Lionel Messi to stay with Barca
Finally to abide by the contract, Argentinan star Lionel Messi will have to stay with Barcelona. On Friday Messi was left with nothing but to say he would not be going anywhere but stay at Barcelona despite stressing he wanted to leave the club on a free transfer.
Messi said he would never want to drag the Catalans to court over the euro 700 million release clause which has led to disagreement between both the parties.
The decision ended an impasse over his future after he had told Barcelona that he wanted to leave the club for free at the end of the season.
Barcelona wanted him to finish his contract that runs until
Harbhajan Singh becomes the second senior-most player to pull out as a player of the Chennai Super Kings after Suresh Raina for the forth coming Indian Premier League (IPL) which is to start from September 19 in UAE. Is this a jolt to champion side CSK?
While Raina cited personnel reason, the Turbanator is likely to join the team of commentators for the 13th edition of the cash-rich league. Bhaji is making news of him being out off the playing arena with host broadcasters Star India showing interest to rope in the experienced campaigner for commentary duties.
According to Star India official, they will finalise the panel of commentators and with confirmation coming in on Thursday.
The official went to says, "We came to know yesterday that Harbhajan is not going to play this season and we are definitely keen to rope him in for commentary duties during the IPL season".
The 40-year-old, who has been a part of CSK during the past two seasons is currently in Jalandhar, Punjab with his family and requested privacy. The IPL starts on September 19 in the UAE.
ChennaiSuperKingsis unbeateninmatches playedon25thApril. management about my decision to pull out of this year's IPL. I have decided to take a break due to personal reasons in these difficult times. I expect that everyone would respect my need for privacy," said Harbhajan, who was bought by the franchise for Rs 2 crore this season.
"When I told the CSK management about my decision, they were very supportive and I can't thank them enough for that," Harbhajan said.
Harbhajan is one of the most successful bowlers in the history of IPL with 150 wickets and is only third behind Lasith Malinga (170) and Amit Mishra (157).
This has left the MS Dhoniled side with three front-line spinners, Imran Tahir, Mitchell Santner and bowler Piyush Chawla.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and all other Chennai Super Kings players, except for the COVID-19 afflicted duo of Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaikwad, finally hit the nets on Friday after clearing a third round of testing for the virus here. With Deepak and Ruturaj testing positive last week along with 11 members of the CSK contingent, the team was forced to delay its training plan after completing the six-day quarantine, including three tests, upon arrival on August 21.
The coronavirus-free players returned negative in the additional round of testing on Thursday, clearing their way to start training.
"All others, apart from the 13, tested negative for the third time. Those who tested positive will only be tested after the isolation period (two weeks) is over," said the CSK CEO KS Viswanathan.
The results were a major relief to the franchise, which was hit by 13 positive cases last week.
Deepak and Ruturaj, along with 11 staff members of the contingent, will be tested twice by the end of next week when their 14day isolation period gets over. They need to return with two negative tests before being allowed to train.
Deepak is a first team starter in this line-up while Ruturaj is being groomed for the top-order in place of veteran Suresh Raina, who quit the tournament citing personal reasons and is unlikely to make a comeback.