South African star Jacques Kallis said Tuesday he had surpassed his boyhood dream of scoring 25 Test hundreds after his latest effort put his team in command in the first Test against Pakistan here.
   ‘When I was in the back garden playing cricket as a youngster I never thought about scoring 25 Test hundreds and this is very special,’ said Kallis, who was dropped from the national side for last month’s Twenty20 World Cup.
   ‘I hope a lot is left in me, only time will tell,’ said the stylish all-rounder who scored 155 runs in the first innings and then claimed a key wicket to rattle Pakistan batting.
   Thanks to Kallis’s heroics, South Arica made 450 in the first innings and the tourists then took a firm grip on the match by reducing the home team to 127-5 at close, still needing 124 to avoid the follow-on.
   Kallis hit 19 boundaries and put on an invaluable 170 runs for the third wicket with Hashim Amla (71) and 73 for the fourth with Ashwell Prince who made 36.
   He was out caught behind to leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.
   Kallis said he never thought of scoring 25 Test hundreds when he began his career in 1995. ‘It is a great honour.’
   The 31-year-old from Cape Town was dropped from South Africa’s Twenty20 World Cup squad. That angered him to resign the vice-captaincy and before the Pakistan tour he resisted calls to reconsider his decision.
   But Kallis seemed to have left the frustration behind him, notching an attractive 73 in the only side game last week to tune up for the first Test.
   Kallis said his hundred was one of his three best innings.
   ‘In terms of the situation it’s right up there. I still regard my first Test 100 in Melbourne (against Australia in 1997) as my best, but this one is certainly right up in (the) top three,’ said Kallis.
   Kallis said tourists fell 50 runs short but made amends through some good bowling.
   ‘It’s vital to have a good first innings score in a Test in the sub-continent. I think we fell 50 runs short. In the end bowlers came out on top and put us in a strong position.
   ‘We still have a tough task ahead of us because the pitch is still good for batting and we will have to work hard. The most important thing tomorrow will be to take the remaining five wickets and then take the decision (to enforce the follow-on).
   Kallis felt Test cricket will become faster after the advent of the slam bang form of Twenty20 cricket.
   ‘When one-day cricket started everybody said it will affect Test cricket and you can probably say the same thing about Twenty20 affecting Test and one day cricket.
   ‘But I think players have been adapting all their careers if anything it (Twenty20) might make Test cricket a bit quicker, certainly Test cricket has gone quicker over the last few years.’

The Bangladesh Football Federation is eagerly waiting for the green signal from the National Sports Council to start the election procedure.
   The BFF officially informed NSC about the acceptance of the proposed structure of the District and Divisional Football Associations and urged NSC to clear the path for holding the elections.
   World governing body FIFA instructed the BFF executive committee, which expired on last April, to amend its constitution according to FIFA statutes before holding an election. Accordingly BFF sent a draft constitution of the DFA’s and FIFA approved it. The district football associations will consist 12 members and the six divisional football associations will include 11 members.
   Now the ball is in the NSC’s court because without their approval BFF cannot think
   of starting the election procedure.
   ‘We informed NSC that BFF is ready to hold the election as FIFA has approved the draft constitution, we can pave the way after NSC’s approval,’ said Monzur Hossain Malu, the acting general secretary of BFF.
   Malu and other officials met NSC secretary Aminul Islam Khan at his office and the secretary assured them for a feedback within a few days.
   According to FIFA statutes, only the representatives of the DFAs would be able to be councilors of the federation. Till date representatives of the District Sports Associations enrolled themselves as councilors of the BFF and many of them had no football background.
   Using political influence they inducted them in the BFF.
   From now on the 64 district football association will send their representatives to the BFF not the DSA.
   After receiving the NSC signal BFF will call an emergency general meeting to approve the formation of the DFA’s as an addition to its constitution.
   Then BFF will organise the DFA election. After its completion BFF can go for election. Currently there are 129 councilors.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Yao Ming helped kick off the Special Olympics World Summer Games here on Tuesday for a record 7,300 mentally disabled athletes.
   The Californian governor and the Houston Rockets basketball star were among the stars from the worlds of sport, politics and the arts at the opening ceremony at the Shanghai Stadium presided over by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
   Schwarzenegger, whose wife is the daughter of the Special Olympics founder and the sister its current chairman, spoke of his ‘pride’ at attending China’s first-ever staging of a major sports event for people with mental disabilities.
   ‘I used to play in action movies as the action hero, but that was actually nothing that can be compared with the real action that is taking place in this stadium,’ said the Terminator star.
   Earlier, Hu told the event’s chairman Timothy Shriver holding it in China, which has 9.8 million disabled people, would contribute to the development of the international Special Olympics cause.
   ‘China hopes the Games would help the world better understand China, and strengthen the friendship between people of China and the rest of the world,’ he said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
   Yao Ming missed the start of the basketball season to attend the ceremony, incurring a fine from his club. ‘It’s worth it. Nothing is more important than doing things for the Special Olympics,’ he told Xinhua.
   Several well-known musicians lent their talents to make the event a success, state media reported.
   Tai Dun, the Oscar-winning composer for the kung fu movie Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, had composed a new piece for the opening ceremony, according to the China Daily.
   The event’s theme song, meanwhile, was composed by American musician Quincy Jones, a multiple Grammy winner.
   Shanghai is prone to rain in early October, and the city’s ‘rain suppression squad’, a unit of the city’s Meteorological Bureau, was preparing for any downpour that might hit the venue.
   Thirteen launch sites for rain-suppression rockets had been established in the surrounding provinces, according to Xinhua.
   The Games organisers have said a record 7,300 athletes from 164 countries and regions will compete in 21 medal sports and four demonstration competitions.

South Africa (450) lead Pakistan (127/5) by 323 runs
   at stumps, day 2
   Pakistan will have to fight hard to save the first Test against South Africa after a masterly knock of 155 by Jacques Kallis put the tourists in command at the National Stadium here on Tuesday.
   At the close on the second day, Pakistan were 127-5 in reply to South Africa’s first innings total of 450, still needing a further 124 to avoid the follow-on.
   Captain Shoaib Malik was unbeaten on nine and Abdul Rehman one not out after a reckless display of batting by the home batsmen.
   Pakistan lost four wickets for 26 runs after they were given a solid start by Kamran Akmal (42) and Mohammad Hafeez (34), who shared a 71-run partnership for the first wicket.
   Left-arm spinner Paul Harris removed both the openers, trapping Akmal leg-before and then forcing an edge off Hafiz, which was smartly snapped up by Kallis in the slips.
   Younis Khan had made only six before he was bowled by paceman Andre Nel off a delivery that kept low, while Kallis proved his all-round abilities by bowling Faisal Iqbal (seven) to leave Pakistan tottering at 97-4.
   Malik and Misbah-ul Haq added 23 runs before a reckless shot off a wide delivery from Dale Steyn brought Haq’s downfall, caught behind by Mark Boucher for 23.
   Earlier, the South African innings was built around a brilliant knock by Kallis, who led his team to their highest total in Pakistan, surpassing the previous best of 403 they scored at Rawalpindi in 1997.
   Kallis hit 19 boundaries during his five-hour innings and shared a valuable 170-run third wicket stand with Hashim Amla (71). He also shared a fourth wicket stand of 73 with Ashwell Prince.
   South Africa, resuming at 294-3, added another 50 runs before Danish Kaneria struck twice to raise hopes of a fightback from the home team. The leg-spinner, who was unlucky not to get Kallis on the first day when wicket-keeper Akmal dropped a catch when the South African maestro was on 36, finally got the prized scalp, his 199th in Tests.
   Kaneria landed his 200th Test wicket when Prince failed to keep a drive on the ground and the leg-spinner took a straightforward catch in his follow-through.
   Kaneria, playing his 47th Test, is the sixth Pakistani bowler to take 200 or more wickets in the longer version of the game.
   Kaneria, who made his debut against England at Faisalabad in 2000, dismissed Marcus Trescothick for his first wicket. His 100th Test victim was Warne in a Test at Sydney in 2004.
   Wasim Akram (414) heads the list for Pakistan, followed by Waqar Younis (373), Imran Khan (362), Abdul Qadir (236) and Saqlain Mushtaq (208).
   When it seemed that South Africa might not reach 400, AB de Villiers hit a rapid 77 with seven boundaries and a six off 101-balls. He was the last man out, bowled by paceman Umar Gul, who finished with 2-60.
   Debutant left-armer Rehman mopped up the lower order, taking four wickets in just 35 balls. He removed Boucher (one), Nel (two), Harris (one) and Steyn (nought) before Gul took the final wicket. Rehman was the pick of the home bowlers with 4-105.
   Pakistan, who were hit by the last-minute withdrawal of prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf on Monday, received another blow on the second day when vice-captain and opener Salman Butt was hospitalised due to gastroenteritis.
   Butt was released from the hospital and will bat on the third day.

Brothers Union, Indira Road KC and City Club concurrently served a legal notice on the Bangladesh Cricket Board asking why it has moved to hold the relegation matches of the Dhaka Premier Cricket League, seven months after it ended, said officials on Tuesday.
   The BCB decided to the hold the matches between the clubs, who finished as the bottom three sides, from October 4 to 7. After the matches two teams will be demoted to the lower tier during the upcoming domestic season, said the BCB.
   ‘We received the legal notice and sent it to our lawyer. He is considering taking necessary steps,’ said Ahmed Sazzadul Alam, the chairman media committee of the BCB.
   Alam said that despite the legal notice the BCB is preparing to hold the matches. ‘We did not change our mind yet over holding matches. The umpires will go to the field as per the schedule. Now if the clubs do not come to play, action will be taken according to the rules.’ he said.

The Shanghai Bridge Hotel, team hotel of the Bangladesh Special Olympics team, on Tuesday hosted a farewell party for the Bangladesh Team. Senior vice-president and acting managing director of Special Olympics International- Asia Pacific, Troy W. Greisen, Munshi Faiz Ahmad, Bangladesh ambassador to China, were present on the occasion.
   Both Troy Greisen and. Munshi Faiz Ahmad wished best of luck to team and thanked grameenphone for sponsoring in such a noble cause. Troy has also informed that this is first time a large corporate house like grameenphone has come forward to elevate the spirit of this game. He also praised grameenphone for contributing to the talent-hunt programme of intellectually challenged athletes throughout Bangladesh till 2011.
   Ashraf-ud-Dowla, the president of Special Olympics Bangladesh, was also present.

Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire who was giving evidence on the second day of his legal action against the International Cricket Council, the governing body of the game, claimed he was not permitted to stand in top-level matches because ‘it was motivated along racial lines.’
   Hair, who is suing the ICC for racial discrimination in the Central London Employment Tribunal, said: ‘If I had been from West Indies or Pakistan or India, I might have been treated differently, like Billy Doctrove.’
   He was referring to his fellow umpire, a black West Indian, who was standing with him in the final Test at the Oval last year when Pakistan were accused of ball-tampering, and who has continued to officiate in Tests and one day international matches.
   ‘At the time we told Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, that we believed the marks we found on the ball were deliberately put there,’ the burly umpire explained to the hearing.
   ‘After the match I was continually pilloried in the media by Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and Inzamam, which was clearly in breach of ICC conduct - and yet it did nothing to prevent this.’
   The stance that Hair is taking is that his decisions during the Test were in unison with Doctrove, whereas the ICC is claiming that he was the senior umpire and hence took the initiative himself.
   Hair also emphasised that the match was awarded to England and not forfeited, as was supposed at the time.
   ‘There is nothing in the Laws of Cricket to permit a governing body to overturn an umpire’s decision,’ he said.
   Hair, who said he was given little time in which to find a lawyer before the disclosure of what he considered to his private e-mail correspondence to the ICC was made public, claimed that Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, who has been present throughout the first two days of the hearing, said to him in the wake of the Oval Test: ‘We have something in common - the ICC wants to sack both of us.’
   Hair, 55, spent the whole day giving evidence, although there was a one and a half hour break for lunch while the three-man tribunal read detailed notes prepared by his legal team.
   Michael Beloff QC, for the ICC, intends to spend a full day cross-examining him, which means that the hearing might not be concluded by the scheduled finishing date of October 12.
   The first witness, John Jameson, the former assistant secretary of the MCC who will be questioned on the Laws of Cricket, is not likely to be called until Wednesday afternoon.
   There was still no sign of Inzamam, who was served a witness summons by Hair’s lawyers and who made himself unavailable for the Test between Pakistan and South Africa in Karachi this week.
   The tribunal has the power to issue sanctions that could lead to prosecution if he does not appear.
   The chairman also has the power to reconvene the hearing if it is not concluded, but that would probably not occur for several months.

Former India coach Greg Chappell has praised Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy and said the Indian team is shaping up well under him. Chappell quit as coach after the World Cup earlier this year, ending a two-year tenure with the team.
   Though his stint was mired in controversy, Dhoni was one of the successes and Chappell said he had seen a lot of potential in him. Dhoni led an inexperienced team to victory in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, his debut series as captain.
   ‘I had foreseen a great future for Dhoni,’ Chappell told PTI. ‘He has proved his potential and has been most impressive as a leader. The Indians are lucky to have a leader like him.’
   Chappell, currently in India as a consultant for the Future Cricket Academy of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, based in Jaipur, acknowledged India’s recent success.
   ‘The Indian team is now doing well,’ he said. ‘When I was the coach, whatever I did stood them in good stead. It is up to the others to judge. They have a few exciting players and have already won the ICC World Twenty20.
   ‘The good thing about Indian cricket is that it has a varied environment in which players are groomed differently. The players, like those from far-flung areas, are an example of that.’
   The current one-day series between India and Australia, Chappell said, would be a close contest, despite a few senior Australian players retiring from the game in recent months.
   ‘The Australian team is in a transition phase. There is no [Glenn] McGrath or Shane Warne. But they are well prepared for the series. They have been working hard and they have to keep intact their supremacy. I believe it will be a hard fought series.’
   His work at the academy, Chappell said, would not necessarily replicate training methods used at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. He inaugurated the academy with Ian Frazer, the bio-mechanics expert who also assisted him when Chappell was with the Indian team.
   ‘It is not right to compare it to Centre of Excellence because that has been running for years now. People like Allan Border [the former Australian captain] work and evolve new techniques for the trainees there. But I assure you that it will be different. We wish to make it one of the most reputed training centres of the world.’
   Twenty20’s growing popularity, Chappell felt, would be a challenge for coaches in adapting to different forms of the game. He did not, though, believe it would ruin a batsman’s technique. ‘There is no question of spoiling the technique. It has brought about a few changes which 50-over cricket too brought along. Now players use heavy bats, footwork is changing and they are hitting much harder than in my day.’

Bodyline endures as the most emotive word in Test cricket. Seventy-five years this month, the England team led by Douglas Jardine and under the auspices of the Marylebone Cricket Club, arrived in Australia on the steamship, the SS Orontes.
   Over the ensuing six months Jardine’s despised tactics not only threatened the future of Test cricket but even undermined the bonds of the British Empire.
   The combatants and the eye-witnesses have all but gone, although Bill Brown, now in his 96th year, played for New South Wales against the MCC but did not play in a Bodyline Test.
   Jardine, a cold, calculating product of Winchester and Oxford, devised a strategy of dangerously short-pitched bowling using his two fast bowlers, Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, to combat Don Bradman, Australia’s sporting hero of the Depression-ravaged times.
   ‘The Don’ had been rewriting cricket’s record books since his Test debut in 1928 and when the Australians won the five-Test series 2-1 in England in 1930, Bradman amassed 974 runs at a batting average of 139.14, an aggregate record that stands to this day.
   Jardine’s theory of directing his bowlers to bowl at leg stump and make the ball rear into the batman’s body became known as ‘Bodyline.’
   When Jardine was appointed England captain for the Australian tour, one of his former Winchester schoolmasters, Rockley Wilson, is said to have warned that he might win the Ashes but he would lose a dominion in the process.
   It was a tumultuous time for cricket.
   Passions became so inflamed that during the third Test at the Adelaide Oval in January 1933, seething spectators threatened to jump the fence as anti-English feelings soared.
   Bill Woodfull, Australia’s gentlemanly captain, was twice struck by bumpers and wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield edged a ferocious delivery from Larwood on to his temple, collapsed beside the pitch and was carried from the field unconscious.
   It produced one of the immortal quotes in Test cricket when Woodfull told the English management: ‘There are two teams out there, and only one of them is playing cricket.’
   Behind the scenes there were frantic political negotiations to save the tour and restore frayed diplomatic relations between Britain and Australia.
   The British coalition government’s Dominion Secretary JH Thomas later described Bodyline as the most troublesome affair of his ministerial career.
   England’s emphatic 4-1 series victory brought both opprobrium and praise for Jardine.
   Bodyline curbed Bradman’s batting average to 56.57. He scored just one century in his four Tests with a series aggregate of 396 runs. Without the Bodyline series, Bradman would have finished his career with a Test average of 104.76 instead of 99.94.
   Larwood, the former Nottinghamshire coalminer, claimed a series-high 33 wickets at 19.51, but events of the series soured him. The 28-year-old paceman never played for England again.
   Larwood later migrated to Australia with his wife Lois, and his five daughters and lived in Sydney until his death in 1995, at the age of 90.
   Jack Fingleton, who played in three of the Bodyline Tests, echoed the feelings of others in the Australian team when he later wrote: ‘I do not think there was one single batsman who played in most of those Bodyline games who ever afterwards recaptured his love for cricket.’
   It says much for the series that Bodyline remains the only chapter in cricket’s history that film-makers have thought worth dramatising with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation producing a documentary in 2002.
   Jardine resigned as England captain before Australia’s 1934 Ashes tour and retired from first-class cricket aged 33.
   That same year the MCC outlawed systematic bowling of fast and short-pitched balls at batsmen standing clear of their wicket.
   Bradman, once lauded as ‘the greatest living Australian’, died in Adelaide on February 25, 2001 aged 92, while Jardine died from lung cancer aged 57, in Montreux, Switzerland, in June 1958.

Former Australian lag spinner Shane Warne has been described by his ex-wife Simone Callahan as a ‘bully’.
   In an interview with New Idea, the magazine which last week published Callahan’s claims that Warne had again cheated on her - she said Warne’s subsequent ‘attempts to discredit’ her are ‘nothing more than bullying.’
   ‘I wouldn’t have any reason to speak out if he hadn’t done the wrong thing,’ news.com.au. quoted Simone, the mother of three children with Warne, as saying.
   ‘Shane’s angry because I told the truth,’ she added.
   Last week, Simone claimed she was heartbroken to find a text message from another woman on Warne’s mobile phone.
   She said she’d already decided to split with Warne because she suspected ‘there was something going on’ but claimed the text message - which read: ‘Hey beautiful, I’m just talking to my kids, the back door’s open’ - was confirmation of her fears.
   Warne later issued a statement claiming he and Simone had already split up - for the second time - on August 5.
   ‘The only reason we separated was that we both knew it was finally over,’ Warne said.
   ‘There was no affair, nor anyone else.’
   Callahan hit back in the latest interview, saying Warne’s word could not be trusted.
   ‘Look at his track record. He hasn’t been honest with me for the past 10 years, why would he be honest now?’ she said.
   ‘As he always does when he’s in damage control, he hands out a statement prepared by PR people, and refuses to answer questions, then blames someone else.’
   Warne had also criticised Callahan for speaking to New Idea last week and ‘not telling the children first’ they’d decided to separate.

Though he took three catches on the second day of the first Test against South Africa at Karachi, it was the one that got away from Kamran Akmal Monday which could yet cost Pakistan.
   Jacques Kallis was on 36 when he attempted to cut Danish Kaneria. He succeeded only in edging it; Akmal succeeded only in fluffing it. He rectified it but, 55 overs and 119 Kallis runs later, the true cost of the drop may ultimately prove much higher.
   This isn’t a one-off, of course. His form behind the stumps since his remarkable first year in the team as a regular has deteriorated so spectacularly, that one journalist quipped that Kallis had found the unluckiest way to be dismissed in cricket: ‘caught Akmal’.
   He has been persisted with through 27 consecutive Tests, and if the first 15 Tests were outstanding, the last 12 have been exceedingly poor. His batting has fallen away (only three fifties in that period) and he has read spinners, particularly Danish Kaneria, as adroitly as Englishmen used to pick Abdul Qadir.
   Opinion on what has happened is not particularly diverse. Rashid Latif and Wasim Bari have long felt there are technical problems and that he should be rested. Imtiaz Ahmed, Pakistan’s first Test wicketkeeper, is no different, though he points out poor footwork particularly to the spinners.
   ‘His initial movement is wrong: he should be moving his right foot to the right to an off-stump line, and not back as he does at the moment,’ he told Cricinfo. ‘The technical shortcomings aren’t anything that can’t be overcome but he has to work at it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take him through recordings of his early career when he did well.’
   The only question is how long Pakistan can persist with a man who has become, some snigger, the poor man’s Parthiv Patel. The selection committee has already started asking it. ‘He is a little off-colour at the moment,’ Salahuddin Ahmed, Pakistan’s chief selector, admitted to Cricinfo, ‘and we have been looking at other options as we should.’
   Those options include Sarfraz Ahmed, who was captain and wicketkeeper of the Pakistan U-19 team that won the World Cup in 2006. He has since been impressing on the domestic circuit and played against the South Africans in the tour match for the Patron’s XI.
   ‘Sarfraz was impressive in the warm-up and he also played a couple of crucial, fighting innings against Australia A, so he’s in form,’ Salahuddin said. Also in the fray are Zulqernain Haider and Mohammad Salman, who comes from Faisalabad, via recommendations by Rashid Latif.

Australian Open organisers on Tuesday said high-profile Asian matches would be played on a designated showcourt for the first time and revealed the new courts would be coloured bright blue.
   Officials have long promoted the season’s opening major as ‘the grand slam for Asia Pacific’ and they said having a special Asian court would deepen ties with the region.
   Under the plan, Melbourne Park’s showcourt three will be designated as the venue for matches of special significance to the Asian region.
   ‘We wanted to... allow the Asian communities to get behind their players and broadcast that from a specific location into Asia,’ Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood said.
   ‘We need to connect with Asia and so we’re investing in that.’
   Tournament director Craig Tiley said new hi-tech rubberised courts being installed for the 2008 event would be coloured blue, instead of the traditional green.
   ‘The blue court looks better. It will be easier for everyone to see the ball and the vibrancy of the colour just lifts the entire venue,’ Tiley said.
   ‘It’s fresh and contemporary.’
   Blue courts are also used at the US Open, the final grand slam of the year.
   The new Plexicushion surface is designed to provide a more consistent bounce and cooler court temperatures than the previous Rebound Ace courts, which players said became sticky in the heat and could cause injury.
   The playing surface of the court will be dark blue, surrounded by a light blue border.
   ‘The two tones allow the players to hone their range and get a feel for the baseline at the opposite end of the court,’ Tiley said.

The zonal phase of the National Football Championship organised by the Bangladesh Football Federation will be held in nine venues across the country from November 2.
   The nine zones are Padma, Surma, Kapatakhkho, Karnaphuli, Tista, Jamuna, Meghna, Brahmaputra, Services and Education.
   The venue for the final phase will be decided later.
   The intending DSAs, service teams and universities willing to be the zonal hosts have been requested to send their application to BFF acting general secretary Manjoor Hossain Malu on or before October 10.

Sabbir Rana’s hat-trick helped Rajshahi thrash Mymensingh 7-0 in the super six of the Araf Apparels 21st National Youth Hockey Tournament at the Maulana Bhasani National Stadium on Tuesday.
   Rana Kumar and Shuvo Kumar Ghosh scored a brace each for the winners.
   In the day’s other match, Faridpur beat Munshiganj 3-1 with Plaban, Saiful and Monir scoring a goal each.

The Pakistan Cricket Board Tuesday dismissed Australian umpire Darrell Hair’s claim that he was prevented from officiating in top matches because of racial discrimination by the game’s global body.
   Hair is suing the International Cricket Council, telling a tribunal in London on Monday that he was kept out of big games to appease non-white cricketing countries.
   He alleges the discrimination followed his joint decision with fellow umpire Billy Doctrove of the West Indies to penalise Pakistan for ball-tampering in the fourth Test against England at The Oval in August 2006.
   ‘Hair’s charges are incorrect and since this is a case against the ICC all the Test playing members can testify and I am also ready to go to London,’ PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf told reporters.
   ‘There was no racial discrimination involved and it was a board decision against Hair,’ said Ashraf of the ICC board’s decision taken in November last year in Mumbai.
   ‘I was part of that three-member meeting and there was no tape. This is not correct,’ said Ashraf.
   He also denied reports of Inzamam being summoned by the employment tribunal where Hair is seeking damages.
   ‘I have no knowledge of Inzamam being summoned, neither he has contacted the PCB. Inzamam is not a British citizen and he is not obliged. But if he wants he can go and testify. The PCB will certainly testify.’

South African fast bowler Morne Morkel’s tour of Pakistan is over after he suffered a fractured foot, an official said Tuesday.
   The 22-year-old injured his foot during South Africa’s three-day tour match on Friday. He stepped on a pebble and could only bowl five overs.
   ‘X-rays have revealed that Morkel has suffered a fracture on his left foot and for further assessment he is due to return home as soon as possible,’ South African team spokesman Michael Owen-Smith told reporters
   ‘Since this kind of injury takes six to eight weeks to heal, Morkel’s tour is over.’
   Morkel was given fitness tests before the ongoing first Test against Pakistan, which started Monday. His place was taken by fellow paceman Andre Nel.
   Smith said no replacement has yet been announced for Morkel. ‘The selectors will decide whether to send a replacement,’ he added.

Matthew Hayden will aim to shed his Twenty20 batting outlook for the remainder of the one-day series in India. Hayden, who thrashed a tournament-high 265 runs in South Africa, struggled to adjust in the opening ODI in Bangalore on Saturday, scoring 34 before a rash shot to S Sreesanth.
   ‘I will look to take my time over the course of the next games, get my tempo right and get set into the game and look to kind of advance from there,’ Hayden said in The Australian. ‘I did feel my reins were well and truly tucked in close and I wasn’t dealing well with the frustrations of the subcontinent where play seems to stop and start.’
   Hayden called his innings ‘disjointed’ and was surprised by the changes after the new experiences in South Africa. ‘If there wasn’t a bloke stuffing around with the sightscreen or somebody wandering in front of it, or [Michael Clarke’s] injury, it was just a really unusual tempo coming off Twenty20 cricket where the game is almost over by the 20-over mark,’ he said. ‘The whole night was like the Never Ending Story really, it was just phenomenally different to a Twenty20 comp.’
   More battles loom between Hayden and Sreesanth over the series and the bowler said he had respect for the Australians ‘outside the ground, not inside’. Sreesanth has dismissed Hayden twice in a row and is aiming for five wickets on his home ground in the second match on Tuesday.

Celtic will have to do it the hard way as they try to get their Champions League campaign back on track against AC Milan today.
   Gordon Strachan’s side desperately need a victory over the European champions at Parkhead after losing their opening Group D fixture against Shakhtar Donetsk.
   It might be premature to call the second game of the group stage a make or break clash, but the Scottish champions have such a bad record on their travels in the Champions League that, with visits to Milan and Benfica to come, a defeat on Wednesday would leave them clinging to the slenderest hope of reaching the knockout stages.
   With so much at stake, Strachan must be cursing the injuries that threaten to deprive him of two key players.
   Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura has missed the last three matches with a knee problem and is doubtful, while Jan Venegoor of Hesselink limped off with a hamstring injury against Dundee United on Saturday.
   If Venegoor of Hesselink is sidelined, Chris Killen will come in to partner Scott McDonald, scorer of hat-trick in the weekend win over United. The Australian concedes Celtic’s hopes of qualifying will suffer a major blow if they fail to beat Milan.
   ‘It would be hard to come back from not winning, but there would still be four games left and it would depend on what the other results were,’ he said.
   Milan eliminated Celtic en route to winning the tournament for a seventh time last season. That first knockout round triumph was achieved by the narrowest of margins as Kaka’s extra-time goal won it 1-0 on aggregate and history suggests another tight encounter today.
   The teams have fought out goalless draws in their last two meetings in Glasgow.
   Playing for their future in the competition should be ample motivation for Strachan’s side, but the chance to avenge that exit against Milan will raise the stakes even higher. The atmosphere on European nights at Celtic is never for the faint-hearted, but Wednesday’s encounter promises to be as raw and visceral as any in recent European Champions League history.
   Celtic defender Gary Caldwell is convinced that could give his team a crucial edge.
   ‘It would be one of our biggest results if we could win so hopefully it will be another one of those special European nights at Celtic Park,’ he said.
   ‘There is no fear in us. We ran them very close in the two games last season and they went on to win the competition, so we’ve proved we can compete with them.’
   Celtic will draw hope from Milan’s stuttering start to their Serie A campaign. Carlo Ancelotti’s men were forced to settle for a fourth draw in six matches on Sunday against Catania.
   The Rossoneri are without a league win since the opening day, with their only other success coming against Benfica in the first round of Champions League fixtures.
   But Ancelotti, who will give goalkeeper Dida a late fitness test on his shoulder injury, is secure in the knowledge that Europe has brought the best out of Milan in recent years.
   ‘There is no tension or friction,’ he said. ‘The team is very serene and serenity was the key to winning the Champions League last year.’
   Brazil midfielder Kaka holds the key to Milan’s attempts to get back on track. The sublimely gifted playmaker looks set to be crowned FIFA World Player of the Year after inspiring Milan’s success last season.
   But he will have to be at his most ingenious to break free of the defensive shackles Celtic are certain to try to lock him in.
   Kaka is confident of rising to the challenge. ‘Celtic are so strong on set-plays and have amazing spirit,’ he said. ‘Still, they have some weak points and we have to expose them.’

Thierry Henry is desperate to help Barcelona win the UEFA Champions League this term to rid himself of the memory of defeat at the hands of his current club two years ago.
   The French international is reminded of the night that the Blaugrana defeated Arsenal in Paris every day as a photo of the victorious team hangs in the dressing room at Camp Nou.
   Now that Henry has switched sides he wants a new photo for the wall, if only to prevent him from taking down the old one and hiding it.
   ‘Every morning I see that picture and every time I start thinking about it and then I have to say ‘no, I will not do it’,’ he told TF-1, resisting the urge to remove the offending image.
   ‘I hope that this year I can hold the trophy in my own hands instead.’
   Despite scoring his first goals for Barca when netting an impressive hat-trick at the weekend, Henry believes he will not be in peak condition for another four or five weeks.
   ‘I am not yet at my best, but I hope to be by the end of October,’ he explained.
   ‘I spent five months without playing and I am now looking forward to being back in perfect condition.’
   As well as recovering fully from the injury that kept
   him out of action last term, Henry is still adjusting to his new club and the new style of football.
   ‘The main difference with England is that there the football is more direct, while in Spain it is more patient and you have to learn to wait for the ball,’ Henry stated.
   Meanwhile, Henry is just looking forward to playing again alongside Lionel Messi .
   ‘Leo at the moment is on a high and he has been for a long time,’ Henry said of the Argentine at a news conference on Monday.
   ‘What he does is incredible and I have to make sure I don’t just watch him but to move as well.
   ‘We haven’t played that
   many games together yet but at the moment it seems there is a good understanding between us.’

Cristiano Ronaldo has stoked the fire ahead of Manchester United’s UEFA Champions League clash with Roma, after claiming the Italian side’s players ‘begged’ him to stop tormenting them last season.
   A 7-1 victory for Sir Alex Ferguson’s charges last term, at the quarter-final stage of the same competition, is likely to play heavy on the minds of Roma’s players ahead of the Old Trafford clash.
   Ronaldo was at his effervescent best that evening and is aiming for a similar performance when Luciano Spalletti brings his side to Manchester on Tuesday evening.
   The Italian tactician has insisted that he does not view the game as being some kind of revenge mission, but Ronaldo’s words are likely to provide the type of motivation he will have been hoping to conjure amongst his players.
   Claiming Roma’s beleaguered side asked to be spared further embarrassment on a night that will live long in United folklore, Ronaldo can expect a hostile reception from those he has exposed.
   ‘When we were already winning 6-0 one of their players said ‘don’t do any more dribbles, you’re already winning by six’, almost begging,’ Ronaldo revealed, in his new book Moments.
   ‘Obviously I won’t reveal his name, as these are comments brought about by occurrences in the game.
   ‘Other players ask me to go to play on the opposite side, and others don’t show any sense of humour when they make threats to my physical integrity.
   ‘I know that they are merely trying to scare me.
   ‘But these comments are worthless, for I keep playing exactly the same way.’

Steve McClaren has confirmed that West Ham striker Dean Ashton will be recalled to the England squad for the crucial Euro 2008 qualifiers against Estonia and Russia later this month.
   Three goals in his last four games proved enough to prompt McClaren into an unguarded admission that the 23-year-old would be in the squad he names on Friday.
   ‘He has forced his way in,’ McClaren said, revealing that he had been keeping tabs on Ashton’s comeback from a serious ankle injury since the powerful striker returned to action in the summer.
   Ashton had looked set to break into the England set-up in the wake of last year’s World Cup only to see his dreams crushed by the injury he suffered in training for England’s first match under McClaren.
   Fourteen months and two operations later, Ashton is now in pole position to start against Estonia on October 13 at Wembley, although it remains to be seen if he is alongside Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen.
   ‘It was very disappointing about the injury Dean had at the start of last season with England,’ McClaren said. ‘I have been watching him from pre-season onwards and he certainly comes into consideration.’
   Owen has demonstrated how important he is to England by scoring four goals in the last three qualifiers and McClaren’s decision to re-unite him with Emile Heskey was instrumental in England’s convincing wins over Israel and Russia last month.
   Heskey however has since broken a metatarsal bone and is ruled out of the next two matches.
   That has catapulted Ashton into consideration with McClaren bound to be influenced by the way Heskey’s physical presence unsettled the Israeli and Russian defences last month.
   McClaren is confident that his side can get through the Estonia and Russia matches even if they have to do without Owen and captain John Terry.
   Terry fractured his cheekbone at the weekend while Owen is recovering from surgery on a groin injury, but McClaren plans to name both of them in the squad he will name on Friday.
   ‘We will have to see what the outcome of the operations are and take it day-by-day,’ he said. ‘They are both very confident in coming back and playing very quickly. But, as we all know with injuries and rehabilitation, things can go wrong.’
   The Estonia match on October 13 could be Owen’s comeback appearance but Terry was considering a return to duty in Chelsea’s Champions League match in Valencia on Wednesday.
   If Owen is fit, he could be paired with Ashton in attack with Rooney shunted in to a wide role on the left at the expense of Joe Cole.
   Rooney missed England’s last two games through injury and his position in the side has been put in doubt following the convincing 3-0 wins over Israel and Russia.
   They were achieved with Owen partnered by Emile Heskey but the big Wigan forward has since broken a metatarsal bone and will not be available.
   McClaren insisted no risks would be taken with the fitness of Terry and Owen.
   ‘Of course they have to be fit and they have to be fit enough to contribute to us winning,’ he said. ‘But we are playing for England and these are big games—games these players, I know, really want to play in.’
   Fears Owen would require a hernia operation have proved unfounded and his consultant, German doctor Ulrike Muschaweck, has predicted that he will be fully recovered from the surgery she performed on the striker last week by the time of the England match.

The English Football Association is to launch a campaign aimed at getting players to be more respectful of referees.
   The move follows growing alarm at the level of abuse that is being directed at officials which in turn results in fewer people being prepared to put up with the behaviour.
   The FA chief exceutive Brian Barwick acknowledges the issue affects the highest levels of the game as much as the lowest and he believes methods introduced at grass-roots can have a huge impact.
   The three main components of the pilot scheme to be launched in nine regions from next January are:
   l Only the team captain will be allowed to speak with the referee.
   l Roped-off areas will be introduced at junior matches so ‘over-indulgent or abusive’ parents cannot direct their bile at the referee.
   l All players and club officials will be forced to sign a ‘memorandum of understanding’ noting the standards of behaviour that will be expected.
   ‘These things are done better through discussion rather than a big stick but we want to stop the situation getting out of hand,’ said Barwick.
   ‘There is a lot of emotion and passion in the game but you only have to look at a sport like rugby to see there seems to be a certain level of respect for the officials.
   ‘That sets a marker down for our game because the treatment of referees is a really serious issue and something we have to deal with.’
   Barwick’s stance has been backed by England coach Steve McClaren, who was once forced to resign as president of a local club because of the behaviour of parents.
   ‘If you do not have discipline you are not in control, if you are not in control it can cost you the game,’ he said. ‘In my opinion, this thing has to start at the bottom.’

Bayern Munich captain and goalkeeper Oliver Kahn will be out for the next five weeks after having an operation on Tuesday to repair an elbow injury.
   Kahn, who is set to retire from the Bundesliga at the end of the month, will miss all of Bayern’s October fixtures including Thursday’s UEFA Cup first-round, second-leg trip to Belenenses in Lisbon.
   ‘We will be without Oliver for the next five weeks,’ Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld told German tabloid Bild with his side four points clear at the top of the table.
   ‘It’s not so bad,’ said Kahn himself, ‘because of the international break coming up, I won’t miss too many games.’
   Germany’s Euro 2008 qualifying games against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on October 10 and the Czech Republic in Munich on October 17 will help Bayern cope with the loss of their captain.
   ‘Michael is a very, very good goalkeeper,’ said Bayern’s French midfielder Franck Ribery.
   But Rensing himself, who has just 14 Bundesliga appearances after six years at Bayern, is relishing his chance.
   ‘First of all, I wish Ollie a swift recovery,’ he said.
   ‘But finally I can show, over a period of time, what I can do.’

Milan could welcome back Brazilian star Ronaldo in the near future, but they will have to do without Kakha Kaladze for at least a month.
   Ronaldo’s injury was one of the stories of the summer after his recovery descended into an embarrassing farce for Milan’s medical team.
   Having reported discomfort in his thigh on July 22 after the presentation of the Rossoneri side at the San Siro, reports indicated that he would be back in action for the start of the season.
   However, it emerged that the diagnosis had been flawed and the problem was more serious, so a disillusioned Ronado went to Brazil to be treated by Selecao doctor Jose Luis Runco.
   Rumours then started that Runco was using an experimental treatment that involved injecting live cells into the damaged tissue and allegations that the process was a form of doping emerged.
   Finally, after Runco clarified that he wasn’t using this process, Il Fenomeno returned to the peninsula and is nearing a long-awaited return to the pitch.
   ‘It’s not my job to discuss our injured players and I’m certainly not trying to stir controversy, but he seems fine to me,’ Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani told reporters.
   ‘Over the last week he has successfully completed all the rehabilitation exercises and I expect him to return soon.’

Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard was involved in car accident in which a 10-year-old boy reportedly broke his leg.
   Gerrard was driving his Bentley in a Liverpool suburb when the accident happened near a school around 3:15 p.m. local time Monday, British news reports said Tuesday. Gerrard stopped to comfort the youngster until an ambulance arrived.
   Gerrard later went to a police station where he produced his driving documents and made a statement.
   The injured boy was identified in British news reports as Jamie Halliwell.
   ‘Steven Gerrard knelt down and held his hand and he seemed genuinely upset,’ the boy’s grandfather, Reg Rogan, told The Sun. ‘You could tell he was in shock.’

A crowd of around 20,000 welcomed back Germany’s World Cup winning women from China on Monday.
   Germany successfully defended their world title without conceding a goal, beating Brazil 2-0 in Sunday’s final, and they received the sort of reception usually reserved for their male counterparts at Frankfurt’s city hall.
   ‘I’m absolutely overwhelmed and overjoyed that so many people are here,’ Germany coach Silvia Neid told the crowd, estimated at 20,000 by the German Football Association.
   ‘Now let’s celebrate together.’

Juventus and Inter are chasing Argentine starlet Sergio Aguero, but will need deep pockets to lure the in-form Atletico Madrid striker.
   Aguero has scored 11 times in 31 games for Los Rojiblancos since his arrival from Independiente for a fee of close to £10m and is helping fill the gap left by the departed Fernando Torres.
   The 19-year-old hitman is believed to be an option for the Old Lady if contract negotiations with Alessandro Del Piero continue to stall, while Inter have been watching him for nearly a year.
   However, it seems that Aguero has his heart set on playing alongside fellow countryman Lionel Messi, the player to whom he has regularly been compared.
   ‘Messi and I have always spoken a lot,’ he told Punto Radio. ‘And we have laughed a lot about the fact we have scored the same number of goals so far this season as neither of us expected it.
   ‘I’d love to play next to Messi, but of course he would have to come to Atletico,’ he concluded.

Chelsea have had a protective mask made for captain John Terry, who underwent surgery on Sunday for a broken cheekbone, and say he will travel with his team mates to Valencia for today’s Champions League Group B game.
   The England captain suffered a depressed fracture of the cheekbone during Saturday’s 0-0 Premier League draw with Fulham.
   ‘He had the operation on Sunday which was very successful but he couldn’t train on Monday because we had to get a protective mask moulded,’ club doctor Bryan English was quoted as saying on the club’s Web site (www.chelseafc.com).
   ‘The reason for getting it all done as soon as possible is so he can be back and playing. I don’t know when that is going to be but the mask needs to fit properly or another blow will just knock that small piece of bone back.
   ‘The mask will be taken on the plane with us whether he is going to play against Valencia or not,’ English said.
   England manager Steve McClaren said on Monday he hoped Terry would be fit for the country’s Euro 2008 qualifiers against Estonia and Russia later this month.

Alessandro Del Piero could leave Juventus after talks over a new contract stalled again, the club’s sporting director Alessio Secco has said.
   The 32-year-old striker joined Juve from Padova in 1993 and has gone on to become one of the club’s greatest players, winning a European Cup in 1996.
   Del Piero stuck with the club when they were relegated to Serie B last year because of a match-fixing scandal and helped the Turin side gain immediate promotion back to the top flight.
   ‘There is a risk of losing him but we are doing all we can and there is an intention to find an agreement,’ Secco told SKY television.
   ‘The details must stay within the club. It is a situation that is helping nobody.’
   Del Piero was part of Italy’s World Cup-winning squad last year but is not the player he once was. He was dropped following a lacklustre performance in the 0-0 Euro 2008 qualifying draw against France last month and has since said he only wants to play for the Azzurri as a striker and not a midfielder.
   Juventus striker partner David Trezeguet had looked set to leave in the close season after his relationship with club bosses broke down. However, he surprisingly signed a new deal and is now Serie A’s joint top scorer with seven goals.

England coach Steve McClaren insists he will miss former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho after admitting he ‘got on well’ with the Portuguese coach.
   As the former boss of his captain John Terry, plus key squad men Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, McClaren worked closely with Mourinho and forged a close relationship with the former Chelsea boss.
   Yet their friendship dated back to McClaren’s days as a club boss at Middlesbrough.
   So, while McClaren is anxious not to get into the rights and wrongs of Roman Abramovich’s decision to axe Mourinho in favour of Avram Grant, he knows the controversial Portuguese coach will leave a big gap in English football.
   McClaren said: ‘Even when I was manager of Middlesbrough I thought he was good for the game.
   ‘I got on well with him there and as England manager I could not have wanted anyone better to work with.
   ‘He invited me in, gave access to the players and let me make the decisions on the players.
   ‘He really did support me all the way through.
   ‘I don’t want to get into the politics of it, but it is sad to lose someone of that calibre and that character.
   ‘You only have to listen to the Chelsea players to know what kind of manager he was.
   ‘He has done a lot of good for football and for English players as well.’

Avram Grant faces his toughest test since taking over as the manager of Chelsea when last season’s European Champions League semi-finalists travel to in-form Valencia today.
   The 52-year-old Israeli will make his European debut as ‘The Blues’ manager after succeeding Jose Mourinho 11 days ago.
   However Grant has struggled to make his mark since the departure of the charismatic if controversial Portuguese coach.
   Chelsea have produced two dismal Premiership performances under his guidance, results only tempered by a 4-0 League Cup win over Hull City, who are one division below the former Premiership champions.
   Nevertheless, Grant is confident that he will not be further embarrassed in their Group B clash with the Spanish side, despite the fact that his team
   was jeered from the pitch at Stamford Bridge after their lacklustre 0-0 draw with Fulham on Saturday.
   ‘The Champions League is something different, we always play a different way. We’ll give all we can,’ said Grant, who also suffered plenty of personal abuse from Chelsea’s own fans.
   ‘First we need to score and then we need to win. I can’t argue with that. We need to play better and I think the players want to do that. We need to improve a few things in the game but I think the team is in good shape,’ added Grant.
   To help salvage his reputation, Chelsea will have to play like they did the last time they visited Valencia’s Mestalla stadium when they pulled off a stunning 2-1 victory in last season’s Champions League quarter-final, second leg.
   On that occasion, second-half goals from Andrei Shevchenko and Michael Essien propelled Chelsea into the next round and both men are likely to start against Valencia despite Essien missing Saturday’s game.
   ‘Essien has a small tear in his calf, but should be fit for Wednesday,’ confirmed Grant.
   One man about whom Grant has greater doubts is Chelsea captain and central defender John Terry. Terry suffered a broken cheekbone against Fulham and underwent surgery on Sunday.
   ‘His (John Terry) availability for Valencia will be assessed over the next few days following the surgery,’ said a statement posted on the Chelsea web site on Monday.
   Regardless of who is in the Chelsea team today, Valencia players are licking their lips at the prospect of revenge over a team, that is now giving a good impression of being rudderless, that ended their Champions League dreams back in March.
   ‘We want to do well against Chelsea because of what happened last season,’ said Villa. ‘We are playing well and continue to win matches - hopefully nothing changes against Chelsea.’
   ‘New coach Avram Grant is not in the same league as Jose Mourinho. I do not know Grant but I don’t think he is in the same category,’ said Villa.
   ‘I watched some of the action of their 2-0 defeat at Manchester United last week and the team was totally unknown compared to the Chelsea we played last time,’ added the Spanish international.
   The mood in the Valencia camp is also buoyant after five successive La Liga victories which has seen them rise to third place, just one point adrift of Spanish league leaders Real Madrid.
   Valencia also had a useful 1-0 win away at German side Schalke 04 in their opening Champions League match while Chelsea were surprisingly held to 1-1 draw at home by Rosenburg, a result which heralded Mourinho’s departure two days later.
   The big question mark for Valencia coach Quique Flores is whether his experienced goalkeeper Santiago Canizares will be fit after suffering a muscle strain in his left leg last week.
   Timo Hildebrand is ready to take over between the posts, just as he did for Valencia’s 1-0 win in la Liga at Recreativo Huelva on Sunday.
   Valencia’s Spanish international defender Carlos Marchena is also facing a race against time to be fit to face Chelsea after the bruising and sometimes bizarre encounter at Huelva which saw 13 players booked and one sent off.
   In other matches, Spanish league leaders Real Madrid are away to Lazio, Besiktas host Porto, Olympiakos travel to Werder Bremen, Benfica host Shakhtar and Rosenborg entertain Schalke 04.

Barcelona’s Argentine striker Lionel Messi continues to stun Spanish football audiences unabated with the 20-year-old international scoring five goals in just six league matches so far this season.
   His success has won him comparisons to former Argentine football legend Diego Maradona and sparked talk that he could be a contender for a place on the podium at the forthcoming FIFA World Player of the Year awards.
   Spanish media, sports fans and Messi’s teammates and rivals have all heaped praise on the player whose nickname is ‘the flea’ because of his shortness.
   ‘Messi is in a state of grace. There are few other players in Europe with his form,’ said Sevilla coach Juande Ramos whose side was defeated 2-1 by Barcelona this season with both goals coming from the Catalan club’s star.
   Messi scored twice within six minutes during his side’s 4-1 thrashing of Real Zaragoza.
   ‘He is probably the best player in the world because he is not just happy to destabilize you with his dribbling, he scores as well,’ said Zaragoza coach Victor Fernandez.
   Messi’s rise to superstardom has been meteoric. He made his first team league debut for Barcelona in October 2004, when he was the third youngest player ever to appear in the club’s famous blue and claret jersey.
   Later that season, while still only 17, he became the youngest player for the Catalan club to score in a league match.
   He followed up these prodigious feats with an outstanding display at the under-20 World Cup in the summer of 2005 where he was voted the best player of the tournament.
   Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard made a deliberate ploy of not overusing the youngster in the following season but he still notched up six goals in 17 appearances, many of them coming off the substitute’s bench.
   Last season the upward trajectory continued with 14 goals in 26 appearances despite four months on the sidelines due to injury.
   One of his goals scored against Getafe in the Spanish Cup was widely regarded to be amongst the best of last season anywhere in the world.
   His effort from the halfway line, going past a myriad of defenders before slotting the ball home, has elicited comparisons to Maradona’s famous strike at the 1986 World Cup against England.
   In a contemporary test of popularity a video of the goal on the video-sharing Internet site YouTube has been one of the most viewed sporting features in recent months.
   ‘I do not know whether or not I am the best in the world. I am working away as normal and feel good and I am pleased with the way things have been going,’ said Messi.
   The striker has benefited from an out-of sorts Ronaldinho and the injury-induced absence of Cameroon Samuel Eto’o and French international Thierry Henry still finding his feet in his new team.
   ‘He is currently playing at a very high level,’ said Rijkaard not wishing to inflate the player’s ego although the player has not shown any inclination of getting big-headed about his talent.

Liverpool have not found goals as easy to come by this season as might have been expected from a squad boasting a strike quartet collectively valued at more than 60 million pounds.
   Rafael Benitez’s squad will however go into today’s Champions League clash with crisis-hit Marseille bolstered by the knowledge that their defensive form is currently as good as at any time in the club’s illustrious history.
   Jose Reina has yet to concede a goal in open play this season and a first Premier League clean sheet at Wigan on Saturday ensured the class of 2007 have equalled a 30-year-old club record for the best defensive start to the season.
   Reina’s form has been key to that run but the Spanish goalkeeper insists it is the way Liverpool defend through the team that means their former striker Djibril Cisse is likely to find life difficult when he returns to Anfield with his new team-mates.
   ‘We’re proud of the record but we all defend together so it’s everyone’s record,’ Reina said.
   ‘We have only conceded from penalties so far, which is important. It is something we can be proud of but we must keep working in that way.’
   He added: ‘We know that to win the most important thing is to keep clean sheets. Then we have possibilities to score with the quality of players we have here.’
   Liverpool’s cause has probably been helped by the turmoil at Marseille, who last week sacked Albert Emon and installed former Belgium defender Eric Gerets as their new coach.
   Emon paid the price for the club’s disastrous domestic form. Marseille have won just once in nine league matches this season and are currently hovering just above the relegation zone in France’s top division.
   Among those hoping to exploit the disarray in the French side’s ranks will be Yossi Benayoun, who has demonstrated why Benitez snapped him up from West Ham in the summer with two goals in his last two appearances, including the winner at Wigan at the weekend.
   The Israeli playmaker appears to have been ear-marked by Benitez as the kind of player who can provide the extra guile required to unlock defences in cagey European clashes, but he will not be banging on Benitez’s door demanding a starting place against Marseille.
   ‘I can’t say I deserve to play in this game or this game, because we have a lot of great players,’ Benayoun said. ‘For me the most important thing when I’m on the pitch, whether it’s for 10 minutes or from the start, is to prove that I’m good enough to try to do the things I was lucky enough to do on Saturday.’
   ‘We have to respect the decision of the manager. We have a lot of great players so we just have to wait for our chance.’
   After a somewhat fortunate 1-1 draw in Porto Liverpool need to beat Marseille to avoid putting themselves under too much pressure for the remaining four matches in their group, and history is on their side as far as realising that objective goes.
   No French club has ever won at Anfield and Liverpool have won eight out of nine of the Anglo-French meetings in European competition at the famous old stadium.
   Liverpool will be without injured duo Daniel Agger and Xabi Alonso but otherwise Benitez will be selecting from a full squad.
   Marseille meanwhile will be without Samir Nasri, the 20-year-old touted as the ‘new Zidane’, and centreback Jacques Faty as a result, respectively, of illness and injury.

Wayne Rooney is ‘desperate’ to win the Champions League this season and believes Manchester United blew their chance last term.
   United looked good bets to conquer Europe after their 7-1 drubbing of Roma in the quarter-finals, only to be comprehensively outplayed by eventual winners AC Milan in the second leg of the semi-final.
   Roma are United’s opponents again on Tuesday night in the group stage of the competition but Rooney already has his eyes on the main prize.
   He said: ‘I’m desperate to win the Champions League having got so close last year.
   ‘We didn’t play the way we can in the semi-final and that cost us away against Milan.
   ‘Hopefully we can go on and get to final this year.
   ‘We have got that little bit more experience and the players that have been brought in can add freshness towards the end of the season.’
   Five of United’s last seven games have ended in 1-0 wins but Sir Alex Ferguson insists there is no problem with his strikers, despite a scarcity of goals.
   Ferguson said: ‘All the front players have been slow to get on to their game - that’s understandable with Wayne with his injury and (Carlos) Tevez missing pre-season.
   ‘They are getting better and will continue to do that. I think the partnership is good, using Wayne as a more advanced player and Carlos dropping in.
   ‘They have that understanding, there are moments when Wayne drops in or drifts to the side but that’s not a problem for us, it keeps our flow going.
   ‘We know that Wayne can penetrate, that Cristiano Ronaldo can penetrate, and Carlos can in a different way, so I’m happy with that and I don’t think there’s a problem at all.
   ‘Good players with the ability they have got will soon gel.’
   Defenders Wes Brown and Nemanja Vidic are doubts after the pair picked up knocks at Birmingham - John O’Shea and Gerard Pique will step in if
   they fail fitness tests - but
   Owen Hargreaves trained this morning and is in line to
   make his European debut for United.
   Ferguson admitted he might be tempted to bring the former Bayern Munich midfielder straight back into the fray despite his lack of match practice.
   He said: ‘Hargreaves is a possibility but to be honest I would have liked for him to have had some more football for such an important game.
   ‘European football is a different level for speed and tactics.’

Robbie Keane claimed a Spurs fightback to earn a 4-4 draw with Aston Villa had felt as good as a win after a night in which manager Martin Jol came within half an hour of the sack.
   That is how long there was to play when Villa opened up a 4-1 lead but a Pascal Chimbonda strike and a Keane penalty set the stage for Younes Kaboul to snatch an 92nd-minute equaliser and a point that may come to be regarded as a turning point in Tottenham’s season.
   ‘To come back from 4-1 down is unbelievable,’ Keane said after an unbelievable night of drama at White Hart Lane on the club’s 125th birthday.
   ‘You talk about dead and buried but we showed lots of character. That’s what we have in this team. When you’re 4-1 down, you go hell for leather. It does feel like a sort of victory to us in many ways.’
   The players celebrated Kaboul’s equaliser by sprinting to embrace Jol, who had looked distinctly like a condemned man when Villa’s fourth goal, a Craig Gardner free-kick, went in the 59th minute.
   ‘You should have seen him (Jol) at the end when we scored the goal,’ Keane added. ‘He had the support from everyone. He’s shown what a good manager he is over the past couple of years.’
   Jol showed the strain of the evening when he admitted: ‘I don’t know what to feel.
   ‘It was awful but on the other hand it was a big celebration at the end. We almost spoiled the night and it was a great night.
   ‘But we came back from the death and that was a big positive but I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a game like this. We could have won it at the end.’
   Jol admitted that thoughts that this might be his last game in charge had crossed his mind but claimed: ‘I thought about my future for the last six weeks so that’s nothing new.’
   Asked if he felt he was safe for the time being, he added: ‘I don’t know. It’s not up to me.’
   Jol must have thought he was in for a more relaxing evening than he finally endured when a bright start was capped by Dimitar Berbatov heading the home side ahead from a 20th-minute corner.
   It may have been a memorable fightback but it was nevertheless a night that Tottenham’s England goalkeeper Paul Robinson will want to quickly forget.
   From the outset, it appeared that Villa had decided to test his confidence on crosses and that approach soon paid off.
   Two minutes after Berbatov had given Spurs a lead that their early efforts merited, Robinson dropped a corner and Martin Laursen gratefully fired home.
   The Danish defender did not know too much about his second goal which came after another flap by Robinson allowed Zat Knight to get on the end of a Gareth Barry cross, the ball finding its way into the net off Laursen.
   There was nothing the hapless England goalkeeper could do about Gabriel Agbonlahor’s 40th-minute strike. After taking the ball off Michael Dawson, the youngster wriggled his way into the box and produced a cool, low finish into the far corner of the net.
   Agonlahor was also instrumental in winning the free-kick that allowed Gardner to make it four, his trickery resulting in Kaboul chopping him down on the edge of the area.
   Gardner’s strike appeared to sneak through the edge of the wall and Robinson was unable to keep it out despite getting a hand to the ball close to his right-hand post.
   Chimbonda kick-started the fightback by following up smartly after Jermain Defoe connected with a cross from Gareth Bale with a shot that hit the post.
   Villa had introduced Marlon Harewood in the hope he would provide an outlet from the relentless pressure from Spurs.
   Instead, the former West Ham striker’s first meaningful contribution was to hack down Darren Bent to concede the penalty that Keane converted with aplomb.
   From then on an equaliser always looked on the cards and Villa were made to pay for their failure to clear a corner in the second minute of injury time, when Kaboul levelled from close range.

Fabio Cannavaro will face an Italian opponent for the first time today when his Real Madrid side meets Lazio in the Champions League.
   ‘It will be strange,’ the Italy captain said. ‘I’ll be like the host, the one who speaks the language, knows the city, the stadium and the opponent. I’m coming with Real Madrid, though, which is a special attraction in Italy, and gives me more motivation.’
   Cannavaro played his entire career in Italy before moving to Madrid last season.
   Cannavaro has a knee injury but is still expected to play, as fellow defenders Pepe and Christophe Metzelder are out.
   Even if he doesn’t play, Cannavaro will be able to advise his teammates on Lazio’s forwards, starting with Tommaso Rocchi.
   ‘He always moves along the offside line, and slices in with incredible moves,’ Cannavaro said in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport. ‘And he’s good with his head, despite his normal height. He doesn’t make many mistakes in front of the goal. You can’t concede him anything.’
   Cannavaro also told his teammates to keep an eye on Lazio’s other forward, Goran Pandev.
   Rocchi has an injured ankle but hopes to play.
   ‘It’s a special match. I’ll do everything to play,’ he said.
   The Group C encounter is Lazio’s first home game in the Champions League in four years.
   Madrid opened European play with a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen two weeks ago, while Lazio labored to a 1-1 draw at Olympiakos.
   ‘For now, I hope they finish second in the group,’ Cannavaro said of Lazio.
   Madrid is unbeaten in four previous visits to Stadio Olimpico, with three wins over AS Roma and a 2-2 draw with Lazio in Feb. 2001.
   In the Spanish league, Madrid had a 1-0 win over Getafe on Sunday, three days after a 2-0 victory over Real Betis. It is off to its best domestic start in 16 years.
    ‘There’s lots of enthusiasm, we have a winning attitude, and last year’s team didn’t tend to win these kinds of matches,’ said defender Sergio Ramos, who scored the winner against Getafe.
   In attack, Madrid will have Ruud van Nistelrooy back after missing two games due to a left calf strain. Brazil forward Robinho will not play after spraining his left ankle against Getafe.
   Lazio will have newly signed Nestor Muslera in goal, with 43-year-old Marco Ballotta relegated to the bench after a spotty performance against Olympiakos.
   If Rocchi can’t play, Stephen Makinwa will likely join Pandev in attack.
   Lazio is struggling in Serie A with only one win in six games. The Roman club has scored all its goals this season after halftime.
   Fabio Capello, who was fired after leading Madrid to the Spanish league title last season, will provide commentary on the game for Italy’s RAI state TV.