Sports News

The head of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has cast doubt on an email released by Chinese state media attributed to tennis player Peng Shuai.

Steve Simon, chairman of the WTA, said in a statement he had a hard time believing the email was written by Ms Peng or on her behalf. One of China's biggest sporting stars, she has not been heard from since she made sexual assault allegations against a top Chinese official.

At the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee hearing this week, Azeem Rafiq apologised and said he is ashamed for using anti-Semitic language in Facebook messages from 2011.

The former spin-bowler spoke of his experiences of racism at Yorkshire and appeared at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee this week. The 30-year-old said he had no excuses for the messages.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the 2027 men's Cricket World Cup will be hosted in Africa.

South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will co-host the 50-over tournament, which is held every four years. It will be the first time since 2003 that the event will be held on the continent, after venues in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya were used 18 years ago.

For just under two hours Azeem Rafiq addressed a group of MPs about his experiences of racism as a player at Yorkshire.

The former captain spoke emotionally about the racist comments and actions that left him, in his own words, close to taking his own life.

With less than three weeks to go until the world’s greatest drivers arrive in Saudi Arabia, fans have been given the chance to race the Jeddah Corniche Circuit before Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen continue their epic title battle there on December 5^th as Codemasters and Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) added the newest, fastest and longest street circuit in Formula 1 as the final free circuit update to F1 2021.

The Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBs will take place next year on Saturday 14th May and will once again incorporate the British 10,000m Championships. The event will also return as the British Athletics 10,000m trial race for the World Championships and European 10,000m Cup as well as providing essential qualifying opportunities for Home Nation athletes targeting Birmingham 2022.

It will also provide a key performance indicator for athletes targeting the European Championships in Munich later in the summer.

Bertie Auld, who played in the Celtic side that lifted the European Cup in 1967, has died.

Best known for being one of Celtic's Lisbon Lions, Auld also won five league titles, three Scottish Cups and four League Cups at Parkhead. The former midfielder spent four years with Birmingham City between two spells with the Glasgow club before finishing his playing days with Hibernian.

As part of the eSkootr Championship’s (eSC) commitment to offer a future net-zero carbon racing series, every battery used to power the S1-X scooters will be recycled by world-leading materials technology and recycling group, Umicore. Additionally, Umicore will work closely with the eSC technical and sustainability team to enable sustainable circular design of the next generation batteries.
 
Umicore was the first organization to join eSC as a Global Sustainability Partner in 2021 and will be responsible for recycling the Williams Advance Engineering battery.

The first matches for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games have been announced, as the organisers of the Games have revealed the schedules for the women’s cricket T20 and for the netball competition at the event.

The women’s cricket T20 competition will be held at the Edgbaston Stadium from the 29 July, with the bronze and gold medal matches taking place on 7 August.

The 2022 Vitality Netball Superleague season will start with the traditional 'Season Opener' double-header weekend, at Birmingham's Resorts World Arena.

England Netball has announced that the 2021 champions Loughborough Lightning will kick-start proceedings against London Pulse, before all 11 teams take their place on court across the course of a 10-game opening weekend – with fans due back in venues.

Essex chairman John Faragher has resigned following an allegation he used racist language in a 2017 board meeting.

Faragher strongly denies the allegation but Essex say they will review why the matter was not fully and independently investigated at the time. He stood down from his post following a board meeting on Thursday.

Organisers have said that the new aquatics centre, set for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, is on track.

The £73m building in Smethwick, West Midlands, will host 66 medal events - more than any other venue - and will be complete by spring next year. So far, 163,000 tiles have been laid and the movable floor and diving tower are finished.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s new chair Lord Patel has said that former player, Azeem Rafiq, should be praised for his bravery and he should never have been put through the club’s racism scandal.

Lord Patel said Yorkshire has settled the employment tribunal after he (Rafiq) was a victim of racial harassment and bullying there. The club said it would not discipline anyone.

Tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams have said that their mantle must be taken up moving forward.

The sporting sisters were asked whether they saw players like Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu facing similar barriers to the ones they had to overcome.

It has been reported that Rana Naved-ul-Hasan is a second player to allege racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club. It follows chairman Roger Hutton, and several board members, who resign over the club's response to racism experienced by Azeem Rafiq.

The club has launched an investigation after the former player alleged he was subjected to repeated racial abuse.

Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson will take on the world at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham on Saturday 19 February 2022. The British 800m record holder is the first leading athlete to announce their intention to compete at the event, which returns to the Utilita Arena Birmingham in the new year.

Star-studded fields are set to align for the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold event, one of seven marquee indoor events across the globe, with Hodgkinson to the fore.