Latest - The Black Caps victory over the West Indies in the first cricket Test has resulted in a rise for a couple of players in the ICC Test rankings.
Photo: PhotoSport / Andrew Cornaga
Captain Kane Williamson's career-best score of 251 helped to him jump two spots to join Virat Kohli at number two in the batting rankings.
Neil Wagner's six wickets in the match meant he climbed one spot to be number two in the bowling rankings.
Tom Latham, garnered his career-best points tally of 733 and tenth place on the batting table, thanks to his innings of 86.
Tim Southee remains fourth in the bowling rankings which is headed by Australian Pat Cummins.
Williamson, who held the number one spot briefly in 2015, sits behind Australian Steve Smith in the batting rankings.
Breakdancing at the Olympics
Breakdancing, surfing, skateboarding and sports climbing won a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics when the International Olympic Committee ratified their inclusion.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson displays his trademark breakdancing routine after the Crusaders' 19-3 win over the Jaguares in the Super Rugby final. Photo: Photosport Ltd 2019
The Paris 2024 organising committee had last year proposed the four sports for inclusion and was waiting on a final review by the IOC's Executive Board.
Surfing, climbing and skateboarding are already part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, having by proposed along with karate by the Japanese hosts.
Paris Games organisers have said they want to deliver a programme that is in keeping with the times and will attract a new and younger audience.
Under new IOC rules first introduced for the Tokyo Games, Olympic host cities can hand-pick sports and propose them for inclusion in those Games if they are popular in that country and add to the Games' appeal.
The IOC also trimmed the overall events for Paris by 10 to 329 compared to the Tokyo Games next year, while increasing mixed gender events from 18 in Tokyo to 22 in four years time.
-Reuters
Top teams kept apart in European World Cup draw
Europe's top sides all appear set for straightforward routes to the 2022 FIFA World Cup after being placed in comfortable groups in the draw made today.
France's players celebrate their team's 4-2 victory in the World Cup final soccer match. Photo: AFP
Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Croatia and England all avoided each other thanks to the seeding system and, barring major upsets, should qualify comfortably for the tournament in Qatar.
Instead, the main excitement is likely to be the scramble among the middle-ranking teams to finish second in their groups and qualify for the play-offs.
Under a revised format, the 10 group winners qualify directly for Qatar while the runners-up go into a play-off system along with the best two teams from the Nations League, a separate competition.
World champions France were drawn in Group D alongside Ukraine -- a side they recently beat 7-1 in a friendly -- Finland, Bosnia and Kazakhstan in European Group D.
Old rivals England and Poland will face each other again as they were placed in Group I along with Hungary, Albania, Andorra and San Marino.
-Reuters
Big spend by NBA to help teams
The NBA is planning to dole out $43 million per team -- $1.3 billion total -- to bolster each organization's finances and aid with liquidity issues caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
LeBron James may miss the start of the NBA season. Photo: Photosport
Each team should receive the funds this month ahead of the 2020-21 season and can spend it on any need within their organization, according to the Sports Business Journal.
With the regular season shortened to 72 games and teams playing in empty or limited-capacity arenas, the funds are designed to buoy each team's balance sheet. The NBA gets about 40 percent from ticket sales.
NBA revenue dropped to $11.8 billion last season, ESPN reported.
-Reuters
UAE to buy Israeli football team
A member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family has purchased a 50 percent stake in Israeli Premier League football team Beitar Jerusalem.
The purchase comes amid a flurry of business deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates following their move to establish formal diplomatic relations in September.
In an announcement posted on their website, Beitar said Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan's purchase also included a commitment to invest more than $130 million in the club over the next 10 years.
Beitar Jerusalem is a bastion of Israel's political right-wing and a group of supporters known as "La Familia" has been openly abusive toward Israel's Arab minority.
In October, the UAE and Israeli football leagues signed a memorandum of understanding to bolster cooperation.
-Reuters
Salakaia-Loto gets four weeks
The Walabies lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto has been suspended for four weeks for a dangerous tackle during their final Tri Nations game against Argentina.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Salakaia-Loto was red-carded after his high hit on Pumas loosie Santiago Grondona in saturday night's 16-16 draw in Sydney.
He made an early guilty plea to the Sanzaar judiciary.
He is banned through til February 26th, meaning he will miss the first two rounds of Super Rugby AU.
SIA appeals reduction in Jack ban
Sport Integrity Australia, which oversees doping control in the country, is to appeal the halving of the ban imposed on swimmer Shayna Jack at the Court of Arbitration for Sport .
Jack was banned for four years by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority after the freestyle swimmer tested positive for the banned anabolic agent Ligandrol in 2019.
The 22-year-old has always maintained that she would never wittingly ingest a banned substance and said she felt vindicated when her suspension was cut to two years by CAS, the highest legal authority in sport, last month.
SIA, the government agency which replaced ASADA in July this year, said that after "careful consideration of the legal issues" it had decided to lodge a case with CAS Appeals Division.
"In order to protect athletes and sporting competitions, we must have clarity and consistency in the application of the World Anti-Doping Code."
-Reuters
FA to investigate booing
England's Football Association will investigate the booing by fans of players taking a knee at games at Millwall and Colchester at the weekend.
Players in England have been taking a knee before matches since June in support of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, which spread around the world following protests over the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May.
The Premier League and Football League have since linked the kneeling gesture to their own anti-racism campaigns, including "No Room for Racism".
Millwall's official fan club has said supporters who booed players before their match at home to Derby County were not motivated by racism.
-Reuters
Sinfield raising funs for former team-mate
Former England rugby league captain Kevin Sinfield has completed seven marathons in seven days to raise over a million pounds in support of the Motor Neurone Disease Association and his former team mate Rob Burrow, who suffers from the condition.
Burrow won eight Super League titles with Leeds before retiring in 2017 and was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last year.
Sinfield, who played alongside Burrow for 15 seasons and helped spark the Rhinos' resurgence in the mid-2000s, had set an initial target of 77,777 pounds -- a reference to Burrow's jersey number.
Sinfield said he would continue his fundraising efforts until a cure was found.
-Reuters
