Portuguese star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s great Lionel Messi have not been nominated for the Ballon d’Or awards for the first time since 2003.
Six Britishers have been shortlisted for the 30-man International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) 2024 Ballon d’Or award.
Captain Harry Kane, midfielders Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Declan Rice and forwards Bokayo Saka and Cole Palmer are in the running for the 2024 Male Footballer of the Year award. Eight players from Manchester City and Arsenal ranked first and second in the Premier League, respectively, have been nominated for this award.
Spain and Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal, who just turned 17 in July, is also included in the list.
England reached the final of Euro 2024 but lost 2-1 to Spain in Berlin on 14 July.
The Australian cricket team set a world record for chasing a target in T20 while beating Scotland on Wednesday.
The match in Edinburgh saw the Australian team score 113 runs in the first six overs (Power Play). Australia also set the record for achieving a target of 150-plus runs in less than 10 overs.
Batting first, Scotland scored 154 runs for nine wickets. Australia achieved the target in 9.4 overs.
Travis Head scored 80 runs off 25 balls with 5 sixes and 12 fours in his innings, and Mitchell Marsh scored 39 runs off 12 balls with three sixes and 5 fours. Australia beat Scotland by seven wickets in the first T20 match.
Former Indian Test cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s father, Yograj Singh, has publically called out Mahendra Singh Pansingh Dhoni, considered one of the country’s greatest captains, saying that he ruined his son’s career.
“I will never forgive MS Dhoni. He is a great cricketer, but I will never forgive what he did to my son. He should look at his face in the mirror. Everything is coming out now, and it can never be forgiven,” Yograj said.
“I have never done two things in my life: never forgiven someone who has done something wrong and never hugged, be it my family members or my kids. My son could have played for four or five more years; Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag have said there can be no other Yuvraj Singh,” the former cricketer said.
“India should give Bharat Ratna award to my son for playing with cancer”, he added.
Yuvraj Singh’s father, Yugraj Singh, has played one Test and six ODI matches for India.
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni retired in August 2020, but he is still active in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Pakistan’s team bowled out for 274 runs in the first Test against Bangladesh in the Rawalpindi Test.
The first day was washed out due to rain, on the second day, Bangladesh captain Najamul Hasan Shanto won the toss and decided to bowl first.
On behalf of Pakistan, Abdullah Shafiq and Saim Ayub opened the innings, but Tasikn Ahmed bowled Abdullah for zero in the first over.
After the dismissal of Abdullah Shafiq, Saim formed a joint partnership of 107 runs with captain Shan Masood, but Shan scored 57 runs and was dismissed by Mehdi Hasan Miraz. Mehdi Hasan also dismissed Saim on 58 runs.
Apart from this, Saud Shakeel scored 18, Babar Azam 31 runs, Muhammad Rizwan 29 runs, and Salman Ali Agha scored 15 runs.
Bangladesh has a 1-0 lead over Pakistan in the two-Test series.
A video of Pakistan’s left-arm fast bowler Muhammad Amir predicting Shaheen Shah Afridi’s career trajectory all the way back in in 2021 is going viral on social media.
His predictions seems true today.
Shaheen was injured and out of Asia Cup 2022. He was also ruled out of a three-match ODI series ahead of the Asia Cup after suffering a knee injury during the first Test against Sri Lanka. Despite not being included in the squad, Shaheen left for the Netherlands tour, delaying his recovery in time for the Asia Cup.
The left-arm fast bowler is considered one of the most dangerous bowlers in world cricket, especially in the T20 format.
He is one of the permanent players of the Pakistan team. Former cricketers have been demanding that he be given rest to reduce his workload.
After being ruled out of the Asia Cup 2022, the team’s star fast bowler, Muhammad Amir, ‘s 2021 interview went viral, in which he specifically warned the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management about Shaheen possibly getting injured.
He said, “India prepared their bowlers and used them to their best. Look at bowlers like Bumrah, Shami, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who are bowling at speeds of over 140 in domestic. Today, India has different teams, such as batsmen and bowlers, in different formats. They have prepared and included such players in the team according to their needs.”
“In Pakistan, a person wins the lottery and then he continues to play in all three formats. I am not against it, but you should have a rotation policy. Look at Cummins, Hazlewood, and Starc; you will never see them playing all the matches in all formats of the series. If someone plays Tests, he won’t play the first 2 ODIs; if he plays ODIs, he will rest in T20 format. Thus, they can play cricket for a long time,” he further added.
Amir said, “Shaheen is playing more and more. He is still young, but once he crosses 26 and continues to bowl in all three formats, you will surely take back my point that what I was saying was right.”
Pakistan is currently playing a Test series against Bangladesh, and Shaheen has not been included in the squad for the second Test match. Earlier in the first match, his average bowling speed was 127-130 Kilometers per hour (KPH).
The famous French footballer Kylian Mbappe’s X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked on Wednesday night. The hackers took control of the account and shared controversial posts.
The hackers posted posts for the liberation of Palestine, denouncing Israel, and also calling Cristiano Ronaldo better than Lionel Messi in a post on Mbappe’s account.
Later, the French footballer’s account was recovered and all controversial posts were deleted.
This is not the first time that Mbappe’s social media account was hacked. His X account was also hacked in 2019.
