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Former players and columnists on the latest saga to unfold in Pakistan cricket

Cricinfo staff18-Jul-2010″If he was not prepared for Test cricket then he should have thought about this before accepting the captaincy. His decision has come at a wrong time for Pakistan cricket and will complicate issues in the team.”

“It makes no sense that Afridi should decide now he is not ready to play Test matches. He is himself totally confused as to what he wants do. To make him the Test captain was a wrong decision.”

“Test cricket will be none the poorer for his absence. His brainless batting besmirched this match; his astonishing lack of leadership mocked some of his team-mates’ best efforts.”
Telegraph’s
“I ask the board, is this not a violation of the code of conduct to announce such a big decision without taking team management into confidence?”
“We all know he took the captaincy unwillingly, but when he took the responsibility he should have fulfilled it. His sudden decision will also affect younger players.”
“Clearly he made the decision himself; he could not be pushed, having been beseeched so recently by his board to return to Test cricket.”
Observer”Afridi was a misfit in Test team so it put added pressure on him.”
“I don’t think there was ever any place in the Test squad for Afridi, and in the first place he should not have been considered for the Tests”
“Afridi was lamentable, an indisciplined disaster, whose sole virtue, bless him, was to recognise that he did not have the temperament for Test cricket.”
Independent on Sunday

Stats highlights of the third Test between South Africa and India at Cape Town

Kanishkaa Balachandran01-Jan-2007

The Mexican giants arrived to a hero's welcome in Los Angeles as thousands of passionate supporters gathered to greet the team

Fans lined streets for hours awaiting team bus arrival outside downtown Los Angeles hotelClub America's signature yellow jerseys created sea of color across multiple locationsPlayers shocked at turnout scale despite playing away from Estadio AztecaWatch every FIFA Club World Cup game free on DAZNStream nowGetty Images SportWHAT HAPPENED

Club America's arrival in Los Angeles for their decisive FIFA Club World Cup playoff match against LAFC triggered scenes rarely witnessed for visiting teams in American soccer. Thousands of passionate supporters, predominantly from Southern California's substantial Mexican-American community, created a spectacular reception across multiple locations in the city. The team's bus route from LAX to their downtown hotel resembled a victory parade rather than a pre-match arrival, with fans lining streets waving flags, setting off yellow smoke bombs, and chanting club anthems.

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The passionate reception for Club America reflects the complex soccer culture in cities like Los Angeles, where allegiances to Mexican clubs can sometimes outweigh support for domestic teams. This cultural phenomenon persists despite MLS's growth and LAFC's recent success, including their 2022 MLS Cup victory. The scenes also emphasize the high stakes of this particular playoff, with the winner securing a place among the world's elite clubs in the expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup.

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The one-off playoff match at BMO Stadium will determine which club advances to the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, joining elite teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich in the prestigious tournament.

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O Bahia é o grande campeão do Campeonato Baiano de 2023. Após o empate no jogo de ida contra o Jacuipense por 1 a 1, neste domingo o Tricolor venceu por 3 a 0 e faturou o troféu estadual pela 50ª vez em sua história. Everaldo, Cauly e Jacaré marcaram os gols.

Agora, o Bahia tem compromisso apenas no dia 12 de abril, pela Copa do Brasil. O Bahia enfrentará o Volta Redonda. Os horários serão confirmados pela CBF. Enquanto isso, a Jacuipense se prepara para o Brasileirão Série D, prevista para iniciar em maio.

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Na primeira etapa, os times entraram em campo para o tudo ou nada, mas foram muito equilibrados. O Tricolor pressionou mais, ao mesmo tempo em que os visitante seguraram o ímpeto do adversário.

A melhor chance do Bahia foi com Cauly, que acertou a trave. Jacaré e Chávez também tiveram boas oportunidades, mas desperdiçaram. A Jacuipense pouco ofereceu perigo ao gol de Marcos Felipe.

Na segunda etapa, o Bahia foi mais efetivo nas jogadas e conseguiu abrir o marcador. Aos 21, Everaldo recebeu de Chávez na pequena área e só teve o trabalho de empurrar para o fundo do gol.

Não demorou muito para que os mandantes ampliassem. Aos 23, Everaldo e Cauly tabelaram. A bola sobrou para o camisa 8, que chutou cruzado e rasteiro, da entrada da área. A bola foi no cantinho e morreu no fundo das redes.No fim, Jacaré deu números finais ao confronto ao marcar de pênalti.

Borussia Dortmund players are reportedly lobbying for Jadon Sancho's homecoming with the Manchester United outcast seen as a "difference maker". However, while the calls within the squad to re-sign the English winger grow louder, the boardroom remains a hotbed of doubt and caution.

Dortmund stars pushing for Sancho returnClub chiefs split over risky reunionAtletico and Roma join transfer huntFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

According to several Dortmund players have voiced their backing for a Sancho transfer. They believe the 25-year-old still has the flair, dribbling craft, and match-winning ability that once made him one of Europe’s most feared wide men.

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However, not everyone at the club is swept away by nostalgia. Concerns over Sancho’s recent form have been raised behind the scenes at Dortmund, with some believing his development has stalled during his troubled spell at Old Trafford. Doubts also linger over whether the winger could maintain the discipline and focus needed to thrive under head coach Niko Kovac. 

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Even with Sancho reportedly willing to sacrifice a chunk of his wages to engineer the move, his expected salary in Dortmund would still sit at a hefty €8–10 million per year. That is a significant figure for the Bundesliga side, whose spending power is dwarfed by Europe’s biggest hitters.

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United are said to value Sancho at around €20 million (£17m/$23m), a price tag that has so far scared off outright bids. Most suitors are angling for a loan deal with an option to buy, rather than committing upfront cash.

“What I hope is we win and my performance is crucial to it”

Danyal Rasool28-Dec-2023Despite a couple of late wickets, Pakistan’s shoulders had dropped by the time stumps were called, but Mir Hamza didn’t let the disappointment of the final session sully memories he will carry for the rest of his career. Coming out just after lunch, he had followed up two strikes from Shaheen Shah Afridi with the wickets of David Warner and Travis Head in successive balls, the latter a near-unplayable inswinging delivery that cleaned Head up for a golden duck.No wonder, then, that his face broke out into the broadest of grins when looking back upon the moment a few hours later.”It was a dream for me to play at the MCG against one of the best teams, and to provide us two breakthroughs in one over,” Hamza said at the post-match press conference after the third day’s play. “I was telling myself I have to prove myself if I want to play international cricket for my country. If you look at my last few matches, I bowled well but didn’t take wickets. So I wanted to change that.Related

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“Since the match started, I tried to keep things simple because there’s something in the pitch for fast bowlers. It’s seaming and swinging. I thought if I can swing the ball, I’ll have a great opportunity because the batter isn’t set at the time. I thought that way and believed Travis Head was waiting for my outswinger, but I brought it back in. It was my favourite Test dismissal.”At the time, Pakistan were riding very high. Australia were reeling at 16 for 4, the lowest total upon which they’ve lost four wickets at home since South Africa had taken the first four for just eight runs in Hobart in 2016. The lead was a precarious 70 at the time, and Pakistan believed they were in with a sniff.And though a mix of poor catching, poor fortune and a sensational counterattack from Mitchell Marsh meant Australia had comfortably reassumed the ascendancy by stumps, Hamza was instrumental in ensuring Pakistan retained a fighting interest in the contest. He was the man to break the 153-run fifth-wicket stand between Marsh and Steven Smith by drawing another outside edge from Marsh that Salman Ali Agha clung on to, before Afridi followed up with Smith’s wicket, with the hosts leading by 241.”We are still in the game, and we think we’ll get stronger,” he said. “The new ball will swing in any conditions – as it did for me – but there is something in the pitch. If you see the body language of our boys, it is very positive. We will try to get wickets as soon as possible. We are in the game.”Part of the reason Mir Hamza has struggled to break in is his lack of pace•Getty ImagesHamza needs to make no apologies for beaming after the day, because he knows how rarely these moments come around, and how hard fought they can be. He played six years of first-class cricket before getting his first opportunity in Test cricket in 2018, only to be dropped after one Test. It was to be another four years before the second chance came knocking around; and another two indifferent games later, he was out of the side once more.Then in the first Test of this Australia tour, Pakistan preferred to give two fast bowlers a debut in Perth rather than give Hamza a run. His three Tests apart, Hamza has played 103 first-class games, and taken 418 wickets across 11 years and nearly 19,500 deliveries.So while it may be an exaggeration to call the two balls that rattled Warner and Head’s stumps one-in-a-million moments, terming them one in ten thousand is no statistical exaggeration. Part of the reason Hamza has struggled to break in is his lack of pace, with Pakistan always likely to prefer high pace when taking selection into account. Here at the MCG, Hamza’s speeds were a constant point of focus, largely registering in the 120ks. Hamza, though, knows what he is.”Bowlers know about their quality. Some bowlers are known for seam and swing, and others for pace,” he said. “What matters is that you disrupt the batter – whether you do it with seam and swing, or whether you do it with swing doesn’t matter. Our aim is to win, and we’ve taken 16 wickets. We’ll try and take 20 as soon as possible, and come out with the win. This will be memorable if we win the Test, and what I hope is we win and my performance is crucial to it.”And while reality may fall somewhat short of that ambition, there’s little doubt that Hamza’s performance has ensured Pakistan can do for one more night what Hamza has done for a decade: keeping a dream alive.

The ten franchises have a total of 77 slots to fill at the auction on December 19 in Dubai

Nagraj Gollapudi01-Dec-20231:07

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Seven of Australia’s ODI World Cup winning squad – Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Steven Smith, Josh Inglis and Sean Abbott – are among 25 players to enter the 2024 IPL player auction with a base price of INR 2 crore (USD 240,000 approximately).The auction will take place on December 19 in Dubai, the first time it has been held outside India.New Zealand batting allrounder Rachin Ravindra, who scored 578 runs at a strike rate of 106 and took five wickets at the World Cup, has listed his base price at INR 50 lakhs (USD 60,000 approximately).Some of the other significant players in the highest base price band are fast bowler Gerald Coetzee, who was South Africa’s highest wicket-taker at the World Cup, and England batter Harry Brook, who was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad, along with Harshal Patel, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Kedar Jadhav.Related

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The ten franchises have a total of 77 slots to fill, of which 30 can be overseas players. Based on skillset and performance at the recent ODI World Cup, Starc, Head and Ravindra are being tipped to spark fierce bidding among the franchises. If Starc gets bought, he will be returning to the IPL after eight years, having last played the 2015 season for RCB. He did enter the 2018 auction, where he was bought for INR 9.4 crore by KKR, but missed the season because of injury. This time, however, Starc is keen to utilise the IPL as preparation for the 2024 T20 World Cup in June.Head was the Player of the Match in the semis and finals of the 2023 ODI World Cup last month. He hasn’t played the IPL since 2017, when he was part of RCB and played ten games across two seasons, scoring 205 runs at a strike rate of 138.51.Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc: will they go for big bucks at the 2024 IPL player auction?•ICC/Getty Images

On Friday, the IPL shared with the franchises a long list of 1166 players who had registered for the auction. The final pool, however, will be much smaller after the teams submit the names of players they are interested in to the IPL. The long list includes 45 players from Associate nations, 909 uncapped players of which 812 are Indian, and 18 capped Indian players.The likes of Harshal, Wanindu Hasaranga, Brook, Thakur along with uncapped Indian batter Shahrukh Khan will once again remain confident of attracting strong interest from more than one franchise. Both Harshal and Hasaranga, who were bought for the same price – 10.75 crore – were released by Royal Challengers, mainly because of their weak numbers at M Chinnaswamy stadium, the franchise’s home base.Brook was bought by Sunrisers for INR 13.25 crore, making him the most expensive overseas buy at a mini auction by the franchise. Brook, though, failed to make any impact barring a century early on last IPL, forcing Sunrisers to re-think their investment.Thakur, too, was bought for 10.75 cr in a trade before the 2023 auction from Delhi Capitals. However, Thakur managed just seven wickets in 10 matches at an economy of nearly 11 and an average of 31.42. Thakur failed to make any impact with the bat, too, scoring 113 runs in 10 innings.Shahrukh, who plays for Tamil Nadu, made his IPL debut in 2021 when Punjab bought him for 5.25 cr. A year later he was released ahead of the mega auction but bought back for 9 crore. However, just one Player-of-the-Match award proved disappointing for the player and franchise, who finally released him. Shahrukh has put his base price at 40 lakhs and would be keen to see his hometown franchise, Chennai Super Kings, interested in bagging him.Base Price INR 2 crore (USD 240,000 approximately): Harshal Patel, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, Mustafizur Rahman, Tom Banton, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Lockie Ferguson, Gerald Coetzee, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie van der Dussen, Angelo MathewsBase price INR 1.5 CR (USD 180,000 approximately): Mohammad Nabi, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Daniel Worrall, Tom Curran, Marchant de Lange, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Phil Salt, Corey Anderson, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Tim Southee, Colin Ingram, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jason Holder, Sherfane RutherfordBase price INR 1 CR (USD 120,000 approximately): Ashton Agar, Riley Meredith, D’Arcy Short, Ashton Turner, Gus Atkinson, Sam Billings, Michael Bracewell, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Alzarri Joseph, Rovman Powell, David WieseESPNcricinfo Ltd

أعلن نادي الزمالك عن تعاقده رسميًا مع المدير الفني الفرنسي فرانك موريس، لتولي القيادة الفنية لفريق كرة اليد، اليوم الإثنين.

ويُعد فرانك موريس من الأسماء المرموقة في عالم تدريب كرة اليد الأوروبية، إذ يتمتع بسيرة ذاتية مميزة وخبرة طويلة في إدارة الفرق المحترفة.

حقق فرانك موريس أولى إنجازاته الكبرى عندما قاد نادي بيسانسون الفرنسي للتتويج بدوري الدرجة الثانية والصعود إلى الدوري الفرنسي الممتاز في عام 2007، وهو ما أهّله لاحقًا للفوز بجائزة أفضل مدرب في دوري الدرجة الثانية عام 2010.

طالع.. خاص | الأهلي يضم لاعب الزمالك 4 مواسم

ويمتلك المدرب الفرنسي أيضًا بصمة واضحة في اكتشاف وتطوير المواهب، حيث كان أول من منح نجم منتخب مصر أحمد هشام “دودو” فرصة اللعب بالدوري الفرنسي عبر التعاقد معه في سن الـ19، وأسهم في صقل موهبته ورفع مستواه الفني.

وُلد موريس في 10 ديسمبر 1971، وبدأ مسيرته التدريبية منذ مطلع الألفية، حيث عمل مستشارًا فنيًا للاتحاد الفرنسي لكرة اليد في الفترة من 2002 إلى 2007، كما شغل منصب مساعد مدرب منتخب فرنسا للشباب عام 2006.

Premier League clubs have recently voted to open the summer transfer window early later this year – and it’s all because of Manchester City and Chelsea.

Due to the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, which features the winners of the 2023 and 2021 Champions Leagues, the game’s world governing body had given leagues involved the option to open their summer transfer window for 10 days.

This will allow clubs participating in the tournament to do some business before the tournament starts on 14th June.

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ByRoss Kilvington Oct 30, 2024 Why the transfer window will close for six days in the summer

At a meeting in central London, Premier League clubs have voted for an early start to the window on Sunday 1st June, before closing again on Tuesday 10th June.

It will then reopen on Monday 16th June ahead of the summer transfer deadline on Monday 1st September. But why does the window have to close?

FIFA transfer windows can only be open for a maximum of 89 days, meaning the window must close briefly so that the deadline can remain in line with the rest of Europe.

If the Premier League’s window was to close earlier, it could leave clubs at a disadvantage as they would be able to sell players without the prospect of replacing them.

Manchester City and Chelsea are taking part in the first 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, which takes place in the United States between 14th June and 13th July.

UEFA has 12 slots available, and are made up of the last four Champions League winners, as well as the best-ranked teams over the last four years as per UEFA’s team ranking.

South America’s CONMEBOL has six teams, while all the other confederations have four teams each, except for Oceania’s OFC, who are represented by New Zealand’s Auckland City. Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami were invited as ‘hosts’.

The format is similar to a World Cup, with the top two in each group advancing to the knockout stages.

Every English club to play at the Club World Cup

Chelsea and Man City are preparing to head to the United States in the summer.

1 ByBrett Worthington Dec 6, 2024

Tottenham Hotspur are now in the race to sign an “unbelievable” forward from a rival Premier League club, according to a report.

Postecoglou keen to bring in new winger

Ange Postecoglou’s side have seriously underperformed in the Premier League this season, sitting 14th in the table with just nine games left to play, so it is little wonder they are keen to bring in some reinforcements in the summer transfer window.

One position in which Spurs are clearly keen to strengthen is winger, and they have now taken the first step towards signing Feyenoord’s Igor Paixao by making contact to discuss a deal for the Brazilian, who could be an upgrade on Son Heung-min.

Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman is another name on the shortlist, and the Frenchman seems like he could be an attainable target, given that the German side are eager to sell him in the upcoming window.

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However, another option from much closer to home is now entering the frame, with a report from The Boot Room revealing Tottenham are now interested in signing Chelsea winger Noni Madueke, who is facing an uncertain future at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues are now willing to sanction Madueke’s departure this summer, and a move across the capital could be possible, with Spurs joining the race for his signature, alongside Newcastle United and Aston Villa.

The Lilywhites appreciate the Chelsea ace, who has a 100% win record when he’s featured against Spurs, and the door could be open for a deal this summer, although there may be competition from AC Milan, who are now confident about getting a deal done.

The Italian side have submitted a £33m bid for the England international, who cost the Blues £30m back in 2023.

"Unbelievable" Madueke impressing at Chelsea

It seems a little harsh that Chelsea are willing to sell the 23-year-old this summer, given that he has put in some impressive performances this season, picking up seven goals and three assists in the Premier League.

That follows on from a solid 2023/24 campaign, during which he impressed former manager Mauricio Pochettino.

As a result of his attacking output, the former PSV Eindhoven man has performed very well on a range of attacking statistics over the past year, most notably impressing with his dribbling ability.

Statistic

Average per 90

Non-penalty goals

0.42 (88th percentile)

Progressive carries

6.55 (98th percentile)

Touches (Att Pen)

7.84 (96th percentile)

Chelsea’s loss could be Tottenham’s gain if they decide to part ways with Madueke this summer, given the level of some of his performances for the Blues, and at 23-years-old he is only likely to improve.