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Sri Lanka promised not to ease the pressure on Bangladesh for a split-second when the second and final Test of the GrameenPhone series starts at the Shaheed Chandu Stadum today.
   STAR Sports will telecast the match live from 9:30 am.
   ‘We want to come down really hard on Bangladesh like we did at Chittagong,’ said Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene at a press briefing here on Tuesday.
   The islanders lead the series 1-0 thanks to their eight-wicket win in the port city and another victory will see them whitewash the Tigers for the third successive Test series at home and away.
   The hosts, however, can draw inspiration from the ground where they ended a 15-match one-day losing streak two weeks earlier although Jayawardene was unfazed by the glitch.
   ‘It was a one-day game and if you don’t play well on a particular day you can easily end up as losers. We realised the mistakes we made and came back strongly in the third one-dayer and then finished a very good Test match in Chittagong,’ said Jayawardene.
   Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody ruled out any chances of giving a rest to star off-spinner Muttiah Muralithran, who is seven wickets shy of 600 Test wickets. ‘We cannot stop a player, who has 1,000 international wickets, from playing a Test match.’
   Bangladesh once again opted to go into the five-day battle without any third seamer as they left out Tapash Baisya, Aftab Ahmed and Alok Kapali from the 15-member squad.
   But Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar’s worries were elsewhere. ‘To get anything out of this match we have to do well in all three departments. But the most important thing is to bat well in the first innings. Without a good first innings total it will be very difficult for us to survive,’ he said.
   The home side beefed up its batting by inducting Mushfiqur Rahim, who recently led the country at the ICC U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Coach Dav Whatmore confirmed that Mushfiq was expected to bat at number six in place of Khaled Mashud.

Australia on Tuesday recalled three Ashes casualties in Damien Martyn, Michael Clarke and Michael Kasprowicz but snubbed fellow discard Jason Gillespie’s push for a Test return in South Africa.
   Selectors instead named two-Test novice Shaun Tait and uncapped seamer Stuart Clark in a 14-man squad that had no room for batsman Brad Hodge and New South Wales quick Nathan Bracken.
   In a team missing pace spearhead Glenn McGrath, who is staying in Australia as his wife undergoes cancer treatment, the selection panel opted for a mixture of Tait’s promise and Kasprowicz’s experience in attack.
   ‘The decision on the make-up of the fast bowling quartet was not an easy one, given that we are without Glenn McGrath for this series,’ selection chairman Trevor Hohns said.
   ‘We wanted a blend of pace, youth, experience and line and length, and believe we have all of these covered with our selection.’
   Tait, like Gillespie, failed to impress in the Ashes series but Hohns was full of praise for the 23-year-old who is returning from a shoulder injury.
   ‘He’s back bowling at full pace so we’re happy that the injury isn’t hampering his bowling,’ Hohns said. ‘We believe he has a bright future at Test level.’
   Gillespie’s omission will be a bitter blow for the 30-year-old paceman, who has taken 34 first class wickets at 21.85 for this year as he fights to prove he retains the zip that earned him 69 Test caps.
   But the South Australian was unable to win over selectors, unlike fellow Ashes discards Martyn, Kasprowicz and Clarke, who was dropped soon after returning from England.
   Hohns admitted it was a close call between Gillespie and Kasprowicz, the leading wicket-taker in the Australian domestic competition.
   ‘It’s considered that Michael’s probably bowling fractionally better at this stage of the season,’ he said.
   Kasprowicz, 34, who has earned eight Test recalls in a roller-coaster career, put his latest revival down to a back-to-basics approach he adopted after the Ashes failure.
   ‘I adapted myself to hit the wicket a bit more, which got me back into the Australian side,’ he told reporters.
   Former golden boy Clarke has hit six half-centuries in 17 one-day internationals since being axed and Hohns said he had worked hard for his recall.
   ‘We’re very comfortable with the progress he’s made,’ he said, describing Hodge as ‘unlucky’ to be dropped after failing to impress with the bat at domestic level.
   Clark, who has a record of 22 wickets in 13 one-day internationals, said he was amazed to be named in the squad, while Hodge – with an average of 58.42 runs in five Tests including a double century, described being dropped as ‘devastating’.
   ‘I felt I had performed well enough in my initial Tests to retain my place,’ he said.
   Martyn was widely regarded as an unlucky scapegoat when he was dropped after a poor Ashes performance blotted an exemplary career that includes an average of 47.96 in 61 Tests.
   The Australian 14-man squad named Tuesday to face South Africa in the three-Test series beginning in Cape Town on March 16.
   Squad:
   Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist (vice-captain), Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Michael Kasprowicz, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait and Shane Warne.

Twenty thousand posters went up around Germany on Tuesday as part of a charm campaign to present Germans as a welcoming nation to football fans coming to the World Cup.
   ‘We are unfortunately not perceived as a particularly friendly people,’ World Cup organising committee president Franz Beckenbauer told a press conference in Berlin signalling the start of the campaign.
   ‘We have to improve on that.’
   The campaign will last three months and cost the national tourism board three million euros (3.5 million dollars), the president of the board and the coordinator of the campaign, Petra Hedorfer, said.
   It includes a 30-second television advertisement which shows smiling Germans from all walks of life rolling out red carpets, the same image printed on the posters that went on display on Tuesday.
   Economy Minister Michael Glos said the aim was not only to impress the up to three million people expected to come to Germany for the World Cup, which is being played in 12 cities from June 9 to July 9, but to encourage as many of them as possible to return in the future.
   ‘We want those who come to keep coming back. This is a huge chance for Germany and we have to use it,’ Glos said. The German police has started giving 50,000 officers assigned to World Cup duties basic English courses to help them to communicate with fans.
   They are learning polite stock phrases like ‘It is a pleasure’ and ‘You are welcome’, the N-24 television channel reported on Tuesday.
   But Hedorfer said the campaign needs to reach as many people who would interact with visiting fans as possible.
   The tourism board has prepared customised packages for taxi companies, hotels, airports, stations, restaurants and travel agents to give them tips on how to deal with foreigners more impressively.
   The kits sell for 39 euros each and include stickers and posters that would designate that particular company as one trained in World Cup hospitality.
   Fedor Radmann, the tourism advisor for the World Cup organising committee, said 50,000 people were expected to be involved in the friendliness campaign and the aim was to dash the stereotype of Germans as a dour nation.
   ‘Somebody’s experience of a country is not based on one incident, but on 10 small ones. So we have to surprise people, they do not think that Germans can do that.’

The German government threw its support behind under-fire Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann on Tuesday as he defended his absence from a pre-World Cup coaches’ workshop.
   Klinsmann was heavily criticised by former Germany coach Franz Beckenbauer, who led West Germany to the World Cup in 1990 and is now the chief organiser of the 2006 finals, for returning to his home in California in the wake of the country’s 4-1 thrashing by Italy last week.
   But Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose duties include sport, said he placed his trust in Klinsmann with just three months to go until the World Cup kicks off in Munich.
   ‘I don’t see any point in changing horses in the middle of a race,’ Schaeuble told Bild newspaper.
   ‘Juergen Klinsmann has my trust. There is no doubt about it, he has not taken on a simple task.
   ‘The German football federation, who employed him,
   knew that Klinsmann is not low maintenance. He follows his own path.’
   Beckenbauer said at the opening of the two-day coaches’ workshop in Duesseldorf on Monday that he believed Klinsmann should stay in Germany with the World Cup approaching fast.
   But Klinsmann said the decision had been made a while ago that he would not attend the workshop, sending his assistant Joachim Loew in his place.
   ‘We made a decision,’ Klinsmann told Bild. ‘My presence was not absolutely necessary and Joachim Loew is there and I find the current discussion offensive to him.
   ‘He has all the sporting matters that are being discussed under control.’
   Reminded that other top coaches, including Carlos Alberto Parreira of World Cup holders Brazil and Sven-Goran Eriksson of England, were attending the meeting, Klinsmann retorted: ‘Everyone has their own way of working.’

Manchester United fought back to beat an unfortunate Wigan Athletic 2-1 thanks to a stoppage time own goal by Pascal Chimbonda in the Premier League on Monday.
   The win took United back above Liverpool into second place with 57 points from 27 games although they trail leaders Chelsea by 15 points, albeit with a game in hand. Wigan stay 10th. Last month’s League Cup finalists were meeting for the third time this season but Wigan gave a far better performance than they had in a heavy defeat at the Millennium Stadium last month.
   Sprightly Wigan had taken the lead through Paul Scharner after a goalmouth scramble just before the hour but United levelled 14 minutes later through Cristiano Ronaldo.
   Wigan were desperately unlucky not to take something from the game as Chimbonda turned the ball into his own net after Louis Saha’s shot came back off the bar and hit the full back.
   ‘I don’t think we have had a harder game away from home this season,’ United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports. ‘They (Wigan) were brilliant. We’ve had a bit of luck.’
   Dejected Wigan manager Paul Jewell added: ‘We have pushed Man United—second in the league—right to the end but the best teams always get the luckiest.’
   Wigan had been outplayed in their first major final when United destroyed them 4-0 to lift the League Cup. They also lost 4-0 in the league at Old Trafford.
   It was a different story at the JJB Stadium, though, as they dominated possession from the start.
   Gary Teale, Jason Roberts and Graham Kavanagh all came close with long-range efforts in the first half but Henri Camara was nearest 10 minutes before the break when his left foot snap shot flew just wide.
   United looked more dangerous after the break and England forward Wayne Rooney missed a glorious chance when he headed over the bar from a Gary Neville cross.
   Wigan took the lead when Scharner fired home from close range after Ryan Giggs had twice blocked the ball on the line from Arjen De Zeeuw’s header and a Roberts shot.
   United introduced substitute Ruud van Nistelrooy for Park ji-Sung and the Dutchman almost immediately changed the game as his miscued shot fell into the path of Ronaldo.
   The Portugal forward responded superbly to steer the ball past John Filan from eight metres after 73 minutes, giving United a lifeline they barely deserved. The game looked to be heading for a draw when Saha broke free in the box and his shot was deflected on to the bar by Scharner before rebounding off Chimbonda into the net.
   ‘It’s the best way to win a football match because there’s no comeback from it,’ said United captain Neville. ‘With the effort they (Wigan) put into the match and the way they performed they were unlucky.’

Juventus ‘keeper Gigi Buffon is confident that he is now back to his best and ready to aid Italy during their World Cup bid.
   ‘I’m feeling really good, at 110 per cent in fact,’ the shot-stopper, who is widely regarded as the finest in the world, told Datasport.
   The former Parma man missed the first six months of the season after damaging his shoulder during a pre-season friendly against Milan.
   But Buffon is now back in between the sticks for club and country after recovering from shoulder surgery.
   He regained his spot in the Bianconeri goal after Christmas and last week returned to the national side for the 4-1 win over Germany.
   ‘Things went really well against the Germans,’ continued the custodian. ‘I would say that if we continue to work like this then we will be in good shape during the World Cup.
   ‘This is a fine moment of form for the Azzurri and there is a great deal of satisfaction for such a prestigious victory.
   ‘It is our objective to get these sorts of results in the future too.’
   Buffon will also take on German opponents this evening when Juventus face Werder Bremen in the Champions League.
   The Old Lady need a victory to reach the last eight after losing 3-2 in the first leg against the Bundesliga outfit.

Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, feels that the Indian selectors could have been more forthright while dealing with the axing of Sourav Ganguly, hinting that the issue should have stayed behind closed doors.
   Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, had recently told Cricinfo that Ganguly will not be recalled as long as the present selection committee was in office, and Waugh had a bit of advice for Ganguly.
   ‘It’s not for me to say whether he ought to still be playing for India, but it can’t be encouraging when the chief selector [Kiran More] says the present committee won’t pick him,’ Waugh told The Telegraph, a Kolkata-based daily. ‘I understand Sourav wants to fight back, but it’s not going to be easy. Today, therefore, he should look in the mirror and make a call. Sourav has a lot of very fond memories to fall back on. With age, it’s never easy.’

The Pakistan and Sri Lankan cricket boards have reached an agreement not to use the Supersub rule during their upcoming three-match one-day series from March 17.
   The bilateral decision has been made after a recommendation made by the International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executives last month in Dubai that the trial of the Supersub playing condition should be discontinued.
   ‘Pakistan and Sri Lanka believe that as the Supersub experimental rule is going to be discontinued from later this month,’ said an official of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
   ‘There is no purpose using it in the coming series. Many other countries have also taken such bilateral decisions in their matches.’

Former Cricket Board president Jagmohan Dalmiya on Tuesday claimed the BCCI had incurred a loss of $ 18 million in awarding the telecast rights to Nimbus.
   Dalmiya alleged that the deal was worth $ 630 million and the BCCI should explain why it was settled for $ 612 million.
   ‘The deal was struck at $ 612 million whereas it should have been $ 630 million, which amounts to a loss of $ 18 million,’ he told reporters here.
   ‘I wrote to the BCCI on this issue on March 1, but never got a reply,’ he added.

England manager Sven Goran Eriksson has boasted that he will have the best midfield in the world in Germany this summer.
   And the Swede believes that this will ensure David Beckham lifts the World Cup because champions Brazil are weak at the back.
   Eriksson, confident of ending 40 years of hurt, said: ‘If Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham get to the tournament fit and on their best form, there’s no question England have the most powerful midfield.
   ‘For our World Cup chances it’s crucial these three are in the best shape possible.
   ‘People think Brazil are unbeatable but they are not — their defence is nowhere near as strong as their attack.
   ‘If you think about Brazil carefully, then you realise they have only won the World Cup in Europe once, in 1958.
   ‘Whenever Brazil have lifted the trophy, it has been on a different part of the football planet.
   ‘England have to realise this shows Brazil’s life becomes difficult when they have to play in Europe, and the same will happen in Germany.’

Michael Ballack is very likely to leave Bayern Munich and the club must start looking for a replacement, coach Felix Magath was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
   ‘When Michael leaves, we will lose a personality capable of taking responsibility,’ Magath told Munich daily tz.
   ‘We need to look for such a leading figure outside the club,’ the Bayern coach added.
   Several top European clubs have targeted the gifted midfielder, whose agent said last week he was very interested in a move to Chelsea.
   ‘This is a great opportunity to take a new orientation,’ Magath said of Ballack’s likely departure. ‘We do depend a lot on him but that does not mean we will have problems once he’s gone.’

Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini has told Manchester United and Inter Milan to forget about trying to sign his Argentine playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme.
   Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has made Riquelme his top midfield transfer target for the summer market, while Inter patron Massimo Moratti fancies the Argie as a replacement for want-away Juan Veron.
   However, Pellegrini said on Monday: ‘Roman is now one of the best players in the world and we do not have any intention of selling him to anybody.’

European champions Liverpool and fellow Premiership giants Arsenal face a test of their mettle as they battle today for a place in the last eight of the Champions League.
   Both sides have the advantage of playing the second legs of their last 16 ties at home, but Liverpool have a 1-0 deficit to overturn against Benfica while Arsenal start with a 1-0 advantage over Real Madrid after a memorable win in the Spanish capital last month.
   Six matches and an entire month might have slipped past since Liverpool last scored twice in a match, but manager Rafael Benitez is convinced that his side’s fortunes in front of goal will turn.
   ‘If we need to score two, or maybe even three, then why not? We will score. With strikers, it is a question of luck. We are creating chances for them and they are creating their own,’ Benitez said.
   Benitez will recall Luis Garcia to his squad having rested the Spanish midfielder, arguably Liverpool’s most consistent match-winner in European competition, at the weekend.
   Benfica, who knocked out Manchester United in the group stage, have been bolstered by a pick-up in their form of late and the return from injury of Italy international striker Fabrizio Miccoli.
   Dutch coach Ronald Koeman said, ‘It will be complicated in Liverpool but sometimes we play better against these big names than against weaker teams.
   ‘I want my team to play good football no matter who our adversary is. But this doesn’t mean that, if needed, we won’t defend.’
   Arsenal will look to keep their disappointing season alive by beating Real Madrid and effectively put an end to the Spanish giants’ hopes of silverware.
   The Gunners hold a 1-0 advantage over Real from the first clash thanks to a brilliant individual goal from Thierry Henry.
   Manager Arsene Wenger told AFP, ‘This match is an enormous one for us. We got the perfect boost with the 4-0 victory over Fulham (on Saturday) but there is a danger that the players will think we have already won the tie.
   ‘I think that we are as strong as Liverpool were last season and I am confident we will be at the Stade de France (the venue for the final) on May 26.
   ‘It is still a long way away but we have a lot of energy left in us especially as we are no longer involved in the FA Cup to which we have devoted a lot of attention in the past few years.’
   From Real’s point of view the match also represents a do-or-die moment for their season as they are 10 points behind leaders Barcelona in the title race and out of the Spanish Cup.
   Four-time French champions Lyon walked away with a precious 1-0 away win against PSV two weeks ago despite the ending the match with 10 men.
   Lyon coach Gerard Houllier described the match as a battle, and predicts the same fare at the Gerland stadium.
   ‘Whatever happens, it will be a battle in both physical and tactical terms.’
   As well as hoping to make the quarter-finals for the third successive time Lyon also have a score to settle against the on-form Dutch champions, who eliminated them on penalties last year.
   ‘We’re playing at home, and even if PSV manage to score it will not automatically qualify them.’
   Since their reverse a fortnight ago Guus Hiddink’s men have continued unabated towards defending their domestic league crown, and also came away with a big win at the weekend in a 4-1 defeat of Heerenveen.
   Hiddink feared being without Michael Reiziger, who sustained a hand injury after just six minutes of play against Heerenveen, but the international defender is likely to play.
   In the fourth of Wednesday’s matches, AC Milan – who lost on penalties to Liverpool in last season’s final after leading 3-0 at half-time – host Bayern Munich at the San Siro stadium with the score from the first leg tied.
   ‘At 1-1 the game is still open, but at the San Siro we should be able to play the kind of game we want,’ AC Milan’s Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf said.
   ‘Bayern are a very strong team, but they only have one style of play. They will look to their qualities and try to make the most from crosses and dead-ball situations.
   ‘In my opinion, we are stronger because, unlike them, we know how to adapt to different situations very quickly.’
   Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn, who will return to the starting line-up after missing the first leg with a thigh strain, insisted Bayern could go all the way in the competition – if they get past Milan.
   ‘Teams like Barcelona and Chelsea have drawn each other and often the first knockout round is tougher than the quarterfinals or semifinals,’ he said.
   ‘If we beat Milan, we are capable of anything.’

The players of all 32 competing nations at the 2006 World Cup will undergo medical checks for potential heart defects prior to the finals, football’s governing body FIFA revealed at the World Cup workshop here on Monday.
   The measure comes three years after the tragic death of Cameroon international midfielder Marc Vivien Foe at the 2003 Confederations Cup.
   The 28-year-old Foe collapsed suddenly in Cameroon’s semifinal match against Colombia and medical staff failed to resuscitate the player who later died in a Lyon hospital.
   With this tragedy in mind FIFA have now decided to have defibrillators, an apparatus that helps to restart a stopped heart, on hand at the 12 World Cup stadiums.
   ‘This is a great innovation and we are the first sporting association to undertake such a measure,’ said Jiri Dovak, FIFA’s chief medical officer.
   ‘We want to set the tone for the future.’
   Dovak was also involved in all chief doctors for the 32 teams signing a document which effectively binds them to medical prevention and anti-doping measures.
   A minimum of four players from each team will be dope tested randomly before and during the month-long competition.
   FIFA also said their doctors will carry out tests on players in the friendly matches which take place in April and May leading up to the finals.
   Up until now Argentina’s 1986 World Cup winning hero Diego Maradona has been the biggest doping victim in football history testing positive for the recreational drug cocaine at the 1994 World Cup.

Problems are piling up on Juergen Klinsmann with less than 100 days to go before the World Cup but the Germany coach is not losing his cool.
   ‘I’ve got my plan with everything necessary for the World Cup preparations,’ the former Germany striker said after Franz Beckenbauer scolded him for returning home to California instead of attending a World Cup workshop.
   ‘I was in Germany for three of the last five weeks after the Bundesliga started up after the winter break,’ the 41-year-old told Tuesday’s issue of Bild newspaper. Beckenbauer, Germany’s World Cup organising committee president, said on Monday he was angry and disappointed that Klinsmann was not in Duesseldorf for the two-day meetings to discuss technical issues.
   It is not the first time Klinsmann has faced criticism for his decision to keep living in the United States. Since taking the top job in August 2004, he has been commuting between his native Germany and his home in southern California.
   However, Klinsmann is under fire for more than just being a long-distance commuter. After Germany’s shock 4-1 friendly defeat by Italy last week, several deputies said he should be summoned before a parliamentary committee to explain his training methods.
   The three-times world champions have not beaten top class international opposition in a 17-match winless streak since a 1-0 win over England in October 2000 and the local media are now predicting a debacle for the host nation at the World Cup starting on June 9.
   Klinsmann has been blamed notably for fielding a young and inexperienced defence and for leaving the seasoned Christian Woerns out of Germany’s World Cup plans after the Borussia Dortmund defender blasted the coach’s management style in the media.
   A long-time critic of the German Football Association (DFB), the former Tottenham Hotspur striker was not the preferred candidate and was picked only after Ottmar Hitzfeld and Otto Rehhagel turned down the job.
   He said straight away that Germany could lift the World Cup on home soil in 2006, which sent the right message to the fans.
   Then came the appointment of American fitness trainers and the introduction of unusual exercises in training.
   Poor results on top of that have already led some newspapers, starting with Bild, to speculate on who might replace him with Matthias Sammer and Ottmar Hitzfeld seen as the two favourites. It is very unlikely, however, that Klinsmann will lose his job before the World Cup.
   ‘It makes no sense to keep questioning his work and his methods,’ said DFB chief executive Theo Zwanziger.
   ‘We must all stand by him.’

Michel Platini has dismissed Brazilian striker Ronaldo as fat and past his sell-by date.
   The former World Player of the Year returns to the Real Madrid squad to face Arsenal today after being dropped for Saturday’s win over Atletico Madrid.
   But French legend Platini blasted: ‘Ronaldo is a few kilos too heavy, and is not the same player he was.’
   Elsewhere, Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva believes Ronaldo will be Real Madrid’s biggest threat when the two sides meet in the Champions League today.
   Real’s Brazilian striker has been castigated by the club’s fans for a string of poor performances this term, and was omitted from Saturday’s derby success against Atletico Madrid.
   However, Gilberto has no doubt abut his fellow countryman’s class.
   He told the Gunners’ official website: ‘He has been criticised in Madrid by the press. But we cannot think about his form going into the game. He is a very intelligent man and a very intelligent player.
   ‘He must just forget everything on the outside and do his best for Madrid. We cannot think this problem will affect him on the pitch.’
   ‘We need to be aware and concentrate,’ the 29-year-old added.
   ‘It is very important that we keep our shape. If we think that we have done our job then it is a problem. Our team knows the importance of this game and we need to be the boss on the pitch.
   ‘If we want to go through we will have to do more than we did in Madrid otherwise we will not win the game.’

A new UEFA Champions League trophy will be unveiled at the traditional handover ceremony in Paris on Friday as the competition celebrates its 50th year.
   The silverware—engraved with the names of all the previous winners—will be presented by former Real Madrid winger Francisco ‘Paco’ Gento and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson.
   Olsson will hand it to the Lord Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, for public display until this season’s final at the Stade de France on May 17, UEFA said on its website on Monday.
   Gento was a member of the great Real side that became the first team to lift the European Champion Clubs’ Cup. It was the first of the Spanish side’s nine triumphs.
   Liverpool were allowed to keep the previous trophy permanently after they won the title for a fifth time with a thrilling comeback win over AC Milan last season.
   The silverware in Liverpool’s possession was the fifth model to be cast in the competition’s history. The original was awarded to Real following their sixth victory in 1966. Multiple winners AC Milan (six), Bayern Munich and Ajax Amsterdam (both four) own the other trophies.

Real Madrid’s stars are at ‘war’ with each other as they head for a third straight season without a trophy, with Brazilian forward Ronaldo and Spanish midfielder Guti having come to blows, Barcelona-based sports media reported on Tuesday.
   ‘Civil war in Madrid,’ said Sport daily in a front-page headline, adding the reason Guti pulled out of last week’s friendly international with Ivory Coast with a leg injury was down to Ronaldo having kicked out at him following the 1-0 Champions League home leg loss to Arsenal two weeks ago.
   Sport quoted a radio journalist from Onda Cero, Jose Manuel Estrada, as saying the usually close friends had had an angry exchange which turned into fisticuffs following the Arsenal match which left the club on the brink of elimination ahead of Wednesday’s return at Highbury.
   Ronaldo, who last month claimed the fans at the Bernabeu have never loved him, is set to feature on Wednesday. But while he is Real’s top scorer in the league with ten goals suspension and injury have restricted him to just one Champions League game this season—when he flopped against the Gunners.
   Reports suggest the Brazilian World Cup winner is heading back to Italy at the end of the season, either to former club Inter Milan or AC Milan.
   He was dropped for Saturday’s league derby win over Atletico in which replacement Antonio Cassano scored, but is widely predicted to be given another chance at Highbury.
   ‘We have to win, with or without Ronaldo,’ goalkeeper Iker Casillas said curtly when asked if a Brazilian or an Italian might lead the line.
   Amid media predictions the Real squad will be pulled apart at the end of another under-achieving season new chairman Fernando Martin is looking for a new generation of superstars.
   Teenage Spanish international Cesc Fabregas is top of his shopping list, according to Marca magazine, which said Martin, who took over last week from original galactico-buyer Florentino Perez, would proceed cautiously.
   ‘Real Madrid cannot say it went off to look for him—but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t interest us,’ Martin said unambiguously.
   Martin added that a decision would be taken ‘in two weeks’ regarding who will coach the club next season. Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, who replaced Wanderley Luxemburgo three months ago, is set to step back into the shadows having come from managing the reserve side.
   ‘On June 30 I will have 99 per cent of the staff (for next season) settled - and the coach, in two weeks,’ said Martin, although some media reports said Lopez Caro might be ousted if Arsenal dump the meringues out of Europe.
   Rumours say Juventus coach Fabio Capello, formerly a Spanish league title winner with Real, is the top choice for the job. Wenger, former Deportivo La Coruna coach Javier Irureta and Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez are also all in the frame.
   Meanwhile, former chairman Perez said he would not change a thing if he were to have his time again.
   ‘I’d do it all again. I believe in emotions and spectacle, and without this magic it wouldn’t be Madrid. Thanks to this philosophy I left the club the richest in the world,’ Perez said in an interview with Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport.
   He added he stepped down to reduce demands on his time from being chairman and chief of a construction firm.
   ‘But above all I realised the club needed a new impulse,’ he said, saying stepping down was an act of ‘loyalty and responsibility.’

Real Madrid’s new president Fernando Martin says the future of Brazil striker Ronaldo at the club is of minor importance compared to today’s Champions League clash against Arsenal.
   ‘I’m not bothered whether or not Ronaldo plays, all I want to do is to win,’ Martin told sports dailies Marca and AS on Tuesday.
   ‘You have to give people your confidence and understanding, but when they don’t do what they are supposed to then you have to leave them out. If you don’t solve problems then thinks turn rotten.’
   Ronaldo was recalled to the squad for the Arsenal game after being dropped for last weekend’s league match against city rivals Atletico Madrid.
   The 29-year-old has been in disappointing form for Real this season and hinted that he may leave at the end of the present campaign because he is unhappy with the criticism he has received from the club’s fans.
   Martin, who took charge at Real after the shock resignation of Florentino Perez last week, said he was convinced the team could turn the tables on Arsenal after a 1-0 defeat in the first leg at the Bernabeu.
   ‘The team are going to go all out against Arsenal. The fans should have no doubt that we will do everything that is humanly possible to win. And if we do win we will turn the whole season round.’
   The 58-year-old businessman has distanced himself from Perez’s policy of giving priority to the club’s economic interests and said that the nine-times European champions needed to concentrate on achieving success on the pitch.
   ‘We have to reflect deeply on the state of the club,’ he said. ‘We have to balance a lot of interests, but sporting matters need to take precedence over its finances.
   He took a thinly veiled swipe at his predecessor’s policy of signing high-profile ‘galacticos’ who were recruited as much for their marketing value as for their sporting prowess.
   ‘No players should be guaranteed a place in the team. Players won’t be coming to this club to retire in the future.’
   Martin has also made it clear that he wanted to change the image of a club that has become resented by many for its immodest attitude and endless trumpeting of past successes.
   ‘The more humble a club is the greater it becomes,’ he said. ‘If the players give everything and sweat for the shirt they are wearing then the victories will come because our players have more quality than the rest.’
   But he paid tribute to Perez’s success in achieving financial stability at a club that was on the verge of bankruptcy six years ago.
   ‘History will judge the Florentino era. He has established the foundations for a great project. He did a splendid job on the economic side of things.’

World marathon champion Paula Radcliffe and superstar swimmer Ian Thorpe have both pulled out of this month’s Commonwealth Games, depriving the 71-nation event of two of its biggest stars.
   England’s Radcliffe announced her withdrawal because of a foot injury which has restricted her training just hours after Thorpe had revealed that he would not be competing in Melbourne because of illness.
   Radcliffe, winner of the 5000 metres gold medal at the last Games in Manchester four years ago, had been a strong favourite to win the 10,000m this time around while Thorpe was widely expected to add to the ten gold medals he collected at Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Manchester in 2002.
   Thorpe and Radcliffe were arguably the two best-known figures among the 4,500 contestants due to be in Melbourne for the March 15-26 Games.
   Radcliffe, 32, has been suffering from the foot injury since January and has been unable to prepare properly on the track at her training base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, her husband and manager, Gary Lough, revealed.
   ‘Paula hit a rock when out training and developed a bruised foot and it is taking a long time to settle down,’ Lough said.
   ‘In particular it has been causing problems on the track, constantly flaring up and she cannot do proper flat-out training sessions. It reared up again at the end of January and we feel it would be stupid, too much of an unnecessary risk, to compete in Melbourne.’
   Thorpe, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, pulled out because he felt that a recent bout of bronchitis and a viral infection had left him too weak to compete.
   ‘It was difficult coming to terms with not being able to compete but it was, in the end, the only decision I could come to,’ Thorpe said.
   Thorpe, who is returning from a lengthy lay-off following the 2004 Athens Olympics, said he had tried to push himself for the past three weeks but had realised after training on Monday that he would have been well below his best.
   His decision to pull out means he may not take part in another Commonwealth Games as he has hinted that he might retire after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Thorpe won four gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and six in Manchester in 2002.
   Although Radcliffe’s track work has been disrupted, she has been able to carry on with her preparations for the London marathon on April 23. Radcliffe’s career has frequently been blighted by injury. She missed both the 1994 and 1998 Commonwealth Games and her dreams of an Olympic marathon gold medal in Greece in 2004 were shattered when she was forced to abandon the race.

Australia’s second largest city has undergone a billion-dollar revamp in preparation for the Commonwealth Games from March 15-26.
   As the Games approach, authorities have been feverishly putting the finishing touches to venues, scrubbing graffiti off city walls and gearing up for the biggest security operation in Australian history. The Games is about one-third the size of the summer Olympics and brings together 4,500 athletes from 71 countries, mostly former British colonies—from India with a population of one billion to Norfolk Island, which has less than 2,000 people.
   In contrast to the last Commonwealth Games Australia staged in Brisbane 24 years ago, security will be a major feature of this Games. Australia’s involvement in the US-led campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan has prompted the government to mount a security campaign that dwarfs the one staged for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. More than 1,200 heavily armed troops will be deployed on the ground, while warplanes will enforce a 75-kilometre exclusion zone in airspace around the city to prevent a September 11 style attack.
   All police leave has been cancelled and extra officers have been called into the city of 3.6 million people and given extra stop-and-search powers.
   ‘It is a level of security that will be the highest ever seen in this country,’ Victorian Police commissioner Christine Nixon said. While police say there is no specific terrorist threat regarding the Games, Melbourne was mentioned as a potential target last September in a video obtained in Pakistan of a masked man believed to be an Al Qaeda militant. Concerns were raised further when police swooped on eighteen alleged militants based in Melbourne and Sydney last November and charged them with planning attacks. Authorities have also stockpiled vaccines, upgraded hospital quarantine facilities and issued medial staff with extra protective equipment in case there is an outbreak of bird flu during the Games, which will attract about 50,000 international visitors.
   Melbourne has long regarded itself as Australia’s sporting capital and the success of Sydney—with which it has a fierce parochial rivalry—hosting the 2000 Olympics and the 2003 Rugby World Cup rankled.
   The Commonwealth Games are seen by many in the city as a way of reclaiming its sporting mantle.
   ‘It’s the best thing we’ve ever done, I’m as proud as punch,’ Victoria state’s Commonwealth Games Minister Justin Madden said. ‘We’ll be displaying to the world what we’re best at, in sport, in festivities, in celebration and unity.’
   The centrepiece of the city’s sporting preparations for the Games has been the $434 million refurbishment of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which hosted the first Australia-England Test match in 1877. Since the early 1990s, two-thirds of the circular stadium has been ringed with massive stands, while the final third remained an outdated low-rise structure. This has now been upgraded, giving the spiritual home of Australian sport a capacity of 80,000 for the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies.

West Indian batting legend Brian Lara says the beleaguered Caribbean side are ready to return to their winning ways in the Test series against New Zealand starting Thursday.
   Lara, who missed the 4-1 one-day series loss against the hosts, also berated the critical New Zealand media for being ‘disrespectful towards a country that has a greater cricketing history than the present country we’re playing.’
   The West Indies have lost eight of their last 11 Tests and drawn two but Lara said the side has some exciting new talent ready to make its presence felt in the three-Test series starting in Auckland.
   ‘I sense that this three-Test series could be a turning point, and I sense within myself a desire to win,’ Lara told journalists Tuesday.
   ‘To leave New Zealand, to leave (the third Test in) Napier as winners of this Test series would be the greatest because I’m definitely not going to be back in New Zealand as a cricketer,’ the 36-year-old said.
   ‘Just give me my bat...I want to get out there and play.’
   Lara, opening batsman Devon Smith and pace bowler Daren Powell arrived in New Zealand late last week to replace Wavell Hinds and Deighton Butler who were selected for the one-day series only.
   ‘I just feel that if you put up West Indies against New Zealand and you scroll down, you will see a country that has a greater cricketing history than New Zealand, and that’s what really hurt me.’

This year’s US Open will become the first Grand Slam tournament to use instant replays for disputed line calls, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) said on Monday.
   The system will get its first use at the NASDAQ-100 Open beginning on March 22 in Miami.
   ‘With the speed and power of today’s game, the time has come for tennis to benefit from new technology, while adding to the fan experience,’ Arlen Kantarian, chief executive for professional tennis at the USTA, said in the statement.
   ‘This new breakthrough—perhaps the most significant change to the game since the tie-breaker—will improve line calls for players, while adding excitement and intrigue for fans and TV viewers,’ he added.