In a bid to a bring more dynamism in the sports administration, the government on Sunday appointed the Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Army General Moeen U Ahmed as the new chairman of the National Sports Council.
   He replaced sports adviser Tapan Chowdhury, who held the position ex-officio earlier. Chowdhury refused to continue in the post, traditionally held by the sports ministers since 1991, to accelerate the activities of the body.
   ‘It was very important to hand over the chairmanship of the NSC to someone else other than the sports ministers. Now we hope, the ruling body of the country’s sports will function more smoothly,’ Chowdhury told the reporters after the charge-handover ceremony.
   The sports adviser pledged to bring more changes in the sports arena including the Bangladesh Cricket Board and Bangladesh Football Federation.
   ‘We are now working to form a fresh BCB executive committee. Hopefully we will be able to announce it by the third week of July. You will also see a change in the BFF,’ he said.
   Asked whether they have discussed about a possible FIFA ban for dismissing an elected executive committee of the BFF, the sports adviser said they are well aware of the issue.
   ‘We want to do everything by consensus. Otherwise we will take the alternative way,’ he said.

Muktijoddha shrugged off a stern challenge from Khulna Abahani before winning 4-2 to get their B league title hopes back on track at the Bangbandhu National Stadium on Sunday.
   Both teams displayed an attacking brand of football and despite the scorching heat, produced arguably the two best goals of the league so far. Muktijoddha however had the last laugh due to their experience and technical superiority.
   The Reds went ahead in the fifth minute when skipper Moni cleverly beat onrushing Khulna Abahani custodian Titumir with a through pass from midfielder Arman Aziz.
   But Khulna Abahani who defeated Dhaka Abahani and Brothers Union, came back strongly on the 25th minute thanks to midfielder Tajul. Beating the defence with a Prashanto free kick, Tajul then unleashed a cracker that gave Muktijoddha keeper no chance.
   Young Muktijoddha midfielder Maruf then restored the lead on the 62nd off a Brahim Bozziber cross from the left. Two minutes later Khulna Abahani were down to ten men after midfielder Khaled was sent off for stamping on Maruf.
   Moroccan winger Bozziber produced a gem on the 70th minute as he went past four defenders and the Khulna Abahani custodian Iran Sheikh to score his side’s third goal.
   But Khulna Abahani’s speedy forward GM Mamum repeated the trick on the 83rd minute dodging past Saiful, Ghansha, Deen Mohammed and Hasan al Mamun before placing the ball into the far post of a despairing Titumir.
   Veteran Alfaz scored the fourth off a Bozziber cross on the penultimate minute with a left footed tap to the far post.
   Muktijoddha are at the top of the point table with 33 points from 17 matches while Khulna Abahani have 12 points from 16 matches.

Kevin Pietersen has lost his No.1 ranking in one-day internationals after a lean series against West Indies. He made 42 runs at 14 in the three matches and has been replaced on the top spot by Ricky Ponting, even though Australia have not play since the World Cup.
   Pietersen slips to second place, with Mike Hussey in third, but a strong series for him against India in August came lift him back to the head of the list. Mahendra Singh Dhoni continues his progress up the rankings and is now fifth overall. He has moved past the injured West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was unable to take any part in the series against England.
   Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s golden tour has lifted him four places to 13th after a man-of-the-series performance of 202 runs, including an unbeaten 116 at Edgbaston. In the bowling, Daren Powell’s 4 for 40 at Trent Bridge has pushed him into the top 20 for the first time. Their efforts helped West Indies close the gap on England in the one-day rankings to one point.
   West Indies now have the opportunity to heap further pressure on England as they travel to Ireland to take part in a quadrangular series with the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland in Dublin and Belfast. A win over Ireland on July 14 will edge them even closer to England.
   With every game in the quadrangular series carrying ODI status, there is an opportunity for the players from those top Associates, as well as the West Indies, to make moves up the rankings.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen won the British Grand Prix on Sunday with a superb display of speed and racing strategy.
   The Finn recorded his third victory of the season and his second in a row after delivering a fantastic drive from second on the grid at Silverstone.
   The McLaren pair of Fernando Alonso and home favourite Lewis Hamilton came second and third respectively.
   Raikkonen put himself in position to take the chequered flag by twice staying on the track for extra laps when his main rivals made pit stops.
   Though he never overtook either McLaren on the track, the Finn was able to establish an unassailable 25 second advantage by clocking exceptionally quick laps when Alonso made his second pit stop.
   Poland’s Robert Kubica finished fourth for BMW with brilliant Brazilian Felipe Massa claiming fifth in the other Ferrari after battling from the very back of the starting grid.
   Nick Heidfeld of Germany was sixth in the other BMW ahead of the two Renault’s of Finn Heikki Kovalainen and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella.
   In front of a host of celebrities, including David and Victoria Beckham, the race started in bright but cloudy conditions and pole sitter Hamilton was immediately forced to defend.
   Second placed Raikkonen made an extremely fast start but Hamilton somehow held his position and set about establishing a lead of just over a second.
   Massa had been forced to start from the back of the field after his Ferrari stalled on the grid.
   The Brazilian rampaged through the field in a great display of aggressive driving, making up 12 places in the first eight laps.
   The Ferraris were clearly the fastest cars on the track in the first stages of the race and Raikkonen made another attack on Hamilton during the 14th lap.
   Hamilton, roared on by the home support, defended brilliantly and gave the Finn absolutely no chance to pass.
   However, the whole complexion of the race changed in the first round of pit stops.
   Hamilton made a clumsy stop, costing himself at least a couple of seconds and allowing Raikkonen and Alonso to move ahead of him.
   After all the leaders had pitted, Alonso, who had been third before the stops, emerged in the lead and began to establish a gap from Raikkonen and Hamilton, who were now second and third respectively.
   Alonso made his second pit stop on the 38th lap and this time it was Raikkonen who benefited.
   The Finn stayed on the track until the 43rd lap and when he finally stopped he managed to stay comfortably ahead of the McLaren’s of Alonso and Hamilton.

A late Tim Cahill goal rescued a valuable point for Australia and saved them from the ignominy of a humiliating defeat by Oman at the Asian Cup Sunday.
   The tournament favourites needed an injury-time strike from the Everton star to salvage a 1-1 draw in driving rain to stay alive in their first continental campaign.
   Cahill conjured memories of his late intervention to help Australia beat Japan at last year’s World Cup with his volley from close range to bring relief to the Australian camp after a frustrating 90 minutes.
   Coach Graham Arnold admitted his star-studded side were lucky.
   ‘I’m relieved and distressed. We just got out of jail,’ he said.
   ‘It shows how difficult Asia is. It shows that we need to push ourselves to the limit.’
   He said his team were exhausted by the heat and humidity, but praised them for never giving up.
   ‘Some players lost four or five kilos out there, but they gave it everything. The players are dead,’ he said.
   ‘But I’m still confident everything will be fine.’
   With Thailand and Iraq also drawing 1-1 in their opening game on Saturday, the group remains wide open.
   The Gulf state, ranked 74 and playing against the Australians for the first time, frustrated their 48th-ranked opponents and stoically protected a 32nd-minute lead with a packed defence and questionable injury-feigning tactics.
   Up to Cahill’s strike it looked grim for the Australians.
   Playing in the Bangkok heat and in front of a meagre crowd in the 60,000-capacity Rajamangala Stadium, the Aussies, who reached the second round of last year’s World Cup, threw everything at Oman in the second half before Cahill’s last gasp equaliser.
   The Omanis rocked the Socceroos with a shock lead through Badar Mubarak and the task became harder for Australia as a tropical downpour drenched the stadium in the closing 15 minutes.
   Oman struck their telling blow when Mubarak finished off great work on the left by Imad Ali who found Mubarak in space with the Socceroo defence pulled out of shape.
   Mubarak smashed home past Schwarzer’s right hand and the Oman team celebrated by grouping in front of a contingent of Australian fans and orchestrating Muslim prayers to boos.
   Oman’s tactics became obvious after the goal with players going to ground for treatment after contesting the ball and forcing referee Eddy Maillet to constantly stop the game to seek treatment.

New Age made a winning start in the Pepsi DRU Six-a-side Cricket Tournament defeating Jai Jai Din by five wickets at the Maulana Bhashani Stadium on
   Saturday.
   Jai Jai Din batted first and were all out for 50 with Helemul Alam Biplob grabbing two wickets. Later man-of-the-match Abul Kalam Azad hit an unbeaten 31, Helemul remained not out on 12 and Ofiul Hasnat Ruhin added 4 runs as New Age overhauled the target with five balls to spare.
   In the other matches of the day, Janakantha (19/0) defeated Deshbangla (16/5) by five wickets, Karotoa (67/2) beat BDNews (50/1) by 17 runs, Samokal (12/0) thrashed Bhorer Dak (11/5) by five wickets, BanglaVision (26/0) outplayed Manavjameen (25/5) by five wickets, Naya Diganta (88/1) crushed Independent (51/3) by 37 runs and Khabarpatra (73/1) trounced Amader Shamoy (71/4) by four wickets.
   Former president of Bangladesh Olympic Association Lt Gen (retd) Mahabubur Rahman inaugurated the tournament as the chief guest. Executive director of Transcom Beverages Ltd Golam Quddus Chowdhury, DRU president Alamgir Hossain and general secretary Shahed Chowdhury were present on the occasion.

Wofgang Opitz, the technical supervisor of Polytan, a well-known German astroturf company, advised changing the damaged part of the newly-laid athletics turf of the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Sunday.
   Opitz, who inspected the venue immediately after arriving, said bending of the turf is nothing unusual. ‘It happens sometimes and we have experienced it in other countries but in Dhaka it seems to me that the unevenness is a little bit too much, so we will replace the damaged parts,’ he said
   The expert said there may be many causes. ‘Probably the heat of the surface during the installment of the turf was more than the normal level, so the turf could not stick to the surface and went out of shape when the heat escaped,’ said Opitz.

The Bangladesh under-19 team trail their Sri Lankan counterparts by 145 runs at the end of the second day on Sunday in the three-day match at the Colombo Colts ground.
   Replying to Sri Lanka’s 329, the visitors were all out for 228 runs in the first innings with Iftekhar Nayeem making highest 52 runs. Mithun Ali and Tapash Ghosh contributed 38 and 32 respectively.
   At stumps, Sri Lanka under-19 were 44-1 in 11 overs in their second innings. The only wicket to fall in their innings was a run-out victim.

The Bangladesh Sports Writers Association accorded a reception to freelance sports writer ASM Roquibul Hassan and veteran sports journalist Hannan Khan on Sunday on the occasion of World Sports Journalists’ Day.
   Sports adviser Tapan Chowdhury was the chief guest at the reception, held at the National Sport Council auditorium. Golam Quddus Chowdhury, the former secretary-general of the Bangladesh Olympic Association, was present as the special guest.

Arsenal are planning for life without Thierry Henry - and officially have not got a player to take his shirt at the Emirates Stadium.
   Henry left for Barcelona last month and although boss Arsene Wenger has bought Eduardo Da Silva to supplement his attack, no player has been given the number 14 shirt of the Gunners talisman.
   Retiring his shirt has been the buzz of Arsenal fans since his departure to mark his contribution to the club, in the same way AC Milan plan to pay tribute to Paolo Maldini when he stops playing.
   Henry’s attachment to 14 stretches to his charity work outside football, and he has launched the ‘The One 4 Foundation’ supporting projects against racism and social inequality.
   Theo Walcott, who has been tipped to eventually lead the Arsenal attack in the same way Henry did, was given number 32 for the new season, with Eduardo given nine. Walcott is recovering from the shoulder surgery which ruled him out of the European Championships for England Under-21s last month, and he has returned to pre-season training early along with Robin van Persie.
   ‘I have about 85 per cent of full movement at the moment but I have started training as normal,’ said Walcott on Arsenal’s website.

Stand-in skipper Chris Gayle praised West Indies’ resolve as they came from behind to clinch a 2-1 one-day series success against England with a crushing 93-run win here at Trent Bridge.
   West Indies, overwhelmed 3-0 in the preceding Test campaign, were a team transformed and dominated England in all departments during Sunday’s match.
   They made 289 for five after Gayle - leading the side in the absence of the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan - backed up his decision to bat first after winning the toss with 82 in an innings featuring 82 not out from Runako Morton.
   West Indies then built on that foundation with fast bowler Daren Powell, who finished with four for 40 and the man-of-the-match award, reducing England to 33 for three inside nine overs.
   Powell’s haul included having star batsman Kevin Pietersen out for nought.
   Even more heartening, looking longer term, was that West Indies won without a major contribution from man-of-the-series Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who averaged 202 over the three games but was out for 33 on Sunday.
   ‘I am very happy,’ Gayle told reporters after stumps. ‘I have to give thanks to the guys and the management team. I thought it was a tremendous effort and it means a lot to me, not only because I am the captain.
   ‘Even if I was just a player and Ramnaresh Sarwan was here as the captain, it would still mean a lot to me.
   ‘The vibes and the feeling out there was so good,’ added Gayle, whose appointment as skipper was initially queried by the West Indies Cricket Board, keen to go with replacement Test skipper Daren Ganga instead.
   ‘There is a great spirit. We do a lot of planning and all the guys communicate well with each other.’
   A series win looked some way off after Sunday’s 79-run loss at Lord’s. But West Indies, on the back of Chanderpaul’s 116 not out, levelled with a 61-run win at Edgbaston on Wednesday before wrapping up the series with more than five overs to spare at Trent Bridge.
   ‘All the guys deserve this. We spoke about hitting the ground running today (Sunday) from ball one and we did that.
   ‘To come from 1-0 down to win 2-1 is tremendous,’ added Gayle, whose side now travel to Dublin for a quadrangular one-day tournament.
   Paul Collingwood, England’s new one-day captain, admitted there was still plenty for his side to learn when it came to the shorter form of the game.
   ‘We readily admit we’ve got a lot of work to do to become a top one-day side,’ said Collingwood of an England team that, like hosts West Indies, failed to reach the semi-finals of the recent World Cup.
   ‘But, as long as we learn from this series, that is how we will move forward,’ added the all-rounder, whose team remained seventh in the International Cricket Council one-day rankings compared to West Indies’ eighth. ‘West Indies played fantastic credit and you have to give them credit.’
   West Indies again cut loose in the last 10 overs at Trent Bridge, scoring 116 runs, having added 102 during the same period at Edgbaston.
   Medium-pacer Dimitri Mascarenhas (eight overs for 28) and left-arm spinner Monty Panesar (six overs for 28) didn’t bowl their full allocation of 10 overs each, a move that surprised Gayle.
   ‘They’ve got roles in the middle of the innings,’ Collingwood explained. ‘Dimi and Monty probably don’t have a role in the last 10 overs.
   ‘But that’s a learning curve for me. I’m not going to get every single decision right. I’m learning all the time as well.’

Novak Djokovic will slash his schedule in an effort to cure the plague of injuries which is threatening to seriously damage his standing as tennis’ most promising talent.
   The 20-year-old Serb was forced to retire from his Wimbledon semi-final against world number two Rafael Nadal with a badly infected blister on the little toe of his left foot.
   He also continued to struggle with a back injury for which he had needed treatment in his previous matches against Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis after spending almost 17 hours on court before Saturday’s date with Nadal.
   ‘I’m going to try and reduce my tournaments as much as I can because I’ve played a lot of matches. I’m not used to it,’ said Djokovic who was one set all with the Spaniard and 1-4 down in the third when he called it quits.
   ‘I have had a difficult season with no rest basically in six, seven months. I didn’t have four or five days off.’
   Djokovic, playing in his 15th tournament of the year, has enjoyed a breakthrough 2007 winning three titles, including a first Masters trophy in Miami.
   But injury is nothing new to the young Serb.
   His suspect back forced a retirement against Nadal in the quarter-finals of the French Open in 2006.
   ‘The problem today was not just a blister but also an infection in my toe. It was bleeding and I didn’t get much sleep last night so I was barely walking this morning,’ he said.
   ‘My back has also been a problem these last few days. I’m really tired and exhausted. If you see my schedule in the past few days, everyone is human. It’s impossible to hold on with matches like that.’
   Djokovic has proved one of the big hits of a 2007 Wimbledon which will be remembered for the heavy rain which decimated the schedule on nine of the first 10 days of the championships making it the wettest event in 25 years.
   The Serb was one of the players who came off worse in the backlog having to spend 13 hours in four days beating Nicolas Kiefer, Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis.
   Djokovic repeated his belief that Wimbledon organisers must change their traditional programme and stage matches on the middle Sunday.
   ‘I’m not happy with the way they dealt with the schedule and the rain. I hope things will change in the future,’ he said.
   Despite his disappointment over the manner in which his Wimbledon campaign petered out, Djokovic can look forward to being promoted to three in the world rankings on Monday making him the heir apparent to Roger Federer and Nadal.
   ‘That means the world to me to be number three behind the two most dominant players in the world.’

Venus Williams believes her fourth Wimbledon title could herald the start of a new period of dominance for herself and her sister Serena in women’s tennis.
   Both sisters endured injury-blighted years in 2006 and there were plenty of pundits willing to predict that their time at the top of the women’s game was nearing an end.
   Those predictions were confounded when Serena came from nowhere to win the Australian Open in January, a triumph that her elder sister hailed as the inspiration for her own return to the top at the All England Club.
   A 6-4, 6-1 victory over surprise package Marion Bartoli of France in Saturday’s final was not as one-sided as the score suggests.
   But there was never really any serious doubt that Venus, who had demolished Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova on her way to the final, would add to her 2000, 2001 and 2005 titles, taking her tally of Grand Slam titles to six, two behind Serena’s haul of eight.
   She said, ‘When it comes to Wimbledon I have more but in the overall count I have a couple less. When I saw her win in Australia, I knew I could do it. We just love each other and inspire each other like that.’
   Having missed the second half of last year with a career-threatening wrist injury, Venus had had to endure being written off as a spent force at the age of 27.
   But she insisted, ‘I never doubted myself that I could come back. There was a lot of work behind the scenes. I started in January, I finally got to play in February and step by step I was getting healthier and stronger, getting back to physically the way I was.
    ‘My family knows what I went through,’ she said. ‘It has been a long road back but I am so happy to have brought it all together here.
    ‘I definitely think Serena and I can play more finals against each other, as long as we have a chance to prepare and stay fit.
    ‘I feel fantastic after my sixth Slam and I want some more. It would have been wonderful if Serena (who lost to Justine Henin in the quarter-finals here) had also got to the final and I think it could happen again, for sure.’
   Bartoli joked that she had lost because she did not have ex-James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan cheering her on.
   The 22-year-old, who had attributed her semi-final win over Henin to the presence in the crowd of one of her favourite movie stars, revealed that she had received a pre-match bouquet of flowers and a letter of encouragement from Brosnan.
   But even that gesture could not give her the ammunition to match Williams’s firepower.
   ‘Venus just played some unbelievable tennis,’ Bartoli said. ‘She reached balls like I’ve never seen anyone reach balls on a tennis court and she even hit them back harder.
   ‘I can’t see a player who can beat her on grass when she plays like this. She’s just too good you know.
   ‘When you receive the ball at 120mph you get a shock in the wrist and I’m not used to it.’
   Despite the disappointment at losing out in her first Grand Slam final, Bartoli said she would leave London with no regrets.
   ‘It is not because of my nerves that I lost this match,’ she said. ‘I really played the best that I could play. Considering all the fatigue and that this was my first final, I think I did a pretty good job overall.’
   Bartoli, who had never previously gone beyond the fourth round at any Grand Slam tournament, had come back from a set down in the wins over Jelena Jankovic, Michaella Krajicek and Henin which had carried her to the most unexpected of final appearances.
   But there was to be no repeat of those heroics against Williams.
   Williams becomes only the fourth woman in the Open era to have won four Wimbledon titles, following in the footsteps of Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Billie-Jean King.
   The win also ensured that Williams became the lowest-seeded Wimbledon winner in the women’s singles, beating her own record of winning as 14th seed in 2005.

India batsmen Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and skipper Rahul Dravid all made fifties against Sussex on the first day of the opening match of the England tour at Hove here Saturday.
   Gambhir led the way with 81, Karthik made 76 and Dravid was 57 not out as India ended the first day of four against the English county champions well-placed on 281 for three.
   Dravid, dropped early in his innings, had added an unbroken 75 for the fourth wicket with VVS Laxman (37 not out), at the close.
   Sussex, as has been common practice for English counties for more than 20 years in matches against touring teams, were without several rested senior players in captain Chris Adams, Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin and Pakistan bowlers Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved.
   Karthik and Gambhir put on 129 for the second wicket following the early loss of Wasim Jaffer.
   Karthik then had the distinction of becoming Saqlain Mushtaq’s maiden first-class wicket for Sussex. The former Pakistan off-spinner, whose British passport arrived earlier in the week, bowled Karthik to end a 177-ball innings featuring 10 fours.
   Gambhir’s patient display ended when he was caught and bowled by Sussex stand-in skipper Michael Yardy, who arrived late after being released from the England squad for the third one-day international against West Indies earlier in the day.
   Dravid was reprieved on 11 when he struck Yardy hard to short mid-wicket where Chris Liddle dropped the catch. India’s captain went on to complete an 82-ball fifty with three fours.
   Meanwhile, Dravid believes the injury to Andrew Flintoff gives his side an excellent chance of winning the three-Test series with England.
   Flintoff has 22 wickets in nine Tests against India and, as captain, took 3-14 as England won the final Test in Mumbai to level the series in 2005-6.
   ‘Fast-bowling all-rounders are like gold and England have a problem replacing him,’ Dravid told BBC Sport.
   ‘His absence makes things far more equal this time.’ Flintoff is not expected to play any part in the Tests, which begin at Lord’s on July 19 and culminate at The Oval on August 9, having undergone further surgery on his troublesome ankle.
   ‘When England came to India last time he was brilliant,’ Dravid enthused. ‘He led really well and he was outstanding with bat and ball.’
   Things have not gone so well for Flintoff since that tour, however, losing the Ashes 5-0 as captain and then being stripped of the vice-captaincy at the World Cup after some well documented late night exertions.
   The charismatic 29-year-old is currently working hard to recuperate with long-term physio and mentor Dave Roberts and may feature in the seven-match one-day series beginning at The Rose Bowl on 21 August.
   The Indian skipper believes England have been strengthened by the selection of Sussex wicketkeeper/batsman Matt Prior, who has scored a century and two fifties in his first six Test innings.
   ‘Prior lends a lot of balance, but we’ve got to play the whole team. England are ranked second behind Australia so obviously they have a good set-up and I followed their series against West Indies closely.’
   Dravid was pleased with his team’s preparation ahead of the match against England A at Chelmsford on July 13 and the forthcoming Test series.
    ‘I know my best top six for the first Test and for the next game it will be clear,’ he said. ‘I’ll probably go with four bowlers in these conditions and it’s a tidy balance to find an all-rounder. It’s a question to find that balance.’

The Prince of Kolkata was in for an English birthday on Sunday. But as Sourav Ganguly turned 35, his family and friends in Kolkata are happy that the year has proved to be beneficial for him. He scripted his return to the Indian cricket team, proved himself again on the battleground and is now again doing what he loves best - playing cricket.
   And mother Nirupa Ganguly cannot be happier. ‘It feels great that Sourav is back with the Indian team and is playing in England. I hope he performs well there and we wish him all the best for future,’ she says.
   So this must be a special birthday? ‘Actually we don’t have any specific plans. As he is away from home, nothing was possible. In fact, Dona is also travelling right now and is in the USA for her dance performances. She will be joining Sourav later when she will go to England,’ Nirupa adds.
   Revealing her plans for the day, she adds, ‘I would be doing a puja in the morning and later in the afternoon for Sourav’s wellbeing and would prepare some of his favourite dishes at home for the family.’
   Nirupa goes on to say that Sourav is not the ‘celebration’ kinds and likes to keep these things personal. ‘The last time we had a big birthday bash at home was when Sourav was five. We had a grand celebration and had invited a lot of guests. Next, we celebrated his birthday when he was 10 and 15. But ever since Sourav has started playing the game, he has stayed away from home a lot and, therefore, big celebrations have not been possible.’
   So what is Sourav’s kind of celebration? ‘A get together of close friends and family with lots to eat,’ laughs his mother, ‘That’s what he did a few years ago. There were just his close friends and family members. We had prepared some of his favourite dishes like mutton biryani, fish curry and some of his favourite sweet dishes. Frankly, Sourav is not at all fussy about eating food and just loves to eat.’
   However, one person Sourav is missing the most is daughter Sana. ‘Sana has just turned five and has started going to school. In fact Sourav is very excited about this. However, he is missing her a lot in England and is looking forward to catching up with her when he comes back. For him, Sana is his favourite birthday gift,’ Nirupa adds.

Andrew Strauss will captain England Lions, as the country’s ‘A’ team is now known, against India in a three-day tour match at Chelmsford starting on July 13, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced Sunday.
   Test opener Strauss, who has led the full England side on several occasions when the likes of Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff have been injured, will captain a team mainly made up of players pushing for international selection.
   England Lions: Andrew Strauss (capt), Tim Ambrose (wk), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Joe Denly, Graham Onions, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Chris Tremlett, Jonathan Trott.

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon is confident last season’s problems at Stamford Bridge will be resolved for the new campaign as the club looks to win back the Premier League title.
   Manchester United denied Jose Mourinho’s men a hat-trick of titles, helped by injury to John Terry and Petr Cech and Chelsea’s summer signings failing to fire, but Kenyon believes everything is in place for success this time around.
   Steve Sidwell, Claudio Pizarro and Tal Ben Haim have been added to the squad, with hopes of Alex and Florent Malouda being signed before the start of the campaign and Glen Johnson is returning from his loan at Portsmouth to bolster numbers.
   Kenyon is also confident there will be no repeat of last season when there was a perception of a breakdown in the relationship between boss Mourinho and owner Roman Abramovich.
   Kenyon said, ‘I’m not saying there weren’t issues, there were various issues as there are at every club.
   ‘That has been addressed and I’m confident about next season and that aspect of Chelsea. I don’t think anyone wants a repeat of last year.’
   Kenyon believes Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack will shine this season after struggling following their high-profile arrivals a year ago, with hopes of the pair emulating the likes of Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba in taking time to settle into English football.
   ‘Andriy and Mike came in on four-year contracts, not for a year and then if you do okay we’ll resign you,’ Kenyon added. ‘It’s a four-year commitment to add value to the squad over a period of time.
   ‘Both of those players know they have got much more to achieve and want to achieve much more.
   ‘I remember having a similar conversation this time last year. It can be easy to underestimate the settling in to English football.’
   One issue yet to be resolved is the contracts of Terry and Frank Lampard, with both England internationals having two years left on their current deals.
   Kenyon wants the issue resolved as soon as possible but has not set a time limit on negotiations, meaning discussions could continue after the season starts.
   ‘He’s got two years left on his contract so there is no time limit,’ said Kenyon.
   ‘There have been discussions ongoing, they’ve been good discussions and carried out in good faith by all parties. I’ve got faith in the players’ professionalism not to let it affect the way they play.
   ‘At the end of the day I can’t force anyone to sign a new contract.’
   Lampard is still a Stamford Bridge favourite but if the longer negotiations continue it is the more likely they could become impatient.
   ‘That’s why it is in everyone’s interest to get it done quickly,’ Kenyon said. ‘If you’re asking me “would it be nice to get it done next week?” Yes, it would.’

Japan are treating their Asian Cup opener against fast-rising Qatar on Monday in the same way they would if it was Brazil or Italy – deadly seriously.
   ‘Qatar is for me the same as Italy or Brazil. The next game is always the most important in football,’ Japan coach Ivica Osim said on the eve of the Group B match, the only tournament game being played on Monday.
   ‘I know the Qatar side knows about our team. Both sides have huge information but it will be decided in 90 minutes, not before or not after,’ added the 66-year-old tactician.
   Qatar coach and fellow Bosnian Dzemaludin Musovic, Osim’s assistant when they guided the former Yugoslavia to the 1990 World Cup quarter-finals, admitted Japan were ‘excellent in the quality of players.’
   Japan play ‘collective football,’ led by Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura, said Musovic.
   ‘Japan on paper are the favourites in this competition. About the result, it will be open and nobody is sure how the game will be finished,’ he said.
   Boosting a team of largely J-League players, Japan were slowly peaking just a week after the domestic competition shut down, according to goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, who helped Japan to Asian Cup triumphs in 2000 and 2004.
   ‘We are training very well and we have good combinations and good teamwork so we are like challengers and have no pressure,’ he said.
   Japan, springing back from a winless exit from the World Cup in Germany last year, are led up front by Frankfurt striker Naohiro Takahara with the back-four held together by hardman defender Yuji Nakazawa.
   Qatar, who have won the 2004 Gulf Cup and the Asian Games title in 2006, both at home, since Musovic took their helm, are struggling with injury problems which the coach attempted to play down Sunday.
   They are defender Abdulmajid Wesam and Uruguayan-born ace striker Sebastian Soria, who is the core of Qatar’s offense with former Manchester City winger Hussain Yasser.
   Wesam was injured in a recent friendly in Thailand and Soria, 18, who gained Qatari citizenship last year, hurt his left leg in practice on Saturday.
   Musovic said Wesam remained a doubt but Soria ‘will be ready for the game.’
   ‘We can find good solutions. We have about 20 good players. We will wait until the last minute to decide who will play,’ the coach said.
   Qatari captain Alshammari Saad added, ‘We are not afraid of Japan. We are going to qualify for the second round despite the injuries.’
   Qatar have already lost midfielder Khalfan Ibrahim, the current Asian Player of the Year, to injury.

In an attempt to rejuvenate the troubled Catalan side, controversial club president Joan Laporta has decreed to his players that ‘Thou Shalt Not Act Up Or Miss Training’. By introducing a system of commandments to his players, he hopes to instill a new sense of professionalism in the Barca squad.
   There has recently been much talk of a new set of internal rules at Barcelona, but only now have full details emerged of how the Blaugrana players must behave for the new season.
   Fed up with indiscipline and squabbling last season – issues that may have contributed to Barca’s narrow title loss – club president Joan Laporta has proclaimed a sort of ‘Ten Commandments’ that will apply to all players without exception.
   Laporta has clearly been planning this for a while. In a June outburst that angered many players, he hinted at the proclamations yet to come. ‘We will not tolerate any bad behaviour,’ he frowned.
   Edmilson and Deco were amongst those who responded with thinly-veiled disbelief, but now they have to obey the orders of the president as they are explicitly written in the form of ‘Commandments.’
   There are approximately ten of them, but most seem to be common-sense regulations about professionalism and training practices. All come into force on July 21 when the club returns to training and they apply to all players equally.
   The first order is that all players must be on the training ground 10 minutes before the day’s session is to begin. No doubt circling Ronaldinho’s name as he did so, Laporta also wrote that there are to be no unilateral ‘gym sessions’ for those who opt not to train outdoors. The only time a player will be permitted to stay in the gym is if the medical staff instruct them to do so. Otherwise, all will train outside together.
   Additionally, if a player feels they have a reason to miss training, it must be communicated to the club two hours in advance of the next session. Punishment for those who break this rule, or – worse – those who cannot be located on training days, will be severe.
   Next, there will be no more late nights on the town for Barca stars. Each player must be at home by 1:00am in order to afford them a full eight hours’ rest before the next day’s exertions, with training starting at 10:30am sharp. Lights-out when staying in hotels before away games will be at midnight.
   The president hopes that, aside from the physical benefits of a full night’s rest, such strict rules will help forge unity amongst a squad that all too often bickered last season.
   In perhaps the most important commandment of all, insubordination is now strictly prohibited. Rumours persist that Eto’o wilfully refused to play as a substitute in the middle of last season – such stunts will be repeated at the player’s peril.
   Laporta clearly feels the players will benefit from his authoritarian style. While he’s very unpopular with some of the fanbase, he argues that he gets results. Off the pitch, that may well be true – the number of official ‘partners’ in the club rose to an all-time high of 156,336 this year.
   Whether his approach will work with a large and disparate squad, however, remains to be seen.

Record television audiences are forecast for this year’s Asian Cup finals, with fans in virtually every corner of the region having access to matches, including war-torn Iraq.
   A staggering 43.1 per cent of people watching television in China at peak time on the day of the final tuned in at some point to watch the hosts lose to defending champions Japan.
   Statistics from 24 major cities across China showed that 18.5 per cent of China’s population of 1.3 billion watched the whole game, dwarfing the 14.4 percent who watched China’s 2002 World Cup match with Brazil.
   Seamus O’Brien, president of World Sport Group, the Asian Football Confederation’s marketing arm, said the tournament was also going mobile for the first time.

It was, not surprisingly, to the well-favoured Meson Txistu restaurant on Plaza Angel Carbajo in the heart of Madrid, that David Beckham, his family and his friends weaved their celebratory way late on the night of June 17.
   Real Madrid had just won their first Spanish championship in four years, in Beckham’s final game for the club, and the mood was festive. Choruses of ‘campeones, campeones, ole, ole, ole,’ soon drifted into the night sky from the windows of the restaurant’s private upstairs dining room.
   It was both a joyous occasion and a sad one, what with Beckham leaving after his turbulent but ultimately triumphant years in Spain.
   The wine bill, when it arrived at around 5:00am, came to $60,000. According to some reports, a local vineyard owner picked up the tab. Even then, the festivities were not over.
   Beckham, his wife Victoria – former Spice Girl Posh Spice – and close friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes then went dancing until well beyond sun-up, the Beckhams not arriving back at their multi-million-dollar La Moraleja neighbourhood mansion until after 7:30am.
   It’s a different life that the Beckhams enjoy, and this week as he joins the Galaxy they will be starting to lead part of it in Los Angeles, or rather in the more rarefied air of the 90210 ZIP code in Beverly Hills.
   Victoria and their children Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz long have been accustomed to the very best of everything. Don’t look for that to change just because the world’s wealthiest soccer player is switching continents.
   Beckham’s $33 million in income last year – from soccer and from multiple endorsements with Adidas, Pepsi, Gillette and image rights contracts – puts him in the same tax bracket as, say, Kobe Bryant, according to Forbes magazine, making him slightly better paid than Shaquille O’Neal ($32 million) and Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho ($31 million). Whatever his net worth is, Beckham can party just as well in California as he can in Europe.
   On Friday morning, Beckham will be introduced at the Home Depot Centre in Carson as the newest member of the Galaxy. A week from Monday, he will train for the first time with the Major League Soccer team. On July 21, he will make his debut in a Galaxy uniform in a match against English club Chelsea and begin earning some of the much-ballyhooed $250 million that his five-year MLS contract potentially could be worth in salary and endorsements.
   All of this will be worldwide news, but in the US it will no doubt cause heads to be shaken and scratched in bemusement from Dubuque to Daytona Beach.
   Leaving soccer and Beckham’s many accomplishments on the field with Manchester United, Real Madrid and in three World Cups with the England national team out of it altogether, the answer is simple and twofold.
   David Robert Joseph Beckham is a celebrity and a brand. Soccer was the vehicle he rode to fame and fortune, but the 32-year-old has travelled far, far beyond those teenage years when he slogged through the winter rain and mud of Manchester.
   There is, for instance, ‘Beckingham Palace,’ which is what the pun-loving British media dubbed the $15-million riverfront estate that the Beckhams bought in 1999 at Sawbridgeworth in the Hertfordshire countryside just outside London.
   That was shortly after their marriage, a lavish affair at Luttrellstown Castle near Dublin. Setting a tone that would echo through the years, the ceremony and reception – exclusive access was given to one magazine – cost a reported $1 million and saw the Beckhams smiling benevolently at their guests from golden thrones.
   This sort of thing will go down well in Hollywood, where excess is often seen as a virtue and where the couple referred to by some English tabloids as ‘King David and Queen Victoria’ will fit right in.
   Their base here will be Beckingham Palace West, a $22 million, 13,000-square-foot villa they purchased in Beverly Hills in April and where their close neighbours include Cruise and Holmes.
   Victoria is said to be decorating the place in Moroccan style, similar to their Madrid home, so Beckham will feel immediately at ease in his new surroundings.
   No doubt he will feel even better once he starts putting a few cars in his new garage. Among his many and varied interests, Beckham is a car collector. In England, his fleet at one time or another has included a $220,000 Lamborghini Gallardo, plus an assortment of high-end Ferraris, Porsches, Jaguars and Mercedes-Benzes.
   When he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2003 for his services to soccer, Beckham received the honour from Queen Elizabeth and, suitably, made the trek from Beckingham Palace to Buckingham Palace in his own silver Bentley Arnage.
   His cars invariably involve some custom tinkering. In Spain, for example, he drove around in an armour-plated BMW X5 SUV that ended up being stolen, but also a $120,000 Range Rover V8 Vogue, complete with bulletproof doors and windows, a television and a 12-speaker stereo system.
   Just what he will drive down the 405 to Galaxy practice sessions in Carson each morning is not yet known, but perhaps it will be the Rolls-Royce Phantom that Victoria gave him for a Christmas present in 2005 after he had given her a $2.4 million ruby and diamond necklace from Parisian jeweller Boucheron.
   Victoria Beckham exalts in all this attention even more so than her husband, who appears to be in line for further royal honours.
   After Spanish newspapers published photographs of Queen Elizabeth presenting Beckham with his OBE, his Real Madrid team-mates took delight in teasing him. ‘They were calling me “sir”, saying ‘your highness’ and bowing,’ Beckham said at the time. ‘It’s been very funny.’
   According to a spokesman for former prime minister Tony Blair, Beckham was honoured for being ‘a great ambassador for the country on and off the field.’ Now, the word around Whitehall is that he might one day be knighted for his charity work, especially with UNICEF, and for his influential role in helping London win the right to stage the 2012 Olympic Games.
   If so, the former Posh Spice would be ecstatic.
   ‘I would love that, that would be quite fabulous,’ she told the BBC last year when the possibility of a knighthood was first raised. ‘It’s just so wonderful, isn’t it? Lady Victoria...that would be amazing.’
   It would also place Beckham on the same pedestal as such other soccer knights as Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Bobby Charlton, Sir Geoff Hurst and Sir Bobby Moore.
   For the time being, however, Beckham can content himself with just playing the hero, as he did shortly after signing to play with the Galaxy in January, when no less a photographer than Annie Leibovitz shot pictures of him as the dragon-slaying prince from Sleeping Beauty as part of a Disney advertising campaign.
   It’s all storybook stuff, and even Beckham, when he is not kicking a soccer ball across a patch of sunlit or floodlit grass, must wonder whether he is living in a fantasy world.
   If so, he has the required multiple costumes and the ‘look’ to keep the fantasy going. Celebrities live off the energy that camera flashes generate, and the paparazzi are never far from the Beckhams’ doorstep, no matter where the family is.
   If Beckham changes the colour or style or length of his hair, there are cameras on hand to record the event and to broadcast the new-look around the world. His clothes and his jewellery are of equal interest because Beckham is as much a fashion model as a soccer player.
   Ladbrokes, a British bookmaker, is even giving odds on just what sort of ‘do’ Beckham will sport when he makes his Galaxy debut.
   Would-be gamblers can get 33-1 on him bleaching stars and stripes into his hair in honour of his US adventure.
   Sometimes all the attention borders on the ridiculous.
   In 2003, for instance, Britain’s Channel Four aired a documentary titled ‘Black Like Beckham,’ in which it argued that Beckham’s taste in clothes, cars and music – he is a fan of and friends with rappers Snoop Dogg and Diddy – make him Britain’s most famous black man.
   ‘He may really be white, but he has borrowed and begged so much from black culture that he should be considered black,’ a Channel Four spokesman said at the time.
   As good a reflection as any of their rich and famous lifestyle is the way the Beckhams celebrated their respective birthdays earlier this year.
   When Beckham turned 32 on May 2, he chose to spend the day shopping for a new suit on London’s fashionable Savile Row, being measured for a new pair of custom-made shoes and buying himself a $28,000 watch.
   He capped the day by going to dinner at Cipriani – not with one former Spice Girl but with all of them.
   That was tame, however, compared to how the couple spent Victoria’s 33rd birthday a few weeks earlier on April 17. Beckham rented a private jet, flew her to Paris for a shopping spree that ended with dinner amid the dark wood and rich leather of the Guy Savoy restaurant and a $12,000-a-night suite at the swank Paris Ritz hotel.
   Beckham’s track record for splurging on ostentatious and outrageous gifts for his wife is well documented. For another birthday, he gave Victoria a $336,000 painting by Damien Hirst, controversial British artist perhaps best known for his exhibition of various animals preserved in formaldehyde.
   On another occasion, while Victoria was expecting their third child, Beckham spent $1.8 million for a diamond-encrusted sex toy with a matching 16-carat diamond necklace.
   All this, amid their skiing holidays in Switzerland, their beachfront holidays in the South of France and all their other trappings of life in the very fast lane.
   The fat contract – given to him by MLS – means that the ride isn’t over.
   ‘It’s an amazing amount of money,’ Beckham told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ the day after signing. ‘But this move for me is not about the money.’
   — Los Angeles Times

About 1,000 people, including visiting French football star Zinedine Zidane, played football on 200 pitches installed in central Jakarta on Sunday.
   In jeans and a polo shirt, Zidane took part in a three-minute match of ‘futsal’– miniature soccer – on a stretch of street in the Indonesian capital, playing with local celebrities and government officials.
   Hundreds of people crowded around the venue, cheering Zidane using his nickname ‘Zizou.’
   Earlier Zidane, who is completing a three-day visit here, met Jakarta governor Sutiyoso before boarding an open jeep to inspect the 200 futsal fields erected on the city’s main thoroughfare.
   Sutiyoso said, ‘Zidane’s visit will increase confidence that Indonesia is safe to visit.’
   Indonesia is recovering from a series of bomb attacks and health scares such as bird flu, which have cut down on the number of tourists visiting the country.
   Poor air safety and security, which has recently led to the European Union to ban Indonesian aircraft from flying to Europe, has further discouraged visitors.

Iranian officials on Sunday criticised the controversial decision to split the Asian Cup between four countries.
   Technical director Nassar Ebrahim said there was too much travelling involved with games being played in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
   ‘If the Asian Cup was in one country it would be much better than what we have now,’ he told AFP.
   ‘Because if you qualify you have to go to another country. There’s a lot of travelling.’
   AFC president Mohammed bin Hammam has admitted the four-host arrangement could cause problems, although he is also confident of the tournament’s success.
   ‘Now we’re very satisfied with the organization in the four host countries,’ he said on Friday.

Brazil and Uruguay confounded the critics who had labelled them dull and unimaginative by combining to fire 10 goals past their opponents in reaching the Copa America semi-finals on Saturday.
   After managing just one goal in three group stage games, Uruguay hit four in one match as they ousted hosts Venezuela 4-1 in San Cristobal.
   Brazil coach Dunga, repeatedly criticised for over-cautious tactics which inhibit his team’s creativity, jumped with delight on the touchline as his side thrashed a demoralised Chile 6-1 in Puerto La Cruz.
   Two of Brazil’s goals came from striker Robinho, the competition’s leading scorer with six.
   Beaten 3-0 by Peru in their opening game, Uruguay were at their ruthless best as they brought Venezuela’s creditable campaign grinding to a halt.
   Diego Forlan, who until now has had a negligible impact on the tournament, scored Uruguay’s first and last goals.
   Forlan put Uruguay ahead in the 38th minute with a breakaway effort but Juan Arango replied from a free-kick which went through the Uruguay wall three minutes later.
   Pablo Garcia fired Uruguay back in front in the 65th minute with his second international goal, a superbly struck effort from the edge of the area.
   Cristian Rodriguez and Forlan finished off the hosts in the last five minutes to silence a 42,000 crowd that were witnessing Venezuela’s first ever match in the knockout stage of the competition.
   ‘We gambled on coming out to win the game,’ Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez told reporters. ‘I think the result shows we won well.’
   Venezuela coach Richard Paez said, ‘Tonight, Uruguay showed where they stand. We were never comfortable with the pressure. But we made history by getting to the last eight.’
   Brazil quickly took control of their game as Juan, Julio Baptista and Robinho scored in a 13-minute spell in the first half.
   Robinho, Josue and Vagner Love added three more after halftime while Humberto Suazo replied for Chile with the best goal of the game, a delicate 20-metre chip.
   Chile went into the game amid reports of indiscipline at the team hotel and seemed to have little stomach for the fight.
   Before the game, defender Jorge Vargas said reports of trouble had been exaggerated.
   ‘We had a few drinks, nothing more than that,’ he said. ‘We didn’t get into a fight and we didn’t go out on the town, we stayed in the hotel.’
   The Chilean League said, ‘Once the Copa America is finished, the directors will meet in Santiago to analyse the report presented by the technical staff.’
   The win maintained an unhappy sequence of results for Chile against Brazil. The last four matches have ended 5-0, 4-0, 3-0 and 6-1 in favour of the five-time world champions.

When President Hugo Chavez brought the Copa America to Venezuela for the first time, his government sought to showcase the oldest international soccer tournament as a smoothly organised success.
   But as the South American championship enters its final week, complaints are surfacing of ticket shortages, unfinished stadiums and other organisational headaches.
   Some soccer fans have complained that it has been impossible to buy tickets without going to pricey resellers, even when stadiums are half full, leading the opposition to accuse the government of hoarding tickets to give to its supporters.
   Caracas has been at the centre of recent protests over Chavez’s refusal to renew the licence of an opposition-aligned television channel.
   And despite a government ban on protests in or near stadiums, politics has spilled into the stadiums. Chavez himself was heckled at the inaugural game, and in most matches chants of ‘This government is going to fall’ and ‘Freedom, freedom’ can be heard.
   The government has denied holding back tickets. But one opposition party filed a complaint on Friday with the government’s Indecu consumer protection agency against De Lujo Promociones, accusing the private concession handling ticket sales of providing a local soccer club 42,000 tickets to Sunday’s quarter-final in Maturin between Paraguay and Mexico.
   To back his claim, William Ojeda, vice-president of the opposition party A New Time, presented what he said was a receipt of the transaction, saying it violated De Lujo’s own three tickets-per-person limit.
   ‘We demand Indecu investigate this receipt and this attempt to hoard tickets,’ Ojeda said in a statement published on the party’s website. ‘The government cannot abuse the public’s faith in this manner.’
   There was no immediate reaction from the government, which has denied holding back tickets.
   Venezuela is better known for its love of baseball than of soccer, but the government has spent more than $1 billion building or renovating nine stadiums and improving related infrastructure to prepare for the tournament.
   Eduardo Deluca, secretary-general of the South American soccer federation CONMEBOL, praised Venezuela’s preparations.

The Premier League is set to look at the Hawk-Eye technology introduced in tennis and at this year’s Wimbledon.
   The ball-tracking system will be tested at Reading’s academy with hopes of a ‘blind trial’ next season when it could be tried in matches but not used by the officials.
   Managers such as Sam Allardyce have championed technology in football, with Hawk-Eye looking to remove doubt in goal-line decisions.
   Paul Hawkins, managing director of Hawk-Eye Innovations, told BBC Five Live’s Sportsweek, ‘We have a contract with the Premier League to develop a system purely to resolve the dispute whether the ball crossed the line, purely for the referee and not for television.
   ‘The process is to be evaluated by the Premier League and then by FIFA, if we jump those hurdles then the end aim is to have it installed in all Premier League grounds hopefully.’
   Hawk-Eye was brought in for the Wimbledon championships at the All England Club this year, with Rafael Nadal questioning its reliability since. It was also responsible for a surreal finale to Venus Williams’ second-round victory over Alicia Molik as a decision was disputed on match-point.
   Those in favour of technology in football point to ending the argument in instances such as Chelsea’s famous Champions League defeat to Liverpool when it was unclear whether Luis Garcia’s strike crossed the line.
   Hawkins believes the technology could be a part of the Premier League within two years if tests go to plan and it receives FIFA approval.
   It is hoped that Hawk-Eye technology will help officials decide on incidents such as West Ham’s winner at Blackburn
   He added, ‘It will be tested next month and the process will evolve from there.
   ‘It took a couple of years in tennis from the start of tests to it being used and we can probably expect the same timeframe.’
   Hawkins hopes his innovation will be used at next year’s Wimbledon.
   ‘A few players like Nadal have questioned it but every single time it has been proven to be correct, so it’s been an overriding success,’ he said.

British hopes of claiming an historic yellow jersey in the shadow of Big Ben took a nosedive into the nearby river Thames as Fabian Cancellara sped to victory in the Tour de France prologue Saturday.
   Cancellara, the reigning world time trial champion, was the only rider from the 189-strong field to finish in under nine minutes, beating Germany’s Andreas Kloden by a massive 13secs after clocking 8min 50sec.
   England’s reigning world and Olympic track pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins, who had been targeting victory on home soil, finished in a disappointing fourth place at 23secs adrift.
   He came over the finish line visibly upset, and refused to explain his setback.
   Scotland’s David Millar was a little more philosophical after finishing a respectable 13th at 33secs behind Cancellara.
   Millar, the prologue winner at Futuroscope in 2000, came into the race with high hopes but admitting he was not on the best of form.
   In the circumstances and after an encouraging handshake by Paul Smith - the men’s clothes designer and a massive fan of cycling - Millar was delighted at his performance over a course which thronged with fans shouting his name.
   ‘To tell you the truth I didn’t really have too many hopes that I could win it today, especially with the condition I’ve had in the past two months,’ said Millar, who rides for the Spanish Saunier Duval team.
   ‘I’m happy with my performance, and my time. As I said, I didn’t have the greatest of form coming into the race.’
   Of Tour de France stages, Millar already has three. He won the 19th stage time trial of the Tour in 2003 and stage 13 of the race in 2002.
   Wiggins meanwhile will be doing some long, hard thinking ahead of what should prove to be a dramatic, and tough race.
   The Englishman has said that if he failed to win the prologue, he would be aiming to win a stage further on in the race.
   But that is not going to be easy, according to Millar.
   The Scot added: ‘I’m disappointed more for Brad than for me, because I think he really could have done something today.
   ‘I don’t know if he’ll get the chance to win another stage. But for me personally, the Tour is far from over. I’ll be going for another stage win.’

Cristiano Ronaldo has hit back at his critics and insisted: I’m no show-pony. Even though he was crowned double Player of the Year last season, many still believe the Manchester United winger tries to be too elaborate on the ball.
   But Ronaldo insists he is not showing off with his dazzling array of tricks - just indulging his love of football. And he revealed to the Sunday Mirror the critical reason for his eye-catching warm-up routines that have United fans taking their seats early to watch in awe.
   Ronaldo said: ‘I cannot help caressing the ball or spending time juggling with it.
   ‘I used to do that when I played in the street and I’ve continued to do it throughout my career.
   ‘That’s the way it should be. This is the real Ronaldo.
   ‘People are mistaken if they see me playing with the ball before warm-ups and think I’m showing off. It comes naturally to me.
   ‘During warm-ups I kick the ball, pass it under one foot and then the other, bring it up and caress it. I do it out of sheer pleasure but also to relieve stress.
   ‘It’s my way of relaxing, of reducing the pressure of the game, of calming myself down. ‘I don’t like to think a lot before a match.
   ‘Playing around with the ball works as a perfect antidote, neutralising all the worries and enabling me to concentrate.’
   The 22-year-old described being a professional footballer as a ‘Blessing from God’.
   He said, ‘Football is my life, my great passion, my pleasure. ‘I see what I do as a blessing from God. It’s common to hear people complaining that they only do their job because they need the money.
   ‘This is not my case. I thank God for being able to do something I love. I’m not going to make the mistake of saying I wouldn’t be able to live without a ball. But I’m not capable of imagining life without training, without a pitch, without a match, without the adrenalin and excitement of competition.’
   Ronaldo, who reported for pre-season training last week, says his relationship with Red Devils boss Alex Ferguson as excellent.
   He admitted, ‘The relationship we have goes way beyond the normal relationship a player and his boss have. He’s brilliant.’
   Pledging his long-term future to Old Trafford in a mini-autobiography published last week in Portugal, and due out here at the end of the summer, he added, ‘I feel a constant need to learn, to improve, not only to make my manager and the fans happy but for my own personal satisfaction.
   ‘There are no limits to learning.
   ‘I know I can be better.
   ‘That’s why I always try to learn more and put that learning into practice with every year that passes.
   ‘After I picked up the Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year trophies, I thought, Ronaldo, you have to work even more to become even better. Nothing ends here. It all starts here.’

West Ham striker Carlos Tevez insists he won’t go back on his promise to Sir Alex Ferguson that he will join Manchester United.
   The Argentine hitman’s representatives will try to finalise his hugely-complicated move to Old Trafford within the next week after the deal reached an impasse on Friday night.
   The player’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, had hoped to announce that a deal was in place already but has been thwarted by the Premier League’s insistence that the transfer is conducted through West Ham.
   The Hammers threw the proposed move into turmoil by insisting there is no agreement in place for him to join the champions.
   But 23-year-old Tevez has given his word to Ferguson that he will join.
   He told The People, ‘Through my backers, I have given my word to Mr Ferguson. They have told him I will be at Manchester United next season and once I make a promise I don’t go back on it.
   ‘There isn’t a player who would turn down this opportunity and negotiations are too far advanced to go back now.’
   Tevez knows West Ham fans won’t share his enthusiasm for the move, but says he hopes keeping them in the Premier League will temper their anger.
   He added, ‘I hope the fans understand. I had two very good offers from foreign clubs in January but I refused because I had unfinished business.
   ‘It would have been easy to move on, but I couldn’t leave the club and the fans in that predicament. It will be an emotional and special day whenever I return to play them.’

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher could be set to announce his international retirement, according newspaper reports on Sunday.
   The 29-year-old has started just three times since Steve McClaren took charge of the England team, and his absence from the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia last month is reported to have brought things to a head.

New Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson is not planning to make moves for his former England favourites David Beckham and Michael Owen.
   The Swede was confirmed as City’s new manager on Friday, when new owner Thaksin Shinawatra passed the 75 per cent stake he needed.
   And he was quickly linked with a move for Owen, who has a £9-million buy-out clause in his contract at Newcastle and has been at the centre of much speculation already this summer.
   Beckham, meanwhile, is preparing for his new life with LA Galaxy, but it has been suggested he could return to the Premier League in November at the end of the MLS season as he looks to prolong his England career.
   But Eriksson has told Sunday newspaper journalists, ‘I didn’t even know that there was any possibility of Beckham being available on loan, but no, no, no. I haven’t thought about it and won’t think about it.
   ‘As for Michael Owen – he’s available? I didn’t know that. Michael Owen will always score goals for you...but I don’t want to read that I’m interested in signing him either.’
   But while Beckham and Owen have been ruled out, the Sunday papers have gone into overdrive about Eriksson’s potential targets.

Owen Hargreaves believes winning over the England fans has prepared him for the pressure of his move to Manchester United.
   Hargreaves was booed by supporters before last year’s World Cup, but responded with some tremendous performances and was named as England player of the year.
   And he reckons the mental challenge of dealing with the critics who questioned his place in the side has made him a stronger person as he prepares for his first taste of the Premiership with United.
   The 26-year-old talking to the Sunday Mirror said, ‘It is something you learn from. You learn a lot more from the difficult times than the good times and I had to dig deep. I didn’t want to pay too much attention to it, I knew I just had to work hard and wait for a chance to win them over.
   ‘I’ll have tough challenges ahead, but knowing that you have been through it and dealt with it gives you extra belief.’
   Hargreaves admitted he was in awe of the way United charged to the Premiership title last season and cannot wait to team up with England colleague Wayne Rooney.
   He scoffed at suggestions he might struggle to adapt to the speed of the English game, compared to the more tactical approach of Germany.
   Hargreaves added, ‘When you see the tempo and the pace of the game in England, it is exceptional. It is so difficult to win the league and play that style of attacking football like Manchester United have. It is amazing.
   ‘It is so pleasing for the club to have won it in that way and the target now will be to go on to more success.
   ‘It will take me time to get into a normal routine but I like the challenge.’

Fernando Torres says his Spanish international team-mate Cesc Fabregas convinced him to move to the Premier League.
   Torres, who joined Liverpool from Atletico Madrid for £20million, spoke to the Arsenal midfielder at length before committing himself to Anfield.
   ‘Cesc has triumphed at Arsenal and, after speaking to him several times, I thought to myself: ‘Why can’t I repeat my experience?’ Torres told the News of the World.