Ferrari back-tracked on Thursday after team principal Mattia Binotto seemed to warn the team might quit Formula One if a planned spending cap was lowered further because of the coronavirus crisis.
Binotto told a British newspaper that if next year's cap was lowered the team would "look at other further options" but the team explained in a statement that he meant they would need additional outlets to express their "racing DNA", without saying whether those might compete with Formula One.
Ferrari was unhappy last year with the decision to introduce a budget cap of $175 million (161 million euros) per team from next season.
With the first nine races of this season already cancelled or postponed, the sport held a meeting last week to discuss reducing next year's cap to $145 million and $130 million the season after, but could not reach agreement.
Sources suggested that Ferrari and another big-spending team, Red Bull, opposed the changes.
In an interview with a British newspaper published .

Ferrari performs quick u-turn over F1 budget cap

PTI Automatic

England pace bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad have set their sights on a final Ashes series in Australia before they consider retirement.
Anderson and Broad are first and second respectively in England's list of all-time Test wicket-takers, but both are entering the twilight of their careers.  Anderson is 37 and has endured a series of injury problems over the last 12 months.
Although Broad is four years younger than Anderson, he believes his career will not last as long as his fellow paceman.
With the end in sight, both are eager to keep their England places long enough for a memorable farewell Ashes series in Australia in 2021/22.
When asked by Anderson for his retirement plans during an Instagram Live Q&A, Broad said: "I don't think I could go until your age. Your action's so smooth, it looks a lot calmer on your body whereas mine is a little more forceful through my body I think.
"I'd never want to get to that place where I'm bowling against a 19-year-old and they're ...

England's Anderson, Broad set Ashes target

The ICC Chief Executives Committee on Thursday unanimously agreed to revamp the Future Tour Programs (FTP) till 2023, conceding that the "scale and complexity" of getting cricket started again "cannot be underestimated" in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CEC meeting, held via tele-conference, decided that a decision on the World Test Championship (WTC) and the proposed ODI league, scheduled in June, can be taken at a later date. However, it is a given that the WTC final is unlikely to be held in June, 2021 as per the current FTP cycle and a four-month lag is expected.
But the T20 World Cup is on course even though Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts said that his board is ready for any eventuality.
"There was agreement that the disrupted FTP programme would need to be collectively reviewed through to 2023 with a view to rescheduling as much of the cricket that has been postponed due to COVID-19 as possible," the ICC said in a statement.
Already, England's tour of Sri Lanka ...

ICC CEC Meeting: FTP set for complete overhaul, World Test C'ship cycle set to be severely affected

Qualification for the next Champions League should be "on sporting merit" and domestic leagues should "explore all possible options" to finish seasons because of the coronavirus crisis, UEFA said on Thursday.
"The ideal scenario, should the pandemic situation permit it, is to have the currently suspended domestic competitions completed enabling football clubs to qualify for UEFA club competitions on sporting merit in their original format,"
European football's governing body said in a statement released after a meeting of its Executive Committee.

Qualification for next Champions League should be 'on sporting merit': UEFA

Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive Kevin Roberts on Thursday hinted at a possible change in dates for the T20 World Cup, saying "we are exploring all other options" to stage the event, which is originally scheduled for October-November.
Like other sports, cricketing action too has come to a complete halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the IPL indefinitely postponed and the T20 World Cup, to be held in Australia, facing an uncertain future.
"Cricket Australia is working closely with the ICC, the Local Organising Committee and the Australian government so we have a comprehensive understanding of exactly what it will take to be able to play the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2020 in October in Australia as planned," Roberts said.
He attended the chief executives' committee meeting with the apex body via a conference call.
"We are also jointly exploring all other options in relation to staging the event and will take the right decisions at the right time so we can host a wonderful ...

CA chief says exploring 'all other options' to stage T20 World Cup

Amid fresh speculation that they have found new sponsors, East Bengal top-official Debarata Sarkar on Thursday said their "dream" is to play in the Indian Super League.
The season has officially ended abruptly with Mohun Bagan declared winners. They have merged with reigning ISL champions ATK and all eyes are now on East Bengal to follow suit.
"It's our dream to play in the ISL. If Mohun Bagan can play in the ISL, we can also do that. We are trying our best for that and are in talks with potential investors. But we have not yet reached a stage for announcement," Sarkar told PTI.
It's learnt that East Bengal are also taking the help of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee but Sarkar refused to comment.
"At a time when people of the country are dying and starving (because of the COVID-19 pandemic), nobody is thinking about all this now. Let us overcome this phase, then we will talk about it. But definitely the club's target is ISL," Sarkar said.
East Bengal however have started ...

Dream to play in ISL: East Bengal official

He revelled in the full-throated chants that accompanied his stay at the crease and Sachin Tendulkar says that's one reason why the very idea of sport inside an empty stadium disappoints him.
Made for television sport is being given a serious thought owing to the COVID-19 pandemic which has made social distancing a necessity. But sport without fans is not an option for one of India's greatest sportspersons.
"Empty stadiums would be so disappointing for players who are competing. There are lot of times when players respond to spectators. If I play a good shot and the manner in which crowd responds also brings in that energy," Tendulkar told PTI during an exclusive interview talking about the implications of the contagion that has infected millions.
"Similarly, if a bowler bowls a fiery spell and the crowd is responding to it, it builds a kind of pressure on the batsman and he needs to respond to it.
"Spectators are integral to any sport. Their encouragement, vociferous chants for or ...

Sport in empty stadiums will be disappointing, feels Sachin Tendulkar

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Dinesh Karthik has no qualms playing top-flight cricket in empty stadiums as a majority of the players "have grown up" turning out in domestic matches with few watching them.
Opinions are divided on whether sporting events, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), should be held behind closed doors once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
"For a lot of us, we have grown up playing domestic cricket without crowds. So it should not be too new to us," Karthik said during an Instachat with former England medium-pacer turned commentator Isa Guha on Thursday.
The 34-year-old out-of-favour India stumper added, "It would feel weird for sure. We have never played IPL without fans but we have grown up playing domestic cricket where nobody is watching us."
The pandemic has led to either cancellation or postponement of all sporting events across the world, including the Tokyo Olympics, the biggest of them all.
During the chat session, Karthik also spoke about cricket ..

Karthik has no qualms playing in empty stadiums, says 'grew up' playing without crowd

She followed East Bengal wherever the team played, selling hard candy and earned the sobriquet 'Lozenges Didi'.
Amid the nationwide lockdown her earnings have ceased and the fans have come to the aid of Jamuna Das.
The lockdown meant that the childless widow, a ubiquitous face during East Bengal matches selling candy since 1993, had no source of income.
"I was beginning to worry with little ration and money left and started feeling lonely. But after a few days, all the fan groups started calling me and sending donations and food items," the 56-year-old Das told PTI from her house in Agarpara.
"Today, a fan group came with a big van, full of gorceries and donated some money also. Many of whom I'm hearing for the first time but they are taking full care of me."
Clad in a red-yellow (East Bengal club colours) sari, Das would be seen wading through the Maidan crowd with a bulging bag slung across her shoulders that contain Lozenges.
She has been a fan of the club since her childhood with .

East Bengal fan groups come forward to support 'Lozenges Didi' in COVID-19 times

The ICC Chief Executives on Thursday unanimously agreed on a revamp of its Futures Tours and Programmes till 2023 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought the world to a grinding halt.
The CEC meeting, held via tele-conference, decided that a decision on the World Test Championship and the proposed ODI league, scheduled in June, can be taken at a later date.
"There was agreement that the disrupted FTP programme would need to be collectively reviewed through to 2023 with a view to rescheduling as much of the cricket that has been postponed due to COVID-19 as possible," the ICC said in a statement.
Already, England's tour of Sri Lanka stands postponed along with Australia's tour of New Zealand. Pakistan and West Indies' tours during the English summer also look to be in serious doubt.
It was also learnt that contingency plans are being made for the T20 World Cup in Australia, scheduled for October and November.
"The CEC was updated on the continuing contingency planning for 

ICC CEC Meet: FTP till 2023 set for revamp in wake of COVID-19

Former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, banned in October for failing to report a match-fixing attempt, raised almost $24,000 for the country's coronavirus campaign by auctioning the bat he used to score 606 runs at last year's World Cup.
The winning bidder at the online auction Wednesday was a New York-based Bangladeshi, said Arif R. Hossain, co-founder of an organisation established to raise funds for charity.
"It was our first initiative. We are really happy by the response," Hossain told AFP.
Shakib, once rated one of the best all-rounders in the game, was banned for two years last year for failing to report being approached by a match-fixing syndicate.
With one year of his ban suspended, he is due to resume international cricket in October 2020.
Hussain said the money raised would be given to a foundation started by Shakib Al Hasan, but gave no other details.
The auction came two days after more than 140 workers at a crab farm owned by Shakib staged a protest to complain about 

Banned cricket hero Shakib auctions bat for Bangladesh virus victims

The organisers of athletics' Diamond League on Thursday postponed meetings in the US city of Eugene and in Paris in June as the season is pushed further back by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Eugene meeting had been due to take place on June 7 with Paris on June 13.
"As with previous suspensions, this decision was reached in close consultation with all relevant parties and based on concerns over athlete safety as well as widespread travel restrictions which make it impossible to stage the competitions as planned," the organisers said in a statement.
But the Bislett Games in Oslo, one of the longest-standing meetings on the international calendar, will take place on June 11, albeit in a different format from the Diamond League meeting originally planned on that date.
The event will be "an alternative athletics competition under Norwegian coronavirus regulations", organisers said.
The Diamond League said new dates for the suspended events "will be announced... as soon as the ...

Diamond League postpones June meetings

A study of the worldwide Olympic bureaucracy's finances concludes there's far more money available for athletes than what they receive, and that they would be best served by the sort of collective-bargaining arrangement that's common in pro leagues.
The study, a collaboration between the Global Athlete advocacy group and the Ryerson University Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto, said the IOC  the largest and most integral cog in the Olympic system  averages $1.4 billion a year in revenue and spends 4.1% of it on athletes.
Even since the Olympics departed from the amateur-only model on which it was founded, the majority of athletes have been largely dependent on their own sports organizations and national Olympic committees for funding.
Lucrative sponsorship deals exist for only a small percentage of top-tier Olympians.
At the same time, the study says, because the IOC receives most of its revenue (91%) from TV and marketing and virtually nothing from donations, its model is ...

Study: Olympians should push for collective bargaining

The Women's European Championship in 2021 was postponed by one year on Thursday, moving out of a direct clash with the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.
UEFA's executive committee agreed that the 16-nation tournament in England will now be played from July 6-31 in 2022.
The switch was inevitable after the IOC decided last month on a one-year postponement for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic. Women's soccer games begin before the Tokyo opening ceremony on July 23 next year.
An Olympic title is prized more in women's soccer than in the men's game, and three European teams  the Netherlands, Sweden and a British team potentially with mostly England players  are in the 16-nation lineup in Japan.
"With the Olympics now being confirmed for summer 2021, we firmly believe that moving to 2022 is in the best interests of the (Euro) tournament, UEFA head of women's soccer Nadine Kessler said in a statement.
The move also avoids both of UEFA's marquee national team championships ..

UEFA postpones Women's Euros to 2022, avoids Olympic clash

The next women's European Championship in England has been put back a year to 2022, UEFA confirmed on Thursday, after initially being postponed as a knock-on effect of the coronavirus crisis.
European football's governing body confirmed that the competition will be staged from July 6-31, 2022, following a meeting of its Executive Committee.
The competition was put back after the earlier decision to delay the men's European Championship by a year to 2021 in the face of the pandemic, and the desire to avoid a clash of the two tournaments.
"When we had to take an urgent decision on the postponement of UEFA Euro 2020, we always had the impact on UEFA women's Euro 2021 in mind," said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.
"We have carefully considered all options, with our commitment to the growth of women's football at the forefront of our thinking."
Dismissing concerns that the women's game might be considered an afterthought, Ceferin added that the move to 2022 ensured that the women's Euro 

UEFA gives women's European Championship new slot in 2022

The chief executive of the Tokyo Olympics promised transparency with the Japanese public on Thursday regarding the cost of postponing the games until next year.
Neither the Japanese organizers nor the International Olympic Committee has said what it will cost to delay the Tokyo Games for one year. Early estimates in Japan range between $2 billion and $6 billion.
"It's highly likely that the expense will be higher than the originally planned budget," CEO Toshiro Muto said, speaking through an interpreter at a weekly teleconference.
He said the exact amount was unclear, but we will proceed with transparency and explain to the taxpayers about the costs. Although officials say the added costs are unknown, one thing is certain: Japanese taxpayers will pick up most of the bills.
The Tokyo city government, the local organizers and the Japanese Olympic Committee are obligated under the Host City Contract signed in 2013 to cover most of the costs.
The cost issue is sensitive in Japan, ...

Tokyo Olympic CEO promises 'transparency' over cost of delay

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle resigned on Thursday after she said the board of directors made it clear that it would not allow her to continue in her role.
Rugby Australia said Castle informed chairman Paul McLean of her decision.
"I love rugby on every level and I will always love the code and the people I have had the honor of working with since I took this role," Castle said in a Rugby Australia statement.
"I made it clear to the board that I would stand up and take the flak and do everything possible to serve everyone's best interests.
"In the last couple of hours it has been made clear to me that the board believes my no longer being the CEO would help give them the clear air they believe they need. The game is bigger than any one individual." Castle was under pressure to retain her position as Australian rugby faced multiple challenges, including a damaged relationship with top players.
Professional rugby players around the world have been forced to accept ...

Embattled Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle resigns

The German football league is set to announce plans Thursday for the Bundesliga to restart without spectators in the first half of May, but a move hailed as a welcome return to normality by some is meeting opposition from some scientists and fans.
The Bundesliga would be the major European league to restart, potentially making it the focus of sports fans starved of action across the world.
Germany has been less affected by the coronavirus pandemic than other European countries, partly due to mass testing.
That situation has allowed the leaders of the powerful states of Bavaria -- home to reigning German champions Bayern Munich -- and the football hotbed state of North-Rhine Westphalia to back football's resumption, albeit in empty stadiums.
But the move to allow players back onto the pitch is being treated with caution.  Bavaria state leader Markus Soeder made it clear that football will not be given a "blank cheque" to continue at a time of competing funding priorities, and the ...

German football outlines plan for May return

The entrepreneur in Abhinav Bindra reckons the economies of sport will have taken a beating by the time the novel coronavirus ceases to spread its ugly tentacles, leaving the athletes in an uncertain world full of challenges.
The champion athlete in him sees sport playing a "large role" on the other side of the pandemic, healing the wounds of a world ravaged by its seismic effects.
"The economies of sport will be affected the most, with many associations and athletes underfunded due to lack of events over this time," Olympic champion Bindra told PTI.
"This will be one of the key challenges that will need to be overcome, to ensure that athletes have the means and support to continue practising."
Sport has in the past helped the world in coping with wars and natural disasters.
Quite like its role in the aftermath of the second World War, sport can again play a positive role but only after people have attained a semblance of stability, the champion shooter said.
"Yes. Sport does have the 

Economies of sport will be affected the most by this pandemic: Bindra

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville believes footballers should be trying to learn new skills during the game's coronavirus-enforced shutdown to prepare for a potential financial hit.
The economic crisis caused by the indefinite suspension of matches will be felt at all levels of the sport.
And Neville, who owns a stake in fourth-tier side Salford City, encouraged players to use their time wisely ahead of an expected downturn in wages and shortening in the length of contracts offered in the coming years.
"If I was a football player today, I'd be online learning, doing a degree, doing a BTEC (qualification) and trying to get a dual-skill. That's not panicking, that's not suggesting that their careers are over, it's just planning," Neville told Sky Sports.
"The jobs in football will be less, the money will be less, and players will need to go and do a job next year or something next year out of football. That's a fact, it's going to happen.
"And they have to plan for that now. 

Gary Neville urges players to learn new skills during lockdown

Lead South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada says India skipper Virat Kohli pushes him to give his best on the field and commands utmost respect with his sheer consistency across formats.
Both Rabada and Kohli have enjoyed many on-field battles. Kohli averages over 50 in all three formats.
When asked to name a cricketer he respects the most and who has pushed him to do his best, the pacer said: "If you look at one day cricket, I'd say Virat Kohli is the most consistent performer, he is consistent in Test cricket as well.
"I even like the work of Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson," Rabada, a 'Red Bull' athlete, said on a chat show.
The 24-year-old has taken 197 wickets from 43 Tests while he has picked up 117 ODI wickets from 75 matches.
He has also taken 30 wickets from 24 T20 internationals. He also has played 18 IPL Games, taking 31 wickets.
Rabada has already achieved a lot of success after making his Test and ODI debut in 2015, but the Johannesburg-born cricketer said he wants to .

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