THE HIMALAYAN MAIL 11JAMMU SATURDAY JULY 17, 2021

NEW DEHLI, JULY16: Bayern coach JuppHeynckes (right) and ArjenRobben celebrate the 28thBundesliga title after theGerman Bundesliga matchbetween FC Augsburg andFC Bayern Munich in Augs-burg | AP

Arjen Robben has an-nounced his retirementfrom football for a secondtime on Thursday.

The Dutch winger firsthung up his boots after leav-ing Bayern Munich in 2019,

he then returned to his boy-hood club Groningen in2020 where he spent one

more season.Robben won the Eredi-

visie title in his first season

at PSV Eindhoven, lifted twoPremier League titles, twoLeague Cups and the FA Cupwith Chelsea and won theLaLiga with Real Madrid.

His most successful spellwas with Bundesliga giantsBayern Munich where hewon eight Bundesliga titles,five German Cups and theChampions League.

Along with his club suc-cess, Robben won 96 capsfor the Netherlands andreached the 2010 World Cupfinal.

Dutch football great Arjen Robben retires

NEW DELHI, JULY16: Kuldeep Yadav nolonger has Mahendra SinghDhoni behind the stumpsfor tactical inputs and hencewill have to himself figureout a way to get back to formbefore the ICC T20 WorldCup where he can be amatch-winner, feels formerIndia spinner VenkatapathyRaju.

Kuldeep has had a mete-oric rise under MahendraSingh Dhoni's captaincy buthis form tapered under Vi-rat Kohli, leading to hisouster from the Test side.

"Sri Lanka tracks will beslow, there will be some bite,so it is good for him(Kuldeep) to make a come-back. With IPL and T20World Cup tracks in UAElikely to be dry and spin-friendly, Kuldeep can be amatch-winner," 52-year-oldformer national selectorRaju told PTI.

While he needs the cap-tain's confidence, Rajuwants the UP spinner to finda solution to get back toprime form.

"But unfortunately, we allknow how captains haveplayed a big role inKuldeep’s growth. He hasbeen always saying that hewas very comfortable play-

ing under (MahendraSingh) Dhoni, but Dhoni isnot going to be there for himtill his career is over, sohopefully he has to comewith a solution," Raju, one ofAnil Kumble's distinguishedspin bowling partner till late90's, said.

Raju advised Kuldeep,who has 170 internationalwickets across 91 games, tobowl to his strengths, whichis hitting attacking lines.

"He (Kuldeep) is still afantastic bowler. He is veryyoung, so (when) you al-ready have experience ofplaying internationalcricket…it is entirely up tohim to concentrate and hehas always been a wicket-taker, he has not been a de-fensive bowler."

Raju wants him to makeuse of the limited opportu-nities he will get in Sri Lanka

"He should bowl the wayhe knows and you get lim-ited opportunities and luck-ily for him, this (Sri Lanka)tour has come up, and therewon't be much pressure onhim, he has to bowl the besthe can because we all knowhe has got that variety,"elaborated Raju.

Once he picks wickets, thequestion raised about hiswaning abilities will subsideon its own, said the left-armorthodox spinner from Hy-derabad.

"He (Kuldeep) is a youngguy (and) he is a match-win-ner. So, I think he should bemore confident and then lethis cricket do the talking. He

has to work hard for it,cricket is not easy and healso knows that," Raju toldPTI in an interview on Fri-day.

Apart from Kuldeep, Raju,who picked 589 first-classwickets from 177 games,preferred all-rounderRavindra Jadeja andYuzvendra Chahal to be inthe Indian squad for the T20World Cup, which will beplayed in UAE and Omanfrom October 17 to Novem-ber 14.

"You already have Ravin-dra Jadeja right, he has beenplaying brilliantly, Jadejawill be the first choice (as heis a) brilliant all-rounder --the ideal for T20s."

What works for Kuldeep isthe fact that he can pickwickets in clutches if he gets abreakthrough.

"Kuldeep has good habit,when he picks a singlewicket, he ends up takingtwo or three (wickets). So, Ithink he should also be apart of (T20 World)," saidRaju.

The first ODI between In-dia and Sri Lanka will beaired on Sony Ten 1, SonyTen 3 and Sony Six on July18, from 3 PM. Raju will alsobe commentating on SonyTen 4 in Telugu.

Up to 'match-winner' Kuldeepto help himself: Raju

NEW DELHI, JULY16: Arch-rivals India andPakistan were on Fridayplaced in the same groupfor the T20 World Cup asthe ICC announced thepools for its flagship event,set to be played in the UAEand Oman from October 17to November 14.

India and Pakistan areplaced in Group 2 alongwith World Test Champi-onship winners NewZealand and Afghanistan.

The Group 1 has defend-ing champions West Indies,former winners England,Australia and South Africa.

Two teams will join eachof the groups from the qual-ifying rounds.

Eight teams will contestthe first round including au-tomatic qualifiers Sri Lankaand Bangladesh with the re-maining six who bookedtheir spot through the ICCmen's T20 World CupQualifier 2019.

Ireland, Netherlands andNamibia join Sri Lanka inGroup A, while Oman, PNGand Scotland will faceBangladesh in Group B.

The tournament wasoriginally scheduled to be

held in India but was movedout of the country due to anexpected third wave of thecoronavirus.

"There are some greatmatch ups offered by thegroups and it starts to bringthe event to life for our fansas our first multi-teamevent since the onset of theglobal pandemic drawscloser," ICC acting chief ex-

ecutive Geoff Allardice saidin a release."Given the dis-ruption caused by COVID-19, we selected the cutoffdate as close as possible tothe event to ensure we wereable to include the maxi-mum amount of cricket inthe rankings which deter-mine the groups.

"There is no doubt we willwitness some highly com-

petitive cricket when theevent gets underway in justthree months."

Allardice unveiled thedraws in Muscat hours afterthe BCCI top officials --president Sourav Gangulyand secretary Jay Shah --arrived in the city.

Ganguly, said, "It is goodto get Oman in the frame ofworld cricket with the host-ing of the ICC men's T20World Cup. It will help a lotof young players take an in-terest in the game. Weknow it will be a world classevent in this part of theworld."Shah said, "There isnothing that separates thetwo groups as both arepacked with sides that arehighly competitive in theshortest format of thegame."This will be the firstT20 World Cup since 2016when West Indies beat Eng-land in the final in Kolkata.

"Oman Cricket has come along way and today is a wa-tershed moment for us tohave ICC and BCCI here atOman Cricket Academy toannounce the ICC men'sT20 World Cup groups!,"Oman Cricket chairman,Pankaj Khimji, said.

T20 World Cup 2021: India to facearch-rivals Pakistan in group stage

NEW DELHI, JULY16: Saddled with many 'ifsand buts' around the con-duct of hockey at theOlympics, The Interna-tional Hockey Federation(FIH), on Friday, said if fi-nalists at the Tokyo Gamesare ruled of the title clashdue to COVID-19, bothteams will be awarded goldmedals.

The FIH also said the dis-cretion to withdraw fromhockey events in TokyoOlympics due to COVIDoutbreak within a team willlie with the respective com-peting nations.

Terming the TokyoOlympics as 'different fromthe normal Games', FIHCEO Thierry Weil said ateam can still keep on play-ing even when multiplecases are reported withinthe group.

He said there are stillmany 'ifs and buts' sur-rounding the rules and reg-ulations which need furtherclarifications but hopedthat a situation where ateam needs to withdrawfrom the competition be-cause of COVID doesn'tarise at all.

"It will not be the sameGames as before. The ath-letes and all associated withthe Games know very wellthat theirs and public'shealth are at stake," Weilsaid during a virtual pressbriefing a week before theTokyo Olympics begin onJuly 23.

Asked about the rulesframed for a side's with-drawal from hockey com-petition due to positiveCOVID cases, the FIH CEO

said: "There are no num-bers fixed. It's the teamsdiscretion when to with-draw. If a team has for ex-ample 6, 7 positive cases,they still can play."

"Until a complete team isaffected, I feel withdrawalwon't happen."

According to Weil, theFIH has already preparedthe Sports Specific Regula-tions (SSR) for the extra-or-dinary Olympics, whichstates that two gold medalswill be given if both finalistsare struck by COVID.

As per the SSR, if a teamcan't play a pool game it willbe considered a 5-0 win forthe other team. In case bothteams fail to turn up, it willbe considered a goallessdraw.

However, the teams canplay the remaining poolmatches if they are able to.

"If both the finalist teamsare forced to withdraw thenin that case both the teamswill get gold medals. It is al-ready mentioned in ourSports Specific Regulations(SSR)," Weil said.

The SSR also states that ifa team withdraws or is un-able to participate in the

bronze medal match, sucha side will not be replaced,and the remaining teamwill be allocated the bronzemedal.

In case the two teams dueto play in the bronze medalmatch are unable to com-pete, both the teams will beawarded a bronze medal.

The FIH CEO saidCOVID had posed an un-precedented situation forall stakeholders related tothe Games and many thingswill only get clearer oncethe real action starts.

"A lot of unansweredquestions are there. For ex-ample a losing team or ath-lete generally leaves soonafter their competition but Idon't know what will hap-pen in Tokyo," Weil said.

"No team or athletewants to win a medal afterlosing."

Traditionally, hockeyteams in Olympics com-prise 16 players each butthe International OlympicCommittee (IOC) has madean exception this timearound, allowing everycompeting nation to havetwo extra players and a re-serve goalkeeper in their

squads.As per the IOC, the sports

in which 'alternate athletes'will be able to replace per-manent players in eachmatch are hockey, football,handball, rugby and waterpolo, while the reserve goal-keeper will come in the pic-ture only in case of an in-jury to the first-choicecustodian.

Despite the additions,only 16 players will be ableto play in a match and theteams will have to submittheir list a day before theirgames.

The FIH clarified thatmanagement of accommo-dation of alternate athletesand reserve goalkeeper inTokyo, whether at theGames Village or desig-nated hotel, rests with re-spective National OlympicCommittees (NOC).

He said that every athleteor official will have to followcomplete protocol whileshifting from one bio-bub-ble to the other.

"We are thankful to theIOC for accepting our re-quest to enable teams tohave more flexibility interms of number of playersavailable due to COVID."

"But the decision and re-sponsibility of accommoda-tion of alternate players inTokyo lies with respectiveNOCs," Weil said.

"...everyone from officialsto athletes will be testedevery morning, be it in thevillage or hotels. Move-ments of everyone will bevery limited, from hotel tovenue and back or fromGames Village to venue andback."

Hockey in Tokyo Games: Gold forfinalists in case of no clash due to COVID

NEW DELHI, JULY16: Indian tennis playerSumit Nagal is now eligibleto compete in the men's sin-gles event at the TokyoOlympics, the world gov-erning body ITF has com-municated to the AITA, asource in the national ten-nis body said on Friday.

Nagal was ranked 144 onJune 14, when ATP rank-ings were to be consideredfor direct entries.

Another specialist singlesplayer PrajneshGunneswaran was ranked148 and it remains to beseen if he also makes the cutas the deadline for accept-ing tennis entries is closingin a few hours from now.

The stringent protocolsunder which the Games arebeing held and the fear ofcontracting coronavirus hasforced many withdrawalsthat kept lowering the cut-off mark.

"We have received a mailfrom the ITF that Sumit isnow eligible. They haveasked for his details. Wehave started the process of

getting him in," an AITA of-ficial said.

Yuki Bhambri, with hisProtected Ranking of 127,also made the cut but sincehe recently underwent aprocedure on his right kneein the US, he has made him-self unavailable.

"I won't be playing,"Bhambri said in a tersemessage.

If Nagal can make it toTokyo by completing all the

required formalities, it re-mains to be seen if hemakes the doubles drawwith Rohan Bopanna, whocould not enter with DivijSharan till now.

Bopanna and Sharan'scombined rank is 113 andthey were still fifth alternaterecently.

ITF is giving priority tothe singles players to fill thedoubles draw.

Nagal's entry would also

mean that India can nowhave a team in the mixeddoubles draw as well.

As of now only SaniaMirza and Ankita Raina arecertain to compete in thewomen's doubles draw. Sa-nia used her protected rankof nine to enter with Ankita.

All top-10 players get di-rect entry and have the priv-ilege to choose a partner oftheir choice, who is rankedinside top-300.

Nagal eligible for Tokyosingles draw, Yuki misses out

NEW DELHI, JULY 16: Athletesshould not make 'political demonstrations'or express their private views on the medalpodium at the Tokyo Games, the Interna-tional Olympic Committee (IOC) PresidentThomas Bach said on Friday.

The IOC this month relaxed its Rule 50,which had previously forbidden athletesfrom any protests but now allows them tomake gestures on the field, provided they

do so without disruption and with respectfor fellow competitors.

However, there is still a threat of sanc-tions if any protests are made on the medalpodium during the July 23-August 8Games.

"The podium and the medal ceremoniesare not made? .?.?.?for a political or otherdemonstration," Bach told the FinancialTimes.

"They are made to honour the athletesand the medal winners for sportingachievement and not for their private(views)."

"The mission is to have the entire worldtogether at one place and competing peace-fully with each other. This you would nevermanage if the Games (became) divisive."

While athlete protests at the Olympicsare rare, at the 1968 Mexico City Games,

Black US sprinters Tommie Smith andJohn Carlos were expelled after theybowed their heads and raised black-glovedfists on the podium to protest racial in-equality.

At Rio 2016, Ethiopian marathon runnerFeyisa Lilesa raised his arms and crossedhis wrists when crossing the finish line toshow support for his Oromo tribe'sprotests over government plans to reallo-

cate farmland.Britain's women's soccer coach Hege Ri-

ise said on Thursday her players will takethe knee before matches at the TokyoGames to raise awareness about racismand all forms of discrimination.

The act of taking the knee is a form ofprotest first made by American footballquarterback Colin Kaepernick and followedby the Black Lives Matter movement.

Don't speak your mind on the Tokyo Olympics podium