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Australia are still not at home in Twenty20, and face the real prospect of exiting the tournament in 48 hours

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval06-Jun-2009If their annihilation at the long, strong and swinging hands of Chris Gayle is anything to go by Australia, the top team in the game’s other two formats, are still not at home in the newest avatar – and now face the real prospect of exiting the tournament in 48 hours’ time. Their hopelessness on Saturday was summed up by Brett Lee, their strike bowler whose four overs went for 56 runs, one of the most expensive in World Twenty20 history. When he finally had some success, getting Gayle caught in his final over on 88, his wry smile told the whole story.Australia have lost the last four of their seven Twenty20 internationals this year. So where’s it all going wrong for them? Ricky Ponting simply said they weren’t doing “well enough” but he did admit that they lost today’s game in the first over of either innings, an aspect of play that had been stressed on in the pre-match team meetings.Jerome Taylor gave West Indies a resounding start by dismissing Shane Watson and Ponting in the space of two deliveries in the first over of the match. Then, Gayle made sure his side began on a positive note by knocking two fours in Lee’s first over, which went for 10 runs.”We were just a bit sloppy. Coming into game we had spoken about making sure we get the first over of each innings right but, as it turned out, we lost early two wickets while batting and gave away a lot off our first over as well,” Ponting said after the defeat. “The game being as short as this you can’t afford to give the momentum away early on.”Ponting did, however, come out in support of his strike bowler. Lee hadn’t featured for Australia since January and only returned last month after an ankle surgery. This was his second international game since then but Ponting appeared happy with his comeback. “His practice match form was extremely good. He got taken a bit today but the sort of form Chris [Gayle] was in he couldn’t do much.”Unlike their Ashes opponents England, who admitted to having taken the Dutch lightly in the inaugural game yesterday, Ponting said he always was wary of West Indies. “We didn’t underestimate anybody. We know how dangerous they can be in this format.”Ponting was in the team hotel when the Dutch were scripting their historic victory at Lord’s, but said he was in no position to have a laugh. “I did hear a bit of cheering coming from my floor in the hotel [after the Dutch victory]. I’m not sure who it was. It doesn’t matter now, does it? We’re in exactly the same boat. We’ve just got to win on Monday,” Ponting said.Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka are in the group of death and today’s loss means Australia must beat Sri Lanka. Even then they may have to sweat out till next Wednesday, when Sri Lanka take on West Indies, to work out the net run-rate – West Indies achieved their victory with 4.1 overs to spare and that adds pressure on Ponting and his men.If there is any relief for Ponting it is that the Australians started in similar vein in the inaugural edition of the tournament, in South Africa two years ago, when they lost to Zimbabwe by one run in their first game. “We were in exactly the same position last time. We faced England and Sri Lanka two years ago to make the semis,” Ponting said with a smile.Ponting says he is clear about the road ahead. “It [a Twenty20 match] can change very quicky in one ball to another, one over to another. We know what our job now is: beat Sri Lanka and beat them well.” If they fail to do that the Australians will need to pack their bags for an unscheduled early arrival at Leicester. Ponting is clearly not willing to settle for that.”We’d have about two weeks in Leicester if we have an early exit here, and that won’t be great for anybody,” Ponting said with a smile. “I haven’t even thought about that yet. Hopefully we’re good enough and we play well enough to make sure we’re in the next stage.”

Celtic will gear up for their next European encounter on Thursday evening a little frightened and short of confidence.

The Hoops have been poor in recent weeks with new manager, Ange Postecoglou, struggling to come up with an answer to their lengthy injury list.

They’ve tasted defeat to Livingston and Real Betis while a dismal 1-1 draw with Dundee United took place last Sunday.

Postecoglou’s side now face Bayer Leverkusen this evening and they will have to show a similar sort of attacking performance as they did in Seville two weeks ago to stand any chance of winning.

Their defence, however, will need to be much improved after conceding four in that opening tie.

Sadly, it’s unlikely that Celtic will be able to welcome back any of the injured players.

Kyogo Furuhashi remains out but the biggest frustration falls at the feet of Callum McGregor. Per the Glasgow Times, it’s almost certain that the skipper will miss the game today.

The Scot picked up a knock a few weeks ago and despite optimism that he’d return soon, he is still an injury doubt.

Speaking last week, Postecoglou was quietly hopeful that he might be fit for the clash with Leverkusen but he will now have to call on different options instead.

With Celtic stuck in a rut, being able to use McGregor would have been a huge boost. He is the main leader in the team and a player with vast experience, especially on the continental and international stages.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/check-out-the-latest-celtic-news-duffy-mccarthy-brady-knockaert” title= “Read the latest Celtic news!”]

The manager is likely to be gutted by recent developments, especially when he considers how few options he still has in the middle of the park.

James McCarthy has started three matches in a row but his form has been sketchy since being introduced into the team.

He’s not had a full pre-season to work with and it’s clear to see how that’s impacting him. The Irishman is wasteful in possession and he’s providing little going forward either.

Against Livingston, for example, he registered no attacking actions despite the Hoops chasing the game.

McGregor, however, is a player who can do a bit of everything. He has popped up with important goals – namely against Midtjylland earlier this term. Furthermore, his 1.4 tackles per game are more than any other midfielder at Parkhead this season.

He is such a valuable asset that missing him for big European nights is a seismic blow. This setback is certainly far from ideal for Celtic.

AND in other news, Forget Rogic: Postecoglou must unleash Celtic’s “first-class” rarely-seen 19 y/o…

The former Pakistan captain and opener cited personal reasons for his resignation

Cricinfo staff20-Jul-2009Aamer Sohail has quit as director of Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy (NCA). The former Pakistan captain and opener cited personal reasons for his resignation, with differences with PCB chairman Ijaz Butt thought to be at the root of the problem. The board has appointed Haroon Rashid as acting director with immediate effect.”I can confirm that I have decided to resign from the post of director of the National Cricket Academy and game development with immediate effect,” Sohail told Pakpassion.net. “I have resigned due to personal reasons as I wasn’t enjoying the job any longer and getting any sort of job satisfaction out of the role.”Sohail, who was appointed to the post in November last year replacing Mudassar Nazar, played 47 Tests and scored 2823 runs at 35.28, along with 4780 runs from 156 ODIs at 31.86. His decision to quit comes a month after chief selector Abdul Qadir put in his papers because of differences with the board’s top brass.Earlier this year, Javed Miandad resigned as PCB’s director general due to differences about the exact scope of his work. However, Miandad was back at his post a few weeks later after a meeting with Butt.

Despite currently sitting in 12th place in the Premier League table with three wins and four defeats under their belt so far this season, Wolves boast a respectable defensive record with just six goals conceded in seven games, the same as Liverpool and Manchester United.

Even with this current defensive record, it seems as though Wolves boss is already eyeing up a potential move for a new defender to bring to Molineux.

What’s the latest?

It has recently been reported by Fichajes (via Sport Witness) that Wolves and fellow Premier League side West Ham United are interested in signing Athletic Bilbao defender Dani Vivian.

The 22-year-old, who has a release clause of €40m (£34m), has played in seven out of Bilbao’s eight La Liga games so far this season, conceding just two goals in the process.

Interestingly, the only La Liga game that Vivian did not play in is the only league match that Bilbao has lost so far this season in a 2-1 defeat against Rayo Vallecano.

Long-term option?

Vivian’s performances in La Liga have earned him an overall performance rating of 7/10 according to WhoScored, making him one of Bilbao’s highest-rated players so far this season.

Taking all of this into account, it’s easy to see why Wolves and West Ham would be interested in signing him.

He’s not a prolific header of the ball with just 0.9 aerial duels won per match but he is an efficient tackler, winning 1.6 challenges a game. That would rank him second out of Wolves’ centre-halves this term with only Max Kilman producing more.

That makes him an attractive signing but there is another reason too. In our view, given the age of current Wolves centre-backs Willy Boly (30) and Romain Saiss (31) we feel that Vivian could be a good option to replace one of the pair and be a useful long-term option for the Old Gold given the Spaniard’s young age.

Moving forward, if Wolves see an opportunity to sign Vivian in the upcoming January transfer window or the next summer window, this is definitely something the club should be looking to explore ahead of their fellow Premier League side West Ham.

Until then, Lage will have to make sure his side can start picking up wins in the league on a consistent basis and not concede too many goals. If they start leaking strikes they could be in danger of being in a relegation battle, rather than finishing in the top half of the table.

In other news: Lage could fix big Wolves issue with swoop for £43.2m-rated ace, fans would be buzzing – opinion

Allan Donald has said ball-tampering must to be legalised in order to redress the balance between bat and ball and save the “dying breed” of fast bowlers

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Jul-2009Allan Donald, the former South African fast bowler, has said bowlers must be allowed to “prepare” the ball – ball-tampering, in other words – to redress the balance between bat and ball and protect the “dying breed” from increasingly lifeless pitches.Speaking to Cricinfo on Friday, Donald was asked if he would recommend legalising ball tampering. He said: “The ICC would shoot me for saying it but, with the wickets that we play on and the dying breed fast bowlers are becoming on these flatter wickets, I would say we do need some sort of defence mechanism, something to fall back on to say ‘Right, we can do this. We can now prepare this ball to go’.”Donald, currently the Warwickshire coach, knows, though, that his plea is likely to fall on deaf ears. “That [legalising ball-tampering] quite simply would never happen,” he said.Ball tampering was a raging issue in the 1990s, a period that coincided with Donald’s rise as leader of the South African bowling attack. He agreed that bowlers had altered the condition of the ball in various ways to get prodigious reverse swing. “There is no doubt guys tampered with the ball,” he said of the fast bowlers of his time. He recalled one incident in the mid-1990s when he saw a former fast bowler pick a little chunk of leather live on the television during a Test match against England. “The guy was just chipping away with his nails and I couldn’t believe how he could get away with it,” Donald said. “The commentator, a famous former player, said “Steady on”, but he [bowler] denied it later. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is no question it still goes on.”To get reverse swing, one must rough one side of the ball while polishing the other. “One [popular] way to do it is to get the ball into the dirt,” Donald said, a method easily practised on rough subcontinent surfaces where the ball, especially the white one, soon gets scuffed up. “Even the red ball, in places like India, we found, did not take too long to reverse.”England also used reverse swing to win back the Ashes at home in 2005. “Yes, I remember [Andrew] Flintoff and [Simon] Jones do it beautifully to swing it both ways especially in Old Trafford by chucking the ball into the foothold.”Donald isn’t the first fast bowler to make this case; in the mid-1990s, Sir Richard Hadlee had also asked for ball-tampering to be legalised. “As long as the bowlers or fielders use whatever means they have on their persons, I don’t see anything wrong with it. I’m talking about the use of a finger nail to scratch the ball, not bottle tops or those sorts of things,” Hadlee wrote in a newspaper column at the time.Donald agreed the best method, if the ICC relented, was to rip the ball without artificial help. “I wouldn’t bite it,” he said with a chuckle. “One way is if the ball gets scuffed on one side,and there is a tiny little chunk that is missing, you pick it up and just keep that side dry and keep working on it, while shining the other side very heavily without putting any moisture. The whole team needs to keep track of this and should know the ball is reversing and they need to shine one side. The bowler, because he is bowling, should keep his wet hands on this side while keeping the other side dry. That’s all you need.”

Sky Sports journalist Pete Graves has relayed news that Newcastle United are eyeing up Luis Campos as the club’s new sporting director.

What’s the story?

Writing on Twitter, he said: “My colleague @gary_cotterill tells me on @SkySportsNews that world renowned Sporting Director Luis Campos would be interested in a role at #nufc and that he expects him to be under consideration by the clubs new owners. Campos helped Lille and Monaco beat PSG to the French title.”

Could be game-changing for Newcastle

While PIF may be the wealthiest owners in the business, that shouldn’t just mean throwing big money at new players for the sake of it.

Bringing someone like Campos into the fold would give Newcastle the kind of respected presence behind-the-scenes who has proven in his time around Europe that he is among the best around when it comes to talent spotting.

For those who aren’t aware of the kind of genius that the Portuguese man possesses, then look no further than his work at AS Monaco and Lille.

The likes of Fabinho, Bernardo Silva, Anthony Martial, Nicolas Pepe and Victor Osimhen all arrived under his watch, with everyone barring the latter leaving for the Premier League for big sums of money.

The 57-year-old has clearly got a nose for identifying talent before they’ve really established themselves on the world scene, and getting that extra edge in the transfer market could be crucial to Newcastle in these early years of PIF’s revolution.

Campos has got the pedigree and profile to be a real game-changing appointment for the Magpies, and ensure they sign the best up-and-coming players around.

Newcastle fans will surely be excited about their links to Campos.

Meanwhile, George Caulkin has dropped a Newcastle manager update…

Sunderland fans were delighted with Leon Dajaku’s comments after the Black Cats’ 4-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday evening.

Lee Johnson’s side are currently flying this term as they aim to earn promotion to the Championship. As it stands, they are second in the League One table, one point behind Plymouth Argyle with two games in hand (BBC). They are also still in the League Cup after they progressed to the fourth round of the competition.

Dajaku was on the scoresheet as the north-east side eased to victory, and he spoke to the club’s media team after the clash. He looked delighted to be at the Stadium of Light, and he shared his pleasure with how both he and the side are performing.

The interview was shared on Sunderland’s official Twitter account, and it attracted plenty of attention from the supporters as the 20 year-old hailed the goal, clean sheet and result. They took to the social media platform to share their thoughts.

Let’s see what the fans had to say about Dajaku below

“Love this guy, class player has the tools to do damage, he loves the club the fans, get that man tied down ASAP”

Credit: @mark_j_cummins

“Man I love the enthusiasm and confidence of these kids, it is just so refreshing.”

Credit: @PeterBeuster

“How likeable is this kid, the smile on his face tells it all, cracking signing”

Credit: @44stu

“It’s honestly class how he’s enjoying it so much “yes we will play Charlton and em win””

Credit: @safcreportt

“This is what it’s all about. Was if he was talking to us all individually. What a smashing charismatic lad who is already rightly a fan favourite. And that strike tonight with his left foot was awesome. Can’t wait to see more.”

Credit: @ColdwellAnn

“It’s mad how genuinely chuffed Dajaku and Hoffman come across. It’s like they feel lucky to be playing for us it’s mental. Over time a bet that feeling becomes infectious for other players at the club.”

Credit: @matt723289

In other news, Sunderland fans applauded this man against Crewe.

Another dispiriting performance from Mitchell Johnson has cast significant doubt over his mechanical and mental readiness for Edgbaston

Alex Brown at Wantage Road26-Jul-2009
ScorecardMitchell Johnson failed to find form during the tour game in Northampton•Getty ImagesThe Australians have recorded their maiden first-class victory on this tour of England, but the path to a Test triumph appears more treacherous by the day. Another dispiriting performance from Mitchell Johnson has cast significant doubt over his mechanical and mental readiness for Edgbaston, and placed the one-time spearhead in grave danger of the axe.Johnson conceded at least one boundary in each of his first six overs on Sunday; a streak that could have stretched to seven but for the negative tactic to bowl short and wide of the Northamptonshire batsmen in the closing stages of his spell. His main persecutor, Niall O’Brien, is more notable for his work behind the stumps for Ireland than his first-class average of 27.68, but the left-hander was made to look every bit the specialist batsman after thumping Johnson for seven of his nine boundaries en route to 58, scored in better than even time.Johnson’s woes also extended to the field, where he dropped Ben Howgego at mid-on off the bowling of Stuart Clark, but it was his analysis of 1 for 65 from 11.1 overs – ending a match in which he dismissed a solitary tailender, and conceded runs at close to six-per-over against a second-division county line-up – that might have tipped the selection scales against him. Demotion at Edgbaston would represent a stunning fall from grace for a bowler who, barely a month ago, arrived on these shores touted as the world’s most dangerous paceman and charged with leading Australia’s Ashes defence.Johnson conceded 45 runs in his opening seven-over burst, and his second spell in the final hour of play proved similarly disappointing. Bowling to the Northamptonshire tail, Johnson watched forlornly as his eighth over was dispatched for 12 runs. His next, a maiden, was greeted with a rousing Bronx cheer from the Wantage Road pavilion, as was his eventual dismissal of David Wigley – concluding a stretch of 35 wicketless overs, dating back to the first innings of the Lord’s Test.”He didn’t bowl as well as he would have liked at Lord’s,” said Tim Nielsen, the Australian coach. “He had some times today when he went for four, five and six an over with the ball flying through gully and slip. That’s the nature of the beast.”The conditions were probably a bit different here to what it was in Lord’s. We didn’t have our best day or best game with the ball. We also lost 6-30 but we’re not calling for five blokes to be dropped form the batting group. That’s the game of cricket. Some days you nick them, some days you whack them, other days you bowl all right and some you don’t. We’ve got to keep preparing well and try to do it better each week.”As was the case in the first innings, Johnson’s inconsistent length contrasted with that of Clark, who further enhanced his selection chances with two wickets. Clark might well have made a greater impact in the wickets column if not for the dropped catches from Johnson and Phillip Hughes, but nonetheless appears poised to provide the Australian attack with the pressure-building accuracy it lacked in the two Ashes Tests to date.Entering the three-day match at Wantage Road, many observers felt Clark would duel with Peter Siddle for a sole pace berth at Edgbaston, only for the crosshairs to shift to Johnson as the match progressed. Siddle, curiously, bowled just four disciplined overs in the second innings, possibly indicating the desire of the Australians to keep him on ice for Edgbaston.”There’s nothing wrong with him,” Nielsen said. “He’s bowling well, he had a good hit out to start. We wanted to get (the others) some bowling and we had to fit them all in.”Australia’s allrounders, Shane Watson and Andrew McDonald, did their future selection prospects no harm, with Watson belting his second half-century of the match in the morning session – this one raised in just 28 deliveries – and McDonald claiming 4 for 15 from 11 overs.”He played a pivotal role in four Test matches in a row, where we won three of them, against South Africa,” Nielsen said of McDonald, who also scored a sparkling 75 at the top of the order in the second innings against Northants. “He offers us flexibility with our bowling in that he can bowl long spells. He’s accurate. He does chip in for wickets as we saw today. He got nearly 70 in his last Test innings for Australia. He catches well. He’s a ripping bloke around the team. He brings plenty to the table.”

Many Everton fans have been left buzzing over some comments made by Richarlison.

Speaking to the official website of the Goodison Park faithful, the former Watford ace has now claimed that he wants to become a legend at the Merseyside club: “What I want most of all, is to become a legend here. I’m so proud to see the fans with my banner, with my name on their shirts. It’s been a great start and I hope it continues so I can become an Everton idol.”

Richarlison was subject of speculation by a number of reports that he could leave in the summer transfer window, but now it looks like he has committed his future to Rafa Benitez’s team for the long-term.

The Brazil international has been such a key player for the Blues since he joined them, and his latest attitude is something that has drawn a lot of praise from Toffees supporters.

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/everton-news-6/” title=”Everton news! (6)” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

Nonetheless, just coming back to full fitness, he will hope that he can have another successful season with EFC.

Everton fans on Richarlison news

These Evertonians were left buzzing as the comments from Richarlison were shared on Twitter, with one even going as far as to claim that it was ‘great news’:

“I love him more than my parents”

Credit: @Josh03460489

“The lad has a tremendous attitude.”

Credit: @PeterPapadopo11

“Great news”

Credit: @rmorley74

“NEVER LEAVE”

Credit: @Evanjw57

“Don’t make me cry”

Credit: @KyIeverton

“This man gets Everton”

Credit: @JakeKent1996

In other news, find out what team news had Toffees fuming here!

The IPL council has also asked the BCCI president to report back to the board during its annual general meeting later this month

Cricinfo staff02-Sep-2009The Indian board has taken the first step towards resolving the IMG dispute and authorised Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, to look into the issue and report back to the board during its annual general meeting later this month. This was revealed by Rajiv Shukla, a vice-president of the BCCI, after a meeting of the IPL governing council, which formalised the move on Wednesday.”BCCI chief Shashank Manohar has been authorised to deal with the IMG issue and report to the board at its AGM on September 24,” Shukla said.A BCCI official told Cricinfo that Sharad Pawar, the former BCCI president who still has a strong hold on Indian cricket affairs, met Manohar and Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, on Tuesday night and discussed a course of action that would possibly involve fresh negotiations with the sports management firm and a revised contract.IMG worked for the IPL this year on an annual fee of around Rs33 crore (around US$6.7m). “Ideally, the board is hoping that they can renegotiate this down around Rs 25-27 crore (around US$5.5m),” the official said. “The idea is to work out a solution that will keep IMG onboard and at the same time, is not seen as undermining the BCCI secretary’s authority in any manner.”N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, had informed IMG last Saturday that the board would no longer use their services for conducting the IPL, following a disagreement over payments for the league’s second season in South Africa. Srinivasan claimed that the fee was disproportionate to the services rendered. IMG played a key role in setting up the inaugural IPL in 2008, for which the BCCI claimed to have made a payment of Rs42.92 crore (US$ 9.54 million approx), and it also managed the second IPL that was shifted to South Africa.The IPL franchises, who were informed about the decision only on Saturday morning through a separate email sent by league officials, were understandably concerned by the move. Seven out of the eight IPL franchises – except Chennai, which is owned by Srinivasan – have over the last three days written strongly-worded letters to the BCCI and Sharad Pawar questioning the IMG ouster, which they claimed would devalue and dilute the league.Pawar had also written to Manohar in his capacity as president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, questioning the Indian board’s decision to terminate IMG’s services for the IPL and warned that the unilateral move would put the board and its stakeholders’ investments in jeopardy.Similar concerns have also been echoed by Sony, the IPL’s broadcasters, which said in a separate letter that the timing of the decision was awkward for them and would have far-reaching implications on the next season.