It had to be Shane Warne: the Ashes Elvis had an aura that eclipsed all others | Barney Ronay

Raise the Playboy pants like a pirate flag. Twirl the big brimmer in celebration. It was always going to be Shane, really, wasn’t it.We did of course have a countdown first, because people love countdowns, because cricket is basically one unceasing countdown, an endless pencil stub ticking off names and numbers. There were 99 members of the supporting cast to be ushered to their spots, the non-Shanes of history, meat in the Ashes room

NFL midseason-ish awards: Darnold’s rise to MVP and a surprising Browns rookie

With the season more than halfway done, we look at the outstanding figures from the 2025 campaign so farSam Darnold, QB, Seahawks. With apologies to Jonathan Taylor, we know how this story goes. MVP doesn’t stand for Most Valuable Player anymore. It stands for Most Valuable Quarterback on a 12-win team with a nice storyline. That gives us three frontrunners: Matthew Stafford, Drake Maye and Darnold

Outsiders sense Chess World Cup glory after host of big names make early exits

An early cull of the favourites at the Chess World Cup in Goa has resulted in 15 of the top 20 seeds heading for home early. It has also created a lopsided pairing situation where almost all the remaining favourites are concentrated in one half of the draw.The two surviving top seeds, India’s world No 5 Arjun Erigaisi and China’s No 10-ranked Wei Yi, could meet in the quarter-finals, while the headline pairing in Friday afternoon’s fifth round is Levon Aronian, the US star who has already won the World Cup twice, against Erigaisi.Several of the top 20 were eliminated in the first three rounds of the $2m (£1.5m) tournament, among them India’s 19-year-old world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, the double world title finalist Ian Nepomniachtchi, and the controversial US star Hans Niemann

Stand aside Australia, New Zealand are now England’s No 1 sporting rival | Emma John

Do we talk about England and Australia’s sporting rivalry too much? In the past couple of weeks, we haven’t had much choice. The rugby league Kangaroos have been hopping about between London, Liverpool and Leeds, while the Wallabies grazed on the Twickenham turf. In F1, Bristol-born Lando Norris has been getting booed on track during his relentless comeback against his Melburnian McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri. And that personal battle has reached its climax just in time for the much-hyped men’s Ashes – with England kicking off their tour in Perth to already hysterical headlines.This weekend brings a pause in hostilities

Eli Katoa’s playing future uncertain as recovery from head impacts, seizures and brain surgery continues

Melbourne Storm backrower and Tonga star Eli Katoa faces the prospect of further weeks in hospital and possibly time in a rehabilitation centre as he begins his slow recovery from brain surgery after he suffered three head knocks against New Zealand 12 days ago.The 25-year-old remains in hospital in Auckland, and alarming information provided by his club on Friday indicates there is no guarantee one of the game’s best forwards will play again.Katoa appeared to suffer a concussion in the warmup in the Pacific Championships clash two weeks ago when his head collided with Tonga teammate Lehi Hopoate.But he was allowed to play, and received two more head impacts during the game, before suffering seizures on the sideline and needing emergency surgery to release bleeding on the brain.The Storm chief executive, Justin Rodski, said Katoa’s recovery was only beginning

Donald Trump’s granddaughter Kai in last after 83 in shaky LPGA debut

Kai Trump, the US president’s granddaughter and the eldest child of Donald Trump Jr, opened her LPGA career with a 13-over-par 83 on Thursday at The Annika, a debut round that left her at the bottom of the leaderboard and underscored the chasm between elite junior golf and a field stacked with the sport’s top professionals.The 18-year-old amateur, playing on a much-discussed sponsor’s exemption, began her round on the back nine alongside former major champion Hinako Shibuno and Germany’s Olivia Cowan. She received warm applause when her name was announced on the par-4 10th tee and again after she drove it safely into the fairway, one of the few calm moments in a jittery start.Trump confessed afterward she was more nervous than when she spoke at the Republican National Convention last year and it showed. She bogeyed her opening four holes, a run of tentative strokes that left her scrambling before she had taken a fifth swing from a fairway