Saturday, June 13, 2020Shawwal 21, 1441 AH

SPORTGULF TIMES

Teenage hotshots break into Pakistan’s squad

Thiem, Zverev and Dimitrov join Djokovic in US Open doubts

CRICKET CRICKET | Page 5 TENNIS TENNIS | Page 6

FOOTBALL

Hazard warning as Belgian returns for campaign restartPage 2

Sevilla pip Real Betis 2-0 as La Liga bounces back

Bayern missing Lewandowski, Mueller for potential title-clincher

FOOTBALL

There was a minute of silence held before kick-off in memory of the victims of the pandemic, with the players standing at a distance from each other

AFPMadrid

Sevilla beat local rivals Real Betis 2-0 as La Liga returned after three months away on Thurs-

day, becoming the second of Europe’s fi ve major leagues to resume following the coronavi-rus pandemic.

After the Bundesliga in Ger-many restarted on May 16, La Liga opened its doors again to players but not supporters at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, where the usually vibrant Seville derby was played in front of empty stands.

The game was the fi rst in Spain’s top fl ight since March 10 but 93 days later another professional fi xture has been completed without incident, of-fering further encouragement to the Premier League in England and Serie A in Italy. Both are set to return next week.

Lucas Ocampos gave Sevilla the lead from a 56th-minute penalty and Fernando Reges then added the second goal for the home side, who are third in the table.

This was the fi rst leg of a 39-day sprint to the fi nish in La Liga, that will see teams playing every three days for fi ve and a half weeks and undergoing stern examinations of their fi tness.

Both coaches made use of their new allocation of fi ve sub-stitutes and there was a drinks breaks in each half but the con-test lost its fl uency late on, in part because Betis never looked like staging a comeback.

Victory strengthens Sevilla’s hold on third place as they move four points above Getafe and Real Sociedad below them. Betis sit 12th and face the possibility of being dragged into a relega-tion battle.

This was as far from a typical Seville derby as could be imag-ined, a pale shadow of the divi-sion’s most heated fi xture and a clear demonstration of what has been sacrifi ced to keep the sea-son going.

“I always believed we would play again,” said La Liga presi-dent Javier Tebas, who had also indicated on Thursday that “10 or 15 per cent” of fans could at-tend stadiums before the season fi nishes on July 19.

For now though, stands re-main empty, the voices of the players and coaches audible and

the atmosphere strange. On tel-evision, fans at home had the option to add virtual supporters taken from the computer game FIFA, as well as chanting, which ebbed and fl owed according to the action.

When the excellent Ocampos and Fernando scored, there was cheering, and when substitutes came and went, there was ap-plause.

Earlier, the players had ar-rived wearing masks and gloves and their temperatures were taken before entering the sta-dium. Outside, around 200 sup-

porters had come to greet the team buses but they dispersed shortly after, with 600 police and security personnel in at-tendance to prevent mass gath-erings.

“No fans allowed but we’re here and we can’t wait,” shouted a 60-year-old supporter in a Se-villa shirt.

There was a minute of silence held before kick-off in memory of the victims of the pandemic, with the players standing at a distance from each other around the centre circle. In the 20th minute, there was applause to

pay tribute to those working on the front line.

In the stands, the substi-tutes, still wearing masks, sat spread out in the rows behind their coaches and Sevilla’s were among the few celebrating when the goals fl ew in shortly after half-tiime.

They were comfortable win-ners as Ocampos scored a pen-alty after Marc Bartra was ad-judged to have pushed Luuk de Jong and, six minutes later, a delightful Ocampos fl ick at the near post allowed Fernando to head in a second.

AFPBerlin

Bayern Munich could se-cure an eighth straight Bundesliga title this weekend, but host

Borussia Moenchengladbach today without suspended duo Thomas Mueller and Robert Lewandowski.

Bayern will be confi rmed champions with a win if second-placed Borussia Dortmund lose at relegation-threatened Fortuna Duesseldorf earlier in the day.

That scenario would give Hansi Flick’s side an unassailable 10-point lead with three games remaining.

But Bayern are without Lewandowski, the league’s top scorer this season with 30 goals, and Mueller, who is one short of the Bundesliga record of 21 as-sists in a single campaign.

“It’s annoying, but we can’t do anything about it,” said Bayern coach Flick.

Thiago Alcantara has also been ruled out, for three weeks and needs an operation after strug-gling with a groin problem, Flick said yesterday.

Joshua Zirkzee, 19, is an option to replace Lewandowski up front while Serge Gnabry could start for Mueller if he is fi t after a back injury.

Bayern proved they can score goals without Lewandowski by thumping Hoff enheim 6-0 in late February when the Polish striker was injured.

They had a scare in Wednes-day’s German Cup semi-fi nal win over Eintracht Frankfurt, when Danny da Costa equalised for the visitors before Lewand-owski sealed a 2-1 win with his 45th goal this season.

Mueller admitted Bayern were “tired”, “worn out” and scrapped their way to victory in the fi rst of three games in six days.

But they are still in the running

to repeat their 2013 treble having beaten Chelsea 3-0 away in their Champions League last-16 fi rst leg before the competition was suspended in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fourth-placed Gladbach pulled off a shock 2-1 victory at Borussia Park when the sides met last December.

But Marco Rose’s side have been erratic of late, crushing Union Berlin 4-1 at home at the end of May before stumbling to defeat at Freiburg last weekend.

Rose hopes to include Swiss forward Breel Embolo, with the 23-year-old fi t after an ankle knock.

At the foot of the table, fallen giants Werder Bremen face a crucial game at Paderborn in a battle of the bottom two.

Florian Kohfeldt’s Bremen are six points from safety in 17th and three off the relegation play-off place following back-to-back home defeats.

Bremen, who were in the Champions League a decade ago, have spent more seasons in the top fl ight than any other club, but are running out of time.

“We know how much is rid-ing on this game,” said American forward Josh Sargent. “This club has such a long history, and no one wants to let the team or the city down.”

FIXTURES(all times 1330 GMT unless stated)Today

Wolfsburg v FreiburgFortuna Duesseldorf v

Borussia DortmundHertha Berlin v Eintracht

FrankfurtCologne v Union BerlinPaderborn v Werder BremenBayern Munich v Borussia

Moenchengladbach (1630)

SundayMainz v AugsburgSchalke v Bayer Leverkusen

(1600)

PREVIEW

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski (right) during a warm-up.

Sevilla’s players celebrate at the end of the Spanish League football

match against Real Betis at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium

in Seville on Thursday.

Qatar national team undergo tests before training campQatar national football team coach Felix Sanchez, players and staff underwent Covid-19 tests at the team hotel ahead of the summer training camp yesterday. Sanchez had last week announced a squad of 34 players for the sum-mer training camp, which began yesterday, and will conclude on July 3. The Qatar squad will pre-pare for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers set to be held later this year. Qatar has three more matches to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup to be held in China.

Messi fi t and ready for Barcelona return: Setien

FOOTBALL

Gulf Times Saturday, June 13, 20202

Hazard warning as he returns

Loss of home advantage not a problem: Brighton boss Potter

Gladbach ‘fl abbergasted’ by racist fans, tells them to leave

From furlough to free-to-air: EPL becomes political football

LA LIGA

PREMIER LEAGUE

SPOTLIGHT

TOP OF THE LINE

BOTTOMLINE

Real face Eibar a year after the Belgian made a 100mn-euro move

AFPLondon, United Kingdom

The green light for the Pre-mier League’s return owes much to a political will for the national game to lift

spirits in the country hardest hit by coronavirus in Europe.

Suspected and confi rmed deaths from coronavirus in Britain passed 50,000 according to analysis from the Offi ce for National Statistics (ONS) this week. Restrictions on personal freedoms remain in place, while plans to reopen schools to all pupils in England have been shelved until September.

Yet, on Wednesday, Premier League stars will return to live ac-tion with the government revelling in its role to ensure 33 of the re-maining 92 games of the season will be shown on free-to-air platforms.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament last month that

the return of live sport to televi-sion “could provide a much-needed boost to national morale”.

On the day June 17 was set as the date for the Premier League’s re-turn, Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Sport, said football had a “special place in our national life”.

FURLOUGH FURYHowever, the Premier League has not enjoyed such political backing throughout the course of the pan-demic.

In the early weeks of April as clubs scrambled to respond to a sudden drop in revenue, Liverpool and Tot-tenham were among the top-fl ight teams that signalled their intent to use the government’s furlough scheme for non-playing staff .

The scheme, designed to protect jobs once lockdowns are lifted, has seen the government cover the cost of 80 percent of wages up to a maxi-mum of 2,500 ($3,100) a month per employee.

Yet, the sight of last season’s two Champions League fi nalists using tax payers’ money without cutting the wages of players provoked a fu-rious reaction.

Conservative MP Julian Knight accused the Premier League of a

“moral vacuum.”At a daily news briefi ng at the

height of the crisis, even Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Pre-mier League players to “take a pay cut and play their part”.

Both clubs bowed to the public

pressure and quickly reversed their decision to use the scheme.

MASS AUDIENCESAttention from politicians was cer-tainly not welcomed by players, particularly as they set up a fund to generate funds for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

Hancock was accused of “de-fl ecting” underfunding of the NHS by Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend, while Newcastle’s Danny Rose said players’ health was being put at risk to boost the national mood.

For the fi rst time since the incep-tion of the Premier League in 1992, the BBC will show four live games before the end of the season.

Amazon and a Sky freeview chan-nel will also bring more live games to a wider audience.

By being beamed back to the masses on its return, the Premier League could ensure absence makes the heart grow fonder and increase its already massive following.

Player names to be replaced by ‘Black Lives Matter’ when Premier League resumesEnglish Premier League players will pay tribute to worldwide anti-racism movements by wearing shirts with the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the back during the opening round of fixtures at the season’s restart, British media reported on Thursday. The words will replace player surnames on the back of the shirt, while the BLM logo will be displayed on the front, reports said. The tribute comes amid worldwide protests against racial injustice following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Several Premier League clubs in recent weeks have posed tak-ing a knee, like former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick who popularised the gesture as a way to protest racial issues. Clubs will also respect one minute’s silence for those who have died during the Covid-19 pandemic and kits will include a heart-shaped badge in honour of NHS and frontline staff during the crisis. The Premier League will resume on June 17 after a three-month stoppage due to the outbreak, which has caused over 41,000 deaths in the United Kingdom.

Turkish soccer season restarts aft er almostthree-month suspensionTurkey’s top-flight soccer league will resume with two matches played without fans yester-day after an almost three-month suspension due to the coronavirus outbreak. Turkey sus-pended its soccer, basketball and volleyball leagues on March 17 due to the pandemic. The Turkish Football Federation said last month that its Super Lig will end on July 26 after clubs complete their remaining eight matches. League leaders Trabzonspor visit Izmir-based Goztepe and Fenerbahce host Kayserispor in Istanbul with both matches kicking off at 1800 GMT. Three Super Lig matches will be played on both Saturday and Sunday, with one match on Monday capping off the first week of the resumed competition. The virus has so far killed 4,763 people in Turkey, with nearly 175,000 confirmed cases. The government has rolled back almost all containment measures since June 1 amid a significant fall in deaths, despite concerns over a second wave of infections.

Romanian league to resume, minus twovirus-hit teamsTop-flight Romanian soccer is scheduled to resume on Saturday but without two of its teams, after coronavirus cases among their staff , professional league association LPF said yesterday. With the competition already at the playoff stage, third-placed Universitatea Craiova had been due to host fifth-placed FC Botosani on Friday, but the match was can-celled after the visiting team’s doctor tested positive for Covid-19. The match between Di-namo Bucharest and Chindia Targoviste had been postponed on Thursday after a Dinamo off icial also contracted the virus. Both virus-hit teams will be out of action until epide-miological investigations are completed. “We want the return of football but the health of the players our first priority,” said LPF general secretary Justin Stefan. Playoff s from among the bottom eight teams scheduled for today will now be the first matches of the re-start, with clashes featuring those of the top six teams still authorised to play taking place on Sunday.

2020 FA Cup Final to be renamed ‘Heads up’ to promote mental healthThe 2020 FA Cup final will be renamed the Heads Up FA Cup final to raise awareness of mental health, Prince William announced late Thursday. The FA Cup final will be held at Wembley Stadium on a rescheduled date of August 1 after a coronavirus-enforced suspension of all football fixtures. Prince Wil-liam said the initiative will be “a moment to promote good, positive mental health for eve-ryone”. “It’s quite timely bearing in mind what we’ve all been through with this pandemic,” added the Duke of Cambridge. “I think there’s going to be, sadly, a lot of repercussions from this in society, not just in football, in terms of people’s mental health. Hopefully the FA Cup can be a bit of a pivot that people can rally around.” The FA Cup will resume from the quarter-final stage on the weekend of June 27-28.

Two defeats aft er coronavirus stoppage cost Levski coach his jobCoach Petar Hubchev’s relationship with 26-times Bulgarian champions Levski Sofia has ended after poor run that culminated in two defeats following the coronavirus stoppage, with the club quickly appointed his successor. Levski in a statement named former forward and coach Georgi Todorov as the new boss, adding it was negotiating with Hubchev and his assistants to terminate their contracts. Ex-Hamburger SV and Eintracht Frankfurt defender Hubchev, part of the famous Bulgaria team that reached the 1994 World Cup semi-finals in the United States, took over at Levski in June 2019 after a three-year spell managing Bulgaria’s national team. The 56-year-old was shown the door after Levski suff ered a 1-0 home defeat to champi-ons Ludogorets yesterday when the domestic league resumed, before losing 2-0 at Loko-motiv Plovdiv in the Bulgarian Cup semi-final first leg. Levski have slipped to fourth place in the league with 46 points. Ludogorets top the standings with 58 points, nine ahead of Lokomotiv Plovdiv and CSKA Sofia.

AFPBerlin

Borussia Moenchenglad-bach said they were “fl ab-bergasted” by an avalanche of racist comments that

poured into their website and so-cial networks after the club’s public

support for “Black Lives Matter”. The club joined traditional rivals

Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Cologne in posting an anti-racism video last Friday.

“What we have experienced since then in the comments leaves us fl ab-bergasted,” said the club in an online statement, asking members “who do not share the values of Borussia

Moenchengladbach, to terminate their membership”.

The club has more than 150,000 members.

The joint video started by show-ing Gladbach’s French striker Mar-cus Thuram, on May 31, becoming the fi rst player in Germany to take a knee on the pitch after the death of African-American George Floyd

in police custody in Minneapolis. It followed with Dortmund’s Eng-lish attacker Jadon Sancho wearing a protest tee-shirt and also showed black players at all four clubs.

“We continue to clean up the many racist, hateful and contemp-tuous comments,” the club said, adding that it was “deeply ashamed” of the fans who posted them.

The club thanked “the majority of the supporters who try to contra-dict (these hateful comments) with reasonable arguments and facts”.

Following the lead of players such as Thuram, clubs, including Bayern Munich, joined in last week, with the whole team kneeling or wear-ing tee-shirts, jerseys or armbands bearing anti-racist slogans.

In this May 12, 2019, picture, Manchester City players celebrate with the Premier League trophy in Brighton, United Kingdom. (Reuters)

DPABarcelona, Spain

La Liga’s interrupted season off ers a second chance to Eden Haz-ard tomorrow when the

Belgian faces Eibar in the fi rst game of the restarted campaign in Spain.

The match comes one year and one day after he was presented to a packed Santiago Bernabeu as Real Madrid’s 100mn euros (112mn dollars) signing.

The 29-year-old has scored just one league goal since then in season beset with fi tness prob-lems. His latest injury looked to have ended his season but now he is back and ready to do what he was signed for — infl uence big games for Real.

Former Real defender Alvaro Arbeloa, who has recently been named coach of the club’s un-der-14, is in no doubt what an eff ect he will have on the team.

Asked about Hazard and Marco Asensio, who also re-turning from injury, he said: “I imagine Marco is going to have be more cautious building up his match fi tness game by game but Eden is fl ying and he is going to give the team so much.”

The signs were there for all to see last week when Hazard scored a hat-trick in a practice game at the club’s Valdebebas training complex.

He scored two goals right-footed coming in off the left wing, which is where Real had always intended to play him.

And he scored with a right-

foot fi nish, rolling the ball in from close range, after he had taken a pass from Karim Benze-ma with whom he was supposed to form a brilliant partnership in his fi rst season.

Another positive sign is that Hazard tends to come alive to-wards the end of the season.

Last season he was brilliant in the Europa Leauge fi nal as Chel-sea beat Arsenal 4-1 in what was his last game for the club.

He needs to start repeating the sort of form that saw him score 21 goals and make 17 assists in 52 games for Chelsea last season.

One goal and fi ve assists in 15 matches looks bad even when

his injuries are taking into con-sideration. He turned up with hamstring trouble that delayed his debut until September 14 when he managed half an hour in a 3-2 win over Levante at the Bernabeu.

He then suff ered an ankle in-jury at the end of November that kept him out for two months.

And when he came back he lasted barely three weeks be-fore he was diagnosed with a shin fracture that looked to have ended his season.

That was when football’s shutdown gave him a second chance to end the season in the right way.

Under the watchful eye of Gregory Dupont, the Real phys-io who he fi rst worked with at Lille, he has looked far fi tter than he did at the start of the season when, by his own admis-sion, he turned fi ve kilos over-weight after the excesses of his summer break.

“My fi rst season has been bad but this is a season of adapta-tion,” he recently told RTBF in Belgium. “I will be judged on the second one.”

He means the 2020-21 cam-paign but this 11 match period of 39 days is beginning to feel like a new season — Hazard’s second chance.

In this November 26, 2019, picture, Real Madrid’s Eden Hazard (foreground) is in action during the UEFA Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain in Madrid, Spain. (AFP)

AFPMadrid, Spain

Lionel Messi will know how to manage his own fi tness through La Liga’s rapid end to the season but has no injury problems ahead of Barcelona’s return against Real

Mallorca today, says coach Quique Setien.Messi missed three sessions last week with

some discomfort in his thigh but has been back in full training since Monday.

“He is perfectly fi ne, he has trained with the rest of his teammates and he feels good. I don’t see any problem,” said Setien in a press conference yester-day.

Barcelona resume away at Mallorca after the three-month suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. La Liga restarted on Thursday and will fi nish on July 19, with each team playing their re-maining 11 matches over just 39 days.

An intense period of fi xtures will stretch play-ers like Messi, who will be crucial to Barca’s title bid. They sit two points ahead of Real Madrid at the top of the table.

Asked if Messi could play all 11 games, Set-ien said: “We will have to play it by ear, fortu-nately Messi and a lot of the players with expe-rience know how to manage themselves. If any risk arises, he will be the fi rst one to say that he needs a rest.”

Setien also said Luis Suarez is available after he recovered from a knee injury but believes he could need time to fi nd full fi tness. “He is likely to play but it may not be for the whole game,” said Setien.

“It would be taking a risk that we are probably not going to take. He is in good condition and getting better every day but after fi ve months it’s true that it will be good for him to play and he will need some games to be the best Luis Sua-rez.”

Defender Nelson Semedo is available despite breaking La Liga protocol and having to train alone on Thursday. Semedo had reportedly at-tended a gathering of more than 20 people ear-lier in the week. “Whether he plays or not will not be because of this careless or unfortunate thing he did,” said Setien. “He made a mistake and he’s apologised to everyone.” Samuel Umtiti is out with a calf injury.

Florida teams set to open MLS return tournament in Orlando

Orlando City and Inter Miami will kick off Major League Soc-cer’s 26-team tournament on July 8 when the league returns from a four-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pan-demic.The North American league conducted its group draw Thursday for the ‘MLS is Back Tournament’ that will crown a champion August 11 at the Walt Disney World Resort sports complex in Orlando, Florida.The six-group event, closed to spectators, will feature three group-stage matches for every team that will count toward the MLS regular season, which went

on hiatus in March after only two weeks due to the Covid-19 outbreak.Miami, the new MLS club owned by retired England star David Beckham that has yet to play a home match, will join Orlando in Group A along with New York City FC, the Chicago Fire, Phila-delphia Union and Nashville SC.The defending champion Seat-tle Sounders are joined by FC Dallas, the Vancouver White-caps and San Jose Earthquakes in Group B. The quarter-finals (July 30-Au-gust 1) and semi-finals (August 5-6) will set up the champion-ship game on August 11.

ReutersLondon, United Kingdom

Brighton and Hove manager Graham Potter believes the absence of home advantage will not be a problem for

his side when the Premier League season resumes in empty stadi-ums on June 17 after a three-month stoppage due to the Covid-19 pan-demic.

Brighton have won just four of their 14 games at the Amex Stadium

and have fi ve home games left — including visits from Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal.

“It’s not like the Amex was a massive fortress for us before and now we haven’t got that anymore. So we have to play football and we get on with it,” Potter told Sky Sports.

“I think the hostility of the home crowd in the Premier League is where the advantage is. Certainly, the crowd in the British game get so involved and little moments can

change things in the match.“As an away team it’s diffi cult

when there’s 30, 40, 50, 60,000 people at a game. But it’s not there, we haven’t got the crowd and you just have to play football as well as you can.”

Brighton have allowed season ticket-holders to sign up for card-board cutouts of themselves to be displayed at Amex Stadium.

Brighton, who are 15th in the standings, will resume their Premier League campaign against Arsenal on June 20.

Two-way players could make impact under roster rules

DPALos Angeles

Ever since the NBA cre-ated the two-way con-tract three years ago, life for players on such deals

often revolved around shuttling back and forth between the G League and NBA and watching the calendar — they could stay with the big league club for up to 45 days, per league rules.

That dynamic is one of the many NBA customs that could be upended when 22 teams re-convene next month on the Dis-ney World campus near Orlando, Fla., in an attempt to fi nish a season unlike any other.

The league and the play-ers’ union are still negotiating numerous details as part of a return-to-play plan, with lit-tle fi nalised. Teams are expect-ing, however, that they will be

allowed to bring as many as 17 players to Orlando, two more than the usual roster limit, and that two-way players would be eligible to play in the postsea-son for the fi rst time, according to three people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The additional players are viewed as a way for teams to absorb potential losses should players get hurt, sick or decide not to take part in the NBA’s quarantined bubble because of concerns related to Covid-19.

For two-way players, such new rules would temporarily al-ter NBA life as they knew it. No need to hop onto an early morn-ing commercial fl ight to join an NBA team for that night’s game; the farthest they’d travel would be between the team hotel and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on the Disney property.

And that 45-day limit? Two-way players on championship

contenders could end up spend-ing twice that long sequestered with their teams. Luguentz Dort, a two-way player who has be-come a starter for Oklahoma City, could suddenly become a factor in the playoff s for a Thun-der team that sits fi fth in the Western Conference standings.

The eff ect two-way play-ers could have on champion-ship contenders such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers is less obvious. Rota-tions typically shrink, not ex-pand, during the playoff s as coaches lean on fewer, trusted options.

But the unique circumstances of the NBA’s “bubble” restart and potential for roster attrition because of the virus could lead to unusual outcomes that force more roster fl exibility. Teams will play a handful of exhibitions in late July and eight seeding games before the 16-team play-

off s begin in mid-August. The NBA Finals are planned to last into October.

Lakers rookie Devontae Ca-cok, a 6-foot-8 forward, has played in six games this season for the Western Conference-leading Lakers and second-year 6-10 forward Kostas Antetok-ounmpo, the younger brother of reigning league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee, has appeared in three games.

For the Clippers, any contri-butions from Johnathan Motley, a 6-8 center, and guard Amir Coff ey could be moot should their roster look like the one that was healthy, deep and consistent in early March, before the season was paused because of the novel coronavirus.

Motley is in his third NBA season and had appeared in 13 games for the Clippers. He would likely be at least the fourth option at centre, behind Ivica

Zubac, Montrezl Harrell and Joakim Noah. Coff ey appeared in 13 games with the Clippers during his rookie season out of Minnesota but showed why his pathway to playing time is per-haps clearer during a season-high 24 minutes against Cleve-land on Feb 9. Coach Doc Rivers used the 6-8, 205-pound wing to add length to their perimeter defence while adding a slasher off ensively and called the eff ort “phenomenal” after the victory.

Coff ey played no more than 13 minutes the rest of the season as the roster grew healthier, but was inserted for short bursts to utilize his long-armed defence and play-making in transition.

“Hopefully that’s something he’ll be able to do for us in games to come,” Clippers guard Lou Williams said after the rout of the Cavaliers, and perhaps it could still be the case, at Disney World.

NBA

The league and the players’ union are still negotiating details as part of a return-to-play plan

Ravens’ Harbaugh calls virus plan ‘impossible’AFPWashington

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh ripped as-pects of NFL plans to re-turn from the coronavirus

pandemic, calling them “humanly impossible” to achieve.

NFL and players union lead-ers continue to discuss details of safety measures for when play-ers return to team training camps, scheduled for late July.

Harbaugh told Baltimore radio station 105.7 The Fan that he would struggle to follow social distancing and other guidelines inside train-ing facilities such as weight and locker rooms and showers as well as on the fi eld.

“The other part of the thing is how we’re going to operate in the building,” Harbaugh said. “No-body knows. And the experts don’t know. I’ve seen all the memos on that, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s impossible what they are ask-ing us to do — humanly impossi-ble.”

Harbaugh said the Ravens would do everything possible such as us-ing facemasks and social distanc-ing where possible.

“But this is a communication sport,” Harbaugh said. “We want to get out there and actually have any idea of what we’re doing on the

fi eld, we’ve got to be able to com-municate with each other in per-son.

“I’m pretty sure the huddle is not going to be six feet spaced.”

Harbaugh was concerned how practice work could be accom-plished within safety guidelines once they are determined by the NFL Players Association and the league.

“Are guys going to shower one at a time all day? Are guys going to lift weights one at a time all day? These are things the league and the PA need to get a handle on and need to get agreed with some com-mon sense so we can operate in a 13-hour day in training camp that they are giving us and get our work done.”

Harbaugh was concerned that some teams could obtain a train-ing advantage over others by being less faithful about staying within whatever safety guides govern training camp.

And he also expects updated ide-as before players report to camps.

“Maybe we’ll know more in two months and they will be able to be a little more realistic and practical in what they are asking,” Harbaugh said. “I expect that to be the case.

“But the way I’m reading these memos right now, you throw your hands up and you go, ‘Well, what the heck? There’s no way we can be right.’”

NFL

SPORT3Gulf Times

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Astros’ sign-stealing ‘not a two-man show’: Cora

NFL pledges $250mn for social-justice causes

ReutersLos Angeles

Alex Cora is accepting responsibility for his role in the Houston Astros’ sign-steal-

ing scandal, but he said on Thursday that he is tired of the chatter that it was just he and then-player Carlos Beltran behind the infamous scheme.

Particularly bothersome is that then-Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow fi ngered him as the ringmaster.

“If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, it is that it was not a two-man show,” Cora, who is currently sus-pended from MLB, told ESPN. “We all did it. And let me be very clear that I am not deny-ing my responsibility, because we were all responsible.”

The scheme that was de-vised to inform batters of what pitch was coming was used throughout the 2017 season, which was the year when the Astros won the World Series. Cora was Houston’s bench coach that season.

After Major League Baseball released results of its investi-gation prior to the 2019 sea-son, Cora parted ways with the

Boston Red Sox after guiding that organization to the 2018 World Series title in his fi rst year as manager.

The Red Sox were later found by MLB to have used their replay room as part of a sign-stealing system during the 2018 season. Cora was sus-pended by MLB in April for his transgressions with the As-tros. He will be eligible to re-turn to the dugout in 2021 but told ESPN he is more worried about taking care of his per-sonal life and family right now.

He has kept a low profi le since receiving his punish-ment, and he said that was by design.

The commissioner’s report also led to the New York Mets parting ways with recently hired Beltran before he man-aged his fi rst game.

After MLB announced the penalties against Houston, Astros owner Jim Crane fi red Luhnow and manager A J Hinch. Both men received one-year suspensions from MLB.

Commissioner Rob Man-fred also fi ned the team the maximum allowable amount of $5mn and took away the As-tros’ fi rst- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021.

ReutersLos Angeles

The NFL, which last week committed to do more to promote equality, pledged to

donate $250mn to social-justice causes over a 10-year period.

The announcement was made in a statement Thurs-day: “The NFL is growing our social justice eff orts through a 10-year total $250mn fund to combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans.

“The NFL and our clubs will continue to work collabo-ratively with NFL players to support programs to address criminal justice reform, police reforms, and economic and educational advancement.

“In addition to the fi nancial commitment, we will continue to leverage the NFL Network and all of our media properties to place an increased empha-sis on raising awareness and promoting education of social justice issues to our fans and help foster unity.”

According to The Unde-

feated, the NFL already has donated $44 mn to aid social justice through the Players Coalition that was formed in the wake of protests by then-San Francisco 49ers quar-terback Colin Kaepernick in 2016 against racism and police abuses.

In November 2017, the league vowed to contribute nearly $100mn to causes aid-ing African-American com-munities. Last week, in re-sponse to a challenge issued by a number of prominent black players, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a video, in part, “We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic op-pression of black people. We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.

“We, the National Football League, believe Black Lives Matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much needed change in this country.

The pledge comes in the wake of the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapo-lis.

MLB

REPORT

Kostas Antetokounmpo (centre) during a training session for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens, Greece, on August 2, 2019. (TNS)

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. (TNS)

NBA reportedly sets 17-player rosters for return

The National Basketball Association plans to allow as many as 17 players per team when the season restarts at the end of next month, US media reported on Thursday.The total will includes 15 players with standard contracts and two others per team that are under two-way deals. The NBA has been shutdown since March 11 due to the new coronavirus pandemic.Twenty-two of the NBA’s 30 teams are scheduled to resume the season at the end of next month at the Dis-ney Resort sports complex in Orlando, Florida. The date of the restart is July 31, but ESPN reported that the latest plan was to moved it up to July 30. Under the revised

schedule 14 of the teams will be eliminated within 53 days of arriving in Florida. Only four teams will remain after 67 days, ESPN said.The league expects the NBA finals to begin by September 30. Once the playoff s start, teams can replace any player who tests positive for the coronavirus with a substitute player. The new player would be subject to a minimum seven-day quarantine period.The league is planning to begin training camps July 9-11. The players will quaran-tine before beginning formal training camps. The eight NBA teams left out of the Or-lando action are allowed to waive or sign players during a transaction window in late June. AFP

SPORT

Gulf Times Saturday, June 13, 20204

AFPOslo

Double world 400m hur-dles champion Karsten Warholm put aside coronavirus-induced

Lego building to smash the world record for the unorthodox 300m hurdles behind closed doors at a near-empty Bislett Stadium on Thursday.

After Oslo’s famed Diamond League meet, scheduled to be held this week, was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, or-ganisers chose to innovate as track and fi eld returned with its fi rst international, multi-discipline event, dubbed the ‘Impossible Games’.

And home favourite Warholm did not disappoint, the Norwe-gian clocking 33.78 seconds in the rarely-run event, pulverising the previous record of 34.48sec set by Briton Chris Rawlinson back in 2002.

In a stadium where cardboard cutouts replaced fans, barred entry because of the Covid-19 outbreak, and socially-distanced dancers with mannequins added

ambiance, Warholm’s feat was all the more impressive as he ran the race solo.

Setting off in his favoured lane seven, the 24-year-old went through his normal pre-race rou-tine before blasting off , keeping his rhythm early on before pro-ducing a blistering push for the line.

“I’ve been building a lot of Le-gos, yeah, and also I’ve been train-ing almost just as much, putting in training and trying to become even better,” said Warholm of his time away from the sport.

“Of course, I missed the crowd and everything but it’s awesome to be back. It’s better to do it alone than to not do it at all.”

There was more home suc-cess as a Norwegian team led by the three Ingebrigtsen brothers triumphed in a 2,000 metre race over a strong Kenyan quintet led by Timothy Cheruiyot and Elijah Manangoi, world 1,500m cham-pions in 2019 and 2017 respec-tively.

The Kenyans were running simultaneously via video link from Nairobi, where they had to contend not only with the city’s 1,795m altitude, but also wind

and rain. The Ingebrigtsens, Filip, Henrik and Jakob, maintained an early lead over the Kenyans, the latter two brothers taking up the running from the 1km mark.

AN IMPORTANT OCCASION The victory went to Jakob In-gebrigtsen, just 19, in an Euro-pean record of 4min 50.01sec that smashed the previous best of 4:51.39 set in 1985 by Britain’s Steve Cram, but remained a way off Moroccan Hicham Guerrouj’s world best of 4:44.79 set in 1999.

All three Norwegian brothers fi nished within the 4:57 mark, while the fastest home for the Kenyan team in terrible condi-tions was Cheruiyot in 5:03.05.

“Cheruiyot was our main com-petitor. It’s not easy beating a world champion, but we did it!” said Jakob Ingebrigtsen, welcom-ing a return to the track.

“I’ve spent so much time do-ing boring training sessions, it’s the competition that counts the most, it’s fun.”

Cram, now a commentator for the BBC, said the Oslo meet had been “a special and important oc-casion because it’s athletics back at the highest level”.

“It’s been slightly diff erent without a normal crowd, but the athletes had a platform to do their best and they certainly gave it their all.”

A men’s pole vault competition saw world record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden up against 2012 Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie.

The Frenchman had already jumped from his own back garden — off a much-shortened runway — and his eff ort was broadcast in line with his Swedish counter-part’s.

The pair competed last month by fi lming themselves at home, but Duplantis benefi ted from proper track conditions to win, clearing 5.86m at the third at-tempt. Lavillenie failed on his three eff orts at the same distance.

Duplantis had a shot at a “crowd-pleaser” of 6.01m, but did not come close.

“I wanted to jump a little bit higher, but I knew I wasn’t in the best shape of my life right now. I know I’m rusty!” said Duplantis.

“I’ve been missing competition for sure and even if it’s not what we are typically used to, it’s still fun to get back on the track.

Warholm smashes 300m hurdles world best in Oslo

Varner, Rose share lead in PGA return as Floyd remembered AFPWashington

Harold Varner III, among only three black golfers on the US PGA Tour, fi red a seven-under par

63 on Thursday to grab a share of the Charles Schwab Challenge lead as the tour paid tribute to George Floyd and ended a three-month coronavirus shutdown.

Floyd, whose killing by a po-lice offi cer touched off worldwide protests over racial and social in-justice, was remembered with a moment of silence hours before Varner matched Britain’s Justin Rose atop the leaderboard in the opening round at Colonial Coun-try Club. Asked if he felt he was playing for more than himself this week, Varner said, “I for sure think that.”

Varner, the 2016 Australian PGA Championship winner, spent the past few days at the centre of the PGA’s social injustice discus-sion in the wake of Floyd’s death.

But the issue was not on his mind as he and 147 others returned to competition after 91 days off due to the deadly virus outbreak.

“I didn’t think about that when I was on the golf course,” Var-ner said. “I was in the zone. I just wanted to play well. It was good to be back out there, trying to keep it as normal as possible.

“I know we’re still in a tight spot. I’ll handle it when I get done with work. The platform I have is through golf. I have to focus the most on what I’m doing and trying to play well.”

The 29-year-old American matched the second-best round of his career, one shot off a 62 in 2016 at Mayakoba. Varner made 29 putts and hit all 18 greens in regu-lation, fi ring a bogey-free round like Rose at Fort Worth, Texas.

“It goes to show you life is pre-cious,” Varner said. “You take eve-ry day as it comes.”

A moment of silence was ob-served at 8:46am for Floyd. The time represents the eight minutes and 46 seconds while a Minnesota policeman held a knee to the back of the handcuff ed black man.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan stood in silence at the fi rst tee while air horns halted play and practice across the course.

Rose, the 2013 US Open cham-pion, birdied seven of his fi rst 12 holes then closed with six pars as he and Varner seized a one-stroke edge over Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas, Mexico’s Abraham Ancer

and Americans Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. “Could have maybe gotten it into the clubhouse better than seven in the end, but honestly, great start,” Rose said of his bogey-free round. “Rode my luck a little bit on the back nine, my front nine, and that was the key to the day.”

No spectators were allowed at the event, where increased safety measures included social distanc-ing and temperature taking in the wake of the deadly disease out-break. “It’s eerie because there are no fans out there,” Thomas said.

World number one Rory McIl-roy, number two Jon Rahm and third-ranked Brooks Koepka played together. McIlroy and Koepka fi red 68s. Rahm, who could overtake McIlroy atop the rankings with a victory, shot 69.

“Uneventful,” McIlroy said. “It was one of those days.”

Varner opened with back-to-back birdies, sinking an 18-foot putt at the par-5 fi rst and tapping in for another at the second. He also sank a 15-footer for birdie at six and an 18-foot birdie putt at

nine. Varner’s longest birdie putt of the day was a 23-footer at 10. He followed with another from three feet at the 12th and closed his round with an 11-footer at 18.

HOT PUTTER FOR ROSE England’s Rose, who turns 40 next month, began on the back nine and holed out at 10 from 25 feet with a 3-wood after missing the green.

Rose, who won at Colonial in 2018, added a birdie from eight feet at the 12th and sank an 18-footer for birdie at the par-3 13th.

The reigning Olympic cham-pion struck again at the par-3 16th, holing a 12-foot birdie putt, and then ran off three birdies in a row to begin his second nine — a 13-footer at the par-4 third the longest.

“Didn’t play particularly well the fi rst six or seven holes but the putter was really hot,” Rose said.

A group two adrift on 65 includ-ed 61-year-old American Tom Le-hman, the 1996 British Open win-ner, who won the Colonial crown in 1995.

He’s the oldest player to shoot so low on tour in 40 years and the 65 was his lowest round since the 2011 Phoenix Open’s fi rst round.

South Korea’s Kang Sung made a hole-in-one at the par-3 13th.

SCORES 63 Harold Varner, Justin Rose (ENG)64 Jhonattan Vegas (VEN), Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Abra-ham Ancer (MEX)65 Adam Hadwin (CAN), Tom Lehman, Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Brian Harman, Gary Wood-land, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyler Duncan, Xander Schauff ele66 Vaughn Taylor, Adam Schenk, Ryan Moore, Cameron Champ, Ian Poulter (ENG), Corey Conners (CAN), Sepp Straka (AUT), Matt Jones (AUS), Im Sung-Jae (KOR), Branden Grace (RSA)67 Alexander Norén (SWE), An Byeong-Hun (KOR), Jim Furyk, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Kisner, Doc Redman, Matthew Wolff , Brice Garnett, Patrick Rodgers, Mark Hubbard, Keith Mitchell, Lucas Glover, Scott Piercy

FOCUS

ATHLETICS

‘I WAS IN THE ZONE. I JUST WANTED TO PLAY WELL. IT WAS GOOD TO BE BACK OUT THERE’

AFPSydney

Rugby Australia agreed yesterday to test new rules in its domestic Super

Rugby competition in a bid to liven up the game, includ-ing goal-line dropouts and a 10-minute golden point pe-riod if matches are tied.

Seven new laws will be tri-alled when the tournament featuring Super Rugby sides the Queensland Reds, NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels, plus Perth-based Western Force, kicks off on July 3.

Similar innovations will be used in New Zealand when its domestic tournament gets underway today after the original 15-team Super Rugby season across fi ve countries was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

RA director of rugby Scott Johnson said the changes fol-lowed talks with coaches and players on ways to deliver more entertaining games. Rugby union struggles for visibility in Australia, where rugby league and Aussie Rules dominate.

“We assembled some of the best minds in the game from a range of diff erent roles to look at adding some new attacking dimensions to the game while at the same time sticking to some key principles to pre-serve the fabric of the sport,”

Johnson said.One key change will see

dropouts taken from the try line instead of the 22-metre if the defending player touches the ball down inside the goal area.

There are also variations on the 50/22 and 22/50 laws.

Under the new-look rules, a kick taken from within the defending team’s 50m area that goes into touch with-in the opposition’s 22 after bouncing will earn a lineout for the kicking team.

Similarly, a kick taken in-side the 22 that travels into touch within the opposition’s 50 after bouncing will be re-warded with a lineout to the kicking team.

Other innovations will al-low red-carded players to be replaced after 20 minutes, and two fi ve-minute periods of ‘super time’ tacked on to the end of games if drawn, with the fi rst team to score points winning.

Referees will also crack down on policing the break-down, while limiting the number of scrum resets.

“Throughout the process we stuck to the principle that whatever we changed, the game still had to be rugby, and nothing could compromise the Wallabies’ preparation for Tests,” Johnson said.

“In fact, I believe the changes we have implement-ed will broaden and enhance the capabilities of our play-ers.”

New rules as rugby returns in Australia

SPOTLIGHT

Harold Varner III of the United States plays his shot from the ninth tee during the second round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, yesterday. (AFP)

Karsten Warholm of Norway competes in the 300m hurdles event during the Impossible Games 2020 at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo on Thursday. (AFP)

Springboks scrum-half Reinach signs for Montpellier

AFPParis

Livewire South African scrum-half Cobus Reinach, part of the Springboks squad

that won last year’s World Cup, has signed a three-year contract with Montpellier, the Top 14 club announced yes-terday.The 14-time capped Reinach, 30, joins Montpellier from English Premiership club Northampton and will team up at half-back with fellow Springbok Handre Pollard in

France.Fly-half Pollard touched down on the south coast af-ter the World Cup, which saw South Africa beat England 32-12 in the final.Reinach, who scored the fast-est World Cup hat-trick in his-tory as the Boks beat Canada 66-7 in Japan, will be battling for the starting number nine shirt with French interna-tional Benoit Paillaugue and Georgian Gela Aprasidze.Montpellier were in eighth place in the Top 14 when the championship was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Justin Rose reacts during the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Thursday . (AFP)

SPORT5Gulf Times

Saturday, June 13, 2020

Teenage hotshots break into Pakistan’s squad

CRICKET

AFPKarachi

Teenage cricketing sensations Haider Ali and Naseem Shah have been picked for Pakistan’s tour of England next month,

continuing the country’s tradition of throwing young players in at the deep end. Pakistan’s 29-member squad will begin the tour with at least a month of training in a ‘bio-secure’ environment, before the series of three Tests and three Twenty20 internationals gets cracking on August 5. Seventeen-year-old pacer Shah will be a star attraction, having become the youngest bowler ever to take a Test hat-trick in February after only debuting in Australia last year.

Haider’s inclusion, at the age of 19, will also spark excitement after he scored 107 runs in the Under-19 World Cup this year, followed by 218 runs in the Emerging Teams Cup in Bangla-desh. He also tallied 645 runs — includ-ing a century in the fi nal — in Pakistan’s premier domestic tournament Quaid-e-Azam Trophy last year.

Chief selector and head coach Mis-bah-ul-Haq said selection of the unu-sually large team was diffi cult. “The se-lectors have picked a squad which gives us the best chance of success in Eng-land. It was a challenging process as the players have not played for an extended period of time,” said Misbah.

Middle-order batsman Haris Sohail was the only player who pulled out of the tour due to coronavirus fears, while fast bowler Mohamed Amir — sentenced in a spot-fi xing case in UK in 2010 — with-drew to attend the birth of his second child in August. Amir was part of Paki-stan’s tours in 2016 and 2018 after com-pleting his fi ve year ban for spot-fi xing. Middle-order batsman Fawad Alam, a prolifi c scorer in domestic events but who has not been given a chance in a Test team since 2009, made the squad.

Wicket-keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed, sacked as captain and excluded from all three formats last year in a surprise move, will also tour England and has a chance to play in the Twenty20 series. Fast bowler Sohail Khan was recalled after playing his latest Test in December 2016. Spinners Bilal Asif and Mohamed

Nawaz, opener Imran Butt, fast bowler Musa Khan are named as reserves in case any of the players fail pre-tour coronavirus testing, which will be car-ried out on 20 and 25 June, said Misbah. Pakistan will play Tests in Manchester (August 5-9) and Southampton (Au-gust 13-17 and 21-25). The three Twen-

ty20 internationals will all be played in Southampton on August 28, 30 and September 1.

SQUAD: Azhar Ali (Test captain), Babar Azam (Twenty20 captain), Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam,

Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohamed Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohamed Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohamed Abbas, Mohamed Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan, Yasir Shah

Chief selector and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said selection of the unusually large team was diff icult

Arthur says Sri Lanka back at match level

S African cricket rift intensifi es as suspended CEO tries to return

Sammy says nickname controversy is opportunity to educate on racism

80% of venues secured for next year’s Games: Tokyo 2020 CEO

FOCUS

BOTTOMLINE

AFPColombo

Sri Lanka are raring to play international cricket again even though India have postponed a tour

planned for this month because of the coronavirus, coach Mick-ey Arthur said yesterday after his team completed a fi rst post lock-down training session.

The “return-to-play” pro-gramme begun at the start of this month had been a suc-cess, Arthur told reporters as he wrapped up the fi rst residential training for 13 players.

“We have done a lot of con-ditioning and every day we have upped their bowling,” Arthur said. “So they are almost ready in the next month, they will be ready to play cricket.”

The next training session is due in about a week even though Sri Lanka still have no idea when they will play again.

India, who were due to visit Sri Lanka this month for three one-day internationals and three T20 matches, have called off the tour because of the Covid-19 pan-demic.

Cricket on the island came to a halt on March 13 when Eng-land pulled out during a prac-tice match ahead of a two-Test series.

Arthur, the former Pakistan caoch, had customised home-training regimes for many play-ers in the national team after the lockdown was imposed on March 20.

A 24-hour curfew in Colombo was eased on May 27, but a night curfew is still in force. Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne said get-ting back to training after idling during the 24-hour curfew in the capital was not easy.

“Even when we are training in the fi rst day it was really hard, but now I am shaping and I am getting my fi tness back,” Karu-naratne said. “We are trying to bounce back and play good in-ternational cricket.”

AFPJohannesburg

The power struggle at the top of South Afri-can cricket escalated as Thabang Moroe said he

was back in charge, but his board responded yesterday by saying the chief executive was still sus-pended. Moroe attempted to re-turn to work on Thursday, saying that a six-month suspension on full pay had expired.

He was initially thwarted because the offi ces of Cricket South Africa (CSA) were in lock-down because of Covid-19, with staff working from home. CSA responded with a statement in the early hours of Friday saying the suspension remained in force until the completion of a foren-sic investigation into allegations of misconduct. It promised that more “clarity and certainty will be provided by the end of June”.

While Moroe has been sus-pended, major changes have taken place in the CSA adminis-tration under acting chief exec-utive Jacques Faul, with former Test captain Graeme Smith ap-pointed as director of cricket and former Test wicketkeeper Mark Boucher as head coach, under an arrangement that largely side-lines the board.

CSA has faced heavy criti-cism with sponsors and former administrators calling for the resignation of the board or, al-ternatively, for president Chris Nenzani and vice-president Be-resford Williams to step aside.

Nenzani was granted an extra year at the helm last September despite having served the maxi-mum two three-year terms per-mitted by the CSA constitution.

The extension was ostensi-bly to oversee a radical change in administration in which Mo-roe as chief executive was given wide-ranging powers, notably in the running of the national team. Under Moroe, there was a break-down in relations with the SA Cricketers’ Association, which represents the country’s players.

ReutersTokyo

Tokyo 2020 organisers announced yesterday that 80% of the venues required to run a successful Ol-ympics have been secured ahead of

next year’s rearranged Games. In the original plan for the Olympics,

which were due to start next month, there were 43 venues, including eight new sites built for the Games. The National Sta-dium, set to host the Opening and Clos-ing Ceremonies, is one of the venues that has been successfully secured for 2021. In March, the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee made the unprecedented decision to postpone the Tokyo Olympics until 2021 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then, organisers have battled against an array of problems stemming

from the postponement, including rising costs, athlete safety and securing the ven-ues. yesterday, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto announced that the majority of ven-ues had been secured.

“We are hoping to use the same venues for the same sports next year,” he said.

“Adjustments still remain, but we are able to use 80% of the facilities that were origi-nally supposed to be used last year, they can be used again.”

Muto added that the Athlete’s Village and Tokyo Big Sight, the planned media centre, were among the venues yet to be fully secured. “Regarding Tokyo Big Sight, to be used as the IPC (International Press Centre) and MPC (Main Press Centre), it is also Tokyo-owned but many reservations have already been made by other users for next year,” he explained. “Therefore, we are working together with the Tokyo Met-ropolitan Government (TMG) in coordi-nating the schedule.” The Athlete’s Village promises to be the most complicated venue to lock down as many of the apartments in the newly-built complex have already been sold to private buyers for use after the Games. TMG are negotiating with the 11 construction companies involved in the village’s build and sale.

ReutersNew Delhi

Former West Indies captain Daren Sammy says he has accepted a former teammate’s explanation of a potentially racist nickname

he was given at the Sunrisers Hyderabad and hopes the issue can be used to educate players about racism. Earlier this week, the 36-year-old sought clarifi cation from his former team mates over the nickname used for him when he was part of the Indian Premier League franchise from 2013-14.

Sammy said he did not know the mean-ing of a Hindi word that some unnamed Sunrisers teammates would call him and only became aware of its racial connota-tions after watching a TV show that dis-cussed the issue. “I’m please(d) to say that I’ve had a really interesting conversation with one of the guys and we are looking at ways to educate rather than focusing on the negatives,” Sammy tweeted. “My brother reassured me that he operated from a place of love and I believe him.”

Separately in a video, Sammy advocated awareness to fi ght racism. “It’s a great op-

portunity to educate people about certain things that have been said or done, that even though you don’t mean it in any way to be degrading to someone else, but the fact that it can be perceived to (be) that or it could mean that.”

ENGLAND MAY JOIN WINDIES IN POTENTIAL BLM PROTEST: ANDERSON

England will consider a joint anti-rac-ism protest with West Indies during the three-Test series between the sides next month, pace bowler James Anderson has said. Visiting West Indies skipper Jason Holder has said it would be a team deci-sion for them whether to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis last month after

a white police offi cer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

“It’s been a very thought-provoking few weeks for everyone,” Anderson told the British media on Thursday. “It’s made me do a lot of thinking. We will have conver-sations about what we can do as players to make a stand, defi nitely. I expect that to be a conversation we have.”

The International Cricket Council usu-ally does not allow gestures supporting “political, religious or racial activities” but has decided to take a “common sense ap-proach” for any potential Black Lives Mat-ter (BLM) protest by the players.

Earlier this week, former England bats-man Michael Carberry said cricket was “rife with racism”. Anderson, Test cricket’s most successful pace bowler, said he could not remember experiencing racism but felt players could help tackle the issue.

“I wasn’t in New Zealand when (team-mate) Jofra Archer was racially abused. But it made me think...’Have I turned a blind eye to things?’ We need to actively make this game for everyone,” Anderson said. “Is there more I can do as a player to help the situation? Can I be more active? As players and a game we need to be more active.”

SPOTLIGHT

OLYMPICS

New Delhi: The Indian Premier League could be moved out of the country if the coronavirus pandemic does not ease in the next two months, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said yesterday. “Let us first see, we will try to stage it in India and if the situa-tion does not allow then we will certainly look at other options,” Patel said.

“We will see how the situa-tion is in the next month or two and then take a call accord-ingly,” said Patel, adding that options included staging the cash-rich tournament abroad. Pandemic cases have surged in the nation of 1.3bn people. India now has the fourth highest caseload in the world, concentrated in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai which are cricket hubs. The world’s wealthiest Twenty20 tournament has twice been held outside India in years that it clashed with national elections.

South Africa hosted the sec-ond IPL in 2009, and the first half of the 2014 season took place in United Arab Emirates. The UAE and Sri Lankan cricket boards have already shown interest in hosting the tourna-ment this year.

Patel said the IPL is still looking at a window ahead of the T20 World Cup in Aus-tralia, which is scheduled for October-November. But the In-ternational Cricket Council has deferred taking a decision on the fate of the T20 showpiece event because of pandemic worries. “We are looking at a September-October window for the IPL, but it depends on the other tournaments as well,” said Patel, who played 21 Tests for India, said. “Nothing certain at the moment, but we are keeping our plans in place to make the IPL happen.”

The IPL is usually a seven-week tournament, although BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said he expects it to be shortened this year. The Asia Cup, which will be a T20 event, is also scheduled to be held in September with UAE and Sri Lanka as possible hosts.

The IPL should have started on March 29 but it has been

repeatedly postponed because of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown which is only gradu-ally being eased. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been working on contingency plans to save the event, although these have had to remain fluid as the situation evolves.

Ganguly said this week that the board wanted to hold tour-nament this year even it means playing in empty stadiums. BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal said the board would suff er losses of more than 500mn dol-lars if the IPL is scrapped. The league is a huge revenue-earn-er for the BCCI, and is estimated to generate more than $11bn for the Indian economy.

INDIA CANCEL ZIMBABWE TOUR

India called off their cricket tour of Zimbabwe over the coro-navirus yesterday, a day after their upcoming trip to Sri Lanka was also cancelled. The Board of Control for Cricket in India added that it would not “rush into any decision” about resum-ing training camps for India’s players. After Sri Lanka’s board revealed on Thursday that this month’s visit by India was off , the tour of Zimbabwe in August had also looked in jeopardy. India had been due to travel to Sri Lanka on June 24 for three ODIs and three Twenty20s, and then launch a three-ODI Zimba-bwe tour on August 22.

India’s next trip is a ma-jor, money-spinning tour of Australia for three ODIs, four Tests and three T20s starting in October.

Although India’s government has allowed stadiums to reopen during the national coronavirus lockdown, the BCCI said it was not about to resume training. “The BCCI will conduct a camp for its contracted players only when it is completely safe to train outdoors,” said BCCI.

“The BCCI is determined to take steps towards the resumption of international and domestic cricket, but it will not rush into any decision that will jeopardize the eff orts put in by the central and state govern-ments.”

Coronavirus may force IPL out of India, chairman says

In February this year, Pakistan teenager Naseem Shah (centre) created a world record, when he took a hat-trick against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi, becoming the youngest bowler to take a hat-trick in Test cricket at the age of 16 years and 359 days. (AFP)

Yoshiro Mori, President of the Tokyo 2020 Games Organising Committee, attends an Executive Board Meeting. (Reuters)

Saturday, June 13, 2020

GULF TIMES SPORT

F1 cancels Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan races

Unbeaten Abdulla cruises into next round of QORC

Thiem, Zverev and Dimitrov join Djokovic in US Open doubts

SPOTLIGHT

ESPORTS

TENNIS

AFPBelgrade

Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dim-itrov yesterday joined world number one Novak Djoko-

vic in expressing their reluctance over playing at the US Open under current conditions while the coronavirus pan-demic is still active.

“All of these circumstances are pretty tough,” world number three Thiem told a press conference in Belgrade. “So I think some circumstances will have to change (for it to) make sense to go there,” the 26-year-old Austrian said.

Germany’s Zverev, the world number seven, echoed that view. “It’s great if we get the opportunity to play, but under these circumstances I don’t think a lot of players will feel comfortable in the environment there,” he said. “So that’s my opinion. But it’s not really up to us players in that way, in a way the US Open decides.”

Like Djokovic recently, Zverev cited notably the obligatory 14-day quar-antine for players arriving in the US, housing in airport hotels near the tour-nament and not allowing them to be accompanied by more then one mem-ber of the team. Thiem stressed that a “Grand Slam can be pretty demanding physically and you’ll have to choose your coach or your physio”.

But both Thiem and Bulgaria’s Dim-itrov said they would wait until a deci-sion on the US Open — widely expected to be announced on Monday — before taking a fi nal position. “Well nobody knows, maybe things improve, maybe not, so we’ll have to wait until the facts are out and then decide,” Thiem said when asked whether he will participate

at the tournament.The US Open main draw is due to get

underway in New York on August 31. The three players arrived in Belgrade for a charity tournament hosted by Djoko-vic, which kicks off today. The Adria Tour will be held until July 5 in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia.

Djokovic, also the ATP players’ coun-cil president, suggested on Wednesday that his season might resume on clay ahead of the French Open rather than

at the US Open as he repeated concerns about playing in North America.

The Serbian, a three-time champion in New York, stressed that US Open organisers had to relax their “extreme conditions” or players would wait for the European tournaments. Last week world number two, and reigning US Open champion, Rafael Nadal ex-pressed similar reservations.

Women’s world number one Ashleigh Barty has also voiced caution about

resuming tennis too soon, saying she needed more information before com-mitting to the tournament. The tennis season has been on hold since mid-March because of the pandemic, with Roland Garros pushed back to Septem-ber-October and Wimbledon cancelled.

Meanwhile, former US Open semi-fi nalist Richard Gasquet of France said he was also struggling to see how this year’s tournament could be played. “I fi nd it hard to see for the US Open, eve-

rything is unclear. Nobody knows, it’s diffi cult to imagine the US Open being held,” Gasquet said ahead of the start of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, taking place close to Nice.

The ATP held a video conference with players on Wednesday to discuss tenta-tive plans for the second half of a season that has been suspended until at least the end of July. “Nothing came out of it,” said Gasquet, who reached the last four at Flushing Meadows in 2013.

‘Under these circumstances I don’t think a lot of players will feel comfortable in the environment there’

ReutersLondon

Azerbaijan, Singapore and Ja-pan joined the list of Formula One Grands Prix cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic

yesterday but organisers said they were still aiming for a reduced season of 15-18 races.

The sport had already cancelled four races, including the showcase Monaco Grand Prix in May, with a revised and shortened provisional European sched-ule set to start in Austria without spec-

tators on July 5.“As a result of the ongoing challenges

presented by Covid-19, we and our pro-moters in Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan have taken the decision to cancel their races for the 2020 season,” Formula One said in a statement.

The announcement, widely expected, blew a hole in the long-haul part of the season, with questions about the sched-ule after Italy’s Monza on Sept. 6.

Races in Canada, Mexico, Texas and Brazil are uncertain due to the pandemic while Vietnam, also a street circuit, and China remain possibilities and Russia could host two races at Sochi.

The championship is due to end in Abu Dhabi in December after visiting Bah-rain, which could host two races around diff erent layouts. Singapore and Az-erbaijan GP organisers said the long lead times needed to build street circuits had made hosting impossible.

Singapore has nearly 39,000 Covid-19 cases, one of the highest tallies in Asia due to mass outbreaks in cramped mi-grant worker dormitories in the city-state. The race in Baku had already been postponed from June and organisers said they had “explored every possibility” but run out of time.

Travel restrictions in Japan led to the

cancellation of the race at Suzuka on Oct. 11. The sport indicated some circuits not on the current calendar could now fea-ture instead. “We have made signifi cant progress with existing and new promot-ers on the revised calendar and have been particularly encouraged by the interest that has been shown by new venues,” the F1 statement said.

A second race in Italy has been mooted for Mugello or Imola, once home of the San Marino Grand Prix, while Germany’s Hockenheim and Portugal’s Algarve cir-cuit are other possibilities. Formula One said it expected to publish a fi nal calen-dar before travelling to Austria.

By Sports ReporterDoha

Adel Abdulla completed a clean sweep winning 22 stag-es, including seven in the fi nal qualifying round on Thurs-

day, to storm into the next round of the Qatar Online Racing Championship (QORC) for rally cars

The former FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies T2 champion topped Group A with maximum 120 points. In the third qualifying round, set at the simulated gravel track in Ar-gentina, Abdulla continued to display his skills in the PlayStation console.

Misfer al-Hajri fi nished runner-up in the Group A with 100 points, fol-lowed by Patrick Roux with 97 points. Al-Hajri and Roux joined Abdulla in the next stage, with the top three from the group qualifying.

Mansour Dbeissy also continued to impress as he claimed the Group B hon-ours. On Thursday, he won all the stag-es and fi nished with 116 points. QORC cars champion Ahmed al-Kholy came second in the group with 109 points, while Nasser al-Kuwari was third with 95 points.

In Group C, Zakariya Alofi of Oman too won all the stages and fi nish on top with 116 points. Hamad al-Sulaiti was second (109), followed by Ahmed al-

Kuwari (99).Group D too was topped by an Omani

racer, with Ammar Balushi tallying 120 points. Khalid al-Maraghi (108) and Mishari al-Thefi ri of Kuwait (97) joined Balushi into the next week’s races.

The fi nal week of races will begin to-morrow at the simulated Gravel Terrain set in Chile. Tuesday’s race will be held in Spain’s Asphalt and Gravel Terrain, while Germany’s Asphalt Terrain will be the virtual venue for Thursday’s race. Three leading drivers from each group will then qualify for fi nal race, which is scheduled for either Friday or Saturday. The winners will receive QR15,000 in

prize money. The runner-up will take home QR13,000, while third-placed competitor will get QR10,000.

THIRD ROUND RESULTS

GROUP A: 1. Adel Abdulla; 2. Mohamed al-Thefiri (Kuwait); 3. Patrick Roux

GROUP B: 1. Mansour Dbeissy;

2. Mohamed al-Atiyah; 3. Ahmed al-Kholy

GROUP C: 1. Zakariya al-Ofi (Oman); 2. Ahmed al-Kuwari; 3. Hamad al-Sulaiti

GROUP D: 1. Ammar Balush (Oman); 2. Khalid al-Maraghi; 3. Mishari al-Thefiri (Kuwait)

STANDINGS

GROUP A: 1. Adel Abdulla 120 points; 2. Misfer al-Hajri 100; 3. Patrick Roux 97

GROUP B: 1. Mansour Dbeissy 116 points; 2. Ahmed al-Kholy 109; 3. Nasser al-Kuwari 95

GROUP C: 1. Zakariya al-Ofi (Oman) 116

points; 2. Hamad al-Sulaiti 109; 3. Ahmed al-Kuwari 99

GROUP D: 1. Ammar Balush (Oman) 120 points; 2. Khalid al-Maraghi 108; 3. Mishari al-Thefiri (Kuwait) 97

SECOND WEEK RACE’S GROUPS

GROUP A: 1. Zakaria al-Ofi, 2 Mansour

Dbeissy, 3. Misfer al-Hajri, 4. Khalid al-Maraghi, 5. Ahmed al-Kuwari, 6. Patrick Roux

GROUP B: 1. Adel Abdulla, 2 Ammar al-Bulushi, 3 Ahmed al-Kholy, 4 Hamad al-Sulaiti, 5 Mishari al-Thefairi, 6. Nasser al-Kuwari

The final week of races will begin tomorrow at the simulated Gravel Terrain set in Chile.

Germany’s Alexander Zverev (from left), Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Austria’a Dominic Thiem pose for a selfie before a press conference for the Adria Tour at the Novak Tennis Centre in Belgrade, Serbia, yesterday. (Reuters)

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel celebrates after winning the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on September 22, 2019. (Reuters)

Djokovic relishing fan infl ux at charity tournament

FOCUS

ReutersBelgrade

World number one Novak Djokovic is looking forward to returning to ac-

tion in front of fans at the Serb’s charity tennis tournament in Belgrade this weekend. The fi rst leg of Djokovic’s Adria Tour is being held at his tennis complex by the Danube River, with Ger-many’s Alexander Zverev, Aus-trian Dominic Thiem and Bul-garian Grigor Dimitrov arriving for the event.

Fans will be able to attend de-spite the Covid-19 pandemic af-ter the government lifted its ban on outdoor public gatherings.

“We have diff erent circum-stances and measures (to other countries) so it’s very diffi cult to think of international stand-ards (regarding the pandemic),” Djokovic told a news conference yesterday.

“We have had better numbers compared to some other coun-tries. Of course, lives have been lost and that’s horrible to see, in the region and worldwide. But life goes on and we as athletes are looking forward to compet-ing. You can also criticise us and say this is maybe dangerous but it’s not up to me to make the calls what is right or wrong health-wise. We are doing what the Ser-bian government is telling us and hopefully we soon will get back on tour collectively.”

Serbia, with 12,175 registered Covid-19 cases and 252 deaths, has lifted the ban on outdoor public gatherings.

Some 25,000 fans turned up at Belgrade’s football derby on Wednesday.

Several thousand fans are ex-pected to throng the makeshift stands at Djokovic’s complex over the weekend and Thiem said he was delighted to be part of the event.

“It’s amazing that we will play in front of a crowd again and get that atmosphere back so I really can’t wait for tomorrow and get back on court,” he said.