Celtic have cashed in on a number of players over the past few years such as Odsonne Edouard, Kristoffer Ajer, Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney, to name but a few.

One other player that the Hoops sold in recent memory but they may now be regretting is full-back Jeremie Frimpong, who moved to Bayer Leverkusen in January 2021 in a deal worth a reported £11.5m.

After joining from Manchester City’s youth ranks in 2019, the defender went on to make 51 appearances for the Hoops across all competitions, scoring three goals and providing eight assists along the way.

Since moving to Germany, the 21-year-old – who is currently picking up £25k-per-week according to Salary Sport – has racked up 47 appearances for Leverkusen in total, finding the back of the net twice and delivering nine assists in the process.

With 25 Bundesliga appearances under his belt this season, the right-back has scored one goal and set up another six, earning himself an overall performance rating of 6.88/10 from WhoScored. That makes him Leverkusen’s sixth-highest rated outfield player, showing how important a figure he is for his current club.

To highlight just how much of an attacking threat he has been this term, no other Leverkusen defender has made more key passes per game (1.2) than the former Hoops youngster, who also has his team’s joint-second highest number of dribbles per game (1.9).

In January 2021, shortly before calling an end to his Celtic career, Transfermarkt had Frimpong’s market value listed as £3.6m. It now stands at a massive £18m, highlighting a significant increase of 400%, which shows just how much of a boost his career has enjoyed since waving goodbye to the Parkhead club.

This current value would comfortably make him Celtic’s most valuable player, eclipsing Callum McGregor’s current value of £6.75m at the top of the tree. Taking all this into account, it’s safe to say that the Hoops lost a valuable asset when they sold Frimpong.

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However, with the player reportedly adamant that he wanted to leave the club, perhaps they should have done more to try and convince him to stay where he was, even if they still managed to accrue a decent transfer fee for him.

In other news: Ange can axe “infectious” ace as Celtic become “serious contenders” for “massive” deal

Crystal Palace have now joined the race to sign a “fantastic” £22m forward, who is pushing to leave his current club in the January transfer window.

Palace looking to sign Zaha-esque forward

No player has scored more Premier League goals for Palace than Wilfried Zaha, who found the back of the net 68 times in the top flight, prior to leaving to join Galatasaray back in 2023.

Since the winger moved on, the Eagles have been enjoying the most successful period in their history, winning their first-ever major trophy courtesy of a 1-0 FA Cup final victory against Manchester City last season, which means they are now in the midst of a maiden European campaign.

However, Oliver Glasner could arguably do with a player like Zaha, given that Jean-Philippe Mateta is way out in front at the top of the South Londoners’ goalscoring charts, having scored seven in the Premier League, with right-back Daniel Munoz and Ismaila Sarr tied in second place on just three.

Related Chelsea join Daniel Munoz race as Crystal Palace star reveals true "dream" move

The Blues know all about his quality.

Posts ByTom Cunningham

Last week, Crystal Palace made contact over a deal for Tottenham Hotspur forward Brennan Johnson, and another exciting British winger is now being targeted, according to a report from Caught Offside, which states they have now joined the race for Chelsea’s Tyrique George.

George is pushing to leave the Blues during the January transfer window, with the winger looking to ‘accelerate his development’ elsewhere, having been a sporadic member of Enzo Maresca’s starting XI’s this season.

Palace’s London rivals are said to be holding out for £22m for the 19-year-old, with a whole host of English clubs now queuing up to secure his signature, including Leeds United, Everton, Fulham and Southampton, while RB Leipzig and AS Roma headline the interest from abroad.

"Fantastic" George catching the eye in Europe

Although consistent game time has been limited, the Englishman has impressed when given the opportunity, with scout Jacek Kulig hailing him for scoring his first Champions League goal in Chelsea’s 5-1 victory against Ajax earlier this season.

Kulig has also praised the teenager for his pace, creativity and shooting abilities, while likening him to Zaha and Tottenham Hotspur legend Son Heung-min.

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With Chelsea signing the likes of Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho in the summer, it would make sense for the left-winger, who is also capable of playing at centre-forward, to move on in January.

£22m seems like a fair fee for George, given the level of some of his performances this season, and Selhurst Park may be an attractive destination, with Palace currently fighting for Europe.

Liverpool have rekindled their connection with their academy in recent years. There is Jurgen Klopp to thank for that. The German manager’s illustrious tenure oversaw the birth of Trent Alexander-Arnold, and a host of prospects emerged too.

Toward the end of his journey, ‘Klopp’s Kids’ played an instrumental role in steadying the ship in 2023/24, winning the Carabao Cup against Chelsea, odds stacked against the injury-hit Reds, who prevailed all the same against the “billion-pound bottle-jobs”, as infamously asserted by pundit Gary Neville.

Arne Slot parted with many of Liverpool’s up-and-comers when replacing Klopp in 2024. FSG were reworking Liverpool’s strategy, and such youngsters would be afforded little more than bit-part roles.

However, the Anfield side have ushered in a new wave. They might not be getting much of a look in right now, but there is young talent abundant in this team, and Rio Ngumoha is the new cream of the crop.

Rio Ngumoha's future at Liverpool

Liverpool sold Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich for about £65.5m in August, and they did not directly replace him. Partly, this was because sporting director Richard Hughes had already added a host of attacking talent to the squad, and Alexander Isak was still to come, but the emergence of left winger Ngumoha was another important factor.

Now, the Reds are setting their sights on Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, who has a £65m release clause in his contract and is being lined up by all the Premier League’s heavyweights.

Ngumoha has such talent and potential, and he has been a part of Liverpool’s first-team squad for the duration of the campaign. Despite this, his match action has been limited, only featuring eight times. Moreover, he has recently featured for Rob Page’s U21 side, ostensibly to build up match fitness.

After scoring a dramatic winner at St. James’ Park in August, Ngumoha, 17, announced himself as a new star-in-waiting for the Merseysiders.

Youngest Scorers in Premier League History

#

Player

Age

1

James Vaughan

16 yrs, 8 months, 27 days

2

James Milner

16 yrs, 11 months, 22 days

3

Wayne Rooney

16 yrs, 11 months, 25 days

4

Rio Ngumoha

16 yrs, 11 months, 26 days

5

Cesc Fabregas

17 yrs, 3 months, 21 days

He is the most exciting youngster Liverpool have, but that’s not to say those lower down the pecking order don’t have what it takes to leapfrog the former Chelsea prospect, with one in particular standing out.

The Liverpool youngster who could rival Ngumoha

The pathway from the youth group to superstardom in Liverpool’s senior side is not a particularly well-trodden one, but Joshua Abe has the quality to mimic Ngumoha and those before him in taking the leap.

Aged 15, Abe is punching well above his weight, having established himself in the U18 side, and The Secret Scout called him “the best winger in the country” for his age bracket. High praise indeed, that.

In the U18 Premier League, Abe has already scored two goals and provided two assists across five outings. He has scored three times across five caps for England U16s.

A natural scoring sense and desire to cut inwards from the right wing, arcing toward the centre and striking on goal, Abe has the directness and explosiveness to become Liverpool’s own version of Semenyo down the line, with one scout suggesting he has the potency and natural physicality to emulate the playing style of someone like Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka.

Perhaps that is why the Gunners have developed a reported interest in the wide forward, with their scouts having watched him this season ahead of a potential swoop in 2026. Liverpool cannot allow him to join a rival, even with plans to sign someone like Semenyo.

Subscribe to our newsletter for Liverpool youth scouting Curious about Liverpool’s next superstar? Subscribing to our newsletter unlocks detailed scouting reports, player development analysis and transfer context on rising talents like Ngumoha and Abe—plus broader club coverage and insight. Subscribe Subscribe to our newsletter for Liverpool youth scouting Curious about Liverpool’s next superstar? Subscribing to our newsletter unlocks detailed scouting reports, player development analysis and transfer context on rising talents like Ngumoha and Abe—plus broader club coverage and insight.

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If Abe can translate his potency onto the major stage, taking the baton from the legendary Mohamed Salah, he might just become a more exciting asset than Ngumoha for the Reds.

Liverpool’s interest in Semenyo is real, but perhaps they will only forge ahead with plans for the two-sided winger if Salah leaves in January, as is feared.

But with prospects like Ngumoha and Abe on their way to the fore, you can understand the hesitance.

Related Bad news for Wirtz: Liverpool have made calls to sign "world-class" PL star

Liverpool are in the market for attacking reinforcements this January.

Posts 1 ByAngus Sinclair

The Karnataka – Hyderabad encounter petered out to a tame draw on the fourthand final day at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore. When ‘play’ wascalled, openers Daniel Manohar and Nandakishore were at the crease with 9and 0 respectively. Having been forced the ignominy of a follow on,Hyderabad showed that their batting had more stuff than was on display intheir first essay. Manohar, who grafted well, was caught at forward shortleg off the bowling of Sunil Joshi just one run short of his fifty. Thisbrought Ranji Trophy star VVS Laxman to the crease.The day belonged to the him, and he celebrated his recall to the Indian team by scoring an unbeaten century. In the previous season, Laxman made over a thousand runs in the Ranji Trophy. His innings of 100 not out (159 balls, 11 fours, 1 six) helped Hyderabad reach 233 at stumps. In the meantime, Nandakishore was snared by Anand Yalvigi for 43. Vanka Pratap (26 not out) and Laxman (100 not out) saved Hyderabad the blushes.

Tom Westley, an 18-year-old batsman from Cambridge, has signed a two-year contract with Essex after impressing during a two-year stint at the county academy.Westley made his first-team debut in June 2006 against the touring Sri Lankans, and played his first first-class match against Cambridge UCCE in May this year. He featured in four County Championship games in 2007, as well as two Pro40 games, and made a highest score of 72 against Somerset at Chelmsford in September.”Tom is another shining example of how well our Academy system is working,” Essex’s chief executive, David East, told essexcricket.org.uk. “His progress over the last couple of seasons has been excellent, and we are all very hopeful that we have another star in the making.”Westley himself was delighted at the news. “With the Academy pro contracts I’ve had over the last couple of years I was obviously hoping to get a full-time one so, after a pretty decent year, I’m privileged to get a two-year contract,” he told the county website.”It helped massively to go on the pre-season tour of Dubai because it was the first time I’d got to be around the players for a long time and also made me start to think that if things went well I might get to play the odd first-team game. As the season went on I finished in the first-team, which has been an honour.”Westley also featured in one Under-19 Test and five Under-19 ODIs this summer, and showed great promise with his offbreaks, taking match figures of 7 for 131 in the first Test against Pakistan at Scarborough.

ScorecardKL Rahul hit 14 fours for his 96•K Sivaraman

A sluggish surface at the MA Chidambaram Stadium produced an attritional first day on which India A took the early initiative through a century stand between KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara before losing five wickets for 94 runs to Australia A’s constricting tactics. When rain brought the first day’s play to a close at half past four, India were 221 for 6.With Varun Aaron missing out due to fever, India went in with an attack consisting of two seamers in Umesh Yadav and Abhimanyu Mithun, and the spin pair of Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha. India’s early progress, after they chose to bat, gave no hint as to how the day would pan out. Rahul eased Gurinder Sandhu for drives to the cover and straight boundaries in the first over, and Mukund caressed two cover-driven fours off Andrew Fekete in the next over before playing all around a yorker.The match settled into a steadier rhythm thereafter, but there were enough bad balls for Rahul and Pujara to score off and keep the score ticking along at more than three runs an over. Rahul flicked Sean Abbott off his toes to the fine leg boundary and took two fours off the left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe’s first over – a flat-bat drive between cover point and short cover, and a dismissive square cut when he pitched short. Pujara soaked up some good bowling early on, but caught up with Rahul as the session wore on, driving Abbott through cover and gliding Marcus Stoinis between slip and gully for two fours in two overs.Both batsmen were in their 40s at lunch, with India 104 for 1 in 30 overs. They both brought up their fifties with boundaries after lunch; Rahul cutting Fekete behind point, Pujara driving Sandhu down the ground.Australia, though, had worked out a plan for their seamers. From start of the second session through the rest of the day, they bowled a nagging stump-to-stump line with five fielders on the leg side – usually a short mid-on and a short midwicket, a deeper mid-on in between, and two back for the hook. Given the slowness of the pitch, the batsmen had to be careful about flicking or driving anything that was not overpitched. It was hardly the kind of test Rahul Dravid, the India A coach, had hoped his batsmen would be exposed to when he had called for quick, bouncy pitches in the lead-up to the series. It was still a test, nonetheless.Fekete got the ball to stop on Pujara twice in two overs. Both times, he jabbed early at the ball while defending from the crease. The first one fell just short of Usman Khawaja at short mid-on. The second one carried to him.Abbott, replacing Fekete after his successful spell, nearly struck in the same manner in the 48th over, Rahul popping one in the air between short mid-on and short midwicket. In between, O’Keefe, and the pressure of playing out 14 dot balls, had sent back Karun Nair, who drove too early and scooped a catch to short cover .Nair’s wicket brought Shreyas Iyer to the crease, and his arrival brought a thrillingly discordant note to the day’s play in a fourth-wicket stand of 55 with Rahul. Seeming to pick up length earlier than most, Iyer cut Abbott for four off a ball that was barely short and only marginally wide, and pulled Sandhu for two fours in one over – either side of deep square leg – when he went around the wicket shortly before tea. But a silly shot was always around the corner; having earlier attempted, unsuccessfully, to paddle Abbott, Iyer was bowled while trying to whip Sandhu across the line.Five overs later, Rahul gave short mid-on another moment in the sun. Trying to flick Abbott off the stumps, he played a touch too early, and fell four runs short of a hundred.Australia continued to constrict: only seven runs came off the ten overs that followed Rahul’s dismissal. The pressure finally told on Naman Ojha; having scored 10 off 55 balls, he saw a bit of air from O’Keefe, went after him, and failed to clear mid-off. The light was fading rapidly already, and Travis Head, brought on to bowl his offspin from the other end, could only send down one ball before the groundstaff raced in with the covers.

Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIshant Sharma claimed his seventh Test five-for•AFP

India made up for all the time lost to rain on the first two days by reducing Sri Lanka to 47 for 6 and injuring Dhammika Prasad, Sri Lanka’s strike bowler on this pitch, but the hosts negated India’s advantage by adding 154 with their last four wickets and taking India’s first three wickets for seven runs. With India effectively 132 for 3 and the last pair of specialist batsmen already at the wicket, this was anybody’s game now.Fifteen wickets fell for 242 runs in 65.1 overs on a frenetic day where fortunes swung wildly. Yet again Prasad produced a wicket in the first over of the innings, and Cheteshwar Pujara, who carried his bat through in the first dig, became the only man to follow such a feat with a duck in the same Test. At lunch Sri Lanka would have drawn heart from the drizzle that didn’t cost the Test any time, but the heavy downpour at 4.40pm would have brought India relief, who yet again ran the risk of collapsing meekly after having watched runs from the Sri Lankan lower order.It might not result in a win, but if anything, this turnaround from Sri Lanka was even more remarkable than in Galle. Back then they had umpiring decisions and all the luck going their way; here they copped three rough decisions when batting. Upul Tharanga was given out off a no-ball even though the TV umpire had a look at the replays, Dinesh Chandimal – counterattacking his way to 23 off 27 – was given out lbw to a ball that hit him bail high and was on its way up, and Tharindu Kaushal was given out lbw off an inside edge.Debutant Kusal Perera, who ironically benefited from sloppy slip fielding from India, and Rangana Herath batted smartly in adding 79, the third-highest seventh-wicket partnership in Tests from under a score of 50. Against calculated risks from the lower order, tiring bowlers missed their rhythm. Coming back to bat with an injured hand, Prasad played around with the mind of Ishant Sharma, who had earlier starred with a rare five-for, and scored 27 off 23 to take Sri Lanka past 200.Not being able to bowl tails out and slips catching have been India’s twin tormentors in Test cricket of late, and they could do worse than to look at how they bowled in the first session of the day. The pitch didn’t allow crazy seam movement or variable bounce. India just put the ball in areas when uncertain batsmen edge it. Sri Lanka’s top order was uncertain.A certain degree of uncertainty could be expected of a rejigged batting order in the first Test since Kumar Sangakkara’s retirement. Tharanga came out to open on his comeback, Dimuth Karunaratane moved down, Chandimal moved up, and Perera batted at No. 7. This raw batting line-up could have done with some luck, which it turned out they didn’t have, but it didn’t seem like that in the first over after they had taken India’s last two wickets for an addition of 20 to their overnight total.Ishant Sharma, who had played dangerously with the crease when he batted for three balls in the morning, continued to do so. He might have been hitting out under team instructions, but more importantly, Ishant failed to stay in the crease with the first two balls he bowled. It looked like one of those bad days when everything goes against you when he produced Tharanga’s edge in the first over, but saw KL Rahul drop it diving in front of first slip. Rahul and slips would go on to gain more and telling mentions.Redemption nearly did not come for Ishant and Rahul. Tharanga, prone to offering these opportunities outside off, did so soon enough, and Rahul took a good low catch, but Ishant was asked to wait before he celebrated. Replays didn’t show any part of his foot behind the line, but mysteriously Tharanga was asked to keep walking. Umesh Yadav soon got rid of Kaushal Silva with the short ball again. Chandimal attacked attractively, but he fell to Stuart Binny, who on the second day had fallen to an outswinger that pitched and seamed back in to hit him on the back thigh. Binny repeated the dose to Chandimal, but replays showed the ball was likely to sail over the stumps.Ishant came back to deal Sri Lanka telling blows either side of the lunch break. With his first ball back, he had Angelo Mathews poking at one that held its line outside off. With his second ball after the break, Ishant asked a similar question of Lahiru Thirimanne, and the batsman responded with another edge. In between the two dismissals, Karunaratne played a loose drive to a wide half-volley from Binny.Having taken both those catches, Rahul – like Ishant – was on his way to turning his day around. But with Perera on 9, Sri Lanka 63 for 6 and Prasad retired hurt, Rahul dropped a simple offering off the bowling of Yadav. This wasn’t going to be Rahul’s last mistake.With Sanath Jayasuriya watching, the man he resembles at the wicket, Perera, went on to launch a calculated assault. In Herath, Perera found a determined ally. Perera hit nine fours in his 56-ball 55, Herath was more sedate, but the two had taken the sting out of India’s bowling by the time Perera fell top-edging a trademark Jayasuriya pull to cow corner. There was resistance from Kaushal, who scored 16 but stayed in the middle for 11 overs, but after benefiting from dodgy lbws in the first innings of the first Test, he was at the receiving end this time.One short of what could have been his second Test fifty, Herath was snapped up by Ishant just after tea with a ball just outside off and holding its line. Still, when Prasad began to run away from the stumps, India began to follow him and let Sri Lanka add more. With ball in right hand and heavy bandage on left, Prasad didn’t follow anybody. He produced the perfect ball to get rid of a man who had played 290 balls without getting dismissed. It pitched short of a length, on middle, squared the batsman up, and hit off.Rahul couldn’t draw any such comfort from having been done in by an unplayable delivery. For the second time in the Test he premeditated a leave without covering his stumps, and had the top of off pinged. Only this time the bowler was Nuwan Pradeep, who went on to repeat the Ajinkya Rahane dismissal with a ball moving in after pitching.

ScorecardShreyas Gopal brought up his third first-class century•PTI

In a typically dominant and clinical fashion, Karnataka headed towards their first win of the season by taking a first-innings lead of 225 runs and then dismissing two Bengal batsmen in a curtailed last session of the third day. Karnataka’s overnight lead of ten runs was extended by centuries from Shreyas Gopal (139) and Shishir Bhavane (119), who returned after an injury, and they declared on 537 for 9 with one full session to go in which Bengal scored 58 runs, before bad light stopped play. Bengal still trail Karnataka by 167 runs.The centuries from Gopal and Bhavane made sure Karnataka did not stutter once Karun Nair edged one to the keeper off a cover drive after adding only seven runs to his overnight 119. Bhavane drove impressively off the front foot while Gopal used some late cuts and back-foot punches to hit several fours on the off side. Besides defending the ball patiently in the first session, Gopal attacked when the Bengal pacers erred with their lengths.Bhavane, meanwhile, had to depend more on singles and twos because of his wrist injury. He took the top hand, which was injured, off the bat a few times while playing some shots and looked in slight discomfort with the impact of ball hitting the bat. He brought up his fifty off 127 balls by smashing Pragyan Ojha to the wide long-on boundary and by lunch Karnataka’s lead had reached 115. Gopal did not spend too much time in the 90s. He cut a ball to third man to move from 93 to 97 and soon flicked Ojha to the midwicket boundary for his 16th four to bring up his third first-class hundred.Ojha continued to bowl relentlessly from one end and the way both batsmen played him against the turn showed there was not much for spinners in the pitch. Gopal, in between, got a message from the dressing room to up the tempo with an eye on declaration. He started coming down the track to Ojha after lunch and struck Ashok Dinda and Sourav Sarkar for fours in consecutive overs. Bhavane also changed his strategy when he approached his hundred.He frustrated Ojha by sweeping one to square leg for four, and when Ojha moved long leg to square leg before the next ball, Bhavane swept him fine for another boundary. But just before he could reach his century, Veer Pratap Singh brought one delivery sharply into Gopal and had him lbw for 139 to break the 142-run stand. Bhavane then brought up his maiden first-class hundred in the next over by steering Ojha to third man for two.Karnataka started attacking immediately after Gopal was dismissed which resulted in quick runs with the fall of three more wickets. Vinay Kumar showed his intentions by getting off the mark with a reverse sweep for four and dispatching Dinda over the covers for another boundary. The plan cost Vinay when he made room again and was bowled by the same bowler. Bhavane’s vigil also ended in the next over when he pushed at a delivery away from his body and edged it for Wriddhiman Saha who took a good, low catch.Abhimanyu Mithun fell the way his captain was dismissed – he dispatched Veer Pratap for a six and was bowled next ball and with a massive lead in hand, Karnataka declared at the stroke of tea.Karnataka were made to work for the two wickets as the Bengal openers saw through the opening spells of Vinay and Mithun, which made them bring legspinner Gopal in the ninth over, but he also went wicketless. The batsmen capitalised on the loose balls on offer, before the fourth bowling change of HS Sharath brought them success when he trapped Abhishek Das in front of leg stump in the 12th over. Six overs later, Shreevats Goswami looked to sweep the ball with the turn but edged it onto the stumps with J Suchith striking in his first over.

Former India captain Anil Kumble believes that adjusting to different leadership styles in the split-captaincy format is not difficult for players in current times. Taking questions after delivering the seventh Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, Kumble was of the opinion that constant adjustment to different formats and teams helps players get accustomed to various captaincy styles.India went with a split-captaincy format in December 2014, when MS Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket after the Melbourne Test against Australia and Virat Kohli was handed the Test captaincy. Dhoni, however, continues to lead India in the limited-overs formats.”I don’t think it’s difficult for players to adjust from one captain’s temperament to another. Perhaps in my case it was already forced because I had already decided to give up playing one-day cricket and Dhoni was the captain of the one-day formats, “Kumble said. “And now that Dhoni has retired, Virat is the captain in Test cricket.”I don’t think for players, it’s a difficult job. Players are constantly adjusting from one team to the other and from one format to the other. In an IPL format, the same team-mates become opposition players and sometimes the opposition players become team-mates.”So there’s constant adjustment, but once you have played with the two captains, obviously the two should have played quite a number of matches to become captain, so you know their personalities and getting adjusted to their way of thinking or doing things, I don’t see it an issue. And South Africa have gone an additional way with a captain for each format, so perhaps that’s the way things may happen. You may, at some point of time, have an exclusive specialist T20 team which will be very different from a Test team or a one-day team.”Kumble also said that the difference in personalities between Dhoni and Kohli and the varying degrees of aggression between the two captains was not a major factor for the side.”The bottom line is you need to be attacking. That’s the word I would like to use. Aggression, I think, is a bit of a misplaced word and the way it comes across… as long as you are aggressive, as long as the intent is to win games, whether it’s 20 overs, 50 overs, four-day, five-day, I think the personality comes across,” he said. “Yes, individually, emotionally each one is perhaps different from the other but overall as a team I don’t see that as a major factor because Dhoni was leading India in the last 5-6 years, so in that sense, it shouldn’t be a problem in changing to a Virat style of captaincy.”In his lecture, Kumble, who took over as Test captain in November 2007, said that he believed modern captains face more challenges than their predecessors. He felt that they need to have a statesman-like approach to the game in the face of issues that can suddenly arise, particularly when a team is on tour.Drawing on his experience as captain of the Indian Test team on the controversial Australia tour of 2007-08, Kumble said he found himself playing the role of “diplomat, a bridge between the players and the cricket board and the face of Indian opposition in Australia” following the Monkeygate scandal during the Sydney Test.”During my tenure, I realised that in addition to the job description mentioned earlier, a captain also had to be prepared for the unexpected. The second-most important job could suddenly become the most important as I discovered in Australia during the incident called as Monkeygate,” Kumble said.”This was an aspect of a captain’s job that didn’t exist when I began my career. In fact, as a player for 17 years, I hadn’t been called by any match referee but perhaps visited the referee after every match as captain.”As the controversy raged, I received a message from Bishen Singh Bedi. As a captain, he wrote, ‘take a decision you will be proud of when you look back on this’. That is a uniquely Indian take on the job and Bedi’s simple words were inspiring. In Fact, it’s a motto that should be pasted on to the kit bags of all international captains. The modern captain faces more challenges than his predecessor did. Issues arise, specially when a team is on tour, that require a statesman-like approach and captains must keep the bigger picture in mind. It’s important to carry the team on such occasions.”When asked about the controversy later, Kumble said that the suggestions of the senior players – Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag – were helpful, but felt the matter could possibly have been resolved by a chat between him and Australia captain Ricky Ponting.”I was blessed to have players around me who were all greats and their suggestions were valuable,” he said. “As a captain, it’s my duty and my responsibility to protect my player and my team and that’s all I did. There were times when I think it could have been resolved with, perhaps, just the two captains sitting and sorting it out.”

The only person who could bust the AB de Villiers myth has done it. The man himself confessed to what no-one wanted to hear: he is not really the superhuman he has been painted to be, at least not in personality terms.”I am not a nice guy on the field. I want to win games, so I will do whatever it takes for us to win games,” de Villiers said. “If I have to sledge, I will get involved like that. I will try and intimidate a player if I have to. I will try and get Virat off his game by talking about his technique and little flaws. I don’t mind doing things like that, whatever it takes to win games.”In fact, de Villiers does not even like nice guys, not once they’ve crossed the white line anyway. “I have never really respected a guy that’s been a nice guy on the field. I want the opposition to be hard and to play to win the game for their team,” he said.The eve of his 100th Test match is exactly the occasion to be so openly provocative. Milestones aside, South Africa are in a spot and de Villiers will have to be their Lady Macbeth, except of course, he actually has to get them off the damned spot and not just say it. It is evident that he can feel the weight of that responsibility. “I don’t feel any pressure because it’s my 100th Test, I feel pressure because we are 1-0 down and we want to get back into the series,” de Villiers said. “I want to play my role in the team and get us into a position where we can get back in.”On the evidence of the first Test match, de Villiers is the only player who may be able to do that. He was the only South African batsman who managed a half-century on a surface that confounded batsmen on both sides. After a tricky time initially, de Villiers settled well and exhibited some of the shots he has so successfully mastered, including the sweep.The ability to play such a wide range of shots and score runs all around the field is part of de Villiers’ tactical plan to dominate opposition attacks. “I like to have energy at the crease. I like to be a threat for the opposition and for them to believe if I bat for a period of time that I am going to win the game for the team,” he said. “That’s why I play the game. I like to have an impact on us winning cricket games. I look at myself as a guy that wants to perform for the team and wants to do well.”Contributing to the collective is how de Villiers understands sport. After 99 Test and more than a decade as an international cricketer, what stands out for him is not his own performances but the way the team has done.”My mind goes to series victories away from home,” he said. “At home it’s also special to play in front of your own crowd but people don’t expect you to do well away from home. We’ve had a record of doing well away from home and it really shows the character and the resilience, not only as a cricket team but as a nation as well. I am proud to have been part of a Test cricket team touring all over the world and winning games of cricket. We are up against it India now and it is another of challenge for us and it will be another good story to come back from this.”Not only will be it a good story but it will a new one. South Africa have never come back from 1-0 down to win an away series, although they have managed to do that at home, thrice. If they do it this time in these conditions with this squad – a unit in transition hit by injuries to key players – they will prove what de Villiers has always wanted: that they are much stronger and much less nice than people think. It will also add a layer to the legacy South Africa are building, which is why de Villiers plays the game.”I read a part in a book where some of the All Black players said it’s not about the individual, but it’s about leaving the jersey in a better place for those who will come and represent the country after you,” he said. “We want to achieve things like this to motivate the generations to come and to dominate world cricket. That’s ultimately the goal I think: to dominate world cricket.”There’s no room for being nice guys while also trying to be No.1, but after stumps are drawn, there is some space for softness. “Off the field, I try to be a good human being and that goes a lot deeper. It’s got nothing to do with cricket,” de Villiers said. “I know my role in the side and that’s to win games of cricket and a lot of times I don’t have to be a nice guy to do that.”