Australians in the NBA: from the $150m men to a human highlight reel | Jack Snape

The NBA tips off this week with Australia’s two biggest basketball names – Ben Simmons and Patty Mills – without a roster spot for the first time in a decade.Their absence signals a changing of the guard, as Boomers’ backcourt duo Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels emerge as key starters for playoff aspirants, with recently signed nine-figure contracts making them some of Australia’s highest sporting earners.But they are not alone. Fourteen Australians are set to compete for minutes around the league, ranging from veteran centres Jock Landale and Duop Reath, emerging wings in Johnny Furphy and Josh Green, to intriguing draftees like Tyrese Proctor and Rocco Zikarsky.After protracted negotiations with the Chicago Bulls, Giddey finally signed his rookie extension worth $US100m ($153m) over four years last month

Australia’s Scott Boland shuts out noise from former England players before Ashes

Scott Boland may be required to bowl in all five Ashes Tests this summer, a workload that will test his mental fortitude and physical stamina. But in promotion ahead of the series, he is already doing much of the heavy lifting.The fast bowler and Gulidjan man was launching a partnership for the National Indigenous Cricket Championships with the Melbourne Cricket Club on Tuesday, but it was matters of the Commonwealth – and specifically a recent Stuart Broad sledge about what he believes is a weak Australian team – that was the focus of media in attendance.“All the past players are going to come out and have their opinion, and they can do that,” the paceman said. “We’re just going to concentrate on playing our cricket

Outsiders steal headlines at Ascot and the shocks are coming more often

Pandemic-era change to system for compiling starting prices looks to be costing those who bet on favouritesCalandagan’s impressive defeat of Ombudsman in the Champion Stakes at Ascot may well turn out to have been the best race anywhere on the planet this year when the final ratings are totted up in January, but it was not the reason why Champions Day made a brief but welcome appearance on the BBC’s main evening news bulletin on Saturday evening.Instead, it was the 200-1 success of Powerful Glory in the Champions Sprint earlier on the card which caught the sports editor’s eye, and understandably so. In the same way that, even now, Leicester’s Premier League title success in 2015-16 is rarely mentioned without reference to the 5,000-1 on offer at the start of the season, it was a case of a starting price being worth a thousand words.The 100-1 success of Cicero’s Gift in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes an hour later only added to the sense that we must all have been looking at the form book upside down. Two winners at a three-figure starting price on the same card? Preposterous

Red Bull fined £43,000 after team member tries to tamper with Lando Norris grid tape

Red Bull have been fined £43,000 after a member of the team broke regulations in an act of gamesmanship at the US Grand Prix, when attempting to remove a piece of tape from the pit wall placed there by McLaren to aid their driver Lando Norris in lining up correctly on the grid.The incident was an unusual example of low-level skulduggery between teams as Red Bull were caught out by CCTV cameras trackside and the race stewards issued the fine for events which took place just before the off.Norris was lined up in second place behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the grid at Austin, where Verstappen went on to win. Some teams will use a piece of tape attached vertically to the trackside pit wall as a marking indicator for drivers of their grid box.With visibility from the car very limited, especially of the markings on the grid itself, it is a visual aid for the driver to ensure they are positioned correctly for the start

Mind the gap: surge from Verstappen piles pressure on McLaren and echoes 2007 | Giles Richards

A few short months ago Max Verstappen’s world championship defence appeared to be over. But when he took the flag in the US Grand Prix on Sunday it heralded the most remarkable resurgence as he waded with a gleeful swagger back into the title fight. Verstappen was down but he is far from out and could yet still pull off what would count as his greatest triumph.Going into the weekend in Austin, Verstappen was still treating the idea of him being a contender against the two lead protagonists, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with a certain indifferent levity.“It’s 50-50

‘Exciting’ Noah Caluori could make England debut this autumn, says Borthwick

England could fast-track the Saracens teenager Noah Caluori into the Test spotlight as soon as next month following the wing’s dramatic start to his top-level club career. The 19-year-old celebrated his first Prem start with five tries against Sale Sharks on Satur­day and the national head coach, Steve Borthwick, says he is already in contention for a senior England debut.It was impossible to miss Caluori’s aerial ability and eye for the try line at the weekend with the former Lions captain Sam Warburton ­describing the 6ft 5in player as “almost undefendable” and “an absolute diamond”. England have been aware of his potential for a while and it seems that some game time against Fiji a fortnight on Saturday is not impossible.Borthwick certainly did not pour cold water on the idea after calling up Caluori to a three-day training camp in Bagshot