It’s a battle between one team on the rise and another on the slide: Kings XI Punjab have strung together three wins in a row after the opening two reverses while the Kolkata Knight Riders appear to have lost their way after two early victories. Punjab’s comfortable win against the Deccan Chargers showed they had the quality to overcome the loss of Simon Katich and Brett Lee but Kolkata are yet to prove they can shrug off the absence of their top international stars.The game will showcase some relatively unknown Australians: Shaun Marsh made a fine impression on his IPL debut while James Hopes, if fit, provides some valuable fire-power. Brad Hodge’s innings was cut short in Jaipur but he comes with the reputation of being a Twenty20 killer. David Hussey is yet to explode and can’t choose a better stage to showcase his entire range, one that has made him a big name in the Australian domestic circuit.
Watch out for …
… Sourav Ganguly v Yuvraj Singh provides an intriguing clash between the senior and the apprentice. There could also be an interesting tussle between the two pace attacks – VRV Singh and Sreesanth up against Ishant Sharma, Umar Gul and the surprisingly nippy Ashok Dinda. For those inclined towards Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan v Preity Zinta may make for an interesting spectacle.
Team news
Punjab may want to stick to a winning combination, though Hopes’ fitness could make them think about a change. There was a doubt over how they would make up for Brett Lee’s absence but Gagandeep Singh turned in a reasonably good show the other night.Punjab (probable) 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Tanmay Srivastava, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Gagandeep Singh, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Sreesanth, 11 VRV Singh.Salman Butt and Hodge are likely to retain their spots, despite doing little in their first games. Murali Kartik, who was surprisingly left out of the previous match, could expect a recall at the expense of Ajit Agarkar.Kolkata (probable) 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Salman Butt, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 David Hussey, 5 Debabrata Das, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 8 Umar Gul, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda.
Kolkata Knight Riders: WLLL Kings XI Punjab: LWWW
Dinda’s economy rate of 5.52 is the best among bowlers who have sent down at least five overs in the IPL. Kolkata are the only team with three bowlers – Mohammad Hafeez and Ishant are the other two – who have an economy rate of less than 6.50.
Punjab’s Irfan Pathan is the most successful bowler of the tournament with nine wickets at an average of 15.88 and a strike rate of 13.3 balls per wicket.
“This is not a team issue. I suppose it has been discussed by the IPL officials. We have moved beyond that (incident). We want to concentrate on our cricket and win the game Saturday.”
Scorecard Sri Lanka completed a facile nine-wicket win over Bangladesh, following up a tidy display in the field with a professional chase of a paltry 121 with with 145 balls remaining.Sri Lanka chose to field first, and had Bangladesh in early trouble. Janakanthy Mala removed Shukhtara for a nine-ball duck and added Shathira Jakir in her next over, and left-arm spinner Suwini de Alwis struck to make it 29 for 3. Ayesha Akhter stuck around long enough to top-score with 30 from 75 deliveries but nobody else crossed 20 and Bangladesh were all out for 120 in 49.3 overs. Janakanthy Mala finished with the most excellent figures of 10-6-9-3 and was backed up by Shashikala Siriwardene’s 3 for 28.Rumana Ahmed struck early to dismiss Chamari Polgampola for 14 in the 15th over of Sri Lanka’s chase but that would be Bangladesh’s only moment of success. Dedunu Silva remained unbeaten on 66 from 82 balls, with the help of 12 boundaries, and added 81 in 11.4 overs, at 6.94 runs an over, with Siriwardene (23 not out) to wrap up victory. Scorecard India trounced Pakistan by 207 runs in the final league match after rattling up the highest total of the tournament so far. Three Indian batsmen got half-centuries after which Neetu David and Snehal Pradhan took three wickets each to bowl out Pakistan for a miserable 76.India, who have got four of the five 200+ totals in the tournament, were given an impressive start by the openers, Karuna Jain and Jaya Sharma, who added 114 in 20.4 overs. Anagha Deshpande and Mithali Raj put on 53 more before Raj and Rumeli Dhar added an unbeaten 90 to take India to 283.An out-of-depth Pakistan lost their first four wickets for 44 runs. Snehal Pradhan, a medium-pace bowler making her debut, removed Bismah Maroof off the second ball she bowled. Pakistan had crawled to 62 when left-arm spinner David took two wickets in one over to reduce them to 66 got 8. The misery lasted six more overs before India ended it ruthlessly. India will now play Sri Lanka in the final.
Spinners have had plenty of help from the pitches during India’s Test series against South Africa, and the extent of the help they have had has been the topic of a fair few debates. Some have felt batting has been a lottery, others that batsmen from both sides have made them look worse than they actually are.At the end of the third Test in Nagpur, India had wrapped up their second straight Test series win, and ended South Africa’s nine-year unbeaten run away from home. They were impressive achievements, but the bulk of the questions posed to Virat Kohli at his post-match press conference were about the pitch.Kohli said he had no problem with pitches like the one in Nagpur, calling them preferable to flat decks that produced 500-plus totals.”It is not a policy [to play on such pitches], it is the conditions that you get in India. Otherwise you will just play Test matches which will get you 500 runs in an innings. You don’t create bowlers like that, you don’t win Test matches like that. The key is to win Test matches.”I have said this before, wherever you go to play in the world, you’ve got to be prepared to face those conditions and tune your game accordingly. Today was a classic example of two guys [Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis] applying themselves and showing that it can be done. I don’t know why is there so much hype created around the issue.”There are a lot of people writing a lot of things about the pitch. ‘It should not be like this’, or ‘it is turning too much’, people sitting somewhere else and speaking about the pitch in India. I think it is just a matter of mindset where people are just giving their opinions and they are free to do so. I don’t feel that way, we have never complained when we had challenging conditions and won’t complain in the future either.”We have tried to improve our game, it is always a matter of us not having the technique or us not having the mental strength to cope with conditions away from home. But when these sorts of things happen, everybody starts talking about how it is an undue home advantage. In the last few years if you see the stats of any team they are dominating at home and that is how Test cricket has gone. Whoever has won away from home is the No. 1 or No. 2 side in the world. I think that takes a lot of character and that won’t happen every time.”South Africa hadn’t lost in nine years and it is very hard to maintain that sort of record. Credit to them, they have not lost an away series for nine years but I would give credit to our boys for putting equal amount of pressure in the course of these three Test matches and actually win the series. I don’t see anything more or less to it.”Virat Kohli – “Wherever you go to play in the world, you’ve got to be prepared to face those conditions and tune your game accordingly”•BCCI
According to Kohli, India’s batsmen could themselves have dealt with the conditions better.”I would not like to comment on what the opposition did not do,” he said. “Us as a batting unit, and I said this in Mohali as well, we haven’t applied ourselves properly. One or two batsmen have but I think to play well consistently you have to apply as a batsman so we are talking of four guys out of six. But that’s not what happened and it has been two-odd guys every innings and that does not get you to a big total.”We have still been able to get to 220-225-odd three times out of four but as I said, if two guys apply themselves and the rest don’t, then things don’t go as planned. I am talking about our batting group. Even on turning pitches, if you apply yourself and if you are determined to dig in and play a game that is not natural to you, you can score runs.”Our batsmen did that in Mohali and Vijay got a decent start in the first innings [in Nagpur]. Pujara played well, in the second innings Shikhar got 40-odd, so everyone showed that runs can be scored. It was more a case of batsmen making mistakes rather than the ball doing some crazy things out in the middle. I think it was more of a mental thing which needed more application.”Playing in similar conditions, Kohli said, would help India’s batsmen improve their game against spin – which some experts felt had deteriorated when they lost the first Test on their tour to Sri Lanka in August.”As I said, these are the conditions that you get in India,” he said. “When we collapsed in Galle, someone was saying that we have improved our fast-bowling play but we don’t how to play spin. And now we are playing on spin-friendly wickets and this is the problem as well. I don’t know where we find the balance.”We as a team feel we have to improve our play against spin as well. These are the conditions we get in subcontinent and we have to play a lot of Test matches [in the subcontinent] in future as well. So, as a team in future, this is a learning phase as well for us. We need to step up our game in order to win Test matches like we have done this time.”Kohli said he did not mind continuing to play on pitches like the one on Nagpur, even if it meant his batting record, and those of the rest of India’s top order, suffered as a consequence.”I don’t mind compromising on [batsmen’s] averages as long as we are winning Test matches,” he said. “I think that’s our main concern, we are not playing for records, we are not playing for numbers or averages. Let’s not get into that matter. Yeah, that’s all there is to it. In Sri Lanka our performances weren’t that great with the bat but we still won the series. It’s the bowlers who are going to win you Test matches, as simple as that.”If you don’t take 20 wickets, you can have an average of 55, it doesn’t matter. These small contributions and team winning are more important rather than having an average of 50 and above and bowlers not being able to take wickets. I think you need to find an appropriate balance and sometime small contributions are more important than the big hundreds that we get in Test cricket.”
The ECB has announced the six host teams for the inaugural Women’s Cricket Super League which will take place during the English season.There will be three teams in the south – one based with Surrey at The Oval, another with Hampshire and a third in the South West – two in the north with Lancashire and Yorkshire and one in the Midlands run by Loughborough University. The South West features a joint bid between Somerset and Gloucestershire, while a joint Middlesex/MCC bid missed out for the one London-based team.The six teams have been awarded hosting rights for the period 2016-19. To begin with it the WCSL will feature just T20 but 50-over cricket will be included in the future.John Stephenson, MCC’s head of cricket, said: “Having submitted a joint bid with Middlesex, naturally MCC is disappointed with today’s outcome. Hopefully the club can play an active part in the tournament in the years ahead.”Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said: “This is a key day in the creation of the Women’s Cricket Super League – we have now secured the six hosts for the start of the competition this summer.”It is pleasing to see so much diverse and innovative partnership working across the cricket and educational landscapes and that the six chosen hosts provide such a strong geographical spread. To have seven First Class counties, five Non-First Class counties and three universities involved, demonstrates how collaborative, imaginative and wide-ranging this project is.”
Women’s Cricket Super League hosts
Hampshire Cricket with partners: Berkshire Cricket Ltd, Dorset Cricket Board, Isle of Wight Cricket Board, Oxfordshire Cricket, Southampton Solent University, Sussex Cricket Ltd, Wiltshire Cricket Ltd Lancashire County Cricket Board with partners: Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation Loughborough University South West: Somerset County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, University of Exeter Surrey County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Clare Conner, the director of women’s cricket, added: “Our vision for the Women’s Cricket Super League is to create an exciting, dynamic and high quality domestic women’s game in England, where the world’s best players come together to drive performance standards and to inspire women and girls to love cricket.”All six of the confirmed hosts have passionately demonstrated that they share this aspiration and we are now really excited to work with them to deliver this next stage in the evolution of women’s cricket in this country.”The WSL follows the introduction of the Women’s Big Bash in Australia. That tournament is run in conjunction with the men’s BBL, but the WCSL is not directly linked to the men’s domestic structure.”Whilst there are similarities in the drivers behind the Women’s Cricket Super League and Women’s Big Bash League – wanting to further raise standards of performance and encourage participation – they are very different in their identity and formation,” Connor said.”The WBBL is an extension of the men’s Big Bash League, and it has benefited in terms of infrastructure, operations, personnel and brand recognition, amongst other things. The WCSL is an entirely new proposition for cricket in this country. It’s a fresh chapter for the sport and we are all hugely excited that the women’s game is pioneering it.”Sussex claim to have given more opportunities to female cricketers in their Academy than any other first-class county. They said their decision to support Hampshire rather than put in their own bid was for “strategic reasons”.The tournament will be run from July 30 to August 14 with each team playing each other home and away with the top four sides reaching Finals Day.
MS Dhoni has not been finishing off matches of late. Against South Africa, in Kanpur last year, he came in to bat with 90 required off the last 10 overs. India needed 11 off the last over. Dhoni scored 31 off 30 in India’s defeat. In Rajkot later in the series, he scored 47 off 61 and was part of a slowdown after the 30th over, which cost India the match. Dhoni himself fell in the 42nd over. In Canberra he fell third ball when India lost needed 72 at under a run a ball with eight wickets in hand.In Sydney, Dhoni came in with the asking rate under seven, but his 34 off 42 played a big part in the asking rate reaching two a ball towards the end. Along the way, though, he shepherded a young Manish Pandey although he did enjoy some luck: he was dropped once and reprieved when plumb lbw. In trademark fashion, he took the game to the last over, and in trademark fashion, he biffed hit the first ball for six to ease the pressure.With question marks all around him, Dhoni later spoke about how difficult finishing matches for India is. “When there’s a big-hitting batsman there, if he gets out, you hear, ‘What was the need of that shot?’,” Dhoni said. “If that same shot goes for six, everyone applauds. How we bat in the lower middle order is, the main motto is to win the match. People say that even if you have a 51% success rate, it’s very high.”You have to give [the finishers] the benefit of doubt. And yes, it is my responsibility [to finish games], it’s my job and I’ll always take it. But at the same time, there will be times when I won’t finish the job. The others have also come to play; it’s not like there is a mark on my forehead because I’m batting lower down that says: ‘Oh he’s there, so we have won the match.’ It doesn’t happen like that. If someone bowls a good yorker, he bowls a good yorker. You can’t hit it for six. Sometimes people complain that I haven’t hit a helicopter shot – but if it’s a bouncer, how will anyone hit a helicopter shot? You have to respond to things as they happen and accordingly change your batting.”Dhoni was asked if he needs to adapt the way he closes the innings with the way the game is developing. “Till we don’t get a settled five, six and seven, I’ll have to bat lower down the order,” Dhoni said, which might mean he doesn’t have any plans to retire from the ODIs. “For which I will have to slightly adapt. I find it a bit difficult to go in and play the big shot [immediately]. More often than not, I’ve batted after the 30th over. Got a chance to play like five to seven overs, and then go and then play the big shot. I’ve always found it slightly difficult. It’s not an easy job. Nobody has found it easy to straightaway go and play the big shot.”I [still] think that will be my responsibility, because I don’t see any other youngster doing that job. I would love to bat up the order but I don’t see it happening. I’ll have to maybe do a bit more shift in my batting and adapt in a way where I can straightaway go in and try to play a big shot. But overall, you know, this series, the only opportunity where I could have scored 40-45 was the last game where we needed like 80 or something. That was a lost opportunity. Other than that, in the first three games, the way I batted, I couldn’t have done much. If you’re getting out in the 48th-49th over, you can’t get any more runs than what you have. Or the second option is, you try to play not-out, which I don’t think is the kind of cricket we want to play. We’ll try to adapt. I think that’s what my responsibility will be in the coming ODIs that I would be playing.”Dhoni also in a roundabout way said it was not always the fault of the lower middle order if a seemingly easy chase was botched up. In response to a question about whether Pandey surprised him with such a composed performance, Dhoni said: “A lot of times, whenever people score big runs and then they play a big shot and get out, nobody asks any questions. But I think the real question is, if you play a big shot and get out when you go in, whether that is something that needs to be criticised or people who are set and need to carry their innings forward.”You have to form that balance of what is needed at that point according to the demands of the game. You can’t say, ‘This is how I bat.’ The real talent is to adapt to the needs of the game, and that’s how you develop as players. If you want to serve in international cricket for a long time, you have to adapt because every game is different. All conditions, pitches, bowlers are different.”
ScorecardFile photo – Shreyas Iyer’s 90 took his tally of fifty-plus scores in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 to nine•K Sivaraman
A brisk 90 from Shreyas Iyer and complementing fifties from captain Aditya Tare (68) and Siddhesh Lad (57*) led Mumbai to a strong 327 for 7 on the first day of the semi-final against Madhya Pradesh in Cuttack.Medium-pacer Chandrakant Sakure took 4 for 102, accounting for Mumbai’s top three but the side recovered through a string of fifty-plus stands to pull Mumbai out of trouble.MP won the toss and Sakure got a breakthrough with Akhil Herwadkar’s wicket in the 11th over, but Mumbai still forged on through an 88-run second-wicket partnership between Iyer and Bhavin Thakkar. The side suffered a wobble when Thakkar and Suryakumar Yadav were dismissed in successive overs with the score at 112 for 3 but recovered as Iyer added 57 runs with Aditya Tare.Iyer fell 10 runs short of his fourth hundred of this Ranji Trophy season, his 103-ball stay at the crease yielding 13 fours and a six. It was his ninth fifty-plus score in this season, a tally second only to Vijay Bharadwaj [1998-99] and Abhishek Nayar’s [2012-13] 11 in a season. A 65-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Tare and Lad, followed by a breezy 75-run partnership between Lad and Abhishek Nayar kept Mumbai in control.After Tare’s dismissal for 68, Nayar and Lad lifted the tempo of the innings, the former scoring a 48-ball 43 that included seven fours. His partnership with Lad progressed at a rate of 5.17 and took the side past the 300-run mark. Lad saw Mumbai through to close of play with an unbeaten 57 off 115 with 11 fours.
Whilst Fabio Capello has picked a lot of good players for his England squad for the World Cup, there are some players who shouldn’t be on the plane to South Africa. Here is a run down of the top three in order of who is the least deserving:
3: Shaun Wright-Phillips
The Manchester City winger lost his place to Adam Johnson towards the end of the season as his form was so good. Wright-Phillips career hasn’t really taken off as he intended, after showing a lot of promise and earning a big money move to Chelsea he found himself back at his first club. He hasn’t progressed any further and whilst he has been reasonable for City this season hasn’t really warranted going to the World Cup. However neither has Theo Walcott based on this season’s form and Adam Johnson has only had half a season in the Premiership, so really it was down to Capello to decide who he thought would contribute the most to England.
Wright-Phillips is England’s most experienced right-winger so that could be why Capello has chosen him ahead of those two. But Walcott does potentially have more ability than Wright-Phillips based on his age and has also done more for England than him, although that is mainly based on that performance against Croatia. Capello couldn’t really have gone too wrong in picking either Wright-Phillips or Walcott as neither had an outstanding season for their club and most importantly whoever went was always going to be an understudy to Aaron Lennon anyway.
2. Michael Carrick
Carrick has had a very poor season for Manchester United and definitely should not be going to the World Cup in place of either Tom Huddlestone or Scott Parker. He seems to have a lost a lot of confidence in his own ability and his performances have shown this. This season he has been guilty of giving the ball away far too often in matches and hasn’t shown much of the passing ability he has, which at times can be world class.
One also has to ask what does Carrick bring to the England team? If England need to protect a lead then he can be thrown on to sure-up the midfield, but given his displays this season it wouldn’t fill you with the best of confidence giving him such a key role of ensuring that England don’t concede. He is a very one-dimensional player as he often will just play the ball sideways and then every now and then try a long-field pass which if it comes off can be effective but if not then it’s a waste of possession. Giving Carrick’s place to Scott Parker would have been much more of a useful decision as Parker can not only be used in a defensive role to protect a lead, but can also offer some drive to the midfield if England are in need of a goal. His performances for West Ham this season have been outstanding and there have been times where he has carried his team, it’s not surprising that he is the first player since Julian Dicks to have won Hammer of the year, two years running.
Parker could have been a great player for England to have on the bench in South Africa and it’s a shame that his place has been taken by Michael Carrick, who could potentially be an accident waiting to happen for England.
1. Emile Heskey
Scoring three goals in the Premiership and that being deemed good enough to go to the World Cup is laughable. Heskey should be nowhere near the squad, even if he volunteered to be the team’s bootboy. When you’ve got Darren Bent scoring 24 goals in an unfashionable Sunderland team and he’s left at home for a striker that manages three goals then something is seriously wrong. All this talk of Heskey’s link-up play is a nonsense as well, firstly it isn’t that great and a lot of it seems to stem from the fact that he will do one good pass or bit of movement that England will score from and it will be highlighted. But for every thing he does that leads to a goal there are several things that he does wrong that doesn’t lead to anything. Secondly for link-up player we already have Peter Crouch in the team, so unless he gets a bad injury Heskey’s presence isn’t even needed.
A lot of people are saying Heskey should be included because a statistic reads: Wayne Rooney has scored 10 England goals with Heskey in the team and two goals without him. But do people really think a player the calibre of Wayne Rooney really relies on Heskey to score goals for England? It is an interesting statistic no less but all of those goals won’t be all entirely Heskey’s making and he gets far too much credit for what he actually offers the team. The Aston Villa striker’s inclusion has been a total waste of a call-up and even Bobby Zamora had he not had injury problems should be going ahead of him. But the real victim in this is definitely Darren Bent who could simply have not done any more to persuade Fabio Capello to take him to South Africa.
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Do you agree with this assessment? Is there anyone else you wish hadn’t made the squad?
Michael Carrick missed training on Monday as England prepare for their must-win World Cup encounter against Slovenia.
The Manchester United midfielder sat out the session at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus after taking a blow to the ankle during training on Sunday.
He joined groin injury victim Ledley King of Tottenham on the sidelines ahead of the make-or-break game in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
The Three Lions must win against Slovenia to qualify for the last 16 following lacklustre draws against the United States and Algeria during a much-criticised campaign to date.
Meanwhile, Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek has warned England that his players believe they can win the pivotal game to seal their own passage to the knockout stages as group winners.
"The most important thing for such a small country as Slovenia is belief," he said following an opening 1-0 victory over Algeria and 2-2 draw with the United States on Friday.
"You must believe you can achieve, then you have a chance. That goes for any team and my team believe they can beat anyone.
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"I'm not thinking 'okay, we came to South Africa but we're small and we must try to avoid catastrophe'.
"It is more 'can I win against every team?' That is my objective."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Delighted coach Vicente del Bosque believes Spain can dominate world football for many years to come after their first-ever World Cup final victory.
Andres Iniesta's extra-time goal proved decisive as Spain became world champions for the first time after securing a 1-0 victory in an ill-tempered encounter against the Netherlands.
Spain deserved to add the World Cup to the Euro 2008 title they picked up two years ago as they created the better chances in an at times tetchy final.
"I think our effort, our flair is never-ending," said del Bosque.
"This World Cup draws from what we did in 2008 and it is the continuity and continuation of a very good legacy.
"Everyone in the dressing room is ecstatic.
"Spain, the country, deserves this triumph. This goes beyond sport. We have to celebrate and are delighted to be able to offer this victory to all the people of Spain."
No fewer than 13 players were booked, eight of them Dutch, while Johnny Heitinga was sent off in extra time.
However, afterwards del Bosque paid tribute to the effort of the Dutch in a hard-found game at Soccer City.
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"I should congratulate our opponents," he added."They made it very difficult for us to play comfortably and they had some good chances.
"To try and match Holland when they are playing at that pace is very difficult but we did it and, for the most part, I think we dominated the match.
"Yes it was rough at times but that is part of football."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
The news every Liverpool fan around the world wanted to hear- ‘Torres commits his future to Liverpool’. After captain Steven Gerrard reiterated his desire to remain at Anfield ahead of the new season, the club’s other superstar Fernando Torres spoke of his loyalty to the club and its fans, insisting he is more than happy with life on Merseyside.
Kopites had feared their Spanish striker would be tempted to ‘jump ship’ following months of speculation and claims that Torres was seriously contemplating a move to Premier League rivals Manchester City or champions Chelsea. Instead the Reds No. 9 has shown major commitment to the club, despite last season’s seventh place finish, as he moves into the prime of his footballing career.
It would have been easy for either Gerrard or Torres to make their excuses and follow Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano out of the Anfield exit door, after finishing last season an astonishing 23 points behind league champions Chelsea. Even more of a concern for both players is the club’s failure to find fresh investment and the ownership problems which overshadowed much of last year’s campaign. However the attacking duo must now sense the club is close to agreeing a new ownership deal and the proposed takeover from Chinese businessman Kenny Huang could yet come to fruition before the end of the transfer window.
Huge question marks remained over the future of both Gerrard and Torres as last season stuttered towards its miserable end. The pair had clearly become frustrated with former manager Rafael Benitez’s handling of team affairs, highlighted by the skipper’s mystified reaction to Torres being substituted with 30 minutes to play in a must-win game against Birmingham in April. Player power played a major part in Benitez’s departure and in a bid to keep the club’s want-away stars happy, Fulham manager Roy Hodgson was brought in to steady the ‘sinking ship’, as put so eloquently by winger Albert Riera before he was sold.
The club’s fans will be thankful Hodgson managed to sell his future vision of Liverpool to both Torres and Gerrard, failure to do so would have left The Reds facing the impossible task of replacing the irreplaceable. England international Gerrard has been the heartbeat of Liverpool for over a decade, since breaking into the side in 1998. Although Gerrard is now 30, he can still play at the top of his game for at least another three years. The importance of Gerrard’s decision to stay cannot be stressed highly enough; helping convince those around him their future should be at Liverpool too.
Despite having failed to win anything of real significance at club level, El Niño is prepared to give another year of his career to Liverpool in an attempt to deliver the club’s first piece of silverware since the 2006 FA Cup. How would have Liverpool have possibly replaced one of the deadliest and most sought after strikers on the planet and their main source of goals over the past three seasons had he decided to leave? The Spanish international has scored an extraordinary 56 goals in 79 appearances for Liverpool since his move from Atletico Madrid in 2007. If the 18 time league champions are to start competing for honours again this season then Torres’ goal-scoring exploits will surely be fundamental to the cause.
News that Torres and Gerrard are staying gives the club an opportunity to real make progress this season. If the club can finally fulfil promises made regarding investment in player recruits and a new stadium, then both players could yet see out the remainder of their careers in the red shirt of Liverpool. Should the news of a takeover prove to be a false dawn, coupled with another poor season, then expect the future of both players to come under scrutiny in the winter and again the following summer.
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