virat kohli
TRANSCRIPT
SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, BENGALURUFEBRUARY 21, 201622 TIMES SPORT
New Delhi: World football’sgoverning body FIFA’s inspec-tion team gave a wake-up callto the All India Football Feder-ation (AIFF) on Saturday, ask-ing for major renovation to allthe six provisional venues fornext year’s U-17 FIFA WorldCup to be held in India.
“The FIFA delegation is ve-ry satisfied with the planninguntil now. However, we haveseen nothing yet. All the stadi-ums need major renovationsto make them ready for theWorld Cup. The deadline forthe construction to finish isOctober 2016. The state andcentral government need toput planning into motion,start working and putting ev-erything in place,” FIFA’s headof events Jaime Yarza said .
After inspecting stadia inKochi, Goa, Mumbai, Kolkataand Guwahati, the inspectionteam ended its tour with Del-hi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadi-um. The stadia have to bematch-ready by June next yearin order to host ‘test games’.
Javier Ceppi, tournamentdirector, local organizingcommittee, highlighted theproblem of ‘jugaad’ culture inthe country and called for theneed of having a planned,streamlined process. “Thereis no room for jugaad. Thisculture has to change. Youdon’t have to run at the lastminute. The last 16 monthshas been about changing theculture. We are happy with theprogress that has been made.Now, implementation, whichis the real part, needs to start.”
Talking about Delhi’s JLNstadium, Yarza said: “Wehaven’t done the whole in-spection yet. We need to see alot of things. I think it’s a fan-tastic building with a lot of po-tential. I am not saying it’s bador worse over the others. It def-initely requires renovation.”
Asked if the AmbedkarStadium was ever consideredas one of the venues, Ceppisaid: “Ambedkar Stadiumwould require massive reno-vation to make it compliantwith World Cup standards.”
While Kolkata may get tohost the final of the U-17 WorldCup, Delhi’s chances of host-ing even a semifinal matchseem to be slim.
As per Ceppi, FIFA alreadyhas other venues in mind incase any of the six provisionalvenues fail to meet the Octo-ber deadline. “We have visitedChennai, Pune, Bengaluruand Ahemdabad. There aremany centres and state gov-ernments who would be hap-py to step up,” he said.
FIFA team recommends
renovation of venues
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Hyderabad: HS Prannoy, sa-viour of the hosts for the lasttwo days, could not repeat themagic as his team bowed outof the tie much before his ar-rival, losing 1-3 to Indonesiain the semifinals of the Bad-minton Asia Team Cham-pionships at the GachibowliIndoor Stadium here on Sat-urday.With this loss Indianmen bagged the bronze med-al, their first in three decades.
Though Kidambi Srikanthgave a solid start to his team,the hosts lost the next three
ties and crashed out of thetournament. After winningthe first game without muchdifficulty against in-formTommy Sugiarto, Srikanthwas unlucky to lose the close-ly-fought second game. How-ever, the top ranked Indianshifted gears in the deciderand played an attacking gameto oust Tommy 21-14, 23-25, 21-9.
The doubles pair of ManuAttri and Sumeeth Reddyproved no match for Moham-mad Ahsan and Hendra Setia-wan going down 11-21, 10-21. Inthe second singles, world No.25Ajay Jayaram tried hard butlost to Anthony Ginting 15-21,20-22. Though Ginting isranked nine places below Jaya-ram, the Indonesian is regard-ed as one of the fast risingyoungsters in the world. Gint-
ing was lucky as around dozennet chords went in his favour.
With Indonesia leading2-1, the onus was on India’ssecond-best pair of AkshayDewalkar and Pranaav Cho-pra to bring the hosts back in-to the contest. Though ranked24 places behind Angga Prata-ma and Ricky Karanda, theIndians had beaten them atlast month’s Syed ModiGrand Prix. On Saturday too,the duo played quite well be-fore losing 13-21, 21-18, 15-21.With their loss the Indiancampaign came to an end.Results (Semifinals): Men: Indonesia bt
India 3-1 (Tommy Sugiarto lost to K Srikanth
14-21, 25-23, 9-21; Mohammad Ahsan/Hen-
dra Setiawan bt Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy
21-11, 21-10; Antony Ginting bt Ajay Jayaram
21-15, 22-20; Angga Pratama/Ricky Karanda
Suwardi bt Akshay Dewalkar/Pranaav Cho-
pra 21-13, 18-21, 21-15). Women: Thailand bt
Japan 3-0; China bt S Korea 3-0.
Indonesia knock outIndian men in semis
Zurich: Former FIFA presi-dent Sepp Blatter has in-
sisted thatthe vote tohost the 2022FIFA WorldCup was notfixed, sayingthat "you can-
not buy a World Cup." The 79-year-old Swiss
said that former Frenchpresident Nicolas Sarkozyhad asked Michel Platini to
vote against the US bid tohost the 2022 World Cup. Thequadrennial event was even-tually allotted to Qatar.
"You cannot buy a WorldCup, it will go at the end wherethe higher political influen-ces are," Blatter was quoted assaying by the BBC on Satur-day. "For 2022, Platini at leasthad the courtesy to phone meand say, 'now we have had ameeting with the head ofstate and if the head of state isasking me to support France
for different reasons then Iwill'. He said 'my vote will notbe for the Americans'.
"I knew then there wouldbe a problem. We tried but itwas too late," he added. Blat-ter has once again claimedthat he is innocent as heawaits the judgement of acorruption appeal againsthis eight-year ban.
"I have killed nobody, Ihave not robbed a bank, I havenot taken any money fromanywhere and I was eventreating well all my ex-girlf-riends. It's true. They defendme. One I was married to onlyfor a few months and she is re-ally defending me," he said.
Football's world govern-ing body will elect a succes-sor to the Swiss on February26. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein,Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahimal-Khalifa, Gianni Infanti-no, Tokyo Sexwale and Je-rome Champagne are thefive candidates who will lockhorns to succeed the 79-year-old Blatter. AGENCIES
You cannot buy aWorld Cup: Blatter
FIFA SCANDAL
Ranchi: Kalinga Lancersmoved into the final of theHockey India League, de-feating Ranchi Rays in thepenalty shootout 4-2 in thesemifinals here on Saturday.Both teams were locked 2-2at the end of regulationtime. Lancer now face Pun-jab Warriors for the title.Earlier in the day, Warriors
moved into their third con-secutive final defeating Del-hi Waveriders 3-1.
The match left the specta-tors in shock as Lancers didthe impossible against theirmost successful oppositionin the fourth edition of theleague. While skipper MoritzFuerste, Adam Dixon, LalitUpadhyay and Aran Zalew-ski scored in the shootout forLancers, Simranjeet Singhand Manpreet netted for
Rays. Ashley Jackson andBarry Middleton missed thetarget for the defendingchampions. While GurjinderSingh and Fuerste found thenet during regulation time,,Trent Mitton and TimothyDeavin equalized for Rays.
Warriors reach third con-secutive final: Earlier, Ar-maan Qureshi and Simon Or-chard scored for Punjab War-riors while Rupinder PalSingh netted for Delhi Wa-veriders. Beginning on thefront foot, the Waveridersgave their opposition littletime to settle in their strideas the prolific Rupinder drewfirst blood for the Delhi outfitoff their first penalty corner.Warriors English recruitMark Gleghorne moved upthe midfield before passing itfor young Armaan Qureshito unleash a sublime reverseflick from the centre of theinner circle past a diving De-von Manchester under theWaveriders bar.
Lancers to take onWarriors for title
[email protected] the end nears for the
fourth edition of theCoal India Hockey In-
dia League. Kalinga Lancers have
made their maiden finalwhile Jaypee Punjab War-riors got the better of DelhiWaveriders to reach theirthird consecutive final.
It shows the consistencyof the side and the bril-liance with which coachBarry Dancer has handledhis team. Losing in theshootouts is always tragicand JPW have suffered thattwice now. Dancer and hisboys would be hoping toavoid a third heartbreak. Forthat, however, the team willhave to do better than it didin the semifinals.
Warriors as much wonthe game as Delhi Waverid-ers lost it. Delhi Waveridershad its chances, it did notutilise them. That gave Jay-pee Punjab Warriors theopening. Now Dancer’s teamwill have to get together andreform their strategy. Every
team has some stars, MarkKnowles is one for Warriors.He was the difference be-tween the two sides in thesemis. If Kalinga Lancerscan pin down the Australianlegend, half the battle will bewon. Mark Knowles is every-where, in the attack, mid-field and defence. His all-round capabilities are les-son for everyone. Markinghim will force others out oftheir comfort zone. MarkingSV Sunil will equally impor-tant to close down the at-tacks from right.
All is not over for DelhiWaveriders, though. Theteam have finished on the po-dium in every edition so far,they can do it again by win-ning the bronze playoff.
Coach Cedric D'Souzahas pointed out he will tar-get that. The competition isnot over yet, there is onemore game to go even for thelosing semifinalists.
Waveriders need to gettheir act back. When Rupin-der Pal Singh scores, theteam goes on to win. Whenhe is off-colour, the team los-es. Rupinder's defending hasbeen impeccable throughoutthe tournament but his scor-ing has helped his team wingames. He is their strength,and their weakness.
If he is on target and theforwards do their job, itwon't be difficult for DelhiWaveriders to enjoy the dis-tinction of being on podiumevery single time. I feel forRanchi Rays who lost in thesemis. But they fought hardin the last five minutes toeven out and then stretch thecontest to tie-break.
Teams will go for final thrust Roelant Oltmans
HOCKEY
London: English FA Cupholders Arsenal were leftfrustrated in their efforts towarm-up for Tuesday'sChampions League meetingwith Barcelona with a win astheir fifth round meetingwith Hull City ended goal-less at the Emirates Stadiumon Sarurday. An outstand-ing display by Hull goalkeep-er Eldin Jakupovic meantSteve Bruce's under-strength side retain hope ofavenging their 2014 FA Cupfinal defeat by Arsenal andso preventing Arsene Wen-ger's side becoming the firstteam to win the competitionthree years in successionsince the 1880s.
The draw also ensuredthe strength of Wenger's be-lief that replays are an inte-gral part of the FA Cup willbe tested just days after hespoke out in support of suchmatches. Veteran Frenchmanager Wenger, in chargeof Arsenal since 1996, madehis remarks this week fol-lowing reports the FootballAssociation (FA) were con-sidering ditching replays inthe competition to ease thefixture schedule, a proposalthat drew support from Hullboss Bruce.
SUAREZ, NEYMAR SCORELuis Suarez and Neymarscored again to lead Barcelo-na to a 2-1 victory at Las Pal-mas on Saturday, extendingthe defending champions'
club record to 32 games with-out a loss and increasingtheir overnight lead of theSpanish Primera Liga.
Suarez struck just sixminutes into the match onthe Canary Islands, and Ney-mar re-established the vis-itors' advantage before half-time after Las Palmas Wil-lian Jose had made it 1-1.
Barcelona increased thegap to nine points before sec-ond-place Atletico Madridhost fourth-place Villarrealon Sunday, when Real Ma-drid visits Malaga trailingthe pacesetter by 10.
BOLOGNA HOLD JUVE Juventus missed a golden
chance to move four pointsclear in the Italian Serie Aand will not be able to levelthe record of consecutivevictories after they wereheld to a goalless draw at Bo-logna on Friday.
Massimiliano Allegri'steam beat Napoli last week-end to move top and wasseeking a 16th consecutivewin, which would have left itone behind Inter Milan's re-cord set in 2006-07.
Victory would also havegiven Juventus a significantadvantage ahead of Napoli'smatch against AC Milan onMonday. Instead, Napoli canmove a point ahead of Ju-ventus with a win.
Results: English FA Cup (fifth round):
Arsenal: 0 drew Hull: 0. Readin: 3 (McShane
59, Hector 72, Piazon 90+4) bt West Brom:
1(Fletcher 54); Watford: 1(Wootton 53-og)
bt Leeds: 0.
Spanish Primera Liga: On Saturday:
Las Palmas: 1 (William Jose 10) lost to Bar-
celona: 2 (Suarez 6, Neymar 39). On Fri-
day: Levante: 3 (Morales 10, Rossi 43-pen,
Verdu 81) bt Getafe: 0.
German Bundesliga: Bayern Munich: 3
(Mueller 49, 71, Lewandowski 84) bt Darm-
stadt: 1 (Wagner 26); Borussia Moenchen-
gladbach: 1(Dahoud 9) bt Cologne: 0; Hertha
Berlin: 1 (Kalou 60) drew with Wolfsburg: 1
(Schaefer 53); Hoffenheim: 3 (Amiri 13, Uth
68, 76) bt Mainz: 2 (Cordoba 11, Jairo 78); In-
golstadt: 2 (Huebner 12, Hintersser 90-pen)
bt Werder Bremen: 0.
Italian Serie A: On Friday: Bologna: 0
drew with Juventus: 0
MUELLER POWERS BAYERNBayern Munich's ThomasMueller scored twice, includ-ing a 71st- minute bicyclekick, to given the GermanBundesliga leaders a 3-1 vic-tory over Darmstadt 98 onSaturday and lift them 11points clear at the top of thetable. Mueller scored bothgoals in the second half asBayern, who face Juventusin the Champions Leagueround of 16 next week, had tobattle from a goal down agai-nst the promoted club. Bun-desliga top scorer Robert Le-wandowski, in fine form, co-mpleted Bayern's runin the 84th minute with his22nd goal of the campaign.
Gunners Are Held To A Goalless Draw, Barcelona Edge Past Las Palmas
HULL FRUSTRATE ARSENAL
ON TARGET: Barcelona's Luis Suarez (left) celebrates with Neymar after scoring a goal as teammate Lionel Messi looks on
Reuters
FOOTBALLFINE FORM: Tommy Sugiarto
AFP
Hosts Settle ForBronze, Their FirstIn Three Decades
ASIAN BADMINTON