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Greg Chappell will get full support to keep angry detractors at bay in Kolkata © AFP

India’s coach Greg Chappell will be provided special security when he arrives in Kolkata for Thursday’s opening one-day match against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens.Officials in Kolkata are clearly not taking a chance with regard to Chappell, who was confronted by an unruly fan during the recent home series against the West Indies. Chappell, 58, was pushed and hit on the back when the Indian team arrived at Bhubaneswar airport in the state of Orissa on January 22. Chappell, who was rushed into the team bus stationed outside the airport gate, escaped unhurt.Kolkata police official PK Chatterjee said his force will not allow such an incident to happen again when the Indian team arrives over the next 24 hours. “Special security has been planned for Chappell,” Chatterjee told AFP. “We will not allow Bhubaneswar to be repeated. We will throw a ring around Chappell during his stay in the city.”If Chappell travels by car from the airport, police vans will escort the vehicle till the hotel. If he goes by the team bus, at least five senior police officials will be deployed inside.” Thousands of security men will frisk each spectator at the entrance of the 100,000-seater Eden Gardens on match day, Chatterjee added.Kolkata police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee also heads the Cricket Association of Bengal, which is organising the match. Chappell, who took over as Indian coach in June 2005 for a two-year term, has faced close scrutiny in a cricket-mad nation desperate to see its team succeed on the international scene.

ScorecardPakistan chose efficiency over style on Saturday as they booked their place in the semi-finals with a straightforward win over Zimbabwe.Pakistan’s bowlers, so impressive in Friday’s defeat of New Zealand, impressed again to dismiss Zimbabwe for just 181, before knocking off the total in 48 overs. Anwer Ali Khan, whose 5 for 34 wrecked New Zealand, took 3 for 25 while his opening partner Jamshaid Ahmed captured 2 for 42 and Riaz Khail picked up 4 for 29.Zimbabwe’s innings fell into several distinct phases. First there was an early struggle as they limped to 31 for 3 in the face of an onslaught from Anwer Ali Khan and Jamshaid Ahmed. Then Donald ‘Kuda’ Samunderu (46) and Keegan Meth (33) pulled things around with a fourth wicket stand of 65 before another cluster of wickets fell and Zimbabwe slipped to 136 for 8.That collapse forced Sean Williams’ side to draft in their Supersub, Friday Kasteni, in place of opening bowler Ian Nicolson. Kasteni’s contribution in getting his side to a reasonably useful score was vital. Batting at number nine, he made 22 crucial runs and, together with Ronald Benade (18) the pair added 39, the second highest stand of the innings. Samunderu, Meth and Kasteni were the only players to reach 20 for Zimbabwe but 23 extras, including 14 wides, boosted their total which, inevitably, was no match for Pakistan.Ibrahim Mohammed (39) and Rameez Raja (39) both made solid top-order contributions to set Pakistan on their way before Riaz Kail (26 not out) and captain Safaraz Ahmed (22 not out) finished the match off with an unbroken partnership of 36.”I did not think there was much between the teams but I was definitely impressed by Pakistan’s fast bowling,” Zimbabwe’s captain, Sean Williams, said. “We kept them out there chasing the target for 48 overs but we just did not get enough runs and our top order has failed in every game.”Although Pakistan took their time in their run-chase, they were wary of a replicating the collapse they suffered against Bangladesh earlier in the tournament.”We did not want to make the same mistake we did against Bangladesh (when Pakistan collapsed) so we were happy to take as long as we had to in order to score the runs,” said Pakistan coach Mansoor Rana.Mansoor, whose team now face a rampant Australia in the semi-finals, was relaxed about his team’s fortunes. “As long as we are fully prepared then it does not matter who we play because they are all good teams and it is simply what happens on the day,” he said. “One good innings or one good spell of bowling can win a match.”

Has Danish Kaneria forced the Indians to change their strategy?© Getty Images

When the India-Pakistan series started, it was expected that the pitches would be dry and dusty to aid India’s spinners. However, the Mohali surface had a fair sprinkling of grass and, if media reports are to be believed, the pitch at Eden Gardens, the venue of the second Test, is also likely to aid the seamers.A report in , a Pakistan daily, suggests that a green-top awaits Inzamam-ul-Haq and his team in Kolkata. The newspaper quoted Inzamam as saying: “From what we have heard they have left a lot of grass on the pitch and have no plans to cut it down. By the look of things they are aiming to target us with their full pace attack.”The Indians handled Pakistan’s pace attack with ease at Mohali, but struggled against Danish Kaneria, who bowled with relentless accuracy and guile for 53.4 overs in the Indian first innings, returning figures of 6 for 150. In contrast, Pakistan’s fast bowlers had combined figures of 4 for 360 from 94 overs. India’s star bowler, though, was medium-pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji, who came up with match figures of 9 for 171. Anil Kumble had a reasonably successful match too, but his six wickets cost him 236 runs.If the pitch does turn out to be a grassy one, the Indian think-tank will have a tough decision on their hands over which spinner to omit – Kumble has been in tremendous form in Tests, but Harbhajan Singh has an outstanding record at Eden Gardens – 29 wickets in four Tests at 18.75.Pakistan have never lost to India at this venue: they have won one Test and drawn four, and have beaten India in all three one-day internationals. The only international match they have lost here was to Sri Lanka in the second final of the Independence Cup. (Click here for Pakistan’s Test results at Kolkata, and here for their ODI results at this venue.)

RETRAVISION Warriors fast-bowler Jo Angel will miss only four weeks with a knee injury and is an outside chance to play for the Warriors against Victoria in late December.Angel has been sidelined since Sunday with a tear to the meniscal cartilage in his left knee. It was initially thought Angel might have faced a near career-ending three-month lay-off.Angel had an MRI scan on Monday night and met his specialist on Wednesday evening to learn the extent of the damage.The scan revealed no major structural damage to Angel’s knee. Surgery will not be required. Angel will undergo intensive physiotherapy and believes he can be fully recovered inside a month.""It will be three, maybe four weeks before I’m right," Angel said."I was fearing the worst and the initial prognosis was not good on Monday. I had a similar injury four years ago and I was out for eight weeks."With physio I am a chance to play before Christmas."Angel announced before the season that this would be his final year of first-class cricket. The prospect of a three-month lay off forced him to think of the future."Everyone would like to play for ever but you can’t do that. I have a bit to offer in coaching. I would definitely like to put something back into the game."WA’s fast-bowling stocks have been decimated by injury this season and Angel laid down a challenge to WA’s young brigade of fast-bowlers."These injuries have provided opportunity for young guys to put their hand up and show what they are made of," he said.The Warriors face Tasmania in a day-night ING Cup match at the WACA Ground on Friday. WA is second on the ING Cup ladder with nine points from three matches. Tasmania is last on the ladder with zero points from three matches.The match starts at 2.30pm with gates opening at 1.30pm

New Zealand’s batting performance against England at Wellington on Saturday night was more like the sort of display coach Denis Aberhart would like to see consistently from his side.The way batsmen appreciated their role, especially after being three wickets down for 52, had heartened him and continued further the advances the side has made since starting the summer in Australia.New Zealand had played only part of the game well in the first National Bank Series match against England in Christchurch.”But I thought in Wellington the guys played with enthusiasm and pretty well went out and put our game plan in place,” he said.”We had good partnerships, we lost wickets but the guys went in and took responsibility to set up another partnership, and work hard for a while. Then with the ball we started well and did some very good fielding.”The two good partnerships between Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan, then McMillan and Lou Vincent had been crucial.”Whilst no-one went on to get big scores, the partnerships were the key and we had two or three little ones after that.”At 40 overs we were 181/4 which is one of the first times this year we’ve been able to get to the last 10 with wickets in hand which meant the last few could score reasonably well. We got 63 off the last 10 which set us up.”There are still things we need to get better at, but from a team point of view I thought the batting was pretty good,” he said.Aberhart said it was significant now that there was genuine competition for places in the side and while there is a core of 12, to be reconsidered after Wednesday’s game, there were several different options available within that group of players.It also helps make practice sessions livelier as several New Zealand batsmen found out today when fast bowler Ian Butler was most impressive with the speed he mustered.Pitch reports for Wednesday’s game suggest it should be the fastest pitch in the ODI series so far. That could make life interesting for batsmen as the allowable one bouncer an over has not yet been a factor in the series.Weather forecasts have been varied for Wednesday, just as they have been all over New Zealand this summer, but the latest had today’s fine weather to continue for at least another two days, setting up a tremendous match in Napier.

Inspired by Mathew Inness’ six-wicket haul, Victoria has finished well on top after the first day of its first-class match against West Indies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.Bowled out for 167, the West Indians’ batting woes continued today. The teamscored at a snail’s pace all day, accumulating a mere forty-nine and forty-seven runs respectively during the first two sessions. The third session, where they stepped up the pace to a rate of 2.84 runs per over, was better, but is still a far cry from what could be expected from an international team playing against the bottom-ranked domestic side. Especially when the international team has someone like Brian Lara.Even Lara could not do much today, falling to Test spinner Colin Miller for a painful 19 that lasted fifty-five deliveries. After going to lunch at 1/49, the West Indians promptly lost six batsmen for forty-seven in the second session, including two wickets in two balls off Inness.Reflecting on the regularity with which his batsmen have fallen to catches behind the wicket (there were four today and seven in last week’s match against Western Australia), disappointed vice-captain Sherwin Campbell conceded his team’s batting has not been at its best on this tour.”Maybe they’ve been balls that we shouldn’t have played at, maybe the balls were a bit too wide, maybe we can be a bit more patient,” he said. “We’ve been discussing it but it’s something we have to go out there and do in the middle, so that’s what we need to work on. You can always say you’re goingto learn from your mistakes but you’ve got to keep reminding yourself that you’re not going to play at the balls outside the off-stump. I mean, you can do that in here, but when you go out there, you’ve sort of got to keep reminding yourself. And it’s something we’ve got to focus on and concentrate on daily.”The tourists finally brought up their hundred at the start of the final session, with Ridley Jacobs striking a boundary off Miller. He and Mahendra Nagamootoo then set about building some handy resistance, compiling thirty-eight runs at nearly two and a half runs an over. Considering the team run rate was less than two an over and the highest partnership was the forty-two runs produced by Lara and Campbell, this association went a long way to building a semi-respectable total for the tourists.The resistance ended when Inness, already responsible for three West Indian wickets, ran in from mid-on to affect a close run out of Jacobs. Coming off eighty-seven deliveries in an hour and forty-nine minutes, Jacobs’ 28 was the third highest contribution in the tourists’ innings.But it was Nagamootoo (48 off eighty-seven balls) who served up the strongest fight, battling for an hour and three quarters. Instead of trying to defend everything, the twenty-five year-old went after the bowling a little, striking five boundaries, including one off Miller pulled straight over the bowler’s head. That particular over brought the tourists seven runs.In the end, though, it was the Victorians who enjoyed the last laugh, virtuallychoking the once-great West Indies. Inness, who led the way with career-best figures of 6/26 off 20.2 overs, was the man who enjoyed himself most, especially when he had Nagamootoo caught by Miller at mid-on to end the visitors’ innings.Having been on a hat-trick earlier in the day, the left arm paceman again snared two wickets in the same over towards the end of the West Indian batting display, clean bowling Nixon McLean (6) with a full toss and then having Matthew Mott take a brilliant diving catch at gully to dismiss Mervyn Dillon (0).After the day’s play, Campbell praised the twenty-two year-old’s accuracy. “He bowled steady, bowled the off-stump line and stuck to it, stuck to that line and got the rewards,” he said.But he hopes things will be different from tomorrow.”Hopefully our batters will get some scores in the second innings to give us some confidence going to the Test. And hopefully our bowlers will get the line and length they want and land them consistently – those are the things we have to work on in this game,” Campbell said.Going into the second day, Victoria is 0/2 after four overs, with Jason Arnberger (1*) and Shawn Craig (0*) at the crease.

Sri Lanka has usually offered climes and conditions roughly familiar to India’s cricketers.  On the face of it, this tour is their best chance to snap a four-year stretch in which they have not won a series overseas. Batsmen may have arrived on the island slavering at the idea of playing a foreign Test with the sun on their backs and a tawny surface underfoot.But they have arrived at the Premadasa Stadium one day ahead of their tour-match here, and, oh dear, the sky is grey. Worse, the pitch is green. Not the washy subcontinent green, which unveils the brown beneath as soon as the first hour is done. This is proper, nausea-inducing, vomit-coloured stuff.It is not a venue reputed for its seaming surfaces, so there is a chance the India batsmen find something to like about it, in the end. But on looks alone, it may set off warning bells in the dressing room. In Colombo, at least, Sri Lanka seem to be preparing seaming tracks in the belief that therein lies their best hope of taking 20 India wickets.But if the India batsmen are worried, their young squadron of quicks are probably excited by the grass. Bowling coach Bharat Arun said his charges have the means to thrive on any surface. Ishant Sharma is the default leader of the seam attack, and with him he has the pace of Varun Aaron, the bustling intensity of Umesh Yadav, and the skill of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.”There is great potential in this fast bowling unit,” Arun said. “We have a couple of guys who can clock 145-plus on a consistent basis and also the fact that we have Ishant who is pretty experienced. He can extract extra bounce off the wicket and of late, Ishant has been extremely consistent. That’s a very, very encouraging fact.”Bhuvi has had a wonderful tour in Zimbabwe where he has rediscovered himself. He is moving the ball pretty well both ways. So we do have the variety. We have somebody who can move the ball and seam the ball, and someone who can extract that extra bounce, and a couple of bowlers who can clock 145-plus. That gives us enough variety to battle any conditions.”Bhuvneshwar’s series in Zimbabwe featured a 4 for 33 in the second ODI in Harare, in which he drew the edge of two frontline batsmen with away-seaming deliveries. But it was the rejuvenation of another delivery that envenomed him, his coach said.”There were no problems with Bhuvi as such, but the ball that he could bring it back in – he was having trouble with that,” Arun said. “So I guess it was just a question of the release point. He worked pretty hard on that and I guess that made a huge difference – the fact that he could bring the ball back in like he used to earlier. That made him a lot more potent.”For Umesh and Aaron, both of whom have exciting pace, but also Test economy rates close to 4.5, Arun has not recommended a safe-but-sure philosophy.”Something that I would definitely not want is sacrificing pace,” he said. “It is a wrong concept sometimes that people who bowl fast are generally erratic. As you get more and more efficient in your action and your thought process, I think you can be fast and accurate like many of the other bowlers in the world have proved. The challenge for these two would be to not compromise on their speed but get a lot more accurate.”With India having repeatedly spoken of strapping five bowlers to their Test plough this series, hopes are likely to be high that the bowling unit will deliver 20 wickets. But it also means the tail will be expected to produce runs. “I guess if you look at any Test team that has dominated world cricket, they have always had five bowlers in it,” Arun said. But I think if you could probably have a batting allrounder, that would be very, very beneficial for the side.”But now we have three bowlers who can bat well. R Ashwin has two hundreds in Tests, so has Harbhajan Singh. And Bhuvi is more than a capable bat. Our lower order needs to live up to this challenge and contribute and I think the five-bowler concept is the best that you can look forward to.”

When Mikel Arteta decided to alienate Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang from the Arsenal squad, he took the boldest decision of his managerial career yet.

This is not a coach who is afraid to make a bold call, also sending the likes of Mesut Ozil packing during his short time in north London. However, both decisions have seen the Gunners come out the other side a better team.

Martin Odegaard has settled in extremely well in England as his natural heir behind the striker, with only Trent Alexander-Arnold creating more chances than the Norwegian midfielder since the back end of November.

Meanwhile, since Aubameyang was given the freedom to join Barcelona, Arsenal are one of the most in-form sides in Europe.

Although Arteta’s men were given a reality check against Liverpool on Wednesday evening, their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League is still in their hands.

They have two games in hand but there is a sense that their top-four hopes rest on how clinical they can be.

That’s where the Aubameyang topic becomes a bit controversial. Without their former captain, they do lack a cutting edge up top and after missing out on Dusan Vlahovic in January, a big opportunity to strengthen got away from them.

Yet, in Alexandre Lacazette, they have a player who is proving to be a pivotal cog in Arteta’s well-oiled machine. In the words of Albert Sambi-Lokonga, he has been “bringing the fire” to the team ahead of a crucial stage of the campaign.

The Frenchman has only scored twice in his last 11 Premier League fixtures but in that time has registered seven assists. That makes the Arsenal skipper the joint sixth-most creative player in the top-flight this season, showing that he does offer plenty to the team.

Indeed, strikers who give more of a creative threat have been all the range over the last few seasons with Roberto Firmino making a living out of being the supply line to Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.

Parallels can easily be drawn between the Brazilian and Lacazette who is so often the man that the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe look to in order to feed them chances.

Speaking about the 30-year-old following the club’s 2-0 win over Leicester last weekend, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp went as far as to compare him to Harry Kane’s playstyle too.

Redknapp concluded: “Sometimes you just need that player to show and bring people in to play, but it only works if you have pace going the other way because Lacazette does not have that.”

Although the former Lyon attacker lacks the same cutting edge he had in front of goal before joining Arsenal, he still offers plenty and should Arteta’s team clinch top four in May, he will have played a vital part.

Compared to players in the same position across Europe’s top five leagues in the last year, Lacazette ranks in the top 5% for assists per 90 (0.33), the top 10% for shot-creating actions (3.36), the top 14% for through balls per 90 (0.19) and in the top 13% for successful pressures (29.7%).

What that tells us is that the £46.5m signing provides the side with an awful lot more than just goals, something that is difficult to replace and ultimately why Aubameyang received the axe.

Kane is quite clearly the better centre forward but when comparing the numbers mentioned above, Arsenal’s number 9 performs more shot-creating actions and applies more successful pressures of the ball per 90 minutes than the Spurs striker.

Lacazette also makes more passes that lead to a shot (1.43 per 90) and completes more passes into the 18-yard box over the same period of time than Kane.

Therefore, the only areas that let Arsenal’s main striker down is, of course, his finishing and ability to progress play when running with the ball.

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.

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Once upon a time, an attacker was paid simply to put the ball in the back of the net but if modern football has taught us anything, it’s that every position on the pitch is constantly changing.

To be a goalkeeper you now need to pass well, to be a full-back you need to have good technical ability and possess the quality to put the ball in the box, and as a striker, you need to be able to link the play, something the likes of Kane and Firmino do perfectly.

Lacazette too has benefitted enormously from the changing nature of modern football but at the same time, his lack of natural instinct inside the penalty area could well cost him his place at the Emirates.

His contract expires at the end of the season and despite his efforts, it would be a surprise if either party deemed him staying on as the correct verdict.

As much as his hold up play and creativity benefits Arsenal, they need someone who can also score consistently.

AND in other news, Signed for £30m, now worth £59m: Edu struck gold on “incredible” £79k-p/w AFC “baller”…