Digest ATHLETICS

BOXING

Lee McGregor admits he is delighted to have been reunited with Josh Taylor after appointing Ben Davison as his new trainer.

The Scots boxers have become stablemates for a second time under the direction of Davison after previously working alongside each at Shane McGuigan’s gym.

McGregor will link up inside the ring with Davison for the first time on November 11 when he attempts to add Karim Guerfi’s European title to his collection.

And McGregor insists being alongside WBA and IBF super lightweight champion Taylor is another huge positive.

Speaking to Boxing Social he said: “I’m back with Josh training alongside him, I think that does me really good.”

CRICKET

England’s centrally contracted internationals are set to accept pay cuts over the next 12 months as the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to bite at every level of the game.

The England and Wales Cricket Board announced its latest round of retainers for 2020/ 21 yesterday but has yet to finalise the payment terms as negotiations continue with the Team England Player Partnership.

There was bad news for Jonny Bairstow, who lost his Test deal and joins Mark Wood in earning white- ball only terms, but breakthroughs for a trio of younger batsmen. Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley have all had name- making performances over the previous year and earn Test contracts for the first time as a result.

Five- time world champion Kenenisa Bekele admits he could get bored running the London Marathon.

The elite- only races will involve 19 clockwise laps of a 2.15km route around St James’s Park, with a finish on The Mall on Sunday.

Bekele said: “One lap is better because when it’s multi laps you get bored by repeating the same place.

“You are facing it many times, if you get some difficulties in the same place you are repeating it several times and it makes you uncomfortable.”