Sports
Saim Ayub dethrones Hardik Pandya to become top ranked T20I all-rounder
Pakistan’s Saim Ayub has climbed to the top of the ICC T20 International all-rounder rankings, marking a major milestone in his career.
Despite a recent dip in batting form, Ayub’s performance with the ball has lifted him to the number one position.
The 22-year-old opening batter overtook India’s Hardik Pandya, who has dropped to second place. Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi retained third spot with 231 rating points.
Among other Pakistani players, Mohammad Nawaz climbed four spots to 13th with 166 points, alongside Faheem Ashraf, who also moved up four places to 35th with 100 points.
Pace-bowling all-rounder Shaheen Afridi made significant progress, jumping 15 spots to 56th.
However, not all movement was upward for Pakistan. Shadab Khan dropped one place to 36th, captain Salman Agha slipped to 72nd, Abbas Afridi fell three places to 79th, and Iftikhar Ahmed went down two spots to 92nd.
This achievement marks a major boost for Saim Ayub, who continues to establish himself as one of Pakistan’s most versatile T20 players.
For the unversed, the 23-year-old claimed eight wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 6.40 in the recently concluded ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025.
In the latest ICC T20I batters’ rankings, Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan jumped 11 places to secure the 13th spot with 658 points, following his outstanding batting display in the Asia Cup, where he proved to be a key contributor for his side.
Fakhar Zaman climbed six places to reach 60th, while skipper Salman Ali Agha moved up two spots to 62nd. Wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Haris also made significant progress, rising 11 places to 79th with 431 points.
Meanwhile, the star pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, who have been out of Pakistan’s T20I plans since 2024, slipped down the rankings. Babar dropped two places to 37th and Rizwan three places to 41st.
Saim Ayub and Hasan Nawaz also lost ground, both falling three places to 57th and 61st, respectively.
At the top, India’s Abhishek Sharma continues to hold the No.1 T20I batter ranking, followed by England’s Phil Salt in second and India’s Tilak Varma in third.
In the ICC T20I bowlers’ rankings, pacer Shaheen Afridi climbed 12 spots to reach 13th place, equalling India’s Axar Patel with 635 points.
Mohammad Nawaz also moved up five places to 41st, while Saim Ayub made a remarkable jump of 51 spots to 58th with 482 points.
Pacer Faheem Ashraf also surged 26 places to 93rd with 418 points.
However, the rankings also saw some setbacks. Spinner Abrar Ahmed slipped three places to seventh, while Sufiyan Muqeem also dropped three spots to 17th with 624 points.
Pacer Haris Rauf fell five places to 33rd with 548 points, and Abbas Afridi dropped six spots to 50th.
Meanwhile, India’s Varun Chakaravarthy continues to lead as the No. 1 T20I bowler, followed by New Zealand’s Jacob Duffy in second and Australia’s Adam Zampa in third.
Sports
Falcons interview Harbaugh, who is vetting teams
The Atlanta Falcons announced Monday that they have completed an interview with John Harbaugh for their head coaching job.
It is Harbaugh’s first formal interview since he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens last week, but sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday that Harbaugh has been conducting preliminary and extensive phone calls with the New York Giants, Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders and Arizona Cardinals.
He is trying to determine which teams to meet with later this week and into next week before deciding where he will coach next season, the sources told Schefter.
Chris Mara, the Giants’ senior personnel consultant, told The Athletic on Monday that he had an informal meeting with Harbaugh at the coach’s house Sunday.
Harbaugh, 63, ranks 12th for most wins by a head coach in NFL history with 193 and guided the Ravens to a Super Bowl title in 2012. He was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year in 2019.
In leading the Ravens for 18 seasons, he was the second-longest active coach in the league behind Mike Tomlin, who is in his 19th season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But Harbaugh didn’t produce as much postseason success in recent years as he had earlier in his career, which was a major disappointment, considering he had two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson. In eight seasons with Jackson, Harbaugh won only three playoff games and never advanced past the AFC Championship Game.
The preseason betting favorite to win the Super Bowl, the Ravens (8-9) finished this season with a losing record for only the third time under Harbaugh.
Harbaugh is the fifth candidate to interview for the Falcons’ job after the team fired coach Raheem Morris following an 8-9 season. Atlanta said on Monday that former Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel interviewed for its head coach opening.
The Falcons, who also will be hiring a new general manager after firing Terry Fontenot, hired former franchise quarterback Matt Ryan as their president of football, a new position created by owner Arthur Blank.
ESPN’s Jamison Hensley contributed to this report.
Sports
Koepka: ‘Nervous’ about return, must rebuild ties
HONOLULU — Brooks Koepka is expecting a nervous energy when he returns to a regular PGA Tour event for the first time in four years at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Only some of that pertains to his golf.
How he is received — inside and outside the ropes — remains to be seen as the first player to be invited back to the PGA Tour after taking Saudi riches to defect to the LIV Golf League in 2022.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do with some of the players,” Koepka said in a telephone interview Monday. “There’s definitely guys who are happy, and definitely guys who will be angry. It’s a harsh punishment financially. I understand exactly why the tour did that — it’s meant to hurt. But it [his departure] hurt a lot of people.
“If anyone is upset, I need to rebuild those relationships.”
Koepka was allowed back under a one-time Returning Member Program that the PGA Tour board developed and approved last week. It applies only to players who have won a major or the Players Championship since 2022.
The penalty is a $5 million contribution to a charity the tour will help decide, no access to FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026, no sponsor exemptions to the $20 million signature events and, most importantly, no equity grants in the PGA Tour for the next five years.
The PGA Tour estimates, based on Koepka performing at the level allowed to win five majors, that the financial repercussions could be worth anywhere from $50 million to $85 million.
“There was no negotiating,” Koepka said about his conversation last week with Brian Rolapp, the CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises. “It’s meant to hurt — it does hurt — but I understand. It’s not supposed to be an easy path. There’s a lot of people that were hurt by it when I left, and I understand that’s part of coming back.”
For those not happy to see him return, Koepka said he looks forward to having private conversations outside the media.
“The first week I’ll be a little bit nervous,” Koepka said. “There’s a lot going on than just golf. I’ll be glad to put the first week behind me — dealing with the media, dealing with the players, and then getting some of those tougher conversations. But I’m looking forward to it.
“Am I nervous? Yes. Am I excited? Yes. In a weird way, I want to have those conversations.”
Jordan Spieth said Koepka just needed to be the same person who left.
“You’re not going to ask somebody to change to please other people,” Spieth said. “I don’t think he needs to play Monday pro-ams or walk along the range and shake everyone’s and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ He just comes back and plays really good golf. That’s good for everybody.”
The board, led by a majority of players, signed off on the plan. Koepka talked with Rolapp by phone Thursday evening, and he was at PGA Tour headquarters the next morning unaccompanied. He came in through a side entrance.
The 35-year-old Koepka, who is exempt the next three years from his 2023 victory in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, will return at Torrey Pines on Jan. 29. He also said he would play the WM Phoenix Open, where he won his first PGA Tour title in 2015 and won again in 2021.
That might provide the first real test of how the public feels — a Saturday afternoon on the 16th hole of the TPC Scottsdale, the rowdiest in golf even for players the fans don’t really know.
“I can handle it,” Koepka said. “I enjoy the crowd, and hopefully everybody is happy to see me. They can’t be mad at me forever.”
So why the change?
Word first began to circulate in November that negotiations between Koepka and LIV Golf — he had one year left on his contract — were not going well. He had publicly complained last summer that LIV was not as far along as he would have liked.
And then Dec. 23 came the announcement from LIV of an “amicable” split, and Koepka reapplied for PGA Tour membership.
Koepka cited a knee injury that has taken a toll on his body and the desire to spend more time with his family as the reasons to join LIV. He cited the need to spend more time at home when he left LIV, particularly after his wife had a miscarriage last fall.
“I needed to be there with my family over the last few months. I needed to be closer to home,” Koepka said. “I was able to get out of the LIV contract, everything lined up perfectly and I was able to get back on tour.
“I’m happy and grateful it was able to come to this.”
Koepka has not spoken publicly about how much he was offered to play for LIV, except for saying it was nine figures on a 2023 podcast with boxer Jake Paul. Also unclear was how much he had to pay back by leaving one year early.
Now it’s about playing again on familiar turf with players he saw only four times a year at the majors. He is close with several players who live in South Florida. Others he will see for the first time in the locker room, on the range, on the first tee.
“There’s probably a mixed bag of ‘We’re happy you’re back, welcome home’ to ‘You shouldn’t be here.’ I understand everybody’s point of view,” Koepka said. “I was going to be sitting out possibly a year, and I’m extremely thankful the tour gave me this opportunity.”
Sports
College watchdog group nixed 500-plus NIL deals
The College Sports Commission has rejected nearly $15 million in name, image and likeness agreements since it started evaluating them over the summer, representing more than 10% of the value of all the deals it has analyzed and closed.
The CSC released its latest statistics Monday, saying it did not clear 524 deals worth $14.94 million, while clearing 17,321 worth $127.21 million. All the data was current as of Jan. 1.
The numbers came against the backdrop of a “reminder” memo the commission sent to athletic directors last week, citing “serious concerns” about contracts being offered to athletes before they had been cleared through the commission’s NIL Go platform.
The CSC is in charge of evaluating all deals worth more than $600 that are offered by third-party businesses that are often affiliated with the schools recruiting the players.
“Without prejudging any particular deal, the CSC has serious concerns about some of the deal terms being contemplated and the consequences of those deals for the parties involved,” the Friday night memo said.
The CSC said primary reasons for deals not being cleared were that they lacked a valid business purpose; they didn’t directly activate a player’s NIL rights, instead “warehousing” them for future use; and that players were being paid at levels that weren’t “commensurate with similarly situated individuals.”
The memo reminded ADs that signing players to deals that hadn’t been cleared by the CSC left the players “vulnerable to deals not being cleared, promises not being able to be kept, and eligibility being placed at risk.”
Other statistics from the latest report:
There were 10 deals in arbitration as of Dec. 31, eight of which have since been withdrawn. All involved a resolved administrative issue at one school not named by the CSC.
• 52% of deals submitted to NIL Go were resolved within 24 hours.
• 73% of deals reached resolution within seven days following submission of all required information.
• 56% of the 10,848 athletes who have at least one cleared deal play football or men’s basketball.
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