Welcome back to the C&G Trophy. The premier domestic one-day tournament has reached its final stage with Lancashire and Sussex ready to continue a hard-fought rivalry. However, this was known two months ago when the final group game were played, but thanks to the ECB fixtures department there has been an entire Twenty20 competition and half of the 40-over league before the showpiece final of the summer.Still, if the two team remember which length of game they are playing (it is to their advantage that all one-day cricket is now played in coloured clothing) this final has the potential for some outstanding cricket. Lancashire and Sussex have been the two form teams of the season, not only are they contesting the final but hold the top two positions in the Championship. Whatever the result on Saturday, it won’t be the end of their contest.For Lancashire this final marks a return to a ground that used to be their second home during the 1990s as they made regular appearances in one-day finals. But they haven’t made it since 1998 – when they beat Derbyshire – and have had to endure a raft of semi-final defeats. Sussex’s absence has been even longer, stretching back 13 years to possibly the greatest domestic final when they were beaten by an Asif Din-inspired Warwickshire in the 1993 Natwest final.Already thus season these two sides have played each other on three occasions; twice in the Championship and once in the Pro40. Lancashire took the honours with in the Championship with an impressive win at Liverpool before holding on for a battling draw at Hove, but Sussex claimed the Pro40 match thanks to stunning century from Chris Adams.There is a history of hard-fought contests and Mark Chilton, Lancashire’s captain, is expecting nothing less this time around. “Any team that has Grizzly [Chris] Adams in charge is going to provide a tough challenge. We have had some good contests with them and they are a side fill of talented players.”You can see through our one-day form – in the C&G early in the season – as well as our championship form, we are two teams who deserve to be challenging for two big prizes.”Michael Yardy, one of the new faces in England’s one-day squad, forms part of a powerful Sussex batting order which also includes Adams, Murray Goodwin, Matt Prior and Richard Montgomerie. While Yardy can look forward to his first taste of international cricket, Prior will want to use the final to remind the selectors of his talents after missing out on all England’s squads this summer.Lancashire, too, have players with points to prove. Sajid Mahmood is available before joining up with the England squad and has yet to convince in the limited overs game while Mal Loye, who has been on the verge of national honours this season, has a major stage to show England what they are missing.Murali Kartik, who arrived in Manchester on Tuesday, has been named in Lancashire’s 14-man squad and could be selected in favour of Gary Keedy, who has struggled in recent weeks. Their seam attack is strong with Mahmood, Glen Chapple, Dominic Cork and Tom Smith providing a powerful armoury.If Kartik makes the final XI, it will throw up a head-to-head with Mushtaq Ahmed, who has so often been Sussex’s trump card in major matches. Mushtaq is top of the Championship wicket-taking list despite suffering a variety of injuries and is the vital cog in the Sussex attack. Yasir Arafat, the Pakistan allrounder who replaced Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, is dangerous with the new and old ball so Pakistani cricketers are unlikely to be far from the action for the second weekend running.Lancashire (probable) Mark Chilton (capt), Mal Loye, Stuart Law, Nathan Astle, Luke Sutton (wk), Glen Chapple, Dominic Cork, Kyle Hogg, Tom Smith, Sajid Mahmood, Murali Kartik.Sussex (probable) Richard Montgomerie, Matt Prior (wk), Murray Goodwin, Chris Adams (capt), Michael Yardy, Carl Hopkinson, Robin Martin-Jenkins, Yasir Arafat, Luke Wright, Mushtaq Ahmed, James Kirtley
India could be the worst fielding side in the world at present. They allowed extra runs in the field and lost a few while running between the wickets during the final of the Indian Oil Cup against Sri Lanka. Add them all up and you have the difference between winning and losing.There were two regulation chances in the slips which were dropped off Sanath Jayasuriya. It was the surest way to invite disaster. Virender Sehwag has dropped quite a few catches in this tournament. In a way, it was ironic that a bit of smart fielding ejected Jayasuriya from the middle. India must count themselves lucky for Jayasuriya had set himself up for an innings of 150 or 160 runs. He was in his groove and was bisecting the field with his customary precision.Along with Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, Jayasuriya was one of the three senior-most cricketers who mattered for Sri Lanka in the final. These three are of timeless quality, the rocks who have braved the onslaught of faster, fitter and stronger one-day cricket from one decade to another. India should have been alert to these formidable men. Instead, we had a Virender Sehwag who wanted to take on Chaminda Vaas. Sehwag needed to differentiate between a Lokuhettige and a Vaas. He had the Sri Lankan attack on their knees. Another 10 overs at the crease and he would have been the toast of India. In the end, what did he achieve? – Just a glimmer of hope, when India could have basked in his glory.India just did not plan well enough. If you give four to five wickets to the duo of Vaas and Murali, that’s a blow to the guts. India needed to target and create more Lokuhettiges among the Sri Lankans. The best way to do it was in the middle overs for Vaas and Murali would have given nothing away at the death. Dravid and Yuvraj had a good partnership but I would have preferred Irfan Pathan ahead of Mohammad Kaif at that critical juncture.Not that Sri Lanka were without fault. I feel they were off to a really bad start. The promotion of Lokuhettige made no sense. The hosts had more experienced pinch-hitters like Vaas, Upul Chandana, Tilakeratne Dilshan and Farveez Mahroof and yet opted for a rookie on a stage as special as a final. Mahela Jayawardene was sensible and Russel Arnold is back to where he belongs but again they made a hash of things in the final overs.Sri Lanka also went with a bad mix in the finals. To me, there were only three proper bowlers in Sri Lanka team: Chaminda Vaas, Muthiah Muralitharan and Farvez Mahroof. The rest were all fill-in bowlers. The best and the barest combination in one-day cricket is at least four frontline bowlers. I would have never dropped Nuwan Zoysa from the line-up. He is a tough cookie and always brings wickets upfront. When Sehwag was skinning the likes of Mahroof and Lokuhettige to the bones, Zoysa was missed badly.Somehow I remain skeptical about the five frontline bowlers theory. Do we have an example in world cricket where five specialist bowlers have mattered in one-day context? Even Australia restricts itself to four quality bowlers. India looked for thoroughbreds when multidimensional cricketers are the call of one-day cricket. The likes of Arnold and Dilshan, Brad Hogg and Ashley Giles, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi are able to don different hats as required in the fluid world of one-day cricket. Remember: single dimensional talents are easy to mark and sometimes a solitary arrow is enough to bring them down to earth. But if you are a chameleon, you can sneak in and move ahead with the furtiveness required in one-day cricket. One keeps hearing that this Indian team needs more time to turn around the corner. They would surely not be able to do so if the legs and spirits are as tardy as that of the present lot.
Chris Read has been dropped from England’s one-day squad to make way for Geraint Jones, while there is a first call-up for Lancashire’s fast bowler Sajid Mahmood, who impressed on the England A tour to India and Malaysia earlier this year.Robert Key, the Kent opener who was the first batsman to pass 1000 runs this season, has also been recalled to the fray, although Gareth Batty and James Kirtley have both been omitted from the squad that toured the Caribbean earlier this year.It is a particularly cruel blow for Read, whose glovework this winter was of the highest order, and whose ability to take the long handle to the bowling at the end of an innings had been in evidence in England’s victory over West Indies in Guyana. David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, has admitted that the decision had been one of the toughest he had faced.”I will be speaking to Chris to ensure that he fully understands the reasons for his omission,” said Graveney. “Ultimately, we had to make a very fine judgment as to who we thought was the best person for the job. Geraint has the ability to bat in a number of different positions and this was an important factor.”Simon Jones did not come into consideration because of his foot injury, although Anthony McGrath – the forgotten man of England’s winter campaign – has been retained in the squad ahead of his fellow allrounder Rikki Clarke, who had failed to cement a role in the side. Despite popular belief that he would soon be eased out of the picture, Darren Gough has kept his place in the squad.England squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Ian Blackwell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Stephen Harmison, Geraint Jones (wk), Robert Key, Sajid Mahmood, Anthony McGrath, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick.
Pace duo Shane Harwood and Michael Lewis have returned to the Bushrangers line-up to take on the Western Warriors in Friday’s ING Cup match at the WACA. Brett Harrop, who debuted in the Bushrangers win over the NSW Blues on Sunday, was the player to make way.Harwood and Lewis missed Sunday’s match at the MCG, after both reported general soreness at the completion of the Pura Cup match against the Blues. David Hookes said there would be no risk taking when it came to selecting players. “Both Shane and Mick reported soreness after the Pura match and we felt it unnecessary to take any risks with them. Our squad depth is very good and it gave young Brett Harrop a taste of cricket at the next level, something he will no doubt benefit from in the future”.Hookes added the match in Perth would be taken very seriously irrespective of the fact the Bushrangers were unable to make the ING Cup final. “You can’t pick and choose which games you take seriously and which you don’t. Every game is very important as we strive to build a successful culture within Victorian cricket”.The match details are as follows:Western Warriors v Victorian Bushrangers ING Cup Friday, February 14 Hours of play: 2.30pm – 6.00pm / 6.45pm – 10.15pmBUSHRANGERS Darren Berry (c), Rob Cassell, Shane Harwood, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Mathew Inness, Nick Jewell, Brendan Joseland, Michael Klinger, Michael Lewis, Andrew McDonald, Jon Moss, Cameron White (one to be omitted)
West Indies’ arrival in the country last Thursday was completely overshadowed by the hype surrounding the Second Test between Zimbabwe and India that started at Harare Sports Club the following day.The West Indies are in Zimbabwe for their first ever tour since Zimbabwe attained Test status in 1992 and it will be only their second Test series after Zimbabwe’s tour of West Indies in March last year. West Indies won the series with a two-nil whitewash.Their brief stay in the country was rather marred by an irresponsible report on both the national television and radio on Saturday evening, which alleged that someone from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union had warned the Windies players against walking in the streets of the capital. Both ZCU and West Indies team have since dismissed the report as baseless.”We categorically refute the allegations that they represent the view of ZCU. It is our position that the streets of Zimbabwe are among the safest in the world and that Zimbabwe remains the safest of all havens for visitors. This is the message that we always propagate to all our visiting teams and the approach was no different as regards our current touring teams,” said ZCU vice-president Dave Everington in a statement.”We have not received any information about Zimbabwe that we can interpret as negative. There has been no attempt by anyone whatsoever to paint any negative picture about this country to us. We are settling in here and we are quite comfortable here in the capital. We expect to enjoy the tour,” said West Indies manager Ricky Skerritt.Skerritt said that they were looking forward to a competitive series against Zimbabwe. “We expect it to be a tight series. Zimbabwe is a very competitive team and they have been doing very well at home. We have a young team so it will be good experience for us and we are looking forward to it.”The triangular one-day series is also going to be very tough. India is one the highly rated one-day teams and we have not had a very good record in one-day cricket of late. Zimbabwe are known to be a very competitive one-day team and this leaves us as underdogs. So for us to get into the final will be a great achievement.”We lost more games than we won in the last one-day series. In Australia we got into the final but we struggled to do that. We beat Zimbabwe but again it was not easy. We then had a home series against South Africa and again we did not do well. They beat us 5-2 in the seven-match one-day series after we won the first match.”But it was valuable experience for us. We have a lot of young players who have not had a lot of one-day matches. Our bowling attack is the worst affected as it is very inexperienced. And for the guys to handle pressure against sides like India and Zimbabwe will be a very good test.”Zimbabwe’s Test record has not been that impressive. They are, after Bangladesh, the newest Test-playing nation and the victory over India on Monday was a very good win for Zimbabwe and they have had a very good run at home this season. They are getting better, producing more players, and producing a more competitive Test team. We are through a rebuilding phase and they have just come out with a very good win against India in the last Test and our series against Zimbabwe will be very competitive.”I wouldn’t want to single out any players for special mention. Obviously the more senior players have established themselves, the captain and the Flower brothers. Zimbabwe has a well-balanced team, improving all the time so we will take them as a team and not as individuals.”Captain Carl Hooper also spoke about the series against Zimbabwe. “It’s going to be a very good series with Zimbabwe playing some good cricket at the moment. They have just beaten India in the Test to draw series. The tri-series will be close too and I think Zimbabwe are a very good one day-side as well as India. We expect to give a good account of ourselves.”The series against South Africa was a good one for us. They (South Africa) are second only to Australia in the world. We are rebuilding the side and we don’t feel under any pressure at all to win here in Zimbabwe. We have a young side and it will take a while for them to come through.”We are here to play Zimbabwe as a team and we are not going to single out any individual players for special attention. We are just going to play some good cricket over the next couple of weeks.”
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
ScorecardAlex Blackwell slammed 112 off 114 balls•Getty Images
Australia Women shrugged off the disappointment of losing the T20I series by handing India Women a 101-run thrashing in the first ODI in Canberra.Australia, opting to bat, rode on a 180-run stand for the third wicket between Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry. Blackwell top-scored for the team, stroking a 112-ball 114 with 12 fours, while Perry chipped in with 90 off 118 balls. Their efforts lifted Australia to a competitive 276 for 6.Perry then contributed with the ball, collecting 4 for 45 to run through India’s top and middle order, as the visitors failed to gather any momentum in their chase. Harmanpreet Kaur top-scored with 42, but no other player managed more than 25, as India folded for 175 inside 47 overs.
Nottinghamshire have signed Kyle Hogg, the Lancashire allrounder, on a month-long loan deal to cover for an increasing injury list.Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, is down to the bare bones of a pace attack with Charlie Shreck, Andy Harris, Paul Franks and Mark Footitt currently out of action and Ryan Sidebottom committed to England duty”I’m delighted to have Kyle on board and it’s a great opportunity for him to play some first-class cricket and prove a point,” said Newell. “He’s a talented young seamer who has been struggling to claim a regular place in a strong Lancashire team.”We have been keeping an eye on him for some time and although he will only be with us for a month initially, who knows where it might lead.”It will be Hogg’s second loan spell of the season after spending time with Worcestershire during the first half of the summer. He has struggled to find a regular spot in the Lancashire side, even though there have been a number of injuries at Old Trafford.
Jacques Rudolph feels that the conditions in Sri Lanka fit his batting style “like a glove” and is confident of cementing his spot in the South African team in the absence of Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis. Rudolph was included in the squad to tour Sri Lanka because Smith pulled out after undergoing surgery for an ankle injury.”This is definitely a big chance for me to regain my place in the squad. We all know Graeme and Jacques Kallis will return,” Rudolph told News 24. “Whoever performs the best out of AB [de Villiers], Hashim [Amla] and Boeta [Dippenaar] on this tour, stands a good chance to remain in the squad when Graeme and Jacques do return.””It’s the fourth time that I’ll be touring Sri Lanka and I’m used to the conditions. I’ve toured with the South Africa A team in the past and I’ve been successful. On the last tour I hit a century in Galle. Hopefully I’ll be successful again.”Rudolph admitted that the absence of Smith and Kallis, who is recovering from elbow surgery, had considerably weakened the side. “It’s also an opportunity for us as a team, probably a less experienced and weaker team than usual, to show what we can do. Some of the guys will definitely have to take the lead and show more determination in the absence of those guys [Smith and Kallis].”
Digicel, the current sponsors of the West Indies cricket team, and one of the parties embroiled in the recent Caribbean contract dispute has said it would welcome and support any offer from the ICC and the Federation of International Cricketer’s Associations (FICA) to resolve the present stalemate.The ICC has made it clear that it will not involve itself in the dispute, unless explicitly asked to do so. The West Indies Cricket Board has made this position clear to Digicel, although Roger Braithwaite, the WICB chief executive, has been actively involved in talks with Malcolm Speed, his opposite number at the ICC.Last week, a Digicel spokesman, in an exclusive interview to Cricinfo, talked about the company’s growing “disappointment” at the WICB’s seeming unwillingness to resolve the dispute. “The whole process has been frustrating as our whole investment is about having the best West Indies cricket team,” said the spokesman. “We are not an administrator and all we have ever wanted is the best for West Indies cricket.”The contract row has now clearly hit rock bottom, with a second-string West Indies team playing Test matches in Sri Lanka. Stars like Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara, who have personal endorsements with Digicel’s rival mobile communications company Cable and Wireless, are absent, thus robbing the series of its sheen.The latest statement from Digicel reveals more than a tinge of desperation on the company’s part, as it struggles to find a way out of the dispute. “Digicel continues to remain hopeful that a solution can be created between the WICB and WIPA that provides value to the players, fans and organisations that are supporting West Indies Cricket,” said Ben Atherton, Digicel Group marketing director in a press release. “We believe that the current situation could benefit positively from the international expertise and best practices garnered by the world’s governing body and player’s association in the interests of all parties involved”.