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Bangladesh hope to pull off a stunner in their ICC Twenty20 World Cup opener in England next month against defending champions India, just as they did in their first match in the ICC World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007, said their Australian Coach Jamie Siddons on Tuesday.
   Bangladesh have been placed in Group A of the 12-team competition with India and Ireland. They will play the Indians on June 6 before facing Ireland two days later. Two teams from each group will advance to the Super Eights.
   ‘It is twenty20 cricket and you can get knocked out at any stage but realistically we should make it to the Super Eights. We are hoping to beat India first and not worry about the Ireland game,’ said Siddons at the final press conference of the team before it leaves on May 23.
   ‘We want to win the first game on (June) 6 and worry about the Ireland game. And then once we are at the Super Eights, we want to be the giant-killers, we don’t want to be a fluke,’ he said.
   Bangladesh will play five warm-up games including three arranged by the Bangladesh Cricket Board which Siddons believes would help him to forge a strong unit despite some recent hiccups.
   Just hours before the press conference, the national team playing as the BCB XI lost a game to a young and largely inexperienced Maharashtra Cricket Association team by seven wickets.
   They were all out for just 117 runs against the tourists, but Siddons played down the defeat and said his strategy was partly responsible for the embarrassment.
   ‘The reason I set a high target today because we don’t think 140 will win a game in England. You never know, may be an associate country like Ireland may win a game [scoring 140]. But I don’t think you can beat India in England with 130,’ he said.
   ‘We set a target to challenge our boys. They didn’t live up to it [today]. They tried to score too quickly and got out only because the target was set. They were challenged as if we were playing India or some one else and chasing 170. We lost a lot of wickets and then we couldn’t recover,’ he said.
   ‘I am happy with the fact they all were getting practice, every batsman got some runs at some points. And adding Sakib [al-Hasan] and Ash [Mohammad Ashraful] to our batting order, I think there will be too many issues, to be honest,’ said the Australian.
   Sakib was rested in Tuesday’s game, but Siddons hoped he will play all the five warm-up matches in England. The coach was also optimistic about skipper Ashraful and his deputy Mashrafee bin Murtaza playing the matches.
   Mashrafee and Asharaful will return home on May 22 and 23 respectively after completing their largely frustrating IPL stint and will leave for England the next day. Apart from Sakib, Ashraful and Mashrafee, the team’s main spinner Abdur Razzak was also out of competitive cricket for many days as he was busy rectifying his action.
   ‘Yes, that is part of the reason I pushed for these extra three games. The main reason I pushed for Mash [Mashrafee] and Ash to join us before those games so that they did not miss any of those games. They have to make big sacrifices to come home and go back straightaway,’ he said.
   ‘Sakib will be 100 per cent fit and can play all five matches. He needs it. He showed how devastating he can be yesterday [Monday]. But he still needs match practice against good team,’ he added.
   ‘Ash and Mash are not getting the matches they need. Without those five matches they wouldn’t be ready. But with the five games, if they have some success, they will be ready,’ said the shaven-headed Australian.
   Siddons was hopeful about the young trio of Rubel Hossain, Shamsur Rahman and Mohammad Mithun, who are yet to play any Twenty20 international.
   ‘Rubel came a long way in the past six months since he is playing with us. Defiantly under Champaka [Ramanayeke] and myself he improved. He performed beautifully in the last over today,’ he said.
   ‘The other two young boys, I haven’t seen them a lot. We worked a fair bit, not toying too much with them at the moment, just allowing them to play their instinctive game. For them to be long-time players, there are a few changes we need to make,’ he said.
   ‘Having to face you guys, meet the board members, so it’s all new to them as you would understand. Then the press, they came to these things for the first time. It’s interesting to see how they handle this. It’s all part of a learning curve,’ added Siddons.

Andrew Strauss, the England captain, believes the ‘hunger’ his new-look side have shown in two crushing Test victories over the West Indies augurs well for this year’s Ashes.
   England humbled their visitors from the Caribbean by an innings and 83 runs here at the Riverside on Monday.
   That win followed a 10-wicket success at Lord’s and meant they’d won both Tests in this two-match series by large margins.
   At the Riverside, James Anderson - once a fringe player - led the way with a match return of nine wickets for 125 runs while opener Alastair Cook weighed in with a Test-best 160 in England’s 569 for six declared.
   Ravi Bopara, making an impressive bid to fill England’s problem position of No 3, scored hundreds at both Lord’s and the Riverside - displays which won him the man-of-the-series award.
   Meanwhile pace bowlers Stuart Broad and newcomer Graham Onions, as well as off-spinner Graeme Swann, gave England cause for optimism.
   When the Ashes last took place in England four years ago, England won 2-1.
   But the return series in Australia, in 2006/07, saw them thrashed 5-0.
   Strauss, who played in both those campaigns, refused but was pleased with what his side had done so far this season.
   ‘If you look at the way the guys are practising at the moment, there’s a real hunger to improve - and we need to cultivate that and make sure it grows and grows,’ the opening batsman said.
   However, Strauss, looking ahead to the first Ashes Test in July in Cardiff, added: ‘The reality is that when we step out in Cardiff this means nothing really. The only thing is from a team’s point of view is that it’s nice to remember what it’s like to win.
   ‘But once we start that Ashes series it’s back to square one and we need to earn the right to win Test matches.
   ‘I think this has got relevance but what I’m saying is that we can’t just rely on the fact we’ve beaten the West Indies twice to carry us through. We need to realise that the Ashes series is going to be a very stern test for us.
   ‘Understandably, everyone wants to talk about the Ashes now but there’s still a lot of cricket to be played,’ added Strauss of a season which features three one-dayers against the West Indies - starting at Headingley on Thursday - and the World Twenty20 before the Australia Tests get underway.
   Strauss was thrust into the England captaincy in January when star batsman Kevin Pietersen was stripped of the role following a row with Peter Moores that cost the then England coach his job.
   Andy Flower, formerly Moores’s assistant, was put in temporary charge in the Caribbean but this was the Zimbabwe great’s first series since being confirmed in the post on a permanent basis.
   ‘Things settled down pretty quickly after the upheaval - which is very encouraging, because it means the players themselves are committed to playing for England,’ Strauss recalled.
   Strauss was particularly pleased by the ‘clinical’ way England saw off the West Indies. ‘We got on top in both Tests - and once we got on top, we stayed on top. By and large, we took our chances; we kept the pressure on and got what we deserved.
   ‘I’m pretty delighted with how things are going at the moment.’
   He was also encouraged by the progress of both the 22-year-old Broad, described by Anderson as having a ‘30-year-old’s head on his shoulders’, and the Lancashire quick.
   ‘In the West Indies they both bowled exceptionally well and didn’t get what they deserved - because the wickets were very flat,’ Strauss said.

Bangladesh national cricket team in their preparation for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup received a serious jolt when they lost to the visiting Maharashtra Cricket Association by seven wickets in the third and final match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.
   Srikant Mundhe and Kiran Adhav shared seven wickets between them to dismiss the Tigers, who were playing under the banner of Bangladesh Cricket Board XI, for 117 in 19.1 overs before a half-century from skipper Harshad Khadiwale took them to victory.
   The top-order batting of the Tigers was in a sorry state with six wickets going down for only 40 runs inside seven overs despite Tamim Iqbal making 21 off 14 balls. Stand-in captain Mushfiqur Rahim and Naeem Islam saved their blushes adding 60 runs in the seventh wicket.
   While Mushfiq made 39 from 28 balls whacking two fours and a six, Naeem was happy as he does nowadays with an anchor role making 27 off 33 balls that included just one four.
   For Maharashtra Cricket Association, Kiran Adhav did the early damage to return with 3-23 before Srikant Mundhe mopping up the tail with his 4-22. Maharashtra reached the target of 118 runs in just 17.5 overs with Khadiwale making 62 off 47 balls that included seven fours and a six. Ameye Srikhande was the other notable scorer with 31 off 40 balls.
   Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain and Rubel Hossain each took a wicket, but unlike the previous two matches Bangladesh’s spin attack was innocuous with the absence of Sakib and Razzak.
   Naeem Islam took the role of the main spinner in the match and conceded 18 runs in his two overs without success.

Chennai Super Kings batsman Matthew Hayden is having a blast, literally, in this Indian Premier League and feels water sports helps him unwind and maintain balance between cricket and life.
   Hayden, who is a big fan of water sports, has been spending time in South Africa surfing and kayaking.
   ‘I’m just glad to have some time out for water surfing,’ Hayden said.
   ‘During this tournament I’ve spent more time on the ocean than I have on a cricket field. I love kayaking and surfing and then if there’s a time when I like doing some fishing. I like to explore the water world,’ said the burly left-hander who has clobbered bowlers to score 546 runs with five half-centuries in 11 innings.
   ‘Apart from being a passion, it gives me an edge because in a tournament in which matches are played over half a day and are scheduled every other day, there is a lot of time spent on thinking cricket. You need to have a balance in life and surfing gives me that,’ he told IPL’s official website.
   Hayden, who retired from the Australian national side this January, said life in international cricket was becoming lot more demanding and so he chose to express himself in the Twenty20 format.
   ‘I always wanted to get back in the ring. I mean you always go back again and may be play on. For me that time was really about finishing at a time when I really wanted to get back on the top of my game and finish things off but I didn’t have the same instincts,’ said the 37-year-old.
   ‘So, Twenty 20 cricket for me has provided that opportunity to punch in on a different format. A much punchier format, something that I have really enjoyed. The constant pressure and demands of the international schedule lasts 10 months which is a long programme. So, to me, IPL is an opportunity to fight on. I enjoy my cricket. I love to score runs and be as consistent as possible.’
   Asked the secret behind his heavy scoring, Hayden said, ‘To my mind, I have created an opportunity where I have enjoyed my off the field stuff. I have been doing loads of surfing.
   ‘It is an enormous passion of mine so to be able to do that and play cricket alongside is pleasant.’

The slim hopes of Dhaka Abahani to reach the AFC President’s Cup semi-finals evaporated on Monday when Pakistan Wapda toppled them in goal average in the best runners-up slot.
   Pakistan Wapda finished their Group A commitments with same five points with Regar Tadaz but the Tajikistan outfit were crowned as the group champions as they scored more goals.
   Pakistan Wapda competing for the best runners-up slot of the three groups outplayed Abahani in goal average as they defeated Taiwan Power Company 3-1 in their last match and took their goal average to +2.
   As per the AFC rule, the match against the fourth placed team of the group will not be counted. So, in the run of the best runners-up, both Abahani and Pakistan Wapda have four points but Pakistan Wapda enjoyed the edge because of the +2 average against Abahani’s +1.
   But Pakistan Wapda still have to wait for the results of the Group C which will be finished on June 14 at Kyrgyzstan. The Pakistan outfit will compare the results with the runners-up of the Group C and who will be playing in the semis as the best runners-up will be finalised after the completion of the group.

The third one-day match of the Grameenphone Academy Cup between GP-BCB National Cricket Academy and Sri Lanka Cricket Development Squad at the Sylhet District Stadium scheduled on Tuesday has been abandoned due to rain.
   The hosts lead the five-match series by 1-0 as the second one-day match also had been washed out. The fourth and fifth matches will be held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on May 21 and 22 respectively.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee of Youth and Sports will sit with Bangladesh Football Federation and Bangladesh Cricket Board at the parliament secretariat at 3:00pm today.
   The BFF president, Kazi Salahuddin and general secretary Al Musabbir Sadi will comprise the BFF team. The meeting will discuss the development process of the country’s two major sports.
   Jahid Ahasan Rasel MP is the chairman of the standing committee.

Bangladesh Olympic Association hosted a seminar on Anti Doping focusing upon the awareness among the athletes of the upcoming SA Games at the National Sports Council auditorium on Tuesday.
   The key note paper was presented by Dr Omar Faruk, the chairman of the BOA Medical Committee. He emphasised upon fair play and cautioned that it is almost impossible to escape from the modern test methods of doping.
   Sports minister for youth and sports Ahad Ali Sarker was the chief guest of the seminar. ‘All the athletes should be aware of the bad effects of doping and destroying the image of the country. The message needs expanded transmission in every sports sector of the country,’ said Ahad.

Asif Hossain Khan, the Commonwealth and South Asian gold medalist shooter, has left Dhaka for Italy to participate in the World Cup shooting scheduled in Milan from May 21 to 23.
   After the competition, Asif will leave for Germany for a higher training from May 24 to June 23 in a bid to win a place at the London Olympics in 2012. Atikur Rahman, another Commonwealth gold medalist, will join him in Germany as his trainer a week later.

Ricky Ponting has said he would be more than happy to have Andrew Symonds in his Ashes squad but conceded the selectors faced a hard call on whether they could squeeze him in. The touring party will be named at 11:00am today and there is no guarantee that Symonds, who was once a certainty in the starting XI, will be chosen.
   His off-field issues over the past year have led to him being stood down from the side on two occasions and he has struggled to regain his best form at first-class level. That has allowed Marcus North to capably slot into the No. 6 role, while Andrew McDonald has held down the all-rounder’s position.
   Shane Watson and Brad Hodge will also come into contention along with Symonds, who made his latest comeback for Australia in the recent one-day series against Pakistan in the UAE. Ponting said it would be no great bombshell if Symonds was named in the squad, which is likely to feature 16 players.
   ‘I wouldn’t be surprised, he has had his share of battles over the last 12 months, obviously the well documented stuff off the field,’ Ponting told AAP. ‘He’s worked his way back into domestic cricket pretty well and played well for us over in Abu Dhabi, Dubai.
   ‘He’s a great guy to have around a team, there is no doubt about that. Obviously the selectors are going to have some tough decisions to make in the coming hours.’

Bangladesh Biman clinched the Public University and Services Cricket Tournament title after a comprehensive six-wicket win over Jahangirnagar University on Tuesday.
   Biman raced to 116-4 in 24.4 overs in reply to Jahangirnagar’s poor total of 111 in 38.3 overs in the final at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium.
   Biman, studded with first-class cricketers, began the chase badly losing the wickets of openers Ali Faiyaz (4), Elias Sunny (8) and Javed Omar (4) for just 22 runs inside eight overs.
   Experienced campaigners Tushar Imran and Mushfiqur Rahman, however, eased the pressure contributing 59 runs for the fourth wicket before Tushar fell to Farid for 34, leaving the national flag-carrier at 81-4 in 17.2 overs.
   Mushfiqur along with Sanwar Hossain added another 35 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket to steer Biman home. Mushfiqur made an unbeaten 31 while Sanwar was 19 not out.
   Earlier, put in to bat, Jahangirnagar lost their first two wickets without a run on the board. The situation got worse when two-down batsman Khaled Mosarraf fell to pacer Ashique to leave the side wobbling at 3-3 in 2.1 overs.
   Opener Shafiul Azam, however, stood tall with a patient 56 off 110 balls featuring six boundaries. He eventually was run out by Rakibul Hasan and by that time his side were 92-7 in 35 overs.
   Hasanul Banna repaired the damage with a 57-run fourth wicket partnership with Shafiul. Banna made 21 off 63 balls.
   Later, Tushar Imran claimed three scalps for 10 runs to wrap up Jahangirnagar University innings. Ashique also grabbed three wickets for 11 runs.

Glamorgan director of cricket Matthew Maynard insisted the county’s Cardiff HQ would have no problems staging the first Ashes Test in July after a pitch there was labelled ‘poor’.
   An England and Wales Cricket Board pitch panel including Mike Denness, England’s captain during their losing Ashes tour of Australia back in 1974/75, was convened to consider the pitch used for the Friends Provident Trophy one-day match at Cardiff on Tuesday, May 12 between Glamorgan and Essex.
   They upeld the umpires’ decision that the Sophia Gardens pitch had demonstrated excessive turn and should therefore be rated ‘poor’ after the Welsh county were bowled out for 124 in a match where Essex and Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria took four wickets for 16 runs.
   Glamorgan were penalised two points but the penalty won’t be applied this season. Instead it will take effect in the 2010 Friends Provident Trophy.
   Spin is one of the few areas where England appear to have an advantage over Australia, and Cardiff - which will be staging its first Test when the Ashes opener stars there on July 8 - has long had a reputation for taking turn.
   That has led to widespread speculation that England, unusually for a home Test in recent seasons, will play two spinners, most likely Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, in the Welsh capital.
   Glamorgan lost both their chief executive and their groundsman towards the end of last season but former England batsman Maynard was confident the pitch prepared by Keith Exton, previously at Leicestershire, for what will be the first Test ever played in Cardiff, would be up to the mark.
   ‘I’ve played on a lot of wickets worse than the one we used last Tuesday and they haven’t been marked as poor,’ he said.
   ‘Obviously we haven’t played on the Test wicket at all but the ground looks an absolute picture, the pitch looks fantastic and I’m sure Keith will get the Ashes strip just right,’ Maynard added.
   ‘He’s a very experienced groundsman and he knows exactly what he is doing.
   ‘I can’t see there being any issues whatsoever before the Test match.’
   Australia leg-spin great Shane Warne for one believes both Swann and Panesar will be in England’s Ashes side.
   ‘It’s been a long time since English spin bowlers have had an impact on an Ashes series, but it looks as though that could change this summer,’ Warne wrote in his column in The Times last week.
   ‘Now that Graeme Swann has established himself in the team and Monty Panesar is waiting in the wings, I think there’s a real possibility that England will take on Australia with two spinners in their side.’

Shane Warne could make his final appearance at Lord’s in July after his IPL side, the Rajasthan Royals, were lined up for a meeting with English Twenty20 champions Middlesex at the home of English cricket.
   The 2008 IPL champions are coming to England to play in a July 6 encounter aimed at raising money for the British Asian Trust, a charity backed by Britain’s Prince of Wales.
   Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League, said the match marked another milestone in the international development of the IPL, which is currently taking place in South Africa.
   ‘We have shown this year that the IPL truly has global appeal, and for one of our teams to be playing at the ‘home of cricket’ in front of the wonderfully passionate British fans is very exciting,’ he said.

Sacked Bayern Munich coach Jurgen Klinsmann claimed Tuesday he could have led the reigning German champions to a successful defence of their Bundesliga crown.
   Bayern sacked Klinsmann at the end of April following a string of mediocre performances that have left the German giants two points behind leaders Wolfsburg before the Bundesliga finale this weekend.
   A win at Werder Bremen on Saturday will crown Wolfsburg as German champions for the first time, although if they lose and Bayern win their final game against Stuttgart Bayern will top the table.
   Klinsmann, speaking for the first time since his sacking on April 27, said: ‘I was blamed for a lot of things that were out of my control.
   ‘In fact the most hurtful thing for me was feeling I could have finished the job. I could have led Bayern to the German league title.’
   Bayern have since replaced Klinsmann with Jupp Heynckes, who will make way for newly-signed coach, Dutchman Louis Van Gaal, in the summer.

Satadal Club of Ramu beat Dohazara Malomghat Hospital Krira and Sangskritik Club by a solitary goal in the Grameenphone Cox’s Bazar District Football league-2009 organised by Cox’s Bazar District Sports Association at the Cox’s Bazar Stadium on Tuesday.
   Didar scored the lone goal in the ninth minute of first half.
   Ramu Brothers Union will take on Dolhazara Krira Sangsad today at the same venue.

Former star Pakistan batsman Ijaz Ahmed was freed on bail on Tuesday ahead of his trial on fraud charges for allegedly giving a client bad cheques worth over one million dollars.
   Ahmed said he was relieved to get bail after a six-week spell in jail.
   ‘We will now follow the case as I am in the right and will fight until my name is cleared,’ the 40-year-old former cricketer told AFP.
   ‘The last three months have been nightmarish.’
   He was arrested in March accused of giving false cheques worth 10.05 million rupees (1.30 million dollars) to a client. Another plea for bail on medical grounds was rejected last month.
   Ahmed, who also works in the Pakistan Cricket Board national academy in Lahore, played 60 Tests and 250 one-day internationals for Pakistan from 1987 to 2001, and was a member of Pakistan’s World Cup winning team in 1992.
   After his arrest, he was admitted to a local hospital following a bout of asthma and breathing problems.
   ‘The PCB was supportive as they believed my innocence and did not disturb my job. I am thankful to them for supporting me,’ he said.
   His lawyer Kashif Javed said the case may be heard later this month.

History beckons for the winners of the UEFA Cup final between Germany’s Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine in Istanbul tonight.
   Both sides are appearing in the competition’s final for the first time, with Shakhtar bidding to become the first Ukrainian side to win a European trophy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
   Werder are hunting their first major European honour since the 1992 Cup Winners’ Cup, while both sides know that whoever wins will enter the record books as the last UEFA Cup champions before the tournament’s re-launch as the UEFA Europa League next term.
   The German side qualified for the final by beating arch-rivals Hamburg on the away goals rule and they also eliminated their near neighbours in the semi-finals of the German Cup, setting up a meeting with Bayer Leverkusen on May 30.
   Despite their cup exploits, though, Thomas Schaap’s side, who knocked out pre-tournament favourites AC Milan in the round of 32, have endured an underwhelming league season.
   The 2004 German double winners have been the epitome of inconsistency, hitting five goals in victories over Bayern Munich, Hoffenheim, Hertha Berlin and Eintracht Frankfurt but struggling against the league’s lesser lights.
   A tame 3-1 defeat at home to bottom side Karlsruhe in their penultimate league game on Saturday confirmed a 10th-placed finish prior to a thankless trip to champions-elect Wolfsburg next weekend.
   Werder will be without key players for the match in the Sukru Saracoglu stadium, with Juventus-bound playmaker Diego and Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida both suspended and German international defender Per Mertesacker injured.
   ‘We will badly miss Diego in Istanbul, but we have a big enough team to win the cup,’ said Schaap.
   Diego’s Brazilian compatriot Naldo is also a doubt for the game, having missed the defeat to Karlsruhe with an adductor muscle injury.
   ‘If I am not completely fit than I will not play,’ said the 26-year-old centre-back. ‘But I will fight and give my best to be back.
   ‘It would be unbelievably beautiful and important for us to win the UEFA Cup. Every player on our team can write their names in the history books of this club. And we want to leave our marks.’
   Shakhtar, last season’s Ukrainian champions, go into the game after thrashing Lugansk 3-0 away from home to secure second place in this year’s championship behind runaway champions Dynamo Kiev.
   A brace from forward Yevgen Seleznov and Brazilian midfielder Willian clinched victory and a place in the third qualifying round of next year’s Champions League.
   ‘We were the better side tonight and I believe the score is pretty fair,’ said Shakhtar coach Mirea Lucescu, who rested a number of first-choice players. ‘We all will do our best to win the UEFA Cup,’ he added. ‘I believe we have enough power and skill to win the trophy. We just need to prove it on the pitch in Istanbul.’
   Shakhtar are likely to be at almost full-strength on Wednesday night, with only Czech midfielder Tomas Hubschman absent after he picked up a booking during the semi-final triumph over Dynamo.
   Lucescu’s side have also been boosted by a report from the club doctor that Brazilian attacker Jadson should be able to play after shaking off a knock.

Juventus announced on Tuesday the re-signing of Italy World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro from Real Madrid.
   Cannavaro’s contract with the Spaniards runs out at the end of June and he has signed a one-year deal with the ‘Old Lady’ of Turin.
   The 35-year-old was world player of the year in 2006, after leading Italy to World Cup glory that same year.
   That was also the summer he left Juventus, where he had played for two seasons, to join Real after the Italians were relegated to Serie B for match-fixing.
   His move angered many fans and when his possible return to the club was first mooted it received mixed reactions from Juve fans, some of whom have not forgiven him for deserting them in 2006.
   Even so, the player is looking forward to making his return to Turin and winning over his detractors.
   Speaking from the city, where he came to sign his contract, he said: ‘I’m delighted to have returned to Turin and to have the opportunity to wear the black and white (Juve) jersey again.
   ‘I’m sorry that in some fans anger prevails over the appreciation for the glorious seasons we lived through together.
   ‘I’m convinced that I can win over even the biggest skeptics through hard work, professionalism and the passion with which I will tackle this new adventure.’
   Cannavaro won the title in both his previous seasons at Juventus but the club was stripped of those for their role in the calciopoli match-fixing scandal.
   The centre-back was born in Naples and played for home-town club Napoli for three seasons before joining Parma in 1995, with whom he won the UEFA Cup and two Italian Cups over a seven year period.
   He left to join Inter Milan in 2002 but after only two seasons moved on to Juve.
   Upon joining Real Madrid in 2006 he helped the club win back-to-back La Liga titles. He has been a winner both domestically and internationally as well as on a personal level and that is what convinced Juve sports director Alessio Secco to bring him back.
   ‘Fabio is a World Cup winner, a Ballon d’Or winner and a great man in the changing rooms,’ he said.
   ‘During the summer of 2006 the club had to sell him to deal with an economic crisis.
   ‘This year we have waited out the end of Cannavaro’s (Real) contract in order to bring him back to Turin and we’re sure that he will make Juventus more competitive.’
   Over his 17-year-career Cannavaro has represented his country 124 times, scoring twice.

Unheral-ded Wolfsburg, founded in the grim aftermath of World War II and cursed by a history of mediocrity, are 90 minutes away from a maiden Bundesliga title and a place in the Champions League.
   A win at Werder Bremen on Saturday will crown Wolfsburg as German champions for the first time, while traditional powerhouses Bayern Munich can only look on in envy.
   With his side two points clear, coach Felix Magath is having the last laugh over the German giants who dismissed him two years ago.
   Despite leading Bayern to back-to-back league and cup doubles, Magath was sacked in February 2007 with his side near the top.
   While Bayern won the league and cup double again last season, Wolfsburg slipped under the radar to finish in a respectable fifth and reach the UEFA Cup.
   It was an astonishing turnaround for a club who were just one place above relegation in the preceding seasons.
   Before this year, Wolfsburg’s biggest achievement had been runners-up in the 1995 German Cup.
   But it has been a vastly different story this term with Wolfsburg riding high.
   While Bayern eventually sacked coach Jurgen Klinsmann on April 27, after just ten months in charge, Wolfsburg were enjoying an 11-game unbeaten run.
   Last weekend’s 5-0 hammering of neighbours Hanover left them two points clear at the top and a win at Bremen will give Magath his third Bundesliga title as a manager.
   ‘We are guaranteed at least second place now and that’s very good for us,’ said Magath.
   ‘The fact is that we have a tough opponent to face next weekend in Werder Bremen. We will be playing for a win to secure the German championship for us.’
   As a player, Magath spent the majority of his career at Hamburg and led the north Germany team to the European Cup in 1983 when he scored the winning goal against Juventus, but as a coach he has led eight different sides.
   The list will swell to nine in July when he leaves to take control of Schalke 04 as coach and team manager, but he leaves the Wolves in rude health and will be suceeded by ex-Stuttgart coach Armin Veh.
   The celebrations will be long and loud if Wolfsburg win the title amongst fans unused to success at the club which was founded in September 1945 as a team for Volkswagen workers.
   The club is owned by the German car-manufacturers and a visit to the Wolves’ Volkswagen Arena is over-shadowed by the massive car plant next door.
   League leaders since April 4, the foundation of Wolfsburg’s success has been based around playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic combined with the lethal finishing of Brazilian striker Grafite and Bosnia’s Edin Dzeko.
   Dzeko was signed from Czech Republic side FK Teplice in July 2007, but the 23-year-old is now being linked to AC Milan and Chelsea.
   At 30, Grafite could well feature in Brazil’s plans at the next World Cup having become the league’s top-scorer with 26 goals in 24 games, while Dzeko is hard on his heels with 25 in 31 league games.
   To have the league’s top two-scorers is no accident based on the excellent supply of posession Misimovic conjures up.
   But quite how Wolfsburg repeat the success next season in the dizzy heights of the Champions League will be the acid test.

David Beckham admits helping England win the right to host the 2018 World Cup would mean as much as all the success he has enjoyed during his illustrious career.
   Beckham has won the Champions League, six Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Manchester United as well as the Spanish title at Real Madrid.
   The LA Galaxy midfielder, currently on loan at AC Milan, is also England’s most capped outfield player, has captained his country 59 times and played in two World Cups, with a third in South Africa next year a distinct possibility.
   But even those impressive achievements would fade in comparison to playing a role in bringing the World Cup back to England for the first time in 52 years.
   Beckham was part of the successful bid to win the 2012 Olympic Games for London and now he will be one of the English FA’s most visible faces of their own campaign as a bid vice president.
   ‘It would be up there with winning and the success I’ve had in my career because to be part of a successful bid, like I was with the Olympics, would be a huge honour,’ Beckham said at the FA’s official launch party at Wembley on Monday.
   ‘There is a lot of hard work to be done. There is politics in all different sports throughout the world and I know how difficult it was getting the Olympics to our country.
   ‘The World Cup is a different ball game. It will be difficult, there will be hard work and lots of ups and downs along the way but the end result is the most important thing.
   ‘If we get what we want and get the World Cup to our country then we’ll prove that it will be a success.
   ‘We, as a country, are always ready for big competitions. If someone was to say next week we’ll stage a tournament in England, I don’t think there are many other countries who would be ready to do that.’
   Beckham and his international team-mate Wayne Rooney weren’t even born when England last staged the sport’s biggest single event back in 1966, a tournament that culminated in victory for the hosts in the final against West Germany.
   Images of England captain Bobby Moore holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy and Geoff Hurst’s controversial second goal in the final are still etched into the nation’s sporting memory.
   Beckham will be retired by 2018 but Rooney will be 32 and the Manchester United star would love to still be around to help England win the World Cup on home soil.
   ‘Sir Bobby Charlton is one of the legends and when he speaks about playing for England in the World Cup in front of his own fans, it’s only something you can dream of,’ Rooney said.
   ‘I’m sure the support from fans will drive us on and give us a good opportunity of winning it.
   ‘If that happened, I wouldn’t be able to describe it. Growing up and watching England, then playing for England, it’s an emotional thing and something I am really proud of.
   ‘To win a World Cup, not just myself and my family but the whole country, would be something special.’

In football’s parallel universe, it pays to fail. Manchester United celebrated an 11th English Premier League title at the weekend - as well as eyeing a potential third European crown under Sir Alex Ferguson - which was achieved on a 2008 wage bill of 121 million pounds (185 million US dollars).
   By comparison, Chelsea, out of the title race in England and Europe, have spent 148 million pounds (226 million US dollars).
   Up in England’s under-performing north-east, Newcastle United welcome 50,000 fans to a home game who deliver a million pounds (1.4 million US dollars) in gate receipts.
   The club also receives tens of millions more in TV income and have also enjoyed a couple of lucrative, if brief forays into the Champions League.
   Billionaire sports retailer Mike Ashley, who bought the club in 2007, paid off only part of a debt mountain estimated at around 150 million pounds including outstanding transfer payments.
   But the club which lifted the last of its four league titles in 1927, and has won nothing for 40 years, has one of the biggest wage bills in the country.
   Veteran striker Michael Owen earns a reported four million pounds a season and even derided ‘bad boy’ Joey Barton makes around three million.
   Add ten managerial changes since Kevin Keegan first resigned in 1997 - and the compensation bill for his myriad - and trophyless - successors has rocketed.
   Even in the two years since Ashley took charge, compensation payouts have topped 15 million pounds - including a reported 1.5 million for unlamented executive director (football) Dennis Wise, whose original appointment came following a similar payout to his former side Leeds.
   ‘There are no plans to appoint a replacement in this role,’ Newcastle announced, prompting the London Times to note wryly: ‘That was a couple of million quid (pounds) in salary well spent then.’
   Add to that more than 20 million on signing disparate and largely second rate players and it is hard to identify the club’s business plan - particularly considering Newcastle sold two of their best players, Shay Given and James Milner, on the way to potential relegation which would risking lost income of around 50 million pounds.
   On the plus side, another million for coach Alan Shearer’s touchline services for eight games will prove money well spent if the ultimate gamble pays off with survival by the skin of Geordie teeth on Sunday.
   If diehard Newcastle fans have been crying in their beer all season failure doesn’t have to leave a bitter taste.
   Ask Sven-Goran Eriksson, sacked as Mexico coach after poor World Cup qualifying form.
   The suave Swede’s reward?
   A third massive payoff in three years, coming after his jettisoning as England coach after the 2006 World Cup fisaco in Germany which netted him a reported three million pounds - (he was originally in line for six) - and then another reported million following his one-year tenure with Manchester City.
   Beyond football, England may ponder the value of a truncated early summer cricket Test series against a West Indies side whose board demanded a reported 1.4 million dollars rather than the usual 250,000.
   That was on the basis that the series was set up at short notice with players recalled early from the money-spinning Indian Premier League.
   Given the West Indies’ abject showing Lords and Chester Le Street, the England and Wales Cricket Board might feel the money could have been better spent.
   But in these credit-crunched days some glimmers of light have appeared, not least the impending arrival of a financially streamlined version of Formula One despite myriad team howls of protest.
   Back in the rarified world of football, Louis van Gaal earned a move to Bayern Munich by guiding AZ Alkmaar to the Dutch league title on an annual budget of just 20 million euros, the sixth lowest in the top flight.
   As cutting one’s sporting coat according to one’s cloth becomes de rigueur amid the global downturn, maybe there’s hope even for Newcastle.

England manager Fabio Capello will have to rely on third-choice goalkeeper Robert Green for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Kazakshstan and Andorra after David James opted for shoulder surgery.
   Manchester United’s Ben Foster, who had moved past Green in Capello’s pecking order, is also unavailable for the trip to Kazakhstan and the Wembley meeting with Andorra after having an operation to correct a ligament problem in his thumb.
   James has had a problem with his left shoulder for some time but delayed a decision on surgery until his club, Portsmouth, had secured their survival in the Premier League.
   He missed Monday night’s 3-1 defeat of Sunderland and decided to have the operation on Wednesday rather than wait until after the England matches, on June 6 and 10, and risk not being fit for the start of next season.
   The 38-year-old is taking a calculated gamble over his England place by handing Green or someone else the chance to come in and catch Capello’s eye only a year before the World Cup finals in South Africa.
   Portsmouth’s interim coach Paul Hart said the goalkeeper accepted that.
   ‘He’s a strong-minded person and he knows what he’s doing,’ said Hart. ‘He weighed up missing the England games before making his decision.’
   James said he had been carrying the injury for 18 months. ‘I have to look at the bigger picture. I want to be fit for the start of next season and I trust England to do well without me.’
   Green has yet to play in a competitive fixture for his country but has had a good season with West Ham and collected a second cap in February’s friendly defeat by Spain.
   England travel to Kazakhstan with a five point lead over Croatia after winning their first five matches in group six. Having beaten the Kazakhs 5-1 at Wembley in October, they will be confident of extending that winning run.

Foot-ball legend Eric Cantona, the star of a new film competing at Cannes, on Monday predicted triumph for his former team Manchester United over Barcelona in the Champions League final.
   ‘I’ll give you a straight answer,’ he said when asked at a press conference here who would win on May 27. ‘Manchester.’
   Cantona compared Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson—who was leading the team back in the 1990s when the French footballer was there—and Ken Loach, the director of his film titled ‘Looking for Eric.’
   ‘The way they work is 100 per cent for the players, they are both very humble. They got me to give every bit of myself. Alex Ferguson is a great coach and Ken Loach is a great director,’ he said.
   The former footballer, who has already acted in several films, plays himself in the new movie, appearing like a vision to help a Manchester postman also named Eric whose life is spiralling out of control.

Alex Ferguson has revealed just why he loves the Champions League cigars, perfume and continental women.
   His Manchester United team aim to become the first to defend successfully the present tournament crown when they take on Barcelona in the final a week today.
   Yet it is not just the taste of the most famous piece of silverware in the club game that holds the allure of the competition for Ferguson.
   It is the sights and smells that go with a campaign so different to the Premier League.
   Ferguson said: ‘England is about tribalism. You’ve these different countries in one big country.
   ‘You’ve Geordies, Yorkshiremen a game between Manchester United and Leeds is vicious us and the Scousers.
   ‘The atmosphere, the intensity, the rivalry it takes your breath away.
   ‘You’ve the Midlands and the London teams, all of them little pockets in their own right.
   ‘That tribalism forces you to do well in the Premier League but the real excitement comes in Europe.
   ‘The Wednesday night atmosphere when you, maybe, go to Madrid and Barcelona.
   ‘You can smell the cigars and there’s perfume wafting down from the stands. It’s wonderful, it’s different. I love it.
   ‘You go to Milan and everyone’s so stylish. Every woman who passes you by is Miss World. The whole atmosphere at these places is unreal.’
   It will be in Rome, too, on May 27 when United take part in the dream final against Barcelona.
   Ferguson could not be more confident about the spectacle and the outcome.
   He added: ‘I’m as confident as I possibly can be, simply because we’ve won the League. We’re going there with a fresh team.
   ‘It’s the final everyone wanted. I was hoping it would be Barcelona, because it’s the biggest challenge and the best final.
   ‘It’s a platform for the best players in Europe.
   ‘If it had been an all-English final again, we know each other so well you can sometimes cancel one another out.
   ‘But on an occasion like this, our players have to rise to the big challenge of being on a great stage in Rome and playing against really good players.
   ‘It’s going to be a fantastic final and I think we’ll win it.’
   If United do, it will rank as Ferguson’s greatest achievement. While great teams have defended the European Cup, nobody has yet defended the Champions League.
   Ferguson admitted: ‘It’d be a great achievement, the best ever in terms of back-to-backs.
   ‘If you look back to the great teams, you’ll see just how few have managed it in the past in the old European Cup.’
   The Scot has left nothing to chance in his planning for the final.
   His brother Martin has been watching Barcelona’s games and putting together a dossier on them.
   Ferguson revealed: ‘I started planning two weeks ago, doing a lot of video analysis, trying to pick the right team. Martin has been over there, watching every game.
   ‘They were my top tip when I was watching them earlier in the season. I thought ‘They’ll go the whole way’.’
   It will be Ferguson’s third final, after victory in 1999 and last year.
   He is convinced he could have had another to his name had it not been for the restriction on foreign players that hampered the efforts of his famous 1994 side.
   He said: ‘The team of ’94 was fabulous. There were a lot of different ingredients in it and it had a combustible nature about it.
   ‘They’d fight anyone. They were physically strong and could deal with anything.
   ‘If you wanted to play football, we’d play football. If you wanted to fight us, we’d fight you.
   ‘I think that team probably would have come close to winning a Champions League if it had had present day conditions.’
   Despite the strength of both that line-up and his 1999 Treble-winners, Ferguson believes he will be going into this final with the strongest squad he has ever had.
   He insisted: ‘I have a fantastic squad of about 28 or 29 with the introduction of Macheda and Welbeck, Possebon and the Da Silva twins.
   ‘I know they’re young but they are very good players, good characters and give us a back-up we have never had before.’

Germany’s national team coach Joachim Low on Tuesday left big name stars Michael Ballack and Miroslav Klose out of the squad which will play friendlies in China and Dubai.
   Germany captain Ballack is tied up for Chelsea in the English Cup final on May 23 while Klose is recovering from a recent injury and preferred not to go on the Tour, which includes matches against China and the United Arab Emirates.
   Germany depart on May 26, and will thus travel without Rene Adler, Patrick Helmes and Stefan Kiessling who are all playing for Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup final the same day.
   Low meanwhile gave first call-ups to two Stuttgart players and two from league leaders Wolfsburg.
   Brazilian-born Cacau and Christian Traesch of Stuttgart will join Wolfsburg pair Manuel Neuer and Christian Gentner in the squad.

Next season’s Italian Supercup between champions Inter Milan and Cup winners Lazio will take place on August 8 in China, news agency Ansa reported on Tuesday.
   The match will round off a week-long football festival in which a
   tournament will also be contested between three English sides—Tottenham, West Ham and Hull
   City—and China’s
   Guoan.
   Italy’s ambassador to China Riccardo Sessa took part in the press conference to announce the agreement.
   The date of the match was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
   The Supercup match is also due to be held in the Bird’s Nest stadium that hosted the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics competition during the Games.