Seven England Women’s players lost their professional contracts with the Rugby Football Union "following the announcement of the new England Women’s sevens squad" for the '17-18 season. Among the players to lose their full-time deals are five of England’s starters from the Women’s Rugby World Cup final: Rachael Burford, Amy Cokayne, Katy Mclean, Marlie Packer and Kay Wilson. The other two are Amber Reed, a replacement in the final against New Zealand, and veteran back Danielle Waterman. The new fixed-term contracts, which conclude at the end of the '17-18 campaign, "are part of a switch in focus from the RFU to prioritise sevens for the season" (London TELEGRAPH, 9/6).
Australian Cricket launched its five-year strategy on Thursday. Among the key themes are a focus on women and girls, grassroots and junior cricket and growth in the Big Bash Leagues. The new strategy was devised after more than a year of consultation. The strategy applies to Cricket Australia and all eight state and territory cricket associations (CA).
The Australian Football League defended its record after former player Heritier Lumumba said that the league was "incompetent" at dealing with racism in the game. CEO Gillon McLachlan spoke out after Lumumba said that the AFL had "failed to effectively address what he perceived was institutional racism." McLachlan: "Our industry has been a leader in the country on racism. It doesn't mean we get everything right. We're a work in progress. We listen and learn" (London GUARDIAN, 9/6).
FIA President Jean Todt backed the idea of Formula 1 introducing a "yellow jersey" model, which would give the world championship leader a different color halo cockpit protection device from other drivers. With the arrival of the halo in '18 having "divided opinion," there is "hope that teams will work hard to make the devices more visually appealing," either through aerodynamic tweaks or through the use of different colors (MOTORSPORT, 9/7).
