ECB have hit a winner by fast-tracking Charlotte Edwards to England role | Raf Nicholson

Last time the England head coach role became available, in August 2022, Charlotte Edwards did not even apply: she believed that she did not yet have enough experience under her belt. Less than three years later, the England and Wales Cricket Board has concluded that she is such a perfect candidate for the job that it expedited her application, somehow condensing the period between firing one coach (Jon Lewis) and hiring another into the space of three weeks.Edwards’s record as head coach now speaks for itself: since domestic women’s cricket entered its professional era in 2020, she has led Southern Vipers to five out of nine available titles. She has also won the Women’s Hundred, coached a side to the final of the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, and (less than three weeks ago) won her second Women’s Premier League in India. It is sometimes said that brilliant players do not translate into brilliant coaches, but Edwards – who during her 20-year playing career won a 50-over World Cup, a T20 World Cup and lifted the Ashes five times – is a notable exception to the rule

Reopening of Trump-owned golf course delayed after damage by pro-Palestine group

Turnberry’s famous Ailsa Course will not open as planned on 1 May after serious damage caused to the Ayrshire venue – owned by the US president, Donald Trump – by a pro-Palestine group. Tour operators and those with individual bookings at Turnberry are in the process of being informed it will be June before the Ailsa, which is routinely ranked among the finest golf courses in the world, is available for play.The clubhouse at the Ayrshire resort was daubed with graffiti and red paint in the early hours of 8 March. More significant in respect of the championship course – that has staged the Open on four occasions – was the ripping up of greens and on turf approaching them. The course has been closed since October due to planned renovation of the 7th and 8th holes

Ingebrigtsen’s father accused sons of ‘perfect character assassination’, court told

The father of the double ­Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen accused his sons of a “perfect ­character assassination” on a secret recording made after they fired him, a court has been told.Gjert Ingebrigtsen also claimed that he had been dragged “down to hell” after he was referred to child services following an incident in January 2022 where he was accused of whipping his daughter, Ingrid, in the face with a wet towel.But Henrik Ingebrigtsen, the older brother of Jakob, who competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, told his father that he only had himself to blame for the split – and what had happened subsequently – because he had been “violent” towards Ingrid.On another extraordinary day in Sandnes, Norway, the court was told long extracts of a terse and often argumentative 90-minute conversation, which had been recorded by Henrik without Gjert’s knowledge a week after the towel incident. Gjert described that act as a “betrayal”

‘It will never happen again’: former bikie-turned-golf pro Ryan Peake bears the scars of a chequered past

Australian golfer continues to carry a troubled history and a prison sentence with him even as a New Zealand Open title sends him on to the world stage“I’ve done what I’ve done, I’ve been sentenced to do my time,” says Australian professional golfer and former Rebels bikie Ryan Peake. “But the time didn’t end there. Every day is essentially a continuation of my sentence.”In March, the 32-year-old broke through for his first professional victory at the New Zealand Open. It has been five years since he was released from prison for twice causing grievous bodily harm – the same length of time he spent inside

The A’s settled into their new home in Sacramento. The result was familiar

The team that brought us Moneyball is in the middle of a move from Oakland to Las Vegas. Fans turned up to their home opener but this is still a club in fluxIt could have been worse for the Athletics. Before they headed west to Oakland in 1968, their characterful former owner, Charlie Finley, threatened to move them from Kansas City to a cow pasture in the tiny town of Peculiar, Missouri.Now they are in a place you might call Limbo, California – also known as the home of the Pacific Coast League’s Sacramento River Cats. It’s a staging post for Major League Baseball’s most contentious franchise after the burning of their Bay Area bridges left them needing somewhere to play ahead of a planned relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas

Pat Brown: ‘I wasn’t a one-trick pony … but I’m a much better all-round cricketer now’

Pat Brown is reluctant to call it a comeback but, five years on from the last of four white-ball caps for England, the seamer who rose to prominence with a wobbling knuckleball heads into the new season buzzing from a winter spent with Andrew Flintoff’s Lions team.Abdominal soreness meant Brown missed the one-off unofficial Test against Australia A in Sydney that completed the Lions’ tour in late January but he is now back at Derbyshire, fully fit, and ready to start the County Championship at home to Gloucestershire on Friday. As the bottom side in Division Two last year with one win from 14, the only way is up.It was a positive time in an England setup for Brown, his skills impressing during a pre-Christmas camp in South Africa to get him picked for the trip to Australia. Then, against a Cricket Australia XI in Brisbane, he claimed a five-wicket haul which included a sizzling hat-trick