Twelve years after winning their first Indian Premier League title together with Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir finally completed their hat-trick on Sunday night.
The two KKR stalwarts were back in alliance for the franchise this season, with dramatic effects.
Now as captain and coach respectively, they oversaw the side’s rise to the top of the league standings. Then, in Chennai, Kolkata completed the most emphatic win in a final in the history of the competition.
They beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets, having only just got halfway through their allotted overs in the run chase. It was an annihilation.
They bowled Hyderabad out for the lowest total in an IPL final. It felt as good as over as soon as Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, the opening duo who have been extraordinarily destructive across this season, came and went cheaply.
Sharma was dismissed for two by Mitchell Starc, who went a long way to justifying Kolkata’s $3 million outlay on him, as he took two for 14.
Head was then caught at the wicket first ball off Vaibhav Arora. Hyderabad failed to recover, with Andre Russell the pick of the bowlers with three wickets as Kolkata bowled their opposition out for 113 with nine balls left unused.
They made light work of the chase. Venkatesh Iyer hit 52 not out in 26 balls as victory was clinched after just 10.3 overs.
It was the third title for the franchise. Narine and Gambhir were part of the playing line-up for each of the first two, in 2012 and 2014.
While the West Indian all-rounder continues to excel on the field, Gambhir is now the brains off it. If this was an audition for him to be the next India coach, then it could scarcely have gone much better.
The duo had been perfectly in sync, according to a fellow member of Gambhir’s backroom team, Bharat Arun.
“[Narine] has brought a totally different dimension to our batting this year and it was Gautam who insisted Sunil opened,” Arun said. “That really paid off and I think what Sunil did was outstanding.”
The franchise’s other West Indian stalwart, Russell, said the victory was partly pay back for the faith Kolkata have shown in him over the years.
“It means so much,” Russell said. “With all the fans who have been supporting us right throughout from the start of this season, we as players have been trying to go out there and make sure we get the job done.
“It is the first time we are celebrating a victory and I think it is the right moment. We are very disciplined and just want the same goal.
“This franchise have done so much for me, helping me with my fitness and everything. This is a big gift from us to them.”
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Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
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Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
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Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
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Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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TRAINING FOR TOKYO
A typical week's training for Sebastian, who is competing at the ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon on March 8-9:
- Four swim sessions (14km)
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- Four run sessions (45km)
- Two strength and conditioning session (two hours)
- One session therapy session at DISC Dubai
- Two-three hours of stretching and self-maintenance of the body
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
For more information go to www.abudhabi.triathlon.org.
