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Full text of BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur’s letter in response to claims of his being in contact with an alleged bookie

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-2015Dear Mr Srinivasan,The BCCI has received intimation from the ICC ostensibly under your direction that I should keep away from one Mr Karan Gilhotra who is a ‘suspected bookie.’ The intimation further states that the information is unverified. I have earlier been the joint secretary of the BCCI under your president-ship and I am now secretary, BCCI. I only wish that you had shared the list of ‘unverified suspected bookies’ with me and other colleagues so that we could identify such persons and keep away from them. I have known this person who has been active in the political and cricketing activities in Punjab and adjacent states. I had no knowledge or any clue about his ‘activities as a suspected bookie.’It is curious that intimation about my having known this ‘suspected bookie’ was brought to the ICC notice by your friend Mr Neeraj Gundhe. Mr Neeraj Gunde incidentally is circulating to the media in Delhi the details of documents against your critics in the BCCI. He operates on your behalf. A procured complaint and an ICC advisory based on ‘unverified information’ was issued at your behest on the eve of the BCCI working committee meeting. It was intended to be a counter offensive on your behalf, since you have not reconciled with my election as secretary, BCCI. I would request at least now share with me or other colleagues in BCCI the list of suspected bookies in India, so that we may keep away from them. You may also share this information with your family members, whose involvement in betting has been proved.Since the ICC advisory to me had been made in public, I would be making this letter to you public.With regards,Yours sincerely,Anurag Thakur

Newcomer Dilshan Munaweera, looking to fix his spot as a long-term opener in the Sri Lanka squad, will face a stern test against South Africa on Saturday

Andrew Fernando in Hambantota21-Sep-2012One game into the World Twenty20, it is clear Sri Lanka have invested a great deal in Dilshan Munaweera. The team has split up a successful opening pair, moving their best batsman Mahela Jayawardene to a less favoured batting position to accommodate Munaweera in his familiar spot. It would have been easy for the seniors to pull rank and ask Munaweera to inject energy into a middle order carrying two accumulators, but they’ve been careful to make his international baptism a gentle one. Largesse towards youngsters has been a hallmark of a side that understand the leap Sri Lanka players must make when they move from the local circuit to international cricket.It also emphasises Munaweera’s importance to Sri Lanka’s campaign. Dinesh Chandimal waits on the sidelines to replace the first batsman to falter, but if he joins a lineup already looking short of firepower, Sri Lanka’s finishers may have to work even harder towards the close. With one of the most aggressive top threes in the tournament, Sri Lanka have banked on sustained hitting during the Powerplay, and Munaweera must play his part for the strategy to prove worthwhile.Saturday’s match shapes as the biggest test of Munaweera’s career. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have bloodied more hardened men than he, and a nervous start to international cricket and an awkward first dismissal cannot have boosted Munaweera’s confidence greatly. Moreover, South Africa will have studied him closely in their team meetings. They will know he is, at present, over-reliant on boundaries to make a score. They will know he cuts and pulls well but drives poorly. They will endeavour to keep him on strike, knowing he has trouble rotating it, and the customary dose of newbie-abuse will no doubt be gleefully given as well.”It’s always going to be tough, especially when you’re an opening batsman,” captain Mahela Jayawardene said of the trial awaiting Munaweera. “It’s a great experience for him to play one of the two best bowling combinations in the game right now. He has Dilshan at the other end to guide him and a couple of other senior batsmen to follow.”Not only will Munaweera’s mettle be tested by bowlers much faster and capable of generating more bounce than he has encountered at home and on A-team tours, he will also be playing on a foreign surface. The Bloomfield Cricket Club pitch he has thrived on has a reputation for being low and slow. Both pitches in Hambantota so far have had plenty of bounce and carry, and South Africa’s seamers will squeeze every inch of movement available as well.It is perhaps unfair to expect Munaweera to pass the test with flying colours, given his inexperience and the gulf between domestic and top-level cricket he must learn to bridge in the next few weeks. A young Mahela Jayawardene was among the most complete batsmen Sri Lanka’s system ever produced, and even he was forced to make drastic improvements in his early years to compete against the finest.”For me Wasim Akram was the guy I struggled against early on because of his quality and variations,” Jayawardene said. “Every time I played against him early I struggled early on. Every time after the game he would pat me on my back and say keep learning, and that’s what I did. It was a good experience for me. I was one of the victims of his hat-trick early on. After 12 years of international cricket he started getting hat-tricks against Sri Lanka. It was tough playing him.”One of Sri Lanka’s biggest selection regrets has been the meandering career of Chamara Kapugedara. No one can doubt the batsman’s talent, having seen it in spades in domestic cricket as well as in patches for the national team, but perhaps his failure to grow into a match-winner was hampered by inconsistency in selection and a tendency to bat him out of position. So far Munaweera far has avoided that fate.”The good thing is that he’s got a free hand. When you have a youngster coming into the set-up, there’s not much pressure on you. You just go out there and enjoy yourself and back yourself to play your game. That’s what is exciting about young cricketers coming in. We’re just going to give him the license to go out there and enjoy himself.”A poor outing against South Africa’s pace may not warrant Munaweera’s exclusion at the Super Eights stage, but it may earn a him a reputation for being a soft target. He will be watched, analysed, and attacks will formulate plans specifically for him in the coming weeks. It is a different world of pressure at the top, and Munaweera will get a healthy taste of that on Saturday. How he responds in that game and the matches to follow may not shape his career, but having provided Munaweera with the best chance to succeed, Sri Lanka will hope their investment pays off.

Michael Hussey says he is wary of saying he is in good form and believes the second new ball on the third day will be crucial to the fate of the match

Daniel Brettig in Colombo17-Sep-2011Ladies and gentlemen, your Man of the Series. If match awards in Galle and Pallekele were not enough, Michael Hussey strengthened his grip on the individual garlands still further by constructing an expert 118 to hold Australia’s middling first innings together at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground.He did it in much the same style with which runs were collected in the first two Tests, demonstrating patience, placement, and hands that were in equal part deft and powerful. Hussey now has four centuries in five Tests against Sri Lanka. However it is his 95 on a spiteful surface in Galle that sticks strongest in his memory.”I think the first innings in Galle really stands out at the moment,” Hussey said. “Because the conditions were so challenging and to get our team into a great position to win that Test, the first Test of a series, gives me a lot of pleasure. Having said that you’ve got to work hard for every Test match hundred, so I’m elated with all of them.”Well as he has played, Hussey still began this Test with a demotion in the batting order, to accommodate Shaun Marsh at No. 3. The move down to No. 6 seemed scant reward for the form Hussey has demonstrated over the past 12 months, during which he was the only batsman to consistently defy England’s rampant Ashes tourists, and in Sri Lanka has held the entire home attack in thrall.”I’m not fussed at all about being at No. 6,” he said. “Opposition teams will look at our batting order and think it is pretty daunting; if we get some guys in and doing well, it is going to be a very powerful batting order.”Hussey also said he did not want to read too much into his recent run of good scores because form can be a fickle thing. “I’ve always wondered about this good form and bad form thing; there’s such a fine line between them. Sometimes you just need that little bit of luck. Getting a good score early in a series does wonders for your confidence. You feel like you can just relax, play your game. But I’ve never liked to say I’m in good form because it only takes a couple of good balls and you’re suddenly in bad form.”Two of Hussey’s more significant partnerships in this series have been in the company of Marsh, who has made 141 and 81 in his first two Test innings to provide the other major bulwark of Australia’s batting. Marsh’s dismissal late on the first day saw the Australian innings take a turn towards mediocrity, and Hussey said, despite his effort, Australia had fallen a bit short of a good total.”The conditions, as the ball got older, were very good for batting, so it would’ve been nice if we’d gone over 350. Having said that we did lose the toss and on the first morning there was a little bit of juice in the pitch.”The shortfall has placed Australia in their most tenuous position of the series, more or less at the mercy of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara on their beloved SSC strip, where they have now scored 1607 runs in partnership with each other. For this reason, Hussey pointed to the third day as the most important one of the series.”It is a little ominous I must admit. They keep putting the statistics up on the board and you can look it at one of two ways, you can either say ‘oh dear’ or you can say ‘well they’re due to fail’, so hopefully it is the latter. It’s certainly going to be hard to dislodge them with the older ball, but hopefully with the second new ball we can make a few inroads; that’s going to be a key part of the game I think.”It is probably the biggest day of the series coming up tomorrow, if we can bowl well, restrict them and take the wickets, then it is going to put us in a fantastic position to win the Test match, but if we can’t get rid of Kumar and Mahela, they’re going to give themselves every chance to win the Test as well.”

A day after the ICC launched a formal investigation into Pakistan’s win in the third ODI at The Oval, Ijaz Butt has hit back at what he believes to be a “conspiracy to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket”

Osman Samiuddin19-Sep-2010In an extraordinary outburst, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has pointed a finger at the English cricketers for their role in the batting collapse that cost England the ODI at Oval and said the board was investigating a conspiracy, involving “august cricket bodies”, to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.In a prepared statement read out to ESPNcricinfo – and repeated on Pakistan TV channels – a day after the ICC started a formal investigation into Pakistan’s win in the third ODI at The Oval, he also launched thinly-veiled attacks on the ICC, some cricket boards and the media.”This is not a conspiracy to defraud bookies but a conspiracy to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket,” Butt said. “We have taken it in hand to start our own investigations. We will shortly reveal the names of the people, the parties and the bodies involved in this sinister conspiracy and we also reserve the right to sue them for damages.”There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players have taken enormous amounts of money to lose the match [the third ODI]. No wonder there was such a collapse.”When asked by this reporter whether the board had any proof of the allegations regarding English players, Butt responded with a question: “Did you ask the other people who made allegations against our players whether they had any proof? What did they say? We have thought about this properly and we have positive proofs here before us just like they say they have also.”Butt then concluded his statement: “We feel the media in certain countries is biased and not fair. We feel august cricket bodies are also involved in this conspiracy, which will damage the great game of cricket.”The statement is an extension of the one the board released late on Saturday indicating its unhappiness with the way the ICC handled the Oval allegations. Nobody in the Pakistan board was informed by the ICC that an official investigation was being launched; the chairman, the team manager and the captain only learned of it through media reports.An ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo they tried to contact Butt all through Friday but his phone was unavailable. “On Saturday morning [after the ICC press release was sent out] we came to know that Mr Butt was in Dubai. Haroon Lorgat [the ICC chief executive] sought out and met Butt in Dubai on Saturday evening and discussed matters of mutual interest,” he said.However, there is no indication that the ICC tried to contact anyone else in the PCB, nor tried to reach Butt – who was in New Delhi after meeting the ICC president Sharad Pawar – through any number other than his Pakistan mobile.The PCB also seems unhappy with the official implication that Pakistan’s batsmen were under the scanner. Though the ICC didn’t point the finger at Pakistan in their statement – though did so in their report – the subsequent statement from the ECB confirmed that no English players were involved.”One statement from a very august official of the ICC said no, only Pakistan players were involved,” Butt said, though he refused to elaborate.Butt also refused to give more details of the nature of the board’s investigation, though he said it had already begun. “I will be revealing names of people and organisations who are involved in this, so I don’t want to comment more on the investigations just now. Details will come out only once our investigations are complete.”Butt’s comments may well signal the final nail in the coffin of the PCB’s relationship with the ICC, if they have not completely broken down already. Under Butt’s tenure, the two have clashed consistently. In 2009, the PCB threatened to take the ICC to court after Pakistan was removed as a venue from the 2011 World Cup, following the Lahore terror attacks on Sri Lanka in March. The dispute was resolved out of court but tensions have simmered consistently since.They boiled over again in the aftermath of allegations of spot-fixing during the fourth Test at Lord’s. The ICC provisionally suspended the three players at the centre of the scandal, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, after the Pakistan board refused to do so. At a press conference in Lahore soon after he returned, the board chairman expressed his unhappiness with the ICC’s decision while a police investigation was still ongoing against the three.Butt then went to Delhi to discuss the investigation and allegations with Sharad Pawar, the ICC president. He travelled on Saturday to Dubai, the ICC HQ, though it is unclear whether he has met with officials there. He said, however, that he would raise these issues at the next ICC meeting, on October 11.

The Belgian's all-too-brief Stamford Bridge career is just one of many dire examples of clubs underappreciating potential stars

Have Manchester City made a massive mistake selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea? Pep Guardiola's side is so strong that maybe it doesn't even matter. But Chelsea will certainly think they've pulled off a long overdue transfer market masterstroke, given how well Palmer is performing since swapping the Etihad Stadium for Stamford Bridge during the summer.

Indeed, the Blues have become synonymous with letting players go too soon – and one of them will be lining up against them on Saturday, with Kevin De Bruyne back at his brilliant best for City after his recent injury lay-off.

Giving up on the Belgian was obviously a colossal mistake on Chelsea's part, but where does the Belgian's exit rank among the worst sales in Premier League history? GOAL runs through its list of undervalued and underappreciated players who were sold too soon, for too little – or both!

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  10Carlos Tevez (Man City to Juventus)

  One can understand why Manchester City wanted rid of Carlos Tevez. The Argentine had caused uproar by allegedly refusing to come on as a substitute in a Champions League game at Bayern Munich – Tevez insisted he had merely misunderstood manager Roberto Mancini's instructions – while he was still carrying out community service for driving without a licence when eventually sold to Juventus in 2013.

  However, this ranks as a massive mistake, because even though City were looking to save some money in terms of wages and bonuses, the £12m ($15m) fee was ludicrously low for a forward of such considerable talent who still had plenty left in the tank.

  Indeed, Tevez was a revelation in Turin, the prolific striker that Antonio Conte had long been craving helped Juventus re-establish themselves as a major European force by reaching the Champions League final in 2015.

  He left that summer, to return to his beloved Boca Juniors, but did so as one of the finest No.10s in the Bianconeri's history. As veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini enthused, "Carlos is a world-class champion!"

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  9David Beckham (Man Utd to Real Madrid)

  It's no secret that Sir Alex Ferguson never approved of David Beckham's high-profile relationship with Victoria 'Posh Spice' Adams. The former Manchester United manager has even stated that the ex-England international "was never a problem until he got married".

  Ferguson argued that Beckham became more of a celebrity than a footballer, and that his performances on the pitch suffered as a result. Beckham strongly disagreed, and the growing tension between the pair culminated in a bitter fallout after Ferguson accidentally struck the player in the face with a football boot during a furious post-match ran on February 15, 2003.

  Just four months later, United agreed to sell Beckham to Real Madrid for €37 million (£31m/$40m). Los Blancos marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez couldn't believe the fee, describing it as "peanuts" for one of the most talented and famous footballers on the planet.

  Beckham says his leaving Old Trafford may have been for the best, given his subsequent success playing overseas, but he admitted again in a recent documentary that his dream all along had been to spend his entire career at United.

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  8Xabi Alonso (Liverpool to Real Madrid)

  Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez made no secret of his desire to sign Gareth Barry during the summer of 2008. "If we can do it before the end of the transfer window, we will continue to try," the Spaniard said. "We will always continue to improve our squad." Quite why Benitez felt that selling Xabi Alonso to bring in Barry would actually improve his squad remains a mystery, given the Spaniard was in a different league to the Englishman.

  What we do know is that Alonso was bitterly upset by being used as a pawn in such a bizarre move. "I prefer not to think too much about how I was treated," the midfielder told after refusing to leave Anfield. "It was a new situation for me, something I had never experienced before… It is not always easy to detach yourself from things like that, but I accept it is part of football and the main thing is it was all resolved and I am now playing regularly. I was really pleased that I was able to continue my Liverpool career."

  However, a clearly still annoyed Alonso handed in a transfer request the following summer and left for Real Madrid, leaving Steven Gerrard "devastated" and Benitez looking like a fool for upsetting a key player in the club's 2005 Champions League triumph.

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  7Serge Gnabry (Arsenal to Werder Bremen)

  Tony Pulis has admitted that he's tired of being singled out as the coach who failed to realise Serge Gnabry's potential during the winger's six-month spell at West Brom during the 2015-16 season. "I always get this thrown at me," he told the podcast, "and he's done fantastically well since, so you have to hold your hands up, but at the time he was nowhere near it.

  "What people forget is that we had him on loan, Arsenal were his mother club, and Arsene Wenger was his manager and he sold him to Werder Bremen for £7 million ($9m). Wenger had him right from 14 all the way through, I only had him for a couple of months."

  It's a fair point. It's clear that somebody messed up at Arsenal, but Wenger has insisted that he actually wanted to keep Gnabry, telling that he was "very sad" when the player decided to leave in pursuit of regular first-team football because he knew the versatile attacker would have "a great career".

  It has certainly turned out that way, with Gnabry doing so well at Bremen that he earned a move to Bayern Munich after just one season, and subsequently scored 23 goals in all competitions during a 2019-20 campaign that ended with the Bavarians winning a treble.

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O Flamengo está por detalhes de anunciar o substituto de Rafinha, que se emocionou e caiu em lágrimas na sua despedida, em entrevista coletiva concedida nesta segunda-feira. Alvo escolhido, Mauricio Isla já está com as malas prontas para chegar ao Brasil, depois de 13 temporadas no futebol europeu.

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Marcos Braz e Bruno Spindel,vice-presidente de futebol e diretor executivo da pasta do clube, já estão na Espanha para selar o acordo até dezembro de 2022. A tendência é que lateral-direito, de 32 anos e atualmente sem vínculo, assine assim que realizar os primeiros exames médicos, ainda no Velho Continente.

Nesta segunda-feira, a esposa de Isla,Galadriel Caldirola, já faz postagens de despedida de cidade espanhola. Há pouco, por exemplo, a modelo publicou umvídeo exibindo malas e escreveu: “Onde estamos? Onde vamos?”.

Já Braz, antes de embarcar para a Espanha, falou com jornalistas presentes no saguão do Aeroporto Internacional Tom Jobim. O dirigente se mostrou otimista com a contratação e a qualidade a ser agregada ao elenco rubro-negro:

– Jogou duas Copas do Mundo, jogador que é campeão Sul-Americano duas vezes pelo Chile. Eu, particularmente, gosto de jogador chileno (em tom de brincadeira). Da última vez, em 2009, contratei o Maldonado, que deu certo e chegou bem. Chegou jogando, eu acho isso importante. Ele tinha se desligado do Fenerbahce, então são boas coincidências (risos). Eu tinha brincado, falei “tenho coincidência de vida em relação a isso aí”, vamos ver se dá certo de novo. Ele já estava no mapa há muito tempo.

ÍDOLO, LEANDRO DÁ O AVAL

Um dos maiores ídolos da história do Flamengo e jogador mais significativo na lateral direita do clube, Leandro deu o aval para a chegada de Mauricio Isla.

– O que eu vi do Isla é muito bom. Será uma grande contratação. Qualidade, experiência, técnica. Eu o vi jogar pelo Chile e era um dos melhores. É desses laterais que atacam muito, é rápido e marca gols. Jogador de seleção. Será muito bem-vindo – falou, em entrevista ao jornal “Mercurio”, do Chile.

Enquanto Isla não é oficializado, o Flamengo deve seguir com o jovem João Lucas no setor. A próxima partida do time de Domènec Torrent será nesta quarta-feira, às 19h15, contra o Coritiba, no Maracanã e pela quarta rodada do Campeonato Brasileiro. O chileno tende a ser anunciado até lá.

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A bola rolou pouco no futebol brasileiro em 2020 antes de parar por conta da pandemia de coronavírus, é verdade. Ainda assim, os dois meses de competições foram suficientes para os clubes que disputarão a Série A em 2020 marcarem 410 gols, uma média de praticamente 20 por equipe.

Algumas, porém, estufaram as redes bem acima da média. O Flamengo, por exemplo, atual campeão carioca, brasileiro e da Libertadores, marcou 36 vezes em 16 partidas, o maior volume entre os times da elite. O Fluminense, com 32 em 15 confrontos, vem logo atrás. Os rivais cariocas mantém também a melhor média, seguidos pelo Atlético Goianiense. Confira o ranking:

MELHORES MÉDIAS DE GOLS EM 2020

1º – Flamengo – 2,25 g/j (36 gols em 16 jogos)
2º – Fluminense – 2,13 g/j (32 gols em 15 jogos)
3º – Atlético Goianiense – 2,07 g/j (27 gols em 13 jogos)
4º – Coritiba – 2,0 g/j (24 gols em 12 jogos)
5º – Fortaleza – 1,78 g/j (25 gols em 14 jogos)
6º – Palmeiras – 1,66 g/j (20 gols em 12 jogos)
7º – Athletico-PR – 1,64 g/j (23 gols em 14 jogos)
8º – Grêmio – 1,53 g/j (20 gols em 13 jogos)
Internacional – 1,53 g/j (23 gols em 15 jogos)
10º – São Paulo – 1,50 g/j (18 gols em 12 jogos)

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Na expectativa para o segundo jogo no Campeonato Baiano, a equipe do Vitória visitou o Fluminense de Feira, na tarde deste domingo (26). No entanto, o Leão não teve vida fácil em campo e, com gol de Eron aos 46 minutos da etapa final, acabou arrancando um empate, fechando o placar em 2 a 2.

Com o resultado, os comandados de Agnaldo Liz somam agora 4 pontos, mantendo-se em segundo lugar na classificação. Já os comandados de Edi Silva, somaram apenas seu segundo ponto na competição, em dois jogos disputados, descendo para a 4ª posição.

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PRIMEIRO TEMPO

Sem dar chances ao time do Vitória logo nos primeiros lances, o Flu, aos 6 minutos, tratou de abrir o placar. Após boa jogada, Ângelo fez o cruzamento na cabeça de Welton para marcar. 1 a 0.

Atrás no marcador, o Leão passou a tentar ficar mais com a posse de bola, tentando encontrar espaços na defesa do adversário. No entanto, em apenas um oportunidade com Caíque Souza é que os visitantes conseguiram assustar, após o chute do jogador passar raspando a trave.
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Mas a equipe de Feira não queria saber de dar chances aos visitantes. Com isso, tentou colocar pressão no Vitória, assustando o goleiro Lucas Arcanjo com um chute na trave, para lamentação do volante Guto.

Mesmo tentando dificultar as coisas para o Vitória, a equipe de Agnaldo Liz chegou ao gol de empate. Aos 24, após cobrança de escanteio, Gabriel Bispo cabeceou na trave, porém, ele mesmo pegou o rebote e fez. 1 a 1.

Até os acréscimos, o panorama do confronto seguiu basicamente igual. Com isso, foi a deixa para a arbitragem colocar um ponto final na primeira etapa.

SEGUNDO TEMPO

Já na etapa final, o Vitória voltou com uma postura um pouco mais ofensiva, tentando buscar o gol da virada. No entanto, a única boa chance foi em uma cobrança de escanteio, mas a bola acabou pegando na trave.

Percebendo a evolução do adversário, o técnico do Flu, Edi Silva, optou por uma mudança em seu meio-campo, colocando Kleiton Domingues no lugar de Azevedo, além de ter tirado Marcelo Nicácio também, renovando seu ataque no jogo.

Após as mudanças, aos 25 minutos o time da casa chegou ao segundo gol. Após pênalti de Dedé sobre Henrique Coelho, o atacante mesmo cobrou e balançou as redes. 2 a 1.

Na reta final de jogo, o técnico Agnaldo Liz ainda apostou suas últimas fichas com as entradas de Luan Gabriel e Renzo. Porém, após poucos minutos em campo, o volante Renzo acabou sendo expulso, frustrando os planos do comandante de arrancar, no mínimo, um empate.

Quando tudo parecia perdido, nos acréscimos, o Vitória, mesmo em desvantagem numérica, chegou ao empate. Aos 46 minutos, após bola lançada na área do Flu, Eron conseguiu marcar, decretando o empate do Leão em Feira de Santana.

Clint McKay has announced his retirement from Australian first-class and international cricket. The 33-year old fast bowler will continue to play for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League and Leicestershire in the county championship.McKay ended an 11-year relationship with Victoria, for whom he had debuted in November 2006 and last played in February 2016. He was selected in the squad for the Sheffield Shield final two weeks ago, but was not picked in the XI. “It’s been a pleasure to be involved with @bushrangers for the past 11 years. All great things come to an end. What an amazing time I had,” McKay had said on Twitter on March 30, when his team was crowned first-class champions.McKay did not have outright pace, which seemed to limit his prospects. He played only one Test and six T20Is but his resume was stronger in ODIs – 59 matches, 97 wickets at an average of 24.37 and economy rate of 4.78.Most of his success was a result of his accuracy and variations. He dismissed Sachin Tendulkar with a back-of-the-hand slower ball on ODI debut, and helped Australia to victory in a high-scoring game in Hyderabad in November 2009. In 2013, he became the fifth man from his country to take a hat-trick in ODIs when he dismissed Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Joe Root in Cardiff.McKay was named Australia’s ODI cricketer of the year in 2013. But 2013 was also the “beginning of the end” of his international career. An ODI series against India played on pitches tailor-made for batsmen, and rules that permitted only four fielders outside the circle in the last 10 overs, resulted in nearly 4000 runs scored in six games. McKay was among the casualties, taking only four wickets at an average of 74.50. He played three more ODIs against England at the start of 2014, but with younger and quicker bowlers than him coming up the ranks, he did not play for Australia again.”I didn’t have a great series of India and that was the beginning of the end,” McKay told . “I came back to Australia and had a good summer – I only played three games but I did quite well in two of those three games. It was a little disappointing to lose my spot but the young generation coming through have got some superstars in the making. They were performing quite well and it was great for them to get their opportunity. It was disappointing that it had to come at my expense but it’s just one of those things that happens in the pressure of sport.”McKay was part of a BBL-winning Thunder team in 2015-16, taking 18 wickets, the most by any bowler in the tournament, but squeezing into Victoria’s Sheffield Shield team proved a tougher job.”If the team hadn’t been so successful, it would have been a lot harder to take,” McKay said, having played only three matches in 2015-16. “But we’ve got some great young guys coming through and also some senior heads, so it’s actually quite a hard side to cement your spot in. You look at the guys who’ve played in the last two Shield finals – you’ve got James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and John Hastings who are Australian bowlers, and this year you’ve seen the younger guys in Scott Boland and Chris Tremain step up.”McKay played 42 first-class matches for Victoria and took 130 wickets, with a best of 6 for 40 in 2011.

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Apesar da derrota por 3 a 1 para a Ponte Preta no Moisés Lucarelli, na última terça-feira, o lateral Alemão demonstrou confiança na reação do Londrina, na Série B do Brasileirão. O jogador teve uma boa atuação e conseguiu ajudar o time a empatar o jogo, com uma assistência para o gol de Leo. O esforço, no entanto, não foi suficiente para evitar a derrota para a Macaca, que mostrou superioridade na etapa final com mais dois gols.

– Tínhamos tudo para sair com um resultado melhor, talvez até a vitória porque o time vem se comportando bem fora de casa, estávamos bem no jogo quando sofremos o segundo gol. Quanto ao passe para o gol, ei vi o Léo no meio dos zagueiros e aquele era o único espaço que encontrei para ele concluir e ele foi feliz na conclusão – disse.

Alemão agora quer focar no próximo desafio da equipe, contra o Operário. Ele destacou a fase difícil vivida pelo adversário, que perdeu duas partidas seguidas em casa. Segundo o atleta de 29 anos chegou o momento do time mostrar que consegue engatar uma sequência de bons resultados na competição.

– Será difícil porque eles vem em uma sequência negativa, acredito que sera um jogo aberto, mas não podemos nos preocupar com eles e sim com o que nós devemos fazer para sair com a vitória. Sabemos que estamos perto da zona, mas o grupo está confiante que vai reverter essa situação. O Londrina já provou nessa competição que consegue atingir voos mais altos. Precisamos engatar uma sequência de vitórias – concluiu.

O Londrina recebe o Operário no próximo sábado, às 16h30 (de Brasília), no Estádio do Café.O Tubarão é 15ª colocado, com 31 pontos, dois a mais que o Vila Nova, que abre a zona de rebaixamento. Os rivais locais são décimos, com 36 pontos.

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