Luis Suarez banned for four months for biting Giorgio Chiellini

June 27, 2014

Jun 27: Uruguay's Luis Suarez was hit with the biggest ban imposed at a World Cup on Friday morning as FIFA threw the book at one of football's most talented but controversial players for biting an opponent.

Suarez biteThe sport's governing body suspended Suarez from all football-related activity for four months and ruled he could not play in Uruguay's next nine competitive games, meaning he is unlikely to appear in non-friendly matches for his country until 2016.

The ruling ended Suarez's World Cup and his lucrative off-field sponsorships are now in doubt.

"Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particular not at a FIFA World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field," said chairman of the disciplinary committee Claudio Sulser.

The four-month ban means Suarez will have to sit out the first two months of the next English season. He will miss Liverpool's opening Premier League and Champions League matches.

The 27-year-old striker must immediately leave his Uruguay team-mates who are preparing for a World Cup last-16 match against Colombia on Sunday (AEST).

FIFA also fined Suarez 100,000 Swiss francs ($119,000) after 10 hours of deliberations by its independent disciplinary committee.

The Uruguayan FA will appeal against the ruling, but Suarez cannot play even if a challenge is lodged. The imposition of the fine could be delayed pending the appeal.

Suarez is one of the most gifted players in world football, scoring 31 league goals in 33 games for Liverpool last season.

He returned from a month on the sidelines with an injury to score twice in Uruguay's 2-1 win over England last week, transforming the team's World Cup which began with a loss to Costa Rica in a game Suarez sat out.

But he is also one of the game's most troubled players and has been banned twice previously for biting opponents.

Former Brazil striker Ronaldo had no sympathy.

"Football must set an example and show examples of good players," he told reporters. "People who are out of line must be punished.

"If my little children bit me, they are sent to the dark room with the big bad wolf. This is football's equivalent."

Suarez will not be able to train or attend matches with Liverpool until late October, a huge blow to their domestic and European ambitions.

"Liverpool Football Club will wait until we have seen and had time to review the FIFA disciplinary committee report before making any further comment," Liverpool chief executive officer Ian Ayre said on the club's website.

Although FIFA has banned many players for life and issued other lengthy playing bans, this is the record punishment imposed for wrongdoing at the World Cup, surpassing the eight- game ban handed to Italy's Mauro Tassotti for breaking the nose of Spain's Luis Enrique in 1994

As well as the biting cases, Suarez was banned for one match at the last World Cup in South Africa for a deliberate handball that cost Ghana a match-winning goal in a quarter-final.

The latest incident occurred in the tense final minutes of Uruguay's last Group D match against Italy, shortly before the South American champions scored to seal a 1-0 win and knock Italy out of the tournament.

Suarez clashed with Giorgio Chiellini and the defender pulled open his shirt to show the mark to the referee, who took no action.

Reuters photographs show what FIFA's disciplinary committee accepted were bite marks on Chiellini's shoulder. Pictures also showed Suarez sitting on the ground holding his teeth.

Uruguay to appeal 'excessive' ban

Uruguay will appeal against the ban imposed by FIFA, labelling it excessive.

"The punishment is too strong for the foul," Uruguay FA president Wilmer Valdez told local television, which reported that the appeal will be filed later on Friday (AEST).

"Uruguay does not feel persecuted and Suarez is not a victim," Valdez added.

However, Uruguayans are incensed by the ban, with many slamming it as exaggerated, hypocritical, or even biased.

Suarez will miss Uruguay's last-16 match against Colombia in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday and will play no further part in the tournament in Brazil if the team progresses.

Uruguay FA vice-president Jorge Barrera was earlier reported by local media as saying Uruguay would appeal.

The ruling may have long-term repercussions for Suarez off the pitch. His sponsors had said they would decide on their relationship once the outcome of the investigation was known.

German sportswear firm Adidas has stopped short of axing Suarez but said it would not use him in any further World Cup marketing.

"Adidas certainly does not condone Luis Suarez's recent behaviour and we will again be reminding him of the high standards we expect from our players," a spokeswoman said.

Suarez's value in the transfer market, estimated to be at least 50 million pounds ($90.4 million), could also be affected should Liverpool decide to sell him.

He served a 10-match ban last year after biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic in a Premier League match and in 2010 he was suspended for seven games for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal while playing for Ajax Amsterdam.

The other major controversy of his career came in 2011 when he was alleged to have racially abused Manchester United's French defender Patrice Evra during a Premier League match.

He was banned for eight matches and fined 40,000 pounds for that and was then handed a further one-match ban for making a gesture at Fulham fans.

When Liverpool played United in the return match he refused to shake Evra's hand before the game.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Melbourne, Jul 21: Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley has said that the Indian players and staff will most likely be asked to face two weeks of quarantine before the four-match Test series.

This scenario will bring the Adelaide Oval and its newly constructed hotel firmly into view as the sort of biosecure bubble, ESPNCricinfo reported.

India and Australia are slated to face each other in a four-match Test series, which is to begin from December 4 at Brisbane.

"The two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. What we are working on is making sure that even within that quarantine environment, the players have got the absolute best training facilities, so that their preparation for the matches is as optimal as it can possibly be," ESPNCricinfo quoted Hockey as saying.

"Certainly the fact that the Adelaide Oval has a hotel. It does provide a facility not dissimilar to Old Trafford or Ageas Bowl where the hotels are integrated into the venue," he added.

Hockley also said that an exacting standard of biosecurity and testing would be applied before the series against India as the coronavirus cases are spiking in the subcontinent.

"It's widely known and it's unlikely that international travel restrictions would have lifted by the time that India will be due to come into the country. Clearly there will be testing regimes. We will be able to test people before that they get on to the plane and it is the nature of the situation of making sure we have the quarantine arrangements in line with government and health authority protocols," Hockley said.

"The key thing for the players is that there's regular testing and that we appropriately quarantine them when they come in and all of those plans are currently in development," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 slated to be held in Australia from October 18-November 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the announcement, the BCCI is likely to go ahead with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October-November window. However, it is known where the T20 tournament will be played as cases continue to rise in India.
"I think the BCCI has made no secrets that they are considering what that means for the IPL. For us, it's about getting a bit of an understanding and certainty around what that means. Clearly, in a normal course, some of our best players are obviously top picks for those IPL teams," Hockley said.

"It's a bit premature to speculate on that. We need to understand what the plans are if any and once we understand that we will make decisions accordingly," he added.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: 'Your character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored," said India skipper Virat Kohli while explaining his decision to give opening Mayank Agarwal a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series.

Mayank Agarwal had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the four-match series.

Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

"I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.

In the longest format of the game, Agarwal has managed to score 974 runs from 11 matches at an average of 57.29 with three centuries as an opening batsman.

The Indian skipper also explained as to what makes him notice in a player and added that it is important that guys in the team look to face new challenges and emerge triumphantly.

"For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most," Kohli said.

"I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes," he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from September 19 in the UAE.

The comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar keep on growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.

Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats.

At present, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in the second place in Tests rankings. Kohli has so far played 86 Tests, scoring 7,240 runs with 27 centuries at an average of 53.62.

His knock of 254 against South Africa at Pune in 2019 remains his highest Test score to date. When it comes to ODIs, the current Indian skipper has played 248 matches and has 43 centuries.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited "password glitch" as the reason for delay.

The other players to have received the notice include women stars Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP). Speaking to PTI, NADA DG Navin Agarwal confirmed that BCCI has sent an official explanation for their five NRTP players' failure to submit whereabouts.

"There are two ways to fill up the whereabouts form in the ADAMS (Anti Doping Administration & Management Systems) software. Either athlete does it himself or association fills it up on his or her behalf," Agarwal said. "Now athletes in some discipline aren't educated enough or do not have access to internet and find themselves unable to handle the whereabouts clause of the ADAMS or upload the filled up

"They use assistance of their concerned federations. So federations have accepted responsibility of uploading their whereabouts," Agarwal said.

He said cricketers too at times find it tough to complete the process on their own. "Similarly in cricket also, although these people are well qualified and they can do it, perhaps they don't have the time for whatever reasons, so the federation concerned, the BCCI has taken upon itself the responsibility of uploading their whereabouts." So why didnt BCCI upload the the three-month whereabouts this time?

"Well they have given an explanation which appears to be reasonable but a decision will be taken. They have said that there has been a glitch with regards to password in ADAMS. Now they have said that issue has been resolved," Agarwal added. NADA DG added that "BCCI's explanation will be discussed as to whether it will be counted as one of three filing failures or not. It will be decided on the explanation given and how they (BCCI) proceed from here."

While country has been under lockdown, the rule to submit three months of whereabouts is mandatory. Three such failures to disclose leads to one Anti Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), which could lead up to two years of suspension upon hearing.

While BCCI has "officially gagged" its employees from talking to the media, it couldn't be ascertained that why as normal a glitch as a password error took days to resolve. A BCCI veteran, who has been privy to cricket operations, asked why the five cricketers were not told to upload the form themselves.

"This was lockdown period where they are not living out of suitcases. Some of the names have also engaged in multiple instagram chats and podcasts which their agents are managing," he said.

"If cricket operations team were having a glitch in fixing password, well the five cricketers could have been asked to do so and they would have done it individually with some guidance. "Probably NADA would be lenient this time but if it becomes an official warning, then who's responsible," he added.

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