Gary Sales shoots for men’s title No. 4. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The motivation for Gary Sales heading into the National Tournament of Club Champions (NTCC) presented by Lexus this year is far bigger than any he has had in a glorious participation in the event.

It could be a family thing for the ex-pro-turned-successful businessman this year.

“This will be her first time,” Sales told the Inquirer on Tuesday, referring to Marienelle, his wife, who took up the game during the pandemic and is now part of the starting cast of the most exclusive tournament in the land. “She will be there for the experience [this year]. But who knows?”

Gary is the defending men’s champion, and he and Marienelle will try to defy the odds and become the first husband and wife tandem to win the event as both jockey for rankings in their respective divisions in an 18-hole round at the Faldo course of Eagle Ridge.

Rodel Mangulabnan has become the prohibitive seniors division favorite with defending champion Abe Rosal begging off, and Marienelle will have to topple big names in the women’s game, like the seasoned Matet Salivio, if she wants a Cinderella finish.

Gary will be representing the host venue for the second time at the event. His three previous championships, counting two won in back-to-back style, were for Villamor, where he operates one of the best pro shops in the land.

“It’s going to be a very tough week,” Gary added, admitting that he has been more occupied with business and the remodeling of a newly acquired property in Parañaque. “There are a lot of players in the field who can really win this thing.”

Gab Macalaguim, the Tagaytay Highlands champion, Basti Lorenzo of Sta. Elena, Jonar Austria of Lakewood, Orchard’s Chucho Martinez, Manfred Guangko of Manila Southwoods, Justin Tambunting of Alabang and Henry Bolano of Royal Northwoods are among the players to watch in the men’s division.

Southwoods’ Joseph Tambunting is in the Senior division, like Abe Avena, the Mount Malarayat representative and Wack Wack’s Marvin Caparros, who are all expected to crowd Mangulabnan for top honors. INQ

When Jessica Davies, wife of Australian batter Travis Head, recently spoke about the torrent of online abuse directed at her family after her husband’s on-field skirmish with Virat Kohli, it wasn’t merely another episode of fan rivalry crossing the line. Nor was Shrestha Iyer’s anguished reaction after being viciously targeted for appearing in a light-hearted social media video with Punjab Kings’ content team. These are not isolated cases of “passionate fandom” turning ugly. They are symptoms of a toxic ecosystem – an organised, monetised, and now uncontrollable hate industry that cricket’s peripheral commercial machinery knowingly helped create over the past decade.

What began as aggressive social media marketing has gradually mutated into a Frankenstein’s monster. “There are agencies that can charge anything between Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh for spreading unmitigated hatred against a particular player,” an industry insider told PTI.

“To run a campaign, customised stats could be given. Now it’s up to them to make the topic trend. Obviously, the rates will be different for hours of trending and trending for days,” the insider added.

The social media game around cricketers changed dramatically nearly a decade ago when platforms stopped being merely tools of engagement and became commercial goldmines.

A player’s social media following increasingly determined the value of his digital endorsement deals at a time when traditional advertising revenue through linear television began shrinking.

One viral hashtag could translate into endorsement deals worth crores. And that’s when the ecosystem changed permanently.

“And here entered a very important component: the sports management firms that handled players’ image and commercials,” a senior BCCI official familiar with the workings of the system said.

“The managers would comb through profiles of social media aggregators with decent following. They would be engaged to improve a player’s social media traction,” the official explained.

Soon, fan clubs multiplied exponentially.

Algorithms rewarded outrage over nuance, abuse over analysis, and tribal loyalty over sporting appreciation.

What initially looked like harmless fan engagement slowly became weaponized propaganda.

Managers, agencies, and social media operators found that inorganic amplification worked both ways — glorifying one player and systematically tearing another down.

What nobody anticipated was how quickly this ecosystem would slip out of institutional control.

Bots became armies. Rival fan groups became digital lynch mobs. Manufactured trends became accepted public discourse.

The abuse was no longer restricted to players. Families became collateral damage.

Wives, sisters, and even children became easy targets in a culture where anonymity removed accountability and hatred became currency.

Jessica Head and Shrestha Iyer are suffering today because cricket’s wider commercial ecosystem spent years incentivizing online polarisation without caring about its eventual human cost.

The tragedy is that the same ecosystem that once celebrated “engagement metrics” is now horrified by the monster those numbers created.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Frank Lampard has been named the League Managers Association manager of the year after guiding Coventry back to the Premier League.

Lampard’s Sky Blues finished 11 points clear at the top of the Championship to clinch the title and return to the top flight for the first time since the 2000-01 season.

The former England midfielder, who has previously managed Derby, Everton and had two spells in charge at Chelsea, was presented with the Sir Alex Ferguson award by England manager Thomas Tuchel.

The award, named after the former Manchester United manager, is voted for by managers throughout the leagues and takes into account success and the resources available.

Tuchel read out a letter from Ferguson, who said Lampard’s Coventry play “great football with confidence and belief”.

“I have enjoyed watching you. Best of luck in the Premier League next season,” he added.

Brentford‘s Keith Andrews, Arsenal‘s Mikel Arteta, Aston Villa‘s Unai Emery, Bournemouth‘s Andoni Iraola, Manchester City‘s Pep Guardiola, Lincoln City’s Michael Skubala and Bromley’s Andy Woodman were also shortlisted.

Manchester City‘s Andree Jeglertz won the Women’s Super League award after leading them to the title.

Arteta, who led Arsenal to their first Premier League title in 22 years, won the Premier League award while Lampard also took the Championship equivalent.

Skubala, who won League One with Lincoln, took the award for the third tier and Woodham won the League Two award after he led Bromley to the title.

The WSL2 award was taken by Karen Hills, who led Charlton to the WSL for the first time.

Steve Bruce and Martin O’Neill were inducted into the Hall of Fame after each reaching 1,000 games as a manager.

The award for Lampard is the most significant individual honour in his coaching career.

His Derby side lost in the Championship play-off final in 2019 and he was then appointed at former club Chelsea, where he spent 13 years as a player.

He was sacked after 18 months in charge in 2021 but later returned as a caretaker.

In between, he spent less than a year in charge of Everton during which he oversaw an escape from relegation but was later sacked.

This season his Coventry side were the Championship’s highest scorers with 97 goals in 46 games. They also had the best defence.

Chris Wilder, who won the award while in charge of Sheffield United in 2019, and Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna, the 2024 winner, are other recent managers to receive the LMA’s top award while managing outside of the Premier League.

Michael Carrick is looking to add a left winger to his squad this summer but there are other areas in more urgent need of attention.

Ruben Amorim claimed back in November that you could “feel the anxiety every time Patrick [Dorgu] touched the ball”. If the former Manchester United boss tuned in to watch Dorgu’s stellar showing against Brighton on Sunday then he is the one who would have been left sweating.

Amorim pulled no punches in press conferences during his time at Old Trafford, and his own players often found themselves the target of his sharp right hooks in the Carrington media room.

His assessment of Dorgu was unnecessary, piling further pressure on a 21-year-old who was struggling to justify the £25million fee United paid to sign him in January. Six months on and Dorgu looks a completely different player.

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A move into a more advanced role has brought the best out of the former Lecce man, and on Sunday he provided a timely reminder of his qualities.

His goal tally on the south coast could, and perhaps should, have been two, yet his movement, pace and link-up play caused Brighton no end of problems as United cruised to a final day victory at a sun-drenched Amex Stadium.

While a midfield overhaul tops United’s summer to-do list, left-wing has also been earmarked as a position in need of strengthening. But with Dorgu showing no ill effects of the injury that kept him sidelined for nearly three months at the back end of the season, and Matheus Cunha proving he can do a job on the left in Dorgu’s absence, it begs the question why United would prioritise left-wing reinforcements when other areas of the squad are more in need of attention.

Deputies to Senne Lammens and Benjamin Sesko could be needed this summer, but it’s at left-back where United have more pressing concerns.

With 19 Premier League appearances in two years prior to the start of this season, few expected Luke Shaw to start all 38 of United’s league games this term, but his inclusion in the starting XI on Sunday saw him do just that. Next season, United will expect to add at least 20 games to the calendar on top of the paltry 40 they played this season, and failure to sign back-up and competition for Shaw would be a grave oversight.

Shaw has played 40 games or more in just three of his 12 seasons at Old Trafford, and so if United are to challenge on multiple fronts next term then a reliable deputy at left-back is a must.

Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui have filled in on the left at times but both are better suited to the right, while Tyrell Malacia has played his final game in a United shirt. Dorgu has shown too much promise in an advanced role to be pushed into a back four, and all other in-house options are far too inexperienced to be thrown into the deep end when needed.

Michael Carrick spoke of the experience Shaw can offer the group next season when asked about the role he will play in 2026/27, saying: “He’s at that stage now where he’s got an awful lot of experience, he’s been here for a long time, he knows the club, he knows what it feels like, he knows the ups and he’s suffered some of the more challenging times, you know, so next season I think his experience will be valuable, however many games he plays.”

The final few words of that answer felt particularly telling.

United have been linked with a number of left-backs recently, with Newcastle’s Lewis Hall and Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly both mentioned as possible targets. Neither would come cheap, and so if United do spend big on a midfield overhaul and a new left winger, it’s hard to see them being able to invest heavily in a left-back.

A rejig of the to-do list could be needed.

Active people app, Strava, has overhauled its strength training experience, allowing gym-goers to automatically log and share their lifts from their wearables.

Users can now record sets, reps and weight in a purpose-built log, making it easy to review and repeat workouts. Every logged workout now generates a visual muscle map, highlighting the muscle groups trained.

Five new strength-specific shareables give athletes more ways to celebrate their lifts and progress with friends, clubs, and the broader Strava community. The new formats are designed to translate the work happening in the gym or at home into the same kind of recognition Strava users have long received for activities recorded outdoors.

“Strength has been one of the fastest-growing sport types on Strava for some time, with more than 500 million uploads in 2025 alone, and our community has been clear about what they need from us,” said Matt Salazar, chief product officer, Strava. 

“This overhaul brings the same depth, motivation, and shareability that Strava is known for to a myriad of strength activities. Whether someone is training for a race, lifting for general fitness, or building strength as their primary activity, they now have tools that meet them where they actually are and this is only the beginning.”

Ed Baker, chief product officer at Whoop, says this integration gives people more context to their workout programmes: “By integrating Whoop insights and broader health and performance signals into Strava, we are helping our members connect strength, endurance and recovery so they can see the full picture of their performance more clearly than ever.”

The initial launch partners are 24 Hour Fitness, Amazfit, Caliber, Coros, Fitbod, Garmin, Hevy, iFIT Personal Trainer, Jefit, Liftoff, Motra, Remaker, Runna and Whoop.

Strava has 195 million users in more than 185 countries.

Gervonta Davis seems set to return to the ring later this year, but an opponent still isn’t nailed down.

Davis has not won a fight since June 2024, drawing in his solitary outing of last year against Lamont Roach Jr and being inactive in the 14 months that have followed, due to serious legal matters outside the ring.

That inactivity caused the WBA to name Davis lightweight champion in recess, but it seemed that he would be vacating the belt entirely following reports that his return would be a super-lightweight rematch with Isaac Cruz.

However, ‘Tank’ has now been ordered by the WBA to fight number one contender Floyd Schofield, and, with the recent news that ‘Pitbull’ Cruz is looking elsewhere for his next fight, it appears he is willing to satisfy the sanctioning body to keep his championship status at 135lbs.

In an interview with FightHype, Schofield’s father and trainer, Floyd Schofield Snr, confirmed that negotiations have begun.

“Trust me, they are on that phone [to PBC] already. They was already in preliminaries before the [WBA] ruling came, they was negotiating. 

“Tank didn’t say that he didn’t want this fight. Right now, they are in negotiations, I guess they are seeing if they can meet his demands, for how much he is going to possibly ask for, and we are going to go from there.

“We are waiting on the contract, that is all we waiting on.” 

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Davis’ comeback is expected to take place around September, with 23-year-old Schofield now seen as the frontrunner for the opposing corner, seeking to hand the Baltimore knockout artist a first career defeat.