She was also dropped as an ambassador for the Athlete Ally group which campaigns for LGBT rights in sport

Martina Navratilova on Sunday apologised for describing transgender athletes wishing to compete in women's sports as cheats. The tennis legend, an 18-time Grand Slam title winner, was branded as "transphobic" after writing in a newspaper column that allowing trans athletes to compete with women who were assigned female at birth is "cheating and unfair".

She was also dropped as an ambassador for the Athlete Ally group which campaigns for LGBT rights in sport. "I know that my use of the word 'cheat' caused particular offence among the transgender community. I'm sorry for that because I certainly was not suggesting that transgender athletes in general are cheats," she wrote in a blog on Sunday.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever