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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.

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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.

Randal Kolo Muani closed in on a Juventus return as Paris Saint-Germain and the Italian giants edged towards sealing a €60 million transfer agreement.

PSG and Juve finalising €60m dealStriker set for long-awaited Serie A returnMove marks Juventus’ major attacking boostFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Juve are edging closer to sealing Kolo Muani’s long-term return from PSG in a deal worth around €60 million (£51m/$65m). After months of negotiations, the two clubs appear to have reached common ground on a deal that will see the French striker initially return on loan with an obligation to buy. Kolo Muani, who scored 10 goals and provided three assists in 22 games during his short loan spell in Turin last season, has already expressed his desire to continue with the Bianconeri. PSG, meanwhile, are keen to cash in on a player who never truly settled in Paris under Luis Enrique.

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This deal would represent one of Juventus’s key transfer outlays in recent years, underlining their intent to rebuild a sharper, more mobile attack. The club have long sought a striker who can stretch defences and bring versatility up front, qualities that Kolo Muani demonstrated during his first stint in Serie A.

For PSG, this is another clear step in their summer strategy by offloading high-wage players who don’t fit Luis Enrique’s system, while balancing the books after years of heavy spending. The move also reaffirms how Serie A’s elite are willing to invest heavily again, despite broader financial caution across Italian football.

TELL ME MORE

The structure of the deal has been a sticking point for weeks, where PSG initially raised their asking price to €70 million (£59m/$76m), which Juventus were unwilling to pay outright. The compromise now looks set at a €5m paid loan followed by a €55m (£46m/$59m) mandatory purchase clause, spreading the cost across seasons. For Juventus, this comes with financial strain as Kolo Muani is expected to earn around €8m net per year.

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Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR JUVENTUS?

If the deal is finalised, Juve will not only secure a striker tailor-made for their new project but also set off a domino effect in the market. For PSG, this agreement could help finance their ongoing squad overhaul and allow Enrique to continue building a younger, more balanced squad. All eyes now turn to whether Juve can wrap up the final details before rivals swoop in or PSG change course. Juve is set to play against Genoa on Saturday.

MatériaMais Notícias

Após perder espaço com Mano Menezes e um 2022 de altos e baixos, o goleiro Daniel está de malas prontas para deixar do Internacional.Nos últimos dias, o arqueiro recebeu uma proposta do San Jose Earthquakes, da Major League Soccer, e aceitou o desafio de atuar nos Estados Unidos.

+ MERCADO DA BOLA: fique por dentro das negociações entre clubes e jogadores

Com a saída encaminhada, o arqueiro já se desligou do grupo e aguarda a liberação para viajar, realizar exames médicos e assinar contrato.Pela contratação de Daniel, o time norte-americano vai despejar nos cofres do Internacional US$ 600 mil (R$ 3 milhões).

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CONTESTAÇÃO

Titular ao longo do último ano, Daniel não rendeu como o esperado e sofreu inúmeros questionamentos. Após lesão, ele viu Keiller ganhar espaço e ficar com o posto de titular.

+Valores aumentados: saiba as premiações da Libertadores e Sul-Americana 2023 fase a fase

Ao todo, o goleiro disputou 89 jogos pelo clube colorado. No Brasileirão 2022, Daniel disputou 23 jogos e sofreu 21 gols.

Zimbabwe will host India for a five-match T20I series in July, a week after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA. All five games will be played in Harare, from July 6 to 14. Four of the five T20Is will be day games, starting at 1pm local time. The third T20I, the only night match, will begin at 6pm.”We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting India for a T20I series in July in what will be our biggest international attraction at home this year,” Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said in a press release. “The significance and magnitude of this tour cannot be over-emphasised, especially as it is coming at a time we are working round the clock to re-establish ourselves as a force to reckon with at the highest level of the game.”India last toured Zimbabwe for three ODIs in August 2022, when they won 3-0. Since then, the two sides have met only once across formats, at the T20 World Cup in Australia later that year.Overall, the two teams have played eight T20Is each other, with India winning six of them.Zimbabwe could not qualify for this year’s T20 World Cup even though as many as 20 teams will participate for the first time in the tournament. Before that, they had failed to make the cut for the 2023 ODI World Cup as well.

Fixtures

July 6: 1st T20I
July 7: 2nd T20I
July 10: 3rd T20I
July 13: 4th T20I
July 14: 5th T20I

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Quando marcou seu primeiro gol como profissional, numa cobrança de falta de longe, contra o Bahia, em São Januário, Figueiredo apresentou o seu cartão de visitas ao torcedor do Vasco. Um cartão que tem sido reapresentado frequentemente. Na vitória vascaína por 3 a 0 sobre o Novorizontino, neste sábado, o atacante balançou as redes pela quarta vez, a quarta em um chute de fora da área.

RelacionadasVascoCrias do Vasco alcançam marca expressiva em São JanuárioVasco09/10/2022VascoYuri, do Vasco, destaca decisão contra o Sport: ‘A gente tem que pontuar’Vasco09/10/2022CruzeiroSport vence o Cruzeiro e esquenta briga por vaga no G4 da Série BCruzeiro09/10/2022

> GALERIA:Crias da base e Léo Matos brilham em vitória do Vasco sobre o Novorizontino

Titular em 20 dos 34 jogos disputados pelo time até agora, o camisa 15 agora é um dos jogadores com mais gols de fora da área nesta Série B, empatado com Papagaio, do Ituano, e Luciano Juba, do Sport. Figueiredo, porém, é o único que marcou 100% dos seus tentos desta maneira. São dois gols de falta e dois com a bola rolando, todos de média ou longa distância.

Sozinho, Figueiredo já tem mais gols de fora da área em 2022 do que todo o time do Vasco na Série B do ano passado. Na ocasião, foram somente três bolas na rede em arremates de fora, com três jogadores diferentes marcando: Nenê, Daniel Amorim e Caio Lopes.

Formado na base do clube de São Januário, o atacante de 21 anos fez sua estreia como profissional no ano passado, disputando 29 jogos e não marcando nenhuma vez. Nesta temporada, no entanto, já são quatro gols e três assistências em 42 atuações.

JOGADORES COM MAIS GOLS DE FORA DA ÁREA NA SÉRIE B 2022
– Dados do Sofascore

1º – Figueiredo – Vasco – 4 gols
Luciano Juba – Sport – 4 gols
Papagaio – Ituano – 4 gols
4º – Jacaré – Bahia – 3 gols

Donovan says Pochettino's impact is starting to manifest itself after the team's dominant performance against Trinidad and Tobago

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• Donovan, Lalas have bought in on Poch's decisions
• Donovan pointed to Diego Luna as an example of Poch player
• Freese has a chance to win GK competition, Donovan says

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Following an impressive 5-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago in the 2025 Gold Cup opener, former USMNT star Landon Donovan pointed to the performance as a sign that coach Mauricio Pochettino is starting to have a real impact on the squad.

  Pochettino opted to start the exact same XI against Saudi Arabia on Thursday night as he did in Sunday's Gold Cup win over T&T.

  "He elected to change the culture," Donovan said on FOX Sports. "With his decisions, the same starting XI, with his press conferences, what he said about players not picking and choosing which games they come into, how he's used Diego Luna as an example of what he wants his players to be – he's changing the culture, and he's saying this is what I expect. If you want to play for me, this is how it goes."

  Donovan was referring to the controversial back-and-forth between Pochettino and U.S. star Christian Pulisic over the past month. He also said Pochettino is sending a message to 2022 World Cup starter in goal, Matt Turner, with his decision to turn to NYCFC star Matt Freese in the first two Gold Cup matches.

  "Look at Matt Freese now in goal," Donovan said. "He said 'Matt Turner, you've been great,' but he had a statement like 'Matt Freese, let's see if you can be No. 1.' He's showing with his words and actions that he's changing the culture slowly."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Fellow ex-USMNT star Alexi Lalas said the message Pochettino is sending affects the entire national team pool, not just the players participating at the Gold Cup.

  "That message gets out to the players who are there, but it also gets out to the players who aren't there," Lalas said. "When you look at this team now, it's about winning back hearts and minds. It's about clawing back, it's a process. It's not going to happen overnight. What you want to avoid – now that the stakes are higher, the competition gets higher – you take that step forward, and you take two steps back. Now you grab it with both hands, as a team you progress and you mature, or as a player you plant that seed in the mind of Mauricio Pochettino."

  Prior to the match against Saudi Arabia, Pochettino acknowledged he was proud of the strides the national team has made. The team had lost four straight matches entering the Gold Cup.

  "Despite the results, the evolution is good," Pochettino said on FOX. "I think we are progressing in different areas. We need to keep this progression and with positive results, I think it's better. But yeah, so happy. The few weeks that we are working with that group, we are evolving really well."

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Despite the controversy over Pulisic's decision to skip this summer's tournament, it's nothing new. The last Gold Cup Pulisic participated in was in 2019. That said, with the 2026 World Cup less than a year away, some expected the USMNT to have a more experienced roster for this tournament.

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• WHAT NEXT FOR THE USMNT?

  The U.S. will conclude the Gold Cup group stage phase with a matchup against Haiti on Sunday.