English Premiership side Chelsea have sacked Adrian Mutu after the Romanian striker failed a drugs test. The 25-year-old tested positive for a banned substance in September. Chelsea have decided to write off a possible transfer fee for Mutu, a £15,8-million signing from Parma last season, who may face a two-year ban from the game.

After undergoing an estimated 20 drugs tests last season, tennis icon Andre Agassi says there is no way anyone playing the sport can cheat the system. Despite the earlier 2004 furore over the Greg Rusedski positive nandrolone test — successfully appealed — Agassi maintains his faith in the system.

Andre Markgraaff, the convener of the Springbok rugby selectors, has been appointed the new deputy president of the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu). The African National Congress Youth League and Markgraaff patched up their differences at a meeting in Johannesburg on Thursday.

A former British army captain who claims to have worked with Winston Churchill on secret wartime operations has been found guilty of reworking a painting by another former employer, the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. John Peter Moore, a former private secretary to the artist, cut up a stolen 1969 Dalí painting, The Double Image of Gala, and used it to create what he claimed was a new Dalí.

It took Bill Nicholson less than three seasons to win the Double of league and FA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur, but he spent another 13 as Spurs manager plagued by the memory of receding glory. Nicholson became disillusioned with the growing greed and commercialism of modern football, but still remained part of the scene.

Australia’s 35-year wait for a Test-series triumph on Indian soil ended on Friday when their pace bowlers ripped through the Indian batting line-up to clinch a massive, 342-run victory in the third Test. Fast bowler Jason Gillespie claimed four wickets as India’s batting line-up crumbled for the second time in the Test.