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Winning two trophies in a season is usually a cause for mass celebration, and Liverpool did just that, with their open-top bus parade last weekend despite their Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid the night before.

However, losing that final and narrowly missing out on the Premier League title will hurt, and Jurgen Klopp will be aiming to go one better next season and secure either trophy (or both) for that matter.

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There might need to be a slight rejig of the playing squad, though, with recent reports that Sadio Mane wants to leave Liverpool for a new challenge this summer, despite having one year remaining on his current contract.

This could be a big blow for the club given the Senegal star’s huge contributions (120 goals in six years at Anfield), although Klopp might not need to look far for an ideal replacement as FSG look to make their mark in the upcoming transfer window.

According to the Daily Star, Liverpool are keen on signing Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic during the summer.

Liverpool linked with Pulisic

The £58m star, who has been dubbed “amazing” by Blues captain Cesar Azpilicueta and “fantastic” by former USA national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, would be a great signing for Klopp, as he already knows the Premier League well (74 appearances).

The American is extremely versatile and can play in many positions such as attacking midfield, as a right-winger or even as a centre forward.

Although he has only scored eight goals in all competitions this season compared to Mane’s 23, the 23-year-old still has his peak years to come.

Pulisic’s pass completion percentage is better than that of the Senegalese forward in the Premier League this season (79.7% to 75.1%) and he also has a higher shot on target percentage than the Liverpool player (39.3% to 37.4%).

Mane is still at the top of his game, although at 30 years old, he might only have a couple of years left before his sell-on value rapidly decreases.

If Klopp decides to sell the African, then a move for Pulisic would be a no-brainer. Young, talented and with the potential to make a mark in this Liverpool squad, he would appear to be the perfect replacement for the Senegal international on Merseyside.

AND in other news, FSG now plotting Liverpool bid for “astonishing” £34m signing, he’s Klopp’s next Mane…

Aston Villa are in pole position to sign soon-to-be free agent James Tarkowski, according to The Athletic. 

The lowdown

The 29-year-old is departing relegated Burnley this summer as he reaches the end of his contract at Turf Moor.

The Telegraph’s Jason Burt had previously written that it was Everton and not Villa who were leading the race for his signature, while Football Insider claimed that Frank Lampard’s side had already presented the defender with a £120,000-per-week contract offer.

However, it seems that Villa are intent on further strengthening their defence after the arrival of Diego Carlos from Sevilla last week, having already secured deals for midfielders Phillipe Coutinho and Boubacar Kamara earlier in the month.

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The latest

In a jointly-written piece for The Athletic, Patrick Boyland and Greg O’Keeffe claimed that Everton are one of ‘several’ clubs who are interested in Tarkowski.

Lampard’s admiration for the centre-back dates back to his time as Chelsea manager, but the 43-year-old may miss out on his transfer target.

That’s because the Toffees face ‘substantial competition’ from Villa, who are described in the article as the ‘early favourites’ for Tarkowski.

The verdict

Gerrard seemingly wants to overhaul the heart of his defence.

Football Insider reported at the end of February that he had sanctioned the sale of Ezri Konsa after growing concerned about the 24-year-old’s reliability and consistency. Meanwhile, transfer insider Dean Jones said that ‘it will be interesting to see how things pan out’ with Tyrone Mings, which may suggest that the captain’s future is far from secure.

Having already signed Carlos, Villa have been linked with both Tarkowski and Rangers’ Calvin Bassey, who is valued at £25m by Gerrard’s former club.

However, the Burnley man may be the better option of the two, not just because Villa could avoid a hefty transfer fee. His vast Premier League experience (194 games) is surely a significant factor as well.

Indeed, The Telegraph’s Matt Law believes that the 29-year-old would be a ‘fantastic signing’ for the Midlands club, who may land themselves a real coup on a free transfer for a proven operator at this level.

In other news, read this transfer insider’s claim on a midfield target.

After emerging as one of Tottenham’s brightest young prospects, it’s fair to say Alex Pritchard’s career hasn’t exactly panned out exactly as he would have wanted.

The playmaker made his debut for the north Londoners in a Premier League clash against Aston Villa in May 2014, featuring in a 3-0 victory as a 21-year-old.

Tim Sherwood was the man who gave him his first senior bow for the club, while the game might now be best remembered as the day the then-Spurs boss gave one supporter the chance to sit in the hotseat for a couple of minutes.

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After his departure, Pritchard found first-team minutes hard to come by, and while in March 2015 it was revealed that Mauricio Pochettino wanted to reintegrate him into the first-team setup at Tottenham, things just did not fall into place for him.

He made just the two total appearances for Spurs’ senior side, while he was perhaps most impressive in his loan spell at Brentford, where he managed 12 goals and seven assists in 47 games for the club.

Mark Warburton, his former manager at Brentford, said: “He can dominate a football. Alex is at his best with the ball at his feet. He sees a pass. He’s the best player I’ve seen in this division, certainly, to receive the ball on the half-turn at pace.

“Left or right side, he has the ability to take it on the half-turn and for us, how we play, that hurts the opposition. Technically he’s outstanding. For me, he is nailed on Premier League.”

Pritchard would then join Norwich on a permanent basis in the summer of 2016, but he has barely made an impression on the top-flight since then, with 48 appearances in the division and just three goals.

From being sold for around £8m to being valued at just £2.25m by Transfermarkt now, especially at an age of 28 where he should realistically be in the prime years of his career, is a real snapshot of his career.

To his credit, the attacking midfielder is showcasing his talent in League One with Sunderland, scoring four goals and providing 12 assists for Alex Neil’s side this season.

Currently lying fourth in the table, but six points off the automatic spots, there is every chance still that Pritchard could be playing Championship football next season.

Despite that, it’s obviously a far cry from the kind of Premier League stardom which was no doubt anticipated when he first made his name known in a Spurs shirt having come through the academy.

Daniel Levy will no doubt be laughing all the way to the bank at seeing his sale of the midfielder turn out so well from a financial point of view.

AND in other news – Spurs plot record-breaking swoop for £100m-rated “tank”, Conte will be buzzing

The opener has scored a third of his team’s total runs in IPL 2018

Dustin Silgardo16-May-20182:08

Top five reasons why Mumbai beat Punjab

Poor KL RahulWith 20 runs required off 10 balls, KL Rahul tried to hit a full, wide ball for six over long-off. He miscued it and was out. While walking off, he held in his face in his hands and shouted at himself. Perhaps Rahul was angry that he tried to attack Bumrah, Mumbai Indians’ most economical bowler. Perhaps he felt he should have waited for a better ball to hit. If that was the case, Rahul was being very hard on himself.KL Rahul has scored a third of Kings XI Punjab’s runs off the bat this IPL season•ESPNcricinfo LtdThrough this IPL, no team has been more reliant on one batsman than Kings XI Punjab have been on Rahul. He has now scored a third of his team’s total runs off the bat. Given that, he should have been the one trying to stay till the end while the batsmen around him attacked. But, during a crucial 16th over from Mayank Markande, Aaron Finch couldn’t time the ball, so it was up to Rahul to attack the last two balls. He hit them both for sixes. Once Finch was out, Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel should have gone big from ball one, but they consumed four balls for only two runs before Rahul took strike in the third ball of the 18th over. So Rahul had to go after Ben Cutting. He hit him for three consecutive fours. Now, surely, it was Axar’s turn to take some of the pressure off. But again, in Bumrah’s over, he managed just a single off the second ball. It was all up to Rahul. He had to go for the big shot.How Mitchell McClenaghan’s season turned aroundAfter Mumbai’s match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 1, Mitchell McClenaghan had a smart economy rate of 9.07 and cost his team 8.5 runs over six games. Since then, he’s bowled in five innings and gone at a smart ER of 7.42, saving his team 9 runs. He’s also picked up five wickets, many of them crucial. The key to McClenaghan’s turnaround has been when he has bowled. Till May 1, he was regularly used as a death bowler. He had delivered four overs in the last four and had a smart ER of 17.95 in that phase. Since then, he has become a specialist Powerplay and middle-overs bowler and has been used for only two overs in the final four.Why Rohit bowled out HardikIn Mumbai’s last four games, Hardik Pandya had been a regular death bowler. But against Kings XI, Rohit Sharma bowled him out before the 16th over, and in the end had to bowl Ben Cutting in the 18th and McClenaghan in the 20th. It was an attacking move from Rohit. He knew how dependent Kings XI were on their top three and wanted to dismiss them early. In the middle order, Kings XI had Marcus Stoinis, Yuvraj Singh and Manoj Tiwary, all of whom have struggled this season. So, Rohit was confident that his back-up bowlers could do the job against them in the death if Hardik, his top wicket-taker, could dismiss Rahul or Finch. He didn’t, and having to bowl Cutting at the death almost cost Mumbai.Why was Yuvraj not sent in earlier?Yuvraj had been padded up since the fifth over of Kings XI’s chase, but when the second wicket fell in the 17th over, it was Stoinis who came out. When he was dismissed off the fifth ball of the same over, Axar Patel walked in, and Yuvraj arrived at the crease with only nine balls left in the innings. There were several reasons for this decision.First, Yuvraj has never been someone who can get going from ball one. This season, his strike rate off the first five balls he faces has been 77.77. Even over his entire T20 career, he scores at just 86.80 off his first five and 109.32 off his first ten. With 42 required off 23 balls, Kings XI couldn’t have someone come in and get 11 off 10. Second, Yuvraj has been in woeful form this season, striking at less than 90. Third, he has particularly struggled against 140-kph bowlers, often bringing his bat down late when playing shots against them, and Kings XI knew Mumbai had two overs from Bumrah and one from McClenaghan to come.Why didn’t Ashwin bowl till the death?While Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya blazed to a 65-run fifth-wicket stand, R Ashwin stood at mid-off looking tense. But his own figures at the time read 1-0-5-0. It seemed bizarre that Ashwin was not bowling, given Mumbai were four down and had left-hander Krunal and Pollard, who prefers pace to spin, at the wicket.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt turned out Ashwin was saving his overs for the death. Mohit Sharma had gone at 12.82 an over in the death before this game and had got hit for 25 in his first two overs, so Ashwin did not trust him to bowl two overs in the death. That meant he had to bowl from the other end while Andrew Tye bowled the 17th and 19th. Also, Ashwin may have been waiting for Ben Cutting to come in, so he could expose his weakness against spin.Had Ashwin bowled earlier, Mumbai may have decided to milk him for singles and wait for Mohit, and possibly Marcus Stoinis, in the death. Still, with Mumbai gaining so much momentum in the middle overs, it is surprising Ashwin didn’t give himself at least one in that period.So then why didn’t Ashwin bowl the 20th?Having come on in the death, Ashwin bowled two overs for 13 runs and took two wickets. He was eligible to bowl another, but gave Mohit the 20th – another surprising decision. The only explanation is that he thought pace was a better option than spin to the No. 9 and 10 at the crease.At the end of Mumbai’s innings, Ashwin and Axar Patel had bowled just six overs between them for 42 runs, while the seamers, apart from Tye, had conceded 123 in 10. So Ashwin may be left ruing his bowling changes.

The gaffes in the field could have left India in an uncomfortable position on the first day in Mohali were it not for their bowlers, who never let England run away with the game

Alagappan Muthu26-Nov-20162:41

Ganguly: Jayant’s ball to get Bairstow was brilliant

Mohali offered box-office material on Saturday and here’s hoping enough fans of Charlie Chaplin were watching.It began with Ravindra Jadeja, his body the shape of a slanted A and his mouth a pronounced O as an edge off Alastair Cook whooshed past. What a gag. One of India’s best fielders had missed an honest-to-goodness catch.Then R Ashwin got punked everywhere he went. At short midwicket, he made a silly by dropping a dolly. At mid-on, he misfielded so badly Virat Kohli almost facepalmed. At square leg, in the final hour of the day and just as he thought he had the ball covered, it bounced awkwardly and nearly broke a tooth.The most comedic incident, though, at least as far as the press box was concerned, was the toss. Heads craned as the coin went up, then they were thrown back in laughter as Cook promptly chose to bat. Before the first hour was done, he had been given two lives. None of this sounds like a day that ends with India taking eight wickets, does it?Clearly the bowlers deserve a lot of credit for this turn – only the metaphorical kind was on offer despite fears otherwise – of events. They never let England run away with the game.Mohammed Shami had two chances put down in his first spell. He was asked to create a third by his captain 10 minutes before lunch. He bounced Moeen Ali out.From swapping out the spinner for a quick to the setting of a leg-side trap, that wicket was the culmination of a plan coming together. India had a short leg in place. They had also kept a man about 10 yards inside the boundary at fine leg specifically for the top-edge. Normally on such pitches – slow with not much bounce – that man would be positioned squarer to control the runs. Kohli was gambling. Shami was his ace in the hole.The ball was fast, it rose up towards Moeen’s head, triggered the instinct to hook and subdued the good sense that would have told the batsman he was trying to drag it from outside the off stump and, as such, his timing would be off. Having gone through a horrible first hour – and that doesn’t take into account India losing their first-choice opener KL Rahul to injury again – that was a moment of pure joy. Kohli actually skipped over to the catcher M Vijay to share high-fives.Having had two catches dropped off his bowling early in the day, Mohammed Shami still responded to his captain’s call with the wicket of Moeen Ali•AFPWith seven balls to stumps, Umesh Yadav finally convinced an outswinger to overcome its shyness and go hug Chris Woakes’ off stump. Umesh had been warned for following through on the danger area in his fourth over. Going wider of the stumps eventually helped him trouble the England batsmen more because the right-handers felt they had to play most of his deliveries with the angle into them. After that, it was only a matter of being accurate because he was finding sideways movement – both conventional and reverse.”I am improving day by day with the matches that I am playing,” Umesh said. “I talk to my coaches Anil bhai [Kumble] and Sanjay bhai [Bangar]. Pace comes with a disadvantage. If you don’t pitch it right, you will go for runs. They advise me to bowl in one particular area. My impact area is outside the off stump from where I can bowl my outswingers and make the batsmen play a lot more.”It’s a bit cold and there’s some moisture in the wicket. The ball is moving. It’s not that if the wicket is flat the new ball wont swing. New ball will swing if you have faith. Me and Shami know that we can swing it till the ball is new. We are trying to bowl outside off stump channel from where we were getting our outswingers. There is good carry in the pitch also at good pace.”India’s spinners weren’t lagging behind either. Jadeja’s two wickets were the combination of a tried and tested method – strangling the batsman for runs – enhanced by a new skill: drawing them out of their crease. To accomplish that, a man who has thrived by firing darts at the stumps, bringing bowled and lbw into play, had to deceive his opponents with flight.Jadeja bowled 31 deliveries to Ben Stokes. Twenty-eight of them were dots. Sensing the batsman would be looking for a big shot, he held one back and since he had also tossed it up and put in a lot of work with his action, it drifted away too. Stokes had premeditated his charge, was tricked into driving inside the line and then stumped. This sequence – apart from being a delight to watch – tested the theory that batsmen find it easier to score against the ball turning into them.Ashwin redeemed himself, taking a wicket off his first ball and could well have had England’s top-scorer Jonny Bairstow caught behind for 54. India’s premier spinner may not have been ripping it from one corner to another, but his variations of pace and trajectory were beautiful. When Buttler was new at the crease, playing only his second first-class match since being dropped from the Test side in October 2015, Ashwin fed him a few flatter deliveries to push him back before an offbreak with a considerable amount of overspin came along. The batsman, to his credit, managed to adjust to the extra bounce and pat it down with soft hands. Buttler should have done the same against Jadeja in the 69th over. He couldn’t and England’s biggest partnership of the innings – 69 runs for the sixth wicket – was rather tamely broken.Jayant Yadav was the least accurate among India’s bowlers, but it was he who showcased how difficult this pitch could become. Drier at the full and good-length areas, where some crumbling has already happened, it encouraged one ball to go on with the arm to take Bairstow’s outside edge as he defended inside the line. The next one gripped the deck more and turned sharply to beat the inside edge and pin the right-hander lbw.With India being good, bad and ugly all in one day, the Kohli cam had plenty of work to do. He glared. He fumed. He screamed. He wrung his hands in disgust one minute, high-fived with glee the next. However, after stumps, he was simply a man content. At least until 9.30am on Sunday, when the show would start all over again.

A young Cricket Australia XI, introduced to offer opportunities, has failed miserably in the first two games of the Matador Cup without any experienced figures to guide them through

Daniel Brettig07-Oct-20153:34

‘CA XI going to struggle but has lot of potential’ – Starc

So many writers in recent times have been offered unpaid work “offering great exposure” that a joke has emerged about said freelancers dying of said exposure. The line sprung to mind over the past three days in the first two matches for the Cricket Australia XI in the Matador Cup, beaten out of sight by New South Wales on Monday then razed still more brutally by Victoria on Wednesday – all in the name of “exposure at this level”.It had been the Bushrangers coach David Saker who first raised public concerns about such beatings being detrimental to a collective of young talents unaccompanied by players of significant first-class experience. Saker’s worries were brushed off by the national talent manager Greg Chappell, who predicted the tyros would be very competitive and “likely” to win a couple of games.Chappell’s long-time advocacy of youth, often to the expense of more seasoned players, was made manifest in the abortive Futures League experiment of five years ago. But even that competition afforded the young teams a sprinkling of experience to guide them. This time around the CA XI is bereft of even that kind of guidance, with only the opener Marcus Harris having played more than a handful of games for his state.This is not to say that more senior pros are unavailable. The reshuffling of Cup squads due to the cancellation of the Bangladesh tour left the likes of Ben Rohrer and Jon Wells without their former places, while South Australia had left out Mark Cosgrove from the team.Cosgrove has just completed a successful northern summer with Leicestershire, where he has found not only run-making form but also personal discipline as a result of fatherhood and a senior role with the Foxes. Might it not have been useful to have him around to walk younger players through their first few overs against the likes of James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, while also telling tales of his wayward, wasted younger days over dinner?There is an Australian precedent for a team composed entirely of stripling talent embarrassing far more travelled opposition. In 1994 the Cricket Academy team shepherded by Rod Marsh beat Mike Atherton’s England tourists twice in as many days at North Sydney Oval. At the time it was seen as proof of English cricket’s poverty, but later years were to prove that Australia’s talent stocks were at this point in unusually strong shape.What is more usual is for young players to face plenty of hard knocks and second thoughts in competition against older men in club and state tournaments. The truly outstanding youngsters – think Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke or Steven Smith here – will find their way through the system through a combination of advocacy and performance, but most others will take longer to find themselves.Chappell has always been eager to fast-track this process in the belief it will uncover more great players than the traditional way, but evidence of this is scant. To reason that more young players will emerge as outstanding simply through opportunities freely given on the basis of age group is a calculation that lacks nuance for the way so much learning is done, not only in cricket but in life.More prevalent is the kind of scenario glimpsed at Hurstville two days ago, on the same pitch the CA XI would be bowled out for 79 upon. Travis Head is a young identified talent as both batsman and leader, but he has learned to smooth the rough edges of his game by playing alongside older men, not just against them. Head’s reflections on how the gap-finding, field-manipulating Callum Ferguson had helped him add finesse to his favoured power game are worth taking note of.For their part, the CA XI are adamant they don’t need any extra help. Their leader William Bosisto is a former Australia Under-19 captain and a polished speaker, something he showed when asked whether some more senior cricketers should be drafted in alongside him. “I’ve heard people say ‘do you need an experienced player in your line-up’,” he said.”I guess that would be one approach but I think the whole idea of having the Cricket Australia XI in the tournament is to give 11 young guys exposure and see what it’s like at this level and see what we have to improve to be competitive. From a personal perspective I know I’ve learned lots of the last two days about where I need to get to be able to dominate at this level and I think that’s invaluable exposure.”There’s no point sitting around in the change room dwelling on today’s performance or Monday’s performance. We came up against two strong sides and we didn’t perform anywhere near as we expected ourselves to or as we would have liked, but the chat was straightaway about moving forward and we play Tasmania on Saturday, so we’re looking for ways we can get better and be competitive against Tasmania.”Cricket teams are generally chosen with their performance in mind. The CA XI has been picked for reasons of exposure instead, and it is now abundantly clear that this approach has created a crucible that only the most resilient young men will find a way to survive in. They are being offered no quarter by the opposition, and precious little advice on how to counter that. Some will work it out for themselves, some will not.Whether they can improve enough over the next few weeks to close the vast margins of their first two games, as per Chappell’s prediction, remains to be seen. But something else to ponder is how many of these young men will be chewed up and spat out of the game by the experience, then never seen in Australian colours again.

With Sri Lanka’s attack, and what India will bring next month, a continued failure of Alastair Cook to recover something close to his best form will raise serious worries

Andrew McGlashan17-Jun-2014If Alastair Cook wants to feel better about his batting form, he may want to steer clear of the latest ICC rankings. After the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka he has dropped to 19th while Kevin Pietersen, who spent one day of the match enjoying a beer in a hospitality box, has climbed above him to No. 18.That is the same Pietersen who has been sacked by the ECB. Before the ICC get on the phone, it is worth a reminder that players obviously do not immediately drop out of the rankings the moment they are not selected, or retire (which Pietersen did not officially do), even if it is a board decision to end their careers. Still, it is a bit of kick in the teeth for Cook.He would have given anything for one more wicket at Lord’s on Monday evening, but it is not only wins that the England captain is desperate for. The headline figure is that his wait for a Test century, which would be No. 26 of his career, has now extended to 22 innings. His previous three figure score came against New Zealand, at Headingley, so perhaps that is a good omen for Cook as he heads north to the same venue for the second Test against Sri Lanka.Asked about his form after Lord’s, Cook said: “I’d love a score. Leading from the front as a captain, you want to score runs – that’s your job as a batter. The longer it goes on, the harder it gets.”Cook’s lack of contributions did not stop England posting their highest total since playing India at The Oval in 2011 but his predecessor as captain, Andrew Strauss, knows how important it is for Cook to break the sequence he is in before it overshadows the team’s performance and affects his captaincy.”It really distracted me that I had become the story,” Strauss told the . “It did affect my captaincy and I lost a bit of confidence, because I felt I was letting the team down. No captain wants to be a passenger in the side. You want to show the team the way forward.”When I became captain in 2009, I scored a lot of runs but towards the end, perhaps I didn’t have enough time to work on my batting as I was always thinking about the captaincy.”Since the start of the home Ashes almost a year ago, he has averaged 25.81 so his Lord’s performance encapsulated his run: scores of 17 in the first innings and 28 in the second. On the first day he dragged a cut shot into his stumps and on the fourth, edged behind against Shaminda Eranga, after showing signs of more fluency, a familiar mode of dismissal which was a regular feature against Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson during the back-to-back Ashes.It is a different run that he suffered in 2010 when his place in the side was briefly questioned after 106 runs in eight innings against Bangladesh and Pakistan. During that stretch he looked so horribly out of form that losing his off stump or edging behind off Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif felt inevitable. An ugly hundred at The Oval halted the slide and a few months later he embarked on what would become a record-breaking 2010-11 Ashes.This time Cook is making starts – he has scored six half-centuries in those 22 innings – and has spent considerable time at the crease which on the one hand is a credit to his capacity to battle away but suggests the issues this time are as much mental as technical.He has never had the most pure technique; the great strength during his glory years in 2010 and 2011 – and on his first tour as captain in India the following year – was his concentration at the crease. Over after over, session after session, day after day. Those reserves of energy now appear to be diminished, and that is despite a decent break from the end of the Australia tour to the start of the English season in April.The question of whether it is the captaincy is the obvious one – he has had his fair share of issues to confront. The victorious series in India is often cited in Cook’s defence in this case, and it still holds credence, but it is now a considerable time ago. Also, despite entering that series in the wake of the Pietersen reintegration Cook was still new and fresh to the Test captaincy. England also began that series with reasonably low expectations, which were even lower after defeat in the first Test.Cook’s run without a hundred during the ten Ashes Tests came against some outstanding pace bowling and in Australia, alongside the disintegration of the team. There are those who will argue that Cook’s inability to arrest the slide – both personal and team-wise – was a sign of his own weaknesses, which is why this summer is so crucial to his longer term future.With all due respect to Sri Lanka’s attack, and what India will bring next month, a continued failure to recover something close to his best form will raise serious worries. Lord’s was one Test out of seven England play over the next two months. There was much to be positive about by the new-look side, but runs for the captain are now top of the most-wanted list.

Four IPL teams head to South Africa for the tournament, but the home board’s chief executive isn’t too worried about Indian domination or about fan fatigue

Interview by Firdose Moonda08-Oct-2012The Champions League brings in much-needed revenue for the three shareholding boards•AFPAlthough you were not in office when the CLT20 was conceptualised, can you explain what the three boards involved in it had in mind?
It was formed as a partnership between us [Cricket South Africa], Cricket Australia and the BCCI to give an opportunity to domestic teams to play at the next level and provide another platform for them. It is also a very lucrative tournament for all of us in that we share the broadcasting rights and the commercial rights. So it made commercial sense to do it.Are all three boards equal shareholders in the deal?
No, India is the biggest shareholder. But India is also the biggest commercial draw card. You’ve got to seek combinations that work.India and South Africa are the two countries where the tournament has been held so far. It looks unlikely that Australia will have the same opportunity because of their time zones. Does CSA make a significant amount of money from hosting it, and does Cricket Australia lose out?
We don’t make any money from hosting it. We only make money within the shareholding, which we would make no matter where it is hosted. A lot of people confuse the CLT20 with the big money of the IPL, but that is not the case. We work on a much lower cost base. As far as CSA is concerned, we host the tournament on behalf of CLT20 and then we get our shareholding distribution. There is no big financial benefit for CSA if the tournament happens in South Africa versus if it happens somewhere else. By the same token, CA get their shareholding, so they don’t miss out.Do the hosting franchises make any money?
They get a hosting fee that is actually paid out of our shareholding because we are hosting the tournament. So if we host at venues that are more costly, CSA will make less profit. That’s why we are under pressure to host it in a way that’s cost-effective. In 2010, we managed to do that. This time there are different pressures. For example, electricity has gone up 29%, so that will influence cost.Then a shareholder could make more money out of not hosting the tournament, because then you would not have to pay the stadium fees? If that is the case, then why does CSA want to host the tournament?
Yes, it is possible that you will make more money if you don’t host it. But I believe our stadiums benefit. We’ve got to serve cricket and it’s good to be able to give the stadiums content. We are very happy to have that. Are you happy with the standard of cricket the CLT20 brings?
I’m happy with the opportunity it provides the players. I’m happy to see a player like Chris Morris – who we want to look at as a future T20 option in South Africa – compete with the real world stars. We’ve also got different conditions here, and it’s amazing to see true world stars adapt to playing here. Cricket has become a world game and to be successful you’ve got to be able to play all around the world. Our players benefit playing in India. I know it might not be that logical after losing to India in the World Twenty20, but we do get better. And other international teams benefit from playing on more bouncy wickets in South Africa.There is criticism that the tournament is not a true “champions league”. The domestic tournament winners from those countries who are not shareholders have to qualify for the competition but the shareholders’ teams are automatically through. Is that a legitimate point?
Yes, it is, but I can also understand why teams would still want to be part of it. I think it’s going to evolve and we want to get more teams involved. You’ve got to take into account their willingness to be involved and their time schedules. The name is probably a debate, isn’t it?Especially as there is not even balance in the shareholding, because there are four IPL teams. Might it reach a stage where each of the shareholders wants the same number of teams?
No, I don’t think so. To start with, we’re not all equal shareholders. The commercial success of the tournament relies on the Indian market, so it makes a lot of sense to have a lot of Indian teams in there. It doesn’t bother us that there are more Indian teams because we’ve also got a lot of South Africans playing in Indian teams. Although the IPL is based in India, it has become a true international tournament. So I wouldn’t see that as a negative. As CSA, we are happy with the two teams that go through. We’ve only got six franchise teams anyway, so even if we made it three out of six that play CLT20, that may be a bit too much.There is the also the possibility that non-shareholders will not want to play in the CLT20 anymore. England said they will not be sending teams to next year’s event because they are forced to shorten their domestic season to make their teams available. Does their decision concern you?
We would love the English team to play in the competition but it’s clear that scheduling is a problem. We’ve got to respect their decision to give their domestic cricket priority. We’d probably do the same if it was to be hosted at a different time. We are always talking to them about how we can include them. They’ve got valid reasons for saying they won’t come but there are ongoing conversations in that regard to change that.This year, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are the only Full Members who do not have representatives at the CLT20. If England withdraw from future editions, might it open the door for either or both to be involved?
It would be lovely to have them both, and, for me, to have Zimbabwe involved, especially from an African perspective. Kenya is the same, but I think it would be good to get Zimbabwe in. They are a better team than was shown at the World Twenty20 and they will benefit from this competition.”We would love the English team to play in the competition [next year] but it’s clear that scheduling is a problem. We’ve got to respect their decision to give their domestic cricket priority”•Getty ImagesMore teams would probably mean a longer tournament. There are big concerns about the amount of cricket being played worldwide and about player fatigue. What are your thoughts on that?
We are very wary of the volume of cricket, and managing our world stars is something we’ve got to look at. I was at the ICC chief executives’ meeting and it’s definitely in discussion. We are talking about when is it too much. Having said that, we’ve got an obligation, and so do the other shareholders, to play our best players in this competition, and we will honour that. At the same time, players have got a responsibility to not over-extend themselves. Maybe they can cut out some of the other competitions, but I know that is tough. We’ve still got players keen to play in the UK and the IPL. I am happy if somebody can make a good living out of it. But they’ve got to be careful as well. You’ve only got one body and there are not a lot of spare parts for it. What about fan fatigue? At the end of this tournament, spectators would have seen two months of 20-over cricket, and it’s a format South Africans may not be taking too kindly to at the moment, given the national team’s showing at the World Twenty20.

It’s a real fear, especially, because you don’t know some of these things when you plan to host the event. If South Africa had won the World Twenty20, interest could have gone in the other direction. We are mindful of an overload of cricket, but I think South African fans love cricket and love world stars. We’ve also got such a diverse community and this tournament can cater to that because there are teams from all over.It’s also important to note that CLT20 creates interest for a different group. It’s a product that brings new cricket fans into the stadium. Outside World Cup events, it’s a major tournament, so we hope that will bring people in. We accept that if you are a Test cricket fan this might not appeal to you at all. But just as Test cricket has got its rightful place, T20 has also got its rightful place.

Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene provides an eyewitness account of the pitch fiasco at the Feroz Shah Kotla during the final ODI against India

27-Dec-2009
‘Till the moment Tillakaratne Dilshan got hit, that was when we realised this was getting bad.’•Associated PressWe do not consider the pitch to be dangerous or unfit because of its unpredictability. There have been many occasions when sideways movement or variable bounce poses a great challenge for the batsman to showcase the skills to handle those conditions. This also holds true in instances when the ball keeps a bit low, or once in a while, jumps up on to you. Even today, when the ball was keeping low, the most it could do was hit you on the ankle or the knee. But the ones that were taking off from the good length were really dangerous.Batsmen have very little time to react, especially with guys bowling at 135-140 kph, and that is a concern because you could get hit seriously, and these days it is not such a great thing to sit out with a broken bone for three to four months. It is not about the odd one cutting and hitting your fingers but when the batsmen are put in such a situation [like today] it becomes dangerous. That last ball, after which the game was stopped, from [Sudeep] Tyagi, the way it took off was ridiculous! That cannot happen.Did we foresee anything like that on the eve of the game or even today morning? Personally I had not come for practice on Saturday, as I was injured. But I have played in Delhi in the past and I was here as recently as this September, representing Wayamba in the Champions League Twenty20 where it was quite a different surface. Then it was a very dry-and-bare pitch where the ball kept low. The matches were mostly low-scoring affairs as batsmen struggled to get runs because there was hardly any pace and bounce. But it was still manageable and all teams went through similar experience.But today’s pitch was unusual because it was not the typical grassy one. Whatever grass was there, was in patches, while the rest was bare and the pitch had a hollow sound. We felt they were trying to do something different, trying to help in binding the pitch and the grass [with the top soil]. The groundsmen had informed us in the morning there was a new growth of grass, and since we do not have any knowledge in that area, we took it at face value. We thought there would be a bit of variable bounce too, but more of the tennis-ball variety, which is slow. But we never expected the pitch to behave like that.Till the moment Dilly [Tillakaratne Dilshan] got hit, that was when we realised this was getting bad. Then Sanath [Jayasuriya] got hit couple of times on his fingers. Luckily, most of our batsmen were left-handers, so the ball was actually going away from them. If there were right-handers batting they would’ve probably got hit on the chest or head. Then [Muthumudalige] Pushpakumara got hit on his elbow as well. It was just ridiculous as it had taken off from a length. After that Kanda [Thilina Kandamby] faced a ball which had a funny sort of bounce. As it went over Dhoni, we felt our batsmen would not be comfortable anymore.You’ve got to understand that in such a scenario it is no more a challenge. You are actually being threatened. When you are playing against a fast bowler the batsman has very short time to react. Generally he reacts to line and length. But in a situation like this you do not react. You just wait for something to happen. That is not good. You are hoping that the ball will not take off from that length, and all of a sudden you have to react so it is not a pleasant situation for the batsman.

You’ve got to understand that in such a scenario it is no more a challenge. You are actually being threatened. When you are playing against a fast bowler the batsman has very short time to react. Generally he reacts to line and length. But in a situation like this you do not react. You just wait for something to happen. That is not good.

As soon as Dilly returned into the dressing room they rushed him to the hospital for an X-ray, after he continued to feel uncomfortable despite applying the ice. His reaction was that it was unplayable.When Pushpakumara got hit, Sanga [Kumar Sangakkara] had already lodged his protest to the third umpire and the match referee. Sanath was already icing his fingers. We felt it was too dangerous for our guys and then Kandamby went and told the umpires soon after the Tyagi ball. The Indian camp too, felt the same and that it was not a fair wicket to play an ODI.We tried to see how long we could sustain it. We felt that when the pitch would dry up and the ball got softer, it might settle down. But we stopped the game in the 24th over, so things were not going to improve. It could’ve been worse. Usually what happens is divots are created due to the moisture in the morning and later when it gets drier then it can become much more dangerous. In the afternoon sun, with the harder ball we would’ve bowled in those dents and that would have become more dangerous.Still we should not point fingers at anyone. It is a newly relaid pitch. Curators do not make a pitch purposefully – they try to do a good job, make it lively and get something out of it. The preparation was not good. Usually a freshly relaid pitch takes about good 6-12 months for it to season itself. Obviously it would be a challenge if you play on it before that period. But when you see a pitch behaving like that, you do not take too many risks. You should instead try and season the entire square firstly.It wasn’t a fair contest between bat and ball and I understand it was very hard for the packed house at Feroz Shah Kotla. We all love the game but not to extent where somebody gets injured in a nasty way. If we can prevent that we should take those right decisions at the right time.

Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim gave his verdict on the current batch of goalkeepers at Old Trafford amid sustained interest in Argentine star Emiliano Martinez. The Red Devils recently approached Aston Villa with a proposal to secure Martinez on loan, but the inquiry was swiftly turned down by the Midlands outfit.

United are looking for a new No.1 Andre Onana on shaky grounds Amorim addressed Martinez pursuit Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Andre Onana has made several crucial mistakes since he joined United, which has forced the club hierarchy to dip into the market once again in search of a new No.1. Moreover, the Cameroonian picked up an injury in July, which further led Amorim to knock on Villa's door with the hope of securing Martinez. However, the former Inter shotstopper has been working his way back to fitness, and his presence will be a welcome boost as preparations for the new campaign ramp up.     

AdvertisementGetty ImagesWHAT AMORIM SAID

When asked if a new keeper will be added to the roster in the summer, Amorim said: "We are always looking to improve the team. And we have some characteristics that we would like to have. But again, it depends on the market. It depends on the sales. We'll see. But I'm really happy. And I think even when you talk about Andre, you can see the goalkeepers. Even Tom (Heaton) is learner, he's a different goalkeeper. Altay (Bayindir) did really well, and Onana is going to be better like the other guys that are getting better this year."  

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Apart from scouring the market for a keeper, they are also keen to sign a striker. And one key name currently linked with a move to Old Trafford is RB Leipzig forward Benjamin Sesko. The officials are reportedly deep in negotiations and believe they are in a strong position to agree terms for the highly rated striker. The club hope to finalise this signing before offloading members of their so-called “bomb squad”, which includes Jadon Sancho, Antony, and Tyrell Malacia.   

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Getty/GOALWHAT NEXT FOR MANCHESTER UNITED?

The pressure is on the club’s hierarchy to deliver the players Amorim is seeking before the September 1 deadline. Whether or not they manage to land targets like Sesko or bolster the goalkeeping department further, the next few weeks will be crucial in determining how competitive United will be in the months ahead.