Diego Maradona's daughter Giannina has urged fans of the Argentina great to gather on March 10 at the Obelisk, Buenos Aires' historic monument, to demand "Justice for Diego".

Maradona died at the age of 60 of a heart attack on Nov. 25, two weeks after being released from a hospital in Buenos Aires following successful brain surgery.

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A total of seven individuals, including neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, who performed Maradona's brain surgery, and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who treated the former Napoli star, are under investigation following his death.

Argentinian authorities are attempting to determine if there was negligence in Maradona's treatment following the operation. Three individuals could face a criminal case for manslaughter if found negligent.

"Justice for Diego - he didn't die, they killed him. Demand justice and punishment for those responsible" is the rallying cry of the organisers.

Giannina Maradona took to Twitter and urged fans to attend the gathering. She wrote: "Please! See you all there!" She added: "The truth will always come to light."

The San Isidro prosecutors' office will convene with specialists two days before the gathering at the Obelisk to establish if there was malpractice from those under investigation.

Maradona's eldest daughter, Dalma Maradona, tweeted this week: "How long will it be before Luque goes to prison??? And the useless psychiatrist and psychologists???? And the nurse????WHAT IS JUSTICE WAITING FOR???"

Audios of private conversations between doctors and individuals from Maradona's entourage were leaked to the media and have indicated the former Barcelona player was not being properly looked after prior to his death.

Dalma said she vomited after listening to the alleged audio messages exchanged between Luque and Cosachov on the day of the Argentina legend's death.

At every top club there is the internal conflict between the need to modernise and expand -- reaching out to new global fans and recruiting the world's best talent -- and maintaining their identity through a shared sense of history and culture, and Liverpool are no different.

Stephen Done has seen many changes at the club, both in his lifetime as a supporter and a quarter of a century as their historian and chief curator of the Anfield museum. Few changes have been as significant as the recent departure after more than 70 years from Melwood, the beloved training ground that was revolutionised by club's great manager Bill Shankly and became a part of club folklore, to a new state-of-the-art complex a few miles up the road in Kirkby.

A key part of the job for Done and his counterparts at other clubs is to bridge the divide between the future and the past. No single item does that better for Liverpool's staff than the one which takes pride of place just outside the manager's office at the new training ground.

"Just outside the area where the senior management all work, there's an area with a couple of chairs and a lovely glass-topped table, and inside that is Bill Shankly's typewriter," Done tells ESPN. "It's the typewriter he used all the time at home, to write all of his wonderful letters and correspondence with Liverpool fans."

An excerpt from a letter which sits in the feed roller of the typewriter, dated Sept. 11, 1970, reads:

"I am glad you have enjoyed seeing the team play and have derived pleasure from it. I have certainly enjoyed working for the "Reds" public. Mind you, it is hard work and of course very demanding. I realise that only the best will do, and that nobody can kid them. I don't try to kid them."

"There's something so prosaic and humble about it, and the modern management team wanted it as a connection to the past," Done adds. "It's what we at the LFC museum try to do -- re-use our club history in a meaningful way that still has resonance today."

This week the club auctioned off around 400 lots of Melwood memorabilia, with a proportion of the proceeds raised being donated to the LFC Foundation.

The auction raised a total of £373,000 ($521,000) thanks to the sale of unique items such as the "Champions Wall" (£30,000), two couches from manager Jurgen Klopp's office (£3,200 and £1,600) and even more basic pieces such as the name plate on Divock Origi's parking space (£500). The auction offered fans a rare chance to own a genuine piece of Liverpool history that could not fit in the club's own extensive collection.

Done was recruited to set up the museum in the mid-1990s. A mark of how seriously the club took the project was Roy Evans, the club's first-team manager at the time, being on the interview panel. "Last time I saw Roy, he said it was the worst decision he ever made!"

Since opening the museum at Anfield in 1997, millions of fans have passed through its doors to see exhibitions that Done has curated. In 2019, 328,000 visitors came to learn about the club's rich past, from their humble beginnings in the 1890s right through to the present day.

The museum is already full of the trophies and medals won by the Liverpool teams of yesteryear, containing around 600 items in total, but this new era of success has added a fresh influx of modern pieces added to the collection.

In September the Liverpool museum has opened an exhibition called (borrowing a turn of phrase from Klopp) the "Boom Room," which picks up the club story from the point the Reds lifted the 2018-19 Champions League trophy in Madrid and takes in their subsequent Premier League and FIFA Club World Cup successes.

The exhibition includes the jersey Trent Alexander-Arnold wore in the Champions League final win, donated by the right-back ("he's a bright lad because he knows that his shirt will probably never go off display, so he'll always know exactly where it is!") as well as the shirts worn by Mohamed Salah and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain during the Merseyside derby in June 2020 -- Liverpool's first game after the league restart following the first national COVID-19 lockdown. That day, all players in the Premier League wore the "Black Lives Matter" message above the numbers on their shirts instead of their names, and also wore badges in tribute to the NHS.

"This was a really big moment with all that was going on in the world at the time so those match-worn shirts, with those two gestures, are a piece of history," Done said. "They're part of a national and international story, and they're ours. I know for a fact that the National Football Museum were desperate to get them."

The Boom Room also contains the very pair of glasses that Klopp wore as Liverpool beat Tottenham to lift the Champions League trophy (which sustained some damage in the ensuing revelry), as well as to keep the confetti from falling in his eyes on the subsequent bus parade.

It turns out that Klopp has donated a total of three pairs of his trademark spectacles ("all really expensive, all authentic, all worn at significant moments") to the club for posterity: he also gave up the pair he wore during the Premier League celebrations, while a further pair have been buried at Kirkby as part of a time capsule. "The ones in the capsule are obviously important too, but perhaps the pair we could most afford to bury underground for the next 50 years!"

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While you would expect to find match-worn memorabilia on a visit to any club museum, Done also had the foresight to retrieve some seemingly commonplace, insignificant items that help to fill out the incredible story.

"On the open-top bus tour for the 2019 Champions League, I actually scooped up a lot of the confetti that landed on the bus and so we have some of that displayed," Done said. "We've got a whopping great bag of the ticker tape from the Premier League trophy celebrations [behind closed doors on a platform specially built at Anfield]. These are all just little moments, captured forever.

"It's just an attempt to bottle a moment that so many of us fans had to watch remotely. In fact. we've also got a special bottle of beer that was actually signed by all the staff and players who were there on the evening -- one of the only bottles they didn't open and spray everywhere!"

When it comes to the most valuable item in the Liverpool museum collection, an obvious pick might be former Liverpool and England striker Roger Hunt's 1966 World Cup winners' medal, one of only two from that tournament on public display in the world. However, there is another piece that has soared in value in recent years, thanks largely to UEFA and their administrative policies.

"Our Champions League trophy from 2005 [Liverpool's fifth triumph in the competition] is the last real genuine trophy that UEFA allowed the winning club to keep before they changed the rules," Done explained. "Now, winners have to hand the real trophy back after the ceremony. Ours is the one that all those previous teams held up, drank from, dropped, dented -- and it's in the LFC museum forever. What price can you put on that?"

Speaking of priceless, every museum curator has a "Holy Grail" piece that they dream of adding to their collection, and Done is no different.

"It'll never happen and I'm sure nobody will ever find it, but I would love to have a Liverpool shirt from 1892-93, our first ever shirt from our first ever season," Done said.

"They were blue-and-white halved shirts and I'm absolutely certain none will have survived, but I'd love to be proven wrong. I live in hope. That would be at the very top of my list, and these things do happen from time to time..."

When setting Liverpool's achievements of the last few years against the club's great golden eras of the past, Done was unequivocal.

"It's certainly not going to fade away!" he replied. "People still talk about Istanbul. It was one of the greatest European finals of all time, but at some point you start to realise that 2005 was a long time ago, a generation in fact.

"Then you realise we not only won the Champions League in 2019, but three titles in total -- titles that we'd been desperately chasing. That's when you realise that incredible year is going to live on in the memory for a long, long time."

For most professional sports these days, we end up spending a lot of time marveling at two different groups of athletes: the players who should be past their respective primes but keep playing at a particularly elite level, and those who are coming for the throne. The Patrick Mahomeses vs. the Tom Bradys, the Naomi Osakas vs. the Serena Williamses, etc.

This is particularly true in the world of soccer in 2021. You can't walk 10 feet without tripping over a "Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland vs. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo" narrative these days. To be sure, we do this because it's fascinating, but focusing on this general narrative structure causes us to miss some other interesting stories. You know, like that of Ilkay Gundogan.

The 30-year-old from Gelsenkirchen has been a part of two mini-dynasties: first, he was a regular for Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund, winning the 2012 Bundesliga title and reaching the 2013 Champions League final; then in 2016 he joined Manchester City, where he became an integral piece of Pep Guardiola's 2018 and 2019 Premier League championship squads.

Gundogan has long been a durable provider. He has logged at least 48 matches in all competitions for each of the past three seasons, and in league play he's typically been good for three to five goals, 25 to 35 chances created, 150 or so ball recoveries and lots of dutiful advancement of the ball from the middle third to the attacking third. With City hit by a series of injuries to their centre-forwards, however, and struggling to reliably create quality scoring chances, Gundogan has tried on a new hat of late.

Here are the leading goal scorers in the Premier League since mid-December:

3. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool: 7
2. Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United: 8
1. Ilkay Gundogan, Manchester City: 11

Even though he had zero goals as of the morning of Dec. 15, Gundogan now ranks eighth in the league in goals scored for the season. His first goal came that day in a 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion; City have won every single match since.

Gundogan is neither an aging all-timer like Messi or Ronaldo, nor is he part of the precocious new generation of soccer greats. But he's been as responsible as anyone for City's 21-match win streak, which has converted the Premier League race from a battle royale into a City romp.

Every year, there are stories of late bloomers or players adapting their games as they enter (or begin to leave) their primes. It's time to celebrate some of them. Let's hand out the first annual Gundogan Awards.

All of the players below are at least 27 years old and have figured out ways to move their game into unfounded (or at least rarely founded) territory this season. We'll give out awards to two players from each of Europe's Big Five leagues, then hand out a few bonus awards as well.

English Premier League

Ilkay Gundogan, MF, Manchester City (30 years old)

After averaging four goals and 32 chances created in the past three league seasons, Gundogan is on pace for 16 and 41, respectively, this year. He had never scored more than six goals in league play, except he's scored seven since Jan. 25. His touch map screams "CENTRAL MIDFIELDER," and with very good reason, but suddenly he teleports, unmarked, into the middle of the box to put away rebounds and crosses.

If you would have asked me who would lead City in scoring at the beginning of the season, Gundogan would have been either my eighth or ninth guess, depending on the area of the pitch where I thought Joao Cancelo would be spending most of his time. But he has been the key cog in Guardiola's attacking reinvention, and City has benefited magnificently for it.

Liam Cooper, DF, Leeds United (29)

Who doesn't love a good perseverance story? Center-back Cooper went more than 10 years between Premier League appearances -- from Mar. 13, 2010, with Hull City to Sept. 19, 2020, with Leeds. He bounced from Hull to Carlisle United to Huddersfield Town to Chesterfield, before landing with Leeds in 2014-15, and he was a massive piece of their promotion push over the past couple of seasons.

After 16 years in the lower divisions, Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds are holding their own back in the Premier League, and Cooper has been a major reason why. He's winning 64% of his duels and 60% of his aerials. He's averaging more than seven ball recoveries per 90 minutes, just as he did in the Championship, and his pass completion rates have actually increased to 86%. He's also been Leeds' primary tactical fouler and interventionist, something every good possession team needs.

Patrick Bamford, another late bloomer of sorts, has drawn a lot of the individual headlines, but his counterpart at the back of the lineup has been as responsible for Leeds' success as just about anyone.

German Bundesliga

Raphael Guerreiro, DF, Borussia Dortmund (27)

Granted, Guerreiro's surge really began last year, when he scored a career-high eight goals. But his evolution has continued this season; as the full-back position continues to take on more of a role in attack, Guerreiro continues to be a model left-back. FBref.com lists him in the 94th percentile or higher among Big Five full-backs in basically all offensive categories: progressive passes and carries, completion rate, shots, non-penalty goals, assists, etc.

While BVB have struggled at times in league play, Guerreiro's partnership with left winger Jadon Sancho has been one of the most dangerous in Europe -- the two have combined for 17 league assists (they are the top two on the team) and nine goals. Only 10 Big Five players have more assists than Guerreiro, and none line up as far back on the pitch.

Willi Orban, DF, RB Leipzig (28)

Dayot Upamecano has justifiably earned a lot of praise in recent years as one of the sport's great young defenders, so it made perfect sense that he was the subject of numerous transfer rumours before Bayern Munich arranged to procure his services beginning in July. Upamecano's batterymate in central defence, however, has been every bit as important to RB Leipzig's success.

Since hopping onto the Red Bull train from Kaiserslautern in RBL's last year in the second division, Orban has amassed more and more skills. In the past two seasons alone, his aerial success rate has gone from 61% to 67% to 71%. His duel success rate improved from 63% to 67% last season and has remained there this year. He's begun to pounce on more loose balls as well (more than five ball recoveries per 90 minutes), and now he's a creator, too? After averaging 3.3 chances created over the past four seasons, he's already amassed eight this year. He's also scored four times, tying a career high.

Italian Serie A

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, MF, AS Roma (32)

Like Gundogan, Mkhitaryan thrived at Borussia Dortmund before jumping to the Premier League. But after combining 11 goals and 15 assists at BVB in 2015-16, the attacking midfielder never topped six goals or nine assists in three EPL seasons at Manchester United and Arsenal. After moving on loan to Roma in 2019, he completed a permanent move in August, and it's worked out well for both parties. Mkhitaryan ranks 12th in Serie A with nine goals and first with eight assists -- he's on pace for 14 and 13, respectively -- and after finishing eight points out of the Champions League chase last season, Roma are currently hanging within two points following last weekend's 2-1 loss to AC Milan.

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Juan Cuadrado, DF, Juventus (32)

This one comes with an asterisk: Cuadrado has been snake-bitten so far in 2021, missing five matches with coronavirus, then missing two weeks and counting with a bicep injury.

One thing is certain, however: when the right-back plays well, Juve win. He's averaged 0.43 xG+xA (expected goals and expected assists) and 2.7 chances per 90 minutes in wins this year, and his overall 0.34 xA+xG average is his best since 2017-18. Like Cooper, he has also been stellar in the tactical fouls department: his 1.4 fouls per 90 are his highest since 2016-17, and they've mostly served a purpose.

Cuadrado's development has been interesting to track. He landed at Chelsea in 2014 in part because of his attacking prowess -- he had scored 21 goals in all competitions in his last two seasons at Fiorentina. But after scoring 13 goals in his first three seasons at Juve, he's scored only four in the last three. He's moved further back on the pitch and has figured out ways to provide value all the same.

Spanish Primera Division

Casemiro, MF, Real Madrid (29)

A steady contributor for years at Real Madrid, Casemiro has adapted his game in many of the same ways as Gundogan. Since the start of the 2018-19 season, following Ronaldo's departure, Los Blancos have had a bit more of an "all hands on deck" approach to scoring goals. Omitting penalties, Karim Benzema has led the way with a voluminous 46 in that span, but Casemiro is second with 12; five have come since Nov. 28, a majority of those from set pieces. (The assister: Toni Kroos, who would also be eligible for a Gundogan Award if he hadn't been so damn steadily good for so long.)

Casemiro is still heavily involved in Real Madrid's defending half, but he has been increasingly involved in set pieces and attacks as the team has slowly attempted to evolve post-Ronaldo.

Gerard Moreno, FW, Villarreal (28)

Nothing says "late bloomer" like making your Spanish national team debut at age 27, as Moreno did in late 2019. He came up in the Villarreal system, but spent three seasons with Espanyol before returning in 2018. He has been sidelined a couple of times by nagging injuries this season, but when he plays, he scores: after averaging a career-best 0.59 goals per 90 last season, he has increased that to 0.73 this year, and his xA+xG per 90 has improved from 0.41 in 2018-19 to 0.70 each of the past two years.

Villarreal have been a smidge disappointing this year, but injuries have played a major role in that, and when Moreno plays, they're stellar: they're averaging 1.67 points per game and 1.4 goals per match with him in the lineup and 1.40 and 1.0, respectively, without him.

French Ligue 1

Benjamin Andre, MF, Lille (30)

A career presence in Ligue 1, Andre has been used a little more centrally and a little less in defence since his move from Stade Rennes to Lille in 2019. It's looked good on him, too: Andre's been the primary engine for getting the ball to forwards Burak Yilmaz, Yusuf Yazici and Jonathan David in attacking positions -- his 73% pass completion rate into the attacking third is a career high, and his 0.72 chances created per 90 is his best since 2017-18.

Despite missing Yilmaz for nearly two months, and despite Yazici coming back from an ACL tear and his own set of nagging injuries, Lille are leading Ligue 1 and are on pace for 83 points, their best-ever in the first division (more, even, than they generated while winning the league in 2011). You could easily make the case that Andre has been Lille's most consistently strong player on their most consistently strong team to date.

Andy Delort, FW, Montpellier (29)

After nearly landing at BVB with the likes of Mario Gotze and Shinji Kagawa a lifetime ago, Delort embarked on a fascinating journeyman career that's taken him not only all around France, but also to Wigan and Liga MX's Tigres. He might have found his forever home in landing at Montpellier in 2018, though, and as he approaches his 30th birthday, he's on pace for 13 goals (which would be the second-most in his career), 10 assists (seven is his career high) and 51 chances created.

Montpellier have scored more goals than anyone outside of France's top four teams; La Paillade are just two points out of a European qualification spot. It's pretty easy to suggest that Delort, forward Gaetan Laborde and another Gundogan candidate, midfielder Teji Savanier (five goals, four assists), are the primary reasons for that.

Gundogan Award deep cuts

Late-bloomer stories aren't just found in the Big Five leagues. Here are a couple of key contributors who are looking awfully flirty at 30.

Sebastian Coates, DF, Sporting CP (30)

Sporting are nine points clear in the Primeira Liga race and, per FiveThirtyEight's club soccer ratings, have an 82% chance of winning their first league title since 2002. The primary reason? They've allowed only 10 goals all season, seven fewer than anyone else. Even if you make it past the first two lines, the central-defensive pairing of Coates and fellow Gundogan candidate Zouhair Feddal will stonewall your attack.

A former Liverpool and Sunderland defender, Coates is thriving in Lisbon. He's winning 68% of his duels and 74% of aerials (both career highs), he's on pace for 164 ball recoveries (his most since 2017-18), and he's even on pace to add five goals and six scoring chances.

Magnus Wolff Eikrem, FW, Molde (30)

Now for a really deep cut. Eikrem, a former Manchester United youth player who briefly played in the Premier League for Cardiff City and made a 2018 cameo with the Seattle Sounders, has thrived in Norway. He's scored 25 goals in 71 matches for Molde, and he came up huge in a huge moment: he scored a brace in a draw against Rapid Wien in the Europa League last December, a result that allowed Molde to advance to the knockout rounds. Once there, they beat TSG Hoffenheim to become the first Norwegian club to ever advance to the round of 16.

Finding your forever home is a beautiful thing, even if it takes a while.

The Gundogan Lifetime Achievement Awards

If we're being honest, the Gundogan Awards could easily be named after either of these two men instead.

Thomas Muller, MF/FW, Bayern Munich (31)

Every manager Thomas Muller has had has envisioned a slightly different role for him. He averaged 13 goals and 10.3 assists from 2012-13 to 2014-15, then leaped to 20 and 5, respectively, in his last year under Pep Guardiola. Neither Carlo Ancelotti nor Niko Kovac could quite figure out how to coax the same level of production out of him, and he averaged seven goals and 11 assists from 2016-17 to 2018-19. But thanks in part to Hansi Flick's hiring, he exploded for a Bundesliga record 21 assists last season at age 30.

Muller had 10 goals and 11 assists this year before getting sidelined by the coronavirus. Assuming he returns at full strength, he'll have a shot at his first 15-and-15 season. In short, one of the most unique players we've ever seen continues to create unique numbers combinations into his 30s.

Ciro Immobile, FW, Lazio (31)

Sometimes it takes a while to find a club that truly understands you. A former Juventus youth, Immobile bounced around for a long time, from Juve to Genoa to Torino to BVB to Sevilla, but had scored just 64 league goals when he moved to Lazio in 2016. He scored 67 in his first three seasons with the Biancocelesti, then posted a league-leading 36 last year. (Here's your reminder that Ronaldo is also in Serie A.)

His pace has slowed a bit this season -- he's scored three times in his last eight matches and is on pace for 22 league goals -- but he found an elite level long after many had written him off. If that's not a Gundogan, I don't know what is.

Gundogan Award, women's edition

Fran Kirby, FW, Chelsea (27)

The Women's Super League has loaded up on talent in recent months, but Chelsea have managed to drop only seven points in 15 matches and outscore opponents by a 47-8 margin. They hold a narrow lead over Manchester City and a pretty healthy lead over the rest of the field, and they cruised by a cumulative 8-0 over Benfica in the Champions League round of 32. (Atletico Madrid are up next.)

The team's loaded with talent, too, from English national team mainstays like Millie Bright and Bethany England to recent additions Sam Kerr and Pernille Harder. But their MVP has been a player who damn near quit the sport years ago. Kirby scored eight goals with six assists in 17 matches during Chelsea's WSL title run three years ago; through 12 matches, she's already at 11 and six this year.

She's always been good, but she's basically transformed her game into half-chaos agent, half-Messi. And she's still only 27.

So basically, Fran Kirby > Leo Messi. pic.twitter.com/HugaO3rFHg

— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) February 11, 2021

Sam Mewis, MF, Manchester City (28)

To put it lightly, the USWNT is blessed with an abundance of midfield talent at the moment. Julie Ertz and Lindsey Horan have only recently entered their respective athletic primes, Rose Lavelle is only 25, veterans like Allie Long and Kristie Mewis still have plenty to offer, youngsters like Catarina Macario are rising quickly, etc. And yet Mewis might be in the best form of any of them.

Of all the American players to make recent moves to the WSL, Mewis has been the most successful, recording five goals and an assist in 10 matches for second-place Manchester City. According to StatsBomb data found at FBref.com, among WSL midfielders she ranks at or near the top in shots per 90 (4.4), progressive carries (6.3), dribbles completed (2.1), non-penalty xA+xG (0.6) and shot-creating actions (3.8). She recorded a hat trick for the USWNT against Colombia in January, too. She is a force, and USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski has a giant (and great) issue on his hands when it comes to figuring out how to divvy out minutes at the moment. You really can't keep Mewis out of the first team right now.

What remains of the 2021 Pakistan Super League might end up being played as soon as May this year, setting up a potential direct clash with the latter stages of the Indian Premier League. Given the packed nature of the international calendar, culminating with the T20 World Cup in October and November, ESPNcricinfo understands that if the PSL is to be completed this year, May is the only window for it. Otherwise the season may be in danger of being voided.

The PCB CEO expressed confidence they would find time to complete the league, saying they were already looking at various options. "We will be looking at other windows and we hope to play the event at a later time," Wasim Khan said. "What's taking place right now is that we are carefully and slowly exiting, exiting players from our environment so that we can safely get them out and they can start to travel to wherever they need to travel in terms of moving forward. But we want to continue and finish the PSL."

The PCB had to break the previous edition of the tournament into two blocks as well. PSL 2020 was suspended in March, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the remaining matches, which were knockouts, were rescheduled to November last year with Karachi Kings crowned champions.

"As we did with the fifth season, we found a window and we finished those matches," Khan said. "It's firmly our belief that we will continue to aim to do that and find a window at a later date. We had to deal with a minor breach at the beginning and we've done everything we possibly could. But with any assumptions for a bio-secure bubble, it takes partnerships, it takes discipline, it takes self policing. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that effectively enough, and that is why we find ourselves in this situation."

Khan admitted it was "a difficult day" for Pakistan, and that the PSL's postponement would make adverse international headlines. With the PCB hoping to host a number of international sides later this year, the likelihood of those tours proceeding hinged in no small part on the board's ability to complete the Pakistan Super League without setbacks. There will inevitably be a sense of much of the hard work building those perceptions up over the last few months having gone entirely to waste.

"Seven players contracted the [Covid-19] virus since the 27th of February," Khan said. "Once the players become affected, it becomes an issue. There was a trickle effect of that happening over the last few days. That for us became a prime concern and it was a huge concern for the franchises.

"The situation was such that it is now outside ours and others' reasonable control. When players are affected, and players start to lose confidence, then it all comes apart. The bio-secure bubble is all about trust. There has to be trust for players and all the partners working together to make it all work and self-police it. This will make international news; a lot of work has gone into this last premier event of our calendar, and we've had to put it off. We remain resilient and confident that with the support of the franchises to make sure we complete the remaining games before the end of the year."

"When players are affected, and players start to lose confidence, then it all comes apart. The bio-secure bubble is all about trust."

Wasim Khan, PCB CEO

Khan acknowledged that the faith stakeholders had put into the PSL and the PCB had not been fully rewarded, and the process to begin rebuilding it required both time and effort. That appeared to be a warning that not all the foreign players who had registered to be a part of the PSL this time around might be willing to return if and when the league resumes, and that the PCB had a lot of work ahead of it to make sure the tournament remained an international event.

"There will be an issue of trust. We need to accept that the fans in particular have supported Pakistan cricket through tough times. Building back that trust will take some time and effort, but we'll be willing to learn from the mistakes that were made; I hope that everyone will be able to learn from what's happened.

"If you really want to carve out a window, you can. But we have got a lot of cricket happening. You'll have to think of player welfare, too. There are windows we'll explore with the franchises to make this work. Trust will need to be built, there needs to be better partnerships to ensure everyone plays their part in policing this environment."

South Africa have appointed Dean Elgar as their new Test captain and Temba Bavuma the leader of their limited-overs teams. Bavuma, who will also be the vice-captain in Tests, will lead them in the next three World Cups: the T20 events in 2021 and 2022 and the 50-over competition in 2023. Elgar will lead the Test side in the next cycle of the World Test Championship. Bavuma is also South Africa's first permanently-appointed black African captain.

Both captains take over from Quinton de Kock, who succeeded Faf du Plessis in white-ball formats last February and was asked to step-in as temporary Test captain for the 2020-21 summer. Under de Kock, South Africa recently lost a Test series 2-0 in Pakistan after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 at home in December-January. Prior to that, South Africa were also whitewashed 3-0 by England in a T20I series at home under him.

"We are grateful to Quinton for the work he has put in as captain of the team in the limited overs formats and are indebted to him for stepping up while the National Selection Panel continued its search for the Test captain," Graeme Smith, CSA's director of cricket, was quoted in a board release. "We expect him to still play an integral role in the team's leadership group.

"We as CSA are pleased with the appointments of Temba and Dean and believe that we have the men who will lead the Proteas back to their winning ways of old. The pair bring the required stability in both leadership and form to turn the ship in the direction that will eventually bring trophies back to the cabinets.

"Temba has been a strong and influential voice in the team in recent times and has shown consistency on the field in all formats, solidifying his place as a leader. He also has the trust and backing of the players and coaches around him. We are excited to have him lead the Proteas in the upcoming T20 World Cups as well as the 2023 World Cup in India. He will also be the Test team's vice-captain, working closely with Dean to ensure continuity and stability in the squad.

"Dean has made no secret of his Test captaincy ambitions over the years and we are pleased to have a leader who is ready, willing and able to step up to the massive task of turning our Test cricket fortunes around. His role as a leader in the Test team has never been in doubt and I know that he relishes the prospect of captaining the Test team. We are confident that he will bring the same grit and determination to his captaincy as he has brought to his many performances on the field over many years."

Bavuma, who has played only six ODIs and eight T20Is so far, said he was looking forward to leading the teams in the next three World Cups.

"Captaining the Proteas has been a dream of mine for many years as those closest to me would know," Bavuma said. "This is one of the greatest honours of my life so far and I am looking forward to picking up where Quinny (de Kock) has left off in leading the team into the new culture that we have developed and continue to work on.

"The responsibility of captaining one's country is not one I take lightly, and I am looking forward to this new challenge and journey with Dean in the Test cricket format, as well as leading the team to not just one, but three ICC World Cups in the very near future."

Elgar has been a much bigger mainstay in South Africa's Test line-up with an experience of 67 Tests in which he scored 4260 runs and 13 hundreds.

"Temba and I know more than most the challenge that we have ahead of us in returning the Test squad back to its winning ways, but I know that we're both more than ready for the task at hand. I'm looking forward to bringing stability back into the team and laying a solid foundation for us to be able to accomplish the ambitions we all have to see the Proteas go back to the world's number one spot in all three formats."

de Kock led South Africa in four Tests in the summer and captaincy might have affected his form as he managed only 74 runs in six innings at a forgettable average of 12.33 with a high score of 29. His captaincy had also been under the spotlight with a number of unsuccessful reviews in Pakistan and questionable bowling and fielding calls. After returning home, de Kock decided to skip the domestic T20s for a mental-health break as he had also been in several biosecure bubbles since the IPL started in September last year.

Elgar has led South Africa twice in the past but in stand-in capacity: in the first Test against England in 2017 and against Pakistan at home in early 2019. Bavuma, on the other hand, has no captaincy experience at the international level. He has, however, led the Lions franchise to two first-class and two T20 titles, including the most recently-concluded tournament, where he was also the second-highest run-scorer.

South Africa's next assignment will be the home ODIs and T20Is against Pakistan from April 2 to 16 although there is no Test cricket in the near future after Australia decided not to tour South Africa for the three Tests in March.

Ben Stokes says that the conditions England have faced in the past three Tests in India have been the hardest challenge of his career, but insists that the team should not be castigated for their aggression - with the bat or, in his case, with the verbals - on the opening day in Ahmedabad.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat first for the third time in the series, England were bowled out for 205 shortly after tea, with Stokes himself getting embroiled in a lively exchange of views with Mohammad Siraj and Virat Kohli en route to top-scoring with 55 from 121 balls.

By the close, however, India were winning all the battles that mattered, having reduced the deficit to 181 for the loss of Shubman Gill, and are well placed to cement their 2-1 series lead and secure their place in this summer's World Test Championship final.

Speaking at the close to the host broadcaster, Siraj - who claimed two wickets on a brisk return to the team - told how Stokes had given him gaali (abuse) in the early stages of his innings, with Kohli also getting involved after he informed his captain of what was going on.

However, both batsman and bowler played the exchange down afterwards, with Siraj stating that "these things happen". Stokes meanwhile insisted that the sight of professional sportsmen getting stuck into an intense exchange should not be seen as a transgression.

"It was just two professionals showing that they care about a sport that they love," he said. "A lot gets said these days when two guys seem to come to words out in the middle, but it was nothing untoward. We're competitors going toe to toe, and no-one's backing down. For me, that's what it was, trying to get one over one another."

In the end, however, India were able to get one over England with a more conventional weapon. It is a measure of England's struggles against the turning ball this winter that, having posted a match-winning 578 in their opening innings of the series in Chennai, today's effort was their second-highest total in six subsequent attempts, and actually exceeded their match total of 193 at the same venue last week.

But as Stokes admitted, the conditions on this opening day were far more manageable than they had been last week, and his own frustration at falling to Washington Sundar after a two-and-a-half-hour innings was matched by the team as a whole, after England had let slip another opportunity to make the running in the series.

"We are more than capable of scoring 300 on a wicket like that so we're frustrated but can't dwell on it too much," Stokes said. "We sit down as a group, and try to put it behind us, but it's easier said than done.

"It was pretty apparent we weren't going to get anything like we did on day one in the last Test [when England were bowled out for 112]," he added. "It was the bounce that was more the issue than the turn, but overall it's a much better wicket than it was last time we played here, so we're disappointed not to still be batting."

Stokes himself has been in a lean run of form, with an aggressive 82 in the first Test giving way to a next-best score of 25 in five subsequent innings. In particular, he has been troubled by the spin of R Ashwin, who has dismissed him 11 times in Tests to date, and though he avoided that fate for a change today, he still departed in a very similar manner, as Sundar slid one into his front pad from round the wicket to end his promising stand with Ollie Pope.

"Fifties are never going to win you a Test match, so I'm very disappointed to get in on that wicket, start feeling comfortable with it and get out again," Stokes said. "Especially after spending two-and-a-half hours protecting myself from the ball that skids on, I ended up getting out to the ball that skids on, so it was very frustrating."

Nevertheless, Stokes was adamant that England would not be apportioning any blame for their latest batting shortcomings, and insisted that the team's major goal at this stage of a tough tour was to absorb the lessons being handed out by a well-drilled India bowling attack, and be ready to perform better the next time they arise.

"I've played 70-odd games now and these are the hardest conditions I've faced as a batsman," he said. "It's a case of finding it in your own way. It's not about coming together and saying what we need to do better as a group, but how can we go away as individuals and progress when we come back next time.

"Everyone plays in a different way, I have a gameplan out here that is completely different to Joe Root's, which is different to Dom Sibley's, and if the outcome of those gameplans is that we score runs, then happy days."

It wasn't such happy days on this occasion, however. Sibley set the tone for another substandard innings as Axar Patel bowled him with a slider in his opening over of the day, while his fellow opener, Zak Crawley - whose fluent fifty on the first day of the last Test had been one of England's few positives - tried to take the aerial route to the same bowler, and holed out in the covers.

"It's such a fickle sport, cricket, it's why we love it," Stokes said. "It's such a leveller. If Zak had put that into Row Z, everyone would have said what a great shot because the outcome would have been a six, but unfortunately on this occasion he hit it straight up in the air. But that happens.

"As batsmen you have to take risks to score runs. That's how Zak chose to go about it today, and you can't hold that against him, because he had the backing of the whole dressing room. Just because he's hit one up in the air early on, are we going to pull him into the room and say never run down the wicket again? No."

Stokes did, however, have some words of encouragement for Dan Lawrence, one of the few relative success stories of England's innings, after he made 46 from an unfamiliar role at No.7, albeit he too departed with one rash stroke too many, a wild swing at Patel and an easy stumping for Rishabh Pant.

"When Spoons [Chris Silverwood] told him [he was batting at No.7], he was like, 'I don't care where I'm batting, I'm playing'," Stokes said. "To have that attitude and keenness at a young age, just to want to play in an alien position, is such a good trait to have, and it was refreshing seeing him go out and stick to the way he's got into the team. He'll be disappointed with the runs he's got so far, but we've seen a small glimpse of what he can offer."

Hampshire have announced the signing of Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas for the first two months of the County Championship season.

Abbas will form part of an imposing new-ball partnership alongside Kyle Abbott, who will be the club's other overseas player in the early months of the season following the expiration of his Kolpak status. Hampshire have previously confirmed that Fidel Edwards will not return to the club, following five seasons as a Kolpak signing.

Abbas has previously spent two seasons in county cricket, taking 79 Championship wickets at 20.67 for Leicestershire between 2018 and 2019. He had signed for Nottinghamshire for the 2020 season, but his deal was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Giles White, the club's director of cricket, said: "We are really excited about the arrival of Mohammad Abbas. He is a bowler of the highest quality and to secure him for an early-season Championship stint is a huge boost to the squad.

"He joins Kyle Abbott as our second overseas signing and we are hopeful that they form a formidable pairing in early season conditions."

Hampshire had signed Nathan Lyon as their overseas player for the County Championship in 2020, but his move never materialised due to Covid-19's effect on the English summer. The club offered him the chance to return this year, but he declined their approach.

They have also been strongly linked with a move for Kyle Jamieson, though his availability is now very limited on account of New Zealand's involvement in the World Test Championship final, their Test series in England, and his stint at Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL.

Athletes will sharpen for the British Olympic marathon trials later this month with an elite-only 10,000m in Newport on Saturday

Charlotte Arter, Lily Partridge and Dewi Griffiths will head the fields at an elite-only 10,000m event in Newport on Saturday (March 6).

The event will feature 10,000m races primarily for some of the top Welsh athletes looking to test themselves ahead of the British trials for the Olympic marathon in Kew Gardens on March 26.

The women’s race should see a battle between Charlotte Arter and Lily Partridge with both looking to test their fitness ahead of the marathon trials.

Arter is the fastest on paper with a best of 32:15.71 and the 29-year-old Cardiff athlete will use the race as part of her preparations for her eagerly anticipated marathon debut at the end of March.

She has proved her competence over the half distance completed in 69:41 which also makes her the eighth fastest Briton of all time.

Partridge has a 10,000m PB of 32:20.77 and last year enjoyed wins at the Vitality Big Half Marathon and the Antrim Coast Half Marathon.

Clara Evans will compete over the distance for the first time since making large improvements that include a 72:21 best for the half-marathon and will also use the race to test fitness ahead of a marathon test alongside clubmate Arter.

Jenny Nesbitt, who also competes for Cardiff and trains with Arter and Evans, and will also be in action. The Commonwealth Games standard for Wales is 32:30 with Nesbitt having run 32:38.45 at Highgate in 2018.

Isobel Fry and Sarah Astin will be chasing qualifying times for the European Under-23 Championships in Bergen in July.

In the men’s 10,000m, marathoners Dewi Griffiths and Josh Griffiths will both race as part of their preparations for the marathon trial event.

Dewi has a PB of 28:16.07 dating back to the Payton Jordan Invitational in 2017. His last race was a solid 13:43 clocking at the Podium 5km in August. Josh was the 2017 British marathon champion and his last competitive outing was over the marathon distance in October when he set a 2:13.11 PB.

Kristian Jones is a third Swansea Harrier in action and will make a track debut over 10,000m. Jones will be looking to see how close he can get to the Commonwealth Games qualification mark of 28:30 but with plenty of other chances to get the mark ahead of the Games in 2022.

Cardiff AC clubmates James Hunt and Mike Ward will also be looking to test themselves with Commonwealth Games aspirations in mind.

Leeds athlete Emile Cairess will be looking to crash the party as the sole English athlete in the men’s field and has a 28:48.15 best from two years ago and more recently a sub-eight minute clocking over 3000m from February.

The event will also feature 10,000m race walks with athletes looking for a final test ahead of the 20km walk trial races at Kew Gardens at the end of this month. There will be further Welsh rivalry in the women’s race with the ever-improving Pembrokeshire Harrier Heather Lewis will facing Cardiff AC’s Bethan Davies.

Lewis is the current Welsh champion over 5000m and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Davies was the 2019 British champion over 5000m.

Tom Bosworth will face-off with Callum Wilkinson in the men’s event. Bosworth is a 12-time British champion and UK record-holder with 39:10 whereas Wilkinson holds the national under-20 record at 40:30 and has since improved to 39:52.

Cameron Corbishley of Medway & Maidstone will be the third athlete competing and is also a multiple GB international with a PB of 41:37.44.

The on-track action will be preceded by a discus competition where Pembrokeshire Harrier James Tomlinson will be chasing qualification marks for Bergen and with Harrison Walsh and Zachary Tandy representing Disability Sport Wales. Kirsty Law of Cardiff AC and Samantha of Newham and Essex Beagles will also be in action.

British sprinter embraces role of GB captain as European Indoor Champs as she tackles the 400 metres

In the countdown to the Tokyo Olympics, sprinter Jodie Williams is taking herself out of the comfort zone. She has just endured her first British winter for about five years as she prepares to move up from 200m to 400m at this week’s European Indoor Championships in Poland. What’s more, being GB team captain means she had to deliver a speech to her team-mates ahead of the action in Toruń.

The 27-year-old has trained at the Altis centre in the United States in recent years but found herself stranded in the UK last summer due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

“I did my first winter in the UK for five years,” she says. “It was an experience for me as I forgot how cold it can get but it did mean I could get back to a more traditional way of training for me. This is probably why I’ve focused more on the 400m for this indoors (season) as it involves a lot of heavier work due to the weather.”

However, she did experience some warm-weather training in the end when she enjoyed a spell of work in Dubai at the start of this year. “I was really fortunate to have that opportunity and I got some good quality work out there which allowed me to really give indoors a go,” she explains. “Initially I hadn’t planned to come to this championships but things fell into place and I thought I could give it a go.”

Williams has barely raced indoors in recently years but describes Toruń as “the perfect stepping stone” for an Olympics during what should be, in theory, her peak period as a senior athlete.

After running 52.27 to win the British trials at 400m in Manchester last month, she finds herself in one of the highest-quality events of the championships this weekend with the favourite being Dutch sprints and hurdles sensation Femke Bol.

For Williams, though, she is gaining endurance and championship experience ahead of probably dropping down to her specialist 200m event this summer.

“I’m still a 200m runner,” she says. “I don’t enjoy the 400m but sometimes we have to do things we don’t enjoy, so here we are. I’m giving it a go and trying something new.

“Obviously I have some form of talent in this area (400m) so I’m going to see what I can do. Because I didn’t race last year at all it’s just a good opportunity to get back into the flow of racing.”

The Herts Phoenix athlete certainly isn’t short of experience. A prodigious teenage athlete she won world under-18 titles at 100m and 200m in 2009 followed by world under-20 gold at 100m in 2010 and European under-20 titles at 100m and 200m in 2011.

That same year, in 2011, she finished fourth in the 60m at the European Indoor Championships in Paris and now, 10 years later, she returns to race over 400m as GB captain.

“This is my 10-year anniversary since I made a senior British team for the first time,” she says. “The European Indoors was my first senior championships. It is cool that it has all come full circle and I am now going to be team captain.”

By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor

The Canary Wharf Classic, London’s most popular professional squash tournament, returns to the PSA World Tour calendar in November.

The 18th edition of this PSA Gold event will be held at the spectacular East Wintergarden venue from November 14-19. 

The event begins with the popular People’s Sunday programme, featuring eight first round matches, and culminates in the traditional Friday finale.

The Canary Wharf Classic is a firm favourite with British fans, with sellout crowds every day putting it on a par with the Tournament of Champions in New York as the best-supported events on the PSA World Tour.

Last year’s Classic tournament was the final men’s PSA World Tour event to take place before the tour was suspended for six months due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and fans were treated to a phenomenal final in which World No.2 Mohamed ElShorbagy beat World No.1 Ali Farag in a memorable battle between the world’s top two players.

This year’s Canary Wharf Classic was postponed from its regular dates around now in March and Tournament Director Tim Garner is delighted to be able to announce that the tournament will go ahead later in the year.

“It’s always a tough decision to postpone an event, but the crowd is such an integral part of it that it felt like the right thing to do,” said Garner.

“In the squash world a postponement often equates to a cancellation. However, thanks to the support of Canary Wharf Group we will be hosting the 2021 edition in November, before reverting back to our traditional spot in March 2022, thus maintaining our unbroken run since the inaugural 2004 event.

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“It’s impossible to explain how excited we will be to get back to the East Wintergarden and I know that all our regular fans share our enthusiasm.

“It’s great to give them something to look forward to and we will be in touch nearer the time when we are able to announce ticketing details.

“These will obviously take into account any Government restrictions that may still be in place, as the health and safety of everyone involved is our priority.”

Action from the Canary Wharf Squash Classic will be shown live worldwide on SQUASHTV as well as the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour (excluding Europe and Japan).

The semi-finals and finals will also be shown live on the channels of contracted broadcast partners.

Tournament website: click here

About Canary Wharf Group.

Canary Wharf Group (CWG) is the developer of the largest urban regeneration project in Europe. CWG develops, manages and currently owns interests in approximately 7.5 million square feet of office space, 0.9 million square feet of retail and over 500 Build to Rent apartments.

CWG is the largest sustainable developer in the UK with over 10 million square feet of sustainable certified buildings. CWG also excels operationally as it purchases 100% electricity from renewable sources since 2012 and zero waste to landfill since 2009.

CWG has created a 24/7 city where people can live/work/play on the Canary Wharf estate and enjoy all the benefits: great transport links, access to green spaces and waterside living; and a wide range of amenities including an award-winning arts and events programme.

Canary Wharf’s retail offering comprises over 300 shops, including grocery stores, pharmacies, health clubs, bars and restaurants, all within 15 minutes’ walk.

The Company’s current £2.4bn construction activity is composed of 500k square feet of commercial properties and over 1,750 new homes for sale and rent.

Website: www.canarywharf.com 

Pictures courtesy of PSA