LA 2028 organisers have slated matches at the Olympic cricket tournament to start at 09:00 in the morning to cater for lucrative television audiences in India.
One of the major factors behind cricket’s return to the Games after a 128-year hiatus is the desire of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to tap into a lucrative South Asian media rights and sponsorship market.
The six-team T20 tournament, featuring both men’s and women’s teams, will begin on Wednesday, 12 July – two days before the opening ceremony – with all matches staged at a venue which will be constructed at the Fairgrounds in Pomona.
There will be two games played daily at Pomona – located 30 miles from the athletes’ village in Los Angeles – starting at 09:00 and 18:30 Pacific Daylight Time.
Those matches will be shown at 21:30 and 07:00 India Standard Time (17:00 and 02:30 British Summer Time).
The evening fixtures at the ground in Pomona will be played under floodlights.
Kit McConnell, who oversaw cricket’s return to the Games after a 128-year hiatus as the IOC’s sports director, told BBC Sport organisers considered “core cricket markets in the subcontinent” when planning the tournament.
“The vision the International Cricket Council (ICC) has outlined for us is aimed at providing the best players and the best teams on the Olympic stage,” McConnell said.
How will the Olympic cricket tournament work?
BBC Sport understands the competition structure for cricket at the Olympics has now been agreed following meetings between the ICC, IOC and LA 2028 organisers.
The six participating teams will be divided into two groups of three with each team playing each other once.
Teams will then play two sides from the other pool, apart from those who were ranked in the same corresponding position.
For example, the winners of Group A will play the second and third-placed teams in Group B and vice-versa.
Results from all four matches will then be used to determine final rankings with the top two sides playing in a final to decide the gold and silver medals.
The teams who finish third and fourth will play off for bronze.
Medal matches will be played on 20 and 29 July with the women’s and men’s tournament set to run in separate slots rather than being played concurrently.
The ICC is set to discuss how teams will qualify for LA 2028 at their Annual General Meeting in Singapore, starting on 17 July.
Some members want T20 rankings to determine which teams go to Los Angeles but others have expressed a preference for qualifying tournaments.
No repeat of New York pitch issues
Getty Images
The IOC have given assurances there will not be a repeat of the pitch controversy which blighted showpiece games at last year’s T20 World Cup in New York, which the USA co-hosted.
The 34,000-seat temporary stadium in Eisenhower Park looked impressive, but the drop-in pitches used for matches during the initial group stage, including the high-profile fixture between India and Pakistan, were subject to criticism.
Unlike the venue in New York, which returned to use as a public park, the ground in Pomona is set to remain a cricket facility for permanent usage by Indian Premier League and Major League Cricket franchise owners Knight Riders.
As reported by The Cricketer, the IOC and ICC are in negotiations with the Knight Riders over installing a square as opposed to using drop-in surfaces.
“We’re very conscious about the importance of the field of play and in the case of cricket, the pitch,” McConnell added.
“Now that we have finalised the venue, we can move forward with all of those plannings in a more concrete sense.
Governor of Katsina State, Dikko Umar Radda, fought back tears on Tuesday as he stood at the graveside of former President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura.
The governor, dressed in native attire, stood close to the gurney bearing the body at the burial site.
Buhari was born in Daura, Katsina State, to a Muslim family, sharing not only a heritage but also a personal and regional connection with the people of Katsina—a bond mirrored in Governor Radda’s emotional moment.
The governor was not the only one overwhelmed by emotion.
Earlier in the day, Fatima Buhari, the deceased president’s daughter, was seen in tears at the family residence in Daura.
Buhari’s Daughter Fatima Weeps On Arrival At Father’s Residence In Daura pic.twitter.com/szBaoyky4V
Relatives and close friends consoled her as preparations for her father’s final rites were underway.
Other members of the Buhari family also gathered at the residence to pay their last respects.
President Bola Tinubu was present in Katsina to receive Buhari’s remains upon arrival from the United Kingdom.
The former president died on Sunday, 13 July 2025, at The London Clinic after a prolonged illness, aged 82.
His body, draped in the Nigerian flag, arrived at Umaru Musa Yar’adua International Airport at approximately 1:59 p.m., accompanied by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, and several family members.
Tinubu, along with First Lady Remi Tinubu—who was seen comforting Buhari’s widow, Aisha—welcomed the remains.
Also present were members of the Katsina State Executive Council, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, and other dignitaries.
A military guard of honour performed a farewell parade before the late president was transported to his hometown for burial.
Buhari was Nigeria’s second-longest-serving leader.
After such a public break down in front of Glastonbury crowd and millions of TV viewers in 2023, the Someone You Loved singer’s welcome return to form is down to his strict new health regime
Lewis surprises crowd with his triumphant return to the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury 2025(Image: Getty Images)
Falling apart at Glastonbury two years ago was the best and the worst of days for Lewis Capaldi, who sees his triumphant comeback performance at this year’s festival as a “mental win.”
“I really wanted to come back and do Glastonbury as like a mental win – finish the thing that I couldn’t finish before,” he says. Fans of the Someone You Loved singer rejoiced alongside the newly trim – two stone lighter – Lewis, who is thriving thanks to a new regime, with changed medication, daily fitness and successful talking therapy.
Philosophical about his intensely worrying 2023 Glastonbury performance, which saw him retreat from the public eye, he describes it as: “The best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
The last time the singer played the Pyramid stage in 2023, it was his first live performance after cancelling a series of gigs. But clearly still struggling with his mental health and Tourette syndrome, Lewis’s voice cracked and gave out in the middle of his performance of Someone You Loved.
Losing it on the Pyramid stage in 2023, Lewis struggles to finish his song – and the audience helps him(Image: Getty Images)
In a touching moment that brought tears to the eyes of anyone watching the emotional scenes, the festival audience helped the visibly upset Lewis by singing the final part of the song for him, before he walked off stage.
“When it happened, and when it was happening, it was like the lowest moment of my life. I had this moment where I was on stage two or three songs in, like ‘this is the last gig I’m going to play for a long time, I need to try and get through this show, but when I come off I’m done’.
“Everyone else around me was a bit like ‘this is the worst thing ever’, and I had this weird feeling a weight had been lifted – ‘now this thing’s happened and I have to get help’. I had been putting it off.”
But, rather than taking immediate steps, Lewis, who has Tourette syndrome, flew back to Scotland that night and went for a boozy last hurrah with pals. He says: “I flew back to Glasgow that night and went out and had pints. I woke up and went straight to the pub. I just had to do something normal and be around mates. So I went out and kicked the arse out of it properly.”
A boozy Lewis celebrates winning the Song of the Year at the Brits in 2020(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
After that, Lewis started making dramatic changes to his life. As well as reducing his booze intake and getting fit, he saw neurologists and swapped antidepressants for anti-psychotic meds that finally worked.
He has also revealed that he had a far worse episode than the Glastonbury debacle in the US a few weeks before. He explains: “A few weeks prior to that show we were playing in Chicago and I had a very similar episode – it was probably even worse. I couldn’t come back and finish a song. I was backstage convulsing and having this crazy panic attack and mental episode. Way worse than what happened at Glastonbury.
“Because Glastonbury is such a big stage, it was the first time people outside my shows had seen it. At Glastonbury, when I came off stage it was weird, I had this (feeling) ‘everything’s alright now, I can actually go and get help and fix myself for the next two years’.
(Image: Daily Record)
“In a weird way, it’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I wouldn’t have stopped otherwise. I was really bad for not saying no to things. Feeling like ‘Oh this is going to pass me by if I don’t say yes. All this amazing stuff’s coming at me now and I have to catch it all and get it all done, otherwise these moments are going to pass me by and it’s never going to happen again’.
“So, Glastonbury 2023 was, for sure, really important – maybe the most important day in my life. Someone upstairs was like ‘this has to happen now otherwise…’. I don’t want to think of where I would be now if I’d continued. We were meant to go to Australia. It could have been really, really horrible. I dread to think what would have happened.”
Lewis surprises fans in Covent Garden, London, as he unveils TikTok’s Room to Reflect experience after his Glasto return experience(Image: PA)
Lewis also admits that, while he’d had lots of therapy before his turning point performance, he has never really opened up properly before. “I think for a long time prior to that moment in 2023 I was like ‘yeah, I have panic attacks and I get anxious’. I gave people enough that sometimes they think they’re getting the whole story and actually I’m holding quite a lot back,” he says, talking about therapy. “So when that happened at Glastonbury it was this real thing of like the mask had been pulled off.”
Speaking to Theo Von on the This Past Weekend podcast, Capaldi says his management found him a therapist who he connected with, adding: “I do therapy every week which has been really beneficial for me. That’s really maybe the biggest thing that’s switched everything around. I’ve been to amazing therapists, but I’ve never really had like a connection with any of them, or sort of felt it clicked.
Lewis is youngest of his four siblings – brothers Warren, far left, and Anthony and sister Danielle(Image: Daily Record)
“I was looking at the clock and being like ‘Ok, what is the thing I can say to get me out of here the quickest’. I wanted them to think that I had a grasp of my mental health. This is what’s great about my current therapist. He can sense when I’m being avoidant. He pulls me back in and is saying ‘there’s a reason you’re being wishy washy here’.”
As well as taking medication for his Tourettes, he says: “We try to reduce stress as much as possible. Saying no to things – I’m realising how important that can be. It was almost like when I felt I was out of body, I would try and do this like twitch or something to sort of bring myself back in. When I was performing it was really prevalent. Any sort of extreme emotion would bring it on.”
While he says his new antipsychotic meds are working, he admits coming off antidepressants was very hard. He says: “Coming off it is really an intense experience. I was like really low.”
A healthy and happy Lewis is back – and sounding better than ever before(Image: PR)
At first reluctant to switch medication, he adds: “It was really scary when they offered it. Antipsychotic? I’m like ‘I’m not psychotic’. It’s changed my life. Anxiety levels are so low these days. I don’t feel the stress.”
Lewis has also realised how important his physical health is to his mental wellbeing. As well as cutting down on booze, he says: “I’m trying not to eat as much. I’ve lost two stones since the start of the year. I was 20 st at the start of the year. My brother’s training me at the minute. He’s like a qualified personal trainer. He’s been coming down to London training me. I hate exercising.”
Talking about his return to performing Lewis, who is touring the UK and Ireland in September, says of his Glastonbury comeback: “I was really taken aback by the love and support. It was really like an emotional time coming back and seeing so many people reaching out and being kind and sharing their stories with me. It was amazing, maybe like the best day of my life to be honest. It blew my mind.”
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Leicester City have named former Queens Park Rangers head coach Marti Cifuentes as their new manager on a three-year deal.
The 43-year-old Spaniard replaces Ruud van Nistelrooy at the Foxes’ helm with less than a month until the season starts.
Cifuentes takes charge of a Leicester side that finds itself in the Championship for the second time in three years, having been immediately relegated from the Premier League after going up as second-tier title winners under Enzo Maresca in 2024.
Cifuentes now joins Maresca, who left Leicester after promotion to take the job at Chelsea, as one of the six permanent managers the Foxes have had in just over two years.
Just as the Italian was tasked with returning the East Midlands club to the top flight during his tenure, promotion will also be expected of Cifuentes.
In his time at QPR, the Spaniard, for whom the Foxes will pay Rangers an undisclosed compensation fee, oversaw 18th and 15th-placed finishes.
Leicester say they feel the Spaniard will bring “a modern, progressive footballing philosophy” to the club, while chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha says that Cifuentes “is an excellent fit”.
“We felt strongly that bringing him to the club would help us to create the success we all want in the years ahead,” Srivaddhanaprabha added.
Cifuentes took charge of QPR when they were second-from-bottom in the Championship in October 2023 and escaping relegation was first asked of him at Loftus Road.
At the time, Cifuentes was also being linked to a move away from the west London club.
It was not until late June, two months after being stood down, that the former Hammarby boss officially parted ways with QPR.
He was seen as a popular figure among Hoops fans, but was also viewed as a head coach that only got “streaky” results out of his side.
His appointment at Leicester, however, is seen a shift back to Maresca’s approach to the game, with the Spaniard sharing the Italian’s possession-heavy, high-pressing style.
Cifuentes has described taking on the job at the King Power Stadium as “a great honour”.
“This is a fantastic club with a proud history and it’s a privilege to me to be asked to help write the next chapter,” he said.
Cifuentes has had eclectic coaching career to date, with a spell working at Ajax’s famed youth academy in the Netherlands in 2007 followed by a stint at Millwall, before he went on to coach in Spain’s lower leagues.
West Ham have signed Senegal international El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague for £19m.
The 20-year-old defender joins the Hammers on a long-term contract and is expected to meet up with the club’s pre-season training camp in Germany this week.
Diouf was a key player for Slavia Prague when they won the Czech top-flight title last season.
He said “a lot of clubs” were interested in signing him, but he chose West Ham, as it “was a good plan for me”.
“I want to say to the West Ham supporters I’m very happy to be here with them. I think we’ll make a very good season this year,” Diouf told the club’s website.
“Everyone wants to come here to play in the Premier League. I think it is a dream for everyone.”
Manager Graham Potter said Diouf, who can play at left-back or left wing-back, was a player the club had been watching for some time.
Diouf left Senegal at the age of 18 to join Norwegian side Tromso in February 2023, playing 21 times and scoring three goals.
He then joined Slavia Prague a year later and scored on his debut in a league win at Karvina.
Last season, he scored seven goals as Slavia won the title by 16 points, conceding just 18 goals in 35 matches.
Former Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain claimed the BBC will ‘keep you until you’re of no use to them’ after her shows were axed
Nadiya Hussain says she was given ‘no definitive reason’ for BBC show cancellation(Image: BBC)
Great British Bake Off icon Nadiya Hussain claims she wasn’t given a “definitive reason” for the axing of her BBC programmes. The star, 40, fronted several food series for the BBC since winning GBBO in 2015 – when the show was on BBC1 – including Nadiya Bakes, Nadiya’s Fast Flavours and Nadiya’s Simple Spices.
However, in June, Nadiya revealed in a post shared on social media that BBC bosses had “decided they didn’t want to commission the show any more”, which she described as a “huge turning point”. This week, Nadiya claimed the BBC will “keep you until you’re of no use to them” during a chat with Paul C Brunson in the We Need To Talk podcast.
She was asked whether she was fired for speaking out and she responded: “I worked with the BBC for a really long time, and there’s points where I’ve kind of looked at working with other channels and other broadcasters, the feedback they gave us was you’re too BBC.
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Nadiya says she wasn’t given a ‘definitive reason’ about her show axe(Image: BBC / Voltage TV Productions)
“I kind of accepted in my head that I was very BBC, I suppose it means that they’ve got me exactly where they want me, I’m utterly unbiased, and just… you’re neutral, and I am not neutral, I have opinions and I have things to say.
“They’ll keep you ’til you’re of no use to them, and I think that’s what happened. Essentially, I got lots of reasons why they couldn’t commission the show, I had kind of rough reasons as to why they said that they couldn’t commission the show, but no definitive, ‘this is why we are not commissioning your show’.
“Considering my show got great ratings every year, like really good ratings, I can’t see there’s a reason why my show wasn’t recommissioned.”
She claimed the BBC will ‘keep you until you’re of no use to them’(Image: BBC/Wall to Wall/Tom Kirkman)
Nadiya claimed the BBC told her to say she was focusing on “different projects” when he show was not recommissioned despite it being further from the truth.
Instead, she posted a social media statement. At the time, she suggested that the TV industry “doesn’t always support Muslim women like me”.
The chef said: “The BBC have decided that they didn’t want to commission a show. And for me, that was a huge turning point because it’s something I’ve done for the past 10 years.
“I was already on this steady trajectory of change and I was thinking about where I wanted my career to go, and when the BBC decided they didn’t want to commission the show anymore, it really did kind of solidify everything for me, and it made me dig my heels in and think ‘OK, I know where I want to be’.”
She added: “As a Muslim woman, I work in an industry that doesn’t always support people like me or recognise my talent or full potential. There’s a lot of gaslighting, making me feel like what’s actually happening isn’t happening.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “After several wonderful series we have made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain at the moment. Nadiya remains a much valued part of the BBC family, and we look forward to working together on future projects.”
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