Local authorities accused América of overstepping its authority in game-day operations, prompting a decision to ban fans from match
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Birmingham are dreaming big, but how realistic is it that the Blues will have a 60,000-seater stadium hosting NFL games and Taylor Swift concerns?
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Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi tried to fox the India captain the same way Vernon Philander had done at Newlands but he left balls outside off and survived the ones that nipped in
Firdose Moonda in Centurion14-Jan-2018Kagiso Rabada wanted Virat Kohli to reach out. His first delivery post-tea seamed away from the Indian captain who, filled with the intent he has been talking about since arriving in South Africa, could not resist a jab. Kohli did not make any contact.Rabada wanted Kohli to reach out again. His next delivery was full and wide but Kohli, who spoke about also leaving with intent in the lead-up to the match, took a big stride forward and watched the ball go through to Quinton de Kock. That’s how you do it, evidently.Rabada made the next ball easier for Kohli to see off, a short ball that was safely out of reach, before he wanted Kohli to reach out for a third time. As far out as a second set of stumps may have been. Kohli just watched the ball, no intent necessary.And then Rabada wanted to trap Kohli. The fifth ball of his over angled into the stumps and Kohli played around his front pad but managed to flick the ball to deep square leg for a single.Rabada had to wait for the next over to try again, and try he did. The first ball of his next over was so wide it may have been outside off of a third set of stumps. Kohli left. The next ball was short and Kohli swatted it away to get off strike, leaving Rohit Sharma to see off the temptation of balls outside off. Four times Rabada tried to lure Rohit into playing, and three times Rohit left.It was the more of the same in Rabada’s third over after tea. Full, outside off to Kohli, length outside off, bouncer and then the one that came back in. Kohli was surprised by the last of those. He was hit on the front pad and drew a big appeal, but had shuffled far enough outside the line not to result in a review.The fourth over was the one Kohli told Rohit would be Rabada’s last in that spell. The stump mic picked up the captain’s attempts to reassure Rohit he only needed a little more persistence to see Rabada off. The quick asked the same questions outside off, again, but he got no answers, again.But Rabada was not quite ready to rest and returned for a fifth over. After the customary three balls outside off followed by the bouncer, he got one to nip back in to Rohit, who had not moved across as much as Kohli. Rabada beat Rohit’s inside edge and had him lbw.Rabada’s plan worked but it wasn’t quite the wicket he wanted.He bowled a sixth over in search of Kohli’s scalp before Lungi Ngidi took over from the Hennops River End to begin the plan anew.Same same, but different.Ngidi didn’t bother with the set-up. His first ball dipped in on Kohli, who had again walked across for the flick and appeared to be out. South Africa reviewed but UltraEdge showed faint contact. Later in the over, Ngidi beat Kohli’s outside edge, as he chased the ball away from his body.While Rabada bowled a similar pattern in each of his overs, Ngidi relied on pace to hurry the batsmen. He produced a 151kph delivery in the next over and got a bouncer to fly past Parthiv Patel’s shoulder. Had the ball not whizzed past Parthiv, it may have taken the edge as he attempted a hook. Ngidi did not have to wait long to find Parthiv’s bat. In his next over, he got one to angle in and Parthiv was caught behind.Ngidi’s plan also worked but then again it wasn’t quite the wicket he wanted.South Africa spent much of the day trying to fox Kohli the same way Vernon Philander had done at Newlands – by taking him fishing and then trying to reel him in. They got the first part right but Kohli would not take the bait. He still played with the “intent,” that has become his signature but was not undone by the ball that came back in.So what do South Africa expect will change tomorrow, when they will have to go at Kohli again? The short answer is nothing. The long answer is that exactly the same thing. “We’ll keep playing the patience game. We bowled it in that fifth-stump line over and over again.” And so it will go on the third day.
Chelsea have stepped up their pursuit of Jamie Gittens as uncertainty hangs over Jadon Sancho's future at the club.
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At 29 years old, Chucky Lozano is experiencing his first MLS season with expansion side San Diego FC
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Pope says he tailored his technique for the Indian conditions after poor returns on his last tour
Matt Roller28-Jan-20241:32
Manjrekar: Pope’s innings ‘one of the finest’
Rahul Dravid said he hadn’t seen “a better exhibition of sweeping and reverse sweeping ever in these conditions, against that quality of bowling”. Rohit Sharma called it “one of the best that I’ve seen in Indian conditions by an overseas batter”. And Ben Stokes described it as “the greatest innings played in the subcontinent by an English batsman”.The innings in question, Ollie Pope’s 196, inspired England’s dramatic turnaround victory over India in Hyderabad, helping them overcome a 190-run first-innings deficit to win by 28 runs on the fourth evening. It was all the more remarkable coming after seven months out of the game with a shoulder injury – sustained during the Ashes – that required surgery.Pope said that he rated his fifth Test century “head and shoulders above the other four” and described India as “probably the toughest place for a batter to come at the minute”. On England’s most recent tour of the country, in 2021, he managed 153 runs across four innings with a top score of 34 and said that he had made technical adjustments during his comeback.Related
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“I’ve tinkered throughout my career so far,” Pope said. “I’ve changed my technique slightly for this series specifically. I had shoulder surgery, so I’ve had a long time to prepare for this series and make some adjustments to what I produced the last time we were here three years ago. I’ve worked hard on my game and tried to tailor my technique for these conditions.”Pope was caught at slip for 1, prodding at Ravindra Jadeja, in the first innings. “We played on some pretty extreme wickets last time around and you realise that there’s always going to be one danger. For me, that was the outside edge,” he said. “If the ball is turning away from me, someone nicks me off and I get caught at slip, I’ve got to be at peace with that.”It was about covering my inside edge and trying to put some pressure back on the bowlers as well with the sweeps and reverse sweeps… The guys we are facing are very skilled bowlers. You can pretty much know where each ball is going to land and if you try to defend each ball there’s probably more chance to get out than if you play a cross-batted shot.”Stokes and Brendon McCullum, England’s coach, have consistently told players that there will be no recriminations if they are out playing attacking shots. “We practise those shots enough and if you get out for none playing a reverse sweep you’re not going to get a load of chat in the changing room about that,” Pope said. “You can go and commit to it.”I don’t think I nailed my first 20-odd runs, I was thinking ‘why is it not hitting the middle of the bat’. But then out here it could be as safe as playing a defence, a sweep or reverse sweep. If we can keep nailing them we get more bad balls as batters if we can hit their best ball for four with a reverse sweep. That is going to lead to more short balls and more half-volleys and open up the outfield.”Boy, did Ollie Pope commit to the sweeps•BCCI
Dravid, India’s head coach, was particularly effusive in his praise for Pope. “That was an exceptional innings,” he said. “It’s important that we respond and come up with some plans and some strategies, and see how we can maybe make him play those shots from even more difficult lengths and be even more disciplined… hopefully in the next Test match, if we get our execution right, then I hope he makes a mistake.”Pope had not batted in a competitive match since the second Ashes Test in June, but said that England’s pre-tour training camp in the UAE had left him feeling confident heading to India.”It was just about getting back up to speed and playing cricket again, and getting my mind right – going through those processes you have as a batter,” he said. “In the past, I’ve generally been someone who needs a couple of knocks to start feeling my best, but credit to Baz [McCullum] and Stokesy for the way we’ve gone about this whole week in general. I brushed that first innings behind me pretty quickly… we got into a Test match pretty relaxed now. We put in all that work in Abu Dhabi in the pre-camp and just tried to enjoy it. That’s allowed us to come back from that big deficit.”Stokes said that Pope had also proved his worth in the field: not only when taking catches at short leg and silly point off Tom Hartley, but also as vice-captain. “I keep going to him for ideas, plans and what he sees,” he said. “There’s a lot of different angles and views from different parts of the ground. I thought Popey, not only with the bat this week but with his role as vice-captain, was fantastic.”Pope said that the role – which he has officially held since May – has helped him stay in the moment: “It’s good to immerse yourself in what you’re doing. Rather than just standing in the field thinking about my forward defence, which I probably did three or four years ago, actually thinking about plans and stuff is better. There’s no need to think too much about the batting.”
William Saliba issued a warning to Arsenal's Premier League rivals that facing Viktor Gyokeres will be scary, as the French defender backed the Gunners' new signing to finally end the north London club's five-year-long trophy drought. Saliba had faced his new team-mate in the Champions League last season, where the English club thrashed Sporting CP 5-1.
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A review of by Ralph Dellor and Stephen Lamb
Jenny Thompson11-Jan-2006
Green Umbrella, hb, 127pp
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Do you know how an elderly faith healer and pebbles helped Derbyshire bowler Fred Swarbrook? Well, get the and find out.Or get it for your friends and family because there’s something for everyone in this, an A to Z of the game. In many respects it’s perfect for the Johnny- or Jenny-come-lately to the game – as it’s easy to dip in to and is broken up with vivid photography – but there are also some gems in there which may surprise any cricket lover, like Swarbrook et al.Newcomers attracted to the bright lights of this summer’s Ashes may just want to find out a brief history of the urn, while old-timers may want to rethink what’s so interesting about the fact that cricket’s played on grass. Well, do you?The book informs and entertains and it’s all done in a light-hearted, accessible tone. So if you didn’t get one in your stocking at Christmas, you could fill your boots now.Click here to buy a copy from Cricshop
Andrew McGlashan selects the County Championship team of the season
Andrew McGlashan26-Sep-2005
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Mike Hussey (Durham)
A run machine for his county – when he wasn’t away on international duty. It was to Durham’s advantage that Australia’s selectors are a stubborn bunch and refused to alter their Test squad: Hussey would have surely featured. He repeatedly gave Durham solid and occasionally stunning starts to their innings; once in, he often compiled a large score.Phil Jaques (Yorkshire)
Another prolific Australian who has yet to taste international cricket. He is a destructive left-hander who showed no mercy on the second division bowling attacks. His runs were of two-fold importance; they gave a threadbare bowling attack a chance to win matches, and ensured Yorkshire batted their way to high-scoring draws.Owais Shah (Middlesex)
John Emburey, the Middlesex coach, said Shah would have to “bat like Don Bradman” if he was to perform better than he did this summer. After seasons of failing to fulfil his obvious potential, he racked up 1728 runs this summer. He was the complete batsman; comfortable against pace, and quick on his feet to some quality spin bowlers. If he maintains his focus this winter then, despite the disappointment of missing the Pakistan tour, an international recall won’t be far away.David Hussey (Nottinghamshire)
Joined his brother, Mike, in plundering county attacks, and his 1293 runs helped Notts secure their first Championship title since 1987. An immensely powerful and destructive batsman, he also scored his runs at a good pace to give the Notts bowlers time to win matches. His safe hands at slip pouched 30 catches.
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Ed Joyce (Middlesex)
Completes a Middlesex duo in the top order and, like Shah, is off to the Academy this winter. Started the summer with a bang – passing 1000 runs in seven matches – and, although the big scores tailed off towards September, he still passed 1500 runs in the Championship. He has all the makings of an ideal Test No. 4 and has many of Graham Thorpe’s characteristics. He is strong square of the wicket and is comfortable against pace and spin.Dale Benkenstein (Durham)
An astute signing by Martyn Moxon, Benkenstein arrived on a Kolpak deal and, by the end of the summer, had become a favourite around Chester-le-Street. His experience glued the middle order together – a weak point for Durham in past seasons – and was an ideal stand-in captain when Mike Hussey and Paul Collingwood were on international duty. Throw in his useful medium-pace bowling and safe fielding and Durham certainly got value from him.Nic Pothas (Hampshire)
A mature head in a relatively young Hampshire team, Pothas was in excellent form with the bat and gloves throughout the summer. Over 900 runs at 51 helped to compensate for the below-par performance of other top order batsmen – and the missing Kevin Pietersen. His wicketkeeping developed against Shane Warne, and South Africa will be cursing another talented cricketer who got away from them.Mushtaq Ahmed (Sussex)
Still producing magic with the ball, he finished as the leading wicket taker in the country – and not for the first time. His consistency has reignited talk of an international recall this winter against England, andhas meant that Chris Adams always had confidence to throw him the ball in any situation. With Mushtaq bowling well, Sussex could never be written out of the Championship race.
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Naved-ul-Hasan (Sussex)
A late arrival for Sussex after completing his international commitments, but a stunning success when he arrived. He sped past fifty Championship wickets in only nine matches – including a stunning display at Lord’s when he helped Sussex rout Middlesex in two days. His pacey away-swing posed constant problems for opposition batsmen, and he also showed the ability to produce reverse-swing with the older ball. However, the surprising aspect was his batting – he averaged 31 including a rapid 139 in that match at Lord’s.Alan Richardson (Middlesex)
A winter move from Warwickshire was just the tonic Richardson needed. Finishing as Middlesex’s leading wicket-taker by a considerable margin, he bowled like a man reborn. He quickly developed from a stock bowler into Ben Hutton’s main wicket-taking option, especially in the first half of the season.Mark Davies (Durham)
A stunning average 16 and strike-rate of 36 for Davies, who provided a constant threat whenever he was given a chance in the Championship. He was not initially selected when Steve Harmison was around but, for the second half of the season, it was he and Liam Plunkett who led the attack. available for selection. And, as the England selectors have shown in the winter tour squads, age is no factor, and the door is never shut.Robert Key, Jason Gallian, Mark Ramprakash, Owais Shah, Ed Joyce, Anthony McGrath, Chris Read, Chris Tremlett, Shaun Udal, Alan Richardson, Mark Davies
In the wake of the meltdown in India’s cricket economy following the team’s poor showing in the World Cup, how sustainable is the game’s current business model?
Ashok Malik19-May-2007
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India’s early exit from the World Cup did more than hurt the hopes, aspirations, and prickly egos of its few hundred million cricket fans. It brought the BCCI face to face with a crisis – or at least a “big correction”, to use a sports channel executive’s phrase – in the economy spawned by the subcontinent’s number one spectator sport.
Confusion is the best form of defence. As such, as a senior official admitted, the board’s recent “crackdown” on top players and the limits it imposed on endorsements were not only populist but also served another purpose. “It was a diversionary move,” confessed the official. “We had to take away attention from the fact that big television deals were falling apart.”True, some of this was already happening even before the World Cup. India’s defeat, and the real and notional commercial losses that entailed, accelerated the process. The cricket market is suddenly seen as overpriced and overheated. The offer by Subhash Chandra, media baron and chairman of Zee Telefilms, to run an alternative Indian Cricket League (ICL) has threatened to change the state of play. Near simultaneously, and for related but not always identical reasons, three sets of television deals are in trouble:One, the ICC’s package deal for its premium properties, the World Cup and the Champions Trophy, the India rights for which were bought by Sony till 2007 and ESPN-Star Sports for subsequent tournaments in the 2007-15 period. Two, the BCCI deal covering all cricket played in India, signed with Nimbus. And three, the BCCI’s agreement with Zee Telefilms for cricket matches in “offshore” markets overseas.The ICC: wary eye on the future
Despite the long-drawn, tiresome format, and notwithstanding India’s early exit, it is not the skewed economics of the 2007 World Cup that worries the ICC, but the possible impact on future ones. “For this World Cup,” says a cricket industry insider, “the sponsorship and television deals were signed. The channels had contracted the bulk of the advertising. The only loss was in terms of corporate hospitality and travel that would have taken place if, for instance, India had reached the semi-final.”That’s not how ESPN-Star Sports, which has paid $1.1 billion for the rights to the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, three Champions Trophies, and two Twenty20 world championships, all to be played in the 2007-15 period, sees it. It is worried. So is the ICC, which hopes to generate, through additional sale of sponsorship rights, another half a billion dollars at least.The bulk of the money is, of course, expected to come from India, the 800-pound gorilla without which cricket would be a small international sport, run by Australian commerce and comparable to badminton. For the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, companies like LG, Pepsi, and Hero Honda bought sponsorship rights to attract customers and win eyeballs in, almost exclusively, India. That seemed a clever move when India reached the final in 2003. In 2007 the investments turned to duds. Hero Honda motorcycles are not going to be bought or sold in Ireland and Trinidad because the company is sponsoring the World Cup. The Indian viewer, on the other hand, has switched off.”It was a big setback, for the sponsors and for companies like Pepsi that had prepared expensive World Cup-specific campaigns,” said one sports marketing executive. “India was expected to reach the Super Eight stage, and even if it lost there, play six matches. Those six matches just got wiped out.”When the sponsorship bids for the 2011 and 2015 World Cups – and it’s usually an “all or nothing” offer – are invited, will Indian corporate houses take the gamble? Alternatively, will they collectively save their half a billion dollars and sign on Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan as brand ambassadors for a fraction of the cost? It is a question that must have Malcolm Speed biting his nails.The BCCI: double jeopardy
In 2006 the BCCI signed a four-year deal with Harish Thawani’s Nimbus, under which the company would produce the audiovisual feed for, telecast, and market all cricket played in India for the next four years. The agreement guaranteed the board $612 million and was roundly applauded as a blockbuster.Rather than further sell the telecasts to a television network, Nimbus set up two television channels of its own and became both producer and broadcaster. Based on the projections it made, Nimbus attracted private equity investments from abroad amounting to, it is believed, Rs 550 crore. It had in its control one of the world’s most lucrative sports properties – cricket played in India – and was operating in a booming economy growing at nine per cent, where the media and entertainment sectors were on a roll. Investors bought the hype.In recent days, two things have happened. One, the Indian courts have legislated that Nimbus – or any other cricket rights-holder for any matches featuring India or of interest to Indian fans – will have to share feed with Doordarshan, the national broadcaster. This is expected to bring down revenues of the right-holders in question, according to one sportscaster’s calculations “by at least 33 per cent, maybe more, depending on the tournament or series, and across ad sales and subscription revenues”. This has transformed the market; it has obviously hit Nimbus, and has had its investors raising eyebrows. In the short term, the sustainability of the second channel on the Neo platform is up for speculation.Two, with a clutch of top players set to retire in the next season or so, Indian cricket is moving into a rebuilding phase, waiting for the next great stars, the next big endorsement brands, the next icons. In the interim, interest in the game could sober down somewhat. This will also hit television revenues.The Nimbus deal is not the BCCI’s only nightmare. Also falling apart is the $220-million, five-year deal signed with Zee Telefilms for the BCCI Overseas Media Rights. This guaranteed a minimum of 25 one-day internationals to be played by India, and organised by the BCCI, in territories outside India. Obviously the matches can’t be played in Australia or England – where the local cricket boards have their own television deals and jurisdictions. So the BCCI picked “offshore” venues like Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. This summer, South Africa and India will play three ODIs in Ireland.Zee sources indicate they are all but done with this deal and are looking to exercise an exit clause. The India-Australia-West Indies DLF Cup played in Malaysia in 2006 was a damp squib – literally; it was interrupted by rain – and a financial disaster. It is understood that of the roughly $9 million Zee paid per game, it recovered about a quarter.Both the Zee and the Nimbus deals were part of the aggressive new negotiation skills brought to the BCCI by Lalit Modi, the board’s vice-president and BCCI chief Sharad Pawar’s brains trust. “At the BCCI today,” says a cricket official, in an understated sort of way, “Lalit is a bit of a lonely man.”
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Zee makes its move
After the Indian team’s World Cup fiasco, popular opinion swung against the players and the BCCI. The senior members of the India squad were seen as overpaid underperformers, obsessed with advertisement contracts of the sort that had made even a relative newcomer like Mahendra Singh Dhoni rich enough for a few generations. The board was blamed, as usual, for lack of professionalism, poor quality of domestic competition, lack of fast pitches, and all the other old chestnuts.Zee’s Chandra took advantage of this despondency to announce the ICL, hoping to win support from enthusiasts fed up of the BCCI. He also offered a new format, one with a lower entry cost and providing more value for money to sponsors.The ICL, as Chandra described it, would be a six-team league. Each of the playing XIs would represent a geographical region or city, with sponsorship tie-ups, suitable branding, and the necessary razzmatazz. Foreign professionals would be invited to play, opening up the possibility of, for instance, Kevin Pietersen coming down to India in the winter, for a fat fee, and batting alongside Yuvraj Singh.Chandra has long wanted a hot cricket property, having unsuccessfully bid for the BCCI’s flagship rights for years. In 2006 he acquired the BCCI overseas rights, but discovered soon enough that he’d been sold a dummy. He has a successful television network and the only thing he lacks – as opposed to the Star or Sony bouquets – is compelling sports programming. He has the hardware, as it were, with the business alliance between Zee Sports and Ten Sports expected to get only stronger, but no software, no content.To understand the ICL, it would be appropriate to look overseas for an analogy. Indian cricket is a bit like English football. It has a passionate fan following, and attracts huge media coverage and endorsement deals. Yet the national team is not quite a world beater. No one would bet on England winning the FIFA World Cup. David Beckham is football’s Sachin Tendulkar, a supremely talented player and national superhero – but, frankly, not up there with the greatest match-winners of all time. He’s not Pele, just as Tendulkar is no Viv Richards. The big trophies are missing from their cupboards.Even so, since England loves football and there’s a lot of money riding on it, it needs a format where English teams – as opposed to the England team – and English players do well. This is what makes the English Premier League perhaps the richest domestic league of its type. Chandra’s ICL wants to follow the exact formula. It will feature clubs/teams with an Indian branding and local players. Sponsors will be able to buy in cheap, at a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars the ICC wants for its World Cup. These sponsors will be guaranteed six competitive, evenly-matched teams, unlike the BCCI rights-holders, who could end up with an India-Australia ODI series one month and an India-Zimbabwe Test series the next.Chandra has put his money where his idea is. He has offered to bankroll the ICL with $100 million. It is almost certain that he will renege on the BCCI’s overseas rights deal, invest in a cheaper product that he can control, and still save $100 million.The third way
Can the ICL work? Whether or not Chandra pulls it off, the fact is, he’s got a good plan. India’s cricket economy is ready for a new format positioned between conventional domestic and international cricket. In a sense, the Professional Hockey League (PHL) is a model. Promoted by ESPN-Star Sports, PHL is now three years old and is expected to start making money by year five. A cricket league could do it much faster.Only one question remains: why can’t the BCCI out-Chandra Chandra? Why can’t it revamp domestic cricket – maybe create a Ranji Trophy premiership league where Reliance Mumbai Maniacs, led by Tendulkar and featuring Adam Gilchrist and Makhaya Ntini as overseas professionals, takes on Kingfisher Bangalore Bozos, captained by Rahul Dravid and including Andrew Flintoff and Younis Khan? It could be the golden chance for Harish Thawani to save the Neo network and rejuvenate his domestic cricket deal.Unfortunately, old hands in the industry are confident, the BCCI will be too slow to act. “The board is very good with raising money,” goes one cynical voice, “but very unimaginative at spending it.” Nevertheless the ICL is an idea awaiting execution, whether by Chandra or somebody else. When Surf prices itself out of the market, it creates space for Nirma. Indian cricket is ready for its share of froth.