HARARE: World champion India will usher in a new era as it takes on Zimbabwe in a five-match Twenty20 series starting Saturday at the Harare Sports Club.
Shubman Gill will lead India for the first time, with senior players rested in the aftermath of joyous celebrations of winning the T20 World Cup.
The 24-year-old batter, who led the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League, returns to India’s T20 eleven along with middle order bat Rinku Singh. The duo had missed out on the World Cup, but traveled to the West Indies and United States as reserve players.
“I learnt a lot when I captained in the IPL for the first time. It allowed me to learn about myself as a player and as a leader,” Gill said. “Captaincy is about mental challenges and how you prepare yourself as well as your teammates, because everyone has the desired skill set. It is about giving them enough confidence to deliver on the field.”
Star batting duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirements from international T20 after lifting the World Cup trophy in Barbados on June 29.
Ravindra Jadeja also announced his international retirement from the format, with world’s No. 1 all-rounder Hardik Pandya, No. 1 batter Suryakumar Yadav and No. 1 fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah all gaining a well-earned rest.
Amid retirements and rested senior players, it is a huge opportunity for youngsters who will be eager to make the step-up to international cricket.
India’s young squad consists of many budding superstars who have had an enriching experience in the IPL, including Abhishek Sharma, Riyan Parag and Tushar Deshpande.
Sharma lit up the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 484 runs in 16 matches at strike-rate 204.22, while Parag scored 573 runs for Rajasthan Royals. Both are expected to start the series and gain their T20 debuts.
Among others expected to gain valuable T20 opportunities are prolific batter Ruturaj Gaikwad (skipper of Chennai Super Kings) as also spin all-rounder Washington Sundar and medium pacer Tushar Deshpande, who picked up 38 IPL wickets for Chennai in the past two seasons.
Sharma is set to open the innings with Gill in the first T20, with Gaikwad slotting in at number three.
“This is a very inexperienced side as compared to the one that won the T20 World Cup,” Gill said. “Our aim is to give opportunities to as many players as possible — some have little international experience, while others are yet to make their debuts.
“We know Zimbabwe will come hard at us, like with other teams in this format,” he added.
Keeper-batter Sanju Samson and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal were the only ones from the World Cup squad to be picked for this series. Batting all-rounder Shivam Dube was later included in place of 21-year-old all-rounder Nitish Reddy as the latter picked up an injury.
The trio, however, will not be available for the first two matches as the Indian team left Barbados late owing to a hurricane and only arrived in India on Thursday, sparking huge celebrations across the country. Instead, batters Sai Sudharsan and Jitesh Sharma as well as pacer Harshit Rana were added to India’s squad for the first two T20s.
Zimbabwe announced a 17-man squad for the series led by Sikandar Raza. Senior players Craig Ervine and Sean Williams were not considered for selection, while 25-year-old Antum Naqvi is included subject to him gaining Zimbabwe citizenship.
This is Zimbabwe’s third high-profile T20 series in 2024 having played against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh earlier.
India and Zimbabwe last faced each other in the 2022 T20 World Cup at Melbourne — the Men in Blue won by 71 runs.
Their previous bilateral engagement was in 2016 when India had toured for a three-match series. Overall, the two sides have played eight T20s, with India winning six matches.
Zimbabwe beat India 2-0 at home in their maiden T20 engagement back in 2010.
New T20 era for world champion India as it visits Zimbabwe for five-match series
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New T20 era for world champion India as it visits Zimbabwe for five-match series
- Shubman Gill will lead India for the first time, with senior players rested after T20 World Cup
- The 24-year-old batter returns to India’s T20 eleven along with middle order batter Rinku Singh
US coach Berhalter fired after Copa flop: official
LOS ANGELES: United States coach Gregg Berhalter has been fired following his team’s disastrous first-round exit at the Copa America, the United States Soccer Federation announced on Wednesday.
The USSF said in a statement that the 50-year-old former US international, who was only brought back to manage the team last year, had been relieved of his duties “effective immediately.”
“We are deeply grateful to Gregg for his commitment the past five years to the Men’s National Team and to US Soccer,” said US Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker.
“Gregg has earned the respect of everyone within our organization and has played a pivotal role in bringing together a young team and moving the program forward.
“We wish Gregg all the best in his future endeavours, and we know he will find success in his next coaching position.”
Berhalter’s dismissal comes after his team were eliminated from the Copa America in the group stage after defeats to Panama and Uruguay following an opening win over Bolivia.
That early exit — the first time in history a Copa America host nation has been knocked out in the first round — triggered widespread calls from former players, pundits and fans for Berhalter to be dismissed.
The sacking comes just two years before the United States co-hosts the World Cup with Canada and Mexico in 2026, a tournament which is viewed in the US as a golden opportunity to widen soccer’s appeal.
Crocker said the search for Berhalter’s replacement was already under way.
“Our immediate focus is on finding a coach who can maximize our potential as we continue to prepare for the 2026 World Cup, and we have already begun our search process,” Crocker said.
Berhalter had faced relentless skepticism since he was first appointed as US coach six years ago in the wake of the team’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Although he enjoyed respectable results in regional competitions — winning the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League in 2021 before adding the Gold Cup in the same year — his results against top tier nations remained poor.
He helped the team qualify for the 2022 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the knockout rounds by the Netherlands after emerging from a first phase group that included England, Wales and Iran.
However his future as US coach was plunged into uncertainty in the wake of the Qatar World Cup, when an ugly feud with the family of midfielder Gio Reyna exploded into public view.
Berhalter’s contract, which expired in December 2022, was not automatically renewed.
The United States Soccer Federation meanwhile conducted an investigation into a 1992 allegation of domestic violence by Berhalter against his then girlfriend, now wife.
He was subsequently cleared and then, following a much-touted global search for coaching candidates, reappointed to his old job in June 2023.
That decision was widely viewed as unimaginative and underwhelming by swathes of US fans, who have consistently demanded Berhalter be replaced.
The pressure on the US coach was amplified by the team’s failure to mount a serious challenge at the Copa America, while at the same time, another American coach, Jesse Marsch, took Canada to the semifinals.
Berhalter meanwhile had insisted he was the right man to lead the US at the 2026 World Cup following last week’s Copa demise while admitting performances at the tournament had not been good enough.
“I think collectively the staff, the players, the sporting department, we need to look at where do we improve? How do we do better?” Berhalter said.
“It’s not the aspirations that we have as a group. We know it’s a talented team with big potential and we didn’t show it in this tournament.”
Super-sub Watkins sends England past Netherlands and into Euro 2024 final
- It was an incredible finish to an evening that began badly for England, as Xavi Simons gave the Netherlands an early lead in the semifinal in Dortmund
DORTMUND, Germany: Ollie Watkins struck a stunning injury-time winner as England beat the Netherlands 2-1 on Wednesday to set up a Euro 2024 final showdown with Spain in Berlin.
It was an incredible finish to an evening that began badly for England, as Xavi Simons gave the Netherlands an early lead in the semifinal in Dortmund.
However, England were soon level through a Harry Kane penalty following a contentions VAR call by German referee Felix Zwayer, and the match looked set to drift toward extra time until Watkins struck.
On for Harry Kane, Watkins received a pass from fellow substitute Cole Palmer with his back to goal in the first minute of stoppage time, turned and fired low into the far corner to leave the Netherlands completely stunned.
It has rarely been a convincing campaign from Gareth Southgate’s England side, but they are through to their second consecutive European Championship final as they dream of finally winning a first major trophy since 1966.
To do that they will surely have to perform better than at any point so far in Germany as they face an outstanding Spain team.
Spain will also have had an extra 24 hours to prepare for the final, having defeated France 2-1 on Tuesday.
The Netherlands had been hoping to repeat their triumph at the last Euros held in Germany, in 1988, but their current side lacks anyone with the star quality of Marco van Basten or Ruud Gullit.
A victory for them would have seen this Euros conclude with the same final as the 2010 World Cup. Instead they now go home.
England had got to this stage despite not winning any of their last four matches in 90 minutes, and having been taken to extra time by Slovakia and Switzerland.
That might have given the Dutch an edge physically, after the Oranje shrugged off finishing third in their group to brush aside Romania and then see off Turkiye.
England welcomed back Marc Guehi in defense after suspension, while Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman opted to start Donyell Malen in attack in the ground where he plays club football for Borussia Dortmund.
The Westfalenstadion is a special place for the Dutch, as the scene of their 2-0 win over Brazil that took them through to the 1974 World Cup final.
They went ahead here after just seven minutes thanks to a stunning goal by Simons, who robbed Declan Rice 35 meters from goal and advanced before sending a rasping drive beyond Jordan Pickford.
The Dutch players ran off to celebrate with their fans behind that goal, as England found themselves behind for the third game running.
Just like against the Swiss in the quarter-finals, however, they reacted swiftly.
Kane forced a save from Bart Verbruggen and moments later sent a volley over the bar, and was caught by Denzel Dumfries on the follow-through.
It seemed totally innocuous but Zwayer was summoned across to review the images and gave a penalty.
Kane, whose missed spot-kick against France cost England dear in the 2022 World Cup, made no mistake, slotting low into the bottom-left corner.
It settled into an open and entertaining game, with Dumfries redeeming himself by clearing off the line from Phil Foden.
Dumfries crashed a header off the bar from a Simons corner, but Foden responded by curling a superb shot from range off the top of the post.
England’s midfielders were being given too much time on the ball, and Koeman used an injury to Memphis Depay to reinforce the center, replacing the forward with Joey Veerman.
Another change followed at the interval, with Wout Weghorst — super-sub in previous rounds — replacing Malen.
Yet the game became more cagey as the minutes went on and the fear of making a mistake grew.
Pickford denied Virgil van Dijk on 65 minutes and the Netherlands began to take control as England’s leading players started to tire.
England did have the ball in the net on 79 minutes when Bukayo Saka turned in a Kyle Walker cutback, but the latter was just offside and the flag cut short the celebrations.
Southgate then decided to remove Kane and Foden, with Watkins and Palmer entering the fray to devastating effect.
Injuries are adding up at Wimbledon and determining the outcomes of matches
- Taylor Fritz’s fourth-round opponent, Alexander Zverev, slipped on an unworn patch of green grass in his previous match
- “It’s unfortunate, obviously,” de Minaur said. “You never want to see this”
LONDON: There's no single explanation, of course, for all of the injuries to players in the latter stages at Wimbledon this year. This much is certain: The timing could hardly be worse.
The man Novak Djokovic was supposed to face on Wednesday, Alex de Minaur, withdrew hours before their scheduled quarterfinal because he jarred his hip at the end of a victory two days earlier.
“I'm devastated,” de Minaur said. “The problem with me going out and playing is that one stretch, one slide, one anything, can make this injury (recovery) go from three to six weeks to four months. It’s too much to risk.”
Taylor Fritz’s fourth-round opponent, Alexander Zverev, slipped on an unworn patch of green grass in his previous match. That caused a bone bruise — and maybe worse — that Zverev complained left him on “one leg” in his loss to the American at what the two-time major finalist characterized as a wide open opportunity to grab a first Grand Slam title.
Danielle Collins' last Wimbledon appearance before retirement ended with tape wrapped around her hamstring, the work of a trainer during the American’s fourth-round loss to 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova. Collins chalked it up to failing to “think about every little step that you take.”
“There's been a ton of injuries on the grass. Left and right, it seems like people are going down. I am, I guess, frustrated that I feel like I was focusing on my tactics and kind of what I needed to do to play at a high level. Usually, I feel like, on other surfaces you’re not having to think so critically about your movement,” Collins said. “The one second I take my mind off of it, not think about every little thing I’m doing with my footwork, it ends up happening.”
The falls keep happening. The injuries are adding up.
“It’s unfortunate, obviously,” de Minaur said. “You never want to see this.”
He called his mishap “more of a freak injury,” related to the “excessive amount of force” used to slide on grass.
Madison Keys, the 2017 U.S. Open runner-up, was in tears when she stopped because of a hurt leg at 5-all in the third set of a Week 2 match against Jasmine Paolini, who reached Thursday's semifinals.
Emma Raducanu, who won the U.S. Open three years ago, withdrew from mixed doubles — which was supposed to be Andy Murray's last event at Wimbledon — because of a sore wrist, then needed a medical timeout later that day after falling in the third set of a singles loss.
No. 17 Anna Kalinskaya cited a bad wrist when she quit in her fourth-round match against 2022 champion Elena Rybakina. No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov retired from his fourth-round match against Daniil Medvedev with a leg problem.
“It’s normal for the second week at Wimbledon to be feeling niggling things on your muscles, because it’s tough — the grass, getting down low, coming into the net. It's more on the muscles than the joints on the grass," 2003 Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis said. "So I’m sure lots of people will be feeling it now with little things here and there.”
Count Djokovic among those who think part of the issue is that all of the rain during the tournament — so much that the mixed doubles final was shifted from Thursday to Sunday, and play began a half-hour earlier than usual on most courts Wednesday — has made the grass more slick and the footing less sure.
So has shutting the retractable roofs at Centre Court and No. 1 Court, the only two arenas with that luxury during wet weather.
“Once you close the roof, you know that the grass is going to be more slippery. So there’s more chances that players will fall. Unfortunately, some of the falls have caused some of the players to withdraw,” Djokovic said.
“It's part of this surface. You can’t really change that," added the seven-time champion at the All England Club. "I mean, it’s grass. It’s a live surface, and it reacts to different conditions.”
The pattern began at grass tourneys that preceded Wimbledon.
Marketa Vondrousova retired from a match in Berlin after hurting her right leg there. When she showed up at Wimbledon, she became the first defending champion in 30 years to lose in the first round and acknowledged: "I was a bit scared because of my leg.”
The woman who beat her last week, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, stopped at Wimbledon because of a back issue in the third round against Krejcikova.
Frances Tiafoe pulled out of the Queen's Club tournament before Wimbledon after spraining a ligament in his right knee when he took a tumble. Tiafoe played at the All England Club with a black sleeve over his knee and made it to the third round before losing to defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic tore the meniscus in his right knee during a match at the French Open, had surgery and returned to competition less than a month later. Ironically, he thinks it's possible that might have helped him stay upright this fortnight.
That's because, years ago, Djokovic was one of the first players to regularly slide on grass the way they do on clay. He has cut down on those movements this time at Wimbledon, being extra careful to avoid risking falls.
“It’s probably part of my, I guess, different kind of movement on the court that I’ve been really experimenting with because of the cautiousness — because of the knee and everything that was happening prior to the tournament,” Djokovic explained. “The first couple rounds, I was still not maybe willing to go (for difficult) balls and slide and make splits.”
Other theories include: More and more baseline play on grass, and less serving-and-volleying, creates longer points and extra running, which translate into a greater likelihood of slips; less comfort on grass because players tend to grow up practicing and competing on clay or hard courts; and a brief grass portion of the schedule that doesn't allow for accumulating a lot of experience on the turf.
Then there's the general wear-and-tear of a season.
“Listen, tennis is a very physical sport at the moment. For sure, the rallies are longer. Matches. Scheduling. Finishing late,” 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis said. “It’s very demanding on the body. ... A lot of things are changing that (contribute) to players getting injured.”
NEOM renews partnership with Asian Football Confederation to 2029
RIYADH: Collaboration between Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion giga-project NEOM and the Asian Football Confederation will run until 2029 after a partnership deal between the two was renewed.
Under the terms of the arrangement, NEOM will continue to serve as the official global partner of the AFC national team and club competitions and be the presenting partner of the first pan-Asian AFC Women’s Champions League.
The agreement aims to promote inclusivity in sports and support the development of women’s football across Asia, a press release stated.
The two parties first signed a four-year partnership in 2021, which encompassed major AFC national team competitions, including the 2022 World Cup and AFC Asian Qualifiers featuring the continent’s top 12 football nations, as well as Asia’s flagship national team competition, the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.
“NEOM’s partnership with the Asian Football Confederation provides us with a valuable platform to collaborate with a global football leader, creating opportunities and positively contributing to the development of sport across Asia,” Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of NEOM, said.
“Sport is a key component of Saudi Vision 2030’s ambition to develop a healthy society with strong social bonds and the extension of our partnership with the AFC supports NEOM’s aspirations to become an innovative hub for sport and its goal to have one of the most physically active societies globally,” he added.
The release further stated that the partnership aims to reinforce NEOM’s presence in Asian football, marked by AFC’s revamped club tournaments.
The newly introduced AFC Champions League Elite Finals will see NEOM as the Official Global Presenting Partner of the eight final matches being played in Riyadh in 2025.
NEOM will also be the Presenting Partner of the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League, promoting the top 12 women’s clubs from across Asia.
This agreement builds on the foundations laid over the past four years as Saudi Arabia prepares to host prestigious football competitions such as the AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027.
The partnership between NEOM and the AFC has led to the creation of “Champions of Progress,” an initiative designed to use the global platform of football to drive positive change across the region. This undertaking will focus on activations and developing the next generation of talent across AFC competitions.
“This partnership renewal further reinforces the appeal of the AFC’s competitions to engage with the millions of passionate fans of Asian football and we look forward to creating more historic moments with NEOM to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes,” the AFC General Secretary, Datuk Seri Windsor John said.
The collaboration with the AFC is expected to significantly contribute to the livability of NEOM’s residents and the project’s dynamic economy, the release added.
NEOM further stated that it aims to become one of the world’s most physically active societies, with its residents engaging with AFC events and enabling a grassroots development program targeted at youth across Saudi Arabia.
The partnership has already supported NEOM’s initiatives, such as the Shuhub Community Program, which has engaged 10,000 young people around the Kingdom to date.
Through this collaboration, NEOM has provided local boys and girls from football community groups with opportunities to participate in AFC matches as player mascots, center circle children, and the first-ever trophy handover children at the AFC Champions League 23/24 Final.
Novak Djokovic moves into Wimbledon semifinals after Alex de Minaur withdraws
- Novak Djokovic will face Taylor Fritz or Lorenzo Musetti on Friday for a berth in the final
LONDON: Novak Djokovic got a free pass into the Wimbledon semifinals on Wednesday when his quarterfinal opponent, Alex de Minaur, withdrew with a hip injury.
De Minaur, an Australian who was seeded ninth at the All England Club, announced he was pulling out of the tournament hours before he and Djokovic were scheduled to play each other at Center Court.
This match would have been de Minaur’s first quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon. He made it that far at the French Open last month, too.
Djokovic will face Taylor Fritz or Lorenzo Musetti on Friday for a berth in the final.
The second-seeded Djokovic has won seven of his men’s-record 24 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon.
