Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Bangladesh's New Zealand cricket tour has been pushed back by a week

The dates for the Bangladesh men's cricket tour of New Zealand next month have been moved back a week.

New Zealand Cricket says logistical challenges in the current COVID-19 environment have forced the change.

The games will be played at the same venues as first planned.

The tour now coincides with the White Ferns series against Australia and will allow them to play T20 double headers in Hamilton, Napier and Auckland.

Fans who have purchased tickets for the affected games have been notified.

Tokyo Olympics boss could be forced to resign.

The president of the Tokyo Olympic organising committee said he may need to resign over comments he made about women if calls for him to do so strengthen, the Mainichi newspaper quoted him as saying on Thursday.

Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister and head of the Tokyo committee organising the postponed Summer Games this year, caused an uproar with remarks that board meetings with women take too long because they talk too much, which was "annoying".

Anger over Mori's comments is likely to further alienate a Japanese public that has grown increasingly wary of Tokyo's attempts to hold the Games during a pandemic.

Nearly 80 percent of the Japanese public opposes holding the Games as scheduled in July, according to the most recent poll.

Mori's comments caused immediate uproar on social media, where the hashtag "Mori, please resign" was trending on Twitter in Japan on Thursday morning.

- Reuters

New Zealand cricketers confirmed for The Hundred

New Zealand's two cricket captains Sophie Devine and Kane Williamson have been retained by their teams for this year's rescheduled The Hundred tournament in Britain, while Amelia Kerr has been picked up.

The inaugural 100-ball tournament was postponed last year because of the coronaviris pandemic.

Devine and Williamson have both been retained by the Birmingham Phoenix, while White Ferns all-rounder Kerr has been picked up by the Southern Brave.

Salaries have been cut this season with the top earners now paid $190,000, while the most a woman can earn is $30,000.

Mitchell Santner and Suzie Bates haven't been retained by their respective teams although Bates is currently recovering from shoulder surgery.

High profile Australian players Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc have been released by their respective teams partly due to Australia's international schedule later this year.

The Hundred will now hold a draft to fill the rest of their rosters with a number of New Zealanders likely to be sought after as the Black Caps will have finished their test series and the Test Championship final in England by the time the tournament starts in July.

-BBC

City extend lead in EPL while Liverpool upset

Manchester City have extended their lead at the top of the English Premier League table.

Their 2-0 victory at Burnley, their 13th straight premiership win, moves them three points clear of second-placed Manchester United with a game in hand.

All White striker, Chris Wood, missed the game for Burnley with a thigh injury.

Meanwhile, Brighton and Hove Albion toppled their second league giant in the space of a week after a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield.

Leicester City leapfrogged Liverpool into third place after a 2-0 win away at Fulham, leaving them 5 points off the top spot.

A 3-1 win for West Ham against Aston Villa takes the London side to fifth place in the standings while Everton follow closely in sixth place after a 2-1 win at Leeds.

Super Bowl fans told to isolate

There is at least one person that wants America's biggest day in sport to be a quiet one.

The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci doesn't want the Super Bowl to turn into something bigger for the country.

Coronavirus infections are finally decreasing in the United States and Canada after weeks of unrelenting rise.

On Monday (New Zealand time) The Kansas City Chiefs will defend their NFL title against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida in a game that regularly attracts more than 100 million TV viewers in the US.

Fauci says now isn't the time to invite people over for watch parties, because of the possibility that they are infected with the coronavirus and could sicken others.

The NFL has capped game attendance at 22,000 because of the pandemic and citywide coronavirus mandates.

-Reuters

Australian Open warm up tournaments on hold

Up to 600 players and support staff connected to the Australian Open will have to isolate until they have been tested for Covid-19 after a hotel quarantine worker in Melbourne returned a positive result for the virus.

Play at the six warm-up events for the Grand Slam at Melbourne Park is likely to be heavily disrupted today but Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said it should not impact the Australian Open itself, which starts on Monday.

"They will be isolating until they get a negative test and that work will be done tomorrow (Thursday)," Andrews said.

Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, reintroduced the compulsory wearing of masks in indoor public places from today while private gatherings were reduced from 30 people to 15.

About 1,200 players, coaching staff and officials arrived in Australia at the middle of last month for the year's first Grand Slam and went into a mandatory 14-day isolation.

-Reuters

Dragons abandon plans to recruit Folau

St George Illawarra have abandoned a plan to seek NRL approval to sign dual international Israel Folau on a two-year deal.

Following 24 hours of intense focus and an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday night, the Dragons released a statement to say they would not pursue Folau's return any further.

"While the Dragons did enquire about signing Folau, the club can confirm that such discussions have now ceased," the statement read.

The decision was communicated to former agent Wayne Beavis, who is acting on Folau's behalf, after a two-year offer believed to be worth around $1 million, had been discussed with the 31-year-old.

Folau, who has triggered outrage with inflammatory social media posts in the past, is contracted to French side Catalans Dragons in the Super League, but is back in Australia after his wife, Maria, a former Silver Fern, gave birth to their first child.

-NRL

Yastremska loses appeal

The Ukranian tennis player Dayana Yastremska won't be able to play next week's Australian Open after the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed her appeal over a failed drugs test.

Yastremska was suspended last month after the World Anti-Doping Agency found a banned substance in an out-of-competition urine sample she submitted.

The International Tennis Federation had denied Yastremska's application to have the suspension lifted, prompting the world number 29 to approach the CAS to hear an urgent appeal so she could play in the year's first Grand Slam.

The ITF said in a statement that Yastremska "remains ineligible to compete" pending a final resolution of her case.

Yastremska, who travelled to Melbourne for the Australian Open, had denied using performance-enhancing drugs and said the positive test was the result of a "contamination event".

-Reuters