Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - The Magic have had to pull out of this weekend's ANZ premiership netball matches due to Covid, meaning games against the Steel and the Stars will be rescheduled.

The competition has been severely affected by Covid with seven games so far now postponed.

Monday night's game between the Pulse and the Southern Steel will still go ahead.

However the Steel will be without a couple of key players along with their coach and manager for their two ANZ Premiership Netball games this weekend because of Covid.

The team will be without defender Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit and midcourter Ali Wilshier along with head coach Reinga Bloxham and manager Dayna Kaio, who are all in isolation.

The Mystics sit at the top of the table with five wins from four games.

History for CD batsman Tom Bruce

Central Stags batsman Tom Bruce has achieved a feat unique in the 115-year history of New Zealand's Plunket Shield becoming the first batsman to score double centuries in consecutive innings or matches in the national first-class championship.

Bruce backed up his unbeaten 208 against Northern Districts in the COVID-cancelled match in Whangarei last week with another unbeaten innings of 204 yesterday against the champions elect, the Auckland Aces, at Napier's McLean Park.

Bruce's century in Whangarei had been his first at first-class level since 2016/17, but the personal century drought has turned into a flood with his twin double hundreds coming off the back of an unbeaten 90* against Canterbury in Palmerston North where he had been just 10 runs from a coveted fifth career hundred when his captain had declared.

The three innings have seen him spend a total of 1,175 minutes (19.58 hours) at the crease.

NZC statistician Francis Payne notes that the 30-year-old Te Kuiti-born, Taranaki batsman is the first New Zealand player to amass 500 first-class runs without being dismissed, and that Bruce now has 858 runs in first-class Plunket Shield cricket this season, at a scorching average of 143.

Bruce has overtaken Otago Volt Nick Kelly as the Plunket Shield season's top run-scorer, and now has a first-class career average that has zoomed up by several notches in the space of two games to 47.13.

Breakers beaten again

The Breakers have been beaten 89-80 by the Perth Wildcats in their Australian NBL game in Perth.

It is the New Zealand sides sixth straight loss and leaves them rooted to the bottom of the table, while the Perth are fourth.

For the Breakers, Yanni Wetzell continued his standout season, scoring 12 points on 6/7 shooting in the first half alone. He added six of his 10 rebounds by that stage and would finish with a game-high 22 points.

Both Hugo Besson (15 points, four assists) and Ousmane Dieng (11 points, three rebounds) started on the bench, as coach Dan Shamir tried to give his Breakers a different look.

"Maybe we need a few less turnovers, pass up a few more shots and get to the paint some more, step up on the out of bounds a little bit less and walk with the ball a little bit less. But overall we played a decent game, we executed and we were good with a lot of the details," said Shamir.

"The attitude was correct and I think it was a good basketball game. We gave it everything we had and that's something that I hope we'll do for the rest of the season in every game regardless of the result."

NBA scouts from both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks were on hand to watch the game.

European clubs to reduce spending on players

Uefa has brought in new financial regulations which will limit clubs' spending on wages, transfers and agents' fees to 70% of their revenue.

Permitted losses over a three-year period have also risen from $47 million to $95 million.

The new rules will come into force in June and clubs will have three years to implement them.

Uefa said "breaches will result in pre-defined financial penalties and sporting measures".

It is thought new reinforced punishments, including points deductions, demotion to lower-ranking competitions and potential exclusion from European football completely, will be introduced as part of the new regulations.

Clubs are expected to be allowed to spend 90% of their income in 2023-24, reducing to 80% in 2024-25 and 70% a year later.

The new "financial sustainability regulations" have been put together by Uefa and the influential European Clubs Association and "are the first major reform" of the financial fair play rules introduced in 2010.

Manly too strong in the rain

Manly have beaten Newcastle 30-6 in heavy rain in their National Rugby League game in Newcastle.

Manly led 10-0 at half time and scored five tries in total against the injury depleted Knights .

Manly are up to fifth on the table while Newcastle's third straight loss has dropped them to tenth.

The Warriors play the Cowboys tonight.

No spare cars for Haas

Haas have no spare chassis for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix after Mick Schumacher's crash in qualifying for the previous race in Saudi Arabia.

The U.S.-owned Formula One team are fifth in the championship after two races thanks to Kevin Magnussen scoring in both.

Schumacher did not race in Jeddah after his Saturday smash but is back for Melbourne.

"We have everything, but we have no abundance of spare parts," team boss Guenther Steiner said.

He said Schumacher's crashed chassis, which will become the spare, had been sent back to Europe for repairs so it can be available for the next race in Italy at Imola in two weeks' time.

Schumacher is set to use the same Ferrari power unit that was in the car for Saudi Arabia, coupled with a new gearbox.

The 23-year-old German, a rookie last season, has not raced before at Albert Park with the circuit absent in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

-Reuters

Maradona shirt to go under the hammer

The shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored two of the most famous goals in footballing history was put up for auction by Sotheby's, with the iconic jersey expected to sell for more than $7.5 million.

Maradona wore the No. 10 shirt in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England in Mexico. Six minutes into the second half he put Argentina ahead by sneakily punching the ball into the net, a goal made famous as the "Hand of God".

Just four minutes later he dribbled from his own half to score a sublime second that regularly tops polls as the greatest goal in World Cup history.

England midfielder Steve Hodge got Maradona's jersey after the game and announced he was putting it up for auction after 19 years on display at England's National Football Museum.

However, the sale was complicated by claims from Maradona's family that the wrong shirt is going under the hammer, with his daughter and ex-wife casting doubt on the veracity of the piece by saying Hodge got the shirt Maradona wore in the first half.

Sotheby's said they used photomatching technology to "conclusively" match the shirt to both goals by "examining unique details on various elements of the item, including the patch, stripes, and numbering."

-Reuters

Serena may return at Wimbledon

Former world number one Serena Williams hinted she could make her long-awaited return at Wimbledon in June, exactly a year since she last played on the tour at the same Grand Slam.

Williams, 40, limped out of last year's first-round match at Wimbledon in tears due to a leg injury.

She also skipped the Olympics in Tokyo and the U.S. Open in 2021 due to the hamstring injury, as well as the Australian Open earlier this year.

On an Instagram story with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Serena said: "We've been talking about my comeback and he's been hyping me up and getting me ready for Wimbledon. Can't wait!"

When Rodgers asked her about a potential comeback at the U.S. Open, she added: "Wimbledon's before the U.S. Open, I've got to play Wimbledon first. Exciting!"

Wimbledon runs from June 27-July 10. Williams has won the grasscourt major seven times, with her last success coming in 2016.

-Reuters

Jail terms for Twickenham fraudsters

Nine people have been found guilty of a $3.4 million scam involving fake corporate hospitality tickets for international rugby matches at London's Twickenham Stadium.

The fraud came to light when people who bought tickets for matches between February 2017 and March 2018 from two companies failed to get refunds after being told their order had been cancelled, and found the firms' phone lines no longer existed.

More than 100 reports of fraud were made.

Nine people have now been convicted of offences including conspiring to commit fraud and money laundering, police said.

-Reuters