Scorecard Anirudh Singh produced a fighting 92 but the rest of the Hyderabad batsmen capitulated around him on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semi-finals in Delhi. Hyderabad might have gone on to rue thier decision to bat first as Harvinder Singh, the former Indian seamer, struck four crucial blows and spearheaded the Railways’ effort. He was well supported by Jai Prakash Yadav, who continued his fine bowling season with 3 for 55, while Murali Kartik chipped in with two wickets.Anirudh’s patient innings spanned more than three and a half hours but he had his aggressive moments with 13 fours and two sixes. Only two other batsmen managed double figures and Anirudh couldn’t manage to string together vital partnerships.Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, made a fantastic debut and led the Hyderabad fightback with 4 for 29 in the final session. He removed all the four Railways batsmen to fall,including Amit Pagnis who raced along to 42 at a rapid pace. Yadav was at the crease when stumps were drawn having made 23 off 29 balls. However, Railways, with their potent seam attack, still held the edge in what was turning out to be a low-scoring thriller.
England 219 for 4 (Cook 108*) beat Zimbabwe 218 for 9 (Taylor 45) by six wickets ScorecardAlistair Cook recorded his second century in consecutive matches, and Luke Wright made 79, as England booked their place in the semi-finals of the U19 World Cup. Incredibly, it was Cook’s second score of 108 not out from 131 balls, the only difference being that he hit 10 boundaries on this occasion, compared to 11 against New Zealand earlier in the week.Cook emulated India’s Shikhar Dhawan who has also made two hundreds, and his efforts ensured a workmanlike victory for England. They were always favourites for this match but could take nothing for granted against Zimbabwe, who had bundled Australia out for 73 – and out of the tournament – at the group stage.Zimbabwe were left to rue their missed opportunities. They were put in by England, and although eight of their batsmen made double figures, no-one could manage more than Brendon Taylor’s 45. They were kept in check by some tight English bowling, in particular from Tim Bresnan and David Stiff, who each picked up three wickets, and were limited to 218 for 9 in their 50 overs.Cook was in control from the start of England’s reply, and reached his half-century from 55 balls. Samit Patel, who also made a century against New Zealand, was the third man to fall with the score on 93, but Wright strode to the middle and broke the back of the run-chase. Although he was dismissed with victory in sight, Cook sealed the win with an over to spare.After the match, Cook was quick to share the credit for England’s success. “It is great to score two tons on the bounce but Samit [Patel] also scored a century against New Zealand and today Wrighty took a lot of the pressure off me with his 79 runs. We came here aiming to get two points today and we’re obviously happy to have done that but we didn’t play as well as we know we can.”Zimbabwe are now out of the tournament, but their captain Tinotenda Mawoyo was full of praise for his team. “All good things must come to an end,” he said. “We have shown we are not just here to make up the numbers and we should be proud of the way we have performed. We’ve had a wonderful time in Bangladesh where the people have been very good to us.”England’s final group match is against Pakistan at the Fatullah District Stadium on 27 February. The match was originally scheduled for BKSP, but was transferred to Fatullah because of the phenomenal crowds that the venue has been attracting.
Virender Sehwag: second century of the series sets India up for victory
It was the result the National Bank Series has been crying out for and it was a genuine thriller at Eden Park as India got home over New Zealand by one wicket with one ball of the game to spare tonight.New Zealand have already won the seven-game series but India wanted to win the last three to claim something of a moral victory.They are well on the way to achieving that but New Zealand have once again been able to expose themselves to another potential World Cup situation in a series they have already won.Virender Sehwag had set India up brilliantly with a fine innings of 112 off 139 balls. He was dismissed off the last ball of the 42nd over, and because India were docked one over for slow over rate, they had seven overs available in which to score the 18 remaining runs.But India almost blew it, and that was without New Zealand being able to call on fast man Shane Bond, who would have been ideal in the situation.He was off the field suffering an infection of the middle ear, which started to hinder him when he was bowling.Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif pottered around attempting to get used to the pace of the pitch but found it a struggle and they came up against the unlikely, but wily, bowling combination of Chris Harris bowling seamers and Andre Adams.Yuvraj was out when caught in the slips by Stephen Fleming off Harris for eight in the 46th over.In the next over Sanjay Bangar was trapped leg before wicket by Adams for one.Agit Agarkar came out to be run out for a duck after Fleming changed fielding position and took the ball at mid on to lob it to Harris who lifted the bails.India went into the last over needing four runs to win.Kaif was bowled by Adams for seven. Then off the next ball Javagal Srinath swung hard at a leg-side ball from Adams, and when he recovered from the exertions of his shot he found Zaheer Khan standing at the crease beside him. By this time wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum was firing the ball back to the bowler’s end where Adams ran out Khan.Umpire Daryl Harper heightened the tension by awarding a wide from the dismissal ball.Srinath then ran a leg bye from the next ball and last man in Ashish Nehra faced up to the penultimate ball, with the New Zealand field right up. He slashed at the ball and ran the single to claim the victory for his side.It was some overdue tension and while the loss was hard to take for the home team, they learned some invaluable lessons about their own indisciplines which cost them dearly.Poor fielding, Sehwag was dropped twice, a hard chance by Harris off Kyle Mills’ bowling on 36 and on 63 by Fleming off Daryl Tuffey saw them punished. Several run out chances also went close.As exercises go it was as good as it could possibly get in a match situation.That any cricket was played at all was a wonder given the conditions 12 hours before the scheduled start time of 2pm. But after the heavy rain of the two previous days, the day dawned fine and with a drying breeze blowing, the ground dried well enough for play to start 15 minutes later. There was no reduction in overs as time was taken off the dinner break.New Zealand struggled through all but the last three or four overs of the innings. In yet another example of pitches doing too much sideways, the boot was on the Indian foot for a change, and the veteran Srinath used his knowledge superbly.Of concern was the manner in which he dismissed Chris Cairns, batting at No 4, through the same gap between bat and pad that he was bowled in the previous game in Wellington. Srinath bowled 10 overs for three for 13 and moved to 297 wickets in One-Day Internationals.Mathew Sinclair opening again in Nathan Astle’s absence scored 18 off 54 balls to give the most graphic demonstration of how difficult it was to move the score along. Fleming had been the first to go off the third ball bowled by left-armer Nehra. The first two balls he had punished but then touched one behind.Harris’ time at No 3 was brief as he was trapped by Agarkar, leg before wicket for a duck.It was a struggle and by the time Cairns went for 13, New Zealand four 50 for four wickets.The first signs of recovery came from Scott Styris and Lou Vincent, who sensibly worked the ones and twos with some attacking running while they also took care of anything errant, with some vicious pull shots on Styris’ part.They added 80 in 20 overs before Styris, attempting to force the pace, was caught at mid-off for 42, scored off 52 balls.McCullum was run out without facing a ball and Mills followed in quick order, also for a duck as New Zealand slumped to 134 for seven wickets. Adams was unable to fire and was bowled by Khan for two while Tuffey was run out at 147 and it seemed it just required Vincent and the last batsman Bond to move the ball around to see out the 50 overs.They did better than that in what was the best clean hitting of the series.Bond was magnificent in hitting three sixes, two of them huge hits, one into the stand behind the bowler Sourav Ganguly and one into the upper deck of the West Stand, one of the biggest hits on the ground.Vincent joined the act and brought up his half century, his fourth in ODIs, with a six off Khan in the last over.By the time the innings ended at 199 for nine wickets, they had scored 52 runs off 23 balls.Khan and Ganguly had their previous tight bowling punished in their last two overs, Ganguly going for 18 off his last and Khan for 15 and 19 off his last two. New Zealand finished their innings with a hiss and a roar, and India started theirs in the same fashion with Sehwag and Ganguly enjoying their best stand of the series.They added 70 runs in 15 overs for the first wicket.New Zealand’s bowlers conceded 12 wides and nine no-balls which was too many under the circumstances and suggested a lack of focus to the levels that had served them so well earlier in the series.The stage has been set for a competitive finale in Hamilton on Tuesday.
Yorkshire’s new bowling sensation Steven Kirby blasted out six Leicestershire batsmen at Headingley as his former county were dismissed for only 174 after the CricInfo Championship leaders had piled up 500 in their first innings.Kirby, who played for Leicestershire Seconds before being released, took seven for 50 on his Yorkshire debut in their last home match after replacing Matthew Hoggard in the middle of the Kent game.He was in the same dynamic mood again as he sent back Leicestershire’s first three batsmen in his opening spell and later returned to wreak more havoc in two further stints.Darren Maddy was the first of Kirby’s victims when he was caught behind, Ben Smith was lbw in his next over and Dan Marsh soon had his middle stump ripped out.Opener Iain Sutcliffe survived Kirby’s initial burst but became his fourth scalp when he returned to have the left-hander caught behind and Jon Dakin and Phil DeFreitas followed in consecutive overs later on.Kirby had still not finished his heroics, however, because he then took a good catch on the third man boundary off Chris Silverwood to send back Aftab Habib who was on his second visit to the crease after earlier retiring hurt when struck painfully on the left thumb.Yorkshire had resumed the second day on 299 for three and their batting was dominated by Darren Lehmann who became the third centurion of the innings, Matthew Wood and Michael Lumb achieving three figures the previous day.It was the first time that three Yorkshire batsmen had hit centuries in the same Championship innings since the match against Gloucestershire at Bristol in 1975 when the batsmen concerned were Michael Lumb’s father, Richard, Geoff Boycott and John Hampshire.Lehmann finally departed for 104 off 133 balls with 13 fours, leaving Championship debutant Richard Dawson to entertain the crowd with some spectacular hitting near the end of the innings when he thrashed DeFreitas for 21 in one over, including two sixes off consecutive balls. Dawson was last out for 37 from 41 deliveries.Leicestershire trail by 326 on the first innings and Yorkshire look in excellent shape to go on to win their fifth match of the season and extend their lead still further at the top of the Division One table.
Chris Woakes will miss the final two matches of the ODI series against Australia due to a thigh problem. The allrounder, who has had a season disrupted by injury, is expected to be fit for the start of England’s tour of the UAE.Woakes played the first three ODIs, without picking up a wicket, having previously appeared for England at the World Cup. His last Test appearance came against India in 2014.An England statement on Twitter said: “Chris Woakes has been ruled out of the final two Royal London ODIs against Australia with a right thigh injury. He is expected to be available for selection for the Test series against Pakistan.”It has been a frustrating year for Woakes, who had become a consistent member of the one-day side and featured in all of England’s World Cup games until a metatarsal stress reaction ruled him out of the final match. He then suffered a knee problem that required surgery, meaning he missed England’s tour of the West Indies and played no part in the Ashes.England are expected to name their squads to play three Tests, four ODIs and three T20s against Pakistan in October and November next week. In the short term, Woakes’ injury means Mark Wood, David Willey and Reece Topley will come into contention for the fourth ODI at Headingley on Friday.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor has admitted that Carlos Tevez may be in line for new charges and fines from Manchester City due to his decision to travel back to Argentina.
The South American has had a controversial last year at the Etihad Stadium, handing in transfer requests and on numerous occasions expressing his desire to leave the Premier League club.
The latest indiscretion saw the striker refuse to warm up against Bayern Munich in the Champions League in late September, with City suspending the forward for two weeks and docking him four-weeks wages.
Tevez has been training by himself on his return to the club, but after being denied permission to return to his homeland, decided to go against his employer’s wishes and flew back to Buenos Aires on Tuesday night.
Taylor has tried to defend Tevez in the past, but fears the hot-headed forward may be liable for further sanctions from Roberto Mancini’s side.
“Bearing in mind what has happened recently, and the fact he was clearly told on more than one occasion that he was not to return to Argentina and that he was on his fitness regime here, he has flagrantly breached that instruction and that goes to the heart of the contract,” Taylor told The Telegraph.
“That could be gross misconduct in anybody’s language. I don’t want to predetermine, but I’m very concerned. It is a serious situation and one that the PFA aren’t happy about and, I assume, neither are Manchester City,” he concluded.
The in-discipline by Tevez is sure to influence City’s decision over his future, with a January sale now looking very likely.
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It is likely that in 2013 UEFA will implement a new set of fair play rules. UEFA will stipulate clubs to be more self-sufficient. The result will be that clubs with the largest revenues will be able to spend the most money. This has been seen, in many ways, as a fair system and will prevent rich owners from dramatically changing the face of a domestic football league.
This has been seen in England in the last ten years with the extravagant spending by Chelsea and Manchester City. Roman Abramovich and Sheik Mansour are among the richest men in the world and have had a dramatic effect on English football.
What I want to look at here are the revenue stream of Manchester United. Why is revenue important? It is that figure that will dictate how much money clubs will be able to spend in the future.
What is interesting from the Money League is that Manchester United may be the biggest club in England, but their total revenue is not anywhere near that of top of the list Real Madrid. One reason for this would obviously because of the weakening of the pound against the Euro, but this is not the only reason for disparity.
Total Revenue (£m)
2010
1
R. Madrid
438.6
2
Barcelona
398.1
3
Man Utd.
349.8
4
Bayern
323
5
Arsenal
274.1
6
Chelsea
255.9
7
Milan
235.8
8
Liverpool
225.3
9
Inter
224.8
10
Juventus
205
11
Man City
152.8
12
Tottenham
146.3
13
Hamburg
146.2
14
Lyon
146.1
15
Marseille
141.1
[divider]
Manchester United may be one of the ‘biggest’ clubs in the world but it only generates the 6th highest broadcasting revenue, and generated £40.1m less than Barcelona in 2010 despite playing in the Champions League and coming runners-up the Premiership. This is because Spanish and Italian leagues allow clubs to organise their own private TV deals for domestic League games. The English and German leagues sell their TV rights collectively and split the money between clubs more equally.
Team
Total Broadcasting Revenue (£m)
1
Barcelona
145.8
2
R.Madrid
129.9
3
AC Milan
115.5
4
Inter
112.9
5
Juventus
108.5
6
Man U
104.8
[divider]
Furthermore, in 2005, Manchester United made more money from commercial deals than Barcelona. However, looking at the same side’s commercial revenue from 2010, you see that is no longer the case.
Commercial Revenue 2005 (£m)
Commercial Revenue 2010 (£m)
R. Madrid
83.7
Bayern
141.6
Bayern
79.3
R. Madrid
123.5
Juventus
55.5
Barcelona
100
Man United
48.7
Man United
81.4
Barcelona
42.4
Schalke
64.7
AC Milan
39.1
Liverpool
62.1
Schalke
38.9
Chelsea
56.3
Liverpool
38.3
AC Milan
51.9
Chelsea
37.2
Man City
46.7
Arsenal
29.7
Juventus
45.5
[divider]
In 2005, Barcelona earned less than Manchester United (England’s richest club). By 2010 they earn £20m more. However, unlike with broadcasting deals (where Spanish clubs organise private TV deals), and match-day revenue (where some clubs have old stadiums), the reason for the gap between the best English clubs and their Spanish counter parts is not obvious.
Looking at Barcelona as a brand, they are very individual and marketable. The style of football they play is synonymous with the football club. And it is attractive football. They have also seen more on-field success than Manchester United in the last 5 years. Their rise is due to their own on-pitch success rather than the fault of Manchester United.
The worrying thing for the Premier League is that while the arrangement of individual TV rights exists in Spain exists, teams in England will never be able to compete with biggest Spanish and Italian clubs in terms of TV revenue. Juventus did not qualify for the Champions League this year, but still had a higher total revenue from broadcasting than Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea who have all played in the competition for the last two years.
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So while Manchester United may compete with the biggest clubs in Europe on match-day revenue and, to an extent, commercial revenue, they fall far behind in total revenue due to the difference in structure of the way La Liga organizes broadcasting deals.
Belgian prodigy Romelu Lukaku has attracted admiring glances from all over Europe since bursting on to the scene as a 16-year-old with club side Anderlecht in May of 2009. The 6ft 4in 17-year-old topped the domestic league scoring charts last season, bagging 15 goals in just 25 appearances. Pictures of the youngster sitting in the Stamford Bridge dugout leaked this week, heightening speculation that Carlo Ancelotti is to make a move for the young Belgian. Speaking of Lukaku, current Chelsea striker Didier Drogba said: “I received his phone number from Vincent Kompany.’You should sign for Chelsea,’ I told him.”
Unlike other Premier League sides Chelsea do not have a reputation for nurturing young talent. Would a switch to Stamford Bridge represent a wise move for Romelu Lukaku?
Since the start of Roman Abramovich’s association with the club, Chelsea have financially outmuscled several clubs in order to sign a clutch of talented, young players. For the majority of these players, a move to West London turned out to be a bad decision. The careers of England internationals Glen Johnson, Scott Parker and Shaun Wright-Phillips are all widely considered to have stalled and/or regressed at Stamford Bridge. Having fought tooth and nail to ‘illegally’ procure Leeds United’s youth-team duo Tom Taiwo and Michael Woods in 2006, a succession of Chelsea managers failed to utilise their talents; indeed Taiwo now plies his trade for Carlisle United, whilst Woods languishes in the Chelsea reserves.
The formative years within a player’s career are pivotal to one’s development. First-team football is generally considered to be the best way to facilitate the growth and development of one’s potential, and Lukaku will certainly be more likely to encounter such opportunities at Anderlecht.
Whilst Abramovich has provided signals that he is wishing to eke out the investment-heavy, ‘quick-fix-success’ nature of Chelsea’s existence since 2003, (with this summer’s signings of Tomáš Kalas and Matej Delač supporting the Russian’s assertions), it remains to be seen whether or not this will turn out to be the case. With Abramovich desperately trying to shed the club’s image of one as a trophy-buying, aging club, the signing of players such as Lukaku may be central to his intentions. Whilst a move for Lukaku may help Abramovich to achieve his aims, it may not help the young Belgian achieve his.
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Click on image to see a gallery of the BEST BABES at the World Cup this summer
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Wolves boss Mick McCarthy is pleased that Spurs manager Harry Redknapp believes his side is too good to be relegated.”I’m delighted he feels that we’re not going down and I agree with him,” said McCarthy.”Quite a few managers have said we’re too good to go down – we’ve got to prove it.””Harry’s up front and honest and he’d have said that with one hand and hoping he’ll slap us with the other.” The former Ireland boss admires Tottenham’s brand of football and sees no reason why they cannot go all the way in the Champions League. “They’ve done very well so far. I think they have big-match players that whatever big game is thrown at them they can handle that,” he said.”If they get through that, then why not? Who’s to say who will win it?”For some reason Wanderers have done better against the top sides than fellow strugglers. “Maybe it’s to do with us being the underdogs, but there are all sorts of theories,” McCarthy said. “But I don’t think anyone treats us lightly, not after the results we’ve had.”Teams are all bunching up at the bottom and the subject turned McCarthy to song. “It’s like the old song about 10-in-a-bed – the little one said roll over, that’s what it’s like at the minute,” he said. “Nothing’s sorted, nothing’s settled, everyone is scrapping away and that’s the way it’s going to be until May 22.””If Albion, Blackpool and all the others win their next two games, it doesn’t matter, we could still do it.””It might take 40 points to survive, but it’s not about when you get them – as long as you’ve got more than three other teams before the end of the season, that will fine.” Ronald Zubar will not face Spurs due to a back problem and is likely to be replaced by Kevin Foley. Stephen Hunt is out with a calf injury and Wolves have doubts with Steven Mouyokolo, who rocked his knee in training, and midfielders Dave Jones and Dave Edwards who are both doubtful with leg injuries. Jamie O’Hara, on loan from Spurs, is ineligible.
Outgoing president Joan Laporta believes it is inevitable that Cesc Fabregas will leave Arsenal for Barcelona this summer.
Laporta, who will shortly be replaced in the Camp Nou hot-seat by Sandro Rosell, fully expects the north London club to "give way" and let their captain return to his former club.
Barcelona have already seen one bid in the region of £25million rejected by the Gunners for the 23-year-old midfielder.
That is despite Fabregas reportedly informing manager Arsene Wenger of his desire to return to the Catalan club following seven years in north London.
Meanwhile Laporta, who will leave office at the end of June, fully expects the deal to be completed.
However, he has accepted that the protracted nature of the transfer means it is more likely to be completed on Rosell's watch.
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"We'll keep trying and if it's not us who do it, the new board will, if they feel it's something they want to continue with," he said on the club's official website.
"I think Arsenal will gave way – but I don't know when and we just have to wait and let the professionals who are dealing with it get on with the job they've been given."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email