The International Cricket Council (ICC) is to make a presentation to the Los Angeles Olympics organizers this month in its bid for the sport to return to the Games after a gap of 128 years, sources have said. Cricket has been shortlisted for potential inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Games along with baseball-softball, flag football, lacrosse, breakdancing, karate, kickboxing, squash and motorsport. Teams would play T20 matches. The host city can include any sport, but needs approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The governing body is likely to take a final decision at the IOC session in Mumbai next year, said one of the sources, who had direct knowledge of the matter. Cricket has not been played at the Olympics since its maiden appearance in the 1900 Games in Paris, where Britain beat a team of mostly English expatriates representing France to win gold. “Being in multisport games, whether it is the Commonwealth Games or the Asian Games or the African Games, putting cricket into these multisport events is good for the growth of our game,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice told reporters last week.
Honors were even between the US and Mexico on Wednesday with Los Angeles Galaxy and Club America coming away with victories in the Leagues Cup Showcase friendly double-header at SoFi Stadium. The glitzy US$5 billion home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, named in June as one of the venues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted soccer matches for the first time, drawing a sellout crowd of 71,189. Major League Soccer’s Galaxy opened the evening with a 2-0 victory over Liga MX outfit Chivas Guadalajara. Then Club America edged Los Angeles 6-5 on penalties after their match ended 0-0. The friendlies, with more matches to be played in Nashville, Salt Lake City and Cincinnati, are a preview of next year’s Leagues Cup tournament, a month-long event featuring all 47 Liga MX and MLS teams with CONCACAF Champions League berths on the line. The stadium needs some changes to be capable of hosting World Cup matches. Wednesday’s games were played on a grass pitch temporarily laid on top of the stadium’s usual artificial turf. And the pitch was less than 63m wide — at least 5m narrower than FIFA prefers — but would be reconfigured for the World Cup with the removal of some seating.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said that Cristiano Ronaldo could fit into his style of play, but the forward would need to build up his fitness before getting the chance to prove he deserves a place in the team. Ronaldo did not join United’s squad for their pre-season tour to Thailand and Australia, and was left out of a friendly defeat to Atletico Madrid, but played 45 minutes in a 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano on Sunday. Asked if the Portugal international can fit into his vision of how he wants United to play, Ten Hag told Sky Sports: “I think he can, but to start with he has to get fit, he’s just started. He is a fantastic football player, he proved it so many times, but you can always be judged on what you are now, what you are presenting now, performing now.”
Taiwanese infielder Chang Yu on Saturday made his major league pitching debut when he was pulled off third base in the bottom of the eighth to preserve the Tampa Bay Rays’ bullpen in their 9-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Chang’s chance to take the mound came as the Tigers’ scoring was already out of hand for the Rays. Detroit mounted a rare offensive outburst, leading Rays manager Kevin Cash to preserve his pitchers by allowing Chang to throw an inning. He retired Willi Castro on what the scoreboard called a 40mph curveball, but Detroit’s Jonathan Schoop hit the next pitch for
Australia’s Donna Lobban said she and her Scottish husband Greg Lobban would not be signing “divorce papers” after she beat him in mixed doubles squash competition at the Commonwealth Games on Friday. Donna Lobban and her partner, Cameron Pilley, came back from a game down to win 9-11, 11-8, 11-8 and reach the semi-finals in Birmingham, England. The defending champion, 35, said she was braced for her husband’s reaction. “I might have to put up with him being in a terrible mood for a while, but if I had lost it would have been him putting up with me being in a
Taiwan yesterday outlasted the Dominican Republic 9-5 in a rain-soaked slugfest in Tainan to take home the bronze medal in the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup. Taiwan, who won the previous edition of the tournament in 2019, were eliminated from gold medal contention on Friday with a loss to the US, and needed a comeback win over South Korea a day later to reach yesterday’s third-place playoff. The US and Venezuela were playing for gold in a game that started at 7:45pm. The US were leading 7-2 at the bottom of the fifth inning as of press time last night. In what was
Tuesday night was another home run, another pitching win, another spot in the history books — just another night for Shohei Ohtani. The two-way sensation from Japan withstood another injury scare and pitched six scoreless innings to go with his team-leading 25th home run, reaching yet another monumental milestone as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Oakland Athletics 5-1. Ohtani joined Babe Ruth (1918) as the only players in major league history to have at least 10 home runs and 10 wins in the same season. The Angels said that two players from the Negro Leagues also did it: Bullet Rogan of the