CRICKET
Maxwell under investigation
Cricket Australia is investigating Glenn Maxwell, a spokesperson said yesterday, after the star all-rounder was reportedly hospitalized following a night out. The governing body wants to quiz the 35-year-old about a recent incident in Adelaide. Australian media outlets reported that Maxwell was taken to a hospital, after attending a concert on Friday of the band Six & Out, made up of former cricket greats including Brett Lee. “Cricket Australia is aware of an incident involving Glenn Maxwell in Adelaide at the weekend and is seeking further information,” a spokesperson said. Maxwell has been stood down for the upcoming 50-overs series against the West Indies early next month, but Cricket Australia said the decision is not linked to the incident in Adelaide. Maxwell missed a World Cup match in India after he was injured falling off a golf cart. He also broke his leg in November 2022 when he slipped at a friend’s birthday party.
SOCCER
Italian legend Riva dies
Italian soccer mourned one of its most important ever players on Monday after iconic striker Luigi “Gigi” Riva died aged 79. Nicknamed “Roar of Thunder,” Riva is Italy’s all-time top goalscorer and famous in the Mediterranean nation for firing Cagliari Calcio to their only league title in 1970. “Forever GIGI RIVA,” Cagliari wrote on X, accompanied by a picture of their hero in the prime of his career. “Italian football is in mourning because a genuine national monument has left us today,” Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina said. Riva’s death is of such significance that a minute’s silence was held before the start of the second half of the Italian Super Cup final, played on Monday in Riyadh. “Ciao Gigi” was displayed on the screens at al-Awwal Park in the Saudi Arabian capital, alongside a picture of Riva. He had been hospitalized in Cagliari, where he stayed after the end of his playing career, reportedly after sustaining a heart attack over the weekend. Riva scored 35 times in just 42 appearances for his country, with whom he won the 1968 European Championship and reached the World Cup final two years later.
SOCCER
Udinese ban fan for abuse
Udinese are to ban for life a man found to have racially abused France goalkeeper Mike Maignan, the Serie A club announced on Monday. Maignan was abused during Udinese’s 3-2 defeat to AC Milan on Saturday, which was halted for five minutes in the first half after repeated offensive remarks from behind the goal he was defending. “Udinese Calcio has identified the first individual responsible for discriminatory behavior towards AC Milan player Mike Maignan,” the club said in a statement. “This person will face a lifetime ban from attending any Udinese Calcio matches. This ban is effective immediately.” Earlier on Monday, Italian media reported a 46-year-old man from near Udine had been identified, and he is believe to be the same man in a video which circulated widely on social media. In that video someone off camera can clearly be heard shouting the same racist insult at Maignan multiple times after Lazar Samardzic scored Udinese’s first-half equalizer, netted after play had resumed.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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