Liverpool’s Harvey Davies said there is nothing better than training alongside the “best goalkeeper in the world” Alisson Becker, adding that the latter’s tips will help him get to the next level.

A first-year scholar with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s side, the U18s goalkeeper recently found himself training alongside Becker at the AXA Training Centre.

Not only that, a call-up to the first-team squad for a Champions League trip recently arrived as he found himself on the plane bound for Budapest.

On March 10, the 17-year-old was named on the bench for the second leg of Liverpool’s last-16 tie with RB Leipzig.

Also, he only made his U18s debut in the FA Youth Cup away at Tottenham Hotspur last season.

“There’s nothing better than training with the best keeper in the world, you can’t get better than that. When I first got told I was coming up here, I thought, ‘I’ve got an opportunity here to learn so much, so I’m going to take it all in.’ Alisson is unbelievable in training — I don’t think I’ve seen him let in many goals,” the club’s official website quoted Davies as saying.

“He’s world-class and he’s been helping me in training as well and giving me advice on certain things. He’s just a really nice guy as well. The things he’s been telling me will help me get to that next level because that’s where I want to be and he knows that,” he added.

Liverpool is currently struggling in the ongoing season of the Premier League, sitting seventh on the points table with 46 points from 29 games.

Jurgen Klopp’s men had won the 2019-2020 season of Premier League but in this season, the team failed to replicate their dominating showing of the previous season.

The table is topped by Manchester City, having amassed 71 points from 30 games.

Second on the table is Manchester United with 57 points followed by Leicester City and Chelsea.

Liverpool will take on Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.

In an attempt to curb the menace of social media abuse, Premier League club Arsenal on Tuesday announced a new campaign, named #StopOnlineAbuse.

“Social media is one of the ways our supporters across the world can feel closer to the club and our players, but across football and beyond we’ve seen an online world poisoned by hateful, racist and discriminatory words. We cannot underestimate the impact abuse has on individuals and the recent spate of abuse needs to be a wake-up call,” the club said in a statement. “We all need to work together to drive out this behaviour. This includes clubs, governing bodies, fans, media and politicians; but requires the help and commitment of social media companies. We know that we have a crucial role to play in bringing about real change. We are therefore outlining below our #StopOnlineAbuse action plan to ensure we are fulfilling our responsibility to protect our players and our diverse, global family and stamp out online abuse,” it added.

The club said it has strengthened the internal procedures with the creation of a taskforce to give emotional and practical support to its players.

“Celebrate, educate and punish: Through ‘Arsenal for Everyone’ we strive to ensure that everyone connected to the club feels an equal sense of belonging. We continue to run ongoing staff education programmes on diversity. We will continue to celebrate our diversity and use our relationships with our local communities and our global platform to educate others and lobby to strengthen measures and action taken by relevant authorities, as well as social media companies, to punish those responsible for abuse and discrimination,” Arsenal said.

An all-round bowling performance from New Zealand neutralised the effect of Soumya Sarkar’s fighting half-century and helped the Kiwis register an easy win over Bangladesh in the second T20I on Tuesday.

Skipper Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett, and Adam Milne all picked two wickets each to restrict Bangladesh to 142/7 in 16 overs. With this win, the Kiwis took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20I series. Glenn Phillips had played an unbeaten knock of 58 runs as New Zealand scored 173/5 in 17.5 overs. Rain played spoilsport in the first innings and after the DLS method, Bangladesh was given a target of 170 in 16 overs.

Chasing 170 runs, Bangladesh did not have a good start but Soumya Sarkar took on the New Zealand bowlers. The left-handed batsman single-handedly steered the visitors over the 50-run mark before the completion of powerplay.

While opener Liton Das went cheaply (6), Mohammad Naim played a sluggish T20 knock-in pursuit of 170 runs. However, Soumya continued his onslaught and fired Bangladesh to 85/1 in the nine overs.

Bangladesh needed 85 runs in the last seven overs and Soumya, who smashed his half-century in just 25 balls, was caught at long-on while trying to clear the rope.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 173/5 (Glenn Phillips 58*(31), Daryl Mitchell 34*(16), Mahedi Hasan 2-45); Bangladesh 142/7 (Soumya Sarkar 51*(27), Mohammad Naim 38(35); Tim Southee 2-21).

NEW DELHI: Global sports brand PUMA has signed a strategic long-term partnership with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). With this, PUMA has become the only global sports brand to currently be associated with an IPL franchise.

Under the terms of the deal, PUMA will be the official kit partner of the team from the upcoming IPL 2021 season. The partnership marks the coming together of two of the biggest names in the world of cricket in India.

PUMA’s on-going association with RCB skipper, Virat Kohli and the success of PUMA one8 makes this partnership a natural progression for the brand.

RCB Team Captain and PUMA athlete, Virat Kohli said, “It’s great to welcome PUMA to the RCB family! A global brand with a strong sporting vision and great quality products, their extensive distribution network through offline and online channels will ensure fans have access to RCB merchandise across the country. Over the years, I have had a great experience working with the brand and I’m excited.

Fourteenth edition of Indian Premier League is going to be played from 9th of this month. After nearly a year, India’s most famous and fascinating cricket league is heralding its steady return as players of different franchise teams have set their feet in the quarantine bubbles and training camps. As many as 11 Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) players begun training for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Tuesday.

A nine-day conditioning camp has begun for RCB at The Centre for Sports Science (CSS) facilities at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, under the guidance of Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB, and head coach, Simon Katich. Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, and Navdeep Saini are among the 11 players participating in the camp. Other players are Harshal Patel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pavan Deshpande, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Rajat Patidar, Sachin Baby, Suyash Prabhudesai, and KS Bharat.

The remaining players will join the camp as and when they finish their 7-day mandatory isolation. The camp will provide an opportunity for all players to work with experienced coaches and staff like Sanjay Bangar, Sriram Sridharan, Adam Griffith, Shankar Basu, and Malolan Rangarajan.

Skipper Virat Kohli will be joining the RCB camp on April 1 in Chennai. Sources in the know of development confirmed to ANI that Kohli left the Pune bubble created for the ODI series against England on Monday, and as a result, upon his arrival in Chennai, Kohli will undergo quarantine for seven days as per BCCI’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the IPL amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

RCB is set to play the IPL 2021 opener against Mumbai Indians on April 9 in Chennai. The final of the 14th edition of the tournament will be played on May 30 at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Playoffs will also be played at the same venue.

On Monday, skipper Rohit Sharma, Pandya brothers (Hardik and Krunal), and Suryakumar Yadav linked up with the Mumbai Indians squad. Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah might be in quarantine but the fast bowler is leaving no stone unturned to get into the groove ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

While the 27-year-old cricketer is in quarantine, the pacer has begun preparations for the IPL 2021. Bumrah on Tuesday shared a glimpse of his workout routine.

“Quarantining and getting those reps in,” Bumrah tweeted.

Delhi Capitals players including Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, and Umesh Yadav took part in their first nets session on Tuesday evening at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai.

Delhi Capitals squad and support staff began their preparation for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 this morning. On Monday, star Indian batsman Rishabh Pant and England players Sam Billings and Tom Curran joined Delhi Capitals camp for the IPL.

Every individual will be tested multiple times during this period, and upon returning the negative results, they will be allowed to come out of their rooms and commence outdoor training.

Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC), on Sunday, announced that the board is all set to host the Pakistan cricket team for three T20Is, starting on April 21, followed by a two-match Test series in the April-May window.

All five fixtures of Pakistan’s tour of Zimbabwe, will be played at Harare Sports Club with no spectators allowed in the stadium amid the pandemic.

Recently, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was postponed due to several players involved testing positive for the coronavirus. To host the matches behind closed doors is, thus, an option that ZC have gone for.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board has been at the forefront of the revival of international cricket in the post-Covid-19 world and the tour of Zimbabwe is another step in that direction. We have always maintained that cricket and Covid-19 can co-exist in a safe and secure environment, and we continue to demonstrate this to ensure the game develops and flourishes in these difficult and challenging times,” PCB’s director of international cricket, said on Sunday.

“The tour of our men’s side at the back of our women’s team first-ever visit of Zimbabwe is a testimony that the two boards—the PCB and Zimbabwe Cricket—enjoy excellent relations and are always ready to lend support to each other.

“Our cricket sides have always enjoyed visiting and playing cricket in Zimbabwe, and though our fans and followers will be unable to watch live-action, I am sure they will continue to support both the sides and their favourite cricketers like they have done since May 2020 through digital media,” he added.

Last year, Zimbabwe toured Pakistan for a full-fledged white-ball contest in October-November with the hosts winning both the ODIs and T20I series.