Month: June 2023

ODI World Cup 2023: Big Indian cricket centres which didn’t get a matchThe International Cricket Council (ICC) and host BCCI announced the ODI World Cup 2023 schedule on Tuesday, finalising 10 venues for the event beginning October 5.

Former South Africa player AB de Villiers has revealed the reason behind his early retirement from international cricket in 2018. De Villiers, with a career spanning 14 years, retired after playing 114 Tests, 228 One-Day Internationals, and 78 T20 Internationals.
He finished as the second-highest run-scorer for South Africa across formats, behind Jacques Kallis.
De Villiers cited the team environment as the primary factor for his retirement. He expressed dissatisfaction with the team setup and the absence of his retired friends Mark Boucher, Graeme Smith, and Jacques Kallis, which had a profound impact on him.
The burden of leadership fell on De Villiers’ shoulders, despite younger and less experienced players in the team. He emphasized the need for a tight-knit group of individuals with a shared understanding.
De Villiers downplayed the significance of statistics and disliked people’s obsession with them. He scored 9577 runs in ODIs at an average of 53.5, including 25 centuries and 53 fifties. Despite approaching the milestone of 10,000 runs, he chose to retire on his own terms.
After retirement, De Villiers has been involved in various cricket-related activities, including serving as part of JioCinema’s commentary panel during the IPL 2023 and sharing his opinions on Twitter.

Manchester United are planning face-to-face talks with David de Gea over whether he will remain at Old Trafford.
De Gea, 32, will become a free agent after midnight when his contract expires but discussions will continue after this weekend as the Spaniard is getting married.
The Athletic reported earlier this week that De Gea had signed a new contract extension, only for United to back out of the agreed proposal.
He agreed to a drastic reduction on his current £375,000 per week wages, but the club did not sign the contract.
United have since submitted a new proposal to De Gea with an even lower salary. They also dispute that a document was signed.
Talks between the two parties are ongoing and it remains in the balance as to whether De Gea will accept the new offer that was put in front of him. There is interest in him from Saudi Arabia.
United are also weighing up their options and talks have been held over a move for Inter Milan goalkeeper Andre Onana. Manager Erik ten Hag would ideally like a No 1 suited to playing out from the back and has previously worked with the Cameroon international at Ajax.
Dean Henderson is back at Carrington recovering from injury, and could be used by Ten Hag when fit. Nottingham Forest are expected to submit a bid for Henderson should United agree to sell him.
United also have Tom Heaton on the books after triggering the year extension in his contract. But Luton are interested in signing him.
Ten Hag looks set to secure his first signing of the summer after The Athletic reported on Thursday that United reached an agreement with Chelsea to sign Mason Mount in a deal worth up to £60million ($75.7m).
GO DEEPER
De Gea contract farce isn’t how a big club should operate and would not happen at Man City
(Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Lausanne Diamond League 2023 Highlights: India’s ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra clinched the top honour at the Lausanne Diamond League 2023 with a best throw of 87.66m. He faltered in his first and fourth attempt before making it big in the fifth one that helped him bag the top spot. The Tokyo Olympics gold medallist returned to action after a one-month injury lay-off. The 25-year-old superstar had made a perfect start to the Diamond League season with a top podium finish in Doha, Qatar, on May 5. On the other hand, star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar failed to make it count with a fifth spot finish at Lausanne.

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen will both avoid Formula 1 penalties after taking brand-new power unit components ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
With the Red Bull Ring circuit being power hungry, teams often fit fresh components for maximum power, with Leclerc’s Ferrari and Verstappen’s Red Bull outfits electing to do so.
Leclerc, and teammate Carlos Sainz, have a fresh Turbocharger, MGU-H, and exhaust system on his SF-23, but does not trigger a grid penalty as all the new parts are within in allocation.
Verstappen – who is going for a fifth win in a row this weekend – has a new Control Electronics and Energy Store, using the second of each component.
Other drivers to take new parts include new Internal Combustion Engines on both drivers from Alfa Romeo and Haas, with new Turbos and exhausts.
Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg also have a new MGU-H apiece.
The AlphaTauri duo both have a fresh Energy Store, with Yuki Tsunoda armed with a new Control Electronics, as is Valtteri Bottas.

Jun 30, 2023, 06:17PM ISTSource: The release of the ICC World Cup 2023 schedule has sparked excitement among cricket fans, especially for the high-stakes India-Pakistan match scheduled for October 5 at the prestigious Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. However, the anticipation of this clash has led to a surge in hotel prices in the region, causing concerns for fans planning their accommodations. The impact of the match on hotel pricing has created a challenging situation for cricket enthusiasts, who now face steep rates in Gujarat while eagerly awaiting this thrilling encounter.

Photographs: Kind courtesy Shubman Gill/Instagram
Shubman Gill is in Paris.
Gill, who will soon be leaving for the West Indies for the two Test series next month, was all smiles as he posed for a couple of pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
‘Gilly in Paris’, the young opener captioned his Instagram post.
***
Photograph: Kind courtesy Rohit Sharma/Instagram
Rohit Sharma, currently on a holiday in Europe with his family, is also expected to join his team-mates directly in the West Indies.
During his vacation, Rohit proved to be a loving father by fulfilling daughter Samaira’s dream of watching a live Princess-themed show.
The skipper, accompanied by wife Ritika Sajdeh, took Samaira to the Frozen show in Paris, creating beautiful memories.

It was always going to be a big summer for Liverpool in terms of changes, but the signings of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai signal a significant shift in how Jürgen Klopp’s side will look next season.
Mac Allister, signed from Brighton for $44m (£35m/41m), was an excellent start to the business that Liverpool was set to complete this summer but the Argentine was only ever the start.
Liverpool signaled that part of the reasoning behind moving away from Jude Bellingham this summer was that more than one midfield addition was required and in Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, it will have duly delivered.
READ MORE: Center-back, $44m move – Liverpool next transfer priority after Dominik Szoboszlai debated
READ MORE: Harry Kane ‘agrees’ to transfer as president says Man Utd ‘will pay’ $87m for Liverpool repeat
Last season, Mac Allister scored 12 times (six penalties) and assisted three. Szoboszlai, who has a $77m (£61m/70m) release clause, scored 10 (two penalties) and assisted 13. Both players have the potential to kick on again with those numbers with the best portion of their careers ahead of them.
During the same period, Liverpool had very few midfield goalscorers, as has been the case for a while. The famed Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Gini Wijnaldum trio, for example, left the scoring to those in front.
There has been something of a shift with Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones and Fábio Carvalho, but those three only netted 11 between them last season in all competitions. That is clearly the model for the future; Mac Allister and Szoboszlai make it the model for now as well.
If Liverpool was to set up with Fabinho being supported by Trent Alexander-Arnold at the base of its midfield, with Mac Allister and Szoboszlai left and right respectively in the more attacking number eight roles, that would completely transform Klopp’s side.
Sign up for our EXCLUSIVE Liverpool.com newsletter!
If you enjoyed this piece, you’ll love our Liverpool.com newsletter every weekday, we send exclusive, bonus content only to people signed up for our mailing list!
Our newsletter subscribers get a rundown Monday to Friday from one of the best Liverpool FC writers straight to your inbox, and completely for free.
Wherever you are in the world in the US, the UK or further afield you don’t want to miss out.
Sign up to the Liverpool.com newsletter here it only takes a few seconds!
The emphasis would remain, of course, on those in the forward line to continue to score goals, but they would be supplemented by a genuine goal threat from behind something that has often not been the case previously.
Both Mac Allister and Szoboszlai can shoot from distance, which should encourage defenses to close them down, therefore creating more space in behind for players like Luis Díaz and Diogo Jota to exploit.
The duo offer a significant amount of final-third threat and one thing absolutely certain about this Liverpool team next season is that it should score plenty of goals.
Spreading the burden of creating and finding the back of the net is exactly what Liverpool needs to take the next step in its midfield evolution, with the likes of Elliott and Jones also fitting perfectly into those positions as they continue to develop.
In Mac Allister and now Szoboszlai, Liverpool has formed the most exciting midfield pair ahead of Fabinho that the Brazilian has played with, with loads of flair and technical ability.
The challenge is to prove that can be just as effective as the more ‘functional’ trio that won the lot but it is certainly going to be very exciting.

Fantasy gaming platform Dream 11 is all set to replace Ed-Tech major BYJU’s as the principal jersey sponsor of the Indian cricket team for an undisclosed amount which is expected to be lesser than the previous deal. BYJU’s had quit after the end of the last financial cycle and BCCI had invited closed bids for its new sponsor and Dream11 was one of the prominent names to have submitted its bid.
“Yes, Dream11 will be the new jersey sponsor of the Indian team. You can expect an announcement in few days’ time,” a BCCI source tracking the development told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
When people associated with Dream11 were contacted, they cited that certain protocols are in place before they can make a formal announcement of the deal. The Real Money Gaming (RMG) like Rummy and Poker were among the companies prohibited from submitting bids.
In case of principal jersey sponsors, the money given for every bilateral fixture where the sponsors name is in the middle of the shirt is three times more compared to what it pays for an ICC fixture where the centre of the jersey carries the country name and sponsors logo doesn’t get a vantage positioning.

In a shocking revelation, Australian cricket legend Allan Border on Friday has said he has Parkinson’s disease and it would me a “miracle” if he makes it 80. The former Australian captain, who will turn 68 on July 27, was diagnosed with the nervous disorder in 2016. “I walked into the neurosurgeon’s and he said straight up, ‘I’m sorry to tell you but you’ve got Parkinson’s’,” the 1987 World Cup winning Australian skipper told Newscorp.
“‘Just the way you walked in. Your arms straight down by your side, hanging not swinging.’ He could just tell.”
Border had only confided about this to Dean Jones, who died of heart attack in 2020. “I’m a pretty private person and I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me sort of thing,” he said.
“Whether people care you don’t know. But I know there’ll come a day when people will notice. I get the feeling I’m a hell of a lot better off than most. At the moment, I’m not scared, not about the immediate future anyway. I’m 68. If I make 80, that’ll be a miracle. I’ve got a doctor friend and I said if I make 80, that’ll be a miracle, and he said, ‘That will be a miracle.'”
A veteran of 156 Tests between 1979 and 1994, Border captained Australia in 93 of them and led them to the Ashes triumph over England in 1989. He was the first batter to score 11,000 runs and ended his career with 11,174 Test runs.
From 273 ODIs, he has 6524 runs. After retirement, he has served as an Australian selector and been a broadcast commentator. “No way am I going to get another 100, that’s for sure,” Border said. “I’ll just slip slowly into the west.”