Kohli closes in on Smith, Agarwal breaks into top-10

Tokyo, Apr 14: Tokyo organizers said Tuesday they have no B Plan in the event the Olympics need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24.

Those dates were set last month by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials after the coronavirus pandemic made it clear the Olympics could not be held as scheduled this summer.

We are working toward the new goal, Takaya said, speaking in English on a teleconference call with journalists.

We don't have a B Plan. The severity of the pandemic and the death toll has raised questions if it will even be feasible to hold the Olympics in just over 15 months. Several Japanese journalists raised the question on the call.

All I can tell you today is that the new games' dates for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been just set up, Takaya said.

In that respect, Tokyo 2020 and all concerned parties now are doing their very best effort to deliver the games next year." IOC President Thomas Bach was asked about the possibility of a postponement in an interview published in the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.

He did not answer the question directly, but said later that Japanese organizers and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated they could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the lastest.

The Olympics draw 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and large support staffs from 206 national Olympic committees.

There are also questions about frozen travel, rebooking hotels, cramming fans into stadiums and arenas, securing venues, and the massive costs of rescheduling, which is estimated in Japan at 2 billion- 6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto addressed the issue in a news conference on Friday. He is likely to be asked about it again on Thursday when local organizers and the IOC hold a teleconferene with media in Japan.

The other major question is the cost of the delay; how much will it be, and who pays? Bach said in the Sunday interview that the IOC would incur several hundred million dollars in added costs. Under the so-called Host City Agreement, Japan is liable for the vast majority of the expenses.

This is impossible to say for now, Takaya, the spokesman said.

It is not very easy to estimate the exact amount of the games' additional costs, which have been impacted by the postponement."

Tokyo says it's spending 12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, 5.6 billion in private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.

Karachi, Mar 26: Pakistan's centrally-contracted cricketers will contribute Rs 5 million to the national government's emergency fund to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani on Wednesday said apart from centrally-contracted players contributing Rs 5 million, the employees in the board, up to the senior manager level, will contribute their one day's salary.

Those employed as general managers or on higher posts will give two days' salary to the fund.

"The PCB will collect all these funds and deposit it to the government's coronavirus fund," he said.

Pakistan has recorded more than 1,000 positive cases of the deadly virus, which has claimed more than 19,000 lives all over the world.

"It is the history of the cricket board that we always stand by the government in difficult times," Mani said.

The PCB has already given its high performances centre in Karachi at the national stadium to be used by paramedical staff working at the special coronavirus hospital set up at the expo centre in the in the city.

Mani said though cricket has been disrupted by the virus outbreak but it was far more important for the nation to stand by the government and also take all precautionary steps during the pandemic.

Pakistan's centrally-contracted players are entitled to monthly salaries ranging from Rs 5 to 12 lakh besides match fee and other earnings.

Malabar, Jun 30: I-League club Gokulam Kerala's former assistant manager Muhammad Alloush on Monday died due to COVID-19. He was 44.

Alloush, who was with the football club in its inaugural season, was working as technical director at Egyptian club Tanta SC at the time of his demise.

Alloush's mother had also succumbed due to the deadly virus earlier.

"We're deeply saddened by the death of our former assistant manager Muhammad Alloush, aged 44, after contracting Covid_19. The thoughts of everybody at Gokulam Kerala Football Club are with Alloush's family and friends at this sad time. Rest in peace, Alloush," Gokulam Kerala FC tweeted.

Meanwhile, with a spike of 18,522 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India's coronavirus count stands at 5,66,840, said the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry, 418 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours. The number of deaths in the country now stands at 16,893.