Category: 6. Sports

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) can confirm that the “Green Army” – Ireland’s national hockey team nickname – will join the FIH Hockey Pro League for the 2025-26 season. It will be the first time that the finalists of the 2018 FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup will join the “League of the Best”.

Ireland was promoted through the FIH Hockey Nations Cup played in Chile earlier this year. Whilst New Zealand won that event against Ireland in the final, Hockey New Zealand later indicated that the Black Sticks would not proceed with the invitation to join Pro League this time. Therefore, as stipulated in the regulations, FIH extended the invitation to the runners-up, namely Ireland, who have confirmed their participation.

FIH President Tayyab Ikram said: “Congratulations to the Ireland Women team for joining the next season of the FIH Hockey Pro League! It’s wonderful to see a new team participating in the ‘League of the Best’. Qualifying through the FIH Hockey Nations Cup confirms how much the latter is a great springboard to join hockey’s elite.”

Speaking after the announcement, Ireland Women’s Head Coach Gareth Grundie said: “I am delighted that we have been given the opportunity to participate in the FIH Pro League 2025/26 Season 7. It’s a testament to the quality of play this team has achieved to date and is an excellent and invaluable opportunity for further improvement. It comes at an ideal time for us as a programme also, pitting us against the World’s best teams as we go in search of qualification for the 2026 FIH World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium.”

Finishing the 2024-25 Women’s Pro League season in last place of the rankings, India is relegated to the FIH Hockey Nations Cup.

On the men’s side, following the Black Sticks’ victory at the recent Nations Cup in Malaysia, FIH has extended an invitation to Hockey New Zealand for their men’s team to join Pro League again next season. Since New Zealand’s hockey governing body is currently undertaking a thorough analysis and decision-making process in this regard, FIH has approved their request for an extension of the deadline to confirm or decline their participation until 21 July.

Should New Zealand eventually decide to not participate, the runners-up of the Men’s Nations Cup, namely Pakistan, would have the opportunity to consider joining the 2025-26 FIH Hockey Pro League season.

For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website.

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David Beckham appears to be calming his nerves after wrist surgery with a bit of therapeutic gardening.

While still wearing a sling during his recovery, the former soccer legend hopped back into the field to dig up some homegrown potatoes.

On Saturday, June 28, his wife Victoria Beckham shared the latest pictures of her husband of 25 years, after leaving fans concerned with an earlier update about Sir David enduring “unbearable” pain.

As she shared pictures of her husband over the weekend celebrating his mother’s 76th birthday with a rainbow-themed cake, the Spice Girls singer’s following Instagram Stories showed her longtime partner squatting in their garden with a potato in one hand.

A small shovel lay in front of him as he smiled, with two freshly dug, dirt-covered potatoes resting beside the gardening tool.

The footballer turned entrepreneur has frequently offered glimpses about his newfound passion for gardening and beekeeping in recent months.

In a lighthearted video shared on his Instagram account in April, Victoria filmed her husband of 25 years as he knelt in the backyard of their home to pick some white radishes and began to joke with him.

With David all smiles and tending to his crops, it seemed he was well on the road to recovery, proudly showing off his batch of homegrown vegetables.

Former Australian cricketer Brad Haddin has asked Shubman Gill to make an “attitude adjustment” as the young Indian Test captain looks to leave a mark on the team. Gill has experienced a disastrous start to his Test captaincy career with the Indian cricket team as they
lost the first Test against England
by five wickets despite being the best side in the match for the majority of the game.

Indian batters passed the English challenge at Headingley, Leeds, with flying colours as they scored five centuries in the match, including one by Gill on his Test captaincy debut, but the lack of contributions from the lower order and some pretty ordinary bowling allowed England to escape with a victory.

Haddin says Gill needs to fix attitude to improve fielding

Besides poor bowling, the Indian team also suffered due ot the buttery fingers of the fielders as seven catches were dropped by them in the match, including four from Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Former Australian wicketkeeper-batter feels Gill and his Indian team need to fix their attitude to improve the fielding standards. He added that great fielding has always been a feature of great teams.

“Every great team, no matter what year you’re playing, the one stand out feature they’ve always had is that they’ve been a great fielding team. And I think that is one legacy Gill has start to leave now on this team. He needs an attitude adjustment,” Haddin told LiSTNR Sport podcast.

“If you want to field well and compete the whole time, it’s only attitude. You can do all your technical work off the field and have as many coaches as anyone, but it won’t matter. Even in the IPL this year, the catching was horrible. And that could be a byproduct.”

Also Read |
Jaiswal receives ex-India fielding coach’s backing despite dropped catches at Headingley

Haddin also brought 14-year-old IPL sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi into the conversation as he said that everyone who aims to become one of the greatest players needs to have very high fielding standards.

“Take the young kid [Vaibhav Suryavanshi] from Rajasthan for example. Everyone is talking about how well he batted, and it was unbelievable. But if you’re going to be a great player, he’s got to work on his fielding, his presence in the game.

Also Read |
Prasidh Krishna takes responsibility after unwanted record in 1st Test

“The one thing I would say to India is find a way to be the best fielding team in the world because you got the talent everywhere else,” he added.

ABUJA, June 30 — The first strikes in Dambe are thrown before the boxers even leave their house.

Fighters don charms and amulets, dye their fist or even score their arm with a razor, inserting traditional medicine before it scars over — all guaranteed to protect them in the ring or deliver a knock-out punch.

Combined with prayers from “mallams”, or spiritual guides, they are unstoppable — not just in Nigeria, but increasingly around the world.

The Dambe World Series kicked off in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Saturday in the latest evolution of a sport that traces its roots back centuries among west Africa’s Hausa speakers.

“Instead of trying to Westernise it, or instead of trying to make it something else, for us the goal is to professionalise it,” said Maxwell Kalu, founder of the West African Fighting Championship, the group organising the tournament.

At the same time, a key goal is also “opening the door in terms of inviting people to compete in Nigeria”.

Held on the ground of the national stadium and broadcast by DAZN, a British sports streaming service, the tournament is a far cry from the social tradition said to have been organised by 10th-century Hausa butchers.

“This one is big, I’m very happy,” said Abdullahi “Coronavirus” Ali, a 20-year-old who has been fighting since he was a child. “The audience is growing every day.”

As Coronavirus — nicknamed for his ferocious punches — spoke to AFP, two amateur fighters worked the ring behind him, in a pre-tournament exhibition match in Dei Dei, a working-class Abuja exurb.

Chickens pecked under the rickety wooden stands while cigarette smoke wafted above the crowd.

In Dambe, in lieu of a glove, the fighters each have one fist tightly bound in rope — their striking arm. The other hand reaches out, feeling the space between the opponents and looking for something to grab or parry before the fighting arm whips forward as if from a loaded spring.

Amid the blows, one fighter lost his balance and fell — a “kill”. The round was over.

Domestic, international expansion

Dambe might have once seemed destined to be confined to the margins in places like Dei Dei as Abuja’s elite paved over anything standing in the way of modern skyscrapers and highways.

But slowly, the government has taken more interest in preserving and promoting the sport, as have private groups like the WAFC.

With the advent of YouTube and Instagram, Dambe now attracts fans across the world, with one promoter telling BBC in 2017 that 60 percent of his viewers were outside Nigeria.

The sport has also grown at home.

In 2018, a Dambe match in the southern city of Lagos drew spectators curious about their northern countrymen’s pastime — and excited to see it in a proper stadium.

Earlier this month, athletes from across the continent descended on the megacity for the African Knockout Championship, a Western-style mixed martial arts tournament.

But Kalu envisions the opposite: foreigners making their way to witness a distinctively Nigerian way of fighting.

Professionalisation also brings the opportunity to bring in safety protocols and stable salaries to the otherwise unregulated sport.

“If I get married, I won’t allow my children to do it,” said Usman Abubakar, 20, his fist dyed a dark henna colour and arm replete with charmed scars, recalling an injury to the chest that saw him sit out for two years.

Foreigners welcome

Saturday’s fighters were competing to represent Nigeria in what is envisioned as a multi-stage, international series.

Boxers took to a sand-filled ring under stadium lights, with matches interspersed with musical acts and commercial breaks.

“Coronavirus” and his opponent danced around each other, sweat glistening, looking for an opening. He landed a blow, sending a tensed crowd into cheers as spectators overcame their urge to wince in shared pain.

“It’s somehow scary, but I do enjoy it,” said Joy Beatrice, a 30-year-old forestry officer in the stands.

Last year, supported by the WAFC, British national Luke Leyland travelled from Liverpool to compete in a Dambe match — reportedly the first white fighter to ever do so.

He was “destroyed”, according to one local media report, though he wrote positively of the experience.

Nigerian fighters remain cool on the idea of sharing the spoils of victory.

Asked what would happen if non-Nigerians started competing, “Coronavirus”, Abubakar and a third fighter, Anas Hamisu, were all excited at the prospect of more people embracing their sport.

But they also all shared the same prediction: the Nigerians would win. — AFP