Latest - Silver Fern Kayla Johnson won't play for the New South Wales Swifts in the Australia domestic competition this season after announcing the pending arrival of her first child.
Kayla Johnson Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2017 www.photosport.nz
Johnson (nee Cullen) will take time away from the sport, leaving the Swifts to seek a replacement.
The 47-Test veteran featured as a replacement player late in the Swifts' premiership-winning campaign last year and had signed her first full-season Super Netball contract for 2020.
She moved to Sydney last year to be with husband Shaun Johnson, who left the Warriors to join the Cronulla Sharks rugby league club.
Selby-Rickit to make Highlanders debut
Southland lock Manaaki Selby-Rickit is set to make his Highlanders debut after returning from a four-match ban for an assault conviction.
Selby-Rickit is on the bench for Friday's Super Rugby clash with the Rebels in Dunedin.
All Blacks loose forward Shannon Frizell is being rested.
Selby-Rickit made his return to rugby for the Highlanders development team last weekend after serving a New Zealand Rugby ban following an assault conviction last year.
Selby-Rickit was last year convicted of injuring with reckless disregard following an incident in Invercargill which left his victim with a broken jaw.
Bayern thump Chelsea
Two second-half goals in less than three minutes from Serge Gnabry and another from prolific Pole Robert Lewandowski earned Bayern Munich a thumping 3-0 victory at Chelsea in their Champions League last 16, first leg game in London.
Serge Gnabry Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The German champions, sharper and livelier than their hosts, piled on the pressure from the start of the match and the stats showed they enjoyed 63% possession.
It was a bad night for Chelsea, whose home form under Frank Lampard has been suspect all season, and their misery was complete in the 83rd minute when wing back Marcos Alonso was sent off for violent conduct after he caught Lewandowski in the face with his arm.
Antoine Griezmann's second-half equaliser handed Barcelona a vital away goal and earned them a 1-1 draw at Napoli in their game.
A superb curling strike from Dries Mertens put the home side in front in the first half and saw the Belgian draw level with Marek Hamsik as Napoli's all-time top scorer in all competitions with 121 goals.
The second leg games are on March 16th.
-Reuters
Alonso to race Indy 500
Fernando Alonso will race at this year's Indianapolis 500 for McLaren.
Fernando Alonso Photo: PHOTOSPORT
It will the two-time Formula 1 champion's third attempt at the race as he seeks to secure motorsport's 'triple crown'.
The Spaniard, 38, has won the Monaco Grand Prix and Le Mans twice and an Indy 500 win would make him only the second man in history to secure all three, after Graham Hill.
Alonso said: "I am a racer and the Indy 500 is the greatest race in the world."
A successful run at Indy for Alonso with McLaren this year would also act as a form of redemption after a poor debut for the company's new Indycar team at the race last year.
Alonso failed to qualify as a result of a mismanaged assault on the race by a team that lacked preparation.
McLaren have regrouped for 2020 and have joined forces with the Schmidt Peterson team to create a new outfit called Arrow McLaren SP.
-BBC
Coronavirus continues to hit sports
Coronavirus concerns have forced the postponment of South Korea's table tennis world championships and the latest round of J League football while prompting doubts about a Six Nations rugby fixture in Italy.
Rome Olympic Stadium Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The table tennis titles were scheduled for March 22-29 in the southern city of Busan but will be pushed back provisionally to June 21-28, organisers say.
South Korean authorities have been battling a surge of new coronavirus cases that took the nation's tally to 893 on Tuesday. Nine have died from the virus in the country.
The overall death toll from the flu-like virus, which originated in China, has exceeded 2600 while more than 80,000 have been infected.
Meanwhile, Japan, which has 850 cases and has recorded four deaths, has also postponed all domestic football games through the first half of March.
Six Nations officials are reportedly speaking with participating unions amid concerns about the situation in Italy where ten people have died and over 220 have fallen ill in Europe's worst outbreak.
Italy are set to host England in their final match of the Six Nations on 14 March.
Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, said there was an estimated three-month window to decide the fate of the Olympics.
- Reuters
Test win for Bangladesh
Bangladesh crushed Zimbabwe by an innings and 106 runs in the one-off cricket test to register their first victory in the five-day format of the game in 15 months.
Having bowled out Zimbabwe for 265 in their first innings, Bangladesh effectively batted the tourists out of the match when they declared on 560-6 with a handsome lead of 295 runs.
Spinners Nayeem Hasan (5-82) and Taijul Islam (4-78) ran through the Zimbabwe lineup to skittle them out for 189 on the fourth day and give Mominul Haque his first victory as test captain.
Mushfiqur Rahim was adjudged man-of-the-match for his unbeaten 203 but off-spinner Nayeem, who finished with a match haul of nine wickets, was equally impressive.
- Reuters
Open returns to Troon
The British Open golf championship will return to Royal Troon for its 152nd edition in 2023.
The tournament was last held at the links course in South Ayrshire in 2016, when Henrik Stenson lifted the Claret Jug prize.
It will be the 10th time Royal Troon has hosted the major, and exactly 100 years on from the first time, back in 1923 when England's Arthur Havers was crowned champion.
The 2023 edition will be played from 16 to 23 July.
- Reuters
Hewitt promotes ATP Cup
Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt says the success of the inaugural ATP Cup in January has put the International Tennis Federation under pressure over its revamped Davis Cup.
The team-based ATP Cup, organised by the men's tour and Tennis Australia, was staged six weeks after the week-long Davis Cup finals in Madrid in November and earned rave reviews from players and fans alike.
"I think that the ITF's under a lot of pressure though, purely with how strong the ATP Cup performed as well and that format and the crowds," Australia's Davis Cup captain Hewitt said.
"I might be biased but the crowds in Australia across the board with every single country that played was pretty amazing.
The revamped Davis Cup was bankrolled by a multi-billion dollar, 25-year partnership with Kosmos, the Barcelona-based investment company owned by football player Gerard Pique.
The demise of the World Group, introduced in 1981 with home and away ties played on three separate weekends and culminating in a November final, in favour of a week-long, 18-nation event, was regarded as sacrilege by many in the tennis community.
Leading players have questioned the need to retain both men's team competitions on the calendar.
- Reuters
Man U earnings down
English football club Manchester United reported lower second-quarter revenue and core profit as the club's absence from this season's European Champions League took its toll.
Core earnings fell 31 percent to $140 million for the three months ended December 31. Revenue came in at $330m, down 19 percent.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has relied heavily on the club's academy graduates, such as Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams, with the team sitting fifth in the Premier League table, three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.
"We are pushing for a strong finish in the Premier League, the Europa League and the FA Cup as we enter the final third of the season," Executive Vice-Chairman Ed Woodward said in a statement.
- Reuters
