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Pressure mounts on ICC amid Afghanistan women's fundraising drive
Pressure is mounting on the ICC to act amid the announcement of fundraising efforts to support Afghanistan's exiled women's cricketers, who played their first match together this week.
Meanwhile, the MCC and MCC Foundation have set up the Global Refugee Cricket Fund to support refugees worldwide, backed by a 100,000 donation from the ECB and with an initial focus to raise money for Pitch Our Future.
The announcements follow pleas to the ICC to ring-fence funding for the players on the basis that Afghanistan remain full ICC members despite no longer being able to fulfil the requirement to field a women's team under its Taliban government.
The players wrote to the ICC last July asking for help in establishing themselves as a refugee team. In lieu of a response, they formed an Afghanistan Women's XI with the help of Jones and a team of dedicated volunteers, and played their first game on Thursday.
Jones was helped by Emma Staples, Cricket Victoria's Head of Diversity and Community, and Dr Catherine Ordway from the University of Canberra among others, whose efforts resulted in Thursday's T20 exhibition against a Cricket Without Borders XI.
Jones said that for their first couple of years in exile, the Afghan players feared for their safety if it became known that they were in Australia playing cricket for various club and community sides.
"Now, we want to build a really strong community and high-performance programme around these young women, so they can develop not only as players, but also as coaches and administrators, so that they can stay within the sport and progress," Jones said.
Pitch Our future aims to raise A$1.5 million for an initial three-year program which will also include education and life-skill support for the players, some of them not even 18 years old when they escaped and many of whom couldn't speak English when they arrived in Australia.
Meanwhile, the MCC and MCC Foundation have launched the Global Refugee Cricket Fund to support refugees worldwide and with an initial focus to raise money for Pitch Our Future.
The Global Refugee Cricket Fund aims to provide access to facilities, offer education and mentorship, promote advocacy and awareness and build high-performance and community programs for players, coaches and administrators.
Announcing the fund in a press release on Friday, MCC said an advisory board would be set up including representatives from the MCC Foundation, MCC, ECB, Pitch Our Future, refugee organisations, and community leaders such as Afghan women's advocates. "The ICC is also invited to participate in this effort," the statement added.
Aiming to raise 1 million initially, the fund was boosted by the ECB's donation.
Connor said: "The cricket community must take action, to support the brave Afghan women, and to give hope that cricket can be a sport for any woman or girl. We hope the launch of the Fund will inspire other cricketing organisations to support this cause, and to unlock cricket's power to unite communities around the globe."
Dr Sarah Fane, Director of the MCC Foundation, said: "With Pitch Our Future leading the way in Australia, we hope to amplify their efforts and inspire the global cricketing community to join us in making a difference."
Tendulkar to receive BCCI's lifetime achievement award; Bumrah, Mandhana win big
Tendulkar will be the 31st recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was instituted in 1994 in honour of India's first captain CK Nayudu. Tendulkar retired from international cricket having played for more than two decades after debuting as a 16-year-old in a 1989 Test against Pakistan. His 200 Test and 463 ODI appearances are the highest by any player in history, as are his runs tally in both formats: 15,921 in Tests and 18,426 in ODIs. He also played one T20I, India's first ever, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2006.
Bumrah, who was also named the ICC Cricketer of the Year earlier this month, was India's standout bowler in the assessment period, playing a pivotal role in India lifting the T20 World Cup in June. He picked up 15 wickets in eight games at an economy of 4.17 and was named the Player of the Tournament. Apart from that, he was also instrumental in India's Test series win against England at home.
Mandhana, who was named the ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2024, was India's best woman batter across formats. Apart from scoring 149 against South Africa in the one-off Test in Chennai, she notched up 117, 136 and 90 in successive ODIs against the same opponents.
Ashwin set to receive special award
Fakhar Zaman, Faheem Ashraf back in Pakistan squad for Champions Trophy
"Fakhar's opening partner could be either Babar Azam or Saud Shakeel, depending on various factors such as conditions, opposition and match strategy," a statement from Asad Shafiq, a member of the selection panel, said. "Both players are highly capable at the top of the order, with Babar being particularly seasoned in the role, regularly opening in T20Is and also excelling in the Cape Town Test by scoring two half-centuries in Saim Ayub's absence."
The squad also retains its pace-heavy element that saw Pakistan win three successive away ODI series towards the end of last year. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hasnain are all part of the final 15, with only one specialist spinner in Abrar Ahmed. Neither Sufiyan Muqeem, who took four wickets on debut in the only ODI he played, nor Shadab Khan, who captained his side to Champions Cup glory in September, have made the final cut.
Irfan Khan, who was eyed by the selection committee as a key component of Pakistan's middle order and feted for his fielding, also drops out. Faheem's return comes off the back of limited ODI cricket, having had an indifferent Champions Cup in September. Strong showings with the bat in the President Cup in October, however, seem to have played a part in earning him what appeared an unlikely recall.
Pakistan's first game at the Champions Trophy comes against New Zealand in Karachi on February 19, following which they go to Dubai to play against India. They play their final group game against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 27.
Pakistan squad for Champions Trophy 2025
Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), Khushdil Shah, Salman Agha, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah
Kohli lasts 15 balls on Ranji return; Saurashtra eye bonus-point win
They need 97 and have only five wickets in hand against Jharkhand, but a scenario has emerged wherein Tamil Nadu can qualify for the knockouts despite a defeat. That's because Chandigarh - who won three successive games outright in the first half - have now conceded the first-innings lead to Chhattisgarh in a game they needed to win with a bonus point. Tamil Nadu's hopes of pulling off the chase are pinned on Vijay Shankar, who is unbeaten on 33.
Silicon Valley consortium values London Spirit at 295 million in Hundred coup
English cricket has landed a multi-million pound windfall after a Silicon Valley tech consortium won a bidding war with Sanjiv Goenka for a 49% stake in London Spirit, the Hundred team based at Lord's.
The winning bid made by the consortium, headed by Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks, valued the Spirit at 295 million, more than twice the price paid by Reliance Industries Limited for Oval Invincibles on Thursday. It means they will pay 144.55m for a 49% stake in the Spirit, with MCC intending to retain its position as majority shareholder.
The price is more than double the floor valuation set by London Spirit based on investors' indicative bids and represents a significant injection of funds into English cricket. The revenue raised in the sales process will be split between the 18 first-class counties, MCC and the recreational game and is designed to "future-proof" county cricket for the next 20 years.
The consortium comprises Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen and Egon Durban, the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Silver Lake Management respectively, as well as Arora and Satyan Gajwani, who is one of the co-founders of the US-based Major League Cricket and vice-chairman of Times Internet, the Indian digital giant. It is understood that the consortium's bid was spearheaded by Arora and Gajwani, after they were among the last investors to enter the race.
Goenka, whose company RPSG Group run Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL, was considered the favourite to buy a stake in the Spirit but was beaten in a three-hour bidding war on Friday afternoon, which lasted so long that the start time for the same process at Welsh Fire was delayed by an hour. RPSG Group are now expected to refocus their attention to Manchester Originals next week.
Avram Glazer, the co-owner of Manchester United, and Cain International, who are run by Chelsea director Jonathan Goldstein, were also involved in the auction process on Friday afternoon but pulled out early on.
The consortium will now enter into a period of exclusive negotiations with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the host venue's owner, and complete an agreement in the eight-week window set by ECB from the completion of the final round of the bidding process. MCC has publicly maintained throughout that it intends to retain its 51% share in the Spirit.
The Spirit are defending champions in the women's Hundred, with England captain Heather Knight leading them to their inaugural title last year and India's Deepti Sharma hitting the winning runs. Their men's team, by contrast, have only won three games in the last two Hundred seasons, and finished bottom in 2024.
'Incredible': Vandy's Blakes scores SEC record 53
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Mikayla Blakes scored an SEC women's basketball record 53 points after making 16 field goals and 16 free throws to help No. 23 Vanderbilt beat Florida 99-86 on Thursday night.
Blakes' point total is also the second-most points by a freshman in Division I history behind Delaware's Elena Delle Donne, who scored 54 in a loss to James Madison as a redshirt freshman in 2010.
Blakes scored 33 in a win over then-No. 19 Alabama in her last game. Her previous season high was 36 against Georgia on Jan. 2.
Blakes is the only Division I player -- men's or women's -- to score at least 50 points in a game this season.
"I told the team in the locker room that Mikayla had one of the most incredible performances that I've ever seen as a coach, and I've coached a lot of really good players for a long time," Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said. "And that's not taking anything away from them. When you see player like her do what she did tonight, sometimes she makes things that are really, really hard to do look really easy. That's the sign of someone who is just gifted."
Blakes' 53 points also tied the Exactech Arena at O'Connell Center scoring record set by LSU men's basketball player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf during the 1988-89 season. Blakes also becomes the first Commodore since 1999-2000 to have back-to-back games with 30-plus points.
Additionally, Blakes set the Vanderbilt women's basketball single-game scoring record, breaking Khamil Pierre's previous mark of 42 points, which was set on Dec. 17 vs. Evansville. Pierre scored only three points Thursday on 1-of-10 shooting but finished with 11 rebounds and three steals for Vanderbilt (18-4, 5-3 SEC).
Ra Shaya Kyle collected 23 points and 12 rebounds for Florida (11-11, 2-6).
Vanderbilt next plays host to Mississippi on Sunday. Florida will play Monday at Arkansas.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Figure skaters to be honored at worlds in Boston
Figure skaters and others killed in the midair collision near Washington, D.C., on Wednesday will be honored when the world championships are staged in Boston in March.
International Skating Union president Jae Youl Kim held back tears Friday in making the announcement during the European championships in Tallinn, Estonia.
Skaters, coaches and family members on their way back from a national skating camp in Wichita, Kansas, were among those who died when a passenger jet approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport hit an Army helicopter. They included two teenage skaters, their mothers and two coaches who were part of the Skating Club of Boston.
In all, 14 members of the figure skating community were passengers on the airplane, according to Skating Club of Boston executive director Doug Zeghibe.
Among them were teenage skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane from the Boston club and youth figure skater Olivia Ter, who was 12.
Also killed were Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed twice in the Olympics. They were listed as coaches at the Boston club.
"At the moment we want to focus on mourning those who lost their lives and also provide support for the ones who lost their loved ones. We'll take one step at a time," said Kim, who became visibly emotional and paused to fight back tears as he told The Associated Press about the effect of the crash on the skating community. "We will discuss with our counterparts in Boston what should be done to honor those who left us in this tragic way. One way to honor them is to make sure that we provide the greatest event, to show the respect."
The world championships will be held March 25-30 at TD Garden in Boston.
Police boats combed the banks of the Potomac River on Friday morning, moving slowly and scanning the shoreline as part of the investigation into the midair collision that killed 67 people in the United States' deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.
More than 40 bodies have been pulled from the river as the massive recovery effort continued, two law enforcement officials told the AP on condition of anonymity. Sources told ABC News that additional equipment was needed to find additional victims and that the recovery is expected to last through the weekend.
Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines plane. Authorities were still looking for the helicopter's black box recorder, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Friday.
Officials are scrutinizing a range of factors in what National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy has called an "all-hands-on-deck event." Air crash investigations normally take 12 to 18 months, and investigators told reporters Thursday they would not speculate on the cause.
Kim said skaters including European champion Adam Siao Him Fa of France had dedicated programs at the European championships to the crash victims.
"We are all saddened, but this is also just bringing the solidarity of the figure skating community together," Kim said.
The figure skating world was also mourning Dick Button, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and broadcaster, who died Thursday at the age of 95.
"He left a great footstep in our lives, and not only in figure skating but in sports generally," Kim said of Button. "He was much, much greater than a great skater. He was an innovator, pioneer."
This is not the first time that the U.S. figure skating community has been rocked by an air tragedy. In February 1961, the 18-member U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash en route to the world championships in Prague. Also killed were six U.S. coaches and four skating officials, along with some family members. The world championships were canceled that year out of respect for the American team killed in the crash.
Three-time WNBA champion Natasha Howard will sign with the Indiana Fever as a free agent, sources told ESPN on Friday.
Howard referenced her return to Indiana on Instagram, posting a photo from when the Fever drafted her in 2014 and writing, "Back to where all my dreams came true."
The two-time All-Star and 2019 defensive player of the year will bring veteran experience and a defensive presence to a Fever team led by the younger core of No. 1 overall picks Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston and star guard Kelsey Mitchell.
Howard, a 6-foot-2 forward, returns to the franchise that drafted her fifth overall out of Florida State. She spent two seasons with the organization, where she was coached by the recently returning Stephanie White, before moving on to play for the Minnesota Lynx, Seattle Storm, New York Liberty and Dallas Wings. Howard was part of the Lynx's 2017 championship squad and won a pair of titles in Seattle with Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart in 2018 and 2020.
With the Storm, Howard was named WNBA Most Improved Player in 2018 and had her career season in 2019, when Stewart was out with injury, earning an all-WNBA first-team nod, her first of two All-Star bids and her second all-defensive first-team appearance.
Howard, also known for her ability to rim-run, averaged 17.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game in 2024 for the Wings.
Now with Howard to elevate the frontcourt, the surging Fever are looking to improve on last season's 20-20 campaign and first-round playoff exit. This offseason, they brought back White for her second stint at the helm and re-signed Mitchell in free agency.
Free agent contracts can be signed beginning Saturday.
February Marks Start of Road to Macao as Continental Cups Offer World Cup Qualification
The path to the ITTF Singles World Cup Macao 2025 begins this February as five Continental Cups across the globe offer qualification spots for table tennis premier event in Macao this April.
Each Continental Cup will see four players qualify for the World Cup through semi-final places, creating an exciting qualification journey that spans across February:
Beginning in Melbourne, Australia, the ITTF-Oceania Cup (15-16 February) kicks off the qualification period. The spotlight then shifts to North America, where San Francisco hosts the Pan American Cup (18-23 February), whilst Asias top players gather in Shenzhen, China for the Asian Cup (19-23 February). Europes elite meet in Montreux, Switzerland for the Europe Top 16 Cup (20-23 February), before the qualification period concludes in Tunis with the African Cup (25-27 February).
With four spots available from each Continental event, twenty players will secure their places for the World Cup in Macao (14-20 April). The remaining spots in the 48-player field will be determined through world ranking positions, making February a crucial month for players aiming to compete in one of table tennis most prestigious events.
The ITTF Singles World Cup in Macao promises to be a highlight of the 2025 calendar, bringing together qualified players from across all continents. With twenty spots available through Continental Cups and the intensity of qualification at stake, February sets the stage for an exciting journey to one of table tennis most prestigious events. The Road to Macao begins.
Diego Elias loses cool after conduct strokes mar Tournament of Champions finale
The 2025 Tournament of Champions ended in controversy on Thursday night after Diego Elias was awarded two conduct strokes during a high-quality final which paved the way for Ali Farag to win the mens title.
At 2-1 down in games and 5-1 down in the fourth, Elias hit the sidewall with his racket and was handed a conduct stroke for racket abuse. It looked inocuous, with Elias pushing the ball off the wall, but there was certainly enough intention with his racket under the new PSA directives.
The Peruvian then took umbrage with the referee decision and was then given another conduct stroke for talking back to Jason Foster.
At 7-1 to Farag and amid a chorus of boos, Elias had all but given up and the Egyptian raced to his fourth ToC title.
Meeting for the seventh time already this season, they had earlier delivered an opening hour of superb quality, with defending champion Farag clinching back-to-back tie-breaks to sit within a game of the title.
Much to the disappointment of the crowd, though, the match was brought to a swift conclusion in the fourth.
Farag said: Obviously, I thought we played an incredible first three games. Diego and I have been pushing each other so hard. Hes an incredible athlete and an incredible squash player.
I dont want to make any judgements here and now [on the ending of the match]. I really dont know whos at fault. The referees have such a selfless job, and I know that they sometimes get it right, and sometimes they get it wrong, just like we do as players.
World No.3 seed Hanai El Hammamy completed her dream run inside the spectacular Grand Central Terminal overturning a seven-match losing streak against Gohar to claim her first ToC title and her first on the PSA Squash Tour since December 2023.
In a nip-and-tuck match that saw multiple swings in momentum, it was 24-year-old El Hammamy who came through strongest in the latter stages of the match, holding off a late charge from Gohar to take the match by an 8-11, 11-8, 3-11, 11-6, 11-8 scoreline on her fourth match ball.
Its amazing, Im so pleased, El Hammamy said after the match. I have finally got wins over the World No.1 [Nouran Gohar] and World No.2 [Nour El Sherbini] in a row I havent had that for so long. Theres no better place for me to win a title in the U.S. than here in New York in Grand Central Station.
I wasnt even enjoying squash for quite some time, so thank you so much to all of the team behind me. Theyve been through so much with me.
Result: Mens Final
[1] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [3] Diego Elias (PER) 3-1: 9-11, 12-10, 14-12, 11-1 (64m)
Result: Womens Final
[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt [1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 3-2: 8-11, 11-8, 3-11, 11-6, 11-8 (79m)
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