Mike Brearley, the former England captain, will serve as the next president of MCC. His one-year term of office will begin on October 1 and he will replace Doug Insole, who made the announcement during MCC’s AGM on Wednesday afternoon at Lord’s.Brearley captained England in 31 of his 39 Tests, including the 1981 Ashes series, and overall won 18 matches while in charge. He also played 25 ODIs and led England in the 1979 World Cup final at Lord’s.His first spell leading England was between 1977 and 1979-80 when he won acclaim for his captaincy even though his batting was often criticised, and his Test average of 22.88 showed that he was not good enough to hold his own as a batsman. But after Ian Botham failed as his successor, he returned in 1981 with England trailing to Australia and guided his side to a remarkable 3-1 series win before retiring again.His first-class career spanned two decades and he led Middlesex for 12 seasons – at county level he was far more effective, as an average of almost 38 shows. He turned Middlesex from perennial underachievers into the best team in the land, leading them to three Championships (plus one that was shared) and two Gillette Cups.Brearley wrote three books about Ashes series he played in, and on retiring penned The Art of Captaincy, considered the definite work on the subject. He was named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in 1977 and a year later was awarded an OBE for his services to cricket. In 1983 he became an Honorary Life Member of MCC.
Brian Lara, the West Indies captain, felt that Sachin Tendulkar’s absence from the Indian team for the one-day series in the West Indies would deprive the youngsters in his side and the spectators the opportunity of watching a superior player in action.Tendulkar is recuperating from shoulder surgery and his availability for the four Tests against West Indies starting June 2 is still uncertain. The Test team will be announced on May 24.”I think it is unfortunate because we are all entertainers. The public would have loved to see Sachin,” Lara told after a practice session at the Queen’s Park Oval before his team’s sixth ODI against Zimbabwe. “He’s going to be here for the World Cup hopefully, but any opportunity to see him would have been great for the public.”Lara was upbeat about his own team’s chances and how Tendulkar’s presence would have lifted the opposition’s game. “It doesn’t mean that India, with a player like Sachin Tendulkar in the team, is actually going to beat the West Indies”, he said. “Yes, they would have a player of high class but we would have loved to have him here playing against us. As team members, we can only learn from a player like that.”
Sourav Ganguly has expressed the hope that his stint with Glamorgan will fetch him as much success as his previous tours to England with the Indian team. Ganguly, who has been signed up by the county to play for them at least till the end of July, will play his first match today (June 1) against Sussex at Swansea.”I’m really looking forward to this opportunity of playing for Glamorgan,” Ganguly said. “I’ve done well in this country before, in Tests and one-day internationals, and I didn’t have too bad a time with Lancashire either. We finished as runners-up in the County Championship and I did well in their one-day matches.”Ganguly has an excellent record in England – in six Tests he averages 74 with the bat and 31.50 with the ball, while in 20 one-day internationals there he averages 39.25, only marginally below his career average. However, his stint with Lancashire in 2000 wasn’t quite so impressive – in 14 first-class matches he only managed an average of 31.95, with no centuries.Ganguly has also been struggling for runs over the last year, but Robert Croft, the Glamorgan captain, had no doubt that Ganguly would be an inspiration to the rest of the team. “Sourav’s a special cricketer, everyone knows what he can do at the highest level. He’ll score a lot of runs and will also pass on his experience to the youngsters coming through.” Ganguly is expected to bat at No.5 in the four-day games and open the batting in the one-dayers.Glamorgan have had a wretched start to the season, losing all five Division One matches so far, but Ganguly was keen to help stop the slide. “It will be a challenge after a poor start, but I’m very happy to be part of a young team,” Ganguly told BBC Sport Wales. “There’ll be a lot of expectation, but I’ve been around for 10 years, I’m an established international cricketer and I have to put the performances on the board.”He also revealed that the call-up by the county had come as a surprise to him. “I was in England for a family holiday and was going to go to Paris for the French Open, but when this chance came I said I’d love to do it,” he said. “I only had a tourist visa and had to fly to Brussels to sort out a working one, and now I’m in Wales for the first time.”I have played against a few of the guys like David Hemp, Alex Wharf and Robert Croft and it’s just great to have the chance to play in this country again.”
What the key players said after the match:Marvan AtapattuSri Lanka’s captain We thought 240 was a good score, but the way we finished was not too good getting just 45 runs in the last 10 overs. We did not plan enough at the end, and if we had concentrated on getting ones and twos we would have got around 270-odd.The [Symonds lbw] decision was made and the umpires decided to call him back and they asked me whether I had a problem with that. Our guys knew it was a wrong decision and we didn’t know what to do but when they asked him I was happy to call him back. It’s only a game, after all, and we have to play the game in the right spirit. I said no because we all make mistakes and it was clearly a mistake. I don’t see anything wrong in that.Ricky PontingAustralia’s captain It was close and a great game of cricket. I was pretty happy with the way wewent about things today. We were behind the eight-ball early in the gameafter a very good opening partnership, but we fought back really well withthe ball. The batting was pretty good – just two runs shy. The guys will take a lot of confidence out of knowing that we can perform as well as we did today on a very worn Sri Lankan wicket.You are always disappointed when you lose a close game, but we are not goingto point the finger at any individuals. If you look back over the game youcould probably pick up half-a-dozen incidents [that cost us the game].We needed one of us to go on a finish it off, as it was not easy getting astart out there. But I played a poor shot and Matty [Hayden] got caught on theboundary and we did not finish the job. He played really well but we have come to expect that from him as he churns out runs in both forms of the game for us.The venue was good but I was a little disappointed that we used the samewicket today. With there not being a lot of cricket here I would havethought there would have been time for the curator to prepare two wickets.Chaminda VaasMan of the Match and bowler of the fateful final over Marvan asked me to bowl the final over and I used my experience and tried tobowl six yorkers, and it went nicely. I have played 220-odd matches but Ithink this was the best one that I have played. I have been playing forSri Lanka for ten years and I know exactly what to do on these wickets.
“Have a good time while you’re at it. Don’t do anything silly and above all, drive carefully.”No, this is not the advice of a doting father to his errant son. It would have been the gist of coach John Wright’s words to the Indian side before they took on Namibia at the City Oval, Pietermaritzburg.The instructions were carried out to the letter, as India first piled up a mammoth score – 311/2 – and then used spin to tighten the screws on an inexperienced Namibian side, skittling them for 130 and winning easily by 181 runs.When Deon Kotze won the toss and elected to field, he could hardly been prepared for the kind of aggression the Indians inflicted on his side. On the day it was not the carefree devil-may-care thrashing of the ball that Virender Sehwag has made famous the world around, which dominated. Nor did the free-stroking, silky Sourav Ganguly six-fest, or the Sachin Tendulkar every-stroke-in-the-book master class hold sway. Well, at least not for a while anyway.On a wicket that had just a touch of moisture under the surface, Sehwag torched four boundaries in his customary fashion before being dismissed for a run-a-ball 24, pulling Rudie van Vuuren to Danie Keulder at short midwicket. Ganguly decided this was the time to walk out at number three and spend some quality time out in the middle.Tendulkar (152) did the team’s cause and his average no harm as he led the charge with his 34th one-day century, the first by an Indian this World Cup. Ganguly was not far behind, helping himself to an unbeaten 112.India, using this relatively easy fixture to warm up for sterner tests ahead – against England and Pakistan – played to their strengths, working the Namibian bowlers for all the runs they were worth.There was none of the loose strokes, the ambitious slashes or the confused batting that has plagued Indian cricket in recent times. The batsmen, led by their captain, have maintained all along that it would take only one good performance to reverse fortunes.When Tendulkar carefully nudged a full delivery to leg to bring up his fourth World Cup century, he also achieved the distinction of notching up one-day hundreds against ten different countries. It was yet another record for Tendulkar that no other batsman could boast.Until Ganguly reached three figures, that is. He too has centuries against ten countries, only missing out against West Indies of the major teams. Mark Waugh, Herschelle Gibbs and Brian Lara are the three batsmen that come close.But it was not the records that will warm the heart of coach John Wright. The manner in which India kept the scoreboard ticking over with ones and twos would have heartened him too. Until Ganguly decided the time was right for acceleration, and Tendulkar was well past his hundred, hardly any big hits were attempted. Even then, though, the pair concentrated on hitting in the `V’ back down the wicket.It was not until the 40th over that Tendulkar was dismissed, playing an ungainly across-the-line heave against a ball that kept low from Rudie van Vuuren after making a masterly 152 (151 balls, 18 fours).When van Vuuren presented Ganguly with a wide full toss in the 46th over, the left-hander slapped a crisp boundary to move within one stroke of the three-figure mark. Soon after, he reached his 20th ODI century, before forging a last-minute charge, reaching 112 (119 balls, 6 fours, 4 sixes).Amid the runfest, Yuvraj Singh chipped in with an unnoticeable seven from as many balls to seal the innings on 311/2.By the time the Namibians came out to bat, India would have been more worried about the weather than the opposition, but the rain stayed away, and India sailed to a comprehensive win.Just as the Sehwag dismissal was a blot in the Indian batting card, Ashish Nehra provided the blemish in the bowling effort. Nehra slipped in his bowling stride while attempting to deliver his second ball. Limping off, he left it to Zaheer Khan to finish the over.But from then on there were no mistakes. Bowling full and straight – something he should consider more often – Khan trapped Stephan Swanepoel and Louis Burger in front of the stumps.Keulder then provided one of those moments that seem to be tailor-made for highlights reels. Keen to get on, he attempted to heave Harbhajan Singh over midwicket and almost succeeded. The ball sailed towards the ropes as Dinesh Mongia lurched, caught, fumbled, then caught again before sliding to a stop just inches in front of the ropes.The television umpire was pressed into service and a reluctant Keulder (4) had to be on his way.Having pulled off a freakishly good catch, Mongia was given a bowl soon after.Jan-Berrie Burger, who gave England a fright with a big-hitting 83, once again proved his worth, top scoring with 29 (30 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) before he was cleaned up by a straight one from Mongia.The spinners then ran through the overs quickly and Namibia, hardly used to playing this much spin, lost wickets in quick succession. Mongia picked up 2/24 from 10 overs, Harbhajan enhanced his career statistics to the tune of 2/34 and Yuvraj bullied the tail-enders to end with figures of 4.3-2-6-4.As the triumphant Indians walked off the field with four more points in the bag, they will know that sterner tests lie ahead in the shape of England and Pakistan.John Wright will smile as he claps his wards into the dressing room. The Indians had a plan, and unfalteringly followed it to the end. With the talent in this side, and some confidence, that is all this team really needs to do.
Mark Butcher has revealed that he was close to quitting cricket until the resurgence in the England team’s performances inspired him to continue.”The only reason I didn’t give up cricket was because I didn’t know what else I could do, but I think everyone looks at things like that when things aren’t going well,” he admitted.”I wasn’t really looking forward to the start of the season in April 2000 and apart from the success that Surrey had that year, it was a pretty rotten year for me all round.”Looking back on it now, I played in 27 Tests and they seemed to fly by and since I’ve been out of it I’ve watched the success the guys have had and it’s helped me build an appetite to get back,” he continued.”I was starting to miss it again and at one point I wouldn’t have missed it at all. Life in general had got me down and that made it very difficult to give as much attention and focus to the job as I should.”But Butcher teamed up with his father, the ex-England player Alan Butcher, to work hard to eradicate some technical flaws over the winter. The rewards have been clear to see as the Surrey opener has been in sparkling form in the last couple of weeks in all forms of cricket.”I’ve done a fair bit of rebuilding in certain parts of my game during the winter and that’s taken a little bit of time to bed down this summer, but it seems to be working so far,” he explained.”In the last couple of years I’ve played virtually non-stop and a few things crept into my game that were causing a few problems, so I spent the winter at home and worked with the ‘Old Fella’, Butcher said, reflecting on a run of 23 Test innings without a half-century that led to him being dropped after the tour of South Africa.”They were little adjustments, the sort of things golfers do all the time but cricketers rarely do, analysing the mechanics of it all – if the parts aren’t moving properly you give yourself less of a chance to succeed.”David Graveney suggested that Butcher will bat at number three at Edgbaston in his bid to kick-start the career that brought Test centuries against two of the strongest bowling attacks in world cricket – South Africa and Australia. But Butcher admitted that the recall to England colours had come as a bit of a surprise.”This has been a massive bolt out of the blue,” he conceded. “I was so nervous when ‘Grav’ rang, which was something I hadn’t felt in a very long time.”
West Ham’s nightmare season descended into further crisis as they suffered a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
Man City 3-0 West Ham as Hammers humbled
Nuno Espírito Santo’s side are now condemned to spending Christmas in the relegation zone after their tenth Premier League defeat of a dismal campaign.
Erling Haaland was the architect of City’s dominant victory, scoring twice and creating the other goal as Pep Guardiola’s side registered their fifth consecutive Premier League win to temporarily move top of the table.
The Norwegian striker needed just five minutes to open the scoring when Phil Foden delivered a cross from the left that Haaland swept home, setting the tone for a one-sided encounter that exposed the gulf in class between the hosts and the struggling visitors.
West Ham offered precious little in response during a lacklustre first-half display, with only a Jarrod Bowen cross that ran through the box representing any sort of threat to City’s dominance at the Etihad.
The Hammers’ defensive frailties were brutally exposed again in the 38th minute when Rayan Cherki beat Mateus Fernandes to the ball and wriggled into the penalty area before feeding Haaland, who had no room to shoot himself but intelligently laid the ball off for Tijjani Reijnders to smash into the roof of the net from close range.
West Ham make first move to sign La Liga's 2024 top goalscorer to replace Fullkrug
He’s got a proven record.
ByEmilio Galantini
The visitors showed greater energy after the interval and briefly threatened when Crysencio Summerville won possession on the left and crossed from the byline, forcing Gianluigi Donnarumma to react quickly and parry Freddie Potts’ shot before Fernandes blasted the rebound over the crossbar.
Bowen dragged another effort wide as the Hammers enjoyed their best spell of the match, but City had further opportunities with Ruben Dias heading at Alphonse Areola and Foden shooting wide before Haaland killed off any lingering hopes of a West Ham comeback.
The third goal arrived in the 69th minute as City swept forward through substitutes Savinho and Rico Lewis, with Haaland finishing clinically to take his tally for club and country this season to 38 goals and put the result beyond any doubt.
Donnarumma was forced to block from Summerville as West Ham briefly flickered again in search of consolation, but Foden and Josko Gvardiol went close for City before Haaland shot narrowly wide in stoppage time, coming inches away from completing his hat-trick.
The defeat extends West Ham’s winless streak to six matches and leaves them marooned on 13 points from 16 games, three points from safety and guaranteed to spend the festive period in the bottom three for the fifth time in their history.
Nuno’s side were without both starting full-backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Malick Diouf who are on Africa Cup of Nations duty, further depleting a squad already struggling badly for form and confidence as the relegation battle intensifies heading into the new year.
Commentator makes brutal Max Kilman claim after West Ham defeat
It was also a nightmare afternoon for Max Kilman.
The Englishman failed to nullify Haaland’s constant threat throughout, adding to his collection of somewhat unconvincing displays, with commentator Tom Rennie making a brutal claim on X.
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Rennie, who also works for talkSPORT international as an editor, called Kilman the worst footballer he’s ever seen.
West Ham’s leaky backline is seriously contributing to their downfall this season, and a new centre-back next month is believed to be in their January transfer thinking.
While a striker is seen as the priority to replace the departing Niclas Füllkrug, Toulouse defender Charlie Cresswell is a top target for West Ham with internal discussions held over a move.
Having a genuine alternative to the likes of Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo could be crucial if the east Londoners are to avoid a dreaded drop to the Championship.
West Ham in pole position to re-sign former star after holding talks with him
The Editors Guild of India has said the revised guidelines issued by the Indian Premier League on Tuesday are still harsh and will affect the freedom of newspapers.In a press release circulated to all its members and other media bodies, including the Indian Newspaper Society, and the Sport Journalists’ Federation of India, Guild secretary KS Sachidananda Murthy said the final terms of media accreditation for the IPL’s first season were unacceptable. He said the conditions would seriously influence the independence of editors, especially when it comes to the selection and use of photographs.Although the IPL formally withdrew some of the original contentious clauses, it maintained its hardline stand on websites – their representatives will not be allowed into the venue during matches and they will not have access to photographs.Murthy said the IPL’s demand that newspapers and news agencies must provide free of charge the photographs requested by the IPL for use and reproduction was unacceptable. While the Guild noted that there was some relaxation in the originally proposed terms and conditions, the blanket prohibition on the use of photographs taken by a newspaper or news agency, which are their exclusive property, for online use or syndication is unacceptable.The Guild felt the IPL should not be putting a quantitative limit on the number of photographs a newspaper or news agencies can uphold to its website, as it was clearly the domain of the editor to decide. In its new guidelines, the IPL allowed newspapers with their own web publication to upload six different pictures on their online photo galleries in addition to the pictures published in print.The original guidelines, published last week, had provoked widespread outrage, with the Editors Guild criticising the “prohibitive conditions”, which it said were “unprecedented and unacceptable to the Indian media.”
Australia have again seized the No. 1 ODI ranking after seven weeks of sitting in second place behind South Africa. Bangladesh’s upset victory over South Africa combined with Australia’s comfortable defeat of England restored Ricky Ponting’s men to top spot.However, Australia have 128 points and are only three clear of Graeme Smith’s side, meaning the standings could change a number of times before the World Cup ends. South Africa timed their brief period at the head of the table to perfection – as the No. 1-ranked country at the end of the ICC year on April 1 they pocketed US$175,000.Australia stumbled from the top position after their 3-0 Chappell-Hadlee Trophy loss in February and it was the first time since the ODI rankings were introduced in October 2002 they were not No. 1.Sri Lanka have jumped Pakistan to take the No. 4 place, meaning the four favourites to make the semi-finals – Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka – are officially the four best teams in the world. England’s loss to Australia kept them in seventh position but a poor finish in the Caribbean could yet see West Indies leapfrog them.
Peter Chingoka, Zimbabwe Cricket’s embattled chairman, has launched a stinging attack on those who have criticised the way that the game is being run in Zimbabwe.Replying to a letter sent to the ICC by Charlie Robertson and Ethan Dube, two senior administrators, Chingoka questioned their credentials and claimed that they wanted “democracy is only when it suits your interests”.He continued: “It seems that you two reverend gentlemen would like to keep the sport in your perceived enclave and maintain the status quo to the disadvantage of those previously left out. It is sad to note your views on this subject yet some of the people who have benefited from the deliberate ZC policy of widening the base of talent are now being roped in by yourselves to think that such a policy is bad. We have irrefutable evidence of interference with the players by your lot. The true picture you are hiding from them is that you want continuous control at the helm of the game.”Chingoka went on to dismiss suggestions that the board was racist. “Allegations peddled from your corner on some such allegations are spurious and go on to show the die-hard nature of your past agendas” he wrote. “That is doomed to fail.”Turning to the current state of affairs, Chingoka claimed that the situation was not as dire as Robertson and Dube stated, but was getting better. “Our team is a young one being nurtured for bigger things to come. It is being developed for a better future and Test cricket status. Suspending Test matches was a deliberate policy by the board to ensure that the team grows and develops in the interim.”The current team is doing fine,” Chingoka explained. “We wish good luck to those who do not want to play for Zimbabwe because of enticements given to them. Zimbabwe Cricket has not denied any person from playing cricket for the national team. If you were genuine in your efforts to encourage team work, we would have seen the results from efforts to resolve perceived differences and talking to players to play for the country.”Turning to the involvement of the government’s Sports & Recreation Committee, which took control of the board in January and immediately reappointed Chingoka as chairman, he stated: “The SRC has done nothing wrong. Its actions have brought tranquility into sport. Its undue criticism by yourselves is not a surprise because you do not want the game to be spread in order for talent to be tapped nationwide. You are against the SRC because of their stance on this issue. It is sad to note that 26 years after independence you still hold on to archaic ideas.”He also brushed aside allegations that money was missing from the board’s accounts, pointing out that an independent auditor was now at work. “The police have finished their investigations. Our lawyers told us that the former board was guilty of contravening sections of the Exchange Control Act. Consequently no individual is to be charged but the board.He signed off: “Please be advised that it is always good to remove the log in one’s eye before pointing at the speck in another’s.”But the letter also made a number of extremely serious allegations against Ahmed Ebrahim, the former vice-president of the board and a former Supreme Court judge, who led the opposition to Chingoka last year. It also made allegations against Macsood Ebrahim, Ahmed’s son and a former leading administrator and national selector. Those are likely to ensure that this matter is far from finished.