Tag Futebol

The England women’s U19 team has reached the semi-final of Australia’s Under19 Women’s State Championship, convincingly winning all four of theirmatches in the group stage.England defeated Tasmania by 8 wickets on 2nd January, followed by winsagainst Western Australia by 222 runs, Victoria by 5 wickets and SouthAustralia by 6 wickets yesterday and will play New South Wales in thesemi-final tomorrow (7th Jan).Captain, Sally-Anne Briggs (Yorkshire) has been in spectacular batting form,amassing 244 runs in the four matches, including 114* against WesternAustralia. Her performances have been matched by Isa Guha (Berkshire),England’s seam bowler who made her debut for the senior team last summer,who has taken 18 wickets, with an eight-wicket haul against WA.As the Under 19 State Championship is a domestic competition, England willnot be able to contest the Final but the competition provides some valuablematch practice ahead of two One Day International matches against AustraliaU19s on 14th and 15th January.This winter tour is a first for the England women’s U19 team which has beenrestricted to playing in English summers until now. Due to increasedfunding for the women’s game, the most talented players will have the chanceto tour with England before making their debut in the senior squad.Gill McConway, ECB Executive Director for Women’s Cricket said “It’s greatto see our U19s performing so well and I’m delighted that the dedication ofplayers and support staff is paying off. It’s a competitive winter for bothour U19s and senior England team against quality opposition, and this is thebest possible start”.

One of the more difficult tasks a cricket writer embarks on is thewriting of an obituary. It is with a touch of sadness that one recordsthe passing of Trevor Nyasha Madondo, aged just 24 years. A talentedZimbabwean middle order batsman, Madondo was one of the most promisingblack cricketers in Zimbabwe when he succumbed to malaria at theParirenyatwa Hospital in Harare on June 11.When Zimbabwe came to India in late 2000, they arrived with high hopesfor Madondo. In the first warm up game that was played against theNational Cricket Academy at Indore, Madondo came good with the bat. Abatsman who favoured the classical approach to the game, Madondonotched up a quick 28 (34 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) in the first inningsbatting at number six. Tackling the spinners well, Madondo showed thathe was capable of adapting to Indian conditions and using his feetwell. In the second innings of the same game, skipper Guy Whittallthought it fit to promote Madondo, sending him in at number three.With two wickets falling in a hurry, Madondo was forced toconsolidate. Settling in well, driving through the offside withaplomb, Madondo compiled 65 (138 minutes, 7 fours) and put on 122 withAndy Flower.But that was Madondo’s best effort on tour. The second tour matchyielded scores of 26 and 17. The tour match however, showed anotherside of Madondo. In the second innings, Andy Flower took a breakbehind the stumps and Madondo donned the gloves. Tidy behind thestumps, Madondo made his contribution to a Zimbabwean victory.Not picked to play either of the two Tests, Madondo had to be contentwatching from the sidelines.In the one-day series however, Madondo was picked to play both thefourth and fifth matches. The big moment for the youngster came whenhe top scored in the final one-dayer at Rajkot. Making a 70-ball 71(10 fours) at the top of the order, Madondo gave Zimbabwe a fightingchance of chasing a mammoth Indian total of 302.In 13 limited overs games, Madondo’s top score was 71. In all, Madondoplayed only three Tests, and made a highest score of 74 not outagainst New Zealand at Wellington in December last year. Sadly, thatwas the last Test innings Madondo played.The cricket world is shocked by the passing of a talented cricketer soyoung. Perhaps a death of someone so young causes more grief than thedeath of someone in advanced years. In conversation, Madondo cameacross as an enthusiastic, cheerful young cricketer.A memorial service was held in Harare on Monday and he was buried thenext day.

Gabby Agbonlahor has claimed that Everton will now be ‘buzzing’ over some injury news that has emerged involving Yerry Mina.

The Lowdown: Back at Finch Farm

As per injury expert Ben Dinnery, Mina is back at Finch Farm, as he looks to step up his recovery.

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/everton-news-3/” title=”Everton news!” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

He has not featured for the Merseyside club since early February, with a crucial set of fixtures ahead, including a game away at West Ham United in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.

While it feels unlikely he would immediately return to the XI against the Hammers, his return to action at Finch Farm surely means he is not too far off.

The Latest: Agbonlahor reacts

Speaking to Football Insider, former Aston Villa and England striker Agbonlahor, who is also a pundit for Sky Sports, has claimed that the Goodison Park faithful will be ‘buzzing’ to get Mina back, and suggested that he could replace Michael Keane in the team:

“Michael Keane has been absolutely dreadful in recent months.

“He’s lacked the pace, and he’s even lacked the intelligence at times.

“Mina coming back, for me, will be massive. I love him. He’s a big, physical, giant of a defender. He’s fairly quick, too.

“He’ll be one that I’m sure Frank Lampard will be relying on, they’ll be buzzing to get him back.

“Lampard has got a lot to sort out in the summer with that defence.”

The Verdict: Mina over Keane

It was not long ago that pundit Jamie Carragher called the Toffees’ defence a ‘Championship back four’ after losing 5-0 away at Tottenham Hotspur, and Keane played that night in the absence of Mina.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

The fact that the Englishman has been a just outside of the relegation zone suggests that his defending has not been up to scratch this campaign. In contrast, four of the Blues’ seven wins in the top flight have come when Mina is playing.

Nonetheless, once the Colombia international is fully fit, it seems like a logical swap from Frank Lampard to start him ahead of Keane.

In other news, find out which £18m-rated maestro EFC could now sign for free here!

	Lord’s has been nominated to host the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 © Martin Williamson

Lord’s and The Oval have been nominated as two of the main venues to host next year’s ICC World Twenty20, with the ECB also recommending Lord’s to host the final.After being chosen as the hosts of the tournament, England have spent the past few months deciding on the venues to be used. The Oval has been chosen as a “preferred bidder” for the warm-ups, group and Super Eight matches and a semi-final.”I am delighted that Lord’s, a world-class venue with a famous history and tradition, has agreed to be recommended hosts,” Steve Elworthy, the tournament director, said yesterday in Auckland. “I was privileged to be director for [the] ICC World Twenty20 2007 and thrilled at the success of the event which generated record crowds and also made broadcasting history in India with 1.4 billion viewers tuning in for the final.”Now I am looking forward to the challenge of raising the standard of Twenty20 cricket even higher here in England and with Lord’s as a nominated venue and The Oval as a preferred bidder – as well as a third world class ground yet to be chosen – we have already got off to a great start.”Keith Bradshaw, the MCC secretary and chief executive, added: “The MCC committee is extremely pleased, and I am personally delighted, at the ECB’s decision to recommend that the final and other matches in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 be staged at Lord’s. It is bound to be an exciting and major global event, and MCC looks forward to contributing to its success.”MCC has supported Twenty20 cricket – a form of the game which virtually every cricketer has played – since the county competition started a few years ago. At Lord’s, these matches have regularly attracted crowds of over 20,000, and I am looking forward to seeing the home of cricket full for the 2009 matches.”

Michael Clarke: ‘I’m pretty confident it’s going to be fine’ © Getty Images

Michael Clarke has joined the growing list of players willing to battle through the pain barrier at the World Cup. He was forced to miss the Chappell-Hadlee series with a hip problem and admits he still hasn’t fully tested the injury.”I’ve had a couple of batting sessions and I haven’t been getting anywhere near as much pain, I should say,” Clarke told . “So I’m feeling good. Fingers crossed. But I haven’t done too much running, so I’ll have to do a bit of running over the next couple of days and see how it pulls up. But I’m pretty confident it’s going to be fine.”Clarke is slated to bat at the vital No. 4 position and his importance to the line-up grows with the concerns surrounding Matthew Hayden (toe) and Andrew Symonds (bicep). His form varied during the Commonwealth Bank series, but he has fond memories of the Caribbean.Clarke made 170 runs at 85 during the one-day series in the West Indies in 2003 and knows there is no bigger arena than the World Cup. “It’s the No.1 stage for one-day cricket,” he said. “That gives every individual an opportunity to step up on such a big stage.”Hopefully I’ll get the chance to stay batting at No. 4 and there’ll be plenty of opportunity, I would imagine, to get out there and score some runs. So I’ll be working my backside off over the next couple of weeks to make sure I’m ready to go for the first game.”Clarke’s left-arm spin will also prove useful to the Australians, who struggled to find a reliable fifth and sixth bowler in New Zealand. He will expect to take some of Andrew Symonds’ overs while the allrounder is recovering from his arm injury.In 101 ODIs Clarke has taken 30 wickets at 36 with an impressive best of 5 for 35 against Sri Lanka at Dambulla. Australia’s first warm-up match is against Zimbabwe on March 6 before they face England on March 9 in the lead-up to their opening group match, against Scotland, on March 14.

Security and health care are the two major items driving government spending ahead of the 2007 World Cup (CWC). That’s according to Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Owen Arthur, who has committed government to spending around $90 million to play its part in the Caribbean’s hosting of the world’s third largest sporting event next March.Arthur was speaking with the Nation in an exclusive interview shortly after laying the 2006-2007 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure in the House of Assembly yesterday.”These Estimates are occasioned by one major consideration,” Arthur said, “that over the course of the next financial year, we have to fully honour all of our Bid Book World Cup major obligations insofar as they have financial implications.” Barbados, he added, did not now have a choice as to whether it had to meet those obligations – it had to be done by the end of March 2007.”So these estimates are driven by the obligation to honour World Cup related activities,” the Prime Minister said, “and the one big change is that there is a 27 per cent increase proposed in capital expenditure.”Capital spending moves from just over $220 million to $300 million, he disclosed, but most of the increase would drop out after next year because it would be a “one-off” expenditure. “Notwithstanding, we are still trying to bring the Estimates in line with the fiscal target of 2.5% of GDP. So even though we are bringing World Cup expenditures to account, we are still honouring the obligation to try to be as fiscally prudent as possible.”Arthur noted there were other expenditures that would have been triggered by commitments given in the January 2006 economic statement, such as $3.6 million to 2,417 people with certified severe disabilities who began drawing $63 weekly from last month.He stressed, however, that World Cup expenditure had not been done at the expense of social services, although he was concerned that there were areas in the public sector delivery of services where costs had been spiralling out of control “a bit”.Explaining the “drastic growth” in spending on security and health care, Arthur pointed to the expansion at the air and seaports; a new telecommunications facility for the police; international conventions that required spending; and a mass casualty facility at Jemmotts Lane.He added that there was an expanded programme for construction and government was also trying to fix the roads and highways as well as the island’s premier attractions.

Keith Piper: hearing adjourned © Getty Images

Keith Piper has pleaded guilty to a charge of taking cannabis, after appearing before an ECB disciplinary panel in Manchester. At Piper’s request sentence was adjourned until May 26, 2005, but in the interim he has been suspended from participation in all forms of cricket that fall under the jurisdiction of the ECB.Piper, a Warwickshire stalwart for the past 16 years, was summoned before the panel, which consisted of Gerard Elias QC, Alan Wadey and Richard Bevan of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, after failing a drugs test during Warwickshire’s Championship match against Hampshire at Edgbaston on April 14.If the panel finds against him, it would in all likelihood signal the end of Piper’s career. He is 35 and has a previous offence behind him – he failed an internally-conducted drugs test in 1997 and served a one-match ban.Piper is the third Warwickshire player to be in such a position – Paul Smith and Graham Wagg have also served drugs-related bans, and as a consequence, Dennis Amiss, the club’s chief executive, is also coming under scrutiny for the club’s stance. Last season Wagg was given a 15-month ban by the ECB after testing positive for cocaine, and suffered a double blow when his Warwickshire contract was duly terminated.The Birmingham Post, which broke the story on Saturday, claimed that the drugs policy the club promised to introduce after the Wagg incident has never materialised, adding that while a firm was hired to construct a policy, the county have not reacted to the draft proposal sent to them before Christmas.

Cricket Scotland will have its funding from the England & Wales Cricket Board phased out over the next two years as the ECB desperately looks to cut costs. The grant, which was £105,000 in 2003, will reduce to £70,000 this year, £35,000 in 2005 and nothing thereafter."The situation is unfortunate," said Euan McIntyre, operations director of Cricket Scotland. “We will simply have to identify alternative funding sources to address this shortfall.”It has been a bad month for Cricket Scotland. At the end of January it lost its chief executive when Gwynne Jones suddenly resigned for "personal reasons". He has yet to be replaced.The news signals the start of some serious belt tightening within the ECB. Already penalised for refusing to play in Harare during last year’s World Cup, it is thought that if it refuses to tour Zimbabwe in October it faces further financial penalties. There is also the possibility that the ICC Champions Trophy, due to be played in September, could be moved elsewhere.

As Shane Warne was lying in agony at the MCG, the shock waves wereinstantaneously reverberating around world cricket. Make no mistake, interms of cricket news, this registers a 9.9 on the Richter Scale.Warne injuring the same right shoulder that he has injured before spellsbad news for him and the Australian side. Australia have lost theirtrump card. A player who every other nation in the world fears andrespects in equal measure. Him taking 500 wickets in the Ashes now won’thappen.And he is also highly doubtful to recover in time for the World Cup.This changes the complexion of the 15-man World Cup squad and will forcethe Australian selectors to reassess their position.Stuart MacGill should now go to South Africa. He is the second bestspinner in Australia – one of the top five in the world. He is a tadexpensive but he is a wicket-taker, which ironically is the best way tokeep the run rate down. That said, the Australian selectors have toldhim on many occasions that he has to bring down his economy rate ofaround five runs an over.Due to the technical deficiencies most players have facing quality spinbowling, Nathan Hauritz and Cameron White could still work in the World Cup but despite this, including them would be a gamble of massive proportions.Besides losing Warne the spinner, Australia also loses a handy fielder andtheir No 8 batsman. The thorny issue of the allrounder’s spot has then become a headache of massive proportions as MacGill weakens the Australian batting vis-a-vis Warne. Such being the case, Greg Blewett might win the nod ahead of the incumbent Shane Watson.Then there are the implications in the longer form of the game that needto be considered. In the Ashes, MacGill vs Warne is ‘six of one, half adozen of the other’. The English can’t play leg-spin regardless of who is bowling it. The real point of interest now is that if Australia decides to play two spinners at the SCG, will it be Hauritz or White who makes their Testdebut?As for Warne, regardless of how long it takes him to get back, he shall return – as good as he ever was. What makes him a champion is his heart and a work ethic that is second to none. You can bet on him returning and adding another glorious chapter to his much-celebrated career.

Form is temporary, class is permanent. And while the selectors haveto keep the classy players in mind, they should not ignore form too.Besides, they have to watch out for a cricketer’s attitude, asalso whether he is injury prone, whether he fits into the scheme ofthings (the horses for courses policy for example). Oh yes, aselector’s job is not easy. The quintet are going to get damned ifthey pick this player or that and are really in a no win situation.In any Indian squad, the majority of the players pick themselves. Butit is the choice of those two or three fringe cricketers that causesthe troubles, heartaches and controversy. If a player on form isselected, the critics point to another cricketer, classy enough to bepicked. If on the other hand, the selectors go for the cricketerwho has class written all over him, they are hauled over the coals forneglecting the form player. The selectors really are always skating onthin ice.Should performances on the national circuit count? One assumes theyshould. For otherwise, the affected players, besides cricket `experts’all over the country, could well argue what is the point in doing wellif the selectors are going to turn a blind eye. On the other hand,there are classy players who are already regulars in the side and whocannot take part in much of the domestic circuit because of the tightinternational calendar. Should the selectors opt for them or go forbatsmen who score 1000 plus runs or bowlers who pick up 50 wicketsand more in the Ranji Trophy?Players like Yere Goud, Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Satyajit Parab, ConnorWilliams, Dodda Ganesh, Gagandeep Singh, Valmik Buch and Rakesh Patelmay well ask what more they have to do to even be considered seriouslyfor the national team. Goud was the highest run getter in the RanjiTrophy last season – 901 runs at an average of 75.08 with two hundredsand four fifties – while playing a stellar role in Railways comingtantalisingly close to winning the country’s premier nationalcompetition. He wasn’t even among the 26 probables called for the tourof Zimbabwe. Orissa entered the semifinals for the first time, thanksin the main to the form shown by Parida who scored 885 runs on his wayto notching up the season’s highest average of 110.62 with twohundreds and six fifties. He too was not among the probables. Barodawho won the Ranji Trophy after 43 years, were indebted to theiropeners Parab and Williams who scored 809 and 728 runs respectively.Neither of them were in the list of probables.But honestly can any one of them seriously consider himself unluckynot to be considered for higher honours. The middle order door isclosed tightly. Hemang Badani, talented and in form, cannot find aplace in the Test squad. The openers, if not in the same class as themiddle order or possessing the same degree of permanency, have stillnot done badly enough to warrant a replacement. So there is really noscope for any batsman to get into the side – unless he runs into aBradmanesque run.An interesting point however revolves around the bowling. It is wellchronicled that the Indian bowling is the weak link in the team andthere is scope for a bowler, capable of taking wickets consistently,particularly on the featherbed wickets at home, to squeeze into thesquad. The season’s highest wicket taker with 37 wickets, Dodda Ganeshwas overlooked but the second and third highest wicket takers AshishNehra (36) and Debasish Mohanty (35) got the nod, first into theprobables list and then into the touring squad. And while Harbhajan isnow in the category of certainty when it comes to the Indian team, itis interesting to note that he took 28 wickets at 13.96 apiece. RakeshPatel, who with 34 wickets was one of the stars of Baroda’s triumph,was summoned to the camp for the probables.So players who do well around the domestic circuit need not despair.Obviously the selectors make a note of their performances and besidesthe classy cricketers, they do not totally ignore the form players too.