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Surrey have not yet reached a decision over whether Graham Thorpe will play in the Benson and Hedges Cup final against Gloucestershire at Lord’s tomorrow.Thorpe only started training again yesterday after a six-week lay-off because of a calf injury.He appeared to rule himself out of the running by telling Channel 4’s cricket web site: “I have had a lack of match practice but there is nothing we can do about that. I wanted to play in the Lord’s final but I can’t go into a game like that having only had one or two nets. That wouldn’t be fair on Surrey or England.”But Surrey coach Keith Medlycott refused to rule Thorpe out of the running.He said: “He has had a long-term injury concern. He has not played forsix weeks but he is very close to being back to full fitness.”He has made very encouraging progress. He had an indoor net on Thursday andsuffered no reaction to that and has had a net and a run around at Lord’s today.The signs are encouraging.”Of course, as regards the final there is always going to be that questionmark about it being a humdrum of a game and you’ve got to give it 100% full on.”If Thorpey came and said `I’m sure I can play’ then we would have a decisionto make. He is one of the best one-day players in world cricket.”Thorpe, asked about his injury, said: “It’s getting better now.”But asked whether he would be playing tomorrow, he said: “The chances areslim. I would not say ‘no’ – but it is highly unlikely.”Meanwhile paceman Alex Tudor looks like being fit for the final. He missed the C&G clash with Yorkshire this week because of a side strain but Medlycott said: “He has had a fitness test and we will see how he is. At present I would say he’s 50-50 but the physios are quietly confident. We are optimistic.”If Tudor fails to make the final line-up he will be replaced by Tim Murtagh for what would be his first Benson and Hedges appearance.Mark Ramprakash, on the road to recovery from a hamstring strain, will play but Ian Salisbury will undergo a late fitness test on a foot injury.Medlycott said: “We will have to sit on the fence with one or two of themuntil the morning and give them every opportunity.”Gloucestershire, meanwhile, are likely to be without paceman Jon Lewis who is awaiting results of a scan on a back injury, having been out of the game for nearly six weeksHe took part in a net session at Lord’s but coach John Bracewell said: “He is doubtful and has not really had enough cricket. If it was a green seamer we might have taken a chance but it looks a very good wicket.”Batsman Rob Cunliffe and bowler Mark Hardinges have been added to the players on duty in this week’s C&G match against Durham.Squads:Gloucestershire: Hewson, Barnett, Windows, Harvey, Taylor, Snape, Russell, Alleyne, Ball, Cawdron, Averis, Hardinges, Cunliffe, Lewis.Surrey: Butcher, Ward, Ramprakash, Stewart, Brown, A. Hollioake, B. Hollioake, Thorpe, Bicknell, Saqlain Mushtaq, Murtagh, Giddins, Tudor, Salisbury.

The Champions League has proven to be one of the key incentives for players looking to move to a top European club. The aspiration for trophies will always be there but the Champions League has seemingly taken over from the World Cup as the premier competition in world football. But Uefa are looking to make significant movements once again as they look to ban players owned by third parties from the competition. A positive move for all concerned, or an issue that will fall by the wayside to others?

This issue in England was brought up when Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez arrived in the Premier League in controversial fashion. Players owned by third parties and who were deemed ineligible to play. A step further is the banning of such players from Europe’s elite competition, one which has been brought up by officials in England and France. A concern, of course, as it firstly distorts a club’s expenditure against the Financial Fair Play ruling and in turn hands the club an unfair advantage, something which then spills over into the Champions League. A Premier League official stated, “It threatens the integrity of competitions, reduces the flow of transfer revenue contained within the game and also allows external influences on a player’s transfer decisions.” Where England have already made positive steps against these types of players, other European leagues continue to allow for them to compete.

But where does the importance of Uefa’s action come into play? It’s in the fact that third parties often hold too much control over their players. Much of the time they are in a position to give out instructions as to when and where the player is allowed to play and, of course, restrict his participation for clubs competing in the Champions League. As Uefa’s current guidelines suggest, it does not prohibit investors buying stakes in players, as long as they have no control over where they play. The line between what investors demand and when they take a position in the background can become screwed, however, due to the continued interfering they have been known to have on the decisions a player makes. It gets around third parties telling them they can’t play in European competition but it doesn’t disguise the fact that they poorly advise players in their transfers from club to club. By Uefa taking action and banning players from the competition anyway, it gives players such as Carlos Tevez an incentive to part ways with their associates. A positive move on all levels and one which eradicates negative and poisonous influences in a players career.

As it’s been suggested, the Champions League is a great incentive to wave in front of players and attract top talent, as well as a great added bonus for players arriving in Europe from South America—where third party ownership is common place. But giving clubs utmost control over their players is an important and positive step in modern football and something which should be paramount in European competition.

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	Charlotte Edwards and some of the England squad ahead of their departure © ECB

England women have departed Heathrow to head to Australia in a bid to defend their Ashes title. The four-day match, which will be played at The Bradman Oval, starts on February 15.The team will also play a five-match ODI series, including games at the MCG and the SCG and a Twenty20 game at the MCG. After their tour of Australia, the players head to New Zealand for a five-match ODI series, with all games played at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval at Lincoln University.”We’re all really looking forward to it,” Edwards said. “We’ve all been working hard over the winter. It’s going to be a tough tour as both Australia and New Zealand are two of the best sides in world cricket, but we’re taking a young talented squad with lots of potential, and we’re fully prepared for it.”England certainly are a young squad: they are taking just three players who took part in the last Ashes on Australian soil: Edwards, Claire Taylor and Lydia Greenway.The side will arrive having not played an outdoor match since last September, although they will link up with five players who have been playing grade, and in Jenny Gunn’s case state, cricket.A standby player and first batting reserve, Ebony Rainford-Brent, has also made arrangements to head out to Australia, with Surrey paying for her flight, and she arrives on Tuesday in South Australia. She will play grade cricket for Port Adelaide, Karen Rolton and Emma Sampson’s team, and will be match-ready should England need her.

Tatenda Taibu has denied that he has been approached by anyone from Zimbabwe Cricket with a view to making a return to the side ahead of the World Cup.Cricinfo learned from senior sources inside the board that attempts had been made to secure funds from sponsors to fund the payment of outstanding fees owing to Taibu which were believed to be the main obstacle to his return.”That’s not true, I haven’t spoken to anyone in the Zim set-up,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. He added that even if he had been contacted, he would not have considered the proposal. “Too much water has gone under the bridge for me to consider playing for Zimbabwe again.”It is thought that while Peter Chingoka, who did little at the time Taibu and his family were threatened, the incidents which led to him quitting the national team, remains at the helm of the board then Taibu will stay away.

Ian blackwell: ‘It’s going to be a challenge bowling in conditions suited for bowlers like Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. You have to look to be at your physical peak.’ © Getty Images

Ian Blackwell, the England spinner, believes intelligence and adaptability will be the crucial ingredients for success against India.”Yeah, it’s going to be a challenging tour. Touring India is always tough but it can be a worthwhile experience, I’ve been told,” Blackwell said at a press conference in Mumbai. The England team arrived here yesterday for a three-Test and seven one-day international series.”Indians are great players of spin, we all know what their batsmen are capable of, and its going to be a case of assessing the wicket. It’s definitely going to be a case of using your brain and actually using the conditions to suit my style of bowling or others bowling at the time. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do.”A year ago, Blackwell, 27, was being discussed as a one-day specialist batsman. Today, sitting in Mumbai, he finds himself a replacement for the injured Ashley Giles and up against Shaun Udal, who played in Pakistan recently, and Northamptonshire’s Monty Panesar, the uncapped left-arm spinner.Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher have indicated that two spinners might be the order of the day if, as anticipated, India serve up dustbowls tailor-made for the slow bowlers. A three-wicket burst in the final one-dayer at Rawalpindi last December showed what Blackwell is capable of, but to bowl long spells in a Test match – in India, no less – has been known to test the best of bowlers. And Blackwell remains aware of this. “It’s going to be a challenge bowling in conditions suited for bowlers like Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble,” he said. “You have to look to be at your physical peak. It’s something England are very keen to improve on.”For a cricketer who has yet to take 25 wickets in a county season, Blackwell looks the least qualified of the three slow bowlers, but remained upbeat of his chances of making the final XI while summing up the competition. “I think Shaun Udal is almost in the role of Ashley Giles, as a bowler who can bat. He’s a stock bowler who can offer a few runs,” he said.”And again, Monty [Panesar] is probably the better bowler out of the three of us. He’s an attacking left-arm spinner. Playing at Northants he’s going to generate a lot of opportunities to get wickets, so that probably goes for him. But again, I would like to think that I could do a good job with the ball but also possibly score a lot of runs as well. I guess it comes down to how many fast bowlers are playing and what the make-up of the England team will be.”For a man whose first wicket was a certain Steve Waugh, Blackwell’s aspirations of becoming a leading England spinner have taken concrete shape. After making his county debut with Derbyshire, Blackwell moved to Somerset in 2000 and was named captain last season. It was an additional responsibility that toughened him as a cricketer, he said. “Definitely the Somerset captaincy has given me a broader mind. When you captain 11 players, you’re not just looking after your own game, it’s making you think about situations, gameplans, what bowlers to utilise when. It’s something I really enjoyed doing, even though it was quite tough at times. It’s made me a more rounded person.”Reminded of Giles’s legstump tactics towards Sachin Tendulkar the last time England were here, Blackwell refused to see this as negative bowling. “It depends on the situation of the game. If the bowler is trying to hit a mark outside of leg stump to try and get a wicket, then I don’t think that is negative,” he said. “It’s an art in itself to aim at a six-inch square and I guess it all depends on the situation. If a side is 180 for 1 then it might be deemed as a negative, but I think you have to assess that and toss the ball over the wicket. It’s a strategy, really.”England begin their tour with a three-day warm-up match against a Board President’s XI in Mumbai on Febrauary 18 before travelling to Baroda for a similar clash. The first Test begins at Nagpur on March 1.

Allan Rae: classy opening batsman and leading administrator© The Cricketer

Stats Guru: Allan Rae’s Test recordAllan Rae, the former West Indies batsman who went on to become a leading administrator, has died at a nursing home in his native Jamaica at the age of 82. He had been in failing health for several years.Rae was born into a cricketing family – his father played for Jamaica and Rae followed him to Kingston CC and then into the island side. The war meant that Rae, a solid but technically correct left-hand opener, did not play for West Indies until he was 26, but he made an immediate impression with hundreds in the second and fourth Tests against India in 1948-49. He was a certainty for the 1950 tour of England, where he started with 97 at Manchester and then 106 in the famous victory at Lord’s – he added 109 at The Oval for good measure. He struggled in Australia in 1951-52, although he ended the tour with 99 against New Zealand. He played twice against India in the Caribbean in 1952-53 but quit when still only 30 to pursue his legal career.In 15 Tests he made 1016 runs at 46.18 including four hundreds. He formed a solid opening partnership with Jeff Stollmeyer and their average stand of 71.00 remains a West Indies record.He maintained his links with the game, becoming president of the Jamaican Cricket Association, a post he held for more than a decade.As a member of the West Indies Board of Control (WIBC), then led by his old partner Stollmeyer, he argued that the ICC had no right to ban players who had signed with Kerry Packer in the late 1970s claiming it was an “unreasonable restraint of trade”. Those words came back to haunt the English authorities who were taken to court by some players and punished for exactly that restraint.In 1981 he became president of the WIBC, and during a difficult seven-year term pursued a dogged anti-apartheid policy which led to life bans against all those who toured South Africa with the rebel West Indies side. He was also instrumental in establishing contracts for players which helped to avoid a repetition of such a tour.”This is unquestionably the end of an era in Jamaican and West Indian cricket. He dedicated his life to the game and no man who ever played cricket could have had more love and respect for the game and all it stood for,” Jackie Hendriks, president of the Jamiacan board, told the Jamaica Observer. “As both player and administrator Allan was determined to ensure that the integrity of the game was inviolate and this infected most of those with whom he came in contact. A hard task-master, he nevertheless derived particular pride and pleasure from the success of young players and won their respect and admiration.””He had a very dominating presence,” Brian Breese, Jamaica’s chief executive, told CaribbeanCricket.com. “Allan meant so much to our cricket, not only as player but as a hard-working administrator. He even neglected his legal practice at times because of his dedication to cricket in Jamaica. He will remain an icon in our cricket.”Everton Weekes, a former team-mate, said that when he first met Rae he was an attacking player. “But when we went to India he transformed his batting … very sound and solid … and when he went to England it was proven. But he was a very intelligent person who played his cricket that way as well. He played to suit the conditions and the team’s structure.”

After their narrow defeat in the third one-dayer at Wellington, South Africa have had more bad news with Shaun Pollock likely to miss the next match on Tuesday at Dunedin with a groin strain.There are also worries about Lance Klusener, who missed the last match with a sore back, and Albie Morkel, who has a bad hip.Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, admitted his team were feeling the effects of a hectic schedule over the past 16 months, which has included the World Cup, a tour of England and a home series against West Indies.”We realise there’s a month and a half still to go here, the guys are tired and carrying niggles, and there is some flu around the team,” Smith said. “We’ve got to dig a little deeper and it’s no excuse.”

Former Guyana and West Indies spin bowling legend, Lance Gibbs, has been contracted by the West Indies Cricket Board to be the technical advisor at a five-day camp for orthodox spin bowlers (sometimes called finger spinners) in the Caribbean, starting next Monday here.Cricket fans will remember that Gibbs once held the world record for most Test wickets (309) and was the first spin bowler to pass 300 wickets in Test match cricket."The aim of the camp is to provide some of the region’s most promising orthodox bowlers with the fundamentals of a good bowling action and to examine and analyse techniques of effective spin bowling," remarked Dr. Michael Seepersaud, chief cricket development officer of the WICB."It also continues our programme of involving outstanding former players more and more in the development of our cricket. We believe that greats like Lance and Andy Roberts, who recently conducted a training camp for our fast bowlers, has much to offer and you will see more of this."Another former West Indies off-spin bowler, Clyde Butts, who holds the record for the most wickets in the West Indies first-class championship, will be the coach at the camp, where the young spin bowlers will cover a number of critical areas that have been identified by Gibbs. They include:

– the grip,- run-up and delivery,- effective use of height and body,- detecting and exploiting errors of batsmen,- field setting strategies,- flight, loop and spin, and- improving the spinner’s armory.

"We have targetted a number of promising spin bowlers, but a few had prior territorial commitments and could not make the camp," Dr. Seepersaud said."The camp has been timed to coincide with the beginning of the West Indies first-class championship and it is hoped that a number of these bowlers will be given an opportunity during the Championship to expose their talent."Even if this opportunity is not available now, they would have learnt from the best and would have acquired skills that will serve them well in the future."Dr. Seepersaud noted there was another strategic reason for the camp. He revealed the idea for the camp came out of a casual analysis of the weaknesses of the Australian team arriving in the Caribbean in April for a series of four Tests and seven limited-overs internationals."We noticed that as far back as the 1950s, the former great England off-spinner Jim Laker was effective against the Aussies and then the wiles of Lance troubled them in the 1960s and Harbhajan Singh destroyed them recently in India," Dr. Seepersaud said."We thought, therefore, that this was a good opportunity to provide our promising finger spinners with the skills and techniques that would improve their efficiency and effectiveness and, hopefully, enhance their chances for selection."Camp invitees are:1. Ryan Austin (Barbados)
2. Kevin Bazil (Guyana)
3. Chaka Hodge (Leeward Islands)
4. Lorenzo Ingram (Jamaica)
5. Amit Jaggernauth (Trinidad & Tobago)
6. Larry Joseph (Leeward Islands)
7. Philip Keating (Jamaica)
8. Dwayne Leverock (Bermuda)
9. Zaheer Mohammed (Guyana)
10. Orson Nurse (Leeward Islands)
11. Anderson Sealy (Barbados)
12. Shane Shillingford (Windward Islands)
13. Wayne Simpson (Jamaica)
14. Jason Smith (Barbados)
15. Rodney Sooklal (Trinidad & Tobago)

The tall-talking Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and the team’s coolheaded coach John Wright on Tuesday differed on the causes for India’stame defeat in the second cricket Test against Zimbabwe in Harare onMonday.A dismal failure with the bat – he has aggregated just 49 runs in thelast seven Test innings – Ganguly blamed his batsmen for the defeat.As for the bowlers, “they did not bowl badly,” he said.Wright, a former New Zealand captain, however, had tough words forboth batsmen and bowlers from whom he expected greater discipline.Analysing India’s defeat which enabled the home side to level theseries 1-1, Wright said the Indian batsmen must have the disciplineand the ability to graft. “We must produce at least 300 runs onwickets that seam,” he said.”I think from the batting perspective, there are certain shots whichare more difficult to play in conditions such as here. We have toadjust in places where the ball moves around a bit,” he said.India made just 237 and 234 batting first and most of its top orderbatsmen were out chasing deliveries outside the off-stump. “That to meis the stand-out reason. You have to occupy the crease a little moreand rein in some of your attacking instincts,” the coach said.Ganguly conceded that his team lost the game in the first hour of thefourth morning. “You can’t lose seven wickets for 37 runs and expectto win. It was poor batting from top to number eleven,” he said.About his own inglorious role in the defeat, the skipper said “therewas a game plan for me to see off the new ball. I am a regular. It wasmy responsibility to see the new ball (off) and then hope thetailenders would do well later”.Wright was critical of the medium-pacers and the kind of line andlength they maintained in the series. “We bowled too short. I thinkour medium-pacers have to learn to make the batsmen commit more on thefront foot and bowl the off-stump line,” he said adding that currentlyIndia was not exactly overflowing with its bowling resources.”If you look at the two bowling sides, the Zimbabwe attack was goodenough to dismiss the Indian batting line up which, on paper, looksvery strong. I can’t see any reason why our bowlers can’t do thesame,” the coach said.Ganguly, however, didn’t blame his bowlers. “I don’t think our bowlersbowled badly. Even the way we fought to defend 157 was heartening. Ifwe had stretched the target to 225, it would have been a differentball game altogether,” he said.The skipper praised seamer Ashish Nehra and off spinner HarbhajanSingh for their bowling in the series. “Nehra bowled fantastically. Hewas our main bowler. We just didn’t have enough runs on the board (forhim) to win us the game,” Ganguly said and added “as for Harbhajan, ahaul of 32 wickets on these pitches was not possible. But still he dida good job. He didn’t go for many runs and tied up one end”.Though lamenting the lack of bowling resources, Wright conceded thatthe bowlers did “a great job” and said “they were not the reason whythis Test match was lost”.The coach said “I think we do lack quality bowlers but we have to workhard. We got to use our resources as best as we can. Having said that,I am very encouraged by the performance of Ashish Nehra. He has donebrilliantly on this tour. He seems to move the ball and has a verynatural talent”.Wright complimented Zimbabwe for the way they won the Test with adepleted attack and especially when one-down in the series. He saidtheir bowlers gave a very good exhibition on the final morning,attacking the stumps with the new ball.Turning to individual performances of the Indian players, Wright, whenasked whether it was a tactical mistake to have included Ajit Agarkarin place of Zaheer Khan, replied “Zaheer possibly was unlucky to missthis Test”.On the strange decision of including Hemang Badani to open the inningsbut sending in Sameer Dighe as Shiv Sundar Das’ partner, Wright said”It is one of the problems (you face) when you tour abroad with onlytwo specialist openers. If someone gets injured, you have got to tryout someone (else). In retrospect, I would take the responsibility forthe situation. I thought Dighe would do a good job there”.Asked why Rahul Dravid, who has a better technique against the newball bowlers, was not asked to open the innings, Wright said the vicecaptain was more comfortable batting lower down the order.”We have to find someone who wants to open the batting. I thinkselecting Dravid would be a short term and not a long term prospect,”Wright said. “Rahul is averaging 54 in Test cricket. He has opened ona couple of ocassions and hasn’t done too brilliantly. The figureswould suggest so. I feel, for Rahul we need to be looking at numberfive or six,” he said.The coach was very disappointed with the missed opportunity ofclaiming a rare series victory abroad. “I think we missed a goodopportunity here. I feel very disappointed for cricket fans in India.They would have enjoyed the first series victory in 15 years,” hesaid.

Sunderland’s reputation for gifting plenty of homegrown youngsters chances in the first team mix has taken a backseat this season.

Regis Le Bris must have realised this young and hungry approach had to be altered slightly when competing in the Premier League, with experience preferred in the summer, notably splashing out £13m on midfielder Granit Xhaka.

That isn’t to say there isn’t any space for some homegrown prodigies to still try and shine in his starting XIs, though, with Chris Rigg – who had a breakout senior season under the Frenchman last campaign – featuring from the start against Brighton and Hove Albion last time out.

Rigg even crossed paths with another starlet first given senior chances to impress at the Stadium of Light at the Amex in Tommy Watson, with the 19-year-old’s first team journey on Wearside going down as a surreal blur.

Watson's whirlwind Sunderland story

In a summer that saw Sunderland win a mighty £32m from selling Jobe Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund, Watson’s sale to Brighton and Hove Albion managed to fly under the radar.

Still, a sizable £10m came the Black Cats’ way for the raw attacker, despite only 921 minutes of senior football being handed to him at his boyhood club.

There were some obvious standout moments, though, as Watson ended up scoring that ​​​​​​unbelievable strike at Wembley to secure Sunderland’s emotional passage back to the Premier League.

Watson will forever be immortalised as the hero who sealed the Black Cats’ dramatic return to the Premier League, but that magical moment must have been tinged with some bittersweetness, as the number 40 knew he had already committed to a switch to the Seagulls when scoring that sweet strike.

Sadly, since leaving, game time hasn’t yet come his way at the Amex with EFL Cup appearances here and there all he has been thrown so far on the South Coast.

But, away from the England U21 international’s ongoing story, Le Bris will be fearful that another Watson-style situation is playing out in front of him right now.

Sunderland facing a Watson repeat

Forking out a lofty £162m on a whole host of top-flight proven talents this summer has come with some drawbacks, as Le Bris now has to contend with keeping the vast majority of his bloated camp content.

Heading into the new Premier League season after promotion, Eliezer Mayenda would have been hopeful that he would be given plenty of opportunities to dazzle after playing a key role in Sunderland’s promotion story, alongside Watson.

Sky Sports pundit Luke Chambers would even hail him as a “first class” EFL talent last season when firing home ten goals, two of which came in the nerve-wracking playoffs, with the Spain U21 international’s versatile nature to play as a striker, or as a winger, also making him a strong squad option to have, when embarking on a survival mission in the league above.

It’s unfortunately not played out like that in reality, with Mayenda left rooted to the substitutes bench across his team’s last four games, as Championship sides such as Leicester City are tipped to sign him on loan in January.

Mayenda in 24/25 vs 25/26

Stat

24/25

25/26

Games played

41

8

Games started

25

3

Minutes played

2451 mins

264 mins

Goals scored

10

1

Assists

5

0

Sourced by Transfermarkt

This has surely felt even more cruel on Mayenda’s end, considering he bagged Sunderland’s first goal back in the Premier League, only to now be discarded for flashier signings that have arrived at the Stadium of Light.

Subscribe for deeper takes on Sunderland’s youth saga Digging for more on Sunderland’s young talents and transfer dynamics? Subscribing to our newsletter unlocks focused analysis, player tracking and clear transfer context to help you follow the key narratives shaping the club and similar stories across the league. Subscribe Subscribe for deeper takes on Sunderland’s youth saga Digging for more on Sunderland’s young talents and transfer dynamics? Subscribing to our newsletter unlocks focused analysis, player tracking and clear transfer context to help you follow the key narratives shaping the club and similar stories across the league.

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Consequently, a Watson-style scenario could soon play out, with the Zaragoza-born forward once allegedly a target for Premier League sides, even before Sunderland’s dramatic day out to Wembley occurred.

If Mayenda were to show off the same electric form that helped the Black Cats move back up to the promised land with a new loan employer, it might not be the wildest suggestion in the world to state that a top-flight club could take a gamble and offer Sunderland a very tempting offer down the line, like Brighton’s £10m splurge on Watson.

With the Africa Cup of Nations also making Le Bris’ first team options fewer, it does feel as if the Premier League newcomers are missing out by not handing the 20-year-old more senior shots to impress, with a hope his impatience doesn’t lead to him walking out on Le Bris’ men prematurely.

Related Sunderland "warrior" looks like a new Dan Ballard in the making

Regis Le Bris has a new Daniel Ballard on his hands at Sunderland in this determined warrior.

Posts ByKelan Sarson