Facebook has said it is "horrified" at the abuse footballers have received on social media platforms.

Manchester United quartet Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Axel Tuanzebe (twice) and Lauren James as well as West Bromwich Albion's Romaine Sawyers, Chelsea's Reece James and Southampton's Alex Jankewitz have been victims of racist abuse online in recent weeks.

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Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and former England women's international Karen Carney recently discussed online abuse and discrimination with government ministers and now Facebook have introduced new measures in an attempt to put a stop to it on their platform..

"I'm horrified at the type of abuse that people, especially these footballers, have to deal with on the basis of who they are, whether it's their race or their religion or their gender, and as a company, we're disappointed to see that sort of behaviour that plays out offline also playing out on our platform," Facebook head of content policy Fadzai Madzingira told the BBC.

"It's why we're making the announcements today about taking tougher measures to go after accounts that are violating our community standards and our goals within Instagram direct messages."

On Tuesday, the Premier League announced it had set in motion a plan to eradicate racial prejudice and create more opportunities for minority ethnic groups in football. Among the areas of focus was making it easier to report online abuse.

The UK government recently threatened to fine social media companies "billions of pounds" if they fail to tackle abuse on their platforms, but Madzingira defended Facebook's role.

"To imply that it's about enabling I think would be inaccurate," Madzingira added. "I think that platforms like ours allow communities of people to connect on the things that they love.

"If we need to have a conversation about hate, it really needs to be not what is just happening on the platform."

Hasan Ali's story can be great inspiration for young fast bowlers, who fear that injury could bring their careers to a halt, according to Pakistan bowling coach Waqar Younis.

Hasan completed a match-winning ten-wicket haul in Rawalpindi, which led Pakistan to their first Test series win over South Africa since 2003. But it was only two years ago that he was almost lost to Pakistan cricket. His body was repeatedly letting him down. His groin, his back, his ribs, everything seemed brittle. There was even talk of surgery. It troubled him enough that he wondered if he would ever play cricket again.

"Hasan is a great character," Younis said on Wednesday. "He was coming from injury and the way he performed, hats off to him. This must not be forgotten that Hasan got so much success at a very early age but then was suddenly plunged into oblivion due to injury and was in a very tough situation. I can tell you from my own personal experience from the 1992 World Cup - it really hurts. It feels like the end of the world because you have seen such highs in your career and then when you see absolutely nothing, it's very, very hard."

Hasan even lost his national contract, but he didn't give up. After an extensive rehabilitation programme, he returned pretty much to his very best at the recent Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and captained Central Punjab all the way to the final, where he scored a century and picked up five wickets. The game ended in a tie and Hasan emerged as the Player of the Series for his 43 wickets at 20.06. That performance put him back on the national radar and he is back leading Pakistan to victories.

"I am hopeful now that we have started playing at home, you will see this present lot of fast bowlers will have lengthy careers with success. Most bowlers do well in their own conditions. I feel they are more comfortable bowling at home"

Waqar Younis

"Hasan is doing a wonderful job. I have seen him in tough times being injured and struggling, but the best thing is he never gave up," Younis said. "He bowled really well [in the Rawalpindi Test]. From my playing experience, or even from watching Wasim Akram or any other big successful bowler, I can tell that if you want to pick up fast bowling, you have to know that such injuries will come in your way. Fast bowling isn't a natural act. It puts a lot of burden on your body and you have to be strong physically and mentally.

"I have seen Hasan do all the hard work, the work he put into his recovery, getting fitter, playing first-class cricket and reviving himself again. He is fitter than ever and of course he played a big hand in winning the series [against South Africa] with support from others: Shaheen [Shah Afridi] and Yasir [Shah] bowled well, Nauman [Ali] was brilliant and Faheem Ashraf was excellent in our pack of bowlers. They all did their job and this 2-0 is massive because South Africa is a big team to have toured Pakistan and winning against them is a big achievement. His comeback is a great message for the young fast bowlers out there that where there is a will there's a way to make a comeback."

The time of Pakistan fast bowlers having long and productive careers is over. Since the days of Younis, Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan have gone through 37 pacers, and none of them have really managed to last. Even highly skillful ones like Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz chose to step away from red-ball cricket because of the strain it placed on them. It also hasn't helped that over the last ten years, Pakistan have had to play most of their home Tests on slow and low surfaces in the UAE, which forced them to invest in spin, leading to a situation where fast bowlers were more or less support acts to the likes of Saeed Ajmal and Yasir Shah.

"A fast bowler's career can surely go on for five to seven years. Maybe longer. Neither me nor Wasim or Shoaib played for their whole life. It's a circle and new players come in replacing the previous ones. Look at Hasan Ali's comeback strongly and he earned his place," Younis said. "Sometimes injuries play a major part. Even Pat Cummins or Jasprit Bumrah and few others in other countries, they all have had their fair share of injuries in their career but they came back after rehabilitation with full fitness and they are staying relevant with their performance.

"I am hopeful now that we have started playing at home, you will see this present lot of fast bowlers will have lengthy careers with success. If you see, most of the bowlers do well in their own conditions. I feel they are more comfortable bowling at home."

David Miller aims to use his position as the senior-most member of South Africa's T20I squad to have an influence on and off the field in their upcoming series against Pakistan.

Miller has 78 T20I caps, a shave under three times as many as the next most experienced member of the squad, Andile Phehlukwayo and is one of only four players (including Tabraiz Shamsi and Reeza Hendricks) to have played more than 20 internationals in this format. He is not the captain - that job has gone to Heinrich Klaasen - but Miller intends to play a big behind-the-scenes role.

"I'm secure in my role and in what I want to do which brings calmness and clarity to the squad and to players that haven't been on the international circuit. It can give them reassurance in their role and am looking to help out with youngsters off the field," Miller said. "And then on the field, cricket it's about performance. You need to stick up your hand and perform when the team requires you to. We all need to perform as players but it helps when senior players perform."

That much was evident by its absence in the recently completed Test series where Quinton de Kock contributed just 46 runs in four innings, Faf du Plessis scored 55 runs and Dean Elgar 119 runs, and South Africa suffered batting collapses in every innings. Head coach Mark Boucher was critical in his analysis when he said, "if you want to have a shot at winning an overseas series, you need your senior players to stand up and unfortunately, it didn't happen."

The T20 rubber holds less weight in the bigger scheme of things, especially since South Africa have been forced to field a new-look side because the bulk of their Test squad has returned home, originally to prepare for a series against Australia but that has been postponed and it was too late to change plans already in place. While Miller didn't go to the extent Klaasen did when he rubbished their second-string status, he echoed Klaasen's assertion that this is still an international-quality side on a mission to win. "We are representing our country and we are here to win," he said. "It would be great to play guys that we are accustomed to but at the same time it gives us a great opportunity for guys that haven't played to step up. As a senior player, I would like to step up in a lot of different areas on and off the field."

Not only is Miller the most experienced but he is also the only one who has played in Pakistan. He featured in three matches for the World XI in 2017 and described the tour as "very brief," and not necessarily a good eye-opener into conditions. Instead, the week the T20I squad have spent in Lahore has better equipped them for what to expect in the series. "We've quickly realised what the conditions will be. Generally, the bounce is a lot lower than back in South Africa," Miller said.

The same was true for the Tests and those who were able to adapt to it, like Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma, were fairly successful. South Africa won't have either of them for this series and will instead look at the likes of Hendricks, Janneman Malan, Jacques Snyman, Jon-Jon Smuts and Pite van Biljon to navigate the different bounce. "They've played enough in South Africa where there might be particular venues that keep low," Miller said.

Similarly, Glenton Stuurman and Lutho Sipamla, who have spent time bowling on tracks like Port Elizabeth's St George's Park, where it keeps low, also have domestic experience to call on. "Some of these guys have been around the block in domestic cricket for many years so they know their games," Miller said. "Cricket is played the same way at all levels. The only difference is the intensity has risen."

Exposing more players to international white-ball experience had been South Africa's approach throughout last summer as they hoped to finalise a playing group for the T20 World Cup and begin looking ahead to the 2023 50-over World Cup. As a result, they handed out six new ODI caps and five new T20I caps in the last 18 months, and won one out of five series, a 3-0 ODI whitewash over Australia last March. Miller acknowledged that casting the net wide made it "difficult to try and build things as a team when the team has different players all the time," but expects that from now until the T20 World Cup, the squad will become "a bit more consistent."

That means time is running out for players in the fringes, like so many in this squad, to nail down a spot and for the experienced core to make sure they are in form ahead of October's T20 World Cup. Miller said the younger guys "have to take their chances where they come," and he hopes to find some rhythm after a long period on the sidelines.

Miller last played international cricket last March, played in only one IPL game and two domestic fifty-over matches and missed the T20Is against England for health reasons but has prepared well and believes he is ready to be challenged at the highest level again. "It has been a long time since I've played. I have to start again but I feel well-prepared and organised. I am mentally fresh and ready to go," he said.

Miller will return home with the T20 squad next Monday to play in the domestic T20 competition and then will head back to Pakistan for the second half of the PSL.

The full list of players sold and unsold at the 2021 IPL player auction in Chennai. (Conversion rates as follows: USD 1 = INR 72; INR 50 lakh = USD 68,000 approx; INR 1 crore = USD 137,000 approx; INR 10 crore = USD 1,373,000 approx)

You'll also find ESPNcricinfo's up-to-date IPL squads here, and all our live updates and analysis on our blog.

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Welcome to ESPNcricinfo's live updates on the 2021 IPL auction. If the blog doesn't load for you straightaway, please click here. Also, you'll find our up-to-date IPL squads here.

Last week, we took a snapshot of the lineups across Major League Baseball as we begin to look forward to the scheduled opening of spring training. Today, we do the same for the starting rotations.

As with the hitters, there is still room for a little last-minute juggling. When the Los Angeles Dodgers secured reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer last week, that took the top remaining free agent off the board. Some quality starting pitchers remain on the market and are looking to secure deals even as most of the industry prepares to head for Arizona and Florida.

Among the notable free-agent hurlers who otherwise would populate this piece are veterans James Paxton, Jake Odorizzi, Taijuan Walker and Rick Porcello. They and several others will impact some teams this season; but right now, we just don't know which teams those will be. Factor these names in if you don't like the way your team looks here.

Pitcher scores below are based on a formula weighting most recent 50 starts, strength of schedule and 2021 projections from my system. The league average game score is 50, though won-lost records were based on simulations that used the pitcher's forecast distribution of game scores, his team's schedule and his generated pitching matchups. The top six starters for each team, based on their projected number of outings, are listed with their scores. Other notable starters beyond No. 6 who figure into the team numbers are listed by name only. Team game scores are rounded to the nearest tenth of a point but there are no ties.

On to the rankings.

Britain's Jamie Murray started his Grand Slam return alongside Brazil's Bruno Soares with a dominant win in the Australian Open first round.

Heather Watson followed Tuesday's win in the singles with another victory alongside Canada's Leylah Fernandez.

The unseeded pair beat 10th seeds Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai 6-4 3-6 6-2.

Dan Evans, who lost in the singles on Tuesday, won alongside Moldova's Radu Albot in the men's doubles.

The pair eased to a 6-2 6-3 victory against Argentina's Andres Molteni and Monaco's Hugo Nys.

While Watson is the only British women in the doubles, there are a record nine British players in the men's event.

Reigning Australian Open champion Joe Salisbury, who plays with American Rajeev Ram, leads the rest in action on Thursday.

World number one Novak Djokovic overcame a scare in his bid for a ninth Australian Open as he saw off American Frances Tiafoe in four sets.

The Serb will face the winner of the all-American clash between Reilly Opelka and Taylor Fritz next.

Dominic Thiem eased into the third round but former champion Stan Wawrinka was knocked out on day three.

In hot conditions at Melbourne Park, Djokovic served 26 aces to Tiafoe's 23 as the 33-year-old came through in three hours and 30 minutes.

"It was a very tough match and difficult conditions, while we had sun on the court it was very warm a lot of long rallies," Djokovic said.

"I want to give a hand to Frances for a great fightback, it was a fantastic match.

"It is not the first time I am in this kind of situation but I was fortunate to get through the third set, it was anyone's - high quality tennis, he gave it his all."

American Tiafoe was upset at being handed a time violation and another led to the 23-year-old being docked his first serve in a game Djokovic went on to break in the fourth and final set. He also later received a code violation after an expletive-laden protest to the umpire.

"[It was] an unfortunate warning that took away his serve from him at 30-30 when I broke his serve," Djokovic said. "That was unlucky because he deserved a first serve. It is what it is."

Thiem, last year's beaten finalist, was only on court for one hour and 39 minutes as he beat Germany's Dominik Koepfer 6-4 6-0 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.

The Austrian third seed will face Australia's Nick Kyrgios or France's Ugo Humbert in the next round.

But Swiss Wawrinka exited in a fifth-set tie-break loss to Marton Fucsovics.

Hungarian Fucsovics, the world number 55, raced into a two-set lead before 2014 winner and 17th seed Wawrinka fought back on John Cain Arena.

Wawrinka then had three match points but it was Fucsovics who got the better of a 15-minute deciding tie-breaker to progress 7-5 6-1 4-6 2-6 7-6 (11-9).

He will face 14th seed Milos Raonic in the next round after the Canadian beat France's Corentin Moutet 6-7 (1-7) 6-1 6-1 6-4.

Argentine eighth seed Diego Schwartzman is also through after seeing off French lucky loser Alexandre Muller 6-2 6-0 6-3.

No more than three Scots have been selected in an initial British and Irish Lions squad this century. Five tours, with just 10 different Scotland players having been deemed good enough for the famous red jersey.

The New Zealander, too, has never initially selected more than three Scots, but after opening their Six Nations campaign with a stunning win over England at Twickenham that could well change. So, who are those in serious contention for a spot? BBC Scotland takes a look.

On the plane

These are the players who you can count on being in the squad and who will be pushing for a Test starting place.

You would hang your hat on Scotland captain Stuart Hogg being picked. Gatland selected him in 2013 and 2017, with injury ultimately ruling him out of Test contention four years ago.

The full-back is now a Premiership and Champions Cup winner with Exeter Chiefs and a put in a complete performance at Twickenham, making more metres than any other player and kicking with near perfection.

He will be the favourite to start come the first Test against the world champions.

Despite his jaunt to the sin-bin, fly-half Finn Russell got the better of opposite number Owen Farrell on Saturday and his form for Racing 92 has been red hot.

His variety - even from the bench - makes him a compelling pick - and yet, his style would offer a departure from Gatland's typical strategy.

Another four consistent matches this Six Nations will surely seal his place alongside - or instead of - George Ford, Farrell, who can also play centre, Dan Biggar and Johnny Sexton.

Then there is Hamish Watson. It is testament to the competition in the back row that the Edinburgh flanker is still fighting for his spot given his consistency in recent seasons.

A barnstorming display at Twickenham, though, must have him at the top of the list on form. Watson's main obstacle is credit in the bank held by the other open-sides Tom Curry and Justin Tipuric, who was outstanding for Wales in their win over Ireland on Sunday.

But he will be impossible to ignore if he maintains the standards set at Twickenham.

"Hoggy is guaranteed, Finn is guaranteed and I think Watson is definitely on the plane now. If he doesn't go, it would be a joke," former Scotland captain John Barclay told BBC Radio 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

"The way he carries the ball is frightening and it would be awesome to see for the Lions against South Africa."

In the departure lounge

These are the players who will definitely be in the conversation for selection, but face a fight to nail down a place in the squad.

Jonny Gray is a player who will be in many people's group, and maybe even starting XV for the first Test, after his shift against England.

The Exeter second row has always had a relentless work-rate, but is now more effective with ball in hand and at the breakdown, carrying and making more turnovers than anyone on the pitch against England.

Gatland selected six second rows four years ago and competition is fierce, with Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne and Joe Launchbury just some of those battling for selection. Gray is often underrated and can only keep performing at his current levels and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, Scotland's scrum improvement in the past 12 months means loose-head prop Rory Sutherland, former Lions coach Ian McGeechan's pick to start the first Test, and tight-head Zander Fagerson will also be in the mix, while Watson's partner in crime Jamie Ritchie will be there or thereabouts.

In the backs, Sean Maitland was picked four years ago and turned in another excellent display under the high ball at the weekend.

The 'bolters'

The bolters are those making a late charge for selection, having only recently burst on to the international stage.

Topping everyone's list at the moment is centre Cameron Redpath after his scarily composed Test debut against England, where only Hogg made more metres.

A smooth operator with a composure beyond his years, former England scrum-half Matt Dawson says "if Redpath plays five games like he played on Saturday, he is on the plane". High praise.

Winger Duhan van der Merwe is another who has burst on to the international scene after qualifying for Scotland in the autumn. His sheer power was there for all to see as he battered past multiple white shirts to score the decisive try at Twickenham. His heft will surely come in handy against his native South Africa.

Number eight Matt Fagerson has been around the Scotland squad since 2018 and so has not exactly come from nowhere. However, the 22-year-old put in a coming-of-age performance at Twickenham, with only Gray matching him for carries.

This year may come too soon for him, but delivering at that level consistently will stand him in good stead for future tours.