V.A. Medical System Staggers as Chaos Engulfs Its Leadership

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Christopher Vojta, a health care executive with degrees from both the business and medical schools at the University of Pennsylvania, was helping run the department’s 1,200 hospitals and clinics until he quit abruptly last week.

Dr. Amy Fahrenkopf, a health care executive educated at Yale and Harvard, who had joined the department to streamline its $14 billion private sector Choice program, quit Monday.

Louis Celli, the national director of veterans affairs and rehabilitation for the American Legion, one of the largest and oldest congressionally chartered veterans organizations, said it was clear from his contacts within the department that there was a “corrosive culture building.”

“You have the majority of the 360,000 employees who go to work every day and perform the jobs they were hired to do,” he said. “What we are hearing, by and large, from the rank-and-file employees is that this is the worst it has ever been.”

The department planned to announce a major reorganization of its health care system administration this week, designed to avoid failures in care that have incited repeated scandals in the hospital system. It did not happen.

Department officials said nothing has been delayed, and the reorganization plan is being reviewed.

This week the left-leaning veterans group VoteVets sued the Trump administration, saying the appointment of Mr. Wilkie as acting secretary violated federal law, and that the sidelined deputy secretary should have automatically been given the acting position. If successful, the lawsuit could nullify all decisions the current acting secretary makes.

And relations between the White House and veterans policymakers on Capitol Hill — particularly the leaders of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee — have reached a low. Mr. Trump continues to savage Senator Jon Tester of Montana, the committee’s top Democrat, for his role in gathering and publicizing the allegations against Dr. Jackson. Privately, administration officials have also gone after the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, for supporting Mr. Tester.

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Can new leadership spark Daredevils revival?

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Delhi Daredevils: lost to Kings XI Punjab by 4 runs, lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets, lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by 71 runs

Kolkata Knight Riders: lost to Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets (DLS method), beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets, beat Delhi Daredevils by 71 runs

Big Picture

One win in six games. A new captain. A squad that has failed, so far, to turn into a team. Delhi Daredevils find themselves in a quite unenviable situation. But, as Shreyas Iyer put it after taking over the team's leadership from Gautam Gambhir, there is still time for the team to make something of this season. "We have eight games in hand. There are lots of us who believe."

That belief needs to be backed up with tactical smartness. Gambhir's resignation, and his poor batting form, suggest he is also out of Daredevils' playing XI - Daredevils could bring in big-hitting New Zealander Colin Munro in his place, especially if Jason Roy is not fit. It gives them an opportunity to tear up their failed early-season templates and apply themselves afresh to the task of finding a way to bring the best out of what is - particularly on the batting front - still an excellent group of players.

Kolkata Knight Riders will try their hardest to prevent this from happening. The visitors have themselves underperformed, even if not to Daredevils' extent, and their 3-3 record doesn't quite reflect how good they have looked when they have won. Given how tight the race for the playoffs is likely to get, Knight Riders will want to string some wins together and gather some steam going into the second half of the league phase.

In the news

Chris Morris is out of the IPL due to a back injury.* Junior Dala was announced as his replacement on the afternoon of the game. Jason Roy (side strain) missed Daredevils' last game against Kings XI Punjab, but given the four-day gap between that match and this one, Daredevils would hope he's fit.

Andre Russell went off the field clutching his right thigh after bowling 1.5 overs against Kings XI, but is expected to be good to go on Friday. With his hamstrings in mind, Knight Riders have looked to lighten Russell's bowling workload this season - he didn't bowl at all in the game before the Kings XI one, against Rajasthan Royals - and it's possible he might play as a pure batsman if he is not 100%.

Gautam Gambhir has scored 42 runs off the 60 balls he's faced from seamers in IPL 2018 ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Likely XIs

Delhi Daredevils: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Colin Munro/Jason Roy, 3 Glenn Maxwell, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Liam Plunkett, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Trent Boult.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shubman Gill, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Shivam Mavi, 11 Kuldeep Yadav.

Previous meeting

Daredevils found a way to keep both Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn quiet, but had no answers against Andre Russell, whose breathtaking 12-ball 41 powered Knight Riders to 200. Three early wickets meant Daredevils never got going in their chase, and eventually lost by 71 runs.

Strategy punt

Knight Riders (19.1 overs in six matches) have bowled by far the most Powerplay overs of spin of any team this season. It's partly down to circumstances: they have lost key fast bowlers to injury, have been forced to conserve Russell's hamstrings, and also happen to be blessed with an excellent spin attack.

ESPNcricinfo Ltd

With this in mind, Daredevils could look to unsettle Knight Riders by promoting their best players of spin up the order. At least two out of Rishabh Pant (T20 strike rate of 157.5 against spin since 2015), Colin Munro (142.5) and Glenn Maxwell (151.4) could bat in the top three if Daredevils adopt this strategy.

Stats that matter

• Knight Riders have a 13-7 win-loss record against Daredevils, and have won four of the five most recent meetings.

• Sunil Narine may well be the IPL's MVP. According to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats - ESPNcricinfo's new set of metrics to make sense of numbers in the shortest format - he has saved Knight Riders 34.40 runs with the ball in six games this season, and scored 19.25 runs more than par.

• Daredevils have lost more wickets (14) from overs 1 to 6 than any other team this season, while going at the third-worst run rate (8.05). The first thing they will need to sort out under their new captain is whom to bat at the top of the order.

• Piyush Chawla is set to play his 200th T20 game.

• Chris Lynn found some form against Kings XI Punjab, but his numbers against spin for this season remain poor: 60 runs off 60 balls, three dismissals.

• Robin Uthappa has crossed 25 in four of his six innings this season, but hasn't gone beyond 48 yet.

Fantasy picks

KKR's Nitish Rana has made a case for an India call-up with his runs and poise at the crease this season, and he has chipped in with vital wickets too - averaging 33 in six innings, with a strike-rate of 135, while taking four wickets in three innings. Also, he plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and knows the Feroz Shah Kotla very well. All these factors make Rana a smart choice to have in your team.

12.04pm GMT The preview was tweaked to reflect Chris Morris' withdrawal and subsequent replacement

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