Women’s Ashes excitement tempered by concerns over congested schedule

England’s last Women’s Ashes win was so long ago – 11 years, in fact – that, when asked about it last week, Danni Wyatt-Hodge struggled to ­remember many details. Her main ­recollection was of the raucous night out in Hobart afterwards – a ­celebration that the then-captain, Charlotte Edwards, said resulted in her “worst ever ­hangover”. ­Somewhere out there is a photograph of Edwards and her ­successor, Heather Knight, ­staggering back to the team hotel, looking ­distinctly worse for wear. Unsurprisingly, it has never found its way into the public domain.Of course, that was all in the pre-professional era (January 2014)

Bill Sweeney’s RFU fate to be decided after Six Nations following U-turn

Bill Sweeney’s fate as the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive will be decided shortly after the Six Nations following an embarrassing U-turn from the governing body which has now relented to a grassroots ­rebellion and agreed to a special general meeting.Sweeney has two weeks to set a date for the SGM, which is expected to be held in either late March or early April, after the RFU confirmed that it is “validating the additional information” sent in a letter by the 152 members – a combination of clubs and constituent bodies – calling for the chief executive’s removal.The rebels had called for the SGM to be held no later than 28 February but there must be a 45-day grace period and it will not take place before the Six Nations has concluded.The RFU’s U-turn comes after ­Friday’s council meeting in which Sir Bill Beaumont was ratified as interim chair before issuing a call for unity in an open letter to all member clubs. The former World Rugby chair has taken over from Tom Ilube, who stood down shortly before Christmas, and will spend the leadup to the SGM to “debate and agree a united way forward”

‘Imagine if Messi coached Ronaldo’: how Murray 2.0 will need to adapt to flourish with Djokovic

Five months after retiring, the Scot is throwing himself into his work with the most successful men’s player of all timeAt the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns almost five years ago, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray logged on to Instagram Live for a casual conversation from their homes. As some of their viewers began to send through questions, they were asked to list the first three things they do when they wake up. Djokovic went first: “Gratitude and prayer,” he said. “A couple of long, deep breaths. Hugging my wife if she’s still in bed and running to my children

Jolted Australia are on the tear again – England have their work cut out

Healy’s side have reacted strongly to World Cup pain and the tourists need to keep the series live until the TestIf you’re playing against the Australian women’s cricket team, there are points where the only option is to brace yourself. Because they lose so very rarely, in any format, they tend to respond to those anomalies by proving how unusual they are. For England’s women, visiting Australia for a Women’s Ashes series of three one-day internationals, three Twenty20s and a day-night Test, this is now the position they are in.Skip back two places on the list of major failures to the 50-over World Cup semi-final of 2017, when Australia got ambushed by Harmanpreet Kaur in one of the all-time batting assaults. Outraged at watching England subsequently knock over India in the final, Australia went on a tear: unbeaten in series terms across four Women’s Ashes, three T20 World Cups, three T20 tri-series, 14 bilateral T20 series, 14 bilateral ODI series, the Commonwealth Games and the next 50-over World Cup, on the way notching a world record ODI winning streak of 26

Jimmy Anderson plans to play on for Lancashire in 2025 county season

Batters in Division Two of the County Championship have been put on notice with the news that Jimmy Anderson is planning to make a return for Lancashire this year.Anderson has not played a competitive match since his farewell Test, against West Indies at Lord’s last July, but, despite turning 43 this summer and having already moved into coaching, England’s record wicket-taker has made no secret of his desire to continue.Anderson went unsold in the auction for this year’s Indian Premier League but it was not the end of the line, with Lancashire set to be the beneficiaries as they try to bounce back to Division One after last year’s relegation. Talks over a deal are understood to be in progress, 25 years on from his professional debut for the club.Relegation may have been avoided had Anderson turned out for the Red Rose last summer but England softened the blow of forcing him into international retirement with a role as the Test team’s bowling coach

All-weather meeting at Lingfield called off due to bad weather as frost bites hard

The “all-weather” fixture on the Flat at Lingfield on Friday succumbed to the Arctic blast that has played havoc with the racing programme over the past week while the feature meeting at Kempton on Saturday was also abandoned after an inspection of the track on Friday morning, but ITV Racing has spared no effort to avoid a second blank weekend in a row and plans to show 11 races from four tracks, including the €100,000 Dan & Joan Moore Memorial Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse.The bumper schedule could yet be winnowed down, however, as the meeting at Ffos Las, the only surviving turf fixture in Britain on Saturday, is subject to an inspection at 7.30am GMT, with temperatures at the track forecast to be close to freezing overnight.Fairyhouse, meanwhile, faces an inspection at the same time, although temperatures are not expected to drop back below freezing before Saturday’s meeting.“Parts of the course are still frozen, particularly on the chase track,” Brendan Sheridan, the clerk of the course, said on Friday