Vancouver - With just a year to go until the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the winter resort of Whistler, organizers are battling to stay within budget and maintain enthusiasm for the project.

Thursday sees the countdown for the 2010 Games reach the one-year milestone and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) has called on all Canadians to forget the negative headlines that have surrounded the event, at least for one day.

Lausanne, Switzerland - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced the lifetime ban for doping offences imposed on Austrian nordic skiing coach Emil Hoch to 15 years Tuesday.

Hoch was the trainer of the Austrian cross-country ski team at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin when the team9s accommodation was searched by Italian police and medical items which could be used for blood doping and blood manipulation were found.

The Liechtenstein national was subsequently given a life ban by skiing's ruling body FIS for possession of a prohibited doping method and assistance/complicity in doping.

Munich - Bayern Munich coach Juergen Klinsmann indicated Real Madrid had inquired about midfielder Franck Ribery but said he was confident the France star would be staying "for a long time" at the German champions.

"We have an exceptional player and the enquiries there have been - whether Real Madrid or whoever - speak for him," Klinsmann told Bavarian television late Monday.

Lahore, Feb. 10 : The Pakistan Cricket Board's marketing chief, Dr Ahsan Malik, has resigned from the post, The Nations reports.

It was not clear what prompted Malik to resign but PCB inner circles suggested that he was uncomfortable with the present set-up.

Malik served the Board for about two and a half years, and was known for his closeness to former chief, Dr Nasim Ashraf.

He helped the PCB to emerge from a financial crisis by notching-up a 140 million US dollar deal for its international television rights, which the PCB chief Ijaz Butt had branded as his (Butt) `own' achievement.

London, Feb 10 : A four-year-old tennis prodigy named Mia Lines is being trained by none other than the man who has coached the champion sisters Serena and Venus Williams.

Mia, who began playing the game at the mere age of one, is a God gifted player, according the world-renowned coach Rick Macci.

"I have seen hundreds of kids come through my school in the 25 years I have been doing this and I have never seen a four year old with such god-given talent," the Telegraph quoted Rick as saying.

Karachi, Feb. 10 : A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) committee headed by Board chairman Ijaz Butt will be visiting New Delhi to attend an emergency meeting of the
2011 World Cup Central Organising Committee to be held on February 19, The News reports.

Butt will be accompanied by PCB's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Saleem Altaf and new Managing Director Salman Butt.

Top officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will also be attending the meeting.