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GUYANA CHRONICLE Wednesday May 7, 2014
Brazil lack attacking threat of the past, says Rivelino (REUTERS) - Thiago Silva is the only current Brazil player that would find a place in the 1970 World Cup winning team, former midfield great Rivelino says, highlighting the Selecao’s shift from an attacking force to one more defensively orientated. Rivelino, one of the stars of that legendary side, said Neymar was the other standout in the team aiming for Brazil’s sixth World Cup title at the tournament starting on home soil on June 12. The 1970 side had a host of great forwards so only Silva, the classy Paris St Germain defender and Brazil captain, would edge his way into the team ahead of Wilson Piazza, the former Corinthians and Fluminense player said. “If you look at the back, Thiago Silva would get in the 1970 team,” he said in an interview. “Piazza was a great player, but he wasn’t a central defender, he was
was Pele and Vava; in 1962, Pele and Vava; in 1970, Pele and Tostao. Then Bebeto and Romario (in 1994) and then Rivaldo and Ronaldo (in 2002). “And there were other players alongside them. But there were two important players, one or the other was always on hand. Today we have one, Fred, who has a nose for goal, but the ball has to come to him, he doesn’t make goals himself.”
adapted from midfield. You can’t ignore a player like Thiago Silva. He has real quality.” Rivelino lamented the lack of strikers and said that for perhaps the first time Brazil go into a World Cup
Thiago Silva
with a better back four than forward line. The country of Pele, Ronaldo and Romario has few attractive options upfront, a worry considering each of the World Cup triumphs included a deadly
attacking duo. “Brazil always had great attackers who could decide a game at any moment,” he told Reuters at an interview at his eponymous soccer school. “If you go back, in 1958 it
FRED GUARANTEE Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has guaranteed a place for Fluminense striker Fred in the 23-man squad he will name today in Rio de Janeiro. Former Manchester City and Everton centre forward Jo, who is now with Atletico Mineiro, is expected to be his back-up. Both players have their limitations, with Fred lacking mobility and suffering from a number of injuries in recent seasons,
and Jo, who was substituted after 15 minutes of Atletico Mineiro’s loss to Goias at the weekend, not in the top echelon of strikers. If Fred or Barcelona forward Neymar, who has 30 goals in 47 international matches, was injured or lacked form Brazil could struggle to hit the back of the net, with Rivelino saying Scolari should pick an extra attacker to compensate. “I wouldn’t take four central defenders, I’d take three and another striker,” he said. “I’d take (Sao Paulo’s) Luis Fabiano. He doesn’t have to be first choice but he’s there as an option. I think he’s an interesting player and if he has to play he won’t be afraid because he’s been there before.” Such thinking has become more pronounced in Brazil in recent days, with the names of AC Milan’s Robinho and new Sao Paulo signing Alan Kardec also being put forward as options.
Modi’s return to office Lillee quits consultancy faces BCCI challenge role with CA in pay dispute (REUTERS) - Former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi was named president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association yesterday but his hopes of defying a life ban on holding any position with an administrative body in India were challenged immediately. The flamboyant 50-year-old was banned by an Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) disciplinary committee last year over financial and administrative irregularities during his stint as chairman of the Twenty20 league’s first three editions. His latest appointment is unlikely to last, however, after the BCCI wasted little time in suspending the Rajasthan authority, pending disciplinary proceedings against it on charges of misconduct.
Former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi
“Keeping in mind the interests of the sport of cricket and in order to safeguard the best interests and welfare of the cricketers playing the game in different age-groups and their future, an ad-hoc committee will be constituted shortly by the BCCI,” the board said in a
statement. Modi, who has denied any wrongdoing, stood for election as the head of the Rajasthan Cricket Association in a poll conducted in December and the result was announced by a court-appointed observer yesterday. The Rajasthan body is expected to challenge the BCCI sanction in court. The combative billionaire was vice-president of the BCCI from 2005 until September 2010, soon after he had been removed from his position in charge of the IPL. Modi has long been the most vocal critic of Narayanaswami Srinivasan, the industrialist who has run the BCCI since 2011 and will become chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in July.
(REUTERS) - Australia Test bowling great Dennis Lillee, credited for helping resurrect paceman Mitchell Johnson’s career, has quit as a Cricket Australia (CA) coaching consultant after failing to agree terms on his pay. CA this week signed a twoyear extension with another former fast bowler, Craig McDermott, as the team’s bowling coach. “Unfortunately Dennis Lillee didn’t accept Cricket Australia’s offer to renew his contract,” a CA spokesperson said in a statement. “He is a great of the game and the door will always be open to him if he wants to return and be involved in any way. “We’ve made a point in recent times of being open to bringing in coaching consultants when required.”
Dennis Lillee
Left-arm fast bowler Johnson made a spectacular return to Test cricket during the Ashes in Australia, bamboozling England’s batsmen with his fiery pace and steep bounce after spending some time out in wilderness due to poor form. Lillee, who took 355 wickets in 70 Tests for Australia, told Melbourne radio station SEN in February that the CA bosses were “quibbling over an increase”.