Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka’s strike bowler, said the difference between the team that lost the one-day and Test series to India last season and the current one was that the present squad was more united under Mahela Jayawardene.”Mahela has shown good leadership qualities. We are more united now and each player knows his responsibility in the team while in the past things were left to the other one [(to complete],” said Vaas. ahead of Sri Lanka’s match against the West Indies.Both Sri Lanka and West Indies have already qualified for the second stage of the ten-team event. The other two teams in the preliminary stage, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, have already been eliminated.Vaas felt the qualifying stage of the tournament had provided good match practice for the teams. “They have been good practice games for the task ahead. The game against the West Indies would be a good match. We have played well [so far].”.
The players’ statement in fullZimbabwe’s professional cricketers have issued a statement which slams the conduct of the board, accusing it of being “at best incompetent, and at worst, a bully”. Coming on the eve of Zimbabwe Cricket’s AGM in Bulawayo tomorrow and the first Test against India on Tuesday, it represents a embarrassing slap in the face for Zimbabwe Cricket. It also rubbishes the official line that there is no disharmony between players and board.While the players made it clear that they were not prepared to go on strike, explaining that doing so would not be in the interests of the game inside Zimbabwe, the tone and length of the statement left no doubt that they have no faith in the senior administrators.At the heart of their anger are the unilaterally-imposed performance-related contracts announced by the board last week and a resulting newspaper article purporting to reveal the seemingly high remuneration packages on offer. The players clearly feel that the article was planted by the board and that the figures were deliberately misleading. Clive Field, the players’ representative said: “ZC appear content to use the media to sensationalize the sensitive issue of remuneration.”They are also livid that despite having several months to negotiate and come up with a mutually-agreed deal, the board has implemented something which was not discussed at very short notice.Only three players – Heath Streak, Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut – were offered long-term deals, while the others were put on performance-related short-term contracts which made no allowance for seniority. The 12-month packages on offer made no allowance for the hyperinflation prevalent inside Zimbabwe, and ZC refused to link the payments to the reserve bank rate.Already upset at the way this was handled, ZC then announced on the eve of an ODI against India that the offer to three players – Stuart Carlisle, Barney Rogers and Neil Ferreira – had been withdrawn and no reasons were given. The players continued with the match but a request for more information remains unanswered.”Our position is that this directly and adversely impacts player confidence,” Field said.”It reveals an administration which is at best incompetent, and at worst, a bully. In the continued absence of sound reasons from ZC, such action amounts to intimidation of the player body.”As things stand, the contracts remain unaccepted by the players, who said they are “playing on trust”. ZC has said that new contracts will be supplied by September 14, but the impression is that the players have little faith that this promise will be answered.The sums on offer also differ wildly from those claimed by ZC – according to Field, match fees are now 25% of what was on offer six months ago in South Africa. Furthermore, Zimbabwe’s draconian tax rates seriously erode the sums, and the lack of international cricket played by Zimbabwe means that the potential amounts quoted are almost certainly not likely to be achieved. ZC, they claimed, had also removed perks such as vehicles, DSTV and BUPA, all of which were in place on the 2004-05 contracts.Damningly, the players concluded by asking whether the administration of ZC had also been cut. “If we as players are being told to tighten our belts, what is ZC itself as an administration doing in the same vein?” Field asked.”What salaries are being paid by ZC to themselves? If it is deemed by ZC to be in the public interest to splash players salaries around the press, then presumably they have no objection announcing their own? We look forward to receiving details.”We are concerned that ZC should be held accountable for a set of performance criteria which measure its revenues and management of its finances in a transparent and responsible manner for the betterment of the game.”
On the day that Australia begins one of the least appetising Test tours everundertaken, Sean Ervine begins the rest of his cricketing life. Ervine, aflamboyant 21-year-old who in an apolitical world would be one of the firstZimbabweans picked, will instead meet with West Australian cricket officialstoday to discuss his prospects for the next year – and maybe beyond.Ervine flew out of Harare on the same night the Australians flew in. Now inPerth, he has declared his Zimbabwean career over and is entertaining vagueambitions of one day wearing the baggy green.”It has crossed my mind,” he admitted, “but that is quite a long way away.You have to get through the four years of becoming a citizen and proveyourself as a cricketer. If it comes one day, I’ll be happy.”Ervine looks every inch a strapping, fair-dinkum Aussie on the front page of The Australian newspaper today. Blond and beaming, wearing a T-shirtand jeans, he is pictured cuddling his comparably fair-haired, toothy andstriking girlfriend Melissa Marsh, daughter of the soon-to-be former Zimbabwe coach Geoff Marsh.”With Melissa here,” he told the paper, “it made my decision much easier.”Ervine agreed with the Australian team’s decision to go ahead with the tour,saying it would raise awareness of Zimbabwe cricket’s ills, but warned “I wouldn’t say it would be any better any time quickly … The ICC should have come into it and done a bit more.”A combative right-arm swing bowler and lower-order bat, Ervine would be an obvious asset to a WA side short on spark which last won the domestic competition in 1998-99 when it was still called the Sheffield Shield – anexcruciating drought by modern western standards. He averages 32 with thebat and 43 with the ball in his five Tests. He was one of the less traumatised witnesses to Matthew Hayden’s record runfest at the WACA last October, emerging with four wickets, a half-century and his reputation enhanced.There are new reports, meanwhile, that Australia’s planned two-Test tour ofZimbabwe might yet become a one-Test tour. In the face of growing farce,officials from both countries have reportedly discussed scrapping the secondTest scheduled for Bulawayo and replacing it with two one-dayers; a mild relief for some Australian fans and perhaps players, hopelessly irrelevant for Sean Ervine.
It was if time was standing still as the past, present and future of New South Wales andAustralian cricket were fused at the crease in the recent NSW vs QueenslandPura Cup match.It was the final match of the season and NSW with an 80-rundeficit on the first innings needed to win to make it to the final.Always the man for the occasion, Steve Waugh played a vintage knock,reminiscent of his more famous one only two months earlier at the same venueagainst England.Waugh wound back the clock as he bludgeoned the Queensland attack intosubmission and turned the first innings deficit into a handy lead. It wasthe first time he had made a century on the Sydney Cricket Ground against Queensland.It was 18 years earlier in a game against Queensland that Waugh made hisname. Waugh actually made his first-class debut in a game against Queenslandat the Gabba but it was the 1984/85 Shield final where he came of age.After Queensland scored 374 in the first innings, Waugh batting at No 8 came to the crease with NSW at a perilous six for 223 which shortly becameseven-down when Imran Khan went. The 19-year-old Waugh, batting with a maturityway beyond his years, led the tail to take NSW to 318. He made 21 in thesecond innings as NSW went on to win the final by one wicket, the only timethe Shield has been won in the last session of the season.That game metamorphised Waugh from an unknown into a player who could leadAustralia out of their doldrums. He had performed on the national stageagainst the national captain and it would be less then a year before hewould be representing his country.Notwithstanding brief times when he has been dropped or when he has beeninjured, this has been the first time in nearly a score of years that Waugh has beena regular for NSW. For him it would have been a case of ‘Back to the Future’as he got another taste of what it’s like to be a first-class cricketer inAustralia. It’s a unique situation which Waugh finds himself in. Playerslike Border and Boon devoted themselves to winning the Shield only afterthey had retired from international cricket.Waugh finds himself in a position to win the Shield late in his career, notas a bit player but rather a key cog in the machine. Most internationalplayers try to return to first-class cricket after their Test career isover. Now because Waugh has been dropped from the one day team and has spentthe better part of the season with the Blues, when he finally does decide tohang up the boots, whether or not he decides to play first-class cricket forNSW won’t be an issue.Playing Pura Cup cricket for the last two months has honed Waugh’s skillsand he should be the first player selected for the tour of West Indies.Based on what he saw from the vantage point of 22 yards away, Waugh wouldn’tmind if Michael Clarke was selected.Waugh had the best seat in the house whilst Clarke was putting on a battingclinic. Right from the start, he displayed shots of the highest quality andwas equally merciless on all the Queensland bowlers. This was no popgunattack, rather the leading one in Australia. Granted they were weakened bythe absence of Adam Dale and Joe Dawes and an injured Lee Carseldine but inMichael Kasprowicz and Ashley Noffke they possessed two of the leadingwicket-takers for the year.Michael Clarke is the type of cricketer that Steve Waugh loves and loves tohave in his team as he is the full package. An aggressive batsman, a shrewdpart-time bowler, a magnificent fielder with a cannon-like arm, silky handsand an intelligent cricket brain.Clarke could slot right into the Australian side now and is the type ofcricketer who has the rest of the world bemused as to how this countrykeeps producing players of the highest calibre.The Pura Cup final is a five-day game and has a Test match feel to it. Theintensity and passion displayed in finals past is testament to how much isat stake.In Australian sport, there is no rivalry like the one which exists betweenNSW and Queensland. Cricket has done its fair share in fuelling this rivalryand will do so again as the two lock horns to decide who is the bestprovincial cricket team in Australia, if not the world.The game will be contested fiercely as one. NSW will go into the game asunderdogs. Queensland are playing on their beloved Gabba and gunning fortheir fourth straight championship whilst NSW will be looking to break theirnine-year drought.Only two sides have ever won a Shield away from home. NSW won the firstfinal at the WACA in 1982/83 and Queensland also won at the WACA in 1996/97.Which statistic will give – that NSW has never lost a final to Queensland orthat Queensland has never lost a final at home?The Bulls have not lost a game to their southern rivals since a fullstrength NSW defeated Queensland by eight wickets in November 1993.NSW have the big name players in the two Waughs, Slater, MacGill and Katich.The Blues have been fortunate in that the players have been spreading theload. In Sydney, it was Steve Waugh, Clarke, Nash, Katich and MacGill whocontributed. At the WACA, it was Mail, Slater, Mark Waugh and Clark who roseto the occasion.Queensland used to benefit greatly from the fact that their players werejust on the fringe of Australian selection. Now Andrew Bichel, AndrewSymonds, Matthew Hayden, Nathan Hauritz and Jimmy Maher are all in SouthAfrica which depletes the Queensland side.It was the experiences of that 84/85 final which helped transform Steve Waughinto a hardened cricketer. But for a win over India in the sub-continent, hehas achieved everything there is to do in the game and leading NSW to statesupremacy after such a long drought will be another jewel he can add to atruly glittering career.
Karnataka will take on Mumbai in the opening match of the SponsorsTrophy (previously known as the Wills Trophy) at Mumbai on April 18,next year.The other two first round matches pit Railways Sports Control Board(RSCB) against Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) at Rajkot on April 18and Sponsors XI against Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) at Pune onthe same day, a Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) release said onThursday.Reigning champions Board President’s XI, who have got a bye directlyto the semi-finals will play either Karnataka or Mumbai in Mumbai onApril 21 while the second semi-final between the winners of RSCB vsPCA and Sponsors Eleven vs OCA would be held at Ahmedabad on the samedate, the release said. The final would be played at Baroda on April24.
Former England midfielder Danny Murphy has claimed that West Ham United need to overhaul their squad this summer if they manage to say in the Premier League.
Indeed, in his column for the London Evening Standard, Murphy wrote that Marko Arnautovic, Mark Noble, Declan Rice, Josh Cullen and Manuel Lanzini are the only five players that should be sure of their future at the club next season.
It is quite a statement from the former Liverpool midfielder, and unless West Ham are preparing to downsize to a five-a-side team then they might have some problems next term.
The West Ham fans, who have also recently reacted to reports of a possible takeover, have been discussing Murphy’s comments, and have indeed been offering their own opinions when it comes to which players should stay at the club this summer.
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There is expected to be a turnaround in terms of personnel, but whether David Moyes has the chance to change the squad remains to be seen.
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Some of the Twitter reaction from the West Ham fans to Murphy’s column can be seen below:
Fresh from promotion to the Premier League, Southampton are now reported to be preparing a £3.5million bid for England goalkeeping starlet Jack Butland from Birmingham City, reports the Daily Mail.
Butland, 19, is currently with the England squad at the European championships having been called up following John Ruddy’s broken finger.
The ‘keeper is a hot prospect for England, despite yet making a senior appearance for parent club Birmingham City, having impressed on a season long loan spell at League Two side Cheltenham Town.
However, the Saints are reportedly facing some stiff competition from both Spurs and Manchester City, in their hopes to secure Butland’s signature prior to the start of the new season.
35-year old Kelvin Davies has been the undisputed first choice at St. Marys for the last few seasons, making 270 appearances since joining from Sunderland in 2006. By capturing Jack Butland, Saints boss Nigel Adkins will be hoping there will healthy competition for the Number 1 shirt.
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Whilst Butland concentrates on the European championships starting in Poland and Ukraine tomorrow, Adkins will no doubt be watching in the unlikely event the 19 year old is called upon.
Manchester United chief executive David Gill has indicated the club could yet sign one more player before the transfer window closes.English Premier League champions United have already strengthened heavily since winning a record 19th championship in May, spending heavily on goalkeeper David De Gea, defender Phil Jones and winger Ashley Young.
Inter Milan playmaker Wesley Sneijder and Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri have both been linked with moves to Old Trafford during the close season.
And while manager Sir Alex Ferguson suggested earlier this week there would no further acquisitions, Gill claims United remain active in the market.
“We’re looking at one more player to bring in,” Gill said.
“Nothing’s happening – nothing imminent – on that at the moment, but we’ll see what happens when we get home (from the tour of America).”
“There’ll be 31 days of the transfer window to see if anything develops. But I’m not working on anything at the moment, in that respect.”
Gill said United would only be looking to sign a ‘world-class player’, fuelling more rumours that Netherlands international Sneijder could yet join the club.
“The important thing to understand, and Alex has made it clear, is that we need someone who’s going to improve the quality of the squad,” he said.
“We’ve got a great squad and to get into that squad you need to be a world-class player.”
“There’s no point, if you can’t get the players you want, in buying someone for the sake of buying someone.”
A transfer for Everton’s Steven Pienaar to Tottenham Hotspur seems to be a done deal, either going through this January transfer window for £2million or on a Bosman transfer in the summer for free. At first glance that looks a really good deal for Spurs. Pienaar is a good football player and one that I personally rate at more than £2million given the current market of player transfer fees.
Yet is it really a worthwhile purchase for Tottenham? In my mind not really as he is exactly the kind of player they have in abundance in White Hart Land; slight, deft, skilful are the characteristics I would use to describe Pienaar and the majority of Tottenham’s current midfield. At the moment as things stand I can’t see him getting into the Tottenham first team. He is too similar to, but not as good as, Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon. Unlike the possible signing of David Beckham, he doesn’t really bring anything greatly different that the squad doesn’t already have either in terms of style or experience.
So far this season that Tottenham midfield quartet midfield has been decent to say the least as well as consistent. Pienaar on the other hand, although generally I am a fan of his, simply hasn’t been performing consistently as well. Although no-one really has at Everton, bar Tim Cahill and possibly Coleman, hence the position they currently find themselves in the league.
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I still don’t think it would be the best deal for Tottenham even if they were to accept that Pienaar was not a first choice eleven player and use him as a squad player to play when he regains his form of the previous season and replace anyone of that midfield quartet, as he is rather versatile, when they’re injured or not playing too well. As I feel Niko Kranjcar is perfectly suited to do this role and is already at the club. To take a look back and see how few games he has played over the last few months I believe gives an indication of how little Pienaar would play were he to arrive, and why therefore he is a player that would be surplus to requirements.
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It is mainly the presence of Kranjcar that leads me to believe Pienaar would be a pointless signing for Spurs. I believe Kranjcar should remain the first midfield creative to replace any of these four. I feel he has been hard done by this season, considering how much he contributed last time and this signing would only hasten his exit out of the White Hart Lane door and with Pienaar hardly flying at the moment it would not be much if any improvement. Ultimately I think Kranjcar carries more goal potential, with a fearsome strike and there is simply no room for both of them at the Lane along with all the other attack minded midfielders Tottenham have.
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A neutral football fan will look at the final standings of the 2011/12 Npower League Two table and see that Plymouth Argyle finished in 21st place with 46 points.
This, to a neutral, will probably seem like an underachievement for the club as they only escaped relegation by two points.
But to The Pilgrims and their fans, it represents one of, if not the biggest achievement in the clubs 125 year history.
We started this season by no means sure we would finish it. Successive relegations had seen us plummet from the Championship to League Two, and we had been in administration for over half a year by the time the season started; none of us knew what to expect from this campaign.
1207 of us travelled to Shrewsbury to watch a very young Argyle squad that had only three faces in it from the last campaign kick off the season. An unfamiliar and almost makeshift Argyle team battled away in the Shropshire sun before the home side took the lead midway through the second half, which was the way it stayed until the 90th minute when captain Carl Fletcher slammed home into the top corner in front of the travelling Green Army.
It was to be the only high, and point, of the first nine league games, a period in which we were also dumped out of the Carling Cup and Johnstones Paint Trophy at the first hurdle. Our players also threatened a strike due to the fact they had not been paid for ten months. Thankfully the administrators paid up a small amount and the strike did not go ahead.
After a 2-0 defeat at Southend, a 10th defeat on the trot, Peter Ridsdale replaced manager Peter Reid with captain Carl Fletcher. In Fletcher’s first game in charge against Macclesfield we won 2-0, it was the first victory of the season and things started to look up as we drew against Accrington and beat Dagenham in the coming month. I won’t even go into the result at Oxford United on a Tuesday night though.
On the 29th of November 2011 we travelled to Cheltenham for what would have been a normal game, except it wasn’t. It was our first match under the ownership of the new chairman James Brent. After ten months of uncertainty, administration and the real chance the club would fold, we were saved. The first of two battles was won; avoid liquidation.
Anybody that thought we would suddenly shoot up the table though, was wrong. One point from the first nine games was catastrophic and we were faced with a monumental task to secure our football league status.
It was to get worse before it got better. A humiliating defeat at the hands of our Devon rivals Torquay United proceeded Argyle being knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Stourbridge. Despite being saved from liquidation we were now the laughing stock of the country, and it hurt, it really hurt.
Funnily enough though, things really did start improving straight after the Stourbridge game. Just four days later we thrashed a hapless Northampton 4-1 at Home Park to set us off on a five game unbeaten run that included a 3-2 win over Bristol Rovers on boxing day when we had been 2-0 down at half time.
2012 started with back to back defeats as Torquay completed the double over us and we lost at Crewe. We then beat Burton and snatched a late, late equalizer against Crawley to move us out of the relegation zone for the first time since the 13th of August.
We dropped straight back in a week later as we lost 1-0 at Port Vale thanks to what was a truly dreadful performance at a freezing cold Vale Park. And then came a result that shocked everybody. With 5 minutes to go in a home match against Southend we were trailing 2-0 and seemingly heading to defeat.
The game ended 2-2. I have no idea how we did it, but we scored twice in the last five minutes to demonstrate the great team spirit Carl Fletcher had installed in his players.
A 4-0 win over Accrington was sandwiched between draws against Barnet, Dagenham and Macclesfield as we become increasingly tough to beat. An Onismor Bhasera goal less than 20 seconds into our game at AFC Wimbledon helped hand us victory in between losses to Gillingham and at Rotherham as the season started to draw to a close.
We shocked eventual league runners up Shrewsbury at Home Park as we won 1-0 before drawing with Bristol Rovers and Northampton. We defeated Bradford by the same score line in a key game at the bottom before travelling to Edgar Street to play Hereford. Had we been relegated we would probably look at the Hereford game and think about what could have been. We dominated the first half and took the lead through an own goal before Nick Chadwick spurned an easy chance and Simon Walton missed a penalty. The game ended 1-1 when really we should have been out of sight by half time.
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A 1-0 win over Aldershot in dreadful weather conditions put us on the cusp of safety before we were all disappointed as we conceded 5 minutes from time at the league champions Swindon to deny us a point. The next game, a 1-1 draw with Oxford, secured our football league status and completed the great escape. The second of two battles was won; avoid relegation out of the football league.
So despite all that has happened it has been a season to remember for Argyle fans. We looked dead and buried from the start, but thanks to a great group of players and managerial staff we have survived. Our chairman has indicated he aims to get us promoted next season, weather that is a realistic ambition or not it is too early to tell but anything is better than what we have been through. The most important thing is we will be playing league football next season, and not competing in the dreaded Blue Square Premier – the graveyard of football league clubs.
For more talk on Argyle, you can follow me on Twitter