From Max Verstappen’s maiden Formula One Championship win to Magnus Carlsen’s World Chess Championship win, here are the top sporting headlines from the week gone by.

CRICKET

Australia demolished England by nine wickets in the first Ashes Test to go 1-0 up. (REPORT)

The England players have been fined 100 per cent of their match fees, and the team has also been docked five World Test Championship (WTC) points for maintaining slow over-rates in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, which Australia won by nine wickets.  (REPORT)

Rohit Sharma has been appointed India’s ODI captain, ending Virat Kohli’s five-year long white-ball reign. (REPORT)

Rohit Sharma has replaced the under-fire Ajinkya Rahane as the vice-captain of the Test team but the middle-order batter has retained his place in the 18-man Indian squad for the tour of South Africa. (REPORT)

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson will be sidelined by an elbow tendon injury for at least two months, ruling him out of January’s two-test home series against Bangladesh. (REPORT)

Three West Indies cricketers have tested positive for the coronavirus and will miss the limited-overs series in Pakistan starting next week. (REPORT)

FOOTBALL

Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa Conference League group game against Rennes will not be played after it was called off this week because of COVID-19 infections in the Premier League club. (REPORT)

Premier League sides were told to return to emergency protocols to limit the spread of the coronavirus after outbreaks at Norwich City, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City. (REPORT)

A 10-man FC Goa battled past Bengaluru FC 2-1 to notch up its second win of the Indian Super League season and climb up to seventh. Bengaluru remains winless in five matches. (REPORT)

Kerala Blasters FC goalkeeper Albino Gomes has been ruled out of action for an indefinite period after sustaining an injury during the last home match against Odisha FC. (REPORT)

Bayern Munich said Thursday that star midfielder Joshua Kimmich would not return to action until January as he recovers from lung damage caused by COVID-19. (REPORT)

Leipzig hired former Schalke and Spartak Moscow coach Domenico Tedesco to replace American coach Jesse Marsch, who left after a run of losses. (REPORT)

Napoli earned a thrilling 3-2 home win over Leicester City to reach the Europa League knockout stages as Group C runner-up behind Spartak Moscow. (REPORT)

Manchester United entertains Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round, while holder Leicester City welcomes Watford and West Ham United is at home to Leeds United following Monday’s draw. (REPORT)

Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of its final Champions League group game at Zenit St Petersburg. (REPORT)

This year’s I-League season will kick off on December 26 in Kolkata with a match between TRAU FC of Manipur and All India Football Federation’s developmental side Indian Arrows. (REPORT)

CHESS

Magnus Carlsen ended Ian Nepomniachtchi’s agony with three games to spare after winning the 11th game of their best-of-14 game World chess championship match in Dubai on Friday. (REPORT)

Mumbai chess prodigy Advay Dhoot performed creditably in tournaments in the European circuit recently and is currently among the highest-rated players in his category in the country. He entered the top four ranking in his category in India in the recently-released World Chess Federation (FIDE) rating. (REPORT)

SHOOTING

Former world No.1 Divyansh Singh Panwar won the men’s and junior gold medals in air rifle at the 64th National Shooting Championship in Bhopal. (READ)

Ankur Mittal, the reigning world champion in double trap, won the trap gold at the 64th National Shooting Championship at the New Moti Bagh Gun Club in Patiala. (READ)

Rahi Sarnobat beat Naamya Kapoor 37-31 in women’s 25-metre sports pistol in the National Shooting Championship. (READ)

MOTORSPORTS

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his first Formula One title, denying rival Lewis Hamilton a record eighth, with a last lap overtake to win a season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that started and ended in drama and controversy. (REPORT)

Mercedes protested on Sunday after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and beat its seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton to the 2021 world title. (REPORT)

Formula Two racers Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi were airlifted to hospital after a start-line crash in the Saudi Arabian round of the Formula One feeder series. (REPORT) 

TVS Racing team’s Harith Noah is all set to represent India at the Dakar 2022, the toughest cross country rally in the world, scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia from January 1 to 14. (REPORT)

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be staying on the Formula One calendar until at least 2030, the sport announced on Thursday. (REPORT)

Russian Formula One rookie Nikita Mazepin was forced to miss Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after testing positive for COVID-19. (REPORT)

HOCKEY

Karnataka, Puducherry, Chandigarh and Punjab registered comprehensive wins in their respective pool matches of the 11th Hockey India Senior Men National Championship here on Saturday. (REPORT)

Suraj Karkera, who has been picked in India’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament squad in place of the rested P. R. Sreejesh, says it will be hard to fill the seasoned goalkeeper’s shoes. (READ)

India’s chief national badminton coach P. Gopichand formally launched the MK’s Mukesh Kumar Hockey Academy at Delhi Public School (Nadergul) near Hyderabad on Friday. (REPORT)

The Indian women’s hockey team was on Thursday forced out of the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy after one of its players tested positive for COVID-19. (REPORT)

ATHLETICS

Four-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles earned Time magazine’s “Athlete of the Year” honour. (REPORT)

The International Olympic Committee, after orchestrating the evacuation of about 300 members of the Afghan sports community, announced $560,000 of aid for the winter to those left behind. (REPORT)

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra landed at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Centre in California on Monday for a three-month training period ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Athletics Championships. (REPORT)

Italy’s double Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs said he will return to competitive action in Berlin next February. (REPORT)

BADMINTON

Indonesia’s Three-time champion shuttler Carolina Marin’s much-awaited return to action has been further delayed as she pulled out of the World Championship, after failing to regain fitness following a knee injury. (REPORT)

Mulyo Handoyo and Malaysia’s Tan Kim Her are set to return as India’s singles and doubles badminton coaches with the national federation hoping to finalise their appointments by the end of this month. (REPORT)

Two-time defending champion Kento Momota of Japan withdrew from the BWF World Championships beginning after failing to recover from a back injury. (REPORT)

TENNIS

Spain’s first man Grand Slam winner, Manuel “Manolo” Santana, died at the age of 83 in Madrid on Saturday. (READ)

World number one Novak Djokovic was named on the official entry list for next year’s Australian Open on Wednesday, but 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams will not play on the advice of her medical team. (READ)

Andy Murray has split with long-term coach Jamie Delgado ahead of the 2022 season on Friday. (READ)

World number one Ash Barty will kick off her 2022 season at the Adelaide International Australian Open warm-up in the first week of January, tournament organisers said on Friday. (READ)

Amelie Mauresmo has been appointed as the director of the French Open, the country’s tennis federation (FFT) said on Thursday, becoming the first woman to lead the Roland Garros tournament. (READ)

TABLE TENNIS

India’s Payas Jain and Suhana Saini signed off with bronze medals after losing their respective semifinal matches at the World Youth table tennis championships. (REPORT)

BOXING

Indian stalwarts Lovlina Borgohain, Mirabai Chanu, Sarita Devi and Vijender Singh among others express concern over the possible exclusion of boxing and weightlifting from the 2028 Olympics. (REPORT)

Six-time world champion M. C. Mary Kom and Asian Games gold-medallist Amit Panghal are among the prominent names missing from the list of boxers finalised for the 13-day national camps for men and women that began on December 11. (REPORT)

Nonito Donaire showed that age is just a number, knocking Reymart Gaballo out in the fourth round with a thunderous body shot to retain his World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight title on Saturday. (REPORT)