Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthaus says Lennart Karl appeared "really angry and upset" after being left on the bench in Bayern Munich's latest game.
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Everything seemed agreed upon, but the Spanish club changed the terms and the goalkeeper ultimately declined to sign
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Sports Interactive has lifted the curtain on the next entry in its iconic series with Football Manager 2026 promising to push the franchise into new territory, offering fans a fresh and immersive managerial experience that builds on more than two decades of simulation expertise. One of the headline features of FM26 is the long-anticipated move to the Unity engine. This overhaul is expected to deliver smoother 3D animations, lifelike ball physics, and more natural player movements.
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Liverpool are set to activate Jeremie Frimpong's £30m release clause as they close in on their Trent Alexander-Arnold replacement.
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Allrounder says winning his comeback series against England felt like winning a championship
Matt Roller22-Dec-2023Andre Russell pledged to arrive at next year’s T20 World Cup “looking like a UFC fighter” after his comeback series for West Indies culminated in a four-wicket win over England in Thursday’s decider in Trinidad.Russell returned to international cricket after a two-year absence, having last represented West Indies at the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. He was not in their plans for last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, when selector Desmond Haynes said that West Indies had “moved on” from him, but won a recall after confirming his availability.He was West Indies’ leading wicket-taker in the series, largely bowling at the death, and scored at a strike rate of 169.35 with the bat. “It means a lot, to be honest, getting the call-up to come back and to join the West Indies team,” he told TNT Sports. “I’ve been working for the last two years, waiting on a call-up.Related
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“I’m just excited to be back and have a win,” Russell said, highlighting the role that Daren Sammy has played in his return. “The coach has been backing me a lot. I’m so happy. I feel like I’ve won a big, big championship with just a series win, that’s how much it means to me.”Russell arrived in the Caribbean immediately after playing in the Abu Dhabi T10, and said that the long-haul flight across the world had affected his performance after impressing in the series opener. “I was coming from Abu Dhabi where it’s a big time difference,” he said. “Flying back into Barbados I tried to stay up as late as possible to make sure that I get enough sleep so that I can [be] fresh for the game.”When I got to Grenada, I just couldn’t sleep. I start feeling sleepy at 6am in the morning, which would be the time that I would sleep in Abu Dhabi. Fans won’t know that, but I still get the pressure and the backlash and all of that. It just makes me stronger. I love my Caribbean fans and I know they are passionate about the game, and when we’re messing up, they will be on our backs.”I want to make sure that I do the necessary recoveries, drink a lot of coconut water and get my body right – massages, and all of that. That’s what I did to really be able to come in the last game, bowl three overs for 30-odd runs [37] – and then today was exceptional from all the bowlers.”Russell hopes to be part of West Indies’ squad for the T20 World Cup in June, when they will attempt to become the first men’s team to win the trophy for a third time. “I’ll be in better shape, to be honest: I’ll be looking like a UFC fighter,” he said. “This series win means so much. It [makes me] want to push myself to the limit.”He is due to play in the ILT20 and the IPL early next year, and said: “I have a lot of cricket to play and that’s good. When you’re playing cricket and in competition, your body is active and you’re not just sat at home waiting for the World Cup. We are definitely going to give some teams a good, good run for their money in the World Cup.”
A friend of Paul Gascoigne says the England legend is "stable but very poorly" after being rushed to hospital following a collapse at his home.
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David Warner, who has signed up at the ILT20, is set to feature in both series, while Tim David could play too
Alex Malcolm20-Jan-2024A lighter-than-expected workload for Australia’s three-format fast bowlers across the Test summer so far could allow the selectors to pick them for one or both of the upcoming T20I series against West Indies and New Zealand, which are the only six T20Is Australia play before the T20 World Cup in June.Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc have got through four Tests unscathed so far, with none of the four home matches reaching a fifth day. Neither has had to bowl more than 38 overs in a game, and Cummins is the only one who has bowled 20 overs in an innings more than once; but he has only done it twice in eight innings across the summer.All three are being rested from the ODIs against West Indies in early February, and it seemed likely they would be rested from the T20Is too. But given how their workloads have unfolded across the summer, there may be an opportunity to play one or both of those series, with the selectors meeting on Monday to finalise those squads.Related
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“We’ll give some thought to that,” Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’ll be some that may play, and there’ll be some that might not play. It’ll be different squads [for each series]. We’ll look to potentially be at full strength for the New Zealand series.”We’ve got six games before the World Cup. A lot of the World Cup planning is in place at the moment. We’ll try to be as close to full strength for the New Zealand series as possible. The West Indies series is slightly nuanced.”There were concerns over how all three would come out of the ODI World Cup into the Test summer, but those fears have disappeared as they are in great shape and keen to play all seven Tests this season, including two against New Zealand in early March.Australia’s selectors are wary of the workload that both Cummins and Starc will have at the IPL as big-money signings, meaning they could be rested from the West Indies series before only playing part of the New Zealand series. However, Hazlewood would be the likeliest of the three to play both T20I series, given he is not going to play in the IPL unless an opportunity arises to be a replacement player.None of the three played any of Australia’s eight T20Is last year, as they were all rested in order to be fit for Test assignments and the ODI World Cup. Australia even defied the odds to win a T20 World Cup in the UAE in 2021 and an ODI World Cup in India in 2023 with an attack comprising Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and only one specialist spinner in Adam Zampa. Glenn Maxwell was the second spinner and first-choice fifth bowler, with other overs being provided by allrounders.It appears as if Australia will back the same structure in for the T20 World Cup on the slower pitches in the West Indies, with Australia not scheduled to play any matches in the US.David Warner is set to return from the ILT20 for Australia duty•AFP/Getty Images
McDonald confirmed that David Warner would be selected for both the West Indies and New Zealand T20Is, and will be required to leave the ILT20 to return to Australia by February 7. Tim David is in the same boat, having signed for MI Emirates, and will likely return to Australia if selected. Marcus Stoinis, who is at the SA20 with Durban’s Super Giants, might also return home early if he is selected for both of Australia’s series as expected.”Davey will be picked,” McDonald said. “He will come back from the ILT20. I think most of our players that are going over there are due back in on [February 7] in preparation for the [first] T20 in Hobart.”However, Australia are still yet to confirm who will captain the team at the T20 World Cup. Despite leading Australia to the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup last year, Cummins is very unlikely to be named T20I captain, having not led the team previously in that format.Mitchell Marsh captained the side on an interim basis in South Africa last year with great success, leading an inexperienced group to a 3-0 series sweep. He was also Australia’s vice-captain during the ODI World Cup, having led the ODI team too in South Africa. Immediately after the World Cup, Matthew Wade captained the T20I side in Marsh’s absence for the five-match T20I series in India.Meanwhile, McDonald will not coach the ODI and T20I series against West Indies in order to spend some extra time at home ahead of the New Zealand T20I and Test tour, although he is likely to be with the squad for some of the matches. Assistant coach Daniel Vettori will take the reins for those two series, having rested during the Adelaide Test. Fellow assistants Andre Borovec and Michael Di Venuto both coached Australia’s T20I sides last year in India and South Africa, respectively, when McDonald remained at home.
Two-time Ballon d'Or winner Aitana Bonmati says Spain's Euro 2025 final loss to the Lionesses "will hurt for some time".
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Sachin Tendulkar’s tendency to play across the line into the on side got him in trouble against the New Zealanders
Amit Varma08-Jul-2005Just what does Sachin Tendulkar have against the off side? The first ball that he faced today was well outside off, and he turned it with a beautiful flick of the wrist to midwicket for three runs. Such artistry, but what about function? Tendulkar has often got out in the past due to his tendency of playing across the line; would he continue batting in that vein?He did. As many as 38 of Tendulkar’s 55 runs – 69% – came on the on side, with his staple scoring area being midwicket, where he got 16. For a player with such impeccable technique – which is not often commented upon because of his superb eye and his wide array of strokes – he hardly played straight in the V. He had only two scoring strokes in the V between long-on and long-off, both beautiful on-driven boundaries.
| Where Tendulkar got his runs | Runs | Runs off boundaries |
| Behind wicket – off side | 6 | 4 |
| Square of wicket – off side | 2 | 0 |
| Cover – off side | 9 | 4 |
| Front of wicket – off side | 0 | 0 |
| Front of wicket – on side | 8 | 8 |
| Midwicket – on side | 16 | 0 |
| Square of wicket – on side | 6 | 0 |
| Behind wicket – on side | 8 | 8 |
So how would Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain, counter this? Why, with Daniel Vettori, of course. Of the 39 balls that Vettori bowled to Tendulkar, 13 were pitched on leg stump or further out, with three more on middle stump (besides 23 balls, testingly, on off or just outside). Vettori’s natural spin took the ball across Tendulkar and away from him, inviting him to hit across the line, and against the spin. And that was just how he got out – inside-edging Vettori onto his pads for a catch to silly mid-off.Erapalli Prasanna had once said, “length is mandatory, line is optional”. Vettori, who has grown in stature as a spinner during this tour, in difficult conditions, has clearly internalised that dictum. 36 of his 39 balls to Tendulkar – an astonishing 92% – were either on a good length or just short. Tendulkar, for all his prowess, had met his match.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.
After another weekend of lurid tabloid revelations, Shane Warne was back doing what he does best today – spinning a cricket ball, inspiring a group of kids, and talking up Australia’s Ashes prospects
Andrew Miller08-May-2006
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After another weekend of lurid tabloid revelations, Shane Warne was back doing what he does best today – spinning a cricket ball, inspiring a group of kids, and talking up Australia’s Ashes prospects. Speaking at the launch of a new spin-bowling initiative in Bethnal Green in East London, Warne stressed that the Aussies were ideally placed to regain the urn, and warned England not to muddle their priorities in their bid for further glory this winter.”You guys in particular are pretty obsessed with the Ashes,” he told reporters. “You’ve got this summer to get through first, so I wouldn’t get too far ahead of yourselves. The Ashes are at the back of everyone’s minds, but Australia are in a very good position. Beating South Africa 3-0 away was an excellent achievement, we’ve got blokes who’ve found form with bat and ball, and we couldn’t have done anything more since losing the Ashes.”Warne gave particularly short shrift to comments made by his former captain, Steve Waugh, who told The Daily Mail on Monday that Australia had been too friendly with the England players last summer, and as a consequence, lost their aura of invincibility. “I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” Warne retorted sharply. “If we’d batted better we might have been okay. The way we play is our style of play, and it’s been pretty successful except for one series. I wouldn’t get carried away about what Steve Waugh’s got to say, it’s easy to sit back when you’re not playing now and say you should be doing this and you should be doing that.”We missed out on one series and were beaten by a better side,” Warne added. “England outplayed us, and all credit to them, as we’ve said four million times! Hopefully they’ll be saying the same about us at the end of next summer.”Not only did Warne refuse to apologise for Australia’s attitude to the 2005 Ashes, he added that the spirit between the sides had been one of the single most important factors in raising the profile of the game to new heights – a fact not lost on the 25 or so pupils sat on the floor in front of him, who were about to be given a masterclass in the mysterious art of legspin.”We need to make sure that kids stay involved in the game of cricket,” Warne explained, “and that’s the duty of all the captains in international cricket, and of all the players who are playing in a positive manner. We’ve not seen many draws in Test cricket lately, while in the Ashes last summer, one of the things that really captured the imagination was the spirit in which it was played, those images of shaking hands and clapping guys off who made hundreds and took five wickets. That’s what really put cricket on the map again.”Warne’s current mission is to keep the game on the map – even if that means helping out his arch-rivals, England. In signing a new five-year deal with Mitre, he has given a further indication of his longevity and stressed he would “never say never” when it came to another tour of England in 2009, when he would be coming up for 40 years old.In the long term, however, Warne is beginning to think about his legacy, and to that end, his involvement with Capital Kids Cricket, a London-based charity that is supported by the Lord’s Taverners, could provide the role-model that English spinners so desperately need in order to come through the system.”I like to think there are young cricketers out there who want to be like me,” he said modestly. “It’s my duty to keep that spin-bowling brotherhood going all around the world, and if [this initiative] produces a wristie who plays for England, we’ll all have done our jobs well, and I’ll be pretty proud.”Warne cited various factors why spinners tend not to thrive in England. The weather was the most obvious reason, but so too was a tendency towards unsympathetic and negative leadership. “Too many captains in county cricket prefer to revert back to medium pacers with one slip and a ring of fielders, and defend,” he explained. “They might take 0 for 25 in ten overs, but I’d sooner see 1 for 50 in a spell that changes the course of a game.”As a young kid it can be very frustrating, embarrassing even, if you drop one halfway down the wicket, and it’s hit for six out of the ground and your mates take the mickey. Sometimes you’ve got to be pretty strong, because spinners need a lot of love, especially from their captains.”There are two things you like to see as a player and a spectator,” Warne continued. “One is a fast bowler running in and trying to knock people’s heads off, with Flintoff taking them on on the hook. And the other is a spinner bowling with Pietersen trying to slog them for six. I’ve been hit for more sixes than anyone in international cricket. You always get a ball back, and another chance to get them out the next time.”Of his untimely appearance in the weekend papers, Warne remained understandably tight-lipped. “Private life should be private life,” he stressed. “I’m here for cricket, and to talk about all the good things in the game.” And to watch him in the nets afterwards, demonstrating the full nuances of his art to his young audience, with his wrist appearing to rotate through 180 degrees as he mixed vast legbreaks with flippers, topspinners and googlies, was to be reminded of the real reason of why he is still the brightest star in the game.”Everyone needs heroes,” Warne emphasised. With due respect to Ashley Giles, English spinners have struggled without an idol for years. Now, however, the best in the business is offering his services to England. If anyone is going to capture the imagination of the 25 on show in Bethnal Green, or the 100 young spinners who are set to attend an exclusive coaching day in September, no-one will capture it better than Warne.