We have a plan in place, says coach Ali

July 26, 2012

Alicoach


Manchester, July 26: “We have prepared the team for this competition and hopefully we are ready for tomorrow,” a confident UAE coach Mahdi Ali said at the official press conference at the Old Trafford on Thursday.


“We will play our football and ensure we have some minor changes to handle a team like Uruguay. They have a good team and some experienced players [Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani], but we have our plan in place,” the coach added.


Ali is hoping for all the support he can get from UAE nationals in the UK or from fellow Gulf nations.


“For us, this match is historic. For the past 28 years, we have been trying to compete in the Olympic Games in football and this is a dream come true,” Ali said.

“We didn’t come here as novices but as a team that has played at the highest level that has played some real tough matches at the top level. This group of players form the core of the squad that has played in the Asian Cup and the Fifa U-19 World Cup. We have come here to show that we deserve to be here,” he added.


“The UAE is such a small country, but we have loads of passion and confidence. This is our time to shine and the most important match is the first one tomorrow. This will be the key,” he stressed.

UAE captain Esmail Mattar continued in the same strain.


“We don’t think about individual players [Luis Suarez]. We respect them, but believe in ourselves and what we can achieve,” Mattar said.


“At this moment we are only thinking about tomorrow’s game. We have come here with good preparations and we believe we will be successful. We need to take things one at a time,” he added.


Meanwhile, Mattar’s teammate and main striker Ahmad Khalil has set a personal goal for this competition. “It’s great for a striker’s confidence to score goals, but now I am hoping to score in the competition so that I can win the Golden Boot at the Olympics,” Khalil said.



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Agencies
June 23,2020

Islamabad, Jun 23: Seven more Pakistan cricketers, including Muhammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz, selected for the tour of England have tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total to 10, the PCB revealed on Tuesday.

The seven who tested positive on Tuesday are Kashif Bhatti, Muhammad Hasnain, Fakhar Zaman, Muhammad Rizwan, Imran Khan, Hafeez and Riaz. Shadab Khan, Haider Ali and Haris Rauf had returned positive tests on Monday.

“It is not a great situation to be in and what it shows is these are 10 fit and young athletes...if it can happen to players it can happen to anyone,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) CEO, Wasim Khan told a media conference.

He said a support staff member, masseur Malang Ali, had also tested positive for COVID-19.

Khan said that the players and officials would now assemble in Lahore and another round of tests would be carried out on June 25 and a revised squad would be announced the next day.

The squad has to leave on June 28 for the series scheduled to be held next month, he said.

“It is a matter of concern but we shouldn’t panic at this time as we have time on our hands,” Khan said.

He said the players and officials would be retested on reaching England.

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News Network
April 4,2020

New Delhi, April 4: India skipper Virat Kohli has said that the 2014 Test series against England was the lowest point of his career.

He made the revelation during a candid Instagram Live session with former England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

To date, the 2014 Test series in England remains one of the worst Test series for Kohli as he averaged just 13.40 from 10 ten innings with his highest score being 39.

"I felt like as a batsman, you know you are going to get out in the morning as soon as you wake up. That was the time I felt like that there is no chance I am getting runs. And still to get out of bed and just get dressed for the game and to go out there and go through that, knowing that you will fail, was something that ate me up," Kohli told Pietersen.

However, just four years later, Kohli made a triumphant return to England as he scored a century in the opening Test of the 2018 series and finished as the highest run-getter in the series.

Kohli told Pietersen that the performance in 2014 came because he was just thinking about his own batting.

"2014 series happened, for all the younger guys listening, because I was too focused on doing well from a personal point of view. I wanted to get runs. I could never think of what does the team want me to do in this situation," Kohli said.

"I just got too engulfed with England tour - if I perform here, Test cricket, in my mind I am going to feel established and all that crap on the outside, which is not important at all," he added.
During the chat, Kohli talked about his favourite format in cricket and he also revealed the main reason for turning into a vegan.

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News Network
March 13,2020

Mar 13: The start of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world's most lucrative cricket competition, has been postponed from March 29 until April 15 over the coronavirus, the Indian cricket board said Friday.

"The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to suspend IPL 2020 till 15th April 2020, as a precautionary measure against the ongoing Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation," the BCCI said in a statement.

The two-month Twenty20 competition is estimated to generate more than $11 billion for the Indian economy and involves cricket's top international stars.

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