New Zealand broadcaster Sky Sport has extended its deal with Cricket Australia to exclusively broadcast all Australian cricket for a further six years until the end of 2024-25.

Sky Sport has been CA's broadcaster in New Zealand for over two decades and the deal comes ahead of a summer where the New Zealand side will play three Tests and three ODIs on Australian shores.

New Zealand are set to play their first Boxing Day Test in Australia at the MCG since the famous 1987 draw, before playing the traditional New Year's Test in Sydney.

They will begin their Test tour with a day-night Test in Perth, which intriguingly due to the five-hour time difference, will not finish until the early hours of the morning in New Zealand. The three ODIs will be played in March 2020.

In addition to men's international matches, Sky Sport will also broadcast women's international matches, the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League matches, some men's domestic one-day matches, Prime Ministers XI matches, Governor-General's XI matches and the Sheffield Shield final.

Director of Sky Sport Tex Teixeira said he was delighted to continue the long-term partnership with CA.

"We are excited to be extending our longstanding relationship with Cricket Australia," Teixeira said.

"With this deal we now have six incredible Australian summers of cricket to look forward to, including the Boxing Day Test which was last played between our two great cricket nations in 1987."

England's World Cup hero Ben Stokes who ended New Zealand's dream has been nominated for New Zealander of the Year. Yes, you read that right.

The official shortlist is yet to be made but the 28-year old allrounder is an early contender among the public nominations with New Zealander of the Year Awards chief judge Cameron Bennet quoted on stuff.co.nz saying, "there's clearly a few Kiwis about who think we can still claim him". Stokes was born in Christchurch, but he later moved to the UK along with his family and forged a career with England.

New Zealand captain and the player of the World Cup Kane Williamson was also nominated for the award. "He's been the embodiment of the qualities we cherish as New Zealanders - courage, fairness, humility," Bennett said.

All New Zealand citizens over the age of 15 are eligible to be nominated. Film maker Taika Waititi and former All Blacks captain Ritchie McCaw are among the previous award-winners.

Stokes made 465 runs in the World Cup and was named Man of the Match in the final, where, outside of top-scoring with 84, he was involved in a very bizarre play.

It was the final over of the game and he was diving into the crease to complete a second run when he inadvertently deflected a throw from outfielder Martin Guptill to the third-man boundary. England were handed six runs, which raised questions about the laws of the game and set up the World Cup's first Super Over. Stokes returned to bat in the Super Over and hit a crucial boundary against Trent Boult to help push England to 15. New Zealand, too, scored 15 in the Super Over, but England eventually won the title on boundary count.

Andrew McDonald has been confirmed as the men's coach of Birmingham Phoenix with Daniel Vettori as his assistant, as first revealed by ESPNcricinfo last month.

McDonald, 38, has a growing reputation as a coach, after leading Melbourne Renegades to their maiden Big Bash League title this year. He has also taken Victoria to two Sheffield Shield titles, and a domestic one-day crown.

He has also held roles in the IPL, where he was Royal Challengers Bangalore's bowling coach, and in county cricket with Leicestershire.

Trevor Bayliss had previously been linked with the role after Paul Farbrace, his deputy for most of his tenure as England coach, was appointed as director of cricket, and as many as eight candidates were shortlisted, but McDonald came out on top.

Vettori has previously coached Royal Challengers, Middlesex, and Brisbane Heat with limited success, and will be assisted by Warwickshire and Worcestershire's coaches Jim Troughton and Alex Gidman.

"The Hundred is a tournament that's generating interest across the globe," said McDonald, "and the opportunity to be part of it as Head Coach of the Birmingham team is something that I'm relishing.

"From behind the scenes talking to players at the Renegades and from talk in the IPL, players around the world want to be a part of it," he said.

"The players that have a clear schedule at that time of the year want to be nominating to be a part of it. It's an exciting new format and they get to put their footprint on it."

Ireland’s Sarah McCormack and Scotland’s Andrew Douglas are among those racing at the Snowdon International Mountain Race

A selection of the world’s best athletes will head to the Castell Howell Snowdon International Mountain Race on Saturday.

The 44th edition of the famous mountain race will host the fourth round in the 2019 WMRA Mountain Running World Cup that started in Annecy and will culminate in Ljubljana this October.

The 10-mile race scales the highest mountain in Wales before returning to finish in Padarn Park in Llanberis.

This year’s race will host teams from England, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Northern Ireland, RAF, Scotland and Wales. There will also be international athletes looking to claim valuable WMRA World Cup points.

The 2018 women’s race saw a first Welsh winner in nearly 30 years with Bronwen Jenkinson storming to victory ahead of Miranda Grant but Jenkinson is absent this time.

Sarah McCormack has won the Snowdon race on two occasions and will lead the team from the Republic of Ireland on Saturday. Her recent form includes a top 20 placing at the European Mountain Running Championships earlier this month. McCormack is also the current leader in the WMRA World Cup following the third race in Heiligenblut, Austria, last weekend.

Elisa Sortini is the sole Italian athlete in the women’s race but knows the mountain well thanks to a fourth place finish in 2015. Sortini will be riding a wave following a fifth spot at the European Championships that saw her lead her team to victory.

Hatti Archer is a former international on the track and at cross country and is now an accomplished mountain runner. She will be joined in the England team by Kelli Roberts and 2015 third-placer Katie Walshaw. Youngster Jemima Elgood completes the England team line-up.

Emma Clayton is a high-profile English athlete that will not be in their team but is likely to feature during a comeback where she looks to recapture the fitness that saw her claim a bronze medal at the 2015 WMRA World Championships in neighbouring county Conwy.

Grant will hope to improve on her runner-up spot from 12 months ago whilst leading the Scottish team. Katie Beecher, Elliw Haf and Gemma Moore will race for the hosts Wales.

Lucy Wambui of Kenya is a big name in mountain running and will be a huge race favourite on Saturday. The reigning WMRA champion and 2017 winner also claimed victory at the season opener in the French Alps earlier this summer.

Lucie Marsanova of the Czech Republic and Claire Chatterton of New Zealand will add further international flavour in the women’s contest.

Italy have been a dominant force at the event in recent years and will be led by twins Bernard and Martin Dematteisin in the men’s race. Both secured gold team medals at the 2015 WMRA World Mountain Running Championships at Betws Y Coed with Bernard also claiming individual silver.

England will be represented by the relatively unknown quartet of Dan Haworth, Michael Cayton, Billy Cartwright and Joe Baxter. Zak Hanna leads the Irish challenge, hoping to improve on a previous best performance in seventh.

Scotland’s Andrew Douglas is the current leader of the WMRA World Cup and the outright winner in the second round at the Broken Arrow Skyrace in Olympic Valley, California. The Caithness man was one of five Scottish athletes in the great Britain and Northern Ireland team in Switzerland and a member of the winning team in the senior men’s race.

Mark Hopkinson will lead the Welsh team following a win at the iconic Cader Idris race in May. Russell Bentley is a notable member of the Welsh team and is a twice winner at the nearby Snowdonia Marathon Eryri.

Open race interest here sits with Kenya’s Robert Panini, Australian Etinenne Blumstein Jones, Szabo Sandor of Hungary and American duo Joseph Gray and Sam Sahli.

Sahli was the second athlete home at the Broken Arrow race with Szabo ninth in the Californian Mountains.

Sprinter is determined to build on his European title with success on the world stage

Zharnel Hughes says last summer, which featured a European 100m title win and a PB of 9.91, was just “the tip of the iceberg” and has left him hungry for more.

The 24-year-old clocked 9.95 in Berlin to secure the first major individual gold of his senior career and he is now dreaming of a double in Doha as he looks to add world and then Olympic success to his continental triumph.

“Getting that gold medal was a surreal feeling, it was something that I’ve always dreamt about,” said Hughes, who also formed part of the winning GB and England 4x100m teams at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games in 2018.

“It can only get better. It makes me more hungry to achieve world championships golds and Olympic golds and to see what that feels like.

“Last season was just the tip of the iceberg,” adds the Jamaica-based sprinter, whose 100m best places him joint second behind Linford Christie on the UK all-time list. “It makes me more hungry but I try not to dwell too much on the past. This season is a whole different ball game.”

The game continues in London this weekend as Hughes forms part of a Diamond League 100m line-up also featuring the likes of Jamaica’s 2011 world champion Yohan Blake, South Africa’s Commonwealth champion Akani Simbine and Canada’s triple Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse, plus Hughes’ fellow Brits Adam Gemili, CJ Ujah, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Ojie Edoburun, Richard Kilty, Andrew Robertson, Oliver Bromby and James Ellington, who races for the first time since August 2016 following a motorbike crash in Tenerife in January 2017  (see the July 18 issue of AW for an in-depth interview with Ellington).

“I’m just trying my best to stay focused and get my execution done, that’s the main focus going into the race this weekend,” says Hughes ahead of the Müller Anniversary Games. “It’s not really about times, it’s not really about winning the race. Once you execute, things will come together and I’ll get the victory.

“I’m always excited to run in the London Stadium. It’s iconic. Each time you step out there, it’s sensational the feeling you get from the crowd.”

With his season’s best of 9.97 putting him joint top of this summer’s UK rankings so far, and with that European title and 9.91 PB to his name, Hughes knows he’s a target when it comes to domestic battles and is considering running both the 100m and the 200m at the British Championships in Birmingham next month as he aims to contest both events at the World Championships.

“The times I have been running so far, it’s definitely not where I want to be,” he says. “I know I’m ahead of that, it’s just that I’ve been messing up my execution a bit.

“I do know that the guys are looking at me because I won the European Championships last season and I’m running consistent nine seconds, so I’ve definitely become a target.

“The focus is to better my time leading up toward the championships. Once I get that done it gives me more confidence than I already have. Once I get through trials and all goes well, I’m healthy – I get to Doha and I just need to do what I need to do.”

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. – Despite the tremendous efforts of the Orange County Fair Speedway crew, the Super DIRTcar Series Battle of the Midway 100 has been rained out.

Rains unpredictably persisted throughout the afternoon and evening.

Super DIRTcar Series officials and Orange County Fair Speedway officials are working on a rain date, but there no future date set at this time.

Next up, the Super DIRTcar Series heads north to Quebec on Monday, July 22 at Autodrome Drummond. Then on Tuesday, July 23 the series goes to Autodrome Drummond.

SEATTLE -- Ron Francis has all kinds of eye-popping statistics attached to his Hall of Fame career. He averaged more than point a game, is second in NHL history in assists behind Wayne Gretzky and is fifth in career points.

When CEO Tod Leiweke and the ownership group of the Seattle NHL expansion team looked at his playing résumé, though, they were most impressed by another statistic: Francis was voted captain by three teams for 14 of his 23 years, first earning the role at age 21.

That leadership ability spurred them to hire Francis on Thursday as general manager of the yet-to-be-named team -- well ahead of their schedule.

"Ownership made an incredible commitment ... in supporting this idea of let's do this a year early," Leiweke said. "If we're really here working for our fans, let's reward their belief. They said we're willing to make this commitment a year early. We're willing to bring on a general manager earlier than any other expansion team in the history of the NHL and that gift of an additional year will serve us well and give us a chance to scout and build and plan. But we had to find the right person."

They believe the 56-year-old Francis is that person, announcing his hiring at a news conference that was attended by the mayor and a state senator. He'll have complete control of building the organization under Leiweke. Francis said he already has drawn up an organizational chart that will guide hiring as the team prepares to open play in 2021 as the NHL's 32nd franchise.

And he already has started daydreaming about how his team will look.

"I think if you look at my past experience, it's a team that's fast," Francis said. "I think it's a team that needs to have skill and hockey sense. I like a team that's extremely competitive. And for me I think you need a team that has character. It's easy to be a good person when things are going well. When things get a little bit tough, that's when character rises to the top and pulls you through those tough times."

Character defined Francis' playing career. Jaromir Jagr, his teammate on the 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins, called Francis perhaps the most underrated player in NHL history. After starting his career as the No. 4 overall pick in the 1981 draft for the Hartford Whalers, he played for the Penguins and the Toronto Maple Leafs before returning to the Whalers in 1998 after they moved to Carolina.

He guided that team to the Stanley Cup Final before retiring. He joined the Hurricanes' front office and worked through a number of jobs under Hall of Fame GM Jim Rutherford, including assistant GM and associate head coach. He was promoted to GM in 2014 when Rutherford left for Pittsburgh and held that position until an ownership change in 2018, a year before Carolina played in the finals.

Francis said he was depressed after leaving the Hurricanes, but found his drive again while working at the Spengler Cup and with Hockey Canada during last year's world championships.

"Getting around the NHL players again, the NHL coaches and stuff, the passion started burning again and I thought, 'OK this is really where I want to be,'" Francis said. "And when Tod called, I looked at the opportunity and said, 'What a great chance.' We get to build it from the ground up. We get to establish our culture and how we want to do it. I think it's a unique opportunity. It doesn't happen every day."