Cristiano Ronaldo unlikely to travel to India for FC Goa clash
Margao (PTI): Saudi Arabia's top club Al-Nassr are arriving in India Monday night for their AFC Champions League 2 away match against FC Goa but marquee player Cristiano Ronaldo is unlikely to accompany the visiting team for the game scheduled on October 22.
According to Saudi Arabia's sports newspaper Al Riyadhiah, the 40-year-old Ronaldo is not going to be a part of the travelling party despite multiple requests from the FC Goa management.
Al-Nassr are bracing up for their third game in the continental club tournament after their comfortable league won over Al-Fateh, and their next match is scheduled to take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda.
FC Goa had defeated former AFC Cup winners, Al Seeb, to qualify for ACL 2, and were then drawn alongside Ronaldo's Al Nassr in Group D of the tournament.
Al-Nassr and Indian Super League club FC Goa being drawn in the same group of the continental tournament has raised expectations of the Portuguese superstar making a trip to India for a competitive match.
It is understood that his contract with Al-Nassr has a clause giving him the right to pick and choose matches outside Saudi Arabia.
Al-Nassr will be arriving at the Dabolim international airport.
Ronaldo, who is looking to play in next year's World Cup, is also focussed on managing his workload and give himself a chance to compete in the showpiece.
Moreover, Al-Nassr have won both their group-stage fixtures of Asian AFC Champions League 2 in the absence of Ronaldo, and are poised to advance to the next round.
After their match against FC Goa, Al-Nassr will be taking on rivals Al Ittihad in a round of 16 clash of the Kings Cup on October 28.
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Karnataka: Indigo disruption forces newlyweds to attend reception online
Hubballi (Karnataka) (PTI): The venue was all decked up and a delicious spread ready for the invitees. But Megha Ksheerasagar and Sangam Das could not be present for their own wedding reception, thanks to the national flight disruptions that has sent many passengers across the country into a tizzy.
The newlyweds' reception was fixed here on December 3, but the couple was forced to attend their grand event only via video conference due to the disruptions in top carrier Indigo's operations, mainly due to crew woes.
Not meaning to miss the important day, the couple appeared on a large screen at the venue through video conferencing from Bhubaneswar, greeted the guests and apologised for not being personally present.
Instead, the bride's parents graced the occasion at the scheduled reception venue--Gujarat Bhavan, here, on behalf of the couple that had tied the knot on November 23 in Odisha's Bhubaneswar.
According to the family, the couple, both software engineers, work in Bengaluru. The reception was arranged at the bride's native place in Hubballi on Wednesday.
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To be part of their special day, the couple had booked tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru-Hubballi route for December 2. Some relatives had booked tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Hubballi route. However, due to operational disruptions, IndiGo flights were continuously delayed from 9 am on December 2 until early morning on December 3, and were eventually cancelled.
"My daughter's wedding happened on November 23 and we had organised a reception at our native place in Hubballi for people here. The flight kept getting delayed and at the last moment, at around 4 am, it got cancelled. Now what could we do after that. We had to come up with some solution. Then I decided to do the reception online. I immediately arranged for a screen and asked my daughter and son-in-law to join the reception online," the bride's father Anil Kumar Ksheerasagar told PTI Videos.
He urged the central government to take corrective measures so that public, being the tax payers, don't suffer.
"What the problem with IndiGo is, we don't know. My daughter and son-in-law were supposed to come via an IndiGo flight but that got cancelled. IndiGo alone can't be blamed. The government must understand that it is in case of emergencies that people prefer flights. Some measures need to be taken to resolve this issue. When the PM's flight gets cancelled, he is taken by helicopter. Why is the same not done for us, the common people. We also have emergencies, don't we. The government must think of this, and if they ignore public woes, they should remember that we are also VIPs because we pay tax."
Relatives had come for the reception from across the country--Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bagalkote, Davangere and Belagavi.
"I didn't know what to do as relatives and guests had come from so many places. I was stressed, but then I quickly decided to do it online," Ksheerasagar said.
As the couple could not travel to Hubballi, the bride's parents sat in place of the newly-weds at the reception venue and conducted the rituals, while the bride and groom, dressed up in Bhubaneswar, attended their grand reception online.
