Friday, 20 March 2026
Issue No. 121
Thom Gibbs
Senior Sports Writer
Good morning, it is Thom here with your Sport Briefing. I hope it finds you well. Please send me an email if you fancy: sportnewsletters@telegraph.co.uk
Also In today’s edition
Doubts about Newey’s role at Aston Martin
Iran war causes cricket-ball shortage
…and read to the end for a humanoid tennis robot
Who’s on the plane?
Let’s face it, we are heading towards a less-than-thrilling conclusion to the Premier League season. Perhaps there is still some title race left to run, especially if Manchester City beat Arsenal in a month. Perhaps they will do so in Sunday’s League Cup final and trigger a tailspin for the leaders?
More likely is that Mikel Arteta’s team keep grinding it out. In times like these you can usually look to the relegation battle for a good subplot, but two of the three spots have seemed assured since November. No one outside of the teams involved cares about what European competition those sides will play in next season.
So best to turn our attention fully to the England World Cup squad, as Mike McGrath enjoys doing in a tournament year. He puts the candidates for Tuchel Airlines’ flight to Kansas City into three categories: on the plane, in the departure lounge and left behind.
Fourteen are in the near-certainty section, although some will question Jordan Henderson (however great he is “around the place”) and Eberechi Eze (I will adore him eternally for his contribution to QPR but he can be frustratingly moments-based). There are more surprises in the left behind section. Is it time that a certain Real Madrid player abandoned his international ambitions? (Not Jude Bellingham).
Stay tuned for today’s squad announcement, expected for 11am, for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.
What I’m reading
Iran war causes cricket-ball shortage
Some worries about next summer’s cricket, as manufacturer Dukes has warned of a ball shortage because of supply-chain issues caused by the war in Iran. British leather for the balls is stitched together in south Asia, which means it has to travel through the Gulf. Flight costs and availability could make this challenging. Take a guess at how many balls the company produces for a season of Test and first-class English cricket before clicking below. Actually fewer than I expected.
Newey accepts Aston Martin restructure
Adrian Newey is not “set to step down”, says his team Aston Martin, but something clearly needs to change after an embarrassing start to the F1 season. Tom Cary writes that it is “madness to be paying the greatest designer in Formula One history £25m a year not to design the car, but instead to be dealing with hiring and firing and managing and talking to the media, none of which are Newey strong suits”.
Chloe Kelly: ‘Not being put in a box is important’
“When I was younger, if you played football, you were a tomboy, if you played with Barbie, you were a girly girl,” Chloe Kelly tells Kathryn Batte. Now there is a Barbie figure of Kelly herself “you don’t have to pick”. Much more than Kelly’s versatility to admire as Kathryn outlines, her resilience in winning the Champions League with Arsenal after being frozen out at Manchester City and her utter ruthlessness in the moments that matter for England.
ALSO IN SPORT
Football
• Villa 2 Lille 0 (agg 3-0): Indispensable McGinn powers run to Europa quarters
• Midtjylland 1 Forest 2 (agg 2-2, Forest win 3-0 on pens): A welcome break from relegation fight
• Chelsea defied PGMOL order in referee huddle row
• Rosenior: We have dealt with Chelsea mole
• Premier League faces backlash from Champions League rivals over ‘pro-English’ rules
• Fifa rules women’s national teams must have female head coaches or assistants
Rugby union
• Meet James Pater, England’s answer to Thomas Ramos
• Meg Jones replaces pregnant England captain for Six Nations
• Black Ferns thriving in PWR – and it could come back to bite England
Tennis
• Fran Jones overcomes starstruck feelings to beat Venus Williams
• Wimbledon clears biggest hurdle in battle to expand
Everything else
• John Fury: Tyson’s legs have gone, our relationship is destroyed
• British racing has ‘consistent pattern of racism’, claims BHA
picture of the week
Yong Teck Lim/LAT Images
Kimi Antonelli’s triumphant moment at the Chinese Grand Prix captured for posterity.
Attentive Sport Briefing readers may remember last Friday’s And Finally section about the Italian baseball team. “A superb week for the sporting nation of Italy, beating England at a game they invented in the Six Nations. Then on Tuesday night the Italian baseball team had a famous win over the USA in the World Baseball Classic. Bologna’s Kimi Antonelli surely a shoo-in for the Chinese Grand Prix?”
I have been waiting all week to show off about that. Didn’t have any money on it, sadly.
What to watch today
⚪️ Snooker
World Open, China
From 8am, TNT Sports 3
🎾 ATP/WTA Tour
Miami Open
From 3pm, Sky Sports Main Event/Tennis
🏐 Netball Superleague
Leeds Rhinos v Cardiff Dragons
7pm, Sky Sports Mix
🏉Prem Rugby
Bath v Saracens
7.45pm, TNT Sports 1
⚽ Championship
Preston v Stoke City
8pm, Sky Sports Football
⚽ Premier League
Bournemouth v Manchester United
8pm, Sky Sports Main Event
Your Friday quiz answer
Yesterday I asked: Which two countries have hosted a Formula One grand prix every year since 1950?
Answer: England and Italy
Read
• How the home of British motor racing has evolved
And finally
In this troubling time of text-based AI it is good to go back to basics occasionally with a frightening robot. This one can play tennis, albeit it does seem to have rather a large racket.
Its Chinese creators, Galbot Robotics, say: “For the first time, a humanoid robot can sustain high-dynamic, long-horizon tennis rallies with millisecond-level reactions, precise ball striking, and natural whole-body motion.” Move over, Li Na.
Click here to watch it in action
Get in touch
I am keen to hear from you about this newsletter and sporting matters in general. Has anything chimed or sparked a distant memory that you are keen to share with your fellow readers? Please contact me via sportnewsletters@telegraph.co.uk.
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That is all I have for you today, I will return on Monday. Please enjoy your weekend and thanks, as ever, for reading.
Thom
PS Every Tuesday we will be putting one question from a reader to a Telegraph Sport journalist. It could be topical, left-field, or very specific. Please use the address above.
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