Browsing: rises

After more than a decade among the elite, Rohit Sharma has reached the summit at last. The India captain has been named the worldâ€s Number one ODI batter for the first time in his career, following innings of 73 and an unbeaten 121 in Sydney that lifted him past Afghanistanâ€s Ibrahim Zadran and teammate Shubman Gill.

Rohit Sharma At 38 Isn’t Slowing Down

For a player long emblematic of Indiaâ€s white-ball grace, 10,000 runs, 31 centuries, and a temperament as unhurried as it is unyielding, the milestone feels less an arrival than a coronation deferred. Rohit, 38, has been a fixture in the top ten for most of the past decade, his standing rarely in doubt but never until now undisputed.

India lost the series in Australia 2–1, but Rohitâ€s fluency at the top of the order offered reassurance amid the defeat. His 105-ball hundred in Sydney combined economy of movement with familiar precision, an innings that did as much for Indiaâ€s dignity as for his own résumé.

There were other Indian beneficiaries of the updated ICC rankings. Axar Patel rose six places to 31st among bowlers and to No. 8 among all-rounders, his consistency with both bat and ball reflecting a growing assurance in overseas conditions.

Elsewhere, Mitchell Santner climbed to fourth among ODI bowlers after New Zealandâ€s early-season series against England, while Australiaâ€s Josh Hazlewood moved up to eighth. In Tests, South Africaâ€s Keshav Maharaj rose nine places to 13th after his nine wickets against Pakistan, with Simon Harmer advancing 26 spots to No. 45.

On the other hand, India vs Australia 1st T20I match has been called off due to rain. Batting first, India scored 97 runs losing one wicket before rain disrupts the match, thanks to skipper Suryakumar Yadav (39 off 24 balls) and vice captain Shubman Gil (37 off 20 balls). Nathan Ellis took the only wicket of the game by sending Abhishek Sharma (19 off 14 balls) to Tim David’s hands. The second T20I will be played at MCG on October 31, Friday.

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Oct 14, 2025, 06:34 PM ET

NEW YORK — The price of a qualifying offer for this year’s major league free agents rose 4.6% to $22,025,000 from $21.05 million.

The figure is determined by the average of the top 125 major league contracts this year. The price dropped by $100,000 to $17.8 million in 2019, then rose to $18.9 million in 2020, fell $500,000 in 2021 and rose to $19.65 million in 2022 and $20,325,000 in 2023.

Qualifying offers began after the 2012 season, and only 14 of 144 offers have been accepted.

A free agent can be made a qualifying offer only if he has been with the same team continuously since opening day and has never received a qualifying offer before.

Among the top players who can become free agents after the World Series and are eligible to receive qualifying offers are Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette, New York Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham, San Diego right-hander Michael King, Philadelphia designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and left-hander Ranger Suárez, San Diego right-hander Robert Suarez, and Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker.

Potential free agents ineligible for qualifying offers include New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger, Boston third baseman Alex Bregman, Cincinnati pitcher Nick Martinez and Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto.

A qualifying offer can be made through the fifth day after the World Series, and a player has a week after that to accept.

If a team makes a qualifying offer to a player who signs a major league contract with another club before the amateur draft, his former club would receive a draft pick as compensation at the end of the first round or at the end of competitive balance round B. The placement depends on the amount of the new contract and the revenue sharing and luxury tax status of the team losing the player.

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Brandon Delarosbil scored 33 seconds into overtime to lift the Sherbrooke Phoenix to a 4-3 Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League victory over the visiting Baie-Comeau Drakkar on Sunday.

Robin Benoit, Mavrick Lachance and Sydney Gagnon also scored for the Phoenix (4-3-0-0), who blew a 3-1 lead before winning it in OT. Thomas Rousseau chipped in with two assists and Justin Brisebois made 15 saves.

The Phoenix outshot the Drakkar 42-18, but trailed 1-0 after the first period. The hosts took a 3-2 lead into the third.

Alexis Michaud scored twice for the winless Drakkar (0-7-1-1), while Kyle Powers netted a single. Lucas Beckman stopped 38 of 42 shots.

Both teams were 0-for-4 on the power play.

Elsewhere in the QMJHL on Sunday:

CHARLOTTETOWN — Nolan Duskocy had a goal and assist, Donald Hickey made 34 saves, and the Charlottetown Islanders blanked the visiting Newfoundland Regiment 3-0.

William Shields and Juraj Jonas Durco also scored for the Islanders (8-1-0-1), who took a 2-0 lead into the third after a scoreless first period.

Antoine Proulx stopped 26 of 29 shots for the Regiment (4-5-0-0), who were 0-for-3 on the power play.

The Islanders went 1-for-3 with the man advantage.

GATINEAU, Que. — Maxime Coursol, Samuel Fiala, Alix Durocher and Nathan Brisson each had a goal and assist, Emile Beaunoyer made 40 saves, and the visiting Val-d’Or Foreurs torched the Gatineau Olympiques 5-0.

Jeremy Leroux also scored for the Foreurs (3-4-0-1), who were outshot 40-30.

Danai Shaiikov stopped 25 of 29 shots for the Olympiques (5-5-0-0), who trailed 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 heading into the third.

The Foreurs went 3-for-9 on the power play, while the Olympiques were 0-for-3.

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For some time in the NHL now, players have signed contracts for the most total years they could get. That only made sense, right? The salary cap was flat, with little to no wiggle room, so if you found a team willing to commit a decent amount of money against that cap to you, you wanted to make them do it for as long as conceivably possible. It was security in a league that offers it to few.

Superstars did eight-year deals, and those contracts were the mark of having achieved true stardom. These were your no-doubters, your Hall-of-Fame contenders. There were rare exceptions such as Auston Matthews, whose agent Judd Moldaver apparently put some thought into getting to UFA and the chance to sign new deals sooner, particularly as the cap might move (all when the guy was still young), but he was part of a minority.

I get players not wanting to pass on guaranteed money, but if you truly believe youâ€re in the leagueâ€s upper percentile, man did the Matthews way always make sense to me. I got killed on my show for defending it (it was viewed as a lack of commitment, if I recall?), but it was always the most practical “commit to a team but also get paid-paid†decision. Heâ€s going to be a UFA in summer of 2028, and can re-sign on July 1 of 2027, when heâ€ll be 29 with a bajillion goals in the bank in a massively inflated salary cap environment.

It’s with that in mind that Iâ€ve seen some of the new deals some young stars are signing and thought ‘Boy … Are you sure?‘

The deals are long, and theyâ€re not just for proven superstars anymore.

And yet, Iâ€m not sure thatâ€s a win for those players in the same way that it used to be.

Luke Hughes just signed a contract worth $9 million per season for seven years, which takes him to age 29. Heâ€s super young to get a deal like that, and thatâ€s just awesome, of course. Who am I to sit here and say a kid at 22 shouldnâ€t take the security of $63 million dollars? Of course he should. Heâ€s set for life now.

Luke Hughes is also a big-bodied D-man who at age 20 put up just shy of 50 points, and he played at a slightly better pace the next year at age 21. If he signs for three or four or even five years at a lower AAV, what does his next deal look like at age 25 or 26 in this growing-crazier-by-the-day cap environment?

You canâ€t know, but if he gets at all better than heâ€s currently been – which is exceedingly likely given his age and position – that contract would come in the wake of a skyrocketing cap and deals to Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes that could set monstrous precedents. Regarding Makar, you can call it apples to oranges, but there’s not a team in the league that would take Kirill Kaprizov before Makar. Even if the Avs defender doesnâ€t get to $17 million a season, heâ€s certainly got a case for it.

By then, Luke Hughes might be worth … what? Could it be $13 million? 14? Iâ€d expect heâ€d make up a few lost million in the short term pretty quick and go racing by that $63 million number in the other direction. In a world where people have gotten annoying about saying “Bet on yourself,†Iâ€ve been surprised how few young stars have taken that course.

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Mason McTavish, fresh off 52 points with 22 goals during his age 21/22 season, just re-signed for six years and $7 million per year. Six years is better than seven, but it still feels like a lot to commit when your upside is so high.

This cap environment should shift the focus from dollars to term for the high end young guys.

Teams today are greatly incentivized to lock up their young talents before theyâ€ve proven all that much (beyond potential) in the NHL. That trade of “security†is their most valuable tool right now. Luke Hughes has been great, but has yet to be the cornerstone of a D-corps thatâ€s had success deep in the playoffs. And yet for teams, the value is that he hasnâ€tdone it yet. Theyâ€re learning that itâ€s time to pay for (just less than) what you expect players to do, rather than for what theyâ€ve done in the past. Theyâ€re hoping to get that “You actually havenâ€t done anything yet†discount.

If you look around the NHL, almost all of the best contracts are because GMs saw players about to blow up and paid them on the maximum term the players would give them, before the break out happened.

Nathan MacKinnonâ€s run of being staggeringly underpaid due to taking max term deals will continue almost immediately after he got his raise to $12.6 million. Lukeâ€s brother Quinn is a perennial Norris threat earning under $8 million after a six-year deal that he signed at age 20. Great job by the Canucks there. Their brother Jack has maybe the most team-friendly deal in the NHL, and when he signed his 8×8 contract people were apoplectic because he “hadnâ€t done anything yet.â€

What Jack Hughes had done was show that obviously he was going to be one of the leagueâ€s better offensive forces. And with the assumption that the salary cap would go up again eventually – we all knew it would in time – the Devils were correct that it wouldnâ€t take long for Hughes to be a massive bargain.

Jack has five more seasons at that $8 million mark, until 2030, and over that time, if he plays up to his potential, heâ€s probably worth $14 million a season. Heâ€s only 24 and already has a 99-point campaign. The bigger note, though, is that if he never got to the top of his potential, or even close, that deal is still fine! Theyâ€ve only paid him to be “pretty good,†at this point. These days $8 million is Pavel Buchnevich and Josh Norris money. Giving those years away for “security†is going to cost Jack tens of millions of dollars.

If you want to say “It doesnâ€t matter, heâ€s not going hungry,†then weâ€re not in the same conversation. The point is, all these “security†deals that teams are giving to young players are the smartest contract wins they can get. Itâ€s great for the teams, kudos, and so if they truly believe in their young talents, nowâ€s the time to take the big swing.

Seth Jarvis†long-term deal ($7.42 million) makes him a value buy. Brandon Hagelâ€s long-term deal ($6.5 million) makes him a value buy, and by “value†I mean like “50 per cent off.â€

The players now have real decisions to make, because “Which tier player am I in†is now the personal assessment for young guys.

The challenge for them is that the bottom half of rosters arenâ€t going to see their numbers go up like the top guys are. Even the middle class isnâ€t in for a massive jump in pay, though it should tick up some. So, are you more of a middle-of-the-pack guy, who should be begging to go long while youâ€re young, before they figure out youâ€re just OK? Do you need to sell those years because youâ€re not sure what youâ€ll be? Or are you a player whoâ€s so good that maybe it makes more sense to go shorter, so you can cash in as the cap rises?

Hereâ€s an important quote from a recent article in The Athletic, attributed to an anonymous player agent. I share it to note that locking in now for long term means you may also miss a bigger bump than expected:

Agent 3: â€œSometimes itâ€s just luck and circumstance. Kaprizov had all of the right leverage — a rising cap, a team that had a bunch of guys already signed. The other reality is the capâ€s set too low this year. I think youâ€re going to find that the cap is not just going to be at $104 (million) next year, and I think that $113.5 (million in 2026-27) is going to end up being like $120 (million). So the cap is going to go much higher, and sometimes itâ€s timing and situation, and I think thatâ€s what happened here.â€

There is value in being a 25-goal, 55-point guy, but if your game slips from there, suddenly youâ€re in the group of guys who donâ€t get paid. Maybe those are the ones who want to lock in for as long as they can in this cap environment. Niko Mikkola is a good, 29-year-old, second pair defenceman for Florida. He’s a physical, penalty-killing defenceman who had a career-high 22 points last season. He signed an eight-year deal with a $5 million AAV on Thursday, which he may not have been given under a flat cap. But in this environment it makes a lot of sense. A middle-of-the-lineup player gets long-term security, and the team locks in a reliable veteran at a very comfortable rate.

But if youâ€re a burgeoning star, or even an established one – particularly if youâ€re under 30 – I find it hard to believe that a max term contract makes sense. There are exceptions, like when a team wants to give you $136 million a la Kaprizov, of course.

The calculus has changed, and players need to be careful about giving up years of service if they believe they can be stars. Young guys need to be careful with the term they give away, because for those guys in this new salary cap world, the skyâ€s the limit.

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Stephanie Vaquer

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)…

A striking look, in-ring excellence, and star charisma… pick any two.

No one is perfect.

WWE wrestlers are rightly portrayed as larger-than-life, even superhuman, paragons.  The performers who portray them, however, are flawed human beings like the rest of us.

A major task of WWE booking is to hide a wrestlerâ€s weaknesses and highlight their strengths.  Doing so requires a deft sleight of hand, and results vary depending in part on the quality of performance.

Who in WWE is being portrayed in an ideal light, and who is being exposed?  Letâ€s take a look.

Rising Star of the Week: Stephanie Vaquer

WWE creative has gone all-in on La Primera, who has ascended to the top of the Womenâ€s Division faster than any other talent in recent memory.  A clean win over Iyo Sky, the most dominant champion of the past few years, cements the Dark Angelâ€s legitimacy as champion.

Will the gamble on Vaquer pay off?  The last talent to be elevated this quickly was Tiffany Stratton, who has in many ways been a disappointment.  Will Vaquer follow suit?

Vaquerâ€s greatest assets are top-notch ring work, a strikingly unique look, and a strong presence.  She has proven herself able to have excellent matches with a variety of opponents, and her match with the masterful Sky was predictably the best on the Wrestlepalooza card.

Her signature “Devilâ€s Kiss†is perhaps the most over wrestling move of 2025, although its popularity is undermined by commentators†ever-present sexual innuendo surrounding the maneuver – reminiscent of Jerry Lawler at his worst.

Vaquer holds herself like a star, and possesses a rare poise which makes her seem in command of almost any situation.   She also has a “cool” factor that many of her peers, such as Sky, simply lack. Her ring garb is striking, although I canâ€t help but wonder if it would benefit from adding a pair of shorts.

Her chief weakness is undoubtedly her ability to deliver a strong promo, hampered by limited English.  Sky overcame a similar problem to connect solidly with the audience, although it took her several years to do so. If Vaquer can do the same, and is booked well, a successful title reign is all but guaranteed.

After 16 years of perfecting her craft as a professional wrestler, the Dark Angel finally has the spotlight. I, for one, and am excited to see what she is able to make of it.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Podcast weekly Tuesday Flagship episode with guest cohost Jason Powell: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade Keller†on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

First Runner-up: Brock Lesnar

The Beast is back!

Many fans have mixed feelings about Lesnarâ€s return, given his alleged misconduct outside of the ring as a part of the Vince McMahon scandal.  However, his value as a special attraction performer is undeniable.  Having Lesnar return as a vicious heel fans are encouraged to boo seems in line with how fans want to react to him.

The decision to have Lesnar defeat Cena decisively is a welcome one. WWE matches are typically close contests, which makes them more entertaining, taken individually. But over time, too many such bouts condition fans to expect inevitable comebacks.

More one-sided matches feel realistic and make actual comebacks more exciting.

A true superstar with only a handful of WWE appearances left, Cena has little to lose in defeat. Lesnar, on the other hand, still holds value for WWE beyond 2025, and a decisive win over Cena reestablishes him as a dominant force.

Some foresee a rematch in which Cena wins, giving his retirement tour a happy ending. I hope that doesnâ€t happen. If Lesnarâ€s win stands, his prospects going forward — e.g., challenging Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship — become far more exciting.

Second Runner up: Jimmy Uso

Why Jey has found such success as a singles star, while Jimmy has not, is a mystery to me.  The Usos†reunification has made it clear which twin is stronger on the mic.  Jimmy is natural, quick-witted, and believable in promos — all areas where Jey struggles.

Ring skills are more of a toss-up. Jimmy boasts a deeper offensive repertoire and appears slightly more athletically gifted. While he hasnâ€t connected with audiences on the emotional level Jey recently has, heâ€s highly effective in eliciting crowd reactions — as either heel or babyface.

One wonders whether his lesser success compared to Jey is more due to storyline roles than ability.

Jimmy is an unsung hero of the Bloodline saga. Though his role was relatively minor, he played it well and gave teammates and opponents a skilled performer to work off. Heâ€s served a similar role in his return to Raw, elevating L.A. Knight, Jey, and The Vision.

Heâ€s certainly brought out the best in his brother and Knight, helping make their rivalry unexpectedly compelling. Heâ€s more than earned his spot — and greater opportunities moving forward.

…and the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role goes to… Big Jim!

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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Fading Star of the Week: Jacy Jayne

Jayne is solidly exceeding expectations as NXT Womenâ€s Champion. Sheâ€s at her best on the mic, hitting promo beats in a believable and dramatic way. Jayne has a distinctive heavy-metal look and is a passable in-ring worker — having proven she can carry her end of a long-form title match with a talented opponent like Jordynne Grace.

She also holds the distinction of being the first to simultaneously hold the NXT Womenâ€s and TNA Knockouts Championships.

Why, then, is she a falling star?

Expectations for Jayneâ€s reign were exceedingly modest, so surpassing them is a low bar. “Better than expected†doesnâ€t mean “good,†and she still falls short of the standard set by past NXT champions.

Her booking hasnâ€t helped. While sheâ€s had some entertaining tag matches with Fatal Influence — most notably a crushing defeat by Rhea Ripley, Lyra Valkyria, and Stephanie Vaquer — her singles competition has been lacking.

Aside from Grace, sheâ€s mostly faced Lainey Reid and TNAâ€s Ash by Elegance — neither particularly over or strong in-ring. Her upcoming opponent at No Mercy, Lola Vice, is only a marginal improvement.

In her five years on NXT TV, Jayne has made notable strides — but are they enough? I donâ€t believe so.

Itâ€s hard to imagine a long-term role for Jayne on the main roster. Sheâ€s not a strong enough promo to anchor a top act, nor good enough in the ring to thrive as an enhancement talent. It will take inspired booking to make this “Rockstar†a success on Raw or SmackDown.

Runner-Up: Nathan Frazer

Frazer is a phenomenal worker.  His incredible speed and high-flying athleticism make him a treat to watch.  However, his booking on Smackdown as one half of a moderately successful tag team with Axiom has slowly but surely defined him down in the eyes of the fans.  Fraxiomâ€s clean loss to the Vision on last weekâ€s Smackdown cements the teamâ€s status as mid-carder gatekeepers.

Frazer has potential as a singles star, or a part of a tag team (perhaps with a more dynamic partner), but WWEâ€s willingness and ability to invest in him wanes with every loss he takes.

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USA’s Katie Moon leapt to gold in Tokyo on Wednesday in a thrilling final to become the first woman to…