India’s Virat Kohli hits a four in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2024 final match between India and South Africa at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 29, 2024. —Reuters
Despite averaging just 10.7 up to the final of the tournament, opener Virat Kohli Saturday rescued India from early trouble in the World Cup final and his last T20 international match.
Though, the 35-year-old player’s performance in tourney was not up to the mark as in eight matches he scored 75 runs — including 37 against Bangladesh and 24 against Afghanistan, while he scored just 4 versus Pakistan. However, his last batting spell overshadowed all his shortcomings.
The iconic cricketer bludgeoned 76 off 59 balls to help India put 176-7 on board against South Africa in Barbados, before the man for crisis announced his retirement from the national side for T20 format. India won the match by seven runs.
Kohli, often compared to fellow cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar, bowed out in the shortest international format with 4,188 runs in 125 matches including one century and 38 half tons since his debut in 2010.
“This was an open secret,” Kohli said on his T20 exit after the win. “It’s time for the next generation to take over, some amazing players will take the team forward and keep the flag waving high.”
Skipper Rohit Sharma praised his champion player, saying: “No-one was in doubt about the form of Virat, on top of his game for last 15 years. Come the occasion, big players stand up.”
Called “King Kohli” for his prolific run-scoring, the star player has been India’s batting backbone across three international formats for over a decade.
Kohli and India missed out on global titles after the 2013 Champions Trophy, but made a habit of performing in key matches including a match-winning unbeaten 82 against arch-rivals Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Melbourne.
He carried Tendulkar on his shoulders after being part of the 2011 ODI World Cup win and last year went past the batting great’s all-time century record with his 50th ton in last year’s 50-over showpiece at home.
“Virat never played for records. They happened as he progressed,” Kohli’s biographer Vijay Lokapally told AFP.
“His batting skills and work ethic combined to create magic. Longevity leads to milestones and that is what Virat has inherited from stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar.”
Selfies and more
Kohli has invoked a similar emotional response from cricket-crazy Indian and global fans that was once enjoyed by Tendulkar.
His number 18 jersey has an overwhelming presence in all Indian grounds.
The number was selected because he made his ODI debut on August 18, 2008, and to honour his father, Prem, who passed away on December 18, 2006.
With more than 26,000 international runs and a total of 80 centuries across three formats, comparisons with Tendulkar are obvious but Lokapally disagrees.
“He dislikes this comparison. He has his identity. Sachin Tendulkar has his. Their styles differ,” said Lokapally.
“Sachin has faced some ferocious bowlers. Virat has dominated too. Sachin is incomparable. If Virat is enjoying his cricket today it is because of the reputation Indian cricket acquired courtesy of Sachin Tendulkar.”
Known to wear his heart on his sleeve, Kohli has never shied away from a battle on the field and despite his regular brush with controversies the star remains one of the most popular cricketers.
Fans invading the pitch to touch his feet and take selfies remain regular occurrences at Indian venues.
He is also fabulously wealthy, leading India’s list of highest-paid athletes with earnings of $33.9 million mainly from brand endorsements, according to analysts Sportico’s 2022 list.
Kohli went through an extended lean patch that spread across two years since 2021, failing to reach three figures in over 1,000 days.
He quit as T20 skipper in late 2021 and was soon sacked from the ODI captaincy.
Kohli gave up leading the Test side too and later talked about his mental struggles during his dry phase, including how he had been “snappy” around wife Anushka Sharma.
Kohli then hit his first hundred after a gap of 1,020 days in the 2022 T20 World Cup and has not looked back.
Kohli still may have some unfinished business in the T20 game. As a star batter for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, he has yet to land an Indian Premier League title.
Talks between Clemson, Florida State and the ACC have ramped up in recent weeks, according to sources, on a proposal that would allot a greater share of revenue to schools based on brand valuation and television ratings, as well as potentially alter the expiration of the league’s grant of rights — which currently runs through 2036 — in exchange for the Tigers and Seminoles dropping their lawsuits against the conference.
According to multiple sources within the league, the conversations are preliminary and the sides are not close to an agreement, but the conversations represent a strong signal that Florida State and Clemson are open to remaining in the conference under more favorable financial terms.
The proposal, which was formulated by Clemson and Florida State and discussed by the league’s presidents during Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting, includes additional money going to schools with better ratings success in football and basketball.
While the proposal has not been widely distributed or discussed among conference athletic directors, administrators from more than a half-dozen schools who spoke with ESPN said they would at least be open to some altered revenue split.
In 2022-23, the ACC distributed an average of $44.8 million per school, roughly $7 million less than the SEC; however, that difference is expected to grow to more than $30 million when accounting for the SEC’s new television contract, which began this year.
Florida State athletic director Michael Alford has called the forthcoming revenue gap an existential threat, and he pushed for the ACC to divide revenue unequally during the league’s 2023 spring meetings, asking for more money to go to schools that had success on the field as well as those that drew the highest ratings for television. The league ultimately agreed to institute a new revenue-sharing policy dubbed “success initiatives” that would reward programs that made bowl games, the College Football Playoff or the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament with a higher share of postseason revenue, but at the time, ADs were not interested in any plan that included brand valuation or television ratings, too.
In the months that followed, however, Florida State and Clemson filed lawsuits against the ACC in an effort to extricate themselves from the league’s grant of rights, which binds each member’s media rights to the ACC through June 2036. The ACC countersued both parties in North Carolina. To date, little movement has occurred on the legal front, and should the cases go to trial, a final resolution to the lawsuits could still be years away, according to attorneys for all sides. As part of a judge’s ruling in Leon County, Florida, the sides were required to enter into mediation, which is when discussions about ratings-based revenue splits took on new life.
Within the proposal put forth by Clemson and Florida State, the term of the grant of rights would also be reduced — potentially as early as 2030 — to better fall in line with the expiration of TV deals in the Big 12 and Big Ten.
While the basic talking points of the proposal had some support within member schools, there were significant questions about the details. As one athletic director who supported the general idea noted, properly evaluating something like TV ratings can be difficult with numerous outside factors influencing kickoff times, networks and ratings share that may not directly reflect a program’s value.
Several administrators who did not support the proposal did admit there was a potential incentive to continue discussions if it helped insure the future of the conference for the foreseeable future, with one noting that it would be better than seeing the ACC fall apart completely and another suggesting a brand-based revenue split could be inevitable for every league as TV contracts continue to grow and leagues continue to expand.
The ACC is also in talks with ESPN, which holds an exclusive option to extend the league’s television contract from 2027 through 2036. ESPN must pick up or decline the option by February 2025.
The ACC declined to comment on the status of discussions on changes to the revenue distribution model, but in May, commissioner Jim Phillips said he was open to all options that would secure the league’s standing.
“You have to stay optimistic,” Phillips said, “and you work through these things. We’ll manage what we have to manage, and I’m always optimistic about a really good ending out of this situation. I won’t have a change until somebody else tells me different. But am I going to fight for the ACC? Absolutely. That’s my responsibility.”
MIAMI — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent series at the Atlanta Braves marked the first time in more than three months that Shohei Ohtani went four consecutive games without a home run or a stolen base. It was a rut he had not been in since June 6 to 9.
Ohtani finally snapped that streak on Tuesday, hitting a third-inning home run in an 11-9 loss to the lowly Miami Marlins.
Ohtani, who has 48 homers and 48 steals with 11 games remaining, said he is “just one little thing away” from feeling good with the mechanics of his swing again. He also denied feeling any pressure to become the first player in baseball history to reach the 50/50 mark before the regular season wraps.
“No pressure,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Just trying to maintain quality at-bats regardless of the situation. It’s something I’ve been trying to do over the course of the entire season.”
Ohtani trails only Aaron Judge (53) for the major league lead in homers and only Elly De La Cruz (64) for the major league lead in steals while hitting .287/.372/.611 — numbers that seemingly have him on pace to become the first full-time designated hitter to win an MVP, especially considering New York Mets star Francisco Lindor’s recent back injury. Ohtani’s power has been on display throughout the year, but his batting average (.236) and on-base percentage (.301) have fallen off since the start of August.
Lately, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he has noticed that the 50/50 milestone is “front of mind” for Ohtani, even if it isn’t necessarily providing pressure. Roberts has observed Ohtani pulling pitches more frequently rather than spraying them into the gaps, which is triggering more predetermined swings as opposed to seeing pitches deeper into the strike zone.
“And I do feel that’s somewhat natural,” Roberts said. “I just think he wants to get it over with — but with the fact that he’s still trying to compete and help us win baseball games.”
Roberts recently opened the door to Ohtani potentially pitching in the postseason, saying the chances are “very slim” but “not zero.”
Ohtani has been intermittently throwing bullpen sessions and could face hitters soon. He and the Dodgers’ pitching coaches have not talked about him contributing off the mound in the playoffs, a circumstance that might not even be possible until the World Series. But Ohtani said they’ll all meet when the team returns to L.A. this weekend to discuss the rest of his rehab schedule.
Asked if he believes he could physically do it, given the toll of returning from major elbow surgery in a high-pressure environment, Ohtani gave a wry smile.
The New York Liberty clinched the top seed in the WNBA playoffs with an 87-71 victory at Washington on Tuesday night.
At 32-7, the Liberty are guaranteed the league’s best record with one game to go.
This marks the second time the Liberty, an original WNBA franchise dating to 1997, will have the best record in a season. The other came in 2015, when the WNBA played a 34-game schedule and New York was 23-11.
Minnesota, which defeated Connecticut 78-76 on Tuesday, moved to 30-9 and will be the No. 2 seed. Connecticut is 27-12 and currently in third place. Las Vegas, 26-13 after winning at Seattle, is in fourth.
Coach Sandy Brondello said it was one of the Liberty’s goals to get the No. 1 seed. Last year, New York was the No. 2 seed and lost in the WNBA Finals to top-seeded Las Vegas.
After losing 88-79 at home to Minnesota on Sunday, Brondello said she wanted her team to be angry at how it played and it responded.
“We started talking about it after Minnesota … they were playing playoff basketball and we weren’t,” Brondello said. “So we have to learn from that. We put the emphasis tonight on, ‘OK, it’s playoff basketball now.’
“These games are very meaningful; it was clinching the No. 1. [In the playoffs] it goes to another level. That’s our focus, just that mentality. The extra physicality, we have to play better. Also continue to trust what’s got us here and make sure we’re playing in the right way.”
Breanna Stewart led New York with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
The Liberty don’t know who they will face in the first round of the playoffs, which begin Sunday. Atlanta holds the eighth and final playoff spot after its 86-70 victory over injury-riddled Chicago on Tuesday.
Atlanta is 14-25, while Washington and Chicago are 13-26. That means the last playoff team won’t be decided until the final night of the regular season Thursday, when all 12 teams play. Atlanta will face New York, Washington will play Indiana and Chicago will meet Connecticut.
Indiana already has secured the No. 6 seed and Phoenix the No. 7 seed.
Islamabad: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi assured the delegation of the International Cricket Council (ICC), who visited Pakistan in connection with the Champions Trophy, for the timely completion of the stadiums’ upgradation.
According to the details released by the PCB spokesperson, the ICC met the Chairman PCB Naqvi in Islamabad, in which a detailed discussion was held regarding the preparations for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament.
In the meeting, security arrangements for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament were also discussed, while the delegation expressed satisfaction over the arrangements for the Champions Trophy in Karachi and Rawalpindi.
Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi has assured world-class arrangements for the ICC Champions Trophy and that the upgrade work of all stadiums will be completed before the Champions Trophy.
Mohsin Naqvi stated that foolproof security arrangements will be made for all the teams. After the upgradation, the stadiums will have international standard facilities and the fans will enjoy cricket matches more. Pakistani people love the game of cricket and support all the teams.
The delegation included ICC Senior Manager Events Sarah Edgar, Event Manager and Champions Trophy Event Lead Aoun Muhammad Zaidi, General Manager Cricket Wasim Khan, Security Manager David Musker and Broadcast Consultant Mansoor Manj.
