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Manchester United are looking to strike a deal for Juventus centre-back Matthijs de Ligt.

What’s the word?

That is according to journalist Oriol Domenech, who was speaking on Gerard Romero’s Twitch stream, [via The Express]. He claimed that incoming United manager Erik ten Hag is keen to add the 22-year-old to his ranks after the allegedly bullet-proof signing of Frenkie de Jong has all but been confirmed.

Domenech said that the 52-year-old wants both former Ajax players at Old Trafford to ignite his era in charge of the Red Devils. Both De Ligt and De Jong were part of Ten Hag’s Ajax squad which reached the semi-finals of the Champions League three years ago.

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Imagine De Ligt and Ten Hag together again

Having managed the 22-year-old at Ajax, Ten Hag knows exactly what De Ligt’s game is all about. The Juventus star, who is rated at around £63m by Transfermarkt, braved the move to Turin back in 2019. He hasn’t looked back since, making 27 or more Serie A appearances in each of his three seasons with the Bianconeri.

The young Netherlands international has also managed to transition his goalscoring touch from Ajax, having scored in each of his seasons at youth and senior level in Amsterdam and managing to keep this consistent across his three years at Juve.

With a passing completing rate of 89% in the current Serie A campaign, De Ligt is sound in possession, and that figure suggests that he nicely suits Ten Hag’s philosophy of playing progressively from the back.

However, his arrival would pose an issue for either Raphael Varane or Harry Maguire, both of whom are right-footed. De Ligt is also a natural right-footed centre-back; and judging by the way he sets up his Ajax side, Ten Hag likes to have one left-footed and one right footed centre-back within his four-man defence.

With Varane listed on FBRef as 59% right footed, Ten Hag could utilise the Frenchman’s left-footed ability and could deploy him as a left-sided central defender. In that case, Maguire – who currently occupies the role of left-sided centre-back despite his right-footedness – could well wave goodbye to his starting berth.

De Ligt, who has been dubbed “an absolute monster”, will turn 23 in August – the same age that Ruben Dias was when he made his move to Manchester City – so it could be the perfect time in his career for him to make an impact in the Premier League.

In other news – “100% sure..”: Man Utd can sign “underrated” £38m-rated gem who’s “better than Dias”

Rangers endured a miserable return to Champions League action on Wednesday evening, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Ibrox side succumbing to a hefty 4-0 defeat at the hands of Eredivisie giants Ajax, in Amsterdam.

The Gers boss would no doubt have been looking for a response from his players following Saturday’s dismal Old Firm derby display, although the Dutchman’s woes were only compounded as his side were once again totally outclassed.

Buoyed by the individual genius of young Mohammed Kudus, the hosts ran riot in what was a brutal first-half display from Alfred Schreuder’s men, racing into a three-goal lead as the Glasgow side’s defensive deficiencies were laid bare.

As BBC Sport’s Tom English quipped, it was like “men against mannequins” in the Johan Cruyff Arena, with the visitors simply struggling to get any sort of foothold in what was their first group stage match in the competition since the 2010/11 season.

Even a raft of half-time changes – which included the withdrawal of skipper James Tavernier – could not prevent further torment, as former Tottenham Hotspur flop Steven Bergwijn slotted late on following a lax backpass from substitute Ryan Jack.

While the decision to replace the aforementioned Tavernier – who was shrugged off far too easily in the build-up to Kudus’ wonder-strike to make it 3-0 – will likely grab the headlines, one man who again failed to deliver was United States international, James Sands.

The 22-year-old has been something of a makeshift option at centre-back amid the injury woes to the likes of Ben Davies and John Souttar, with that possible unsuitability to the role seemingly playing its part in what was another measly performance.

Pundit Mark Hateley had previously suggested that the youngster was something of a “problem” in that defensive berth during the defeat to Union Saint-Gilloise last month, while he was simply run ragged by Celtic’s fluid forward line at the weekend.

It was a similar story in Holland as he was notably one of a handful of players who simply stood by as Edson Alvarez powered in an early free header, while he also helped guide Steven Berhuis’ effort into his own net midway through the first half.

Although that deflection was somewhat unfortunate, it seemingly epitomised his overall unconvincing display alongside Connor Goldson, as he lost possession on average once every 4.6 touches, while recording a pass accuracy of just 77%.

As journalist Josh Bunting suggested, it is “absolutely ridiculous” that both the £2.7m-rated man – and teammate Scott Wright – have gone from being previously peripheral figures last season to first-choice regulars under Van Bronckhorst this term, with their lack of quality perhaps beginning to show.

The American’s struggles were also laid bare in contrast to the unerringly composed display of former Ibrox colossus Calvin Bassey for the opposition, with the Nigeria international notably losing possession just five times from his rather remarkable haul of 150 touches, while so often popping up in different positions across the pitch as a sign of his side’s dominance.

That performance from the one-time Leicester City man – who left the Scottish Premiership side for a club-record fee of £23m earlier this summer – has only served to heighten the void that he left behind with the Gers, with Sands seemingly not the solution in that left centre-back berth.

On what was a chastening night for all concerned, the latter man was particularly eye-catching for all the wrong reasons.

Yet another abject first-innings performance against top-class opposition has left the team management with more headaches

Daniel Brettig in Abu Dhabi17-Oct-2018For a stadium in the middle of the UAE desert, some 12,000 km from Sydney and Melbourne, there was an awful lot familiar to Australians on the second day in Abu Dhabi.On the public address system was a playlist of pub rock hewn straight out of FM radio, from AC/DC, Midnight Oil and Powderfinger, to the inescapable strains of Darryl Braithwaite and Jimmy Barnes. Underfoot was a pitch still with a smattering of live grass, enough for seamers and spinners to gain deviation and pace from if good enough. And on the scoreboard was an Australian Test team producing a substandard first innings for the fifth match in a row. Unsurprisingly, none of them has ended in victory.While the Dubai version, losing 10 for 60 having been 0 for 142, was more dramatic, the steady slide to 145 here answered one question left hanging after the first Test: how would this lineup fare on days when Usman Khawaja goes cheaply?His early exit on the first evening, to a leg-side strangle caught wonderfully by Sarfraz Ahmed, gave Pakistan their opening, and further clarified the gulf left by the banned Steven Smith and David Warner. Aaron Finch continued to make a useful fist of his delayed start to Test cricket before being successfully worn down for the third time in as many innings, but the rest fell swiftly and in fashions that were largely reminiscent of the sorts of challenges faced by batsmen in Australia.In the right hand of the wonderfully skillful Mohammad Abbas, the red Kookaburra ball nibbled a little bit each way off the aforementioned live grass, with enough carry to result in Shaun Marsh and Travis Head falling to the first two slips catches off the pacemen for the series. Flung from the cocked wrist of Yasir Shah, the same ball bounced and turned just enough to ensure the vice-captain Mitchell Marsh’s open bat face offered another catch to slip. All dismissals might have taken place as readily in Adelaide as Abu Dhabi, something further underlined by how Nathan Lyon had utilised top spin on the first day. Another experienced member of the Australian attack, Peter Siddle, will wonder why he was unable to be as effective as Abbas.In some ways, the conditions the Australians faced were a long way from those they had spent two weeks preparing for at the ICC Global Academy in Dubai. Certainly, the grass on the surface had caused the captain Tim Paine and the tour selectors Justin Langer and Trevor Hohns enough pause to wait until match day before deciding to keep the same XI they had fielded in the first Test. Batsmen who had trained for reverse swing, low bounce and slow turn found nothing of the sort here, particularly in the morning session, when overnight dew appeared to both liven up the surface and slow down the outfield.But that same grass and moisture is far more common to cricket in Australia than in Asia, meaning that the touring team should have gained some sort of advantage from them. And perhaps they would have, without another example of an endemic problem in terms of batting quality when confronted with high-class performers from around the world. When he was quizzed about Australian batting collapses in the wake of the Dubai escape, the assistant coach Graeme Hick had pointed out that while starting an innings was difficult in Asian climes, this team’s problems with losing wickets in a rush was far from a problem confined to this part of the world. “I’m not saying we’ve only had collapses in the subcontinent. It’s been pretty rife.”That rifeness, which included seven instances of 10 wickets falling for fewer than 100 runs in the little more than two years since the 2016 tour of Sri Lanka, has also featured another more recent trend, stretching back to the start of the fateful South African tour. Since the first Test of the series in Durban, Australia’s first-innings tallies have been 351 in 110.4 overs, 243 in 71.3 in Port Elizabeth, 255 in 69.5 in Cape Town, 221 in 70 in Johannesburg, 202 in 83.3 in Dubai, and now 145 in 50.4 in Abu Dhabi.Even including Kingsmead, that means a rounded average of 236 per innings. Over the long and eventful history of Test cricket, the average first-innings score by winning teams is 376. In Asia, it is higher still, at 388. Either way, the Australians have fallen well short of the mark, and they started doing so at the time a mentally and physically fatigued Smith and Warner began dropping off from the sort of productivity the rest of the team had become used to. With no prospect of recalling either until April next year, the spotlight is then left upon the rest who, apart from Khawaja, look either to be still developing or struggling to match the required standard.Getty Images”I think that first innings is always key to set up the game,” Finch said. “We’ve seen Pakistan in the first Test go really big in the first innings and that gives them freedom in the second innings to play as aggressive as they want or as conservative as they want and then the game’s in your hand. You can pull out when you want and declare. Same again in this game, we’ve left ourselves a little bit too far behind the game.”So as soon as [Fakhar] Zaman comes out and plays aggressively and takes the game away in a few overs, then all of a sudden you’re unsure whether to keep your catchers in or retreat and try to control the scoreboard. That’s the beauty of going big in your first innings, you control the game. It goes a long way to winning games. Traditionally, wickets do get harder and harder to bat on, so we’ve probably left ourselves a little bit too much work to do at the back end of games in the past, which no doubt we’ll address and, hopefully, going forward we can keep improving on that.”For Langer, in particular, this will mean a few searching questions about several of the players he has identified as critical to the intervening months, none more so than Shaun and Mitchell Marsh. In the corresponding six Tests, they have cobbled their runs at averages of 14.27 and 18.27 respectively, with the younger brother’s 96 at Durban the only score beyond 50 for either. It was a statistic about reaching scores above 30 that caused rumbles following the selection of Australia’s Test squad, but another at the international level places the Marsh brothers in still harsher light.Among all players to have played Tests for Australia since 2011, Mitchell Marsh (42%) and Shaun Marsh (38.98%) both make the top five in terms of highest percentage of single-figure scores in that time. By comparison, Smith (22.02%) and Warner (21.17%) round out the top 10 despite being the only two players to have compiled more than 100 innings over the same period.The boom-or-bust nature of these figures will beg the question of whether Australia, with the team’s current profile, can sustain such inconsistency in the hope that the big innings Shaun and Mitchell Marsh do occasionally provide will result in victories. On commentary, Mike Hussey suggested that Shaun Marsh may be better suited to No. 5, where he batted successfully during the Ashes last summer, and Mitchell Marsh to No. 6 – both positions, of course, were theirs in a world where Warner was opening and Smith was No. 4.For the remainder of day two, there were more wearyingly familiar sights and sounds for Australians – the bowlers in particular. Mitchell Starc, clearly sore and stiff from his exertions already in the series, could manage only one spell with so little recovery time, while Pakistan took progressively more liberties with Siddle. Lyon and Jon Holland bowled decently, but without any scoreboard pressure to help them. And Marnus Labuschagne was unable to repeat the breakthroughs of day one.Another tune had rung throughout the stadium during the lunch break, at a time when the Australians had already given up their first-innings advantage. It was Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors, beloved by the producers of sporting montages but actually a rather downbeat set of lyrics about the abortive retreat of Napoleon’s army from Russia in 1812. In the familiar hole the Australians found themselves in, they could reflect on the song’s bridge:

South Africa outdid Australia in the fast bowling department, the lower middle-order contributions and the number of centuries scored

S Rajesh28-Nov-201621.64 The bowling average for South Africa’s fast bowlers in the series, compared to 29.77 for Australia’s pace attack. Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott and Vernon Philander accounted for 40 of those 42 wickets, at 20.30. Australia’s pace attack had a combined average of 29.77. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, Australia’s leading fast bowlers, had a combined tally of 31 wickets at 25.71. Each team’s spinners took seven wickets collectively, at 50-plus averages (52.42 for Australia, and 58.14 for South Africa). Fast bowlers accounted for more than 85% of the total wickets for each team.82 Total wickets taken by the fast bowlers in the series. There have been only three three-Test series in Australia in which fast bowlers have taken more wickets, and all of them were between 1979 and 1982; two of those featured West Indies.

5 Hundreds for South Africa, out of the six in the series. Australia’s only centurion was Usman Khawaja, while five batsmen got hundreds for South Africa – Dean Elgar, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Stephen Cook. (Click here for South Africa’s batting and bowling stats, and here for Australia’s.)

41.25 The average partnership for South Africa’s fifth to eighth wickets; for Australia, the average for those wickets was only 17.15. In 20 partnerships for these wickets, South Africa’s batsmen scored 825 runs, with de Kock being the key contributor: he scored 281 from five innings, and received fine support from Temba Bavuma and Philander in these middle and lower-order partnerships. In contrast, Australia managed only 343 runs in 20 such partnerships. The difference in these partnership numbers was a key reason for South Africa’s series triumph; for the first four wickets Australia had a marginally higher average – 37.82, to South Africa’s 34.05.

100% Success rate for Richard Kettleborough with DRS appeals made against his decisions in Hobart and Adelaide, the two Tests in which he was the on-field umpire in the series. In all, 11 of his decisions were challenged, but none of his calls were overturned. In contrast, the success rate was only 50% for Aleem Dar (six out of 12), and 68.75% for Nigel Llong (11 out of 16).5 Number of times Hazlewood dismissed Hashim Amla in this series, the most times a bowler got a batsman out. The next highest was Starc’s four dismissals of Cook, conceding only 43 from 134 balls. Elgar struggled against Starc as well. There were five instances of a bowler dismissing a batsman three or more times in the series, and they were all by Starc or Hazlewood.97 Runs scored by de Kock against Nathan Lyon, the most by any batsman against a bowler in the series. Lyon didn’t dismiss de Kock even once, though he had him in some trouble in Adelaide. There were only two other instances of a batsman scoring 50-plus runs against a bowler without being dismissed – Warner against Rabada, and Bavuma against Starc.

M Vijay opens up about what makes him happy, the life lessons he taught himself as a teenager, and his approach to batting

Interview by Arun Venugopal21-Sep-201520:29

‘My simple thing is if you are good enough you’ll play’

How’s the hamstring?
I have been working on my rehabilitation. I think three weeks. I am in a good state now.Is it particularly frustrating to be injured at this point of your career when your batting is on the upswing?
Definitely. When you miss something at a crucial juncture of your career it’s tough at times, but you cannot do too many things about it because injuries do happen in any sport. You’ve got to take it in your stride and move forward.In the last couple of years, is there one particular innings or a session which you look back on and think, “This is where I turned things around”?
The Chennai Test match in 2013, the second innings, I really gave it a thought as a person and as a cricketer. I had been getting starts and giving it away, and there were different reasons, lots of variables behind it. At the end of the day, I was disappointed with not applying myself. You get opportunities at the international level what many people are craving for and you are missing out on it. All these factors came into my head and I got my answers in Hyderabad.How difficult was it to process all those thoughts and respond?
At that point I was really disappointed and had four-five days gap before the next Test match. I was hoping to get an opportunity there. The moment I got the feeling that I was going to play, I said, “This is it. This is for me. I just don’t want to do something really out of the box.” I just wanted to stick to my plans and if a good ball comes, so be it.I just wanted to go in and be as tight as possible, and I felt happy after that knock because I really gave it a thought and I did not play the way I wanted to play, but still got my runs.”I never think about what others say, or what you say about me”•AFPJust before the England tour you spent a lot of time with your coach, Jayakumar. Could you elaborate on what you were working on?
I was just thinking about my fitness and the conditions we would be playing in, the venues and stuff like that. That was going to be my first experience and I always wanted to play in England, at Lord’s especially, and it was just about to happen and I didn’t want to miss out by not being fit. I was concentrating on my fitness, and batting-wise I was checking on my basics, and he really helped me out during that particular phase.What were the specific things you did to cope with the moving ball?
I couldn’t get the same kind of feel in Chennai because the conditions are entirely different, but all I could do was to practise early in the morning when there is a little bit of moisture on the wicket.You used the plastic ball?
I don’t really use the plastic ball, but bowling machines helped me get an idea of how it’s going to go and how you maintain your shape.You are comfortable leaving the ball, but a lot of batsmen love to feel bat on ball all the time. Is leaving the ball as natural for you as it looks or did you have to work on it?
Every time I walk in to bat, I want to play as many balls as possible, but if it is not in my range, I will leave it. My intention is to play, but maybe I’m a little more cautious about my off stump. Maybe I could play a little more freely. If I can get 100 off 100 balls, I’m going to take it any day. I am just waiting for that moment to come.

“I wasn’t a great student. People around me were brilliant. I wouldn’t call myself a dumb guy, but I was not interested in it [academics]”

You always talk about playing a particular delivery and then switching off. How easy is it to focus on the moment alone?
It’s very difficult, but that’s what you are practising for. You practise batting for two or three hours in a day, and if you don’t believe in that then you are never going to perform, so you obviously have to let your mind and body take over in the middle rather than thinking too much ahead of it.Off the field do you do something to achieve that? Do you meditate?
Just the belief inside you – like everybody says, you’ve got to be in the now. It’s very difficult to even think about it. But all I can do is be in a happy space, do the things you really like to do and talk to yourself, motivate yourself. Because there’s no one else to help you there [in the middle].Do you talk to yourself before every ball, psych yourself up?
Not in the middle. Just the day before or something like that. In the middle, you enjoy, go out there and express yourself. That’s what I try to do, watch the ball and focus. So long it has been good.How does your visualisation process work?
I like to see things before they happen and I get a feel inside. I enjoy that if I am in that space. For me to get into that space, I need to practise. If I have done every bit of it in my practice, I think I attain it more often than not. I never keep a target and I go with a blank mind. I could get a triple-hundred, why restrict it to a hundred?As an opener, who are your reference points? Who have you tried to imbibe from?
I always liked Mark Waugh. Because he made everything look easy. He played in a fashion where everything was in rhythm. I really liked him as a youngster.I had the opportunity to share the dressing room with some of the greats. I loved the way Sachin [Tendulkar] carried himself throughout his career. I had a great opportunity to interact with him and see how he does things in different situations, so he inspired me a lot. MS Dhoni for the way he handled himself in pressure situations. [But] I didn’t want to emulate Sachin or MS. You have to pick and choose [the best attributes from each of them] and do it in your own style.Looking ahead to the South Africa series, what are you looking to get out of it?
I’m pretty excited. The only one thing I’m concentrating on at the moment is my fitness. I’m on the right track and happy about it. But I am not thinking too far ahead because there’s a month and a half to go for the Test series. All I am trying to do is work on my batting basics, my fitness and my fielding aspect of where I am going to stand.”Myself and Shikhar Dhawan are very close friends off the field. We share a lot of things apart from cricket”•AFPHow exciting is this batting group you are playing alongside? Do you compete amongst yourselves?
It’s been unbelievable because everybody is talented. It’s a healthy competition. The season and a half where we played abroad got us together. The thought process was similar, and everybody wanted to go in one direction. A lot of good things happened to us. [Even when we were losing] the atmosphere never changed. That’s one good quality and a learning for me as well, because no one even showed any hint that he was down and out. Because everybody is on the same wavelength and the same age group, it’s easy to crack a joke in a tight situation.What do you guys bond over? PlayStation?
Yes, at the moment I’m into PlayStation because that’s the only way to get into my friends’ rooms. Because everybody goes and plays PlayStation, we just try to do that as a team. It’s been good.As a batting group, is there also friendly banter where you say, “Okay, I’m going to outscore you two guys”, or things like that?
I don’t know about that because I never think that way. If Shikhar [Dhawan] is getting runs, I would like to give him the credit, like “You are batting brilliantly”. And vice-versa. That’s what he does to me. There’s nothing like, “You get 150, I get 180.” It’s about going together and going for the same cause.As a unit we are more tight now. It’s a good journey for us. Staying away from home and everything else gave us an opportunity to mingle and go about things in the right way.How have your interactions with the coaching staff been?
They have really helped us in getting a good atmosphere in the dressing room because I feel you should feel comfortable inside the dressing room to do well outside.

“I believe in love, and it’s obviously helped me as a person”

Ravi Shastri is known to be very direct.
Ravi has his own style of putting it across. He lifts the mood 100%, the energy you get onto the table. I think he has come at the right time. It’s all fallen in place. Everybody is trying to do his best to give us the best atmosphere.You have also known Sanjay Bangar from your time at Kings XI Punjab. Has he picked up little things in your batting you might not have noticed?
Yes, we always try to have a conversation about batting because he’s one guy who is never tired of talking about a particular aspect. More or less everybody, when we are off [the field], we keep discussing, “Oh, we could have done this, we could have done that.” He has always been there for us which is good.There was a time when you were out of the national team. What was the most difficult aspect during that phase?
That’s when I really thought you cannot think too much about anything. What’s happened has happened. You’ve just got to take it in your stride but move forward in a positive way. That’s all you can do as a person, because everybody is going to face problems in their lives. Life is much bigger, sport is just a phase of it.Did you try to seek out the selectors and gather their thoughts on what you needed to do to get back into the team?
Obviously I was disappointed not to be part of the World Cup. I knew I needed to get answers for that in my head first than searching it outside. My simple thing is, if you are good enough, you’ll play. I didn’t find any desperation to go and ask someone. If you are good enough and if you are practising well, and if you think you are good enough to express yourself in the middle, it’s more than enough.Rolling back the years, as a 17-year-old you took the drastic step of moving out of your parents’ house after flunking your Class XII exams. How did your parents react, especially since you are very close to your mother?
Actually I should thank my dad, even now I do. () That particular phase, if he had stopped me, I would have been a different person altogether. Not protected, but maybe I would have chosen a different field or I would have not got into cricket. I would have done something else in another extreme, but I am never a safe person.Living in a single room with two other people and having to fend for oneself doesn’t quite sound like fun…
That’s what happened. I cannot change that, and I enjoyed it. I don’t have any regrets. There was no hardship. At that particular moment I thought I should experience life and learn because I wasn’t a great student. People around me were brilliant. I wouldn’t call myself a dumb guy, but I was not interested in it [academics]. My interests were different. That did not synchronise properly with my parents and everything.I really gave it a thought and said, “What am I doing?” I didn’t get through my 12th, so basically I didn’t know anything. My father was comforting me too much because whatever I asked, he gave me, and I didn’t like that too. I had one year to complete my 12th, so I thought, let me go and live alone and see how it is. Even my close friends ask me today what I was doing back then. It’s a good feeling and you can’t tell your experiences like, “This is what happened.” It’s a nice feeling that it happened and I enjoyed it.”I want to play as many balls as possible, but if it is not in my range, I will leave it”•Getty ImagesIs it more like a riches-to-rags-to-riches story for you then?
I never believe in being rich or being low. It’s just about the way you live your life and you should be happy. [This experience gave me] immense happiness, being alone, enjoying the freedom, there is nobody to go and fall back on.There is this persona of Vijay with the tattoos and the swagger. You said once that you felt you weren’t picked for the state side because you had long hair. Is it an accurate assessment that you are a rebel?
I don’t believe in judging anybody. That’s my personal learning. Everybody has their own perception and nobody has time to prove things to everybody. So then why talk about it? If someone has done something and you can appreciate it, appreciate it, or else just move on. I am no one to go and give my view on what he has done. I built my kind of life accordingly, and it’s giving me happiness. I don’t know the definition of happiness. I just want to be happy, feel happy. I don’t go deep into anything.Sometimes on the field there are some theatrics. Once in an airport you did a Michael Jackson impression. Are these things you do to make people accept you?
Are you trying to say if you are going to wear a funky dress you are trying to attract anybody or do you wear it for yourself? I never think about what others say or what you say about me. It’s just about what I feel at that particular moment, about what I want to do. If I can do it, I am happy. I don’t want to go into your space and say, “Come and look at me.” I don’t really enjoy that.Doesn’t this mindset come with difficulties? Do you think you are misunderstood often?
I don’t that way because I don’t really have that much time to think about what someone is thinking about me. If I’m at practice, I like to practice. If I am out with my family, I like to enjoy with them. It is easy if you think it’s easy. It [perception] will change. Everything has to change. That’s the only thing that is permanent. If you are silent, people think you are arrogant. If you are silent, then people think, “Oh, he is thinking about something.” Silence gives you so many answers for one small reaction.M Vijay scored two big hundreds against Australia in 2013, which was his comeback series•BCCIHow much have love and relationships mattered to you? How have they moulded you as a person?
I believe in love. It’s obviously helped me as a person, and I am thankful I am leading a good life at the moment because I went through hardships. I am thankful to the almighty because I believe in that, and I believe in time, so everything happened for a reason.What kind of character are you in the India dressing room? Are you the joker or the introvert, or are you the serious, brooding variety?
I really don’t know. I enjoy everything and everybody’s company. I like to be among them and see them laugh. I don’t like to sit in one place and be quiet. But I don’t know whether I’m a fun person. You should ask my team-mates.What are the things you have learnt from your team-mates about life in general?For example, myself and Shikhar [Dhawan] are very close friends off the field. We share a lot of things apart from cricket. We have a mutual liking for things and discuss particular topics. I like to discuss things rather than argue. If it’s an argument, I just call it a day. () I don’t want to get into trouble. I never confront anybody. If I know I have made a mistake, I will put my hand up and accept the fact.What are the things outside the game that help you get your focus back on cricket?
I honestly believe there’s life after cricket. There’s a lot to learn, a lot of things to see. It’s just a phase of my life I have chosen, so obviously I love to do something in a field I really love. And if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter to me really. Because I am honestly giving my effort and trying to learn things, and pushing myself to an extent where I can feel that I have done everything. The result is like a by-product for me.Do you have heroes outside cricket?
I like [the actor] Kamal Haasan. I am a great fan of him. Obviously Rajini sir [Rajinikanth] as well, but I like Kamal sir a little more. It’s just the connect. I don’t know much about acting. I hardly even see movies, but you know, the interviews where he has spoken about a similar topic that’s running in your head. All these factors overall make him special.What are the other things that keep you in the happy space you talk about?
I love to play other sports. I love snooker. Unfortunately I can’t play [now] because of my hamstring. I am not able to surf now because of that as well. I like to experience other sports and adventure sports that give me an adrenaline rush and make me challenge myself. I don’t want to miss out on those as well, playing one sport.Has your life changed with two young children? Are you a hands-on father?
They are keeping me on my toes. I am just trying to give as much time as possible. Changing diapers and singing rhymes is a learning too for me.

Murali Kartik was a complete bowler for every format and should have ended up with more than 300 Test wickets

VVS Laxman14-Jun-2014One of my favourite stories about Murali Kartik concerns his name. My wife would always address him as Murali. His response, delivered in that soft yet firm tone, would be: “Murali is my father’s name. My name is Kartik.”Kartik has this knack of getting close to certain people. I do not really know when and how we became such close friends. I guess a lot has to do with the common interests we share. Both of us are spiritual and religious. Both are devotees of Satya Sai Baba; Kartik’s father, in fact, does voluntary service at the Satya Sai Baba Trust in Puttaparthi. Over the years, from the time he made his Test debut in 2000, we have shared a good rapport.One big reason for me to open up to him and like him was that Kartik is a genuine person. He speaks his mind, not only on the cricket field but off it also. When that happens, you feel comfortable with a person. This feeling was mutual, as evidenced by this lovely tribute from him when I retired.Over the years, as we started getting closer, I saw that Kartik was a very likeable character who would do anything for his friends. He was one of the few people I would call for his opinion on various issues. He is a knowledgeable guy – not only about cricket – and that is why I always pick his brains to get inputs or a different perspective.Considering our relationship extends to over 15 years now, it is inevitable that we have shared several ups and downs. I remember the time in 2002-03 he was dropped for the ODI series in New Zealand. I cajoled him and asked him not to get disappointed. Soon afterwards, I found myself not picked for the 2003 World Cup!Both of us were obviously disappointed when we found ourselves on the India A tour to the Caribbean. I was the captain and we had a nightmare of a series. I told him I was never going to cajole him any more, since it was landing me in trouble too!As a player, my first impression of Kartik was how talented and skilful he was. This was in 1997, when we played against each other in successive tournaments – the Karnataka State Cricket Association tournament in Bangalore and then the Buchi Babu Memorial tournament in Chennai, with Kartik playing for India Cements and me representing Indian Airlines.His most outstanding characteristic is his confidence. From the first day I saw him till his last match his body language and his never-say-die attitude never changed. That is a great quality to have for any cricketer to succeed at any level. It becomes much more important for a spinner because the way the modern game has progressed, it is getting tougher for a slow bowler to leave his mark. There are not many orthodox spinners left in the game – people who are willing to flight the ball, deceive the batsmen in the air, don’t mind getting hit for a boundary, are always on the prowl, looking for a wicket. Kartik always possessed those characteristics and never compromised on them.He is an intelligent person, a quality he brought to his cricket too. He is a good student of cricket and read the game, batsmen and situations well. He is a complete bowler for every level and all formats.His primary strength is his skill. In my book, a spinner is dangerous when he is not defensive but always attacking and eyeing wickets. Kartik always had the desire to take wickets. And even if there were occasions when the batsman was on top, Kartik would never admit it. I never saw him bowl a bad spell. He might not have got wickets but he always had control; that and his variations allowed him to stay on top.

He is a good student of cricket and read the game, batsmen and situations well. He is a complete bowler for every level and all formats

In my eyes, the best spell Kartik bowled came during the Irani Cup against Mumbai in 2000, when he grabbed nine wickets in the second innings to win us the match. I was leading Rest of India and allowed Kartik to bowl unchanged on the fourth morning from the Tata End. It was unfortunate that he did not become the fifth bowler in Indian first-class cricket to achieve the feat of taking ten wickets in an innings. Kartik was always a wicket-taking bowler, someone a captain could rely on, and to me he was always a match-winner.While Kartik had the potential to become a match-winner, unfortunately during his heyday he underwent a lot of disappointments. In 2007 he had a very good ODI series against Australia in India. He finished as the second-best Indian bowler, including taking the Man-of-the-Match award in the final match of the series, in Mumbai. On the back of such a good performance he was looking forward to travel to Australia to play in CB Series. To his utter disappointment he was not even picked in the squad. I know for a fact that he was devastated by that experience.On the outside Kartik can come across as a bold and aggressive man. But he is very sensitive. And so it is just brilliant the way he has handled various tough experiences throughout his career. He always put up a brave face.Kartik has endured a lot, all through his career. Until you experience it, you cannot understand how tough it is to always carry on fighting. On the inside you are disappointed, you are frustrated, the pain is deep. And you think: Why does it always happen to me? I thought Kartik might occasionally feel bad, angry at the injustice; but he never showed it. Only to a select few did he reveal he could have been treated better. He never let the disappointments affect his game and the way he carried himself on the field. And that was the hallmark of his career.Kartik is a philosophical man. He learned through his experience that whatever happens does so for a reason. And he always took the positives – at least he played for India, played for Railways, played in county cricket, had the respect of his team-mates and opponents.One has to also understand that Kartik played for a team like Railways in the Indian domestic circuit where the facilities have always been sparse. But though he did not get his due at the international level, he always went back to domestic or county cricket without ever letting the disappointment discourage him from performing.He took a lot of pride in performance, no matter who he was playing for, or whether it was a competitive match or just a net session. He never let the batsman play with freedom.Once he realised that his chances of playing again for India had evaporated, he turned his focus to giving back what he had learned to his Railways team-mates. He fought for their rights with the authorities. He always had a soft corner for the team; last year, he took up the captaincy just so he could mentor the youngsters.I have relied a lot on Kartik to get inputs on domestic players when picking players at Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. It was he who suggested that I pick Karn Sharma and Amit Paunikar.Despite his disappointments, Kartik has remained selfless and has been open to sharing with youngsters his inputs and insights. Recently, Akshar Patel excelled during Kings XI Punjab’s run to their maiden IPL final. I am certain Kartik must have played some role in Patel doing well. It did not matter to Kartik that he was sitting on the bench despite being the more experienced spinner.When he called me earlier this week to tell me that his time was up, it was a sad moment. But I can understand his decision. Kartik was unfortunate that he played when Anil Kumble and Bhajji [Harbhajan Singh] were in their prime. But maybe when Anil retired, Kartik could have been given more opportunities. He is a bowler who should have taken more than 300 Test wickets. Indian cricket has missed out on a match-winner.

There’s a subtext to the de Kock-Bowes opening partnership. Bowes replaced de Kock as captain for the World Cup, leaving the latter to focus on his roles of key batsman and wicketkeeper

George Binoy in Townsville18-Aug-2012Quinton de Kock and Chad Bowes, South Africa’s opening batsmen, are among the highest run-scorers of the group stage of the Under-19 World Cup. De Kock is first, with 226 runs, while Bowes is third, with 179. In each of South Africa’s three matches, at least one of them has made a significant score. Against Namibia, both made hundreds in a total of 359. Not bad for batsmen who are touring Australia for the first time.They haven’t even been opening together for very long. De Kock is from Johannesburg and Bowes is from Durban, so while they’ve played a lot against each other, they only began opening for South Africa in the one-day tri-series involving Pakistan and Zimbabwe in January. They’ve forged a partnership since.Their contrasting styles complement each other. De Kock, a powerfully built left-hand wicketkeeper-batsman, is more aggressive, while Bowes, a more slender right-hander, prefers to start slowly and then catch up.”You could say I’m a pretty orthodox opening batter,” Bowes says. “I like to play straight and as I get my time in the middle I like to expand my shot selection. Rotate the strike with Quinton and let him do the damage up front.”De Kock says he “connects really well” with Bowes. “He starts a little bit slow but he always seems to give me the strike, which I enjoy,” de Kock says. “Once he’s in then he plays his game. We always try to look for a single off a good ball instead of just blocking and getting no run.”On the eve of their quarterfinal against England, de Kock knows he’ll be targeted. He toured England in the summer of 2011 and was the highest run-scorer in the seven-match one-day series. England fast bowler Reece Topley and captain Adam Ball have said they have plans for de Kock. “In England they didn’t like me at all,” de Kock says. “So I know they’ll come hard at me tomorrow. I shouldn’t have a problem, I’m going to just do my thing, keep my own focus. Not going to be bothered with what they do.”There’s a subtext to the de Kock-Bowes partnership. Bowes wasn’t on that Under-19 tour to England. He only broke into the team during the tri-series in January involving Pakistan and Zimbabwe. De Kock was already established by then and was the captain. Bowes, however, was named captain for the World Cup, leaving de Kock to focus on his roles of key batsman and wicketkeeper. Both batsmen say the change in leadership has improved performance.”They decided they didn’t want to put too much pressure on me, which I accept fully,” de Kock said. “I think it’s been a good decision, Chad’s doing an awesome job as captain. Everything is going to plan.”The Under-19 World Cup is effectively Bowes’ first assignment as captain and he’s had good results so far, winning both warm-up matches and all three Group D games. “I knew it would be a challenge but I was up for it. I have captained a few provincial or state teams back in South Africa, so I do have an idea of what to do,” Bowes says. “I have a lot of respect for all the guys in the team and they respect me so I’m able to communicate with everyone well. I have a good relationship with the coach, we communicate well with each other, it’s been good so far.”Being a left-hand, aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman, de Kock looked up to Adam Gilchrist as he was growing up. His strike-rate far at the World Cup is 108 and in three-day matches for Gauteng he averages more than 60 and strikes at 90. He’s played a few limited-overs games for Lions too, but without much success, and hopes to get more opportunities with them next season.Bowes’ idol is not someone who is remembered for his batting – Jonty Rhodes. “All I wanted to do was field like him,” he says. “He got me passionate for the game. Guys have referred to me as the Jonty of the team so I’m pretty pleased with that. I do pride myself in my fielding and winning games from that position like Jonty did.” Bowes says he usually fields at point and cover too, like Rhodes, but isn’t at the moment because of a broken finger and will be at mid-off at the start.South Africa prepared for this World Cup in their own way, preferring an intensive camp at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria over overseas tours as a method of building the team. It meant that on coming to Australia, the openers had to adjust quickly to an environment they’d never been in before. De Kock said it was only his third time out of the country for cricket but adapting had been no problem. They’d even prepared for the spin they’d face against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and later on in the tournament during their camp.”I just needed to get used to one or two of the conditions, the extra bounce,” de Kock said. “We do have one or two such pitches in South Africa but not as much as in Australia. Takes one or two innings, a couple of net sessions, and then I’m on my way.”Their coach Ray Jennings is renowned for running a tight ship and Bowes said that they had developed a strong work ethic during their time at the High Performance Centre. “We got a saying that we learnt at the camp, ‘Looking after the pennies will look after the pound.’ So do the small things right and the bigger things will come later.”That attitude is perhaps best captured by de Kock’s response when asked whether he was happy with his performance in the World Cup so far. “Fairly satisfied but not quite where I want to be,” he said. “I feel like I could do a lot better, got lots more to prove. I did miss out on one game, a bad run out, not great decision-making from me.”De Kock and Bowes will walk out on Sunday in the unfamiliar surroundings of the Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville to face perhaps the quickest new-ball attack in the World Cup – Topley and Jamie Overton. It will be their toughest task in Australia yet.

Down Galle way lies a village where one of the world’s leading fast bowlers delivered slingers with a softball on the beach and swam in the local lake

Sidharth Monga17-Jul-2010Rathgama. One of the most violent villages in Sri Lanka, announces Saman, the auto-rickshaw driver.”But they seem nice people.””Yes,” says Saman, “They are nice when you are smiling at them. Actually, they are very nice people, but that’s only when they are nice. When they get bad, they get really bad.”Saman uses his thumb to make a throat-slitting motion, pauses, and then says, “Like Lasith himself. He is very nice, I have played with him, played only two balls and got out twice. Gem of a person, but when he fights while playing cricket…”Rathgama is, of course, the village, 12km from Galle town, that Lasith Malinga comes from. It’s a small place, with a population of about 1000. You ask anyone where Malinga lives and they will tell you. And they say “lives” even though the Malinga family has moved to Moratuwa, because they have not left the house; they still come here on weekends.Everyone can tell you the way, but directions are not enough. It’s an intricate village, green, with myriad twists and turns. It’s extremely easy to miss a turn. After having missed three, up the hill, we reach this house that has nothing extraordinary about it. Nobody is around, but it is clean, with two easy chairs and two neat pairs of slippers on the veranda. The front of the house looks renovated, but they haven’t bothered about the dilapidated back.SK de Silva, neighbour, keen cricketer in his day, and former captain of Kaluthura Maha Vidyalaya, says Malinga came to the house two days ago – four days before the Galle Test.In this “violent” village, playing in the grounds nearby with a softball, Malinga perfected bowling round-arm, slinging balls at high pace. The softballs were light, the sea breeze heavy, it wasn’t possible to bowl fast with a high-arm action. Uncoached, untaught, Malinga developed his low-arm action. Some people know just what to do.There is another theory: that Malinga can pull off that action because the strength in his shoulders comes from years of winning swimming championships in the lake that’s barely a few hundred metres from his house. Free-style swimming is round-arm, not high-arm.”Every New Year [Sinhala New Year, mid-April], we have the competition,” says a kid biking around the lake, “We start from here [pointing to the start of lake], and go until there [pointing to a rock just before a small island inside it]. Last year he finished fourth. The winner was a 10-year-old kid. This year he missed the competition.”This year of, course, Malinga was responding to some of the loudest chants in cricket, “Ma-lin-ga, Ma-lin-ga”, in the IPL. The boy remembers how Malinga came soon after the IPL and fished with them. “He comes often and plays cricket with us,” says Bovidu Sammu, a 16-year-old neighbour.”He plays softball still. In some random competitions, he goes and plays,” says Champaka Ramanayake, former Test bowler and now national bowling coach. “He goes and takes hat-tricks and all. It’s proper softball competition, proper professionals playing. Loves, just loves playing softball. Just goes and bowls yorkers.”The Malinga residence in Rathgama, where the family returns to spend weekends•ESPNcricinfo LtdIf Malinga comes to Rathgama for a peaceful weekend, he gets it. “Only the first time he came back from playing for Sri Lanka did a huge crowd gather, and we had a big cultural thing,” says de Silva. “Now nobody bothers him.” Says Saman: “Why should they bother? He is just another man.”Except Malinga isn’t. He is one of the few men who bowl really fast today. He is perhaps the most recognisable face in Sri Lanka, with his funky hairstyles. De Silva, though, remembers a shy kid, “as ordinary as others”, who just played well.Ordinary Malinga wasn’t, when at 16 he caught the eye of Ramanayake. “It was probably 1999, 11-12 years ago. The first thing I saw about him was… I was batting, facing him, but I never batted after that. I had the privilege of telling him, whenever he came to bowl, ‘Lasith, you come later, not now.'”I don’t know what he bowled, I couldn’t see the ball. I was doing a talent search, he came for that, so I went and batted, and couldn’t see the ball. I went and said, ‘Lasith I am going to pick you for my team, Galle Cricket Club, and whenever you have time, you come for practice.'”Malinga was a skinny kid then. Ramanayake’s biggest challenge was to get some muscle on him to sustain the heavy-duty action. Also, he had to get Malinga, son of a man who did small jobs for a transport company, to a better school. He had to fight with clubs, get him a job. The strength and the muscle came, and Malinga showed good aptitude for studies, having moved from Vidyaloka Mahavidyalaya to the better Mahinda Vidyalaya.”He was an ordinary boy, but very studious,” remembers Ramanayake. “Good at studies. O level also he did well. That helped him grow as a cricketer.”His action, his uniqueness, we didn’t want to change, but his skill had to be developed. He was fast all right, and fast meaning, at 16, he was around 135ks. But he didn’t bowl reverse swing – he learned that. He didn’t know his fields and all, and the bouncer. Slower ball, he never had. But whenever I said something, he tried, tried, tried.”Ramanayake, the captain, coach and manager of the Galle Cricket Club, had a role to play in Malinga’s first-class debut too.”It was the year 2001, the first time he was selected for the squad, not for the playing XI,” says Ramanayake. “We used to play Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but one Thursday I had a stiff neck. I was the opening bowler, and we had two or three seniors. So I thought I would introduce this boy, 17 years old, against one of the leading cricket teams in Colombo, Colombo Cricket Club. He took eight wickets in the match and won the match all by himself. I never forget that. Because I didn’t play, he played.”Ramanayake is working hard with Malinga, who is going to play his first Test in two-and-a-half years on Sunday. The action, despite the strengthening work, has taken its toll. Malinga has slowly and gradually made his way back from the injury setback, playing Twenty20 first, then ODIs, and is now a day from a Test comeback. Ramanayake lays to rest fears that Malinga might want to play only the lucrative and less taxing short forms, as many a fast bowler nowadays does.There are nerves, but also there is excitement. “He is perfectly fit at the moment,” says Ramanayake. “Bowling one-hour spells. Our trainer has done good work on him. Lasith is very keen, needs seven-eight for 100 Test wickets.”Last year, during the Test against Pakistan, Malinga walked into the Galle International Stadium unannounced, every bit an ordinary Galle man except for the hair and the piercings, and watched, from among the crowd, his team win the Test. This year he will want to do it rather than watch, and tick an important box in any player’s career: Test cricket.

Yesterday’s co-ordinated explosions in the British capital will have alarm bells ringing everywhere major events or meetings of any kind are to be staged

Fazeer Mohammed08-Jul-2005

What a wake-up call, and not just for Londoners. Yesterday’s co-ordinated explosions in the British capital will have alarm bells ringing everywhere major events or meetings of any kind are to be staged.Not that they need to be reminded of the potential dangers, of course, but the organisers of the 2007 Cricket World Cup must see these incidents, apart from all the other more immediate considerations, in the context of their security arrangements for the biggest event of any kind ever to be staged in the Caribbean.Early expert opinion suggested that the bomb blasts were targeted to coincide with the opening day of the G-8 summit further up north in the Scottish town of Gleneagles.Yet that should be little consolation to organisers of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, who have barely had time to celebrate the announcement in Singapore less than 24 hours earlier that London had edged out Paris in one of the closest contests ever for the right to host the Games.Here, in these sun-drenched territories where every nation has its own version of Trinidad time, a general indifference to safety and security issues on a large scale persists.It may therefore be a bit of a culture shock when the World Cup comes around in less than two years’ time for fans accustomed to parking halfway up the pavement or dragging in coolers as large as small cars into the ground.Rising crime and the increasing threat of kidnapping may have many people much more aware of their personal safety and that of their families, but it is another matter to get people to accept repeated searches at various points approaching the Queen’s Park Oval and again upon entering the ground.To tell some hardened soul accustomed to being dropped off almost at the front gate that no vehicular traffic is allowed within a mile of the match venue is to invite strident vocal resistance, if nothing else.All of this has obviously become necessary within the past four years, and given the proximity to the United States, there is the fear that those bent on sending some sort of message to our minders up north will use the opportunity of the Cricket World Cup to make their mark. It was therefore not all that surprising when the proposed venue in Florida was turned down by World Cup organisers a year ago.The prospect of thousands of cricket fans from countries whose citizens are viewed with suspicion trying to get through US customs is a logistical nightmare in itself.My understanding is that an even greater, and more costly, challenge was adapting the American satellite television format to work with the general format to be used for World Cup coverage.There is little doubt, though, especially given America’s increasingly interventionist policy across the globe, that World Cup organisers are grateful they at least don’t have that particular headache to deal with.There is the danger, however, of making security so much of an overriding concern that cricket matches in such idyllic settings with so many visitors from so many parts of the world would actually become a suffocating exercise of shuttling from airport to hotel to ground to sanitised tourist spots.Much of the effort and expense by most Caribbean governments for World Cup 2007 is intended not just to make the guests happy, but so satisfied with everything that they would like to come back again and again.Freedom of movement-within each territory and from island to island-will be an essential aspect of the ideal experience, hence the much-talked about Sunset Legislation that Caribbean leaders are supposed to ensure is passed into law and ready for implementation in the weeks before the first ball is bowled at the redeveloped Sabina Park in 18 months’ time.For anyone who has to endure the long lines, perennial delays and lost luggage every season when there is just one visiting team in the Caribbean, the consequences of thousands of fun-loving but impatient fans travelling through the region are almost frightening.But given our innate tendency to do our very best to please our guests, even at the expense of the natives, I expect that everything would be put in place. You wouldn’t want to stop these cheery folks from spending their wads of foreign currency, now would you?Actually this year, in covering the series first with South Africa and then Pakistan, I often opted for the “Visitors” line rather than the “Nationals and other Caricom Citizens” queue.Mr Smith from Newark and Miss Jones from Cardiff always seemed to have to endure fewer questions than Tantie Doris from Vieux Fort or Akbar Mamoo from Rosignol.As usual with our part of the world, much of the physical infrastructure in preparation for the World Cup is behind schedule, although, as the Greeks did in pulling off a superb Athens Olympics last year despite similar challenges, there is too much at stake not to get it done right and just in the nick of time.In preparing for the event, information is just as important as steel and concrete, and the World Cup Organising Committee must see it as a priority that, while security can never ever be completely guaranteed, no effort is spared to make everyone aware of the need to abide by the rules, regulations and restrictions in the hope of avoiding anything remotely like what happened in London yesterday.

Crystal Palace's Daniel Munoz has revealed the reason for Erling Haaland handing an FA Cup final penalty to Manchester City colleague Omar Marmoush.

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Why Haaland handed over penalty to Marmoush revealedMarmoush missed the spot-kickPalace defender had warned HaalandFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

City had the opportunity to restore parity in the FA Cup final after Eberechi Eze broke the deadlock in the 16th minute from Munoz's assist. Just past the half-hour mark, Tyrick Mitchell brought down Bernardo Silva inside the area and a penalty was awarded to the Cityzens. Haaland, being the club's designated penalty taker, was expected to take the spot-kick, but to everyone's surprise, he handed over the ball to Marmoush.

AdvertisementGettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE

It was Marmoush's first penalty kick since signing for City in January, but he squandered the opportunity as his effort was saved by Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson. Before moving to England, Marmoush had converted all of the previous seven penalties he had taken for Eintracht Frankfurt. Haaland, meanwhile, has scored four penalties out of seven attempts for City across all competitions this season.

WHAT DANIEL MUNOZ SAID

Now Palace full-back Munoz has revealed why the Norwegian handed over the penalty kick to Marmoush. Speaking to , the 28-year-old said: "I asked him why he didn’t take the penalty, since he was the team’s top scorer. And he told me that his team-mate was also a good kicker. So, I told him, 'If you don’t take the penalty, he’ll miss.' And he missed."

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GettyWHAT NEXT FOR MANCHESTER CITY?

Pep Guardiola's side will now aim to win their remaining Premier League matches against Bournemouth and Fulham on May 20 and 25, respectively, to secure a top five finish and qualify for the Champions League next season.