Motabet

  Faf du Plessis   took over the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) ahead of IPL 2022, and he had a lofty legacy to live up to. I n his first season as RCB captain, Faf displayed exceptional leadership qualities while guiding the team to the IPL Playoffs. While speaking on RCB Podcast Season 2, the second of the 10 episodes, Faf disclosed his idea of captaining the side and what he has learned from former IPL skippers. “I think what was really good for me to go through was, even with all of that, the conviction that I am not going to be Graeme Smith as a captain, I’m not going to be Stephen Fleming as a captain, I’m not going to be MS Dhoni as a captain. In order for me to be true to who I am as a person, I need to be me. Because if you’re not being you, then people will see through it, maybe not when you’re doing well but definitely when you are under pressure, or underperforming, the real you will reveal itself,” said Faf. Speaking about what drove him to lead the...

Lionel Messi has landed the FIFA Best men’s player of the year award for a second time, but  Cristiano Ronaldo  cast no votes in that process. WHY DIDN’T Cristiano Ronaldo CAST A VOTE?  Five-time Golden Ball winner Ronaldo did not cast any votes in the Best poll, with FIFA confirming that veteran defender Pepe took on those responsibilities for Portugal in the wake of a World Cup finals that saw Ronaldo restricted to bench duty on a regular basis. Pepe gave his top pick to France and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe, before opting for his former Real Madrid colleagues Luka Modric and Karim Benzema in the second and third spots respectively. THE BIGGER PICTURE:  New Portugal boss Roberto Martinez, who was in charge of Belgium at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar, voted for Argentina icon Messi ahead of Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and PSG forward Mbappe. WHAT’S NEXT:   Ronaldo – who won the first two FIFA Best men’s awards that were...

  Australia’s stand-in skipper  Steve Smith   said their batsmen will aim to slow things down at the crease when they take on India in the third test in Indore starting on Wednesday after risky shot-making cost them dearly in the previous match. Australia’s hopes of reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy have been extinguished following back-to-back defeats in Nagpur and New Delhi, with the touring batsmen struggling to score on spin-friendly wickets. Smith was among those who played reckless sweep shots in their second innings in the Indian capital only to fall lbw or be bowled by spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who have taken 31 wickets between them in two matches. Australia went on to lose that match by six wickets for their second consecutive defeat in three days. “I was pretty angry,” Smith said of his dismissal which sparked Australia’s collapse as they lost eight wickets for 28 runs. “There haven’t been too many times in my 94-test c...

  Babar Azam  will resume his rivalry with Afridi in match No.15 of the PSL 2023 between Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday. A fter doing a Rohit Sharma by stumping the journalist with a hilarious response, Pakistan’s Babar Azam chaired another entertaining press conference where the star batter was asked about speed merchant Shaheen Shah Afridi during the action-packed season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). In one of the biggest fixtures of the PSL 2023, Babar’s Peshawar Zalmi will meet the Afridi-starred Lahore Qalandars franchise at Lahore. Babar was praised for his generosity as the Pakistan captain shares a good camaraderie with his teammates, who are plying their trade in the elite Pakistani league. Talking to Babar during the media interaction, a reporter lauded Babar for greeting his contemporaries with a smile. The reporter then quizzed Babar about his PSL rivalry with pace ace Afridi, who is leading the L...

  India’s star fast bowler  Jasprit Bumrah   may be out of action for a longer period than expected due to a more serious injury than initially thought. Reports suggest that Bumrah is unlikely to be fit for the Indian Premier League (IPL), which begins in just a month’s time, and there is a possibility that he may not recover in time for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June, should India qualify. Sources within the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL circles have indicated that Bumrah has not been feeling comfortable after being out of action for almost five months. There are concerns that he may face a potentially lengthy hiatus from cricket. Sources suggest that the Indian team’s priority is to have Bumrah ready for the World Cup in October-November, if not for the Asia Cup, wherever it may be held. Bumrah last played for India in a T20I against Australia on September 25, 2020. Cricbuzz recently reported that he was not cleared by the Nationa...

 McLaren  looks set for another tough start to a Formula One season after missing car development targets over the winter. McLaren started 2022 on the back foot after encountering brake issues in the Bahrain preseason test and has had a quiet start to the same test this year, which runs until Saturday. At the launch of its new car the team admitted it was not entirely happy with the launch specification design and CEO Zak Brown has said he is braced for the team being off its target in the competitive order when the season starts in Bahrain on March 5. When asked where he anticipated McLaren would start the year, Brown said: “It’s hard to know until we get going. We already set some goals for development, which we didn’t hit. “We felt it was better to be honest about that. Like everyone we have a lot of development coming so we are encouraged by what we see around the corner. I think we will be going into the first race of our projected targets and it’s hard to know exactly wh...

  Australian middle-order batsman  Travis Head   said being dropped for the opening test in India came as a surprise after “robust” conversations with the selectors, and he was ready to play anywhere in the line-up after being recalled. The 29-year-old aggressive left-hander Travis Head was left out of the team for the first test of the four-match series in Nagpur after struggling against spin on the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “It was something that I didn’t expect coming here,” Travis Head told reporters in New Delhi. “The conversations were robust. Everyone has different opinions. I respect the coaching staff and selectors and I have a strong relationship with them. “I think that’s what made the conversations the way they went because there’s respect that goes both ways and we were able to voice our opinions. “I woke up the next morning and I’m still on tour playing for Australia, I still get to do what I love to do. I’d love to be competing and playing but there’...

  Former Argentina player  Sergio Agureo   claimed that Paris Saint Germain (PSG) superstar Lionel Messi is considering a move back to his boyhood Argentinan club Newell’s Old Boys in Rosario, Santa Fe. The 34-year-old speaking on UOL said, “Sergio Aguero is seriously considering the possibility of playing for Newell’s,” Another Former Argentina player Maxi Rodriguez had to step in before Aguero revealed too much, saying, “Kun is Kun. He can’t keep quiet. We will see. “It is hard to talk about this because then a giant ball of rumors is made. Let’s wait and see what happens. We will not get ahead of the facts.” he added. Earlier in the week According to a report in L’Equipe, Messi’s father, Jorge Messi, reportedly met with the PSG management on Wednesday to discuss the contract extension. L’Equipe added that Inter Miami could sign Lionel Messi in the summer. David Beckham founded Miami, and Messi could grow his brand in America. Messi has a home in Miami and is known to h...

  At the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior, an entire nation cheered as a 36-year-old  Sachin Tendulkar   crouched low, stretched his bat outside off stump, and squeezed a ball to the fielder at point off Charles Langeveldt’s bowling. As a sports fan, now and then a day comes along in your life that you never forget. As you become older, your brain records millions of sporting events, but only a few stand the test of time. Only a few make you remember exactly what you were doing when the event occurred. February 24, 2010, would be one such event for every Indian cricket fan. The power that Sachin Tendulkar’s willow was wielding was no match for the South African bowlers. The entire cricketing world rose to its feet and applauded as the Master Blaster made a record. He had just become the first person on the planet to score a 200 in an ODI, back when even scoring more than 150 runs in an inning was difficult for a batsman. Although double centuries in ODIs are uncommon...

Manchester United  have had some fun at the expense of Xavi after the Barcelona boss referred to Bruno Fernandes as “the Portuguese guy” prior to Thursday night’s crunch Europa League tie. United locked horns with the Spanish giants at Old Trafford with a place in the last 16 of the tournament up for grabs. The tie was finely poised after last week’s enthralling 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp, but Robert Lewandowski’s early penalty nudged Barcelona into pole position to qualify. After trailing at the break, United needed a big second-half performance to progress – and that’s exactly what they got, with Fernandes playing a crucial role in their 4-3 aggregate win. The Portuguese playmaker needed less than two minutes to tee up Fred for United’s leveler: a thumping volley that turned the match on its head. And the Brazilian’s compatriot, Antony, stepped off the bench to fire home the winner to dump Xavi’s side o...

  football fans eagerly await to hit his iconic celebration when  Lionel Messi   scores his 700th goal. Former Barcelona star Lionel Messi, who joined Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in 2021, is likely to be honored by his former club. According to the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona is preparing a tribute match with a view to 2024, an event that was left pending after the controversial departure of the Argentine in June 2021, when he was released and joined the PSG. According to the report, the Catalans can pay tribute to Messi for the 2024-25 season when the team returns to Camp Nou with the works already completed and coinciding with the 125th anniversary of the club. The club president Joan Laporta has already given his nod to the plan after his conversations with Messi’s father Jorge Messi where, according to reports, both parties met to try to “normalize” relations and bring positions closer. Amid the speculation of Messi’s probable return to Barcelona, howev...

  Ahead of their  T20 World Cup   semi-final clash against Australia in Cape Town later on Thursday evening, India is sweating over the availability of captain Harmanpreet Kaur and pacer Pooja Vastrakar. The ICC confirmed that Vastakar has been ruled out of the semifinal match while an update is still awaited on skipper Harman. The ICC has approved Sneh Rana as a replacement for Vastrakar. Rana was part of India’s reserves at the T20 World Cup. “The player has been ruled out due to an upper respiratory tract infection ahead of the crucial contest,” the ICC said in a statement. In case Harman is also ruled out, it will dent India’s chances massively on Thursday as there are also fitness concerns about left-arm spinner Radha Yadav. If Kaur doesn’t recover, then Smriti Mandhana will captain the side against Australia, who are aiming for their third successive T20 World Cup title. India is already starting the match as underdogs and the illness of two of their key player...