Lionel Messi voted on Sunday as Barcelona members went to the polls to choose a new president, with the forward's future one of the major issues that needs resolving at the club.

Messi, 33, is out of contract in June and, after trying to leave Camp Nou last summer, one of the first tasks facing the incoming president is to convince him to sign a new deal.

Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa are the three candidates running for the presidency. Messi has not publicly supported any of them but Laporta has repeatedly claimed he's the best-placed to keep the six-time World Player of the Year.

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Laporta was previously Barca president between 2003 and 2010, coinciding with Messi's progression into the first team and the six-trophy year under Pep Guardiola in 2009.

Font and Freixa have both expressed their confidence in keeping Messi if they are elected, too.

A successor for Josep Maria Bartomeu, who resigned in October, will be announced officially at 11.30 p.m. CET, with over 100,000 club members eligible to vote. Voting is usually is restricted to Camp Nou but, due to the coronavirus restrictions, six polling stations have been set up across Catalonia and Andorra, with postal voting also included for the first time ever.

In addition to Messi, Sergio Busquets also cast his vote on Sunday, with sources confirming to ESPN that Gerard Pique is among the other first-team players due to take part in the election.

In addition to opening talks with Messi over a new deal, with Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City among the clubs keen to sign him, the new president will also have to deal with the club's financial problems, with gross debt rising to €1.2 billion over the last year.

A decision on the Espai Barca project, which includes the renovation of Camp Nou, also needs to be made, with work frozen on the €825 million project.

On the pitch, an overhaul of an ageing squad started last summer but there are still big decisions to be made as Barca look to bounce back from a first trophy-less season since 2007-08.

Natalie Sciver thoroughly enjoyed a first taste of international captaincy, saying her side made the job easy as she oversaw England's 3-0 sweep of the T20I series against New Zealand.

When Anya Shrubsole was ruled out with a knee injury, Sciver was handed the role of vice-captain for the tour, to glowing approval from regular captain Heather Knight, who said at the time: "There's no doubt Nat is a huge leader in the group for us." When Knight was ruled out of the final fixture because of a hamstring problem, Sciver had to bring her leadership skills to the fore and she relished the opportunity as England sealed a 32-run victory over New Zealand with 12 balls to spare on Sunday.

"Sign me up for some more games," Sciver beamed. "It's been brilliant. With everyone contributing like that, it's an easy game.

"Yesterday, Heather pulled up not so well after the last game, so I found out yesterday [that I would be leading the team today]. I had a maybe a sleepless hour when I was trying to get sleep but as soon as the warm-up was done I was all right."

Having gone 2-0 up in the preceding ODI series, England were disappointed to have dropped the third game, which New Zealand won by seven wickets, and the tourists set their sights on sweeping the T20s.

Tammy Beaumont carried on her excellent form from the ODIs, where she was the leading run-scorer, to be named Player of the Series for the T20s, again topping the run-scoring charts with 102 at an average of 34.00 and strike rate of 100.99. But when she, fellow opener Danni Wyatt and Sciver all fell cheaply on Sunday, two players trying to establish themselves as regulars in the team shone with the bat.

Fran Wilson, playing her first match of the series, top-scored with an unbeaten 31 off 23 and Sophia Dunkley, coming in a No.4 where Knight would normally be, added a valuable 26 off 29 deliveries. Dunkley did not bat in the first match as England won by seven wickets and was not out on nought when they won the second by six wickets.

"As soon as she heard the news, she was a bit shocked," Sciver said of the moment Dunkley learned she had been promoted up the order from No. 6. "But then I think she managed to get her head around it.

"It does get harder in T20 when you go in at five, six and seven, where you might only have two balls or ten balls or whatever it is. So, yes, it's great for her to get a chance and really show us that she can do it.

"It's so hard to go through a tour when you're not sure if you're going to play and then you don't really get the opportunity to bat in the game... Fran was really key, to be in at the end was was brilliant, so she took on her role really well."

But it was England's bowling contingent who were most impressive in the final match, with six different bowlers among the wickets as New Zealand were bowled out for 96 in 18 overs in reply to England's 128 for 9. Young offspinner Mady Villiers claimed career-best figures of 3 for 10 from two overs, but Katherine Brunt was named Player of the Match after dismissing both openers, Sophie Devine and Hayley Jensen, for ducks in the first over of New Zealand's chase before finishing with figures of 2 for 19 from four overs.

Sophie Ecclestone ended with identical match figures to Brunt, while Freya Davies, Sarah Glenn and Sciver all chimed in with a wicket each.

Sciver said Brunt, her fiancee who returned after missing the second match with a head cold and ended the series with four wickets at an economy rate of 4.17, had been bowling as well as she had done for some time.

"She has been brilliant," Sciver said. "She's been terrorising people in the nets. You don't want to sign up to face her at training sessions, so it's great for her to get some reward out there on the pitch.

"Sometimes she doesn't quite have the luck go with her, or the decisions, so I'm really pleased that she managed to, throughout the tour, pick up wickets where she can and today was really important for us and she did the job."

Villiers had only bowled four overs across the first two matches for one wicket, so Sciver was happy about her return as she continues to forge a three-pronged spin attack with Glenn and Ecclestone.

"It's so good, just to have a legspinner, a left-arm spinner and an offspinner who all have got amazing talent and can come in and do a job for us at any point," Sciver said. "Mady's had to wait her turn a little bit but she did brilliantly today."

In-form distance runner runs 13:05 behind Grant Fisher, while Josh Kerr enjoys big 1500m win in California

There was no sub-13min 5000m for Marc Scott at the Sound Running Invite in California on Saturday night but with 13:05.13 he rose to No.3 on the UK all-time rankings.

Scott was probably still feeling the effects of his recent 27:10 for 10,000m as American Grant Fisher surged away from him with a last lap of 55.3 to win in 13:02.52. But as the Bowerman Track Club man suggested post-race, things are going well when you are disappointed with 13:05.

The Portland-based Yorkshire passed Andy Butchart on the UK all-time lists and sits behind only Dave Moorcroft and British record-holder Mo Farah now.

The elite-only event saw the runners pass 3000m in 7:54. The goal had been to crack the 13-minute barrier but it proved a slight struggle for everyone, although the event still saw great quality with the top four breaking 13:07 as Sean McGorty and Joe Klecker finished a second or so behind Scott.

Scott wasn’t the only Briton in form. Josh Kerr destroyed a strong 1500m field in impressive style with a time of 3:35.78.

Pushing the pace in the final two laps, Kerr powered away from his rivals in the last lap to finish almost three seconds clear of runner-up Amos Bartelsmeyer with Johnny Gregorek third, Nick Willis fourth and Olympic champion Matt Centrowitz eighth.

“I stared at my team-mates butts for a couple of laps and then went through the gears,” said Kerr, who has obviously wintered well with his Brooks Beasts squad. “I was hoping to run a little quicker but it’s good to start my season with a win.”

Emily Sisson took the women’s 5000m in 14:55.82 with Allie Buchalski running a big PB of 14:57.54 behind. Eilish McColgan had been prominent in the early stages but dropped out with a couple of laps to go, later saying her legs simply felt heavy.

Queensland 1 for 183 (Labuschagne 83*, Street 61*) trail Western Australia 5 for 458 (Green 251, Cartwright 96) by 275 runs

Bat continued to dominate at the Gabba with Cameron Green's maiden double century followed by a productive start from Queensland's top order as Marnus Labuschagne neared a hundred.

It was another day where just three wickets fell and two of those came late in Western Australia's innings. As Queensland reached 1 for 183 at the close it was shaping as the type of match where further declarations could be needed to open up a result,

Green did not need long to take his overnight 182 to a double, having fallen for 197 earlier in the season, with consecutive boundaries off Xavier Bartlett although he later admitted there was a hint of edge involved in the shot that brought the landmark.

He continued to feast on the Queensland attack before finally picking out long-off for 251 - the seventh-highest Sheffield Shield score for a player 21 and under - which ended a fourth-wicket stand of 192 with Hilton Cartwright.

Cartwright closed in on a century for himself before lofting a catch into the deep as the declaration loomed.

Cameron Gannon broke the opening stand against his former team when Joe Burns edged to second slip but proceedings then reverted to type as Labuschagne and Bryce Street put on a stand worth 131 by the close.

Track event in Newport sees victories for Lily Partridge and Emile Cairess while race walker Callum Wilkinson slices big chunk off his national 10,000m record

Lily Partridge and Emile Cairess gatecrashed the Elite Only Winter 10k in Newport as they took victories at the South Wales meeting.

The pair had accepted the invitation to join some of the top Welsh Athletes at a track 10,000m event that hoped to give athletes an opportunity to race ahead of the British Olympic marathon trials in Kew Gardens later this month. For others it was an opportunity to test fitness and see how close they could get to qualification standards for major championships.

Conditions were ideal with almost no wind and cool temperatures. Pacemaker Ieuan Thomas led the men out as Cairess, Kris Jones, Dewi Griffiths and James Hunt passed halfway in 14:10 and on course for Commonwealth Games qualifying times.

Griffiths lost ground on Cairess and Jones with around five laps to go. Soon after Cairess began to pick the pace up and built up a commanding lead on Jones.

The Leeds AC Athlete increased the pace further over the last lap to lower his PB to 28:14.30. Jones then came agonisingly close to the 28:30 qualifying mark as he ran 28:33.17.

Griffiths was the third athlete home in a solid 28:45.72, signalling that his preparations for the Kew Gardens spectacle on March 26 are going to plan.

Hunt recorded an impressive PB of 28:59.63 on his 10,000m track debut.

Charlotte Arter led the early stages of the women’s race (see main image), ‘putting in a shift’ to help training partner Jenny Nesbitt who was chasing the women’s qualification mark of 32:30.

Arter, Nesbitt, Clara Evans and Lily Partridge remained intact past the halfway point where they were on target pace to the second. Nesbitt then took a turn to lead but when the pace slowed in the latter stages Partridge pulled clear of the others and finished strongly in 32:33.16.

“It was really good,” said Partridge. “It was obviously a confidence booster, I think I needed it ahead of Kew Gardens in three weeks’ time.

“It was a bit of a shock to the system. I don’t think I’ve run a track 10km since 2016. I’ve just got to recover now. I’ve got one or two hard workouts left and then taper.”

Nesbitt was next home outside her PB with 32:44.26 but nonetheless putting in a strong performance. Her Cardiff clubmate and training partner Evans was third in 32:49.01 some way ahead of her 36:20.35 PB from 2016.

Sarah Astin had been chasing a qualification mark for the European U23 Championships in Bergen this summer but had to settle for a debut over the distance of 34:25.35.

British race walks record from Callum Wilkinson

The 10,000m Race Walks were next up and also intended to offer athletes a preparation race ahead of the Olympic selection event in Kew Gardens.

Callum Wilkinson of Enfield & Haringey scored a dominant solo victory to break his own national record by nearly 50 seconds, setting the new mark at 39:05.85.

He said: “I’m very happy with that. I was keen to get a race under my belt. It was important to get a strong effort before the 20km trial in Kew at the end of the month.

“You’ve got to put yourself through a certain amount of pain in a 20km and so a really fast 10km is a good way of practicing that without having to batter yourself doing a 20km race.”

Heather Lewis was unlucky to miss her Commonwealth Games qualification target of 46:00 because of a penalty due to a technical infringement. Her time of 46:44.77 did not do her performance justice following the 60-second penalty but her time was still a lifetime best.

The races were preceded by an elite only discus event which featured current British women’s champion Kirsty Law of Sale Harriers who followed up a victory at Loughborough last week with a throw of 54.96m in Newport. Samantha Callaway was the runner-up behind Law in Loughborough and threw 48.71m here.

Talented Welsh youngster James Tomlinson threw 51.36m with decathlete Curtis Matthews posting 45.10m. There were throws for Disability Sport Wales athletes Harrison Walsh and Zachary Tandy of 54.81m and 41.39m respectively.

There was no new inductee into the UFC's exclusive champ-champ club on Saturday night.

That's what this UFC 259 main event was all about, right? Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya's quest to add the light heavyweight belt to become the fifth fighter to rule two weight divisions simultaneously and push toward becoming one of the biggest stars in MMA.

Jan Blachowicz? In the prevailing narrative leading into this superfight, the 205-pound champ was just a supporting actor, a role to which he has become accustomed -- and a role in which he has thrived.

In fact, it would have come as no surprise if, mixed in with his victory celebration, Blachowicz experienced a little déjà vu.

Going into UFC 259, Blachowicz had felt the familiar sensation of being overshadowed. Over the past several weeks, most of the attention had been on Adesanya and on the superstar opponent he was not facing in Jon Jones. Oddsmakers even installed Blachowicz as a rare underdog champion. Underdog status isn't anything new, either; Blachowicz has only been favored to win twice in his past 10 fights.

But Blachowicz simply went ahead and did what he has done again and again over the past 3½ years: He rose above expectations and made it his night.

Blachowicz is no stranger to being overlooked or seeing opportunity slip from his grasp, only to step confidently into our field of vision and assert his presence at a most opportune moment. As recently as the fall of 2017, he was 2-4 in the UFC and on the verge of losing his spot on the roster. He has won nine of his 10 bouts since then.

And yet, as Blachowicz, 38, was steadily rising through the ranks of light heavyweight contenders, the division's champion at the time, Jones, was looking in every direction but toward the powerful slugger from Poland. Jones had his eye on Adesanya, the middleweight champion with a fast-rising star and the potential to jump up in weight. Jones later set his gaze on the heavyweight division and its gigantic challenges, and that is where he eventually opted to steer his career, vacating the light heavyweight title.

Blachowicz then proceeded to capture the vacant title in September with an odds-defying second-round KO of Dominick Reyes. But even in taking possession of the belt, Blachowicz still felt the pang of opportunity lost. He is in this game to challenge himself, and there is no bigger challenge for a light heavyweight than trying to solve Jones.

It's impossible to ignore that MMA is fueled by star power and how defeating a superstar like Jones could have turbocharged Blachowicz's career.

Now we'll find out if defeating Adesanya, who entered Saturday's bout on the verge of superstardom himself, has a similar effect. It was not the most dynamic of victories for Blachowicz, lacking a signature highlight-reel moment, but handing a fellow champion his first loss is a significant achievement. Blachowicz faced still another challenge head-on and once again came out on top.

It clearly was Blachowicz's night in the end, but early on, the fight was an even back-and-forth tussle in which both men mostly kept their distance and exercised caution. Adesanya used his footwork to steer clear of the light heavyweight champion's power, and Blachowicz showed respect for the slick, all-angles attack of the middleweight champ, reacting to every feint and movement. Neither man severely hurt the other, but both felt the effects of several significant punches and kicks. And when the championship rounds finally arrived, Blachowicz took over and refused to surrender control.

The prevailing thought coming into the fight had been that Blachowicz's power would be the difference if he could land a big punch. But as things turned out, it was strength on the canvas that won Blachowicz this fight.

He spent the final three minutes of Round 4 on top of Adesanya, who never presented a serious threat to escape the position and get the fight back to standing. And midway through the final round, Blachowicz took the fight back to the mat, once again securing position on top of his challenger, again with no escape route.

The bout ended with Blachowicz in full mount, the most dominant position in the sport, landing punches and elbows as the horn sounded. He took the unanimous decision, with two judges scoring the bout 49-45 and the other seeing it 49-46. It was the first loss of Adesanya's pro MMA career. Blachowicz took the circumstances he was given and made the most of it.

This might not be the Blachowicz performance that will get Jones to come rushing back to the 205-pound division. Jones is expected to make his heavyweight debut this summer, challenging the winner of this month's title fight between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou. Should Jones win the heavyweight championship, the 205-pound division likely would never see him again.

But if Jones' bid were to come up short, especially in a bad loss during his first fight against someone bigger than him, might he look back down toward light heavyweight and view Blachowicz through a new lens? Jones has made it clear, after all, that he looked elsewhere because he did not see the benefit of facing such a low-profile fighter. Blachowicz surely has raised his profile by handling Adesanya, the Nigeria-born New Zealand resident. It's a start.

Should circumstances send Jones his way, Blachowicz would welcome the challenge, even if it would take a bulked-up Jones some time to get back to 205 pounds.

"I believe in the future I will get that fight," Blachowicz told ESPN's Brett Okamoto during the lead-up to this weekend's fight. "If not in the UFC, I will go to Albuquerque and fight him in his gym. We will do this."

For Blachowicz, that was just talk about future matchmaking. As he spoke those words, his focus was on Adesanya. But now that the middleweight champ is out of the way, Blachowicz's full attention will shift to the next man in line at light heavyweight. That would appear to be Glover Teixeira, who has won five fights in a row and at age 41 doesn't have a lot of time to wait.

Blachowicz is on board. "I would like to fight Glover next," he said.

That's the way Jan Blachowicz operates. He took care of business Saturday night, and now it's on to the next piece of work. He is the type to keep his head down and move forward, not distracted by fantasy matchups or being the A-side on the marquee. Being a champion is what he always dreamed of, and that's enough for him. For now.

England women 128 for 9 (Wilson 31*, Dunkley 26, Devine 3-30) beat New Zealand women 96 (Satterthwaite 25, Villers 3-10, Brunt 2-19)

England fast bowler Katherine Brunt led the way in a commanding bowling performance in Wellington, as her team comprehensively beat New Zealand by 32 runs to complete a 3-0 series sweep.

Six different England players got among the wickets, as New Zealand, chasing 129 for a consolation victory, failed to get any sort of momentum going, eventually being dismissed for 96 in 18 overs.

The hosts were pegged back very early in the chase, as Brunt trapped the openers Sophie Devine and Hayley Jensen lbw for ducks in the first over. Amy Satterthwaite at No.3 provided a brief resistance, top-scoring with 25, but once she was dismissed by Sarah Glen in the eighth over, New Zealand withered away, losing at least one wicket each over till the 13th. Legspinner Mady Villiers struck three times in the space of 10 deliveries to reduce the hosts to 60 for 8, before Sophie Ecclestone and Natalie Sciver mopped up the tail to seal the win.

England had earlier recovered from a slow start to post 128 for 9, thanks largely to Fran Wilson's unbeaten 23-ball 31, while Sophie Dunkley chipped in with 26. For New Zealand, Devine was the pick of the bowlers, ending with figures of 4-0-30-3.

Victoria 199 and 0 for 8 need 245 more runs to beat Tasmania 188 and 263 (Doran 98)

Jake Doran played arguably the innings of his career with a brilliantly complied 98 on a demanding pitch at the MCG to give Tasmania a good chance of victory having set a target of 253.

Doran was the ninth man out, edging James Pattinson to slip, having faced 237 deliveries, only five of which were boundaries, on a surface that offered help for pace and spin. His effort, which followed a half-century in the first innings, enabled the last five wickets to add 147 before Victoria's openers managed to get through a testing four overs.

In total, Tasmania fought their way to 199 further runs on the third day in 90 overs having resumed on 2 for 64. The match appeared to have tipped Victoria's way when Mac Wright's 129-ball stay ended with an edge to slip off Scott Boland who then claimed Caleb Jewell in the slips to leave Tasmania 4 for 90.

Alex Doolan fell trying to attack Jon Holland, but Beau Webster (22) and Jarrod Freeman (30) provided valuable contributions alongside Doran as the lead slowly grew towards 200.

A 47-run stand for the eighth wicket between Doran and Ellis then strengthened Tasmania's position further before the last three wickets fell for five runs. Jake Fraser-McGurk held a stunning reflex grab at short leg to remove Ellis while last-man Peter Siddle, who has a damaged left thumb, edged a delivery from Holland that spat from the surface.

Holland finished with 2 for 46 from 33 overs while Pattinson produced some unplayable deliveries among his 3 for 54.

New South Wales 4 for 177 (Patterson 86*) trail South Australia 8 for 482 dec (Carey 125, Lehmann 80, Weatherald 66, Head 64, Sayers 52*, Nielsen 50, Lyon 5-152) by 305 runs

South Australia followed a powerful batting display by making significant inroads into the New South Wales top order but Kurtis Patterson held the visitors together in Adelaide.

Alex Carey scored his fifth first-class century in the Redback's hefty total - one of six players to pass fifty before they declared shortly after lunch - then they had New South Wales tottering at 4 for 115 before Patterson and captain Peter Nevill guided them to the close without further mishaps.

David Warner had made a positive start on his return to first-class cricket after injury, hitting four boundaries before edging behind as he tried to leave a delivery off Daniel Worrall from round the wicket.

Nick Larkin drove a catch to gully and the in-form Moises Henriques picked out point against David Grant who then found the outside edge of Daniel Solway.

However, Patterson went past fifty for the first time this season and closed in sight of a ninth first-class hundred although New South Wales still had considerable work to do.

They had struck early with the ball when Warner held an excellent low catch at slip to remove Harry Nielsen off Josh Hazlewood to break a fifth-wicket stand of 101.

Carey had resumed on 86 and brought up his century from 177 balls before failing to clear in the in-field off Lyon as he looked to lift the tempo.

The scoreboard moved along at a good rate thanks to Jake Lehmann, who made his highest first-class score since October 2018, and Chadd Sayers. Lyon removed Lehmann short of his hundred to complete another five-wicket haul but Mitchell Starc finished with figures of 0 for 91 from 21 overs.

IPL 2021 will be played in India from April 9, across six cities: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The tournament will be played behind closed doors "to begin with", and all games will be at neutral venues during the league phase.

More to follow...