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A 22-member Pakistan veterans football team arrived in Dhaka on Sunday. The visitors invited by Sonali Otit Club, Naryanganj will play a number of exhibition matches during their stay in the country. Many of the players had stints with Dhaka clubs in their playing days.
   The Pakistan veterans team - Abid Hussain, A Jabbar, Rasool Baksh, Jafar Iqbal, m. Kasheem, Sabbir Gulam, Khalid Butt, Jameel Baloch, Muhammad Hasan, Ali Nawaz, Faqear Muhammad, Muhammad Tarek, Jameel Ahmed, Akhlaq Ahmed, Shazad Mohammad, Akabar Ali, Shah Jahan, Sajjad Mahmood and Yousuf Mohammad.
   Noor-ul-Abedin- Team Leader, A Shakoor Baloch- Manager.

Bangladesh will meet Hong Kong in their second match of the Asian Cup qualifying round at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Wednesday.
   The Hong Kong team reached Dhaka on Monday.
   Hong Kong are currently rated 117th in the FIFA rankings and in Asia they are 21st ranked team. Bangladesh are 143rd in the FIFA rankings and 30th in Asia.
   Bangladesh lost 0-5 against Uzbekistan at Tashkent in the first match while Hong Kong
   suffered a 0-3 loss to Qatar at home.

Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey shared a century partnership and Brett Lee hit out powerfully as an injury-hit Australian team reached a competitive total in the first one-day international against South Africa at Centurion Park Sunday.
   Australia, who were without captain Ricky Ponting, made 229 for eight in an innings reduced to 47 overs by rain.
   Clarke (53) and Hussey (56) rescued the side from a shaky start and Australia were 162 for six when rain stopped play after 40 overs.
   When play resumed more than an hour later, Lee hit an unbeaten 38 off 28 balls as Australia made 67 runs off the remaining seven overs.
   Ponting suffered an abdominal strain while batting in the nets Saturday and withdrew Sunday morning, joining all-rounder Andrew Symonds (thigh) and Stuart Clark (rib) on the sidelines and leaving the tourists with just 11 fit players.
   Stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist decided to bat after winning the toss but his side were soon in trouble as South African opening bowlers Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini took advantage of helpful, overcast conditions.
   Australia slipped to 25 for three before Clarke and Hussey put on exactly 100 for the fourth wicket.
   Clarke and Hussey were starting to get on top, taking 43 runs in seven overs of spin from Robin Peterson and South African captain Graeme Smith, when Smith brought back Pollock.
   With the second ball of his new spell, Pollock had Clarke superbly caught by a diving AB de Villiers at cover. He followed up with the wicket of Hussey, caught at deep midwicket, in his next over.
   Pollock finished with three for 23 from ten overs.
   Lee and Shane Watson added 51 for the seventh wicket as Australia finished strongly.
   Andre Nel, in his first match since suffering a foot injury in early January, conceded 21 runs off his final over, which included two sixes by Lee and three wides.
   Ntini gave an improved performance after conceding 44 runs in three overs in a 20-overs international in Johannesburg on Friday in his first match since suffering a knee injury in Australia in December.
   He had figures of two for 25 off eight overs but his ninth and final over cost 17, including two sixes by Nathan Bracken.
   Australian physiotherapist Errol Alcott said Ponting had suffered a low grade strain which made movement painful.
   ‘He will undergo intensive treatment and will be reassessed late next week,’ said Alcott.
   Symonds had been expected to play Sunday but Alcott said it had been decided to give the player five more days to be fully fit for the second match of the five-game series in Cape Town Friday. Clark is also expected to be fit by Friday.

A knee injury that has forced Pakistani pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar to fly to Australia to consult a specialist could bring early curtains on his career, fears the Pakistan Cricket Board.
   ‘We are keeping our fingers crossed and PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has said no stone should be left unturned to get him the best possible medical treatment, which is why he has been rushed to Australia to consult a specialist. But initial reports about the injury are not very good,’ The News on Sunday quoted a PCB official as saying. After a long hiatus, Shoaib made a return to the team for the home series against England in October last year, claiming 17 wickets in three Tests.
   He also bowled with venom against India in the recently concluded Test series before a stress fracture in the ankle kept him out of the one-day series.
   The 30-year-old fast bowler found about his knee problem by chance when he appeared before the PCB medical panel that wanted to examine his stress fracture injury.
   ‘He told them he was feeling a strange sort of pain in his left knee. When they took out MRI scans and X-rays they found it was a degenerative disease of sorts in his affected knee and could have spread to the other knee also,’ the PCB official said.
   ‘The panel recommended that he should be immediately sent to Australia to consult a top specialist there.’
   ‘We are afraid of the worst case scenario because knee injuries generally spell big trouble for professional cricketers.
   ‘But we will get him the best available medical help and try to ensure he is back to full fitness if possible,’ the official said.

Pakistan Cricket Board is contemplating the name of an American fielding coach ahead of former South African fielding great Jonty Rhodes for the national team’s series against England.
   Mike Young, a former baseball player, coach and manager, is presently working as a consultant with the New Zealand team on three-week contract after being credited to produce good results with the World Champions Australia in the recent VB series.
   ‘The feedback about Young is that he is an excellent coach and has produced good results with the Australians and New Zealanders. Young has recently gained praise for his work with the Australians during the VB Series,’ a PCB source was quoted as saying by The News.
   PCB’s ad-hoc committee last week decided to hire a fielding coach for Pakistan team and captain Inzamam-ul Haq suggested that he should be hired three to four weeks before the England tour in mid June.
   The committee had sounded off the name of Rhodes, but sources said, the Board had been told to check up on Young who also works with Australian cricket.
   ‘Basically the Board wanted to hire someone who could start reinforcing some fundamental parts of the trade for the Pakistani players instead of trying to reinvent things. First and foremost in the list of priorities was the players’ attitude towards fielding,’ the source said.
   The Board has said the fielding coach would not travel with the team and will work with the players in their training camp prior to a tour.

England captain Michael Vaughan will take a decision on his fitness two days before the first Test in Nagpur.
   ‘We will test it on Monday and make a decision after the training session,’ Vaughan told reporters on Saturday.
   Vaughan sat out a three-day tour match, which the visitors lost by eight wickets on Saturday, because of a recurrence of a knee problem.
   The 31-year-old batsman said he was still struggling with the injury.
   ‘I had an injection on Wednesday night, tested it at nets yesterday and am going to monitor it over the next 48 hours.’
   Vaughan missed the first Test in Pakistan last year because of the injury. He played the remaining two Tests, but missed the one-day series to return home for surgery.
   Problems for the injury-hit England team were compounded with Marcus Trescothick returning home for personal reasons, details of which were not released.
   ‘It is not an ideal start, an ideal preparation for the Test match, obviously to lose this game,’ Vaughan said.

Zimbabwe cruised to an eight-wicket win in the first one-day international against Kenya in Bulawayo. Kennedy Otieno hit 74 and Thomas Odoyo contributed 54 in the tourists’ 226-9 after they had chosen to bat first.
   But Zimbabwe, despite fielding a clutch of novices, got home in the 44th over with half-centuries for Terry Duffin, Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza. On a day when little happened for the bowlers, Zimbabwe debutant Keegan Meth, aged 18, took 1-6 from three overs.

India coach Greg Chappell is backing the selection process that will pit a youthful squad against an experienced England side in the first Test of their three-match series starting in Nagpur on Wednesday.
   ‘I think the selection committee has made a decision along the lines of what we have seen with the one-day side,’ he told Reuters.
   ‘The energy and the application the young boys have brought to the one-day squad have been encouraging for everyone.
   ‘It is all part of the policy to regenerate the team,’ the former Australia captain added.
   ‘While we have got some experienced players, we need to be able to bring young players in and let them work their way in and get some experience and learn from the seniors.’
   In picking the squad for the Nagpur Test, the Indian selectors made the bold move of dropping former captain Saurav Ganguly as well as regular bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan.
   Drafted into the side are uncapped fast bowler Vikram Rajvir Singh and 17-year-old leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, while seamer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and batsman Suresh Raina were both rewarded for exceptional one-day form with Test match selection.
   Since taking over last September, Chappell has transformed the one-day side with the introduction of talented young players, who have also helped improve the standard of fielding.
   India have won 12 of their last 16 one-day internationals, thrashing Sri Lanka 6-1 at home last year and easing to a 4-1 series win in Pakistan this month, helping lift morale after losing the Test series.
   ‘Everybody has to start somewhere,’ Chappell said. ‘You don’t get experience sitting on the sidelines. It is important that they get picked when they are ready.
   Indian selectors are keen to offer young players enough opportunities to gain experience in the build-up to next year’s World Cup in West Indies.
   ‘We have a fair bit of experience in the bowling line-up with (Irfan) Pathan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, so I am not unduly concerned,’ Chappell added.
   ‘We worked out that we need some pace and we need some bounce and we looked to some young bowlers to provide that for us.’
   Although India have not won a Test series against a major side away from the sub-continent since 1986, Chappell is not concerned.
   ‘We have not been unsuccessful in Tests,’ he said.
   ‘We won a Test series against Sri Lanka at home recently and we had a very close series in Pakistan.
   ‘The infusion of youth and enthusiasm will help take us forward in our process of reinvigorating our Test team.’

FIFA has launched an investigation after the BBC discovered touts were selling illegal tickets for England’s World Cup games for up to £900 each.
   With FIFA selling the same tickets for £68, it represents a 1,000 per cent mark-up.
   Representatives of onlineticketshop.com offered a reporter tickets to England’s match against Sweden for £695 and £895.
   FIFA has said all tickets sold by online ticket brokers are invalid and may lead to holders being refused admission to stadiums in Germany.
   Under anti-hooliganism laws, it is also a criminal offence for anyone in the United Kingdom, other than official bodies, to offer to sell tickets for England games.
   Onlineticketshop.com claims on its website to be registered in the United States, which might provide it with a loophole to escape prosecution in the UK.
   The investigation by BBC Radio’s Five Live Report also found another six internet sites selling illegal England World Cup tickets.
   ‘We are going to be investigating these companies,’ a FIFA spokeswoman said.
   ‘We would advise fans not to buy World Cup tickets from online ticket sellers.’
   Onlineticketshop.com is a British company owned by Terrence Shepherd, who lives in south-east London.
   Its latest accounts show it has a turnover of £3.5m.
   BBC Five Live’s investigation discovered Shepherd previously ran Sports Mondial, which was hit by court sanctions after it was accused of selling non-existent tickets for Euro 2004.
   The company was also taken to court in Australia by the National Rugby League in 2003.
   It emerged during the case that Shepherd’s company had obtained tickets for a tournament in Australia by applying for them using more than 100 fictitious names.
   The following year, UEFA successfully obtained an injunction against Sports Mondial, accusing it of selling tickets to Euro
   2004 in Portugal without permission.
   The consumer watchdog in Portugal issued a Europe-wide warning that the company was selling tickets it did not have.
   Fans eventually lost thousands of pounds when the tickets failed to materialise.
   Shepherd failed to respond to several attempts to contact him.

Pele believes Italy’s bid for success at the 2006 World Cup hinges on striker Francesco Totti’s ability to recover from injury.
   Totti has undergone surgery after breaking his ankle last week and a projected return to action would have the player rated at touch-and-go to recover in time for the tournament.
   Former World Cup winner Pele believes that should the worst happen and Totti fail to recover sufficiently then the Azzurri may have to overhaul their tactical system to cope with the loss of their main creative force.
   ‘It will be a loss for the World Cup, for Italy, and all football lovers if he doesn’t recover,’ Pele told Gazzetta dello Sport
   ‘Without him Italy will be weaker because Totti is one of those players who can make a difference, for Italy, and for Roma too.
   ‘There will still be other good players. I think of (Zinedine) Zidane with France and (Michael) Ballack with Germany but they have different characteristics and the team can play without them.
   ‘Totti is the second forward and without him Italy must change their tactical scheme and find an alternative.’
   Despite Pele’s warning, Fiorentina’s free-scoring striker Luca Toni believes Italy are well-equipped to go all the way this summer after praising the team-building qualities of coach Marcello Lippi.
   ‘Lippi has made the national team into a real team,’ Toni told Corriere dello Sport.
   ‘It’s like a club now – we are close with one another.
   ‘Lippi has given everyone a chance and it is good to know that doors are always open.’
   Toni acknowledges Brazil as the pre-tournament favourites but also highlighted Argentina and hosts Germany as potential rivals to the Azzurri.
   ‘We must start in a strong way and it would be wrong to make calculations – in the qualifying round we have got Czech Republic and they will be a big obstacle,’ said Toni.
   ‘Brazil are favourites but we can also win it. We don’t hide that fact and that is our aim.
   ‘Argentina and Germany will also be strong.’
   Toni added that he is confident that Totti will feature at the finals after receiving the assurances of the player himself.
   ‘He will be there and he will be our key player. I’ve spoken to him after the injury and I understand he will be fit in time for Germany,’ added Toni.

Ashes hero Andrew Flintoff is in line to lead England in the first Test against India if skipper Michael Vaughan and his deputy Marcus Trescothick are unable to play in the game starting on Wednesday in Nagpur.
   With Trescothick, who deputised for the injured Vaughan in the warm-up
   match in Vadodara, flying home for ‘personal reasons’ and Vaughan nursing a sore knee, Flintoff may go out for the toss with Rahul Dravid in Nagpur, a report in The Sunday Observer said.
   In this scenario, Flintoff, who has had a wretched start to the tour with the bat, seems all set to take over the captain’s mantle.
   The only other contender would have been Andrew Strauss but he has also been afflicted by a dip in form, the report said.
   ‘And there are more complications on the horizon.
   ‘Flintoff intends to return home for the birth of his second child, around the time of the third Test.
   ‘Whether elevation to the England captaincy would affect that decision remains to be seen,’ the report said.
   Another report in the same newspaper said if Vaughan’s knee was always going to be vulnerable, an early decision should be taken to withdraw him from one-day cricket and, therefore, the World Cup in 2007 to prolong his Test career.

Sven-Goran Eriksson is ‘quite sure’ England can reach the semi-finals of this summer’s World Cup.
   The England coach will step down after the tournament in Germany but believes his side are one of ‘four or five’ capable of winning the biggest prize in football.
   Eriksson believes England can go at least one better than their quarterfinal defeat by Brazil four years ago and told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme, ‘Hopefully we will go further than that and I’m quite sure we will, because I am very confident.’
   He added, ‘I am more confident now than four years ago and two years ago (at Euro 2004 in Portugal) because the squad is much stronger.
   ‘The only thing which I always say is hopefully there will not be a lot of injuries and too many tired players but we have one extra week (to prepare) so that will be good.
   ‘You have to remember we are not the only team at the World Cup, there are teams like Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Holland and so on. I always said I think we are one of four or five teams that could win it and I believe that very strongly.
   ‘Since I was a boy my dream was always the World Cup.’
   ‘Everything depends on how many injuries we have. The door is open to everyone but if everyone is fit then I’m quite sure of 19 or 20 at least.’

Frank Lampard steered Chelsea to a 2-0 win over Portsmouth while Arsenal’s Champions League hopes for next season suffered a bodyblow with a 1-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
   England midfielder Lampard slotted home the breakthrough goal for the champions at Stamford Bridge after 65 minutes and Dutch winger Arjen Robben made sure of the points with their second on 78 minutes.
   The laboured victory on a heavy pitch, just three days after their Champions League loss there to Barcelona, extended Chelsea’s lead at the top over Manchester United to 15 points. Arsenal, who beat Real Madrid 1-0 away on Tuesday, failed to close the five-point gap on north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the race for next season’s Champions League after Norway’s Morten Gamst Pedersen got the only goal at Ewood Park.
   Newcastle United’s fine form under caretaker coach Glenn Roeder continued with a 2-0 home win over Everton in the late kick-off, with Peruvian Nolberto Solano getting both goals.
   Birmingham City beat Sunderland 1-0 in their relegation scrap with an Emile Heskey goal and Charlton Athletic were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Aston Villa.
   Chelsea looked jaded after their 2-1 defeat with 10 men by Barcelona and took their time warming up against Harry Redknapp’s side, who now look firm candidates for the drop.
   Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba lined up the precious opener for Lampard, with the England midfielder making up for what had been a disappointing performance with a fine finish.
   Robben did the same after being set up by a superb ball over the top of Portsmouth’s defence by Icelandic striker-cum-midfielder Eidur Gudjohnsen.
   ‘The game in midweek was draining physically and draining mentally,’ said Chelsea’s assistant manager Steve Clarke.
   ‘It was always going to be difficult, especially after playing 60 minutes with only 10 men. We looked at the stats and saw that some players ran two km more than they would normally do.’
   As for the final stages of the season, Clarke said, ‘We’re in a great position to be champions again but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and hopefully some quality football to get there.’
   The win lifts Chelsea to 69 points, well clear of Manchester United (54), who face Wigan Athletic in Sunday’s League Cup final in Cardiff. Third-placed Liverpool, on 51, play Manchester City amidst Sunday’s league games.
   The big loser on Saturday was clearly Arsenal, who suffered their eighth away league loss of the season and squandered their game in hand on Tottenham in the race to finish fourth.
   Spurs hold that slot with 46 points, while Blackburn’s victory means they leapfrog Arsenal into fifth place on 43, leaving Arsene Wenger’s side sixth on 41 and under threat by West Ham United, who also have 41 and a game in hand.
   ‘I’m very sad because I don’t think we deserved to lose this game...we were always on top but just couldn’t score,’ Wenger told Sky Sports News after their 10th defeat of the season.
   ‘We gave absolutely everything, but we lacked a little bit of mental sharpness maybe because of Tuesday night. We were really unfortunate not to get something out of the game.’

Barcelona bad boy Lionel Messi has re-ignited the Stamford Bridge war by sneering – ‘Our players hate Chelsea.’
   Messi, 18, infuriated the Blues in their 2-1 Champions League defeat by conning referee Terje Hauge into sending off Chelsea full-back Asier Del Horno.
   It sparked a flood of internet death threats on Chelsea’s official website.
   But Argentine Messi blatantly stoked up the hatred ahead of the March 7 return at the Nou Camp.
   He declared, ‘There are players here who hate Chelsea more than Real Madrid – I never thought I would hear myself say that.
   ‘I also never thought I would see something worse than the Boca and River Plate rivalry or even Brazil v Argentina – but this is.
   ‘We would rather play Arsenal, Manchester United or anyone else than be on the pitch with Chelsea.’
   And the controversial Argentine, whose tangle with Del Horno forced Chelsea to play with 10 men for 53 minutes, was happy to belittle Jose Mourinho’s Premiership leaders.
   He added, ‘Chelsea aren’t the strongest of teams, they are definitely not better than Barcelona or a lot of other sides.
    ‘The next game will be a battle but we are confident we will go through to the next round.’
   Messi is no stranger to controversy as just 40 seconds into his Argentina senior debut against Hungary last August, he was sent off for lashing out at a defender.
   He was also banned earlier this season by the Spanish league as he did not have an EU passport.

Barcelona’s Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o threatened to leave the pitch during their 2-0 Primera Liga win at Real Zaragoza on Saturday after being racially abused by the home fans.
   Referee Victor Esquinas Torres stopped the game in the second half to ask for an announcement over the public address system to call a halt to the abuse and Eto’o tried to leave the pitch, appearing to say he had had enough of the insults.
   The three-time African player of the year was persuaded to continue by his team-mates and Barca coach Frank Rijkaard and the match resumed soon after.
   ‘It was a shame,’ Rijkaard told a news conference after the match. ‘Samuel is a human being and he felt bad on the pitch, but I was pleased with the attitude of his team-mates who told him to continue.
   ‘He proved he was able to overcome the circumstances and he made a valuable contribution to our victory. It’s a real shame that things like this happen as it is thanks to players like Samuel that the fans come to the stadium to be entertained.
   ‘I would also like to say that the referee acted very well.’
   Zaragoza’s Brazilian striker Ewerthon said he was ashamed of the action of the home fans
   ‘I’m black too,’ the former Borussia Dortmund player told the Onda Cero radio station. ‘I’m a Zaragoza player and totally opposed to the fans who did this. I’ve been abused too at other grounds in Spain but we need to rise above this.
   ‘The Spanish Federation has to start taking proper measures and we as black players also have to act. We are here to work and if things carry on like this it will be impossible.’
   Zaragoza were fined 600 euros ($713.6) by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) last season after a section of their fans directed similar abuse against Eto’o.
   Earlier this month, the club was fined a similar amount after some of their fans directed racist insults at Real Betis’ Brazilian forward Robert.
   In November Messina’s Ivory Coast defender Zoro threatened to halt a Serie A game in Italy after suffering racial abuse from travelling Inter Milan supporters.

Late goals from Ronaldinho and Henrik Larsson gave Barcelona a hard-earned 2-0 win over Real Zaragoza on Saturday as they extended their lead to nine points at the top of the Primera Liga.
   The Brazilian broke the deadlock in a delicately balanced contest when he converted a penalty after Zaragoza midfielder Albert Celades was sent off 10 minutes from time for stopping a goal-bound shot on the line with his hand. Swedish striker Larsson made sure of the victory two minutes later when he steered in from close range after a great cross by Samuel Eto’o.
   The Cameroon striker had tried to leave the pitch a few minutes earlier after being subjected to racist abuse from the home fans, but was persuaded to continue playing by his team-mates and Barca coach Frank Rijkaard.
   Second-placed Valencia host mid-table Getafe on Sunday and Real Madrid, who are a point further behind in third, travel to struggling Real Mallorca.
   Earlier on Saturday, Atletico Madrid continued their impressive form under new coach Pepe Murcia when they stretched their winning run to six matches with the 5-0 demolition of basement side Malaga.
   Atletico roared into a 2-0 lead at the Calderon inside 10 minutes, thanks to an opportunist double from leading striker Fernando Torres, and Argentine forward Maxi Rodriguez added a third when he ghosted in at the far post just before the break.
   Serbian striker Mateja Kezman spurned the chance to add another before halftime when he fired a penalty straight at Goitia after the Malaga keeper had felled Maxi in the area. The fourth did not take long in coming, though, substitute Juan Valera scoring the goal of the night when he blasted a 25-metre drive into the top corner a minute after stepping on to the pitch midway through the second half.
   Malaga were reduced to 10 men when Portuguese midfielder Duda was red-carded 12 minutes from time and Valera took advantage to head home a fifth goal in the final minute. The victory gave Atletico their longest winning run in 14 years and pushed them up to seventh in the table.
   Cup finalists Zaragoza, who inflicted the heaviest defeat of the season on Barca with a 4-2 win in their quarterfinal first leg, produced a high-class defensive display to shackle the Catalan side’s forwards in the first half at La Romareda.
   Brazilian striker Ewerthon almost gave the home side the lead on the half hour when he unleashed a rasping drive from outside the area which was tipped over the bar.
   Zaragoza continued to shackle the Barca forwards in the second-half with some terrier-like marking in midfield, but the visitors got the breakthrough when Celades conceded a penalty for tipping Edmilson’s shot onto the bar with his hand.
   Two minutes after Ronaldinho’s spot-kick, Eto’o clipped in a cross from the right and Larsson snapped the ball home at the first attempt.

Sir Alex Ferguson confessed it will take him another two years to make Manchester United the best team in England again.
   And Fergie admits he is feeling the pressure following American tycoon Malcolm Glazer’s £800 million takeover of the club.
   The Scot declared, ‘I know two years without a trophy is too long.
   ‘Not winning trophies hurts. Managers don’t come into the job expecting to lose, they want to be winners. That is the only thing that keeps them in a job.
   ‘But I have to take a view about the long-term, where we are going as a club. That is the problem we have.
   ‘When you are trying to build a team again, you don’t have the same consistency every week. You notice that more at a club like us here, or at Arsenal, who are also redeveloping their club again.
   ‘They beat Real Madrid, we beat Chelsea and Liverpool, but then lose to other clubs, like we lost to Manchester City and Middlesbrough. Arsenal have also lost games they didn’t expect to lose.
   ‘That happens when you have a team of young players, but you have to be patient.
   ‘Our young players, without question, have excellent ability. They lack the one thing that experience brings and that is that maturity. But over the next two years, you will see our team differently.’
   Ferguson has already built three successful sides at United and now believes his fourth-generation have shown enough to suggest they can climb back to the summit of English soccer.
   Despite mutterings among some fans, he believes his £12.5 million January signings of Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic will become Old Trafford stars, along with Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alan Smith and Park Ji-sung.
   He accepts he must strengthen his midfield this summer, especially after the exits of stalwarts like Roy Keane and Phil Neville. But he insists nobody could have predicted the injury crisis that has crippled his side.
   Paul Scholes is out for the season after being told to rest following his blurred vision problem, while Smith will not be available for at least eight months following his horrific broken leg.
   Gabriel Heinze is another long-term injury victim, while Park, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville all endured lengthy lay-offs.
   But Fergie added, ‘I hope we can come back as a force next year. I hope the players mature more quickly than I expect. They have great potential and I have every confidence in them.
   ‘We have struggled but the lads have handled it well.’

Chelsea are set to complete a £50 million swoop for Ukrainian superstar Andriy Shevchenko.
   The AC Milan striker is ready to join Jose Mourinho’s Premiership champs at the end of the season.
   A source close to Shevchenko said, ‘Andriy will only leave Milan for one club and that is Chelsea.
   ‘It is a move that really excites him.’
   Blues boss Mourinho tried to sign Shevchenko last summer but Milan were unwilling to sell their top marksman.
   But he will be 30 in August and the Italians now reckon it is time to cash in on the player.
   Chelsea believe the Ukrainian can become the 20-goal-a-season man they have so far failed to unearth.
   The Premiership champions recognise they will be unable to secure either Thierry Henry from Arsenal or Samuel Eto’o from Barcelona.
   Russian owner Roman Abramovich has continually pushed for Shevchenko to be signed at any cost – even though he will have no resale value at the end of his Chelsea contract.

Real Madrid have offered Ronaldo to Arsenal – in a swap deal for Thierry Henry.
   The Spanish giants made their cheeky bid just hours before Arsenal’s brilliant 1-0 Champions League win at the Bernabeu last Tuesday.
   Ronaldo is at loggerheads with Real fans and has sparked outrage after choosing the eve of the game with Arsenal to express his anger towards the fans. Real captain Raul blasted the Brazilian World Cup winner after the game, insisting he put himself above the team and unsettled them ahead of the crucial clash with Arsenal.
   Despite Real president Florentino Perez’s insistence that Ronaldo would stay at the Bernabeu, News of the World understands the decision to offload the striker has already been taken.
   But Perez received a resounding ‘no’ from Arsenal in his bid to prise Henry away by offering Ronaldo as bait.
   And that is what led him to say, ‘Arsenal want Henry to stay there and I believe he will be playing there next season.’
   Henry has yet to sign a new £35 million five-year deal on offer at Highbury although he has said he will stay at Highbury.
   However, if he was to quit at the end of the season Barcelona are the favourites to nab him.

Brazil striker Adriano has had his appeal against a two-match ban for slapping Livorno defender Alessandro Grandoni rejected by the Italian Football Federation’s appeals panel.
   The highly-sought after 24-year-old was originally punished after the federation’s disciplinary panel studied video evidence from Inter Milan’s 0-0 draw at Livorno last weekend as match referee Paolo Bertini missed the incident.
   Adriano – who has run into a bad run of form scoring just twice this year – will miss Sunday’s encounter with Udinese at the San Siro and the March 5 trip to in-form Roma.

Argentina defender Gabriel Heinze is winning his battle to be fit for the World Cup finals in Germany starting in June, according to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.
   Heinze looked likely to miss the tournament after suffering a serious knee injury in a European Champions League match at Villarreal on September 14.
   But after a successful operation to repair cruciate ligament damage, the 27-year-old has been working his way back to full fitness in Argentina.
   ‘His progress is very good now. He’s on full throttle and training very well everyday,’ Ferguson told reporters.
   ‘He wanted a particular surgeon to do the operation, which every player is entitled to and the surgeon who did the operation is in complete control of his rehabilitation.
   ‘Our latest development is that he will possibly be here at the beginning of April with the possibility of playing before the end of the season.’
   Heinze had said earlier this week he was aiming to start playing in a month’s time.
   Ferguson added, ‘It’s great to get him back and I wouldn’t be against him playing in the World Cup because it gives him football again.’
   Last December, Ferguson was pessimistic about the defender’s chances of playing in Germany but Heinze said he had a bet with the manager that he would be back on the pitch before the end of the season.
   Heinze, who missed the final month of last season with an ankle injury, has won 24 caps for Argentina, his last a friendly against Hungary last August.
   The left-sided defender joined United from Paris St Germain in June 2004.

Striker Darren Bent got his reward after scoring 17 goals for Charlton Athletic this season with a call-up on Saturday to England’s squad to face Uruguay in a World Cup warm-up match next week.
   Bent is almost certain to make a second-half appearance in Wednesday’s friendly in Liverpool as coach Sven-Goran Eriksson finalises his four strikers for the World Cup in Germany.
   Michael Owen, who misses out against Uruguay through injury, and Wayne Rooney are Eriksson’s first choices while Peter Crouch is already pencilled in for a place on the bench.
   Bent now gets his chance to deny a World Cup slot to Tottenham Hotspur’s Jermain Defoe, who is also in Saturday’s 23-man squad.
   Gary Neville makes a welcome return at right-back for England after a prolonged injury absence and should play alongside Manchester United team-mate Rio Ferdinand.

England football captain David Beckham confessed he is befuddled by his six-year-old son Brooklyn’s maths homework in an interview with The Mail on Sunday newspaper.
   Beckham, 30, admitted to being baffled when Brooklyn recently asked for help with a school assignment and had to turn to his former Spice Girls pop star wife Victoria to help out.
   ‘Their homework is so hard these days. I sat down with Brooklyn the other day — and I was like, ‘Victoria, maybe you should do the homework tonight’.
   ‘I think it was maths, actually. It’s done totally differently to what I was taught when I was at school, and you know, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do this’.
   Brooklyn was like, ‘Please do it with me’, and I’m like, ‘I’ll read your book with you’.’
   The Real Madrid midfielder’s son attends the exclusive Runnymede College in the Spanish capital, which follows the British national curriculum.
   The Mail on Sunday gave examples of some national curriculum maths questions set for seven-year-olds.
   They include: ‘Bet went to the shop at 11:45. She came back half an hour later. What time did she come back?’ and ‘What is 12 divided by three?’
   Beckham also admitted he has no ‘lucky’ pre-match routines, with them too being tough to remember.
   ‘I find that if I follow a routine ... it gets to the stage where you are thinking, ‘Right, was it the left side ... the left boot I put on first, or the right side?’
   ‘There are so many things that can go through your mind.’

Fiorentina shrugged off two straight defeats to stage a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Parma and move into fourth in Serie A.
   The visitors were on the back foot after just three minutes when Brazilian Fabio Simplicio scored from the penalty spot after Bulgarian Valeri Bojinov handled the ball in the box.
   Mark Bresciano doubled Parma’s lead in the 29th minute before Bojinov made up for his earlier error with a double within the space of four minutes to get Fiorentina back all square.
   Martin Jorgenson put Cesare Prandelli’s side in front for the first time early in the second half with Luis Antonio Jimenez completing the recovery in the 68th minute. The result pushed Fiorentina up to fourth on 53 points, with Parma sixth from bottom on 26. Saturday’s early match between Reggina and Livorno ended 1-1.
   Sunday’s programme includes title favourites Juventus up against Lecce and second-placed AC Milan away to Palermo.

Double gold medallists Benjamin Raich and Michaela Dorfmeister led the way as Austria dominated the slopes in the Alpine skiing at the Turin Games.
   American Bode Miller and Croatian Janica Kostelic had been expected to be the big stories of the ski events. They were, but for the wrong reasons.
   Miller made more headlines for his attitude than for his results. After frequenting the bars and discotheques of Sestriere late into the night, the overall World Cup champion failed to finish three of his five events.
   In the two he finished, downhill and giant slalom, he placed fifth and sixth respectively. It was just as well, perhaps, that Miller, who otherwise avoided journalists, told an Italian newspaper early in the Games that he did not care about medals.
   Kostelic’s health problems led to almost daily medical bulletins from the Croatian team and constant speculation about whether she would appear at the starting huts.
   The triple champion from the last Games pulled out of the downhill and the giant slalom, citing first a high pulse rate and then exhaustion and a fever.
   Kostelic has suffered fluctuating health since having her thyroid gland removed two years ago. She still won the combined gold—a record career fourth Olympic title—and the super-G silver but by her own high standards the tally was small.
   The overall World Cup leader looked drawn and unhappy for much of the Games but she beamed with joy when brother Ivica won his first Olympic medal, silver in the combined.
   Just half-an-hour before Janica’s combined success, Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt became the first man to win four career golds in the sport when he triumphed in the super-G at the age of 34.
   The Austrians were the dominant force however, winning 14 of the 30 medals on offer. Dorfmeister, already a multiple World Cup winner and a former world champion, began her final Games bemoaning the fact that an Olympic gold had always eluded her.
   She goes into retirement with not one but two golds, having blitzed the opposition in the downhill and super-G.
   Raich became the first man since Italy’s Alberto Tomba in 1988 to win both technical events, leading an Austrian clean sweep in the slalom.
   It was only the third time in Olympic history that a nation had taken all the podium places. Austria’s giant slalom racers, led by Toni Sailer, achieved the feat in 1956 and Norway, with Aamodt in silver position, did it in the combined in Lillehammer in 1994.
   Sweden’s Anja Paerson, last season’s overall World Cup winner, collected slalom gold and bronzes in downhill and combined but was outshone in the giant slalom by unheralded team mate Anna Ottosson, who took the bronze.
   Julia Mancuso won gold in that event, going some way to make up for the American team’s disappointment over speed specialist Lindsey Kildow, who crashed in downhill training early in the Games and failed to win a medal.
   For the American men, disappointed in Miller and in Daron Rahlves, who failed to live up to his billing as a medal certainty in the speed events, Ted Ligety restored some pride with a surprise gold in the combined.

Justine Henin-Hardenne won her 25th career title on Saturday when she defeated Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-2 in the final of the Dubai Open.
   It was the fourth-seeded Belgian’s third Dubai title and her second tournament victory of the year after winning in Sydney and finishing as runner-up at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   ‘It’s an amazing feeling,’ Henin-Hardenne told reporters. ‘It’s great, because I didn’t know really what to expect before coming here after my health problems in Australia.
   ‘It’s been a tough week even though I won all my matches in two sets. It’s been pretty hard with the rain and the waiting, and it’s a great feeling to have two victories already this year, and that gives a lot of confidence.’
   She also remains unbeaten in her 12 matches in Dubai after a high quality match in which both players mixed up their game well and produced some very competitive rallies.
   Third seed Sharapova, denied her 11th career title in her first final since she won on grass in Birmingham in June, was particularly adventurous in trying her luck at the net with varying degrees of success. However, the Russian’s limitations were exposed in the latter stages when she lacked patience in the rallies and failed to build a winning position.

Bangladesh Grand Masters Ziaur Rahman and Niaz Murshed, IM Reefat Bin Sattar, IM Abdullah Al Rakib, IM Enamul Hossain Razib and Abdullah Al Saif all won their first round matches in the ONGC Cup International Grand Masters Chess Tournament, which began on Sunday in Hyderabad, India.
   Zia beat Aditya, Niaz defeated Srinivas, Reefat won over Nikil, Rakib beat Chaitanga, Razib routed Farheen and Saif beat Vaidya.
   KM Afzal drew with IM Sriram Jha of India. Other rated players of Bangladesh – Shameem, Dinayet, Mokaddes and Shiblu – lost their opening round games.
   256 players including 10 Grand Masters from India, Bangladesh, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are participating in the 10-round Swiss league system tournament.

Bangladesh golfer Md Siddikur Rahman won the title of the Cotton Group 21st Bangladesh Amateur Golf Tournament that concluded at the Kurmitola Golf Club on Saturday.
   Siddikur carded the best score of the day, level par 72. He had been leading from day two and grossed 288 in four rounds he played which was enough to earn the title. Md Shahid Khan became runner-up with 204 points.
   Chief of Army Staff and president of the Bangladesh Golf Federation Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed gave away prizes to the winners.