COLOMBO, July 29: A 20-year-old Sri Lankan cricket fan committed suicide because his mother scolded him for playing too much, a press report here said today.

Wasantha Kumara drank insecticides after leaving a request to be buried with a cricket bat and ball and hoping that he will be a better player in his next life, the Sinhalese language Divaina said.

``He may have been scolded a million times because he neglected his work and concentrated only on playing cricket,'' the newspaper said adding that the unemployed cricket lover was from the southern district of Galle. Sri Lanka also has the world's highest suicide rate and official figures show 70,000 suicides between 1983 and 1996, surpassing the number of people killed in the country's drawn out Tamil separatist war.

Junior Maradona signs up for Napoli!

NAPLES: Diego Maradona Junior has signed up for his natural father's former club at the tender age of 10.

Maradona senior, whose seven-year spell with Napoli ended in 1991 when he fled drugs charges, has never admitted being the boy's father.

The youngster, the centre of attention earlier this year when he played in a tournament near Naples, signed yesterday for one of Napoli's junior teams next season.

An Italian court ruled in 1995 that the youngster was the result of an affair between Maradona and Cristiana Sinagra.

German football anthem by a Briton!

LONDON: Top British pop song writer Mike Batt has been given a once in a lifetime chance to compose a major football anthem -- for Germany.

Batt said yesterday that he is putting the finishing touches to running with a dream, which will have its first public airing in September. The 46-year-old Batt has penned a host of well known songs, including Bright Eyes and eight hits by The Wombles.

He told reporters he was undaunted by the intense rivalry between England and Germany despite the fact they eliminated England from the Euro '96 championship.

Batt said he had met German team manager Berti Vogts to discuss the tune, which will be played before Germany's National anthem at international matches.

He said the players wanted something stirring to unite them before each game.

IAAF upholds ban on Greek coach

ATHENS: Track's world governing body today upheld a two-year suspension on Greek coach Christos Tzekos, who manhandled a drugs control officer at a training camp at Dortmund while three of his athletes fled and escaped testing.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) heard that a German drug control officer, Klaus Wengoborski, approached a group of Greek athletes at the camp in February and that coach Tzekos scuffled with him.While that was going on, three athletes managed to get away and weren't tested.

GM eyes long-term Olympics deal

NEW YORK: General Motors Corporation is angling to become the Olympics' official domestic car and truck company for the next decade in a deal that would be the largest sports sponsorship ever.

GM was expected to announce a multiyear sponsorship deal this week with the US Olympic committee and NBC, according to yesterday's editions of The New York Times.

Citing unidentified sources familiar with the deal, The Times said GM, which paid $40 million as a sponsor of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, is expected to top Coca-Cola's five-year $250 million deal with the National Football League.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.