Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - New Zealand's world no.3 ranked squash player Paul Coll claimed the Canary Wharf Classic title for the second time in his career after he prevailed in the final against Egypt's World No.1 Ali Farag in London.

The pair were meeting for the 18th time in their careers, with Farag holding a lofty advantage at 15-2 in the head-to-head. However, it was Coll who triumphed for the second time in a final over the Egyptian this year, backing up his 2021 Allam British Open victory to clinch the PSA World Tour Gold title.

Farag won the first game 11-7. Coll responded in emphatic style in the second, cutting down Farag's angles and restricting his creativity to race into a 10-5 lead, but it took seven game balls before he was able to draw back level.

The final two games were a perfect display of concentration from Coll as he stuck to his game plan to successfully convert the 7-11, 13-11, 11-5, 11-6 victory and win his second major title of the year.

Coll's next tournament will be the CIB Squash Open Black Ball in Cairo, with the men's and women's event taking place between December 12-20.

Sparks too good for defending champions

The Otago Sparks have strengthened their position at the top of the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield table with their third bonus-point victory in the women's national one-day cricket competition.

This time the Sparks have beaten the Canterbury Magicians by six wickets at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.

Otago have chased down Canterbury's 197 with 10.5 overs to spare.

Opener Kate Ebrahim top scored for the Sparks with 66, while Caitlin Blakely scored 63 batting at four.

It was not the result White Ferns vice-captain Amy Satterthwaite was looking for in her record-setting 302nd List A one-day match.

Meanwhile, the Central Hinds have beaten Northern Districts by 87 runs at Donnelly Park in Levin.

The Hinds posted 275 for nine batting first and then bowled Northern Districts out for 188.

Emily Cunningham and Mikaela Greig scored half centuries for Central Districts, while Jess Watkin took four wickets.

Australian Open tennis players must be vaccinated

World number one Novak Djokovic and all other players will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to compete in the Australia Open next January, tournament chief Craig Tiley said on Saturday.

Djokovic has declined to disclose whether he is vaccinated and said that he would wait until Tennis Australia revealed the health protocols before he made a decision about playing at Melbourne Park.

"There's a lot of speculation about vaccination and just to be really clear, when the (state) Premier announced that everyone on site ... will need to be vaccinated ... we made that clear to the playing group," Tiley said.

"(Novak) has said that he views this as a private matter for him. We would love to see Novak here, he knows that he'll have to be vaccinated to play here."

Tiley said around 80 percent of the player cohort were now vaccinated and would play in front of capacity crowds in all stadiums when the Grand Slam tournament starts on 17 January.

- Reuters

Breakers captain sidelined for six weeks

The New Zealand Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie is to be out injured for up to six weeks with a side strain.

The 34-year-old hobbled off the court after barely two minutes in the pre-season game against the Sydney Kings in Melbourne on Thursday night.

The Breakers won 97-93 to register their first win at The Blitz but at a high cost because the inspirational leader's next couple of weeks look uncertain.

"The prognosis they said is four to six weeks, but the physio and the doctor haven't seen anything like this before,"Abercrombie said.

"So there's not a whole lot for them to go off in terms of recovery times, so it's going to be one of those ones where you wait and see how it pulls up."

Football World Cup pathway changes

The intercontinental playoffs to qualify for next year's World Cup finals will be contested as single games rather than the usual two-legged, home and away format.

The playoffs will feature the highest placed teams not to have automatically qualified from Africa, Asia, South America, Oceania and the CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) regions.

Four nations will compete for two spots in the finals which will be held in November 2022 in Qatar.

If the All Whites win the Oceania Confederation qualifying series provisionally scheduled for March, they will now play just a single intercontinental playoff match at a neutral venue next June.

The draw for the games will take place on Friday, following the draw for the European qualification playoffs.

New Zealand commits to Rugby League World Cup

After pulling out of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup due to safety concerns around the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand Rugby League has committed to participating in the 2022 edition.

The tournament will be played 13 days after the NRL's grand final, scheduled for a tournament start on 15 October.

RLWC2021 CEO Jon Dutton said all 32 teams across the 21 competing nations participating in the men's, women's and wheelchair tournaments had fully committed to the revised tournament schedule in 2022.

"We have achieved our objective in delivering minimal disruption to the existing 61-match schedule and I want to place on record my thanks to all those who have made it possible," Dutton said.

"Every host town and city who joined us on this journey remains involved and they will set the stage for the very best that the sport has to offer. There are world class, compelling matches, across all three tournaments at some of the most iconic venues across England."

The Kiwis kick of their tournament against Lebanon at Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington on 16 October and the Kiwi Ferns start against France on 2 November.

South Africa to miss banned Rassie Erasmus' input

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi says the absence of banned director of rugby Rassie Erasmus from Twickenham will be a blow to the team as they go up against England on Sunday.

Erasmus is banned from any matchday activity until 30 September next year after being found guilty of misconduct by an independent committee for his hour-long video critique of the match officials during the British & Irish Lions series.

He had been masquerading as a waterboy for the Boks during the Lions series, coaching from the sidelines, and reprised the role for this month's test wins over Wales and Scotland.

Yet he will not be involved at Twickenham after his punishment was handed down by World Rugby this week.

"It will be tough to be without him as his presence makes a huge difference to us," Kolisi said.

Erasmus was found guilty of all six charges brought by the governing body for various breaches of the game's code of conduct, but he will appeal the verdict, as will SA Rugby.

- Reuters