Axiom Technologies, the controversial marketing agency that had won the title sponsorship rights in the recently-concluded Kitply Cup tri-nation tournament, now wants its money back on the plea of incurring loss, said the officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
   The BCB had sold the title sponsorship rights to Axiom for a staggering $6.5 lakh, but not before a myriad of dramas behind the curtain that at times left the tournament in danger of being staged without any title sponsor.
   Axiom had missed several deadlines for paying the money and naming its client leaving the BCB officials in an awkward position. Indian plywood manufacturer Kitply only came to the rescue of Axiom and the BCB officials at the eleventh hour.
   But now Axiom started saying it was not enough. In a letter to the BCB on Sunday, Rizwan bin Faruque, the managing director of Axiom, said his company has incurred a loss of $3.5 lakh for sponsoring the tournament.
   He asked the BCB to return him at least $1.25 lakh to make up for the loss, said the officials. The Axiom boss was seen giving copies of the letter to all members during the BCB’s contract signing ceremony with Nimbus.
   Rizwan confessed to have given the BCB a letter when asked, but he did not elaborate.
   The BCB officials were surprised at the request, which they said was not only illogical, but also an act of sheer madness. ‘It must be a crazy idea. Why should we take the responsibility of his losses?,’ asked a BCB member preferring not to be named.
   When contacted, Mirza Salman Ispahani, the chairman of the BCB commercial committee, said there was no provision in the agreement with Axiom to return money if it could not make profit from the event.
   Officials said it has become a habit for Axiom to claim the money citing losses as it did the same during the home series against South Africa and Ireland in February-March.
   After the twin series, Axiom demanded that the BCB should return Tk 8 lakh to the company as Bangladesh Television did not show two of the four ground mats during the matches against Ireland. The BCB, however, had turned down the demand, said the officials.

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif tested positive for a banned substance during random testing at the Indian Premier League, the IPL said Monday, but the paceman quickly proclaimed his innocence.
   The announcement, the latest in a series of shocks for Pakistani cricket, comes a month after the 25-year-old Asif was seized at Dubai airport while returning from IPL play on charges of possession of opium.
   The lanky seamer from Sheikhupura faces a ban from future editions of the IPL and possible punishment from the Pakistan board if all tests go against him.
   IPL officials had revealed late Sunday that a league player had failed a drugs test but did not identify him, saying they first had to investigate whether the cricketer had been granted exemption on that particular substance.
   The nature of the banned substance has not been disclosed.
   ‘The Indian Premier League confirms the player in violation is Mohammad Asif,’ the IPL finally said in a statement on Monday.
   Asif played for the Delhi Daredevils team in the IPL, a lucrative Twenty20 tournament that ran from April 18-June 1 and featured the world’s top players.
   ‘I am shocked and surprised because I was extra cautious and never used any banned substances,’ Asif told AFP.
   Asif said he would contest the ban but would also speak to the Pakistan Cricket Board.
   ‘I am going to fight this and will consult my lawyer before deciding the next step,’ he said.
   Officials compared data collected by IDTM, the Sweden-based independent agency which organised testing in accordance with World Anti-Doping Agency standards, with the result from a WADA-approved lab in Switzerland.
   ‘It was also checked if Mr Asif had applied for and was granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption,’ the IPL statement said. ‘It was found that Mr. Asif had not applied for a TUE.’
   Meanwhile, the PCB confirmed it had heard from the IPL on Monday.
   ‘We received the copy of IPL statement on Asif’s case in the evening and since it was addressed to Asif we passed it to him,’ PCB director of operations Zakir Khan told reporters.
   ‘It is sad, it’s up to Asif whether he wants to have his B sample opened or not but the PCB will look into the legalities and then decide what steps to take,’ said Khan. Asif’s case will be referred to the IPL’s three-member Drugs Tribunal that includes former India captain Sunil Gavaskar once the results of the ‘B’ sample are known.
   Last month, Asif was detained for 19 days before being deported by police in Dubai, who said the quantity of illegal drugs found was ‘insignificant.’
   In October 2006, Asif was banned for one year and fellow fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for two years after they failed dope tests conducted internally by the PCB.
   The bans were however overturned on appeal.

Beijing companies have been ordered to stagger or shorten working hours from next week as the drive to cut pollution and traffic gridlock for the Olympics hits top gear, the government said.
   The measures are part of a last-ditch bid to address Beijing’s environmental woes that takes effect from July 20 and includes the launch of new metro lines as well as a ban on more than one million cars from the city’s streets.
   More than three million cars regularly snarl up the streets of Beijing, a city of 17 million, and the traffic is one of the chief reasons for its often heavy pollution.
   State-owned firms must reduce working their working day, starting an hour later and finishing an hour earlier than normal, the notice on the Beijing government website said.
   When suitable, all firms should allow staff to work from home and introduce flexible working hours to stagger arrival and departure times, said the notice, which was posted over the weekend and carried in the Chinese press on Monday.
   Employers are also encouraged to allow staff to take annual leave during the Games.
   The notice said that the measures were intended to ease traffic congestion and help curb Beijing’s notorious air pollution.
   Poor air quality remains a major threat to the August 8-24 Olympics despite the host city spending an estimated 20 billion dollars over the past decade on a massive environmental cleanup.
   This has included raising vehicle emission standards, shutting down coal-fired boilers in the city and moving polluting factories out of town or shutting them down.
   Beijing officials insist that air quality has improved and will be safe to breathe during the Olympics.
   Yet pollution in the city over the past couple of months has appeared to have been as
   bad as ever, with smog reducing visibility to just a couple of hundred metres (yards) on occasions.
   A year ago International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned that some endurance events could be postponed if air quality failed to meet acceptable standards.
   Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie has said he will not compete in that event because of the pollution problems, and instead go for gold in the 10,000 metres.
   As part of its final gasp for clean air, Beijing last month unveiled a plan to ban more than one million cars from the city’s streets from July 20. Under the car ban, vehicles with odd and even-numbered licence plates will be ruled off the roads on alternate days for two months.
   The plan will result in the number of daily passenger trips aboard public transport rising by about four million to more than 21 million, according to city officials.
   Subway traffic alone will rise by 1.2 million passenger trips per day, according to the city government. Three new metro lines will also be open to the public for the first time from July 20 as part of a city plan to cope with the expected additional commuter traffic.
   The three new lines were originally scheduled to open last month but were subject to construction delays. One is a first-ever service from the airport into the city. As part of the efforts to ease traffic congestion, large shopping centres in the capital will open an hour later, at 10:00am, from next week while extending their evening hours.
   City communist party and government bodies will be exempt from the shorter working hour mandate, as will schools and bodies providing essential services, according to the government notice.

Fans will be unable to wave banners supporting national teams at the Beijing Olympics, according to an official guide book for spectators.
   The book, published by Olympic organisers and available to ticket holders, said banners backing individual teams including China were ‘tendentious (and) violate the fairness principle of an Olympic event,’ state media reported.
   Also banned from stadiums are materials supporting human rights, religion or politics as well as animal rights and the environment. Commercial banners promoting products are also banned from stadiums during the August 8-24 Games.
   Huang Keying, an official on the organising committee, said the guidelines were in line with the Olympic Charter, which outlaws using the Games to promote religious, political and racial discrimination. Drunkenness, nudity and gambling are also banned from Olympic venues, as are soft drink containers, musical instruments, cameras and radios.
   Animals other than guide dogs are also banned, and adults are discouraged from taking babies into venues.
   Zhang Zhenliang, director of the Games’ inquiry centre, said the rules were designed to promote an ‘orderly, happy and harmonious environment,’ according to Xinhua news agency.
   China has already issued rules for foreign visitors, which include a ban on protests and sleeping outside during the Summer Games.

The national cricketers began their practice on Monday at the Mirpur She-e-Bangla National Stadium ahead of the four-nation Twenty20 meet in Canada and one-day series away in Australia.
   Only nine players – Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Farhad Reza, Mahmudullah Riyad, Shahriar Nafees, Mehrab Hossain Jr, Alok Kapali, Abdur Razzak and Shahadat Hossain – reported on the opening day, which was limited to fitness training.
   Seven players from the recently-concluded Asia Cup squad – Nazimuddin, Mushfiqur Rahim, Dollar Mahmud, Musharraf Hossain Rubel, Shakib al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Roqibul Hassan – are now in England with the Bangladesh A team and are expected to join upon returning home.
   The Tigers will go for their full scale training from Tuesday, which will continue until July 18. The selectors are expected to name a preliminary squad of 20-22 players on July 22.
   The national team is likely to leave for Canada on August 11.

Bangladesh U-21 team lost 2-8 to Pakistan in their third and final Group B match in the Junior Asia Cup Hockey in Hyderabad on Monday.
   Bangladesh took the lead in the 2nd minute through Asaduzzaman Chandan and Iqbal Nader Prince scored the other goal in the 24th. Kashif Ali scored for Pakistan on 21 minutes.
   After the interval, Pakistan bounced back with Md Zubair, Shafqat Rasul and Hashem Khan all netting twice as Pakistan scored seven goals in a row.
   Bangladesh lost 0-8 to South Korea and defeated Oman 7-1 in the earlier matches.

The chairman of the National Sports Council, General Moeen U Ahmed, pledged his full support to Bangladesh Football Federation for the development of the game. He made the pledge when the BFF president Quazi Salahuddin called on him at his NSC office on Monday.
   Salahudin presented the BFF’s future plans and programmes to the NSC chairman and requested him to peruse them. ‘The chairman assured me of all logistic support from the NSC to run football smoothly,’ said the BFF president.
   General Moeen also met with the District and Divisional Sports Forum members at the NSC auditorium and urged them to work for the development of sports.
   The NSC chief also declared that all the pending elections of the different sports federations will be held within next October. It was learnt that the NSC would also organise a countrywide age-level football tournament soon.

Abhrapratim Manna of Kolkata maintained his solo lead in the points table with maximum seven points at the end of the seventh round in the 10th Standard Chartered School Chess Class VI to X Group on Monday.
   Rezaul Islam Babu of Rajbari Sonapur High School, Abdullah Al Saif of Quality Educational School and Asim Roy of Tripura all are in the second position with 6 points each. Shariatullah of Dr Mohammad Shahidullah School is in third position with 5 points. Aditya Chakrabarty and Sayan Majumder of India are joint leaders with 6 points each in the KG to V group.

South Africa (247 & and 372/3) lead England (593/8 dec) by 26 runs at tea, day 5
   South Africa opener Neil McKenzie’s marathon century finally came to an end but the first Test against England at Lord’s was still heading towards a draw here on Monday.
   The Proteas, at tea on the fifth and final day, were 372 for three, a lead of 26 after being made to follow-on, with Hashim Amla 88 not out and first innings centurion Ashwell Prince, dropped on two, four not out.
   McKenzie, who batted after lunch with a runner because of a groin strain, was eventually out for 138, having added just seven runs to his interval score when he flat-footedly cut at James Anderson and edged through to wicket-keeper Tim Ambrose.
   The 32-year-old had batted for nine hours and 14 minutes, facing 446 balls with 16 fours.
   McKenzie, having previously shared a double century stand with Proteas captain Graeme Smith, who made 107 on Sunday, added 125 for the second wicket with Amla.
   A South Africa spokesman tried to calm fears McKenzie might miss the second Test, which starts later this week at Headingley, by saying: “Neil McKenzie has a groin strain in his right leg but the medical team are hopeful he will be able to play on Friday.”
   McKenzie’s exit left South Africa on 329 for two.
   Left-arm quick Ryan Sidebottom, bowling despite a stiff back, gave home fans another moment to cheer when he clean bowled the experienced Jacques Kallis for 13 with an excellent yorker - a delivery, which curiously, England rarely used.
   New batsman Prince, who made 101 out of South Africa’s first innings 247, was given a reprieve when his flashing drive off Stuart Broad was put down by Alastair Cook, diving to his left at a wide second slip.
   There have been five consecutive draws at Lord’s since Australia became the last side to win a Test here in 2005 and it was going to take something special from England to end that sequence in the first of this four-Test series.
   South Africa resumed Monday on 242 for one after Smith was the only batsman dismissed during the whole of Sunday’s play.
   They were still well adrift of England’s first innings total of 593 for eight declared, which featured Ian Bell’s Test-best 199 and South Africa-born Kevin Pietersen’s 152 in his first Test innings against the Proteas.
   McKenzie started Monday on 102 not out, with Amla 20 not out. Initially in defensive mode, McKenzie, off Monday’s sixth ball, cover-drove Monty Panesar for four.
   In the first innings the left-arm spinner had taken four for 74 but it was a different story second time around with Panesar, at tea, having bowled 58 overs - the most he’d delivered in a Test innings - without a single wicket.
   Both McKenzie and Amla, whose 116-ball fifty featured nine boundaries, were bombarded by a succession of short-pitched deliveries from the seamers, with England captain Michael Vaughan deploying a leg-slip and leg-gully, but all to no avail.
   And with every wicketless over on a batting-friendly pitch, the case for the recall of fit-again all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, an out-and-out fast bowler unlike the three pacemen selected by England at Lord’s, after more than a year out of Test cricket through injury, grew stronger.

The Beijing Olympics will see the biggest anti-doping effort in history but the omens for a drug-free Games are not good.
   Alongside steroids and the blood-booster EPO, testers have promised developments in tracing substances such as human growth hormone, which are undetectable with standard testing methods.
   The chairman of the International Olympic Com-mittee’s Medical Commission, professor Arne Ljungqvist, said recently: ‘While it is to our advantage to not release all the details, enhanced testing will be administered in Beijing.
   ‘You can expect continued efforts to detect human growth hormone and EPO.’
   Regardless of the improved tests, past Olympics have shown that some competitors will risk everything to win medals—and there is no reason to believe Beijing will be any different.
   It is a depressing statistic that in the blue riband Olympic sport, athletics, doping clouds hang over three of the last five men’s 100 metres winners.
   Canada’s Ben Johnson notoriously caused the biggest drugs scandal in Olympic history when he tested positive for steroids after charging wild-eyed to victory in 1988 and was forced to leave Seoul in disgrace.
   The reigning champion, Justin Gatlin, is serving a four-year ban for using steroids after the American failed a test two years after winning impressively in Athens.
   And 1992 winner Linford Christie was refused a place on Britain’s 2012 Olympic torch relay after he tested positive for the steroid nandrolone late in his career, although there is no evidence the Briton was on drugs when he triumphed in Barcelona.
   Perhaps no former Olympic champion has fallen as far as Marion Jones, a triple gold medal winner at the 2000 Sydney Games, who is currently serving a six-month jail sentence in Texas for lying to investigators about her drug-taking.
   US sports officials hope a line has been drawn under a dark chapter with the conviction in May of athletics coach Trevor Graham—who guided both Gatlin and Jones—for lying to federal investigators over the BALCO laboratory scandal which embroiled so many stars.
   A doping furore nearly ruined the start of the Athens Olympics four years ago, when home sprint stars Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were allegedly involved in a motorcycle accident, apparently to avoid taking pre-competition tests.
   Once the action got underway, Russia’s Irina Korzhanenko was forced to hand back the women’s shot putt gold medal after she was found to be taking the steroid stanozolol—the same substance Ben Johnson used 16 years earlier.
   Athletics is far from alone in the Olympics doping hall of shame. Weightlifting has had a notoriously close relationship with drugs and Bulgaria has already withdrawn its entire weightlifting team from Beijing after 11 competitors tested positive for steroids.
   In a major embarrassment for the Olympic host nation, one of China’s leading hopes for a swimming medal failed a drugs test in June.
   Ouyang Kunpeng, the country’s leading backstroke swimmer who won three silver medals at the 2006 Asian Games, has been banned for life for steroid use, although an investigation will establish if the substance was taken accidentally.
   The incident re-awakened unease about China’s elite swimmers and track athletes, who were embroiled in numerous doping scandals in the 1990s and have been under a cloud of suspicion ever since.
   Some observers argue that drugs use is not increasing, but the sophistication of testing is—which is netting more cheats.
   For example, many of the gold medals won in remarkable performances by East Germany’s women athletes and swimmers are now widely discredited because the extent of the former communist nation’s state-sponsored doping system was only revealed after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
   The IOC has promised that athletes who fail tests this summer will face increased penalties and will be banned from competing in London in 2012.
   But faced with the lure of gold and the potential riches it can bring, it seems inevitable that some competitors in Beijing will still reach for the test tube.

Banglalink, HSBC and United Leasing moved into the Cup semi-finals in the Ascent 5-A-Side Corporate Indoor Soccer Cup beating their respective quarter-final rivals at the STM Hall at Uttara on Monday.
   Banglalink defeated Citycell 4-3, HSBC ousted Ispahani 4-1 and United Leasing trounced Rahimafrooz 3-0. Beximco Pharma and Vision Group were fighting for the other final four spot.
   Banglalink will face HSBC in the semis. In the Plate group, Ascent Group edged New Age 3-2 in a keenly contested match to be in the last four. Multimode also advanced to the semi-finals defeating Bitopi 4-2, Apollo Hospitals thrashed Aqua Paints 5-2 and IDLC grabbed the last semi-final spot with a 3-2 win over Radio Foorti.
   The semi-finals and the final of both Cup and Plate groups will be held today.

India captain Anil Kumble said Monday he was confident his experienced batsmen will see off the threat posed by spinner Ajantha Mendis in the Test series in Sri Lanka.
   The Indian players found Mendis virtually unplayable in the recent Asia Cup final in Karachi, where the spinner grabbed 6-13 with subtle variations to script his team’s emphatic 100-run victory.
   ‘This team has enough experience to handle any threat and spin has never been a problem. However, we are not going to take anyone lightly, let alone Mendis,’ Kumble said on the eve of the team’s departure to Sri Lanka.
   ‘We need to respect every bowler. My interaction with some of our players was that they had some difficulty in picking him, but in Test cricket we have a lot more time to get ready.’
   Mendis, 23, is likely to make his Test debut against India after giving a good account of himself in eight one-day internationals.
   India open the tour with a three-day practice match in Colombo from Friday, the only warm-up game before the three-Test series starts on July 23.
   The Indian batting line-up has been bolstered with the return of veterans Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Venkatsai Laxman, who were not members of the Asia Cup one-day squad.
   ‘We are well prepared and keen to overcome any challenges,’ said Kumble, the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 608 after Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (735) and retired Australian spinner Shane Warne (708).
   ‘As a Test team we have really performed well in the last year or so. We have been consistent. I am sure we will be able to put up a good show and ensure a series win. We have the potential to win the series.’
   The Kumble-led side gave a stiff fight to Australia before
   losing an away four-Test series 2-1 in January.
   He led in two more series, winning against Pakistan last year and drawing against South Africa in April at home.
   All eyes will be on Tendulkar, who is just 172 short of breaking retired West Indies captain Brian Lara’s world record of 11,953 Test runs. ‘We always feel proud that one of our team-mates is going to cross a landmark. But, the most important factor is that we go there and ensure a series victory. That will be on top of everybody’s mind,’ said Kumble.
   ‘I am sure that at some point of time, Sachin will cross the landmark. It will be a huge achievement not just for him, but also for Indian cricket. He is confident. He has come back fully fit from a groin injury.’
   India lost 2-1 on their last Test tour of Sri Lanka in 2001, with Tendulkar and Kumble both unavailable due to injuries.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith was proud of the character he and old school friend Neil McKenzie demonstrated after their hundreds batted the Proteas towards an unlikely first Test draw against England.
   The duo shared a stand of 204 before Smith was out shortly before the close but the left-hander’s innings of 107 played a major role in South Africa reaching stumps on 242 for one after they’d been made to follow-on.
   That still left them 104 runs behind England’s first innings 593 for eight declared.
   However, Michael Vaughan’s men headed into Monday’s final day knowing they had to take nine wickets, having managed just one on Sunday, to have a chance of going 1-0 up in this four-Test series.
   For the 27-year-old Smith, this was his second Test hundred at Lord’s.
   Five years ago the Western Province batsman made 259, the highest individual score by an overseas batsman in a Lord’s Test, a match the Proteas won by a crushing innings and 92 runs.
   Smith, who batted for over five hours after being dismissed for just eight in the first innings, acknowledged this was another sort of century entirely after England dominated the first three days of this match
   ‘The first few days were very different to 2003. We’ve been outplayed and England have been more precise,’ he said.
   He added: ‘One thing you learn is to bat the situation. It was really good hard Test cricket today, man-on-man, and it defines the character of people.’
   The South Africa skipper, who prior to this Test had been at the crease for just two hours on tour, after suffering a hamstring injury while playing in the Indian Premier League, added: ‘It’s got to be one of my best innings, considering the pressure we’d been under.’
   McKenzie’s hundred was his fifth Test century but third this year after nearly four years out of the side.
   But the decision to convert the 32-year-old from a middle-order batsman to an opener has proved a good one and he will resume Monday on 102 not out, having already defied England’s attack for nearly seven hours.
   ‘It’s great for me to have ‘Mac’ back in the set-up,’ said Smith. ‘We took a risk pushing him up front but we backed his mental strength and technique and it’s been a terrific performance by him.
   Looking to the final day, Smith said: ‘The morning session tomorrow is crucial for us.
   ‘The ball will still be pretty new. Monty Panesar will still be a big threat but we’ve played spin pretty well for the last year and I would like to see that continue.’
   Neither side will have much time to recover ahead of Friday’s start of the second Test in Leeds and Smith added: ‘We let ourselves down and the bowlers are hurting. Hopefully, we can only improve at Headingley.’

Bicycle motorcross (BMX) makes its Olympic debut next month in Beijing, bringing the high-jumping, hard-crashing thrills of the extreme sport into the medal quest and hoping to lure its fans as well.
   ‘It’s a different type of athlete for the Olympics,’ said three-time world champion Kyle Bennett. ‘It’s exciting. Guys jumping 40 feet in the air. Guys banging into each other. You are going to see crashes. It will be different.’
   Rivals race each other over a curvy, hilly course with jostling for position common and plenty of speed, aerobatics and bumping to excite spectators.
   ‘It’s similar to motocross or snowcross except the legs are the engine,’ Bennett said. ‘The adrenaline of going down and the rush of crashing and still not getting hurt, it’s kind of cool.’
   Thrill seekers such as Jill Kintner, Bennett’s US teammate, love the sport.
   ‘It’s intense. It’s full contact for almost 40 seconds. You can go into a turn and never know what’s going to hit you,’ Kintner said. ‘The way we live our lives is totally different. The pressure is amped up.
   ‘In extreme sports, it takes a certain type of person to want to do that and I think we’re finding more of them thanks to the Olympic medal being out there.
   ‘It’s cool how it started in a garage, kids trying to emulate motorcross, people putting together their own parts, wanting to race on dirt hills. It’s great how it has grown. It will be interesting to see where it is in 10 years.’
   Americans built an exact replica of the Olympic course at a training center near San Diego, where Mike Day won the US trials to book a spot in Beijing.
   ‘Our speeds are a bit ridiculous and kind of scary actually,’ said Day, the 2005 world runner-up who was third in 2006. ‘A million hours are spent trying to improve our first 10 pedals. It’s not all fun and games.
   ‘I don’t think this has sunk in what’s happening to us, where BMX has gone.’
   The outsiders have gone mainstream.
   ‘BMXers are a rare breed. A lot of people associated BMX with wild childs and kids who go their own way. BMX athletes are an anomaly in this scene,’ said 2006 World Cup champion Donny Robinson, who won a tuneup last year at Beijing.
   ‘We have a responsibility to perform well and be role models. This is our chance to bring BMX to the world.
   Robinson, fourth at May’s world championship in China, recalls the first day of working on the Olympic replica course.
   ‘It was deifnitely a shocker. We had hills as high as the building. We had a lot of anxiety,’ he said. ‘Now it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal for us. We’re not worried so much about going from the start to 40mph in 1.5 seconds.’
   Starts can be exciting but dangerous as well.
   ‘Coming out of the gate is the most dangerous part. You want to come out hard. If that means bumping an elbow or moving a rider high so he won’t come around you, that’s what you have to do,’ Robinson said.
   ‘I don’t recall any crashes at the start areas. We want to live to the next race. We don’t just want to put ourselves in danger. There are risks.’

Shoaib Akhtar’s chances of being named in Pakistan’s preliminary squad for the Champions Trophy have receded after his lawyer said he would not pay a hefty fine in time to be considered for selection.
   The Pakistan Cricket Board postponed the announcement of its preliminary squad until todayand sent a notice to paceman Shoaib asking him to pay the seven million rupees ($247,600) fine imposed on him by an appeals tribunal in June.
   A PCB spokesman said on Friday: ‘Shoaib’s name would only be considered for selection if he clears the fine first.’
   However, the player’s lawyer, Abid Hasan Minto, said on Sunday: ‘Shoaib will pay the fine as soon as the High Court decides the matter (in September).
   ‘If they (the PCB) think the fine payment is a norm for inclusion in the squad, it is up to them. If they want to deny the national team his presence and keep someone like him away from the team... then it is their decision,’ he added.
   Meanwhile, the legal battle that Shoaib Akhtar has been fighting to save his career has left him a stressed man struggling to concentrate on his fitness and cricket, reveals the flamboyant fast bowler’s personal trainer and physician.
   Dr Tauseef Razzak, a close confidante of Shoaib, said the tearaway pacer has not resumed training in the nets as yet despite the Lahore High Court suspending his 18-month ban imposed for disciplinary violations.
   ‘He is trying to come out of the pressure and start concentrating on his cricket and bowling again,’ Dr Razzak said from Lahore.
   ‘But he is training regularly in the gymnasium and he requires around four weeks to get back into full match fitness and rhythm,’ he said.
   Razzak felt the board had tried to end the bowler’s career by banning him for five years.
   ‘He has another three years of cricket left in him at the top level. It is sad but the media has played a big role in highlighting him in a negative fashion
   which is not good for Pakistan cricket and has also put
   Shoaib under pressure,’ Razzak stated.

English cricket chiefs reacted with ‘disappointment’ on Monday after receiving the proposed itinerary for England’s tour of India later this year, warning they’d yet to accept it fully.
   What particularly upset officials at the England and Wales Cricket Board was the lack of international matches at India’s major grounds such as Calcutta’s Eden Gardens, Bangalore and Chennai while neither of the scheduled two Tests is being played in Delhi, which they said represented a snub to fans.
   An ECB statement issued Monday said: ‘ECB are disappointed that, despite their representations, the itinerary doesn’t offer the thousands of supporters who follow the England team abroad the opportunity to experience more of the great cricket grounds of India.
   ‘As far as the ECB are concerned, the acceptance of the itinerary remains subject to acceptable logistical arrangements and an acceptable security environment and security arrangements being in place at each of the venues.’
   England’s tour, which begins in November, also features seven one-day internationals. That follows an agreement the ECB reached with the Board of Control for Cricket in India about the tour series to India in 2008 and the reciprocal tour to England in 2011.
   The BCCI preferred England play two Test matches and seven one-day internationals rather than three Tests and five one-day internationals.

Chelsea star and Germany skipper Michael Ballack put his Euro 2008 heartbreak behind him by tying the knot with long-term girlfriend Simone on Monday.
   The ceremony in a village near Munich was attended by 400 guests, including Chelsea team-mates and German footballing legend Franz Beckenbauer.
   The couple met in the late 1990s after Simone - a waitress at the time - was introduced to Ballack by coach Otto Rehhagel when they were both at German first division side Kaiserslautern.
   Germany reached last month’s Euro 2008 final against Spain in Vienna, losing to a first-half goal from Fernando Torres.

England batsman Andrew Strauss left Lord’s on the final day of the first Test against South Africa here on Monday to be with his wife Ruth, who was due to give birth to the couple’s second child.
   With the opening match of this series heading towards a draw and the Proteas batting, it was no great inconvenience for England to let Strauss join up with his wife.
   England captain Michael Vaughan led the way in adopting a more ‘family friendly’ approach when, three years ago, he raced off the field at Headingley during a Test against the West Indies in order to be at the birth of his first child.
   Left-handed opener Strauss himself followed his skipper’s lead by missing the final Test against Pakistan in December 2005 and flying home to be present at the birth of his son, Sam,
   But all-rounder Andrew Flintoff adopted a more old-fashioned outlook when he remained in India two years ago after being given the England captaincy instead of flying home to be at the birth of his second child, Corey.
   The second Test of England’s four-match series with South Africa starts at Headingley on Friday.

The Indian and South African boards have organised an umpires’ exchange programme between the two countries. Two umpires from India will officiate two first-class matches in South Africa’s domestic competition in 2008-09 while two South African umpires will stand in Duleep Trophy games in India.
   In May this year, the BCCI decided to infuse young blood into its team of umpires to improve the standard of umpiring. The board asked state associations to nominate four candidates each, including at least two former first-class players, to appear for an examination.
   Last year the BCCI appointed 13 coaches for umpires and gave them the responsibility of monitoring standards in the country.

Sri Lankan batsman Upul Tharanga was on Monday given a chance to stake his claim for the upcoming home Test series against India after being named in the 12-man squad for a warm-up match against the tourists.
   India arrive in Sri Lanka today and open the tour with a three-day practice game against a Sri Lanka Board XI in Colombo on Friday. It is the tourists’ only fixture before the three-Test series starts on July 23.
   They will also play five one-day internationals after the Tests.
   Tharanga was dropped on form after playing the third and final home Test against England last year. He also missed the recent Asia Cup, which Sri Lanka won in Karachi earlier this month. The left-handed opener has scored 713 runs in 15 Tests and 2,055 in 69 one-day internationals.
   Sri Lanka Board XI squad: Jehan Mubarak (capt), Mahela Udawatte, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedera, Chamara Silva, Thilina Kandamby, Kaushal Silva, Chanaka Welagedera, Sujeewa Silva, Dammika Prasad, Rangana Herath, Dilhara Fernando.

Barely two weeks after the final whistle of Euro 2008, teams from around the continent are heading back to Austria, this time to prepare for their upcoming seasons.
   Over half of the German Bundesliga sides, as well as Italian, English, Spanish, Turkish and Romanian clubs - in all, about 60 foreign teams - are holding their pre-season training camps in the small alpine country, whether in mountainous Vorarlberg in the west, or the plains of Burgenland in the east.
   And the Euro can take little credit for this.
   The two most prestigious teams, Arsenal and Real Madrid, have been coming here for years: Arsene Wenger’s troops will arrive on July 21 for their eighth visit, while the Spaniards, arriving the same day, will be here on their sixth outing.
   ‘We started a little by chance with AS Roma in 1996,’ says Nikolaus Pichler, whose firm IFCS runs a dozen camps, mostly in southern Styria province.
   ‘They liked it so much that they came back eight years in a row. After that, others came too.’
   For Paul Strassl, whose SLFC company manages camps in Salzburg province, success is due to a combination of factors: ‘We have big hotels, Austrian cuisine is well known and we have quality sport facilities.’
   ‘The mountains are also ideal for physical training, it’s not too hot.’
   Visiting teams get the full treatment when they arrive here.
   ‘We take care of everything: we fetch them at the airport, we drive the players to training, do the laundry. So they can focus on their game,’ says Ingo, a student who has catered to several teams over the past few summers.
   With Austria as an increasingly popular destination, specialised agencies, sanctioned by the European football governing body UEFA, are now even planning friendlies between teams training in the same region.
   ‘That’s another bonus,’ says Pichler.
   And the European football championship in June, which Austria co-hosted with Switzerland, brought just a little more publicity to this small country, whose performance on the pitch has been rather poor in recent years.
   Now Strassl is hoping the Euro will bring him more business, especially from clubs in Spain, Greece and Russia, whose national teams were based in Salzburg and nearby Tyrol during the championship.
   ‘We need word-of-mouth,’ he says. Local governments in both Styria and Salzburg also have a stake in IFCS and SLFC.
   ‘We expect between 15,000 and 20,000 more overnight stays this season, thanks to these camps,’ says Salzburg tourism director Leo Bauernberger.
   In other words, the local economy will make a profit of about 4 million euros (6.36 million dollars).
   And with images of these training camps creating further publicity on television, the two provinces are hoping to attract even more tourists in the future... whether they play football or not.

Rio Ferdinand seems certain to escape any formal sanction over his part in last season’s fracas that followed Manchester United’s clash with
   Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last season.
   Reports have emerged of a possible four-match ban
   for the Manchester
   United defender - which could rule him out of England’s friendly with the Czech
   Republic on August 20 and scupper his chances of being appointed as Fabio Capello’s new captain.
   Given Ferdinand has already suffered the misery of serving an eight-month ban for a missed drugs test in 2004, it would be the worst kind of news possible for the 29-year-old Londoner and somewhat bizarre given it was United’s complaints about the treatment of their players that led to the inquiry in the first place.
   Ferdinand apologised after accidentally kicking a female steward in frustration following his side’s defeat.
   However, sources close to the investigation into events that took place at Chelsea immediately after the key showdown, which finished in acrimony as the home side won thanks to a hotly disputed late penalty,
   have been left bemused by the speculation surrounding Ferdinand.
   For, while the official report is still being compiled, there has been no suggestion Ferdinand will face any penalty, let alone miss the opening four matches of the season.
   And, although such a move would be bad news for United, who are already without Cristiano Ronaldo for an extended period following the winger’s recent ankle operation, even in the unlikely event of Ferdinand being punished, it would not affect his availability for England.
   It has been pointed out that Alan Smith, Lee Bowyer, Jonathan Woodgate and Ferdinand’s major rival for the captaincy, John Terry, have been deliberately overlooked for selection by England in recent times.
   However, in those instances, it was a policy decision taken by the FA until police or
   court action against the individuals concerned had been concluded.
   Similarly, there is no link
   with Ferdinand’s own lengthy ban because it covered all
   football, both for club and country.
   It means that whatever the outcome of the FA’s investigation Ferdinand will be available for the Czech Republic game, before which Capello intends to name his new skipper,
   having tried out four men for the post.
   The FA meanwhile are continuing their own investigations into the Stamford Bridge clash, although as yet, no timescale for a definitive decision has been reached.

Juventus midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic has said that his side are determined to make up for lost time and make an impression in both the Champions League and the Italian championship.
   The Turin club made a solid return to life in Serie A, finishing third and reaching the Champions League preliminary rounds, after a year in Serie B following their part in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal.
   The Bosnian international now expects his team to push on and told La Gazzetta dello Sport that Juventus have the right team spirit to achieve their objectives for season 2008-09.
   ‘We’re a group, this is the most important thing. If you have a truly unified group, you can win various things. This is how we won the Champions League at Bayern Munich.
   ‘We know that it will be hard, but we want to challenge for everything. The other teams have added reinforcements, but then so have we.
   ‘There’s no such thing as an easy opponent. There are no small teams in the championship, nor in the Champions League.’
   The 31-year-old was also happy with the new signings that the club has brought in during the summer, including Denmark midfielder
   Christian Poulsen, who joined Juventus over the weekend from Sevilla for a reported 10million euros.
   ‘He’s a good player, (we know that) because only good players arrive at Juventus and he has won a lot with Sevilla, including the UEFA Cup.
   ‘Amauri has already joined this group and he is extraordinary. I like him a lot; he has notable quality, is mobile, sacrifices himself and helps the defence.’

English club Charlton Athletic have denied claims that a
   pre-season friendly against Iran was called off for political reasons.
   Iranian media said on Monday that a complaint would be lodged to world
   governing body FIFA after Charlton pulled out of the match due to be played in Spain this week.
   ‘We are going to lodge an official complaint to FIFA over Charlton’s behaviour,’ Tehran Times daily quoted Iranian Football Federation vice-president Mehdi Taj as saying.
   ‘(World) football officials have emphasised that politics should be kept away from sports, so we ask why the English disregarded FIFA’s motto,’ Taj said.
   Championship (second division) side Charlton arrived in Spain on Monday for a pre-season training camp where they hoped to play two private warm-up matches.
   However, a club spokesman said that despite discussions with the Iranians, there had been no agreement on a match.
   ‘There was never a friendly arranged so to say it had been called off would be incorrect,’ the spokesman said.
   ‘We had discussions but they were never concluded. We decided not to play Iran,
   it was a club decision and certainly nothing to do with politics.’
   Iran drew criticism last week from the European Union, the United States and Israel after it announced that it had conducted missile tests.

Barcelona’s new coach Josep Guardiola said on Monday he is expecting a lot from Thierry Henry after a mixed first season for the French striker at the club.
   ‘I expect a lot from Henry. I spoke to him and I know that the first year has not been easy but I have a lot of faith in what he can bring to the team,’ Guardiola told a news conference.
   ‘I want to make him an important player, and Bojan (Krkic) as well,’ he said, referring to the 17-year-old Serbian-born Spanish striker.
   Guardiola said he would try to play Henry - who had a miserable Euro 2008 just managing one goal in their three matches before they went out in the first round - in the centre of the attack, rather than on the left.
   Barca’s Dutch former coach Frank Rijkaard had played Henry on the left, rather than in his preferred position in the centre.
   The French international striker joined Barcelona at the end of last season after years of success at Arsenal in the English Premier League but he has struggled to nail down a regular first team place.
   The Catalan side meanwhile failed to win a trophy for the second straight year, and Rijkaard was sacked in May and replaced with Guardiola.

Join me on a brief journey along what some like to call the information superhighway. Google, a website whose stated mission is to ‘organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’, seems like a good place to start.
   Type ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’ into the search bar and press enter. Google tells us there are 12.7 million articles. Next, try the following: Diego Maradona (1.65 million), Zinédine Zidane (3.5 million), David Beckham (18.1 million), Stanley Matthews (118,000), Robbie Savage (215,000).
   And, turning to clubs, Aston Villa (12.1 million), Manchester United (40 million), AC Milan (18.7 million), Real Madrid (39.3 million), Benfica (14 million), Nottingham Forest (1.62 million), Accrington Stanley (759,000). Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Celtic, Juventus, Liverpool and others are excluded from the experiment on grounds of ambiguity.
   It is not an exact science, but, apart from the relative obscurity of Forest, a few themes emerge. One is that modern-day icons enjoy far greater prominence than legends in their field. (Justin Timberlake, incidentally, features considerably more often than the Beatles or Elvis Presley; likewise Will Ferrell over Marlon Brando.) A second is that there are almost 50 per cent more pages that mention Beckham than Ronaldo, his successor in the United No 7 shirt. And a third, perhaps the most intriguing, is that United and Real are practically neck and neck.
   Ronaldo presumably used a rather different process before arriving at the conclusion that the Bernabéu, rather than Old Trafford, is the only fitting stage for his talents, but, as he sits in Portugal plotting his next step and making crass statements to television crews, he may wish to remind himself of the pros and cons of his planned move to Madrid. Pros: closer to family, warmer weather, more money, chance to follow in the footsteps of LuÍs Figo, chance to match and surpass Beckham’s status as a global icon. Cons: leaving the European champions and joining an unstable club in which football comes third to commerce and politics, and policy is dictated from the boardroom rather than the manager’s office.
   A couple of days ago, Beckham said: ‘The truth is that every player . . . wants to play in the Bernabéu some time, to feel the support of the Madrid fans. Real Madrid and the Bernabéu are a unique experience in football.’ Notwithstanding Beckham’s love of platitudes, this was a remarkable statement. Whatever Real as a club may be able to boast, the fervour and loyalty of their support is not an obvious selling point.
   While match night at the Bernabéu has its attractions – the warm weather, the vertiginous stands, even the brilliant white of that famous kit – a dormant crowd is not one of them. At least not until they get bored or disenchanted, which is when the white handkerchiefs are waved in protest and they turn on their heroes, chanting about burning the players’ Ferraris. Ask Ronaldo (the Brazil variety) about the warmth of Real’s support. Ask Fabio Capello.
   No club can match Real’s nine European Cups, but look at that record in context. They won the trophy five times in its first five seasons, between 1956 and 1960, and a sixth time in 1966. In the past 42 years they have won it three times, the same as United, one fewer than Bayern Munich and Ajax, two fewer than Liverpool, three fewer than AC Milan.
   They have had the financial means to dominate European football over the past decade, but, particularly during the absurd galáctico era, they have seemed more interested in accumulating trophy players than in winning trophies. Zidane went to Real in search of immortality, but in his five years there he won one Champions League and one domestic title – less than Ronaldo has won in his past two seasons at United. Real have, like United, won their domestic title in the past two seasons, but it is four years since they even reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
   So what is the Real attraction? Money, obviously, and lifestyle. Those are factors that dictate just about every career choice in just about every field, but Ronaldo should not convince himself that he is going to an indisputably bigger or better club.
   Wayne Rooney from Everton to Manchester United? That was a step up. Sergio Ramos from Seville to Real? A step up. Ronaldo from United to Real at a time when the quality and worldwide popularity of the Premier League are soaring? In career terms, a sideways step, possibly even a step down. Ronaldo will get his wish, no doubt about that. The only question is whether it happens now or next summer. And when he does, and he is paraded by the club’s president in front of an insatiable, cheerleading media on what will doubtless be a wonderfully hot day in the Spanish capital, he will feel that he has finally arrived at a club worthy of his talents.
   And then he will retire to his villa, switch on his computer, Google his name and find out that he is closing the gap on Beckham. Maybe his arrival would propel Real beyond United in the Google stakes.
   Still, there is a Shrewsbury Town defender who is bigger than either player or either club. There is, of course, only one Michael Jackson.
   — The Times

The agent of Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero has suggested that either Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United have made a bid for his client
   The 20-year-old Argentina international striker, who joined Atletico from Independiente in 2006, has proved to be a huge hit in the Spanish Primera Liga.
   After forming a lethal strike partnership with Diego Forlan at the Vicente Calderon, Aguero finished the 2007/8 campaign as the third top scorer in Spain with 19 goals and also walked away with the Antonio Puerta award for Best La Liga Player.
   Aguero is valued at around the £35million mark by Atletico but despite the hefty price-tag, almost all of Europe’s major clubs are interested in his services.
   Now his agent Jose Segui is quoted as saying: ‘I’ve had interest from a leading English team and they’ve asked me to approach Atletico with a bid.
   ‘I can’t say more until I’ve spoken to the club about the offer.
   ‘All I can tell you is that it’s one of the best teams in Europe and it’s not Chelsea.’
   United would have to be front-runners, but Arsenal could be interested in a deal if they were to sell Emmanuel Adebayor to AC Milan for a big enough fee, while Liverpool have also brought in funds after Peter Crouch joined Portsmouth for £11million.

Internazionale captain Javier Zanetti has backed Jose Mourinho to bring European glory back to the Italian giants.
   While his side are all conquering in Italy, winning three titles on the trot, they have not had similar success in Europe.
   The club have not lifted the UEFA Champions League for more than 40 years since winning the old European Cup twice in succession in 1964-5.
   But Zanetti believes the Portuguese coach - who has lifted the trophy with Porto - is the right man to bring European glory back to the side.
   The 34-year-old Argentine said: ‘As soon as he put pen to paper on the contract, he called me, and that gave me great pleasure. ‘We are getting a coach of great experience and Mourinho’s results speak for him. He is the right man so that Inter can continue their winning streak.’
   He added: ‘We hope to achieve success in the Champions League too. I think we have the strength and the right squad to do very well in that tournament, without forgetting Serie A, where we can also continue our run.’
   After streaking ahead at one stage last term, Internazionale were then taken to the wire in Serie A, only securing the title on the last day of the season.
   Zanetti believes it will again be tough for his team and thinks Roma, Juventus and Fiorentina will be their closest rivals.
   He said: ‘I think Serie A will be even more balanced than last year. It certainly won’t be easy, but we will fight to the end.
   ‘I expect Roma, Juventus and Fiorentina to cause us problems. Roma are a side who are gaining real consistency, Juventus are building a solid squad and Fiorentina are led by a very intelligent tactician.’
   The Argentine does not rate Milan as potential challengers at present, which is sure to fire up both players and supporters of the rival club.

Andrei Arshavin’s agent has revealed that Arsenal would be an ideal destination for the Russian midfielder due to the influence of Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.
   Dennis Lachter told Sky Sports News his client rates the Frenchman highly.
   ‘The stable situation in the club and the influence of Arsene Wenger to Arsenal and to English football is huge. I think this is an advantage,’ Lachter told Sky Sports News.
   ‘If Arsenal go for Arshavin it could be really good for both parties. Arsenal is a very young team and Arshavin is 27.
   ‘There’s something about combining young and older players, they propagate attacking football.’
   The Russia international was one of the stars of Euro 2008. His two goals helped Guus Hiddink’s outsiders reach the semi-finals of the tournament where they fell to tournament winners Spain.
   The Zenit St Petersburg player was subject of interest from Spanish giants Barcelona but it now appears he has his sights set on a move to London.
   The transfer may be held up until Alexander Hleb makes his long-awaited move to Barcelona. The Belarussian midfielder may have hastened his departure after comments he made criticising Wenger and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas appeared in the press last week.
   Lachter also suggested that new Barca manager Pep Guardiola’s lack of experience could impact on his client’s desire to join the Camp Nou giants.
   ‘Guardiola was an excellent player, but no one knows what kind of a manager he is,’ he said.

Italian champions Inter Milan’s teenage sensation Mario Balotelli told La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday that his first call up to Italy colours cannot come soon enough.
   The 17-year-old striker - who was born to Ghanaian parents - will celebrate his 18th birthday on August 12 and with it receive his first Italian passport that should signal the start of his international career.
   ‘I’ve been waiting for years for this August 12 and becoming an Italian citizen because I am Italian,’ he told the paper.
   Despite being born in Sicily and adopted and brought up by Italian parents, the fact his blood parents were Ghanaian has meant he has had to wait till turning 18 before he could become a full Italian national.
   Balotelli has long been seen as a future international and has turned down numerous requests by the Ghanaian FA to represent his birth-parents country, including the 2008 African Nations Cup in Ghana.
   Instead he established himself in the Inter first team squad, where his pace and power troubled defences and allowed him to score seven times.
   Soon it will be international defences that he will hope to make suffer and no doubt he will use some of the pent-up frustration he feels at having to wait for his chance in a blue shirt.
   ‘Italy is where I was born, where I studied and where I play football,’ he said.
   ‘My language is Italian and my family is Italian. It is only because of some absurd law that I have had to live for 18 years as a foreigner in my own country.’

Barcelona has received a 32 million euros (51 million dollar) offer for two-time world player of the year Ronaldinho from English Premiership side Manchester City, the Spanish club’s president Joan Laporta said on Monday.
   The 28-year-old Brazilian - who is also subject to a 15million euros offer from AC Milan - will leave the club ‘with full honours’, he told Catalunya Radio, adding the club had taken into account ‘the interests of the player as well as those of Barcelona’ when deciding on whether he should go or not.
   Laporta announced the offer from Manchester City, who are bankrolled by former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but did not say if the club would be the final destination for the player who was deemed surplus to requirements by Barcelona’s new coach Pep Guardiola following a dip in form last season.
   Negotiations over Ronaldinho’s transfer were held over the weekend, he added.
   City have persistently refused to give up on buying Ronaldinho and emailed Barcelona their offer on Sunday night according to Monday’s Daily Mail.
   City are also prepared to pay the 28-year-old 100,000 pounds more a week than Italian giants AC Milan have offered.
   The club also believe the fact they have two other Brazilians at the club in his close friend Jo - who they broke their transfer record for earlier in the close season laying out 18million for him - and Elano could prove persuasive.
   ‘They are refusing to be bullied out of it by Milan,’ a source told the Mail, who also claimed that sports kit manufacturer Nike would finance part of the deal.
   ‘You have to admire their daring and their audacity. They still have hope that this could be possible.’
   However, La Gazzetta dello Sport also reported in its Monday edition that Barcelona, AC Milan and Ronaldinho - who scored 70 goals in 145 appearances for Barca - are expected to meet in Barcelona to finalise his move to Italy.
   The paper reported that after a day of a series of telephone calls on Sunday the Brazilian is returning to Spain from Porto Alegre on Monday with his agent and brother Roberto de Assis and will meet with officials from Barcelona and Milan.
   Initially it was thought the player - who has not played since March 9 because of injury - was reluctant to be present at the summit following the Spanish club’s refusal to release him for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
   However, Ronaldinho will now meet with Barcelona’s technical director Txiki Begiristain and Milan’s vice-president Adriano Galliani.
   ‘We expect that he (Ronaldinho) or his agent will arrive this afternoon to start talking to the club,’ a Barcelona spokesman told AFP on Monday, adding no time was set for the meeting.
   One man confident that the deal will be concluded in time for Ronaldinho to be present at Milan’s opening training session on July 16 is Ernesto Bronzetti, the Italian club’s Spanish consultant.
   ‘I spoke with Ronaldinho as he was leaving Porto Alegre for Barcelona and he told me ‘I want to play for you’,’ Bronzetti told the newspaper.
   The consultant also suggested that the Italians will be happy to release the World Cup winner for Brazil’s attempt to win their first Olympic gold.
   ‘I believe that Galliani has already said yes to him.’

Cristiano Ronaldo will return to Manchester United to continue his recovery from an ankle operation in three weeks’ time, according to the Portuguese national team physiotherapist.
   Physio Antonio Gaspar has claimed Ronaldo will not return to action before October after he underwent surgery on his right ankle last Monday.
   Gaspar announced the Manchester United winger, the subject of a transfer wrangle between the Premier League club and Spanish suitors Real Madrid, will remain under his care for three weeks before United’s doctors carry out another examination.
   ‘We are going to use everything that is possible to us and that will help him recover as quickly as possible,’ Gaspar told Spanish sports newspaper AS.
   ‘But Cristiano Ronaldo will not be in an optimum state for the competition until 12 weeks are up.
   ‘He is working very well and he is optimistic.
   ‘These first four weeks he will do the rehabilitation work in my clinic. After the first month, the Manchester United doctors will carry out another exam.’
   Gaspar added, ‘I want it to be made very clear that I am only involved with Ronaldo’s recuperation and that I am in permanent contact with the medical department at Manchester United, with the Dutchman Niek van Dijk (the specialist who performed the operation) and with Portugal team doctor Henrique Jones.
   ‘Any other information or the medical aspect about his injury are only and exclusively the concerns of Manchester United.’
   Meanwhile, Fabio Cannavaro has dismissed Sepp Blatter’s slavery comments and says Cristiano Ronaldo ‘must respect’ his Manchester United contract.
   Last week, FIFA president Blatter voiced his controversial comments on ‘modern slavery’ in football.
   Speaking of United winger Ronaldo’s future, amid public interest from Real Madrid, Blatter said that no player should be held against his will.
   Real defender Cannavaro, though, feels players should honour their deals – with Ronaldo’s current contract due to expire in 2012.
   ‘Slavery is a big word,’ the Italian centre-back told La Gazzetta dello Sport. ‘Someone who signs a contract must respect it.’

Europe’s top football clubs will be barred from snapping up the game’s most talented teenagers if plans outlined in a leaked UEFA document go ahead, it was reported on Sunday.
   UEFA boss Michel Platini has handed over a confidential 10-page document to European Union ministers, urging Brussels to support the plan, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper claimed.
   The measures include a ban on under-18 transfers, a quota for foreign players as well as limiting live TV broadcasts in an attempt to boost attendances.
   The newspaper added the document had been drawn up with input from European federations representing football, rugby union, handball, basketball, ice hockey and volleyball.
   Under the new proposals, recent transfers such as that of Aaron Ramsey, 17, to Arsenal and 16-year-old John Bostock to Spurs would be outlawed.
   The far-reaching document was supported by Bayern Munich club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, head of the newly formed European Club Association, said the Sunday Telegraph, singling out the case of Cesc Fabregas, who moved to Arsenal from Barcelona in 2003 aged only 16 for a nominal fee.
   ‘We have to protect these players and this is a fruitful way to avoid players like Fabregas moving for nothing to England,’ the newspaper quoted Rummenigge as saying.
   ‘We at Bayern had the best player at the last under-17 world championship, Toni Kroos, and there were 20-odd scouts from England sitting there. It is not good and something must be done.’
   Although UEFA are also looking to crack down on financial mismanagement, the priority is protecting the game’s talented teenagers.
   ‘They (young players) are not merely businesses. Concrete proposals must be developed (to prevent) the trafficking or exploitation of young players,’ the document said.
   ‘Otherwise the risk is that more and more young players move abroad too early in their life.’
   The controversy echos FIFA boss Sepp Blatter’s comments last week about the on-going tussle between Manchester United and Real Madrid over Cristiano Ronaldo.
   ‘I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere,’ said Blatter.

Italian Riccardo Ricco recovered from a heavy crash on the race’s eighth stage to win the Tour de France ninth stage in spectacular fashion here on Sunday.
   Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen overcame a difficult first day in the Pyrenees to keep the yellow jersey and his six-second lead on Australia’s Cadel Evans, who, worryingly for his team, suffered a crash earlier in the stage.
   The first of three days in the Pyrenees, a mammoth 224km hike over two of the race’s first category one-rated climbs, had been lit up by an audacious three-man breakaway which left Germany’s Sebastien Lang all on his own. However, the Gerolsteiner rider was soon upstaged by Ricco, who attacked a chasing but disintegrating peloton on the climb to the summit of the Col d’Aspin, the second big climb of the day.
   He overtook the tiring Lang with 1.1km to the summit, and the German started his descent with a 35-sec deficit to the 24-year-old Ricco. The Italian, best known for the climbing prowess which helped him to a runner-up place on the Giro d’Italia in June, engaged in a brave descent towards Bagneres where he came over the finish over a minute ahead of chasing Russian Vladimir Efimkin.
   His win comes only four days after he beat Evans and Spanish favourite Alejandro Valverde to the uphill finish line at Super-Besse in the Massif Central.
   But despite moving him up the overall standings Ricco said it would not change his objectives.
   ‘I’m riding day to day. I hope tomorrow will be a different scenario. I’d like to work for Piepoli and hopefully help him win the stage,’ said Ricco, who was quick to share some of the glory with climbing lieutenant Leonardo Piepoli.
   ‘It was a great stage for me. Piepoli did a great job on the Aspin where he set a good rhythm. All the big contenders were looking at each other so I kept on going. It’s the mountains, and that’s what I’m good at.’
   While Ricco savoured his second big stage win, the big news concerned Evans. The leading contender for the yellow jersey crashed heavily on a bend before the peloton hit any of the big climbs and got back on - albeit bruised and battered - to finish with all his big rivals.
   However the extent of his injuries remains to be seen.
   Evans came over the finish line flanked by his bodyguard and crying out, ‘Make sure nobody touches my left shoulder!’
   When asked for his reaction to the incident, Evans gave his helmet - split open at the front left hand corner from his crash - to a waiting reporter.
   ‘There’s your interview,’ he said. The fact he managed to finish the stage will be a boost to his team, but Evans, who suffered scrapes on his hip, elbow, thigh and shoulder, will be worried about Monday’s monster stage in the Pyrenees. His team manager Marc Sergeant admits that Tuesday’s rest day can not come soon enough.

Uzbekistan League side Kuruvchi claim to have reached a deal to sign Barcelona forward Samuel Eto’o - though the Catalan giants have laughed off the news.
   Eto’o, who has been told he is not part of coach Pep Guardiola’s plans, is expected to leave the Nou Camp this summer and has been linked with moves to Serie A and the Premier League.
   On Monday morning, though, the Uzbekistan League leaders announced in an official statement on their website that they had landed the 27-year-old forward on a six-month deal.
   The news was confirmed by Kuruvchi sporting director Bahtier Babayev, who has said Eto’o will sign with the club later this week on a contract to be determined by performances.
   ‘Eto’o will arrive in Tashkent on Thursday and he will sign a contract with our club, at least up until the end of 2008,’ Babayev said.
   ‘The term of the contract will depend on our performance in the AFC Champions League. We will play Saipa in the quarter-finals and Eto’o is our main purchase before the knockout stage of the tournament.
   ‘If we can agree with the player, he will continue to play for our club in the future.’
   Babayev also insisted that the seemingly unlikely transfer had been made possible due to good relations between the Primera Liga side and the Tashkent club.
   ‘The defining moment of the transfer was not money, but the friendly mutual relations between the management of our club and Barcelona,’ he said.
   ‘The personal friendship between presidents of the clubs has noticeably lowered the transfer fee.’
   The official club statement which confirmed the transfer read: ‘(Kuruvchi have) signed a contract with Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto’o from Barcelona.
   ‘The striker will arrive in Tashkent on July 17 and will play in the second half of the championship of Uzbekistan.’
   However, despite the Uzbekistan club’s insistence that the transfer will go ahead, Barcelona denied any knowledge of the move.
   An official spokesperson for the Nou Camp side said: ‘Nobody at the club knows anything about this. I don’t think it’s very likely.’

Samuel Eto’o thinks European soccer teams would benefit by increasing player availability to the media.
   While locker rooms are open to reporters in the United States, many big European soccer clubs do not routinely make players available to reporters.
   ‘You don’t get information firsthand, because you are not allowed to get it,’ the Barcelona forward said during a weekend interview with The Associated Press. ‘It would be a good idea to probably implement the same system that you have in the United States in Europe in terms of access.’
   Just last month, Eto’o went on television in his native Cameroon and apologised to a radio reporter he allegedly head-butted. Local media said the incident occurred when Philippe Boney and other journalists walked out of a news conference, protesting that the team denied them access to training sessions ahead of a World Cup qualifying match.
   Eto’o thinks media coverage often is slanted for sales purposes.
   ‘And because money today overrides everything, the only thing that ends up being interesting to sell’ is negative news, he said. ‘The good doesn’t sell as much.’
   European locker rooms generally are closed to reporters. There is no pre-game access and post-game availability mostly is restricted to ‘mixed zones,’ where players have the option of stopping and speaking with media.
   In Major League Baseball, for instance, locker rooms are open to media for about 2 ½ hours before games and one hour after.
   ‘This should be brought up in Europe,’ he said in Spanish through a translator. ‘In Europe, it’s inconceivable.’
   Africa’s player of the year from 2004-06, Eto’o was in New York for a media day en route to a youth tournament in Blaine, Minn, sponsored by Puma. The 27-year-old from Cameroon, like many soccer stars, enjoys coming to the United States, where is he relatively unrecognised.
   ‘Whenever I can escape, I come,’ he said.
   He can see himself playing in Major League Soccer, although Eto’o makes it sound as if that would be a decision for his mid-30s.
   ‘Five years is a little tight,’ he said.
   Eto’o joined Barcelona for the 2004-5 season, but the club is in transition under new coach Pep Guardiola, who replaced Frank Rijkaard following a third-place finish in Spain’s La Liga. Deco, Edmilson, Giovani Dos Santos and Gianluca Zambrotta have left, and Eto’o and Ronaldinho are expected to depart.
   AC Milan and Chelsea have been mentioned in European media as possible destinations for Eto’o, whose current deal runs until 2010.
   ‘I am on vacation. I’m not interested,’ Eto’o said.
   ‘I am at ease. I am under contract, and right now I’m relaxed.’

Marseille fans have raised almost 1.5 million euros in a bold bid to lure prodigal striker Didier Drogba back to the Mediterranean, according to the website handling donations on Monday.
   The fans may still be way off the target of 28 million euros - with 20,673 people raising 1,451,047 euros (as of Monday) - but they were confident enough to claim: ‘Together we can do it’, according to www.Didier-revient.com.
   The affair, nicknamed ‘Drogbathon’, brought a wry smile to the French club’s president Pape Diouf, as it emerged the donation website had crashed on Sunday after encountering traffic problems.
   ‘I’m surprised and amused. It shows the true passion of our supporters,’ he told the newspaper La Provence.
   Diouf then gave the fans a dose of reality, saying that if they reached the projected target there would still be the small - or perhaps big - matter of the Ivory Coast international’s weekly wage.
   ‘I know what Drogba earns at Chelsea!’ he joked. Drogba has recently been linked to a host of top European sides such as Barcelona and both Milan clubs, even though new Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari insists the striker is part of his future plans.
   The 30-year-old scored 18 goals in 35 appearances during the explosive 2003-04 season with Marseille to earn legendary status, before leaving for Stamford Bridge the following season.

Juventus striker David Trezeguet said on Monday that he could still be persuaded to return to action for France in the future, but only ‘if things change.’
   The 30-year-old – who was a part of France’s 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winning sides – was left out of the Euro 2008 squad following a deterioration of his relationship with coach Raymond Domenech that meant even his 20 goals in Serie A last season failed to count in the final reckoning.
   Now though, following the 10-year anniversary match at Stade de France on Saturday night, Trezeguet has told La Gazzetta dello Sport that the desire to wear the blue shirt has not left him completely, though it remains unlikely that he will appear in one again whilst Domenech is at the helm.
   ‘When I took the field at Stade de France, I received an extraordinary reception,’ said Trezeguet, whose scoring prowess was sorely missed by France at Euro 2008 as they crashed out in the first round and mustered just one goal.
   ‘Yes if things change, the door to the national team could be reopened,’ added Trezeguet, who announced last week that he had decided to retire from international football. Trezeguet has won 71 caps for France, the last against England in March 2008. He has scored 34 goals, including the winner in the 2000 European Championship final.

Chelsea misfit Andriy Shevchenko will join Sampdoria on loan as soon as the Genoa side sort out his wage demands, Italian media reported on Sunday.
   ‘Sheva’ would be happy to join us, but there are problems around his wages,’ Sampdoria’s general manager Beppe Marotta told the Secolo XIX newspaper.
   ‘Many top class players like Sampdoria and a deal is entirely plausible.’
   The Ukrainian, who has scored just nine times in 47 Premier League games for Chelsea, is seen as the man to end Sampdoria’s problems in front of goal.
   ‘We have a way to resolve our problems up front with a figure able to stir up the crowd as well as put the ball in the back of the net,’ said Marotta.
   Shevchenko has endured two difficult seasons at Chelsea after moving from AC Milan for 30 million pounds (37 million euro) in 2006.
   The 31-year-old has been consistently linked with a move back to Italy, with his former club favourites to secure his signature.
   If successful, Sampdoria’s move could reap the kind of rewards as that of last year’s loan signing Antonio Cassano.
   Brought in from Real Madrid in August, the fiery Italian scored 10 goals to earn an international call-up to Italy’s Euro 2008 squad.
   ‘We’re in the same situation with Sheva as we were with Cassano,’ Marotta added. ‘The Cassano move is a difficult thing to replicate, but never say never.’

AC Milan look to have lost Brazilian striker Ronaldo to Flamengo, who have an agreement with the player’s agent.
   Marcio Braga, the president of the Brazilian club, has announced an agreement with the agent of Ronaldo, who is now out of contract with the Italian giants. Ronaldo has been out of action since suffering a knee tendon injury while jumping for a cross in AC Milan’s 1-1 Serie A draw with Livorno on February 13.
   His subsequent battle for fitness prompted Milan to opt to wait before committing to another season. But this policy seems to have back-fired, with the Brazilian now set to sign for Flamengo.
   Braga told Globoesporte newspaper: ‘We have a deal with the player’s agent. ‘As soon as he has recovered from the injury, we will sit around a table and complete the paperwork.’
   He added: ‘Flamengo’s medical staff are personally following his physical progress.
   ‘Ronaldo will be this club’s top priority.’
   The 31-year-old striker has played for a host of top European sides - PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter, Real Madrid and Milan - since leaving Brazilian outfit Cruzeiro in 1994.
   While his career has been blighted by a series of injuries, he has still won the coveted FIFA World Player of the Year title a joint record three times.