TOP 100 SPORT SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| Fabio Capello is ruled off duty by operation to replace kneecap Fabio Capello’s World Cup preparations are set to be hampered by an injury — although this time it is not one of his star players but the England manager himself who is at the centre of concerns. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Eddie Butler: England enjoy improved outlook The roundheads held sway in the autumn but cavalier talents are back to form and fitness as the Six Nations approachesAfter a joyless autumn that was like some sort of puritanical test of the paying public's will power, Martin Johnson will announce on Wednesday the England elite squad for the next trial in the devil's playground, the Six Nations. It is hardly likely that the manager, more the Lord Protector now, will have discovered jollity since November, or that Twickenham, in a pang of guilt, will have reduced admission charges for February and March. But there is always the consolation of imagining that it is simply impossible ever again to have less value for money.Such were the injuries in the autumn that Johnson could have survived three hidings, but he emerged with his reputation damaged after a win over Argentina and defeats by Australia and New Zealand because of a lack of imagination in selection and strategy.England were hobbled by caution. One try, by Matt Banahan, and a string of penalties and drop goals by Jonny Wilkinson kept jeers closer to the crowd's lips than "Swing low ..."Things look brighter now, if only because in the one position that still offers a little more freedom on the field, England are spoilt for choice. Ben Foden makes mistakes under the high ball – as in sometimes he misses it completely – but the Northampton full-back remains more faithful to his instinct to counterattack than to the mantra of playing safe and kicking. For that alone he deserves a start.But will he be given one ahead of Delon Armitage, back from injury and back into his silky stride at London Irish? Armitage was a rarity, a selection gamble that paid off for Johnson, in the autumn of 2008, and the manager may want to protect his protege by keeping him in the 15 shirt, even if another exciting possibility presents itself.Armitage has experience at outside-centre with his club and England badly need some midfield variety. Mike Tindall could always organise a defence well but Armitage might just loosen the grip on the blinkers, or at least convert some of England's lateral running into forward motion.The most important player in the England three-quarter line may be the person inside either Armitage or, if a more conventional selection policy is pursued, Dan Hipkiss. Riki Flutey has hardly played this season, thanks to a shoulder injury, but coaches are always looking for fresh players in the Six Nations camps that will dot the continent until early spring. As he showed on the Lions tour last year, with his knee, Flutey is resolute when it comes to recovering against the odds.Anthony Allen would, like Hipkiss at 13, present a dependable alternative at 12, and would bring familiarity to an area where England have often played like strangers. Allen has settled into an efficient working relationship with Hipkiss at Leicester.But how about trying Jonny Wilkinson at 12? It has been put forward as a possibility many times as doubts about Wilkinson's management of a game have surfaced. He works best under orders, not as a barker of them. It still seems slightly strange, all these years down the line, that he never turned out to be officer material. Instead he is Jonny, a foot soldier.England went through the autumn with Ugo Monye or Mark Cueto at full-back, the one wincingly bad and the other most dependable. Putting Foden at the rear would release both back to their natural habitat on the wings, where presumably they would be first choice, at the expense of Banahan.Is there no place in the squad for a fourth winger – for David Strettle, say, slightly out of sorts at the moment but a player who can create something out of little? And no space for Mathew Tait, finally spared from wandering up and down in limbo, never landing on a position?If Wilkinson shuffles along one to inside-centre that opens up the fly-half position for Toby Flood: the apprentice at Newcastle now the Leicester play-maker, telling Jonny what to do. That would test Jonny's quantum Zen, and he would no doubt pass with the utmost dignity, accepting the rationale with one of those sentences of his that never quite reaches a full stop.And the back-up to Flood? There's always Jonny, and presumably Andy Goode's number remains etched into Johnson's mobile. If England need to nurture somebody for the future, they might have to look at Shane Geraghty, although by the way he has played since the autumn it seems that England duty may do him more harm than good.Or there is the player who is currently keeping Geraghty out of the Northampton team, Stephen Myler. It may all depend on a private chat between my Lord Cromwell – Johnson – and Jim Mallinder, coach of the Saints and not one to suffer fools. Perhaps Mallinder, out of nostalgic northern spirit, would put forward Sale's Charlie Hodgson, especially for those games with less heavy traffic coming down Charlie's channel – though for the life of Jim he would struggle to specify what games they might be.The other Hodgson, Paul, may be one of the scrum-halves, alongside Danny Care, two little bundles of industry who have not yet managed to run their England packs with the authority they impose at London Irish and Harlequins. It is one of those telling differences between club and international rugby that precision is more important than bossiness. The first priority is not to organise others but to be meticulous with your own delivery.Leicester's Ben Youngs – as had Joe Simpson at Wasps before his injury – has thrust himself forward as a different kind of scrum-half, bigger of frame, more explosive from the base. England have a choice now, just as Wales can choose between Mike Phillips and Dwayne Peel.The biggest crisis in the autumn for England came in the front row, where they lost Phil Vickery, Lee Mears and Andrew Sheridan. Only Mears is back playing and he will presumably take his place in the hooking mix with George Chuter and Dylan Hartley. Steve Thompson's wonderful re-emergence out of retirement at Brive may have been but a cameo.The good news is that three bright young props have emerged, two through prolonged exposure, at Leicester and Newcastle, and the other in snatches at Worcester: Dan Cole, Jon Golding and Matt Mullan, one tighthead and two looseheads. Cole has become the prop of the moment, and when you think of all the expensive props earning a crust in the Guinness Premiership it means he has learnt a great deal in difficult working conditions.Tim Payne of Wasps is still there on the loosehead, while David Wilson at least shares the theme of working in difficult conditions, since he plays at Bath. Is there a place for a young all-rounder, a prop who can play on both heads, like Paul Doran-Jones of Gloucester?The second row is traditionally one of England's hot spots, and there seems little reason to worry about their lineout presence. But might there be room for someone built more of elastic than oak? For Nick Kennedy, that is, especially now that the ageless Simon Shaw provides the ballast of 10 men.And since Courtney Lawes seems to have settled into the No6 shirt at Northampton, might he not offer a different sort of charm there from, say, Tom Croft? They will both be in the squad and maybe in the match-day 22, but one comes with guile and the other with grunt. Lawes is the noisy one.On the open side Tom Rees has been absent through injury for so long he is almost off the radar but Steffon Armitage does come as a similar compact, bustling package, even if his first taste of the international game was a bit more harrowing than Rees's. The younger Armitage brother nevertheless deserves another spell in the squad, despite Lewis Moody being the favourite to start in the No7 shirt. The Leicester lunatic does not seem to get himself banged about quite as much as he used to, which means he can run around as only he can for longer.A major relief for Cromwell must be the return of Nick Easter at No8. Rapped for being a bit one-dimensional, Easter has subtle skills beneath his crouched, one-yard gains. An offloading No8 is perhaps the most influential player on the modern field.The England squad is announced on Wednesday, with no promise of a spot for anyone. It is the nature of the modern game that after four months of visible activity, as much will be decided behind the doors that will soon close behind all the Six Nations squads. A general sifting and sorting has taken place, but the serious business of selection and strategy starts now. Has puritanism had its day in the England of the Lord Protector?Six Nations: 6 Feb - 20 MarchEngland rugby union teamSix Nations rugbyRugby unionMartin JohnsonEddie Butlerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Dileep Premachandran: IPL cold shoulder for Pakistan Economics and politics dominated an auction that left a pair of veterans counting their blessingsIf you're Mohammad Kaif, a lottery ticket would be a smart move, while Damien Martyn could do worse than contemplate the tables at Bellagio or Caesar's Palace. Neither man has played international cricket for more than three years, and Kaif's performances in the inaugural Indian Premier League – he didn't even make the Rajasthan Royals squad for the second season in South Africa – were as ordinary as Martyn's brief flirtation with the nearly forgotten Indian Cricket League.The Royals, captained and coached by Shane Warne, bought out Kaif's $675,000 (ÂŁ412,000) contract before the auction to free up the space that they then filled with the classy 38-year-old batsman who was once Warne's brother in baggy-green arms. If that raised eyebrows, there was bemusement when Kings XI Punjab, who have appointed Kumar Sangakkara as captain in place of Yuvraj Singh, splashed out $250,000 for Kaif, whose batting is usually conspicuously devoid of the power and pizzazz associated with Twenty20 cricket.Many of the headlines in England on Wednesday will focus on the lack of interest in Graeme Swann, but the Twitter-friendly off-spinner's IPL tale is far from over. The auction represents only the most high-profile route into the league. There are other ways. Both the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings have injured players that they can replace before the action begins on 12 March. In Mumbai's case, they will have only the $100,000 that they spent on Kyle Mills last season, but Chennai have a whopping $1.55 million to draw on, having seen Andrew Flintoff go under the surgeon's knife yet again. Don't be surprised to see Swann or Doug Bollinger, another who attracted no interest, fielding a few calls from agents over the coming days.With the auction taking place in Mumbai, a city subjected to the worst terror attacks ever seen in India, there was little doubt that the story of the day was the shunning of the 11 Pakistan players on the auction list. When Richard Madley, who usually helps sell antiques and carpets, started proceedings by inviting bids for Shahid Afridi – an absolute steal at the base price of $250,000 – not one of the paddles shaped like the Olympic flame went up. There was only silence, an emptiness that echoed around the room at the Trident Hotel later when names like Umar Akmal and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan came up. Clearly the decision to boycott the neighbours was based on political realities and not cricketing form. Anyone who considers Kaif a better batsman than young Umar or Martyn a better Twenty20 bet than Afridi has been on mind-altering substances for far too long."Given the current relationship between India and Pakistan, we didn't want to take a risk," said a franchise official. "Imagine if we filled up two slots [out of 10] with Pakistani players and were then told that they couldn't travel, or that their security couldn't be guaranteed." Given sport's capacity for delicious irony, we can guess how this story will end. Like the English Premier League, the self-proclaimed "best league in the world", the IPL will tom-tom its quality for six weeks, before the Pakistanis, fresh from a training camp, go on and win the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.The other noticeable trend was the hardening of the franchises' stand on players missing part of the season. The die was cast when the Knight Riders bought out Ricky Ponting's contract. With England's Test players engaged in Bangladesh till the last week of March and Australia staying a week longer in New Zealand, players from both teams were in little demand. Those that did make the cut, like Eoin Morgan [$220,000 to the Royal Challengers] and Adam Voges [$50,000 to the Royals], have only represented their teams in coloured clothes."Availability is a serious issue with all teams without a doubt, and based on that the teams have formed strategies," said Lalit Modi, the IPL's chairman, afterwards. "Eoin Morgan was not available 100% of the time earlier but, before the auction, he was released for the full time by the ECB and hence he was bought."The eight teams were also hamstrung by the tournament rules that allow only four of the 10-man foreign contingent to play in any given game. But for that stipulation, an exciting talent like Lendl Simmons would surely have been snapped up. Given the bullish mood in Indian cricket right now though, the franchises' desire to have the expat numbers raised to five is unlikely to be satisfied.And what of the money actually spent? Is the tall, lithe and powerful Kieron Pollard really worth in excess of $750,000? His superb fielding is a bonus, but that's a lot to pay for a middle-order biffer who won't get much time to influence games. His bowling is far from fearsome, especially on the sort of shirt-fronts one can expect for the IPL.As for the Knight Riders, the laughing stock of the league over its first two seasons, the money spent on Shane Bond represents a monumental risk. Unlike Pollard, Bond is a player of proven quality. Unfortunately, the former Canterbury cop also has an injury-prone body, one that finally forced him to give up Test cricket after a superb outing against Pakistan two months ago.The Deccan Chargers, who went from last place to first in the second season, have also taken a punt with Kemar Roach. He may be the fastest bowler in the world right now, but does Roach have the variety or the nous to survive on one batsmen's paradise after another? Malcolm Marshall, his fellow Bajan, endured a miserable tour of India as a callow youth in 1979. By the time he returned four years later, he had realised that pace wasn't everything, and his ability to dart the ball this way and that fetched him 33 wickets. Roach doesn't have the luxury of a trial run, and he's also being thrown into a format where batsmen such as Matthew Hayden and Graeme Smith will look to bully him from ball one.The same can be said of Wayne Parnell, whose happy knack of taking crucial wickets is offset by a tendency to leak runs. Fortunately for him, there will be guidance from the two experienced left-arm pacemen that the Delhi Daredevils already have, Dirk Nannes and Ashish Nehra. A place on the tour of India next month will also give him valuable insights on the type of pitches he's likely to find.At the end of it all, the Mumbai Indians, captained by Sachin Tendulkar, are likely to be happiest. They have yet to make the semi-finals but the acquisition of Pollard will certainly buoy spirits. And with Mills missing, it wouldn't be a bad idea to draft in Bollinger for the second half of the season. He's already done the business during a one-day series in India and with the league embracing the right-here-right-now philosophy rather than relying on reputation, it could be the best $100,000 that they've ever spent. After two seasons of flashing the cash, even those with deep pockets have learnt to count their pennies.IPLCricketDileep Premachandranguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
It’s time for the fans to fight back The banner briefly displayed at Old Trafford last weekend, before it was confiscated and the guilty fans evicted, summed it up: “Love United, Hate the Glazers”. They could easily have shipped it to Anfield and changed the slogan to “Love Liverpool, Hate the Yanks”. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fights back to reach Australian Open last four Jo-Wilfried Tsonga padded round and round in London in November, the reserve for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, like a bear chained to a post. Released and free in the first month of the new year, the Frenchman has wasted no time reminding the tennis world what makes him such a dangerous animal. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |