Ramnaresh Sarwan believes the tour of England is the perfect opportunity for West Indies, who he admitted were “in a bit of a turmoil”, to launch a new era.Speaking for the first time since arriving in the UK, he said it was important for the team to stick together and shake off the tag of indiscipline which dogged them during the World Cup.”Both teams are under a bit of pressure, after not playing that well in the World Cup,” he said. “We’ll have to be very careful what we do against England – but I think they’ll be a bit low on confidence as well. They didn’t do that well in the Tests in Australia, so this is an opportunity for both teams to revive themselves.”The West Indies board has gone to great lengths to ensure the players maintain their focus on tour. The players were given a handbook of rules and regulations before they left Barbados, including an 11.30pm curfew, which Sarwan is confident will be adhered to.”When we were playing at home there was speculation about guys being indisciplined,” he said. “Those rumours were unfortunate; when you are not playing well people tend to point fingers. I think the board realised there were perhaps one or two things that could be changed to help to take West Indies cricket forward.”Discipline plays a major part in sport, and sometimes you have to clamp down on that. We never had a curfew before, and that is in place now. I don’t think any of us will have a problem with that.”Despite the retirement of Brian Lara, Sarwan remains confident about his team’s chances. “Of course we think we can win this series – that’s why we’re here,” he said. I want to see us be positive and put in that effort which has probably been lacking in the past. If we can do that I’ll be very happy.”He will lean heavily on the likes of Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul who have past experience in England. The squad also includes youngsters Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy and Runako Morton and Sarwan remains realistic about what is possible in a short space of time.”West Indies cricket is in a bit of turmoil, and it is very important for this group of young guys to pull together as a team and move West Indies cricket forward,” he said. “It’s not going to happen overnight – it’s going to be a long process.”West Indies don’t have much time to prepare with just one match, against Somerset starting on Saturday, before the first Test on Thursday.
Ricky Ponting has hinted that Australia will make changes to their side for the second Test at Chittagong which starts on Sunday. A number of players looked jaded during the Fatullah Test and there are concerns over the fitness of Shane Warne and Brett Lee in particular.”We have to look at it pretty closely,” Ponting told reporters. “The last thing we want now are guys going into the second Test match that are fatigued and come up with an injury that could put them out for a long period of time. If you’d been in our dressing room and seen how fatigued and exhausted some of the players are I think everyone would be quite surprised.”Australia will train on Saturday before making any final decisions, but Dan Cullen is on standby should the selectors opt to rest Warne, who is suffering from a sore shoulder, and Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken could be brought in for the weary Lee and Stuart Clark.”We are going to have a really good look at a few of the guys,” Ponting explained. “Actually that was on the cards coming into the first Test. I was a little bit worried about a couple of our fast bowlers in particular with the workload they had during South Africa.”Shane had a very heavy workload as well and as you can see from this game he has come through with an injury but he was able to bowl pretty well in the second innings. So we have to monitor him and see how he pulls up, we have Bracken and Cullen who have flown out early.”We will give the guys a few days now to go back and do nothing and see how they pull up closer to the start of the Test match.”He added: “If you had been in our dressing room and seen how fatigued and exhausted some of the players are I think everyone would be quite surprised.”
Middlesex completed a thrilling two-wicket win over Northants off the last ball. Ed Joyce made 74 from 78 balls to put Middlesex on course, along with Jamie Dalrymple who hit 76 from 76. However, Joyce’s wicket prompted a tense finish as Johann Louw and Damien Wright squeeze the tail-end batsmen. But Melvyn Betts held his nerve to scamper the winnings runs. The result was harsh on Martin Love and Usman Afzaal, who both hit unbeaten centuries, adding 227, as Northants amassed 283 for 1.Nottinghamshire won their first National League match of the season as they beat Lancashire by 61 runs. Lancashire’s top-order failed to fire as they slumped to 94 for 6 in the face of some accurate bowling for the Notts seamers. Mark Ealham was the best of them, bowling his nine overs for 33 and dismissing Brad Hodge. He earlier played a major role with the bat, hitting 35 from 32 balls and added 86 with Chris Read as they managed to score 95 runs in the final 10 overs. Notts struggled in the initial part of the innings and from 77 for five, so their victory represented a fine turnaround.
Division Two
Kent’s powerful batting performance, led by another century for Martin van Jaarsveld, condemned Somerset to a heavy 75-run defeat at Bath. van Jaarsveld made his runs from 106 balls and was well supported by Robert Key (67) and Matthew Walker (56 from 39 balls). Darren Stevens rounded the innings off in style with 28 in 10 balls. While Ian Blackwell was hitting 57 from 42 deliveries Somerset had an outside chance, but Justin Kemp cleaned up the tail with 4 for 52.Leicestershire earned a comfortable seven-wicket win against Yorkshire after a tight bowling and fielding display. Despite reaching 102 for 2 Yorkshire could never really find proper momentum against an impressive attack. Dinesh Mongia removed Craig White first ball while Darren Maddy and David Masters were economical and took two wickets each. Mongia then guided Leicestershire home with 46 in 38 balls to complete another excellent, personal, National League match. Tom New anchored the the chase with a solid 47 at the top of the order.
Glenn McGrath has not given up hope of earning a late call-up to Australia’s Test squad for their three-match series in Sri Lanka, and believes he is bowling better than he has done for years.McGrath, 34, who has been sidelined for seven months after undergoing ankle surgery, made a successful comeback for New South Wales 2nd XI last week, picking up match figures of 10 for 86 in 50.2 overs against Victoria, and is intent on proving his fitness in what could be NSW’s final Pura Cup match of the season, against Queensland on Thursday."I’m bowling better than even before the last Ashes series,” said McGrath, whose last Test was against Bangladesh in Cairns last July. “The game I played in Melbourne last week was the best I’ve felt for years. I’m just trying to keep myself as fit and strong as possible.”NSW’s match against Queensland will be Steve and Mark Waugh’s last home game, as both men have announced their retirement at the end of the season. McGrath, who missed the emotional scenes when Steve bowed out of Test cricket at Sydney in January, said he was "so happy" to be back in time for this occasion.It is not necessarily the Waugh’s final Pura Cup match, however. They can still reach the final against Victoria in Melbourne, but they must take maximum points from the match, and hope, at the same time, that Tasmania are trounced by Victoria in Hobart.
The enormous popularity of the Gillette Cup, a limited-overs competition introduced in 1963 to inject some enthusiasm in the game in England where the county championship was on the rocks thanks chiefly to falling attendances, did not in any way mean that one-day cricket would go international. That came about quite by accident. With rain ruling out any play in the scheduled third Test between England and Australia at Melbourne in January 1971, the match was abandoned and a one-day game (40 eight-ball overs a side) was played on January 5 as asort of sop to the spectators. But the huge attendance (an estimated 46,000) not only surprised organisers but also proved that there was a market for the shorter version of the game. When Australia toured England in 1972, provision was made for three one-day matches between the two sides in preference to a sixth Test. Again the spectator response at Old Trafford, Lord’s and Edgbaston, the venues for the matches, was so encouraging that the process was repeated when New Zealand and West Indies toured England in 1973 and India and Pakistan were the visitors the next year.By now the game’s administrators were fully alive to the extent of the popularity of limited overs cricket and the excitement it provided. Plans were charted out for a World Cup competition in 1975 to be played in England and once a sponsor – Prudential, an insurance company – had been acquired, things fell quickly into place. The inaugural global tournament was to be competed by the six-Test playing nations and two associate members Sri Lanka and East Africa and the competition was held between June 7 and 21. The teams were placed in two groups. While Pool A comprised England, India, New Zealand and East Africa, Pool B comprised West Indies, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Matches were played on a 60-over basis and the format was that after the preliminary games, the top two teams from each group would meet in the semifinals.There were thrills aplenty but few surprises in the initial stages. In group A, England mowed down all opposition. They first defeated India by 202 runs, then got the better of New Zealand by 80 runs and finally coasted to a 196-run victory over minnows East Africa. The second semifinalist from the group was decided after a rather close match between India and New Zealand that was ultimately won by the latter, the winning runs being scored in the penultimate over thanks principally to a splendid unbeaten 114 by Glenn Turner. India registered a ten-wicket victory over East Africa for their only win in the competition.Things were much hotter in the other pool as could be expected with West Indies, Australia and Pakistan grouped together. West Indies won all their three matches but not before they encountered anxious moments against Pakistan. Indeed, West Indies at one times seemed on the ropes, for they were 166 for eight in reply to Pakistan’s 266 for seven in the allotted 60 overs. But wicketkeeper Deryck Murray with the help of Vanburn Holder and Andy Roberts inched the Caribbeans towards their target that was overhauled with one wicket and two balls to spare in atruly sensational finish.The eagerly awaited clash of the titans between Australia and the West Indies ended in a seven-wicket victory for the latter thanks mainly to a breathtaking assault by Kallicharran who took 35 off the last ten balls he received from Dennis Lillee, including four hits to the fencein a row. In an innings of 78, the left-hander hit a six and 13 fours, hooking and driving superbly.And so to the semifinals where it was New Zealand vs West Indies and England vs Australia. West Indies, as expected, romped to a six-wicket victory with 19.5 overs to spare. And in the other match, a first-rate all-round performance by Gary Gilmour steered Australia to afour-wicket victory. First, the left-arm seamer took six for 14, as England were shot out for 93 in less than 37 overs. Then after Australia were 39 for six, Gilmour came in to get an unbeaten 28 and with Doug Walters (20 not out) shared in an unbroken seventh wicket association of 55 runs to see his team through to the final.An Australia-West Indies title clash was what the pundits had predicted. And what a dramatic final it proved to be! It began at 11 am and ended at 8.43 pm. It was a thriller from start to finish. From the moment when Roy Fredericks trod on his wicket after hooking a bouncer from Lillee for a six – the moment is captured in a famous photograph by Patrick Eager – to the last defiant bat-swinging tenth-wicket partnership between Lillee and Jeff Thomson that constituted the finalsalvoes of a sinking battleship, the match had a capacity 26,000 Lord’s crowd enthralled.Put in to bat, West Indies were shakily placed at 50 for three but then Clive Lloyd and Rohan Kanhai raised the score by 149 runs in 36 overs. Kanhai, then in his 40th year, was out for 55, butLloyd went on to get a memorable 102 off 85 balls with 12 fours and two sixes.West Indies were ultimately able to post a challenging total of 291 for eight in 60 overs. It was always going to be a long haul for Australia from thereon. But they rose to the occasion with skipper Ian Chappell leading the way with 62. Useful contributions came from Doug Walters (35) and Alan Turner (40) but some fine work in the field, especially by Vivian Richards, resulted in a spate of run outs and Australia slipped to 233 for nine. Suspense was, however, maintained by Lillee and Thomson running the cheekiest of singles and making the odd bold hit. Amidst growing tension and excitement the last wicket pair added 41 before in the penultimate over, Thomson was run out – the fifth run out victim of the innings – and Australia were dismissed for 274. The pulsating match was the perfect advertisement for the one-day game and did much to lay the foundation for the success of future competitions. It is a game that is recalled with much fondness even today.
Yawar Saeed, the Pakistan manager on the just-concluded and most eventful tour to England, talks with CricInfoYawar Saeed felt that harping on Pakistan’s capitulation in the NatWest final is not the right way to go about it. He took time out to discuss the 55-day tour in its entirety. In fairness, not because it would show his team’s performance in better light but for the fact that the Waqar Younis-led team had some really bright moments if you look at it with a wide-angle lens. And he believes, rather strongly so, that taken as a whole the tour was a great success, despite the fact that it was the first time since 1987 that Pakistan has failed to win an away series in England. “When the team left for England, it had a couple of setbacks behind it. It had not done well in New Zealand, and lost the ARY Cup final at Sharjah. In England, it was considered a side that was weak and quite beatable. They seemed to be right as Pakistan lost the first Test at Lord’s in only three days. It was a terrible time; we were under-prepared and were outclassed. Any other team may have crumbled, but we regrouped after that serious reverse. The result was a great comeback, and we won at Old Trafford. What’s more our performance was the best by any team in England in the first half of the summer”. “Considering that we were playing in the early part of the summer, drawing the series was a great achievement. The visiting teams find the damp conditions a bit too much to handle in early summer. The example that readily comes to mind is that of India losing 2-0 and Pakistan winning by the same margin in England in 1996; then India had played the rubber in the wetter half”. “The other big plus was that we performed as a unit, and you could see it from the fight each member of the squad put up. It was quite evident at Old Trafford, where every session was so absorbing, with fortunes swinging this way and that. Such was the intensity that it was said to be a great advertisement for Test cricket”. “To me, to draw the series was very satisfying, and a great achievement. Many people in England thought that we didn’t have a ghost of a chance to do that. There were some very good individual performances in that Test, such as those of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Rashid Latif. The duo kept it up in the NatWest series, with others like Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq and Saqlain Mushtaq also making good contributions as Pakistan made it to the final. But the man who really came out much taller was captain Waqar Younis. He led by example and got the best out of the boys, each of whom were willing to do anything for him. I have been on nine tours as manager, and never was the dressing room atmosphere as excellent as it was on this tour. Younis had a big hand in that”. “Before the NatWest Series started, we were billed as the team likely to end up third. It is a tribute to the boys that we made it to the final, beating England in three out of three encounters and Australia in one of the two games [the third one was washed out] on the way. That meant that going into the final, we were equal on points with the Aussies”. “The final was a very huge disappointment. We had thought that victory in the final would be the icing on the cake. That was not to be. To sum it, we were not only found below par against the Aussies, we performed way below our potential, and were outplayed thoroughly”. “Still, I would say that overall the tour should be rated as a success; we drew the Test series and we played the final. And the biggest success was that after a long time every member of the squad – even those who were not featuring in the games – pulled in one direction and gave their full support to the captain. There was not a hint of controversy in the entire 55-day tour”. Yawar conceded that it was something that needed looking into and added:”It has happened on three or four occasions only recently. We find out that the batting is doing sufficiently well till the big day, and then there is a collapse. We have to do a bit of soul-searching to find the answers; in fact we have begun doing just that. That we are not short on talent and ability is not disputed, so it has to be mental strength and strategy. We have to work hard to get it right”. Are finding a quality opener to partner Saeed Anwar, and give the middle order a more settled look. Sending a different batsman at one-drop in every game was not the right idea, he agreed, for it kept the batsmen to follow under pressure, especially when the openers kept getting out cheaply and added: “It is really bad on confidence if your number 7 and 8 are made to make a last ditch fight every now and then. Actually the two big stands during the NatWest series were between Youhana and Rashid Latif and Youhana and Inzamam. It was about time the openers delivered with some runs on the board on a regular basis”. He admits to making some mistakes, while vociferously defends others. Dropping Saqlain from the Lord’s Test XI falls in the former category: “The decision to play five seamers was made collectively. We all admitted later that it was a mistake; but, as they say, it is easy to be wise after the event”. Yawar believes thus was correct and explains: “There was nothing exceptional from him in the four matches that he played. The problem with Afridi is that if he comes off he is gold, but if he doesn’t he is not even silver. We can be wrong, but we thought going for an opener who was in form – Saleem Elahi had scored 70-odd in the previous game – was better than having additional bowling options. Going in with five bowlers and five batsmen was the right idea, and now that it has backfired we can be criticised for it”. Yawar felt, now that the tour is over, he would like to focus on the positive things instead of harping too much on the negative angles: “True, there were weak areas, and nobody denies that we should work at improving them. But there were many brilliant things too, for instance Waqar Younis being named NatWest Man of the Series, and Afridi’s effort being nominated as the catch of the series. Though it still needs to improve further, our fielding was generally good”. Yawar’s comments came unsolicited: “We have seen poor umpiring before, but this time it was much below expectations. No one has to comment on it any longer, it is now evident to everybody who watches the game on television”. It too is no longer Yawar’s favourite. He believes that they gave too much importance to pitch invasions, firecrackers and crowd disturbance when the focus should have been on performances in the matches: “The British press could be accused of ignoring cricket, because whatever the crowds did had nothing to do with the visiting team. I asked some of them [members of the British press] why don’t you check the nationalities of those involved. I assured them none of them had a green [Pakistani] passport”.
With Fabian Delph’s career slowly winding down, it’s easy to forget that the midfielder actually came through the academy system at Leeds United, and that it was at Elland Road where he really made his breakthrough into senior football.
All in all, he played 58 times for the Whites, before earning a high-profile £6m move to Villa in the summer of 2009.
His time at Villa Park saw him establish himself as a really Premier League quality midfielder, and it was no surprise that he eventually earned a call-up to the England squad, earning the first of his 20 senior caps back in September 2014 under Roy Hodgson.
But perhaps just like he might have seen Leeds, Delph used Villa as a stepping stone to bigger and betting things, with the club captain making a £8m move to Manchester City in the summer 0f 2015 – just a week after insisting he would stay put in the Midlands.
In his time at the Etihad, he won the Premier League twice in 2018 and 2019, and won four domestic cups too (one FA Cup and three League Cups).
It was no surprise to hear Pep Guardiola rave about him whilst the pair were both at the Etihad, hailing his role and influence behind-the-scenes.
The City boss said: “He gives us character. He is a real leader in the locker room, Fabian Delph. That’s why I always give credit to the players for what they do.”
He added: “Some guys, they only want to play in one position, ‘in the other one I am not comfortable’, so he’s a guy who always tries to help. Last season we didn’t play always with his voice in our locker room, so I am so satisfied, so happy for him. Especially for him.”
After slowly being phased out of the City first-team picture, Delph eventually made his way to Everton, where injuries have continued to blight him – he’s played just 36 times for the Toffees since arriving at Goodison Park.
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And, with his contract coming to an end in the summer, he looks set for an exit, and there may be doubts over whether another Premier League club chooses to pick him up on a free transfer.
But with a total of seven trophies to his name – all achieved at City – it’s fair to say Delph has enjoyed a fine career since leaving Elland Road.
AND in other news – Leeds must finally offload £15k-p/w outcast who last played at Elland Road in 2018
ScorecardA splendid spell of bowling by Avinash Yadav and an unbeaten 66 from Raviraj Patil helped the Champs to their first win after three matches of the current Indian Cricket League tournament.The Rockets’ openers, whose powerful stand knocked the wind out of Chandigarh Lions in the first game of the tournament, gave their team a steady start after Damien Martyn decided to bat against the Champs. Sachin Dholpure was trapped by Michael Kasprowicz for 29 after he and Wavell Hinds had put on 61 off 9.1 overs, and although they were slightly off the pace, the platform given was ideal for a run-fest in the remaining overs.However, Avinash Yadav wrecked any such hopes with his 4-0-14-4. He first removed Hinds in the 12th over. Saman Jayantha effected a run-out of Sridharan Sriram in the 14th; in the same over he caught Martyn off Yadav’s bowling. The left-arm spinner went on to make it four for the match by dismissing Reetinder Sodhi and Rakesh Patel in the 18th.The Rockets struggled to 131 for 9, and though it was an improvement on their 107 for 6 against the Delhi Giants, the score was not likely to be enough.Subhojit Paul fell early during the Champs’ chase, and Jayantha wasn’t too impressive in his 22-ball 13, but Raviraj Patil went at a brisk pace to keep the Champs on course.His 66 off 46 balls contained six fours and three sixes. Patil’s fiery 52 against the Kolkata Tigers in their previous match had all but sealed victory, but this time he stayed till the end as the Champs reached their target with two balls to spare.
In his first press conference since arriving back in Pakistan, Inzamam-ul-Haq has reacted angrily to the way his team has been treated by the media. He again apologised for their early exit from the World Cup but said the constant criticism the players received made life very difficult.”If the media and people keep on criticising the team, I am sure we can’t win any big tournaments,” Inzamam said. “Fear of losing always follow our players and it puts them under lot of pressure.”Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup after defeats to West Indies and the shock three-wicket loss against Ireland in Jamaica. It had been widely expected that Inzamam would stand down from the one-day team following the tournament but the manner of abuse he has suffered has left him feeling shocked.The press conference at the Gaddafi Stadium was a heated, fractious affair as Inzamam defended his years of service to Pakistan cricket. “Wasn’t I a citizen of Pakistan? Didn’t I serve this country for 17 years? Is this what I deserved?” he said, visibly upset at some of the questions.He also hit back at the match-fixing claims which have circulated following the defeats and subsequent murder of Bob Woolmer. Inzamam said it was “unfair” to talk about match-fixing after the defeat to Ireland and added: “The team over the past three-and-a-half years had been playing and winning matches. There were no such comments. Now they are spreading such rumours.”He went on to question the quality of the Sabina Park pitch for the Irish game. “The wicket was very difficult for batting. It was a green-top pitch. I had never seen such a wicket in the World Cup. The match became dependent on the toss. Unfortunately we lost the toss and Ireland used it to their full benefit.”However, despite all the recent traumas Inzamam reiterated his desire to extend playing Tests even though Pakistan’s next commitments are six months away. “If the selectors give me a chance, I am willing to play Test matches because I think age is no barrier in Pakistan cricket,” he said. “All I wish is that my Test career ends on a happier note than my one-day career.”
India A outplayed Pakistan A in all departments of the game to secure a convincing 34-run win in the EurAsia Series in Abu Dhabi.After producing a powerful batting performance to post a challenging 269 for 6, the Indians dismissed Pakistan for 235 in the day-night encounter at the Sheikh Zayed stadium. The win meant India topped Group A after the first phase of the league stage with two wins from as many matches. They will now play the second and third placed teams of Group B – hosts UAE and Ireland – in the second phase.Bazid Khan stood tall among the ruins with 87 for Pakistan, who had the consolation of gaining a bonus point from the match.Earlier, India A’s top order batsmen fired in unison to to prop up the Indian total.After Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan put up a century opening stand, captain Venugopala Rao (45) and Rohit Sharma (62) consolidated with another strong partnership. Uthappa and Dhawan each made 52, but the latter at a quicker rate.Their left-right combination kept the Pakistani attack at bay while stitching 100 runs for the first wicket from inside 17 overs. The stand was broken when Dhawan tried to step out to offspinner Mohammad Hafeez (2 for 46) and was beaten by a wide delivery to be stumped in the 17th over.Uthappa went back five overs later, the umpire belatedly upholding a leg before appeal by leg spinner Mansoor Amjad (2 for 49).Rao and Sharma added 86 runs for the third wicket with the captain making a composed 45 off 74 balls.