of Manchester Phoenix as the team prepares to move into their new ice rink in Altrincham in September. Hand was drafted into the NHL when selected in the 12th round in 1986 by the Edmonton Oilers and has won just about every honour going in the domestic game

Iran have succeeded in lining up two more friendlies in order to prepare for this summer’s World Cup. According to sources, Iran will play fellow finalists Croatia in a friendly on May 28 in Zagreb and go up against Bosnia three days later in Tehran

The 2.1 metre forward for the Guangdong Tigers in China's premier basketball league believes he is not ready for the NBA and wants to concentrate on China, a local newspaper reported yesterday. "I see myself as a national team member," the Beijing News quoted Yi as saying. "After all, I haven't yet reached NBA standard." "As a young player, I must move forward gradually." Chen Haitao, a spokesman for the Guangdong Tigers, said that Yi's time would come

England, Pakistan, South Korea and New Zealand qualified yesterday for the field hockey World Cup in Germany in September. All four reached the semifinals in the last pool games of the qualifying tournament in Changzhou, leaving one final berth to be fought over between Belgium, Ireland, Japan and France. Belgium needed only a draw to qualify but England's Matt Daly scored just four minutes into their match

Last chance is so final. It's make good or else. Put up or shut up. That's pretty much what the $325,000 Coolmore Lexington Stakes is. Saturday's Grade II race at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., is the last opportunity for some horses to show they have what it takes to run in the Kentucky Derby on May 6 or make enough graded earnings to qualify for the race if there is a 20-horse field, the largest possible

The East-West Shrine Game, the nation's oldest college football all-star game, will change venues for the second straight year and move to Reliant Stadium in 2007, an NFL official confirmed Wednesday. An official announcement will be made today. The East-West Shrine Game, generally played in January, was moved from the San Francisco Bay Area — where it was largely played since its inception in 1925 — to San Antonio in 2006 because of declining attendance in the Bay Area

After considerable thought, because that's the only way he knows how to approach life, Charles Howell III made a decision. "Oh, it's harder than you can imagine," Howell said. "Definitely, I'm left-brained, Type A personality." Howell is fascinated by the golf swing. He can ponder it day and night. His idea of fun reading is to pull out The Golfing Machine, an exhaustive, clinical, only-slightly-more-complicated-than-the-tax-code study of the swing

Reggie Bush has dominated the headlines and the pre-draft banter, but he is hardly the only running back expected to be a first-round selection in the NFL draft April 29. The talk surrounding other backs is much quieter, but Memphis' DeAngelo Williams, USC's LenDale White and Minnesota's Laurence Maroney likely will be selected before the second round begins. Williams, who donned No. 20 in college, is often compared to another No

Some semblance of normalcy finally returned to Minute Maid Park, where tape-measure home runs and big innings had been the rule during the first two games of the series between the Astros and Milwaukee Brewers. The Astros' offense, which had produced at least eight runs four games in a row, was ordinary Wednesday night as the Brewers escaped town with a 7-2 victory, snapping the Astros' four-game winning streak

It is hard, it seems, for some of the superstars of yesterday to comprehend the principle of burnout that, through a combination of greed and an almost total lack of understanding of the problems facing the top cricketers of this age, is threatening to engulf the game and materially affect the health and wellbeing of those players