Jason Gillespie has rejoined Yorkshire as the county’s second overseas player for 2007.Gillespie, 31, will join Pakistan batsman Younis Khan at Headingley. He claimed 36 wickets in last year’s County Championship at an average of 36.33.”His performance in the latter part of 2006 played a significant part in maintaining our Division One status and his work-rate, attitude and commitment to Yorkshire were exemplary,” chief executive Stewart Regan said. “Jason is a model professional who always spends time with our younger supporters and is always willing to assist the club however he can.”Gillespie has played 71 Tests for Australia and 97 one-day internationals, but has rarely featured since his country’s Ashes tour of 2005 and did not play in the first three Tests of the current series and is not in the squad for the fourth.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials have met with the interior secretary and other government officials to discuss next month’s home series against India, The News has learnt.According to available details, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan and director board operations Abbas Zaidi met with interior secretary Kamal Shah and other interior ministry officials on Saturday in Islamabad to discuss some security issues related to the Indian tour.”The Pakistan Board has got some feelers from India that they still have some security concerns regarding playing a Test in Karachi and the Indian board will probably send a high-level security inspection team soon to finalise security arrangements for the tour,” a board source said.He said that even during the meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf, Shaharyar had discussed the Indians’ tour and had been told in clear words that India must play a Test in Karachi after the successful organisation of the one-day game against England. “The fact is that again there are some issues related to Karachi which is one of the reasons why the Indian board is delaying approving the proposed itinerary sent to them by Pakistan.”Under the proposed itinerary, which has already been amended twice, India are due to arrive in Lahore on January 5 and then play Tests at Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi with the one-dayers at Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan and then Karachi. Pakistan are keen to get the itinerary finalised and released by next week due to logistical and other reasons.Last year when India toured Pakistan for their historic ground breaking series, they refused to play a Test at Karachi and only played a one-dayer in the southern port city which was a major incident free success. England also shunned Karachi as a Test venue on their current tour but relented to a one-dayer. Touring teams have shunned Karachi which has been at the centre of militant and sectarian related violence which, however, has been controlled by the government in the last one year.The source said Shaharyar and Zaidi had met with Kamal Shah to get a clear directive and guideline on security issues surrounding the Indians’ tour specifically Karachi. The Indians say they have sent the proposed itinerary to their government for final clearance and want to discuss it one final time with their team management before approving it.
The Victoria selectors have named the squads to play against New South Wales in the upcoming ING Cup and Pura Cup matches. The teams will clash at the Junction Oval, first on Sunday, in the ING Cup encounter, and then on Tuesday in the Pura Cup.The team for Sunday’s one-day match remains unchanged from the side that were narrowly defeated by WA in last week’s rain-interrupted clash. Ian Harvey was named in the Pura Cup squad but will undergo a fitness test prior to the game.Squad for ING Cup game 1 Cameron White (capt), 2 Adam Crosthwaite, 3 Gerard Denton, 4 Matthew Elliott, 5 Brad Hodge, 6 David Hussey, 7 Brad Knowles, 8 Michael Lewis, 9 Andrew McDonald, 10 Jonathan Moss, 11 Graeme Rummans,12 Tim Welsford.Squad for Pura Cup game 1 Cameron White (capt), 2 Matthew Elliott, 3 Ian Harvey, 4 Brad Hodge, 5 David Hussey, 6 Mathew Inness, 7 Brendan Joseland, 8 Michael Lewis, 9 Andrew McDonald, 10 Jonathan Moss, 11 Peter Roach, 12 Graeme Rummans, 13 Allan Wise.
Behind the bullet points and corporate speak, what does ‘Pushing the Boundaries’ really mean?The simple answer is:New Zealand Cricket intends to pursue the goal of excellence, not only on the New Zealand stage, but the world front by:Producing clear, decisive and innovative leadershipRecognising that people are critical to successContinued growth of the gameA relentless drive to win and to dominate international cricketHaving a strong and sustainable commercial base.Some key factors in achieving this will be the adoption of an organisational risk identification, assessment and management programme. This will allow NZC to monitor the financial performance of the Major Associations and also its various processes.Service Level Agreements (SLAs) will be established with each Major Association and funding will be provided with the SLAs to ensure NZC strategies can be delivered.As part of the policy’s plan, special emphasis will be placed on the retention of young women in the game, and on increasing the participation of Maori and Pacific peoples. It is also intended that the national development policies and programmes must have the best possible support infrastructure providing quality coaches, umpires, scorers, statisticians and playing facilities to stimulate the continual development of the game. The place of volunteers will be recognised and encouraged.Central to these aims will be specific development pathways in the playing and coaching of the game at all levels. Current and former players will be encouraged to become coaches and past coaches will be targeted to come back to the game. Umpires and scorers and statisticians will also be targeted to increase their respective contributions.At the lower levels, administrators will be encouraged to indulge in succession planning with training also provided for future administrators. Playing facilities will continue to be addressed with more in-depth research programmes and the implementation of a warrant of fitness for standards at international and domestic levels for pitches and outfields, practice and player facilities.A strategy will also be developed to protect cricket’s right to have access to dual-purpose grounds while NZC will also develop and/or support new technology to enhance playing facilities.The administration has also signalled that at the elite level it is not prepared to be satisfied with a No 3 Test ranking or No 5 in the one-day structure. Beefed up coaching strategies are to be sought at elite and domestic levels while coaching development will see reseach aimed at development world leading coaching and performance enhancing practices, which will be central to the overall coaching network in the country.Those players chosen at the front end of the strategy should want for nothing as they seek to push their own performance boundaries. Those players will also have a greater role to play in the presentation of the game to the public.It is a radical upgrade to the policy already enacted by the Hood Report, but it is vital to New Zealand Cricket’s continued expansion as one of the leading sports performers on the national and international scene. And it starts now.
England Under 19 lost by 168 runs in its one-day match against the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) Under 19 in Adelaide today. The game was the team’s third warm-up match before the ICC Under 19 World Cup starts later this month in New Zealand.The Australians won the toss, batted first and scored 331 for eight wickets in their 50 overs. Opening batsmen Jarrad Burke (100) and Craig Simmons (88) laid the cornerstone of their innings with an opening partnership of 153. ACB U19 captain and middle-order batsman, Cameron White, hit a quick-fire 60 off 39 balls. For England Nadeem Malik, Kyle Hogg and Alex Roberts captured two wickets each.In reply England U19 started well with opening batsmen Kadeer Ali (43) andMark Pettini (23) putting on 72 for the first wicket. The team, however, was eventually dismissed for 163 in 38.5 overs. Beau Casson, the ACB U19’s left-arm chinaman bowler, returned impressive figures of six wickets for 26 runs off 9.5 overs.England U19 will play one more game against the ACB U19, on Friday 11 January, before leaving for the World Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Sunday 13 January.
Karnataka players will have to live with “appalling” crowd behaviour in Mysore when they take on Odisha in their Group A Ranji Trophy match starting Saturday. Robin Uthappa had said after the team’s last home game against Haryana that “a lot of us felt” the game against Odisha should be moved out, but Brijesh Patel, the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), stated that the venue for the match starting on November 7 will not be changed.Close to 1500 spectators turned up on the opening day of Karnataka’s clash against Haryana on October 22, with several players heckled and booed during the course of the day in which Virender Sehwag made a swashbuckling century.”Murmurs were going around in the media, but no official request was made by the team management to change the venue,” Patel told ESPNcricinfo. “These incidents will happen from time to time. Fans can get excited sometimes when they see a great player in action. Legends like Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble have always found support when they have played at other venues. They [Karnataka] have to just get on with it. We need to just focus on the cricket.”Uthappa, who was at the centre of it all while fielding in the deep in the first innings, expressed displeasure at the abuse hurled at him and the team. HS Sharath and David Mathias, the pacers, also faced taunts from the crowd occasionally.”A lot of us feel like we’re playing an away game when we come here,” Uthappa had said. “Most of the boys want the next game, which is supposed to be in Mysore, to be shifted elsewhere because you don’t want the atmosphere to be like this when you are playing in a home game. You want it to be an advantage, not a disadvantage.”It is disheartening but you perceive it differently and you take it in your stride. It doesn’t really bother us because we are professionals. But if you look at it from an emotional perspective or a support perspective, it’s just appalling, to be very frank.”The game against Odisha will be Karnataka’s last in Mysore this season, after which they are slated to play their final home game against Delhi in Hubli from November 23.
Following Jarrod Bowen’s £20m move to West Ham United back in January of 2020, the right-winger got off to an extremely impressive start to life at the London Stadium – scoring one goal, registering four assists and creating four big chances over his 13 Premier League appearances during his debut campaign for the Hammers, with these returns seeing the forward earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.92.
However, while Bowen’s upward trend of both goals and assists continued over his 38 league outings last term – with the 25-year-old bagging eight goals, providing four assists and creating 11 big chances in the top flight – the former Hull City winger was also the recipient of an accolade he would have been rather less proud of – his 24 withdrawals saw him ranked as the joint-most substituted player in the division.
Despite this statistic, the Englishman now appears to have proven that is a player worth keeping on the pitch for as long as possible, as, over his 26 Premier League appearances in the current campaign – in which he has scored eight goals, registered eight assists and created eight big chances – the £58m-rated forward has only been brought off ten times, playing the full 90 in each of the club’s last 13 fixtures.
Indeed, so impressive has the £96k-per-week winger’s form been this season that Liverpool are reported to be extremely interested in a £60m move for Bowen this summer, while the 25-year-old – who Daniel Gabbidon dubbed a “genius” – would also appear to be very much in contention for Gareth Southgate’s England squad ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup this winter.
As such, considering Bowen’s transformation from something of a bit-part player under David Moyes to becoming one of the most exciting forwards in the country, it would appear that the same could happen to another of West Ham’s wide attacking talents – that of Said Benrahma.
Moyes can repeat Bowen trick with Benrahma
After being brought off in the 73rd minute of West Ham’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle United last weekend, the Algeria international was very visibly frustrated with his manager’s decision, with the pair having a frank exchange of words as the 26-year-old made his way back to the bench.
And, when taking into account the fact that Benrahma currently finds himself in an extremely similar situation to that of Bowen last season – having been withdrawn in 17 of his 20 Premier League starts this term, the most of any player in the division – the winger’s frustrations are perhaps understandable.
Indeed, over his 23 league outings in the current campaign, the £42m-rated forward has actually been one of the Hammers’ most impressive options in attack, having scored five goals and provided his teammates with four assists – ranking him as the club’s third-most efficient attacking outlet, behind only Bowen and Michail Antonio.
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However, while the £58k-per-week forward – who Joe Cole dubbed “unplayable” – may well be frustrated with his game time so far this season, Moyes has already proven with Bowen that, with a bit of patience, Benrahma could well go on to become a star player for the Irons in the not too distant future.
In other news: DM could land WHU’s next £58m-rated sensation in “special” 21 y/o with “all the tools”
A lighthearted tweet conversation between members of the French squad and Mr Toure and Eboue.
[Please note that this is a spoof series and doesn’t represent the actual views of Evra, Gallas, Henry, Eboue and Toure]
Sitting back and watching the football. Better to be at home away from the traitor in our ranks. Wish we were allowed to tell-all…
It’s harder than it looks to stay quiet, init Pat? They’re going to edit so much of our interview from Monday.
What interview?
Titi, Eric and I were asked to do an interview for French TV on Monday. It wasn’t a big deal. We were just fielding a few questions.
Yeh, Willie – don’t worry about it. Nothing important.
No one told me.
They wanted the representatives of the team so it makes sense to ask me and Thierry.
Don’t patronise me. There’s a saying in my country that says ‘you can’t skin an apple twice’. I’m no fool, gentlemen. Eric is almost as stupid as Franck.
We come from your country, Willie. That’s not a saying in France.
William, please can you stop sending me letters. The World Cup is over; I don’t appreciate it any more. Frankly, it’s a little boring.
Like his screen play? HAHA
LOL
Not the screenplay nonsense again. Please, no.
Shut up, all of you. When the Postman Prophecies premieres in Leicester Square we’ll see who’s laughing.
Ok, William.
Keep antagonising me. Denzel will be playing me in my own biopic soon enough and you guys will have nothing to do with all of your money.
I read that Postman stuff because the Boss needed someone to break the tension. I didn’t like it that much, Willie. It’s nothing personal.
It should be personal. He’s a twat.
Why haven’t you changed your profile pic, Kolo?
I don’t know how to do it. I’ve asked Manu to help.
I had to do everything for you in South Africa. What the hell happened to you since you moved to Manchester?
I don’t know. I’m forgetting things a lot more now.
Well, well, well, Kolo.
Ok, guys. Relax. There’s no need.
No need, Manu? This man slandered me in front of my peers.
What did he do?
Oh my god, can we stop talking about this. During training all I heard was ‘Do you know what Kolo did to me, Pat? Do you?’. You even told Forlan in the Uruguay game.
Continue reading on page 2…
Hey, he asked me. And you can’t hear the buffalo unless you put your ear to the ground, Patrice.
What does that even mean??
I will leave if you two begin this again.
No, come on. I want to know.
You don’t even know why, Kolo??
I have no idea! One day we were fine, and then the next he’d taken the laces out of my boots and told all the lads I can’t read.
What happened??
Do you really want to know?
Go on then. I can’t believe I’m hearing this again.
Very well. One evening I decided to walk from training and –
Walk? It’s like 17 miles to your house from the training ground, Willie.
I do it when I need some time to myself. It’s ideal actually. I wrote most of my screenplay walking home from training.
Back to the point please, William.
Yes, as I said, I was walking home. And I bumped into Ashley. And he told me that he saw Manu, Ade, Kolo, Theo and Samir all coming out of Krispy Kreme together with doughnuts.
And then what happened?
What do you mean?
There has to be more to this story.
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No, that is it.
So why did you fall out with Kolo??
Isn’t it obvious. He’s my central defender partner. There can be no secrets between us. We must be a symbiotic unit. And he didn’t ask me if I wanted doughnuts.
Did you want doughnuts?
That is not the point!
Oh my god.
I told you. Forlan knows this about us too. No wonder we’re being laughed at.
There are no facts, only interpretations.
Shut up. I left Arsenal to live in Manchester over some doughnuts. Bloody hell.
You should do what we did in South Africa. Just ignore him.
I think you should fight him.
Already done both.
In these moments I cling to Gandhi’s words; ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win’.
Robin Van Persie was the Arsenal hero once again coming off the bench to score twice and claim victory over a Stoke side that look destined to leave the Emirates Stadium with a point.
The Dutchman was rested by Arsene Wenger but with the Gunners struggling to find a way past a formidable Potters defence he came on continue his prolific run in front of goal which has seen him now score 29 goals in 34 games. The hosts also cured their European hangover that had seem them lose each of the four fixtures that had preceded a Champions league fixture. They certainly had the fresher legs after having a days extra rest than Stoke who were in Europa League action on Thursday night. Despite having only a few days to recharge their batteries Tony Pulis’ men looked good value for a point after Peter Crouch struck 10 minutes before half time to cancel out Gervinho’s opener before Van Persie’s double sealed victory. The result saw Arsenal leapfrog their opponents into seventh place as they continued their rise up the table with a sixth win in seven games.
Defeat was harsh on the visitors though as they defended superbly to repel wave after wave of attacks from the home side but they found themselves one behind on 27 minutes with Gervinho scoring his second goal in Arsenal red. Aaron Ramsey’s delightful clip over the top of the Stoke defence was expertly controlled by the Ivorian bringing the ball down on his chest retaining his composure to slot the ball past Asmir Begovic. That goal should have seen the home side take the ascendancy but the visitors fought back taking a foothold on the game and their efforts were rewarded when Crouch side footed home Jon Walters knock down. Ryan Shawcross and Matthew Upsonhelped the ball on in the box following Arsenal’s protestations a free kick awarded after Laurent Koscielny fouled the England striker who snapped up his chance without hesitation.
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Both sides faded after the break with the game calling out for some inspiration and Wenger duly obliged sending Van Persie on to win the game. He did just that turning in Gervinho’s cross six minutes after coming on to send a wave of relief soaring around the Emirates. He wasn’t finished there though as he put the Stoke defence to the sword once again eight minutes from time with Gervinho again providing the cross for his captain to hammer the ball past Begovic stretching the Gunners unbeaten run to five games and making their horrendous start to the season a distant memory.
Twitter is the strangest of strange beasts. Unlike any other social networking tool or resource it genuinely has the power to bring supporters a glimpse into the lives of a variety of sportsmen that we as fans may never have the chance to meet.
It is a rare view, and whilst the site has gone a long way to breaking down that wall between players and fans, is this a good thing?
When Danny Welbeck starts tweeting about the adverts he has seen on television, or Glen Johnson gives constant updates as to how much ‘24’ he has been watching, questions as to why we should take such a close interest in what these players think about the most mundane of topics, inevitably rear their head.
It is not simply what is written that frustrates. When you see men capable of such incredible physical and technical feats on the pitch, unable to understand the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ or spell basic words correctly, it is hard not to lose a little respect for them.
Whilst players are not there to be judged from a grammatical point of view, it is a surprise that in a world where image is paramount, that players are not advised to check what they tweet.
Obviously the content of any such post is heavily scrutinised – just ask Darren Bent or Ryan Babel about the trouble a post can cause, yet the actual way these tweets are written is not heavily guarded.
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On the other side of the coin, you find yourself reaching a point where you become overly impressed when a player uses a word that an 11 year-old student should comfortably be able to incorporate into their written work. A lucid and intelligent footballer is, and should not be, a rarity.
Of course it can work both ways. Since Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere joined Twitter I have been impressed by his eloquence – his sensible, well constructed posts hinting at a maturity beyond his 19 years of age.
Wilshere’s words over the last two weeks have been particularly impressive. Despite hearing some Arsenal fans lament the players’ constant apologising for defeats, Wilshere’s carry on regardless attitude has given some Gunners followers a welcome boost in amongst a series of disappointing results over the last two weeks.
In fact, whilst his captain and manager have bemoaned poor officiating and a string of injuries, Wilshere’s tweets have been optimistic and upbeat.
Many top players still avoid the move into social networking territory. Perhaps wisely the extra scrutiny on what they write for millions to read is something a few could do without.
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Nevertheless, the overall presence of players on the network provides something of a mixed bag. I might be in the minority, but I would far rather judge players on what I see on the pitch than what I read on the screen.
To get stuck into my powers of grammar, follow me on Twitter.