AB de Villiers fashions Royal Challengers Bangalore's win over Delhi Daredevils

Jeddah, Jan 3: Spanish driver Fernando Alonso is aiming to create history as the first Formula One world champion to win the Dakar Rally when the 12-day marathon gets underway in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Alonso, who won the F1 championship with Renault in 2005 and 2006, is one of 351 starters in this year's 7,500 km race which has moved from South America to Saudi Arabia, both venues a long way from the original 1979 route between Paris and the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Among the starters will be motorbikes, quad bikes and trucks but Alonso, who will have five-time bike champion Marc Coma navigating his Toyota, will be in the car category as he bids to become one of the greatest all-round drivers of all time.

Apart from his success in F1, the 38-year-old Spaniard has also won the Le Mans 24-hour race and has singled out the Indianapolis 500 as his priority for 2020. He describes Dakar as “the biggest challenge of my career”.

Alonso is not the first F1 driver to take part in the race, however.

The Belgian Jacky Ickx, a winner of eight grand prix and six-time winner of Le Mans, won Dakar in 1983 and came second in 1986 and 1989. Frenchman Patrick Tambay, who had two wins in his 114 grand prix, came third in 1988 and 1989.

Given the treacherous conditions--long stretches of sand dunes--Alonso is not overly confident of challenging for victory, noting that even the nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb was unable to deliver when he raced the Dakar. Loeb won 13 stages but could only finish second in 2017 and third in 2019.

“If Loeb still hasn't won the Dakar, imagine me, who is coming from asphalt,” Alonso told RTVE. “I think the goal is more to approach the rally as an enriching experience for us.”

Fellow Toyota driver Nasser Al-Attiyah is a more likely candidate, not least because the Qatari is a three-time winner and reigning champion.

"Give me some sand and I'm happy," Al-Attiyah told dakar.com.

He will be pressed, however, by the Minis of Carlos Sainz and 'Monsieur Dakar' aka Stephane Peterhansel who has won 13 Dakars across bikes and cars in 30 races.

“We are obviously very excited about the Dakar in Saudi Arabia. It will be a new challenge for everyone,” said Peterhansel who will be partnered by Paulo Fiuza after the Frenchman's wife Andrea pulled out for health reasons.

“Unfortunately, it is not possible to contest the rally with Andrea, as was planned, however I have known Paulo Fiuza for a very long time. According to the organisers, the navigation will be very complicated and play a major role this time.”

Cyril Despres, a five-time winner on bikes, is also back with a new teammate -- explorer Mike Horn.

“I was stuck in the ice for a month, and now I'm heading to Jeddah. For the first time, the Dakar Rally is in Saudi Arabia and I'm doing it with a very good friend of mine, Cyril Despres,” tweeted Horn whose adventures include an 18-month solo journey around the equator without using any motorised transport.

Horn is also the first man to travel without dogs or transport to the North Pole during winter, in permanent darkness.

Across the dunes of Saudi Arabia that experience may come in handy.

Dubai, Jan 11: India opener KL Rahul has retained the sixth position while skipper Virat Kohli and left-hander Shikhar Dhawan have advanced one place each in the latest ICC Men's T20I player rankings after the conclusion of the series against Sri Lanka.

India won the T20I series 2-0 with one match getting washed out. Rahul, the highest-ranked Indian batsman, has gained 26 points and is now at the sixth spot with 760 rating points.

Rahul is just six points behind Australia's Glenn Maxwell after scores of 45 and 54 in his two innings against Sri Lanka.

Kohli, top-ranked in Tests and ODIs, is in the ninth position while Dhawan is on 15th. Manish Pandey has advanced four places and is ranked at the 70th.

India's fast bowlers have made notable gains in the first T20I update of the year and would be encouraged as they prepare for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia.

Player of the series Navdeep Saini has rocketed from 146 places to 98th while Shardul Thakur has re-entered in 92nd position after both finished with five wickets in the series. Jaspreet Bumrah has gained eight places to reach the 39th position.

For Sri Lanka, Dhananjaya de Silva has gained 72 places to reach 115th among batsmen after aggregating 74 runs while spinner Lakshan Sandakan has moved up 10 places to reach 29th position after grabbing three wickets in the series.

In the ICC Men's team rankings, India have gained two points but remain at fifth position with 260 points, while Sri Lanka have lost two points and now have 236 points and are at the eighth spot.

New Delhi, Jul 8: After a hiatus of 116 days, international cricket will be resuming today as England and West Indies lock horns in a three-match Test series.

Since March, no international cricket has been played due to the coronavirus pandemic. Because of this virus, whole sporting action across the world came to a standstill.

Australia and New Zealand had played the last international cricket match on March 13 behind closed doors, but the remaining two ODIs of this particular series were cancelled due to COVID-19.

India and South Africa's ODI series also met the same fate due to the pandemic.
It was looking as if it will take a while for sports to come back, but slowly and steadily, all different sports have managed to get into gear and provide fans some respite in these turbulent times.

German football league Bundesliga was the first one to come back, and the organisers set the template as to how to go about conducting tournaments behind closed doors, keeping all safety protocols in check.

Soon after, La Liga, Premier League, and Serie A followed and all major football leagues came back on the television screens across the globe. Formula One kickstarted last week with the Austrian Grand Prix and now it is the time for cricket to resume.

The series between England and West Indies will be played behind closed doors and the matches will be played in Southampton and Manchester. This will be the first time in the 143-year long history of Test cricket that the matches will be played without no crowds.

The England-Windies Test series will be held at Hampshire's Ageas Bowl and Lancashire's Emirates Old Trafford, which have been chosen as bio-secure venues. After the series against West Indies, England would also lock horns with Ireland in three ODIs and Pakistan in three ODIs and as many T20Is.

However, the series against West Indies will be followed closely across the world as all other boards would be looking to see as to how cricket series can be scheduled in their own backyard with the current scenario regarding coronavirus.

The dates for three Tests against West Indies are:

First Test: July 8-12 at Ageas Bowl
Second Test: July 16-20 at Emirates Old Trafford
Third Test: July 24-28 at Emirates Old Trafford

Windies side had arrived in the UK in mid-June and the entire camp had to quarantine themselves for 14 days at Manchester.

For the entire tour, the West Indies squad will live, train and play in a 'bio-secure' environment in England as part of the comprehensive medical and operations plans to ensure player and staff safety.

The bio-secure protocols will also restrict movement in and out of the venues.
Both England and West Indies have played intra-squad practice matches to get some cricketing form back.

While England played their practice match in Southampton, Windies played theirs at Manchester.

West Indies will be led by Jason Holder, while Ben Stokes would captain England in the first Test as regular skipper Joe Root has left the bio-secure bubble to attend the birth of his second child.

England squad for the first Test: Ben Stokes (captain), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

West Indies squad for the first Test: Jason Holder (captain), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Kraigg Brathwaite, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Chemar Holder, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Raymon Reifer, and Kemar Roach.

As safety precautions against the coronavirus, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has also brought about some changes to the playing conditions. The new guidelines include the ban of saliva to shine the ball and allowing replacement of players displaying symptoms of COVID-19 during a Test match.

Players will not be permitted to use saliva to shine the ball. If a player does apply saliva to the ball, the umpires will manage the situation with some leniency during an initial period of adjustment for the players, but subsequent instances will result in the team receiving a warning.

A team can be issued up to two warnings per innings but repeated use of saliva on the ball will result in a 5-run penalty to the batting side. Whenever saliva is applied to the ball, the umpires will be instructed to clean the ball before play recommences.

Also, the requirement to appoint neutral match officials has been temporarily removed from the playing conditions for all international formats owing to the current logistical challenges with international travel. The ICC will be able to appoint locally based match officials from the ICC Elite Panel of Match Officials and the ICC International Panel of Match Officials.

Moreover, teams will be allowed to replace players displaying symptoms of COVID-19 during a Test match. In line with concussion replacements, the match referee will approve the nearest like-for-like replacement. However, the regulation for COVID-19 replacements will not be applicable in ODIs and T20Is.

The ICC had also confirmed an additional unsuccessful DRS review for each team in each innings of a match, keeping in mind that there may be less experienced umpires on duty at times.

This will increase the number of unsuccessful appeals per innings for each team to three for Tests and two for the white-ball formats.

The first Test between England and West Indies gets underway later today from 3:30 PM IST.