The Spin | ‘I’ll bat anywhere for England’: in-form Jordan Cox confident of making the step up

Jordan Cox’s timing has been off. Not with the bat – it’s pinged off the middle for some time. The 24-year-old has averaged more than 60 in the County Championship since joining Essex from Kent two years ago, and he has serious white-ball pedigree. He meets the Spin at the Oval four days after his unbeaten 29-ball 86 in the Hundred on this ground. “It’s the best place in the world to play cricket,” he says

A Mets-Yankees-Red Sox super division sounds crazy. Until you think about it ...

It’s been more than a week since MLB commissioner Rob Manfred dropped his latest bomb. Manfred, as we’ve learned, enjoys throwing ideas out into the universe to get his sport some easy pop while seeing how the masses will react. Just a few months back, he scrambled the brains of baseball fans with his idea of a “golden at bat”, which would allow a chosen player to come to the plate, once a game, when it wasn’t their turn to hit. Oh, he got his publicity alright: many of us took the bait. Was it a genuine, bona fide idea? Probably not

Mitch Brown’s coming out shows the AFL what courage and grace look like | Jonathan Horn

As a footy writer, I keep a rather shambolic database of current and former footballers. It’s kind of a buoy I can grab on to when I’m up against a nasty deadline. Sometimes it’s four of five paragraphs; sometimes it’s a sentence on so-and-so’s inability to kick on his left, or his poor record against a certain player, or something vaguely interesting he said on a podcast. When Mitch Brown became the first man in VFL/AFL history to come out as gay or bisexual, I was curious to see what I had written on him. Here’s my Pulitzer worthy offering: “Nathan’s twin

From the Pocket: AFL finals fever cools as buds of the silly season shoot early

Winter is done, spring has sprung. The AFL season has finally found a wave of momentum. Port Adelaide leaned into their emotion, Collingwood and GWS Giants hung on in thrillers, Fremantle sealed their return to the finals. A neatly scheduled four days of football filled with tension ended as Brisbane reaffirmed their premiership credentials.The home-and-away season has reached a crescendo, and there is still one more game to play

Stan to show more ads despite price hike amid ‘extraordinary’ Premier League impact

Streaming provider Stan is set to introduce more advertisements on its sporting broadcasts despite recently raising its price by $5 per month, as it enjoys an increase of around 100,000 subscribers directly thanks to its acquisition of the Premier League rights from Optus.The chief executive of its parent company Nine Entertainment, Matt Stanton, confirmed in Nine’s annual results briefing on Wednesday there will be no more Premier League matches on free-to-air after this Saturday’s clash between Chelsea and Fulham, despite outstanding audience numbers in the first two weeks.Last weekend’s 9.30pm AEST clash between Manchester City and Tottenham attracted an average audience of 567,000 across Nine and Stan, with a reach of over 1.5m, according to Stanton

Coco Gauff digs deep to survive Ajla Tomljanović test in US Open marathon

Coco Gauff survived a shaky serving performance to battle past Ajla Tomljanović in the first round of the US Open, winning 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 after 2hr 57min on Tuesday night.The No 3 seed finished with 10 double faults, was broken six times and squandered a string of opportunities to close the contest earlier, but conjured enough resilience to scrape into round two under the lights on Arthur Ashe Stadium.Gauff appeared in control after winning five of six games from a break down to take the opener and twice leading by a break in the second. Yet she faltered when serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, conceding two double faults and a pair of forehand errors as Tomljanović levelled at 5-5.The 21-year-old American responded instantly, breaking back before sealing victory at her second attempt with a crisp backhand winner down the line, lifting her arms to the crowd in relief as much as celebration