SPORT IN BRIEF
Strauss and Onions up for award
CRICKET: Talismanic England captain Andrew Strauss and seam bowler Graham Onions have been nominated for the International Cricket Council’s Cricketer of the Year award.
The pair, who featured prominently in England’s Ashes success this summer, are among a 14-man list of nominees which includes Australia’s Mitchell Johnson, India captain Mahendra Dhoni and Sri Lanka’s star batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan.
England bowling duo Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann are among the nominees for the Test Player of the Year award.
Westwood hopes to lead by example
GOLF: Lee Westwood says he wants to take on a senior playing role in the European Ryder Cup team for the 2010 event at Celtic Manor.
Qualifying for next year’s event begins at this week’s European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland, but Westwood, 36, is already a near certainty to be handed a seventh Ryder Cup appearance by captain Colin Montgomerie.
Westwood said: “I take responsibility quite easily and players could feel free to talk to me if they can’t find Colin Montgomerie.”