Viktor Gyokeres has hit back at critics of his move to Arsenal, as he insists he did not disrespect Sporting CP before sealing his move to north London.
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Roberto Martinez says Portugal will carry the legacy of Diogo Jota into the 2026 World Cup as they aim to win the tournament for their late star.
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Son Heung-min has expressed his delight at Bayern Munich star and old Tottenham team-mate Harry Kane ending his trophy drought.
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Young midfielder Pablo Torre's future is currently uncertain, and he could play his final game for the Catalans against Athletic Club on Sunday.
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Batter to miss Test series for personal reasons; Dan Lawrence named as replacement
ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2024Harry Brook has withdrawn from England’s Test squad to tour India for personal reasons. He is set to miss the start of the five-Test series, with England calling up Dan Lawrence as his replacement.The team were due to arrive in Hyderabad on Sunday, ahead of the start of the first Test on Thursday, but Brook will no longer be with the party having travelled home from the team’s training camp in the UAE instead.The ECB said in a statement: “Harry Brook is set to return home with immediate effect for personal reasons from the England Men’s Test tour of India. The Brook family respectfully requests privacy during this time. In light of this, the ECB and the family kindly request the media and the public to respect their wish for privacy and refrain from intruding on their private space.”Although officially ruled out of the entire tour, ESPNcricinfo understands that Brook could still return at a later date.Related
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The loss of Brook comes as a significant blow to England’s attempts to become the first team to win a Test series in India in more than a decade. Since making his debut in the final Test of the 2022 summer, he has averaged 62.15, at a strike rate of 91.76, from 12 appearances, with four hundreds.He was briefly promoted to No. 3 during the Ashes, after Ollie Pope suffered a series-ending shoulder injury, before Moeen Ali moved up as a stopgap. Pope is fit to return in India, meaning England will have to rethink their middle order.Brook’s absence could see England deploy Jonny Bairstow as a specialist batter once again, filling the gap at No. 5, with Ben Foakes available to keep wicket.ESPNcricinfo understands that Brook could still return at a later date•Getty Images
Lawrence, the spare batter with the Test squad last summer, had only recently arrived in the UAE for the ILT20 after a stint at the Big Bash League, but will make his way to India in the next couple of days. Lawrence’s last Test appearance came in March 2022, on the tour of the Caribbean, shortly before the dual appointments of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes as coach and captain helped to revitalise the side.There are also a number of back-up options among the England Lions party currently in India, Josh Bohannon, in particular, impressing with a century in Ahmedabad earlier this week.England will train at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday, having spent the last ten days in Abu Dhabi acclimatising for the tour.
Brentford have become the latest club to welcome an A-list investor onto their books, with supermodel Claudia Schiffer now part of the Bees family.
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Assam withdrew the appeal during the tea break right after the dismissal and the decision was accepted by the umpires
Vishal Dikshit16-Feb-2024Mumbai captain Ajinkya Rahane was given out obstructing the field for the first time in his 16-year professional career, before he was dramatically called back to bat because the opposition, Assam, withdrew the appeal in the last league game of the Ranji Trophy at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy in Mumbai.Rahane was batting on 18 with Mumbai on 102 for 4 in the last over before the scheduled tea break, when he drove his 52nd delivery, from Assam fast bowler and debutant Dibakar Johri, to mid-on and took off for a single. But by the time his batting partner Shivam Dube denied the single and sent Rahane back, Assam captain Denish Das fired in a throw at the keeper’s end and hit Rahane who was trying to get back to the crease.The Assam players went up in an appeal immediately for “obstructing the field” and Rahane was given out by the on-field umpire on the fourth ball of the 25th over. Tea was taken two balls early with Mumbai 102 for 5 in reply to Assam’s 84 all out.Related
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However, Assam decided to withdraw the appeal during the tea break and told the umpires as much. As per the laws, the appeal for a dismissal needs to be withdrawn before the next ball is bowled and has to be accepted by the umpires for the batter to be recalled. Luckily for Rahane, there was a break in play after his temporary dismissal and both teams were back in the dressing room. The withdrawal of the appeal was accepted by the umpires and Rahane walked out to bat again about 20 minutes later.Shardul Thakur later said Rahane was reluctant to bat again “because his ethics didn’t allow him,” but also explained what he saw on the replays in the dressing room, which could have led to the withdrawal of the appeal.”We were playing the video [in the dressing room] and all we saw was he turned and he was running in a straight line,” Thakur said after the day’s play. “So at no point he changed his direction. The only direction that was changed was when he took that turn and after that he didn’t change his direction looking at the ball and he wasn’t trying to obstruct the field. But yes umpires felt that he could be given out since the throw was aimed at the stumps but I think the Assam coach also saw the video and he didn’t feel Rahane had done it purposely and obstructed the throw.”Thakur emphasised that Rahane had not changed his direction while running because as per Law 37.1, as stated by the MCC, “Either batter is out Obstructing the field if, except in the circumstances of 37.2, and while the ball is in play, he/she wilfully attempts to obstruct or distract the fielding side by word or action.” Law 37.2 further states: “A batter shall not be out Obstructing the field if the obstruction or distraction is accidental, or the obstruction is in order to avoid injury…”Thakur further said the Assam coach Trevor Gonsalves walked up to the Mumbai dressing room during the tea break to “apologise” for the appeal and asked Rahane to resume batting after the break.”They wanted to withdraw the appeal and since it was tea time, they couldn’t convey it immediately but their coach walked up to us and he said, ‘we apologise for the appeal because it was in the heat of the moment and we want to withdraw the appeal.’ He conveyed the same thing to the umpires also and probably it was mutually agreed that Rahane would go on to bat. But Ajinkya was not keen on going back again because he said once he’s given out, it’s out. But we convinced him that if it’s not out then you can go and bat again and if you do that, it’ll be for the team. His ethics didn’t allow him to do that but for the team it was needed that he goes back again and bats.”Rahane padded up again and went out with Dube but couldn’t capitalise on his luck and was bowled by the same bowler four overs after the tea break. He survived only 17 more deliveries and was eventually sent back for 22 off 69 balls.Rahane had earlier struck three fours in his innings – two through the covers and one wide of mid-on – and was reviving Mumbai’s innings with Dube after they were 60 for 4 in the 16th over. Their partnership was worth 50 off 77 deliveries, including 16 runs from Rahane, 30 from Dube and four extras.Rahane has so far had an unimpressive Ranji season with just 112 runs from eight innings at an average of 16.00. He had missed two league games with injuries when the team was led by Shams Mulani against Bihar and by Dube against Bengal.Assam were earlier bowled out in just 32.1 overs as Shardul Thakur, who returned from a niggle in the last round, ran through the visitors with figures of 6 for 21 from 10.1 overs after Mumbai had opted to bowl.It was Thakur’s first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket in two years and he was playing only his second Ranji game of the season after recovering from an ankle niggle that had kept him out of action for a few weeks. He said he was now back to full fitness and ready to bowl as many overs as required in a day.”All I tried to do was pitch in the right areas and once we got a couple of wickets, the whole idea was to take four to five wickets before lunch time,” he said. “We weren’t targeting them to take all 10 wickets but the whole idea was to take as many wickets we could and if we could take five wickets in a session that would be brilliant. Shams also chipping in after my spell, he got those two wickets, and the last three or four wickets were the icing on the cake.Mumbai are currently leading the Group B table with 30 points after four wins, one draw and a loss from six games and have already qualified for the quarter-finals.
In a bizarre session of play, India collapsed in the space of 92 balls out of which Yuvraj faced 46. The following manhattan graphic shows the passage of play after lunch
George Binoy22-Mar-2006At 75 for 3, India were in with a definite chance to draw the game. They had their two best batsmen in Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the crease and had Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to come. But in a bizarre session of play, India collapsed in the space of 92 balls out of which Yuvraj faced 46. The following ‘Manhattan’ graphic shows the passage of play after lunch.The only period where the Indians offered some resistance was when Dravid and Tendulkar put on 42 runs for the third wicket. Andrew Flintoff was simply superb in the morning session. He cut the ball sharply into the right hander and made Wasim Jaffer look like a school boy playing on a bumpy road. Flintoff conceded no runs of the 23 balls he bowled to Jaffer and beat the bat on eight occasions. He finally got him leg before with one that cut back sharply and struck him in front of off and middle.
Saturday could be the last time we will watch Brian Lara in an international match. West Indian cricket is unlikely to miss him
Sambit Bal19-Apr-2007
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Saturday could be the last time we watch Brian Lara in an international match. Anyone who has a feel for cricket will mourn his loss, for no batsman in the last 15 years has brought more joy to spectators. But paradoxically, West Indian cricket is unlikely to miss him.Lara’s legacy will be deeply flawed as he has been the most mortal of geniuses. Any human, however talented, must be granted his indiscretions, and Lara has always been a complex character. His batting, a hostage to his moods, has touched extraordinary highs and inexplicable lows. But that’s the essence of Lara and the peaks have been so rewarding that it’s been easy to overlook the troughs.To judge Lara’s contribution to West Indian cricket, it is essential to separate his batting from his leadership. Lara the batsman is peerless, light years ahead of his compatriots who have struggled to match the deeds of their predecessors. Lara the leader has been diametrically opposite. Aloof and whimsical are the mild words used to describe him. The stronger ones are selfish, vindictive and unbecoming.It is hardly a secret that Lara was foisted as captain by Ken Gordon, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board and a fellow Trinidadian, after the infamous row between the board and the players over sponsorship in 2005. A majority of the then selection committee didn’t want him and none of the members of the present one want him either. But Gordon, in a move that will be familiar to most cricket fans in the subcontinent, imposed his will on them, and might want to do so again. However, his hold on the board has been weakened following the World Cup debacle, and if the selectors have their way, Lara will not make the West Indian touring party for the trip to England in May. Not as captain, not even as player.While it would be unfair to blame one person, however powerful, for the abjectness of an entire team, those in the know firmly believe that the rot begins right at the top. Lara, they say, has never allowed the team to settle down, and worse, done his best to undermine any player who has crossed his path.Of course, barring occasional outbursts against the selectors, he has been a model of rectitude and decorum in public, always choosing the right words, and hitting the right notes. In his press conference before the game against Bangladesh at Kensington Oval on Thursday, he repeated his apology to cricket fans and talked about the disappointment of the Caribbean nations. “The need to show character” was a phrase that came up repeatedly.
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Yet, Lara, who will retire from one-day internationals after the tournament, stands accused of destroying the character of the team more than anyone else. On the field, he has been eccentric and unpredictable and some of his tactics have bordered on the bizarre. Some of his improvisations, like opening the bowling with Wavell Hinds and Dwayne Smith, have borne fruit, and he has been persuasive in arguing that he has used innovation as a surprise weapon due to the lack of too many real ones at his disposal. “I wouldn’t have needed to experiment if I was leading Australia,” he said during last year’s Champions Trophy.But some of the selections defied logic and cricket sense. For much of last year, Ian Bradshaw and Jerome Taylor were the team’s best one-day bowlers. Bradshaw was outstanding with the new ball, often bowled his overs through and conceded about 40 runs. Taylor was beginning to master operating at the death, delivering at pace and firing in yorkers. Both have found themselves dropped repeatedly and Bradshaw has been used at first change and sometimes even at the death where he has been easy meat at his pace.Lara picked the rookie Lendl Simmons as a batsman in the World Cup and put him at No. 8, and in the crucial, near knock-out match against New Zealand, he chose to hand a one-day debut to the 19-year-old Keiron Pollard while dropping Marlon Samuels, in whom he had expressed faith only a few weeks earlier.Off the field, he has set a poor example to his team-mates when it comes to behaviour and personal work ethic. Genius must receive an allowance, and tales of Garry Sobers turning up at a match after a night of revelry abound in these parts. But Sobers played in a different era and he was captain for only a short part of his career. Lara has led a bunch of impressionable and far less talented individuals much prone to the risk of being led astray.And he has been severe on the players who he has come to dislike. Ramnaresh Sarwan, a captaincy candidate who has a far better record in both forms of the game than most current players, had the mortification of being dropped on the tour of Pakistan and others have had their batting positions shuffled. Some are believed to be dead against him, while many others live in fear. It is not only a team lacking faith in its own ability, but lacking faith in their leader.The cricket world will be poorer for Lara’s departure, but for West Indian cricket it could be the way forward. It’s a tragedy. Lara ought to be remembered as one of the most special batsmen in the history of the game and not a captain whose whims and sullenness destabilised an already feeble team.
It’s all about how well the support cast perform around Steve Tikolo. By Will Luke
Will Luke06-Sep-2007
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If the bigger, more established countries are struggling to work out their gameplans and scrabbling to find their best teams, spare a thought for Kenya. Twenty20 virgins, their inclusion as one of two Associate nations (Scotland is the other) is an undoubted fillip; they were permitted entry after reaching the final of World Cricket League in February. But is it fair on them?Kenya’s side is a carbon copy of their World Cup squad, with two new faces: Alex Obanda, a highly-thought-of batsman and Elijah Otieno, a medium-pacer. Both are 19 years old, which is an encouraging sign for the future of Kenyan cricket, but their early introduction into the helter-skelter world of international Twenty20 could do more harm than good to their confidence.Strengths
Could their weakness be their strength? They are undoubted underdogs and, like Scotland, cannot argue against such a label. But the shortest format of the game might just suit them … with a large slice of luck.In Steve Tikolo they have a batsman of genuine class at the top of the order with a wide range of strokes. If he can fire, and others around him can play their naturally attacking game, there is always the opportunity to upset a sleeping giant. Obanda is a find, too; he represented Kenya at Under-17 level when he was 14, and recently scored 386 runs in Zimbabwe’s Logan Cup – including his maiden first-class hundred. For the bowlers, Peter Ongondo averages 26.26 in his 51 ODIs and is well supported by the ageless and disciplined Thomas Odoyo.Weaknesses
There won’t be many sleeping giants for Kenya to sneak past in this tournament, however: it’s too fast-paced, too short, and Kenya lack experience and star quality. Both New Zealand and Sri Lanka will be wary of an upset, as all Full Members are when they encounter the relatively unknown Associates, but they needn’t be. Kenya’s batting might have spunk, but the likes of Stephen Fleming, Brendon McCullum and Upul Tharanga ought to feast like ravenous monkeys on the back-up bowling. It is a tall and ominous ask for such an inexperienced team to make any impact on a tournament that even the big guns are approaching with trepidation.
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There won’t be many sleeping giants for Kenya to sneak past in this tournament: it’s too fast-paced, too short, and Kenya lack experience and star quality |
Players to watch
He rarely lets the side down and is their most influential, talented batsman. Kenya’s cornerstone, but will the burden be too great? A chunky, powerful bowling allrounder with six one-day fifties under his belt and the ability to hit a very long six. But it is his bustling bowling that the team depends on most, and he remains disciplined and reliable. A gifted and aggressive middle-order batsman who is a delight to watch when he is in form, though he has yet to make the big hundreds many expected of him. Still only 20, he is one for the future.Dark horse
Once thought of as a very promising legspinner, Obuya and his wrong’uns have fallen by the wayside in recent years, forcing him to concentrate more on his batting. Perhaps his most prized asset is his electric fielding, but if he can settle into some sort of rhythm, his legspin could yet provide Tikolo with some semblance of control.