Andrew Flintoff is “ready to go” for England’s first Test against New Zealand next month according his former team-mate, Marcus Trescothick.Flintoff, who was playing his second match for Lancashire since ankle surgery over the winter, bowled 16 quick overs to return figures of 2 for 40 against Somerset.”He’s ready to go,” said Trescothick after Lancashire closed on 60 without loss in reply to Somerset’s 238. “That’s as good as he’ll bowl – I don’t think he’ll get into a Test match against New Zealand in a couple of weeks’ time and bowl any differently. Bowling-wise, he’s ready.”It was tough. He bowled really well today – very consistent pace,” he said. “It was normal ‘Freddie’ – you never would have known he would have had much of a lay-off.”Trescothick was dropped three times during his 77 – twice off Flintoff’s bowling – but there was no let-up in Lancashire’s attack. James Anderson and Glen Chapple opened the bowling and, after Flintoff, Saj Mahmood bowled 14 overs to pick up 3 for 54.”You probably won’t see a better [Championship] attack all season than those four, and it was a real challenge,” Trescothick said. “They were Test match conditions out there for a quite a long time. If you can get runs against these guys, you can pick up runs against most people.”Flintoff’s ankle was operated on over the winter and he made his comeback for Lancashire in their drawn match against Surrey at The Oval last week. He only made 23 with the bat but returned the encouraging figures of 1 for 72 from 28 steady overs in Surrey’s 537 for 5 declared. “I have always been confident coming back but when you’ve had four operations you have a bit more knowledge about your ankle,” Flintoff said last week. “I just turned up here to play a game of cricket under no concern about how my fitness was going to be.”England’s first Test against New Zealand, who arrived at Heathrow this afternoon, gets underway on May 15 at Lord’s.
Australia’s Ashes selectors Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann indicated to Michael Clarke that Peter Nevill was set to retain his place for the third Test at Edgbaston before they told Brad Haddin they had not yet made a decision, the former captain has revealed.In his released this week, Clarke writes critically of several elements of Australia’s selection policies during the failed Ashes campaign. But it is his recollection of conversations around the Derby tour match between the second and third Tests that will raise the most pointed questions about the role played by Marsh and Lehmann in the team’s topsy-turvy results.It has previously been reported that Haddin had to front Marsh and Lehmann at training in Derby to get a straight answer from them about the decision to retain Nevill, after the older man had missed the Lord’s Test to spend time with his ill daughter, Mia. Clarke has gone further by stating he was aware which way the selectors were likely to go before they were prepared to tell Haddin themselves.
‘Not sure I’ve loved cricket the same way’
Michael Clarke has admitted the death of Phillip Hughes affected him so much that he no longer loved cricket the same way, and sorely missed his friend’s enthusiasm for the game during the Ashes tour. “I never thought Hughesy’s death would affect me as much as it has for so long,” Clarke wrote in his . “Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like I wanted to walk out of the funeral and forget about him or get on with my life as if nothing had happened. But when it did happen, for me it was about the responsibilities I had as captain to do the right thing by his family, team-mates, friends and, given the public response, the whole country. “I don’t think I had time to grieve personally. Maybe that was a mistake, because now that I think about it, since his death, I’m not sure I’ve loved cricket in the same way. “Hughesy and I would talk two weeks in advance of a tour about how pumped we were to go away together. He’d be in Adelaide playing for South Australia and I’d be in Sydney or travelling around. Whether it was the Ashes in 2013 or last year to South Africa or the UAE to play Pakistan, he just loved it. ‘How good’s this? We’re back on tour again!’ he’d say. On this trip I’ve really missed that.”
“I spoke to Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann before the match started and told them it would be helpful to know which one they’re intending to pick for the next Test,” Clarke wrote, “because, whoever it was, I’d get them behind the stumps in the first innings and bat them up the order. These games are all about preparing for the Tests, and our Test keeper needed match practice. Rod and Boof hadn’t decided for sure, but were leaning pretty strongly towards Nev. They didn’t want to change a winning side from Lord’s.”At training, I was batting in the nets when Hadds walked up to Rod and asked him which keeper was going to play the Test. I was close by, but I walked away, hoping Rod might tell Hadds what he’d told me, that they preferred Nev for Edgbaston. But he didn’t. He told Hadds no decision had been made, that he’d get back to him.”Hadds wasn’t happy with that, so he walked straight up to Boof, who said the same thing – that the selectors hadn’t decided. So Hadds asked Boof straight out, as a selector, who he was going for. And Boof looked him straight in the eye and said he wanted Nev to play.”The decision to retain Nevill over Haddin was a source of considerable disquiet during the series, with several players questioning the consistency of the call after Lehmann’s strong insistence that family was a major priority for the team under his watch. A meeting was later called for senior players to discuss the issue with Lehmann, the first time they and the coach had been at odds since he took over from Mickey Arthur two years before.Clarke has also suggested that the selectors erred by not considering the balance of Australia’s bowling unit during the Ashes, and that persisting with Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson together meant that neither left-armer could bowl at his best against England. One of Clarke’s recurring statements as captain was that a winning team needed to pick the best attack as opposed to the best four bowlers, and he does not think this was the case during the Ashes.”When you choose a cricket team, you have to remember that bowling is not an individual task: the best bowling is done in pairs, and as a group,” Clarke wrote. “For most of the tour we picked the three best-available fast bowlers in Australia, and after Ryan Harris retired, those were Johnson, Starc and Hazlewood. That doesn’t necessarily add up to the best bowling attack – for the conditions, for the opposition you’re playing against, or for the sake of balance.”I think both Johnson and Starc are aggressive, attacking strike weapons who can leak runs but will take wickets. You need at least one of them in your team. The question is, for balance, do you want both, especially as they’re both lefties? Probably not, in seaming English conditions. In an ideal world, in the future maybe, you could play them both. In fairness to them, it might’ve helped if we had more runs on the board.”I know as a captain I can use that one left-hander better if I have more consistency around him. I think I showed that in the home Ashes when I had Harris, Siddle and Shane Watson as my consistent, control bowlers and I was able to use Johnson in short, fiery bursts. He was unstoppable.”It is now clear that the selectors were wrong-footed by the injury-enforced retirement of Ryan Harris before the series. However Clarke said that the Australian team and its selectors had to learn from events of 2015 if they were to prosper next time around – chiefly by choosing a more balanced XI. The retirement of Mitchell Johnson this week means that the choice between the two attacking left-armers no longer needs to be made.”I just hope that Australian cricket learns from this experience, because in four years’ time they’ll need to do things differently if they’re going to win here,” Clarke wrote. “It’s not just bowling as a group and having a balanced attack – it goes for the whole team.”You can’t keep thinking, ‘Well, these are the best 11 cricket players in the country and they will play all around the world all the time.’ Certain batters and certain bowlers are better in certain conditions. You pick players for their role in the national team, because their role is different when they play for Australia. I think the selection messages around that have become a bit confused in the past 12 months or so.”
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMohammad Shahzad’s 63-run opening stand with Usman Ghani set the base for Afghanistan’s imposing 187•Chris Whiteoak
Both sides were far from their best on the field. While that didn’t translate into a high standard of cricket, it made for an entertaining clash nonetheless. The end result was a last-ball finish, with two metres and a fine low catch by Gulbadin Naib separating both sides as Afghanistan held their nerve to outclass Zimbabwe by five runs in the first T20I in Sharjah.But the catch wasn’t Naib’s only contribution in the match. His cameo of 37 and a 52-run stand for the fifth wicket with Mohammad Nabi gave Afghanistan the impetus they needed after a middle order slump orchestrated by Graeme Cremer, who picked up three wickets. Afghanistan blasted 66 off the last five overs to finish with 187 for 7. It nearly didn’t prove enough.With 60 needed off the last five overs, Zimbabwe were in with a slim chance. Malcolm Waller swung his way to more runs in this innings alone than he had done in the preceding ODI series, while Elton Chigumbura found his hitting range to bring it down to 21 off the last over. Asghar Stanikzai’s decision to keep his premier pacer Dawlat Zadran worked, but by only just. His end figures of 3 for 32 were far more flattering in the overall context, but the scorecard wouldn’t reveal how he nearly finished second-best on the night.He was lucky to get away with two high full tosses that were called no-ball, to give Zimbabwe two free-hits, which they couldn’t take full toll of. One of them even accounted for Chigumbura’s run-out as he was scampering back for the second. What followed was total pandemonium. But with 16 needed off four, Luke Jongwe muscled a six and a four to bring it down to six off two. Then came a close call, with Dawlat flirting with the wide line.With six needed off the final ball, Jongwe carved one over the infield only for Naib to, quite fittingly, take the catch at the deep-cover boundary to end the heart-stopping thriller. In the end, Zimbabwe were left wondering what could have been had they held their chances that would have ensured they didn’t have to chase these many.Mohammad Shahzad was dropped by Chamu Chibhabha at deep midwicket off the third ball to deny debutant Donald Tiripano a wicket Shortly after, Masakadza was caught in a brain freeze as his decision to run towards the stumps instead of lobbing a throw to the wicketkeeper resulted in Usman Ghani a reprieve. The result of the two misses cost Zimbabwe 33 and 42 respectively, which set them a solid base for a blaze at the end.But Cremer wasn’t giving up. The classical legspinner used his height and clever use of angles to generate bounce and beat the batsmen with his dip. The end result was magical figures of 4-0-17-3 that briefly caused a few flutters in the Afghanistan camp as they slipped from 62 without loss to 105 for 4. But Tendai Chisoro, the left-arm spinner, and Raza, the part-time offspinner, failed to create the same impact Cremer had.While Chisoro kept firing them in, only for Nabi and Naib to get underneath the ball and hit them cleanly, Raza fed them with long hops that were dispatched. When their partnership, that gave the innings a power-boost ended with Chisoro sending back Nabi, the mood in the Zimbabwe camp spelt relief.There wasn’t an iota of doubt that this would be a difficult chase. The loss of two early wickets, both to Dawlat, gave Afghanistan an early advantage. But Hamilton Masakadza and Richmond Mutumbami then came out swinging as Afghanistan’s bowlers repeatedly missed their lengths. The result was Zimbabwe wiping out 95 runs in 11 overs.But the pressure of the asking rate and some tight bowling by the spinners following Masakadza’s downfall to a reverse sweep for 33 allowed Afghanistan a foot in the door. Sikandar Raza and Waller then continued to keep the fight going. Aiding them along the way was some heavy dew and some poor death bowling as Zimbabwe managed to find the boundaries with regularity.Waller cashed in on Rashid Khan’s inexperience by targeting the short midwicket boundaries. Yet there was a lingering feeling that Zimbabwe were just a wicket away from being squeezed out of the contest. But they did well to hang in till the very end courtesy Jongwe’s two blows that could have been decisive, but Afghanistan did remarkably well to hold their own under pressure to eke out a win that could have a galvanising effect on them.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella has been added to Sri Lanka’s squad as cover for Tillakaratne Dilshan, who was ruled out of the first T20 against India with a hand injury. Dilshan did not travel with the team to India on Saturday. He will instead spend a few days recovering from injury at home, before joining the side mid-series. He is expected to be available for the second match, in Ranchi, on February 12.This injury is an aggravation of an old complaint for Dilshan, who sustained it while attempting a catch during the semi-final of the recently-concluded Super T20 Provincial Tournament. He did not play in the final, but the injury is not thought to be serious. He is scheduled to resume training in the nets on Monday.Dickwella earned his call-up via a good run in the Super T20 tournament, where he struck 189 runs in six innings, with a strike rate of 173. He has played four Tests and one ODI for Sri Lanka, but is uncapped in the shortest format. He will remain in the squad even after Dilshan rejoins it.Dilshan is the third high-profile player to be struck by injury ahead of the series. Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews had already been ruled out of all three T20s. The first match is set to be played in Pune, on Tuesday.
The Italian Football FanCast is the podcast for fans of Serie A, Calcio and the World Cup.
In this edition of the Italian Football FanCast, we look ahead to the World Cup and in particular, the chances of Italy retaining their title as World Champions.
To help us decide whether Italy will make it out of Group F, we have a series of guests on the show.
We have Rupert Fryer of SouthAmericanFootball.co.uk and Goal.com to give us the lowdown in Italy’s first opponents Paraguay.
Lukas Gajdos of the Slovakian correspondent in the Guardian Fans Network, also with his own blog 7560min.blogspot.com.
Finally, we have a special guest, it is none other than Susy Campanale of football-italia.net and Calcio Italia magazine, on the line to discuss all things Nazionale.
Not forgetting our very own ‘Man in Milan’, it is of course Kris Voakes.
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Despite the more intriguing nature of second and third-round group stage games, it seems as though bad refereeing decisions have unfortunately marred several World Cup games. The decision of Koman Coulibaly to puzzlingly disallow a seemingly legitimate winning goal for the USA against Slovenia, and the even more baffling decisions of Frenchman Stephane Lannoy to send off Brazil’s Kaka and to allow Luis Fabiano’s second goal to stand despite two instances of handball during a clash against Cote d’Ivoire have inevitably placed the standard of World Cup refereeing under scrutiny. USA coach Bob Bradley, understandably infuriated by the decision of Coulibaly, was perplexed by FIFA’s lack of clarity with regards to refereeing issues.
Speaking at his side’s base camp, Bradley stated, “We’re all accustomed to the fact that if it’s an NFL playoff game and there’s a call that’s in question, there will be a statement by the league from the referees, but FIFA operates differently.”
The ire aimed at the aforementioned referees has been exacerbated by the refusal of officials to explain their decisions. Is a more stringent approach from FIFA required to curb bad decisions in matches?
The merits and demerits of video technology have been discussed and dissected several times (click here to see an earlier article I wrote on this issue), so I won’t spend time delving in to this area. However, the short nature of international tournaments means that the margins between success and failure are unbelievably fine; had Landon Donovan failed to net his last-gasp winner against Algeria yesterday, Coulibaly’s decision to rule out Maurice Edu’s ‘goal’ from six days ago would have borne much more prominent significance. Although Coulibaly is ‘highly unlikely’ to participate in further World Cup matches, punishing referees after abject displays is often scant consolation to teams disadvantaged by incorrect decisions.
With regards to the issuing of erroneous yellow and red cards, there is very little retroactive action FIFA can take to diminish the significance of such a decision – if a team, incorrectly reduced to ten men, subsequently loses a match, FIFA cannot do anything to rectify refereeing wrongdoing. However, FIFA’s rules denote that neither the organisation nor the referee in question is required to explain a disputed decision. In doing so, FIFA fail to implement any sense of accountability, placing less pressure on referees to make the right decision.
Implementing such accountability would allow for referees to explain decisions and formally apologise, thus showing an intention to try and redress the victims of poor officiating, as well as helping to maintain consistency within the refereeing fraternity. I for one believe it is time that FIFA introduce a more stringent approach within the game.
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Click here to read an earlier article on the use of video technology within football
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These are two men that have a very important part to play in Liverpool’s immediate future, chairman Martin Broughton and manager Roy Hodgson. The 2009/10 campaign was one that Liverpool fans will want to forget as quickly as possible and the best way to do that is to make a storming start next season. It’s hard to argue which of the British duo has a harder job. Off the pitch Broughton has been given the task of selling the Anfield club, something he hopes to do by the end of the summer transfer window. I’m sure every Liverpool fan would be glad to see the back of Tom Hicks and George Gillett as soon as possible. After being hired by the Reds last week, former Fulham manager Hodgson has the equally difficult task of firing Liverpool to success on the field. That will be no mean feat given the performances of last season, but what are the two 60 plus year olds discussing here, the availability of transfer funds perhaps?
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Bolton Wanderers boss Owen Coyle remains hopeful of being able to draft in two or three new players before the transfer window shuts at the end of August.
Coyle has so far brought in Robbie Blake, Martin Petrov and Marcos Alonso since the end of last season and is aware that his squad requires several more new faces.
He told the Bolton News: “I’m always looking to improve and I’m not finished yet.
“It’s easy to say there will be two or three new signings, but what I can say is that I’ll look to add a couple more before the end of the month.
“You can never say definitively that it will happen, because, as you saw with the Marcos Alonso deal, it can be quite complex.
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“We’ll do our utmost to improve the squad by the start of the season and if not, certainly the close of the window.”
Despite Manchester City’s transfer window shopping expected to surpass the £100m mark, this summer’s transfer market has been a decidedly low key affair. With less than two weeks to go until the new Premier League season kicks off, there has been very little transfer activity between the clubs who make up the richest football league on the planet.
While the total Premier League net spend on players last summer was down 10%, the final total still reached a whopping £450m. This season the total so far is just over £170m, with Manchester City accounting for over £75m of that total amount. Whilst there is still a long way to go until the transfer window slams shut on August 31st, it is unlikely we will see a huge increase in spending from top flight clubs.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has already confirmed he is likely to make just one or two signings before the start of the new season and has spoken in the past about his refusal to run the club into debt with over-priced superstar signings. Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti believes his Double winning side have more than enough quality to compete on all levels again next season and is unlikely to make any major changes. Liverpool have been looking to enhance their squad with free transfers and Tottenham will again look to improve with a few high quality additions.
However it is wise old owl Sir Alex Ferguson’s assessment of the current transfer market which is most intriguing:
“The enormous amounts of money they [players] are paid, not just for the transfer fees but for their salaries, I don’t think it rests easy with supporters,” commented Ferguson. “We’re in such a competitive world now that you’re hamstrung in relation to the borders people will stretch to get the best players.
“Over the years we’ve bought players for quite high amounts like Berbatov, Ferdinand, Verón and Rooney. We try to equate how we’re going to get proper value before we do it. When I see some of the values now, and you’re talking about players at £40m or £30m-odd, we have to assess our own players first.”
Ferguson obviously thinks the current market is inflated, namely because of the enormous amounts of money lavished on players by Real Madrid and Manchester City over the last two seasons. In comparison, Ferguson has added a few modest signings to his United squad, refusing to spend the majority of the world record £80m he received for the attacking talents of Cristiano Ronaldo last summer.
The current dip in spending follows the pattern of January’s transfer window, which saw the lowest transfer spending since the mid-season window opened in 2003 coming in at £30m, £140m less than the season before. Following the credit crunch, cash-flow crisis and the recession, clubs have began to extend a tighter grip over their finances and have looked to reduce the amount they are spending on new players.
The summer spending low comes after Portsmouth became the first ever Premier League club to enter administration and docked points in February earlier this year with spiralling debts of £60m. The south coast club faced a winding up order as years of financial mismanagement came to a head, with reports the club were spending a mind-blowing 90% of their income on player’s wages. Even Spanish champions Barcelona were reportedly running at a £60m loss last season and are over 442m Euros in debt, even having to take out bank loans in order to pay their player’s wages.
Football finance has come under scrutiny in the spotlight of the recession with sports business experts Deloitte warning that the current level of spending in the Premier League is not sustainable unless changes are made. UEFA have made plans to tackle the debt which threatens to engulf English football and has approved financial fair play plans. Clubs must not be running at a loss following a three year period starting from 2012 and failure to meet these requirements will mean clubs will be banned from participating in European football.
The current level of debt in European football remains a massive challenge for both clubs and UEFA to tackle. UEFA are concerned about the level of spending which has been seen in recent seasons, reporting that over 50% of Europe’s top clubs are losing money every year. “I would not paint such a cataclysmic picture of major clubs folding because football has always shown there can be solutions but having said that, we are seriously worried to see these trends,” said UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino.
“The clubs themselves are worried, the leagues are worried. These are the reasons that pushed us to take the decision to do something.”
Premier League clubs have made small steps in addressing their finances under the current restricted economic, however there is still a long way to go before Premier League clubs can start to run with a healthy profit and not rely high interest bank loans. Premier League spending this summer shows that clubs have started to change their spending habits, albeit some out of necessity. However as Manchester City up the ante in their pursuit of trophies and more clubs are taken over by wealthy foreign businessmen, it will be difficult for clubs to sit back and refuse to match them in the transfer market.
With the PL season nearly upon us, let’s see the WAGS that will be keeping the players on their toes. Click on image to VIEW gallery
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Nigeria central defender Danny Shittu is weighing up a number of options after ending his time at Bolton Wanderers.
The 30-year-old struggled to make his mark during two seasons with the Trotters, having previously impressed with both Watford and Queens Park Rangers.
Shittu told Sky Sports:"I believe quitting Bolton was the right step to take as I didn't have options to play at Bolton.
"I wish the club all the best in the future and now I have to find myself a new club.
"I am now reviewing my options and there are quite a few sides interested in me from Europe and the Middle East.
"Hopefully I can announce where my future lies shortly after I return from international duty."
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Scottish giants Celtic are also rumoured to be interested in Shittu, having tried to sign the stopper earlier on in his career.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email