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As the last active Test cricketer from the 1990s bids farewell, here is a look at what his first ten team-mates have been up to

Hemant Brar05-Nov-2018Sanath JayasuriyaRetired from international cricket in 2011, Jayasuriya was named Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors in 2013. After serving for two years, he resigned from the post only to make a comeback a year later. During his first stint, Sri Lanka won a World T20 and a Test series in England, but the second one didn’t fetch the desired results, and after a series of losses, the Jayasuriya-led committee resigned in September 2017.Since his playing days, he has been active in politics as well, and was a member of parliament from his hometown Matara from 2010 to 2015. He also served as the Deputy Minister of Postal Services and later, as the Deputy Minister of Local Government & Rural Development.Last month, Jayasuriya was charged with two counts of breaching the ICC’s anti-corruption code; the alleged incidents occurring during his second stint as the chairman.Marvan AtapattuAtapattu’s retirement in 2007, following an outburst against the selectors, wasn’t a surprise; there had been reports he would be captaining Delhi Jets in the Indian Cricket League. He went on to lead them to the third place in the inaugural 2007 edition. After a couple of seasons with the ICL, Atapattu moved to coaching. He started with a short stint as Canada’s batting coach in 2009, followed by a full-time coaching role with Singapore next year.After the 2011 World Cup, he was appointed Sri Lanka’s batting coach, and two years later, was promoted to the role of assistant coach. In 2014, he replaced Paul Farbrace as the head coach and continued in that role until September 2015.In 2016, Atapattu had a ten-day stint as Zimbabwe’s batting consultant, and in November last year, he was named mentor of the Karnataka Premier League team Belagavi Panthers.Russel ArnoldLike Atapattu, Arnold too joined the ICL after his retirement in 2007. He played for the Chennai Superstars and ICL World XI before the league became defunct. After that, he tried his hand in radio commentary and, also wrote for ESPNcricinfo for a short while.Since then he has been active in TV commentary and on Twitter alike. Earlier this year, he was appointed as tournament director for the Lankan Premier League which eventually was postponed due to the dissolution of the cricket board. Arnold, fittingly, announced this via a tweet.Aravinda de SilvaJust a month after his retirement in March 2003, de Silva was appointed a national selector. In 2005, he took the role of Sri Lanka Cricket’s vice-president.De Silva also acted as a consultant for Sri Lanka Under-19 before the 2008 World Cup. During the same time, he was named the chairman of SLC’s cricket committee. Two years later, he took over as chairman of selectors and held the position till the end of 2011 World Cup only to return before the 2016 World T20.Thirteen months later, he resigned from the post to focus on his business interests. In October last year, he was appointed to a five-member committee to rehabilitate cricket in Sri Lanka.PTI Mahela JayawardeneSince his retirement in 2015, Jayawardene has dabbled as a consultant for England’s national side on a couple of occasions, apart from participating in various T20 leagues around the world as a mentor-cum-player. In 2017, he was appointed the head coach of Mumbai Indians in the IPL and Khulna Titans in the BPL.Jayawardene was also part of the five-member committee responsible for the rehabilitation of Sri Lanka cricket. Apart from this, he also runs a restaurant, called Ministry of Crab, along with his long-time team-mate Kumar Sangakkara and chef Dharshan Munidasa.Arjuna RanatungaAfter his cricketing career, Ranatunga moved to politics and soon found success. He has been a member of parliament since 2001 and has held various cabinet portfolios. He has most recently been the Minister of Petroleum Resources Development. Last month, he was involved in a shooting which led to his arrest and a subsequent bail.Apart from politics, Ranatunga has also been involved with Sri Lanka Cricket from time to time. In 2005, he shortly headed a high-profile committee which included seven former captains. In 2008, he was appointed the head of Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim board before being sacked at the end of the year. In 2016, he lost the elections for SLC’s vice-presidency.Romesh KaluwitharanaThe former wicketkeeper-batsman coached Sri Lanka’s domestic side Colts Cricket Club while conducting a career as an insurance executive after hanging his boots in 2004.In 2006, Kaluwitharana went to China as part of the Asian Cricket Council’s committee to evaluate cricket’s potential there. He also had a short stint as Malaysia’s interim coach in 2008.After that, he turned a hotelier and started Kalu’s Hideaway, a boutique hotel at Udawalawe in southern Sri Lanka. He returned to cricket in 2015, this time as the Sri Lanka A coach. He was part of Jayasuriya’s second selection committee and is currently a coach within the SLC structure.AFPChaminda VaasVaas has been actively involved in coaching ever since he stopped playing. It started with the role of assistant bowling coach for New Zealand when they visited Sri Lanka in 2012. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach before taking a role with Ireland, as their bowling consultant for the 2016 World T20. The same year, he was hired again by Sri Lanka, this time with a broader role of identifying and developing the fast-bowling talent in the country, a role he assumes till date.Vaas also served as a stop-gap arrangement when Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake resigned last year.Nuwan ZoysaLike his new-ball partner Vaas, Zoysa too worked as a coach after his cricketing days. He started with Sri Lanka’s domestic side Nondescripts Cricket Club and was assistant coach of Sri Lanka Premier League franchise Nagenahira Nagas. In 2012, he joined the Goa Ranji team for a short stint as a coaching consultant.He was also the bowling coach of Sri Lanka women’s team at the 2016 World T20. Zoysa, the incumbent bowling coach of the Sri Lanka A team, was sent on a “compulsory leave” last month after being charged for breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.Muttiah MuralitharanAfter playing in T20 leagues for a while post-retirement, Muralitharan, in 2014, signed with Bengal as a spin-bowling consultant. In 2014 only Australia roped him as a coaching consultant ahead of their Test series against Pakistan in the UAE. Australia once again sought his services when they toured Sri Lanka in 2016.Currently, he is with the IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad as their bowling coach and mentor, a role he occupies since 2015. However, his main job at the moment is running an aluminium can manufacturing plant.

Plays of the day from the second match of the tri-nation series between Sri Lanka and West Indies

Nikhil Kalro16-Nov-2016Brathwaite’s shoddy techniqueOn an overcast morning, Kraigg Brathwaite weathered a testing opening spell from Sri Lanka’s seamers. All his hardwork came undone with sloppy technique, not against the new balls but while running. He patted a length delivery to mid-on, judged a run well and immediately set off. However, instead of sliding the bat in, he plonked it in the turf on the adjacent pitch. The bat jarred and bounced back up. Nuwan Kulasekara ran in, picked the ball with his right hand and threw the stumps down at the bowler’s end. Brathwaite’s feet and bat were in the air, ending an innings that showed promise.Juggle, catch, juggle, dropRovman Powell’s debut ODI innings was laden with boundaries on the leg side, a result of a strong bottom hand. In the 44th over, he failed to get underneath one such bottom-handed flick off Suranga Lakmal. The ball skewed off the inside half of the bat and carried to deep midwicket’s right. The fielder, Shehan Jayasuriya, moved nimbly and looked set to take a comfortable catch at chest height. The ball, however, bounced out off his palm and lobbed back up. Panicking, Jayasuriya grabbed at a simple parry and juggled it up again. Still panicking, he grasped at it, but the ball had had enough of Jayasuriya and dropped by his feet.Kulasekara’s two plus twoNot many fast bowlers are stationed at midwicket. Kulasekara was and he showed why. In the 47th over, Jason Holder nudged a ball to short midwicket and set off for one. He was slow to start, but picked up pace as Kulasekara swooped in on the ball. He picked up cleanly, turned quickly and released the ball all in one swift motion to hit the base of the stumps at the bowler’s end. Even a tall Holder was more than a foot short. Kulasekara took two wickets with the ball and in the field.Harare’s helpWest Indies defended 227 on the back of some accurate bowling, but were also abetted along the way by a Harare surface that got gradually harder to score on. Ashley Nurse, in the 22nd over of the chase, pitched an innocuous-looking offbreak on leg stump. But the ball spun and bounced on Upul Tharanga, who had shaped to flick, and bobbled up off the leading edge, and Nurse claimed a simple return catch.Carlos Brathwaite, too, realised success lay in using the conditions. He repeatedly used offcutters, banging them in the middle of the pitch. Jayasuriya, batting on 31 in the 41st over, was too early into a nudge and a leading edge was snaffled up at midwicket.

Also: Moeen Ali’s Ashes distinction, other 3-2 Ashes scorelines, and the oldest living Australian players

Steven Lynch25-Aug-2015How many times has an Ashes series ended up 3-2? asked Martin Palmer from England

This one in 2015 was only the sixth Ashes series to end up 3-2, the first since 1997 when Australia came out on top. That, though, was a six-Test series which also included a draw: the last five-Test Ashes encounter to end up this way was the famous one of 1936-37, when England went 2-0 up but Australia – skippered by Don Bradman – won the last three Tests to pinch the series, a unique feat. The other 3-2s were all in England’s favour, in the 1884-85, 1894-95 and 1903-04 series in Australia.Moeen Ali scored nearly 300 runs in the Ashes series – is this a record for someone who never batted above No. 8? asked Martin Basterfield from England

Moeen Ali’s 293 runs in the 2015 series from No. 8 or 9 has been exceeded only once in the Ashes, by Australia’s Sammy Carter – their wicketkeeper and an idiosyncratic batsman – who made 300 runs in the 1907-08 home series, with a highest score of 66. Carter’s aggregate has been exceeded only twice in any Test series: Shaun Pollock made 302 runs in South Africa’s five home Tests against West Indies in 2000-01, but he was shaded by Harbhajan Singh, who made 315 for India at home against New Zealand in 2010-11. That came from only three Tests: Harbhajan scored his only two Test hundreds, and averaged 105 overall.England won the fourth Test by an innings then lost the fifth by an innings. Has such a turnaround ever happened before? asked Neil Cartwright from England

This seesaw end to the 2015 series was only the second time in Ashes history that the sides had traded innings victories in successive Tests. The other occasion was in 1965-66, when England won the third Test in Sydney by an innings and 93 runs, only for Australia to hit back in Adelaide, winning by an innings and nine. In other series it has happened three times. In India in 1952-53, in Pakistan’s inaugural official Test series, India won the first Test, by an innings in Delhi, only for Pakistan to turn the tables in Lucknow. This also happened in the series between England and West Indies in 1966, and the two-match rubber between India and South Africa in 2009-10.I know Ajinkya Rahane’s eight catches in Galle was a Test best, but was it a first-class record too? asked Mahesh Rahul from India

Ajinkya Rahane’s eight catches in the field in the recent first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle eclipsed the old Test record of seven, first achieved by Greg Chappell for Australia against England in Perth in 1974-75, and later equalled by Yajurvindra Singh (on debut, for India against England in Bangalore in 1976-77), Hashan Tillakaratne (Sri Lanka v New Zealand in Colombo, 1992-93), Stephen Fleming (New Zealand v Zimbabwe in Harare, 1997-98) and Matthew Hayden (Australia v Sri Lanka, also in Galle, in 2003-04). Rahane was the ninth outfielder to take five catches in a Test innings, a record originally set by Chappell’s grandfather, Vic Richardson, against South Africa in Durban in 1935-36. The first-class record, though, is held by Wally Hammond, who was a fine slip fielder as well as a superb batsman. Playing for Gloucestershire against Surrey at Cheltenham in 1928, Hammond took ten catches – eight of them off Charlie Parker – and also scored 139 in the first innings and 143 in the second.Moeen Ali’s 293 runs in Ashes 2015 is the second-highest by a No. 8 or below in an Ashes•Getty ImagesFollowing the sad passing of Arthur Morris, who is Australia’s oldest living Test cricketer? asked Jamie Stewart from Canada

The recent death of Arthur Morris, aged 93, leaves 89-year-old Len Maddocks as Australia’s oldest living Test player. Maddocks, a wicketkeeper from Victoria, played seven Tests during the 1950s. Two of them came in England in 1956: Tony Lock inflicted a pair on him at Headingley, then he provided Jim Laker with two of his 19 wickets in the next match at Old Trafford. In the second innings, Maddocks was the last man out to complete Laker’s ten-wicket haul. Morris’ death means there is now just one survivor from the famous Australian “Invincibles” team of 1948, which was captained by Don Bradman. The last man standing is Neil Harvey, who was only 19 during that tour and is now 86.Kumar Sangakkara played 594 international matches without ever bowling – is that a record? asked Sunit Kumar from Afghanistan

Well, it would have been a record – except that actually Kumar Sangakkara did occasionally have a bowl, sending down 14 overs in Tests in four different innings. Ten of them – for a respectable 34 runs – came at Karachi in 2008-09, as Pakistan amassed 765 for 6 declared. The man who has played the most international matches without ever bowling is Adam Gilchrist, with 396, ahead of Moin Khan (288) and Ian Healy (287). The top non-wicketkeeper is Eoin Morgan, who has played 213 internationals so far without ever turning his arm over. Sangakkara did play more matches (594) than anyone else without taking a wicket: Gilchrist is next, ahead of Herschelle Gibbs, whose one and only over in 361 international matches came as the 11th bowler used when West Indies piled up 747 against South Africa in Antigua in 2004-05.

South Africa last played a Test series in Sri Lanka in 2006. What Hashim Amla should remember from then is that they remained in good spirits despite the heavy losses on the field and the civil war raging around them

Firdose Moonda02-Jul-2014The last time South Africa played a Test match in Sri Lanka was the year bird flu flapped its way across East Asia, Italy won the World Cup and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had the first of their three biological children. But perhaps more tellingly, the civil war was still raging in Sri Lanka in 2006. There would be cricket but it was on a collision course with real life. The South African team would have to concern themselves with both those things.Naturally, the first was their main focus initially. It had to be considering the state of the South African team that traveled to Sri Lanka. About eight weeks before the team was due to leave, CSA announced Jacques Kallis was unlikely to be able to go with them because he would be recovering from surgery to repair tendinitis in his elbow. Shortly after that, South Africa learnt Shaun Pollock would not be able to play in the first Test because he had to remain home for the birth of his second child.That was bad enough but it would get worse. About two-and-half weeks before the flight to Colombo, Graeme Smith tore ligaments in his ankle while running and was ruled out as well. Ashwell Prince was asked to stand in as captain, a significant appointment in a country with a racially-divided past because he was the first South African of colour to lead the team.Sounds familiar? Of course it does.South Africa are without Kallis and Smith this time as well but their absence is permanent. They are also under a captain of colour again and he is permanent too.Hashim Amla may not have time to consider the long-term implications of accepting the role he was once so reluctant to take up because his immediate task is more pressing. Sri Lanka is the place where South Africa last lost a Test series away from home when Prince’s depleted side was defeated.What Amla, who was part of that team, should remember from then is that they remained in good spirits despite the heavy losses and the incident in which Dean Jones called him a “terrorist” on air during a commentary stint.”The mood was pretty festive. We had a good few youngsters in the squad who had a proper introduction to the rigours of subcontinental cricket there; guys like Hashim, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers who are so integral to our current squad,” Gordon Templeton, the media officer on that tour, told ESPNcricinfo. “And then we also had a good mix of experience- Mark Boucher, Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel – so we didn’t feel like we had no one senior.”While South Africa were completely outplayed in the first Test, after the massive 624-run partnership between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene condemned them to an innings-and-153-run loss, Templeton prefers to remember the next match where Dale Steyn claimed his first five-for away from home.”He was so young, just in his eighth match and he was very nervous,” Templeton said. “After he took those wickets, he had to address the media, one of the first times he was in front of a foreign press contingent. It was a good learning experience.”Gaining knowledge was one of the main themes of that tour. South Africa were confined to Colombo because of the ongoing violence in Sri Lanka, specifically in the north, and one of the first things they had to come to terms with was visiting a country at war. “From the moment we arrived, we could see there was a heightened security presence. We had military and police around us all the way from the airport to the hotel, much more than normal,” Templeton said.The three ODIs against Sri Lanka mark the start of South Africa’s planning for the 2015 World Cup and will see the return of Jacques Kallis to No. 3 in the batting line-up, which South Africa will build around him•AFPBecause the squad could not explore the other regions of the country, they had to make do with excursions close to the capital. Far from feeling cabin-feverish, Templeton remembers the interest in discovering local culture soared. “We went to one of the Ceylon Tea Plantations, which was quite interesting especially because a lot of us drank that tea,” Templeton said. “And then we also went to the Singer factory where a lot of South African seamstresses from Cape Town had found work. We were intrigued by the connection between the two countries.”The curiosity extended to the Liberty Plaza shopping centre, where the players spent “a fair amount of their down time,” according to Templeton, eating in the restaurants or buying trinkets. They would probably have been there on August 14, when the first match of a tri-series which also included India was washed out but then-coach Mickey Arthur wanted to have an indoor training session.”Mickey felt the bowlers needed to get a good workout and he wanted a proper practice so we went ahead with that instead of taking extra time off,” Templeton said. While they were training a bomb went off at the shopping centre, killing seven. The team found out when they got back to their hotel.”It came as a complete surprise to us because we felt safe in Colombo,” Goolam Rajah, the team manager at the time, said. “Nowhere that we had been in the city had we come across anyone who told us we shouldn’t be there or that it was dangerous. After the bomb went off we wondered if we’d been living in a fool’s paradise.”Team management met with security officials to decide what South Africa’s next move would be while Rajah fielded calls from families back home. “My wife heard about it on the radio and she was frantic. She was able to get through to me to find out we were okay but she was still worried,” Rajah said. “There were definitely concerns.”South Africa decided the best option was to leave and abandoned the tour. They had four more ODIs left to play, which were important for their build up to the Champions Trophy in India later that year. “We were disappointed that we couldn’t play those games and we didn’t want to leave a tour unfinished,” Rajah said.Arthur called the aborted tour a “disaster” and CSA organised fixtures against Zimbabwe to ensure there was game time ahead of the Champions Trophy. South Africa lost in the semi-finals to a rampant West Indies and the tournament was filed as another ‘what if’ in the long line of questions over performances in major competitions.This time South Africa are again using Sri Lanka as the springboard to begin preparations for an important global event. The three ODIs mark the start of their planning for the 2015 World Cup and will see the return of Kallis to No. 3 in the batting line-up, which South Africa will build around him. Their attack contains significant variation with the inclusion of left-armer Beuran Hendricks and Vernon Philander.Once they’ve tinkered with combinations in that format, they will move on to the Tests where only a series win will see them reclaim the No. 1 ranking they fought so long to gain. The fraction of a point that separates them from Australia cannot be closed with a positive result over Zimbabwe so if they do not gain it in Sri Lanka, they will have to wait until the home series against West Indies in December-January to begin searching for it again.Those are two big tasks which will put cricket firmly at the forefront of South Africa’s thoughts when their tour of the island begins. They’ve been back for the World T20 in 2012 and a limited-overs rubber last year but this will be different and again, they will be confronted with all the signs of real life, from their own rebuilding to that of the country they are visiting.Last year, Amla was struck by how the country had recovered from the 2004 tsunami. He said it left him feeling “humbled.” For a team in a time of transition, that is not the worst sentiment to have as they embark on a new era.

Stats highlights from day four of the first Test in Brisbane

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan12-Nov-2012 Clarke became only the third batsman after Don Bradman and Ricky Ponting to register three 200-plus scores in a calendar year. Clarke had scored 329* and 210 in the Sydney and Adelaide Tests against India earlier in the year. Clarke’s double-century is only the fifth one scored in Brisbane. Four of the five double-centuries in Brisbane have been scored by Australian batsmen. The last one, however, was scored by Greg Chappell in 1981. Among captains who have scored at least 800 runs in a calendar year, Clarke has the second-highest average (111.11). Don Bradman is on top with an average of 113.88 in 1948. Clarke’s aggregate of 1000 runs in seven Tests is by far the highest in 2012. Hashim Amla is second with 791 runs in eight Tests. Clarke’s century is his fourth in Brisbane and takes him joint-second with Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting on the list of batsmen with the most centuries at the Gabba. Greg Chappell is on top with five centuries. Clarke’s average of 109.37 is second only to Chappell’s 111.77 among batsmen who have scored 500-plus runs in Brisbane. Clarke is now joint-sixth on the list of Australian batsmen with the most 150-plus scores in Tests (7). Bradman is on top with 18 150-plus scores followed by Ricky Ponting (15). Clarke’s 218 is his highest score against South Africa surpassing his previous best of 151 in the first Test in Cape Town last year. The 259-run stand between Ed Cowan and Clarke is the fifth-highest partnership for Australia against South Africa and the third-highest since South Africa’s readmission. The partnership is also seventh on the list of highest fourth-wicket stands for Australia and the sixth-highest in Brisbane. Cowan’s century is his first in Tests. His previous best was 74 against India in Perth in January 2012. Cowan’s hundred is also the first by an Australian opening batsman in Brisbane since Simon Katich’s 131 in 2008. Cowan scored 71 of his 136 runs from backfoot shots hitting nine fours in the process. In contrast, Clarke scored 72 of his 218 runs from backfoot shots. For the first time ever in Australia-South Africa Tests, four centuries were scored in the team first innings (1st and 2nd innings of the match). There have been nine other occasions when there have been three centuries scored in the team first innings. The only wicket South Africa managed in the day was that of Cowan, who was run out. The last two occasions when South Africa had gone without a single wicket in a day’s play came against Sri Lanka (2006 at the SSC) and against Australia (1997 in Johannesburg). It is the fourth time overall and the second time this year (after the Sydney Test against India) that Australia have had two 150-plus stands for the fourth and fifth wickets. The partnership run-rate of 5.17 is the second-highest for Australia in Tests against South Africa since 1992. The highest is 5.46 during the 182-run stand between Hayden and Ponting in Sydney in 2006 (150-plus stands only).

ESPNcricinfo presents the Plays of the day from the Twenty20 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in Durban

Sriram Veera in Durban24-Sep-2010Catch of the day
It might have cost Bangalore the game. Dale Steyn backpedalled to take a skier from Michael Hussey, but the ball was going further away from him. He increased his pace and continued to backpedal, in the end arching his back and sticking his hands behind his head to take the catch. He fell on his back, his head hit the ground and he wound up with a concussion. He couldn’t bowl and it opened up a Pandora’s Box for Bangalore.Slog(s) of the day
Suresh Raina is usually a good batsman to watch. On occasions tonight, he was an ugly batsman to watch. Aesthetics doesn’t feature in scorecards, though. Time and again tonight, he cleared his front foot and muscled back-of-length deliveries over the midwicket boundary. His front shoulder almost jarred out of its socket. The bat almost flew out of his hands. The ball almost flew out of the stadium.Misjudgement of the day
M Vijay had heaved towards deep midwicket but B Akhil, usually a safe fielder, stuttered right from the start. He took couple of steps and paused for a brief while before he moved forward hesitantly. Then he spilled the catch.Costly mistake of the day
It came from Manish Pandey. He wasn’t standing at the edge of the boundary line and judging by Kumble’s reaction later, he wasn’t supposed to be standing so far inside. Suresh Raina mowed Kumble to deep midwicket and it went over Pandey, who did well to jump and stop it. But if he had stood near the rope to start with, he would have taken the catch comfortably. Needless to say Kumble wasn’t happy; Raina was on 18 then.

The fourth wicket stand produced 24 runs in 15 overs, to which Tendulkar
contributed 9 in 45 balls. It was worse than tentative and diffident, it
was supine and unbecoming.

Sambit Bal05-Jan-2007

Watching Sachin Tendulkar bat today was depressing. The bowling was good – Shaun Pollock was on the mark, Paul Harris was turning it from the
rough. The fielding was sharp. Perhaps Tendulkar had a bad back. Perhaps his
elbow was hurting. But none of this quite explained the crawl that
he subjected himself to.He looked like a man weighed down by his own doubts; a man who didn’t
believe he could take runs off a debutant spin bowler. He ended up making the
pitch look more unplayable than it perhaps was, and plunged his team into
despair. It would perhaps be harsh to put the onus of India’s collapse on
one man, but without doubt, it was during those 15 overs when
Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid convinced themselves run-scoring was beyond
their means that South Africa took a stranglehold on the match.India started the day with the right intent by sending Virender Sehwag to
open. Some might argue that Sehwag, who knows only one way to play
spinners – either I dismiss them out of my sight, or they dismiss me –
would have been more useful in the middle order to counter Harris, but the
motive was positive. It sent a message to opposition: we are here to win.True, India were set back by the loss of two early wickets and the
confusion over whether Tendulkar could come out to bat at No 4, mustn’t
have been easy on the nerves, but Dravid and Ganguly had batted fluently
enough to bring India to a position from where a 300-plus target for South
Africa looked quite achievable. In the context of the match, the 84
they put up came at a fair clip. Ganguly, after a streaky first-ball four,
had batted with composure and panache to score 47 off 89 balls before he
was suckered into a jab outside the off stump by Jaques Kallis.What followed was inexplicable. Tendulkar pottered and scratched, padded
and swiveled, nudged and groped and the Indian innings came to a
standstill. Harris was bowling over the wicket, and landing a lot of balls
on the rough outside the leg stump, but from Tendulkar, there was simply no
intent.And he seemed to have infected Dravid with his approach, because runs dried
up from the other side too. Dravid had scored 36 from 88 balls when
Tendulkar came in. He made only 11 from the next 46 and hit no more fours.
The fourth wicket stand produced 24 runs in 15 overs, to which Tendulkar
contributed 9 in 45 balls. It was worse than tentative and diffident, it
was supine and unbecoming.

An hour later Dinesh Karthik, all of 21 years old and only in his
10th Test, showed what intent and confidence, combined with skill, can
achieve. He swept Harris from the rough, cut him when he shortened his
length, and reverse swept him from outside the leg stump. Kallis was cut and flicked off the pads,
Steyn was cover-driven and suddenly the demons seemed to have vanished
from a wearing pitch. Had the tail-enders stayed with him a bit longer, he
looked likely to stretch the Indian lead beyond 250.In Tendulkar’s case, it was the opposite. He arrived at the crease at a
juncture when the match was on the line, and instead of imposing himself
on the proceedings as you would expect of a player of such skill and stature,
he let the occasion wear him down. Soon the bowlers acquired such a grip
that every run felt like a struggle. Watching it was embarrassing.India might still go on to the win the match. But if they don’t we know
where they let it slip.

The former players criticized the USMNT Gold Cup roster, suggest Pochettino's hands were 'tied'

• Howard says Pochettino should have taken stronger stance
• Donovan suggests there was a viable compromise
• Both place blame on federation leadership

• Getty Images Sport
  

  WHAT HAPPENED

  This USMNT’s pre-Gold Cup roster was announced last week, with Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson among the major stars not on the squad.

  Pulisic requested to take the summer off, with U.S. Soccer saying, “Christian and his team approached the Federation and the coaching staff about the possibility of stepping back this summer, given the amount of matches he has played in the past two years at both the club and international level with very little break."

  Former USMNT stars Tim Howard and Landon Donovan voiced concerns about U.S. Soccer and Mauricio Pochettino's approach to roster selection for the summer tournament.

  “Mauricio Pochettino was forced into a decision, OK?” Donovan said on his Unfiltered Soccer podcast with Howard. “When your best player calls you and says ‘I don’t want to come in this summer’ what are you supposed to do? So, your options are; ‘I don’t care, I don’t care how your feeling, you’re coming in!’ – and now your best player is pissed off at you. And oh, by the way, what happens when your best player gets hurt?

  "Now he’s blaming you and we’re all blaming him or he has to do what he decided to do which is ‘Ok, I’m going to leave you off and risk our team not doing as well, and risk not having you here.’ And he had to do that with multiple players – so multiple players ended up tying his hands and it just makes it difficult for him, it makes it really difficult for him. What is he supposed to do?"

  Howard said the absences mean Pochettino won’t be able to fully evaluate his full squad ahead of the 2026 World Cup. The former Everton and Manchester United star said that there should have been a plan to prioritize the Gold Cup.

  “My hope would be that there was this plan in place that says, 'This is last chance saloon, to get all of my guys together to see what I have.' By the way, you talk about evaluating, when the Gold Cup ends, Mauricio Pochettino will not know – I’m going on record as fact – he will not know what his best team is made of in the most difficult moments. Think about that for a second. So my thing is, there had to have been a plan in place that says ‘We are prioritizing the Gold Cup, we’re going to win the Gold Cup’.

  "You and I, Landon, have been in rooms with managers on the USMNT that have said to us this exact thing, ‘Listen boys, we’re going to play this tournament exactly how we’re going to play next year’s World Cup.’ You and I have heard this, Landon: ‘We’re going to mimic what the World Cup’s going to look like so we have an idea of what that looks like next year.' Mauricio Pochettino does not have that, so I’m saying this needed to be a priority."

  Howard said the U.S. manager should have overruled absentee requests from players other than those who are injured or have Club World Cup commitments.

  “You ask what is he supposed to do because a player has tied his hands? [Pochettino) is bigger than U.S. Soccer – he makes it a priority and if the manager says ‘Look guys, this is how it’s going to be’ they’re not going to throw the toys out of the pram. And if they do, they’re going to miss the World Cup. And they’re not going to do that, so they’re going to fall into line."

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• WHAT LANDON DONOVAN SAID

  Donovan said a compromise could have been reached regarding games and playing time.

  “You could not even come in for the friendlies, and start by not playing your last two club games," he said. "So now you’ve had rest since mid-May all the way through first week of June, we’re going to get you moving, running and all a little bit on your own. You’re not even coming in with the group, and we’ll see you on June 10, four days ahead of the first game.

  “You’re not playing in the first two games, period. If, by some reason, we need you for the third game, which we shouldn’t, we might suit a few of you up, put you on the bench and get you going. Then you’re going to play in the knockout stages… That’s another compromise that could have been made.”

  Howard called out the federation for not talking to European clubs in advance, requesting that they make certain players available.

  “I’m not putting the blame necessarily on Mauricio Pochettino,” Howard said. “What I’m saying is all of these conversations needed to be had with the global sporting directors at these clubs. So I’m putting a ton of this on U.S. Soccer, as there needed to be people on planes and restaurants in Milan, restaurants in London, saying ‘Listen, I understand you have priorities, let me tell you about my priorities. The Gold Cup in 2025 is my priority.’

  “'I need to have my best team, I need to give the manager that I’m paying $6M dollars to – or rather I have an obligation – to get him his best team on the field. Now that may not mean anything to you, but it means the world to me, and that’s more important. So how do we figure this out?’ That’s dialogue, and I don’t necessarily know that that dialogue has been had with sporting directors.”

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The criticism from two former USMNT players comes at a key juncture for the USMNT program, with the 2026 World Cup on home soil now just one year away.

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  WHAT’S NEXT?

  Before the Gold Cup, the USMNT will play friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland on June 7 and 10, respectively.

MatériaMais Notícias

Após alto investimento (cerca de R$ 5 milhões) e ampla reforma, o Sport finalizou, nesta sexta-feira (17), a revitalização do setor das cadeiras centrais da Ilha do Retiro. O espaço, inclusive, será reinaugurado oficialmente em evento na noite da próxima quarta (22), quando o Leão recebe o Bahia, às 21h30, pela Copa do Nordeste.

A reabertura contará com um espaço lounge e música, com duas bandas, além de serviço de comida e bebida, cujo funcionamento ocorre três horas antes da partida. Inclusive, os primeiros 500 torcedores a acessarem as cadeiras centrais irão ganhar duas cervejas. A entrada no espaço se dará através da compra de ingresso para o setor.

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Paralelamente a isso, também será disponibilizado pelo clube uma estrutura da secretaria social para regularização dos planos de sócios e para os proprietários de cadeiras e camarotes.

– Ficamos muito felizes de poder reinaugurar esse espaço tão tradicional da Ilha, com conforto e modernidade para a nossa torcida. A requalificação das cadeiras centrais, que estava bastante deteriorada, era um dos grandes objetivos da nossa gestão – destacou o presidente Yuri Romão.

– Então, após um árduo esforço de várias vice-presidências, enfim, de todos, poder ofertar novamente ao rubro-negro esse setor é algo que nos deixa, realmente, muito contentes. Aproveito também para convidar o torcedor a marcar presença, prestigiar essa reabertura e torcer pelo Sport, estar junto ao time, ao clube. Nossa torcida é fundamental para os objetivos que temos nesta temporada – acrescentou o presidente.

A área das cadeiras centrais foi amplamente requalificado, com a troca dos cerca de 5.400 assentos para a versão que é utilizada nas principais arenas do Brasil. Além disso, o trânsito no setor foi melhorado, com a planificação do piso, redução do tamanho dos degraus e ampliação do espaço nos corredores.

– Com um empenho muito grande de todos que fazem o clube conseguimos finalizar a reforma desse espaço e aproveitamos agora para convocar o nosso torcedor a se regularizar e estar em dia com o patrimônio do Sport. Foi a maior obra desde a construção das ampliações do nosso estádio, como gosto de dizer, e que teve investimento muito alto. Então constatar o resultado final nos deixa muito orgulhosos – afirmou o vice-presidente de relacionamento social do clube, Fernando Soares.

Stuttgart striker Nick Woltemade wants clarity over his possible Bayern Munich transfer and has given the Bundesliga champions a deadline.

• Woltemade wants a final decision this week
• Stuttgart rejected Bayern’s two offers for 23-year-old
• VfB standing firm on their €65m valuation

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  According to , Woltemade has set a clear deadline for Bayern to make a move. The 23-year-old striker and his representatives are pushing hard for a move to Munich and want clarity over his future by the end of the week. If the Bundesliga giants do not act, Woltemade is prepared to stay at Stuttgart and reassess his options next summer.

  The German champions are interested but have hit a wall in negotiations. Stuttgart rejected their most recent bid of €50 million (£43m/$55m) plus €5m in add-ons. The Swabians have said it would take an "extraordinary" offer to convince them to sell.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Bayern recently completed a big-money move for Luis Diaz from Liverpool, paying up to €75m (£66m/$88m) for the Colombian winger. While Diaz will reinforce the flanks, Bayern still wants to bolster their central striking options, and Woltemade remains high on their list.

  Woltemade joined Stuttgart from Werder Bremen on a free transfer just last summer. But his value has skyrocketed after a stellar breakout season where he scored 17 goals across all competitions, including a goal in the DFB-Pokal final.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Stuttgart forward Deniz Undav publicly supported his team-mate. He revealed he reached out to Woltemade personally ahead of preseason and advised him to “block out the noise and stay focused,” as transfer speculation continues to swirl.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR NICK WOLTEMADE?

  With the DFL-Supercup match on August 16 against Bayern looming, Woltemade wants his future sorted before stepping onto the pitch. The ball is now in Bayern Munich’s court. If they fail to meet Stuttgart’s asking price, they risk losing out on potentially one of Germany’s brightest attacking talents.