The ECB says it is committed to delivering "meaningful and long-term change" to the way that cricket is run in England and Wales, after acknowledging that the sport is not immune to the "systemic racism" that "spans institutions and sectors across the country".

In a reflective statement, issued in response to the global wave of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, the ECB acknowledged that "barriers to [cricket's] enjoyment exist for many communities", and recognised the depth of feeling that has been expressed by the sport's BAME community, not least the former England opener Michael Carberry, who stated this week that "black people are not important to the structure of English cricket".

"We have listened carefully to those who have spoken out in recent weeks about their experiences of being black in cricket, sport and society," said the ECB. "We admire them for being vocal on this crucial topic. We know that systemic racism spans institutions and sectors across the country and we know that our sport is not immune."

On Thursday, James Anderson leant his voice to the cause, stating that the current levels of inclusion from players of Afro-Caribbean heritage in English cricket are "just not okay". Anderson was commenting in response to a tweet from one journalist, who had established that there was a solitary UK-born, state-school-educated black cricketer playing regular first-team county cricket in 2019.

"We truly believe that cricket is a game for everyone but understand that sadly, barriers to its enjoyment exist for many communities," the statement continued. "We have made progress in bringing cricket to more and more people around the country and it is our resolve to break down barriers and reform our structures everywhere across the game."

"In recent weeks we have reflected, and acknowledge that black players and fans, who have contributed so much to the history of our game, now feel disenfranchised. They do not feel as if cricket is a game for them. This must change.

"That is why it's so important that we continue to listen to the voices of those who have spoken out, to educate ourselves and face uncomfortable truths in order to create action internally and throughout the game, to ensure long-term change.

''We will now work to engage community leaders and black influencers within cricket so that we can review and evolve our existing inclusion and diversity work and specifically address the issues raised by the black community.

''From there, it is our overall desire to create demonstrable action, in order to deliver meaningful and long-term change that permeates every layer of the game."

As Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa blasted their way through the record books in the summer of 1998, 17 pitchers allowed home runs to both sluggers. Five of them shared their memories for this story.

Rick Reed, a righty for the New York Mets, allowed McGwire's 13th and 51st homers in 1998. "He was just big. I was like, 'My god, can we just get this at-bat over with?'" Reed said. "Every time he came up, my thinking was, 'Please, God, just don't let him hit the ball back up the middle. Let him hit it anywhere he wants to but not back up the middle.' When I was in the minor leagues, Randy Velarde hit a ball back up the middle, and I kid you not, that hit the button on the top of my hat. If McGwire had hit one back up the middle, I could only imagine what it would've looked like -- or sounded like. Because I wouldn't have seen it."

Jim Parque was a rookie for the Chicago White Sox in 1998, and the first two home runs he allowed in his big league career were to Sosa on June 5, and McGwire on June 10. He laughed with empathy when he heard how Reed had feared a ball being hit up the middle by McGwire. "Oh, yeah. You've got a gorilla up there in McGwire. Those two guys, they were just epic -- muscle tone, power guys. The way their bats cut the plane, and how it got through the plane, it almost looked like every pitch was going to come back through the middle. ... With Sosa and McGwire, it was basically like they had a tee there and the barrel was there the whole time. As a pitcher, you're thinking, 'How the hell do I pitch around this?' That's what we do as pitchers -- pitch around the barrel."

Jason Bere allowed McGwire's 29th home run that season while with the White Sox and Sosa's 56th after being released and signed by the Cincinnati Reds. "It was almost like the whole game was about their at-bats," he said.

'They were masters': It was more than power

Generally, the scouting report on McGwire was to pitch him inside and elevate the ball, and on Sosa, it was to get him to chase breaking balls away. But in '98, both seemed to improve as hitters, the perceived holes in their swings getting smaller.

Parque believes McGwire and Sosa had the same skills that hitters of this era try to find through the use of analytics.

"I didn't appreciate back then what those guys were able to do. Those guys had it all," he said. "They might not have defined it in [modern] terminology, but they knew back then exactly what they were trying to accomplish. Plate coverage -- get the barrel in the zone as quickly as you can and keep it there as long as you can. They had really big flat spots in their swings, rather than coming down and trying to create backspin. They worked on meeting the ball squarely -- maybe not matching pitch plane, but the flatter the barrel is through the zone, the more opportunity you will meet the pitch plane. They were masters at it, and that's why they did so well."

Andy Benes, who played for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998 and surrendered McGwire's 31st and Sosa's 43rd, said of McGwire: "I don't think people realize that he was a really good hitter. ... He didn't swing at a lot of bad pitches, and when you made a mistake, he had a pretty good opportunity to put the barrel on it. So he wasn't just purely a power hitter. I remember him as being a better low-ball guy -- he'd drop the barrel on the ball, and that's not as common for right-handed hitters.

"He would never take practice swings when he was in the on-deck circle. He would visualize, and he knew what every pitcher could do. He took good, quality at-bats. He was a patient hitter, but when he got a pitch to swing at, he cut it loose."

Reed on McGwire: "He was just so strong. You could make him look like a fool with an off-speed pitch, so that he was out on his front foot, and he'd still hit the ball 450 feet. You just hoped he didn't come up to the plate with the bases loaded, or a couple of guys on."

Benes on Sosa: "He could really cover the plate. He could hit a lot of balls the opposite way. Tremendous power, bat speed. He was more of an up hitter. In those years, in the mid-to-late '90s, he was a really hard out. ... When he was dialed in, he was one of the best hitters in the game because he could take the ball the other way. ... Mike Piazza was like that. ... You had to work on keeping the ball down and make [Sosa] aware you might come inside."

Reed: "Those guys just had a magical year that we will never see again. We may see one guy -- Pete Alonso, he may hit like 2,000 home runs -- but I don't think we'll see multiple guys hitting 60, 70 home runs. No way. I don't think so."

'I yelled for the grounds crew': How it felt when they went yard

Because of the history being made, the pitchers mostly carry indelible memories of the home runs they allowed to McGwire and Sosa.

Reed, on McGwire's 51st: "I'm into watching videos, and sometimes I'll bump into an old Mets game from '85 or '86, and sometimes they'll throw in games from '98 -- and guess what one of them is. First inning. It was like a moon shot. Four hundred feet straight up in the air, and about 500 feet out."

Benes allowed a grand slam to McGwire on June 12. "First at-bat, I threw him three pitches, three heaters, and he swung through. So I was like, 'OK, I got him, I know what I can do.' The next time, I tried to throw it by him. He hit it so high that I thought it might hit the roof, but it may have been his shortest home run; it was only three or four rows deep, but it was hammered straight up in the air."

Benes surrendered a two-run Sosa homer on Aug. 5. "He didn't care if the wind was blowing in or out. That guy could flat-out rake. I don't remember that one, but I'm sure he got it up in the air and it went a long way."

Parque allowed McGwire's 30th homer. "I left a changeup out over the plate, and I tell you what, when I released the ball, I yelled for the grounds crew to bring the [protective] L-screen out, because he was on it. Facing those guys, you were facing the greatest hitters in the world at that point.

"I remember that when I gave up that home run to Sammy [in June], feeling the awe of what he was accomplishing as a hitter. I know he hit a fastball -- I left it out over the plate. I released the pitch, and I heard the roar of the crowd. Usually you see where the ball goes, but his bat speed was so big, I didn't see where the ball went. I was just hoping that it stayed in the park. But then I saw him start jogging, and I was like, 'Welp, I'm another on the baseball card.'"

Bere, on Sosa's 56th: "It was one of those line-drive wind-cutters. I think it went in the basket." On McGwire's 29th, which was hit down the line in Chicago: "He just kind of muscled that one out of the park. It was one of those ones where when he hit it, you were thinking, 'Did he get it? I'm not sure.' And then, while it's still in flight, you're like, 'Well, it is McGwire.' Anybody else hits the ball like that and it's a popup to the third baseman."

'Is there a loudspeaker in your bat?' BP as a must-see

As Sosa and McGwire continued to pile up home runs, their pregame batting practice sessions became must-watch -- for fans but also for players.

Willie Blair, who gave up Sosa's 39th and McGwire's 50th, began the '98 season with Arizona. "I remember sitting in Bank One Ballpark, in the third-base dugout, watching Mark take batting practice -- and I watched him hit one completely out of that stadium. If you know the stadium, you've got those big panels that go around the outfield and open up like doors. When he hit that one, there were people standing out in left-center, and they were looking up. All of a sudden, it goes out through one of those panels. I saw that happen. It was one of the most amazing things I've seen. I just couldn't imagine a ball going that far, especially during batting practice. That was crazy. ... There was like electricity in the air when those guys came up for batting practice, big cheers from the fans whenever they would hit one out. They were as excited as we were. They were in awe to see them hit the ball so far."

Benes: "That was so much fun to watch. Just ridiculous. [McGwire] would amaze teammates who watched him every day, and we'd go out for batting practice just to watch him."

Reed: "I used to break my neck to get to the ballpark early, maybe if they were taking early batting practice. When we were home, we'd take batting practice first, but after we were done, I hung out a little bit, to see them crank 'em ... and to think, 'Thank god I'm not pitching tonight.'"

Parque: "With those guys, the ball just sounds different off their bats. Everybody else sounds like they're swinging wet newspapers, and these guys come up and you're like, 'Is there a loudspeaker in your bat? What's going on?'"

When Bere pitched against the Cardinals in St. Louis, he made a point of not participating in batting practice, because he knew McGwire would take his swings just before Bere's group. "I didn't want to sit out there and watch him take batting practice, because that's just a bad mental image for me. I would just sit in the clubhouse, because I didn't want to watch him hit where every pitch thrown is a homer.

"On the days I didn't pitch, yeah, I'd watch it. When he did his little bat waggle, you could almost see his forearms rippling."

'YOU OWN ME!!' What they were like behind the scenes

Both players signed autographs voluminously not only for fans but also for teammates and opponents.

As Blair recalled: "I was with Arizona and I pitched against the Cardinals in June, and that was going to be the last time we faced each other for the rest of the year. I remember after the game walking over to the Cardinals' gym so I could work out. [McGwire] was talking with a bunch of reporters, and he stopped in the middle of his interview and said, 'Willie, I'm going to send you something in a few minutes.' I said, 'OK, perfect.'

McGwire did not hit a homer in the game that day. "I got done with my workout and went back to my locker, and there's a bat in one of those big sanitary socks. So I pulled it out, and it says, 'To Willie. YOU OWN ME!!' Signed, No. 25, Mark McGwire. ... I think he knew he was doing something very special that year, and I think he was just giving me a tip of the cap. It was his way of saying, 'You got me, and you got me in our careers.' I'm sure he thought he wasn't going to face me again. Sure enough, I got traded to the Mets, and they had a bunch of makeup games, and I ended up starting a game in a doubleheader against [the Cardinals]. First at-bat, I punched him out. Second at-bat, he hit a soft loopy line drive to third base. Next at-bat, he homered to left-center. He finally got me."

It was No. 50 for McGwire, which marked three consecutive seasons reaching that total, something that had never been done. "After the game, he called me in the clubhouse, and he said, 'Willie, I don't want to offend you, but I'm going to sign a ball a certain way for my teammates and coaches. But because tonight's a part of history, I'd like to send you one, too.' I was like, 'Heck, yeah, send it over.' So he sent me over a ball that said, 'Mark McGwire 50-50-50.'

"That's something I can tell my grandkids."

Though Benes pitched for Arizona in 1998, he was a teammate of McGwire's in St. Louis during two different stints and watched him cope with the burden of superstardom. "I just got done watching the Jordan documentary ['The Last Dance']." People don't realize that when they go on the road, those guys can't just go to the mall and walk around and kill time. They have to stay in their hotel room, and Mac was like that. There was just a lot more pressure.

"I remember asking him for an autograph one day [in 2001]. I can't remember who it was for, but I didn't have anything from him. He was like, 'Gosh, does it ever end?' I said, 'Mac, you sit there on getaway day and sign 200 items for the other team.' It was amazing. He would sit in the laundry and sign things for the other team, and he did it for every team, and at some point you get tired of it, right?

"I'm like, 'Forget it, I don't want it.' He was like, 'Bring it back.' I said, 'No, I don't want it.' I pitched the next day, he hit two home runs, and he broke his bat in his last at-bat -- it was a single. The next day, I walk in and there was a bat in my locker -- that bat that he broke -- and he wrote on it, 'Congrats, Andy -- great win,' with Nos. 558 and 559 on it." As a teammate, he was pretty quiet, he went about his business. He would help anybody, but it's hard for those [superstars], with the pressure."

'MLB back on the map': The record-breaker and its legacy

Players followed the progress of Sosa and McGwire as they closed in on Roger Maris' record of 61. McGwire broke the record on Sept. 8, in a game against the Cubs, and he and Sosa famously celebrated together -- unusual for the old-school culture of that time -- and McGwire shared the moment with the Maris family.

Benes: "It may have been his shortest home run of the year -- there couldn't have been one shorter. When I think about Big Mac and that whole run, he loves baseball. He loved the history of the game. So he knew ... he knew it was an epic moment. He was so respectful of and cared about the Maris family, because he loved the game, and the past. It was super cool to see that. You don't see guys giving hugs running around the bases. Guys are competing and wanting to win, but it was beyond baseball at that point for both of those guys. For everybody in baseball, it was a super cool thing to watch. I'm sure there are 400,000 people who say they were at Busch Stadium that day."

Reed: "It was pretty cool. McGwire misses first base, and they have to push him back.'"

Bere: "The fraternizing during the game, that did not go on a lot [in that era], certainly not as much as it does now. I'm not saying it's right, wrong or otherwise, but it just didn't happen as much. ... You look now, people hit a home run and they have a whole skit put together that they've been working on for three days in the clubhouse. It's just a different way that people celebrate and enjoy the game. Who's to say that fans don't like that? I think fans do like that, for the most part."

A narrative developed that McGwire and Sosa saved baseball after the 1994-95 labor strife that included the cancellation of the '94 World Series.

Benes: "With those guys going back and forth every day with home runs, it was just different than anyone had ever seen. And they were both dynamic players. People really got into it, and even as an opposing player, playing on the West Coast, we would watch those guys hit. Sosa would be playing during the day [in Wrigley Field], and when you'd be getting to the ballpark, you'd watch those at-bats. Everybody was excited to see, 'OK, what are they going to do today?' In any pitch of any at-bat, they could've hit it out.

"There were a lot of things that helped baseball come back, but there was so much excitement with [McGwire/Sosa in '98]. It really [attracted] the next generation of fans. People like watching home runs. ... I think fans would rather see a game in which home runs are being hit than a 2-1 game."

Blair: "It seemed like [McGwire] respected people and handled everything the right way that year. He and Sosa, the way they handled that, really got MLB back on the map. They had fun with it, and I know it was fun to watch. It wasn't fun giving up the homers, but it was fun to watch."

Bere: "What happened [with Sosa and McGwire] was one of the moments for fans in general to gravitate back toward the game. ... Who doesn't like people chasing down records? I think that's what records are there for, you know?"

They're 'bona fide Hall of Famers': On PEDs and Cooperstown

After McGwire retired, he acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs. Sosa has never admitted use, but there was always a broad assumption that he -- like many, many players of that era -- benefited from PEDs.

Reed: "I don't feel cheated one bit. As a matter of fact, I feel blessed that I got to face those guys.

"Bro, I was just lucky to be where I was. Now would I have done what other people accused them of doing [with PEDs]? No. If they did things that enhanced [their performance], they have to live with that -- I don't. I feel for them, but in another way, I don't. You made your bed, you have to lie in it."

Benes: "Some guys who did it flew under the radar. They aren't looked at as cheaters, while other guys paid the price. I just look at those guys [McGwire and Sosa] as they made mistakes."

Parque: "At the end of the day, those two guys -- they still had to hit the damn ball. They still had to do it early and often. No amount of banned or unbanned substance is really going to help you with that. It might speed up your bat, give you a little extra, but that doesn't really matter, because you still have to square up the ball, in a 2-inch-by-2-inch area, on a ball that potentially make you seasick because of how much the ball moves. Have you ever stepped into a box? You need Dramamine because the ball moves so much."

Bere: "When people were taking that, it turned a great player into [a] superhuman. It turned a marginal player into a very good player. ... It's safe to say if they didn't take that, things would be different. I don't know how different, I don't how the numbers would be different. I have no idea, none of us do. But I don't think it's my place to break down what that would be. I don't want to get involved in that. Do I think it was wrong? Yeah. But if someone chooses to do that, like corking a bat or anything illegal, they live with [the repercussions] moving forward.

"I don't know if any of us knew how widespread it was. But obviously it was, and it wasn't just hitters. A lot of pitchers, too."

Blair: "I've just kind of accepted it was part of the game. It doesn't mean they were bad people. I'm not a fan of it, but at the same time, I don't have any ill will toward anybody who did that. In my career, I probably talked about it more than I do now, as far as not being happy about that being in the game. I still don't think it was a good thing. I've gotten past it. As far as I'm concerned, it was just part of the way the game used to be."

Neither McGwire nor Sosa has come close to election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, with McGwire never polling higher than 23.7% before dropping off the ballot in 2017 and Sosa receiving 13.9% of the vote this past election year, his eighth on the ballot.

Benes: "Those two guys are bona fide Hall of Famers. There are guys who have done PEDs who are in the Hall of Fame. ... I could go back in the last 20 years, in the era that I played in, and say, 'That guy did something, that guy, that guy,' and some of them actually got in trouble for it -- and they're still voted in.

"I think you just have to say: 'This is what the guy did [in production], these are the numbers he put up.' It's not a morality test. ... Those guys are Hall of Famers, some of the best to ever play the game."

Parque: "It's special to have played in the era that I played. ... It was special to be a part of history. I didn't want to be, and I don't want to be, but I'm fortunate. I feel blessed that I was able to face those guys, two of the greatest hitters of all time, but also a part of that home run chase. I got to be honest -- it's an honor to be a part of it. It's not an honor to give up the bombs, but it's an honor to be a part of it."

David Grevemberg hopes schedule changes, including a compressed five-day athletics programme, will attract athletes to the Birmingham event

Commonwealth Games bosses are working on further scheduling changes for the 2022 Games in Birmingham to make it more feasible for athletes to attempt a world, European and Commonwealth hat-trick that summer.

On Thursday the Commonwealth Games Federation announced new dates of July 28 to August 8 for the Birmingham event, meaning it will start and finish one day later than originally planned.

With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the World Athletics Championships in Oregon has also been delayed and will now take place on July 15-24, 2022, while athletics at the European Championships in Munich is scheduled for August 15-21.

READ MORE: New dates for Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

In such a packed summer some athletes will be forced to prioritise certain events over others but David Grevemberg, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, believes the 2022 treble provides the sport and its athletes with a “momentous opportunity”.

“We’ve had to look at how we consolidate the athletics programme to give adequate rest periods between the World Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games, but also respecting the European Championships as well,” says Grevemberg.

“We’ve had helpful support in maximising the schedule with World Athletics so we’re co-ordinating the schedules in that relatively short time frame to make sure we’re maximising attendance and participation from those athletes.

“It comes down to the scheduling of certain events compared to when they start and finish at the World Athletics Championships,” he adds. “The detailed schedule is being worked through and it’s far from complete.

“But the daily schedule will be more at the back end of the programme and be more compressed, going from seven days to five days. It makes it tighter but there are opportunities to make it more exciting and more impactful.”

Recognising that having all three events in one summer is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for athletes, Grevemberg says: “I think it’s a wonderful challenge – to do the unprecedented.

“You could almost create it as a grand slam. It’s a challenge and athletes like a challenge.

“This is a historical moment,” he adds. “It’s up to us as organisers to find solutions and that’s what we have tried to do in difficult circumstances. It’s trying to look through that adversity and create as much positive opportunity as you can while exercising our duty of care and focusing on that athlete-centred focus. I think we’ve got a good balance.

“We need to continue to listen through this process and I don’t think we’re out of the woods but we have a good plan right now and we’ve got partners that are really focused on making the best experience for the athletes.”

The English players' union says it is a "sad day in the history of rugby" as the civil war between players and Premiership clubs over pay escalates.

The Rugby Players' Association (RPA) has warned of potential legal action after clubs voted unanimously to cut the salary cap by £1.4m from 2021-22.

Most top-flight players took a 25% pay cut in March because of coronavirus.

In a statement released to The Times, the clubs accused the RPA of not giving its members "appropriate advice".

Now the union says the clubs have "personally attacked" players and their representatives, and says the suggestion there was an agreement to make pay cuts permanent is "pure fabrication".

The RPA has urged independent mediation to resolve the matter.

GEORGETOWN, Del. – On Saturday, Georgetown Speedway returns to action with the Deron Rust Memorial, bringing auto racing back to the Sussex County half-mile oval for the first time since March 8.

Fans are permitted in the grandstands for this event. The Deron Rust Memorial can also be viewed online via Dirt Track Digest TV, a SPEED SPORT TV affiliate.

L&J Sheet Metal Modifieds headline the event with the $3,960-to-win, 33-lap main event offering $296 just to take the green flag.

A star-studded field is lining up for the annual race in memory of promoter and racer Rust, who passed away in March 2013. Among the expected invaders are Billy Pauch Sr. and Jr., Jeff Strunk, Mike Gular, Danny Bouc, Duane Howard, Ryan Watt, Brandon Grosso, Neal Williams and many more.

The Delaware contingent will look to defend home turf led by defending Delaware Int’l Speedway champion Jordan Watson, who also topped the Mid-Atlantic Championship Race at Georgetown last November.

Both the Chesapeake Paving/J.W. Brown Trucking Crate 602 Sportsman and RUSH Late Models will compete in 20-lap mains offering $1,396 to win.

The Modifieds, Crate 602 Sportsman and RUSH Late Models will be competing for Georgetown’s Sunoco Championship point standings.

Also on the card are Southern Delaware Vintage Stock Cars (12 laps), Little Lincolns (12 laps), Delmarva Chargers (12 laps) and Delaware Super Trucks (12 laps).

Pit gates open at 4 p.m. Grandstand gates unlock at 5 p.m. Hot Laps get underway at 6:40 p.m., with racing at 7:30 p.m.

Grandstand admission is $20 for Adults, $16 for Seniors (ages 65 and up) and Students (ages 13-17), $10 for Kids (ages 9-12) and Children 8 and under are FREE.

Pit admission is $35 (ages 13 and up), $10 for Kids (ages 6-12) and $2 for Children 5 and under.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – The Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour is back in action for the first of two visits this year to Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night, one week after a wild race at Ace Speedway.

Saturday’s Race Face Tel-Med 300 at Hickory Motor Speedway is the series’ 12th trip to the historic three-eighths mile track – and through the years, Hickory has produced many highlights for both the CARS Late Model Stock Tour and the CARS Super Late Model Tour.

In the CARS Super Late Model Tour, which returns to action for the first time since Southern National Motorsports Park in March, eight different drivers have visited victory lane – including NASCAR stars William Byron and Christopher Bell. Last August, Matt Craig became the third repeat winner at Hickory when he held off Bubba Pollard during the Throwback 276.

Eight drivers have also won in CARS Late Model Stock Tour competition at Hickory. Both races at Hickory last year saw first-time winners, as Taylor Gray won in the spring and Ryan Repko took the Throwback 276.

Last weekend at Ace Speedway, Ryan Millington became the 21st different winner in series history, edging out Layne Riggs in a photo finish.

The big news heading into Saturday’s race will be the absence of 2017 CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion and JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry. Berry was suspended for one race due to an incident with race leader Bobby McCarty with five laps to go at Ace Speedway that saw Berry wreck McCarty on the frontstretch after an incident between the two earlier in the evening.

Berry was immediately parked by series officials and disqualified from the results of the Race at Ace 125 as a result. His suspension was announced a few days later.

However, JR Motorsports will still be represented Saturday at Hickory by CARS Late Model Stock Tour rookie Connor Mosack. The young gun finished an impressive third in his debut outing with the team in March at Southern National Motorsports Park, followed by an 11th-place finish last Saturday at Ace Speedway.

Mosack hopes he can rebound at Hickory Motor Speedway, a track where he has run well in late model stock car competition.

“I think we really need to focus on qualifying well,” Mosack said. “If we can start inside the top 10, we’ll have a good chance of finishing up front. We have the speed. We ran there a couple weekends ago, and I think if we start up front, we can stay up front and race our way forward. It’s tough to come from the back.”

Mosack is a former champion in Legend car competition, winning championships in 2018 at the Summer Shootout, Asphalt Nationals and Road Course World Finals. He also picked up a championship in the Winter Nationals in 2019 before making the move to late model stock cars. Now running in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour, Mosack believes he’s in the best place to learn and gain experience.

“Obviously I’m happy to be racing with these guys,” he said. “It’s tough competition so it’s the best place for me to continue learning and improving in these cars. I like racing with the same guys every week, traveling to different places. There are going to be a lot of tracks I haven’t been to so I’m using this as a learning experience while trying to run well and have solid finishes.”

The late model stock car field also features a number of high-profile entries, including two-time and defending series champion Bobby McCarty, 2016 series champion Deac McCaskill, Ace Speedway winner Millington, Layne Riggs, Corey Heim and Drew Dollar, among others.

In the super late model division, Tyler Church is hoping to turn past successful runs at Hickory Motor Speedway into his first victory with the CARS Tour.

Church’s best CARS Tour finish was fifth at Tri-County Motor Speedway in 2017, though he is a previous winner in super late model action at Hickory. He comes into Hickory with confidence after a strong test earlier this year. He also helped Annabeth Barnes-Crum score her first late model stock car win at Hickory this past weekend.

“I’m so excited to get back in the car, especially here at home,” Church said. “I’ve worked through the winter months trying to figure out the all-new setup for the car. We tested a couple months back and I was really happy with it. The car had a lot of speed on old, worn out tires. I’ve been anticipating this race for two months. I’ve been helping Annabeth Barnes Crum this year at Hickory with whatever they need and to go to victory lane this past Saturday was awesome. I told them I would have to back that up this weekend.”

Winning in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour would mean a lot to Church.

“I want to get a win in the CARS Tour and do something my racing mentor, Preston Peltier, hasn’t done — win in both the former PASS South Series and the CARS Tour,” Church said. “I’d love to have that one over him. He’s still a great friend and I miss him out here. There are so many friends that have passed away in the last eight months and I more importantly want to win for them.”

Other super late model competitors on the entry list include defending super late model champion and the tour’s most recent Hickory winner, Matt Craig, Georgia ace Bubba Pollard, Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith, Kodie Conner and more.

The event will be closed to fans, but the series will be broadcasting the event live via SPEED SPORT TV partner Pit Row TV. Fans can watch the action by visiting www.pitrow.tv or carstour.tv.

It was all going so well for Jordan Spieth. Six under par and bogey-free in Round 2 of the Charles Schwab Challenge, Spieth led the tournament by two strokes entering the par-4 third, his 12th hole of the day.

After hitting the green in regulation, and only having 29 feet for birdie, and being a confident Spieth, the chance to extend his advantage was legit.

But, perhaps overly confident, Spieth ran his birdie putt 3 feet past the hole. He then ran his par effort another 3 feet past. And then missed his bogey putt, you guessed it, 3 feet long. Here's a look at the series of three putts from 3 feet.

The four-putt double bogey dropped Spieth to 9 under par for the tournament, and into a share of the lead, at the time, with Xander Schauffele. He then went wayward with his tee shot at the par-4 fourth, his 13th, and made bogey to fall one back.

I was supposed to be in Rome on Friday for the Euro 2020 opener, watching Italy take on Turkey. Maybe you were going to be there too, or perhaps in Baku, Azerbaijan, for Switzerland vs. Wales, or Copenhagen for Denmark vs. Finland. Or maybe, like most, you were going to be in front of your TV, ready for that most delicious of summer rituals: a major football competition.

There's nothing quite like it. Leagues finish and, depending how our team did, we either get to carry over the high of success or grasp a second chance at glory by transferring our passion and adrenaline to the international game. If the last scratch card we bought came up trumps, we ride our luck because we have the hot hand. If it didn't, we're hungry for another shot.

We're desperate for sports, but instead, we've gone nearly three months without competitive football during the coronavirus pandemic. The Bundesliga is back, La Liga is back, Serie A and the Premier League are behind the corner and while it's our salve at this time, who we kidding?

It's not just the cavernous empty stands, either; it's the fact that they'll be playing in the summer. This is a time for a different kind of football, one played without sponsor names on the front of the jersey. With anthems before kickoff and nations uniting behind 11 men (and 12 subs). And a sense that, over five weeks and seven games -- unlike in the club game -- anything can happen. Even little Greece, as they did in 2004, can become champions of Europe.

Instead, Euro 2020 is frozen in time. So much so that when it is played next summer, it will still be known as Euro 2020. (Editor's Note: The Euros will be on ESPN networks in the USA next summer.)

Relive Euro finals on ESPN2 (U.S. only) today:
- 2016: Portugal vs. France (7 p.m. ET)
- 2012: Spain vs. Italy (9:30 p.m. ET)

UEFA have a date for the opener -- June 11 -- and not much else. We'll know more next Wednesday after the executive committee meeting, but truth be told, like the rest of the world, they've had to defer to the terrible pandemic few imagined and fewer still can control.

Their slogan for the competition was "Building Bridges," and it takes on a particularly poignant significance at this time, particularly since most of us have spent the last few months creating distance and fostering isolation, at least physically. In the 60th anniversary of the first Euro, rather than having one or two host nations, former UEFA president Michel Platini had envisioned a competition that would span the continent, bringing together 12 cities, from Rome in the south to Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the north, and from Dublin in the west all the way to Baku in the east.

It would be a Euro of European unity, air travel and crowds in countries that would likely never get to host the competition. The irony that those three qualities -- European unity, air travel and crowds -- have all been deeply hurt by the pandemic isn't lost on anyone. (We don't know yet if the multihost format will still be viable in 2021 either.)

We can wait, obviously. We have no choice but to wait. What these past three months have taught us is that for all our technology and science, all our confidence and bluster, our race -- the human race -- is vulnerable.

And, in fact, it all remains vulnerable. We trust there will be a vaccine, we trust there will be an effective treatment, we trust that testing and tracing will prevent more of the horrors we've witnessed. We trust that, for the time being, we can live with the virus and do so with some semblance of safety. But we don't know for certain.

Yet we press on. Not just football, but the rest of the economy, the rest of life. We haven't hit the pause button on that. We can't. We find ways to cope: closed doors, work from home, government bailouts, distance learning, social distancing, education, washing hands ... all terms that are now part of our daily lives. All part of our fight back. And football -- for many of us, the most important of the least important things in life -- is a part of it too.

- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

At the height of the pandemic, in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, where antigen tests reveal that more than half the population was infected, children displayed signs in their windows that read "Andra' tutto bene." ("Everything will be all right.")

Everything's not all right now and it won't be for a while. And for those who lost loved ones, it may never be. But we have to believe that it will. That this too shall pass. We are the human race. We're survivors. We'll put up with the new normal, believing that at some point we'll get something very close to the old normal back.

It will be all right. And when Euro 2020 rolls around a year late, when we smell the cut grass, drink in the frenzy, hear the band and watch the players stride out set against the backdrop of cheering men, women and children, most of us will know we're all right again.

Organisers of the Euro T20 Slam are aiming to stage the competition in Ireland this year. That is despite potential complications linked to Covid-19 and the fact that the inaugural edition of the competition, which features six city-based franchise teams, was postponed in 2019 due to financial concerns.

But the organisers - who are also responsible for the Global T20 Canada - remain hopeful that they may be able to take advantage of the lack of cricket elsewhere in the world and are scheduling it to run with a start date of August 20, with the intention of Malahide hosting all games. A final decision is expected to be taken on June 18.

Last year's Euro Slam cancellation came days after the GT20 had run into financial difficulties, which included the non-payment of player wages. However, it is understood that the GT20 is unlikely to run this year, due to the Canadian government's coronavirus-related restrictions and the costs associated with flying in international cricketers and keeping them in isolation.

The Euro Slam is planned to feature two sides from each of Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. While it looks likely to coincide with the CPL season, it is possible the lack of cricket elsewhere will increase the availability of players. If English counties are not playing at the time - or are only playing red-ball cricket - their players could certainly appear in the Euro Slam.

Daniel Vettori, Lance Klusener, Mark Ramprakash and Herschelle Gibbs were among the head coaches announced for the competition last year. Rashid Khan, Dale Steyn, Eoin Morgan, Babar Azam and Faf du Plessis were among the players.

With inputs from Peter Della Penna