Edinson Cavani's father said his son is not happy at Manchester United and would like to return to South America.

Cavani has scored seven goals in 25 games since moving to Old Trafford on a free transfer in October. He signed a two-year contract, but both the 34-year-old and United have the option to cut short the deal in the summer.

- Stream LIVE games and replays on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

Luis Cavani has thrown his son's future into doubt amid interest from Boca Juniors and, asked whether Edinson could return to South America at the end of the season, he told Super Futbol: "I would say there's a 60% chance."

He added: My son is not happy in England and wants to return nearer his family. He wants to play in South America.

"I want Edinson to play for a team which fights for important trophies. He has had many conversations with [Boca vice-president Juan Roman] Riquelme and would like to play for Boca."

Cavani's move to United has been considered a success but in January the Uruguay international was handed a three-game ban for using a term that could be considered discriminatory in the UK in an Instagram post to a friend.

He has also struggled with injury problems since the turn of the year and missed the 2-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday.

"At the end of the season, he would like to return to South America," Luis added. "My son's idea is not to continue there [in Manchester].

"He wants to return to South America. "He was really unhappy about the sanction for saying 'negrito.'"

Incumbent USA Cricket board chairman Paraag Marathe has retained his position as an independent director and will serve a second term in the role after being approved by the rest of the board of directors, according to a press release from the governing body.

"I am honoured to continue my role as an independent director for USA Cricket and chair of the board as we continue to build on the significant, foundational progress made over the last two years in collaboration with my colleagues and the wider community," Marathe said. "There is no doubt that the last 12 months have been a very challenging period, not just for USA Cricket, but the world as a whole.

"I remain confident that the developments we have made off the field, where we have navigated the continued uncertainties of the Covid-19 landscape, will enable us to make great progress on the field in 2021 and deliver upon our key priorities. I am especially pleased to see the plans coming together for the staging of National Championships in each of the men's and women's senior and U19 categories for the first time ever, and being able to deliver a full calendar of cricketing activity across the board this year."

USA have not played any international cricket since returning from an ODI tri-series in Nepal in February 2020. They were due to host Scotland and UAE in April 2020 for an ODI tri-series in Florida but the series was postponed in one of the first set of fixtures to be affected during the Covid pandemic. ODI tours of Oman and PNG that were slated for March and May have also been postponed, forcing the cancelation of a training camp USA Cricket had organised ahead of the scheduled tours.

However, USA Cricket recently announced Under-19 men's national championships to be played in Texas from April 4-11 in a bid to get domestic programs back underway after lengthy inactivity during the pandemic.

"The launch of the USA Cricket Foundational Plan in 2020 now provides us with a direction for everything that we are working on, and I am committed to playing my part in helping USA Cricket achieve its overarching vision of becoming a Full Member of the ICC by 2030 and establishing cricket as a mainstream sport here within the USA," Marathe said.

"We have some ambitious objectives, including pursuing the opportunity to host global events, seeking cricket's inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and establishing a professional Twenty20 league played in world-class cricket venues across the country. But we are also conscious of the need to invest our time and resources into growing areas that have to some extent been neglected for many years, in particular around youth development and engaging women and girls in all aspects of the sport."

Marathe's first term, which was due to last for two years, began in August 2018 following the conclusion of the inaugural USA Cricket elections. Marathe, along with Catherine Carlson and Rohan Sajdeh, were installed as unelected independent directors by the other seven members of the then newly elected USA Cricket board. USA Cricket's constitution mandated that the first board chairman must be one of the three independent directors, with Marathe getting the nod to take on the chairman's role.

However, Marathe's first term wound up lasting more than 30 months following delays in the subsequent election, which was due to take place in August 2019 but did not occur until February 2020. Unlike his first term, Marathe's reappointment has taken place prior to the next round of board elections, which have also faced numerous delays. USA Cricket has yet to announce a definitive voting date.

Marathe's second term as board chairman is due to be a three-year term ending in 2024.

What should be at the forefront of a batsman's mind during a T20 run chase?

Conventional wisdom would suggest that the answer is the required run-rate, but for the world's best players, that might not be the case anymore. Instead, batsmen are now thinking in terms of the boundary equation: how many balls do I have left, and how many boundaries do I need to hit off them?

It was a method embraced by the West Indies side that won World T20 titles in 2012 and 2016: while their opponents fretted over minimising dot balls and their speed between the wickets, West Indies focused on clearing the ropes, recognising that the risk was merited by the pay-off. Across the three tournaments between 2012 and 2016, West Indies hit 121 sixes; no other team managed 90.

And while West Indies' own focus on six-hitting has continued, epitomised by Kieron Pollard's six sixes in an over off Akila Dananjaya last week, other teams and players have wised up. Jos Buttler, renowned as one of the world's best batsmen in limited-overs chases, revealed his own mindset shift during England's T20I series in South Africa last year.

"I've almost changed the way I look at T20 batting a bit from the last IPL, watching the West Indian guys who back their six-hitting a lot," Buttler said. "So if I'm getting a bit stuck, [I'm now] looking at my score and thinking if I hit the next two balls for six, suddenly I'll jump into a different position."

Three days out from England's T20I series in India - which he sees as a "vital" chance to take on a team who are favourites for a T20 World Cup in their own conditions - Buttler elaborated on his approach, explaining that the shift in his mentality was about "continuously learning: looking at other players and how they set up their own innings chasing targets down".

"For me, I've always wanted to operate around a run-rate and try to make sure I'm up with the rate [when I'm] chasing," he said. "I would feel like I would force the issue sometimes and sit in the dressing room and think I've tried maybe to force it a bit earlier [than I needed to].

"Having watched other players in the IPL and in other international games, they seem to maintain a calm look on it and see chasing as 'we need to hit seven sixes in the remaining five overs'. I've never really myself thought of it like that before.

"[I'm] actually just trying to bring that a bit more into my game and into my mathematics of chasing scores down - not looking at runs per ball or runs an over that's required, actually saying if we hit X sixes, that will win us the game. It's just a change of mindset and [a case of] continually learning."

The change may seem subtle, but it typifies the improvements that top batsmen are making to their T20 method as they look to minimise risk while maximising opportunities to score. Increasingly, that involves targeting favourable match-ups and shorter boundaries, meaning that players like Buttler are comfortable going through brief lulls in the knowledge that they will be able to hit several boundaries in a single over when the situation suits them.

The shift has been apparent in a number of Buttler's recent innings. In the English summer, he nudged his way to 25 off 24 balls in a chase of 158 against Australia before adding 52 off his next 30, targeting the spinners as the game wore on. In the IPL, he was happy to soak up pressure when facing Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians' spinners during run chases and instead took down Piyush Chawla, Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya, who he saw as the bowlers to take down as the game wore on.

It was particularly clear in England's most recent T20I, against South Africa in Cape Town.

At the start of the 11th over, England were 85 for 1 with Buttler on 23 off 24 balls, and 107 runs required off the final 10 overs. With the inexperienced Lutho Sipamla bowling to a short leg-side boundary, Buttler thrashed consecutive sixes over long-on, and added another four for good measure to take the required rate below the current one in the space of an over. It was a calculated assault: he was watchful against Lungi Ngidi and George Linde, the bowlers he saw as a threat, but brutal against the perceived weak link.

"There are a number of guys who seem to look at the game like that - I'm probably a bit embarrassed that I hadn't picked up on that sooner to be honest," Buttler said. "I've always been someone who, when chasing, likes to be in and around the rate, but there's other guys who seem to allow that rate to get larger but backing their six-hitting. It's more about me backing my six-hitting availability and feeling that I can rely on it if I need it."

The result has been a rich vein of form in T20 run chases. Since the start of 2020, Buttler averages 47.09 in run chases, with a strike rate of 153.25, all while navigating a shift into the middle order for Rajasthan Royals and shifting back up to open for England.

If he can maintain that sort of record over the next 12 months, England will fancy their chances of becoming the first men's team to hold both World Cup trophies simultaneously.

Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy is set to miss India's five-match T20I series against England that will take place from March 12 to 20. Chakravarthy is understood to have failed to clear the mandatory fitness tests set by the BCCI. It is likely that the selectors will draft in Rahul Chahar as a replacement, with the legspinner having already been named as one of the net bowlers for the series.

Meanwhile, Rahul Tewatia is currently training with the national squad in Ahmedabad. Tewatia, who received his maiden national call-up for the series, had also failed in his initial fitness test. It is not yet clear whether Tewatia - picked as a bowling allrounder after his exploits for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2020 - will get another chance to clear his fitness test or be asked to continue as a net bowler only.

For Chakravarthy, 29, it's the second time he'll be missing out on an opportunity for a potential India debut, having been initially picked in the T20I squad for the tour of Australia, but ruled out due to a shoulder injury then. Chakravarthy was picked on the back of his IPL 2020 performances, where he emerged as one of the standout uncapped Indian players. However, the shoulder injury meant Chakravarthy never even travelled to Australia, which allowed T Natarajan to make his international debut.

Chakravarthy had a lengthy rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, following which the selectors picked him for the England T20Is - subject to everyone being picked clearing their fitness tests, whose targets the BCCI had revised recently.

It is understood that to be part of India's limited-overs squads, clearing the fitness tests is a key selection criteria imposed by the BCCI at the behest of the team management and the selectors. In the new fitness standards, players have the choice to either clear the yo-yo test, whose level has been increased to 17:1, or run two kilometres in 8.15 minutes (for bowlers) and 8.30 minutes (for the rest).

It could not be confirmed which of the tests both Chakravarthy and Tewatia had failed to clear. While Tewatia travelled to Ahmedabad from Jaipur after representing Haryana in the league phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy (the domestic 50-overs competition), Chakravarthy's whereabouts could not be ascertained.

As for Chahar, this will be the second time he will part of the T20I squad after he made his debut in the Caribbean, where he played one T20I and picked up 1 for 27.

Joey Benjamin, the former Warwickshire, Surrey and England seam bowler, has died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack.

Benjamin, whose solitary Test appearance at The Oval in 1994 would prove to be one of England's most memorable victories of the decade, claimed 387 first-class wickets in an 11-year career that began at Warwickshire in 1988.

Born in St Kitts in 1961, Benjamin moved to England with his family at the age of 15, and settled initially in the Midlands, where he played Birmingham League cricket, and earned initial recognition with occasional fixtures for Staffordshire.

It wasn't until the age of 27 that he earned his first county contract, but with Warwickshire's attack led by Gladstone Small, Tim Munton and Allan Donald, opportunities were limited and he played 25 first-class matches in four years before relocating to Surrey in 1992.

With a bustling action and a distinctive whirl of arms in his delivery stride, Benjamin bowled accurate, lively away-swing from a high action, and immediately thrived in his new surroundings. In 1993, his second season, he was named Surrey's Player of the Year, with a haul of 64 wickets at 27.85 including a career-best 6 for 19 against Nottinghamshire.

The following year, his form was even better - 80 wickets all told at 20.72 - but Benjamin still seemed a long, long way from international recognition when, in the final weeks of the international season, he was handed his maiden England call-up at the age of 33.

The venue was at least familiar. With England 1-0 down against South Africa after a bruising defeat in the first Test at Lord's, Benjamin was picked on home soil for the series finale at The Oval, where he was preferred to Angus Fraser in England's final XI, and completed a four-man pace attack alongside Phil DeFreitas, Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm.

He impressed from the outset, claiming 4 for 42 in 17 overs as South Africa were bowled out for 332, but the second innings was all about one man. Malcolm, famously struck on the helmet by Fanie De Villiers during England's own first innings of 302, responded with the bowling spell of his life, scattering South Africa with a career-best 9 for 57 to set up an extraordinary eight-wicket win.

And as was often the case at the time in English cricket, Benjamin's success in the final Test of the summer was enough to secure him a winter tour berth, with Fraser omitted from England's initial Ashes squad, and Kent's Martin McCague also earning a recall.

It would not prove to be an auspicious winter. Both Malcolm and Benjamin succumbed to a bout of chicken pox in the lead-up to the first Test at Brisbane, and despite having featured heavily in England's warm-up fixtures at the start of the tour, he was not considered thereafter as England turned instead to a raft of seam-bowling replacements, Fraser and Chris Lewis among them.

Benjamin did play in two matches of England's B&H World Series one-day campaign, against Australia at Sydney and Zimbabwe at Brisbane, where he bowled Mark Dekker for his solitary ODI scalp. However, it had been clear long before the end of the tour that Benjamin was destined to remain a member of England's one-Test wonder club.

He didn't dwell on what might have been, however, as he returned to Surrey in 1995 and claimed 53 wickets at a very respectable 25.01. But as the end of the decade approached, his opportunities began to wane, and he would be released by the club in 1999, just as Adam Hollioake's team was embarking on its run of three County Championship titles in four years. He finished his Surrey career with 313 first-class wickets at 29.22, and a further 146 at 31.36 in List A cricket.

His batting was very much of the hit-and-miss variety, as shown by a highest first-class score of 49 and an average of 11.38. His finest hour, however, was the one that got away - a thrilling NatWest Trophy semi-final in 1994, when his long-levered assault on Worcestershire's then-towering target of 358 in 60 overs so nearly came good. With eight runs needed from two balls, and Benjamin on 25, he launched Stuart Lampitt towards the long-off boundary, but the lanky figure of Tom Moody was waiting on the rope to crush Surrey's dreams.

After retirement, Benjamin remained close to Surrey, and turned his focus to coaching at club and school level in his home town of Reigate.

Martin Bicknell, Benjamin's long-term Surrey team-mate, led the tributes to his fellow seamer on Twitter. "Just heard some shocking news about the loss of Joey Benjamin," he wrote. "Joey was one of a kind, incredibly popular in the Surrey dressing room back in the day, so sad. RIP Benjy."

"It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that we must report the passing away of Joey Benjamin, long-time and much admired cricket coach at Reigate Priory Cricket Club and previously long-serving coach at Reigate Grammar School," wrote the club chairman, John Bramhall, in an email to members.

"Joey was a good friend to many of us at the club and at the school, and was much loved by those who he taught over the years. We all have good memories of Joey, who was a very special person."

A group of MPs including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has launched a scathing attack on the ECB's record on racial equality, claiming that institutional racism "is present at all levels of the game".

By tabling an early day motion (EDM) in parliament, the MPs have called on their colleagues to "express their alarm" over the underrepresentation of non-white individuals in English cricket and condemned the ECB's failure to address the problem.

Sponsors of the EDM - a proposal for a debate in the House of Commons - include former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott. The full statement draws attention to "the bullying, racial harassment and victimisation" of non-white players, officials and coaches, and calls upon the ECB "to support and fully fund African, Caribbean and Asian Cricket Associations to remedy the historical injustice of race discrimination".

While EDMs are rarely debated, they are used to draw attention to certain topics. In this case, the fact that the motion has been tabled is likely to prove embarrassing to the ECB as it grapples to come to terms with the enormity of the issue. Claudia Webbe, the MP for Leicester East, is the primary sponsor of the motion, with fellow Labour MPs Apsana Begum, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Kim Johnson and Ian Lavery among the signatories.

The intervention follows a series of revelations from players, coaches and officials about their experiences in the English game. This has ranged from former England opener Michael Carberry saying "cricket is rife with racism" to erstwhile England assistant coach Donovan Miller recounting the time he was repeatedly asked by a former first-class cricketer if he had any bananas during a Minor Counties match.

Azeem Rafiq, the former England Under-19 captain, has launched discrimination proceedings against Yorkshire after alleging the racial abuse he suffered while at the club left him on the brink of suicide, while former umpires Ismail Dawood and John Holder have instigated similar proceedings against the ECB.

At the same time, research has shown that, while 30% of recreational cricketers in England and Wales are classified as British Asian, that figure slips to around 5% in professional cricket. No non-white umpire has been appointed to the first-class list since 1992; no British-born non-white person has ever been appointed to the list. A recent survey by the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) revealed that 58% of respondents reported experiencing or witnessing racism, with 45% of those instances said to have come from another player.

The EDM references the Racial Equality in Cricket report, which was compiled by the ECB (then known as the TCCB) in 1997. But the lack of progress since then has left the MPs expressing their "serious concern at the underrepresentation of African, Caribbean and Asian coaches, umpires and match officials at all levels of Cricket in England and Wales" and expressing "alarm at the subsequent failure to address the institutional racism that is present at all levels of the game".

As well as condemning the governing body's failure to appoint a single African, Caribbean or Asian umpire in the last 29 years, the motion also urges Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, "to make anti-racism and equality and diversity targets within cricket a ministerial priority, and to report annually on the progress being made".

The ECB declined to comment on the motion. It has, however, recently launched a Commission for Equity in Cricket, designed to assess evidence of inequality and discrimination; an anti-discrimination code, which will be introduced ahead of the 2021 season; and a Forum for Race in Cricket, which will enable people to come forward to share their experiences in confidence. It has also announced plans to increase the ethnic diversity of umpiring appointments.

The PCA, meanwhile, has unveiled plans for all players, coaches, officials and administrators to receive education on race issues.

The Seattle Seahawks informed running back Chris Carson that they will not place their franchise tag on him, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Carson, 26, is coming off a season in which he totaled 968 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns, but an early career trend continued as he missed four games with a foot injury.

Carson has been one of the league's most productive running backs when healthy, but he's missed 19 of a possible 64 regular-season games since entering the league as a seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma State in 2017.

He rushed for 1,151 yards in 2018 and then a career-best 1,230 in 2019, becoming the first Seahawks player since Marshawn Lynch in 2013 and '14 to top the 1,000-yard rushing mark in consecutive seasons. Carson played in all but three regular-season games in that two-year stretch, and his 2,381 combined rushing yards in those two seasons was fifth-best among NFL running backs while his 16 rushing touchdowns were tied for 10th.

Since 2017, Carson's 4.57 yards-per-carry average ranks 15th among running backs with at least 300 carries. He averaged a career-best 4.83 YPC in 2020, rushing for 681 yards and five touchdowns on 141 carries, while adding a career-high 4 receiving TDs.

As a rookie in 2017, Carson beat out Eddie Lacy and incumbent starter Thomas Rawls for the starting job heading into the season, but he missed the final 12 games due to leg and ankle injuries. He missed two games in 2018 with a hip injury then finished the 2019 season on IR after fracturing his hip in Week 16.

ESPN's Brady Henderson contributed to this report.

CHICAGO -- The Bears placed the franchise tag on veteran wide receiver Allen Robinson, the team announced Tuesday.

The Bears and Robinson's agent failed to reach an agreement on a long-term deal during last season, forcing Chicago to apply the tag or risk losing Robinson -- the club's top receiver the past three years -- in free agency.

Brandon Parker, Robinson's agent, told Schefter in September that Robinson was unhappy that the Bears had refused to offer him top-market money for a wide receiver, but that neither Robinson nor Parker requested a trade in advance of last year's NFL trade deadline.

"We have a history of extending our players," Bears general manager Ryan Pace said last week. "We usually find a way to make that work. The proof is kind of in the pudding with that. And every one of them is different. Every one of them is personal, and that's why I'm sensitive, and I hope you guys understand, about talking about that in the media.

"But it's a process. It takes both sides to work through that, and every one of them is unique. I do like to lean on our history. I think [director of football administration] Joey Laine does a great job of working through that and building relationships with those agents. Allen has a really good agent that we've worked with in the past, and it's a process. We're kind of going through that."

Robinson, 27, caught a career-high 102 passes for 1,250 yards in 2020 even as the Bears' offense struggled to find its groove until a late-season three-game winning streak allowed Chicago to sneak into the playoffs at 8-8.

In 2019, Robinson also led the Bears with 98 receptions for 1,147 yards and seven touchdowns. Robinson spent four years in Jacksonville (2014 to 2017), where he earned an invitation to the Pro Bowl after catching 80 passes for 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2015.

Robinson suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 1 of 2017, his final year in Jacksonville, and was not fully healthy for the Bears in 2018. Even so, he recorded 55 receptions for 754 yards and four touchdowns in 13 games played.

"I know Allen wants to be a Chicago Bear [long term] and we want him to be a Chicago Bear, and it's a sensitive process that we're kind of in the middle of," Pace said. "And we gotta work through it."