Favourites India come into tournament on sour note after refusal to play in Pakistan gives superpower tactical edge

As the ICC Champions Trophy resurfaces in Pakistan this week, nearly eight years since the last one, folks will be forgiven for a few double takes, for feeling a bit like Ian Wright reuniting with his old teacher in that lovely viral clip, jaw dropped to the floor and gasping: “You’re alive! Someone said you were dead!”

Although did anyone seriously think the Champions Trophy was toast? They say cockroaches and microbes would survive a nuclear apocalypse but there is every chance international cricket’s 50‑over tournoi would also spring up in the wasteland, glowing with radiation but still ready to stick its presumably mutated winners in those Miami Vice-style white blazers and deliver that sweet, sweet broadcast money.

The news that a national poetry centre is to be established in Leeds proved the source of considerable pride in West Yorkshire on Monday. By 10pm on a bitterly cold night at Elland Road, any notions that Leeds would capture the mood courtesy of a suitably cadenced performance had been thoroughly disabused as Daniel Farke’s side fought their way to a dramatic last-gasp win after Wilson Isidor had given Sunderland the lead.

Yet if it was hardly poetic, substitute Pascal Struijk’s gamechanging double returned Leeds to the top of the Championship, leaving them two points ahead of Sheffield United, seven clear of third-placed Burnley and 10 in front of Régis Le Bris’s team.

The 52,888-seat ground in Bramley-Moore dock impresses as 10,000 fans flock to test event – even if Everton lose

The clue is in the name, yet it is hard to imagine now that Bramley‑Moore dock was an abandoned, neglected body of water 1,303 days ago.

Twelve unexploded anti-aircraft shells from the second world war still lurked in the depths, waiting to be removed by the Royal Navy, when Everton took possession of the site on 26 July 2021. Less than four years later a magnificent, imposing, futuristic stadium has opened on the banks of the River Mersey. A torturous journey decades in the making has been worth every step.

New Zealand fighter has appreciated spending time with his family as he prepares to challenge Daniel Dubois for the IBF world heavyweight title

There’s nothing quite like watching Joe Parker lip-syncing to Take That to lift the mood in the back of an Uber on a drizzly morning in Dublin. The dangerous threat Parker faces against another big-hitting monster of the ring in Daniel Dubois, in Riyadh on Saturday night, fades with the laughter.

Even the depressing reality that boxing will continue to ignore human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, as Parker’s intriguing bout with Dubois headlines an outstanding bill bankrolled by the country’s General Entertainment Authority, can’t erode the wit and charm of the New Zealand heavyweight channelling his inner Gary Barlow.

• Scotland have won the last four meetings in Six Nations
• Steve Borthwick using clips of defeats for motivation

England players have been shown Calcutta Cup video nasties for extra motivation as they bid to end a miserable run against Scotland on Saturday.

Steve Borthwick’s side will seek a first win against the auld enemy in five years buoyed by their one-point victory against France last time out. But the head coach is waiting on the second-rower George Martin, who was not part of full training on Monday because of discomfort in his knee.

The optimism that greeted Jim Ratcliffe’s arrival as owner has given way to even more disappointment, with Sunday’s defeat at Tottenham the latest example

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Covering Manchester United these days feels a little like being a character in Silent Witness: every week you end up writing a postmortem. Their Sunday defeat at Tottenham was an engaging if bitty affair that finished 1-0 largely because the low quality of defending on show was compensated for by the low level of attacking. It was fun in its way, but it didn’t feel a lot like Premier League football.

It also meant United dropped to 15th in the table, having won just four of 14 league games under Ruben Amorim. Under Erik ten Hag this season, United were taking 1.22 points per game; under Amorim that’s down to 1.00. Nobody was under any illusions about the scale of the task he was taking on, but four months after Amorim took the job it would be very difficult to identify any concrete signs of progress. There has been the resilience of the performance in the league at Anfield, in the FA Cup at the Emirates, and not a lot else.

• ‘We need to stop focusing on big picture. Just next game’
• Maddison scores winner to ease pressure on Postecoglou

Ruben Amorim has insisted that he will “stick with my beliefs” after watching his injury-hit Manchester United side endure a 12th Premier League defeat of the campaign that leaves them 15th in the table.

A first-half goal from James Maddison, who celebrated by putting his finger to his lips in response to criticism he received last week from Roy Keane, sealed Tottenham’s first win at home in the Premier League since they beat Aston Villa here in November. On his return from injury, Guglielmo Vicario produced a brilliant save to deny an Alejandro Garnacho shot in the second half.

Sam’s Warrington enjoy 20-12 win against Tom’s Huddersfield in latest twist of the family tale

For more than a decade rugby league’s most famous family were synonymous with one club and one club alone: South Sydney Rabbitohs. But these days the story of the Burgess brothers is being told back home in England – and the latest intriguing chapter began in the slightly murkier surroundings of Huddersfield.

Sam, George, Tom and Luke made history in 2013 when they all played in the same Souths side in the National Rugby League, together, they all achieved success in Australia, albeit to varying degrees. But never before have the brothers squared off against one another, a situation Sam and Tom encountered for the first time on Super League’s opening weekend.

• ‘You can’t play knowing you can’t make a foul’
• Manager praises team response to Wolves’ fightback

Arne Slot admitted he withdrew Ibrahima Konaté at half-time against Wolves to save the Liverpool defender from a second yellow card, as the Premier League leaders secured a nervous victory at Anfield.

Liverpool restored their seven-point advantage over Arsenal but played with doubts caused by James Tarkowski’s 98th-minute equaliser for Everton in the Merseyside derby, according to Slot. Konaté could have increased their problems when, having been booked for dragging back Matheus Cunha, he collided late with the Wolves playmaker shortly before the interval. The referee, Simon Hooper, ignored Wolves’ appeals for a second yellow and thus a red card. “I cannot change anything now but in my opinion it was a second yellow card,” Vítor Pereira, the head coach, said.

• Raducanu wins 6-4, 6-2 in Dubai after four losses in a row
• ‘I’m really pleased with how I fought and competed’

Emma Raducanu ended her losing run in style with a straight-sets victory over Greece’s Maria Sakkari in the Dubai Duty Free Championships.

Raducanu came into the match on the worst run of results in her career, having lost four successive matches. But the former US Open champion made the ideal start with a break of serve in the opening game and rounded off a 6-4, 6-2 victory in fine fashion with her third ace of the 90-minute contest.