There is reason for concern but not alarm, not till we experience the pitch anyway. There is uncertainty in the air on a number of fronts, and rightly so, but National Stadium in Guyana is far from the construction site that some reports have made it out to be. Weather permitting, and in Guyana all you ever need for rain is a bit of cricket, the Super Eights will commence on Wednesday.Indeed the outfield has responded superbly to the rain of the past three days, a point noted by the Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody. The much lovelier Bourda, the former Test ground, would have become a lake by now. Built higher than the surrounding land, engineers claim that drainage at the new stadium here can empty two inches of water in half an hour.That is one of the bright spots at the moment. Virtually nothing is known about the virgin pitch, on which only a club 20/20 match has been played in the last few months. Presumably it will behave better that the practice pitches, which recently earned the censure of Andy Roberts, the pitch consultant for the tournament, some months ago, and frustrated the South Africans with their unreliability when they netted this morning. It’s been a familiar case of too little too late.The Local Organising Committee has been terribly tardy with all its commitments, and finally handed over the facility to the ICC last week almost a month after deadline. Three days ago, Rushmans, the British agency handling the media facilities for the tournament, had advised journalists “the LOC has been unable to provide fully operational facilities for us and despite out best efforts, there may be continuing challenges during matches at the stadium.” It added that a number of additional personnel, including power experts, IT technicians, had to be flown in to get things ready.On match eve the media centre appeared to be in reasonable order, and Rushmans staff anticipated no further trouble. Project managers from the Indian building firm, Shapoorji Pallonji, too, are confident that all aspects of the stadium proper are in perfect order. The same cannot be said for the approach and the parking lot, work on which was not just late but never completed.
South Africa 427 for 5 (Amla 149, Prince 70*, Boucher 26*) trail New Zealand 593 for 8 dec by 166 runs Scorecard and ball-by-ball details How they were out
Hashim Amla pushed his maiden Test century up to 149 as South Africa worked their way past the follow-on at Cape Town, virtually assuring them of safety. Jacques Kallis aided him during the morning session and Ashwell Prince ensured that two quick wickets before tea were nothing other than a blip on another bat-dominated day. The New Zealand attack plugged away manfully, but it was hard work for little reward.The match only threatened to come alive when Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel struck in quick succession, leaving South Africa 33 short of the follow-on with five wickets in hand, just about keeping New Zealand’s interest in squaring the series alive. Vettori trapped Amla with an arm ball – although there was the thinnest of inside edges – and Patel’s strike to remove AB de Villiers on the stroke of tea had opened a small window for the Kiwis. But it was slammed, or rather eased shut, by Prince and Mark Boucher. At no stage did the conditions hint at a clatter of wickets and that was the only way New Zealand were going to be able to force a result.For the majority of the morning it was one-way traffic as Amla and Kallis bedded in on a surface that offered precious little encouragement to the bowlers. There was a hint of turn, but the pitch has not broken up as had been expected.Vettori was disappointing, dropping too short and allowing the batsmen to pick him off for ones and twos. Kallis creamed a series of delightful drives which left the fielders motionless, and led to a change of tact from Stephen Fleming. As soon as the new ball was available it was taken and James Franklin found a hint of movement and maintained a probing line.
But there was nothing to frighten the batsmen and Kallis clicked over to another fifty – off 142 balls – and also nudged his way beyond 8000 Test runs. Amla was quick onto any wayward deliveries and the nineties did not cause him any undue nerves. A sweet drive carried him to 99 before he forced a brace through the covers off Vettori to reach three figures, off 242 balls, a fine return to the team especially in the tough No. 3 slot.By this point Kallis had departed in a somewhat tame manner, scooping an attempted pull to mid-on after the ball held up off the surface. However, Amla pressed on with the knowledge that it was not about how quickly South Africa scored – it was all about occupation of the crease. He continued to knock away the loose deliveries with Patel showing the first signs of tiring as he approached 40 overs on his debut. But when Vettori got the benefit of Amla’s decision, and Patel was rewarded for preservence, South Africa would have had a twitchy tea interval.However, as with Kallis, it was a situation made for Prince and he went about making the most of chance of a sizeable score. New Zealand needed a quick strike in the final session, but Boucher was quickly into his effective counterattacking style, sweeping and nudging the spinners to distraction. Once the pair took the deficit below 200 a collective weight was removed from South African shoulders.The zip clearly vanished from the Kiwis allowing Prince and Boucher to ease along in what has become a quest for personal milestones. The daily dose of bad light arrived on cue to allow some aching bodies to head for the dressing room. Prince will know a fourth century is there for the taking tomorrow and, after a season of battling away on tough pitches, the South Africans will want to eke every last run from this surface. It will be one for the purists.
How they were outSouth AfricaGraeme Smith c and b Patel 25 (36 for 1) Boeta Dippenaar b Patel 47 (108 for 2) Jacques Kallis c Martin b Oram 71 (252 for 3) Hashim Amla lbw b Vettori 149 (344 for 4) AB de Villiers c Papps b Patel 13 (361 for 5)
Steve Harmison has hinted he may end his career early because of homesickness. Harmison, 26, told the , a London newspaper, that he could not see himself playing much one-day cricket beyond the World Cup in 2007. Despite a successful summer last year at home against West Indies and New Zealand, where he emerged as the world’s leading bowler, Harmison took only nine wickets over the winter in South Africa, each of which cost 73 runs.”I will never overcome [homesickness] because I never really want to be away,” Harmison said. “It would be brilliant if I could sort it out, but I know this is never going to be the case. I cannot see myself playing for England when I am in my mid-thirties. I have a family. My international career will finish when my family needs me to be around a bit more.”Even now I cannot see myself playing a lot of one-day cricket after the 2007 World Cup It is something I desperately want to play in but, even forgetting the homesickness, the workload will eventually become too much and I just cannot see my body coping with it.”
Zimbabwe 185 for 7 (Flower 59, Rogers 54, Mahmud 4-19) beat Bangladesh 183 (Manjural 63, Sarkar 59, Flower 3-36) by three wickets, and won the series 2-1 Scorecard
A captain’s innings from Heath Streak – and a nervousness from Bangladesh which comes from not being used to winning – enabled Zimbabwe to scrape a three-wicket victory which had seemed highly unlikely when they slumped to 124 for 6 chasing 183 in the fifth and deciding one-day international at Harare. Zimbabwe thus sneaked the series 2-1.Twice in this match Bangladesh had the upper hand, and both times they let the advantage slip away. When they batted, Hannan Sarkar (59) and Manjural Islam Rana (63) laid a solid foundation with a 105-run opening stand only for the middle order to blow it; then when Bangladesh fielded they had Zimbabwe on the ropes and let them off.Khaled Mahmud, in recent months usually the villain and never the hero, was almost Bangladesh’s unlikely matchwinner. His career-best 4 for 19 in 10 overs ripped through Zimbabwe’s innings after Barney Rogers (54) and Grant Flower (54) had taken them to 112 for 0. Mahmud’s gentle medium-pace wobblers were ideal for the overcast conditions, and in the space of 31 balls Zimbabwe had been reduced to 124 for 6, with Mahmud taking 4 for 0 in ten balls.Streak needed someone to stay with him, and Dion Ebrahim rose to the challenge. They stopped the rot, saw off Mahmud, and then took on Bangladesh’s other bowlers, who wilted under the counterattack. A moment of madness from Ebrahim, who looked for a second run which was never there and was run out for 11 (154 for 7), briefly gave Bangladesh hope, but the next over from Tapash Baisya went for ten runs and the pressure was off the batsmen again. Streak and Gary Brent had overs in hand, so didn’t need to take any undue risks to ease their side home.But Bangladesh’s batsmen should have ensured that they posted a total which would have removed the pressure from their bowlers. Sarkar and Manjural batted with confidence – aided by some loose bowling and a dropped catch or two – and even though Zimbabwe’s spinners slowed the run-rate, there was no excuse for the collapse that followed.Rather strangely, Sarkar decided to try to sweep everything, and there was an inevitability in his dismissal, top-edging Ray Price to Rogers at fine leg. But then the middle order self-destructed in an orgy of inappropriate shots, and from 153 for 3 Bangladesh lost their last seven wickets for 30 runs. Barring the openers, only Rajin Saleh (21) reached double figures, while the two spinners, Price (2 for 38) and Flower (3 for 36), did the damage.So Zimbabwe came from behind to edge the series 2-1 – the first two matches in Bulawayo were washed out – but they were thoroughly unconvincing against one-day cricket’s whipping boys. If Bangladesh had shown more self-belief then they could have won all three games. As it is, they go home beaten, but having made some progress against the side they have to target as the one to which they have the best chance of passing the unwanted title of the world’s worst.
After a drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka in their last match, to say nothing of defeat in the final Ashes Test, Australia got back to winning ways in the latest VB Series encounter with a tense victory over England in Hobart. With a hundred from Damien Martyn, and some wayward English bowling, Australia managed to get just enough to withstand an opening partnership of 165 by Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight that appeared to have put England right on course for a win. Then a mid-order collapse left the later batsmen with just too much to do and Australia got home by a mere seven runs.The Australians had suffered a collapse at the start of their innings. They were reduced to 53 for three in the eleventh over, having lost Adam Gilchrist – given out lbw despite an inside edge – and Ricky Ponting to Jimmy Anderson before Matthew Hayden gave a return catch to Steve Harmison’s second ball.It was a day, however, when Harmison’s radar proved to be on the blink. He bowled five wides in that first over, and 11 in total during his eight overs. The total of 22 wides in the innings proved to be England’s undoing. The Australian bowlers delivered only two wides and six no balls throughout the England innings and England coach Duncan Fletcher will no doubt impress on his attack that in this form of cricket such indiscipline can prove to be costly, as it did here.After the dismissal of Hayden, Martyn began to stage the recovery, featuring in century partnerships with both Michael Bevan and Jimmy Maher. Bevan is as adept as anyone in world cricket in these situations. He was ruffled by being hit on the grille by Anderson, but came through to restore Australia to a competitive position.When Bevan fell for 52, edging a ball from Ian Blackwell onto his stumps, Australia were 171 for four after 35 overs, allowing the new batsman, Maher, to play with more freedom. But while he was seeing the innings through with a run-a-ball 49, Martyn was also becoming more expansive so that 89 runs came from the final ten overs.Martyn was dropped by Paul Collingwood off Anderson when he was on 51. It was one of a number of missed opportunities by England, but this proved to be the most costly by far as Martyn steered Australia towards a defendable total. After facing 113 balls and taking nine fours, he turned the last ball of the innings off Andrew Caddick to fine leg for another boundary to bring up his fourth one-day international hundred.Glenn McGrath was back in the Australian attack but he suffered like all the bowlers as Knight and Trescothick got the innings away to a perfect start for England. However, it was not his bowling that proved painful to McGrath for he was not leaking runs at the same rate as the others. It was his back, and he was forced to limp from the field after bowling seven overs.After such a good start, it was the fall of Knight’s wicket when he was bowled by Andy Bichel for 85 that began a collapse that saw seven wickets fall for the addition of 99 runs inside the last 20 overs of the innings. Left-arm wrist-spinner Brad Hogg picked up three of those wickets, including Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood in one over as England lost the momentum given them by the openers.Nasser Hussain stayed to anchor the innings, but found nobody to support him and inject the necessary acceleration as overs ran out. There was a brief period when Alec Stewart appeared to be doing just that, adding 41 in five overs with Hussain for the sixth wicket. Had this pair been able to bat through to the end in this fashion, England would have got home with something to spare.Australia’s fielding had not been flawless, but Martyn made no mistake when holding Stewart off the bowling of Shane Watson. Watson, given the last over, then bowled Hussain for 43 with the 38th ball the captain had faced. Caddick took two off the next ball but two swings and two misses off the final two balls saw England’s total remain seven runs short of Australia’s and it was the home side who secured their place in the finals.
The next 14 months would keep the Indian cricketers busy as the teamis scheduled to play as many as 22 Tests and over 40 One-dayInternationals during the period.After returning from the on-going tour of Zimbabwe, the Indians willplay three Tests each against Sri Lanka, South Africa and England, allbefore the end of this year.The team will also play a minimum of three matches (and a maximum offour should they qualify for the final) in the Asia Test championship,two against Zimbabwe in India and four each in West Indies and Englandnext year, a BCCI source said in Mumbai on Thursday.During this period, the team is also expected to turn out in a maximumnumber of 41 ODIs which means the players are expected to be on thefield once every 72 hours on an average which makes for a hecticschedule, the sources added.Added to this hectic playing schedule is the amount of air travelwhich, put together with the time spent on the field, can be reallytiring.In case the BCCI approves the three-match one-day series in Melbourneand Brisbane, the team may have to travel to the African continentstraight from Australia for the gruelling tour to South Africacommencing on October 2 and featuring three Tests and a triangularseries with Kenya as the third team.Earlier, the Indians will take on Sri Lanka in a three-Test series inJuly-August to be followed by a triangular event also involving NewZealand which is scheduled to end on September 2.Then comes the Asian Test Championship match with Pakistan before theIndians travel to Australia for the three-match Super Challenge 2001and from there on to South Africa.The Indians are scheduled to come back from South Africa only towardsthe end of November and are slated to play a three-match series inDecember against England. The Englishmen are to return home in timefor Christmas before coming back for a five-match limited over seriesagainst India in January, 2002.Zimbabwe would arrive next in February-March for a two-Test seriesrubber followed by either a five-match bilateral series (between Indiaand Zimbabwe) or a 13-match quadrangular event featuring these twoteams along with Pakistan and the West Indies which is at a planningstage now.Two more Tests, against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, need to be played bythe team as part of the ATC during this period before the team leavesin April for the West Indies.The team will return towards the end of May before embarking toEngland for a tri-series involving Sri Lanka as the third side,followed by the Test series.
Newcastle United’s summer transfer window has left much to be desired, with PIF and Eddie Howe yet to prove that this year’s dealings have been as on-the-money as the first several years of this ambitious project.
Anthony Elanga, for example, ended a long and arduous search for a right winger in August, moving to St. James’ Park from Nottingham Forest for a £55m fee and with a weight of expectation attached.
But the Swedish winger has been anything but effective for his new club, with his big-money arrival and failure to produce reminiscent of Florian Thauvin before him.
Florian Thauvin's time at Newcastle
Newcastle signed French winger Thauvin from Marseille for a hefty £13m back in 2015, viewed as an up-and-coming superstar who could help guide the Magpies forward during those dark Mike Ashley-led days.
Named the Ligue 1 Player of the Month for September, Thauvin received his first call-up to the Les Bleus national set-up since 2019 in October, scoring on his return in a World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan.
A career journeyman, there’s no question that Thauvin was at his lowest ebb – or thereabouts – when moving to Newcastle, too young and inconsistent to thrive in the Premier League. He featured 13 times in the English top division, starting three matches, before returning to Marseille, having failed to adapt.
However, Thauvin, now 32, is enjoying quite the late-career revival in his homeland with RC Lens, having scored five goals and supplied two assists across 16 Ligue 1 fixtures this term.
Elanga might feel like the new version of Thauvin, disappointing from the right flank, but he’s been selected as the leading man on Howe’s right wing and has only Jacob Murphy for competition.
Thauvin was something of a pointless buy in hindsight, and there’s a sense that PIF have repeated that purchase with another squad member in 2025.
Howe must be worried he's repeated Thauvin mistake
Elanga will be Newcastle’s leading right winger over the next few years without transfer intervention, but the same cannot be said for Jacob Ramsey, who arrived from Aston Villa for a £42.5m figure during the summer transfer window and has struggled to establish himself in the pecking order.
Ramsey, 24, has made 144 appearances in the Premier League, scoring 14 goals and registering 14 assists, but he has been reduced to a bit-part role on Tyneside, with injuries and struggles for form inhibiting him.
He’s enjoyed some measure of success in Newcastle’s first team, winning a respectable amount of duels for Newcastle this season while trying to be progressive with his passing.
However, Ramsey’s opportunities have been few and far between, and with Lewis Miley on the up and Newcastle interest in former academy product Elliot Anderson simmering in the background, the former Villan’s chances may become slimmer and slimmer.
Jacob Ramsey – Premier League Form 25/26
Stats (* per game)
#
Matches (starts)
8 (3)
Goals
0
Assists
0
Touches*
34.3
Accurate passes*
24.5 (91%)
Chances created*
1.0
Dribbles*
0.8
Ball recoveries*
3.8
Tackles + interceptions*
1.2
Duels (won)*
2.5 (53%)
Data via Sofascore
Thauvin didn’t work out, but Newcastle had signed Ayoze Perez for a small fee only the season before, and he went on to become a prolific and consistent right-sided forward, one of the brightest sparks in that pre-PIF world.
Subscribe for sharper Newcastle transfer analysis Join the newsletter to get deeper, data-backed Newcastle transfer analysis — player fit, tactical impact and club strategy — plus broader football context that helps you interpret signings and squad decisions. Subscribe for sharper Newcastle transfer analysis Join the newsletter to get deeper, data-backed Newcastle transfer analysis — player fit, tactical impact and club strategy — plus broader football context that helps you interpret signings and squad decisions.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Ramsey’s departure, likewise, wouldn’t be too keenly felt by the Toon side, even with his profile having been coveted and secured during the summer. He’s passionate and committed, but he needs to do more, and currently looks like he will be hard-pressed for a long run of minutes under Howe’s wing.
Ramsey needs to improve throughout the business months of the season, but there’s no question that he’s a naturally gifted and industrious midfielder, hailed by Steven Gerrard when coming up at Aston Villa for being “undroppable” and with a future at the top of the England national set-up.
That hasn’t happened yet, with injuries playing a defining part there. Analyst Raj Chohan has rather scathingly remarked that Newcastle have “wasted their bag” on the Englishman, and in this, there are frustrating parallels with Thauvin well before him.
Newcastle in talks to sell £25k-p/w star who Howe called the "complete package"
England Lions’ captain Michael Yardy struck an unbeaten 151 to lead his side to a healthy 273 for 4 at the end of the first day of their Duleep Trophy match against West Zone in Vadodara.After choosing to bat, the Lions got off to a poor start as the in-form Michael Carberry was trapped leg before by Gujarat medium-pacer Ashraf Makda in the second over. Yardy, who has represented the England national side in Twenty20s and ODIs, came in at No. 3 and forged a series of sizeable partnerships to ensure the Lions gained the upper hand.A brisk 50-run stand for the second wicket with Joe Denly (32) was ended when Denly was run-out by Siddharth Trivedi. Yardy was then joined by Ed Joyce (32), another player who was part of the national set-up, and they stitched together a patient 75 runs before Joyce was dismissed by Makda.With the Lions at 126 for 3, the usually aggressive Jonathan Trott (44) played a subdued knock and put on 141 for the fourth wicket as the Lions took control. With only three overs left in the day’s play, Trott became Makda’s third lbw victim. Graham Onions was sent in as the nightwatchman and the Lions saw out the remaining overs without any further casualties.Yardy, meanwhile, had brought up his 12th first-class century with the help of 20 boundaries to leave West, who need a win to make the finals, facing an uphill task.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, who stepped down as captain after Pakistan’s humiliating exit from the World Cup, feels it’s a good move to have one captain for both the Test and one-day sides for practical reasons. Inzamam, 37, said he was not in favour of having separate leaders for both Pakistan sides as other countries had experimented with in the past.”I just feel that when you have one captain the players are also comfortable in both formats of the game as they know their captain’s style and thinking,” Inzamam said. “It is not easy adjusting for players to playing under different captains in different forms of the game.”Inzamam, who has also retired from ODIs but has made it clear he wants to continue playing Test matches, said he was not surprised by allegations leveled against him after Pakistan’s poor performance in the World Cup. On the charges that he was an autocratic captain and ran a one-man show, Inzamam said in Pakistan’s cricket history there were quite a few captains who were strong and did things their own way.”Imran Khan is a prime example,” he said. “He was a very strong captain compared to others. So if I tried to be strong what is wrong with that? But to say I didn’t consult the selectors or other players while taking decisions is wrong. I always believed in seeking other opinion before deciding on something important regarding the team.”Inzamam said he had also wanted to announce his retirement from Test cricket but some of his friends advised him against doing this. “I was terribly disappointed after what happened in the World Cup and I wanted to announce my total retirement,” he said. “But my friends said I can still contribute a lot to the team in Test cricket.”He said he was keen to play in Tests but everything depended on the selectors. “I am prepared for anything now,” Inzamam said. “But my conscience is clear that I spent all my energy and time in trying to bring success for the country. But one bad tournament and everyone has turned against and I am being accused of things I have never done.”Inzamam said some people had even started to involve him in the match-fixing scandal and were claiming the Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum report had fined him for his role in match fixing in 2000. “But this is not true, I and some other players were fined because the judge felt we were hiding some facts about the case,” he said. “I was never directly punished for any match-fixing.”Inzamam also said he was assured by the Pakistan board and selectors that fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif would be available for the World Cup after being cleared of their doping issues. “But their not being available was a big set back and we had to rethink all our plans for the World Cup,” he said.
Kasim Farid, the captain of Scotland at the recent Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, has been named in the Scotland squad for their warm-up matches against Durham next week.In preparation for the C&G Trophy they are playing two matches at Chester-le-Street before their opening game of the tournament against Warwickshire on April 30. Craig Wright leads the team, which includes the former England, Yorkshire and Durham allrounder Gavin Hamilton.Squad Craig Wright (capt), Kasim Farid, Gavin Hamilton, Paul Hoffmann, Omer Hussain, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Gregor Maiden, Dewald Nel, Colin Smith (wk), Ian Stanger, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Sean Weeraratna.