India (344/6) against Pakistan at stumps, day 1
   Sachin Tendulkar became only the fifth batsman to complete 10,000 runs and Rahul Dravid scored an elegant 110 as India survived a late Abdul Razzaq blitz to post 344-6 on the first day of the second Test against Pakistan on Wednesday.
   Dravid's 19th Test century and Tendulkar's 52 built on a blazing 113-ball 81 by Virender Sehwag to put the hosts on course for a big total.
   Dravid added 122 for the third wicket with Tendulkar before falling in the day's last over, caught behind off leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.
   India were strongly placed at 278-2 after winning the toss on a good batting pitch before losing three wickets in the space of 20 runs in the final session, with seamer Razzaq taking two off successive deliveries.
   Tendulkar, who turns 32 next month, was given a standing ovation by some 35,000 spectators at the Eden Gardens when he turned Razzaq to long-leg for a single to join the elite 10,000-club.
   Australian Allan Border heads the list with 11,174 runs, followed by compatriot Steve Waugh (10,927), India's Sunil Gavaskar (10,122), West Indian Brian Lara (10,094) and Tendulkar (10,025).
   Tendulkar is one three-figure knock short of surpassing Gavaskar's world record of 34 Test centuries. He had missed out on the world mark in the drawn opening Test at Mohali, scoring 94.
   This time, he fell shortly after completing his 40th Test half-century when he was caught behind off leg-spinner Shahid Afridi.
   But there was no stopping Dravid, who looked in good form from the start as he drove and cut flawlessly and fluently to keep pressure on the Pakistani bowlers and fielders.
   Even Tendulkar could not upstage Dravid, who gave the spectators plenty to cheer about with his rich stroke-play. He reached his century in the final session when he on-drove paceman Mohammad Sami for his 15th boundary.
   Dravid was in the 90s when he lost skipper Sourav Ganguly and Venkatsai Laxman, both falling to Razzaq. The Indian captain was caught behind driving away from the body, while Laxman was trapped leg-before next ball.
   Dinesh Karthik survived the hat-trick ball and went on to make 28 not out.
   Razzaq's twin-strike came after Pakistan had struggled for wickets on a track which had neither bounce nor pace even on the first morning.
   Even Kaneria, Pakistan's best bowler in the first Test at Mohali with six wickets, failed to keep constant pressure on the batsmen.
   India feasted on the Pakistani attack in the first two sessions, with Sehwag showing the way with his aggressive knock containing 11 fours. He put on 80 for the opening wicket with Gautam Gambhir (29) and 76 for the second with Dravid.
   Sehwag, who scored 173 in the previous Test, looked set for a second successive hundred before throwing away his wicket.
   He attempted a big shot off Afridi, but top-edged it into the covers where skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq held a well-judged running catch.
   Pakistan managed just one wicket in the morning session when Kaneria dismissed Gambhir. He was given out leg-before by West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor, standing in a record 100th Test.

Some 30,000 Indian fans gave West Indian Steve Bucknor a standing ovation on Wednesday for becoming the first umpire in cricket history to stand in 100 Test matches.
   The 58-year-old Jamaican was presented a silver plaque on behalf of the Board of Control for Cricket in India before play started in the second Test against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens here.
   He will also receive the Golden Bails award from International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani on Saturday, the scheduled fourth day of the Test. Bucknor, who has officiated in four cricket World Cups, stood in his first international game during the fourth Test between India and the West Indies in his native Kingston, Jamaica, in April 1989.
   He was a qualified football referee before switching to cricket full-time in 1992.
   ‘It means a lot to be the first umpire to reach this milestone, because when I first started in the West Indies I never dreamed I could get anywhere near that figure,’ Bucknor was quoted as saying in an ICC media release.
   ‘It’s a tremendous feeling, but I also know that it will easily be achieved by the other younger umpires after me, with so much international cricket now being played.’
   Bucknor said the biggest change in umpiring over his career was the greater scrutiny of decision-making by television analysis.
   ‘I think standards of umpiring are higher than they have ever been, but we are also under greater pressure and scrutiny than before,’ he said.
   ‘‘I am just trying to get to the World Cup in 2007,’ he said. ‘That would be the ultimate, to stand in a fifth World Cup in the Caribbean, where my career started.’

Dedicated hockey organiser and joint secretary of the Bangladesh Hockey Federation Zahidur Rahman Pushkin passed away on Wednesday at the Bangladesh Medical Hospital at Dhanmondi. He was only 43.
   Pushkin, the custodian of Abahani in his playing days, was a friendly and popular organiser.
   He was also the closest friend of late footballer Monem Munna who died last month.
   He was admitted in the hospital after suffering brain haemorrhage in the morning
   at his residence and was immediately admitted to the hospital.
   At about 12 noon the duty doctors declared him clinically dead. The news of his death obsessed the sports arena.

Bangladesh Under-19 team will embark on a tour of Australia on April 6 as part of their preparation for the Under-19 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka in February next year.
   The team will play 10 matches against the Australian Under-19 and regional teams during the 26-day long tour.
   There are two scheduled matches against Australia Under-19 team which lost against Bangladesh Under-19 in the last World Cup plate final.
   ‘It is an important tour for the Under-19 team in Australia. Playing in the Australian condition will boost up the confidence of the Bangladeshi boys for their next mission,’ said Under-19 coach Richard McInnes to New Age.
   McInnes who is also the high performance manager of BCB already completed a successful tour with Bangladesh A team in the UAE and Zimbabwe. Bangladesh comfortably won the three matches Tests series against Zimbabwe A 3-0 but lost in the one day series 3-2.
   ‘Overall it was a nice tour and the players learned many things. They are surely talented but significantly during the tour they performed as a team. Almost every player performed well,’ told McInnes to New Age.

Who’s world cricket’s most dynamic player? Look no further than Adam Gilchrist after another match-turning century to snatch the first Test away from New Zealand.
   Australia possess most of the titans of cricket’s modern era: Warne, McGrath, Ponting, Langer, Hayden, Gillespie, Martyn, but it is Gilchrist whose batting ferocity at No.7 underpins this special collection of cricketers.
   In the midst of so many match-winners it speaks volumes for his galvanising impact on the Australian team as they dominate both forms of world cricket.
   Gilchrist has revolutionised the once-neglected role of wicketkeeper-batsman down the order since his debut against Pakistan in Brisbane in November 1999, shortly before his 28th birthday.
   Australian cricket has much to be grateful for in the intervening period. In 66 consecutive Tests Gilchrist has played his part in 51 victories, accumulating 14 centuries along the way for 4,230 runs at an astonishing 53.54 runs every time he comes out to bat. No-one has scored more runs in Test history batting at seven.
   But it is the extraordinary rate at which Gilchrist scores his runs that makes the clean-striking left-hander so special.
   He has plundered six of the ten fastest Test centuries per balls by an Australian and claimed what was then the fastest 200 in Test history off 212 balls against South Africa in 2002.
   Even when opposing teams have had Australia on the ropes and five wickets down for not many, it’s often been the dreaded appearance of Gilchrist at the crease that has triggered an exhilarating counter-attack.
   Just like what happened at Christchurch’s Jade Stadium last weekend when Gilchrist came to the wicket with Australia 201 for six, 232 runs behind New Zealand’s first innings and still 33 runs adrift of the follow-on.
   Gilchrist pounded the hapless Kiwi bowlers for 121 off 126 balls with 12 fours and six sixes and when he was finally caught just inside the boundary rope he had Australia pulsing along at 413 for 7.
   Gilchrist moved to third on the Test six-hitting list with 74 — behind Chris Cairns’ 87 and Viv Richards’ 84.
   The Kiwis never recovered from the psychological plummelling and were routed for 131, presenting the Australians with a comfortable victory target of 133 inside the fourth day.
   New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was in no doubt who stole the Test from his expectant Kiwis.
   ‘Gilchrist is the key factor,’ Fleming said. ‘Any other side, if you get to 430, it’s going to take them until well into the fourth day to reach parity if they are going to compete.
   ‘It comes back to the point that Gilchrist can score so quickly, then there’s the pressure that Warne and McGrath can create so you don’t score as fast and you see a big shift.
   ‘Gilchrist’s got the ability to turn a game by being so positive and scoring his runs so quick ... he puts the foot down and gets them back in the game.’
   But that’s not all to the remarkable Gilchrist story. He is a cricketer with a conscience, one who has stirred contrasting emotions in hard-nosed cricket by ‘walking’ before given out by the umpire.
   Some have accused Gilchrist’s moralist stance as a double-standard, in light of his raucous caught-behind appeals, even if replays show the ball has missed the bat.
   Gilchrist has spoken of his dismay at the controversy over what’s been termed his ‘walking crusade’.
   ‘I am just stunned, absolutely stunned at the reaction. I just can’t believe where it’s got to, it’s out of control. It really is extraordinary to hear some of the things people are saying about that,’ he said recently.
   ‘I’ve spoken about it with my wife and other people who I value... what I’m doing is right, it’s right for me. I’m not out there to do it right for anyone else, I’m just trying to make the right decisions and do the right things more than I do the wrong things.’
   Gilchrist won plenty of admirers for a moral stance of another kind when before last January’s Asian tsunami fund-raising match in Melbourne, he made a sobering observation.
   ‘It shouldn’t take one freak act of nature to realise how generous we can be,’ Gilchrist told a press conference ahead of the game. ‘For people out there, thanks for your support now, but please think about the long-term effect you can have.
   ‘In Africa, up to 30,000 people die a day from disease and malnutrition, so if we can think about that long-term, there are wonderful opportunities to realise we can lend a hand.’
   Time is running out on a unique cricketer. Gilchrist has spoken of his likely retirement after the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean such is his desire to spend more time with his young family in Perth.

Stylish Indian batsman Rahul Dravid was disappointed at losing his wicket after scoring a century in the second Test against Pakistan here on Wednesday, saying he wanted to build on the momentum.
   ‘It’s not nice to get out in the last over of the day,’ said Dravid, who scored an elegant 110 to help India reach 344-6 at stumps on the opening day at the Eden Gardens.
   ‘It’s disappointing because it was important for me to stay at the crease for the team’s cause.’
   Dravid was caught by wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal off leg-spinner Danish Kaneria in the last over of the day.
   ‘I enjoyed the rhythm and was in total control during the innings. It would have been good to string a few
   partnerships with the tail-enders on the second day,’ said Dravid.
   Dravid’s 19th hundred in his 88th Test was upstaged by his more illustrious team-mate Sachin Tendulkar, who became the fifth batsman to complete 10,000 Test runs.
   ‘It’s a great achievement and Tendulkar has joined an elite club,’ said Dravid, who has so far made 7,522 Test runs.
   ‘There was a lot of noise coming from the stands and Tendulkar came to me and asked, ‘what’s happening’ and I told him that you are just two runs away from 10,000 runs,’ said Dravid.
   The Indian vice-captain described the Eden Gardens pitch as good to bat on.
   ‘It’s a very good pitch and the outfield is also very fast. It would definitely take spin at a later stage and I hope we get
   the desired result here,’ he said.’
   The first Test in Mohali ended in a draw last week. The third and final Test will be held in Bangalore from March 24.
   Pakistan will also play six one-day internationals on their first full tour of India since 1999.

England captain Michael Vaughan will miss the first month of the 2005 English domestic season, which starts in April, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced here Tuesday.
   The 30-year-old Yorkshire batsman is being given a break following his efforts in leading England throughout their gruelling Test and one-day series in South Africa where games came thick and fast.
   Vaughan will sit out of all competitive cricket until May 6 when he will be available for Yorkshire’s County Championship home contest with Northamptonshire.
   He will then have a second four-day match, versus Leicestershire, to prepare himself for the opening Test of two against Bangladesh, which begins at Lord’s on May 26.
   England coach Duncan Fletcher wants to make sure as many of his leading players are as fresh as possible for the showpiece Ashes Test series against Australia which gets underway in July.
   To that end, other players among the dozen on England central contracts will also be granted time off.
   Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, who will miss Warwickshire’s season opener against the MCC, fast bowler Stephen Harmison and batsmen Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick and Graham Thorpe are to concentrate on Championship cricket, although the quintet will be permitted to play in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy one-day competition.
   By contrast, fast bowlers James Anderson and Simon Jones have not had any restrictions placed upon them, while Matthew Hoggard and wicketkeeper Geraint Jones will be available to Yorkshire and Kent respectively for all cricket from their counties’ first Championship matches.
   Injured pair Andrew Flintoff, the Lancashire all-rounder and Mark Butcher, the Surrey top-order batsman, are to be assessed before a decision is made about when they should return to senior cricket.

Real Madrid striker Raul is ready to ‘sacrifice’ his career with the club if it helps the team, currently struggling in the title race and out of Europe.
   ‘If I have to sacrifice myself for the team I will do it,’ Raul said in an interview Wednesday with ABC daily.
   ‘If I have to sacrifice myself for the club and for the team to progress that’s what I’ll do,’ he repeated when asked about his future after 11 years with the team that his goals have helped fire to three Champions League titles.
   ‘Now people are saying that three or four of us have to go and I am one of them, though the club hasn’t told me that,’ said Raul, alluding to persistent reports that ‘galacticos’ such as himself, Luis Figo, David Beckham and Roberto Carlos may have reached their sell-by date.
   Raul is closing in on 200 league goals for Real and had hoped to hit the 50 mark in the Champions League this season prior to the meringues being bundled out in the last 16 by Juventus.
   But last year he netted just 11 times in the league and this year his league tally is only six - three less than England hitman Michael Owen who has been a regular scorer despite being only a bit-part player.
   Ronaldo is the club’s top scorer with 11 but after last weekend’s loss at modest Getafe the gap with leaders Barcelona grew to 11 points and the title race appears as good as over.
   Real coach Wanderley Luxemburgo professed to be unruffled despite Real’s poor recent performances which have left the club facing a second straight season shorn of silverware.
   ‘I am not worried as regards whether I am going to stay on or not stay on at Real. My thoughts are entirely focused on the team finishing the season as it ought to,’ Luxemburgo told AS sports daily.
   ‘I have not forgotten about the league, even if many say it is a hopeless cause,’ he added, insisting that he had not become a bad coach overnight.
   ‘I am sure I am going to be good Real Madrid coach,’ he forecast.
   Raul has always been the first name on the Real teamsheet, including under Luxemburgo, but he said he would read the signs when his time was up.
   ‘If the club calls you and tells you you have to go we players have to look for a way out beneficial to both parties,’ the 27-year-old told ABC.
   He added that the team ‘isn’t running on full power, we’re not winning trophies and clearly we have to find a solution.’
   ‘It’s a bad time to be a Madrid player,’ he admitted, but stressed that ‘what’s happening is not an individual thing.
   ‘It’s not just me to blame, but a collective issue,’ said the striker who has netted a national record 41 goals in 82 internationals.

Roger Federer continued to roll over his opponents and Lindsay Davenport had an equally easy time as both top seeds breezed into the next round of the Indian Wells WTA and ATP Masters Series event.
   World No 1 and defending champion Federer cruised past unheralded Gilles Muller, of Luxembourg, while Davenport dispatched 16-year-old Viktoriya Kutuzova 6-1, 6-4 in the evening match on Tuesday.
   Federer is now 22-1 this year after firing seven aces and winning 80 of 141 total points in the 83-minute match.
   ‘I felt I was always in control,’ said Federer. ‘I am feeling well and I have had two quite comfortable matches so far.’
   Federer already has three titles (Doha, Rotterdam, Dubai) in 2005 and will next
   face Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, who beat Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-1.
   Red-hot Ljubicic has reached four finals this year, but strangely three of those losses have been to Federer.
   ‘I am ready for a player of this calibre,’ Federer said. ‘I favour Ljubicic because he’s been winning many more matches.’
   Federer’s only loss this year came in the semi-finals of the Australian Open to eventual champion Marat Safin who was upset by American Taylor Dent 7-5, 6-4 on Tuesday.
   ‘It was the worst match I ever played in my career,’ Safin said. ‘I have never felt so bad on the court in my entire career.’
   At one point Safin got so frustrated he smashed his racket. ‘I like destroyed it,’ he said. ‘I really touched the bottom of my game.’
   Fourth seeded Safin, of Russia, crashed out of Indian Wells in the third round for the second straight year, losing last year to Andy Roddick in 2004.
   Two time Indian Wells champion Davenport registered five aces and won 89 percent of her first serve points against the 16-year-old Ukrainian.
   Davenport, who is seeking her 47 career singles title, squares off against France’s Nathalie Dechy in the quarters.
   Australian two-time Grand Slam winner Lleyton Hewitt covered the court effectively in overpowering Frenchman Michael Llodra 6-2, 7-6.
   ‘He’s awkward to play because you really don’t know what’s coming,’ Hewitt said. ‘It is a matter of trying to get your rhythm out there and just make him play a lot of balls.’
   The former world number one Hewitt committed just 12 unforced errors against the hard-serving Llodra.
   ‘He’s the one trying to pull the trigger all the time,’ Hewitt said.
   ‘He comes up with some great winners and then he’s going to make a lot of unforced errors as well. You just have to try and weather the storm.’
   The 24-year-old Hewitt advances to the fourth round where he will meet the
   winner of Paul-Henri Mathieu who beat Jan Hernych 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8/6).
   Hewitt has a history of producing some of his best tennis in Indian Wells, winning consecutive titles in 2002 and 2003 and holding a stellar 21-5 singles record.
   In other matches, France’s Fabrice Santoro beat Feliciano Lopez, of Spain, 6-4, 6-2 to reach fourth round.
   Santoro had just two double faults and won 64 of 111 total points in the 73-minute match.
   In the women’s draw, Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva advanced to the quarter-finals by beating France’s Tatiana Golovin 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
   Dementieva had to rally from a set down for the second consecutive match as she is trying to improve on her semi-final finish here in 2000.
   ‘I was able to come back and I feel my game is getting better from the previous match,’ said Dementieva, who was runner-up in the French and US Opens last year.
   This was Golovin’s best performance in Indian Wells as she failed to get past the second round in two previous appearances.
   Dementieva was one of six Russians in action Tuesday with three advancing to the quarter-finals.
   She next faces Kuznetsova in a rematch of the 2005 US Open final which was won by Kuznetsova 6-3, 7-5.
   Kuznetsova booked her spot in the quarters by beating Japan’s Rika Fujiwara 6-3, 6-2 and third seed Maria Sharapova rallied from behind to beat Colombia’s Fabiola Zuluaga 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
   Unseeded Kim Clijsters continued her march through the field routing Russian teen Evgenia Linetskaya 6-2, 6-1.

Ray Jennings, the current coach of the South African team, does not have the unanimous support of all the players as full-time coach, according to reports. Jennings has reapplied for the full-time role after gaining support from the players, including Graeme Smith, the captain. But not everyone in the side would be happy if Jennings’ appointment as coach - a position he has held since October - was made permanent.
   ‘I would be very disappointed if this was the truth,’ Jennings told the News24 website. ‘I know that no coach will have the support of all the players he works with. Yes, it is true that I challenge the players to lift their game. I would be lying if I said it had been plain sailing, because there have been words between me and some players, but nothing serious.’
   ‘I challenged Graeme Smith at times and I must have irritated him when things did not pan out as I wanted,’ continued Jennings. ‘Overall, however, we have a good relationship and I believe I have the support of the senior players such as Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini and Smith.

Fast bowler Brett Lee may be allowed to return home to Australia if he is left out of the team to play New Zealand in the second Test starting in Wellington on Friday.
   Lee was 12th man in Australia’s nine-wicket win in last week’s first Test and
   could be cleared to return home to play in the domestic first-class final if he is overlooked again.

Brazilian striker Adriano scored a stunning hat-trick as Inter Milan beat holders Porto 3-1 here Tuesday in their Champions League first knockout round second leg match to dump them out of the competition and become the third Italian team to reach the quarter-finals.
   Defeat – 4-2 on aggregate – meant Porto became the first Champions League holders to fail to make the quarter-finals.
   Adriano appeared to have put Inter in total control with a deflected shot and a cool finish giving the hosts a two-goal lead, but a scrambled effort from Porto’s veteran defender Jorge Costa ensured a nail-biting climax.
   However, Adriano had the final word, settling Inter’s jangling nerves four minutes from time with a superb solo effort.
   By joining Serie A rivals Juventus and AC Milan in the last eight, Inter have kept their season alive as they trail joint league leaders AC Milan and Juve by 16 points and with 10 games left they have practically no chance of closing the gap.
   Victory against Porto maintained Inter’s unbeaten home record against Portuguese clubs in Europe with seven wins and a draw.
   Inter coach Roberto Mancini was delighted to see Adriano return to his brilliant best, having scored just one goal since December 12 before facing the reigning European champions.
   ‘I’m very pleased for him and he deserves it,’ Mancini said.
   ‘All strikers go through a difficult period and he’s no different – all that was needed was a bit of calm. He didn’t go on holiday, he just stuck at it and now he’s reaping the rewards.’
   Porto coach Jose Couceiro admitted his players contributed to their own downfall with a string of mistakes that Adriano fully exploited.
   ‘This match was decided by errors,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t just the defence it was throughout the whole team. But we win as a team and lose as a team and we will grow stronger from this experience.’
   Asked what his team had in common with the one that won the trophy last season under Jose Mourinho, who then left to join Chelsea, he replied, ‘Just the name.’
   Mancini was forced to reshuffle his defence with left-back Giuseppe Favalli and centre-back Ivan Cordoba both suspended.
   Jose Ze Maria came in for Favalli and Inter captain Javier Zanetti switched to the left-hand side to accommodate the Brazilian right-back. Veteran Serbian Sinisa Mihajlovic was a straight swap for Cordoba.
   Inter’s Argentine striker Julio Cruz partnered Adriano up front as Christian Vieri and Obafemi Martins were both still feeling minor injuries.
   Inter, winners of the old European Cup in 1964 and 1965, were handed the perfect start in the sixth minute when a misplaced pass by Porto defender Diego went straight to the predatory Adriano.
   The burly Brazil international burst into the box before drilling an angled shot that deflected heavily off Pedro Emanuel and looped over Victor Baia and into the net.
   The goal stirred the visitors into life and they tested Francesco Toldo for the first time in the 27th minute. Greek Euro 2004 winner Georgios Seitaridis drove a ball into Inter’s penalty area and Benni McCarthy instinctively stuck out a boot, but the South African’s effort lacked the power to trouble the Inter keeper.
   Inter were happy to sit back and try to pick Porto off on the break, but their tactic nearly cost them dear seven minutes after the break when substitute Quaresma took advantage of a static defence and curled a shot narrowly wide of the post.
   McCarthy drove a free-kick straight at Toldo as the Portuguese pressed forward in search of a vital away goal, before Inter spurned a golden opportunity to kill off the tie.
   Juan Sebastian Veron was played through on goal by Cruz and with Baia stranded all he had to do was roll the ball across goal for Adriano, but the Argentine midfielder’s pass went to a Portuguese defender.
   Adriano then doubled his tally in the 63rd minute, springing the offside trap to collect Cruz’s pass before stabbing the ball past Baia with his trusty left boot.
   After Seitaridis hit the post with a speculative long-range shot, Costa hauled Porto back into the match, prodding home from a yard out after Toldo had failed to collect a corner.
   Pedro Emanuel’s goalline clearance prevented Javier Zanetti from restoring Inter’s two-goal cushion before Adriano carved his way into the box and beat Baia with a left-footed curler.

Real Madrid, facing a second straight season without a trophy, will in June break up the all- star team that it assembled for about $250 million, team president Florentino Perez said.
   ‘It’s a fact of life soccer players leave,’ Perez told Spanish TV station Antena 3. ‘I prefer to talk about the great players that will come than those that will leave.’
   Perez didn’t say which of the so-called seven star players, known as ‘Galacticos,’ will depart. The 32-year-old midfielder Luis Figo, defender Roberto Carlos, 31, and striker Raul Gonzalez, 27, are the most likely to go, sports daily Marca said on March 11. Zinedine Zidane, 32, and Ronaldo, 28, are the least likely to be sold, the paper added.
   Since his election by club members in 2000, Perez has had a policy of signing big-name players, partly aimed at boosting sales. Annual marketing income soared almost 15-fold to 85.3 million euros ($114 million) in the four years through July 2004. On the field, Madrid face a second straight season without a trophy for the first time in 13 years. They lost to Juventus in the Champions League last week and trail Spanish league leader Barcelona by 11 points with 10 games left.
   ‘We’re not in crisis,’ Perez, 58, told Antena 3. ‘What we have to do is avoid everyone becoming de-motivated.’
   Jose Antonio Reyes and Robinho, 21-year-old forwards at England’s Arsenal and Brazil’s Santos, are targets for Madrid, according to Marca, which added that the nine-time European champions are also interested in rehiring coach Fabio Capello, 58. Capello, who led Juventus to victory over Madrid last week, guided Madrid to the 1997 league title.
   Selling midfielder David Beckham, 29, might hurt Madrid’s revenue. Merchandising sales surged 67 per cent to 50.8 million euros in the year after he joined from Manchester United in June 2003. Beckham said last week he wants to stay.
   ‘I have two years left on my contract and I still hope to win something with Real Madrid,’ Beckham told reporters after the defeat to Juventus.
   Striker Michael Owen, acquired from Liverpool for about $12 million in August, was less certain when asked about his future. ‘We’ll see,’ he said after the Juve game. Owen, 25, spent most of this season as a substitute.
   Figo, signed for a then-record fee of $56 million from Barcelona, was the first player Perez acquired in 2000. Figo’s contract expires in June 2006. Roberto Carlos and Raul, already at Madrid when Perez arrived, have contracts through 2007 and 2010 respectively.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter ripped into Jose Mourinho in the bitter war over Anders Frisk, branding the Chelsea manager 'disgusting'.
   The top man in world soccer accused Mourinho of disrespect and triggering the threats from fans which persuaded Frisk to quit.
   Blatter, 69, rapped, 'These verbal attacks on referees make me sick.
   'We should remember the one who is attacking referees is also attacking the football environment he is living in.
   'It is this kind of behaviour that leads to problems among supporters and I would strongly recommend all parties show respect for the referees and think about fair play.'
   Blatter's intervention has escalated to the highest level in the game the war of words over Frisk's shock resignation.
   Chelsea boss Mourinho, 42, is still threatening to sue UEFA referees' chief Volker Roth, who branded the Portuguese coach 'an enemy of football'.
   A Stamford Bridge spokesman insisted, 'Chelsea have made clear their fury and complete dissatisfaction with the comments from Mr Roth.
   'We are hopeful UEFA will distance themselves as an organisation from the comments of this individual.'
   But Roth refuses to back down. He said, 'I have heard Mourinho is threatening to sue and I'm looking forward to seeing what his complaint is.
   'I sometimes feel like I'm the last idiot in football telling people about fair play.'
   Frisk was rated the No 2 referee in the world but Mourinho is sticking by his outburst over Frisk's handling of last month's 2-1 defeat at the Nou Camp.
   He claimed the Swede was chatting to Barca boss Frank Rijkaard at half-time and made a string of dreadful decisions - including sending off striker Didier Drogba - which influenced the result.
   Frisk has told UEFA there is no chance he will be persuaded to change his plans.
   He said, 'I don't want any more questions about me coming back. I am confident with my decision to leave refereeing behind and to get on with my life.
   'I still feel in my stomach I did the right thing. I don't want to go back and have told UEFA this so I hope they respect my decision.'
   The row prompted England boss Sven Goran Eriksson to urge rival bosses to behave more responsibly in their dealings with referees. He said, 'When you are a manager you have to maintain a positive relationship with the officials.
   'It's not necessary to agree with everything the referee decides - as I found out at Euro 2004 in Portugal.
   'After 90 minutes you can talk to the referee and that's it. Then it is finished.'
   Eriksson's plea for calm was echoed by UEFA spokesman William Gaillard, who said, 'Players, coaches and managers have a responsibility to exert restraint.
   'The game is watched by millions and we can't expect everyone to be as mentally balanced as they should. Therefore, one should be very careful about making statements that could be potentially inflammatory.'
   Gaillard's comments reflect UEFA's growing impatience with Mourinho and have increased their determination to call the maverick Chelsea boss to account.
   Europe's governing body have also hit Chelsea with a series of charges after the team were late out for the second-half in the Nou Camp and Mourinho refused to attend a post-match press conference.

Chelsea stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League to 11 points with a 1-0 win over struggling West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
   Didier Drogba’s first-half goal takes Chelsea on to 74 points from 29 matches with Manchester United in second place on 63 and champions Arsenal a further two points adrift in third.
   With nine games to play, however, Chelsea captain John Terry said there was still a long way to go after a hard-fought win in a match rearranged because of their League Cup final appearance.
   ‘Man United are pushing us all the way, Arsenal are still there, so all we can do is keep winning our games and putting pressure on those two,’ the England defender told Sky Sports. ‘We still need a few wins and hopefully we can do that with performances like that (tonight),’ he added.
   Chelsea, who commemorated the centenary of their foundation with a celebrity-studded dinner on Monday night, dominated from the start as they put the visitors under constant pressure. They were rewarded after 26 minutes when striker Drogba tucked the ball home from eight metres after Damien Duff lost his marker down the left and cut back a precise low cross.
   It was the 50th goal West Brom have conceded in the Premier League this season and only bottom club Norwich City (58) have let in more as the pair struggle to avoid relegation.
   Drogba should have scored a second goal just after the hour mark when he turned defender Thomas Gaardsoe outside the penalty area but flashed his low shot wide of Russell Hoult’s far post.
   Ten minutes later the Ivory Coast forward had another clear chance to increase Chelsea’s lead but somehow managed to head the ball wide of the post from an unmarked position.
   West Brom battled gamely and a Kanu volley moments later was headed over by the excellent Robert Huth, but the Midlands side rarely looked capable of getting back on level terms.
   ‘We have got to take the good points out of the game,’ said West Brom manager Bryan Robson. ‘We were playing one of the best teams in Europe so we’ve got to take that into the Charlton game on Saturday,’ he added, referring to his team’s visit to The Valley.

With more than 14 months to go before the whistle blows for the opening match of the 2006 football World Cup, the German tourism industry is licking its lips in anticipation of a bumper crop of visitors.
   The message that the World Cup is coming to Germany soon is everywhere at an international tourism fair which closes in Berlin on Tuesday.
   Visitors are invited to shoot at a goal standing on a vibrant green piece of astro-turf while people flock around the bus used to transport the German national team.
   Germany is expecting an influx of three million visitors to watch the tournament which takes place from June 9 to July 9 - and it hopes those fans will shop, drink and eat to their heart's content and enjoy the country's cultural attractions while they are here.
   Franz Beckenbauer, one of Germany's sporting heroes as a player and manager and now the head of the 2006 World Cup organising committee, said hotels must be ready for business if they are to get their share of the bonanza.
   'We are counting on at least five million extra overnight stays in Germany. We have to make the most of this. We won't get another chance like it,' he said in an interview this week in Wirtschaftswoche magazine.
   Germany, however, should be wary of the experience of Athens, which was expecting a tourism boom from last year's Summer Olympic Games but instead found many potential visitors scared off by security fears, or concerns that hotels were inflating their prices.
   However, the Olympics are more or less a one-city event, whereas the World Cup in Germany will be spread around 12 host cities, stretching from Cologne in the west to Leipzig in the former East Germany. The final game is in Berlin.
   The tourist industry wants the German government to introduce exceptional measures for an exceptional event.
   The German hoteliers' federation used the tourism fair in Berlin to call for shops to be allowed to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during the World Cup.
   And it called for a ban on night flights to be lifted during the competition, allowing fans to travel around the country more easily.
   But the World Cup is also being seen in Germany as a golden opportunity to improve its image abroad by shaking off its grey and industrial reputation, not just by building stadiums which are architecturally stunning, but by a true public relations effort: The tournament's official slogan is 'A time to make friends'.
   'This is the world's number one sports event and we want to present ourselves as a welcoming country, one which is friendly and open to the world. We would also like to spread the knowledge of the German language and reinforce our image,' said Petra Hedorfer, the president of the German Central Tourist Authority (DZT).
   Beckenbauer agrees. 'For five or six weeks, Germany is going to be the centre of the world and we are expecting 15,000 journalists.
   'What this is going to do for the image of the country cannot be put into mere figures.'

Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona was given green light to travel after undergoing a 'gastric by-pass operation' to lose weight at the northern Colombian city of Cartagena, said medical sources on Tuesday.
   Maradona is in excellent physical condition and the effects of the operation are becoming evident, as it reduced the size of his stomach by 90-95 per cent, said doctor Francisco Holguin.
   'In some 10 months he will weigh 75-80 kilograms. We haven't checked his weight, but it is evident he has lost some,' he added.
   Holguin said Maradona now will be allowed to travel, three weeks before the original forecasts. Yet, he will have to return every month for check-ups.
   Before the operation Maradona weighed 121 kilograms and now will have to undergo a strict diet for the
   first four or five weeks of recovery.
   The Argentine arrived in Colombia last February 9, in his second visit in the country. Last year, he visited Barranquilla in the farewell match of his friend Carlos 'Pibe' Valderrama.
   Maradona was born on October 30, 1960, at the neighborhood of Villa Fiorito on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
   He had brilliant years with Italian soccer team Napoli, from 1984 to 1991, when he led the team to win two league titles as well as the Italian Cup, the UEFA Cup and the Italian Super Cup.

Former France captain Michel Platini turned down offers to play for Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur when he left St Etienne for Juventus in 1982.
   ‘I had proposals from English clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham and my wife wanted to go to London,’ Platini told reporters on Tuesday when he announced his bid for the UEFA presidency.
   ‘But I decided against it because you play too many games in England, and I went to Italy.’
   Platini said the congested fixture schedule in English football was the reason why Premier League clubs often struggled in European competition. ‘When you don’t have a winter break, you can’t be at your highest level when the spring comes,’ he added.
   ‘Actually, you are injury prone and the team cannot be at its best. You don’t have such a heavy schedule in Italy. In five years in Serie A, I was never injured.’

Real Madrid have completed the signing of Santos winger Robinho.
   Despite pleas from Pele and Carlos Parreira to remain in Brazil, Robinho will join Real ahead of next season.
   The deal has been agreed for some time, but Real have not announced it out of courtesy to Santos, which do not want the expected publicity to influence their Copa Liberatores campaign.
   Real Madrid will pay Santos a £12 million fee for the Brazil international, who will pen a four-year contract in the summer with the Spanish giants. Robinho’s deal will be worth a cool £1.4 million-a-season.
   Parreira commented only last Friday that he did not want to see Robinho move to Europe. ‘For Robinho, a transfer to Europe is good. But for Brazil it is not.’

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is considering the future of coach Wanderley Luxemburgo.
   Juventus coach Fabio Capello, a former Real trainer, and Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez head Perez’s shortlist of replacements for the Brazilian.
   It’s understood Luxemburgo needs a dramatic improvement in results in the closing weeks of the season to save his job.
   Perez is determined to satisfy supporters by making a dramatic clear-out of players and staff over the summer, with Luxemburgo’s position high on the agenda.