Category Uncategorized

Khaled Mashud, the Bangladesh wicketkeeper, had a thumb shattered byBrett Lee as Australia drubbed Bangladesh in the first one-dayer onSaturday. Mashud has been ruled out of the next two games in the three-matchone-day series.Lee produced fiery pace, even though he claimed he was not aiming forexceptional speed. Lee (4-25) and Gillespie (3-23) had too much pace andguile for the inexperienced tourists, who never threatened to make acompetitive score. Lee, although well short of the 160-km-per-hour (99-mile) an hour pace he achieved earlier this year, was pleased with hisform. “It’s a pretty good wicket, it had some bounce and carry and itwas a pleasure to bowl on,” he said. “It felt like the rhythm was thereand it felt like it all came together at once. I wasn’t even trying tobowl fast, I was trying to get my action nice and high and get the ballthrough to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.”Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, had high praise for the quality ofLee’s bowling. “We saw some magnificent pace bowling,” he said. “It wasquite exceptional.” He agreed Bangladesh faced a challenge in regroupingfor the second one-day encounter at Cairns on Sunday. “If we can weatherthat storm (Lee’s opening assault) and have a few of our batters intact,we’ve got a chance of posting a reasonably competitive total,” he said.

Auckland pace bowler, Chris Drum, has been called into the CLEAR Black Caps as cover for the injured Daryl Tuffey.Tuffey strained his hamstring while bowling against Australia in the first innings of the second Test currently being played in Hobart.Manager Jeff Crowe says it’s a sad blow for Tuffey.”Daryl’s been waiting for his chance on this tour and I have to say I really feel for the guy,” he said.The selectors preferred Chris Drum over James Franklin because of his ability to bowl into the wind.”In Perth the wind tends to blow down the ground.”If required we think Chris Drum, rather than James Franklin, is the better option for bowling extended spells into the wind,” says Chairman of Selectors, Sir Richard Hadlee who is in Hobart.Tuffey will not bowl again in the second Test and will most likely require a runner when batting.His injury will be reassessed tomorrow and a decision will then be made as to whether he is fit enough to be in contention to play in the third Test.If not, he will return home at the end of this Test.Drum will fly to Perth tomorrow and meet with the side before the start of the third Test.

Bruno Guimaraes is unlikely to make his full Newcastle United debut against Brentford this coming weekend, according to journalist Jordan Cronin. 

The lowdown

Newcastle are set to travel to the Brentford Community Stadium to face their relegation rivals on Saturday afternoon.

Guimaraes, whose arrival from Lyon was confirmed on the penultimate day of the January transfer window, was the most expensive of Newcastle’s mid-season arrivals at £40m. Indeed, The Athletic’s Chris Waugh dubbed the Brazilian PIF’s first ‘marquee signing’ since taking over on Tyneside.

The 24-year-old made Eddie Howe’s matchday squad for the last three Premier League games against Everton, Aston Villa and West Ham, but was only given very brief substitute appearances in each.

The latest

Newcastle World journalist Cronin took to Twitter on Monday evening to share a link to an article for that publication, stating: “There will come a time when #NUFC introduce Bruno G into their starting XI – but it isn’t likely to be Brentford.”

In his attached piece for Newcastle World, he explained that the midfield trio of Jonjo Shelvey, Joelinton and Joe Willock are simply looking ‘undroppable’ at present, with the £40m January signing set to be left ‘frustrated’ once more in west London on Saturday.

The verdict

Howe admits that Guimaraes will likely be ‘frustrated’ with his lack of starts, having been afforded so little time on the pitch so far, but it’s worth stressing that it’s very early days for the 24-year-old at Newcastle.

The manager expects the Brazilian midfielder to be a ‘huge player’ this season, and beyond that, he could well be one of the players around whom Newcastle build their team for the long-term. After all, he is still quite young and is under contract for a full four-and-a-half years.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Perhaps we should expect to see Guimaraes steadily increase his minutes from the bench (he has come on after the 87th minute in each game so far) before Howe throws in him from the start, although injury to any one of the currently preferred midfield three could also open the door for the £40m man to eventually get his full Magpies debut.

In other news, Dean Jones refuses to rule out one potential ‘unbelievable’ signing for NUFC

Sachin Tendulkar is yet to confirm his retirement plans © Getty Images

In a new twist to the Sachin Tendulkar retirement story it has emerged that he is yet to make an official statement on the issue. A news agency quoted Tendulkar on Thursday as saying he had not thought about retirement but the Indian team’s administrative manager, Rajeev Shukla, confirmed on Friday that the quotes were not from the player.”That was my statement on Tendulkar’s behalf,” Shukla, also a vice-president of the Indian board, said while referring to the denial. “Tendulkar hasn’t spoken officially to anyone. It was wrongly reported as Tendulkar’s quotes.”Tendulkar’s statement sought to end speculation over his retiring from one-day cricket after India’s home engagements against Australia and Pakistan later this season. It followed a story reported by Cricinfo on Wednesday, quoting sources close to Tendulkar, that he was inclined to announce his retirement on this tour of England but had been persuaded by friends to do so at home.The confusion also stemmed from the post-match press conference at The Oval. Rahul Dravid was asked to comment on reports that Tendulkar had planned to retire and had been talked out of it by his team-mates. His answer was brief: “False reports.”

Pitched battle: Steve Harmison feels England have the edge as they’ve played here before © Getty Images

Steve Harmison feels England will have a “slight advantage” in Saturday’s crucial encounter against Australia at Jaipur as they’re accustomed to the pitch that will be used. Asserting that he didn’t look at the contest as a prelude to the Ashes, Harmison added that Australia’s defeat last night wouldn’t alter England’s plans too much.The game, which neither team can afford to lose, will be played on the same surface on which England crumbled for 125 against India. The curator at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium felt that the track wouldn’t be as dry as it was the previous Saturday, adding that the Sri Lanka-Pakistan clash – when Pakistan chased 254 and won – could be used as a template.Harmison, though, felt England would just have the edge. “I think it would be a slight advantage if we play on the same wicket,” he said. “I don’t know what the schedule is and what wicket we’re playing on, but if we play on that wicket, we’ll have a slight, slight advantage. Australia haven’t played on it but at the end of the day they’re good players and they can adapt to any surface. As I said, it’s just a advantage.”While revealing he’d struggled to locate the channel that was showing the Australia-West Indies game, Harmison didn’t want to read too much into the game. “We all know what their weaknesses are,” he said, “we’ve played against them often enough, we’ve seen them on TV often enough. We’ve had two days’ preparation, a day off yesterday, something you need to calm yourself after five days in a row.”Would England’s tactics change after watching Australia? “Not really,” he said, “I think a few field placements. I can’t imagine we’ll bowl any differently to Ponting, Gilchrist, Martyn than we planned before. Just because West Indies beat them yesterday, it won’t change the way England performed. I think West Indies played well yesterday. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. Bangladesh beat Australia last summer and West Indies have looked a good, compact unit for a while now. And they played great last night. I think they won’t be anymore fired up or we any less fired up when they come up against us on Saturday.”Harmison didn’t want to be drawn into discussions about Ashes preludes – he preferred to stick to a simple “No” – but said his training was definitely geared towards the events in Brisbane on November 23. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t [thinking of the Ashes]. I’m not going to sit here and talk bullshit about we haven’t got one eye on the Ashes. Because we have. Everybody’s got one eye on the Ashes, you have as well.”Everybody’s looking ahead to the big occasion. But we’re here to do a job, here to win a competition and if there’s any more spice into it then, whoever loses on Saturday goes out. I’d be lying to say we haven’t got one eye on Australia on the 23rd November but we need to win this game to go forward in this competition. Hopefully we’ll do it on Saturday.”But wasn’t it the Twenty20 clash at the Rose Bowl that kicked off the whole Ashes campaign last time around? “As I’ve said before, the Twenty20 was the start of 10-12 weeks of hard cricket in England,” he said. “It was the same environment, same pitches, same conditions. At the end of the day, you’re playing in India, it’s a one-offgame and I imagine 15-20% of the players who’ll play on Saturday will not be involved in Brisbane on the 23rd of November. They aren’t in the Ashes Test squad.”At the end of the day we’ve got 11 match-winners and that’s what we realise. Any one of them on any given day can win a match for England. If any one of them puts up their hand and makes a match-winning contribution, we can end up beating Australia.”

Testing times: Ricky Ponting’s leadership is under pressure © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting launched a spirited defence of his leadership ahead of the fifth Test, where anything less than a win will end Australia’s 16-year grip on the Ashes. Heavily criticised during the series, Ponting took the unusual step of saying it would be “unfair” to blame him if Australia handed back the urn.England start with a 2-1 lead at The Oval tomorrow and Ponting, who faces the biggest challenge of his captaincy career, said he was doing his best. “It would be unfair if it was my fault if we lost this Ashes series,” he told . “If it came back on me I’ll accept it.”I’m the captain and leader of the side, but I’m not batting out there for everybody and I’m not bowling for everybody either. I’m doing the best I can, I’m sure the other guys are trying their best but we just haven’t put it all together yet.”Australia have struggled with key players such as Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist and Jason Gillespie out of form against a sustained England attack. However, Ponting has come under pressure for fielding first in the second Test and not being able to lift his side, apart from at Old Trafford when his exceptional century helped snatch a draw. He was also fined for his outburst following his run-out at Trent Bridge.”I said as early as the second Test I probably wasn’t as sharp at changing momentum at different times and being as defensive when I needed to be,” Ponting said. “You go in on what you think is right at the time. I’m not a great one at looking back and analysing previous Test matches or previous innings and picking out what I’ve done well or what I haven’t done well because I actually feel I’m doing the right things at the right times in the game.”Ponting said he had spoken about a lot of plans to bowlers during overs in the hope they would execute them. “If they can’t, well, it might look as if I’m doing something wrong,” he said. “But I’ve made it clear in this game that I want to communicate as much as I can to the bowlers so we’re exactly clear on what we do. If that means we take a bit of time between overs then that’s the way it will be.”Preparing for a match that could scar him as the captain who lost the Ashes, Ponting said he had never sat back and taken all the accolades for his team during their wildly successful periods. “I’ve always shared all that around and never taken any of the great results we’ve had,” he said.In his column for Ponting wrote that his side would approach the Test like a one-day decider. “We haven’t played great cricket leading into it, but we’ve won enough games to make it to the final match,” he said. “Should we get it right at The Oval like we did in the one-day series in July, then we will take the Ashes home.”We will be aggressive at The Oval. We’ll attack because that’s the way we play our best cricket. We won’t be sitting back and hiding from anything. We will have one intention, and that is to win the Test match and take the Ashes back with us.” Despite what he says about blame, his reputation depends on it.

Mohammad Sami may miss the second Test because of a groin strain© AFP

Mohammad Sami has suffered a groin strain that is likely to keep him out of Pakistan’s second Test against Sri Lanka, beginning on October 28. The injury prevented him from taking the field on the fourth day of play in the ongoing first Test.”Sami has badly strained his inner groin muscle and he needs at least seven to eight days to fully recover,” said Haroon Rashid, Pakistan’s team manager. “Any decision on calling up a replacement for Sami would be taken after the first Test finishes.”

Brian Lara has returned to the highest echelon of the world’s Test batsmen as a result of his efforts in the West Indies’ series victory over Sri Lanka.Lara supplanted Australia’s Matthew Hayden at the top of the Test batting rankings issued by PriceWaterhouseCoopers today. Sachin Tendulkar remains unchallenged as the world’s leading one-day international batsman with Lara in fourth place. The big mover in the ODI batting is Marcus Trescothick of England, who leapt six places to No 7 on the batting list.The bowling is dominated by South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, who sits atop both the Test and ODI rankings.The top 10 lists are:Tests:Batting: Brian Lara (West Indies), Matthew Hayden (Australia), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Michael Vaughan (England), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistan), Rahul Dravid (India), Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa),Bowling: Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Glenn McGrath (Australia), Harbhajan Singh (India), Jason Gillespie (Australia), Andrew Caddick (England), Makhaya Ntini (South Africa), Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), Anil Kumble (India), Jacques Kallis (South Africa).ODIs:Batting: Tendulkar, Ponting, Gibbs, Lara, Gilchrist, Chris Gayle (West Indies), Marcus Trescothick (England), Michael Bevan (Australia), Hayden, Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies).Bowling: Pollock, Muralitharan, McGrath, Ntini, Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka), Brett Lee (Australia), Shane Bond (New Zealand), Gillespie, Zaheer Khan (India), Harbhajan.

He didn’t quite come to the Adelaide Oval with a smoking gun, but Shane Bond has thrown his hat into the ring for New Zealand Test selectionnonetheless with an impressive performance late on the third day of the tour match against South Australia today. By stumps, the South Australianshad been reduced to a second innings score of 4/130 after they had earlier conceded a narrow deficit on the first.Bond (2/30), vying with fellow pacemen Daryl Tuffey (0/6) and Chris Martin (0/26) for a vacant Test fast bowling slot, had been forced to watchthe action from the sidelines for most of the day as his team patiently chiselled out a 17-run first innings lead.But, when his chance arrived, he seized it with both hands. He induced David Fitzgerald (0) to chop the very first delivery of the Redbacks’ inningsback into the stumps, and then rattled the castle of Shane Deitz (8) eight overs later with a classical yorker. He was bowling down-breeze on ablustery day in Adelaide – and television replays suggested both scalps had been obtained from no balls – but there was no denying the strength ofhis impression. He developed excellent pace and maintained disciplined line and length in each of two spells.Admittedly, Tuffey also bowled well and the spinning prowess of Daniel Vettori (2/43) continued to make life difficult for the batsmen too. But, asthe Redbacks were led most of the way to stumps by the experienced pairing of Greg Blewett (61) and Darren Lehmann (51), there was nomember of the attack more impressive than the 26-year old right armer.Earlier, Tuffey (56) had made a decisive impact of his own with the bat in the course of New Zealand’s progression to a first innings total of 314.Around more than two sessions of vigilant batting from the Kiwis, the powerfully-built right hander added some much-needed aggression to histeam’s innings in the lead-up to tea, clubbing two glorious sixes over mid wicket and slamming several inside-out drives over the off side on the wayto only the third half-century of his first-class career.Therein, he matched the standards of attacking entertainment that had been established by Adam Parore (48) before lunch, and had nearly evenoverhauled top scorer Lou Vincent (74) by the end of his cameo effort.Vincent, for his own part, again played well, but the exuberance that bubbled over into his play yesterday wasn’t quite replicated. Before he playeda delivery from fiery left arm paceman Mark Harrity (2/22) back into his stumps shortly after lunch, he remained keen to play off the front foot andunfurled more of his flourishing and technically correct strokes. But he was also tied down for long periods, never more so than at the outset of theday when the nagging accuracy of pace bowlers Mike Smith (1/38) and Paul Rofe (0/29) kept the accumulation of runs to a premium.The opening 31 deliveries of the day from impressive youngster Rofe were all dot balls, and just three runs were taken from his first 37 in total.At the other end of the day, Vettori also shut down the scoring rate when he lured Blewett into driving a catch to mid on and Lehmann into lobbingback a caught and bowled chance from the final ball before stumps.It all helped to bookend a generally laboured day of batting from both teams.

Liverpool forward Luis Suarez has again commented on his suspension for racism from last season, refusing to forget the incident.

The Uruguay international was given an eight-match ban after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, but has once more claimed his innocence.

“The suspension, I suppose, you could call strange and unbelievable,” the South American is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

“Without a single shred of proof, they suspended me. I accepted it without saying anything obviously because they could have made the suspension longer and it would have just made the whole thing continue, but my conscience is completely calm, and so is that of the club and my family.

“There was not a single convincing proof that I had done any of the things they accused me of doing. I am very calm about all of it.

“I have played all my childhood and everyone knows that in Uruguay there is a huge black population. I had team-mates and friends of both colours all the time in the national team, in Liverpool, in Holland, where the majority [of players] are from Surinam, and I never had any problem with them.

“Holland is one of the countries in the world where there is the highest number of black players and at no point was there an issue.

“Well, these are the things about football. It seems to me that they had to get rid of a Liverpool player and, well, they definitely were gratified by all of this,” he concluded.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]