Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Melbourne Cup prizemoney boost

Prizemoney for the Melbourne Cup will increase to $A8 million.

The total prizemoney, including trophies, increases from $A7.3 million in 2018.

The race winner will receive $A4.4 million plus $A250,000 in trophies, second place $A1.1 million and third place $A550,000.

Prizemoney will continue to be paid from 1st down to 12th.

From sixth to twelfth place, each will now receive $A160,000, up from $A150,000.

Highlanders get a helping hand

The Highlanders slim chances of making the Super Rugby playoffs have been given a helping hand

Their opponents in their final round game, the Waratahs, have decided to leave their Wallabies out of their side for the game in Invercargil.

The Waratahs won't play Kurtley Beale, Bernard Foley, Michael Hooper, Sekope Kepu and Rob Simmons.

Waratahs assistant coach Steve Tandy said: "It's an opportunity for boys to come in and really represent what we stand for, and continue how we've gone through the season, making sure we fight for every minute we play.

The 11th placed Highlanders are three points outside of the top eight and will probably need a bonus point win and have other results go their way to make the play-offs.

The last time the Highlanders missed the play-offs was in 2013.

Canada open World Cup with a win

Defender Kadeisha Buchanan scored on the stroke of halftime to hand Canada a winning start to the FIFA women's World Cup as they edged Cameroon 1-0 in Montpellier.

Buchanan came storming in at a corner and delivered a textbook header to break the deadlock.

Yet it was an unconvincing performance from Canada, who are fifth in the FIFA women's rankings and were quarter-finalists at the last World Cup.

Despite all their possession and passing, Canada managed just three efforts on target as they battled to get the better of the African's defence.

European champions the Netherlands open their Group E account against New Zealand in Le Havre tonight.

Williams leaves Phoenix

Wellington Phoenix striker, David Williams has left the A-League club.

The Australian played just one season with the Phoenix, scoring 11 goals in 27 appearances, including a hat-trick against Newcastle Jets.

While the club and player were in negotiations to extend the contract, Williams has officially told the club he will not be returning.

Williams is reported to be heading to India.

It leaves the Phoenix without a striker after Roy Krishna also announced he would be leaving Wellington.

Cricket World Cup headlines

• South Africa's World Cup hopes go down with the rain
• India hand Australia first cup loss
• Roy's 'luxury runs' secure win for England.
• Opinion: Black Caps building nicely
• India win opener, consign Proteas to third loss
• Black Caps make hard work of victory
• Bangladesh team putting Christchurch terror attacks behind them

Parker announces retirement

Tony Parker, a four-time NBA basketball champion with the San Antonio Spurs, has announced his retirement.

"It's with a lot of emotion that I retire from basketball, it was an incredible journey!" he posted on Twitter. "Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I would live all those unbelievable moments with the NBA and the French National Team. Thank you for everything!"

The Spurs drafted Parker, a point guard who was born in Belgium and raised in France, with the No. 28 overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft. He joined Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili to lead the Spurs to titles in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.

He played in 1,198 regular-season games over 17 seasons with the Spurs and signed with the Charlotte Hornets for the 2018-19 season, when he averaged 9.5 points in 56 games. He was a six-time All-Star.

He ends his career with a regular-season average of 15.5 points, 5.6 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game. He was at his best in the postseason, averaging 17.9 points over 226 playoff games in San Antonio.

-Reuters

Warriors forward banned

The Warriors will be without forward Tevita Satae for Friday's NRL clash with the Gold Coast Titans in Robina after copping a one-week ban.

Satae pleaded guilty ban for grade-one dangerous contact to the neck of Melbourne back Josh Addo-Carr in the Warriors' home loss to the Storm last Saturday.

Gold Coast lock Keegan Hipgrave could join South Sydney's Tom Burgess and Satae on the sidelines after becoming the seventh player charged by the NRL judiciary this weekend.

Hipgrave is looking at a one-game ban with an early guilty plea after being slapped with a grade one shoulder charge for his hit on young Brisbane forward Tom Flegler in the Titans' 26-18 win over the Broncos on Sunday.

The 22-year-old will miss Friday's home clash with Warriors and faces a potential two-game ban if he challenges the charge and loses.

Semenya named in World Championship team

Double Olympic 800 metres champion Caster Semenya has been included in South Africa's preliminary team for this year's world championships in Doha, though it is dependent on the outcome of her appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

Semenya is fighting a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision that supported the IAAF's rule that XY chromosome athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs), like Semenya, can only race in distances from 400m to a mile if they take medication to lower their testosterone levels.

She has, at this stage, not been entered for races of distances not covered by the IAAF rules, having won the 5,000 metres national title this year.

Semenya is set to race over 2,000 metres in Paris today, and in the 3,000 at the Prefontaine Classic in Stanford, California on June 30.

South Africa also included Olympic 400 metres champion Wayde van Niekerk, who is set to return from almost two years on the sidelines when he competes in a Diamond League event in London next month.

-Reuters

Dragons beat woeful Bulldogs

Corey Norman has made a scintillating return from injury to help St George Illawarra end their five-game losing streak with a 36-12 demolition of Canterbury.

Norman and halves partner Ben Hunt were involved in all seven of the Dragons', breathing life into a spiralling NRL campaign.

Making his first appearance since fracturing his cheekbone in round eight, Norman scored one and set up another at ANZ Stadium.

The dominant win means Paul McGregor's side join four other teams on 12 points, but climb to 10th spot on percentages.

For the last-placed Bulldogs, it was another lacklustre display in a sorry season.

-AAP

India cricket star retires

Yuvraj Singh, India's middle-over batting lynchpin in two World Cup triumphs, is to retire from international cricket with immediate effect.

The 37 year old all-rounder, accompanied by his wife and mother, told reporters of his decision at a city hotel close to the Wankhede Stadium where India lifted their last 50-overs World Cup title in 2011.

"I have decided to move on. Cricket has given me everything and that's why I am standing here," he said after being reduced to tears by a video of the highlights of his career.

Yuvraj, who played the last of his 304 one-day internationals two years ago, was a key cog in India's World Twenty20 triumph in 2007 and was player-of-the-tournament at the World Cup four years later.

He made an emotional return to the game in 2012 after a lengthy fight with a rare germ cell cancer in his lungs and played the last of his 40 tests that same year.

Yuvaraj scored 1,900 runs in the longest format of the game with three hundreds and 11 half-centuries.

-Reuters

Ortiz in stable condition

Retired Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz is being flown to a hospital in Boston in his former team's plane after he was shot in a nightcluub in the Dominican Republic.

"Doctors say he is out of danger, but he is heavily sedated and will be in intensive care for the next 24 hours," Leo Lopez, Ortiz's media assistant, told ESPN.

The 43-year-old Ortiz, recognized as the beloved "Big Papi" by baseball fans during his 14 seasons in Boston, was shot in the back Sunday night while visiting a nightclub in Santo Domingo.

Lopez said Ortiz underwent six hours of surgery. Doctors removed his gallbladder and part of his colon and intestines. Ortiz also sustained liver damage, he added.

Ortiz ended his 20-year big league career in 2016, when he earned the last of his 10 All-Star appearances. The former designated hitter and first baseman won seven Silver Slugger awards in his career, and he hit 541 home runs with 1,768 RBIs in 2,408 games in the majors. He ranks 17th in major league history in career home runs.

He also helped the Red Sox win championships in 2007 and 2013, capturing World Series MVP honors in the latter season.

-Reuters

Gatland expected to be named Lions coach

The British and Irish Lions will name their head coach for the 2021 tour of South Africa tomorrow, with New Zealander Warren Gatland widely expected to be given the honour for the third time.

Gatland led the Lions to a series victory over Australia in 2013 and a drawn series against New Zealand in 2017. He was also an assistant in 2009 when Ian McGeechan's Lions lost 2-1 in South Africa.

Gatland, who led Wales to the Six Nations title this year, will stand down as the country's coach after the Rugby World Cup in Japan, having won three Grand Slams during his spell as the longest-serving coach in their history, having taken over in 2007.

Previously he has taken a sabbatical from his Wales duties to dedicate himself to the Lions but now he would be free from any distractions from when the World Cup ends on Nov. 2.

Gatland said after the last Lions tour that he was frustrated by limited time given to prepare the team and by the shortened nature of the tour. He was also not happy at his treatment by some areas of the New Zealand media.

Gatland, 55, has mellowed but will have to deal with an even tighter schedule in 2021. No official dates have yet been released but the tour is expected to last five weeks, featuring eight matches, down from six weeks and 10 games in 2017.

The Lions' last series victory against the Springboks came in 1997, also under McGeechan, when the host nation were world champions.

-Reuters