Tag Futebol

He is capable of moving the new ball consistently and limiting the batsman’s scoring opportunities, which have helped India maintain an unbeaten streak at the Under-19 World Cup

Vishal Dikshit05-Feb-2016You would expect two teenage room-mates to collaborate over dinner orders and movie options. But at the Under-19 World Cup, Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed have been tasked with bringing down opposition batting line-ups and they’ve been doing so well that India have cruised into the quarter-finals.The scorecards may tell you that two run-outs jolted Ireland early on. That one bowler single-handedly scripted the downfall of New Zealand. And that Nepal lost early wickets for lashing out a bit too much in their third game of the tournament. The real reason behind these wickets has been the chemistry between Avesh and Khaleel.”We always plan things out and like to build pressure,” Avesh said. “Sometimes I get wickets sometimes he gets. We say things like ‘You have to build pressure if they attack me and I will build pressure if they attack you’. In the starting ten overs we try to not let the batsmen hit out. If wickets don’t come we try to give less runs.”Avesh has stifled all three of the oppositions he has met with a barrage of dot balls. He has the pace to be effective off that length, gets extra bounce and is quite accurate. Nine wickets at an astonishing average of 10 and economy rate of 3.21 per over indicate his tactics have worked.Avesh choked Ireland’s openers in a stiff chase of 269 that they had to look for risky singles and were eventually run out. His opening spell read 5-1-15-0 and he picked up two wickets in the death.India bowled second against New Zealand as well, which meant no early moisture for Avesh to work with. It didn’t seem to matter because he snapped up four wickets in his opening spell, again backed by excellent fielding from his team-mates. He creates a bit of angle, gets a bit of swing, provides limited run-scoring options and finally lures the mistake. All four wickets were caught behind by the wicketkeeper or the slips.Avesh’s real strength is in putting the new ball in that off-stump corridor and then nip it around. He has a habit of angling a few into the batsmen to find the edge or the stumps. He is sharp too – according to television footage he had bowled one at 139.8 kph against Pakistan in the last World Cup.”The team’s plan is to bowl dots in the beginning if we aren’t getting any wickets,” Avesh said. “We want to give as little runs as possible in the first 10 overs. With the help of that plan only we get wickets. I try to bowl according to the batsman. These are slow wickets so if I offer too much pace to the batsmen, it will make things easier for them.”His first spells have done the trick so far, but in case they don’t, Avesh comes back with the older ball and some variations – the bouncers, cutters and some length adjustments.”I try to vary my pace and focus on bouncers too. I try offcutters, legcutters, slower balls and not the kind of length balls I try with the new ball.”Avesh Khan dismissed New Zealand’s top four in his opening spell•ICCAvesh is one of the three India players, along with Sarfaraz Khan and Ricky Bhui, who played the last World Cup in the UAE. Seventeen then, Avesh played two matches and claimed only one wicket. Now, he has returned as the leader of the attack with first-class experience and a lot of advice from seniors.Avesh made his first-class debut for Madhya Pradesh in December 2014 and shared the new ball with “Ishwar [Pandey] “. “I wasn’t that experienced in 2014,” Avesh said. “Now I have played in Ranji [Trophy] and have spoken to some big players, so this time I’m more confident and I’m feeling positive. I’m backing myself this time to do well.”According to Avesh’s childhood coach Amay Khurasiya, the main things he has learned from first-class cricket was how to handle pressure and adjust his lengths.”Good thing about first-class [performances] is that it tells you where you stand immediately at the higher level,” Khurasiya told ESPNcricinfo. “For a 17-year-old boy to bowl in first-class cricket was a big thing. He bowled many overs but he was never taken apart. He withstood the pressure and picked wickets. That was very important for him because wickets give you confidence. Not going for too many runs also means you are bowling to a plan and he learnt to keep the ball a little more up. The transition from Under-19 to Ranji can take quite a lot of toll out of you. This boy is good at handling pressure.”Avesh was first spotted by Khurasiya as a 13-year-old at an MPCA trial. Avesh, then part of the Indore Colts Cricket Club, had been one of 500 other aspirants and got to bowl only two-odd overs.”He bowled around 12-15 balls in that particular net session and most of them were outside leg or way outside of,” Khurasiya reminisced. “When he was being asked to bowl outside off it was way outside off. But as a 13-year-old kid he was very nippy and got good bounce. So he could surprise with whatever balls he could keep on the stumps, which were very rare. I could see that there was huge potential in him to be a quick bowler. Only Avesh made it to the academy and from thereon he has worked very hard.”In 2015, Avesh started opening the bowling for India Under-19s and raised some eyebrows in a tri-series match against Bangladesh in Kolkata. He picked a wicket in each of his first four overs and finished with magical figures of 6-3-4-4. The Bangladesh batting line-up that shone against Nepal on Friday had scores of 0, 1, 7, 9 and 0.India’s third medium-pacer Rahul Batham is also from the MPCA Academy and coached by Khurasiya. Batham has been India’s most economical bowler so far by conceding only 36 runs from the 12 overs he has bowled in two matches. With so much familiarity breeding in India’s pace bowlers, Namibia will have their task cut out pulling off a second upset on Saturday in Fatullah.

Why group-stage head-to-heads are a big deal when it comes to the knockouts. Or not

Andy Zaltzman04-Feb-2015You could write a book listing and explaining the reasons why the format of the World Cup is wrong. It might not sell particularly well, and your publisher might ask you to tone down some of the language if you commission someone from an Associate member nation to write an appendix about the ten-team format for the 2019 tournament, but it would nonetheless be a chunky tome to keep in your lavatory, use as a doorstop, or burn on a cold winter’s night.The format for 2015 – 42 matches, dragged out over a month, to painstakingly reduce the 14 teams down to the best eight, followed by a breakneck seven-game knockout to reduce those eight down to one, ensuring that the eventual world champions might well be decided in significant part by luck – is not without its benefits.There are a large amount of matches, which is good if, for example, you really enjoy watching cricket matches, a social category that, I assume, contains most of the readers of this column. It is an even better format if you enjoy watching matches that are not particularly important in the grander cricketing scheme of things, or one-sided drubbings.Best of all, the knockout stage will be gripping. One flare-up of a strong team’s Achilles heel could be enough to send them home; one surge of slugging brilliance could take a less-fancied team through; a few high-octane new-ball overs could negate a potent batting line-up; a three-game form-spike is all that is needed, which might even be within the compass of West Indies. Or England. Or the UAE. But probably not the UAE.. Definitely not the UAE. The tournament will end well, and dramatically. It will also have a significant lull in the middle weeks.In the last World Cup, after 30 days, we were left with the eight traditional Test nations in the quarter-finals. Bangladesh almost sneaked through, England almost sneaked out, and Ireland upset some applecarts, but, essentially, not only would you probably have correctly predicted the quarter-finalists before the tournament began, but you would also probably have correctly predicted them 20 years previously. Or 30 years previously, if you had correctly read the runes that South African politics was going to change a bit. A very big bit.The bookmakers’ odds suggest that there is approximately a 65% chance that all of the top eight teams will make it to the quarter-finals (and, conversely, that there is only a one-in-three likelihood of any of Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and the four Associate teams making it out of their group), which is not a massive amount of dramatic jeopardy with which to fuel a month of sporting tournament. Clearly, it must be difficult, if not impossible, to optimise both the commercial and sporting ideals of a tournament such as this in a sport with a limited number of top-level teams, but, whilst the 2011 and 2015 format is by no means the worst possible World Cup option (as proved by, for example, 2007), it is a significant distance away from being the best, or even good.Nevertheless, a World Cup brings its own weight and drama, especially one in which the host nations have realistic aspirations of victory, and the tournament begins with a flurry of heavyweight showdowns in which momentum, whatever that is worth, and form can be built up.More importantly, psychological points can be scored that might impact the latter stages. Might. Not will. But might. There is a reasonable chance that one or more of the final three matches at the end of March will feature of rematch of a group-stage game.There was only one in the 2011 edition – Sri Lanka’s semi-final win against New Zealand, in which they repeated a group-stage victory – but if such rematches do transpire in the semis or the final, the statistics suggest that the team that won the first game is highly likely to win the second.Seventeen World Cup knockout matches have been played between teams that had previously met earlier in the same tournament. Only three of those 17 have been won by a team that lost the first encounter against the same opponents – the 1999 final, when Australia thrashed Pakistan, after losing a tightly fought group match to Wasim Akram’s team; the 1996 semi-final, in which Australia avenged a group-stage defeat to West Indies; and the 1983 final, when Kapil Dev’s India beat the West Indians, although this is something of a rogue entry in this list, as the teams had played twice in the group phase, winning one and losing one each. As India had lost the second of the group matches, however, we will keep it in the stat. No arguments. This stat is now legally binding.Pakistan won the 1992 final against England, after having been saved by a rain-induced no-result while being comprehensively obliterated in a group match; and the 1999 semi-final between Australia and South Africa, following Australia’s dramatic Super Six win days earlier, was technically a tie, but since Australia went through on net run rate, it basically functioned as another win for the team that won the earlier contest.The other 12 knockout rematches have been won by the team that triumphed in the earlier match (13, if you include the 1983 Indians repeating their group win against West Indies) (which starts to get confusing) (that is excluded from the stat) (but replaced by the 1999 Australia-South Africa tied rematch, which I am now counting as a win). Furthermore, all of the seven rematches that have been played in the last three World Cups have been won by the team that won the initial game.Due to the changed format used in 2011 and 2015, such meetings are less likely to happen – just that one in 2011, as opposed to an inevitable three rematches in each of the previous three tournaments, when the Super Six / Super Eight format meant that the semi-finalists had played each other in one or other of the two group phases.Nevertheless the evidence suggests that although the month-long group stage somewhat inexplicably retained for this World Cup (while being simultaneously jettisoned for the next two tournaments) may serve little function other than to all-but-guarantee the presence of most or all of the more established cricketing nations in the knockout stages, a victory over a potential future semi-final or final opponent could be of considerable advantage. Even if that win occurs weeks and weeks before the climactic final few days, and no one can quite remember when, why or how it happened.A full list of World Cup knockout stage rematches:1975
West Indies beat Australia in group stage (by seven wickets) and in the final (by 17 runs).1979:

No rematches.1983
India beat West Indies (by 34 runs), then lost to them (by 66 runs), in group stage; then beat them again in the final (by 43 runs).1987:

No rematches.1992
Pakistan beat New Zealand in the round-robin (by seven wickets) and in the semi-final (by 4 wickets).
England beat South Africa in round-robin (by three wickets) and in the semi-final (by 19 rain-assisted runs).

[.]1996
Sri Lanka beat India in the group stage (by six wickets) and in the semi-final (by fire-aggravated forfeiture, whilst winning comfortably).
Australia lost to West Indies in group stage (by four wickets), but beat them in the semi-final (by five runs).
[]1999
Pakistan beat New Zealand in the group stage (by 62 runs) and in the semi-final (by nine wickets).
Australia beat South Africa in Super Six (by five wickets after Gibbs foolishly dropped the World Cup), then tied with them in the semi-final, knocking them out on net run rate.
Australia lost to Pakistan in the group stage (by 10 runs), then powerclobbered them in the final (by eight wickets).2003
Australia beat Sri Lanka in the Super Six (by 96 runs) and in the semi-final (by 48 runs (D/L).
India beat Kenya in the Super Six (by six wickets) and in the semi-final (by 91 runs).
Australia beat India in the group stage (by nine wickets) and in the final (by 125 runs).2007
Sri Lanka beat New Zealand in the Super Eight (by 6 wickets) and in the semi-final (by 81 runs).
Australia beat South Africa in the group stage (by 83 runs) and in the semi-final (by seven wickets).
Australia beat Sri Lanka in the Super Eight (by seven wickets) and in the final (by 53 runs (D/L).2011
Sri Lanka beat New Zealand in the group stage (by 112 runs) and in the semi-final (by five wickets).

M Vijay’s gritty 57 is just another sign of his remarkable transformation from a flashy batsman to a controlled, solid run-getter

Sharda Ugra23-Mar-2013On a day when summer temperatures hit Delhi with a vengeance, Kotla’s parched earth of a pitch did its best impersonation of a prima donna throwing a fit. Eleven wickets fell obligingly and sledging filled the air.David Warner had a go at MS Dhoni, Aleem Dar ticked off Warner and asked stand-in Australian captain Shane Watson to rein in his men, James Pattinson had a go at M Vijay, and Vijay had a right go at those asking him questions after stumps.For all of Cheteshwar Pujara’s appetite for the big scores, MS Dhoni’s Test-changing double century in Chennai and Shikhar Dhawan’s jaw-dropping Test debut, it is Vijay who has scored more runs than any batsman on either team.He began the series with scores of 10 and 6 in Chennai before leaping ahead of the queue with a run that reads: 167, 153, 26 and 57. He is the only batsman to score two centuries in the series (or “tournament”, as he calls it) and has opened the innings for India with total composure and patience, every time India have batted second on pre-fab pitches made to aid the Indian spinners.Top scorer in the Indian first innings in Delhi so far, Vijay was asked what had led to a tangible transformation in his batting. The question ended thus: “What have you done to make yourself go from someone who had a tendency to throw away his wicket to someone who is prepared to grind his way out for the team?” It is a question Vijay has been asked for two Tests in a row and he has talked about being shaken by his second innings dismissal in Chennai and batting for his life in Hyderabad. It is a question he will be asked by every new interviewer over the next few months because the change has been extraordinary.In Kotla, he responded with a bark and bite that belonged to the pitch rather than the press conference room: “I think I have to approach you after the meeting, you have told me everything.” Charming. And unfortunate, because it is this metamorphosis from a flashy shot-maker to a solid determined frontman that has marked Vijay’s growth and progress in the series.Before leaving the room he did rattle off, “It has been a good tournament for me, personally I am really enjoying at the moment. I just want to contribute to my team as much as I can.” Vijay’s contribution towards the Indian batting in the series has been enormous. It was a fact reflected yet again in the middle on Saturday, when his 108-run partnership with makeshift opener Cheteshwar Pujara was the meat and potatoes of the Indian response to Australia’s first innings of 261. Vijay’s 57 was an innings created from the sweat and muscle required of openers when faced with a track that makes bowlers burst into song.The Australian seamers turned up in chorus. They had found existence of life that they recognised this morning at the Kotla and Vijay survived severe interrogation with the new ball.Mitchell Johnson, who was wayward but produced gems that keep batsmen honest, was his strictest examiner. Of the 19 he scored off 46 balls from Johnson, three edges fell short and flew to the third man. The fourth boundary was clipped to fine leg at the first whiff of the ball tailing down leg.Vijay’s innings was an ideal example of not only trying to play the ball on its merit but wiping away the memory of the previous ball when either found pushing at air or producing an edge that fell short. He got behind the ball and, until his dismissal, kept body and bat away from the short stuff duly ducking and swaying. His short backlift worked for him as he got down on balls that kept low and when a bowler of Pattinson’s pace got a few to climb, he was able to play comfortably on the bounce.Run-making at the Kotla, he said, was hard. “It is very difficult to find the gaps. The wicket is getting slow, it is tough to judge the speed of the delivery. I could have stayed a little longer but got out at the wrong time, I guess.”He did play a shot, though, that belonged to a picture book. It came early in the innings against Pattinson and the new ball. To one swinging in, it was as if Vijay had flipped the ball over, like a cook does an omelette. Who knows what hands and what wrists caused it to fly adeptly in the vacant space available near the midwicket fielder.The rest of the attractive parts of Vijay’s batting, his screamer shots, were left in the dressing room. Only when Nathan Lyon turned up did he look slightly hungry for some post-lunch show-stoppers. Off his fourth ball from Lyon, he stepped out and produced the ‘voila!’ moment that had the Sunday crowd screaming as he played against the spin, over the in-field to the mid-off fence.Vijay had crossed his 50 just before tea, having battled the wicket and the bowling. But Kotla was not about to give him any handouts in appreciation. Three overs into the final session, a ball from Peter Siddle hit a crack and shot towards his face. He stuck his gloves in the way to prevent himself from being beaned.It is only the second day of the Test which he knew “could go either way.” India will bat last and Vijay spoke manfully about chasing “whatever target they set.” If he does produce an innings made of steel like the 57 on Saturday, he will once again be asked about his transformation. There’s no hiding away from it or sledging at it.

The West Indies selectors’ purpose in choosing the new-look teams that take the field against Pakistan at the Beausejour Stadium this week is ostensibly is to “build a broad pool of international players”, but given the build-up, we could be in for an six

Tony Cozier17-Apr-2011Short of proclaiming it in flashing neon lights at the top of Frederick Street, the intention was clear.Ottis Gibson flagged it with his censure of the “senior players” after the quarter-final exit from the World Cup last month. His observation that the results for the previous ten years had been “pretty much the same and we’ve had the same players” was straightforward enough. There was certainly nothing ambiguous in his pointed comment that “we need some senior guys who have the hunger and the desire”.Head coaches don’t choose the most prominent global stage for such strong words without expecting consequent action. Yet, West Indies being West Indies and aware of the experience of some of his predecessors, Gibson might well have prepared his resignation even as he spoke, just in case.The first man in the position was Rohan Kanhai, a former esteemed captain. When he reported three of his players for insubordination after the 1995 tour of New Zealand, he was sacked, the players remained. Andy Roberts, the great fast bowler who was Kanhai’s successor, detailed the difficulties he encountered from within the team. He was replaced mid-way through the 1996 World Cup. Roger Harper, Bennett King and John Dyson had to deal with similar problems. Harper chose to move on to coach Kenya when his contract expired, the two Australians, King and Dyson, didn’t last the distance.None of those was as publicly forthright, or demanding, as Gibson has been after less than a year in the position. He has identified what he believes is urgently needed for West Indies to start the climb up from the bottom rungs of international cricket’s ladder and he has influenced the selectors and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to buy into it.”There is not much time until the Pakistan series and there are serious decisions to be made, decisions about players,” he said after the World Cup three weeks ago. Those “serious decisions” have now been made.Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, a trio with 34 ODI hundreds between them and respective averages of 41.60, 39.37 and 43.20 in 659 such matches, have all been omitted for the first two ODIs in St.Lucia.The steadfast Chanderpaul, the most dependable and adaptable batsman through the hard times, has been a fixture in long and short formats for a dozen years. Gayle, as feared a hitter as there is in the game, has been the only settled opener in the team for a decade. Five months ago, his 333 against Sri Lanka in Galle made him only the fourth batsman to score two Test triple hundreds. Like both Chanderpaul and Gayle, Sarwan’s position was guaranteed, at No.3 or 4, almost from the time he made his Test debut, aged 19. That was until he was dropped for last year’s tour of Sri Lanka for what the board stated was his “extremely indifferent attitude and sporadic approach towards fitness”.The move was the precursor to the “serious decisions” that have now been effected. The disappointing batting of all three in the World Cup–Gayle’s carefree approach and the inability of Sarwan and Chanderpaul to pass 50 or raise their run-rates above 55 per 100 balls – were enough to seal their ensuing omissions.Only time will tell whether such decisions prove more “serious” for coach, selectors and, indeed, the board than for the players themselves.

It is a daunting task for such an inexperienced team, led by Darren Sammy, just six months in charge and already showing the inevitable strain of the captaincy, especially for one struggling to assert his all-round credentials

The five ODIs and two Tests against Pakistan are to be followed by five ODIs and three Tests against India, now World Cup champions and acknowledged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as the No.1 Test team.Without Chanderpaul, Gayle and Sarwan, the players for the initial ODIs against Pakistan count a mere 464 ODIs and four hundreds between them. Only two batsmen average over 30; no bowler has more than 60 wickets.The sub-standard regional tournaments don’t offer chief selector Clyde Butts and his panel many alternatives.It is a daunting task for such an inexperienced team, led by Darren Sammy, just six months in charge and already showing the inevitable strain of the captaincy, especially for one struggling to assert his all-round credentials. After the World Cup, he headed to Miami for time off, rather than captain Windward Islands in the semi-final of the Regional 4-day tournament. He was, he pleaded, physically and mentally drained. It was not a good sign, although he will now probably feel more at ease without three high-profile former captains shadowing his every move.Two of the replacements are Marlon Samuels and Lendl Simmons, both recalled after absences that, apart from Samuels’ two-year ICC suspension for his contacts with an illegal Indian bookmaker, almost certainly involved matters of attitude. Both are genuinely gifted cricketers. Samuels, at 31, and Simmons, 27, now have a belated chance to maximise the potential wasted in their earlier incarnations. Samuels especially has scored heavily and consistently at regional level since his return last October.His is an interesting case. Only six weeks ago, he declined his selection as the injured Dwayne Bravo’s replacement in the World Cup, stating that he wasn’t 100% ready as he “wanted to focus on four-day and not one-day cricket”. It has been a quick turnaround.The positions of the fit-again Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard are no less curious. Like Gayle, the two Trinidadians declined the WICB’s retainer contract, both returning to Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises instead. Now, according to WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire, there have been “fruitful discussions” with both–but, significantly, no mention of such discussions with Gayle. Bravo, recently reinstated as vice-captain, and Pollard have both agreed to be “available for future selection to the West Indies team in all formats”. As a result of the negotiations, Pollard has been released for the IPL throughout the entire Digicel Series against Pakistan, while Bravo remains for the ODIs but misses the Tests to finish off the IPL season.”It was mutually determined that Pollard would be best served by being allowed to hone his T20 skills in the Indian Premier League which will bring future benefit to West Indies cricket,” Hilaire said.In truth, what the power-hitting allrounder’s game needs now is more longer, and less Twenty20, cricket to get himself back into the routine of building a score, rather than crash-bang, 20-ball 50s. But then, million-dollar IPL and Big Bash contracts cannot be ignored.According to Hilaire, the selectors’ purpose in choosing the new-look teams that take the field at the Beausejour Stadium this week is to “build a broad pool of international players”. Perhaps, just in case things don’t go quite according to plan, he has pointed out that, while “the first action is to expose more players, that does not mean that the WICB is abandoning older players”.One way or the other we’re in for six intriguing weeks.

John Buchanan believes the incidents on the field during the Sydney Test were blown out of proportion

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi24-Jan-2008

Do you think the codes of gamesmanship have been breached?
No, I don’t really. There’s probably the odd incident, but when you consider that there are about two-and-a-half thousand incidents in a Test – in other words balls – of which one or two might have been breached, it’s much the same as it has always been. It’s not to say that the players and the game want to tolerate that, but they happen. What is happening now is that we’ve got far more coverage for all those particular incidents whether it be TV or radio or newspapers. So those isolated incidents suddenly are blown out of proportions. As I said not that they shouldn’t be necessarily dealt with, but at the moment they are being over-emphasised to the detriment of the game.So you are saying the media is playing it up?
They are instrumental in these incidents gaining much greater attention than what they should.Do you believe in the age-old belief of cricket being a civilised sport?
Yes, I do. Again we’ve got a highly competitive sport out there with players all trying to deliver their best for their country. They try to do that within the rules, regulations, spirit of the game, and respecting each other, themselves and the game. But they are not perfect; they make mistakes. Unfortunately those mistakes get amplified in international sport. Certainly my experience – going back to my playing days – doesn’t suggest it’s any different today than it was then.You have coached Australia during Steve Waugh’s reign as a captain. Waugh was a firm believer of gamesmanship. What were you thoughts?
To me the game is made up of the technical side, the physical side, the tactical side and the mental side. When you go to the field and you are playing an opposition, you try to exploit any weakness they have. That’s the same in any sport and any country. Just because Steve Waugh gave it a label of mental disintegration, the Australian cricket team were not doing anything too different to Australian teams of the past and too different to what Australian teams are doing now.You talked about exploiting weaknesses. Were there specific soft targets in the opposition to expose mentally?
We looked at everything we possibly could to go about winning a game. You are obviously preparing yourself and understanding your own game and making sure that your primary focus is to deliver your game. But in doing that you are actually working at areas where you take advantage of your opposition. One thing that should be emphasised when I talk about mental exploitation, and when people talk about sledging, is that a lot of talk is actually no-talk. There are some players who come on to the field wanting to engage in a conversation, that’s their personality. Part of the sledge is not to talk to them because you are trying to again find out whether or not you can actually get under their guard, whether you can actually distract them.Ian Chappell believes that gamesmanship always existed with the major difference of late being personal abuse having crept in.
I believe every player goes there on the field with the intent of not using any sort of personal abuse, but it does occur occasionally. It . That’s what I’m saying: people are not perfect even if we would like them to be and so would they. That’s why everybody understands if an individual has gone over the line.So if the line has been crossed should the players sort it on the field or outside?
I agree. Unfortunately it [what happened at Sydney] got bigger than it should have. I always believe it should be dealt between players, maybe in consultation with the umpires and the referee but without it actually becoming as big an issue as it has now. Because then all it does is create the fuel for the next incident to be either interpreted incorrectly or interpreted mysteriously to get to the desired result by the media.

One of the controversial things that sullied matters at Sydney was India being disappointed with a couple of catches claimed by the Australian fieldsmen. Is it fair to take the word of the fieldsman?
If we are calling for the game to be played in the right spirit and fairness and so on, the decision must rest with the players in terms of a catch. As we know technology is quite inadequate when it comes to dealing with those particular matters: one, the speed of the cameras is insufficient and two, you don’t have cameras at the right positions so invariably there’s very few times that you can use that technology to decide on fair catching. So the best way is to leave the onus with the player, with the honesty of the player. If replays and television shows them to be wrong, that person has to live with that. They’ve to live with the consequences of the choices they make then.Where do you draw the line?
The players know that. Everybody knows what personal abuse is, what’s not acceptable. That’s the line. As soon as that line is crossed then it is up to the management of that person in that team to deal with it and obviously also for them to apologise in the appropriate way to the opposition.

Arne Slot wants to bring a world class striker to Anfield and has his sights set on Alexander Isak after Liverpool finalise a deal for Florian Wirtz.

Article continues below

Article continues below

Article continues below

Reds building on Premier League title winFinalising deal for Wirtz from LeverkusenLooking at swoop for Isak from NewcastleFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Liverpool stunned the rest of England by winning the Premier League title during Slot's first season in charge and it looks like the Dutchman is going all out to try and replicate that achievement in 2025-26. Reports suggest the Reds are on the verge of signing Bayer Leverkusen star Wirtz for €150million (£127m) and will then turn their attentions to bringing in a striker.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Isak is hot property across Europe after a stellar campaign for Newcastle but Liverpool are believed to be considering a move for the Swedish striker. It would likely take another £100m at least to pry the Magpies' prized possession away from them after he helped Eddie Howe's side win the Carabao Cup and secure Champions League football next season.

DID YOU KNOW?

Isak bagged 27 goals across all competitions last term. He is contracted at St James' Park until 2028.

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

(C)Getty imagesWHAT NEXT?

Had Newcastle failed to qualify for Europe's top competition next season, there may be a higher chance of Isak leaving this summer. However it is likely that the club will do everything they can to convince the Swede to stay on Tyneside despite interest from Liverpool.

Borussia Dortmund director Hans-Joachim Watzke has urged European football to adopt salary caps, warning finances are spiraling out of control.

Watzke says salary caps are “unavoidable” for European footballDefends Saudi Arabian money as “start-up financing” for FIFA tournamentsBelieves football must embrace globalisation beyond EuropeFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Watzke has declared that salary caps in European football are "unavoidable" to prevent the sport's finances from spiralling further out of control. In an interview with German newspaper , the influential executive also gave a frank assessment of Saudi Arabian investment in the game.

AdvertisementAFPTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Watzke's comments highlight the growing concern among Europe's top administrators regarding the financial sustainability of modern football. He pointed to the Premier League as an example, noting that "hardly any club there makes a profit despite their huge budgets." His remarks also addressed the increasing influence of Gulf state money, arguing that football is no different from other major industries in its willingness to accept such investment.

Cash from Saudi Arabia helped fund the inaugural edition of the revamped Club World Cup this summer and the country is set to host the World Cup in 2034. It will be the second World Cup to be held in the Middle East, just 12 years after the 2022 edition in Qatar. 

WHAT WATZKE SAID

On the need for financial controls, Watzke stated: "Ultimately, a salary cap will be unavoidable. [Without it] everything will get even more out of hand. At some point, they'll notice this in England, too. Because, as far as I know, hardly any club there makes a profit despite their huge budgets."

Regarding investment from the Gulf, he added: "We're deluding ourselves: As long as large DAX-listed companies are happy to involve the Saudis in their capital increases, we shouldn't paint the world as more beautiful than it actually is. Our industry is only too happy to accept money from the Gulf States."

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR EUROPEAN FOOTBALL?

As a senior figure at both Borussia Dortmund and the German Football League (DFL), Watzke's powerful voice adds significant weight to the ongoing debate around financial regulation. While the implementation of a pan-European salary cap faces considerable hurdles, his comments will intensify discussions within UEFA and among the continent's top leagues as they continue to search for mechanisms to ensure long-term financial stability.

They name five quicks in the 15-member squad with Abrar Ahmed the only specialist legspinner

Danyal Rasool24-May-2024Babar Azam will lead a Pakistan side for the third successive time at the T20 World Cup when he will fly out with the 15-member squad for the tournament next month. The PCB neither named a vice-captain nor any traveling reserves even though the World Cup will be played in the USA and the Caribbean over almost a month.In an announcement that came hours before the ICC deadline to submit the final squad, there were a few surprises with Pakistan sticking to the touring party they chose for the T20Is in Ireland and England. No one from outside that group was selected. Hasan Ali, who was released back to Warwickshire earlier this week, missed out, alongside Irfan Khan and Agha Salman.Abbas Afridi made the final cut, meaning Pakistan go into the tournament with five specialist fast bowlers. Imad Wasim, who came out of retirement for this tournament, was the left-arm spin option, with Abrar Ahmed the only specialist legspinner.Pakistan’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2024•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”This is an extremely talented and balanced side that has a mixture of youth and experience. These players have been playing together for some time and look well prepared and settled for next month’s event,” a statement attributed to the selection committee in a PCB release said.”Haris Rauf is fully fit and bowling well in the nets. It would have been nice if he had gotten an outing at Headingley [in the first T20I against England which was washed out], but we remain confident that he will continue to maintain an upward trajectory in the upcoming matches, as he will have an important role to play along with other strike bowlers in the T20 World Cup.”ESPNcricinfo learnt that an initial squad was finalised and sent to PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi on May 23, but a conflict around due process emerged, with certain members of the selection panel feeling they had not been consulted properly. Naqvi asked to see the minutes of the meeting and voting patterns of prior meetings, which had not been recorded.As a result, the squad was rejected and returned to the selection panel, with Naqvi insisting the members achieve consensus on the squad and the meeting minutes be recorded. The PCB rejected any notion of the chairman interfering in specific selection decisions, and that the reason for the initial squad being rejected was the failure to follow due process as set out for the selection committee.Pakistan had opted to not announce a provisional squad at the start of the month, something most other sides did. In the end, they were the last team to officially confirm their final squad, with all 19 other teams having submitted theirs a few days ago.Pakistan are currently in the middle of a T20I series in England, with the second match in Birmingham on Saturday. They fly out to the USA after the series concludes, with all four of Pakistan’s group stage matches in the United States. They don’t play any warm-up games before the big tournament.Pakistan begin their T20 World Cup campaign against USA in Dallas on June 6 before they play India in New York on June 9. Pakistan will stay in New York to face Canada on June 11 and then travel to Lauderhill to play Ireland on June 16 for their final group game.Pakistan squad for T20 World Cup 2024Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed

Chelsea retain an interest in signing both Alejandro Garnacho and Morgan Rogers this summer as they continue a wild summer of spending.

Blues interested in two attackersAston Villa and Man Utd stars on their shortlistAlso continuing talks over Xavi SimonsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Per, Chelsea remain interested in signing both Rogers and Garnacho this summer, from Aston Villa and Manchester United respectively, despite their pursuit of Xavi Simons. The Blues have already committed to spending £212 million ($287m) on new signings in this window, adding the likes of Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro, and Willian Estevao to Enzo Maresca's squad. They are continuing talks with RB Leipzig over a £60m ($81m) deal for Simons, and also have an interest in Ajax defender Jorrel Hato.

AdvertisementAFPTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Garnacho has asked to leave United, and would surely be a more accessible signing than Rogers at Villa, with the Midlands club reportedly keen to hand him a new contract. Nevertheless, both appear to be alternative targets to Simons, amid reports that Bayern Munich are also interested.

DID YOU KNOW?

Chelsea could raise more than £200m ($271m) in player sales this summer, with Christopher Nkunku likely to leave along with Joao Felix, Nicolas Jackson, and Carney Chukwuemeka. The Blues will probably move another midfielder on before confirming any deal for Simons amid ongoing negotiations, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall linked with an exit to Fulham.

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT?

Chelsea play Bayer Leverkusen on August 8 in their first friendly of a scaled-back pre-season after their exploits at the Club World Cup. It remains to be seen if a new attacking player will be in Maresca's squad in time for that fixture.

MatériaMais Notícias

Em um jogo que não teria impacto na tabela independentemente do resultado, Juventude eFlamengoempataram em 2 a 2, nesta quarta. Foi a despedida do já rebaixado Alviverde no Alfredo Jaconi, sua casa, na Série A do Brasileirão. Os gols da partida foram de Matheuzinho e Werton, do Rubro-Negro, e Paulo Henrique e Jadson, dos mandantes.

RelacionadasFlamengoFlamengo confirma festa no Centro do Rio no domingo; veja detalhesFlamengo09/11/2022FlamengoEm negociação com o Flamengo, Gerson já tem data para chegar ao Rio de JaneiroFlamengo09/11/2022FlamengoDorival Júnior despista sobre Gerson no Flamengo, mas afirma: ‘Todo grande jogador interessa’Flamengo10/11/2022

+ Perto do Flamengo, Gerson tem data para chegar ao Rio de Janeiro

Campeão da Libertadores e da Copa do Brasil, o Flamengo dá “adeus” a 2022 neste sábado, contra o Avaí, na última rodada do Brasileirão. O jogo ainda será marcado pelas despedidas de Diego Alves e Diego Ribas do clube. Já o Juventude, lanterna e rebaixado, visita o Ceará.

Veja a tabela completa e a classificação da Série A do Brasileirão aqui!

GOL RELÂMPAGO DE MATHEUZINHO

Os reservas do Flamengo precisaram de 49 segundos para abrir o placar no Alfredo Jaconi. O cruzamento de Rodinei, na segunda trave, encontrou Everton Cebolinha, que escorou para dentro da área. Coube a Matheuzinho, escalado na linha de ataque por Dorival, aparecer quase em cima da linha e colocar a bola na rede: 1 a 0!

VIRADA DO JUVENTUDE EM POUCOS MINUTOS

Diante de um rival tão frágil, o Rubro-Negro dominou o jogo com muita tranquilidade, chegando com força pelas laterais. As finalizações, contudo, não foram boas. Assim, o Flamengo levou a partida sem sustos até os 35 minutos. Hugo Souza nem sequer foi exigido.

A partir daí, o Juventude encontrou o caminho do ataque pelo lado esquerdo. A intensidade do Fla, que já não era grande, diminuiu, e o empate saiu aos 36. Paulo Henrique, foi lançado, arrancou da intermediária, invadiu a área e chutou na saída do goleiro: 1 a 1.

Seis minutos depois, o autor do gol virou garçom. Botou Everton Cebolinha para dançar e cruzou para Jadson, que conseguiu encobrir Hugo Souza em cabeçada. Virada do Juventude antes do intervalo.

SEGUNDO TEMPO NA MESMA PEGADA

Com um pouquinho de mais intensidade e atenção, o Juventude seguiu melhor após o intervalo e teve as melhores chances. Na melhor delas, Chico Kim acertou o travessão de Hugo Souza. A resposta de Dorival foi com as entradas de Varela e Mateusão, aos 18.

Na sequência, foi a vez de Celso Roth apostar em Rodrigo Soares, Rafinha e Ruan, e o técnico do Flamengo respondeu com Kayke David e Werton. O fato é que, apesar das mudanças, foram raras emoções.

WERTON EMPATA NO APAGAR DAS LUZES

O Flamengo até cresceu com as alterações, mas guardou o melhor para o final. Já nos acréscimos, a bola ficou viva dentro da área, e o garoto do Ninho Werton, após girar para cima da marcação, chutou rasteiro, vencendo Cesar para deixar tudo igual no Alfredo Jaconi.

FICHA TÉCNICA
JUVENTUDE 2 X 2 FLAMENGO

​Estádio: Alfredo Jaconi, em Caxias do Sul (RS)
Data e hora: 9 de novembro de 2022, às 21h30
Árbitro: Rodrigo Jose Pereira de Lima (PE)
Assistentes: Fabricio Vilarinho da Silva (Fifa/GO) e Francisco Chaves Bezerra Junior (PE)
Árbitro de vídeo: Rafael Traci (SC)
Renda/Público: N/D.

Gols: Matheuzinho (0-1, 1’/1ºT), Paulo Henrique (1-1, 36’/1ºT), Jadson (2-1, 42’/1ºT) e Werton (2-2, 46’/2ºT)

Cartão amarelo: Vitor Mendes, Capixaba, Jadson, Jean Irmer, Chico Kim (JUV) João Gomes, Ayrton Lucas e Mateusão (FLA)
Cartão vermelho: Não houve.

JUVENTUDE (Técnico: Celso Roth)

Cesar; Paulo Henrique, Thalisson Kelven, Vitor Mendes e Dudu (Rodrigo Soares, 20’/2ºT); Jean Irmer (Pará, 40’/2ºT), Jadson, Yuri e Chico Kim; Capixaba (Ruan, 26’/2ºT) e Felipe Pires (Rafinha, 20/2ºT).

FLAMENGO (Técnico: Dorival Júnior)

Hugo Souza; Rodinei (Varela, 18’/2ºT), Fabrício Bruno, Pablo e Ayrton Lucas; Erick Pulgar, João Gomes e Victor Hugo (Mateusão, 18’/2ºT); Matheuzinho (Kayke David, 29’/2ºT), Everton Cebolinha e Matheus França (Werton, 29’/2ºT).