Despite a poor Champions Trophy, Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s captain, believes his side’s batting is their biggest asset going into next year’s World Cup in the Caribbean. “You can definitely win tournaments if you win matches with batting,” Jayawardene told reporters. “We’ll have to make sure that the guys we have get the right preparation and mentally and physically be ready to take up the challenge.”Jayawardene felt that not having a side as experienced as the one that lifted the 1996 World Cup should not be a deterrent. “It would be very difficult to emulate the 1996 World Cup side because they had the experience. I honestly believe we do have the talent and, the personalities we have can do the same,” he said. “These days especially in one-day cricket, batting is very important. The emphasis will be more on our batting.”With the likes of Upul Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya up the order, Jayawardene felt he had a solid line-up. “With me and Sanga [Kumar Sangakkara] in the middle and Marvan’s experience and [Tillakaratne] Dilshan in the middle, we’ve got the right combination,” he added. “[Chamara] Kapugedera is another good young player whom we feel has a lot of potential. He is a guy whom we can use in different positions whether opening or in the middle order. He is quite versatile.””I emphasise a lot on people taking on responsibility and showing character out there. The way forward is to take those challenges,” he added. “There is no other way around or any short cuts but to take those challenges head-on. To do that batting is very important. We’ve got to have our top six batters playing well. We have two good all-rounders who can do the same. We have the right bowling combination and our variety is really good. We have options now even with our reserves. It is just about executing our game plan.”Jayawardene felt that under Tom Moody, Sri Lanka had created a combination which they felt can handle any situation in any condition. “If we believe in something I think we should go with it rather than make drastic changes. If we lose one game and try to make changes we are actually going back. We don’t have that much time to come back after that,” he said. “After power play came into the picture we struggled in India, New Zealand and Australia to actually get the right combination, to see how we could handle the power play and the super sub. As a result we suffered heavy losses. But we learnt from it and moved forward.”
The Bangalore-based Unibic stepped up the marketing on Monday of their Bradman Chocolate Chip Cookies, which were launched in March and named after the legendary batsman, with the blessing of the Bradman Foundation.The first batch of biscuits had not left the production line before Bradman’s family launched a scathing attack on the proposal. A statement issued on behalf of the family accused the Foundation of failing in its duty to safeguard Bradman’s image. “Sir Donald is a loved and missed family member, not a brand name like Mickey Mouse,” the statement said. “Sir Donald would be adamant in his opposition to this use of his name. So is his family.” Before his death in 2001, Bradman was strict in protecting the commercial use of his name.But the Foundation defended its decision, arguing that it had been signing licensing agreements for years. “In its operations, the Bradman Foundation has at all times gone to great lengths to preserve the good name and reputation of the person acknowledged as the world’s greatest cricketer,” the foundation said. “In 1992, Sir Donald Bradman authorised and encouraged the Bradman Foundation to embark upon a program of commercial use of his name to ensure the financial future and stability of the charitable organisation. The foundation jealously guards the use of the Bradman name and has taken court action on a number of occasions over unauthorised usage.”The Foundation admitted that its relationship with family members had been less than harmonious in recent years. “The Bradman Foundation has received from John Bradman [his son] a series of complaints about wide-ranging subjects since shortly after the death of his father in 2001. The foundation has endeavoured to deal with John Bradman in a co-operative and sensitive manner.” Unibic said a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the biscuits would go to underprivileged children in India.In 2000, John Howard, Australia’s prime minister, changed the country’s corporation law to prevent businesses falsely suggesting a connection to Bradman. The move came after a sex shop attempted to register the name “Erotica on Bradman”.
For the second day in a row, Pakistan were unrecognisable from the side which capitulated without a trace at Perth. If Yousuf Youhana led the charge on the first day at the MCG, then Shoaib Akhtar was the hero on the second. His three strikes were largely instrumental in having Australia on the run, as they ended the second day on 5 for 203, still 138 behind Pakistan’s first-innings total.On a gloomy day when 16 overs were lost to showers and bad light, Pakistan showed little positive intent with the bat, dawdling for 17 overs to add just 23 to their overnight total before being bowled out. With the ball, though, they were all aggression – Akhtar hustled and hurried every batsman, managing extreme pace and uncomfortable bounce even on an easy-paced pitch, while Mohammad Sami and Danish Kaneria offered him excellent support. Only Damien Martyn, unbeaten with a composed and typically elegant 67, handled him with some comfort.There was a brief passage of play when Australia looked like taking charge, when Justin Langer (50) and Martyn added 90 for the third wicket, but even then Akhtar remained a threat, hitting Langer a couple of times on the arm and entering into a verbal duel with him which needed the umpires’ intervention.Consistently bowling at nearly 150kph, Akhtar started the Australian slide in his fifth over, nailing Matthew Hayden for the third time in three innings in this series. Five balls after Kamran Akmal dropped a skyer to reprieve Hayden, he slapped a short, wide ball straight to Shoaib Malik at point (1 for 13). Ricky Ponting was greeted with more fiery stuff, and he soon succumbed to the c Shoaib b Akhtar route, pulling one down square leg’s throat (2 for 32).Martyn started off with a streaky four through the slips, but got into his stride soon after with a series of delectable strokes, gliding Sami through gully and then clipping him off his toes with minimum fuss. As the footwork got more assured, so his strokeplay – his favourite one today was the square cut, which he employed repeatedly as Pakistan’s bowlers pitched short. He offered one half-chance, when an attempted tap over the slips ballooned and fell just short of Imran Farhat at third slip, but that was a rare blemish in what was otherwise a masterful knock.With Langer as effective, in not as fluent, as at Perth, Australia motored along till Langer miscued a sweep off Kaneria and holed out. The breakthrough achieved, Yousuf Youhana immediately brought back his primary strike bowler, and it paid off. An out-of-sorts Darren Lehmann flicked at a short one and was brilliantly held, at the second attempt, by Yasir Hameed at short leg (4 for 135).Clarke delighted briefly, tonking Kaneria for a superb straight six, but he was far less assured against the seamers. Sami should have had him on 10, when Clarke shouldered arms to an indipper which would have taken off stump. Not only did Rudi Koertzen turn down that perfectly legitimate appeal, he went on to warn Sami for running on the pitch a couple of overs later.
Clarke’s luck ran out soon after, though, when he miscued one which bounced off the rough, and Akhtar completed an easy catch at long-off. Adam Gilchrist clattered a few fours in a typically energetic 26, and ensured that Australia could still hope to get close to, and even overhaul, Pakistan’s total.If the last two sessions of the day produced enthralling cricket, then the first one was completely soporific, thanks to Pakistan’s inexplicable approach with the bat. The chief culprit today was Abdul Razzaq. One of the most devastating hitters in the game when in the mood, today he went into self-denial mode, as if atoning for his senseless hoick off Shane Warne in the first innings at Perth. Blocking half-volley after half-volley, he remained undefeated on 4 off an unbelievable 76 balls. It would have been a commendable effort if Pakistan had been battling save a game; here, with his side in an excellent position to wrest the initiative, it was beyond comprehension.Australia didn’t mind that approach one bit, though. They chipped away at the other end, as four wickets fell for precious little in a shortened morning session. It ensured that Pakistan, instead of scoring close to 400 runs, finished with only 341. By close of play, however, that seemed a good enough total to test the might of the Australians.
Two wickets late in the day from Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison put England on top for the second day running in the third npower Test against South Africa at Trent Bridge. After building a large total of 445 in which Alec Stewart rolled back the years with a combative 72, England reduced South Africa to 84 for 2 on a misbehaving pitch. And to make Michael Vaughan even happier, they dismissed Graeme Smith for less than 200.Stewart now has a maximum of five more innings to overhaul Viv Richards’s total of 8540 Test runs (he currently has 8398) and he gave the initiative back to England after a sticky morning in which they lost three wickets. He shepherded the tail with some intelligent singles and booming boundaries and belted 11 fours in all, latching on to anything short or wide. He whipped Andrew Hall through midwicket for four and signalled the 400 next ball with a square cut for two. But he saved the best shot of the lot to bring up his fifty with a thumping back-foot drive off Hall.With the exception of Makhaya Ntini, the bowling was a much more demanding prospect for England than yesterday. Pollock again led the way on a two-paced pitch, and it was he who struck early. After his stirring century yesterday afternoon, Nasser Hussain slipped straight back to his intense self, but he was unable to find the same fluency as he was trapped lbw in front of off-and-middle (322 for 4). That ended an enterprising partnership of 104 between Hussain and Ed Smith.Smith showed none of his first-day nerves as he brought up his debut Test fifty, but any thoughts of a century were dashed when Jacques Kallis came up with the perfect awayswinger, which Smith nibbled through to Mark Boucher (334 for 5).
Alec Stewart: half-century to regain control for England
Smith was caught flat-footed as the ball wobbled away from him, but it was an impressive start from England’s bright new spark. He walked off to hearty applause in the knowledge of that, but whether he knows he is the 15th Smith to play for England, and that his 64 is the highest score on debut by any of them, is doubtful – even if he does have a double-first from Cambridge.Andrew Flintoff also unusually took his time, but never got going. He paid for his caution, and lack of footwork, when he edged Hall to Pollock at first slip for a 20-ball duck (347 for 6). Hall, like Kallis, was moving the ball away to good effect and Flintoff, like Smith, played away from the body to his peril. Ashley Giles (22), Kirtley (1) and Harmison (14) all hung around to give Stewart some valuable support, as he used all his nous to guide England towards 450.James Anderson opened with James Kirtley, the debutant, whose first ball in Test cricket went for four when Gibbs clipped him through midwicket. But Kirtley settled down to a tidy spell, finding the odd hint of away movement, although Anderson continued to struggle. He was determined not to feed Smith’s leg-side craving, but instead gifted two half-volleys outside off stump in the same over, which were both crashed to the boundary boards as Smith and Gibbs made a solid start.While Smith was subdued by his Bradmanesque standards, Gibbs was starting to fire. He clipped Flintoff past square leg and caressed a breathtaking cover drive in the next over. But, as in the second Test, his downfall was an inside-edge off Steve Harmison. It was a better ball than at Lord’s, full and straight with a hint of movement in to Gibbs, and it cannoned into middle stump off the bat (56 for 1).Harmison wasn’t brought on till the 16th over, and that wicket gave him the gee-up he and England needed. Bowling in tandem with Flintoff, they cranked up the pace and put the pressure on with aggressive and hostile deliveries. Bowling around the wicket to Smith, Flintoff forced him to play and miss a few times, and after he edged one just short of Marcus Trescothick at first slip, Flintoff wondered what he had to do to get shot of him.Well, the answer came in his next over as Smith’s charmed life came to an end in the most bizarre of circumstances. Leaping back to defend another quick Flintoff short ball, his left foot slipped back too far and trod firmly on his own stumps (66 for 2). Smith sauntered off shaking his head while Flintoff celebrated a deserved change of fortune.The two Jacques, Rudolph and Kallis, dug in till the end and Rudolph was lucky to survive an lbw shout from Anderson with four overs to go. They’re still 361 behind and with the wicket playing some tricks, they’re up against it.Click here for the Wisden Verdict
New Zealand’s Cricket Academy was 160/6, a lead of 199 at stumps on the second day of their match with the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy of Australia.The Australians staged a lower order recovery to reach 169 after play resumed late on the second day following overnight rain.Cameron White (41) and Xavier Doherty (36) were the picks of the Australian lower order.Canterbury fast-medium bowler Wade Cornelius picked up five Australian wickets at a cost of 55 runs while Sam Whiteman took three for 59. All-rounder Chris Cairns, in his last match before joining the CLEAR Black Caps in Australia took one for 28 from his 11 overs, the last five spent bowling into the wind.New Zealand got into early trouble in their reply when Jamie How was out for 18, with the score on 24, when trapped leg before wicket without playing a shot.Luke Woodcock, who opened the innings with How, was in good form and played some sparkling back foot shots. Cairns scored 34, with 32 of his runs coming from boundaries.
Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett has criticised the decision not to show Liverpool forward Diogo Jota a red card against West Ham, with Football Insider even suggesting a ban could be in order.
The Lowdown: Jota returns
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has only recently been able to recall Jota to the squad having been previously ruled out with an ankle injury.
The Portuguese forward was used from the substitutes’ bench as the Reds overcame the Hammers 1-0 at Anfield at the weekend, following his start back from injury in the FA Cup win against Norwich.
However, the 25-year-old was cautioned in the second half for a foul on Pablo Fornals, one which left David Moyes questioning the severity of the challenge after the match.
Jota was handed a start in the Champions League on Tuesday – although his performance was questionable to say the least – but Hackett believe he should miss the Reds’ next three fixtures.
The Latest: Hackett gives red
Speaking to Football Insider, whose headline called for an ‘extended ban’, ex-Fifa official Hackett claimed that VAR should’ve instructed the on-field referee to dismiss Jota and subsequently rule the ace out of this weekend’s trip to Brighton.
“It doesn’t look great.
“These are the sorts of challenges when they are highlighted and you look at the video you see something but when you are in the middle of the park, it’s difficult to see it.
“He’s a lucky guy that he got a yellow. There is an element of doubt in there.
“The referee obviously sees it as reckless but the photograph shows it’s worse than reckless, it’s a red card offence.
“VAR could have come to the assistance of John Moss on that one.”
If the FA were to issue a retrospective ban, it would rule the Portugal international out for Brighton, Arsenal and the FA Cup quarter-final.
The Verdict: Harsh…
Given the incidents like this which have gone before – Liverpool supporters, in particular, will point to the lack of action taken against Jordan Pickford when Virgil van Dijk was sidelined for nine months – there won’t be much sympathy for this view amongst Reds fans.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Whilst the tackle from Jota does look horrible on the still image, there is no precedent for retrospective punishment for such a challenge and to dismiss him would’ve felt harsh, especially considering Craig Dawson produced a similar challenge on Sadio Mane while already on a yellow card.
Jota has been nothing short of a revelation since arriving on Merseyside – scoring 30 times and providing four assists in 65 outings for the Anfield club – but will perhaps be best served by leaving this type of foul play outside of what is otherwise a supremely well-stocked repertoire.
In other news, Pete O’Rourke has claimed one Liverpool player could leave the club this summer. Read more here.
Conventional wisdom says the fourth one-day international at Old Trafford was one India would rather forget; it was a scrap India had got on top of by creeping under the skin of the opposition, and losing from there would have brought a sense of hopelessness. Yet it was also a game they can take a lot of heart from.For one hour in the field – the first period of the run-chase – India displayed more positives than they had over several hours in earlier games. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, their best effort on the field in a long while – throwing punches fearlessly, catching eagerly and mouthing off with abandon. Their ground fielding was only marginally better than earlier but the buzz was unmistakable. Led by Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik, the younger players took it upon themselves to pump up the volume and inject the side with much-needed energy.One moment, when Kevin Pietersen was new to the crease, summed up the high-voltage approach. Rahul Dravid, after a chat with the umpires, asked Yuvraj, at point, to cool off; Karthik, standing at cover, immediately came to his rescue and shot off an explanation. Nothing, not even their captain, was going to shut them up.Dravid too was more energised than in recent days. The modest total of 212 forced him to set attacking fields right through England’s innings and crucially Dravid did not hesitate to put men around the bat, providing the spinners all the support they could ask for.It was, as Nasser Hussain in the commentary box reiterated several times, the aggression India have been missing. They hardly landed up at Southampton and Edgbaston and even the victory at Bristol came with a sense of fatigue. Old Trafford may have thrown up an alternative path: with three matches to go, and the series almost out of their reach, India could transfer their aggression to the bat as well. Their batting, Bristol excepted, has been jaded and there cannot be a better time to start expressing themselves freely.”We came to 212 with some good contributions lower down the order from Zaheer [Khan] and Piyush [Chawla],” Dravid after Thursday’s match. “In the end, though, I thought we should have scrapped a lot harder and got to 240. That was certainly gettable.” A lower-order scrap would have got them there but what about a top-order breaking free of the shackles?
The line-up may still need tinkering – Karthik at No. 3 does not seem to be the answer – but it is the mindset that needs to change
The line-up may still need tinkering – Karthik at No. 3 does not seem to be the answer – but it is the mindset that needs to change. India are approaching these games as if they are Tests, getting into their stride and building innings, but caution can only take you so far. That approach worked well in the Test series, gradually grinding out the opposition, but the one-day game demands a more proactive approach.Lively young men such as Karthik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have pottered around at the crease. They are facing good bowlers on home turf but doing very little to rattle them. Up against a predominantly back-of-a-length attack they are finding it tough to break the shackles. Yuvraj’s clean-striking has been the most refreshing sight and he needs to be rewarded with a push up the order. Keeping him at No. 5 is only adding to his burden. It is this younger batch that will carry India through the next few years and into the next World Cup. Four or five of the current team will not be around for the event and it is up to the rest to form the nucleus of a side for the future. India are currently in no-man’s land, neither winning games nor building for the future, and run the risk of sliding further.It is time for the next generation to be thrown in the deep and told to back their aggressive instincts. The series might be decided in Headingley but India need to look at this as the start of a new chapter.
Allan Border has stepped down as a Test selector for the second time in less than two years and only four months after re-accepting the position. Border, who is a Cricket Australia and Queensland Cricket board member, stepped back into the role in June but has over-committed and will focus instead on his other interests, which also include commentary and media work.”My various commitments are far heavier than I had expected back in mid-year and I don’t think it is appropriate to do what is a really important job if I am not able to give it the full attention it deserves,” Border said. “I am really passionate and absolutely committed to making a continuing contribution to cricket through my board work and through my involvement in the CA committee that will decide the next national coach.”According to a report in The Age, however, the final straw for Border came down to a conflict of interests over a beer commercial. He has just taken part in an advert for XXXX Gold, alongside Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee, but Cricket Australia has just signed a far-reaching sponsorship deal with the rival brewery, Foster’s.”We think ambush marketing is fairly un-Australian,” said Geoff Donohue, the corporate affairs spokesman for the Foster’s Group. “I will leave you to decide whether what they [XXXX Gold] are doing with their current advertising campaigns is ambush marketing. I guess Allan has [resigned] in pursuit of his own commercial interests, and what he wants to do for personal gain is obviously his business.”Australia’s selection panel has changed significantly since April with the resignation of Trevor Hohns, the long-serving chairman, and the promotion of Andrew Hilditch into the top job. Merv Hughes, who replaced Border when he walked away after a seven-year stint in 2005, and David Boon are the two other current selectors.Creagh O’Connor, the Cricket Australia chairman, said the board would discuss possible replacements with Hilditch and Cricket Australia’s management before a meeting later this week.
Ricky Ponting has hit back at some fierce Ashes criticism from Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, suggesting that his comments were a smokescreen against criticism of his own team. In a preview of his book , Fletcher said the Australians had been verbally abusive and physically intimidating while flouting the spirit of the game in England.Fletcher has also detailed his account of Ponting’s wild reaction after being run-out by Gary Pratt at Trent Bridge, where there were other reported problems. “We have it on good authority that the groundsman [Steve Birks] was verbally abused by some of the Australian players,” Fletcher wrote.Fletcher added that Ponting “blew his top” when he smiled at him after he was run out in Pratt, a crack substitute fielder, who had been subbed on for a bowler. Ponting said he was disappointed by Fletcher’s latest broadside, suggesting it sounded more like England had lost the Ashes, not won them after 18 years.”That was probably what got my back up more than anything was to have their coach standing on the balcony smiling at me once I was dismissed from a Test match,” he said. “He knew what the whole substitute issue meant to the Australian cricket team after we made a big song and dance about it before the first one-day international was played at the start of the summer. We didn’t think it was right. They continued doing it and nothing was done about it.”As for the questions of fair play, Ponting told AFP: “I don’t recall having any of the umpires speak to me or any of the match officials speak to other than that one incident in which I was fined for. We did everything in our power to play the game in the right spirit. I think that was pretty evident right through the whole series and we’ve been applauded for the way we played through the series.”I don’t know if he’s trying to cover his own backside a little bit with a lot of these allegations directed at us now. It’s all coming after some allegations were made against him about the way England conducted themselves through the tour. To be honest, I don’t really care.”Matthew Hayden, who had not seen the stories, came out in support of his captain, questioning why Fletcher had waited until Ponting was at home to make the comments. “He’s a long, long way away isn’t he,” Hayden, who will face Ponting’s Tasmania in an ING Cup match on Saturday, told AAP. “We won’t play [England] for another 18 months and the Australian captain will still be Ricky Ponting, and he’s going to have a few more titles under his belt than England.”Dropped from Australia’s one-day side for the Super Series, Hayden said the rare appearance for Queensland was the beginning of his campaign to return to the No. 1 side. “I’m not finished playing one-day cricket,” he said. Hayden cemented his Test sport with his second hundred in two matches in Sydney last week.
Giving a clearer indication of the mood within the team before England’s one-day series against Zimbabwe, Darren Gough has said that if it were up to the players, none would tour Zimbabwe. Gough admitted that the potential damage of the ICC’s financial penalties gave the players little room to manoeuvre.His comments came after Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan expressed discontent at having to travel to Zimbabwe. “If the International Cricket Council said it was up to each individual player whether he wanted to go, and England wouldn’t suffer financially, each player would pull out,” Gough told “But England will lose between £10 million and £20 million if we don’t go. Youth cricket will suffer, the academy, everything the country’s worked for will suffer.”Earlier this year, the BBC reported that Ehsaan Mani had denied telling the English board that a boycott could lead to heavy penalties. But a spokesperson for the ECB said that though there was no explicit threat by the ICC, to not go to Zimbabwe could hurt their revenue.Gough said he was only going to Zimbabwe to represent his country at cricket, and would walk away if asked to shake hands with Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president. “I’m there for one reason – to represent my country in an international cricket match. We’ve all been advised not to socialise, not to play golf, just to keep out of the limelight when we’re not on the cricket pitch. It’s sad but that’s what we’ll be doing.”If I get into a situation where I’m supposed to be at a function and shaking hands with Mugabe, I won’t do it. I’ll walk away. I’m not afraid to do that.”