SPORTS DIGEST: Boxing: Frank Warren is in discussion with the WBO after they refused to sanction Nathan Cleverly's proposed world title defence against Robin Krasniqi.

It was announced yesterday Cleverly would put his light heavyweight belt on the line against the Serbian at the Royal Albert Hall on April 28th. But WBO president Francisco Valcarcel claimed that having beaten Tommy Karpency last month, Cleverly must face a mandatory opponent.

Chicago Bulls continue to thrive in Rose’s absence

Basketball:The Chicago Bulls continue to thrive in the absence of league MVP Derrick Rose and cemented their place at the top of the Eastern Conference with a suffocating 85-59 road win over the Orlando Magic on Monday.

The Bulls are 10-4 without Rose, who has missed four straight games with a groin injury. Carlos Boozer scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds while reserve point guard John Lucas put up 20 points to pick up the slack.

Chicago (38-10) have built a three-game lead in the conference over Miami, who they beat 106-102 last week.

The Bulls raced to a 15-point lead against Orlando and dominated the fourth by outscoring the home team 25-11. Dwight Howard recorded 18 points and 12 rebounds but the Magic (29-18) could not get their offence on track and lost for the third time in four games.The 59 points scored by Orlando were the fewest ever allowed by Chicago in a regular season game.

Bangladesh secure Asia Cup final place

Cricket:Bangladesh will face Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup after they eased to a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Mirpur. Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and boosted by the successful run chase of 290 against India, put Sri Lanka into bat.

Sri Lanka reached a total of 232 runs from 49.5 overs with Nazmul Hossain (three for 32) doing the early damage. A rain delay reduced Bangladesh’s innings to 40 overs and left them chasing a revised target of 212 to win the match and reach only their second final in a one-day tournament in their history. They will face Pakistan in the final on tomorrow.

Tamim Iqbal (59) and Shakib Al Hasan (56) led the reply, as the hosts eased past the required score with 17 balls remaining.

Crowe names Irish Fed Cup team

Tennis:Pat Crowe, captain of the Irish Fed Cup team yesterday named his team to play in the Fed Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group III event which takes place in Cairo from the April 16th-21st.

Amy Bowtell will lead the team and will be joined by Sinead Lohan, Jenny Claffey and Lynsey McCullough for the competition which will take place in the Golf El Solaimaneyah Club, 55km outside Cair

Golf: Rathmore’s Alan Dunbar competes in his fourth successive European Nations Cup for Ireland today as the team looks to better its fifth place in 2011. England have won at Sotogrande in Spain for the last three years. Dunbar is joined in the four-man squad by Muskerry’s Niall Gorey, Ballymena’s Dermot McElroy and Reeve Whitson from Mourne.

The event runs until Saturday and also incorporates an individual championship

Brawn dismisses budget-cap idea

Motorsport: Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has dismissed Bernie Ecclestone's latest idea of a full-blown budget cap for Formula One. A week ago Ecclestone claimed there were "too many people in F1 running around with rose-tinted glasses", believing "the sun is shining and life is beautiful".

Former FIA president Max Mosley attempted to impose a budget cap a few years ago, an idea that morphed into the current Resource Restriction Agreement.

Brawn said. “Once you have a mechanism in place, of course you then decide on the appropriate levels for that mechanism to operate on. We’ve made it clear we want to change those levels over the years and make it more achievable to all the teams. But for those teams who can’t achieve those levels, it’s still important to have a resource restriction because they know they are still operating close to what the successful teams are operating with.”

Manaudou set for London Games

Swimming:Former Olympic champion Laure Manaudou qualified for the London Games after winning the 100 metres backstroke final at the French championships yesterday. The 2004 Olympic 400m freestyle champion, who quit swimming in 2009 after becoming pregnant, returned to the sport last year in an attempt to take part in this year's Games.

The 25-year-old clocked 1:00.18, well below the required 1:00.82 Olympic A time, almost four years after failing to shine at the Beijing Olympics.

France showed they would be a force to be reckoned with in London when world season’s bests were set in the 200 freestyle.

Yannick Agnel set a French record and world season’s best of 1:44.42 to book his place in London along with second-placed Amaury Leveaux who finished 0.30 off the pace.

World champion Jeremy Stravius, however, failed to qualify when he finished third in the 100m backstroke final.