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Sri Lanka’s squad for the Natwest triangular series has been modified afterlast-minute discussions between the team management, the selectors and theSports Ministry.In addition to the inclusion of batsmen Chamara Silva, Naveed Nawaz and Avishka Gunawardene, wicket-keeper batsmen Romesh Kaluwitharana and experienced fast bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe, 30, have been selected.Prassana Jayawardene, the reserve wicket-keeper, will now fly home after theTest series with Aravinda de Silva, Hashan Tillakaratne, Ruchira Perera, Thilan Samaraweera and Eric Upashantha.Full Squad: Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Muttiah Muralitharan, Russel Arnold, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Nuwan Zoysa, Upul Chandana, Dilhara Fernando, Buddika Fernando, Chaminda Vaas, Chamara Silva, AvishkaGunawardene, Naveed Nawaz, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Pramodya Wickramasinghe.

Romelu Lukaku has commented on a potential transfer to Manchester City this summer, during a Q&A on his Twitter account.

What’s the talk?

Inter forward Lukaku has reaffirmed his commitment to the Italian giants and snubbed a potential move to Manchester City at the same time. In a Q&A on his personal Twitter account, Lukaku responded to Trevor Sinclair asking him if he wanted to join City by saying “I am happy at Inter”.

Ahead of the summer transfer window, Calcio Mercato claimed that Manchester City and Barcelona are both interested in signing Lukaku from Inter. The Italian side, however, are desperate to keep their top goalscorer after winning the Serie A.

Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho hailed the phenomenal attacker as a player he fully trusts to do a job on the pitch. He told The Mirror:

“He is a guy you can trust, his attitude is phenomenal.”

Pep will be gutted

Txiki Begiristain has been dealt a blow with this news and Pep Guardiola will be gutted as it means that Lukaku will likely not be joining Man City this summer. Lukaku publicly rejecting the idea of signing for City will surely force Txiki to cross his name off of his list of transfer targets this summer, which is a shame as the Belgian international could have been a terrific addition. Irrespective of his United connections, Lukaku could have been a player that City fans would have loved at The Etihad.

Lukaku is a proven, top-quality, centre-forward. The 28-year-old scored an incredible 113 goals in 252 Premier League appearances, playing for West Brom, Everton and Manchester United in the Premier League. He then moved to Inter in 2019, where he has found the back of the net 64 times in 95 games in all competitions for the Italian giants. This shows that he is a consistent goalscorer who can provide goals at an excellent rate at the top level.

The £200k-per-week beast could, therefore, have been a brilliant signing for City to bolster their attacking options after the departure of Sergio Aguero on a free transfer. Guardiola would have had a reliable, trustworthy, centre-forward who he could count on to find the back of the net consistently, which is why his commitment to Inter will leave the City boss gutted this week.

AND in other news, Imagine him and Dias: Txiki must sanction MCFC swoop for “amazing” £63m-rated “leader”…

تقدم مصطفى هدهود نائب رئيس مجلس إدارة نادي الزمالك باستقاله على خلفية أزمة ميداليات نهائي بطولة كأس مصر لكرة اليد.

وظهر مقطع فيديو لـ مصطفى هدهود وهو يخفي ميدالية في (جيبه) خلال مراسم تتويج نادي سبورتنج ببطولة كأس مصر لكرة اليد أمس بعد الفوز على الزمالك.

طالع |بعد واقعة نائب رئيس الزمالك.. اتحاد اليد لـ بطولات: لا يوجد عجز في الميداليات

وعلم “بطولات”، أن مصطفى هدهود طلب قبول استقالته من منصبه كنائب رئيس مجلس إدارة نادي الزمالك على خلفية الواقعة الخاصة بالميدالية.

وكان مجلس إدارة الزمالك برئاسة مرتضى منصور قد طلب عقد اجتماع عاجل لمجلس الإدارة لبحث موقف النادي بعد الواقعة.

يُذكر أن سبورتنج انتصر على الزمالك في نهائي كأس مصر لكرة اليد، أمس الجمعة، بنتيجة (33- 30)، ليتوج باللقب لأول مرة في تاريخه.

Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson is seldom an optimist, never a pessimist but often a realist and his satisfaction with his team’s position at the end of the second day of their Shell Trophy match against Otago at the Basin Reserve today suggested it

Steve McMorran13-Feb-2001Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson is seldom an optimist, never a pessimist but often a realist and his satisfaction with his team’s position at the end of the second day of their Shell Trophy match against Otago at the Basin Reserve today suggested it was stronger than it seemed.It was clear that Wellington held a comfortable position, leading by 180 with seven second innings wickets in hand, though they had taken an undulating path to that two-day stronghold.Their’s was not yet an unassailable position, though it might have been if Wellington had batted more authoritatively early in their second innings – they recovered from 63/3 to 100/3 by stumps – and if they had contained Otago after having them 70/5 early in the morning session.That was the particular nature of this largely uneventful third day. Wellington manouevered towards stong positions, then briefly lost the initiative, regained it and lost it again – the magnitude of their advantage ebbed and flowed with tidal regularity.After posting 272 in their first innings yesterday – a satisfying total after they had been 51/5, they had Otago 70/5, let them recover to 139/6, then bowled them out for 192 to seize an 80-run first innings lead. Again, the ambiguous nature of the match revealed itself: 272 was not a commanding first innings but it was satisfactory, nor was 80 an overwhelming first innings lead but it was competitive.Then Wellington lost the wickets of Matthew Bell, Selwyn Blackmore and Grant Donaldson when their lead was only 143 and their control of the match seemed once more to be on the ebb. But Richard Jones and Stephen Mather played a vital if unspectacular hand when they batted through the last half of the final session to lift Wellington to 100/3 and to make their position more defensible.Jones, who suffered the unpleasantness of a first ball duck in the first innings, batted with far more circumspection than is his nature to reach 39 not out and stumps and Mather also curbed an aggressive tendancy to reach 16 in a 37-run partnership before stumps.Had another wicket fallen after Donaldson was out when Wellington was 63, had another two wickets fallen, Otago would have found themselves very much back in the match. They had already gone some way towards redressing the balance of the day when they had Bell’s wicket for one, shouldering arms to a straight and low delivery from Karl O’Dowda, and Blackmore’s for 23, caught behind from Craig Pryor’s bowling when Wellington was 48.Once again Wellington fought back to a position of strength, though this match is far from decided. There are two full days remaining and Wellington have too much respect for the ability of Otago’s top order, and for their fighting spirit, to claim a points decision yet.They have two points already for a first innings lead and those are important to their championship campaign. They now stand four points clear of Otago at the top of the table. But they would dearly like an outright win as they enter the last phase of their campaign – their final matches against Auckland and Northern Districts.”I suppose one of the cliches of cricket is that the third innings of any match is the most important,” a reflective Johnson said. “It had been a close contest for first innings points, though we ended up leading by 80 runs, but it would tend to loosen our grip if we didn’t go on in the second innings to get a good score.”It didn’t look too great at 60/3 again but I thought Jones and Mather batted well in one of the more compact sessions of the match to put us in a stronger position.”It’s too early in the game to be looking at totals and targets. There are six sessions left and that represents a lot of cricket. But we have to make sure we bat well tomorrow, see where we end up at lunch and aim to control the match from there.”If you look at Otago’s top five, it compares with any top five in the country. Cumming is striking it well, Gaffaney is a match winner in one-day and four-day stuff, particularly in the four-dayers because the gaps are there for him, and Hore comes in at five. They’ve got a good top order and we have to be aware of that.”I don’t know what the wicket will do. The odd one is keeping low and Paul Wiseman was getting a bit of turn so that’s another consideration. We also know Otago have a great fighting spirit. Denis Aberhart has groomed them that way just as he groomed Canterbury to fight for everything. His teams play to win so we would never under-estimate them.”But Wellington’s is certainly the preferable position at the end of the second day.They made a good start today, snaring the wickets of Hore and Croy to have Otago 70/5 after they had resumed at 42/3. At that stage there was talk in the Wellington dressing room of Otago failing to reach the follow on mark of 122.But Gaffaney continued a fine summer with an innings of 62 in 158 minutes, in a partnership of 69 with Pryor in 75 minutes, which led Otago to 139/6. The match was then relatively evenly poised.Gaffaney had reached his half century in 129 minutes with a six from Jeetan Patel and his entire innings included 10 boundaries from 111 balls.His wicket was a vital one and Wellington had regained some control when they also had Pryor for 24 just before lunch. Otago were 145/7 at the interval. Then a series of sticky partnerships delayed the end of Otago’s innings and Wellington had to remove the troublesome Karl O’Dowda for 24, Wiseman for 14 and Bradley Scott for 12 before they could count their lead.They had Otago all out for 192 and finally established a lead which gives them a vantage point over the next two days.Johnson stopped short of calling this match vital to Wellington’s Trophy hopes. He said there were 30 sessions of cricket ahead of Wellington this season and if they continued to pursue small goals rather than larger ones they could hope to succeed in the long run.Nevertheless, a win in this match would give Wellington a pleasing buffer on its opponents with two matches to play and they will be energised by that prospect over the next two days.

نجح مجلس إدارة نادي الزمالك برئاسة مرتضى منصور في تجديد عقد عمر هشام لاعب فريق كرة السلة ومنتخب مصر لمدة 4 سنوات مقبلة رسمياً.

ويعد عمر هشام أحد اللاعبين الذين استطاعوا المشاركة في الفوز بعدد من البطولات المحلية والقارية لنادي الزمالك أبرزها بطولتي الدوري وأفريقيا بالإضافة الى المشاركة في كأس العالم للأندية، بخلاف مشواره المميز مع منتخب مصر خلال السنوات الماضية.

طالع | الأهلي ضد الجزيرة والزمالك أمام الاتحاد في نصف نهائي دوري سوبر السلة

ووقع عمر هشام على عقود التجديد في حضور أحمد مرتضى عضو مجلس إدارة نادي الزمالك والمشرف العام على اللعبة بعد الاتفاق بشكل نهائي على استمرار اللاعب في صفوف فريق السلة خلال السنوات المقبلة ليتم غلق أحد أهم ملفات التجديد في اللعبة خلال الموسم الحالي.

يأتي ذلك في إطار السياسة التي يسعى خلالها مجلس إدارة النادي برئاسة مرتضى منصور لدعم كافة الألعاب الفردية والجماعية لتحقيق طموحات وأحلام جماهير القلعة البيضاء.

India may be reluctant to play in Sharjah, but Sri Lanka have confirmedtheir commitment to the biannual triangular tournaments by signing athree-year deal with the Cricketer Benefit Fund Series (CBFS)

CricInfo22-May-2001India may be reluctant to play in Sharjah, but Sri Lanka have confirmedtheir commitment to the biannual triangular tournaments by signing athree-year deal with the Cricketer Benefit Fund Series (CBFS). Sri Lankawill now participate in the next six tournaments, the first of which will bein October.The financial details of the agreement, which was signed by the SportsMinister, Lakshmann Kiriella, were not revealed, but it comes with a Rs55million commitment to invest in a new international cricket stadium inPallekelle, Kandy.

Rangers have been linked with young striker Roko Simic recently and the 17-year-old, who has been likened to Erling Haaland, could add a new dimension to Steven Gerrard’s side next season if he moves to Ibrox.

According to the Daily Record, the Light Blues have been linked with the teenage forward recently as a result of his impressive performances with Lokomotiva Zagreb this season.

Rangers already have Borna Barisic and Nikola Katic in Gerrard’s squad, and the son of one-time AC Milan defender Dario Simic could add to the impressive Croatian contingent at Ibrox next season should the teenager make the switch.

His performances have certainly caught the eye of another Croatian former Rangers player in Nikica Jelavic, who sang his praises recently after playing alongside Simic this season, saying: “Roko is certainly one of the greatest talents in Croatian football! That’s for sure, he’s a young and decent guy, brilliantly brought up and he’s a real rough diamond.

“He is gaining experience, I played with him and as one of the older players, we helped him along.

“Everyone knows who he is because of his famous father, but that’s a burden that will shortly be off his back because he’s good enough to write his own story.

“I am convinced that Roko will make a great career and that he will be a world-class striker, I really haven’t seen a more talented player than Roko for a long time.”

In 22 appearances for Lokomotiva Zagreb, the teenage striker has already hit three goals, which is a respectable return for someone so young.

Considering that Jelavic managed 36 goals and 15 assists in just 56 appearances for Rangers, he clearly knows a lot about what it takes to succeed in the Scottish Premiership, and he evidently believes that Simic would be a hit at Ibrox.

It certainly seems as if the youngster is destined for a big future in football and therefore Rangers should perhaps be looking to bring him in as soon as possible, rather than waiting until his performances begin to attract elite clubs from across Europe.

In other news… Rangers handed major transfer boost with 23 y/o dubbed “the best”, Wilson must deliver

MatériaMais Notícias

A expectativa por dar proporções nacionais ao sonho da Chapecoense em conquistar a Sul-Americana marca a escolha pelo Couto Pereira. Logo após a divulgação do estádio como palco do duelo com o Atlético Nacional (COL), em 7 de dezembro, o presidente da equipe catarinense, Sandro Pallaoro, fez um apelo a todas as torcidas:

– Independente da rivalidade entre as torcidas, o momento é de mobilizar os torcedores para irem ao Couto Pereira, independente da rivalidade. Queremos o apoio das torcidas de Curitiba e de outras regiões do Paraná. A Chapecoense é o Brasil! – afirmou, ao LANCE!.

Pallaoro destacou os motivos que fizeram o clube optar pelo estádio para o confronto:

– Além da grama ser natural, os valores apresentados eram mais viáveis para nós. A comissão técnica, a diretoria, também aprovaram a escolha pelo Couto Pereira.

Devido ao regulamento da Copa Sul-Americana, a Arena Índio Condá não tinha capacidade suficiente para sediar a final. De acordo com o dirigente da Chape, há planos para mobilizar os sócios que sairão de Chapecó rumo a Curitiba:

– Assim como acontece no Índio Condá, nossos sócios entrarão com seus respectivos cartões ao Couto Pereira. Esperamos grande mobilização vinda de Chapecó.

Southampton are ready to do battle with Leicester City to sign Sweden international Mattias Svanberg, according to Calciomercato.

Saints in Svanberg transfer battle

The Saints have been linked with a move for the Bologna midfielder, while Champions League chasers Leicester City are also in pursuit.

The Serie A outfit are believed to be looking for €20m (£17.2m) to part ways with Svanberg.

Above budget

Svanberg has impressed in Italy with Bologna, scoring five times and providing two assists in 28 matches in the top flight this season (Transfermarkt). With seven caps to his name and at just 22 years of age, he clearly seems to have a big future ahead of him.

At Southampton, only Danny Ings exceeds his average of 1.8 shots per game, while James Ward-Prowse is the only midfielder to better his goal tally – and the Saints captain depends almost entirely on set pieces to find the net.

However, the issue is whether the St Mary’s outfit can actually afford him. Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said recently that they will only be able to pay transfer fees of up to £10m (Sky Sports), meaning that Svanberg would be considerably over budget. There are going to be exceptions to every rule, but is the Bologna man really to be the man for whom they break the bank?

After all, they are likely to be able to sign more established players for a lower price. It remains to be seen whether Southampton stick to that transfer policy, but if they do, they will be priced out of a move for the Swedish midfielder.

In other news, many Southampton fans slammed this man’s performance against Leicester.

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Sheffield United striker Brian Deane has questioned his old club’s reported interest in John Terry.

The Yorkshire outfit are on the lookout for a permanent successor to Chris Wilder following his exit last month and it appears their search has taken them to Terry.

According to the Mirror, the Aston Villa assistant head coach is on Sheffield United’s shortlist to replace their former boss as the club prepares for life back in the Championship.

Terry has spoken in the past about his desire to become a manager, meaning this opportunity in the Bramall Lane dugout may appeal to him.

Deane, however, has sent a word of warning to his old side, picking up on Terry’s lack of managerial experience. On the subject, Deane told FFC:

“The club has to decide what direction they want to go in and part of that direction is, you know, do they want to go down a route where more of the club structure and infrastructure is club owned?

“Do they want to go down the route of kind of giving somebody an opportunity to come in and manage their club, you know, with relatively no understanding or no experience of the area, of what the fans expect, what kind of football? I don’t know what kind of football John Terry likes.”

The Mirror also reports that Villa are well aware of Terry’s ambitions to manage one day and will support him in his efforts to land the top job in a dugout, so it should not be too hard for Sheffield United to get him out of Villa Park.