After years of either wilful or inadvertent ignorance, Australia have recognised the need for a change in attitude for the benefit of their most influential stakeholders: their fans

Daniel Brettig in Johannesburg03-Apr-2018In his famous 1992 Redfern speech, Australia’s then Prime Minister Paul Keating spoke of how to mend years of misdeeds against the nation’s indigenous population. Mulling over where to start, he offered the words that “the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us”, and healing “begins, I think, with that act of recognition”.Outright awful though Australia were on the final day of the series at the Wanderers, wickets tumbling as Vernon Philander toyed with heavy legs, tired eyes and addled brains, the acts of recognition were plain to see. First, a guard of honour for Morne Morkel on his final day as a Test cricketer. Later, a bevy of handshakes and the promise of shared post-series drinks in the South African dressing room. Lastly, further eloquent words from the new captain Tim Paine, which echoed Keating in terms of recognising the need for a change in attitude and behaviour after years of either wilful or inadvertent ignorance.”Well, the first thing is we have to, I suppose, listen,” Paine said when asked how his team might reconnect with Australia. “We’ve potentially maybe had our head in the sand a little bit over the last 12 months, [thinking] if we continue to win we can kind of act and behave how we like and the Australian public will be okay with that.”What we’ve probably found out in the past month or so is that the Australian public and our fans don’t necessarily like the way we go about it. It’s pretty simple. We have to listen. We have to take it on board and we have to improve our behaviour in the way we play the game. I know the guys are certainly on board and it’s something that we’re excited again to go forward and be able to do.”

What the Australians will discover, should they listen to South Africa, will not be instructions on how to go about things, but plenty of advice about how Faf du Plessis’ team have built up a culture within the four walls of their dressing room

There was attentiveness, too, in how Paine approached the chance to speak with the victorious South African team, the first side to beat Australia at home since readmission, and in a manner so comprehensive as to inflict the fourth-heaviest defeat, in terms of runs, in all Test history. “We’ve been invited in in the next half an hour actually. It’s an early beer, that’s for sure. It might be a coffee. But we’ll go next door,” Paine said. “We’ve got some young players in our team who will learn a lot from going to have a beer with some of the experienced players that the South Africans have got, so we’d be foolish not to take that opportunity.”What the Australians will discover, should they listen to South Africa, will not be instructions on how to go about things, but plenty of advice about how Faf du Plessis’ team have built up a culture within the four walls of their dressing room that ensures both the image of the team and the conduct of the players are kept in strong health. All this being done without anything like the money, resources or administrative stability that Australia have boasted for years.”Our culture is the same no matter who we play, it’s not about the opposition, it’s about us, and we do spend a lot of time and energy making sure, if you can call it that, training your culture, but to make sure we stay on it from a daily perspective,” du Plessis said. “If there’s stuff that falls out of line, we quickly nip it in the bud because we don’t want to have a cancer effect where it spreads through the team and you start having a few bad things happen within the team, so we are very, very strong on that.”I believe that’s our strength as a team, we’ve spent so much time and energy on that, you ask a lot of players and they will say that this culture in the Protea team is something you have to be a part of to understand how special it is, so we take a lot of pride in it. For it to be almost a 12th man on the field, it’s not always that your skills are going to be there, and you can’t control to score hundreds or take five-fors, but you can control your culture.”We never want to seem arrogant. Obviously sometimes you’ll get things or situations that can look that way, but as a team we deal with it in the same manner, as much as we can we want to be humble at all times. You can see we’ve got two or three of the world’s best players in our team and you would never see them … there are never days when their egos will be any bigger than the team, the team will always come first, no matter what.”Paine, meanwhile, draws a lot from his experience winning Sheffield Shield titles alongside George Bailey, the longtime Tasmania and sometime Australia ODI captain. Tasmania have overachieved for some years relative to the size of their state, partly because they have become a popular destination for aspirational players surplus to requirements in other states. The need to balance all these personalities and backgrounds placed a premium on ensuring players did not feel they had to conform to a narrow expectation of what they and the team must be. As Bailey said of Ed Cowan on the eve of his 2011 Test debut: “That is the most important thing, and the key to his success: he’s just allowed to be Eddie.” Paine said Bailey loomed large among those he had learned from.AFP”George is a very good friend of mine and I’ve played under him for a long time so I’ve certainly learnt a lot about the way he captains and his leadership style,” Paine said. “I certainly take a lot of the way he goes about but there is other guys as well. I’ve always thought about going into coaching or something like that after cricket so I’ve constantly sort of written things down that I’ve liked about coaches and other leaders that I’ve played under. I suppose try to take bits that I like and mould it to something that fits me.The other thing that Australia’s players must listen to, of course, is the sound of edges being flicked and stumps being crashed through. Humility about the team’s attitude and approach to opponents and the cricket watching public must be matched by attentiveness about the technical task of playing to a high standard, now with the additional handicap of losing Steven Smith and David Warner for at least 12 months. Even factoring in the mental fatigue of the tour and its disasters, there was a lot to be troubled by on day five.Particularly, the set-up, foot movement and swing plane of Peter Handscomb left many to wonder what exactly he had been working on over the three or so months since his previous Test match, and with whom. At the same time, Mitchell Marsh has shown evidence of a slow deterioration from the fundamentals he worked on with Scott Meuleman over several months out with injury last year, which had put him in such a strong position to score runs in the Ashes and then the first Test of this series in Durban.With the likes of Paine and Pat Cummins being unable to replicate earlier rearguards, it made for a shudderingly quick finish and another question that the team and their incoming coach must ponder. Darren Lehmann’s tenure as coach was ended with an acute example of the batting collapses that have been more or less his constant companion.”I don’t think it was one day too many, I think it was a few,” Paine said. “There’s been enough spoken about the week we’ve had. We’re disappointed with the way we handled it. This group in here had the chance to show some real fight and determination and unfortunately we weren’t able to because I think mentally we weren’t quite there. You only have to be slightly off in any game of cricket, let alone a team as good as South Africa, and you get exposed. We certainly were today.”I haven’t spoken to many guys about going home, there certainly hasn’t been that feel, coming into the Test match I thought we were going to be a hell of a lot better than what we were, obviously it had more of an effect on guys than we knew, the opportunity to get home, and reset might be refreshing for the guys in the next couple of days. At the moment, there is a fair bit of disappointment and borderline embarrassment in the dressing rooms.”There cannot have been, in all of Australian cricket history, a more shattering tour, not only resulting in abject defeat on the field but a total destruction of the team’s image and culture. One of the most heedless lines uttered over the past 24 hours was by the selector Mark Waugh, a great batsman and cricketer who has let the substance of the past week pass him by. “I might be missing something,” Waugh said on Sydney radio, “but I don’t see this team as any different as any other team from previous eras.”It took 15 years after Keating’s speech for another Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to offer a formal apology to indigenous Australians. Waugh’s words offered a reminder that the listening process advocated by Paine will be long and difficult.

Fast bowler left out of table-toppers’ opening two T20 fixtures after fallow recent form

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2024

Issy Wong is switching Sparks for Storm•ECB via Getty Images

Issy Wong, the England fast bowler, has joined Western Storm on loan for the Charlotte Edwards Cup after she was left out of the Central Sparks team for their first two matches of their T20 campaign.Wong, who turned 22 last week, played for England as recently as September and featured for Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League in March. But after a quiet start to the season in the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, she was not selected by the Sparks for their opening T20 fixtures and has pursued a move away.The ECB – who are Wong’s primary employer, as a centrally-contracted player – have approved her loan move to ensure she will be playing competitive cricket. Storm said in a statement: “The ECB have sanctioned the move to ensure fast bowler Wong is able to maximise her playing time over the coming weeks.”Wong played all three formats for England in the 2022 summer at the age of 20 and was one of the stars of the inaugural season of the WPL, taking 15 wickets to help Mumbai Indians to the title – including a hat-trick in the eliminator. But she has struggled for consistency since and has lost her place in England’s squads.This season, she has taken three wickets at 56.33 in five Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy fixtures and has also featured for an ECB Development XI against the touring Pakistan squad. She was a surprise omission from the Sparks’ T20 side, though they have won their opening two fixtures.Wong is likely to play a more prominent role for a Storm side who have lost their opening two matches and are currently without Lauren Filer, who is on England duty. She will also target more opportunities with the bat, having spent most of this season batting at No. 8 in 50-over cricket.

In September, we laughed, we cringed, we looked on awe-struck, all under our umbrellas

Andrew Fidel Fernando30-Sep-2019The gag
The thing everyone knows about jokes is that they get funnier the more you repeat them. Which is why the sandpaper jokes – hahaha, oh man – just got better and better as the Ashes went on (even though the whole thing happened in March 2018, which was 16 months ago). Some fans in England dressed as sandpaper, yelled about sandpaper, made street signs about sandpaper, and probably named their newborns Sandpaper just to dress them in yellow and take them to the ground for a laugh. The whole thing was terrific and the boos were wonderful and everyone was on the ground in fits of outrageous, uncontrollable laughter until Steve Smith scored a billion runs and Australia retained the Ashes.This Steve Smith guy, though
For any normal cricketer, a year-long ban might make the Test-match muscles atrophy. Smith came back and hit 774 runs in four Tests and batted in several important stands in which he was clearly dragging the other partner along. It was as if he spent his year off gorging himself like a mother penguin in the winter, then returned to vomit up huge volumes of runs into the mouths of his team-mates, thus sustaining the fragile Australia top order.The takeover
Misbah-ul-Haq is a good guy, right? He guided Pakistan with immeasurable poise through one of their most difficult periods… so we know for a fact that he’s a stand-up guy, correct? Only asking because, having sat on the committee that sacked the previous Pakistan coach, he later applied for the position he had helped make vacant, before eventually going on to become not only coach but chief selector as well. From a distance this seems like a move right out of a banana-republic dictator’s playbook. But we’re all okay with what happened, because, come on, it’s Misbah. He’s incorruptible. It’s going to end well.Please end well.The message
At its best, cricket transports the fan and provides a reprieve from real life. In September, though, real life had this annoying tendency to impose itself on (what was supposed to be) the cricket. In a month in which the global conversation has been about climate change, unseasonal rains showed up to complicate New Zealand’s series in Sri Lanka. Rains then forced abandonments in both the men’s and women’s India v South Africa series. Finally, on Friday apocalyptic-looking weather systems turned up in generally arid Karachi, filling the ground with so much water there was a risk a Swedish teenager might sail across it.So okay. We saw the global protests. We saw the wall-to-wall climate-crisis coverage. Can the forces trying to deliver this message now leave cricket alone so it can be the thing that takes our minds off impending doom? We get it already.A dogged endeavour
Geoffrey Boycott has wanted to be knighted for a long time. Twice, he said, his knighthood had been turned down. He was so annoyed about this in 2017 that he said he would have had a better chance of being knighted if he’d “blacked up” because West Indian cricketers had been handed knighthoods “like confetti” (those privileged swine!). Eventually, thanks to the wishes of former UK prime minister Theresa May, Boycott will be knighted, amid controversy over his 1998 conviction in France for assault on a woman. It has been a long, attritional road to the knighthood, during which Boycott has angered plenty and lost fans, before ultimately going on to secure the personal accolade he craved. The whole thing has been so much like one of his innings, except even more difficult to watch.Ongoing incompetence update
It has now been almost two and a half months since Sri Lanka Cricket suspended head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, partly because they said he was charging too much for the work he was doing. They haven’t found a way to fire him yet. Meanwhile, they continue to pay him for doing nothing.Next month on The Briefing
– Misbah-ul-Haq gains control of the PCB constitution and makes himself coach and selector for life.- Cricket Australia bans Steve Smith until the start of the next Ashes. “If we force him to sit two years out he’ll average 200 next time.”

Leeds United are back in action once again this evening as they prepare to travel to Oxford United in the Championship for the first of their two Easter matches.

The Whites play after Sheffield United face Cardiff City earlier in the day and this means that they could go eight points clear of third place with a win, if results go their way.

Daniel Farke has already shown that he is willing to make bold selection decisions ahead of big games, having already played a blinder by dropping Illan Meslier recently.

Why Illan Meslier was dropped by Leeds

The French dud was dropped by the German head coach after making two crucial mistakes in the 2-2 draw with Swansea at Elland Road at the end of last month, dropping a cross onto Harry Darling for the first goal and being beaten too easily for the second strike.

Meslier conceded 2.73 more goals than expected and made three errors that directly led to goals in the Championship before finally being taken out of the team in favour of Karl Darlow.

The English shot-stopper has prevented 0.56 xG in his three appearances since he came into the XI, without making a single error, and provided a solid presence between the sticks.

His ability to claim crosses and take danger out of situations has been appreciated by the fan base, as shown by the post from reporter Beren Cross above.

Farke could, now, repeat the trick he played by dropping Meslier by dropping another regular starter in Joel Piroe, whose performances have dipped of late.

Why Joel Piroe should be dropped

The Dutch centre-forward started the 2-1 win over Preston North End and came off the pitch without a goal or an assist to show for his efforts for the eighth game running.

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Piroe started all eight of those matches, returning zero goals and zero assists, and has only scored one goal in his last ten starts in the Championship for Leeds.

The left-footed forward was described as “anonymous” by reporter James Marshment in February, and that is one of the issues with his performances for the Whites because the striker does not offer enough in his general play without goals to go with it.

Appearances

42

xG

15.06

Goals

15

Key passes per game

0.8

Pass accuracy

77%

Ground duel success rate

33%

Aerial duel success rate

18%

Dribble success rate

31%

As you can see in the table above, Piroe is regularly dominated by Championship defenders in duels on the ground and in the air, whilst he does not excel as a passer, creator, or dribbler in possession.

This means that the former Swansea City attacker has been a lightweight in the Whites starting XI in the past eight matches as a starter, because of his poor all-round displays as well as his lack of impact in the final third.

Therefore, Farke could repeat his Meslier trick by ruthlessly ditching Piroe from the team to unleash Patrick Bamford, who recently came off the bench to win six of his nine duels against Middlesbrough.

The English number nine could provide more physicality at the top end of the pitch, as the Dutchman has been too easy for defenders to play against, as Leeds look to get their Premier League promotion over the line in the coming days.

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ByDan Emery Apr 16, 2025

Sheffield United’s automatic promotion dream is now over with Burnley and Leeds United confirmed as Premier League-bound on a disappointing Easter Monday for the Blades.

Earlier in the day, before United’s pivotal showdown with the Clarets, Leeds resoundingly thumped Stoke City 6-0 in the Championship, with Daniel Farke and Co then needing Chris Wilder’s men to slip up and lose to seal a return to the top-flight.

Their wish would come true to the dismay of the away side at Turf Moor, with their pain only intensified when you consider the hosts also clinched a dramatic passage back up to the top-flight when beating the visitors 2-1.

Anel Ahmedhodzic suffered from a rare off-day in Lancashire, with his clumsiness right before the half-time whistle gifting Josh Brownhill the decisive spot-kick that sent the Clarets up a league.

Ahmedhodzic's off-day at Turf Moor

Ultimately, United’s dismal run of four losses from their last five Championship outings has cost them the glory of automatic promotion, but the Bosnian brute certainly didn’t help matters when putting in a rare bad performance.

The number 15 was definitely fired up for the crunch contest, but it resulted in his overall game looking rash and hot-headed rather than focused, culminating in him clattering into Hannibal Mejbri to gift the home side a golden penalty.

Brownhill would calmly tuck away the opportunity to juxtapose Ahmedhodzic’s reckless approach, with the out-of-sorts 26-year-old going on to commit four fouls in total, on top of uncharacteristically winning just 33% of his duels.

Wilder will need his usually reliable colossus to be more switched on ahead of some huge playoff clashes to come, but whilst Ahmedhodzic did cost his team dear, there was one underperformer for the Blades who was just as bad as the defender in offering very little throughout.

The Blades dud who was just as bad as Ahmedhodzic

It was always going to be a tough ask for the Blades to get the better of a dogged Burnley side, considering the stern hosts have only shipped 15 strikes all season long.

Tom Cannon did manage to break his goalscoring duck at Turf Moor to raise a smile, but it was the efforts of Ben Brereton Diaz down the right wing that would have worried away spectators, irrespective of the ex-Leicester City man managing to salvage some personal pride.

Minutes played

60

Goals scored

0

Assists

0

Touches

16

Shots on target

0

Accurate passes

5/9 (56%)

Total duels won

0/4

The numbers from the table above do make for some dire reading, with the Chilean only managing a meagre 15 touches of the ball from his forgettable 60-minute stint.

On top of that, Brereton Diaz also failed to register a single on-target effort at James Trafford’s formidable goal, alongside only managing to muster up a weak five passes of the ball that found their intended target.

Whilst Ahmedhodzic was notably poor, he did manage to at least win three of his duels during the contest, with Brereton Diaz then unsurprisingly hooked off by Wilder for Jesurun Rak-Sakyi to gain a run-out.

After all, Rak-Sakyi had at least bagged in United’s last away contest before this miserable outing to Lancashire, with his late efforts at Turf Moor seeing him conjure up one successful dribble among other promising moments.

If the Blades are to bounce back from this agonising promotion near-miss, Wilder could now have to axe Brereton Diaz from his forthcoming lineups, knowing full well that lethal displays are needed in the lottery of the playoffs.

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ByDan Emery Apr 16, 2025

يستعد اتحاد الكرة المصري، لعقد اجتماع خلال الأيام المقبلة، من أجل حسم أكثر من ملف بخصوص منتخبي مصر الأول والثاني.

ويستعد منتخب مصر الأول، لمواجهة جيبوتي في المغرب، ضمن التصفيات المؤهلة إلى كأس العالم، بينما المنتخب الثاني سيخوض دورة ودية استعدادًا للمشاركة في كأس العرب.

وعلم بطولات من مصادر خاصة، أن اتحاد الكرة سيعقد اجتماعًا الأسبوع المقبل لمشاقشة واعتماد العديد من الأمور.

طالع.. “موقعة الحسم”.. موعد مباراة مصر وجيبوتي في تصفيات كأس العالم والملعب المستضيف

ومن المنتظر أن يتم تحديد رئيس بعثة منتخب مصر للمغرب، والقائمة التي سيتم إرسالها لوزارة الرياضة وكذلك نفس الأمر بخصوص منتخب مصر الثاني المتجه إلى المغرب لخوض دورة ودية.

وسيناقش اتحاد الكرة خلال هذا الاجتماع إقامة دورات ودية لمنتخبي 2007 و2009 واعتماد معسكر منتخب النسائية استعدادًا لمواجهة غانا.

ويلتقي منتخب مصر للكرة النسائية مع غانا ذهابًا أحد أيام 22 أو 23 أو 24 أكتوبر بينما الإياب أحد أيام 27 و28 و29 من نفس الشهر.

da 888casino： Wolverhampton Wanderers are now set to make an enquiry for £50 million Liverpool ace who could be a key player for Vitor Pereira, according to a new report.

Wolves step up summer transfer plans

da betcris： The Midlands side already look set to lose one key player this summer, as Matheus Cunha allegedly edges closer to a move to Manchester United. Therefore, not only will Cunha’s departure bring money to the club, but it also means Wolves will need to enter the market to sign at least one new striker.

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Already the Old Gold have been linked with a move for Jamie Vardy, who is set to become a free agent once his contract at Leicester City expires. But as well as looking at Vardy, Wolves are also interested in signing Phil Harres from Bundesliga side Holstein Kiel, and club chiefs have also held internal talks over signing Cameron Archer from Southampton. Archer has been in and out of the Southampton team this season, and given their relegation to the Championship, he could be available for a transfer.

As well as looking for a new number nine, Ben Jacobs revealed last week that Wolves could sign Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Chelsea. The midfielder has really struggled since moving to Stamford Bridge, and he could be available for a transfer this summer, given his lack of game time, and the Midlands side could be tempted to make a move.

Wolves set to make enquiry for £50m Liverpool ace

But Dewsbury-Hall is not the only Premier League midfielder on the radar of Pereira and co, as according to Give Me Sport, Wolves are ready to make a move to sign Harvey Elliott from Liverpool, as he looks set to leave Anfield.

The report states that the Midlands side are likely to make an enquiry over signing Elliott, as he’s been identified as someone who can replace Cunha. Wolves are not put off by the fact that Liverpool have placed a £50 million price tag on the midfielder’s head.

GMS add that Wolves want to make Elliott a ‘centrepiece’ of their plans under Pereira if they manage to find an agreement with Liverpool. They are not the only team chasing Elliott, though, as Nottingham Forest, Fulham, Brighton and teams from overseas are all interested in a potential deal for the England U21 international.

Harvey Elliott’s Premier League stats

Apps

91

Goals

4

Assists

12

Elliott, who has been described as “special” by journalist Bence Bocsak, has struggled for regular game time this season. The 22-year-old has played 25 games in all competitions, but only five have come as a starter, and Elliott has managed just one start in the Premier League, and that came on Sunday in the 3-1 defeat to Chelsea.

Wolves will hope the fact they want to make him a key part of their plans under Pereira will be enough to tempt him to leave Anfield and move to Molineux, despite the fact he hasn’t made up his mind if he wants to leave the Premier League champions.