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South Africa coach Russell Domingo believes Seddon Park will offer a good wicket, and has pointed out that the dryness will bring reverse-swing into play in the third Test

Firdose Moonda22-Mar-2017

One member of the South African touring party strode out to the Seddon Park square and lifted a blanket-like grey cover from the surface it was covering. He pulled a face as though he had just smelled something odd. As he walked back, he muttered, “That isn’t even prepared,” to another member of the South African touring party, who also examined the bit under the blanket. He pulled an even worse face.In the minutes that followed, a few more away players had been to the same spot, where the cover had been removed to reveal a patchy brown strip. Strangely, they were all smiling. The mottled pitch where they first thought the third Test would be played on was not the battleground after all; the green-one next to it was.”That doesn’t look like a dust bowl, it looks a good wicket,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach said.The Test pitch looks more like the wickets New Zealand played on earlier this summer and less like the spinners’ deck they were set to prepare. Without a doubt, it will change in colour and grass covering as the match draws closer and it may yet prove spin-friendly, especially as it is on the slower side of the block. But for now, South Africa are fairly happy with what they see. They know Hamilton is a crafty venue that way. There are two blocks, one which has fast pitches, and one with slower ones. New Zealand decide which block they play on. Then the groundstaff get to preparing the surface – the team doesn’t intervene.For the Pakistan Test in November, New Zealand opted to play on the faster side and asked for a green top. They were put in and scored a respectable 271 before dismissing Pakistan for 216 and then 230, after setting them a target of 369.For the ODI against Australia, matters moved to a slower surface. So much so that New Zealand included Ish Sodhi in their squad in anticipation – they didn’t play him though. They scored 281 for 9 and bowled Australia out for 257 to win the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.New Zealand moved back to the faster side for the first ODI against South Africa last month although the highlights reel may not reveal that. In a rain-reduced 34-over affair, the ball turned significantly in what de Villiers called the “toughest conditions I have ever played in”, but groundsman Karl Johnson explained that was an anomaly, mostly caused by wet weather in the lead-up to the match.Hamilton was given the fourth ODI as well because Napier’s McLean Park was in urgent need of remedial work and by the time the series reached that stage, New Zealand needed to win to stay alive. They opted to take grass off the pitch to favour spin, brought Jeetan Patel back into the XI and restricted South Africa to 279 for 8 before Martin Guptill’s 180 took the game away. Mission accomplished.This Test will be the fifth international played at the venue this season and Domingo expects that the wear and tear, rather than testing South Africa against spin, could favour them in another department. “The main thing is that reverse swing is going to come into the game. It looks pretty dry – the square. They have played a lot of cricket here and there are a lot of used pitches which assist reverse-swing, we’ve got some good exponents of [reverse swing],” he said.Morne Morkel has been the latest to make use of reverse-swing and South Africa even managed to find some in damp Dunedin. The threat of rain through this Test won’t play too much on their minds, except that if conditions remain muggy, they may also be able to turn to conventional swing.Then there is the prospect of Vernon Philander, who took 10 wickets the last time South Africa were in Hamilton. Philander has flown under the radar in this series because he has not collected bags of wickets, but the strangling role he has played has been important to the team.”When Vernon hasn’t been playing in our side, he is probably the bowler that’s been the most sorely missed because of the control he brings,” Domingo said. “He is a very skillful cricketer. He has contributed in every single game. It might not be showing in the column with the wickets but in terms of controlling the game and building pressure, he has been our leader,” Domingo said.Which is why South Africa will be looking for something similar from Philander this time. Apart from securing a series win, South Africa have some added incentive to ensure they don’t go down to New Zealand in Hamilton. As long as they draw or win the Test, and if Australia lose in Dharamsala, they will go up to No.2 on the rankings, a remarkable turnaround from the No.7 spot they started at in August. No matter how much they say all that matters is the next game, there’s no doubt their slide stung and the prospect of pushing for the mace again beckons.”It’s something we want to get to but our focus is on this game. We want to get up the rankings again. We know what it’s like to be at No.7, we were there only a few months ago. We find ourselves at No.3 now so we are a work in progress,” Domingo said.

Emi Martinez is looking to make more history with the Argentina national team, taking a couple of records from Sergio Romero in the process.

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• Helped to secure global glory in 2022
• Also a Copa America winner
• Wants to become a centurion

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The enigmatic Aston Villa goalkeeper is already assured of legend status in his homeland after helping the Albicelste to Copa America and World Cup triumphs. His performances at those events – particularly in penalty shootouts – are set to live long in the memory.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Martinez only made his senior international debut at 28 years of age, in June 2021, but he is already up to 33 caps and believes he can push towards becoming an Argentine centurion – something that no other keeper has achieved for the South American nation.

• WHAT THEY SAID

  Martinez sits eighth on Argentina’s goalkeeper appearance list at present – behind the likes of German Burgos, Sergio Goycochea and Ubaldo Fillol – with ex-Manchester United shot-stopper and current Boca Juniors star Romero topping the charts with 96 caps. Martinez has told of chasing ‘Chiquito’ down: "I cannot say that I am the best when I still have a lot to do. I want to reach 100 games and surpass it. Everyone talks about Goyco or Pato, but Chiquito did a great job in the national team. He reached a world final; two Copa America finals. We were unlucky to lose, but he did a great job.”

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  WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

  Martinez also has Argentina’s clean sheet record in his sights, having secured seven successive shut-outs dating back to the 2022 World Cup final. He now has 24 to his name in total, with Romero once again topping that roll of honour on 47.

Despite the Blaugrana doing all they can to get the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner back to Camp Nou, they still have financial obstacles to overcome

For months, Barcelona have been drawing up a viable financial plan to sign Lionel Messi. The club, which reportedly has to shed nearly €200 million (£176m/$220m) before they can make any financial moves this summer, has supposedly plugged away on a miracle solution to circumvent La Liga's strict financial rules, and bring their club legend back home.

The finest financial minds the club could assemble got together and decided, rather shrewdly, that they would simply agree to cut costs over a three-year period — gradually reducing salaries or engaging in other moves to raise the funds they need immediately. In return, the club told La Liga, they wanted to be able to sign Messi immediately.

The league, after a few weeks of negotiations, rejected Barcelona's master plan. But things have since changed. La Liga made a sensational U-Turn, accepting a plan in principle. It doesn't mean, though, that all is clear. Barcelona still have to sell players, and find cash elsewhere.

So, the Blaugrana are stuck once more. Last summer, club president Joan Laporta famously activated a series of economic levers to cut costs and free up financial flexibility. He auctioned off one set of TV rights, flogged another, sold nearly 50 percent of the club's merchandising rights and encouraged a number of senior players to either defer or forgo large chunks of their salary.

It just about worked — at least, enough for the club to first stay afloat and then bring in a host of summer signings. But now, they have their eyes on another one, a potential arrival that will require far more effort than the flimsy plan formed by Barcelona's brain trust.

And the conditions, pieced together, despite La Liga's sudden good wishes, make a Messi return to his boyhood club seem unlikely. Even though there is a mutual interest, and a glimmer of hope, financial barriers once again blocking the Argentine from a Catalan swansong.

Getty ImagesThe strict regulations

Right now, it's not looking good for Barcelona.

The Blaugrana did enough last summer to afford a number of big names, a host of newcomers that have helped Barca likely wrap up their first La Liga title in three years.

But Laporta's famous levers were short-term solutions. Although Barca aren't in any imminent danger as a club, their financial flexibility is more limited than ever, and league president Javier Tebas will not budge on his €200m demand.

The reason for the lofty figure is the Blaugrana's bloated salary and transfer expenditures this year. La Liga outlines how much a club can spend each year, a de-facto salary cap that runs in relation to how much the club itself makes.

In other words, if Barcelona make more cash through sporting success, matchday revenue, or player sales, they can spend more money. But if the two numbers are too far apart — if the club are vastly outspending what they raise — then the league can cap their financial activity.

Right now, under those regulations, there isn't any immediate room for movement. Meanwhile, the league have repeatedly insisted that they will not make any exceptions for Messi.

Barcelona, then, will have to play by the rules.

Advertisement(C)Getty ImagesThe current state of the club

This year, Barcelona are spending around €650m (£532m/$713m) on transfers and wages. La Liga rules stipulate the Blaugrana will need to trim that number down to roughly €450m (£399m/$493m) in order to spend this summer, according to

That, in footballing terms, doesn't have to be immensely difficult. Indeed, Barcelona could perhaps generate the cash from player sales, and if they clear some big salaries off the books, it's not an impossible number to reach.

However, before they can get into saving, there's more spending to be done. And that's somewhat underway.

The Blaugrana have finally registered Gavi, but will still need to sort out Ronald Araujo and Sergi Roberto. They have already agreed a deal to sign Athletic Club centre-back Inigo Martinez, who will also need registering. How much those moves would cost isn't exactly clear yet, either.

There are further complicating factors, with expected losses in the club's future. Camp Nou is undergoing a massive renovation next season, and the club will have to play at the nearby Olympic Stadium.

That ground is far smaller than Barcelona's usual home, and could impact the club's matchday revenues by up to a massive €90m (£79m/$99m), according to . Although the stadium still holds a respectable 55,000 spectators, recapturing all of that cash simply won't be as easy in a smaller, less attractive venue.

Messi, and the immense financial benefits that will come from his potential arrival, is surely something of a solution to expected woes. But Barcelona will have other issues to fix before they can turn to the Argentine.

Getty ImagesThe moves already made

Laporta's levers last summer were immensely successful, allowing the club to raise a whopping €738m (£648m/$810m) in a few short weeks.

A return, a sequel, Levers 2.0, isn't possible. That's due to a La Liga rule change from December 2022, which outlined that only 5% of asset sales can count towards salary limits. Simply put, raising money by those levers from last summer — TV rights, sponsorships, merchandising — can no longer seriously impact how much money a club can spend on player funds. Barcelona would have to raise billions in order to manage one big name in today's market.

Still, they have found some ways to cut costs. For one, they benefited from the sudden retirement of Gerard Pique, a few months after Xavi told the Barcelona legend that he would no longer be a first-team regular.

The centre-back had already deferred a handsome chunk of his salary, but by retiring 18 months before his contract ended, gave up even more. The permanent sale of Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid also helped balance the books. Other players helped out, too. Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets both announced they will leave the club in the coming weeks, which will free up space.

The club has also cut costs elsewhere. In March week, it announced the surprising move to slash its in-house media outlet, Barca TV. Getting rid of the channel, which provided regular matchday content and exclusive programming, slashed €8m (£7.0m/$8.8m) from the budget. But it also saw Blaugrana make 150 employees redundant and removed a platform that is immensely popular among some of Barca's most devoted fans.

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beinsport.comThe moves they could make

Without the famous levers available, Barcelona's options are limited.

In all likelihood, then, it will come down to player salary reductions and sales. And the Blaugrana do indeed have some potential candidates in that sense. Clement Lenglet, Sergino Dest and Samuel Umtiti have all spent the season out on loan, and are all up for sale this summer.

The club have also reportedly discussed salary deductions with Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Frenkie de Jong, according to — but neither player has publicly expressed their desire to forgo any of their expected earnings as of yet.

Tottenham Hotspur are believed to plotting a raid on one of the Premier League's recently relegated sides, amid claims that Leeds United's Jack Harrison is a potential target ahead of the summer transfer window.

What's the latest on Harrison to Tottenham?

According to Football Insider, the Lilywhites are believed to be keen to revive their interest in the Englishman ahead of next season, with Daniel Levy and co having previously been linked with the 26-year-old last summer.

As the report noted, the one-time New York City FC man is set to be available at a 'discounted price' following Leeds' drop into the Championship, with talkSPORT stating that the winger has a relegation clause in his contract which will allow him to leave on the cheap.

The former Manchester City asset – who only signed a new deal with the Elland Road outfit back in early April – was previously the subject of a £20m bid from Leicester City during the winter window.

Would Harrison be a good signing for Tottenham?

There may not be too much excitement among Spurs supporters at the prospect of Levy signing a player who has only just been relegated, although Harrison did at least enjoy a positive campaign on an individual note, bagging five goals and seven assists in 35 league games.

The £90k-per-week speedster notably scored what proved to be a mere consolation in Tottenham's 4-1 win over Sam Allardyce's side at the weekend, having looked 'bright' on an otherwise 'dark day' for the Whites, as per Leeds Live's Beren Cross.

That effort also ensures that Harrison now boasts a respectable tally of 36 goals and assists in 106 top-flight games since the start of the 2020/21 campaign, having initially joined Leeds on loan in the second tier back in 2018.

That record has seen the 5 foot 9 ace dubbed "one of the best wingers" that teammate Junior Firpo has ever worked with, while former New York City colleague Frank Lampard also described his compatriot as "one of the best wingers in the Premier League" earlier in the campaign.

Also hailed as a "revelation" by Lampard during their time together in the United States, Harrison is evidently a player of real talent, with the forward's arrival potentially set to prove a dream addition for current Spurs talisman, Harry Kane.

While the latter man can seemingly deliver the goods on his own having scored 30 league goals this season as part of a struggling side, the 29-year-old may benefit from the capture of a clinical and creative force such as Harrison.

The former England U21 international has proven himself able to provide quality service for his teammates after creating nine 'big chances' in the 2022/23 season, with that more than what both Heung-min Son (eight) and Dejan Kulusevski (seven) achieved for the Lilywhites.

That quality from the flanks was evident in the early season win over Chelsea for Leeds, with Harrison having teed up teammate Rodrigo to score with an "absolutely magnificent" set-piece delivery, as per Sky Sports pundit, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Such brilliance could well have Kane licking his lips at the prospect of being supplied even more frequently next season, with such a partnership potentially set to blossom at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Little more than two weeks ago, David Warner was all about patience and batting for long periods of time in Asia.”You’ve got to be patient enough,” he said before the first Test against Sri Lanka. “You’ve got to rotate the strike. Your patience comes with hitting your four-balls, your boundary balls. They’re the ones you’ve got to really wait on. That’s what we’re talking about with patience in this game, especially over here. You’ve got to bite the bullet.”A pair of Test-match thrashings later, and with another bone-dry pitch in prospect at Colombo’s SSC ground, Warner and the Australians have rather changed their tune. Now Warner is all about attack, as he demonstrated in a pair of shot-a-ball cameos on the sharply turning Galle surface. Waiting for the bad ball is not longer an option. He who hesitates is lost, or at least lbw Herath.”You have to think outside the box,” Warner said. “For me to come out of my crease personally it’s something I don’t normally do but you have to do it in these conditions. If you defend, one’s got your name on it, and one’s going to straighten, which happened the other day. For me it’s about thinking on my feet, using my feet when I’m out here and hopefully putting the bowler off some of his rhythm.”You’re sitting ducks when you’re facing six balls in a row – one of them is going to have your name on it. Especially when one turns and one doesn’t turn. It’s a hard game. People don’t realise that you’re going out here day one and day two and it’s turning square, where maybe five or six years ago probably day three, day four was probably when it was turning. So it’s hard from ball one and we really have to work hard and that starts in the nets.”The nets have seen almost as much change in Australian philosophy as Warner’s rhetoric. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc charged in at their batting compatriots in Pallekele training, but now they are sent to work separately on centre wickets with Allan Donald while the batsmen face an assortment of spinners – including the part-time leggies Warner and Steven Smith trying off breaks.At the team’s main training session on Thursday, Adam Voges warmed up separately from the group due to a tight hamstring, but then trained fully with the team, including his own stint at the bowling crease. The newly arrived apprentice batsman Travis Head whirred down his own offbreaks too, before batting in the canary yellow pads he will use when the ODI series begins after the third Test.As vice-captain, Warner is aware of how this tour may influence planning for the next Asian trip, to India next year. He noted the words of captain Smith about potentially needing to choose a squad even more tailored to the prevailing conditions than this one, with a rather different batting group taken to India. Regardless of what happens at the SSC, questions will need to be asked.”That’s probably the Moneyball theory isn’t it, you pick players for certain conditions,” Warner said. “End of the day we’re all professional athletes and you have to adapt to the conditions. If you don’t adapt to them, your head’s probably on the line. For us as cricketers we have to do the best we can in these conditions and adapt as well as we can.”If the selectors don’t think we fit that area of expertise, whether or not we can play in these conditions or play at home, that’s up to them if they want to go down that path and pick the team based on that. [India] is our next subcontinent tour so I think there will be a few assessments made. I think the selectors may have to reassess a few things and whatever they think is necessary, they’ll take the appropriate action I’m pretty sure.”

Fast bowler Sohail Tanvir and left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul claimed five wickets between them to help set up a seven-wicket victory for Guyana Amazon Warriors against Jamaica Tallawahs in a top-of-the-table clash at Providence on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jul-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFast bowler Sohail Tanvir and left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul claimed five wickets between them to set up a seven-wicket victory for Guyana Amazon Warriors against Jamaica Tallawahs in a top-of-the-table clash at Providence. After skittling Tallawahs for 100 in 18 overs, Amazon Warriors got to the target with 12 balls to spare on a typically slow surface. Guyana now have three wins in three matches, having already beaten St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and Trinbago Knight Riders.Tanvir laid down the marker, having Chris Gayle, who smashed 108* in his previous match, lbw with an inswinger off the first ball he faced. Permaul then struck twice in two balls, in the fifth over, removing Kumar Sangakkara and Chadwick Walton. Tallawahs crawled to 29 for 3 at the end of the Powerplay, having scored only two boundaries during that period.Three boundaries then came in the space of eight balls as Rovman Powell and Shakib Al Hasan threatened a recovery. They lofted Australia legspinner Adam Zampa for sixes down the ground, after Powell had hit a four over Permaul’s head.But then Shakib holed out to deep midwicket off Permaul. Zampa also struck, undoing Nkrumah Bonner – who had come into the XI for Andre Russell – and Andre McCarthy for ducks to leave the visitors at 80 for 6. The lower order folded, and Powell was the ninth batsman to be dismissed, for 38. Barring Powell, only Shakib managed to pass 20.The chase wasn’t easy for Amazon Warriors. They fared worse in the Powerplay than Tallawahs, scoring 13 while losing captain Martin Guptill and Dwayne Smith to Pakistan left-arm spinner Imad Wasim, who finished with figures of 2 for 6. Chris Lynn and Jason Mohammed, however, settled Amazon Warriors with a 42-run partnership for the third wicket in 9.2 overs. The stand ended when Mohammed was pinned lbw for 22 by Shakib. The wicket hardly dented the hosts though, with Lynn and Anthony Bramble teeing off for 48 in 4.4 overs to seal the chase.Permaul bagged the Man-of-the-Match award for his career-best T20 figures of 3 for 20. After the game, he said he had focused on bowling a tight line. The two wickets that I picked up earlier really set up Jamaica and we kept bowling consistently, picking up wickets at the crucial stages of the game,” he said. “It is important to bowl wicket-to-wicket [in Providence]; we know the conditions very well. It [The pitch] is a bit two-paced and keeps low.”Amazon Warriors have a day’s break before taking on Patriots at home on Saturday, and Knight Riders on Sunday. Tallawahs have three days to regroup before facing Barbados Tridents in Bridgetown on Monday.

Victoria’s coach David Saker has mounted an impassioned defence of the Sheffield Shield final, saying he would be “shattered” if CA excised the pinnacle of a domestic competition

Daniel Brettig24-Mar-2016

Victoria’s coach David Saker has mounted an impassioned defence of the Sheffield Shield final, saying he would be “shattered” if Cricket Australia excised the pinnacle of a domestic competition he rates comfortably ahead of the County Championship after his years as an assistant coach with England.The Bushrangers flew into Adelaide on Thursday ahead of a meeting with South Australia that reflects the increasingly marginalised state of the Shield decider – played at Glenelg rather than Adelaide Oval, clashing with the opening round of the AFL season and broadcast only through a streaming service by CA’s website.Saker, however, argued the Shield final should be cherished as an Australian strength relative to the English game, in that a leaner domestic tournament was taken to an even higher pitch of intensity and therefore learning by staging a play-off match.”It is very important to Australian cricket,” Saker told ESPNcricinfo. “If you take away the Sheffield Shield final you’re taking importance away from the game of Sheffield Shield cricket and if you ask any of the players what they think about it and what they strive to do it is to play in a Sheffield Shield final.”It’s as close to a Test match as some of them will ever get, and the day they scrap that would be a poor day for Australian cricket in my opinion. The people making those decisions are more qualified than me, but I’ve been in the first-class system for a long time and I’d be shattered if that was the case, if we lost the Shield final.”There is a sense of ambivalence at CA about the final, summed up by the former chairman Wally Edwards at last year’s AGM: “I don’t think it plays any real part in our season. When I played Shield cricket, we didn’t have a Shield final. The Shield final, over many years, has proved itself to be a bit of a non-event, to be honest.”The chief executive James Sutherland has said the final could make way for an expanded Big Bash League schedule. Neither Sutherland, nor Edwards’ successor David Peever, will be present for this year’s final, as they will be in India for meetings around the World Twenty20 tournament.More broadly, Saker judged the Shield to be the superior competition to the County Championship, pointing to the number of dead fixtures played out over the lengthy English season. The high volume of matches has been a valuable tool for many players learning their craft, but Saker said the greater intensity of Shield contests was his preference.”I still think the Shield system is as good as you get,” he said. “It’s so competitive and that’s been shown again this year in the last three or four weeks of the competition, so tight and so hard to compete. That’s the one thing we’ve got over the English system with so many dead games in the County system. Since it’s become first and second division it has got better, but the Sheffield Shield is still the pinnacle of first-class cricket in the world.”At the end of his first season back in Victoria after a largely successful stint as mentor to England’s pace bowlers, Saker reflected on a role that has occasionally brought him into conflict with CA. Most notably, he was rebuked by the national team coach Darren Lehmann for taking issue with the handling of James Pattinson at the start of the summer, an experience that left Saker somewhat chastened. He counselled the game’s custodians against hubris.”It has had some hiccups because obviously I’ve said some things in the press that maybe I shouldn’t have said,” Saker said. “Most of the time I’m just trying to support the players in my team and what I think is best for the Victorian team. Not at any stage have I said things to downgrade the Australian team or the system. I think it’s a good system, I think they still need to tinker with some things to a degree.”What you have to be aware of no matter what organisation you’re in, you should never think your organisation does it better than someone else. I think you should always be open-minded to how others do things, and that’s not just in cricket, that’s in life and business. You’ve got to be open-minded enough to take some ideas from other teams and countries and use them, and make sure you’re not blinkered.”A source of tension in recent times has been the introduction of a strategy for CA and the states called One Team, which takes the view that all should be moving in the same direction with the same goals. While Saker agreed with the overall concept, he argued that states should still be allowed to develop their own coaching philosophies and approaches in a truly competitive environment, rather than turning the Shield into a mere greenhouse for emerging talent.”I’m all for this One Team idea, but I also think we should be trying to have our own ideas from our states, so if we want to have our own coaching philosophies or ways of going about it that should be encouraged,” Saker said. “If you have six teams coached in the same way and trying to coach the same way, I can’t see that being a good thing.”One of the beauties of the Shield system is it is usually coaches having control of the team and coming up with their own ideas of how to coach and how to train. Sometimes in my brief time so far back in Australia we’re getting taught how to coach, instead of letting the coaches coach. Of course we want to come together and share our ideas, but in the Shield system and the way we’ve produced players across all the states, they should get a free rein on how they run their system.”I’m sure they [CA] understand that, and I think we’ll eventually get to that stage, but it’s just in its infancy at the moment with One Team so I’m sure it’ll get to that.”

حقق جناح الفريق الأول لكرة القدم بنادي ريال مدريد، فينيسيوس جونيور، لقب الأفضل في جوائز ذا بيست المقدمة من قبل الاتحاد الدولي لكرة القدم “فيفا” يوم الثلاثاء الماضي.

ونجح فينيسيوس في التغلب على منافسه رودري الفائز بجائزة الكرة الذهبية لعام 2024، ولكن على الرغم من تألق البرازيلي إلا أن أسطورة بايرن ميونخ ومنتخب ألمانيا، لوثار ماتيوس، لديه بعض الانتقادات تجاه اللاعب.

اقرأ أيضًا.. شكوك حول إصابة بيلينجهام بعد نهائي كأس إنتركونتيننتال

وقال ماتيوس في تصريحات لصحيفة “بيلد” الألمانية: “فينيسيوس موهبة خارقة، لكنه مثل نيمار فهو يحرض الجماهير على بعض الأفعال ويتشاجر مع المنافسين ويستفزهم ببعض الحركات”.

وأضاف: “لديه إمكانات فنية رائعة خاصة في السرعة وتسديد الكرة، لكن سلوكه على المسار الخطأ، فهو يتخذ نيمار مثالًا أعلى وهو النموذج الخاطئ”.

وشارك فينيسيوس مع ريال مدريد في الموسم الحالي خلال 21 مباراة بجميع البطولات وسجل 14 هدفًا وصنع 10 أخرى في إجمالي 1729 دقيقة.

Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate laughed off suggestions that he may be joined by France team-mate Kylian Mbappe at Anfield.

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• Konate laughs off Mbappe Liverpool link
• Says: 'We all know where he's going'
• Reds go five clear at top of table

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  The defender returned from suspension to help his side to a comfortable win at Brentford on Saturday afternoon. He was in a playful mood after the game when asked by a French broadcaster on the prospects of Mbappe, who this week told Paris Saint-Germain he will depart the club his summer, joining him on Merseyside next season.

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• WHAT IBRAHIMA KONATE SAID

  "Do you really think he's going to come here?" laughed Konate when asked by about the chances of Mbappe joining Liverpool. "I think we all know where he's going to go."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Konate's response underlines the theory that Mbappe is destined for Real Madrid. Representatives of the 25-year-old are reportedly in negotiations to finalise a deal that has been a long time in the making, with the Madrid board keen to conclude the transfer with as little fuss as possible and also keen not to upset a club they may yet meet in the Champions League this season.

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• WHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL AND KONATE?

  It was a good result for Liverpool, winning at a ground that has proved problematic for them in the last two seasons. But it wasn't all plain sailing as the Reds picked up a number of concerning injuries as they head into a week where they face Luton Town in the league on Wednesday and contest the first silverware of the season against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final next Sunday.

Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, believes the time has passed to do something significant to secure the future of Test cricket particularly in those nations where the format is already a tougher sell.Debates around the relevance of the longest format have become a regular occurrence, mirroring the rise of T20 leagues around the world, with the latest example of changing priorities being the decisions of Adil Rashid and Alex Hales to effectively end their Test careers by signing white-ball only contracts for their counties. Although both were outside the current England Test set-up it was not beyond them, especially in Rashid’s case, to earn a recall but he admitted his heart was no longer in the first-class game.While the decisions of two players who see their future in the white-ball game don’t have to mean doom for Test cricket, it feels as though the game has come to a tipping point with the global calendar reaching meltdown and a club v country battle starting to emerge. Morgan played the last of his 16 Test six years ago and has long-since put the format out of his mind as he has focused on forging his white-ball career, firstly in T20 and latterly pioneering England’s one-day resurgence, but as an international captain his views will carry weight.”Test match cricket has had a lot to worry about for quite a while now,” he said. “If something was going to be done about it, it probably should have been done already. There are still, I suppose, different ideas being thrown around but actually giving priority to Test matches is sort of a luxury now for the bigger countries around the world. For other countries T20 franchise cricket takes priority.”Morgan’s comments follow on from Moeen Ali voicing his concerns about the future of Tests, although the evidence he cited of poor crowds in the recent Ashes didn’t stack up against the reality of the numbers which attended the matches.There have been attempts to breathe new life into Tests with the advent of floodlit matches, in an effort to entice crowds back at more viewing-friendly hours outside of the working day, and the Test Championship – part of the new Future Tours Programme – which has finally come to fruition in a bid to provide context and will begin in 2019, although there is still plenty of time for cracks to emerge in that plan. Morgan, however, said that ultimately the survival of Test cricket will come down to one thing: money.”The best ideas probably being bandied around are putting most revenue behind the match appearances or actual prize money towards Test match cricket so there’s no [influence] in what format people choose simply because of the money they might make. It’s all down to how good they are at that particular format.”On the decision taken by Hales and Rashid, Morgan was unsurprisingly supportive. “I think it’s a really good decision for those individuals. Every individual is different, they see their future and their pathway changing all the time, and it’s okay to be able to change it.”A lot of people actually are forced into a position to play one or two formats, which I think is wrong because it’s their own career, it’s their own future, they need to take hold of it and make the most of it while they can. And at the moment that’s taking a backward step from red-ball cricket and putting white-ball cricket at the forefront of their career path for now, I think is the right one because they believe it’s the right one.”