Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu says Lionel Messi will retire at the club despite a turbulent start to 2020 off the pitch, which has led to suggestions the Argentine could consider his Camp Nou future.

Messi clashed with sporting director Eric Abidal in February when his former teammate blamed the players for the sacking of coach Ernesto Valverde. Messi also was one of the players whose name was smeared by social media accounts linked to I3 ventures, a company that was working with Barca.

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The forward then said in an interview with Mundo Deportivo that the Barca side in its current state is not good enough to compete for the Champions League. Those comments were followed by a 2-0 Clasico loss to Real Madrid last weekend.

All of that has contributed to renewed reports that Messi could leave the club this summer. Sources told ESPN that Manchester City are monitoring his situation, given the fact a contractual clause could allow him to leave for free at the end of the season -- even though his deal runs until 2021.

"Messi is the best player in the world," Bartomeu said at an event on Thursday, when asked to explain the player's contract situation. "There's no need to explain anything -- I have done so many times in the past.

"Messi will continue at Barca and Messi will retire at Barca. I don't have the belief that he's feeling alone [at the club]. I know many people have said that, but I don't think it's the case."

Bartomeu is experiencing one of the toughest spells of his presidency. Events off the field since the turn of the year, as well as Champions League failings on the pitch in recent seasons, have seen a section of supporters turn against him.

White handkerchiefs were waved in his direction in protest at each of the past two games at Camp Nou, and there have also been chants for him to resign.

"Barca have always been a democratic club and the members have been able to express themselves however they want," he said, before admitting that performances under new coach Quique Setien need to improve.

"We're in a transition phase with new generations coming through, with players from the B team and players we've signed from elsewhere," Bartomeu added.

"It's not easy to combine the in-house talent with those coming from elsewhere at different ages. ... But I am not satisfied, even though we're top of the league and going well in the Champions League.

"Results are OK but improvement is needed. And it will come. We always expect more and we're ambitious about improving in the coming games."

Barca's next three games, at least, will be played behind closed doors as a preventative measure against the spread of the coronavirus. La Liga announced on Tuesday that all fixtures in Spain will be played without fans for the next two weeks, including Mallorca versus Barca this weekend and Barca versus Leganes on March 22.

It had already been confirmed that Barcelona's Champions League last-16 second-leg match against Italian side Napoli next Wednesday would be played at an empty Camp Nou.

MANCHESTER -- Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said he would rather suspend fixtures than play behind closed doors in response to coronavirus because it would make "no sense" to carry on without fans.

The UK government have so far allowed fixtures to continue as normal and City's Premier League clash with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday is set to go ahead with spectators.

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Authorities in Italy have postponed Serie A games while league matches in Spain will be played without fans for two weeks.

"We are conscious of it because it has happened already in Italy," Guardiola said. "The league is suspended, in Spain the next two weeks are behind closed doors. It is going to happen here. The tendency rises at the same level as Italy before and in Spain right now.

"The other issue you have to ask is it worse to play football without the spectators. We do our job for the people and if the people cannot come to watch us, there is no sense.

"I would not love to play matches in the Premier League or Champions League or the cups without the people. But we are going to follow the instructions of the governments. Everybody around the world is involved in that and we just follow what we have to do and follow the instructions."

Arsenal's visit will be the first time Guardiola has gone head-to-head with former assistant Mikel Arteta after the Spaniard decided to take over at the Emirates in December.

Arsenal are ninth in the table, eight points off the top four, but they have found form under Arteta, losing just one of their last 13 games in all competitions.

"I said four years ago, after half a season I was convinced he'd be a manager and the right opportunity came up," Guardiola said.

"I would say he's done incredibly well -- his ideas, his positional play. In a short term they'll have success with him on the bench."

Guardiola is waiting to see if Kevin De Bruyne will be available after the Belgium international missed the defeat to Manchester United on Sunday with a shoulder injury.

Aymeric Laporte is also a doubt with a hamstring injury while Leroy Sane is available but is lacking match fitness after more the six months out with a knee problem.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Thierry Henry is annoyed. He grimaces. He extends his hands for emphasis, palms to the sky. It is a look the world has seen before.

Since the start of a 20-year playing career that included spells at some of the world's most important football clubs, Henry has held his teammates, the journalists who covered him, and even his managers to the highest standards. He has been quick to express frustration with anyone who wasn't good enough, didn't try hard enough or, once, who didn't push in his chair after a news conference.

Whether he responded with a word or a gesture, it was never hard to tell what he was thinking. He packed an entire narrative into a turn of the hands, a roll of the eyes. "He could score an amazing goal," says Dennis Bergkamp, who played alongside Henry at Arsenal, "and then a moment later he'd be angry with someone for not passing the ball correctly. That's the way he was."

On this January morning, Henry is sitting in the lobby of a generic resort outside Orlando. Soon he'll be taking his team out for training during a preseason camp. But at the moment, the new coach of the Montreal Impact is gaining momentum in his rant against the elimination brackets that North America's major sports leagues use to decide their champions. He finds them absurd.

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"You can win 33 out of 38 games, and then you meet a team that's on a little run, and you lose," he says, his voice rising. "And that's it. One game and you're out."

He spits out the word he despises as much as any other: "It's random."

Henry experienced exactly that disappointment with the New York Red Bulls, where he spent the final 4½ seasons of his career. In 2013, the Red Bulls amassed the best regular-season record in MLS. Then they immediately lost their home-and-home conference semifinal to bottom-seed Houston. It wasn't fair, but it was the system. "Those are the rules," he says.

So too is the structure that allows teams to sleepwalk through the regular season and flip a switch when the playoffs start. Or worse, lose every game and show up the next year ready to play again, rather than getting relegated as in nearly every other league in the world.

"What happens if you lose?" he asks. "Nothing! Nothing happens. You're still in MLS, or the NBA, or NFL, or whatever. The rules allow you to just let it go. You shouldn't let anything go. In Europe, it's unacceptable. It would never happen. It shouldn't happen."

He sighs. "But you have to know where you are," he says.

A little more than a year ago, Henry was in Monaco, ending a managerial stint that was as short -- three months -- as it was disappointing. He's back in MLS now, trying to rehabilitate his reputation while managing with a distinctly different frame of reference. Henry won nearly everything a player can win, but the Impact have been the model of a mediocre franchise, with only three trips to the playoffs in eight MLS seasons, and seven head coaches during that time.

Henry's task is clear. If he can do a credible job for a couple of years, he'll put distance between Monaco and his next job. "It could take him back on the managerial ladder in Europe," says Craig Burley, the former Scotland international and current ESPN commentator.

It seems simple enough. But can Henry accomplish that without getting too annoyed?

HENRY WAS HOME IN LONDON LAST NOVEMBER when Impact president Kevin Gilmore called to discuss becoming the club's next head coach. On the face of it, the idea of Henry returning to MLS seemed surprising. He'd been an exemplary player with the Red Bulls, but he frequently exuded the air of someone who was accustomed to better teammates. "That's because he was," says Nashville SC midfielder Dax McCarty, who was on that Red Bulls team.

Henry played at Barcelona with Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta and Xavi. He played at Arsenal with Bergkamp and Freddie Ljungberg. He played, albeit briefly, with Alessandro Del Piero at Juventus, and on that exquisite 1998 French World Cup team with Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Marcel Desailly and Didier Deschamps. Henry would even occasionally speak sharply to them if they weren't up to standard.

In New York, he had Rooney behind him -- but it was John Rooney, Wayne's brother, who'd come from Macclesfield Town. Instead of Frank Rijkaard or Ashley Cole at the back, there was Teddy Schneider, who'd hustled through four years at Princeton. Jonny Steele, who had put in time with the Syracuse Salty Dogs, the Puerto Rico Islanders and Ballymena United, roamed the midfield.

"You're around players who can't find you when you need to be found," says Lloyd Sam, who also played on that Red Bulls team, and before that at Leeds and several other English clubs. "He had a standard. He would always ask me, 'Lloyd, was that high level?'"

But time can alter perspectives. So too can a horrendous first managerial experience. One of France's richest clubs, Monaco had advanced all the way to the Champions League semifinal in 2017. Henry arrived in October 2018. He was gone by the following January after winning just two of 12 league games and four of 19 overall. The disaster didn't go unnoticed. "Not a lot of people called me after that," Henry admits.

Henry, so uncompromising, still appeared to be someone who would make a good manager. But which club wanted to take the chance? The Montreal Impact, it turned out. "When somebody does call, you have to take the call," Henry says. "Montreal came my way, so I assessed the situation. First and foremost, it was a football decision."

Meaning: It was a job. It didn't hurt that the city itself -- French-speaking, sophisticated, architecturally distinctive -- reminded him of the Paris where he grew up or the London where he has chosen to settle. "The culture," he says. "The restaurants. The diversity. The look. The way of life."

For the Impact, Henry was a famous name who would inject interest in a team that hasn't even made the MLS playoffs in the last three seasons. "Obviously from a marketing position, Thierry makes a whole bunch of sense," says Gilmore, who reportedly didn't interview any other candidates. Other than the entire roster of the NHL's Canadiens, Henry instantly becomes the best-known sports figure in town. "And he can speak French," adds Olivier Renard, the Impact sporting director. "That's very important in Montreal. In MLS, it's not so easy to find."

But Henry made one thing clear: Despite what had happened in Monaco, he was determined to coach the Impact the way he would have done it in Europe. "Every game should matter," he says now. "I have a clear view of that. A clear view of what I want to do. A clear view of how our team should play. I need time to implement it, but I won't change it no matter what is happening.

"Because," he added ominously, "it is important that you die with your convictions."

OF THE STANDOUT FOOTBALLERS OF HENRY'S GENERATION, the 47-year-old Zidane has set an impossible standard for managerial success at Real Madrid. Nobody else, it is safe to say, will win the Champions League in his first year of running a senior club, and then win it the next year and the year after that.

Who's second? Maybe Vieira, another Frenchman, who at 43 is a year older than Henry. Vieira won 40 and lost 28 (with 22 draws) as the manager of NYCFC. These days, he's winning more than he's losing at Ligue 1's OGC Nice, not exactly a traditional powerhouse. Or else the Netherlands' Giovanni van Bronckhorst, 45, who won two Cups and an Eredivisie at Feyenoord. (He's coaching in China, but is almost certain to be back in Europe eventually.)

Frank Lampard, 41, did so well in his first season at Derby County last season that he was hired to manage Chelsea, stepping into shoes previously worn by Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. David Beckham and Ronaldo, both slightly older than Henry, might have managed, but they've chosen to become owners instead.

Then there's Henry. He retired in 2014 and announced his intention to manage, preferably at Arsenal. "A dream come true," he said, aspirationally. He understood that he needed credentials, so he began working in Arsenal's youth program. When Roberto Martinez was hired to run the Belgian national team in 2016, Henry jumped on as the second assistant, which essentially meant coaching the forwards.

By all accounts, Henry was a helpful presence for Belgium. He had no problem telling important players with large personalities, such as Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku, exactly what he thought, and he had enough credibility that they wanted to hear it. Unlike Martinez, though, he didn't sign up for another four years after Belgium finished third at the World Cup. "He wanted to be a head coach," says Bergkamp.

That October, Monaco suddenly fired Leonardo Jardim and hired Henry, who had started his senior career there a quarter-century before. "He knew the club," Bergkamp says. "He knew exactly what it meant to be there."

During that career, Henry had the good fortune to play under some of the world's finest managers. Put Pep Guardiola at the top of that list, but add Ancelotti, Wenger, Aime Jacquet and the underrated Jean Tigana.

"Arsene was a coach who triggered my brain on a lot of subjects," Henry says. "Pep triggered my brain tactically. Tigana taught me how to handle a young player."

Henry only played for Ancelotti briefly, "but he was a players' manager." And from Jacquet, he learned to be stubborn. "He had a vision," Henry says. "No matter what, nobody was going to make him change."

Henry saw the style he was creating as a mélange of them all. "You learn from everybody, you take a bit from everybody, you make it your own." He showed up at Monaco perfectly organized, all file cards and training plans. "You could tell that he had learned a lot from very good coaches," says Benny Henrichs, the Monaco defender. Henrichs could sense the wheels spinning. "We knew exactly what we had to do at all times," he says. "He gave us a high level of tactics for every game. And our training sessions were always very intense. But we had a lot of injuries, and a lot of young players. It was a difficult situation."

In the spring of 2017, Monaco capped a four-year run since promotion with its first Ligue 1 title since 2000 and reached the Champions League semifinal. A little more than a year later, expectations remained high. The team was coming off a second-place finish behind Paris Saint-Germain. It was playing in the Champions League again. But of that 2016-17 team, Kylian Mbappe, Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar and Benjamin Mendy were all gone by the time Henry arrived. Mbappe was sent to PSG for a fee of nearly $200 million.

That could pay for a lot of art for owner Dmitry Rybolovlev's collection, which already included Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Rodin and Modigliani. What it didn't do was acquire players to take the place of those who had moved on. After injuries decimated the squad, Henry became impatient, perhaps with good cause. Only he seemed to know how little time he actually had.

Henry used players out of position. He abandoned all pretense of attacking and concentrated on keeping possession. And he became increasingly irritable. "Your grandmother's a whore," he told Strasbourg leftback Kenny Lala, who must have wondered where the erudite football legend he'd grown up worshipping had gone. At the same time, Rybolovlev had become part of the investigation in a celebrated fraud case involving a Swiss dealer, called the Bouvier Affair. The owner wasn't accused of doing anything wrong, but it added to the general air of distraction.

When reinforcements finally came in the form of Cesc Fabregas and a few others in the January 2019 transfer window, they were too little, too late. After a loss knocked Monaco out of the French cup, Henry threatened to demote several first-teamers to the reserves. They complained to management, which figured either Henry or half the team had to go.

It wasn't a difficult choice.

"We were surprised because we'd had a good, hard training the day before," Henrichs said. "But we also weren't surprised, because the results were not good." Henry moved on with class and distinction. He thanked Monaco for the opportunity. He agreed that his results had been unsatisfactory. He didn't complain -- not publicly, at least. "I learned a lot," he says now. "I always say, either you win or you learn."

He also left behind a cadre of players who felt that he was just starting to make a difference. "You know, it was his first club," Henrichs says. "I think he expected something completely different. Give him some time and a good team, and I think he'll show that he can be very good. Tell him to come back to Europe. I'd love to play for him again."

Nevertheless, Henrichs (and most everyone else) played better for Jardim, who was rehired to replace Henry. Monaco was facing relegation, second from the bottom of the league, when Henry was fired. The club climbed out of the relegation zone and stayed in Ligue 1. Under Jardim this season, the club sits mid-table. Sometimes supporters must wonder if Henry really managed there at all. Or were those three months just a bad dream?

IT SEEMED ODD, even to the members of the Impact's traveling part, but when you walk around the back of that resort in Orlando, past the swimming pool and the golf course, you come across two full-sized football pitches. The next morning, Henry is standing on one of them, a target man holding off a defender.

In real life, the defender is a striker, Anthony Jackson-Hamel. Henry's arms are spread wide. He's moving his feet just enough to keep Jackson-Hamel off balance, on his heels, leaning backward. For half a minute, the 43-year-old Henry maintains his position against someone who is almost exactly the same size, but a decade-and-a-half younger. He could have done it for five minutes, you get the feeling, but the point was made.

Henry the manager is an active coach. At Monaco, he'd stand in the middle of the box with the ball and challenge the club's young defenders to get it away from him. "They couldn't, of course," Heinrichs says. Now he's teaching his techniques to his strikers, hoping to improve on an attack that didn't include any of the league's top 30 scorers -- or anyone who even managed to reach double figures in goals -- and a minus-13 differential that left the Impact languishing in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. (Under Henry, this year's team has started better: a win at home against New England and a draw at Dallas.)

The Impact have no real history of achievement. They haven't had a winning record since 2016. (And even then, it was only 15-13-6.) Some fairly big names passed through as head coach -- the American Jesse Marsch, who is now at Red Bull Salzburg; Remi Garde, who managed Lyon and Aston Villa -- but nobody lasted long enough to make a genuine imprint. "We've been a club without a real identity or philosophy," says Gilmore.

That's a standard Henry is sure he can meet. If nothing else, he promises, the world will see his influence. His team will run and press. It will thrive on intensity and work ethic. "Those are principles, not strategies," he says. "They don't change." As for competitive success, well, the bar is low. "The pressure here is not like the pressure at Monaco," Renard says. "We are trying to build something. We want to take the approach that we want, and we will not change that after two or three months, regardless of how many games we win."

Henry understands that. At least, he gets it intellectually. Ask him if the Impact will make the playoffs and he'll brush away the question with a wave of the hand. "You have teams that are successful in different ways," he says. This sets him off on another harangue.

When he walks the streets of North American cities, it saddens him to only ever see fans wearing shirts of the biggest clubs, the ones that win all the time: Real Madrid and Manchester City, Barcelona and Juventus. "It is very easy to wear those shirts," he lectures. "What shows true understanding of the game is to wear a Southampton shirt. If I saw that, then I would be impressed." He mentions Sean Dyche at Burnley and Eddie Howe at Bournemouth. "Some people would say, 'They didn't win anything!'" He wags a finger. "No! It is success in a different way."

If one of the young players at Monaco goes on to make a national team, if he learned something under Henry's tutelage that raised the level of his game, well, isn't that also a credit to him? "It's 'You changed the life of that guy,'" he says. It's a sensible way to think.

But wait. This is Thierry Henry. He won La Liga and the Premier League, Ligue 1 and the MLS Supporters' Shield. He won the FA Cup and the Copa del Rey. He won the Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup and the Euros. He won the World Cup. "Thierry is a winner," Bergkamp says. "He just wants to win, win, win. And that's very demanding for everyone around him." Bergkamp says he thrived as Henry's teammate because he felt the same way. "But not everyone did," he says. "If it gets to be too much for them, it could be a problem."

As a player, Henry could often control his own destiny. "He would literally carry the team sometimes," Sam says. "And that's what I worry about for him now. When you're a manager, your control ends when the team crosses the line. He can't just go score a goal from the corner on his own when his team needs one. He's going to have to count on his players."

And as he probably has noticed, there isn't a Thierry Henry among them.

BY DEFINITION, FRIENDLIES ARE FRIENDLY. They aren't supposed to matter. Still, after winning the first one with Henry as their manager, the Impact didn't even score a goal in the next four. They lost them all. Then they went to Costa Rica and blew a 2-0 lead to Saprissa in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League last-16.

The ramifications? You'd hope they were nonexistent. What kind of coaching job would Henry have accepted if a few friendlies and a draw in unfriendly territory far from home would make a difference?

Nevertheless, wounds heal slowly. A man's nature is his nature. And in Joey Saputo, the Impact has an impatient owner whose inclination has been to change head coaches first and ask questions later. That's a dangerous situation for Henry, who can't afford to be fired again anytime soon. "If things don't go well," Burley says, "it's difficult to see him picking up the pieces somewhere else."

Such knowledge concentrates the mind. Returning to Montreal for the second leg of the CONCACAF series, which would be followed in quick succession by the MLS season opener with New England, a game the Impact would end up winning, Henry canceled all his press appearances.

The return leg against Saprissa was in doubt. Not the result, but the game actually happening. A snowstorm was forecast for the evening of the game, which was being played in Montreal's cavernous Stade Olympique. One of that venue's unique features is that the roof rips easily: 7,453 times between 2007 and 2017, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The facility becomes legally unsafe with more than 3 inches of snow on it.

In the end, the game was played. The scoreless slog probably didn't win any converts to Henry-ball, but it did advance the Impact to the next round. A few minutes after the match, Henry arrived to face the media. He fielded questions in French, English and Spanish with impressive facility. (He could have handled Italian and Catalan too, if that had become necessary.) Someone asked if he was surprised that, needing away goals to advance, Saprissa didn't show more inclination to attack. Henry's lips seemed to quiver. He spoke slowly. "There was a tactic on the other side to make sure they couldn't enter," he said.

Then someone else asked if it was difficult to play such an important match, an elimination match, coming straight out of friendlies, before the MLS season had even begun. It was a question that showed empathy for Henry's predicament. But as a representative of the sport itself, the self-designated guardian of its sanctity, he took umbrage at the concept. He shifted forward in his seat.

"That's the story of football," he said. "You have to have results. All the time! It doesn't matter where you are." He motioned for the next question with the tiniest shake of the head, just enough to be noticed. Even some of the journalists who were still just getting to know him had to smile. All was right with the football world. Thierry Henry was annoyed.

Quinton de Kock is a man of few words and he had just one when he was appointed South Africa's permanent white-ball captain and asked if he would consider giving up the wicketkeeping gloves to accommodate the extra responsibility:

"No."

It was one of the few times de Kock has been adamant, even aggressive, when answering questions. He usually mumbles and stumbles his way through in that charmingly naive way that people who don't like to speak in public have when they are forced to. But on the issue of the triple-task of leading the team, opening the batting and keeping wicket, de Kock was unequivocal that he wanted to do it all.

It's a job only three other players have done for more than 10 matches across all formats and one that, if it goes well, could see him involved in every ball of every match. Rather than express concerns about overload, de Kock said it was essential that he does it that way because he regarded glovework as "the one thing that helps me with my captaincy and my batting". And the early evidence suggests he is not wrong.

In 16 matches in his new super-role, de Kock has a marginally higher-batting average than in the 194 in which he has not been a three-in-one. He has scored a century and seven fifties, has caught everything that has come his way and though he led South Africa to three series defeats, he also oversaw an ODI clean-sweep over Australia - no mean feat in their toughest summer since readmission.

But is it sustainable? Andy Flower, who did the same job 13 times between 1993 and 1996, tells ESPNcricinfo that it could be, if it's cleverly done. "It's hard work. It's quite a load which doesn't mean it's not doable, but you have to be smart about the way you expend your energy," Flower said. "One of the key strategies will be how he recovers, rests and re-energises."

Player workload is a much-talked-about subject for all professional cricketers and rotation policies are commonplace in national squads. The trouble is that it's difficult to rest someone who wears as many hats as de Kock, especially as South Africa are still working on their combinations and could do with the certainty of having three roles taken care of. "You don't want anything to give," Flower said. "A player of Quinton de Kock's quality gives your incredible flexibility on selection. He is a genuine allrounder and allows you to balance your side easily."

Some of the pressure can be taken off him through a strong core of senior players, something South Africa barely have but are trying to hang onto. That's one of the reasons Faf du Plessis has travelled with the ODI squad to India. "For any captain, his lieutenants are important, not any more necessarily for a keeping captain." Flower said. "But for any captain to have a core nucleus of influential players is important."

South Africa are also in the process of building that so, for now, de Kock is the fulcrum around which everything turns. He is likely to continue captaining, keeping and opening the batting for the foreseeable future and Flower has some advice: while captaining and keeping wicket go hand-in-hand, captaining and batting may not.

"The physical positioning of being behind the stumps is a wonderful place to assess the game from; it's the prime place," Flower said. "From there, you can see if its swinging, reverse-swinging, read the pitch and the bounce. It's about the skill of compartmentalising after that. It's about being able to take off the captaincy hat and put on the batting helmet and shifting from leader to batsman. If he can keep his thoughts as simple as that, and be disciplined in making that switch, he will fine."

And yet despite this, if any aspect of the triple role is likely to suffer, it will probably be de Kock's glovework, as Flower himself experienced when his concentration on the specific role wavered. You don't want to make any mistakes and I didn't feel like I could dedicate enough time to it in training and on the field," Flower said. "Because of the flow of the game, that really close focus on expecting every ball to come your way and taking every sharp chance, can be lost sometimes. Any mistake you make is highlighted and you feel like you are letting everyone down. Maybe it's a little easier in a fifty-over game."

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Flower captained and kept wicket for 16 Tests (albeit he didn't open), averaging a creditable 49.28 with three hundreds. However he gave up the gloves when Tatenda Taibu broke onto the scene and he was only too happy to do so. "It was so much easier to be lolling about on the outfield and I had so much more time and energy," he remembered.

That's not advice de Kock will want to hear but it's something for South Africa's management to keep in mind. Luckily, they have two other wicketkeeper-batsmen in the current squad who could step up if needed. Heinrich Klaasen, who was the leading run-scorer against Australia, is one option while Kyle Verreynne, who impressed in his debut series with scores of 48 and 50 in two of the three games and stunning outfield work, is another. Both of them are relatively new to the international scene and need time to find their feet and secure a spot before any of talk of them taking over from de Kock can be entertained.

Meanwhile de Kock has to keep trying to turn South Africa's fortunes around, after their worst summer since readmission and as they build for major white-ball tournaments. There's three in the next three years with back-to-back T20 World Cups and the 50-over World Cup in 2023 and the new management staff were appointed with that as their end-goal. South Africa's obsession with winning a World Cup will only end when (if) they finally succeed, and until then, they will have to deal with every criticism, from team composition to mental fortitude. That will be de Kock's biggest test of all.

"He is very physically talented and looks fit, and he is a beautiful batsman to watch," Flower said. "But it will also be about how he deals with criticism about himself, and how he deals with that emotionally on behalf of the team."

New Zealand coach Gary Stead has called Australia a "benchmark" that they try and aspire to and has welcomed more white-ball fixtures against them in the coming years.

"I look at what's coming ahead in the next few years, and I do see that we are playing Australia in white ball cricket reasonably regularly.. They are a great team, we respect them a lot for the way they play their cricket. That's ultimately, sometimes, they set a benchmark for us to aspire to," he said.

New Zealand were thrashed three-nil in the Tests in Australia in November, but subsequently whitewashed India in ODIs and Tests at home, although they themselves were on the wrong side of a T20I whitewash that preceded those. On the back of those results, Stead believes New Zealand come to Australia a confident side.

"I think we can (take confidence from recent form). India were the No.1 ranked team and we beat them two-nil in our home conditions and played really well in the ODis series prior to that as well. I think we have played some really good ODI cricket in the last three or four years and hopefully we can continue that on"

Australia, on the other hand, are coming off a three-nil hammering in the ODIs in South Africa, before which they were beaten two-one in India, despite having taken a lead in the series opener. But Stead expects Australia to be a different beast at home, and certainly "never vulnerable".

"I think Australia are never vulnerable at home," he said. " It's one of the toughest places to come and play in world cricket I guess as well. Their reputation, and the record that they have I guess, you see the record and that's why they do have that reputation. And so, I mean, they have come off being beaten in South Africa, but all a lot of teams struggle away from home, and I guess no different for us, that's going to be our biggest challenge."

It is an unusual time for ODI cricket as it takes the backseat for most teams in terms of importance with the World Cup still more than three years away, and with the Test Championship and the T20Is - given the T20 World Cup later this year - taking priority. The timing of the Australia-New Zealand series was questioned by former Australia captain Michael Clarke who called it "token games of cricket", and head coach Justin Langer admitted that Australia have some weary players, but Head was quick to dismiss the "some games are not important" argument.

"I think every game you play for your country is an important game, so I don't sort of buy into the it's not important sort of series," Stead said. "You can make your importance out of these series and what you do, and how you play, and who you select, and what you are looking for as well. So for us, every opportunity we get to play for New Zealand, it is a proud moment and certainly go out there and try and win every game we play."

Stead also felt that though the formats are different and the conditions may not be the same as the current ODIs come the T20 World Cup, any information that they can gather playing on Australian grounds could be beneficial.

"It is a different format, but I guess the more information you can get, and the more intel you can get on all the grounds, the good thing is. I'm not sure if the pitch conditions will look the same in the T20 time. So you take all those factors in. you can look at the Big Bash, and scores and things that go on there and who is successful at different grounds before you come to making your final decisions. But I guess ultimately we select the 15 that we think can do the job here, and we'll do that for the World Cup as well."

Ireland 142 for 8 (Delany 37, Naveen 3-21, Ahmad 3-25) tied with Afghanistan 142 for 7 (Gurbaz 42, Delany 2-21)
Ireland won the Super Over

Kevin O'Brien smashed Rashid Khan for a six on the last ball of the Super Over to give Ireland their first win over Afghanistan in last 13 T20Is in the third and final match of the series in Greater Noida.

After Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammad Nabi could manage only eight against Craig Young in the Super Over, Paul Stirling hit a four off Rashid's second ball to reduce the equation to four required from four balls. Rashid got Stirling lbw on the next delivery and conceded just one from the next two to make it three needed from the last ball. But O'Brien sealed the game to give his side a consolation win after Afghanistan had pocketed the series by winning the first two T20Is.

It was Rashid who had earlier helped Afghanistan tie the match in regular time. Afghanistan needed 16 from the final over and then 13 from the last three balls but Josh Little bowled two wides either side of a Rashid six. With five needed from last delivery, Rashid scythed the attempted wide yorker over covers to level the scores.

Afghanistan, though, had only themselves to blame to be in such a situation. Gurbaz gave them another brisk start with a 29-ball 42, and at one stage, they needed 52 from 48 balls with eight wickets in hand. Then, Barry McCarthy bowled Karim Janat but it was Simi Singh who turned the game around by dismissing Nabi and Najibullah Zadran off successive balls in the 15th over.

Unlike the last game, Asghar Afghan struggled for the timing and could manage only 32 off 30 balls before getting out in the final over. Rashid helped them tie the scores but couldn't fetch them the victory in the Super Over.

Earlier, Naveen-ul-Haq and debutant legspinner Qais Ahmad picked up three wickets each to restrict Ireland to 142 for 8. Naveen sent back Stirling and Andy Balbirnie in his first two overs but O'Brien and Gareth Delany added 62 in 6.5 overs to revive the innings. Ahmad broke the stand by dismissing O'Brien for 26 off 21. In the next over, Rashid dealt Ireland another blow by getting rid of Delany, who struck 37 off 29.

That put the brakes on the scoring rate and despite Harry Tector's 22-ball 31, Ireland could manage only 40 from the last seven overs. But what looked like a well below-par total at the innings break proved just enough in the end.

Lahore Qalandars will field first, having won the toss. Sohail Akhtar believed dew would play a part later on in the evening, and Lahore will look to keep up the momentum that they have built up over the last two games, which they won.

Lahore have only ever won three games in a row once in PSL history, and to repeat the feat, they must overcome Peshawar Zalmi, who have beaten them eight of the nine times the two have played. They make three changes in that quest, with Dane Vilas, Usman Shinwari and Salman Irshad out, while Dilbar Hussain, Haris Rauf and Chris Lynn come in.

Peshawar are on a two-match winning streak themselves, and will guarantee qualification with another today. They make just the one change, captain Wahab Riaz confirming Lewis Gregory comes in to replace opener Imam-ul-Haq.

Lahore Qalandars: Fakhar Zaman, Chris Lynn, Mohammad Hafeez, Ben Dunk (wk), Sohail Akhtar (capt), Samit Patel, David Weise, Dilbar Hussain, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Maaz Khan

Peshawar Zalmi: Kamran Akmal (wk), Haider Ali, Tom Banton, Shoaib Malik, Liam Livingstone, Lewis Gregory, Carlos Brathwaite, Wahab Riaz (capt), Hasan Ali, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Veteran offensive tackle Russell Okung dropped out of the race for NFLPA president Tuesday morning, a source told ESPN.

All four candidates -- New York Giants defensive back Michael Thomas, Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter, Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Sam Acho and Okung -- gave speeches to the players in attendance at the NFLPA annual meetings Tuesday morning. Okung went last and announced he was no longer running for president, according to the source.

Okung then put his support behind Thomas with a strong speech, according to the source, while citing health issues he's dealt with over the past year-plus and a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to give 100% to the role. Richard Sherman, another vocal opponent of the new proposed collective bargaining agreement, nominated Thomas for the role Monday.

With Okung dropping out, one source told ESPN that Thomas is the front-runner to win the job. Thomas, who was a "no" vote on the new proposed CBA, has garnered respect from many players for his intelligence, leadership and communication skills. He also now has the support of Sherman and Okung.

Acho was a "yes" vote on the proposed CBA, while Tretter hasn't made public which way he is voting.

Voting for NFLPA president is scheduled to take place midday Tuesday, with each team rep in attendance holding a vote. Not every rep is in attendance, including Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but more than two-thirds of them are present for the vote.

Okung's decision to drop out comes just one day after he filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the NFLPA for bad-faith negotiating in regard to the proposed CBA.

The NFLPA responded to the charge Tuesday, saying in a statement: "Our union learned from press reports yesterday of a charge made by an NFL player referencing a violation of constitutional process for a new CBA. We fully complied with our constitution, which spells out the process for Board of Player Representatives to approve sending a proposed CBA to the full membership for a vote. With respect to the other allegations reportedly in the charge, those issues were addressed by the full Executive Committee and shared with Board of Player Representatives."

In the filing, Okung has accused NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith of pushing a vote on the new CBA through to the entire group of players despite objections from the NFLPA executive committee, who voted against recommending the proposal.

Okung has been among the most vocal players expressing disdain about the new proposed CBA and a potential 17-game season, and has said that NFLPA-NFL negotiations are not representing players' best interests in terms of health and safety. The filing with the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that enforces and protects employees against unfair labor practices, speaks to those issues.

During a February vote, the executive committee voted 6-5 not to recommend the proposed CBA to players. After a meeting with owners during the NFL combine, the executive committee again remained in majority on its desire not to recommend the proposed deal.

The NFLPA then took a vote of all 32 team player reps in Indianapolis, with the vote being 17-14 to approve the deal, with one player abstaining. The NFLPA needs a two-thirds vote to pass the deal along to the full player group with recommendation. But despite being short of that number, it decided to still move the vote to the full player group without recommendation because it received a simple majority vote to approve.

The union did vote to extend the voting window by 48 hours -- until Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET -- to allow more time for players to consider the proposal and vote via DocuSign. There needs to be just a simple majority (more than 50%) to pass the new proposed CBA.

The NFL also pushed back the deadline for teams to designate franchise and transition players to Monday at 11:59 a.m. ET. The free agency legal tampering period begins Monday at noon ET, with the 2020 league year and free agency opening on March 18 at 4 p.m. ET.

The NFL Players Association and the league management council have agreed to move the franchise/transition tag deadline from Thursday at 4 p.m. ET to Monday at 11:59 a.m. ET.

By setting the tag deadline as noon, it allows for the period known as "legal tampering" to begin as scheduled on Monday. The start of the league year remains Wednesday, March 18.

The decision to move the tag deadline follows the extension of the deadline for players to vote on the collective bargaining agreement proposal from Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET to Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Absent a new CBA, teams can use both a franchise and a transition tag on players. However, if the new CBA is passed by the NFLPA, teams will only have either the franchise or the transition tag at their disposal.

The Ivy League has canceled its conference tournaments in both men's and women's basketball in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The league announced its decision Tuesday, four days before the start of the men's tournament and three days before the start of the women's event. Both tournaments were scheduled to take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It marks the first postseason college basketball tournament to be canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak. The league announced that Yale will receive the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA men's tournament, and Princeton will receive the automatic bid for the NCAA women's tournament.

"We understand and share the disappointment with student-athletes, coaches and fans who will not be able to participate in these tournaments," Ivy League executive director Robin Harris said in a statement released by the league. "Regrettably, the information and recommendations presented to us from public health authorities and medical professionals have convinced us that this is the most prudent decision."