Little ball boy saves day Bayern Munich down Dortmund for...

THE HIMALAYAN MAIL 7JAMMU THURSDAY MAY 28, 2020

NEW DELHI, MAY 27:There is some good news forIndia’s premier athletes, whohave been stuck for over twomonths in Patiala and Ban-galore.

The Sports Authority of In-dia (SAI) has finally given anall-clear to the restarting ofsports activity for “Olympicbound athletes in Patiala andBangalore”. It is understoodthat the athletes will be al-lowed to train at these facili-ties from Wednesdayevening.

However, athletes who arein the developmental groupwill have to leave the facili-ties and the senior executivedirector of Netaji SubhashNational Insititute of Patiala,Col Raj Bishnoi has beentasked to execute all the lo-gistical arrangements fortheir return as per the avail-ability of tickets.

Sanjana Chaudhary, VipinKasana and Sharmila andfew others who are part ofthe development team willhave to return home untilfurther orders.

Track and field stars, in-cluding Neeraj Chopra, Shiv-pal Singh and MirabaiChanu have been very vocalabout restarting their train-ing schedule. But despite re-leasing the Standard Operat-ing Procedure (SOP) lastThursday, SAI did not give

the green signal to restart thetraining of these elite ath-letes. Following the releaseof the SOP, a task force, un-der Col Bishnoi, was formedto implement it, but athleteswere not allowed to ventureoutside their hostelpremises.

On Tuesday, SAI hadopened few of its Delhi-based centres, including theJawaharlal Nehru Stadiumand Major Dhayan ChandStadium.

However, all athletes andcoaches will have to adhereto strict social distancingnorms and SOP guidelinesreleased by both SAI andAthletics Federation of India(AFI). The jumps team—high jump, long jump, triplejump and pole vaulters—have been told that the use ofpits is prohibited and theyare only available for per-sonal use.

Relay training will not in-clude contact or baton ex-change. Sharing of personalequipment—javelin, discus,hurdles set, starting blocks,shot put—is prohibited.

Coaches and a task forcewill be tasked to decide onthe number of athletes in allthe arenas as per social dis-tancing norms. Besides, allequipment must be sanitisedboth before and after everyuse.

Olympic-bound athletes to start trainingfrom Wednesday after SAI all clear

PRAGUE, MAY 27: Alittle ball boy peeking frombehind a fence gave PetraKvitova the only touch ofthe fan support she missesat a Prague tournamentplayed behind closed doors.

"It was after I played a de-cent passing shot down theline," said Kvitova, after shebeat doubles specialistBarbora Krejcikova instraight sets on Tuesday.

Ball kids wearing glovesexchange balls. Reuters

"I ended up near thefence and he said 'nice one!'to me. So I answered:'Thank you'," the two-timeWimbledon championchuckled.

But she conceded it felt"very weird" to play withoutan audience at the tourna-ment marked by strict hy-gienic measures designedto curb the spread of the

coronavirus pandemic."The audience is crucial,

it's an engine for me," saidthe 30-year-old world No.12.

"It feels very strange. I

thought I might cheer formyself quite a few times orsay something aloud andthen I decided not to," shesaid of the rather solemn at-mosphere.

Her two friends sitting bythe court called on her to"tear" a few times, while hercoach limited himself tojust a few subdued "pojd"("come on"), which is Kvi-tova's trademark cheer.

"I thought at least thecoach could clap for me andit didn't happen. It was re-ally weird," said Kvitova.

And, recalling the ballboy moment, she added: "Itwas a good shot. NormallyI would have yelled."

Little ball boy saves day for fan-craving Kvitova

PARIS, MAY 27: Audi Sport onTuesday parted ways with Germanracing driver Daniel Abt for cheatingin a charity video game race in whichhe passed the controls to a profes-sional esports gamer while pretendinghe himself was at the controls.

Abt released a video late on Tuesdayapologising, once again, but added itwas not his intention to cheat just toshow that video racing was not like thereal thing.

"This virtual sin of mine has conse-quences in the real world," he said."Today I had a conversation with Audithat our ways will split from now on."

In the race on Saturday, Abt, secondbottom of the virtual series, passedcontrol of his car to Pro esports gamerLorenz Hoerzing, 18, who was in Aus-tria, in the 'sim' for the race aroundBerlin-Tempelhof.

At one point, Abt's car led by a widemargin, arousing the suspicions of theorganisers and rivals.

The 27-year-old was disqualifiedand ordered to make a "compulsorydonation" of 10,000 euros ($10,978)to charity.

Abt won a real world race on thesame circuit in 2018 and has been suc-cessfully racing Formula-E since itscreation in 2014.

"It's a game, a simulation whichdoes not have anything in commonwith real racing. It's definitely very faraway from what makes a real Formula

E car," Abt said, showing a video of avirtual a multi-car pileup and saying"everyone drove as they liked."

"There were drivers taking it seri-ously who put a lot of time on the sim-ulators," said Abt, adding he wanted ayoung sim racer "to show the other,real, drivers what he is capable of."

Earlier on Tuesday, Audi released astatement saying they had suspendedAbt and making clear they did not seethe funny side.

"Integrity, transparency and consis-tent compliance with applicable rulesare top priorities for Audi – this ap-plies to all activities the brand is in-volved in without exception."

Abt insisted he had not tried to coverup the ruse and was shocked by the re-action.

"It has never been my intention tolie to you," he said. "After the race itsuddenly went in a direction which Ihad not ever been able to imagine in adream."

Audi parts with Formula-E starwho cheated in virtual race

NEW DELHI, MAY 27: The post-ponement of this year's T20 WorldCup in Australia to 2022, which mightopen up a window for the lucrative In-dian Premier League in October, is ex-pected to be formalised when the In-ternational Cricket Council'sall-powerful board holds a tele-con-ference on Thursday.

The decision, if formalised, will givemembers a chance to chalk out theirbilateral blue-print in the comingmonths. "There is a good chance thatpostponement of World T20 will bedecided during Thursday's boardmeeting. Whether there will be a for-mal announcement or not is the ques-tion," an ICC board member told PTIon conditions of anonymity.

"There is very little chance of WorldT20 going ahead in this situation. Idon't think either Cricket Australia orthe top boards will mind," he added.

The board member also said that it's

not only about the countries but alsoabout broadcasters Star Sports, whichincidentally holds rights for both theICC events as well as BCCI's 'IndiaCricket' rights and the IPL rights.

"There are a few questions that needto be asked. The commercial viability ofhaving a T20 World Cup in February-March 2021. Before that, an IPL in Oc-tober-November window and anotherIPL in the March-May window," aBCCI insider privy to the broadcastdeals said. "So we are looking at threebig-ticket tournaments in six months.In this current economic scenario, thatwill be a very bad call," he added.

He also listed the bilateral engage-ments that the BCCI will agree to.

"India is most certainly going toAustralia, and England is coming fora five-match series in India. As far asSouth Africa T20 series is concerned,let Cricket South Africa decide wherethey stand as far as ICC policy matters

are concerned," the source said.The organisation of the Indian Pre-

mier League will largely depend on In-dia's COVID-19 situation during thattime but with the central governmenttrying to bring in normalcy, the cash-rich league could get a five-week con-densed window to go ahead.

Some of the issues that BCCI as wellas all other stakeholders will be dealingwith include, limited or no spectatorsas per ICC regulations.

Limited number of venues and in-crease of double-headers could be theway forward. Also the organisationshould be in such a manner that allforeign players coming in might needto go for a mandatory 14-day quaran-tine. In that case, when do they arrive?Also when India tour Australia, theymight also have to quarantine them-selves which means the team needs atleast three weeks before playing thefirst Test.

Decision on World T20 postponementlikely at ICC meeting on Thursday

LONDON, MAY 27:Lifting the Premier Leaguetrophy without fans there tosee it would be a “prettystrange” experience, Liver-pool’s Jordan Hendersonhas said.

Liverpool need just sixpoints from their remainingnine games to win theleague for the first time in30 years but there is still noclear date on when the sea-son will resume after it wassuspended in March due tothe COVID-19 pandemic.

Fans will not be allowedto attend games in line with

the government’s protocols for the return of elite sport.

“Of course it would feeldifferent because if you winany trophy and receive itwithout any fans there, itwould be pretty strange,”club captain Hendersontold BBC Radio.

“It’s still not over, we stillhave work to do ... We wantto finish as strongly as wecan to make sure it is a fullseason."

“After that, whether wewin it or whatever, then (re-ceiving) the trophy and thefans not being there ... Youjust have to deal with itwhen it comes.”

Lifting league trophy without fans wouldbe 'strange', says Liverpool's Henderson

BERLIN, MAY 27:Bayern Munich coachHansi Flick said they took"a big step" towards aneighth straight Bundesligatitle as their 1-0 win atBorussia Dortmund openeda seven-point lead with sixgames left.

Midfielder Joshua Kim-mich settled an edgy affairwith a deft chip over homegoalkeeper Roman Buerkijust before half-time atDortmund's Signal IdunaPark stadium behind closeddoors.

"It was an important win,we took a big step forward,"said Flick, who only steppedinto the head coach rolewhen Niko Kovac wassacked in November.

Flick was assistant whenGermany won the 2014World Cup in Brazil, but the55-year-old is on the vergeof his first club title as a

head coach."Will I win my first coach-

ing title? I'm not a man whoreads too much into the fu-ture," said Flick bashfully.

"I'm very happy with theteam's performance, theywere focused, attentive,bold." Match-winner Kim-mich revealed that his chipover Buerki was the productof pre-match analysis.

"We knew that Buerki al-ways stands well in front ofhis goal," said the Germanyinternational.

"It's the best goal of mycareer and a very importantone. "Everyone knew howimportant those threepoints were, and now wehave a comfortable lead.

"It's going to be mentallydifficult for Dortmund, al-though we still have to con-firm things in the next fewgames too."

Bayern must still clear

two tricky hurdles in thecoming weeks, againstBayer Leverkusen andBorussia Moenchenglad-bach who have alreadybeaten the Bavarians in theleague this season.

Dortmund captain MatsHummels acknowledgedthey have to win all their re-maining matches and hopeBayern slip up.

"We now have to try andwin the six remaininggames, but from now on,Bayern have their fate intheir own hands, whetherthey win or lose," admittedHummels, who left Bayernlast June.

Dortmund coach LucienFavre fended off questionsabout whether he is the rea-son why his side is on theverge of falling short in thetitle race for the second suc-cessive season.

Under Favre, Dortmund

squandered a nine-pointlead in 2018/19 as Bayernfinished up winning theleague with a cushion of twopoints.

Dortmund striker ErlingBraut Haaland had a shotcleared off the line in theopening minute, but theteenager could not add tohis ten goals in as manygames and limped offtwenty minutes from time.

"Over 90 minutes we didreally well, but we shouldhave done more with theball," said Favre.

"There was a lack of pre-cision and a little moremovement." "We had toofew shots on goal." "Ofcourse, everyone knowsthat we miss the fans,"Favre added as Dortmundmissed the chance to turnup the heat on the Bavari-ans without the backing oftheir huge support.

Flick's delight as Bayern take ‘big step’ towards title

BERLIN, MAY 27:Joshua Kimmich describedhis winning goal as "bru-tally important" after Bay-ern Munich took a hugestep towards an eighthstraight Bundesliga titlewith a 1-0 win at BorussiaDortmund to leave themseven points clear at the topwith just six games left.

Kimmich's brilliant effortcame just before half-timebehind closed doors at Sig-nal Iduna Park as hostsDortmund missed thechance to turn up the heaton the Bavarians withoutthe backing of their hugesupport.

"It was brutally impor-tant: I looked around to seeif everyone understood howimportant it was," Kimmichsaid of his deft chip.

Kimmich's captainManuel Neuer echoed thedefensive midfielder'sthoughts.

"That was a very impor-tant sign," said Neuer.

Bayern won 4-0 when theteams met in Munich in No-vember and they kept uptheir excellent recent recordagainst second-placedDortmund.

"Now only Bayern can de-cide what happens," saidfrustrated Dortmund cap-tain Mats Hummels.

"Sometimes, games aredecided by brilliant mo-ments and that was the casetoday."

Dortmund's star teenagestriker, Erling Braut Haa-land, who had scored tengoals in as many leaguegames, failed to make animpact against Bayern's wa-tertight defence before go-ing off injured in the secondhalf.

Jerome Boateng andDavid Alaba gave him noroom, while Kimmich andLeon Goretzka in midfieldmade sure passes intendedfor him rarely met theirmark. The Norway forwardlimped off with 20 minutesleft after a heavy tackle fromBoateng.

Things might have beendifferent, with Haalandcoming close inside the firstminute with an attempt thatwent through the legs ofBayern goalkeeper ManuelNeuer but was kicked off

the line by Boateng.At the other end, Lukasz

Piszczek cleared a SergeGnabry shot inches fromthe line, while momentslater Dortmund goalkeeperRoman Buerki deniedKingsley Coman.

Bayern were in control,and Kimmich grabbed whatproved to be the winner twominutes before half-timewhen he chipped Buerkifrom 20 yards.

It was the Germany inter-national's third league goalfrom outside the box thisseason.

In an attempt to turn thegame around, Dortmundcoach Lucien Favre broughton midfield enforcer EmreCan at the start of the sec-ond half and added the paceof Jadon Sancho on thewing.

The home side had ashout for a penalty just be-fore the hour mark when aHaaland shot was deflectedwide by the arm of Boateng,but nothing was given.

Shortly after, Haalandlimped off to be replaced by17-year-old GiovanniReyna.

In the dying stages, Favrebrought on 2014 World Cupwinner Mario Goetze, whois out of contract nextmonth and set to leave, inthe vain hope of grabbingan equaliser.

With time running out,Bayern striker RobertLewandowski hit the post.

The league's top scorerthen had a strong appeal fora late penalty waved awayafter a push in the area byDortmund defenderManuel Akanji.

Bayern Munich down Dortmund to close on Bundesliga title