Here's a wrap-up of sports news and updates from across the world. From nominations for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Arjuna Award across various sports to the plans to restart European football, here are the top sports stories from the week gone by.
CRICKET
While the cricket world focusses on the dangers of using saliva on the ball, medical experts warned that there are several other ways that the dreaded coronavirus can be transmitted. Sharing a dressing room, inconclusive testing, and even the mere touch of the ball could spread the virus. The use of saliva - banned by the International Cricket Council - does carry maximum risk, but these secondary factors cannot be ignored. ( REPORT )
Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer and Keemo Paul on Wednesday refused to tour England for next month’s proposed three-Test series, which will be conducted in a bio-secure environment to combat the COVID-19 threat. ( REPORT )
The Pakistan Cricket Board will seek government clearance before setting up a training camp for its players to prepare for the tour of England in July amid the rising threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. ( REPORT )
England Test captain Joe Root is likely to miss the first Test of the three-match series against the West Indies next month. Root’s wife Carrie is due to give birth to their second child at the start of July and the first Test in Southampton is scheduled to begin on July 8. ( REPORT )
Arun Lal is set to continue as Bengal’s head coach for the forthcoming season, after Monday's discussion between Bengal Coaching Unit and the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Administration. ( REPORT )
Sri Lanka’s national team trained together on Monday for the first time in more than two-and-a-half months to sharpen their skills and fitness ahead of a potential restart of the international game, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne said. ( REPORT )
India skipper Virat Kohli emerged as the only cricketer in the world’s top-10 list of highest-earning athletes through sponsored Instagram posts during the lockdown, according to a report. ( REPORT )
FOOTBALL
Premier League's plan to restart on June 17 received a fresh boost Saturday after the latest round of coronavirus tests produced no new positive cases in English football's top flight. ( REPORT )
Robert Lewandowski scored his 30th league goal of the season on Saturday as Bayern Munich came from behind to claim a 4-2 victory at Bayer Leverkusen and move a step closer to the Bundesliga title. ( REPORT )
France is to open its summer transfer window on June 8, ruling body the LFP said, having already ended its season early because of the coronavirus outbreak. ( REPORT )
Premier League leader Liverpool could claim a first title for 30 years at Anfield after the initial batch of fixtures of the restart was announced. ( REPORT )
At just 17 years and 34 days old, Florian Wirtz on Saturday became the youngest goalscorer in Bundesliga history in Bayer Leverkusen's 4-2 defeat to champion Bayern Munich. ( REPORT )
Timo Werner had been thought to be attracting interest from Premier League champion-elect Liverpool but it appears Chelsea has in fact met the German's reported release clause of some £53 million ($67 million). ( REPORT )
Managers will be able to make up to five substitutions for the remainder of the 2019/20 Premier League season after clubs agreed to the temporary rule change. ( REPORT )
Germany and Portugal are contenders to host the delayed Champions League final which is due to be moved from Istanbul, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press . ( REPORT )
Major League Soccer and its players’ union agreed to a six-year labour contract through 2025 that paves the way for a tournament in Florida after the season was suspended by the coronavirus pandemic. ( REPORT )
The AIFF announced Bengaluru FC (BFC) as India’s third team in the 2021 AFC continental club competitions. ( REPORT )
Serie A will return after a three-month coronavirus-enforced absence on June 20 with Torino hosting Parma in the first of four postponed matches on the opening weekend. ( REPORT )
Chelsea was awarded the Women's Super League title as the Football Association applied a points-per-game formula to decide standings from the curtailed season. ( REPORT )
Lionel Messi returned to the Camp Nou on Saturday after missing two group training sessions with a slight leg injury, while Luis Suarez is set to be fit for the La Liga restart next week. ( REPORT )
TENNIS
The call to have spectators at the re-arranged French Open will be made by the French government only. ( REPORT )
The United States Tennis Association has proposed moving the Cincinnati Masters to New York for a doubleheader with the US Open. ( REPORT )
HOCKEY
Hockey India nominated national women’s team captain Rani for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award while Vandana Kataria, Monika and Harmanpreet Singh were recommended for the Arjuna Award. ( REPORT )
The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the scrapping of Hockey World League competition has forced the International Hockey Federation to rework its qualification process for the next edition of the World Cup, allocating more spots to continental events. ( REPORT )
The Indian men and women hockey teams have resumed outdoor training at the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru after a two-month hiatus due to the coronavirus-forced nationwide lockdown. ( REPORT )
BADMINTON
On his return to the court after the coronavirus-forced lockdown, this year’s All England champion and Danish star Viktor Axelsen said he was delighted to be back. ( REPORT )
As widely expected, the inaugural $90,000 Hyderabad Open, announced as part of the Badminton World Federation calendar for 2020, stands cancelled. ( REPORT )
H.S. Prannoy has once again expressed displeasure after his name was not recommended by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for the prestigious Arjuna award. ( REPORT )
India’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and men’s singles player Sameer Verma were on Tuesday recommended for the Arjuna award by the Badminton Association of India. ( REPORT )
Top shuttlers Ashwini Ponnappa and Lakshya Sen are among 20-odd Indian players who have started training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru as the sport took its first step towards resumption after the COVID-19 hiatus. ( REPORT )
SHOOTING
Emboldened by the success of the international online shooting championship, shooter Shimon Sharif will now try his hand at hosting it in a league format over a one-month period, with top foreign players taking part. ( READ )
BOXING
India’s Olympic-bound boxers will have to wait for some more time before resuming training as the national federation’s plan to restart the camp on June 10 in Patiala has been delayed by at least a week because of administrative issues. ( READ )
The Boxing Federation of India nominated world silver medallist Amit Panghal and the seasoned Vikas Krishan for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, picking only Olympic-bound names as its nominees for the annual honours. ( READ )
Buddy D'Souza, the first Indian to be honoured with the Arjuna Award for boxing (in 1961), is among many to submit a personal video to the Indian Shadow Boxing Challenge (ISBC) 2020 online contest, the intent being to activate the Indian boxing community worldwide. ( READ )
Indian women boxers’ High Performance Director Raffaele Bergamasco has flown back to his home in Assisi, Italy to be with his wife as she recovers from cancer. ( READ )
World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua told a ‘Black Lives Matter’ march on Saturday that protesters were the “vaccine” to the “virus” of racism. ( READ )
ATHLETICS
Women’s 400-meter world champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain has been provisionally suspended for not making herself available for doping tests. ( Report )
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said that Japan is exploring ways to simplify the Tokyo 2021 Olympics amid the coronavirus pandemic. ( Report )
The Athletics Federation of India has confirmed star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's recommendation for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the third year in a row. ( Report )
WRESTLING
World Championship bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat is set to be nominated for Khel Ratna for the second year in a row while Rio Olympic bronze winner Sakshi Malik wants to be in contention for the Arjuna award, although she already is a recipient of country’s highest sporting honour. (REPORT)
ARCHERY
The 2020 World Archery Field Championships in Yankton, USA, have been postponed until 2022 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. ( REPORT )
V.Jyothi Surekha has been nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Competing at the highest level for close to a decade, she has won 33 international medals - seven in World Cups, three in World Championships and two each in the Junior Worlds and South Asian Games. ( REPORT )
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