Often, youth hockey development happens relatively close to home. Canadian teenagers typically live with billet families when they start to play in one of the three regional major junior leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League. Top United States prospects may aim for a well-established hockey prep school, often in their home region, with their sights set on joining the national team development program in Plymouth, Mich., at age 16. In Europe and Russia, many players climb a ladder within one organization, playing youth hockey, under-20 and men’s league on affiliated teams, often in their home regions.

Britain’s former world number one Andy Murray has been awarded a wildcard for February’s Australian Open, tournament director Craig Tiley said on Sunday. The main draw entry for the first Grand Slam of 2021 comes two years after Murray, the five-time runner-up in Melbourne, played what he feared would be his final professional match there, losing in the first round to Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.”We welcome Andy back to Melbourne with open arms,” Tiley said. Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray went on to have hip resurfacing surgery in January last year but made his comeback to win the Antwerp title nine months later. He missed most of the 2020 season due to complications with his hip and struggled for form on his return after the COVID-19 hiatus, suffering a second-round defeat in the U.S. Open before falling in the opening round at Roland Garros. The 33-year-old will begin his 2021 season at the Delray Beach Open next month after accepting a wildcard for the ATP 250 tournament. The Australian Open has been pushed back three weeks to start on Feb. 8 due to COVID-19 measures.

Within minutes later, a header from Edu Garcia from the centre allowed Hernandez to take an opportunistic shot from outside the box but CFC goalkeeper Vishal Kaith produced a timely dive to punch it out. After starting aggressively in the first ten minutes, CFC felt the absence of Rafael Criverllaro and Anirudh Thapa to provide the creative input in the midfield. CFC had an early chance in the eighth minute when Rahim Ali went for glory with a long-ranger but was off-target. Even in the second half, ATKMB created far more chances than CFC, which did not look like a team looking to score.

season will begin Wednesday with some drastic modifications to its format and at least one delayed opener because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Monday that he did not expect the league to have access to vaccines for players, staff members and other personnel this season. Commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday that he expected losses from a lack of attendance to exceed $1 billion and for the league to lose more money than if it had canceled the season, though the player agent Allan Walsh called that characterization “a deliberate and intentionally misleading statement.” Attendance, Bettman said, accounts for about 50 percent of N.H.L. Bettman said Lake Tahoe would host the league for the first time — with two games against a backdrop of snowy mountains, a gleaming lake and zero spectators.

Three individuals, including 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu’s coach Sylvain Bruneau, tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Melbourne on flights from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi. That luxury however, will not be granted to the 63 players who were on board the three planes that had an individual (no players) test positive. Amidst the complaints that players were uninformed and are being treated unfairly, New Zealand’s doubles specialist Artem Sitak posted a video to put matters “into perspective.” “We had a call with Tennis Australia about a month ago, and not a lot of players were on that call, which was surprising to me,” said the doubles World No.78, who was on board the flight from Los Angeles that had two positive cases.“Tennis Australia and the organisers told us the risks that we were going to be undertaking and they did mention that if somebody tests positive on the flight it will be up to the health authorities to decide whether they want to quarantine the whole flight or isolate compartments of the plane.”

Will feature in a star-studded exhibition in Adelaide this monthWorld No.1 Ashleigh Barty will make her first top-level tennis appearance in nearly a year when she joins a star-studded exhibition in Adelaide this month, organisers said on Thursday. Barty, who has remained on top of the rankings despite not playing since last February, joins a field which also includes Major-winners Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep.“I am looking forward to playing my first match for the 2021 season in Adelaide,” Barty said in a statement.

The National table tennis championships venue has been moved from Sonipat to Panchkula, near Chandigarh, and the dates advanced to February 15-23. Meanwhile, the National cadet and sub-junior championships is due to start at Indore on February 18. Initially, Indore was to hold the National youth and junior championships. Since several youth and junior players play the senior Nationals too, the cadet and sub-junior Nationals was offered to Indore.

Qualifier Shruti Ahlawat played with confidence to oust second-seeded Reshma Maruri 7-6(4), 6-3 in the girls’ quarterfinals of the ITF grade-4 junior tennis tournament here at the DLTA Complex on Thursday. In the semifinals, Shruti will play fellow qualifier Sanjana Devineni of the US. In the boys’ event, the tall Chirag Duhan put out the second seed Sanjith Devineni for the loss of five games. Singles (quarterfinals): Boys: Nishant Dabas bt Manas Dhamne 6-1, 6-2; Nikhil Niranjan (US) bt Kirtan Patel (Can) 6-2, 6-1; Ajay Malik bt Aman Dahiya 7-5, 3-6, 6-4; Chirag Duhan bt Sanjith Devineni (US) 6-1, 6-4.

The Indian junior women’s hockey team rallied from a goal down to script a stunning 3-2 win over the Chilean senior side here. Deepika (39th minute), Sangita Kumari (45th) and Lalrindiki (47th) scored for India after Fernanda Villagran (21st) gave the host the advantage. It was India’s third consecutive victory on the tour. It had defeated the Chile junior side twice earlier this week.

FIFA has gone on the offensive amid ongoing speculation about a European Super League, insisting that any breakaway by leading clubs “would not be recognised by either FIFA or the respective confederation” while players would risk being banned from the World Cup and other major tournaments if involved.“Any club or player involved in such a competition would as a consequence not be allowed to participate in any competition organised by FIFA or their respective confederation,” said Thursday’s statement, signed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino along with the heads of all six continental confederations including UEFA. In October, outgoing Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu dropped a bombshell in a statement announcing his resignation, as he also claimed the club had accepted a proposal to join other clubs in “a future European Super League”.“In the European football pyramid, every player has the opportunity to play in a club which can qualify from the base of the pyramid to the very top of professional football,” the European Leagues president Lars-Christer Olsson said in a statement.

Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma on Thursday said Lasith Malinga’s presence will be missed around the squad as the pacer announced his retirement from franchise cricket on Wednesday. It thanked him for the memorable moments he gave to the team, especially on the final ball of a championship match. The ball moves, dips, and finds the base of the stump through the batsman’s defence,” Mumbai Indians tweeted. But the most memorable ones came on the final ball of the match.

Irving added 37 points in his first game back from a two-week absence due to personal reasons, while Harden posted his second triple-double in three games as a Net with 21 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Clint Capela scored a season-high 27 points and grabbed a career-high 26 rebounds to help Atlanta erase a 17-point, fourth-quarter deficit and beat visiting Detroit in overtime. Detroit’s Jerami Grant had a career-high 32 points and posted his 13th straight game with at least 20 points. Kristaps Porzingis collected 27 points and 13 rebounds while Trey Burke added 22 points off the bench to lift Dallas over Indiana in Indianapolis.

While England only needs a draw here to clinch another Test series in Sri Lanka, it’s a result that will be far from the minds of Joe Root’s line-up when the second match starts on Friday. The final will be played in June and, to remain in calculation, England needs to win the second Test against Sri Lanka and then travel to India and win that series, too. England hasn’t lost a series in Sri Lanka since 2007, having generally countered spin bowling well. Root was in command in the first Test, scoring 228 in the first innings to set England on course for a seven-wicket win after Sri Lanka was skittled for 135.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side had been leapfrogged by Leicester City on Tuesday and then Manchester City, which beat Aston Villa 2-0 earlier on Wednesday, but responded with an eighth away win of the season. United moved to the top with 40 points from 19 games, two points above City, which has played a game less, and Leicester. Earlier, City moved to the top temporarily after a brilliant home win over Aston Villa. Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski struck a first half penalty to help Bayern Munich earn a nervous 1-0 victory at Augsburg and stay four points clear at the top at the season's halfway mark.

Siraj, who played a significant role in India’s historic Test series win in Australia, it was an emotional homecoming on Thursday. Reflecting on the captaincy styles of Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli, Siraj said both were very good, with the same objective — see India win. Kept on encouraging us,” Siraj said.I’ll play my heart out whenever I get the chance to represent India, which was my father’s biggest room,” Siraj said.

Gill’s assured debut series in Australia shows he can excel at the highest levelRight from his maiden Test innings at Melbourne, Gill has shown he has the skills and the temperament to excel at the most demanding form of cricket, in the most demanding of conditions. From six innings, he made 259 runs at an average of 51.80 (he averages 66.55 in First Class cricket). The numbers are excellent for a debutant opener in Australia against a lethal attack, but the manner in which he made those runs matters more.

England names the touring party for first two TestsEngland all-rounder Ben Stokes and fast bowler Jofra Archer will return for the four-Test series in India next month as the country’s cricket board (ECB) named on Thursday the squad for the first two matches. Batsman Rory Burns also returns to the side after he skipped the Sri Lanka tour to stay at home for the birth of his first child but Ollie Pope has yet to recover from a shoulder injury and will be added to the squad only when he passes a fitness test. England’s selectors have decided to rest Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran and Mark Wood, who are currently in Sri Lanka while Craig Overton will also return home after the second Test in the island nation.

Sindhu outclassed Malaysia’s World No. World No.31 Sameer stunned World No. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also made it to the quarterfinals with a 22-20, 14-21, 21-16 win over World No.

The San Diego Padres, long one of Major League Baseball’s quietest teams, jolted the sport this week. Padre,” Gwynn has spent most of his life in the area, watching his father, playing with the team himself and now working as a broadcaster for the club. He watched the 2020 Padres become one of the most electrifying teams in an M.L.B. Realmuto — and teams are confronting the dire financial consequences of the pandemic, the Padres have already added roughly $100 million in salary commitments over the next few years.

Washington (62) and Shardul (67) led a splendid lower-order fightback after India were reduced to 186 for 6 in reply to Australia's 369Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has admired the discipline and application of Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur for their brilliant rear-guard batting effort, which kept India in contention in the series-deciding fourth Test here. Washington (62) and Shardul (67) led a splendid lower-order fightback after India were reduced to 186 for 6 in reply to Australia's 369. Ponting said the flat Gabba wicket did not help the lethal Australian fast bowling trio, while also crediting the Indians for their fighting spirit throughout the series.

Andrea Pirlo won his first trophy as a coach on Wednesday as Juventus defeated Napoli 2-0 in the Italian Super Cup. Juventus won the annual trophy, played between the league champion and Italian Cup holder, for the ninth time, having finished runner-up last year to Lazio. Pirlo won his first silverware five months after taking over at his former club. It was the first meeting between Pirlo and Napoli coach Gennaro Gattuso, who won the 2006 World Cup together and spent a decade as AC Milan teammates, winning two Serie A titles and two Champions League crowns together.

Andy Murray in action at the US Open. Andy Murray has pulled out of the season-opening Delray Beach Open in Florida next week to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 ahead of the Australian Open in February. Murray, who missed most of the 2020 season due to complications with his hip and struggled for form on his return after the COVID-19 hiatus, accepted a wildcard for the Jan. 7-13 ATP 250 tournament last week. The tournament serves as a warm-up for the Australian Open in Melbourne, which will begin three weeks later than scheduled on Feb. 8 due to COVID-19 health and safety measures.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley has confirmed the year’s first Grand Slam will go ahead from Feb. 8 despite anger from players forced into hard quarantine in Melbourne due to positive COVID-19 cases on their charter planes. Forty-seven players and their entourages have to isolate for two weeks in their hotel rooms in Melbourne and are no longer able to leave them to train after infections were reported on two chartered flights carrying them to Melbourne. Quarantine authorities said they had recorded a fourth COVID-19 infection among the passengers on the two charter flights carrying players to Melbourne. Bruneau was a passenger on a charter flight carrying 23 players from Abu Dhabi. Some of the affected players complained about their detention, saying they had not been adequately advised.

Hazlewood conceded that Australia let a few moments slip in the day, which could have eventually made the difference. Australia speedster Josh Hazlewood on Sunday credited Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur for taking India to a safe position with their century stand but rued the execution of home team bowlers in finishing off the visitors tail on the third day of the series-deciding fourth Test in Brisbane. Hazlewood conceded that Australia let a few moments slip in the day, which could have eventually made the difference.“He has still batted a bit of time here and there but we have really squeezed on the runs and I think that is playing on in his mind and bringing to his downfall.” Hazlewood said the match is at present evenly-poised and a call on declaration in their second innings will be made taking into consideration all factors, including the weather.

When Shardul Thakur stepped out to bat on Sunday, rescuing India from a precarious 186/6 was not the only target on his mind as he was also keen to impress the Australian crowd after being told how “rewarding” it would feel by coach Ravi Shastri. India were staring down the barrel at 186 for six on the third day of the fourth and final Test but Thakur (67) joined hands with debutant Washington Sundar (62) for a combative 123-run seventh wicket stand which helped his team cut down Australia’s first innings lead to just 33 runs. Crowd would make noise, but If I bat well, the same crowd will cheer for me,” Thakur said at a virtual post-play press conference. Thakur spoke about his love for batting and how he waited for such an opportunity.