Pre-season highlights : VFB Stuttgart 1-3 Arsenal
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Dimitri Mascarenhas can be a big hit in the IPL
Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, believes that the domestic Twenty20 game must be “sexed up” to match the rise of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after Dimitri Mascarenhas became the first England player to sign up for the competition yesterday.
Mascarenhas, 30, the leading performer in the 20-over internationals in New Zealand last month, became available only three hours before the deadline to go into the second IPL auction. He will join Shane Warne, his Hampshire colleague, at the Rajasthan Royals, having attracted a bid of $100,000 (about £50,000) from the Jaipur-based franchise.
Sony has paid $1billion over ten years for television rights to the IPL, but Bransgrove believes that English cricket can match the event by deregulating the Twenty20 Cup. “The IPL is a wake-up call to us,” he said. “They have recognised that crowds want to see big-name players and left us behind the eight-ball.
“This is something we might have considered two years ago given our early success with the format we invented. No one will persuade me that the interest in India will be any greater than it is over here, or would be with the same players. We just need to make our league more attractive, funkier and sexier.
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“I am not saying have unlimited numbers of overseas players, but the product needs to be reviewed. Twenty20 is not a breeding ground for England players in the same way as the championship, so why not bring in the stars, the showmen and the England players?”
Mascarenhas was finally given the permission required by his county to join the IPL as late as 2am yesterday when he agreed a mutually acceptable deal with Bransgrove. In return for his clearance, he has extended his Hampshire contract for two more seasons.
“We agreed a two-week window for 2008, then he will be 100 per cent available for the IPL in 2009 and 2010,” Bransgrove said. “He could not have entered the auction without a ‘no objection’ certificate from us, but we would then have had a player who was not motivated and would probably leave at the end of the season.
“To deny him the chance to play would have been an ostrich reaction to something that everybody has to acknowledge has changed the landscape of world cricket.”
Mascarenhas was approached via David Ligertwood, his agent, after interest from the Royals sparked by Warne. Lalit Modi, an architect of the competition as vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said that he had spoken to Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, to make sure that a deal was acceptable.
The competition runs from April 18 until June 1 and Mascarenhas will miss a single championship match and three or four in the Friends Provident Trophy. Hampshire will receive compensation. Bransgrove denied that Mascarenhas will be flying between England and India through the first six weeks of the season.
James Hopes, the Australia one-day all-rounder, proved the most lucrative earner with a $300,000 bid from Mohali. That was more than twice as much as Jaipur paid for Shane Watson, his Australia team-mate, but Mascarenhas could be one of the bargain buys if he reproduces the big hitting that has decorated his England career. His status with the national side should not be affected as the ECB and ICC have given full backing to the format and the IPL is likely to benefit again after Australia yesterday pulled out of the tour of Pakistan next month on safety grounds, removing one bar to the appearances of Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds.
Cricket Australia will decide for how long its contracted players will be allowed to feature before a tour to West Indies in mid-May. Its decision not to travel to Pakistan, on Government advice, may build momentum for the ICC Champions Trophy to be switched to South Africa or Sri Lanka in the autumn.
Source : Times Online
Moody hopes IPL will bring nations together
Former Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody said here yesterday he believed the Indian Premier League would help heal some of the recent rifts in international cricket. After a summer of lingering tension between rival cricket powerhouses Australia and India, Moody believes the IPL could be just what the game needs.
Moody, currently at the helm of Western Australia, will coach the Mohali franchise in the inaugural Twenty20 tournament when it starts on April 18.
Moody said that he was thrilled with the idea of having cricketers from different nations playing alongside each other. “That is an exciting prospect for cricket - and it is amazing how the game brings people together,” Moody said. “When you are playing in opposing sides in any sport things can get heated, and cricket is no different. “But when players get together in a team, cricket tends to take control of all egos and all past discrepancies.”
Manchester United vs Portsmouth
Manchester United 2-1 Portsmouth
National Stadium, Abuja Nigeria
Goals:
ManU: Eagles 51′ ; Tevez 65′
Portsmouth: Defoe 90′
Highlights:
Next Games:
Espanyol, Peterborough, Juventus and Pompey!
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Pre-season highlights : Real Madrid 2-1 Hamburg
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Pre-season highlights : Malaysia 0-2 Chelsea
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Extraordinary Relationship Daily Quote: How to Deal with Fear
Are you afraid?
Ask yourself: Is it happening, or is it something I am afraid might happen because it has happened to me before? This is how you will know whether your fear is founded or unfounded, and whether you should be afraid, back up and protect yourself, of open your heart despite fear and forge forward into a relationship.
Gilberto Unsure Of Gunners Future
Brazilian international Gilberto Silva says he will consider leaving Arsenal at the end of the season if he fails to break back into the first team.
The midfielder has struggled to hold down a regular place this season with Arsene Wenger often preferring Mathieu Flamini ahead of the Brazilian. “I will wait until the end of the season and then make my decision, If a good opportunity comes along then I don’t see any other option.” - Said Gilberto.
Gilberto also lost the club captaincy to William Gallas at the start of the season and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has given the Brazilian just seven league starts all season. Back in November Gilberto said he was happy to stay and fight for his place, but it now appears he wants to leave at the end of the current campaign.
“I love the club and Arsene Wenger is a good man and a good manager, but there are only two months to go and I haven’t played much. I’m trying to adjust to the situation, but I confess it’s not been easy.”
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Learn How to Get Things Done
From pickthebrain:
“Do you have trouble getting things done? Have you ever decided to do something that was important to you, but later found you just weren’t making any headway at all? If you’re having trouble completing tasks that you want to do, and which you know you’re capable of doing, you might considering using a technique called benchmarking.
A benchmark is nothing more than a certain level of output that you’re establishing as your bare minimum. When using benchmarking, what you want to do is decide what your daily benchmark will be for a particular task, and accept nothing less than hitting that benchmark consistently.
For a benchmark to be realistic, it should be well below the maximum that you’re capable of, and substantially less than what you really want to do. You want to have an idea of what you’d ideally like to accomplish each day, but if you fail to hit your targets, you want to be sure that you at least achieve a certain minimum standard. Shoot for your goal, but accept no less than your benchmark.
An Example of Using Benchmarks
Let’s say you have a book that you’ve been meaning to read. You know it’s a book that will be very helpful, so you really want to read it in a reasonable period of time. But it’s a really big book and it requires a lot of concentration to fully understand it, so you’ve been procrastinating, hoping that you’ll find the time to read it someday. Of course, that day never comes, and the book continues to collect dust every day. How can you use benchmarking to ensure that you stop making excuses and actually read the book?
First, decide what your goal will be, how many pages you would like to read each day. How about 100 pages? No, that’s too much because it’s a fantasy. You might read that much on the first sitting, but you know the book’s material is too complex and you won’t make the time to read that much consistently. How about 20 pages? OK, you decide that you can shoot for 20 pages a day. That’s your goal.
But it’s OK if you don’t always reach your goal. Sometimes, life gets in the way. Even though you’ll try to read 20 pages a day, some days you might not have the time or the energy to hit your goal. And that’s fine; you’re allowed to sometimes fall short of what you’d like to get done. But you decide to set a benchmark of reading 5 pages a day. No matter what, you’re going to read a minimum of 5 pages a day, every day, without fail.
That means that even if the kids have soccer practice, or you get a flat tire, or you get sick, or you have a huge argument with your boss, or whatever, you still have to read those 5 pages. Your benchmark of 5 pages is considerably less than your goal of 20 pages, but that’s because things are bound to come up once in a while, and you’ll need to have some flexibility to slow down. You’re still shooting for your goal each day, but you’ll accept no less than your benchmark, no matter what.
Read the rest
Premier League D-Day
The Premier League is preparing for one of the most dramatic days in the history of the competition. All todays matches are live on our site, go to watch live football or keep up to date with the live football scores.
The league title, Uefa Cup placings and the relegation issues will all be decided on the closing weekend of the 2007-08 season.
All 10 games will kick off simultaneously on Sunday at 1500 BST.
Manchester United need a victory at Wigan to clinch the championship, but if they fail to win Chelsea could pip them to the Premier League crown.
It is only the fourth time in the Premier League’s history that the title has gone down to the last game of the season.
If Chelsea, who are at home to Bolton, match United’s result then it will be the first time since 1989 that the English champions will be decided on goal difference.
Back then Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield, coming from behind to clinch the league in the most dramatic finish in the 120-year history of the English top flight.
Up to 20,000 United fans are expected to make the short journey to the JJB Stadium, hoping that their side will not suffer the same fate.
An estimated 400m people worldwide will follow the drama at the top and bottom of the table.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is looking to win his 10th league title and the club’s 17th in total, just one behind their rivals Liverpool.
The club lost the title on the final day of the season in 1968 and 1995, but also won it on the last game in 1996 and 1999.
Ferguson said: “I speak to people abroad and they love the Premier League.
“That’s why they show it all over the world. When we played Arsenal the match was seen in 200 countries.
“It is the most exciting league in the world. We are all looking forward to a nail-biting Sunday for the fans.”
Chelsea manager Avram Grant took over the club in September and overcame a difficult start to take the club to the Champions League final and to within one game of the Premier League crown.
But he added: “Whatever happens on Sunday I will be very proud of what we have done this season.
“Alex said a few months ago it was the best Manchester United side since he’s been coaching. We’ve given them a battle.
“If they take the title, and I’m not sure they will, it will be on goal difference.
“This is the most competitive league all over the world, so to come second here is better than in all the other leagues, with all due respect.”
The two sides recently shared a hostile encounter at Stamford Bridge and will meet again in the Champions League final in Moscow on 21 May.
Grant has promised that no matter what happens on Sunday he will remain friends with Ferguson.
“I promised him an Israeli wine and we’re going to drink it before the Champions League final,” added Grant.
The top four sides all qualify for the Champions League next season and those places have already been sewn up by Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
But a place in the Uefa Cup is still to be decided, with Everton needing a point at home to Newcastle to seal fifth place and European football.
Aston Villa go to West Ham waiting to pounce if Everton were to slip up.
Villa or Blackburn are the teams most likely to take the Intertoto Cup place, while Manchester City are in pole position to grab another Uefa Cup through the Fair Play league.
At the bottom things are even tighter with two teams to be relegated on the last day.
Derby are already down with a record low points total for a top flight team, with two from three joining them.
Birmingham and Reading go into the final game occupying the final two slots, on 32 and 33 points respectively.
But Fulham are only above the drop zone on goal difference and face a trip to eighth-placed Portsmouth on Sunday.
Reading look like having the easiest game away to Derby, who have only won once all season.
But the Royals have suffered an almighty slump after looking safe in March and have not even scored a goal in 551 minutes of football.
Reading skipper Graeme Murty summed up what slipping out of the top flight means to the clubs.
“You don’t play Manchester United in the Championship. You don’t play in front of 78,000 people, you go to Plymouth. Home Park’s a lovely stadium, but it ain’t Old Trafford,” he said.
Birmingham are at home to seventh-placed Blackburn in their final game knowing even a win might not be enough to prevent them slipping back to the Championship after just one season.
There are likely to be ups and downs, winners and losers and you can follow all the action right here.
keep up to date with the live football scores.