Sports
England face daunting task to break Ashes drought in Australia | The Express Tribune
PERTH:
Arch-rivals Australia and England resume Ashes hostilities on Friday in Perth with the hosts weakened by injuries but favourites to inflict more pain on a side with a dire record Down Under.
The highly anticipated five-Test series gets under way on a fast, bouncy track at a sold-out Perth Stadium and with Ben Stokes’s visitors insisting they are not scarred by past failures.
It has been 15 years since England last clinched an away Ashes series and since then they have failed to win a Test on Australian soil, losing 13 and drawing two.
This time they touched down on the back of a thumping 3-0 one-day defeat in New Zealand and criticism over scheduling — just a single three-day red-ball warm-up on a docile pitch.
Skipper Stokes said they were starting with a clean slate, despite their miserable record in Australia.
“They’re a phenomenal team, especially in their home, so we know the next two-and-a-half months is going to be tough for us,” he said.
“All the series that have gone past, whether that be in Australia or England, I don’t think count for much.”
There may never be a better chance to snap the long winless streak with the hosts’ pace spearheads Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood injured and out of at least the first Test.
Former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson said their absence “starts to rewrite the whole script for the Ashes”.
“It narrows Australia’s margin for error and it forces selectors into decisions they’d hoped they wouldn’t have to make this early,” he added.
At least England have been spared an opening match in Brisbane, where they have won just twice since World War II.
The Gabba will instead host the day-night second Test before the series moves to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
Speed over swing
England are relying heavily on their own cartel of express pacemen led by Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue, with Shoaib Bashir the only recognised spinner.
But it is a gamble, with Wood the only one to have experienced Test cricket in Australian conditions and he has barely played since knee surgery earlier this year.
Alongside Scott Boland, wily campaigner Mitchell Starc will shoulder the hosts’ attack with Cummins and Hazlewood out, with Nathan Lyon the spin option and seamer Brendan Doggett tipped to make his debut.
Former Australia captain Greg Chappell said in a newspaper column that the Ashes would be decided by the superior fast bowling unit.
“History is unequivocal — to win in these vast, sun-baked arenas, you need express pace bowlers who can intimidate, extract bounce, and shatter partnerships on pitches that reward raw speed over subtle swing,” he said.
“If England’s attack fires and dismantles Australia’s batting order, the McCullum-Stokes masterplan will have them join the list of successful English leaders in Australia.”
But he cautioned against England employing the ultra-aggressive “Bazball” cricket favoured by the captain and coach Brendon McCullum.
“Their incendiary style might work on the small grounds in England on pitches prepared to be as flat as one-day pitches,” he said.
“But it won’t be as easy to throw caution to the wind on the bigger grounds and more bowler-friendly pitches here.”
Top-order worries
A lot of England’s hopes rest on the shoulders of Joe Root and Harry Brook, ranked as the world’s top two Test batsmen.
Brook has never played a Test in Australia while Root has failed to score a century in his 27 innings Down Under where he averages 35.68, well below his career average of 51.29.
Australia will similarly be relying on Steve Smith to be in the runs.
The 36-year-old, who will be captain in Perth, has plundered 18 of his 36 Test tons on home soil, averaging a formidable 59.70.
“If Smith gets on a roll and he starts scoring runs, it’s going to be a challenge for England,” his long-time former team-mate David Warner warned.
Australia’s batting vulnerability is at the top, with an ageing Usman Khawaja potentially padding up with a sixth opening partner since Warner retired early last year.
The latest candidate is left-hander Jake Weatherald, the leading run-scorer in the Sheffield Shield last season but with no experience of the Test cauldron.
Sports
Wings stifle questions about Azzi Fudd-Paige Bueckers relationship
Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, answered numerous basketball-related questions at her Dallas Wings introductory news conference Thursday, but one unrelated to the game overshadowed all the others.
Fudd and teammate Paige Bueckers, who will team in Dallas’ backcourt this season, went public about their relationship in 2025, and it was an often-discussed subject before this week’s draft.
But when Fudd was asked Thursday about both her relationship with Bueckers — the two overlapped at UConn and won a national championship together — and whether she would seek advice from other couples in the WNBA about navigating the relationship as pro players, the subject was quickly shut down.
“Understand why you have to ask that question,” a Wings public relations staffer interrupted. “We’re going to respectfully decline from commenting on our players’ personal lives.”
Fudd averaged 17.3 points on 47% shooting in her final season at UConn, which ended with the Huskies losing to South Carolina at the Final Four — their only loss of the season.
Bueckers, who was last year’s No. 1 overall pick by the Wings, averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds while winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award.
Wings general manager Curt Miller said the team never hesitated in its choice to draft Fudd as the team looks to take steps forward after tying for the league’s worst record last season at 10-34 and winning only nine games in 2024.
“Since the moment we secured the No. 1 pick, we set out on a plan to be deliberate, thorough, with intention on evaluating where we got to ultimately in picking Azzi Fudd,” Miller said. “We traveled all over the world watching this incredible draft class, but it all came back always to Azzi.
“Words that we heard over and over again in the investigation of her was, a winner, competitor, a hard worker, obviously the skill set speaks for itself, an incredible shooter — probably one of the quickest releases in the game today, a defender with a lot of competitiveness and toughness, and, ultimately, all the intangibles that goes along with Azzi in the locker room — being unselfish, being an incredible teammate, being a high-basketball-IQ player. [It] all pointed us through a very deliberate and thorough process back to Azzi Fudd.”
Sports
Former SMU cornerback Teddy Knox faces $2.88M judgment for crash linked to Rashee Rice’s Lamborghini race
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Kansas City Chiefs star receiver Rashee Rice isn’t the only one facing discipline for a March 2024 car crash in Dallas.
Theodore “Teddy” Knox, a former SMU cornerback and teammate of Rice’s in college, was driving a Corvette while racing Rice’s Lamborghini on a Dallas highway before it caused a multi-car crash.
Knox has been hit with a $2.88 million default judgment in a lawsuit from one of those crash victims, Kathryn Kuykendall, according to ESPN.
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Teddy Knox and Rashee Rice (Getty Images)
Knox was ruled “grossly negligent” by Judge Kim Bailey Phipps, and a default judgment comes when a lawsuit has no response or a party does not appear in court. In this case, it was reportedly the latter.
“We’ve asked the court to grant the default judgment because we’re ethically required to as a matter of diligence,” Kuykendall’s attorney, Marc Lenahan, said in a statement to ESPN when the motion was filed.
“Personally, it pleases us that Teddy hasn’t made further mistakes that we’re aware of. If a team gives him a chance to prove that he’s walking the right path now, we’ll be rooting for him.”
PATRIOTS STAR STEFON DIGGS PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO FELONY STRANGULATION CHARGES DAYS AFTER SUPER BOWL
This marks the third default judgment issued against Knox from the March 2024 crash. He was also ordered to pay $1.99 million to Irina Gromova and $1.63 million to Edvard Petrovskiy in combined damages.
Knox and Rice pleaded guilty to charges from the crash, and Knox was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation. Knox was charged with causing a collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.

SMU wide receiver Teddy Knox on special teams during a game against the North Texas Mean Green Nov. 10, 2023, at Gerald Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas. (Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire)
Rice had similar charges, receiving five-year deferred probation and 30 days in jail as a condition of the probation. His jail time was said to be flexible, according to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
Rice was also required to pay the victims for their out-of-pocket medical expenses, which totaled around $115,000, as part of his plea agreement.
Rice was also suspended six games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, which he served last season.
The 25-year-old receiver said in a statement issued by his attorney at the time of the league’s decision that he’s had “a lot of sleepless nights thinking about the damages my actions caused, and I will continue working within my means to make sure that everyone impacted will be made whole.”

SMU Mustangs wide receiver Teddy Knox (18) prepares to make a catch during a game between against the TCU Horned Frogs Sept. 24, 2022, at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas. (Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire)
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Knox was suspended by SMU, and he hasn’t been in college football ever since. He began his career at Mississippi State before transferring to SMU.
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Sports
Mike Trout crushes fifth Yankee Stadium HR in four games
NEW YORK — Mike Trout‘s latest homer against the New York Yankees put him in rare company, and going deep again made history at Yankee Stadium.
Trout homered for the fifth time during a four-game series Thursday, crushing a 446-foot drive in the seventh inning for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-4 victory.
A three-time MVP, Trout joined Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990) as the only players with five homers in a series against the Yankees, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.
Trout homered twice Monday before going deep again in the following two games. In the series finale Thursday, Trout drove a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left-field bleachers to give the Angels a 7-4 lead. That shot made Trout the first player to hit five homers in a series in the Bronx.
“I heard that after the game,” Trout said. “It’s pretty surreal. All the great players that came through here, so it’s pretty cool.”
“Honestly, not surprising,” Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki said. “When you’re with Mike every day, there’s nothing that you believe that he can’t do.”
Trout also became the first visiting player to homer in four consecutive days at the current Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.
Trout went 6-for-16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. He also has homered in his past five games at Yankee Stadium and drew an intentional walk in his next plate appearance before Jo Adell hit a grand slam.
“At this point it’s vintage Mike Trout,” Adell said. “When he’s healthy and feeling good, there’s nothing like it. It’s special. It’s one of a kind. So for all of us to experience it, it’s special.”
“He’s unbelievable,” Suzuki said. “He really is. It’s been an amazing week for him.”
Trout is hitting .246 with seven homers and 16 RBIs. He is 9-for-27 (.333) with five homers and 13 RBIs on the Angels’ road trip, which coincides with him making a mechanical tweak.
Trout’s career-high homer streak is seven games, achieved Sept. 4-12, 2022. He has homered in four straight games for the fourth time in his career.
Trout’s homer was part of a four-game series that featured four homers from Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge. Judge homered twice Monday, again Wednesday and went deep in the first inning in the series finale.
“He’s unreal,” designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said after the Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games. “Cool showing from him and Judgie all series. Obviously, you don’t want that against us, but you got to acknowledge the greatness.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time opposing players who owned multiple MVPs hit at least three homers in the same series.
“It was an impressive show by those two,” Suzuki said.
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