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Infantino thanks Russia for best World Cup ever

Agencies
July 14, 2018

Moscow, Jul 14: FIFA president Gianni Infantino thanked the Russian people and government on Friday for what he described as the "best World Cup" ever.

Sporting a FIFA volunteers' jacket, Infantino told reporters in Moscow that Russia's infrastructure and welcome allied to the quality of football and success of VAR (the video assistant referee system) had contributed to the success of the tournament.

"Since a couple of years I was saying this would be the best World Cup ever. Today I can say it with more conviction because I lived it and you lived it. It is the best World Cup ever," said Infantino, two days ahead of the final between France and Croatia.

Infantino told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting at the Kremlin last week that the world "fell in love with Russia," over the past four weeks and repeated his praise for Putin's government and the organisation put in place for the tournament.

More than one million foreign fans have visited Russia during the World Cup, according to FIFA figures, and Infantino said preconceived notions of the country had been changed by their positive experiences.

"I think the World Cup has changed the perception of the world towards Russia," added Infantino.

"Everyone has discovered a beautiful country, a welcoming country, full of people keen to show to the world what maybe sometimes is said is not what happens here."

On the field, Infantino hailed the standard of football, citing just one 0-0 in 62 games so far as an example of the exciting spectacle.

Controversies over the use of VAR threatened to overshadow the football on the pitch early on but Infantino strongly defended introducing the technology for the first time at a World Cup.

"VAR is not changing football, VAR is cleaning football, making football more honest, more transparent," he said.

Just 16 decisions were overturned from 19 reviews by referees after receiving advice from other officials watching replays of incidents on television. The number of correct decisions rose using VAR from 95 per cent to 99.32, according to Infantino.

"Now it is difficult to think about the World Cup without VAR," he added. "It has certainly been a more just competition thanks to VAR. This is what we wanted to achieve and what we have achieved so far."

Despite the dominance of European teams, with all four semifinalists and six of the last eight coming from the UEFA confederation, Infantino claimed the presence of Croatia as the smallest nation since 1950 to reach the final should give hope to other countries around the world for 2022.

As things stand, the Qatar World Cup will be the final version of the tournament with 32 teams before expanding to 48 for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

However, Infantino said a decision on whether that expansion will be moved forward for the next World Cup will be discussed and taken "in the next few months".

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News Network
January 30,2020

Hamilton, Jan 30: Caught unaware about the Super Over scenario, Rohit Sharma took five minutes to “find” his abdomen guard after the third T20 International against New Zealand had ended in a tie on Wednesday.

The India vice-captain said the team had almost given up with New Zealand going great guns at one point.

“Everything was packed. All my stuff was inside my bag. I had to get it out. It literally took me five minutes to find my abdomen guard because I didn’t know where it was,” Rohit said.

“I mean we never thought it would go to the Super Over, the way they were batting at one point. It looked like they could easily win the game,” he added.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 1: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are aiming to set up their preparatory camp for the 13th edition of the tournament from early August.

This year's IPL was slated to commence from March 29 but the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, the IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 13th edition of the mega event will commence on September 19 in the UAE.

As per a report in ESPNcricinfo, CSK players have been asked to report to Chennai first, following which they will leave for Dubai via a charter flight only after approval from the Indian government.

The IPL Governing Council will meet on August 2 to finalise the schedule and other key arrangements for the tournament. Also, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) around securing eight teams for 51 days across three venues will be formally established in that meeting.

CSK, who has the oldest squad in the IPL, are looking for a month's preparation before ahead of the tournament.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the side was the first team to start their training camp in March. Senior players like Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu had begun training their training in December 2019.

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Agencies
May 23,2020

New Delhi, May 23: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said India will not host any international event in immediate future and fans will have to learn to live with the new normal of sporting activities happening behind closed doors in the post-COVID-19 world.

Rijiju's statement gain greater significance in the context of the suspended IPL, which the BCCI wants to host in October-November in case of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia is postponed.

"We have been working for quite some time now to resume sporting activities but before that, we have to think about practice and training. We are not going to have a tournament kind of situation immediately," Rijiju was quoted as saying by India Today.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

"We have to learn to live with the situation where sporting events will have to be carried forward without spectators in stadiums and sports venues," he added.

Talking specifically about the 13th edition of IPL, which has been put on hold for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, Rijiju said it is the government's prerogative to take a call on conducting any tournament in the country.

"In India, the government has to take a call and it will take a call depending on the situation. We cannot put health at risk just because we want to have a sporting event.

"Our focus is fighting Covid-19 and at the same time, we will have to work a mechanism to get back to normalcy. It is difficult to confirm dates but I am sure we will have some kind of sporting events this year," he said.

Rijiju's statement came close on the heels of Sports Authority of India (SAI) laying out a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for the resumption of sporting activities across the country in a phased manner.

"In the background, their (athletes) fitness and everything has been tracked. They are in touch with the coaches, the fitness experts, the high-performance directors. We are monitoring each and every athlete who are of the higher stature, who played for India and higher clubs," he said.

"Now it has been laid out. SAI has prepared a detailed SOP. These are prepared by experts from different fields. This SOP has already been issued to all sports federations and other sports bodies including govt stakeholders. So, based on this SOP training will start."

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on May 23

The Sports Minister, however, reiterated that resumption of sporting activities will entirely depend on guidelines of respective states and local administrations.

"We have been clearly advising that health and safety are top priorities. Besides that we have to keep in mind two other things, one is the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, second, is the guidelines issued by the administrations of the respective localities or states. So, these are to be taken into account," he said.

"But we have clearly stated that sports complexes and stadiums are open, other than that there should not be any activities till the lockdown is there or we come up with a renewed kind of advice."

Asked about the prospect of the Tokyo Games that were scheduled for this year but were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, the Sports Minister said he is hopeful of the quadrennial event taking place on the revised dates.

"Olympics is still far away and we have full confidence in the Japanese government and IOC and every country will support that the conduct of Tokyo 2021 will not be postponed. There are too many stakes in Olympics, so it is difficult to even foresee that the Olympics can be postponed," he said.

"As far as India's preparation goes, we are at the best stage of our preparation of any Olympics so far in history. This is going to be India's biggest contingent so far and have medal-winning prospects. But I am not saying we are so prepared to finish in the top 10 or 5 but our long term target is that India will be in the top 10 in 2028.

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