Retiring professional golfer AI MIYAZATO "could feature at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as coach for the Japanese women's team," the head of the sport's development HQ for the Games revealed. Professional Golfers' Association of Japan Chair MASAHIRO KURAMOTO said, "There's no one opposing the idea." SHIGEKI MARUYAMA was Japan's coach for men and women at the 2016 Rio Games. He "still fills the role, but Miyazato will be offered the chance to oversee the women's team" (KYODO, 6/7). ... Former English rugby league sides Hull KR and Hull FC coach ARTHUR BUNTING died, aged 80. Bunting was a Hull KR player "before taking up a coaching post at Craven Park but it was across the city at Hull FC where he was most successful" (BBC, 6/7). ... Real Madrid's LUKA MODRIĆ and Liverpool's DEJAN LOVREN are reportedly "expected to be witnesses at a corruption trial in their native Croatia." The trial involves former officials from their ex-club, Dinamo Zagreb, but "neither player is suspected of wrongdoing" (BBC, 6/7). ... English motorcycle rider DAVEY LAMBERT died "following a crash in the opening Superbike race at the Isle of Man TT event on Sunday." Lambert, from Gateshead, "sustained multiple injuries after coming off his 1,000cc Kawasaki machine at Greeba Castle" (BBC, 6/6).
TAX EXILE: World No. 1 tennis player ANDY MURRAY insisted that he "will not follow in the footsteps" of the U.K.'s "leading sports stars" by becoming a tax exile. Murray is the "sixth-wealthiest sportsman" in the U.K. There is no prospect, however, of Murray leaving his home in Oxshott, Surrey, and "moving abroad to take advantage of lower tax regimes elsewhere, as LEWIS HAMILTON, JENSON BUTTON and others have." Murray said, "I wouldn't want to go and live somewhere not to pay any tax and not have any of my family and friends around me. I wouldn't do that" (LONDON TIMES, 6/7).
