Peter Willey, the chairman of the umpires’ association, has admitted he is pleased to see Darrell Hair restored to the ICC’s elite panel. Hair was removed from the elite panel in the aftermath of The Oval Test in 2006 but the ICC have now welcomed him back into the fold.”I think everyone felt for Darrell as an umpire really,” he said. “He did what he thought was right. He wasn’t backed up and he paid the price. I am glad he has come back, I hope he does well and has a long future as a Test umpire. I’ve always found him an honest man and a good umpire. He is a strong umpire. Some people don’t like that.”Willey, a former England batsman who went on to umpire in 25 Tests, also defended umpires in general, adding that TV replays were putting them under increasing pressure.”When I finished, all this technology was just coming in and you’ve got the added pressure of, every time you go in the middle, of everything being dissected in super slow-motion. People forget you’ve got a split-second to give an honest decision.”If the technology that they use on the TV is 100% accurate, I would say use the TV. But I don’t think it is 100% accurate. There are loads of things they can’t pick up. I don’t agree with Hawkeye. I don’t think it gives a very honest description of where the ball pitches or is going. On certain pitches, you pitch the ball in the same spot and one delivery will go up and one will go down so, how they can predict where the ball will go, I just don’t know.”Then there is the case of bat-pad appeals. They tried it out a competition in South Africa a few years ago. Batsmen were asked to give an honest opinion on six bat-pad catches and every time the TV got it wrong. It is very difficult, even in slow motion, to decide whether the ball has hit the bat or not.”
Former KCA chairman Sharad Ghai has told The Nation that Cricket Kenya is in breach of an agreement with the ICC by not holding elections.The annual elections should have been held in June 2007 but the repeated failure of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association to amend its own constitution and hold its own elections has led to the delay. The NPCA is Kenya’s largest constituent body and yet it has failed to produce accounts or hold annual meetings for more than three years. CK has deemed it wrong to hold elections with the NPCA is such a mess and with its executive being so unrepresentative and has been attempting to get the situation resolved. It has , however, been faced with endless stalling tactics by the embattled executive.Ghai told The Nation: “CK should not use the delay in the amendments of the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association’s constitution as an excuse for delaying the elections because they would not affect the number of delegates allocated to the province.”However, what this overlooks is that the number of NPCA delegates is not the issue. It is the manner in which those delegates are selected that is a problem. A number of those that sit on the NPCA executive are not accredited delegates of any club. Yet they can attend meetings, purport to stand again and again for a post within NPCA and also vote for themselves to get onto the CK executive.Furthermore, in 2005, in his last weeks as chairman of the KCA, Ghai actually wrote to the NPCA reminding them that they had to call an AGM to amend the constitution and that was acknowledged by Salim Dhanji, the then NPCA chairman, who has since distanced himself from the current executive. That meeting has still to be held.Ghai’s comments will be read with incredulity by many stakeholders. He was a key member of the old Kenyan Cricket Association when it suspended the NPCA and replaced it with an unrepresentative body. For several years the KCA failed to hold elections and was almost utterly unaccountable. Ghai was forced from office after a year in which the players went on strike and Kenya’s sports minister sought to have the KCA disbanded. Eventually, the KCA was forced to hold elections after pressure from the Africa Cricket Association and the ICC.There has been concern that Ghai was attempting to get back into administration ever since he reappeared as a representative of Nairobi Gymkhana on the NPCA council last year. That The Nation, whose journalists gained a reputation of being sympathetic to Ghai while being critical of CK at any opportunity, are again giving him a platform will be seen as further evidence that a comeback is on the cards.Cricinfo has flagged the problems within the NPCA on many occasions and the executive, which remains in office despite widespread criticism from its own members, has engineered continual delays in holding its annual meeting which can force through amendments necessary to enable CK to move ahead.CK has shown immense patience as it has not wanted to interfere in what is in essence a local matter. But there are signs that patience is running out for the NPCA to gets its own house in order.
The fate of the bilateral series between Pakistan and India, to be played in Sri Lanka, now lies in the hands of the governments of both countries. Both the BCCI and PCB confirmed that they had written to their governments asking for clearance for the tour, which is likely to feature five limited-overs games – three ODIs and two T20s. This is the first official confirmation offered by the BCCI about the decision taken to play the bilateral series in Sri Lanka.Anurag Thakur, the BCCI secretary, said he had written to the Indian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. “I have written a letter to the Foreign Ministry seeking clearance to play with Pakistan in Sri Lanka,” Thakur told PTI. “According to the agreement of India and Pakistan, both teams were supposed to play in the UAE or at any other neutral venue if the conditions in Pakistan were not suitable. It is up to Pakistan as to where they want to play. After discussions with the BCCI and PCB, both countries have decided to play in Sri Lanka.”The decision to play the series in Sri Lanka was taken at the meeting between BCCI president Shashank Manohar and PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan in Dubai on Sunday. The PCB, though, did not mention Sri Lanka as the venue in a media release issued today, saying the final decision would be announced publicly by ECB president Giles Clarke, who was present as a facilitator during the Dubai meeting between the two boards.”There has been much speculative reportage on the PCB-BCCI discussions in Dubai under the facilitation of Mr Giles Clarke. The facts are as follows: a) PCB has informed the government of the talks in Dubai that were regarded as fruitful. The PCB has not asked for an NOC from government for it is the government’s prerogative to decide on the issue. b) Similarly, BCCI is also seeking its government’s views on these matters. c) No request has been received from BCCI regarding the sharing of revenues. d) In due course, Mr Giles Clarke would brief the media of developments,” the release said.Both sides have been tightlipped after the meeting, divulging few specific details including the possible dates for the series. However officials who have been privy to details of the Dubai meeting indicated they the series could be played between December 15 and the first week of January. India then travel to Australia to play a limited-overs series, which begins on January 12.
Former India allrounder WV Raman has been named the batting coach of the National Cricket Academy. The NCA governing board has also appointed TA Sekhar and Narendra Hirwani as the fast bowling and spin bowling coaches respectively.NCA chairman Niranjan Shah told ESPNcricinfo their roles were “full time” and all three men would be stationed in Bangalore, where the NCA is currently located.It is also learnt that academies will be established in each of the five zones, and about 30 coaches will be appointed in January to look after under-16 and under-19 cricketers. “They will also work as Talent and Resources Development Wing (TRDW) officers,” Shah said. “Since the selectors can’t see every player, these coaches can identify talented players and report to the selectors.”The TRDW was set up by former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya in 2001 and was headed by Dilip Vengsakarkar, who is the current director of the NCA. Players like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla and RP Singh had been identified in this way.An NCA official indicated these five academies will be located in Dharamsala, Ranchi, Nagpur, Vadodara and Wayanad, but Shah said the venues haven’t yet been confirmed.Raman, who has been working on commentary assignments for the BCCI, and Sekhar, who is director at Delhi Daredevils may face some issues regarding conflict of interest. Shah said Raman and Sekar couldn’t continue those roles in accordance with the board’s conflict of interest guidelines. Hirwani had already been in the midst of such an issue, and had voluntarily resigned from his post as Madhya Pradesh selector given his son Mihir represented MP.The BCCI have been trying to reinvigorate the National Cricket Academy and though it has been run out of Bangalore so far, BCCI joint secretary and NCA convener Amitabh Chaudhary said they will look into finding a permanent centre in a month’s time.
: “I didn’t watch the game. But I think Mankading should be looked at like any other dismissal. The batsman should not be leaving the crease before the ball is released. Simple. If he does he pays the price for it. Not the bowler’s fault.”: “Was the bowler actually in his delivery stride in the first place? He just ran through and knocked the stumps over, I don’t think he was ever going to bowl the ball. I was surprised that the umpires called for it to be reviewed. I thought they may choose to say, ‘No, the ball has to be bowled and it’s not out.’ And the final thing was I thought it was too tight to call. I think the batsman should have got the benefit of the doubt once it went to the third umpire. I wasn’t convinced that it should have been actually given out.”I don’t think Mankading should be a part of the game at all. I think if you are in the spirit of the game then why would you end up like this? There was two runs to win, you are playing and Under-19 World Cup, games are being beamed all around the world and to see that type of thing happen was very unsportsmanlike.”Anyway the Zimbabwe player wasn’t looking like he was trying to get advantage. If he was out, he was only just out. And I think he may not have been out anyway. So it wasn’t as if he was a metre down the pitch. It didn’t look like he was trying to take advantage.”: “The spirit of cricket says that you should give a warning to the batsman. But technically he is out if he left the crease. As a gentleman you should give a warning that’s what the spirit of cricket teaches you.”It happened once in the 1987 World Cup too between West Indies and Pakistan when Abdul Qadir won us the match. Courtney Walsh was bowling the last over and he chose to give a warning [to Saleem Jaffer]. Pakistan will always remember Walsh for that gesture and the gentleman’s spirit he showed.”For the Under-19 players this is the age and time to learn about the spirit of cricket. When it comes to the technical situation the batsman is out but the spirit of cricket teaches you to be fair and square.”: “It’s not something I would have probably done but I think we have to leave all the emotion aside. Historically there’s been a bad connotation to mankading. The law has been adjusted and it is in the law books and people talk about the spirit of the game.”Is sledging part of spirit of the game? A batsman at the non-striker’s end stealing a couple of yards – this didn’t happen here, it was just an inch or two, if so much – a batsman backing up a couple of feet down the track off the last ball to win a game, let’s say, in a World Cup, is that within the spirit of the game? So those are the questions we have to ask. If the law is there, that was within the law.”
West Zone proceeded cautiously to end the second day on 174 for 5 off 76overs against North Zone as heavy fog prevented play till the afternoon forthe second day running in their Duleep Trophy match at the Punjab CA groundin Mohali on Friday.Resuming at 67 for 1, Hrishikesh Kanitkar (61) and Wasim Jaffer (39) tookthe score to 100. Jaffer was the first to return to the pavilion, caught byA Chopra off Aashish Nehra in 45th over of the innings. Jacob Martin (17)then joined Kanitkar and the two took the score to 155. Martin was thenext to go, trapped leg before by RS Sodhi off the second ball of the 61stover.Five balls later Kanitkar followed Martin to the pavilion. By the time hefell to a catch by Chopra off Surendra Singh, Kanitkar had been at thecrease for 227 minutes and faced 145 balls and hit ten fours. New batsmanAbijeet Kale battled for well over an hour to score just six runs off 41balls. Kale fell just before stumps, for a catch by Pankaj Dharmani offAasish Nehra. Niraj Patel (11) then accompanied his skipper Nayan Mongia(1) back to the pavilion at the end of the day.
Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer hopes Roy Hodgson stays at Craven Cottage and resists the opportunity to manage Liverpool.
The Reds are looking for a new manager after dispensing with Rafa Benitez's services and veteran Cottagers boss Hodgson has already been linked with the Anfield vacancy.
Australia international Schwarzer said:"The gaffer is huge for Fulham. He has done a remarkable job during the past two-and-a-half years.
"We hope he doesn't go, we hope he stays at Fulham. But I wouldn't blame him at all if he decides to move.
"It doesn't surprise me if a number of clubs would be after him as a manager given his superb record.
"The gaffer is at that stage of this career where he is thinking 'will this sort of opportunity come around again?'
"I suppose in a lot of ways you can't blame the guy if an opportunity like this came along.
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"It is Liverpool you are talking about, a huge club, who normally compete in the Champions League every season.
"There are four or five such clubs in the country and there would be very few managers or players who would find it difficult to resist going to them."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
With some newspapers already reporting that Liverpool are a mere 48 hours away from appointing Roy Hodgson as the club’s new manager, it appears that one of the more interesting domestic football issues of the last month may soon be resolved. Despite his good work with Fulham over the last two and a half years, Hodgson isn’t the unanimous choice for the post amongst Liverpool fans. Perceived in some quarters as an unglamorous and unambitious manager, many Kopites are unenthused by the prospect of Hodgson’s arrival at Anfield.
Club ambassador Kenny Dalglish, the man said to have been refused a return to the Anfield hot-seat by the club’s board, is thought to have wanted the job due to the dearth of ‘better qualified and available candidates’. Does King Kenny have a point?
Given the stature of Liverpool Football Club upon the world and domestic stage, is it unsurprising that the club’s fans (myself included) have been somewhat underwhelmed by the names realistically linked with the vacant managerial post over the last month. Following the last managerial departure at Anfield in the summer of 2004, the club courted the likes of Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez, who were two of Europe’s most coveted tacticians at the time (and still are today it seems). Today, the most likely candidate for the job is a man who recently lead to his side to a 12th-placed finish, a man who can list trophies won in Norway, Sweden and Denmark as some of the biggest managerial achievements of his career. With all due respect to Roy Hodgson, it is slightly disconcerting to see the lack of more distinguished coaches linked with the role.
Unfortunately, the pulling power of Liverpool’s immense global status has been somewhat diminished by the turmoil that currently engulfs the club. The club is suffering from well-documented boardroom and ownership issues, with the knock-on effects meaning that any potential new manager will have to deal with the prospect of star players leaving and paltry financial reserves to invest in new players. To some extent, the position of Liverpool manager at this current point in time may be somewhat of a poisoned chalice; any manager considering the role may be put off by the chance that it may damage their reputation. It is safe to say that this situation has contributed to the fact that more attractive managerial names (such as Guus Hiddink and Frank Rijkaard) have ruled themselves out of the running.
In addition to the fact that the current Anfield situation may be repelling candidates, there may also genuinely be a dearth of ‘qualified’ candidates out there at the moment. Personally I feel that the club were foolish to dismiss Rafael Benitez; the fact that he has been appointed manager of treble winners Inter Milan indicates Benitez’s world-class reputation, and Liverpool look highly unlikely to be able to secure the appointment of a manager with even a remotely similar calibre. Whilst a section of Reds fans were happy to see Benitez’ departure, many felt that despite his poor work last season, there were no better candidates to replace him.
Off the top of my head, there is single no outstanding (and available) manager who I would like to see at Anfield. Whilst I admire the work of Manuel Pellegrini during his time in Spain (and would prefer him to Roy Hodgson), I am still unconvinced by the lack of silverware that he has won during his managing in Europe (Benitez came to Liverpool having won La Liga twice and the UEFA Cup once within a period of three seasons) and whether or not he would be able to successfully adapt to English football.
The appointment of the club’s manager is the most important decision Liverpool will make in a long time, with the decision key to the long-term health and state of the club. Whilst I will get behind whoever is appointed Liverpool manager, I can’t help but feel that King Kenny has a point.
Do you think Roy Hodgson is the right man for the job? Who would you realistically like to see as the next Liverpool manager?
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Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has no inclination to rush back into the transfer market after completing the signings of Joe Cole, Danny Wilson and Milan Jovanovic recently.
The Reds start their Europa League campaign next week against Rabotnicki but Hodgson has no plans to strengthen his squad before then.
In addition, Albert Reira and Emiliano Insua are on the verge of leaving Anfield while the futures of Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano remain shrouded in doubt.
However, Hodgson told the Reds' official website:"I don't think deadlines are realistic. It takes time to get the people you want and the most important thing is getting the people you want.
"If you can do things quickly then that's great because you have them in but, if it takes time, it takes time.
"It would be nice to have someone in before the deadline but it's pretty unrealistic and I can't see it happening.
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"We need to strengthen at both ends and we need to have some very good young players that are really worth working with for the future, so we can hopefully start producing a few more Gerrards, Carraghers, Owens and Fowlers.
"We need to strengthen at the top end as well and someone like Joe Cole is very important in that respect and I hope he won't be the last one."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
There are few players who could sensitively and eloquently offer their sentiments on England’s troubles at the World Cup, especially without sounding at least slightly condescending. But Xabi Alonso managed to do just that in a lengthy interview with The Sunday Times this weekend. His assessment of the English game is both honest and astute and, with regards to the cultural connotations of English football, he admits an advancement of thinking is required for international success to stand a chance.
“For me it is very important to have players in a team who complement one another. Sometimes the 11 best do not make the best 11. You have to have players with different qualities and, in my opinion, the England team had too many players who can run all day long, who invest a huge physical effort, who attack and defend – ‘box to box’, as they say in England. But the way I understand the game, you also need someone who delivers short passes, even if they seem innocuous at the time. That sort of player has been missing from the England team.”
Alonso was at pains to stress that he didn’t wish to come across as an ‘opportunist’ or being ‘wise after the event’ but his knowledge comes from being a direct factor in Steven Gerrard’s repeated match-winning performances. He reiterated that Gerrard is a ‘great player [who] inspires and leads’ but also that he needs players of different skills around him to play his best. It’s certainly no coincidence that Alonso’s departure has been difficult for Liverpool, as would the departure of any world class player, but the impact has indelibly affected Gerrard’s output. Especially in the 2008/2009 campaign, Liverpool highlighted the growing importance of a trident relationship in midfield (as commented in a previous article) of destroyer-passer-creator (Mascherano-Alonso-Gerrard). One shields, one distributes, one creates – and this is an example, not a perfect model for England to replicate, of players with markedly differing skill sets complementing one another superbly.
I don’t think it is a surprise to note that Owen Hargreaves was widely derided in England prior to the 2006 World Cup for being a player who lacked telling contributions in matches. His worth was underestimated until the competition began and, by the end, he was England’s best performer. There are multiple reasons for this: the international game is more akin to the rest of Europe (Hargreaves had the added experience of honing his abilities at Bayern Munich, where the ‘rhythm’ of the game, as Alonso later alludes to, is starkly contrasting to the English Premier League) and his role of destroying, shielding and simply distributing gained in exposure/acclaim as the competition progressed.
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When asked why, Alonso had no definitive answer for the English lacking conviction, sharpness and enjoyment in South Africa. But he did share an experience that goes some way in elucidating his point about the ‘rhythm’ of football playing an incalculable role in individual (and in our case, collective also) output:
“Since I joined Real a year ago I’ve been watching a lot of Premier League games and I think to myself, ‘My god, what a rhythm they play at! And I was playing like that too?’ And yet, here’s the funny thing, which I must confess I am unable to explain: during my first months playing in Spain I’d be more tired than I was in England. There might be a clue here as to what happens to the England players in big international games. The rhythm at that level is not like the rhythm in the Premier League and maybe it’s hard for the English players to adapt to…my impression was that they struggled to enjoy the game.”
This is an effect, rather than the cause, of something far more entrenched in the English game. Countless discussions have raged before and after England’s World Cup exit with regards to the emphasis on skill sets at youth development. To succumb to a generalisation, we place too great an emphasis on physical attributes at the youngest level. Subsequently the pace, tempo, and ‘rhythm’ of our football is far quicker than the rest of Europe. But the danger of our long standing affiliation to grit, determination, strength and pace is that technical proficiency degrades and, when separated from the complementary abilities of their club teammates, English players are exposed.
“I remember when I used to go to the Liverpool Academy I would ask the kids there what their virtues were as football players and the first answer they’d give would be ‘tackling’. Now, that can never be a virtue; that’s a resource that you deploy when needed. Your chief virtue can never be the ability to make a good tackle. Now, I’m just giving one example, but you can extrapolate that there are other qualities that should be given greater priority at youth level. For me the notion of ‘game intelligence’ is so important.”
This is certainly the central issue of Alonso’s argument and it all interlinks to the cultural tenets we connote to typically ‘English’ football. Our young players forgo technique and the finer, more cerebral, aspects of football (tactics, understanding how to play with our teammates, composure when faced with decisions on the pitch) and the result is a noticeable dearth of what Alonso calls ‘game intelligence’. Arrigo Sacchi used to say individuals could be great footballers but terrible players and the adage gains in meaning when juxtaposed with Alonso’s sentiments. We can’t teach game intelligence; it can only be nurtured, honed and experienced from youth academies – in a technically focused manner – through to the professional game.
“It basically means how to associate with other players. The rest follows, the physical aspects, the technical aspects. But understanding the game, that is what is most important.”
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Related articles:
Why is 11-a-side dying in England?
Is it too late for English youth?
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Click on image below to see the ITALIAN babes at the World Cup