Tag Futebol

Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, has again tried to calm talk about Michael Vaughan making an early comeback during the Ashes series. Following England’s defeat at Brisbane, Vaughan left the squad and flew to Perth to join up with the Academy and is aiming to play against Western Australia 2nd XI on Wednesday.Various comeback dates for Vaughan have been thrown around during the opening weeks of the Ashes tour, ranging from the third Test at Perth to the one-day series which follows in January. Now, with his playing return imminent, the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne is being suggested.However, Fletcher still refuses to look too far ahead. “I don’t think he can play in this Test series, at this stage,” he told reporters. “We’re still planning to have him hopefully for the one-dayers and if anything comes earlier than that then well and good.”If Vaughan comes through Wednesday’s one-day match his next outing could be the two-day game against Western Australia between the Adelaide and Perth Tests. England are expected to use a number of their reserve players in that match.But Fletcher still feels that Vaughan would need to play a few more matches to prove his fitness and merit a place in the side. While Vaughan was with the squad in Brisbane he took part in a fielding session and batted in the nets. If he plays on Wednesday it will be his first competitive match since June when he lined-up for Yorkshire in the County Championship.”I’m not going to say when he’s going to play [for England] again until he’s played some games of cricket and he’s come out and he’s 100 percent, ” added Fletcher. “We’ve spoken a lot to [him], like I do with other senior players. He seems to be pretty positive, he’s working hard at his game, he had a couple of nets sessions.”

Michael Kasprowicz, the Australian fast bowler, believes that Australia should take a leaf out of England’s book and provide more coaches for its first-class bowlers. Kasprowicz is one of three senior members – Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn the other two – trying to regain a spot in the Test side.Thirty three-year-old Kasprowicz, who lost his place in the Test team following the Ashes defeat to England, is of the view that even Test bowlers are neglected in the system’s pursuit for excellence at the domestic level. Speaking to , he added that both young and experienced bowlers would benefit from a specialist bowling coach. “I don’t think anyone should assume that because you play for Australia or first-class cricket, you know the lot. I just see a benefit using a bowling coach for not just the young guys coming through, but the ones in the competition as well.”Kasprowicz said he has been impressed by the England board’s system for coaching up-and-coming bowlers and professionals. “All bowlers in Australia would benefit from it. What struck me as quite impressive was what England were doing with their academy. Their age groups are a little bit older and, for example, right at the moment, their academy intake is just below the Test level,” he said. “In Australia, we haven’t had that kind of access to the coaches. I mean, only very early on did I have anything to do with Dennis Lillee [a former coach at Australia’s cricket academy].”Recently, Cricket Australia stated it would not appoint a full-time bowling coach for its senior bowlers, instead opting for an academy coach to monitor the work of the Test bowlers.

Terry Jenner, who played nine Tests for Australia but is better known as Shane Warne’s mentor, has criticised Australia’s selectors for omitting Stuart MacGill from the squad to tour India next month. Jenner questioned the idea of going with Nathan Hauritz and Cameron White to back up Warne, saying that India was hardly the right place to groom youngsters.Speaking to the newspaper, Jenner said, “It’s very sad that a bloke who has taken 150-odd wickets at Test level has been passed over for two guys who haven’t even been successful at first-class level. I would have thought that if you were to pick the best two spinners in Australia you’d have to pick MacGill as the second spinner.”You have to blood young bowlers for the future, but Hauritz has had no success and for someone like that to go to the most difficult place in the world for spinners – a place where Shane and Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] have averaged 40 or 50 – what hope does Nathan have?”Jenner reckoned that both Hauritz and White were picked with containment roles in mind. “But, in that case, they may as well have picked someone like Andrew Symonds to keep it tight because he bats and fields well, too,” he said. “Put it this way, I can’t imagine Hauritz keeping [Sachin] Tendulkar down for too long. My thinking is that if you don’t have one who’s good enough, you don’t take one at all.”Jenner’s views found support from two offspinners who had a fair degree of success in Indian conditions. Greg Matthews was instrumental in the Tied Test of 1986, and he said, “I find it amazing that, for the place where you have the most difficult conditions, a place where we haven’t been successful for 35 years, they’re taking one guy who struggles to make a first-class team and another whose stats don’t rate. Hauritz is a lovely young man but he played eight games last year for two wickets a game at 63 and they’re putting him up against the best in the world.”Gavin Robertson, who was the foil for Warne on the ill-fated tour of 1998, believed that Hauritz’s style was better suited for the one-day game. “You can’t bowl slow on subcontinental wickets, you’ve got to rip the hell out of the ball and make it drop quickly,” he said. “If you don’t, you’ll be in trouble. Nathan needs to spin the ball more. When you play a lot of one-day cricket you tend to underspin it. You really have to dig it into the dust and try to get bounce and spin, otherwise you’ll be in trouble.”

Sri Lanka’s cricketers, under fire for a string of below-par performances, are facing a 30% pay cut as the authorities attempt to raise the dipping standards by introducing performance incentives.The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) has said that it wasslashing the fixed contract fees as part of the shake-up. Sri Lanka has been on a downswing recently. They did reach the semi-finals of the World Cup earlier this year, but after that, they have failed to reach the final of a four-nation tournament in Sharjah and a tri-series at home.The board has reduced the number of contracted players to 12 from the previous year’s 15. They have also decided to cut 30% from the match fee of US$1,750 per Test and US$ 1,250 per one-day international.However, the fees will be increased by 50% for a win against one ofthe top four ranked sides and 25% for a win against teams placed fifthto eighth in the International Cricket Council (ICC) world rankings. The players are also entitled to an additional US$500 for each win.The cuts reflect the tightening financial situation of the cricket board,which announced a US$2.7 million loss for 2002.The contracted players 1 Hashan Tillekeratne, 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Sanath Jayasuriya, 4 Muttiah Muralitharan, 5 Chaminda Vaas, 6 Mahela Jayawardena, 7 Kumar Sangakkara, 8 Russel Arnold, 9 Dilhara Fernando, 10 Kumar Dharmasena, 11 Prabath Nissanka, 12 Thilan Samaraweera.

Spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar bowled Northamptonshire to a stunning 202-run victory over Leicestershire at Wantage Road – a result that keeps alive their hopes of staying in Division One next season.Set 288 to win, the visitors reached 62-3 at tea with a draw looking comfortably the most likely outcome.But the slow men were not to be denied on a pitch offering them plenty of fourth-day help, and Leicestershire lost their last seven wickets for 23 in the final session to be dismissed for 85 with half-an-hour to spare.Swann snapped up a season’s-best 5-34 while left-armer Panesar, the 19-year-old making his first-class debut, claimed 4-11 from 20 overs for an outstanding match return of 8-131.Jason Brown also played his part, capturing the key wicket of Vince Wells. The Leicestershire skipper had survived 79 deliveries for his five runs but then padded up to Brown and saw the ball dribble back on to the stumps, dislodging a single bail.Northants pressed on at the start of the day and David Ripley was able to declare on 302-8 shortly after lunch. Openers Mike Hussey (82) and Alec Swann (113) posted 164 in 41 overs, while Richard Davis was the main beneficiary of the hosts’ urgency as he snapped up 6-73 to round off an excellent Championship comeback.The result gives Northants a chance of avoiding the drop, although they must round off their campaign with difficult away trips to play Kent at Canterbury and Somerset at Taunton.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNamibia’s left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz bowled 16 dot balls in four overs•ICC/Sportsfile

A power-packed half-century from 23-year old Stephan Baard was followed up by a triple-wicket maiden from Bernard Scholtz as Namibia outplayed Papua New Guinea by 49 runs in Malahide.Often times there is nothing quite like scoreboard pressure. It’s doubly useful on a tired pitch where the slower you bowl the harder it is to hit. Before the game, Namibia had decided that if the ball was too full or too short, their batsmen would go after it. Come game day, they amassed 181 for 5 in their 20 overs. As with such big scores, one of the top order goes on to score big.Baard typified Namibia’s pre-game attack plan. When the ball was overpitched, he drove viciously through cover and mid-off. Three fours and two sixes came from that part of the ground. Then when PNG were forced to bowl flatter and shorter, he used the sweep and the pull liberally. Meanwhile, Namibia got past 60 runs in the Powerplay for a third time in the tournament and he eased to a fifty off 27 balls.He did slow down thereafter, but consequently stayed at the crease until the penultimate over to ensure the early platform amounted to a sizeable total. Baard, with 233 runs at an average of 77.66 is the top-scorer of this year’s World T20 Qualifier, so Namibia’s middle order simply had to bat around him. Sarel Burget, at No. 5, made 38 runs off 20 balls in a fourth-wicket partnership that yielded 74 runs in 42 balls.That he didn’t pick up the Man-of-the-Match award indicates the value of Scholtz’s effort with the ball. He offered no pace for the batsman and profited when they tried to make some of their own. That can be a difficult plan for a spinner to trust, considering this was slam-bang T20 cricket. But in Malahide, the ball wasn’t coming onto the bat and it was a pretty large ground too.So Scholtz kept bowling slow and broke PNG’s chase in the 13th over. Charles Amini mistimed a loft because of the lack of pace and was caught at long-on. Next ball, Scholtz slowed it up further and Mahuru Dai swept across the line straight to deep midwicket. The hat-trick ball was looped up above the eyeline as well, got loads of turn to hit new batsman John Reva on the pads, but it had pitched outside leg stump. He would finish the over trapping Reva plumb in front for the score to dip from 90 for 4 to 90 for 7. Scholtz bowled 16 dot balls in his four overs, Papua New Guinea’s priorities shifted from hunting down the runs to lasting the 20 overs.Things had looked very different at the start of the chase. Tony Ura helped ransack 68 runs in the first six overs to keep Papua New Guinea well ahead of the rate. He had five fours and a six in his 21-ball 34 and was looking especially good while driving the ball. But Namibia found a way past him through a run-out and thereafter did not find much resistance to their progress to the top of the Group A table thereafter. If they remain on top until the end of the league stage, they will claim direct qualification into the World T20 in India next year.

After 649 runs were scored at a rate of 7.77 to the over in the first ODI between South Africa and England in Bloemfontein, few would argue with Faf du Plessis’ assertion that “this series will be a series of the batting line-ups”. But there is more to the towering totals than aggressive approaches on flat pitches. The new faces in both attacks have also played their part in the run-fest.”Both bowling line-ups are not as experienced as they would like to be but the batting line-ups are explosive and you’ve got a lot of match-winners in both teams,” du Plessis said, referring specifically to the depth of England’s line-up. “It’s definitely not nice when you do your pre-match planning because every guy that you look at seems to be a good batter. It’s obviously why they are a stronger team now: they have got a better batting line-up.”

One eye on the IPL auction

Hashim Amla, Dean Elgar, Rilee Rossouw, Chris Morris, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Jos Buttler, Chris Jordan and Sam Billings may go into the second ODI somewhat distracted. They are all in the IPL auction and by the time the game gets underway, will know their fate.
“I’d be lying if I say everything is on the game. You think about it. Fortunately for me I am already picked up so I will not be anxious to see about that,” Faf du Plessis, who is contracted to the Rising Pune Super Giants, said. “It’s great because this year there are England players as well. As a leadership group you try not to speak about it too much but let’s not lie, the auction is life-changing for some players. For me it will be interesting to see what the England players go for because we are used to playing an IPL without them.”
South Africa have 18 players in the auction including the still-injured Vernon Philander, and nine other players retained by franchises, while England have seven players in the auction. The numbers that matter, however, will be the selling price and du Plessis thinks those could even be the inspiration for some on-field banter. “Hopefully our guys get picked up for a lot of money and the English guys don’t so we gain a bit of confidence from that.”

All of England’s top six scored runs on Wednesday and all, except Joe Root, maintained strike rates of over 100, helped by wayward bowling from South Africa’s new-look pace pack. The opening bowlers, Chris Morris and Marchant de Lange, had only played 11 ODIs between them before the Bloemfontein game and their inexperience showed. They bowled both sides of the wicket in their first spells and could not find the right length, but got tighter as the innings wore on.AB de Villiers did not want to be too hard on them but du Plessis was willing to point out where they want wrong. “It was a good batting wicket but I felt we did make a lot of mistakes. We gave a lot of boundaries away. We were not as disciplined as we would want to be,” he said.As a result, South Africa’s other wicket-taking option, Imran Tahir, was forced into a role that did not make best use of his attacking skills. “For Immi to do really well, he doesn’t have to feel he has to have all the pressure on his shoulders to be a game-changer. In T20 cricket when he can just express himself, come on and do his tricks, that’s when he is best. I suppose any leggie is like that,” du Plessis said. “If he is just bowling defensively, like he had to do in Bloemfontein, it takes away all that armoury that he has got.”To ensure Tahir can concentrate on controlling the middle overs, du Plessis explained that South Africa’s seamers need to start better, especially in Port Elizabeth where the slower surface almost guarantees Tahir will be a factor. “Our bowlers need to be smarter. It’s important to try and do that from the beginning and not wake up 10 or 15 overs into the game. The smarter team on the day will win the game,” du Plessis said.South Africa will be bolstered by the likely return of Kyle Abbott, whose hamstring niggle healed sooner than expected and he should be able to provide some control. “Something we have missed this whole series is experience, Although Kyle is not a guy who has played 100 ODIs, he is someone who has played a little bit more. Kyle brings a bit of consistency. With someone like that you just know when pressure situations present himself, he will be a bit more equipped than someone playing their first few games,” du Plessis said.Abbott’s career is only 20 ODIs old but, as he showed at the 2015 World Cup where he had the lowest economy rate among South Africa’s bowlers, accuracy is his strength.That does not mean South Africa’s batsmen are off the hook. Du Plessis stressed the importance of showing the same care with the bat as with the ball on a surface that will test both line-ups more than Bloemfontein did. “The pitch will be slower. We can’t play the same style of cricket. We have to think faster on our feet,” he said, and that applies to himself as well.Du Plessis found some form in the 50-over game after struggling in Tests and feels a big score is, as clichéd as it sounds, just around the corner. “Things started changing slowly towards the end of the Test series for me. I was unhappy to not have played that last Test match and to have scored runs in the first ODI was very nice. I feel a lot better in the nets. I feel like I am hitting the ball as well as I can,” he said. “I would still like to turn those fifties into bigger scores. I’ve been getting a lot of fifties in the last year or two but not as many hundreds as I would like. For me it’s about turning that good performance into a performance that can make the team win.”

Former Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore is all set to be hired as the director of India’s National Cricket Academy, according to an official statement released on Friday.Whatmore, 53, is holding discussions with NCA chairman Ravi Shastri, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said in a press release. “Ravi Shastri, after taking over as chairman of the National Cricket Academy, is in discussion with Dav Whatmore for appointment as director, operations, at the NCA,” Shah said.However, sources close to Whatmore confirmed that the appointment had been finalised. Shah later confirmed that Whatmore’s appointment was all but certain. “It’s almost confirmed,” he told Cricinfo. “We need to get a bit of details and paperwork completed. We need to go through a few procedures before officially ratifying the appointment.”Whatmore, who played seven Tests for Australia, had been widely tipped to succeed Greg Chappell, who quit as India coach after the World Cup debacle in April. Recent reports have suggested that Whatmore is the front-runner for the West Indian coaching job, one which has been vacant since fellow Australian Bennett King resigned in April. King’s assistant David Moore coached West Indies on the summer tour of England and to the just concluded Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.India are still without a coach and have been managing with stop-gap arrangements since Chappell’s exit. Chappell, however, has returned to India to take over as adviser to a local cricket academy in the western state of Rajasthan. Whatmore guided Sri Lanka to World Cup triumph in 1996 and helped Bangladesh reach the second round in the Caribbean this year. It included a shock first-round win over India.

Polly Umrigar, the former Indian captain who played 59 Tests between 1948 and 1962, has died in Mumbai. He was suffering from lymph cancer and lost the battle at 8:30 this evening at his residence.Umrigar, who will be remembered as one of the heroic figures in Indian cricket, was an early pillar of India’s middle order in the ’50s and ’60s. He scored 3,631 runs at an average of 42.22 with 12 centuries and led India in eight Tests, winning two and losing two with four draws. Having learnt his trade in the competitive in Mumbai, where the emphasis was on technique and application, he went on to break several Indian records, including the most Tests, highest batting aggregate and most hundreds. A burly six-footer, Umrigar was a domineering figure at the crease – whether batting, bowling, or leading the side. He was renowned for his full-blooded drives but, as he showed in the memorable summer in the Caribbean in 1961-62, he could also hook and pull powerfully.More significant, perhaps, than his achievements at the crease was the fact that he helped shape the few Indian triumphs in his time. His vital 130, coming in at No. 7, helped India achieve their first-ever Test win, against England at Madras in 1952. His hundreds also paved the way for two more Test wins, against Pakistan at Mumbai in 1952 and New Zealand at Madras in 1956.He was the first Indian to hit a Test double-century, a feat he achieved against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1955. He led India in eight Tests, winning two and losing two before he resigned the captaincy at Madras against West Indies in 1959 following a misunderstanding with the selectors. He is only one of two Indian cricketers (Vinoo Mankad being the other) to score a century and take five wickets in an innings – a feat he achieved against West Indies at Port of Spain in 1962. After retirement, he continued to serve Indian cricket as chairman of the selection committee, tour manager and BCCI executive secretary.After retiring from the game, Umrigar served in various administrative roles, including chairman of the selection committee, manager of the Indian side, executive secretary of the Indian board and chief curator of the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has been rocked by the resignation of Reazuddin Al Mamun, its joint secretary and chairman of the media committee, following reports that Ali Asghar, the board’s president, struck a deal over television rights without advising Mamun.Asghar is said to have agreed a TV and sponsorship deal with Aston Moore, who were also appointed as the board’s marketing agents, and the situation was further complicated when he refused to accept Mamun’s resignation.Asghar denies any such arrangement. “I did not make any secret deal with Aston Moore as BCB marketing agent, I just gave them a letter to determine the value of BCB,” he said. “I asked them assess current marketing value of the Bangladesh and the team and other rights, but Aston Moore failed to submit the assessment report within the stipulated period.”But a report in the Daily Star quotes a board insider as saying: “One thing is now sure that the BCB president had a deal with that agency. No doubt everybody was kept in the dark about it. Now an attempt is on to make both parties keep mum to avoid further complications.”Actually there have been a lot of disputes over certain issues during the last six months and it became exposed after the elections of the board in August. It is not unexpected for Mamun to resign because he was not happy with certain things.”The report added that more resignations might follow. The source concluded: “I will not be surprised if the board president himself steps down citing his political commitments ahead of the next general elections.”