* Indian is elected cricket union president in South AfricaA former cricketer of Indian origin, Logan Naidoo, has been electedPresident of the Kwazulu-Natal Cricket Union which is affiliated tothe United Cricket Board of South Africa. He is the second person ofIndian origin to be elected to a top position in cricket in theprovince. Cassim Docrat is the CEO of provincial cricket and theKingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban.Naidoo, who at one time captained the old non-racial Natal Board team,has moved into the new position after serving as vice president of theunion, national selector of the Under-19 team and president of theDurban and District Cricket Union. He said in an interview that hisbiggest task was to bring back those who have lost interest in thegame.* Brijesh Patel honouredFormer Indian batsman and currently director of the National CricketAcademy Brijesh Patel was on Sunday honoured with a ‘Lifetime’ awardfor his achievement in the sport. A silver bat was presented to Patelby KH Shrinivas, Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka StateLegislative Council, at a function in Belgaum. The award has beeninstituted jointly by the Rotary International and Belgaum Sports Clubfrom this year.Shrinivas lauded the efforts being taken by Patel to develop necessarysports infrastructure for providing coaching to young talent insmaller towns and rural areas. Replying to the felicitations, Patelwho is the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, saidhis endeavour was to promote the game by creating infrastructure inrural areas as there was a lot of talent.* Nair, Haridas elected KCA president, secretarySK Nair and S Haridas were elected president and secretary of theKerala Cricket Association in the elections of the Kerala CricketAssociation at Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Nair, who is the chairmanof the Finance Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India,has been elected president for the first time while Haridas was reelected to the post.The other members elected for a four year period (2001 to 2005) were:Vice Presidents : Dr KN Raghavan, GK Shetty, S Ramachandran Nair, andC Sneharaj. Joint secretary : Niaz Ahmed. Treasurer: TC Mathew
Even though Chelsea have a squad full of incredible players like Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella, they’ve made more than their fair share of poor signings in recent years.
For example, the likes of Axel Disasi, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, João Félix and Mykhailo Mudryk are just some of the club’s worst pickups since the ownership took over.
However, when it comes to the most prominent example of a signing gone wrong at Stamford Bridge, a lot of fans and pundits alike will pick out Raheem Sterling.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, one of Enzo Maresca’s more recent signings looks set to go down a similar path to the Englishman.
Sterling's Chelsea career
When Chelsea initially signed Sterling for around £50m in the summer of 2022, there was a fair amount of understandable excitement from fans and pundits alike.
After all, here was a four-time Premier League winner who, during his time with Manchester City, racked up a brilliant haul of 131 goals and 86 assists in 339 games.
That positive feeling around the deal lasted quite a while as well, as even though he wasn’t electric, the Englishman started life in the capital fairly well.
For example, he scored three goals and provided one assist in his first five league games and by the time the new year rolled around, he had produced eight goal involvements in 19 games.
He would end that first season with a reasonable enough haul of nine goals and four assists in 38 games.
Interestingly, in terms of raw output, the following campaign was even better, as he ended it with 21 goal involvements in 43 games.
However, the club then appointed Maresca in the summer, and the Italian manager decided he no longer wanted to use the former City star and a loan move to Arsenal was agreed.
The winger’s time in North London was nothing short of a disaster.
Described as a “passenger” by Arsenal writer Charles Watts, the Kingston-born ace appeared to lose all of his dynamism and ended the season with a paltry tally of one goal and five assists in 28 games.
Sterling’s Arsenal record
Competition
EPL
UCL
FA Cup
EFL Cup
Appearances
12
6
1
4
Minutes
307′
297′
80′
270′
Goals
0
0
0
1
Assists
1
2
0
1
Goal Involvements per Match
0.08
0.33
0.00
0.50
Minutes per Goal Involvement
307′
148.5′
N/A
135′
All Stats via Transfermarkt
Since his return to West London, the former England international has been relegated to the club’s ‘bomb squad’ and is unlikely to ever make another appearance for Chelsea again.
In all, while there were moments of quality here and there, it would be hard to describe Sterling’s move to Chelsea as anything other than a dud, and the bad news is, a player in the current squad could end up being an even bigger flop in time.
The Chelsea dud who could be a bigger flop than Sterling
Unfortunately, a few of Chelsea’s summer signings have been underwhelming so far, including Liam Delap and Jorrel Hato.
Chalkboard
Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.
However, when it comes to someone who could end up being a bigger flop than Sterling, it’s impossible to look past Jamie Gittens.
Like his compatriot, the dynamic winger’s signing was met with quite a bit of excitement and, once again, justifiably so.
For example, across 49 games for Borussia Dortmund last season, the Reading-born dynamo recorded 17 goal involvements.
The 21-year-old gem even scored away to Bayern Munich in the league and Real Madrid in the Champions League, which led Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley to describe him as “England’s best left winger” at one point.
So, there were certain expectations that, even if he wasn’t going to be a bona fide star to start with, he would be a seriously useful option off the left for Maresca and Co.
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Unfortunately, that just hasn’t happened.
Instead, the summer signing has looked miles off the pace and struggled in practically every competition he’s played in.
For example, he had to be hooked against League One side Cardiff City in the League Cup, with his replacement, Alejandro Garnacho, going on to score a brace.
In all, the Englishman has scored one goal and provided five assists in 20 appearances for the Blues, with three of those goal involvements coming in the League Cup and the other three in the league against relegation-threatened sides.
Considering this poor return, the poor performances and the fact that he could fall even further down the pecking order now that the club are interested in Antoine Semenyo, it’s hard to disagree with one analyst’s opinion that the winger has been a “pointless signing.”
Gittens’ recent league form
Season
24/25
25/26
Appearances
32
12
Minutes
1784′
426′
Goals
8
0
Assists
4
2
Goal Involvements per Match
0.37
0.16
Minutes per Goal Involvement
148.66′
213′
All Stats via Transfermarkt
Moreover, it’s easy to see a world in which he becomes another Sterling-like figure in the squad, and perhaps the only reason he isn’t already viewed as such is the fact that he’s a new signing and not earning anywhere near as much.
Ultimately, Gittens is a talented player, and there is time for him to come good, but as things stand, he is looking like another flop signing for Chelsea.
Chelsea line up £47m move to sign their new Moises Caicedo in January
The incredible prospect could develop into another Caicedo for Chelsea and Maresca.
Haroon Lorgat of Western Province and Border’s Peter Bacela are the two new faces on the six-man South African selection panel chosen by the General Council at the United Cricket Board’s annual meeting on Saturday.They will replace Gerald Majola and Hylton Ackerman who were both ineligible for reappointment. Majola is the UCB chief executive while Ackerman is the director of the national academy.Bacela was not among the original nominations for the selection panel, but was nominated by the General Council because of the lack of black African representation among the selectors.Rushdie Magiet was reappointed convener of the panel.The full panel is: Rushdie Magiet, Morris Garda, Graeme Pollock, Mike Procter, Peter Bacela, Haroon Lorgat.The Executive Committee was also appointed on Saturday.The Exco consists of: Percy Sonn (president), Robbie Kurz (vice-president), John Blair (treasurer), Gerald Majola (CEO), Ray Mali (Border), Tim Khumalo (Free State), Arnold Bloch (WP), Charlie Robinson (Free State).
Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Jaffer missed out on the opening day of thefitness-specific camp for the batsmen which kicked off in Bangalore at the NationalCricket Academy (NCA) today. Tendulkar, who has been allowed to miss the start of the camp ”for personal reasons”, is scheduled to join on June 10 while Jaffer, who is already in Bangalore, has been diagnosed with flu and is unlikely to attend the camp.The nine batsmen who were present and Sreesanth, the lone bowler, underwent an indoor training programme on the first day, one that began with a yoga session in the team hotel. The players then moved into the indoor training facility at the NCA where they underwent drills to enhance core stability, associated with the torso and spine regions, and shoulder stability. There were multi-stage fitness tests too (also called bleep tests) and skinfold measurements, an indicator of the fat composition in the body.Physical trainer Gregory King is overseeing the camp, one of the three to be conducted ahead of India’s tour of Ireland and England. Sreesanth was expected to attend the first two days of the camp – since his selection for the Afro-Asia Cup Twenty20 match meant he missed out on the bowlers’ camp in Mysore. His fast-bowling partner VRV Singh, who had a viral attack last evening, was admitted to a local hospital but is expected to be discharged tomorrow.Four Indian batsmen – Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh – who’re currently involved in in the ongoing Afro-Asian Cup, are expected to join the camp after the three-match series concludes tomorrow. The batsmen present at the camp on the first day were Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman,Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Mongia, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Kaif and S Badrinath.This camp follows one that was held specifically for the bowlers, in Mysore from June 4 to 8. It will be followed by a conditioning camp from June 13 to 16 at the NCA, and will be attended by players selected to represent India in the tours of Ireland and England. These teams will be selected, in Delhi on June 12.
Brighton College now have not one but two public relations officers – both of them cricketers – after Adams agreed to work part-time for them. He joins Clare Connor, the recently retired England captain, who is director of public relations.Adams has also announced that he will hand over the Sussex captaincy by the end of 2007 at the latest, in order to concentrate on his batting. “I feel ten years are enough for any county captain,” Adams told newspaper on Tuesday. “I’m still enjoying it, but I don’t want to go on too long.”As well as helping out with PR, Adams will be undertaking his Level Four coaching award, which will further enable him to coach Brighton College’s students.
Barbados 244 for 7 (Reifer 72, R Hinds 71*, Browne 42) beat Guyana 164 (Daesrath 38, Collins 3-23) by 80 runs ScorecardBarbados recovered magnificently from a position of 17 for 3 to sail to a whopping 80-run victory against Guyana at Georgetown. Their recovery was set up by a magnificent 136-run partnership between Floyd Reifer and Ryan Hinds.Even after the two were out, Reifer for 72 and Hinds for 71, Barbados carried on to make sure that the initiative remained with them. Courtney Browne, doing an Adam Gilchrist as wicketkeeper-captain, lashed 42 to take Barbados to 244 for 7 in their 50 overs.Guyana began bravely, as Sewnarine Chattergoon and Lennox Cush added 60 runs after Darwin Christian was bowled by Pedro Collins early in the innings. But once they were out, the innings unravelled, though Damodar Daesrath showed some fight with a combative 38. But none of the many Guyana batsmen who got starts could come up with the big innings needed, and in the end, they fell far short.Windward Islands 219 (Murray 64, Sooklal 4-46) beat Trinidad and Tobago 218 for 9 (S Ganga 46) by 1 run ScorecardWindward Islands are getting used to close finishes. In their last match, they beat Leeward Islands by one wicket, and here, at the Enmore recreation Ground in Guayana, they prevailed over Trinidad and Tobago by a solitary run.Daren Ganga, Trinidad and Tobago’s captain, won the toss and asked his opponents to bat. Windward Islands seemed blighted by the tendency of their batsmen to get a start but not carry on to make a big score. All of their top seven reached double figures, but only Junior Murray, at 36 one of the senior figures in the side, made a half-century, with 64.Rodney Sooklal, the 23-year-old medium pacer, took 4 for 46 in his ten overs, pegging the batsmen back every time a partnership threatened to develop. Windward Islands finished on 219, which seemed quite gettable.But the malaise of batsmen getting starts and not converting continued during the chase as well, with seven batsmen making a start – Daren Ganga the lowest of them with 19 and Sherwin Ganga the highest with 46 – but none of them going on to make a half-century. The bowling was miserly, partnerships were tenuous, and Trinidad and Tobago, despite batting out all 50 overs, finished a run short.
Essex have emerged as serious contenders in the race to sign Darren Gough, with a local businessman offering to fly him to and from matches in a helicopter if it helps secure the deal.Gough made it clear one of the reasons for him quitting Yorkshire was a desire to cut down on the amount of traveling he was doing from his Milton Keynes home. “Everyone else goes home after a day’s play and sees their families,” he told Sky Sports. “But unfortunately for me my children live down south and I can’t just pop home for three hours and then nip back again for the next day.”Now Bob Weston, an Essex-based millionaire, has said that he will fly Gough around in his own helicopter. “I will make sure he gets there and back again, to help him cut down on journey times,” Weston, who owns the Battersea Heliport, told the Mirror newspaper.Graham Gooch, Essex’s head coach, added that he wanted to speak to Gough. “We are always looking for top players,” he said. “I think we would be keen to discuss something with him.”Warwickshire were the first county to be identified as being definitely interested in signing Gough, and Middlesex and Gloucestershire have also been mentioned as potential candidates.”We are all trying to make contact with him at the moment,” admitted John Emburey, Middlesex’s coach. “In our position we would be interested, but I need to speak to the chairman of the cricket committee as well.”
Work gets underway next weekend on building the Isle of Wight’s state-of-the-art indoor cricket academy overlooking Ventnor’s unique `superbowl’ at Steephill.The £1.1 million project, financed from the Sport England Lottery Fund, IW Partnership, IW Council and many local supporters, will provide the Island with a three-lane Academy, incorporating video playback facilities for coaching, changing and social facilities.Planning permission was secured last year for the two-storey building that will not only provide an indoor school, but also replace Ventnor’s existing dressing rooms and clubhouse.The top deck of the new academy will be built on the car park and will overlook the unique Steephill ground.”Our first job is to demolish the existing clubhouse, and once the site is cleared construction work can begin,” said John Hilsum, whose Project Development Committee has worked tirelessly for the past six years to get the Island a much needed cricket academy.Island firm Howard Ingram are carrying out the construction works.”It’s been a long, hard drive raising funds for the project, but we’ve had wonderful support – there is still a little to be raised but I am confident that we can complete the task.”After all our labours, it will be a truly magnificent sight to see the Academy take shape.”There’s terrific interest in cricket on the Island and this scheme will be of huge benefit to many people, not least the youngsters – both girls and boys,” he said.Southern Electric Premier League Division 3 clubs visiting Steephill this coming season will have to make do with temporary refreshment facilities in the Botanical Gardens Visitors Centre, less than 100 yards from the ground.”We are continuing to use the dressing rooms, which form part of a Listed Building, but players will have to walk a short distance for tea and post-match refreshments.”We ask all of our visiting teams to bear with us this season as once the Academy is built, we will have a facility to be proud of,” Hilsum added.
Brilliant West Indian batsman Brian Lara came to the Bellerive Oval in Hobart today battered and bruised and he left it in similarcondition. But surely not feeling nearly as crippled as an Australia ‘A’ attack that met him at close to the height of his powers onthe third day of the teams’ match.Records, previous poor form on tour and manifest discomfort were all swept aside as the masterful left hander gave a crowd of988 a wonderful reminder of innings and seasons of old. With only two fully fit limbs no less, he conjured a sparkling doublecentury and featured in an astonishing, record-breaking stand for the sixth West Indian wicket. It all made recent losingencounters with nemesis Glenn McGrath – in the short term at least – seem a distant memory.Under the duress generated by a hamstring injury that has afflicted him persistently for five months, Lara (231) had been forcedas low as number seven in the batting order before he began his masterpiece late yesterday. At different times in an innings whichbrought him the fourth-highest score in a prolific first-class career, he appeared so beset that he had barely been capable ofbreaking into anything more than a trot. To make his injury woes even more acute, he then strained the infraspinatus muscle in hisleft shoulder during the early part of today’s post-lunch session as well. His need to flex it and to receive treatment disrupted playon at least four occasions through the first forty-five minutes after the interval.If it is possible for a batsman to play this well when so incapacitated, then heaven help any attack which is forced to spar withhim on a similarly placid pitch when he is fully fit. By any stretch of the imagination, this was a remarkable exhibition of attacking,contemptuous batting. Through 342 minutes, he slammed forty boundaries, two sixes and a five and played with a wondrouslevel of skill.Before he was finally dismissed as he top edged a cut at part-time off spinner Brad Hodge (who went on to claim a first-classcareer best of 4/17) in its last over, Lara cracked ninety-six runs from his flashing blade in the middle session alone. His fortiethfirst-class century was phenomenal; it was murderous.As if the power of his three boundaries in the day’s opening over had not been sufficient in themselves to offer a hint of what wasto come, then the tone of Lara’s batting was certainly underlined when he crashed six boundaries in succession off the bowling ofpaceman Andy Bichel (2/148) in the second over after the lunch break. The first was flayed through cover; the second superblydriven through mid on; the third pulled imperiously over square leg; the fourth was smashed high and hard over mid off; the fifth,off a top edge as he tried to pull again, flew over wicketkeeper Brad Haddin’s head; and the sixth was powered along the groundthrough mid wicket.He survived one strong lbw appeal from the bowling of left arm spinner Brad Oldroyd (0/75) at 193 and appeared to bedropped low to the ground by Simon Katich at square leg off the same bowler with his tally at 216. Otherwise, he was rarely inbother. It was a measure of his command that he slammed twelve boundaries as he raced from the 100 to the 150 mark and thathe raised his second century from as few as eighty-two deliveries.That he topped it off by figuring in a 365 run partnership with Ridley Jacobs (131) that made theirs the most productive stand forthe sixth wicket in the history of first-class matches in Australia (surpassing Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton’s compilation of346 for Australia against England in the 1936-37 season) only applied icing to the cake.”He’s a class player and he was always due for runs,” said opposing captain, Damien Martyn.”It was (a) great (innings). He’s one of those batsmen who’s very good to watch if you’re not the fielding captain! He’s fantasticonce he gets going.””His running between the wickets … well, sometimes he was normal, sometimes he was slow. There’s definitely somethingwrong. But it didn’t seem to worry his batting,” he added when pressed about whether it was possible to assess from up-closethe extent of the champion batsman’s injury problems.For his part, Jacobs also played aggressively, albeit not nearly as dominantly. His preoccupation was to seize upon anythingshort, and he unleashed a succession of forcefully struck cut, pull and hook strokes. To an extent, though, it was almost cruel thathe played such a fine innings yet was relegated to playing a very clear second fiddle to his teammate.For the record, the West Indians were dismissed on the stroke of stumps for a total of 492 – giving the tourists a first innings leadof fifty-three and, needless to say, easily their highest score in an innings to this stage of their visit. But this was a day on which thefate of the match itself was swept aside, lost even, in the wake of a breathtaking individual performance. What that individualmade of it all and how he felt is anybody’s guess in the wake of his refusal – not for the first time on this tour – to speak to themedia after play. Cricket has an inimitable way, at times, of producing days like these.
Tottenham Hostpur have been handed a huge boost in their pursuit of a deal to bring Ruben Neves to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this summer.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a recent David Ornstein article for The Athletic, in which the transfer insider claimed that, after five years of service for the club, Wolverhampton Wanderers could be open to parting with the central midfielder at the end of the current campaign – should an acceptable offer be lodged.
Ornstein went on to state that, despite Barcelona currently looking to be the most likely destination for the 25-year-old, a number of Premier League teams are also in discussions with the Portugal international’s intermediaries regarding a potential summer swoop – one of whom could well be Tottenham.
Indeed, just last August, Fabio Paratici was reported to be negotiating a long-term contract with Neves prior to a £40m (£34m) move to north London, however, in the end, no agreement between the player and Spurs was reached.
In his article, Ornstein wrote: “There is an acceptance that after five years of fine service, Neves may be sold if a suitable offer arrives and gives him a chance to play Champions League football.
“Discussions are taking place between intermediaries and, at present, the most likely destination is said to be Barcelona, though Premier League teams are known to be keen and Wolves would gladly sign him to a new contract.”
Neves can replace Lo Celso
Considering just how impressive Neves has been since his £15.8m move to Wolves back in 2017, in addition to the fact that both Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele – currently on loan at Villarreal and Lyon respectively – appear as if they could be on their way out of north London this summer, it would be surprising if Paratici does not reignite his interest in the 25-year-old in the coming months.
Indeed, over his 28 Premier League appearances this season, the £36m-rated midfielder has been in electric form for Bruno Lage’s side, scoring four goals, registering two assists and creating three big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.4 shots and making 0.7 key passes per game.
The £58k-per-week maestro has also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, making an average of 1.3 interceptions, 2.3 tackles, 50 passes and winning four duels per fixture.
These returns have seen the player who David Edwards claimed was Wolves’ “biggest signing of the window” after keeping him at Molineux last summer average a quite breathtaking SofaScore match rating of 7.20, not only ranking him as Lage’s best performing outfielder but also as the joint 25th-best player in the division as a whole.
In comparison, over Lo Celso’s nine Premier League outings in the current campaign, the £25m-rated midfielder was in rather less spectacular form, scoring no goals, providing no assists and creating two big chances, in addition to making an average of 0.1 interceptions, 0.9 tackles, 13.9 passes and winning 2.6 duels per game.
These returns saw the £100k-per-week Argentina international who John Wenham dubbed “unacceptable” earlier this season average an extremely disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.72, ranking him as Antonio Conte’s sixth-worst performer in the top flight of English football.
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As such, it is clear for all to see that Neves would be a significant upgrade on Lo Celso, leading us to believe that Paratici simply must do all to move the 25-year-old on this summer, before reinvesting the fee received for the Argentine – as well as his hefty weekly wage – into a move for the Wolves destroyer.
Consequently, a swoop could just turn out to be the deal of the window, something Edwards alluded to last summer.
AND in other news: Paratici plotting £59m bid for 24 y/o “appreciated by Conte”, he’s “perfect” for Spurs