M.S. Dhoni, who led Chennai Super Kings to a record-equalling fifth IPL title on Monday, could have spent his life inspecting tickets on Indian Railways if...

Chandler Stephenson scored two goals and the Vegas Golden Knights moved to the brink of their first NHL title by defeating Florida 3-2 on Saturday...

Harry Kane defended Harry Maguire as the England captain hit out at the way the defender has been “scapegoated” amid “really unnecessary scrutiny”. Little more than two years on from being named in the European Championship team of the tournament, the 30-year-old is now the butt of jokes to many. Maguire’s struggle for form and game-time at Manchester United have increased the spotlight on a player that has remained an integral part of the England squad. Boss Gareth Southgate said the treatment of the centre-back was “ridiculous”, “a joke” and “beyond anything I’ve ever seen” after he was mocked mercilessly against Scotland at Hampden Park. Kane wrapped up that 3-1 friendly win following an own goal by half-time introduction Maguire, who the England skipper believes faces unwarranted attention and ridicule. “I think H has come under some really unnecessary scrutiny,” the Bayern Munich striker said. “Probably been scapegoated a little bit in terms of the way the team has gone over recent times. “He is a really good friend of mine, he’s a great guy, a really hard working professional. “From an England point of view, he has been one of our best defenders and one of the best defenders in the history of our country in an England shirt. “It’s part of our game now, it’s part of football. You get scrutinised all over social media but knowing him, all he will want to do is work harder and improve and stay focused. “We’re fully behind him in the national team. I know the coach has come out and backed him fully. “There’s always going to be noise around players but the most important thing is that we have a really strong core with England and that’s the most important thing going into big games and big tournaments.” Kane and Maguire go from team-mates to opponents as Bayern host out-of-sorts United in Wednesday’s Champions League Group A opener. Harry is a great guy, a great professional. A lot of young players can look at him and his journey to hopefully motivate them to be footballers as well. Harry Kane on Harry Maguire Put to sharpshooter Kane he could make matters worse for the defender, he said: “Yeah, but this is football. I’ve come up against friends or England team-mates before. “Once you get on to the pitch, your competitiveness comes out and you want to do your best for your team and nothing else really enters your mind. That’s not something I think about. “But Harry is a great guy, a great professional. A lot of young players can look at him and his journey to hopefully motivate them to be footballers as well. “But, yeah, if he plays (on Wednesday night) that friendship goes away for 90 minutes and I do my best for Bayern Munich.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Chris Billam-Smith confident of Lawrence Okolie win but doubts appeal of rematch Roy Hodgson set to return to Crystal Palace dugout on Saturday after illness Harry Kane happy with Bayern Munich decision ahead of Manchester United meeting

It's getting to that time of the year when the first NFL coach might lose his job. Who is most likely to be sent to the unemployment line (or more likely the broadcast booth)?

VIDEO: Giants - Bills fight on 'SNF'.

Jose Altuve became the brunt of trolls on social media due to his height

Olga Carmona scores World Cup-winning goal for Spain, then learns of father's death ... Donald Trump's unconventional campaign is destined to get even more unconventional .... Disappointing New York Yankees mired in longest losing streak since 1995 ... Oppenheimer cruises past $700-million mark, now become megahit ... John Sterling almost bonked with another foul ball ... Angel Hernandez continued to build to an impressive legacy with an iffy call ... A Russian spacecraft has crashed into the moon ... Aldi is expanding and possibly coming to an area near you .... Bradley Cooper controversy over before it could really begin ... Charlize Theron, like the rest of us, is aging ...

Liverpool fans have been left in despair at the club’s latest signing after an announcement on the team’s website revealed how they will get the next generation of fans on board. With the football transfer season well underway, teams have been making various signings with their fans quick to comment on whether they agree with them or not. Liverpool fans appear to have unanimously agreed that their new one is the “worst signing ever” after announcing the club is collaborating with YouTube kids star, Blippi. Blippi is an American YouTube character aimed at preschool age and has become a worldwide sensation with over a billion monthly views on streaming sites. Liverpool announced: “Blippi’s latest adventure is a fun way to introduce the Reds to pre-schoolers across the globe. “Alongside this episode, LFC and Blippi have also collaborated on a new retail range that launches on July 10, available exclusively through LFC’s official retail channels. This is the first time Blippi has collaborated with a sports team outside the USA.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter On Twitter, one fan shared a clip of Blippi at Anfield and called it “the worst signing we’ve ever made”. In the clip, an overwhelmingly enthusiastic Blippi addressed LFC families, but for some the collab seems a stretch too far. One Liverpool fan wrote: “Really hope we get relegated for this cringy crap.” Another said: “If we're s**te again next season, this f**kers gettin' the blame.” But, others saw the silver lining, with one arguing: “Would still take him over [Harry] Maguire.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

First, Chris Billam-Smith was raised aloft. As Shane McGuigan hauled his fighter’s hulking frame into the air, for the adoring mass of fans to see, the cruiserweight’s face vanished behind his gloves. Somewhere under the battered leather, his left eye – swollen half-shut – closed completely. So did the right, trying to trap the tears. Inevitably, the dam broke. The stream washed away his sweat, while his bawls were drowned out by the flood of noise around him. Then, the cruiserweight sank to his knees, all 6ft of him reduced to the stature of a boy who once dreamt of this very moment. Or rather, this meshing of moments. To a young Billam-Smith, fighting in front of a sold-out crowd at the home of his beloved AFC Bournemouth would have represented a dream fulfilled; so would winning a world title. Doing both on the same night? If that plays like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster, then it is the kind of moment that one would deride for stretching our suspension of disbelief a fibre too far. Boxing is not Hollywood. Boxing does not provide fairytale endings. Boxing is unforgiving, and cruel. But if any boxer has earnt a mote of kindness from this sport, it is Billam-Smith. It was granted in the form of his decision win over former teammate Lawrence Okolie last month, but it should not be taken for granted. Nor could it have been when “112-112” was the first scorecard to boom over the PA at Dean Court. “I remember listening and thinking... like frowning,” Billam-Smith, 32, tells The Independent, with stitches still hovering over his left eye. “I wasn’t really listening to the [other] scores, but I just knew it was obviously a majority decision. If I had listened, I think I would have known [I’d won] because obviously one of them was a 107, and that couldn’t have been me because I had no points deducted and wasn’t knocked down or anything. Obviously I was just waiting for them to say ‘and new’. He said it, and a wave of emotion came over me. I was just thinking, ‘I’ve done it.’ I just couldn't believe it. It was such... it’s been such a long journey.” As Billam-Smith knelt in the ring, his face soaked in tears, his mother came to his mind. Dedicating his victory to her, Billam-Smith revealed in the ring that she is battling cancer. “Obviously at the moment, with my mum being unwell and stuff,” he tells The Independent, “for it to be all worth it and worth all the hard graft put in over the years, the years of not earning any money as an amateur and even early on as a pro – not earning a huge amount of money and scraping by at times... To finally to do it and achieve my ultimate dream of winning a world title at the stadium, it was just... You can’t really put it into words to be honest with you. “I had so many reasons to win; I had 15,000 people there that I couldn’t let down, my mum, my wife, my son. I was never going in there without giving it 100 per cent, because of all those reasons. And obviously for myself as well, with the growth through the years. Yeah, my mum obviously was a huge part of that as well.” So was Billam-Smith’s son, Frank, as he says. “Having to miss my son’s first birthday the day before the fight, that’s a completely different emotion. It’s weird; he has no idea what’s going on, doesn’t know that I missed his birthday – thankfully – to stand half-naked in front of loads of people at Bournemouth pier. You know, it’d be amazing for him to grow up and hopefully be proud of his dad.” These various factors, and the emotional weight loaded into each of them, had to be put aside for the sake of performance; so did the sense of occasion around fighting at Dean Court. “On the Friday, I went and sat in my old season-ticket seat and just looked at the set-up,” says Billam-Smith. “I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ The ring-walk rehearsal was very important for me to visualise how everything was going to be, so it wasn’t overwhelming and I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, this is actually happening.’ [During the actual ring walk], there’s a point where I sort of look around and just nod to myself. Like, I’m still very much in the zone and focused and staying calm, but I thought: ‘This is awesome.’ “[In the fight], I very much had blinkers on. All the visualisation helped. I was very calm in the ring and the whole time in the build-up, just thinking about those 12 rounds and how I was going to react – making sure I reacted logically to every situation.” Billam-Smith did just that, capping off an eclectic trilogy of fights across the last 11 months. First, there was his war with Isaac Chamberlain, which ended as a points victory in Billam-Smith’s favour, then his knockout-of-the-year candidate against Armend Xhoxhaj in December, before this often-bitty bout with Okolie. The 12 rounds against Okolie will not be what fans remember from this particular night, however. They will remember the aftermath – the stirring scenes of a dream being realised in real time. “Now it’s about creating another dream,” says Billam-Smith, looking ahead to the future. “You know, I’d love to fight in Las Vegas, but most importantly I need to secure my family’s future financially. And I’m not the finished article as a boxer. “In any sport I’ve ever played, I’ve always just wanted to give it 100 per cent and improve. That’s still the same me now.” Lorton Entertainment’s“STABLE”, a four-part documentary series covering Shane McGuigan’s work with his fighters, will be released this Autumn. Read More Leigh Wood and Chris Billam-Smith win world titles with victories over familiar foes How a unique night of action could lay groundwork for future super-fight ‘I could kill a guy and get away with it’: Teofimo Lopez is treading a disturbing path through boxing How unique night of action could lay groundwork for future super-fight Leigh Wood and Chris Billam-Smith win world titles with victories over familiar foes Boxxer’s Ben Shalom: ‘I sacrificed my twenties, I sacrificed absolutely everything’

The NFL player is presently unassigned as his contract option was declined by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2020

When will NBA All-Star Game voting begin? Find out the latest updates on the upcoming 2023-24 season and the All-Star Game in Indianapolis.

When Gilbert Arenas asked Steph Curry if he was the best point guard ever, Curry didn't hesitate to answer.