Kings XI Punjab have traded fast bowler Ankit Rajpoot for Rajasthan Royals allrounder K Gowtham, even as the IPL trading window, which closes on Thursday, is winding down. In another trade, Delhi Capitals have released New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult to defending Mumbai Champions in an all-cash deal.

Gowtham was bought by the Royals at the 2018 auction for INR 6.2 crore while Rajpoot went for INR 3 cr to Kings XI. Boult was bought by the Capitals for INR 2.2 crore.

More to follow...

Amid the ongoing debate about resting players in the NBA, count Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban among those openly willing to support load management.

"The problem isn't load management, per se," Cuban told reporters in Boston on Monday. "I think teams have to be smarter about when to load manage. I'm all for load management. Worse than missing a player in a (regular-season) game is missing him in the playoffs."

The load management topic has received the most scrutiny this season in the LA Clippers' handling of Kawhi Leonard. The reigning NBA Finals MVP has been held out of two nationally televised games that were part of back-to-backs, though the NBA also revealed a patella tendon injury for Leonard in announcing that it had approved his absence from those contests.

Cuban, whose Mavericks rested Kristaps Porzingis on Saturday as part of his ongoing return from a February ACL tear, said teams are making sound decisions when to give their stars time off.

"It's all data-driven," Cuban said. "We're not going, 'OK, let's just mess with the league and our meal ticket to fans to do something just because it might be interesting. We spend so much money, not just on analytics for predictive reasons, but also for biometrics so we know how smart we can be.

"The dumb thing would be to ignore the science."

Cuban pointed out that the quality of play was lower when players were averaging more minutes per game and saving their energy for the fourth quarter.

Portland Trail Blazers guards CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard both said last month that they don't want to have their playing time managed, with McCollum telling the Oregonian "you'll Kawhi your way out of the playoffs" by doing so.

LeBron James is among those on the other side of the argument. He said last week that he would not sit out a game unless he's dealing with an injury. The Los Angeles Lakers play their first back-to-back game Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors, following Tuesday's win over the Phoenix Suns.

Cuban said while it might be frustrating to see players on the bench now, it all pays off in the postseason.

"You actually get more of your stars (in the playoffs)," Cuban said. "You get shorter rotations of more of the guys playing in the playoffs, which is what you want to see anyway, right?"

For years, Hakeem Olajuwon tutored NBA stars in the art of the post-up, teaching his footwork and sorcery in the paint.

If he wanted to, Chris Bosh could coach up a different niche group: big men playing with LeBron James.

"Playing with LeBron was like buying a Ferrari," Bosh said. "You know it's the best in the world. It looks amazing when you see it. But you have no idea how powerful it is once you try to drive it. You can go right off the road."

Bosh learned the hard way. He will walk into the Hall of Fame soon thanks to winning two titles with the Miami Heat and earning 11 All-Star selections, including four playing alongside James. But the only thing that allowed him to learn how to play with James was actually doing it.

For Kevin Love in Cleveland, playing with James meant figuring out not only where he was supposed to be on the court -- Love got six fewer shots a game in his first season with James -- but also how to avoid mass media and social media quagmires off of it.

When James first teamed up with Anthony Davis in Los Angeles, they sought to avoid those pitfalls by promising each other to try to stay on the same page. "What I'm seeing here is how much they spend time together away from the basketball court," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. "And quite frankly, even in film sessions, in the locker room, it seems like the two of them are always together and just building that, that friendship. ... I think LeBron's just done everything in his power to make sure that he's going out of his way to make sure Anthony's comfortable with his new team."

The two tried to keep expectations low for their early-season success because of the past issues James had merging with Bosh and Love. But James and Davis are playing fabulously together. Although you see them probing and developing their preferences, the union has exceeded even optimistic hopes for this early in the process.

"I didn't think we were going to be able to connect this fast just because of the fact he had a lot of stuff going on this summer with 'Space Jam [2],' so we didn't get a lot of time to work out together," Davis said. "Then we hit a short training camp and had to go to China, and all that stuff, so I'm surprised that we've got a little connection right now."

That's what has surprised Bosh. James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade played with one another on Team USA for multiple summers and in numerous All-Star Games, but that didn't guarantee a smooth start together in Miami. That group began its first season together at 9-8 and really didn't find a rhythm until the second season.

The Lakers are 8-2 and have been among the best defensive teams in the league, with James racking up triple-doubles.

"Team USA and the All-Star Games are catalysts for chemistry, but it's not real life," Bosh said. "You're coming in with known unknowns, and you hope to find a rhythm by maybe Christmas and then get better from there."

Through their first nine games, James had assisted Davis on 26 baskets, 10 more than any other teammate, per ESPN Stats & Information research. Compare that to his first nine games with Bosh, when it was 17 assists, and his first nine with Love, which produced only 11. Their pick-and-rolls have resulted in the highlight dunks that fans love and a schematic nightmare for opposing coaches. And even though they sometimes are caught a little out of position, there's a natural flow that's easy to see.

"I think that's part of [LeBron's] genius that he's able to morph into whatever he needs to be, to bring out the best out of the other players," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team faced the Lakers last week. "His connection with [Bosh] was pretty natural, and I think this is, this just fits like a glove. ... When both guys want to do it, commit to the process of getting better with it, you're just going to see that improve dramatically as the season goes on."

The scenarios are different, of course. In Miami and Cleveland, when James joined up with superstars, they formed a big three, not a big two as is the case now -- there were more mouths to feed and egos to mesh. Plus, James is a different player in this phase of his career, in part because he's the Lakers' primary point guard.

He's focused on getting Davis the ball and into a rhythm. In the first game of the season, James forced the ball toward Davis so much that he forgot about his own game and Davis ended up with 17 post-ups, easily the most for any game in his career.

Last week, Davis was named Western Conference Player of the Week -- no surprise for a megastar who has won it six times before. But consider this: Since James won his first of 63 Player of the Week awards in 2004, only five teammates have ever earned one alongside him.

Love won it once in four years with James, in his third season in Cleveland, propelled by a game against the Portland Trail Blazers in which he had a 34-point first quarter. Kyrie Irving won it twice in three seasons with James. Davis did it in Week 2.

"I think it's getting better and better as the days go on, just like with any relationship," James said. "The relationship on the court, the relationship off the floor. The more and more time you spend together, if you guys have the same goals in mind, you have the same drive, then it organically happens."

It was once unthinkable for a teammate of James' to be an MVP candidate. Only a few times have players won the award with a former MVP as a teammate, usually as the more senior partner was on his way out of the league.

James won the 2010 MVP award in Cleveland with Shaquille O'Neal near retirement. Tim Duncan won alongside David Robinson in the final two years of the Admiral's career. Larry Bird won with former winner Bill Walton playing 19 minutes off the bench. Magic Johnson won two MVPs with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one when Kareem was 39 and another when he was in his last season at 41.

Even if Davis is not the MVP favorite at this point, just being in the conversation indicates a smashing success -- it means that James is drawing top-level play out of the younger star.

"I'm trying to win much more than an MVP, man," Davis said, playing down the notion. "It's early in the season, obviously; if the MVP comes, it comes. If the Defensive Player of the Year comes, it comes. But the entire team's main goal is to win a championship, and we're trying to just stay in the moment right now."

James has joked that he and Davis aren't quite peanut butter and jelly yet -- James used the sandwich metaphor to describe his relationship with Wade when they joined up again in Cleveland in 2017, a remarriage that ended poorly and quickly -- but more like peanut butter and banana.

The Lakers have had a favorable schedule so far, boosting their record, but regardless of the wins and losses, the partnership is showing enough promise that the Lakers' horizons for the season appear to be expanding. And there should be more to come.

"We spent hours and hours, days and days with late-night meetings and tension and jubilation, the whole gamut," Bosh said of learning to play with James. "He and AD will have their struggles, but it takes that struggle to understand who they are. You want some of that. They want it to work, you can see that, so it will."

ESPN's Eric Woodyard contributed to this report.

A performance team featuring Steve Paulding and Tommy Yule will be in place through to Tokyo 2020, following the departure of Neil Black

UK Athletics (UKA) has announced the interim performance leadership structure that will take the sport through to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

Following the departure of performance director Neil Black at the end of October, the new structure is made up of a performance team featuring six key positions, which will coordinate delivery and oversee the national governing body’s World Class Programme (WCP).

Steve Paulding (pictured above, left) will lead the overall management of the performance programme as WCP director, while Tommy Yule (pictured above, right) will take on an interim remit of director of performance support.

Paulding joined British Athletics as national performance institute director in Loughborough in November 2016 having previously been head coach to the GB Olympic track cycling team at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, performance director at Scottish Golf and HiPAC director at Brunel University from 2008-2009.

Yule became British Athletics’ head of performance support in 2017 after previously working for British Weight Lifting as performance director. Prior to that he represented Great Britain in weightlifting, including at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and had joined British Athletics in 2009 as head of Olympic and Paralympic conditioning.

Paula Dunn will continue in her role as head coach of the Paralympic WCP, while three lead coaches – Stephen Maguire (sprints, hurdles and relays), Barry Fudge (endurance) and Peter Stanley (field and combined events) – will continue their roles maintaining their focus on their existing remits.

Speaking about the new structure, chair Chris Clark said: “It is very important to us to ensure continuity in our performance area. We have a very talented group of athletes coming through for Tokyo 2020. Our recent performances in Doha show huge potential across many disciplines and events. Our key medal hopes are well known to us and the rising stars are making huge gains in their personal performances.

“Our WCP team will be very well served by Paula, Steve, Tommy, Stephen, Barry and Peter. They have fantastic experience to draw from and are a truly world class group.

“With Zara Hyde Peters also arriving we have a CEO with a strong performance background and knowledge of the workings of WCP programmes, I know she will be devoting a significant amount of time to the team to help with preparation and the overall management of the area.”

Hyde Peters was announced as UKA chief executive in August, with the former international distance runner and British Triathlon chief executive taking on the position left vacant by Niels de Vos last year.

There is no change at the top ahead of the international break, but two Spanish giants are back in the mix further down. And is that Leicester we see?

Dropping out: Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, River Plate

Agree? Disagree? Let us know, and watch Shaka defend his picks on ESPN FC TV, which airs daily on ESPN+.

Queensland 183 and 1 for 3 trail Victoria 9 for 300 dec (Handscomb 92, Fraser-McGurk 51, Swepson 4-75) by 114 runs

Seventeen-year-old Jake Fraser-McGurk weathered plenty of verbal treatment from Queensland on the way to a highly promising half-century in his first Sheffield Shield innings for Victoria, before Mitchell Swepson scooped a hat-trick for the Bulls and Peter Siddle struck in the day's final over.

Fraser-McGurk, the youngest Victorian debutant since Cameron White, showed off a pump-action pull amid plenty of batting panache, also advancing to loft Swepson over his head into the MCC members' enclosure. He was guided through the innings by captain Peter Handscomb, who delivered a sensible 92 before being adjudged lbw to Mark Steketee with the first ball after tea, also the first delivery with the second new ball.

That wicket ushered in something of a collapse from the Victorians, as Swepson arrowed his legbreaks into the pads of Will Sutherland, James Pattinson and Siddle in consecutive balls spread across two overs, picking up a hat-trick that was, at least in the case of the Pattinson decision, a tad on the fortunate side for the bowler.

Two overs were possible in the closing passage of the day, and Bryce Street was pinned lbw by Siddle within that time. The wicket fell before the umpires chose to conclude the day with rain coming down, but not before a nightwatchman had emerged in the form of Cameron Gannon.

The timing of the closure, before Gannon had actually made it all the way to the middle, meant that the Bulls captain Jimmy Peirson could be seen querying whether or not Gannon has to bat at No. 3 on the third morning.

Worcestershire have completed the signing of Nottinghamshire batsman Jake Libby on a three-year deal, after fighting off interest from other counties.

Libby, who had been at Notts since 2014, broke into the club's 50-over side for the first time this season, and was a regular in the T20 Blast, but his Championship returns dried up and his departure at the end of a contract was agreed by mutual consent.

A top-order batsman in the red-ball game, Libby announced himself with a hundred on his Nottinghamshire debut against Sussex at the end of the 2014 Championship season, and became a first-team regular in 2016 after an impressive loan spell at Northamptonshire.

He improved his limited-overs game sufficiently to play the majority of the club's Blast season in 2018, but he endured a lean Championship season, with a score of 77 against Somerset in July his only innings above 25.

Libby said that "the time is right to move into a new phase of my career and take on a fresh challenge".

"I've hugely enjoyed my time at Trent Bridge and will forever be grateful for the opportunities I've had to prove myself as a professional cricketer," he said.

"Working with the coaching staff and alongside the calibre of batsmen at Notts has definitely allowed me to progress and mature as a cricketer. I've also relished the chances I've been given in the past couple of seasons to develop my limited-overs game."

Peter Moores, the club's head coach, suggested that Libby's departure would lead his team to look to recruit another top-order batsman.

"Jake has been a valued member of our setup and someone who has worked tirelessly on his game throughout his time at Trent Bridge," he said. "With Jake having expressed a desire to join Worcestershire, we have agreed for him to leave and we wish him all the best with the next chapter.

"It creates a place in the squad for another top-order batsman [and] we'll to recruit with red-ball cricket primarily in mind."

Despite the recent departure of chief executive Matt Rawnsley, Worcestershire have been busy in their recruitment for next season, having signed both Hamish Rutherford and Ashton Turner as overseas players in the past month.

James Anderson's desire to resume his record-breaking England career remains as burning as ever, according to his former captain Sir Alastair Cook, who believes that his old team-mate's devastation at missing out on this summer's Ashes campaign will help drive him in his comeback from a long-term calf injury.

Anderson, 37, bowled just four overs in this summer's Tests against Australia, after breaking down early in the first Test at Edgbaston - a game that England went on to lose in his absence.

He was subsequently omitted from the current tour of New Zealand, and has spent the off-season working with the medical team at Manchester City in a bid to regain his fitness in time for the South Africa tour that begins next month.

Last week, another former England captain, Michael Vaughan, said that the time had come to break up for good the record-breaking alliance between Anderson and Stuart Broad, which began in earnest on the New Zealand tour in 2007-08, and which has since realised a total of 1042 Test wickets.

The emergence of Jofra Archer during the summer may encourage England that there is life after Anderson, and Archer will take centre stage for his first overseas international next week, when the first Test against New Zealand begins in Mount Maunganui on November 20.

Cook, however, says that we've been here before with Anderson, a player who seems determined to defy the ageing process as he seeks to build on his record of 575 wickets in 149 Tests.

"You never know with Jimmy," said Cook. "He's surprised us all, all the time. I remember going into a press conference as captain a few years ago, and saying there's no way that we'll get five Tests out of Jimmy and Stuart [Broad], and they surprised us all with their fitness record.

"I know how devastated he was after the Edgbaston Test match. It was a horrendous feeling for him, but his desire and hunger is incredible. He wants to come back and wants to play, and while you've got that, why wouldn't you?"

At an age when most sportsmen are beginning to wind down, Anderson's technical mastery has propelled him to new heights. He finished the 2018 home summer as the top-ranked Test bowler in the world, with his average dipping below 27 for the first time since the formative months of his career in 2003.

"His record over the last couple of years is getting better and better. Father Time catches up with everyone, and there will be a time when he moves on, but while he wants to do it and is able to do it, we should appreciate him," Cook said. "But, speaking to him recently, he wants to keep breaking records for England and keep helping England win games of cricket, and I'm sure he will."

Cook himself bowed out of international cricket with an emotional century in his final Test against India at The Oval in September 2018 - a match which finished with Anderson claiming his 564th wicket to move him ahead of Glenn McGrath as the most prolific seamer in Test history.

Cook then went on this summer to play a key role in Essex's second County Championship title in three years, and recognises that such uplifting events in his twilight years have helped assuage any sense of regret as his professional career begins to wind down.

"It just shows how lucky I was that that happened," he said of that Oval Test, when his innings of 71 and 147 included a glorious and sustained ovation as he brought up his 33rd and final Test hundred.

"To walk off there after winning a game and Jimmy breaking Glenn McGrath's record. It's all happy memories, and not many people have that, and that for me made the transition a lot easier."

His experience contrasted markedly with that of so many other sportsmen, not least another former England team-mate, Matt Prior, who last week spoke to the PCA about his own struggles in the wake of his career-ending Achilles injury in 2014.

"Matt was an all-time great among English wicketkeepers, he played such a significant role over such a long time in getting England to No.1 in the world, but he didn't get the chance to have the send-off that I had," Cook said.

"It was taken out of his hands, and it all happened abruptly, so his last memory of playing for England would be the injury, the rehab, and all the bad stuff. My last memory was totally different."

That said, it would have been understandable had Cook felt slightly conflicted during a remarkable English summer which, from a Test perspective at least, was crowned by that extraordinary final day at Headingley, when Ben Stokes' century snatched a one-wicket win from the jaws of defeat.

Cook witnessed the denouement at first hand in his unfamiliar new vantage point as a summariser on Test Match Special, but he insisted he had no regrets at being on the other side of the rope for a change.

"It was a strange week," he said. "But it was one of the great knocks. To be at Headingley, but without the nerves [was a privilege] - at least at the beginning of the day. Towards the end, I was as nervous as I would have been back in the days when I was trying to find a space in the changing room!

"I was actually ferrying Glenn McGrath around in the back of my car that week," he added. "I didn't quite think when I first played against him in 2006 that I'd be his chauffeur for a week during a Test match. But it was an incredible game to be a part of that, and I was lucky enough to be on air for the final overs.

"But there were no mixed emotions. People find that hard to believe, but it's genuinely true. It was sad to hand the cap back, it was sad to make that decision, and you're going to miss the identity of being an England cricketer but, for me, it was clear in my mind, and the right decision for my family at that time."

But, at the age of 34, Cook has kept his competitive fires burning by playing a key role in Essex's triumphant Championship campaign, scoring 913 first-class runs in 14 matches at 45.65, including a pair of vital innings in the title decider against Somerset at Taunton.

"2005 was the last season in which I played every game [for Essex]," he said, "and part of the reason for playing on after England was to experience that again, to play with guys like Ryan [Ten Doeschate] and Ravi [Bopara], who signed for Essex at the same time as me in 2003. To go back and play a lot of cricket with those guys meant a lot to me, actually.

"I'm not sure I'll keep playing until I'm 40, but I will very much take each year as it comes," he added. "And if we have the sort of success that we had this year, then that obviously makes it easier."

Sir Alastair Cook was speaking at an event to mark 25 years of the National Lottery, which has raised £5.7 billion for grassroots sport. #BecauseYouPlay