Cricket: David Warner scored his second century of the match as Australia set the platform for a final-day push for victory in the first Test against India in Adelaide. In-form Warner added 102 to his first-innings 145 before some late hitting from Steven Smith (52 not out) and Mitchell Marsh (40 off 26 balls) helped Australia close the fourth day on 290 for five – a lead of 363. It was the second time in 2014 that Warner has scored two tons in a Test, having notched 135 and 145 against South Africa in March.
Basketball: Former Euroleague winners Emporio Ar-mani Milan qualified for the competition’s second group stage with a match to spare thanks to a 66-64 home win over Panathinaikos. Spanish clubs suffered overtime home defeats as Fenerbahce Istanbul beat Barcelona 91-89 to end the hosts’ eight-game winning streak and CSKA Moscow edged Unicaja Malaga 76-75. Milan’s American forward Daniel Hackett, instrumental in last week’s must-win game with Bayern Munich, shone again by netting a game-high 21 points.
Rugby League: Greg Bird, one of Australia’s top international players, has been dumped as captain of his National Rugby League (NRL) club team, the Gold Coast Titans, after being caught urinating in public. The Titans also fined Bird $12,370 and warned him that his contract would be torn up if he misbehaved again. A talented player who has represented Australia’s national team 12 times, Bird was issued with an infringement notice this week after he was caught urinating on a public street, a day after he got married. He apologised but the Titans took a dim view of his actions, which was just the latest in a series of off-field incidents involving NRL players.
Winter Sport: Pyeongchang has no plans to move Winter Olympics competitions away from the South Korean alpine town, the 2018 organising committee said, downplaying reports that talks had taken place on switching sliding events to Japan. Sources told Reuters at the recent IOC session in Monaco that Pyeongchang organisers (POCOG) had held discussions with the luge and bobsleigh/skeleton federations about the possibility of the switch. The IOC voted at its session to allow host cities to move events to other towns, or countries, breaking with the tradition of keeping the Games in one location and fuelling speculation Pyeongchang could take advantage of the change. However, POCOG said all the events would take place as originally set out in its bid.
Financial Scrutiny: Swiss lawmakers passed a bill that would subject sports officials such as the head of FIFA and the IOC to more financial scrutiny by banks in Switzerland. Switzerland is responding to years of corruption allegations with a set of laws which have become known as “Lex FIFA” that aim to tighten oversight of the approximately 60 sporting bodies based in the country. Swiss lawmakers voted 128 to 62 in favour of revising a broader bill designed to fight money laundering. The bill now includes wording saying FIFA president Sepp Blatter and other sports executives such as IOC head Thomas Bach should be treated as “politically exposed persons” – a term justice officials use to define those in positions that could be abused to launder money.