The Australian Open will offer a record prize pot of £55m at this year’s tournament – but players are said to be “disappointed” it does not represent a greater share of the Grand Slam’s total revenue.

Total prize money of A$111.5m represents a 16% increase on last year and is the largest player fund in the tournament’s history.

The singles champions will receive $4.15m (£2.05m) – a 19% increase on the amount which 2025 winners Madison Keys and Jannik Sinner took home.

All singles and doubles players competing at the season-opening Grand Slam will get a minimum increase of 10%.

“This increase demonstrates our commitment to supporting   tennis careers at every level,” said Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley.

The move comes after a group of leading players ramped up the pressure on the Grand Slam tournaments  in October over increased prize money and greater player welfare.

But they are “likely to be disappointed” their key demands of the Australian Open and other Grand Slams have been “largely ignored”, a source close to the players’ group told BBC Sport.

(BBC Sports)

Conflicting reports have emerged from the ICC’s call with the BCB on Tuesday over Bangladesh travelling to India to participate in the upcoming men’s T20 World Cup.

ESPNcricinfo has learned that in a virtual call on Tuesday, the ICC told BCB that it was rejecting the latter’s request to play Bangladesh’s matches outside India due to security concerns. The ICC is understood to have told the BCB that Bangladesh will need to travel to India to play the T20 World Cup or risk forfeiting points. The BCB, though, has claimed no such ultimatum has been relayed to them by the governing body.

There has also been no official communication issued by either the BCCI or BCB on the outcome of Tuesday’s call, which was arranged by ICC after BCB wrote in on Sunday asking to “consider” moving Bangladesh’s matches outside India.

The UK and France have signed a declaration of intent on deploying troops in Ukraine if a peace deal is made with Russia, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced.

After talks with Ukraine’s allies in Paris, he said the UK and France would “establish military hubs across Ukraine” to deter future invasion, while French President Emmanuel Macron later said thousands of troops may be deployed.

Allies also largely agreed robust security guarantees for Ukraine and proposed that the US would take the lead in monitoring a truce. But the key issue of territory is still being discussed.

Russia has repeatedly warned that any foreign troops in Ukraine would be a “legitimate target”.

Moscow has not yet commented on the announcements made in the French capital.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

(BBC)