Istio-1.13.3 : sample sleep pod in Init:CrashLoopBackOff state

Hello,
I installed istio as instructed Istio / Install with Istioctl
And trying to do initial deployment with the sleep example Istio / Installing the Sidecar
Label the default namespace with istio-injection=enabled is set.

Unfortunately the sleep pod is in Init:CrashLoopBackOff state.
I also see:
$istio-1.13.3 istioctl verify-install
1 Istio control planes detected, checking --revision “default” only
Error: could not overlay user config over base: json merge error (unable to find api field in struct meshConfigExtensionProvider for the json field “envoyOtelAls”) for base object:

I am not sure where I went wrong. Any input please.
Thank you