Sport in brief: ECB fears Champions League plan

Cricket: The England and Wales Cricket Board has expressed "serious concern" at plans to hold this year's Twenty20 Champions League during the final two weeks of the English season.

Lalit Modi, the Indian Premier League commissioner, announced on his Twitter account yesterday that the club competition – first held in 2009 – will take place between 10-26 September, thereby coinciding with the final two rounds of the County Championship, the semi-finals and final of the county 40-Over league and the NatWest ODI Series between England and Pakistan. "It would be a great shame for the Champions League to be deprived of teams and players by this change of date," said an ECB spokesman. "We have called on them to review all the alternatives."

Anger at latest America's Cup delay

Sailing: Frustration is turning to anger at the America's Cup as a second attempt to run the first of the best of three races fizzled into nothing yesterday.

Principal race officer Harold Bennett said of the next scheduled day for racing: "I have heard that we're looking at extreme conditions again on Friday," and brushed aside suggestions of building more flexibility into the schedule. He said that neither team would have done well in the conditions, with safety being one of the reasons for keeping the 90-foot multihulls docked. He added that Valencia in February "is not the best place" for a race with a total of only five or six days every three weeks available here at this time of year. Stuart Alexander