Colombo: Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga on Tuesday announced his retirement from Test cricket as he seeks to prolong his career in limited-over format of the game.

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said it has accepted the decision of the 26-year-old Hasaranga. “We will accept his decision and are confident that Hasaranga will be a vital part of our white-ball programme going forward,” said SLC CEO Ashley De Silva.

Hasaranga made his Test debut against South Africa at Centurion in 2020, and played three more Tests thereafter.

From four Tests, he took four wickets with his leg-spin. His last Test was against Bangladesh in Pallekele in 2021.

However, Hasaranga continues to be a prominent figure for Sri Lanka in white ball formats as the spin spearhead and a handy lower-order batsman.

From 48 ODIs, Hasaranga grabbed 67 wickets and made 832 runs with four fifties.

Hasaranga has 91 wickets from 58 T20Is and amassed 533 runs with a fifty.

The Lankan is also a much sought-after player in various T20 leagues across the world.

Apart from plying his trade with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, Hasaranga has also played for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots (CPL), Quetta Gladiators (PSL), Kandy Falcons and Jaffna Kings (LPL), Desert Vipers (IL T20) and Washington Freedom (MLC).

GENEVA: Juventus was removed from European competition next season and Chelsea was fined USD 11 million in separate UEFA rulings over financial rules breaches on Friday. 

The expulsion of Juventus from the third-tier Europa Conference League was expected because of a false accounting case that already saw the two-time European champion deducted 10 points in Serie A. That penalty dropped Juventus out of the Champions League qualification places. 

UEFA said Friday that Juventus also must also pay a fine of 10 million euros (USD 11 million) for breaking Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. A further 10 million euros can be deducted if the club fails to comply with UEFA financial monitoring rules in future seasons. 

Juventus regretted the ruling but said it wouldn’t appeal. 

“We regret the decision of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body,” Juventus president Gianluca Ferrero said in a statement on the club’s website.

“We do not share the interpretation that has been given of our defence and we remain firmly convinced of the legitimacy of our actions and the validity of our arguments. However, we have decided not to appeal this judgment. Despite this painful decision, we can now face the new season by focusing on the field and not on the courts,” he added. 

In a separate case, Chelsea will also pay a settlement of 10 million euros to UEFA for incorrect financial information submitted between 2012 and 2019 when the club was owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. 

Chelsea’s current American-led ownership group reported “potentially incomplete financial reporting under the club’s previous ownership” in May last year, UEFA said. 

Chelsea, which won the Champions League in 2012 and 2021, did not qualify for the next editions of European competitions. 

“In accordance with the club’s ownership group’s core principles of full compliance and transparency with its regulators, we are grateful that this case has been concluded by proactive disclosure of information to UEFA and a settlement that fully resolves the reported matters,” Chelsea said in a statement.

“Chelsea greatly values its relationship with UEFA and looks forward to building on that relationship in the years to come,” it added. 

UEFA had opened an investigation against Juventus in December for probable breaches of FFP rules after prosecutors in Italy unsealed their case against the storied club. 

Juventus was ultimately docked 10 points in Serie A by Italian authorities which dropped the club from potentially finishing in the top four and earning a place in the next Champions League to finish seventh enough only for the third-tier Conference League. AC Milan got into the Champions League instead. 

The false accounting allegations pushed UEFA club finance investigators to terminate a settlement agreed with the club last year and impose fresh sanctions, the European soccer body said. 

The chaotic 2022-23 season for Juventus also saw it lose long-standing club officials who resigned, including president Andrea Agnelli and vice president Pavel Nedvěd, a former playing great. 

Juventus also lost two years of European football from 2006 to 2008 in the fallout from the Calciopoli corruption scandal. 

KYIV: In a modest gym in the heart of Kyiv, boxer Anna Lysenko dedicates long hours preparing for next year’s Paris Olympics despite the unsettling sounds of explosions booming outside.

Lysenko already has Olympic experience, nearly winning a medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, but her training routine this time has been disrupted by the war in Ukraine — that started nearly 17 months ago when Russia invaded her country.

In a well-lit, spacious gym with high windows, she often hears bombs exploding outside as the capital remains a target for the Russian army.

“It’s stifling. It probably doesn’t allow me to feel at peace, to train and prepare in a measured way,” Lysenko said, wearing an orange sports jacket with “Tokyo 2020″ on the back, reminiscent of a calmer training routine.

“Constant shelling, or other stresses associated with the situation in the country, always seem to be present.”

Despite these challenges, the 31-year-old Lysenko refuses to give up on her training. She has already sacrificed almost 10 years of her life for the sport, reaching the quarterfinals in Tokyo but missing out on an Olympic medal after losing to the eventual gold medalist. Knowing the Paris Games may be her last, she perseveres, training six days a week hoping to get better, to get faster, to win.

Her chances of competing in Paris, however, remain uncertain.

Ukrainian athletes have in recent weeks missed world or European championship events in judo, fencing and taekwondo, where Russians and Belarusians were allowed to compete after being approved as neutral athletes.

Last week, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach criticized the Ukrainian government for blocking some athletes from qualifying events for the 2024 Games that also included Russians and Belarusians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any neutral flag is stained with blood and invited Bach in January to join him in visiting the wrecked city of Bakhmut.

The IOC and Bach shaped the definition of neutrality in March — not publicly supporting the war, nor being contracted to the military since February last year, competing without a flag, anthem or national colours — that sports governing bodies must decide how or if to apply.

“This is very bad,” Lysenko said about the neutral flag for Russians and Belarusians.

As a Ukrainian athlete, she finds it “very unpleasant” that citizens of Russia will have the opportunity to participate in the Olympics. Despite the neutral flag, she said, the athletes “are citizens of their own country, they represent it.”

The IOC took a tough position on Russia within days of the war starting, urging sports bodies to exclude athletes and officials from international events and strip the country of hosting rights.

However, as the Paris Olympics approached, the IOC moved toward letting some Russians into competition and Bach said excluding athletes based just on their passport would be discrimination and a breach of their human rights.

For Lysenko, such a decision by the IOC means that Ukrainian athletes have to compete in an “unequal battle” with citizens of a country that started a war in her homeland.

“Because there, athletes can train in peace, nobody is shelling them, they don’t lose their loved ones, acquaintances, friends. They don’t lose them in the war,” she said.

“For every professional athlete, the Olympics are the pinnacle of their sporting journey,” Lysenko added. “As an athlete, I can understand that. But as a person … When you witness the sorrow of your loved ones, it’s very difficult to accept.”

She recalls how last autumn, on the day when she and her team were supposed to leave for the European Championships in Montenegro, Russia launched one of many missile attacks at Kyiv. At that moment, Lysenko was at the Olympic base near the capital.

“And there you could really hear those explosions, there was such a shaking there, and we had to leave in literally two or three hours that day,” she recalled. “How to leave your family in such a condition, when something like that is happening … It’s stressful.”

Even when she is abroad for competitions, her thoughts are still anchored to events in Ukraine.

During the most difficult periods, Lysenko didn’t stop training. During the winter, when Russia was bombarding Kyiv and the rest of the country with dozens of rockets almost every week to destroy the energy infrastructure, Lysenko continued to train even without electricity.

“It was very challenging,” she said. “We were starting to train a bit earlier to have some light from outside.”

The decision of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee to boycott qualifying competitions involving Russians and Belarusians evokes conflicting emotions for Lysenko.

“If they are already banning everyone and saying it’s a boycott, then it should apply to everyone,” she said, explaining that, for example, Ukrainian tennis players continue to participate in competitions with Russians and Belarusians.

Under the circumstances that have arisen, Lysenko chooses to compete and fight.

“We have our own sports frontline, and we need to go out there and win,” she said, adding “it would be very disappointing” if she doesn’t go to the Olympics.

“A lot of effort has already been put in to have it end like this, not being able to bring a medal for my country and once again represent our country to the whole Olympic world,” Lysenko said.

For her, the Paris Games could be her last chance to compete at the Olympics. She will be 36 by the time the Los Angeles Games open in 2028.

“I can still continue training, but I have my own plans on how to lead my life and develop in other areas,” Lysenko said. “Not just in sports.”

For now, she continues her training, even in periods when Kyiv is being attacked almost nightly by the Russians.

“A person gets used to everything,” she said, noting her challenges pale in comparison to what Ukrainian soldiers endure.

“When you think about how hard it is there, you realize that everything is great for you,” Lysenko said. “And we will keep working here because they are doing everything there to allow us to do our job here, in the rear.”