14 SPORTS
Thursday, 14 May, 2015
GianluiGi Buffon ridicules alex ferGuson for allowinG Paul PoGBa to leave united
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SPORTS DESK
uventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has ridiculed sir Alex Ferguson for letting Paul Pogba leave Manchester united. Pogba has become one of world football’s most coveted midfielders at Juventus after leaving Old trafford on a free transfer three years ago. now legendary Italy goalkeeper Buffon has taken the brave step of mocking Ferguson and united for letting him depart. “I have been in football many years but the decision of sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester united to not
play Pogba and let him leave is one of the strangest I have ever seen,” said Buffon ahead of his side’s Champions League semifinal second leg with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. “After just a few training sessions we saw how good he was. it cannot have been the same player they saw in Manchester - we thought they maybe needed glasses. “I have never seen a player who is so good at his age, he is so strong, so technically gifted, has exceptional all-round play. “Pogba can do things only Pogba can, similar to Messi and Ronaldo. united let one of the top players in the world leave but that has been only good news for
us.” Buffon feels it will take more than the world record fee of £86 million that Real Madrid handed over to tottenham two years ago for Gareth Bale to land France midfielder Pogba. “Of course he will be linked with the teams with big money like Chelsea, Real Madrid, PsG and City, but at the moment he is achieving dreams at Juventus,” said Buffon. “If any team wanted to buy him I would feel sure they would have to break the world record fee.” He may be a great goalkeeper, but Buffon is fortunate that Ferguson is now out of the public spotlight as a manager after making such remarks.
BANGLADESH TO RESUME SCANDAL-HIT T20 LEAGUE DHAKA: Bangladesh plan to revive a lucrative Twenty20 tournament in December, two years after it was suspended in the wake of match-fixing scandals, officials said on Wednesday. The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), which started in 2012, was postponed indefinitely after the second edition the following year amid revelations that former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful and four others were involved in fixing matches. “A lot of things happened since the last edition of BPL. But we’ve now decided to move on,” said the tournament’s secretary Ismail Haider. “We’ve decided to reorganise everything and hold the tournament in a low-key manner. “At the moment we don’t have any domestic Twenty20 tournament in our country. The BPL is our best option.” Ashraful and four players and officials, including New Zealand batsman Luke Vincent, were banned for various periods after a tribunal set up jointly by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) found them guilty. BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said they will follow ICC guidelines for the next edition of the tournament. Ismail said new franchises were expected to be drafted since agreements with the seven teams which took part in the 2013 edition had been terminated. The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), a players’ body, had last year warned members against future participation in the BPL due to prolonged non-payment of match fees in previous editions. Ismail said that BCB has completed “90 per cent payment” for international players and a former Bangladesh captain has been entrusted to settle the issue with local players. “Only a few players have not been fully paid yet because their amount is subject to dispute,” he said. “We hope to settle it before the next edition.” AGENCIES
‘LET DOWN’ PIETERSEN HEADS FOR IPL SPORTS DESK the 29 runs that Kevin Pietersen added to his overnight score against Leicestershire, to end on a magisterial and undefeated 355, could be the last he ever scores in first-class cricket. Pietersen will fly out to India on Friday, to fulfill his obligations for sunrisers Hyderabad in the latter stages of the IPL, after Andrew strauss confirmed that the batsman did not figure in england’s plans. Having been told to go back to county cricket and score runs by the incoming eCB chairman, Colin Graves, two months ago, Pietersen will feel “let down in the way he’s been treated”, according to Alec stewart, surrey’s director of cricket. “He’s given up a £250,000 contract to play in the IPL, he’s done what’s been asked of him and now unfortunately from Kevin’s point of view the door has been shut,” stewart said. stewart also suggested that surrey could feel disappointed with the eCB. “to an extent I think the club could feel a little bit let down or short-changed,” he said. “If you go back five years when he left Hampshire, he didn’t have a county and the eCB said to us will you take Kevin Pietersen and we did. so, we helped the eCB to therefore help england, which, as a county, is our duty. then, on the back of Colin Graves’s comments we’ve resigned him. We know he’s going to help us through scoring runs, and also try and help england.” stewart, who had been one of the contenders for the england director of
cricket role awarded to strauss, said that he would not have ruled out a return for Pietersen. “I’d want to be able to pick from everyone available. I believe that england should be picking their best players and that would include Kevin Pietersen,” he said. “Part of management is managing difficult players and difficult situations. “It’s going to be a very tough summer and I, personally, would have said: Right, we’ve got a good middle order at the minute. Ballance, Bell and Root are playing exceptionally well. Kevin, you’re doing what we asked you to do, which is come and play county cricket, come and score runs. If you continue to do that, should there be an injury, a loss or form or a reason to make a change, you’re very much in the frame. no guarantees, but you’re very much in the frame. “they haven’t gone down that route, but I respect what Andrew has said and what he has done because he has to be his own man starting in this new role.” stewart contacted Pietersen after news broke on Monday evening that he had been told he was highly unlikely to play for england again. “He was disappointed. We exchanged messages last night so I was aware that it had happened. He wanted to play for england, he was desperate to play for england. He thought the door had been opened from the incoming chairman.” stewart also reiterated that he has had no issues with Pietersen in the surrey dressing room over his five years in-
volvement with the club. “When he has been here he’s been a breath of fresh air,” he said. “I always say I only judge people how I find them. He’s got a track record of upsetting people in other dressing rooms, or being upset in other dressing rooms. But when he’s been in our dressing room we’ve had no problems with him. “everyone deals with people in certain ways. I’m not saying the way we do it here is perfect by any shape of the imagination. We do it a certain way and we’ve been rewarded with some fantastic batting. “there’s been a breakdown between Kevin and various parties or various people at the eCB, which means the decision has not been reversed and Kevin Pietersen is a former england player.” On tuesday, Pietersen was only left two runs short of claiming the all-time surrey record in first-class cricket because Matt Dunn, who contributed five to a tenth-wicket partnership of 139, was dismissed. “It was one of the best innings I’ve seen,” stewart said. “He’s probably the only player in world cricket who could do that.” surrey may feel they were overdue such a performance after Pietersen’s mediocre spell in twenty20 for the club last season, when he was dismissed 12 times without passing 39. “He’s fitter, that’s all. His knee’s back to being fit so he can stand in the field, he can bat for a day and a half with no issues and he can rock up the next day too, whereas last year he couldn’t,” stewart said. “Also I
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think he’d admit that his mind wasn’t as it should be because of what had been going on with his england career. “From the Big Bash through to what we’ve seen yesterday he’s playing as well as he’s ever played. In the nets he hits the ball as cleanly as ever. People have to understand that it’s nothing to do with his cricket. everyone still agrees that he’s still good enough to play but there’s the trust issue which obviously the eCB believe there is no trust between the two of them so they feel they can’t select him.” After Pietersen’s IPL stint, stewart hopes he will return for two more Championship games - against Lancashire at the Kia Oval and Leicestershire, who will hope they do not encounter him in this mood again, at Grace Road - before his stint in the Caribbean Premier League. But nothing is certain. “Whether we see him play again for surrey, I hope so, but it’s got to be right for us and it’s got to be right for Kevin,” stewart said. “I hope it’s not the last first-class innings we’ll see in a surrey shirt.” PIETERSEN COULD PLAY IN FINAL ROUND FOR SUNRISERS: Hyderabad chief executive A shanmughan has confirmed Pietersen “will be joining” the franchise on saturday. It means that Pietersen will be available for selection for sunrisers’ last league game against Mumbai Indians on sunday. the franchise is in with a good chance to progress to finish the league stage in top four and progress to the playoffs.
f1 revamP on aGenda at ‘crucial’ strateGy meetinG
SPORTS DESK Formula One bosses and top teams will meet on thursday to discuss a revamp of the sport, as well as technical concerns, but with considerable doubt over how much they can actually agree. Past strategy Group meetings, each billed as increasingly ‘crucial’, have rarely lived up to even modest expectations. “We might change the date of the next meeting. Possibly. I’m not sure. It’s not easy to get decisions made,” commercial supremo Bernie ecclestone told Reuters when asked what might be achieved this time. Leaving aside the 84-year-old’s cynicism, Formula One has major challenges to address including soaring costs, struggling teams, falling viewing figures in some regions and a failure to engage a younger audience. Ferrari are among those to have called for a rules ‘revolution’ from 2017, with bigger, louder and more affordable engines in faster and more fearsome cars. More immediately, there will be a vote on whether to increase the engine allocation for this season from four per driver back to the five they had last year — with some teams opposed. the strategy Group meeting at Biggin Hill in southern england includes six teams — Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Williams and Force India — as well as the governing FIA and commercial rights holder. “every meeting is crucial,” FIA president Jean todt told Reuters at the spanish Grand Prix last weekend. “We know there are some things to assess. And I hope we will be able to have a good agenda and come with good proposals and decisions to submit to the F1 commission and then to the world council. “I hate reacting to ‘this one says this, this one says that’,” he added when the various standpoints were put to him. “so we will have all the different stakeholders around the table and it will be a proper opportunity to speak about everything. “A lot of work has been done, we have been doing some working groups, an enquiry with an external consultant, with the technical and sporting people, so I think we will have a quite clear situation to discuss about.” the increased engine allocation proposal already looks doomed, however, with Mercedes-powered Williams and Force India against it on grounds of cost and a reluctance to help Renault-powered rivals Red Bull in the championship battle. Red Bull and McLaren, whose partners Honda have also had reliability problems, are in favour.