Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the NL Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, has died. He was 63.

The team said he died Tuesday night at a Los Angeles hospital, but did not provide the cause or other details.

His death comes as the Dodgers prepare to open the World Series on Friday night at home against the New York Yankees.

Valenzuela had left his color commentator job on the Dodgers’ Spanish-language television broadcast in September without explanation. He was reported to have been hospitalized earlier this month. His job kept him as a regular at Dodger Stadium, where he held court in the press box dining room before games and remained popular with fans who sought him out for photos and autographs.

Valenzuela was one of the most dominant players of his era and a wildly popular figure in the 1980s, although he was never elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, he is part of Cooperstown, which features several artifacts including a signed ball from his no-hitter in 1990.

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India’s medal prospects at the 2026 Commonwealth Games were dealt a major blow, as key disciplines such as shooting, wrestling, badminton, hockey and cricket were removed from the Games in Glasgow.

In the updated roster released by the host city, only 10 disciplines were listed to cut costs. Among the other sports disciplines axed are table tennis, squash and triathlon.

The listed events are: athletics and para athletics (track & field), swimming and para swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para track cycling, netball, weightlifting and para powerlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and para bowls, and 3×3 basketball and 3×3 wheelchair basketball.

The Commonwealth Games will return to the Scottish city for the 23rd edition, from July 23 to August 2. Glasgow last hosted the Games in 2014.

Why have these sports disciplines been dropped?

Though not officially stated, the roster has been pruned to make the tournament budget-friendly. Only four venues “within an eight-mile corridor” will be hosting the CWG 2026 to manage the logistics—Scotstoun Stadium, Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Emirates Arena (including the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome), and the Scottish Event Campus.

ALSO READ: How did the Commonwealth Games start?

This edition will have nine fewer events compared to the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Apart from cost-cutting, another reason for the axing of hockey could be that the Games are being held just around two weeks ahead of the hockey World Cup from August 15 to 30 in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, Netherlands.

Victoria was set to host the 2026 Games but pulled out due to rising costs, following which Glasgow became the host city.

Why is the CWG 2026 updated roster a setback for India?

The axing of disciplines like shooting, wrestling, badminton, hockey and cricket is a major blow for India’s medal prospects, as Indian athletes have won bulk of their medals in these disciplines in the past Games (cricket is an exception, but given India’s dominance in the sport, the country was expected to make the podium. Indian women’s team won the silver in 2022).

India were fourth in the medals tally four years ago in Birmingham, winning 61 medals, including 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze. Of these, 12 medals came in wrestling and six in badminton. Wrestling, in fact, has been India’s strengths, bringing 114 medals in all, including 49 gold, 39 silver, and 26 bronze.

In shooting, India has won 135 medals, which includes 63 gold, 44 silver, and 28 bronze. Shooting was not part of the roster at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, too, because of logistical reasons.

ALSO READ: India should boycott CWG for dropping shooting, says Manu Bhaker

In hockey, the Indian men’s team has won three silver and two bronze, while the women have won three medals, including a gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

In badminton, India has won 31 medals—10 gold, eight silver, and 13 bronze.

MANCHESTER UNITED have contacted former Barcelona boss Xavi over potentially replacing Erik ten Hag, according to reports.

The 44-year-old has been out of work since leaving Barca at the end of last season.

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Ten Hag, 54, has come under intense scrutiny so far this season.

Following the Red Devils’ 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham last month, the Dutchman’s United future appeared to be in severe doubt.

They have since drawn away matches at Porto and Aston Villa, before coming from behind to beat Brentford at Old Trafford last Saturday.

According to the Mail, United chiefs have identified Xavi as a possible Ten Hag replacement.

They claim that contact has twice been made between United and Xavi via intermediaries in recent months.

Man Utd CEO Omar Berrada jetted out to Barcelona last Thursday for meetings as part of a four-man delegation.

Figures within United claim that several meetings have taken place in the Catalan city recently due to Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s Ineos taking part in sailings America’s Cup there.

Xavi began his managerial career with Qatari side Al-Sadd in 2019.

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After winning a league title and six domestic trophies, the former midfielder was appointed Barca boss in 2021.

Amid financial turmoil off the pitch, Xavi guided the Blaugrana to a LaLiga title during the 2022-23 season, also winning the Spanish Supercup in 2023.

Following a 5-3 defeat to Villarreal in January, Xavi announced that he would be stepping down as boss at the end of the season.

In April he had a change of heart, however, saying he would fulfil his contract, which had been set to run until 2025.

But the following month, the club legend was sacked by club president Joan Laporta.

Prior to Xavi, Thomas Tuchel and Gareth Southgate had been linked with the Man Utd job.

Both have subsequently been ruled out of contention, however, with Tuchel accepting the England job and Southgate vowing that he won’t coach for 12 months.

In addition to Xavi, United are claimed to be interested in former Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic and current Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim.

The latter, however, is also being strongly linked with Manchester City, should Pep Guardiola leave the Etihad at the end of the season.

The four-man crew finished sixth in the Beijing Olympics in 2022, which was the best result of all the Team GB skeleton and bobsleigh teams who endured a tough Games.

When he first joined the squad they were not funded, but bobsleigh did subsequently receive £1.5m from UK Sport before Beijing. For the Milan 2026 cycle, bobsleigh has been awarded £2.8m after a £900,000 uplift in August 2023.

To put it into context, the powerhouse Germany teams spend £2m a year on research and development alone.

“We do the best with what we have,” Lawrence said.

“The extra UK Sport funding has allowed us to look at different R&D bits, new two-man and four-man sleds, different aero parts etc.

“That costs a lot of money, but when you’re in a sport that is won by hundredths of a second, it’s all those little bits that help.”

The season following the Beijing Games was British bobsleigh’s most successful non-Olympic year, but the start of Lawrence’s 2023-24 campaign was delayed after Hall had back surgery. On his return, the four-man team carried on where they had left off with a podium in Lillehammer.

They are currently in Norway training before the season starts in Altenberg, Germany in December. The countdown is firmly on to the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The track in Cortina is still being constructed, which Lawrence said will pose a new challenge for the teams.

“The main thing will be who gets to grips with the track the quickest,” he explained.

But he is bullish about Team GB’s medal chances as they aim for a first bobsleigh gold since 1964.

“Obviously we want gold, but we will be looking for an Olympic medal,” said Lawrence.

“Anything less than that and we’ll come away disappointed because we know how good we are.

“We’re competing against the same people day in and day out from the World Cup circuit so we know we can beat them. It’s just having those stars aligned.”

Ex-Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha discusses how his former team-mate Vincent Kompany will manage Bayern Munich in this season’s Champions League.

Bayern visit Barcelona on Wednesday evening.

WATCH MORE: Could PSG be a better team without Mbappe?

The year 2023 was a defining one for wrestling, not for any podium finish but for the large-scale protests by Indian wrestlers, primarily women, against the then Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whom they accused of sexual harassment.

It was unprecedented, both in terms of the scale and longevity. Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia were the faces of the protest, with the agitators demanding that Singh be removed from the post and charged and tried in the court of law.

ALSO READ: ‘Pushed him off…’: Sakshi Malik reveals Brij Bhushan Singh’s attempts to molest her, in autobiography

In May last year, as part of the protest, the wrestlers, led by the trio, were detained by Delhi Police when they attempted to march towards the new Parliament building for women’s ‘Mahapanchayat’. Alleging mistreatment by the cops and the Union government, the wrestlers decided to immerse their medals in Ganga, as a mark of protest.

ALSO READ: ‘Will throw our medals in Ganga’: Wrestlers issue threat after police ‘brutality’

The police high-handedness came in for severe criticism from eminent sportspersons like Abhinav Bindra, Sunil Chhetri and Kapil Dev.

But, what was set to be the ultimate show of defiance, ended in a whimper as the wrestlers returned without immersing the medals in Ganga, after they were ‘convinced’ by the Khap and farmer leaders to drop the plan. Senior farmer leaders Sham Singh Malik and Naresh Tikait, reportedly, collected their medals in their turbans and sought five days’ time then from the grapplers to resolve the issue.

ALSO READ: Wrestlers must not immerse their medals in water, says Barkha Dutt

However, Malik has now revealed in her autobiography Witness that things were not what met the eye on that day. Excerpts published by The Hindu present Malik’s version of the chain of events. On one hand, Punia was speaking to Home Minister Amit Shah over the phone. On the other, Tikait, who, as Malik wrote, was “one of the leaders of the farm rights agitation from a year ago and whom we respected as an elder of the Jat community we belonged to”, asked them to refrain from immersing their medals in the Ganga till he talked to them.

Malik further wrote that the crowd got bigger as they waited, and her heart began to sink. “And then, suddenly, from the midst of that crowd, Tikait emerged. He unwrapped the safa on his head, walked up to each of us, took our medals and placed them in that cloth. He told us the medals were the pride of the country and he’d make things all right.

“Then he walked away from the ghat, leaving us there by ourselves.”

Malik added that the wrestlers soon realised their mistake, that what “was supposed to be a great act of defiance had turned into a complete farce”. “All of us sat in a car in a state of complete bewilderment. We were crying.”

The wrestlers were then taken to Tikait’s house, where he addressed a press conference, claiming credit for stopping the grapplers from immersing the medals in the river, Malik wrote.

“It was his moment to shine. As for us, we had been completely dishonoured.

“Later, people would tell us that Tikait, for all his image of confronting the government, had a history of selling out movements he had been part of, and he’d done the same to us. I don’t know the truth about that, but the fact is that the mistake of actually handing over the medals was made by us.”