06/06/2025

FRIDAY | JUNE 6, 2025

SPORTS 28 Kohli ‘lost for words’

McIlroy. – AFPPIC

… after 11 die celebrating Bengaluru IPL win V IRAT KOHLI said he was lost for words after celebrations of a dream IPL title turned to tragedy when 11 mainly young cricket fans were crushed to death in Bengaluru. “Absolutely gutted,” he added, alongside a statement from the RCB team saying they were “deeply anguished” at what had unfolded. One of the people injured described to AFP how a “huge crowd” had crushed her.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli holds up the Indian Premier League (IPL) winners’ trophy. – REUTERSPIC

MASTERS champion Rory McIlroy, who avoided talking to the media at last month’s PGA Championship, said yesterday he did so because he was “pissed off” that news of his driver failing a test leaked and did not want to say anything he would regret. McIlroy’s driver was ruled non conforming ahead of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club where he switched to a backup and struggled off the tee before ending well out of contention in his first major since winning the Masters in April. Ahead of this week’s Canadian Open, world No. 2 McIlroy spoke to journalists for the first time since his pre-tournament press conference at the PGA Championship. The Northern Irishman said he knew world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s driver was also deemed non conforming at Quail Hollow but his was the only name that got out. “I was a little pissed off because I knew that Scottie’s driver had failed on Monday, but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential,” said McIlroy. “Again, I didn’t want to get up there and say something that I regretted,” he added, saying he had been trying to protect Scheffler, equipment firm TaylorMade and the golf associations. A day after SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio reported that McIlroy’s driver was ruled non-conforming, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America said that was not unusual and it had no concerns about player intent. No reason for the driver failure has emerged though it may have been simply from overuse. McIlroy said he dodged the media to go and practice after a poor opening round to the PGA Championship and avoided them after the second round – when the report surfaced – so he could see his young daughter before she went to bed. The five-times major champion said he was eager to leave the course after inclement weather delayed his third round then after the final round was simply in a rush to get home. PGA Tour players are not mandated to address the media after their rounds but the decision by McIlroy, who is arguably the face of golf, garnered plenty of attention. “From a responsibility standpoint, look, I understand, but if we all wanted to, we could all bypass you guys and we could just … go on social media and we could talk about our round and do it our own way,” said McIlroy. “If they want to make it mandatory, that’s fine, but in our rules it says that it’s not, and until the day that that’s maybe written into the regulations, you’re going to have guys skip from time to time, and that’s well within our rights.” – Reuters McIlroy breaks silence

Hundreds of thousands had packed the streets Wednesday to welcome home their hero Kohli and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) after they had beaten Punjab Kings a day earlier in a thrilling Indian Premier League final. But the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling it “abso lutely heartrending”. Karnataka state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said

“They stamped on me,” said the woman, who did not give her name, from a wheelchair. “I was not able to breathe. I fell unconscious.” Most of the dead were young fans who had gone out just to catch a glimpse of their sporting heroes. Street food vendor Manoj Kumar mourned the death of his 18-year old son, killed in the stampede, who he said he had stopped from working on his stall so he could study. “I wanted him to go to college,” Kumar told the Indian Express newspaper. “I brought him up with a lot of care. Now, he is gone.” A grieving mother outside a city mortuary said her 22-year-old engineering student son had also died in the crush. “He was crazy about RCB,” she was quoted as saying by the Indian Express on Thursday. “He died in an RCB shirt. They danced when RCB won and now he is gone. Can RCB give him back to us?” Authorities had already called off RCB’s proposed open-top bus victory parade through the streets after anticipating vast crowds. But organisers pressed ahead with the welcome ceremony and celebrations inside the stadium. RCB’s social media account posted a video of cheering crowds lining the streets as the players waved back from their team bus on their way to the stadium. The team said they cut short the celebrations “immediately upon being made aware of the situation”. Siddaramaiah said that the stadium had a capacity of “only 35,000 people, but 200,000 300,000 people came”. – AFP

most of the 11 dead were young people and there were 47 others injured in the crush after a stampede near the city’s M. Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, where the players were parading the trophy for fans. Kohli, who top

scored in the final, said earlier it had been “as much for the fans” after the 36-year-old finally celebrated winning the IPL at his 18th attempt.

Later, Kohli wrote on social media: “At a loss for words.

Wolff encounters brand new enemy away from F1 CHRISTIAN HORNER, step aside. Toto Wolff has a new adversary – Rome’s taxi drivers. The Mercedes boss has ruffled feathers amongst the capital’s cabbies following his less than complimentary remarks made in response to Max Verstappen’s road rage incident in Barcelona. Verstappen aggressively collided with George Russell during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, earning himself a penalty that relegated him to 10th place. It was Wolff’s commentary on this event that sparked ire amongst Italy’s taxi drivers. In a post-race interview with Sky Sports Italy , Wolff referred to the Verstappen incident as “This is road rage, like the taxi drivers in Rome or Naples.”

than F1 drivers, they wouldn’t last an hour in the traffic of the capital. I would like to see those drivers drive like us among construction sites, traffic, scooters, golf carts. Rome is a jungle these days, not Formula 1 tracks.” Nicola Di Giacobbe from the taxi union Filt Cgil took a cheeky jab at Mercedes for their recent dip in form after years of dominance from 2014 to 2021. “We drive like a Mercedes, as it goes 30 miles per hour like us,” he joked. Reflecting on the incident, Mercedes boss Wolff identified a common trait among top athletes, especially those under frequent scrutiny. The Austrian observed: “There’s a pattern that I’ve recognised with the great ones, whether it’s in motor racing or in other sports. You just need to have the world against you, and then you perform at the highest possible level. “That’s why, sometimes, these greats don’t recognise that, actually, the world is not against you, it’s just you who has made a

He continued: “There’s a lot of aggression in the centre of Rome and Naples, without rules.” While there’s been no official response from Naples’ taxi drivers, their Roman counterparts are far from pleased with the Mercedes chief. Loreno Bittarelli, president of taxi cooperative 3570, retorted in Corriere della Sera : “Wolff’s joke? Maybe it would be better for him to focus on [the performance] of his own team.”

mistake, or you’ve screwed up. We haven’t seen any of these moments with Max for many years now. I know 2021, that happened, but I don’t know where it comes from.” – Express Newspapers

Toto Wolff. – REUTERSPIC

An unnamed cabbie boasted to an Italian newspaper: “We are better