Cricket West Indies have agreed “in principle” to the Test tour of England, in July, although players and staff will have to take a 50% pay cut.

The ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) is expected to announce a revamped summer schedule next week.

The three-Test series between England and the West Indies is set to start on July 8.

The matches are set to be played behind closed doors in a bio-secure environment at the Ageas Bowl – which is the home of Hampshire C.C.C. and Lancashire C.C.C.’s Old Trafford ground.

The series must first be approved by the UK government and, under the current rules, the West Indies squad would have to quarantine for 14 days on arrival.

A Cricket West Indies statement said: ‘The board gave approval in principle for the proposed tour of England.

“The decision comes only after Cricket West Indies medical and cricket-related representatives and advisors have been involved in detailed discussions with the ECB and its own medical and public health advisors”.

In the earlier part of May the International Cricket Council revealed plans to ban the use of saliva to shine the cricket ball amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2020 Netball Superleague season has been terminated with immediate effect because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The season was suspended on March 15 after only three full rounds of fixtures, with governing body, Netball England, making the “difficult decision” following consultation with the league’s board, all of the 10 teams and stakeholders.

Instead, a “stand-alone short-form” competition could be held in the autumn if it is “achievable and safe”.

England Netball chief executive, Fran Connolly, said: “It has become clear that large sporting gatherings will unlikely be deemed safe in coming weeks, or months.

“So, after lengthy discussions, we believe that it would be illogical or unsustainable to reignite the season without crowds.

“It was, though, very disappointing to have to make this announcement and we couldn’t keep teams and players in limbo on the matter”.

She also said that she was in discussions over a small-scale international tournament with Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, which could take place in the autumn to keep up the national side’s sharpness, provide revenue for the Superleague and keep the sport in the public eye.

The Olympic Federation of Ireland’s call for exemptions to current Covid-19 restrictions to assist athletes has been supported by Irish competitors.

The Federation says that restrictions including a 5km travel limit in the Republic, puts athletes “at a significant disadvantage that may become too big to breach”.

Peter Sherrard, the OFI’s chief executive, said: “The solution is a simple waiver”.

He added that different restrictions and thus training options in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was a “concern”.

He also noted that Banbridge rower, Phillip Doyle, is training on the River Lagan and is unable to travel to the National Rowing Centre in Cork.

“There are also issues with UK guidelines on swimming for example and Irish athletes are wondering what system are they in”, he said.

Sherrand believes that a waiver would help “this small number of athletes so that they can travel the required distance to train, just as their competitors, internationally, have been granted weeks ago.

Frustrations of this nature are being experienced by elite athletes from a variety of sports.

“Our Olympics sports have all prepared very detailed protocols which have been reviewed medically for a return to the venues like the Sport Ireland Campus, the Sport Ireland Institute and the National Aquatic Centre and National Rowing Centre, in advance of, and in isolation from the general public as is happening in other European countries”.

Premier League players could be 25% more susceptible to injury when football resumes because of the intense schedule, research shows.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters is "as confident as we can be" of restarting in June.

Time will need to be found for the FA Cup before the 2020-21 season starts in "late August, early September".

Based on Project Restart's provisional return date of 20 June, Manchester City players could face 13 games in 49 days.

City have played one fewer match than the majority of Premier League clubs but these figures do not take into account the completion of the Champions League, which has the potential of adding another four games should they reach the final - if the tournament can be concluded.

Research conducted by artificial intelligence platform Zone7, which specialises in injury risk forecasting and works with 35 professional football teams worldwide, shows that playing eight matches in a 30-day period increases the incidence of injury by 25% when compared with playing four to five matches in the same timeframe.

Eight matches in 30 days may seem a regular occurrence but only 4% of players across a season are subjected to such a run of games.

It is not just the congestion of the fixture list that poses a concern, but the time provided for teams to transition from individual, socially distanced training to higher-intensity group training, something Watford manager Nigel Pearson and Newcastle boss Steve Bruce are concerned about.

The Bundesliga was only officially given the go-ahead to recommence on 7 May, just nine days before the first fixture kicked off. Eight players picked up injuries in the six games on 16 May - a rate well above normal.

A standard pre-season schedule runs for a period of 30 days, or even longer.

But when examining data from 11 top-division professional teams from the past two seasons, Zone7 found that when the preparation period shortens, due to an international tournament or entry into European competition, 75% of teams had higher prevalence of injury in the first half of the season when compared to those that had more planning time.
Flaminia Ronca, an exercise physiologist at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, part of University College London, is working with Premier League players to assess what health risks they may face when returning after the suspension.

She said: "It's possible that the players may have lost up to 15% of their fitness, which they now need to regain in a very short time.

"And I think this is really where the science of training becomes so crucial. Coaches will have to be very creative and combine the most effective methods of training with the safest injury prevention methods, all condensed into this very tight timeframe."

Over five million hours of performance from various sports, including those 35 professional football teams, has been gathered by Zone7 and this data is used to assess the probability of a player sustaining an injury in the following seven days.

Millions of data points are taken from wearable technology that tracks workloads from training and matches, player injury history, fitness tests, and even sleep patterns to generate daily risk forecasts.

Historical data is used to detect data patterns that precede injuries and alert when those data patterns emerge and help prevent the injury before it occurs.

From here, teams are given risk forecasts and not only can they identify the type of injury a particular player could sustain if they are deemed "high risk", modifications can be made to that player's bespoke training schedule to avoid the injury occurring. Zone7 states it can provide accurate and timely alerts for 75% of injuries.

Tennis ace, Andy Murray, is set to play in a tournament that has been organised by his brother, Jamie, to raise money for the NHS Charities Together.

The ‘Schroder Battle of the Brits’ tournament is due to take place behind closed doors at the National Tennis Centre, in Roehampton, from June 23 to 28.

The tournament, which will have both singles and doubles champions, will be featuring the likes of current GB greats such as Dan Evens and Kyle Edmund and it will be shown on the Amazon Prime platform.

It is hoped that the event will raise somewhere in excess of £100,000 for the NHS charities.

Jamie Murray said: “The last few months have been incredibly challenging times for everyone and we see this event as our way of giving back.

“A lot of work has been put into making sure that this could happen and we are excited to be able to bring an action-packed week of tennis, while raising valuable funds for NHS heroes and sheroes to say thank you for the amazing work that you are doing”.

He added: “I am really excited to be, for the first time, bringing together the current generation of top British male players to compete against one another while raising significant funds for charity”.

Andy Murray has not played any competitive tennis since the Davis Cup Finals in November due to a bruised pelvic bone, but he has been contemplating a return to the ATP Tour in Miami in late March when professional tennis was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The English Premier League is set to restart on June 17 with the games between Aston Villa and Sheffield United and Manchester City v Arsenal the first two fixtures that will launch a deluge of games – subject to government approval.

As those two are games in hand that were still outstanding before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, a full round of fixtures would then follow during the weekend of June 19 to 21.

There are 92 matches still to be played with the first ones to take place bringing the number of games in the division equally up to scratch.

All of the matches will take place behind closed doors and will be broadcast live by Amazon Prime, BBC Sport BT Sport and Sky Sport.

It’s the first time since the inception of the Premier League in 1992 that the BBC will be showing live games.

Safety guidelines are yet to be issued by the government and decisions will remain subject to the continuing fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League said: “The Premier League and our clubs are proud to have incredibly passionate and loyal supporters and it’s important to ensure that as many people as possible can watch the matches at home”.

He added that the resumption date would not be unreservedly confirmed “until we have met all of the safety requirements”.