Tag Futebol

The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s bid to appoint a new foreign coach for the national team before the tour of New Zealand received a blow when John Dyson, the former Australian batsman who was one of the contenders, decided to take up the West Indies job.Dyson, who had coached Sri Lanka earlier, was in talks with the Bangladesh board and expected to make his presentation this month. “It’s a discomforting situation for us now because it would be difficult to rope in a new coach soon,” Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, chairman of BCB cricket operations committee, was quoted as saying in the Dhaka-based .”We had completed all necessary talks with Dyson. He said he would be available from mid-November and also gave us an offer. As almost all his conditions suited us, we would have given him our counter-proposal following his presentation. We felt that we were as close as we could be to seal the deal. Naturally, Dyson chose the better option but now we have to start afresh, which is a difficult task.”The board president’s October deadline for the appointment of a new coach is now unlikely to be met. “It’s more of a preliminary target than a deadline. It would be better if we achieve the target of confirming a coach by October,” Lipu said. “In fact, coaches are not very much available for international jobs as most have commitments.”We still have two men on our list but it seems that Gordon [Greenidge] cannot stay in Bangladesh for full two years without interruption. We have already sent him our itinerary and I will contact him tomorrow to know his views.”BCB’s short-list also includes Australian allrounder Colin Miller, who isn’t as experienced as the other two. “Gordon is looking through our international schedule for the next two years while Dyson has also communicated with us after returning from his holiday,” Lipu said. “We also added the name of Miller to our list. We can reach a concrete decision next week.”

James Foster, the former England wicketkeeper, has extended his contract with Essex until 2009.Foster, 26, had an improved season in 2006 averaging 42.41 and also took 68 catches, the most by a wicketkeeper in either division of the Championship.”There was never any question or problem with me signing a new contract,” Foster said, “but it just took a little longer to complete for a variety of reasons. It was just that there was no real massive panic because David East [the Essex chief executive] and myself both knew that I would sign it.”I’m very happy at Essex. I’m really pleased with the way we are going as a team – I think we are going in the right direction,” he said. “There’s a great mix of youth and experience at the moment and I firmly believe we will be able to continue to push for silverware.”Obviously in the last couple of years we’ve performed exceptionally well in one-day games and hopefully we can get promoted in the four-day game – which we should do. We just missed out this year but I believe we can do that. I’d love to be a part of an Essex team that is a force in the four-day game as well.”

Stuart MacGill has given Shane Warne, his possible legspinning partner for the Super Test, a vote of off-field support as well as labelling his Ashes performance “the best season ever”. Warne’s after-hours behaviour came under more scrutiny today following personal revelations in British tabloids, but MacGill told “sportsmen were sometimes judged on things that the wider community was not subjected to”.”People certainly don’t look at a man sitting in an office and judge him not only on his work but on his personal relationships and on his moral codes,” he told the news agency. “I’m not condoning any activities that are not socially acceptable, but I do wonder sometimes whether it’s appropriate for us to judge sportsmen and women and high-profile members of the community to such an extent … based on our own moral judgments.”However, MacGill is excited about the prospect of bowling in tandem with Warne during the Super Test, which starts on October 14, and expects the SCG pitch to favour the slow men. “Wrist spinners on this pitch bowling together have taken a lot of wickets,” he said. “Providing there is a lot of [sunshine], the wicket’s going to be perfect for Shane and myself.”The pair last bowled together at the ground against Pakistan in January, when MacGill captured eight wickets and Warne five. Since then MacGill has watched Warne claim 40 victims on the Ashes tour and wished for another chance.”If I was selecting the team [in England] I would obviously have been one of the first names picked, but I don’t have to look at the bigger picture,” he said. “I don’t have to look at the balance of an attack. Those things may have been in favour of my non-selection.”MacGill, 34, also stepped into issue of Damien Martyn’s dropping from the Test side when he said he didn’t see why Martyn should be forced out when he was averaging almost 50. “It was a very, very harsh call and one that I’m personally very disappointed about,” he said. “Everywhere else in Australian society we’re trying to raise the age of retirement. I’m not sure why sportsmen have to suffer.”

Cricket Australia has announced a 13-man squad to represent the Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence (CBCE) and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) on the tour of India where they will pit their skills against an India Academy side and two state teams.The 13 have been selected from the 26 who just completed a 13-week programme at the Centre in Brisbane. Craig Simmons and Adam Voges, both from Western Australia, and Doug Bollinger, a New South Welshman, have already made their domestic first-class debuts in the Pura Cup competition, whilst Travis Birt, a Tasmanian, and Brad Knowles, from Victoria, have played in the ING Cup one-day competition.Voges and Bollinger have secured state contracts for the 2004-05 domestic season, whilst Knowles, Tim Paine of Tasmania and Jason Krezja, from New South Wales, have been signed to rookie contracts.Bennett King, who will coach the side to India, said that the CBCE forms part of the cricket pathway to help talented players refine their skills and prepare for the next step in their career. “Travelling and learning to handle the conditions of the sub-continent is an important element for anyone who wants to play at the highest level,” he said. “The experience this trip will provide will be invaluable to the players’ development.”The squad
Tom Plant, Craig Simmons, Travis Birt, Ryan Broad, Adam Voges (capt), Jason Krezja, Matthew Harrison, Tim Paine (wk), Daniel Cullen, Brad Knowles, Darren McNees, Doug Bollinger, Brendan Drew.Schedule
July 28 – 29 2-day match v Indian National Cricket Academy (NCA) U/19, BangaloreJuly 31 – August 1 2-day match v Karnataka State CA XI, BangaloreAugust 3-4 2-day match v KSCA XI, BangaloreAugust 6-7 2-day match v KSCA XI, BangaloreAugust 10 1-day match v Tamil Nadu State CA XI, ChennaiAugust 11 1-day match v TNSCA XI, ChennaiAugust 13 1-day match v TNSCA XI, Chennai

He’s young, blond, good-looking, intelligent, polite and musical. Oh, and he’s the fastest bowler in the world. The only drawback? Sorry to spoil the celebrations after that win over West Indies, but Brett Lee is Australian, and he’ll be coming to England next year as one of the most exciting members of the best Test and one-day teams in the world.At a depressing time for cricket, when many of us have become cynical about leading players, it has been a relief and a delight to find a highly talented bowler who is as generous and polite as some of his seniors are selfish and egotistical. Lee is fast and fun to watch, and his emergence reminds us that cricket can continually renew itself.Lee, who’s 24 on November 8, made his Test debut in December last year. He immediately took five wickets blitzing the hapless Indians with an impressive combination of skill, raw pace and unadulterated enthusiasm. A few months later, during a one-day game in front of a noisy and passionate sellout crowd at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, Lee equalled the fastest delivery ever recorded by electronic means, with a 156kph (97mph) thunderbolt.Soon afterwards, in July, an investigation was announced into his bowling action. Three long weeks later the International Cricket Council’s panel of experts cleared his name. Lee had already survived career-threatening stress fractures of the lower back six years ago, after which he worked hard at remodelling his action, under Dennis Lillee’s tutelage. All this helped him take the throwing allegations in his stride.Many cricketers, if they’re suddenly thrust from relative obscurity to a sort of a pop-star fame, happily believe the most breathless publicity about themselves. They lose their way, their perspective, and become cut off from the real world. A lot of those players live and learn and, often with help from selectors who drop them for a while, come out the other end as reasonably decent human beings.But Brett Lee seems to be the sort of character whose head will not be swayed by fame and fortune. Certainly success hasn’t changed him so far. An easygoing country boy with a politeness that comes to him as naturally as his charming smile, Lee is different. He happily admits to loving classical music and to resorting to the soothing melodies of Mozart when he relaxes away from the game.”It’s a bit different for a fast bowler, isn’t it?” Lee admits. “For me, music is the same as the other guys playing golf. They play golf to get away from cricket, to relax. I play music, strum a few chords on my guitar.”Dad played a lot of classical records around the house and Mum played piano, so I’ve grown up with music. When I’m on tour I’ll take a very mixed lot of CDs. I’d have some Mozart, some Jimmy Barnes, Backstreet Boys – the whole lot. I’m a huge Elvis fan. I appreciate most types of music.”Lee is not just another cricketer who strums a chord or two on the guitar and fantasises that he is a rock star (just as most rock stars wish they were international cricketers). He can actually play.These days a team singalong in the hotel bar after an important win features Lee on the house piano, mingling passages from Chopin nocturnes with the `60s and `70s rock he also loves. Older brother Shane – an Australian one-day player himself and New South Wales’s captain – plays guitar, and younger brother Grant is now a qualified music teacher. Brett and Shane are in a pub band called , made up of NSW players, who play regular gigs around Sydney in winter and will soon release their first CD.Although he no longer needs to work outside cricket, Lee is in his third year on the sales staff of a Sydney men’s outfitters – Barclay’s. He works there three or four days a week – when cricket allows – and is featured in newspaper ads for the company, which he does free of charge.Lee has a real job for two reasons: to keep his feet on the ground, and to repay Richard Bowman, his boss, for the support he offered in the early days of his career.”I’ve been here for three years,” Lee told me as we chatted in a café in the mid-city arcade that houses Barclay’s suit shop. “I was working here when I was just playing first-grade cricket. He took a punt on me and now it’s paid off. I do those ads because I owe him a lot and it’s good to be able to pay him back.”He’s never knocked me back when I’ve asked for time off for cricket. We agreed from the start that cricket was Number One. If I’ve come up to him and asked for four months off he’s said `take five’. So I work here, then when cricket comes up I go and do that and then come back. He’s been right behind me and now I want to look after him.Lee also sees advantages in avoiding fulltime professional cricket. “I don’t really have to work, but it’s good for me. So much has happened in the past year that this keeps my feet on the ground. It’s a place where I can come and not worry about bowling or batting, and I’m not sitting at home watching TV. I can do something that’s teaching me skills – how to meet people and what-have-you.”It’s funny sometimes. People come into the shop to meet me or ask me to sign something. Twelve months ago I was working here and no-one had any idea who I was. Which was good. Still I suppose now it makes a sale a helluva lot easier when you talk cricket, take their minds off the price and nail’em at the end!Although this may all sound far too sensible for a young cricket star, an express bowler no less, it is not contrived. Brett Lee might receive astute advice – from older brother Shane, from the other members of his close-knit family, from manager Neil Maxwell (a former NSW player), and from mentor Dennis Lillee – but he is also smart enough to take that advice.After discussions with Shane and Maxwell, Brett recently ignored a lucrative sponsorship offer from a liquor company. It was not the sort of product he wanted to be associated with. Instead he and Shane advertise Weet-Bix, a well-loved Aussie breakfast cereal, and also promote a charity whose aim is to reduce Australia’s alarming teenage suicide rate.So much for Lee the young man. But can he bowl? The evidence is unequivocal. Lee is consistently faster and more accurate than Shoaib Akhtar, seems able to bowl an outswinger with the new ball at full pace, has an excellent yorker and a promising amount of bowling nous.Lee would have made his Test debut two games earlier if the selectors had acceded to the wishes of captain Steve Waugh and then vice-captain Shane Warne and included him in the XI for the Third Test against Pakistan at Perth last winter. Michael Kasprowicz was given a deserved chance instead, but a few weeks later the word went out: Lee just had to come into the Test side.In a Sheffield Shield game at Perth, Lee had launched an astonishing onslaught, the fastest bowling seen in Australia since the days of Jeff Thomson back in the `70s. He broke Jo Angel’s arm, and frightened his own fielders, let alone the West Australian batsmen.”Well, I’ve been told by the NSW boys, Mark and Steve Waugh, that’s the quickest they’ve ever seen me bowl,” Lee says. “It felt heaps quicker than when I was clocked at 156kph in South Africa. Perth was the quickest I’ve bowled. I just wish they’d had a speed camera there. But the most important thing to me is taking wickets. People ask me if I think about reaching 160 [about 100mph]. That doesn’t worry me as long as I’m taking wickets.”Lee is as excited as other Australians about the prospect of sharing the ball with Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie for the first time this summer. Gillespie is back from a one-year lay-off caused by the broken leg he suffered in that horrific collision with Steve Waugh in Sri Lanka last year, and McGrath is simply the best in the business. The trio might just develop into the best fast-bowling combination Australia has had since Lillee and Thomson ruled the world.”It’s very exciting. I’m very good mates with Dizzy [Gillespie], and it’s just great to see him back. I’m looking forward to playing at the WACA, taking the West Indies on there in the Second Test. It’ll be huge.”Add a spinner called Warne (“Yeah, he’s not too bad, is he?” Lee laughs) and a quality back-up swing bowler like Damien Fleming, and Australia will bring a powerful attack to England next year. However, after six consecutive one-sided Ashes series, there is always the chance that a new generation of Australian cricketer might think the gloss has faded from cricket’s oldest rivalry. Brett Lee was only 10 when Australia last lost a series to England. Where do the Ashes rate now?”Number One”, he says. “Doing an Ashes tour is the cream of the crop for any cricketer growing up in Australia. The biggest thing for me so far was getting my baggy green cap and playing my first Test. I think if I get a chance to go and play in England it would be a dream come true.”We’ve got such a love-hate relationship with the English people, it’d be great to knock them off. We actually enjoy playing against England. We love it. They’re very competitive and that’s what Test cricket is all about: Australia playing England.”Lee might bring the best of feelings and intension to England next year; but he won’t be able to pack local experience along with the Mozart and Elvis CDs. Strangely, he has never played in England, although when I point out that the ball travels through the air just as fast in England as anywhere else, he flashes that smile.”Exactly.”——————————————————————————–Brett Lee
Born Nov 8, 1976, Wollongong New South Wales
First-class debut 1994-95 for Australian cricket Academy, NSW debut 1997-98
Test debut 1999-2000 v India at Melbourne; took 5-47 in 1st inns. After 5 Tests, has 31 wkts at 16.06
ODI debut 1999-2000 v Pakistan, Brisbane, After 19 matches, has 32 wkts at 22.43. BB 5-27 v. India, Adelaide, has taken 3 wkts in inns 6 more times
Family ties Brother Shane (born Aug 8 1973) has played 43 ODIs for Australia since 1995-96
Back and forth Has had a reputation as a lightning-fast bowler since his teens, but suffered back problems in 1994-95, and again, to lesser extent, in 1998. Worked on strengthening his back and remodelling his action with Dennis Lillee. During the Australian Academy tour of South Africa in 1998 coach Rod Marsh said Lee was the fastest thing he’d seen since Thomson, and was a must for the Test team

99.7 mph Jeff Thomson 160.45 kph, Australia v West Indies, Test, 1975-76
97.0 mph Brett Lee 156 kph, Australia v South Africa, ODI, Johannesburg 1999-2000
97.0 mph Shoaib Akhtar 156 kph, Pakistan v South Africa, ODI, Sharjah 1999-2000
94.3 mph Nantie Hayward 151 kph, South Africa v England, Test, Port Elizabeth, 1999-2000
93.7 mph Darren Gough 149.8 kph, England v West Indies, Test, Edgbaston 2000
Thomson’s delivery was measured using different equipment to the current Speedster radar-gun. But he also claims he wasn’t trying very hard at the time

• It was the 1554th Test in cricket history.
• It was Australia’s 617th and England’s 784th match and the 299thbetween these two sides. The record now reads : Australia 120, England93, drawn 86.
• Umpires John Hampshire and S Venkataraghavan were officiating in their17th and 46th match respectively, while Talat Ali was officiating asICC match referee for the eighth time.
• It was the 20th Test between these two sides on the Trent Bridgeground. Australia has won 7 and lost only three. 10 matches weredrawn. Australia had last lost a match on this ground back in August1977.
• Alex Tudor was making a comeback into the English side after twoyears. His last appearance was against New Zealand at Birmingham inJuly 1999.
• The wicket of Robert Croft in the first innings was the 100th forShane Warne against England. He became the 11th Australian and 16thbowler overall to achieve this feat. At the end of this match, Warnehas a tally of 106 wickets from 21 games against England. Thefollowing table lists the leading wicket takers against England inTest cricket:

• Mike Atherton, at the end of this match, has an aggregate of 7676 runsfrom 113 matches which takes him ahead of Colin Cowdrey who had anaggregate of 7624 runs from 114 matches. Now only Graham Gooch (8900runs from 118 matches), David Gower (8231 from 117) and Geoff Boycott(8114 from 108) are ahead of Atherton for England.
• The wicket of Andrew Caddick in the second innings was the 100th forJason Gillespie in his 24th match. He became the 29th Australian and121st bowler overall to do so.
• When Mark Ramprakash was stumped by Gilchrist in second innings, itwas the 19th time Shane Warne got a wicket in this fashion. With thishe moved ahead of India’s Vinoo Mankad and Bishen Singh Bedi andAustralia’s Ashley Mallett who each had 18 such dismissals againsttheir name. Now only Clarrie Grimmett (28) and India’s Subhash Gupte(20) are ahead of Warne.
• When Mike Atherton was dismissed by McGrath in the first innings, itwas the 20th occasion Atherton was getting out without opening hisaccount. He thus joined seven other batsmen who have suffered theignominy of recording 20 or more ducks in a career. They are: WestIndian Courtney Walsh (43 ducks), Curtley Ambrose (26), AustralianShane Warne (24), New Zealander Danny Morrison (24), India’s BhagwatChandrasekhar (23), Australia’s Glenn McGrath (22) and India’s BishenSingh Bedi (20).
• Brett Lee has now played in 10 matches without being on the losingside even once. He has now equalled West Indian Eldine Baptiste’srecord in this category of statistics. The following tables have thedetails :

Highest Percentage of Winning matches : (Min.Qualification : 10matches)

• Alec Stewart has now appeared in 47 `lost’ matchesmaximum by anyplayer in Test cricket history. He was earlier at level withAustralia’s Allan Border. The details :

• Australia has now played in 21 consecutive result matches winning 19and losing two. It is now only one short of equalling England’s alltime record of 22 consecutive matches without a draw between 1884-85and 1891-92 with 17 wins and five losses.
• The defeat was Mike Atherton’s 21st in 54 matches. Only Allan Borderhas lost more matches (22) than Atherton.
• The win was Steve Waugh’s 20th in 27 matches. He became the eighthcaptain to win 20 or more matches after West Indian Clive Lloyd (36wins in 74 matches), Australian Allan Border (32 in 93), South AfricanHansie Cronje (27 in 53), Viv Richards (27 in 50), Australian MarkTaylor (26 in 50), Greg Chappell (21 in 48) and Englishman Peter May(20 in 41).
• The victory in this match also sealed the series in Australia’sfavour. Australia has now won seven Ashes series in a row. The lastoccasion Australia lost a series to England was back in 1986-87 whenEngland defeated Australia on latter’s soil by a 2-1 margin.
• Shane Warne was winning his ninth Man of the Match award – his thirdagainst England. He had last won an award way back in 1997-98 againstSouth Africa in Sydney.