English cricket’s hunger for Indian money has led it into a moral and legal minefield | Barney Ronay

The thing about inviting a tiger round for tea is, for all the excitement, the fur, the teeth, the muscles, they do tend to walk off with your dinner and drink all the water in the taps. The thing about saying yes to the person with the biggest stick is, in the end, you don’t get to say yes, or no, or anything at all. And that person still has a very big stick.The thing about closing your eyes and just taking the money is: money passes only in exchange for something of value, and full payment will be taken. Welcome to English cricket in full blind, groping crisis mode, and the first small tremor of what lies in store whatever happens in the next few weeks

Steve Borthwick turns to 2003 World Cup heroes for Six Nations inspiration

Steve Borthwick has turned to England’s 2003 World Cup winners to arrest his side’s drastic decline after enduring another setback with the scrum‑half Alex Mitchell ruled out for the rest of the Six Nations.Borthwick’s squad were due on Wednesday night to have dinner with members of the 2003 team, including the captain Martin Johnson, the Test centurion Jason Leonard and Lewis Moody, who revealed in October that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.Borthwick urged his players to use the opportunity to ask how they dealt with setbacks, after England’s Six Nations hopes went up in smoke for another year with the dismal 42-21 defeat against Ireland last Saturday, seven days after they were outclassed by Scotland.Borthwick is under renewed pressure as a result and will lead England into their final two matches against Italy in Rome and France in Paris without Mitchell, who sustained a hamstring injury against Ireland. Jack van Poortvliet is standing by for the No 9 jersey while Ollie Lawrence has had a knee injection and is a doubt for the Italy match

Breakaway union stands behind Tara Moore’s $20m legal battle against WTA

The breakaway players’ union that is suing the tours and grand slam tournaments has thrown its weight behind Tara Moore’s $20m (£14.7m) legal battle against the Women’s ­Tennis Association in a new front in the sport’s civil war.The Guardian has learnt that Moore, a former British No 1 doubles player who this week brought a legal action for negligence against the WTA after being handed a four‑year ban for doping, is using lawyers from the Professional Tennis ­Players Association’s legal partner, King & Spalding.The PTPA has already brought a legal claim against the WTA, the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals and three of the grand slam tournaments, accusing them of collaborating to reduce prize money and imposing a restrictive ranking system, in the same US federal court where Moore has filed her claim, that of the southern district of New York.The players’ union, which was set up by Novak Djokovic six years ago but which he left last month, is also in the midst of a $1bn investment round to fund a new global tour, in another potential threat to the WTA and ATP

Constitution Hill out of Champion Hurdle and ready for next chapter on the Flat

Constitution Hill, the brilliant Champion Hurdle winner in 2023, has been ruled out of this year’s race on 10 March and any further races over jumps after a schooling session at Nicky Henderson’s yard on Wednesday, with the trainer saying in a statement that “it is not fair to ask him and Nico [de Boinville, his jockey] to do it again” following three falls in the nine-year-old’s last four races.Confirmation that Constitution Hill will pursue new opportunities on the Flat follows his astonishing debut on the level at Southwell four days ago. While some jumps fans will regret the fact that one of the best hurdlers in racing history will not get a final chance to reclaim his former crown, others will feel relief that the risks attached to another fall have weighed heavier in the balance than the lure of a final run at the festival.“Michael Buckley [Constitution Hill’s owner] and I have not surprisingly spent a lot of time soul searching and thinking over Constitution Hill’s future,” Henderson said in a statement on X on Wednesday afternoon, “and have sadly concluded that he will not be running in the Unibet Champion Hurdle the week after next.“Last Friday night was for us all a magical occasion and we so appreciated his popularity and the love and admiration everybody showed to Conrad, as he is fondly called here

MPs back UK broadcasters in push to expand sport’s free-to-air ‘crown jewels’

Public service broadcasters are making renewed attempts to persuade the government to expand the list of televised sport’s free-to-air “crown jewels”.A call from the then BBC director of sport, Barbara Slater, to add the Six Nations Championship to the group A list of events that must be offered to terrestrial channels was rejected three years ago, but a group of Labour MPs is understood to be working with broadcasters to force a change of policy.BBC and ITV have since extended their joint rights for the Six Nations until 2029 despite fears they would be outbid by a subscription service such as Sky Sports and TNT Sport, but with budgets tight they are still seeking legislative protection.While BBC and ITV would be the main beneficiaries of any change, Channel 4 has significantly increased its sport offering in recent years and will be the free-to-air home of the Winter Paralympics next month, as well as beginning exclusive contracts to broadcast the men’s and women’s Boat Races and Women’s FA Cup this year.In addition to pushing for the Six Nations to be moved from the group B list, which permits live events to be behind a paywall as long as highlights are made available free-to-air, the public service broadcasters also want the A list expanded to include the home nations’ men’s and women’s international qualifiers for the World Cup and European Championship, one Champions League tie involving a British team from each round of matches and the men’s FA Cup

The US men’s hockey team at the State of the Union showed proximity to Trump is never neutral

During Tuesday’s State of the Union, Donald Trump welcomed members of the US men’s national hockey team to the House gallery to chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A!”. Trump revealed that Team USA’s goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “What special champions you are,” Trump told the players, who had beaten Canada on Sunday in the gold medal game of the Winter Olympics.In Trump’s America, proximity is never neutral.While the hockey players were greeted with warm applause from both Republicans and Democrats, Trump also had used the team as props in his speech