World Cup Cricket Fans Riot

Disappointed fans threw rocks and bottles, set fires and stormed the field in Calcutta on Wednesday, and officials awarded cricket’s World Cup semifinal match between India and Sri Lanka to Sri Lanka.

The Indian crowd of 110,000 at Eden Gardens was outraged over Sri Lanka’s dominance over the Indian batsmen.

Police were needed to clear the field as fires burned in the stands and outside the stadium. The players returned after 20 minutes, but objects continued to rain down.

Football

Free agent safety Dana Hall, who played for the Cleveland Browns last season and for three seasons with the San Francisco 49ers before that, signed a four-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. . . . The Green Bay Packers won’t match the Miami Dolphins’ three-year offer to wide receiver/kick returner Charles Jordan.

Tennis

Top-seeded but sore-shouldered Jan Siemerink was upset by Martin Sinner, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3), on the third day of the ATP Copenhagen Open. Siemerink joined sixth-seeded Guillaume Raoux on the sideline. Raoux fell to Johan van Herck, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1).

Jurisprudence

A lawsuit filed by Evanston, Ill., promoter Jose Venzor claims World Boxing Council super-lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez conspired with promoter Don King to fix a fight in Chicago last summer.

The lawsuit claims Indiana fighter Craig Houk took a fall 1 minute 19 seconds into the first round of his fight against Chavez on July 29, 1995. Houk’s manager, Fred Berns, said the charges were “ridiculous.”

“Like that fight would require fixing?” Berns said.

Brian D. Robinson, 29, of Atlanta was charged with defrauding Indianapolis Colt defensive back David Tate in a case in which the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana said Tate provided Robinson with $105,000 to buy stock in various businesses. Judith A. Stewart said Robinson instead used the money to pay his own expenses.

Florida State cornerback James Colzie faces up to a year in jail for beating up a man at a Tallahassee, Fla., nightclub, but a prosecutor says Colzie can expect a lighter penalty as a first offender.

Former Detroit Lion running back Billy Sims said a missing persons report filed by his wife in Oklahoma is the result of a misunderstanding and he is in Detroit.

The Nebraska Supreme Court refused to review the case of Tyrone Williams, a Cornuhusker football player charged in 1994 with discharging a firearm and using a weapon to commit a felony. His case in county court was delayed while he asked the state Court of Appeals to rule on whether prosecuting him on both charges would be double jeopardy.

Miscellany

In an effort to avert the first Italian soccer players’ strike, the national federation called a meeting of top officials to mediate the settlement of some thorny issues.

However, Sergio Campana, the president of the association of professional players, said he would not attend the Rome meeting.

Primoz Peterka broke the normal hill record with a jump of 105 meters in the first round and held on to win his second World Cup ski jumping competition of the season at Falun, Sweden.

An international team of scientists announced a breakthrough in testing for EPO, a hard-to-detect organic substance that can help athletes perform better by cramming more oxygen into their blood.

New Zealand’s Gavin Brady, at 22 the youngest of 10 competitors, won all four of his races on the second day of the 32nd Congressional Cup at Long Beach to move into a first-place tie with France’s Thierry Peponnet, who was dealt his first loss, by four seconds to San Diego’s Peter Isler. Brady and Peponnet will meet in the first round today to complete the first of two round-robins.

Names in the News

Georgia guard Saudia Roundtree, Kara Wolters and Jennifer Rizzotti of Connecticut, Vickie Johnson of No. 1-ranked Louisiana Tech and Latasha Byears of DePaul make up the Associated Press All-American first team. . . . International Boxing Federation super-middleweight champion Roy Jones Jr. has signed to play for the Jacksonville Barracudas of the U.S. Basketball League.