Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

South Africa edged to a five-wicket victory in the final Test in Cape Town to seal a 2-1 series win over India.
   The hosts began day five needing 156 and reached their target of 211 for the loss of five wickets despite the threat of rain and bad light.
   Captain Graeme Smith and nightwatchman Shaun Pollock resumed on 55-2 and added 56 before a lengthy rain delay.
   After an early lunch, Smith fell for 55 and Pollock for 37 but Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince set up the win.
   The pair added 77 before Kallis holed out to Rahul Dravid in the deep off Zaheer Kahn for 32 with just two runs needed, leaving Prince (37 not out) and Herschelle Gibbs to finish the job.
   Paceman Kahn was the pick of the Indian bowlers with final figures of 4-62.
   Only 50 minutes of play was possible in the morning session but soon after the stoppage, Kahn removed Smith, courtesy of a stunning left-handed diving catch by wicket-keeper Murali Karthik.
   Smith’s replacement Kallis narrowly survived a virtual carbon-copy appeal on his first ball, and the Indian players immediately became more animated.
   The increased pressure soon paid off as three overs later Khan lured Pollock into a trap, banging in two short deliveries before forcing the paceman to push a fuller-length ball to VVS Laxman at a wide first slip.
   But Kallis and Prince were able to ride out the storm and guided South Africa to 162-4 at tea, still 49 runs adrift.
   And with one eye on a brooding sky, and under full floodlights, the pair edged cautiously towards the target before Prince hit the winning run.
   India won the first Test in Johannesburg by 123 runs, while South Africa clinched the second Test in Durban by 174 runs.

Top cricket clubs in Dhaka are frustrated at not getting any quality foreign players for the upcoming Dhaka Premier League, scheduled to begin on January 10 with three matches on the opening day.
   The Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis has allowed the clubs to field one foreign cricketer in each match against the registration of a maximum of three players, but no club could confirm any big name yet.
   In their quest for a hat-trick championship, holders Old DOHS had been in talks with Sri Lankan Test cricketers Russel Arnold and Thilan Samaraweera only to be refused in the end.
   ‘We were desperately trying to rope in either of them. But it seems that they are not coming. They are in the World Cup provisional squad of Sri Lanka and thus are more interested to play their own league to remain before the eyes of the selectors,’ said DOHS official Saiful Islam.
   ‘We now entrusted our Sri Lankan coach Premlal Fernando with the task of contacting a junior player and hopefully he will give us good news upon his arrival in Dhaka on Sunday,’ said Saiful.
   Abahani, one of the major challengers of DOHS, are also in quagmire over the selection of foreign players, who will be crucial for their team set-up. Club official Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu said they initially made contact with former Pakistani Test cricketer Amir Abbas, but later dropped him from their plan.
   ‘He played only two Tests for Pakistan. We found his performance was upto our requirements. We are now in negotiation with several others, but they are also not very high-profile players. I can’t really tell you whom we will bring in finally,’ said the former national captain.
   ‘It’s really difficult to get a quality foreign player at this moment. With the exception of England, our domestic season clashes with all Test-playing nations. Naturally, the top players do not want to come here,’ said Abahani official Ahmed Sazzadul Alam.
   ‘We mainly hire cricketers from Pakistan. But for the last few years it became very tough to get their top players after the Pakistan Cricket Board formed a pool of around 40 cricketers making it mandatory for them to play in the domestic cricket competitions,’ said Jahandar Rashid, the cricket secretary of the City Club.
   ‘And Pakistan’s main domestic tournament, Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, is now a very protracted affair like India’s Ranji trophy games. Moreover, this year it is going to start in the same week as our Premier League,’ he said.
   City Club, who brought former Zimbabwean captain Tatenda Taibu last year, this time recruited Pakistan’s Waseem Naeem.
   Things are no better for Twenty20 champions Mohammedan Sporting Club, who were almost sure to get Indian cricketer Sandeep Sharma. But the player now informed the club that it would not be possible for him to come to Dhaka before January 15 due to his domestic commitment.
   Having no other options, Mohammedan are now looking for an Indian Under-19 player for the first few matches. Reigning runners-up Sonargaon Cricketers are chasing their old faithful Sridharan Sriram, but they are yet to get his final consent.
   Like Sonargaon, a few other clubs are also going to rely on their old guards. Bangladesh Biman confirmed the services of Jahoor Elhai while Victoria roped in Jafar Kureshi. Rashed Hanif will play for Partex while Brothers Union enlisted Fahadullah.
   All of these players may be very common faces in Bangladesh’s domestic cricket, but no one is that high-profile cricketer like Sanath Jayasuraia and Kumar Sangakkara, who played in the last Corporate Cricket League for Beximco and Acme Laboratories respectively.

Though it is the national game of Bangladesh and has brought laurels for the country Kabaddi remains neglected and needs both financial and infrastructural support from the government as well as the business conglomerates.
   Bangladesh will take part in the World Kabaddi Championship, scheduled to be held in the western Indian state of Maharashtra from January 24-27. The kabaddi team won the bronze medal in the last edition of the meet at Mumbai in 2004 but the current crop of players is apprehensive that it would be a tough task to retain the bronze.
   In the last edition, 12 countries – Bangladesh, Canada, England, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand and the West Indies – were the participants. The organisers hope the teams will increase this time.
   Bangladesh won bronze in kabaddi in the recently-concluded Doha Asiad and it was the lone medal for the country in the sporting extravaganza of the continent. It may be mentioned that Bangladesh got silver medal in Busan Games in 2002 and four years later they earned a bronze, a the thing that pains the kabaddi federation.
   ‘Kabaddi is gaining popularity in the other Asian countries, which hardly knew the game a few years ago. Iran is making progress and developed countries like England and Australia are also forging ahead. If we do not take the right steps soon we will be thrown into the darkness,’ said Nazrul Islam, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation.
   A frustrated Nazrul finds no way to cope up with the pressure. ‘We lack the money to train our players properly, the government hardly heeds our cry and we don’t find enough support from the sponsors though we have some big plans to expand the game throughout the country,’ said Nazrul.
   ‘At last we have got a modern mat after a lot of endeavour, we lack special weight training facilities and fund to run the training throughout the year. To be realistic, kabaddi does not need big monetary help, a modest amount would be enough to develop the game,’ commented the general secretary.
   Nazrul said the federation is planning to hold a school-level kabaddi championship in the 64 districts and the final round will be held in Dhaka.
   Kabaddi needs proper nursing to be competitive in the international arena otherwise the national game will be lagging far behind very soon.

England coach Duncan Fletcher said Saturday he would like Shane Warne to cross the great cricket divide and work as a spin doctor for Australia’s old Ashes enemy.
   The champion leg-spinner played his 145th and final Test in Australia’s 10-wicket victory over England in the fifth Sydney Test Friday to claim an 86-year-old 5-0 Ashes clean sweep.
   Fletcher, who faces fall-out over England’s performance in the series, is keen for Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker to impart his skill, knowledge and experience to England spin bowlers.
   ‘I’d be happy with him to speak to anyone, there’s no doubt about it,’ Fletcher told reporters here Saturday.
   ‘Someone of that calibre would be very useful for England to use his experience, at any stage during the (northern) summer or at any stage of a player’s career.
   ‘Not only of a young spinner. Imagine the help he could give to a very, very experienced spinner in the side.’
   Although finished with Test cricket, Warne is committed to playing out the remaining two years of his contract with English county Hampshire, providing England potential access to his wealth of cricket knowledge.
   Fletcher said it would not only be spinners who would benefit from Warne’s insight.
   ‘Not only a spinner. He’s got the capabilities of helping anyone in international cricket on how to play the game,’ he said.
   In a sign England had already begun tapping into Warne’s thinking, he and opposing spinner Monty Panesar were seen chatting at length after the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG.
   Of Warne’s 708 Test wickets, 195 were against England.

Sri Lanka (262/6) beat New Zealand (73) by 189 runs
   New Zealand crashed to their worst ever one-day cricket loss Saturday in a humiliating 189-run defeat conjured by some magic from Sri Lankan veterans Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas.
   New Zealand could only muster 73 runs – their second lowest ever one-day total – in what skipper Stephen Fleming conceded was a ‘rubbish’ performance in chasing the tourists’ solid 262-6.
   A whirlwind 70 off 44 balls by 37-year-old opener Jayasuriya provided the fireworks in the Sri Lankan innings.
   Another important contribution came from the side’s most consistent batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who held the Sri Lankan innings together with 79 from 103 balls after it threatened to go off the rails with the fall of three quick wickets.
   In reply, New Zealand had no answer to a great spell of in-swing bowling from 32-year-old Vaas. He trapped New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming (0), Ross Taylor (0) and Hamish Marshall (3) in successive overs to finish with 3-10 from eight overs.
   Speedster Lasith Malinga was also devastating, taking 3-14 from eight overs and master spinner Muttiah Muralitharan had 2-7 from his 2.3 overs at the tail of the innings.
   The victory leaves the series tied at 2-2 with one match left to play on Tuesday.
   New Zealand’s longstanding batting weaknesses were again cruelly exposed with the World Cup only two months away.
   ‘It’s rubbish, that’s what it was,’ said Fleming, returning to the side after being rested for the first three matches.
   ‘I would certainly pay credit to some fine bowling by Chaminda at the top who swung the ball but there was some average batting.’
   He said the team was ‘pretty alarmed’ by the performance and their recent history of failing to score runs in the top and middle of the batting order.
   New Zealand were in trouble right from the start as wickets tumbled against Vaas. Sangakarra also took a spectacular wrong-footed catch to dismiss opener Brendon McCallum off Farveez Maharoof and by the 7th over New Zealand’s innings was already close to beyond repair at 25-4.
   Batsman Craig McMillan, playing at the top level for only the second time in the last year, was the only New Zealand batsman to show significant resistance with an undefeated 29.
   Jayasuriya brought the crowd alive earlier when in the space of 13 balls the veteran belied his age to pummel 43 runs in an extraordinary series of on-drives and pull shots. His innings included seven fours and five sixes.
   He smashed three consecutive sixes off Michael Mason in the 11th over and another off the first ball of the next over from Mark Gillespie to score four sixes off five consecutive balls faced.
   Gillespie brought the run feast to an end when Jayasuriya miscued him to fine leg in the 16th over. Another two quick wickets from Gillespie left Sri Lanka needing to rebuild which Sangakkara and Marvan Atapattu (34) patiently set about doing with a 91-run partnership.
   For New Zealand, Gillespie was the most successful bowler with 3-39 off his 10 overs.

Matthew Hayden has bid farewell to his Test opening partner Justin Langer and now wants to partner Adam Gilchrist in the Australian team all the way to this year’s one-day World Cup final.
   Hayden and Justin Langer opened for the last time in Australia’s 10-wicket final Ashes Test win over England on Friday in Sydney.
   He said he wanted to
   reignite his opening stand with Gilchrist, starting with this month’s one-day triangular series against England and New Zealand.
   Hayden’s limited-over career appeared over when he lost
   his spot after the 2005 tour
   of England, but he is now
   intent on staying put throughout 2007.
   Shane Watson opened with Gilchrist during last year’s Champions Trophy win in India, but his hamstring injury
   has given Hayden passage
   into Tuesday’s Twenty20
   clash against England in Sydney and Friday’s opening tri-series clash against England in Melbourne.
   Hayden wants to take that chance all the way to the World Cup in the Caribbean, having opened with Gilchrist through the 2003 triumph in South Africa.
   ‘Safe to say I’m pretty happy,’ Hayden told reporters here Saturday.
   ‘It’s a great opportunity for me and I just feel really lucky to be a part of the next six months of cricket.’
   Hayden and Gilchrist averaged stands of 52 throughout the 2003 World Cup, and put on 105 in the win over India in the final.
   The pair is the third-most prolific opening stand in the shortened game, having put on over 3,800 runs in 80 matches together.
   ‘Our partnership has got
   an opportunity to blossom over the next few months,’ Hayden said.
   ‘Adam is a big player in tournaments and our partnership was very strong right through the last World Cup.
   ‘It’s great to get that opportunity again and deep down we’ve got a lot of hunger to play for Australia and play well, and if that takes us to the World Cup – hopefully it will do – it will be a tremendous honour and achievement.’
   Hayden lost his spot to Simon Katich after the 2005 tour of England, who in turn lost it to Watson in India.
   Hayden’s last one-day internationals were the two matches he played in the warm-up tri-series in Malaysia last September.

A South African charge towards a series-clinching win was halted by unseasonal rain on the fifth day of the third and final Test against India at Newlands Saturday.
   South Africa were 111 for two, 100 short of victory, when heavy rain started to fall 50 minutes after the start of play. Although the rain stopped, no further play was possible before the scheduled tea break.
   The weather was clearing, however, and it was announced that play would resume at 15:05 SA time, with a delayed tea break at 16:40, if no further rain fell.
   Shaun Pollock was promoted to number four after a wicket fell with the last ball on the fourth day. It proved a positive move as he and South African captain Graeme Smith scored briskly to put on an unbeaten 56 in 50 minutes off 64 balls.
   Smith, who made 94 in the first innings, was on 49 at the stoppage and Pollock was on 25.
   Between them the pair neutralised the threat of Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble, with Pollock in particular using his feet and taking the attack to Kumble.
   Pollock was beaten early on by a ball which drifted in and then spun past the bat but otherwise looked comfortable against Kumble and pace bowlers Zaheer Khan and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.
   Bowling into a large patch of rough outside the left-hander’s off stump, Kumble made one ball lift sharply to hit Smith’s glove. The ball went past short leg for a single to raise the 50 partnership. Another delivery kicked viciously, beating both Smith and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
   Smith was fortunate with the first ball he faced, scoring four runs off an inside edge against Zaheer Khan but he set the tone for the morning in Khan’s next over when he thumped the bowler past extra cover for four and then played a wristy stroke behind square leg for another boundary.
   At the stoppage, Smith had faced 72 balls and hit six fours, while Pollock had faced 36 deliveries and hit three boundaries.
   Play started under clouds and the light became poor before a sharp shower drove the players off the field.

The Bhutan U-15 football team arrived in Bangladesh on Saturday for a month-
   long training camp at the Dinajpur BKSP due to unfavourable weather condition in Bhutan.
   The team will stay in Dinajpur till the first week of February and is expected to play a number of practice matches with the local selections.

Andrew Flintoff’s Ashes woes are expected to continue when he is stripped of the English captaincy and replaced by Michael Vaughan on Sunday, press reports said.
   Vaughan, the 2005 Ashes-winning skipper, has made a strong recovery from knee surgery and proved his fitness in a practice match on Friday in Bowral, south of Sydney.
   The England team has called a press conference with chairman of selectors David Graveney and Vaughan here on Sunday when he is expected to be named as skipper, the Daily Telegraph said.
   Vaughan is expected to lead England in the Twenty20 match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday and the ensuing one-day tri-series against Australia and New Zealand, beginning next Friday in Melbourne.
   Vaughan has been out of international cricket since a recurrence of a long-term knee injury required more surgery through the northern summer.
   His comeback plans intensified when he joined the English academy side in Perth last month, although he has struggled for runs.
   Vaughan’s form in one-day cricket has been a major concern since he replaced Nasser Hussain as skipper but the tourists are desperate to embrace his leadership, the newspaper said.
   ‘I feel ready, mentally I am very fresh,’ Vaughan said earlier this week.
   Vaughan’s return completes a disastrous seven weeks for Flintoff, who will be remembered as only the second England captain ever to preside over a 0-5 Ashes wreckage, and the first in 86 years.
   It will be the first major move of a comprehensive review into a disastrous campaign where the tourists went from Ashes heroes to whitewashed flops within 16 months.
   Flintoff was unsure at his post-match press conference whether he would retain the top job.
   ‘I enjoyed doing it and I couldn’t ask any more of the lads. If I had the chance again of doing it, I’d jump at it,’ Flintoff said Friday.
   ‘As captain, I think I’ve learned a lot throughout this trip.
   ‘When you’re making decisions out in the middle, you go with your gut feelings and do what you feel is right at the time and I stick by that.’
   Flintoff’s Test performances were sub-par, but he denied the added burden of captaincy had weighed him down.
   A sore ankle prevented him from being the bowling force he was in 2005, while his footwork when batting was sluggish until his 89 in the first innings in Sydney.
   Flintoff finished the series with 254 runs at 28.22 with two half-centuries in 10 innings and 11 wickets at 43.73 off 137 overs.

Umpire Daryl Harper said Friday that Sachin Tendulkar and the Indian team management should have been aware that the star Indian batsman was not allowed to bat early on the fourth day of the third Test against South Africa at Newlands.
   There was a six-minute delay between the fall of India’s second wicket and the arrival on the field of Sourav Ganguly after Tendulkar was informed he could not bat in his usual position because he had been off the field for 18 minutes at the end of South Africa’s first innings the previous day.
   Harper said the playing condition was clear. If a player was off the field for longer than eight minutes he had to stay away from the action for the equivalent time before he could bat or bowl.
   ‘That’s been in the conditions for as long as I have been around,’ said Harper, who has been a Test umpire since 1998.
   Harper said that after the first Indian wicket fell nine minutes into the day he asked third umpire Marais Erasmus to send a reminder to the Indian dressing room that Tendulkar could not bat until 18 minutes had elapsed. Three minutes later a second wicket fell.
   ‘It’s pretty straightforward really,’ said Harper.
   ‘If a player leaves the field he’s got to be responsible for his own actions. I thought I should send a reminder just in case there was any misunderstanding.’
   Harper said the issue had not been raised with Indian management before play. ‘We don’t remind players each morning that they can be out lbw or caught or bowled. Players must be responsible for knowing the conditions.
   ‘In most cases I think you’d find that the manager would be aware of those conditions and nothing would need to be said. We could have gone and told them first thing in the morning but personally I didn’t want to put a negative thought in their minds that if two quick wickets fell Sachin couldn’t bat.’
   In the delay before Ganguly went to the wicket there were boos from the crowd, while the South African players asked umpires Harper and Asad Rauf about the ‘timed out’ rule whereby a batsman can be given out if he is not ready to face within three minutes of the previous wicket falling.

Australia’s three departing heroes were praised in national newspapers after Ricky Ponting’s team wrapped up their first Ashes series whitewash in 86 years.
   Australia’s demolition of England was front and back page news but rather than dwell on the team’s success, most papers focused on the emotional farewells of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer.
   ‘Making such history was the perfect send-off,’ Trevor Marshallsea wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
   The same paper said it was a fitting way for the trio to end their magnificent careers.
   ‘Everyone knew that the side was bound to break up soon. But there was enough time left for one last memorable campaign. And so the great men set a trap that only their opponents did not spot,’ Peter Roebuck wrote.
   The Australian newspaper paid tribute to Langer, the least famous the departing trio but a player who epitomised Australia’s fighting spirit.
   ‘You want to smell the spent passion? Stick your nose in Justin Langer’s sports bag and get a whiff of that faded baggy green,’ Peter Lalor wrote.
   Others were looking to the future, pondering whether Australia could maintain their world domination without Warne, McGrath and Langer.
   The Age noted that during Australia’s lap of honour captain Ponting took young batsman Michael Clarke aside and told him he was one of the players the team would be looking to in years to come.
   ‘If it was to be repeated next Ashes series, he said, it was now up to them. So did an era end. So, perhaps, did an era begin,’ Greg Baum wrote.
   But not everyone was caught up in the hype of Australia’s crushing win with several newspapers also taking aim at England’s insipid performance.
   Mike Coward wrote that while there was no shame for England in losing to a superior Australian team, the overwhelming manner of their defeat had ruined the series.
   ‘It is shameful that the second-ranked team in the world was unable to legitimately compete in a contest of this magnitude before record and expectant crowds. Indeed, there may not have been a greater anti-climax in 130 years of Test match cricket,’ Coward wrote.
   ‘Presumably it has now dawned on Team England that while they were the superior outfit in 2005 they did not truly win the Ashes. The painful truth is that Australia lost them. And if that offends the sensibilities of Flintoff and company, so be it. For that is the reality.’

Australia, fresh from crushing England 5-0 in their first Ashes whitewash in 86 years, have confirmed themselves as one of cricket’s great ‘dynasties’, reports here said, but are still hoping to break new records.
   Ricky Ponting’s Australians chalked up their 12th straight Test victory in overpowering the English tourists by 10 wickets before lunch on the fourth day of the Sydney Test Friday.
   The Australian team, now facing life without their retired trio of greats Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer, need five more successive wins, at home to Sri Lanka and India later this year to break the record.
   The record stands at 16 straight that highlighted Steve Waugh’s captaincy, and began the tenure of coach John Buchanan, who also participated in his last Test Friday. Since the 2005 Ashes defeat in England, Ponting’s side has played 17 Tests, winning 16 and drawing one.
   ‘Australia has hit back with unstoppable force after its shame in coughing up the urn it had come to regard as its own,’ The Sydney Morning Herald said Saturday.
   Ponting said in the Herald report the Ashes whitewash would be made even more special if it ends up being part of a record-winning sequence.
   ‘It’s been a really good run for us. The Test cricket we’ve played has been first-class. It’s not only this series, it is the 12 months that we’ve played outstanding Test match cricket,’ he said. ‘Everyone should be proud about that. Let’s hope we give that record a shake.’
   The Daily Telegraph said Australia have built one of the top two dynasties in world cricket history. Englishman Matthew Engel, editor of the ‘cricketing bible’ Wisden, told the newspaper he is not sure whether the current Australian team is the best the world has seen.
   But he believes after 11 years as the game’s No.1 side Australia can rate their own era of domination alongside that of the great West Indian sides of the 1980s and 90s who went undefeated for 15 years.
   ‘They are the two dynasties—there is no-one else in history who has lasted as long as they have and beaten everybody they have ever been matched against,’ Engel said.
   ‘There have been a lot of great teams—the ‘48 Australians, the mid-70s Australians, the West Indian sides of the 1980s, England of the 50s and the South African team of the 70s we didn’t even know about.’
   ‘What you have here is a dynasty that has matched the West Indies. You haven’t had one team. You have had a team that has seamlessly morphed into a different one.’
   The Australian newspaper said if there was a positive element to the most one-sided Ashes series since England whipped an Australian team weakened by the World Series Cricket split 29 years ago, it was the relative youth of England’s team.
   ‘Whereas Australia has already lost four key players to old age, England knows Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar will play key roles, barring a major catastrophe,’ it said.

England coach Duncan Fletcher says a lot was asked of Andrew Flintoff as England captain in the failed Ashes campaign against Australia.
   England crashed to a 5-0 Ashes series whitewash to the Australians, the first such defeat in 86 years.
   Fletcher, also under fire for his part in the tour debacle, conceded he was concerned before the series that Flintoff would be over-burdened by the captaincy on top of batting at No.6 and opening the bowling.
   Fletcher also said Flintoff had difficulties deciding when to attack or defend in the field, and had lacked the equivalent support that Australian skipper Ricky Ponting could so often call upon.
   England are expected to replace Flintoff with Michael Vaughan on Sunday for next week’s triangular one-day series against Australia and New Zealand.
   Vaughan’s knee problems prevented him from playing in the Ashes series, but he is available for the tri-series.
   Flintoff struggled with both bat, averaging 28.22, and ball (43.72) through the series, and had his tactical ability questioned after setting defensive fields against Australia’s batsmen.
   Fletcher said he wondered before the series whether appointing Flintoff to replace Vaughan over opener Andrew Strauss was the right call, given the Lancastrian had only captained England in six Tests beforehand and did not lead his county.
   ‘I do believe there is a lot to ask of him, especially with a young, inexperienced side where you’ve got to do a lot of captaining,’ Fletcher told reporters here Saturday.
   ‘You’re not really getting the help from these young guys that, say, Ponting gets from the experienced guys around him. So it is a very difficult job for him.
   ‘He found it difficult. With a lot of young bowlers out there he’s got to (decide whether to) protect them, or does he go and attack a side of attacking batters?
   ‘He’s come up with a policy that he believes is right and it’s been a very, very difficult job for him.’
   Flintoff’s difficulties even extended to managing his friend and strike bowler Steve Harmison, who failed to reproduce his form of England’s 2005 Ashes victory in England.
   Harmison took 10 wickets at 61.40 and only bowled his best when the Ashes were lost.
   ‘There were a couple of occasions during this (fifth) and other Tests when Andrew has taken him (Harmison) off and he has been pretty angry about it,’ Fletcher said.
   The review of England’s dire tour will include its limited preparation before the first Test, its bad selections, Fletcher’s role as a selector, Flintoff’s captaincy and even the size of the team’s entourage.
   ‘We can go away and there’s areas we can work on. We’ve said it on numerous occasions, cricket’s not an easy game, you have your ups and downs,’ Fletcher said.
   ‘If it was just that simple to get players to play well. There was a lot of pressure. You’ve got to give credit to the Australians, the way they played, they’re a quality side.
   ‘Last (time, in 2005) they had their downs with the same
   side. They’ve come back, turned it around and beat us convincingly. We hope to do the same.’

England should have separate Test and one-day coaches, according to former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott.
   And he believes Duncan Fletcher should be replaced by former India coach John Wright in the Test set-up.
   He has named current Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody and former Australian batsman Dean Jones as possible one-day coaches.
   Boycott said Wright had helped India learn to win Test matches and added: ‘He is a firm hand in a soft glove and I know he would be interested.’
   Former New Zealand batsman Wright was India coach for almost five years between 2000 and 2005.
   Boycott said England’s Ashes tour had been a shambles and Fletcher should do the honourable thing and step down after the World Cup.
   ‘This tour has been a shambles from first to last and it is about time that certain people admitted that.
   ‘The first thing I want to see is the coach, Duncan Fletcher, taking responsibility for his mistakes and announcing that he will retire after the World Cup.
   ‘Fletcher has given some good years to English cricket. Best of all, he got us to the pinnacle of beating Australia in 2005.’
   Boycott also believes the England and Wales Cricket Board now needs to think radically if they are to raise the current poor standing of the one-day side.
   ‘The other idea England should consider is splitting the job in half, so that they have one coach for the Test team and one for one-day internationals,’ he wrote in his Daily Telegraph column.
   ‘It would be revolutionary, but you should never disparage an idea just because nobody else has tried it.
   ‘Appointing a specialised one-day coach would send a message out that this is not just hit-and-giggle cricket - it is important to the standing of our game.
   ‘The right person for this job would be someone like Dean Jones or Tom Moody. They were both excellent one-day players and they would be up for the job.
   ‘English cricket has still not fully embraced the short game: we need to start focusing on winning these tournaments rather than just treating them as chores.’

The World Anti-Doping Agency wants the hearing into its appeal against the exoneration of Pakistan pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif to begin in two weeks’ time at the Court of Arbitration of Sport.
   WADA has served a reminder to the Pakistan Cricket Board in this regard, a few days after the PCB appeared to have got some leeway when the CAS was reported to have said it would take four months to settle the case.
   If the hearing starts within a fortnight as WADA wants, it could assume significance for the availability of the two pacemen for the World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean in March-April.
   However, PCB is still adamant that the issue falls outside WADA’s jurisdiction.
   ‘We have got the CAS letter informing us WADA wants a hearing in two weeks’ time but we have again challenged their jurisdiction and authority to control or monitor in what is a in-house case,’ a Board official told PTI.
   Akhtar and Asif were first banned for two and one year respectively in November by a drugs inquiry tribunal of the Board after they tested positive for nandrolone and were recalled from the Champions Trophy in India.
   But another appeals commission of the Board exonerated them of the charges and lifted the bans in early December leading to a strong reaction from WADA and the International Cricket Council.

Belgian star Kim Clijsters’s final year as a professional got off to a perfect start Saturday when she beat world number two Maria Sharapova in straight sets to win the Hong Kong invitational.
   In a match seen as an indicator of form before the Australian Open, the world number five—who announced here she will retire at the end of the season—led from the start to beat Sharapova 6-3, 7-6.
   The Russian glamour girl put in a dazzling display, with some tremendous passing shots and eight aces.
   But Clijsters’ big serve and punishing ground strokes were too much for Sharapova, who was still showing some of the sluggishness that made her first round win over China’s Yan Zi look fortunate.
   Sharapova was first to break at 2-2 in the second set but Clijsters won every game of the set from then on.
   Hardly a serve was held in the second set and Sharapova frittered away a handful of set points with some poorly judged backhands.
   She managed to take Clijsters to a tie-break, but even with the Belgian serving two double faults at 6-7, Sharapova was unable to capitalise, succumbing eventually 10-8.
   ‘It was nice because I felt very comfortable out there,’ Clijsters said afterwards. ‘You just have to get the rhythm in the beginning and I felt like I was returning well.’
   She said she had shrugged off the injuries that had forced her to miss much of the past couple of seasons and was feeling strong going into the Australian Open in Melbourne.
   ‘My strength is something I don’t have to worry about—so I can concentrate on those other things that need work,’ she said.

Former captains Nasser Hussain and Bob Willis have slammed England’s performance in the 5-0 Ashes whitewash by Australia, accusing the players of being pampered and mollycoddled.
   ‘I have travelled with the Australians a little bit, I’ve been staying in the same hotels and they get on a little minibus every morning,’ Hussain told Sky Sports.
   ‘England get on this big bus with security guards and 45 backroom staff. They are all pampered, their bags are looked after and everything’s OK, there’s no need for them to look over their shoulders.’
   Former batsman Hussain, who led England between 1999 and 2003, said Australia’s players had their feet on the ground.
   ‘Australia are just a down to earth bunch. They just say ‘we might be superstars but that’s not why we do it. We’ve been asked by our captain to win the series 5-0 and we’ve done our job, no more than that.
   ‘The character’s been lacking (with England).’
   Willis, who captained England 18 times in the 1980s, agreed with Hussain.
   ‘They (England) are pampered and mollycoddled,’ said the former fast bowler.
   Willis said a television interview given by fast bowler Steve Harmison typified England’s lacklustre approach.
   ‘What summed it up for me was when Harmison was interviewed by Michael Atherton, who asked him what his programme would be from Jan. 5 to when the first Test against the West Indies starts (in May),’ said Willis.
   ‘He said, ‘I don’t know, you’d better ask the coach (Duncan Fletcher’.
   ‘The guy has played nearly 50 Tests for England and he should know how to prepare himself.’
   Harmison has retired from one-day internationals and will miss the triangular series in Australia that also features New Zealand, and the World Cup in the Caribbean starting in March.
   Willis said England’s approach was in stark contrast to that of the Australians.
   ‘These (England) guys just don’t take responsibility,’ he said.
   ‘Take a look at the Australians. Each individual stands up and says, ‘I will change the course of the game’.’

Matteo Ferrari looks set to shun purported interest from Chelsea to stay at Roma.
   The Italian international has been in impressive form for the Roman club this term and with Chelsea looking for defensive cover - Jose Mourinho reportedly looked into landing the 27-year-old former Everton man.
   Ferrari’s agent Gianni Corci confirmed Mourinho was a fan of his charge, but he insists a new deal at The Stadio Olimpico is his priority.
   ‘Jose Mourinho knows Ferrari well and this is why, when Matteo played against Chelsea for Everton, he spoke very highly of him,’ Corci told Teleradiostereo Sport.
   ‘Ferrari suits the English game, both for his technical and physical attributes, but it’s clear he wants to continue with Roma.
   ‘We have a strong rapport with the Giallorossi directors and plan to carry on this relationship.
   ‘We want to extend our contract, although it has to be said matters haven’t improved by much.
   ‘Even if in Italy too there are prestigious sides interested in Matteo, who have made some interesting approaches, we are perfectly relaxed. Roma are in our minds.’

Italy’s antitrust authority, which investigates unfair competition and abuses of market position, on Friday urged the Italian football authorities to work towards a return of the collective selling of television rights among Serie A clubs.
   The government-backed regulating body believes Italy’s top division will be more competitive if the money from television is distributed in a fairer fashion.
   ‘The system of sales of television rights and the distribution of money accentuates the economic disparity between the big and small clubs,’ said a statement issued by the Antitrust authority after an investigation into the business dealings in Italian football.
   ‘The return of collective television rights would ensure a much tighter championship. There needs to be more cooperation from the clubs and more dialogue between the FIGC (Italian football federation) and Lega-Calcio (The Italian football league.’
   Lega-Calcio handles the day-to-day running of Serie A and Serie B but answers to the FIGC, Italian football’s governing body.
   Since 1999, clubs have been able to negotiate their own individual deals, giving more economic muscle to the bigger clubs such as Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio and Roma.
   The less fashionable clubs are offered far less money by broadcasters as their matches attract much smaller audiences.
   Last season 14 Serie A clubs threatened to boycott matches against Juventus (who have since been relegated to Serie B for match-fixing) AC Milan and Inter Milan after a proposed reform to the existing law governing tv rights was blocked by the then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
   Berlusconi happens to be the owner of AC Milan as well as Italian television company Mediaset, one of the three channels which show live Serie A matches.
   Less prestigious clubs like Chievo and Livorno are estimated to bring in a tenth of what Inter Milan earn in tv money.
   The antitrust authority said they would also like to see the end of the January transfer window. They believe it gives an unfair advantage to the bigger clubs who are in a better financial position than the smaller teams to strengthen their squads.

Many people wondered at the start of the season whether Sami Hyypia would still be a Liverpool player by the time of the January transfer window.
   With the arrival of two vibrant, youthful centre halves in the excellent Daniel Agger and Gabriel Paletta, there seemed little hope for the giant Finn when he lost his place early in the season.
   But after an impressive Christmas period, it is the veteran stopper who is leading Liverpool into a hopeful New Year with some commanding performances.
   Despite nearly 400 appearances and eight major trophies for the Anfield club, there is still a huge desire burning at the heart of the Finland international.
   With Arsenal due on Merseyside for two massive Cup matches over the next four days, Hyypia is ready to show he is desperate to prolong his impressive Liverpool career.
   Even though he has already gone down in Anfield legend as one of the long-serving greats, Hyypia said: ‘Now I want more.
   ‘Maybe afterwards when I look back and see the amount of games I played for Liverpool and what we did I will recognise it is a achievement.
   ‘But I’d really like to go win a championship - I have never won one. In Finland, I was second three times, in Holland I finished second once and we have been second here.’
   Far from being threatened by the presence of Agger, Hyypia seems to have been revitalised by it as the Dane’s arrival has meant the 33-year-old can get more rest after games.
   ‘At this stage, I wouldn’t be able to play every game anyway. Last season was so heavy for me - I played 57 games - and I was quite exhausted in the summer,’ explained Hyypia.
   ‘I don’t think I could do that again. But I feel in as good a shape as ever now and can go on for a while.’
   To win more trophies this season Liverpool and skipper Steven Gerrard realistically have to get past Arsenal in the FA and Carling Cups and, to do that, Hyypia will have to shackle a refreshed Thierry Henry.
   ‘Arsenal are difficult opponents, but our home form is good. Home advantage is one thing we have to take heart from,’ he added.
   ‘Henry is as close to the perfect striker as you can get. He has pace, he has skill with the ball, and he has heading ability.

A few years ago I went to see Sven Goran Eriksson, who at the time was the England national team coach. He showed me a power point presentation he had prepared, illustrating how countries in which there is no midseason break tend to underperform internationally. He was going to use it to persuade the English powers-that-be to introduce a winter break around the turn of the year (as is customary in most European leagues).
   No prizes for guessing how he fared. Eriksson was laughed out of the room. Rather than give the players some time off in midseason, the Premiership goes in the opposite direction, doubling their fixtures. This season, most clubs played on Dec. 23, 26, 30 and Jan. 1: four games in nine days. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe’s top leagues enjoyed breaks ranging from two weeks (Spain) to six weeks (Germany).
   Eriksson’s point was that the Premiership’s insistence on scheduling additional TV-friendly games during the holidays ends up penalizing English-based players who find themselves staggering tired and battle-wearied into international competitions. Cynics—especially now that the Swede is about as popular as the flu, at least in England—will say that it’s just an excuse.
   But take a step back and ask yourself how many Premiership stars played well at Germany 2006? To a man, from Steven Gerrard to Thierry Henry and from Frank Lampard to Cristiano Ronaldo, most underperformed at the World Cup compared to what we’re used to seeing, week in, week out. Which suggests that Eriksson may have a point.
   Footballers are athletes, of course, but, as Giampiero Ventrone, the legendary former Juventus fitness coach told me, they are unlike most other athletes. First, most athletic training follows a natural peak-and-trough cycle. You plan your physical work in such a way that you peak a certain number of times per year. For a world-class rower in an Olympic year it may mean peaking just once; for a boxer, three or four times (based on when his fights are scheduled); for a track and field star, the peaks will coincide with whatever Grand Prix events he or she has lined up.
   The body is not a machine. You can only reach your peak potential every so often, which is why the most finely-tuned athletes only compete a limited number of times per year. But footballers are expected to turn out and be at their best 10 months out of the year. Simply put, it’s impossible.
   Soccer players also face a schedule unlike most other team sports. Most top teams play twice a week. It may not seem like a lot compared to, say, Major League Baseball (with its 162-game schedule) or the National Basketball Association, but those are very different sports. Both have off seasons which are twice as long and, as far as baseball is concerned, much of the time is spent standing around (come to think of it, some NBA games are like that, too). NFL football is more physically punishing than soccer, dictating a smaller 16 regular-season game slate. Even then, the NFL requires a different kind of physical effort: a series of short bursts (over a maximum of 35, 40 minutes per week) compared to the constant running of soccer.
   And yet the irony is, according to Ventrone, that footballers train a lot less than athletes in individual sports. In fact, compared to swimmers and runners, they are relative softies.
   ‘I work with these Ukrainian swimmers, they get up at 5 a.m. and train for 12 hours a day, every day,’ Ventrone told me. ‘That’s an athlete’s life. Footballers are spoiled brats compared to them. At Juve we worked more than most, but even then, you only got, at best, a couple of hours a day.’
   An assistant coach at one major Premiership club confirmed this.
   ‘Most weeks we play two games, plus they get a day off,’ he told me. ‘And, if they don’t have the day after a game off, we’re usually taking it easy. Then there’s the day before the match. We almost always have light training, either because we have to travel or because we need to do more tactical work to prepare for our opponent. That’s two more days lost. Which means we usually have just one day where we can train fully and properly and push ourselves, usually the Monday after a Saturday match.’
   And training ‘fully’ and ‘properly’ is a far cry from Ventrone’s Ukrainian swimmers and their 2,000 daily laps.
   ‘No, we’ll start around 10, finish up by 12, 12:30 and that’s it. But what can you do? Our only real chance to do serious work, the kind that builds fitness, is during preseason. But that’s just four weeks or so. And, even then, there will be tours and friendlies and all that crap.’
   Would players perform better if they put in more hours? Probably. At most clubs they have the morning or the afternoon off, which makes it a pretty cushy gig (and that’s without considering the seven=-figure salaries).
   The problem with working them harder during the season is that they also need time off to recuperate. And the simple truth is that most simply don’t get it. Those who went to the World Cup got, at best, three or four weeks off. At worst, like Andrea Pirlo or Thierry Henry (who had the ‘misfortune’ of reaching the final), they got 12 days. Compare that to the three months most baseball stars get to spend their exorbitant salaries.
   There is no easy solution to it, beyond reducing the number of fixtures, which, naturally, nobody wants to do, because you need to maximize profits to pay the massive salaries. Given that this won’t happen any time soon, the best one can hope for is a mid-season break, a real one, across the whole continent (even if it means chucking in additional fixtures at other times of the year). And there’s no better place to start than the English Premier League.
   Extra Time
   It’s hard to tell which statistical chase is more anti-climactic: Barry Bonds’ pursuit of Hank Aaron or Romario’s quest for 1,000 goals. The latter is turning into a freak show, with the Brazilian striker floating from short-term contract to short-term contract (in such hotbeds as Miami and Adelaide) looking for a place to score goals. The reality is that 1,000 goals is meaningless. It’s a number based on dubious statistics. Whether he stops at 999 or goes on to pass Pele and reach 1,500, it won’t change a single thing in his career. He remains one of the greatest goalscorers in history, either way. It’s just sad that he has chosen to end his career with this meaningless side-show. At least Bonds’ home runs all came in the top flight.
   — Sports Illustrated

Victorious Australia captain Ricky Ponting said Saturday that England had no chance of retaining the Ashes thanks to his side’s iron discipline.
   Ponting said it felt ‘incredible’ to seal a 5-0 series victory, the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years, adding that it was deserved due to Australia’s meticulous preparation.
   ‘If I had been allowed to write my own script for this series, I couldn’t have come up with anything better than this,’ Ponting wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
   ‘It’s been mistake-free, high-pressure stuff and we’ve worked hard for it. It’s not like we turned up and expected our talent to win games. We prepared as well as we possibly could, worked hard and got our just rewards.
   ‘I would say that our discipline was the key. We’ve done all the little things really well. Our running between the wickets was great, our fielding, generally, was sharp. Our bowling was terrific.
   ‘Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath will dominate the headlines—and rightly so—but Stuart Clark’s also been unbelievable. Our batting, when we had a partnership going, was relentless. All the disciplines of Test cricket, really.
   ‘We just didn’t give England a chance.’
   Ponting paid tribute to bowlers McGrath and Warne, who have retired from Test cricket following the Ashes series.
   He praised quick McGrath as better than Curtly Ambrose and Shaun Pollock, while he said spinner Warne’s special talent lay in anticipating what stroke the batsman would attempt.
   ‘As for England’s performances, people will look at the scoreline and think that they crumbled,’ Ponting wrote.
   ‘It’s hard for me to judge. I don’t know their players and wouldn’t like to comment on their character or lack of it. All I know is that at different times in this series we had to play exceptional cricket.
   ‘I’ve been lucky enough to have played in lots of winning teams, but this one has been special.
   ‘To be able to walk up to your bowlers, tell them what you want, set a few field positions and then see it all come off; from a captain’s point of view, it doesn’t get any better. The execution was perfect.’

Bayern Munich are monitoring Gaby Heinze’s situation at Manchester United.
    The Guardian says Heinze could be used as bait during United’s negotiations with the Bundesliga champions about the proposed transfer of Owen Hargreaves.
   The Argentine is off contract in the summer, but the
   imminent arrival of Southampton left-back Gareth Bale could accelerate Heinze’s departure from Old Trafford this month.
   Negotiations for Hargreaves are more advanced than either club is willing to admit publicly. Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer said yesterday, ‘If this supposed 30m (£20.2m) offer from United was put on the table, we would have to think about it.
   ‘That sum would give us some impact in the transfer market.’

Despite interest from Liverpool and problems
   with FIFA, Juventus are stepping up their bid for Javier Mascherano by flying to London for talks.
   The Argentine international only joined West Ham
   United in the summer, but
   has failed to settle in and is already looking for a switch elsewhere.
   While the British Press is filled with stories of Liverpool’s offer to bring him to Anfield Road on loan in January, the Italians are prepared to sneak in.
   It’s reported in both ‘Tuttosport’ and the ‘Corriere dello Sport’ this morning that Bianconeri director of sport Alessio Secco has flown to London for advanced negotiations with Mascherano and West Ham.
   The intention is to bring
   the midfielder to Turin immediately on a permanent move rather than Liverpool’s loan proposal.
   There are other issues at play here, above all the FIFA rules that seem to prohibit Mascherano’s move to any other side before the summer because he has already played for Brazilian club Corinthians and West Ham in 2006-07.
   ‘The rules are very clear. Article 5.3 states that, although a player can be registered for a maximum of three clubs
   during the period from 1st July to 30th June, he is only
   eligible to play in official matches for two clubs in this period,’ a FIFA spokesman told ‘The Times.’
   However, the Italian
   media suggest that the timing of the transfer to the Premiership would make this rule void.

Inter balked at the £5.7m per season offered by Al-Ittihad, so they had no choice but to release Luis Figo, confirmed the club.
   The Portuguese veteran will be a free agent at the end of the current term, but has already penned a new contract with the Arabian side.
   ‘We had offered Figo a year-long extension to his contract, but not at the same figures as the Saudis were proposing,’ revealed Nerazzurri technical director Marco Branca.
   ‘He made a choice, but until June he will stay with us.
   ‘It was simply implausible that he would be allowed to leave in January.’
   This makes the 34-year-old former Sporting Lisbon, Barcelona and Real Madrid man one of the highest paid players in the world.
   Although no official figures have been released, it’s believed Figo lags behind only Ronaldinho and Chelsea’s Andriy Shevchenko.

Luca Toni won the Golden Boot, Capocannoniere crown and World Cup in 2006, but sees only Fiorentina in his future.
   ‘Sooner or later this year had to end, but it’s been the best of my career so far,’ confessed the hitman who scored 31 Serie A goals in 2005-06. ‘I certainly couldn’t have asked for more. I won the World Cup, the Golden Boot and it was a great 12 months on a personal level too.’
   The Viola are working in Marbella for a winter mid-season training camp and Toni insists the future is just as bright.
   ‘I have a wonderful rapport with Adrian Mutu and have done ever since we met. We like being a goal-scoring pairing and everyone here wants to hit the back of the net,’ he said of the double act who have scored 19 Serie A goals between them this term.
   ‘We play a very attacking system, as this is a team that likes to spread the ball around quickly and construct impressive moves. It wasn’t easy to come back from the 15-point Calciopoli penalty, but our ambitions for this season will depend on the first few games of the new year.’
   Toni was on the verge of walking out on the Stadio Artemio Franchi this summer, although the switch to Inter failed and he stayed on.
   ‘Now I have a strong desire to keep winning and to do it with Fiorentina. I have no problem with the Della Valle family. Could I stay here for life? Why not? As long as the Viola let me play until I’m 38…’

Jose Mourinho is set to stun the Premiership by moving for Aston Villa misfit Milan Baros after rejecting the chance to sign Darren Bent for £25million, reports the Daily Mirror.
   The Blues boss is poised to take 26-year-old Baros on a six-month loan deal with £30million flop Andriy Shevchenko still firing blanks.
   Mourinho is prepared to gamble on Baros, who knows the Premiership well, because he is sick of Chelsea being held to ransom in the transfer market.
   The champions were offered England striker Bent by Charlton on Thursday - 24 hours before admitting they were open to offers.
   Chelsea laughed off the chance of landing Bent for £25m. He was available for £15m Friday. Chelsea believe bringing in Baros will take the heat off Shevchenko, allowing him to blossom in his second season, as Didier Drogba did.
   Meanwhile, Milan Baros has turned down a move to Spanish outfit Real Sociedad.
   The Basque outfit are struggling at the wrong end of La Liga and had targeted the Czech star to fire them to safety. However, after talks Baros has opted against a move to The Anoeta.
   ‘Milan has not accepted the offer from this club,’ his agent Pavel Paska confirmed.
   ‘There will be no more talks.’
   Baros has failed to live up expectations since moving to Villa Park in 2005 and is now down the pecking order under Martin O’Neill.

Liverpool centre-back Daniel Agger says he has adapted well to playing English football.
   The Danish defender moved to Anfield a year ago from Brondby in the January transfer window and is set for his 24th start of the campaign against Arsenal in the FA Cup after becoming a regular in the central defence this season.
   ‘It was only two-and-a-half years ago that I started playing football for real,’ Agger told the London Daily Star.
   ‘I was at school at the time, graduating in the summer from a business college before going to play for Brondby.
   ‘If my chums at school would have been told I would end up playing for Liverpool, they would have laughed, everyone would have laughed, including me.
   He added: ‘There is very stiff competition for places but that is all part of the game.
   ‘I could have gone to a club where there was less competition but I love a challenge and I want to win games and medals.
   ‘This is the club for that but more wants more. The more successful you are, the more you want.
   ‘I was well prepared for British football but it is impossible to be 100 per cent prepared and it took time to get used to it.’

Goalkeeper Jose Reina has revealed he is settled at Liverpool amid rumours he is set for a return to his native Spain.
   The 24-year-old Spaniard has been linked with a move back home to Valencia all season, speculation which has been compounded further by the lack of progress on a new contract for the goalkeeper at Anfield.
   But as he and his side prepare to begin their defence of the FA Cup against Premiership rivals Arsenal, former Villarreal player Reina admits he is happy with life on Merseyside and his primary aim at the moment is to focus on the remainder of the season.
   ‘The truth is I am quite comfortable here,’ Reina told The Independent.
   ‘I have two years left on my contract and I think we will sit down and talk about a new contract in the summer.
   ‘Now is not the best time to speak about a new deal. There is plenty of time for that. I would be very happy to stay, although in this game you never know what might happen. I’m happy at Liverpool, my wife is happy here.
   ‘It is not the time to discuss new contracts because I have to focus on the team, on improving our season and I don’t want any distractions from that for me or the rest of the lads.’
   Reina does not appear to suffer from the homesickness that contributed to the departure from Liverpool of his compatriots Fernando Morientes and Josemi.
   ‘I have a house in Cordoba and it is quite different to Liverpool,’ he said.
   ‘But I am not homesick for Spain. I miss it, it is my home, but I am happy here.’

Roberto Donadoni has announced he’ll call Francesco Totti to discuss his future in the Italy squad.
   The controversy over the World Cup winner’s position in the future of the Italy side shows no sign of abating.
   ‘We will talk, as expected, over the next few days,’ explained Donadoni to State television RAI.
   His form for Roma is scintillating, yet Totti refuses to accept a return to international duty until the screws are removed from his fractured ankle in September.
   ‘He is having a great campaign, as are Roma. The form of a player always goes through his team, so that’s only natural.’
   The Italy Coach has hinted that he will recall Totti for the upcoming Euro 2008 qualifier against Scotland on March 28.
   ‘We must go into the game in Scotland in good shape and with a strong desire to get all three points,’ continued Donadoni.
   ‘A victory would give us the opportunity to face the following qualifiers with a more relaxed state of mind.’
   Italy are currently in third place in Group B with seven points, lagging behind joint leaders France and Scotland on nine.

Henrik Larsson will make his belated introduction to English football in Manchester United’s FA Cup third round tie against Aston Villa here today having already won the backing of his new manager and team-mates at Old Trafford.
   After finally landing the Swedish striker – albeit on a 10-week loan – having failed on a number of occasions to lure Larsson from Celtic, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has talked in glowing terms of the player’s immediate impact on the dressing room.
   Ferguson hopes the arrival of the veteran forward will provide his side with a valuable lift during a crucial stage of the campaign that he hopes will see United advance in the FA Cup and Champions League as well as consolidate their six-point lead at the head of the Premiership.
   With Louis Saha only just recovered from a niggling groin injury, Larsson is expected to start against Villa alongside Wayne Rooney or fellow Scandinavian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as United attempt to book their place in the fourth round at the expense of a side they beat 3-0 last month.
   United’s Argentinian left-back Gabriel Heinze is convinced Larsson, who helped Barcelona win the Champions League final against Arsenal last year after coming off the bench, will settle into his new team with ease.
   ‘He is one of my favourite players in the sense of what he has achieved, not just in Spain, but also at Celtic,’ Heinze said. ‘I think he is a great signing for us and will do really well here.
   ‘He has not been a success for no reason. I saw him a lot for Barcelona. He was remarkable there considering he had come back from a bad injury.
   ‘Yet when he returned he was the same player as before. He was one of the best forwards in Spain and is going to be a great addition to our squad.
   ‘If you are a bright young player you can learn from Henrik Larsson.’
   Larsson will be reunited his former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill but the Villa boss has singled out the Swede’s team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo as the biggest threat to the Birmingham club’s hopes of avenging their recent defeat by United.
   The Portuguese winger scored twice in a stunning individual display at Villa Park and O’Neill is convinced Ronaldo’s form will be the deciding factor in this weekend’s tie.
   ‘He was simply outstanding against us before Christmas,’ O’Neill said. ‘If United were to sell him now they would get more than 50 million pounds for him.
   ‘If we are to go through we have to do what no other Premiership team has done this season and stop Ronaldo from playing.’
   Villa’s hopes will be boosted by the return of captain Gareth Barry after a one-match ban although the midfielder’s comeback will be offset by the loss of centre-back Olaf Mellberg to suspension.
   On-loan keeper Gabor Kiraly is available after Villa were given permission by Crystal Palace to play the Hungarian in the continuing absence of the injured Thomas Sorensen.

Angry Arsene Wenger launched a bitter attack on the ‘ridiculous’ state of the Premiership – and warned its ‘killer’ football will stop England from winning the World Cup.
   The Arsenal boss believes referees, cynical managers and players are in danger of wrecking the English game.
   It started off as a question about Steve Bennett being put in charge of Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie at Liverpool even though the referee sent him off last month during Arsenal’s draw at Portsmouth.
   And then when Wenger was asked about last Saturday’s bruising defeat at Sheffield United, the Frenchman let rip with a blast far more fierce than most of the challenges which went in at Bramall Lane.
   Wenger is sick of his team being called ‘cry babies’ but maintains the culture within English football is in danger of destroying the beautiful game.
   ‘I feel sometimes if this is football and that’s the way we go, then English football will never progress,’ he said.
   ‘If you go to the World Cup you cannot behave like that because you go nowhere playing like that.
   ‘Neil Warnock says to his team at Sheffield United that they have to be absolutely committed – I find that right.
   ‘But after that, the referee has to set how far they can go – in the end he can punish us twice.
   First of all, Chris Morgan was not sent off, secondly we have to accept he does not play against one of our rivals for the Champions League.
   ‘Of course it is about 100 per cent commitment – if you had seen me playing you would not deny that. It’s about 100 per cent commitment – but you want to be sure that a player’s intention is first of all to go for the ball.
   ‘Listen, do not interpret this wrongly. One hundred per cent commitment is one of the great strengths of the English game, respected all over the world. My experience is that most ‘coward’ players I played with were those who tried to hit somebody – the bravest never tried to “do” anyone, they went always for the ball.
   ‘But when you’re brave, you’re strong, you respect the rules. There’s a big difference – when you go 100 per cent for the ball I respect that 200 per cent.
   ‘But when I see a player giving another player an elbow before he goes for the ball, I say, “sorry my friend, you have nothing to do in the game”. It’s not football.
   ‘And yet we are still seen as being ridiculous. On top of that and supported by the media it is seen as normal – we are babies.
   ‘But I hate players that hide from physical contact. I never respect a player who doesn’t go in for contact.
   ‘What I don’t accept is that, if we are beaten physically because we don’t go into contact, people come out and say, “look, they are babies”.
   ‘I want my players to be respected, and when things go overboard I’m not here to say, “yes, you’re right, we lost 1-0 and I’m a bad loser.” Of course I’m a bad loser.
   ‘But I can show you challenges on that night - for example, the free-kick against Gael Clichy, who just protected the ball – what’s the difference?’
   Wenger believes the game has been cleaned up from when he was playing – but says there are still ‘killers’ in English football.
   ‘When I was younger and played, you had clubs where sometimes after 10 minutes players got the number of the player they had to kill from the manager,’ said Wenger.
   ‘Football has become better, because in that period you had players who were professional killers, because not every game was on television and it was not under scrutiny. How many players have got away with what Morgan did 20 years ago?
   ‘I feel this team, when they have more experience, will handle it much better and they have done it much better recently.
   ‘But I cannot deny that we had a weakness there when teams decided to play that way. That is why we are where we are.’

Alex Ferguson has set himself a target of being the first football manager to lift a trophy at the new Wembley.
   He was used to doing that at the old stadium and Fergie is plotting the same thing at the FA Cup final on May 19.
   United have won the competition 11 times, five of which came under Ferguson.
   They begin their campaign tomorrow with a third-round tie at home to Aston Villa, seven-time winners themselves.
   And Old Trafford boss Ferguson said, ‘They are going to be looking forward to opening the gates of the new Wembley and hopefully that will be for us.
   ‘The incentive is there to be the first manager to win at the new Wembley.
   ‘Everyone is anticipating this to be one of the most fantastic stadiums in the world.
   ‘And it would be great for us to get there this year.’
   Ferguson is expecting a tough test against Martin O’Neill’s Villa side despite their run of 10 games without a win.
   United tonked them 3-0 at Villa Park a fortnight ago in the Premiership although the Midlanders held Chelsea to a goalless draw on Tuesday.
   Ferguson said, ‘We have to galvanise ourselves for this game because it will be different from the league encounter.
   ‘They have had a bad spell but they might be coming out of it. It certainly looked that way in the second half of their game against Chelsea.
    ‘They will also bring 6,000 fans with them to Old Trafford which will help create a great atmosphere.’
   Ferguson is expected to give Henrik Larsson, on loan from Helsingborg, his debut.
   He will be the oldest outfield player in the side at 35.
   But boss Ferguson wants a youngster to add to the squad and has made a move for 17-year-old Southampton left-back Gareth Bale.
   United have weighed in with a £5-million bid for him.
   Bale will not be cup-tied after this round as he was pulled out of Saints’ tie at Torquay.
   That has fuelled speculation he will leave St Mary’s although the club has cited a hamstring injury as the reason.
   As for Larsson, he will be shaking Villa boss O’Neill firmly by the hand for the part he has played in the striker’s career.
   Larsson won three league titles, two Scottish Cups, a League Cup and reached the 2003 UEFA Cup final playing under O’Neill at Celtic.
   The Swede said, ‘At Celtic he gave me the back-up I needed to go out and perform in the way I knew I could.
   ‘He gave me freedom to play the way that was best for the team. He’s a very strong but fair personality.
   ‘You only have to look at what he did at Celtic or speak to the players who were under him to see what he’s capable of.
   ‘One of his greatest strengths is as a man-manager and he really knows how to get the best out of players.
   ‘All players have certain individuals who have an impact on them in the course of their playing life and I’m no different. Martin O’Neill is one of those individuals.
   ‘He’s one of the coaches that I feel I owe a debt to. I can tell Villa fans that they have a great manager and I wish him the best of luck there.
   ‘He is one of the best coaches around and will certainly bring something special to Villa.’

Thierry Henry admits his determination to play on, when his body was telling him to stop, was like watching a bad movie.
   But Liverpool will be worried that Henry now feels fit and ready to help his team when Arsenal visit Anfield for their FA Cup third-round clash on Saturday.
   Henry made an earlier than expected comeback against Charlton on Tuesday — after missing seven games to rest and have treatment on a sciatic nerve problem.
   His return in the 4-0 victory was an unqualified success and the Gunners skipper has jumped into the New Year with fresh optimism.
   Henry told The Sun: ‘When you physically can’t go on, the wise thing to do is not to go out there. It doesn’t help you and it doesn’t help the team.
   ‘It’s like when you are watching a bad movie with your wife and you are both falling asleep. You will say ‘I’m not falling asleep’ and you won’t admit the film is rubbish. You keep on watching it.
   ‘My brain was like that. When people asked if I was OK I would say ‘Yes’ even though I knew I wasn’t.’
   It took a frank discussion with boss Arsene Wenger for Henry to decide the time had to come to put his feet up for his own good.
   With the FA Cup, Champions League, Premiership and Carling Cup to be contested, Henry’s appearance in the famous No 14 shirt means the New Year wishes of Gunners fans have come true.
   You cannot get much tougher than Liverpool away, which is why Henry is so important. Anfield is a fortress and Thierry knows it.
   Arsenal may have thumped the Merseysiders 3-0 earlier in the season at The Emirates, but on home turf Liverpool have been brushing aside all-comers.
   Henry added: ‘They were on a bad run when we won against them but they have pulled themselves together.
   ‘I know they were beaten by Blackburn on Boxing Day but they should never have lost that game. They had more than enough chances to win.
   ‘We know, and everybody knows, what a big match this is and we have another big one against them next week in the Carling Cup semi-final.
   ‘Going to Anfield is always a special occasion, especially with them being the FA Cup holders. It’s a challenge but we like that.’
   Henry has huge admiration for Kop counterpart Steven Gerrard, who won last year’s final against West Ham almost single-handedly.
   Henry said: ‘For me Steven Gerrard is one of the best midfielders in the world without doubt.
   ‘His was a fantastic performance in the FA Cup final.
   ‘He’s a great guy and, when he is in tune, Liverpool are in tune and there is nothing you can do about him.
   ‘When he is not in tune their team struggles and that’s without any disrespect to the rest of their players.
   ‘You have to admire him. He puts his foot in and he can play as well.’
   Henry was not enjoying the game before he bowed to the inevitable and took a break.
   But the smile is back and that is not just bad news for Liverpool but the Gunners’ opponents coming up — notably Manchester United on January 21.
   Henry added: ‘I was surprised to come back as early as I did. With Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor injured it was necessary but I don’t think I would have played if everybody had been fit.
   ‘It was not the plan. Liverpool was always the more likely target. Having said that, I was pleased how sharp I was — I didn’t expect to feel like that.
   ‘Of course, I was tired afterwards but I was fine during the game.
   ‘Thankfully I have worked well with the medical staff to get my sciatic nerve better and have been building myself up again with the fitness coach. They must have done a great job.
   ‘I hope all my problems are over but when you average over 60 games a season you pay the price.
   ‘Last season I missed six games early on and the season before that the last seven games including the FA Cup final.
   ‘You have to read the right signals in your body. One thing I have found difficult to do is to listen to my body. I need to do that.
   ‘I’m enjoying the game again and it’s about learning. I have changed since I was young.
   ‘You learn simple stuff about yourself like when you can’t, you can’t.
   ‘When you are a competitor you want to be out there but when you aren’t well within yourself you can’t enjoy it.
   ‘You aren’t able to do what you want and you then get upset with yourself.
   ‘I like to run with the ball and when you don’t see me doing that people ask questions and quite rightly. You just play one touch and pass it around and that’s not my game.’
   Despite Arsenal’s inconsistency, Henry sees great times ahead and is relishing being a part of it.
   He said: ‘Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor and Cesc Fabregas are all growing as players. We just need to get our consistency back.’
   Arsenal’s title hopes look over as they are 15 points behind Manchester United.
   But no one at The Emirates has given up yet, least of all the captain who believes success in the FA Cup will have its spin-offs in the Premiership.
   He added: ‘The FA Cup can be a great way of firing us on for the rest of the season. It’s going to be a massive task to win the title but there’s still hope, everything is possible.
   ‘You need an amazing run but look how far Liverpool were from everyone and now they are one of the form teams.
   ‘I don’t see the Cup as a consolation prize. The most important things are the Premiership and the Champions League but for me the FA Cup is still massive.
   ‘It is the oldest trophy in the world and what a great competition it is.
   ‘I didn’t know a lot about it at the beginning when I came to England but you soon find out what it means to everybody. And, believe me, the big clubs do take the FA Cup very seriously indeed.’

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o, sidelined since September with a knee injury, pledged he would return to his Spanish club Barcelona at the end of next week and was determined to be the leading scorer in Spain this season.
   ‘What I want, I’m looking forward to, is this famous Sunday of January 14 when I will put on the Barca jersey again,’ he told a media conference in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde late on Thursday.
   ‘I had wanted to resume duty with the Indomitable Lions (Cameroon’s national team) but I can’t afford to wait until March,’ he said. Cameroon are scheduled to play their next African Nations Cup qualifying game against Liberia in March.
   Eto’o injured his right knee during Barcelona’s Champions League match against Werder Bremen last September.
   A Barcelona doctor initially estimated the injury would keep him out for two to three months but after an operation he extended the estimate to five months.
   Eto’o said, ‘I am determined to be the leading scorer this season in Spain. The gap between me and others is not much. With hard work, personal sacrifice, I can catch up. I will catch up.’
   He has four league goals, 10 behind leader Frederic Kanoute of Sevilla. Eto’o was voted African Footballer of the Year three times in a row and is in line for an unprecedented fourth successive award after being named as a finalist for 2006.

Portugal’s Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari says he is looking forward to his side’s friendly against Brazil next month at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London.
   ‘Obviously it will be a very special day and I am already looking forward to it with much expectation,’ he said in comments published on the Internet site of the Portuguese Football Federation.
   ‘I am sure that it will be a spectacular and emotional match because there will be many players on the pitch of great quality and talent,’ added Scolari, who led his native Brazil to its fifth World Cup title in 2002.
   The February 6 match will
   be the second between Portugal and Brazil since Scolari took the helm of the Portuguese national team in December 2002.
   Portugal beat five-time
   world champions Brazil 2-1 when the two sides last met in a friendly in March 2003 in the northern Portuguese city of Oporto.

Colorado Rapids defender Aitor Karanka doesn’t believe the capture of Real Madrid midfielder David Beckham would revolutionise soccer in the USA.
   Beckham is considering a move to LA Galaxy, but former Real Madrid defender Karanka told AS, ‘If he was to play in MLS, his impact would be minimal in places like where I play. Soccer is soccer here. It’s a sport that isn’t followed a lot. Perhaps if he moved to Las Angeles, where he has his soccer schools, then maybe there’ll be more feeling.
   ‘The arrival of Beckham will not be a boom. It will be another step in the growth of soccer and the MLS.
   ‘It is clear that his arrival is important because he is a star, but I do not believe that his single presence will re-launch soccer.’
   Meanwhile, Karanka admitted he was upset with Colorado management taking their time over offering him a contract for the new season.
   ‘They’re annoying me. I don’t know what will happen.’

Real Madrid are ready to make a stunning £27-million bid for Manchester United wing ace Cristiano Ronaldo. Neither United nor Real would comment on the report, which also claims that the Reds would want a near-world record of £47m to part company with the player they signed for £12m, says the Manchester Evening News.
   But it is understood that Madrid have held an emergency board meeting during their Christmas break, after ending the year with a 3-0 defeat by humble Recreativo de Huelva.
   The club’s hierarchy wants team rebuilding to start in the January transfer window, and it is believed president Roman Calderon has listed Ronaldo as his top target.

‘Sheva must quit Chelsea now’
Andriy Shevchenko has been told: Joining Chelsea was the biggest mistake of your life so get out now. Shev’s former boss at Dynamo Kiev, Igor Surkis, wants the £30.8million flop to return to the Ukraine.Kiev president Surkis, who sold Shevchenko to AC Milan in 1999, said: ‘Going to Chelsea was the biggest mistake in Andriy’s career. ‘Milan president Silvio Berlusconi will never take Andriy back. ‘I hope I’ll be able to offer Sheva a deal that will allow him to return to Dynamo.’
— New Age Desk

Football fans
tied in Notts
The most stressed football fans in England support Notts County, a study claims. Researchers looked at factors which cause most anxiety — such as sacking managers, relegation, missing promotion, losing in the play-offs, going into administration, home defeats, losing games from winning positions and losing cup finals.County — the Football League’s oldest club — has had 35 managers since 1945, switched divisions a record 29 times and ensured league survival only on the last day of last season. The Littlewoods Pools poll put MK Dons (formerly Wimbledon) in second, then Carlisle United, Darlington, Swindon Town, Bury, Crewe, Portsmouth, Stockport County and Grimsby Town.
— New Age Desk

Neuville out until February
German international striker Oliver Neuville is out of action until February with a groin strain, his club Borussia Monchengladbach said Friday. The 33-year-old will go under the knife to cure a long-standing problem that bothered him throughout the first half of the season. But his club said he should only miss one league game, against Cottbus at the end of January, the first game after the winter break ends. He will also miss Germany’s international friendly against Switzerland on February 7.
— AFP

Ustari plays down Barca talk
Independiente star Oscar Ustari has denied that he has already agreed to join Barcelona in June. Reports in the Spanish press have suggested that the Primera Liga champions have tied up a £6.7million deal for the 20-year-old goalkeeping prodigy who has also been courted by Real Madrid, Arsenal and Real Zaragoza. However Ustari, who was a surprise inclusion in Jose Pekerman’s World Cup squad, has now rubbished speculation that a move to Catalunya is imminent. ‘I am very comfortable at Independiente,’ said Ustari. ‘Of course I would like to have the chance to play for Barcelona in the future because it would be a very important step in my career. ‘It is a fantastic team but for the moment I haven’t signed anything and I am working very hard at Independiente ahead of the Torneo Clausura that starts next month.’
— New Age Desk