CRICKET | Page 2 FFOOTBALLOOTBALL | Page 9 I am no Ranieri gears cheat, says up for another To Advertise here S Africa’s Leicester Call: 444 11 300, 444 66 621 du Plessis ‘fairytale’ Thursday, November 24, 2016 MOTORSPORT Safar 24, 1438 AH Dakar Rally 2017 GULF TIMES route promises to be the toughest yet SPORT Page 4 SPOTLIGHT TENNIS Murray and Djokovic to renew battle for Afridi to play in supremacy in Doha Qatar National Day Cricket Cup Afridi, who has appeared in 398 ODIs, 98 T20s and 27 Tests for Pakistan, has played at the highest level for more than 20 years Great Britain’s Andy Murray (L) and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic after their ATP Tour Finals deciding match on Sunday. By Sports Reporter be motivated to try and stay in that po- Doha sition.” Preparations have already begun for the 25th edition of the Doha tour- he silver jubilee edition of the nament which was launched in 1993 Qatar ExxonMobil Open is when Boris Becker edged Goran Ivani- set for some explosive action sevic in a battle of big servers to lift the Twith Andy Murray and No- inaugural title. From Left: Saqlain H. Rizvi (Managing Partner - Stepco Group), Mohamed Hussain Chowdary (CEO - How Automobile Center), Mohamed bin Mahdi bin Ajayan vak Djokovic renewing their battle for Since then many tennis greats have al-Ahbabi (CEO - Ibin Ajayan Projects), Abdulla Darwish Ashkanani (Ministry of Culture and Sports), Sajjad Choudhry (Managing Director Pro Events) and Manzoor supremacy at the Khalifa Tennis Com- claimed the winner’s trophy, including Ahmed (General Secretary of QCA) at the press conference yesterday. At bottom, Shahid Afridi. plex in January 2017. Stefan Edberg (1994 and 1995), Roger Their thrilling battles in 2016 culmi- Federer (2005, 2006, 2011), Murray By Sports Reporter popularise the game in the country. nated with Murray snatching the world himself (2008, 2009) and Nadal (2014). Doha “These international stars, by number one crown from Djokovic at Other players featuring in the Janu- sharing the dressing room and the Paris masters two weeks ago and ary tournament include Jo-Wilfried playing with them will guide the then confi rming his status by winning Tsonga, the 2012 champion, Tomas akistan star Shahid Afridi local players, who can gain experi- his fi rst ATP Tour fi nals in London last Berdych, Jeremy Chardy, Ivo Karlovic, will be the main attraction ence and become better cricketers,” Sunday. Fernando Verdasco, Dustin Brown and in the Qatar National Day Choudhry said. The 29-year-old Scot’s victory David Goffi n . Cricket Cup match between He said efforts were being made capped an impressive 2016 that also In all, there are 25 direct and three PWorld XI vs Qatar XI on December to bring in more international play- saw him win the Wimbledon and Ol- wild card entries for the tournament in 16, organisers announced yesterday. ers to Qatar for the match. ympic singles titles. addition to four qualifi ers. The former Pakistan captain, who “We are celebrating Qatar Na- Having spent the majority of his Qatar Exxon Mobil Open is the fi rst still plays Twenty20 cricket but has tional Day for second consecutive career overshadowed by the incred- tournament of the season and it gives retired from Tests and One Day In- year, under the patronage and full ible achievements of Djokovic, Roger players the opportunity to prepare for ternationals, is very popular in the support of Ministry of Culture and Federer and Rafael Nadal, Murray the Australian Open, the fi rst Grand subcontinent. And with Asian ex- Sports. I am thankful to the Qatar has expressed his ambition to domi- Slam of the year, held two weeks later pats residing in large numbers in Government in their efforts to pro- nate the Tour next year, and the Doha in Melbourne, Australia. Qatar, Afridi’s presence for a match mote cricket in Qatar.” Choudhry event, the first of 2017 for both play- There will be 32 players in the main on Qatar’s National Day, is a sure- added. ers, could provide an indication of draw with action beginning on January shot crowd puller. The Players will also hold a how things could pan out in the new 2 and the fi nal set for January 7. The exhibition match will be held coaching session in the afternoon season. The qualifying rounds will take place at the 13,000-capacity Asian Town for school children at the Asian “I would like to try and stay there, from December 31, 2016 to January 1, Cricket Stadium in the Industrial Town stadium. Post-match, on the obviously. It’s taken a huge eff ort the 2017. Area. The event is organised by Pro 17th December a gala dinner with last fi ve, six months to get there,” Mur- “We are happy to welcome the world Events in association with How Au- the cricketers will be held at Marsa ray said after beating Djokovic in the once again to Doha. Qatar is the hub tomobile Centre and Stepco Group Malaz Kempinski,The Pearl-Doha. fi nal in London of global sport and we are passion- under the aegis of the Ministry Passes for the gala dinner will be “I’m aware that’s going to be ex- ate about tennis. I’ve no doubt that of Culture and Sports. Ibn Ajayan made available and can be pur- tremely diffi cult because I had a great the 2017 Qatar Exxon Mobil Open will Projects, the facility managers of chased. year this year and I only managed to do surpass the previous editions in all Asian Town Cricket stadium ,are it by one match. aspects,” Tournament Director Karim supporting partners for the event. Confirmed players for the event: “But now that I’ve got there, I would Alami said. Afridi, who has appeared in 398 Shahid Afridi, Salman Butt, Abdul ODIs, 98 T20s and 27 Tests for Pa- Razzaq, Sohaib Maqsood, Kamran kistan, has played at the highest bers. Salman Butt, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Tahir, West Indies’ Jerome Akmal, Umar Akmal, Muhammad level for more than 20 years. He Sohaib Maqsood, Akmal brothers – Taylor, England’s Liam Plunkett, Sami, Saeed Ajmal, Fawad Alam (all Fossati threatens to resign if also holds the record of taking most Kamran and Umar, Mohamed Sami, Sri Lanka’s Farveez Maharoof and Pakistan), Yusuf Pathan, Moham- wickets and most player-of-the Saeed Ajmal and Fawad Alam are the Chaminda Vaas and Afghanistan’s mad Kaif (India), Mohammad Ashra- naturalised players excluded match awards in T20 International Pakistanis lined up for the match. Nawroz Mangal are the others who ful (Bangaldesh), Jerome Taylor cricket. Players from other countries will have confirmed their participation. (West Indies), Herschelle Gibbs, Reuters, Doha: The coach of Qatar’s A spokesman for the QFA declined to Afridi will be joined by present also figure in the match From India, Sajjad Hussain Choudhry, CEO of Imran Tahir (South Africa), Farveez national soccer team has threatened comment. and past cricketers for the T20 Yusuf Pathan and Mohamed Kaif, Pro Events, who has played an active Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas (Sri to resign if a plan being considered by About half of Qatar’s national team are contest, with mostly his Pakistani Bangladesh’s Mohamed Ashraful, role in bringing the cricketers to Qa- Lanka), Nawroz Mangal (Afghani- the country’s football authority (QFA) naturalised citizens, including Rodrigo counterparts making up the num- South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs and tar, said his vision is to promote and stan), Liam Plunkett (England). to exclude naturalised players from the Tabata of Brazil and Uruguay’s Sebas- squad is implemented. tian Soria. In a match against China Jorge Fossati told local sports weekly on Nov. 15 six players in the starting 11 BOTTOMLINE Doha Stadium Plus that a plan by the were naturalised. QFA to reduce the number of foreign- But Qatar has also said it wants to born players could damage Qatar’s foster local interest in sport among its chances of qualifying for its first World roughly 300,000 citizens and to field Infantino kicks off talks on 48-team World Cup Cup finals in Russia in 2018. a homegrown squad when it hosts the “I heard about a plan to exclude 2022 tournament. AFP A 48-team format would see the 16 group “This was all about explaining things, clearing up naturalised players and bring in more World soccer’s governing body FIFA Paris winners of a qualifying round automatically any misunderstandings. I think we managed to do young Qatari players into the national rules state that a player must have book a place in the tournament, while an that,” Infantino told reporters after meeting some 20 team. It (discouraging naturalisation) lived in a country continuously for five additional 32 teams would compete in a new federation representatives. is one point I don’t agree with at this years after the age of 18 before repre- IFA president Gianni Infantino wrapped up pre-tournament play-off “The consensus of the federations here is that eve- stage,” Fossati said. senting the national side. the fi rst of 11 executive meetings with federa- rybody wants an extension (to the World Cup). Fossati, who was hired by Qatar in Sep- Qatar have won one out of five qualify- tion representatives yetserday by saying those teams would compete in a new pre-tournament “Then there are those who are more favourable to tember, said that if the federation went ing matches for the Russia World gathered in Paris were all in favour of expand- play-off. 40 teams and others 48.