ZAGREB • Outspoken tennis star Nick Kyrgios led a barrage of criticism against the “boneheaded” decision to hold Novak Djokovic’s charity event in Croatia, after Borna Coric revealed he had become the second high-profile player to test positive for the coronavirus.

Croatia’s Coric, who played in the Adria Tour exhibition tournament last week, joined Grigor Dimitrov in getting the Covid-19 infection.

Dimitrov’s coach Kristijan Groh and world No. 1 Djokovic’s fitness coach Marko Paniki also tested positive, raising concerns for governing bodies who are bidding to restart the sport after a shutdown since March.

Last week, the ATP and the WTA issued revised calendars for the resumption of the circuit from August. But those plans may need to be redrawn, after the risks of athletes from different countries mixing without adhering to social distancing norms were highlighted.

“Boneheaded decision to go ahead with the ‘exhibition’ speedy recovery fellas, but that’s what happens when you disregard all protocols. This IS NOT A JOKE,” Australian Kyrgios said in a scathing social media post that featured three facepalm emojis.

Bulgarian world No. 19 Dimitrov played in Djokovic’s event in Belgrade and the second leg in the Croatian coastal resort of Zadar as did other top names like Austria’s Dominic Thiem (world No. 3) and Germany’s Alexander Zverev (7).

The tournament witnessed packed stands in Belgrade, players hugging at the net, posing for pictures and attending press conferences together.

Serbian Djokovic organised nights out in Belgrade and pictures and videos of him dancing with the other participants at his event were posted on social media. With both Serbia and Croatia easing lockdown measures weeks before the event, players were not obliged to observe social distancing rules in either country.

The Sunday final between Djokovic and Russia’s Andrey Rublev was cancelled as a precaution once Dimitrov tested positive.

Goran Ivanisevic, the director of the Zadar leg and Djokovic’s coach, was greeted with jeers from fans when he broke the news courtside.

BLAST FROM DOWN UNDER

Boneheaded decision to go ahead… speedy recovery fellas, but that’s what happens when you disregard all protocols.

” NICK KYRGIOS, Australian tennis player, on the lack of health measures.

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NO HOLDS BARRED

Pure hubris. His exho so wrong on so many levels. And flaunting their no precaution behavior on Twitter.

” JON WERTHEIM, Sports Illustrated journalist, quoting a former player on the Adria Tour.

Fans also made their feelings known on social media, with Djokovic, who heads the ATP Tour players’ council, under fire from the tennis community for being irresponsible and not taking the pandemic seriously.

Responding to a Twitter user who was critical of Djokovic, Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim replied: “Can’t disagree… As a former player just wrote me: ‘Pure hubris. His exho so wrong on so many levels. And flaunting their no precaution behavior on Twitter makes everything moving forward for the sport tougher’.”

American great Chris Evert also criticised the organisers for the lack of social distancing, saying “… total physical contact, no face masks, even the fans were without masks.. I don’t get it.”

In a commentary for The Telegraph, tennis correspondent Simon Briggs’ described the positive test results as a “sad but predictable outcome of what can only be viewed as reckless management” and that the players “behaved as if they were immune to the virus”.

With international tennis suspended, 17-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic organised the tour as a charity event to be contested over four legs.

He reportedly took a coronavirus test yesterday after returning to Belgrade in the morning. The results were not available by press time.

Djokovic’s brother Djordje, the overall tournament director, told Sportske Novosti daily paper online edition: “Novak? He took this news very hard. We undertook all the measures prescribed by the governments of Serbia and Croatia.”

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

The NCAA had a chance to do the right thing on Friday and, in a stunning turn of events, completely missed the mark.

Who saw that one coming?

The punishment that the Committee on Infractions handed down to Oklahoma State on Friday, a one-year postseason ban to go along with scholarship reductions and myriad recruiting sanctions, was wrong and should be utterly terrifying for the other programs that found themselves caught up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball corruption.

Oklahoma State faced a single Level I violation. It was an unethical conduct charge levied at former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who accepted at least $18,150 in bribes from financial advisors in exchange for peddling influence over one player from Oklahoma State and one player from South Carolina, where Evans was coaching before accepting a job on Brad Underwood’s staff in the spring of 2016. Evans was also accused of giving Jeffery Carroll $300.

That’s it.

Evans provided no competitive advantage for Oklahoma State, unless you consider the $300 he paid to Carroll — who was already on the roster and suspended for three games as a result — a competitive advantage. Evans was lining his pockets. He was not doing this to benefit the basketball program. Technically speaking, the players Evans claimed to have the power of persuasion over were the victims of the crimes that got him sentenced to three months in prison on federal bribery charges. He steered them to financial advisors that were willing to shell out bribe money. He knew nothing about the people that he was telling these players to invest their money with. One of the men Evans accepted bribes from was Marty Blazer, who sparked this entire investigation to try and avoid prison when he was caught by the SEC embezzling millions of dollars from clients.

That’s where Evans was guiding players who trusted him.

The players were the victims.

Despite that, Oklahoma State was still hit with a one-year postseason ban. Evans has been gone for three years. Carroll has been gone for two. Neither the current head coach — Mike Boynton — or the head coach the violations were committed under — Brad Underwood — were mentioned in the Notice of Allegations.

“There were no recruiting or other major violations on the part of the institution,” Oklahoma State said in a statement in November. “There are no allegations involving current student-athletes or coaching staff.”

None of that mattered to the Committee on Infractions.

They dropped the hammer on Oklahoma State, effectively neutering what was the most anticipated OSU season since Marcus Smart returned for his sophomore year. So much for seeing Cade Cunningham play in the NCAA tournament. Hell, we may not see Cunningham play for Oklahoma State, period. He was offered the chance to join the G League prospect pathway program, reportedly for as much money as Jalen Green. If he’s not going to play meaningful games at Oklahoma State, maybe he reconsiders the offer.

“Whatever the best option is for him we’re going to support 100 percent without any reservations,” Boynton said.

This gets to the core of the problem when it comes to NCAA enforcement: They far too often punish players and coaches for violations that they took no part in. What did Cunningham, or anyone else on Oklahoma State’s roster, have to do with Lamont Evans accepting bribes from a white collar felon that had been flipped by the FBI? How was anyone associated with the Oklahoma State athletic department supposed to prevent one assistant coach from accepting those bribes?

“A postseason ban for a bunch of kids that were 15, 16 years old when a lot of this was going on? It’s completely, completely out of bounds,” Boynton said.

He’s not wrong.

A postseason ban is total overkill.

That is the most infuriating part is that the NCAA was actually able to punish the man responsible. That’s not usually the case. Evans received a 10-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA in addition to a three month jail sentence for pleading guilty. His coaching career is effectively over. He’ll never be a Division I head coach. He’ll never coach at a level where he is able to earn a couple hundred grand as an assistant. The person entirely at fault for this situation had his life blown up.

And Oklahoma State still got a postseason ban despite the fact that, as Larry Parkinson of the Committee on Infractions said, “the institution fully cooperated from the moment they learned about the circumstances.”

That should be a major red flag for everyone else caught up in this investigation.

USC, Arizona and Auburn all had an assistant coach plead guilty to similar charges as Evans. Louisville committed their violations while they were on probation from the last scandal the program was embroiled in. Oklahoma State faced one Level I violation. Kansas faces five, and they’ve made quite clear they aren’t going to be as cooperative.

If the Committee on Infractions has set the bar here, everyone else better be ready to catch the book that gets thrown at them.

They tell you not to make bomb jokes in airports or on planes. Turns out that they mean it.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Trevor Davis has discovered that it’s a really awful idea to test the sense of humour of airline staff after his joke about explosives resulted in an arrest.

Davis has been charged with making “criminal threats” at the Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday and has been granted bail, pending a May 3 court appearance.

“Yesterday, Trevor Davis checked in at the Hawaiian Airlines ticket counter and was asked the usual questions about whether he was carrying any aerosol cans, knives, weapons or explosives,” public information officer Rob Pedregon told ESPN.

“Davis turned to his female companion and asked if she remembered to pack the explosives. He was then taken into custody and booked.”

The 24-year-old, who was drafted by the Packers in 2016, is likely to get an earful from coach Mike McCarthy when he returns to the team on Monday.

“The Packers are aware of the matter involving Trevor Davis,” Green Bay said in a statement. “We are in the process of gathering more information and will refrain from making any further comment as it is an ongoing legal matter.”

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Some things are no laughing matter. Packers wide receiver Trevor Davis found that out the hard way Monday, when he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after making a joke about bringing a bomb aboard a flight to Hawaii.

An airport police spokesman said (via the AP) that Davis was checking in for his flight on Hawaiian Airlines, when an agent at the ticket counter asked him a routine question about whether he had any explosives in his luggage. The third-year player was said to have answered, “Yeah,” before turning to his female companion and asking her, “Did you pack the explosives?”

According to TMZ Sports, the woman said “No” and tried to get Davis to stop joking around, at which point he said, “Just kidding.” However, airline employees called police and Davis was arrested for misdemeanor criminal threats, while the woman was not charged.

“The Packers are aware of the matter involving Trevor Davis,” the team said in a statement (via NFL.com). “We are in the process of gathering more information and will refrain from making any further comment as it is an ongoing legal matter.”

A fifth-round draft pick by Green Bay in 2016 out of the University of California, Berkeley, Davis has just eight catches for 94 yards and a touchdown in two seasons, but has made a mark as a kick returner. Last season, he finished fourth in the NFL in kickoff return yardage and sixth in punt return yardage, and in December Davis was named the NFC’s special teams player of the week for an effort that included a career-long 65-yard punt return against the Browns.

Davis, 24, was released on $15,000 bail and has a May 3 court date (via AFP). He may be subject to NFL discipline if the league determines that he violated its personal-conduct policy.

A similarly misguided comment got a Colorado hockey referee arrested in October 2012 and caused the evacuation of Anchorage International Airport. On his way back from a tournament in Alaska, Peter Friesema joked to a ticket agent about his friend’s luggage having “a bomb in it,” resulting in hundreds of other passengers being forced out of the building and into frigid outdoor conditions at around midnight, as authorities reacted to an announced “security breach” (via the Anchorage Daily News).

Friesema, 44, was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. “He did something that in this day and age a teenager would know better than to do,” the Anchorage airport manager said at the time.

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