Furious Ferguson to shake up Man U for Carling Cup semi-final

Deepak Jain>Mon, Jan 04 10 02:39 PM

London, Jan. 4 (ANI): Ahead of Wednesday's crucial Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester City, Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson is expected to shake up the side.

Although the Old Trafford boss had pledged to continue with his policy of playing his youngsters in the competition, but United's disastrous FA Cup exit against League One Leeds has forced the Scot to rethink his plans for the trip to Eastlands.

The Sun quoted a furious Ferguson as saying: "I didn't expect that. The preparation was very good but I was shocked at the performance. It's a disappointment. Human beings can always surprise you, but we didn't expect that today.

"We have a semi-final on Wednesday and a lot of these players today won't be playing. I had the team in mind but there may be one or two changes now. We need to get it out of our system. You must get over these kind of results quickly," he added.

Fergie claimed only second-half sub Antonio Valencia had come out with any credit from the 14 players who featured for United.

"I don't think any of ours can say they had a good day. Only Valencia can say he had a fair performance when we got the ball to him - but it took us about 10 minutes to do that," he said.

"Leeds had a bigger appetite than us for most of the game. You need a bit of luck in games like this and they got it. But they deserved it because they played really well."

"It was a bad goal for us to lose but the whole performance from us was bad in the first half. We never got going and the quality of passing was bad," he added.

"You always expect us to get a goal at Old Trafford and the intensity of our game improved a little bit in the second half." (ANI)

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Sri Lanka win toss, elect to field

Deepak Jain Mon, Jan 04 10 02:27 PM

Mirpur, Jan 4 (PTI) Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bowl against Bangladesh in the first cricket match of the ODI tri-series here today. Teams: Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (c), WU Tharanga, T Dilshan, LPC Silva, TT Samaraweera, T Kandamby, M Pushpakumara, S Randiv, R Lakmal, N Kulasekara, C Welegedara

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Warne, Ponting urged to speak against violence on Indian students

Deepak Jain>Mon, Jan 04 10 02:17 PM

Melbourne, Jan. 4 (ANI): Cricketing legends Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting have been urged to speak out against violence against Indian students following the brutal murder of Nitin Garg on Saturday night.

Gautam Gupta, a spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, says the two cricket stars have huge followings in India and it is about time they voiced their concerns.

Gupta said it was time Ponting and Warne spoke up because they have millions of fans in India.

"They should jump in and defend Indian students in Australia," Mr Gupta said.Shane Warne is an icon in India - he has millions of fans."

Gupta said the Indian community believed the murder was a 'racist attack'.

"His (Garg's) mobile phone and his wallet were still there. There's a lot of frustration because of the question of racism. What we have to see is how this anger is manifested," Gupta said.

"From their point of view, there can be no other motivation than race. Everyone I have spoken to says there's a lot of fear and a lot of anger about it," he added.

Garg, a 21-year-old accounting graduate, who was on his way to his job at a Hungry Jacks fast food outlet in West Melbourne on Saturday night when he was attacked.

Australia's bilateral relationship with India is also being threatened after Garg's murder.

One of Garg's relatives is expected in Australia this week to collect his body and return it to the family's home in Punjab.

Gupta said student leaders were considering holding a protest and he predicted a frenzied reaction once news of the killing hit the Indian media. (ANI)

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Roman Abramovich shells outs $5m for star studded New Year's Eve bash

Deepak Jain>Mon, Jan 04 10 02:13 PM

New York, January 4 (ANI): Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich reportedly shelled out 5 million dollars for a star studded New Year's Eve celebration on the Caribbean resort island of Saint Barthilemy.

The 43-year-old purportedly spent 2.6 million dollars on food and drink while the 250 guests were transported with a fleet of private jets to his new 90 million dollar estate.

The oil and steel magnate and his socialite girlfriend Daria Zhukova played host to Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and his girlfriend, Miranda Kerr, reports the New York Post.

According to the Daily Mail, the budget for entertainment ran up to 1.7 million dollars and performances by Beyonci, Gwen Stefani and Prince drew up a tab of 567,000 dollars each.

Abramovich, also the owner of the Chelsea soccer team and the world's biggest yacht, was said to have made his mark by providing guests with a swimming pool with swim-up bar, as well as an outdoor stage and cinema. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

Warne, Ponting urged to speak against violence on Indian students

Deepak Jain>Mon, Jan 04 10 02:09 PM

Melbourne, Jan. 4 (ANI): Cricketing legends Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting have been urged to speak out against violence against Indian students following the brutal murder of Nitin Garg on Saturday night.

Gautam Gupta, a spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, says the two cricket stars have huge followings in India and it is about time they voiced their concerns.

Gupta said it was time Ponting and Warne spoke up because they have millions of fans in India.

"They should jump in and defend Indian students in Australia," Mr Gupta said.Shane Warne is an icon in India - he has millions of fans."

Gupta said the Indian community believed the murder was a 'racist attack'.

"His (Garg's) mobile phone and his wallet were still there. There's a lot of frustration because of the question of racism. What we have to see is how this anger is manifested," Gupta said.

"From their point of view, there can be no other motivation than race. Everyone I have spoken to says there's a lot of fear and a lot of anger about it," he added.

Garg, a 21-year-old accounting graduate, who was on his way to his job at a Hungry Jacks fast food outlet in West Melbourne on Saturday night when he was attacked.

Australia's bilateral relationship with India is also being threatened after Garg's murder.

One of Garg's relatives is expected in Australia this week to collect his body and return it to the family's home in Punjab.

Gupta said student leaders were considering holding a protest and he predicted a frenzied reaction once news of the killing hit the Indian media. (ANI)

Source: Web Search

We need a good all-rounder for Tests: Yousuf

Deepak Jain>Mon, Jan 04 10 01:57 PM

Sydney, Jan 4 (IANS) Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf feels that a good all-rounder will improve his team's performances in the Tests.

Yousuf lamented that when it comes to One-day and Twenty20s Pakistan have plenty of talented all-rounders, but in Tests they are hard to find.

Former captain Shoaib Malik had performed that role of an all-rounder but in recent times he doesn't bowl much while Abdul Razzaq has almost retired from Tests.

In the first Test against Australia, Pakistan had to rely on just four bowlers and have faced criticism from some experts, who believe that they should show more aggression and play with five specialist bowlers to achieve better results.

'How can we do that. That would mean dropping one batsman. It would further weaken our batting. What we need right now is an all-rounder. He could be our fifth bowler,' Yousuf was quoted as saying in The News.

Yousuf, who replaced Younis Khan as the Pakistan captain last year, is likely to get a longer stint as a regular skipper.

Asked whether he was disappointed when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ignored his request to send Younis to Australia, Yousuf said: 'I can't say anything about it. It's been many days since I made the request. It's not my call. It's up to the board and the selectors to make the decision.'

Yousuf had made the request during the Melbourne Test when Pakistan's batting flopped yet again. However, Younis failed to regain his form in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy forcing the PCB to turn down the captain's request.

Source: Web Search

Ntini to call it a day?

Deepak Jain>Mon, Jan 04 10 01:39 PM

The first black cricketer to play for South Africa, pacer Makhaya Ntini is planning to bid adieu to his international career after being dropped for the third Test against England.

Ntini has reportedly signed an agreement with English county side Middlesex that will keep him from being available for national duty. Ntini celebrated his 100th Test in the second Test against England last month but was left out of the team for the third Test due to his consistently declining performance in the past two years.

Although Cricket South Africa (CSA) remained tight-lipped, sources close to Ntini indicated that the 32-year-old former herdsman had signed a Kolpak contract with Middlesex. Such a contract requires players to undertake that they would not be available for their national team. Ntini has a contract with CSA until April.

"CSA has not heard anything yet from Ntini," Proteas spokesman Michael Owen-Smith told the Afrikaans daily 'Beeld'.

"The selectors will decide if he is offered a contract again and he can then decline the contract," he said. Ntini, who became a celebrity after being snapped up out of obscurity and poverty as a rural herdsman, was the first black African player in the national side after decades of the team being exclusively white in the apartheid era.

Ntini has taken 391 wickets from 101 Tests, while snapping up 266 in 173 ODIs.

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