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Kings XI Punjab have been issued a notice for having not yet paid the entertainment duty owed for the match they hosted at the PCA stadium on April 13

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Apr-2011Kings XI Punjab have been issued a notice for having not yet paid the entertainment duty owed for the match they hosted at the PCA stadium in Mohali on April 13. They were supposed to pay the amount within three days of the game but since they haven’t, the Excise and Taxation department issued a notice to the Punjab management on Tuesday asking them to submit the details of the tickets sold and revenue generated, and to pay the requisite entertainment duty at the rate of 25% of the total income.Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Baldeep Kaur has directed the franchise to deposit the levy without any further delay, failing which action under the Land Revenue Act will be initiated against the organisers for recovery of entertainment duty arrears.In order to procure the rights to host matches for this season, Punjab had paid Rs 5.6mn in entertainment duty payable for two of the matches they hosted at the PCA Stadium during the third season of the IPL. They are scheduled to host three more games in Mohali this season.

Reigning champions Hampshire enjoyed the best of a five-overs-per-side slog in rain-soaked Tunbridge Wells

05-Jun-2011
ScorecardReigning champions Hampshire enjoyed the best of a five-overs-per-side slog in rain-soaked Tunbridge Wells as Kent slid to their second Friends Life t20 defeat inside three days.Having posted a total of 78 for 1, Hampshire restricted the hosts to 58 for 2 to secure a comfortable 20-run win in a game that finally got under way at 6pm after a three-hour delay.Match umpires Steve O’Shaughnessy and David Millns had inspected conditions at The Nevill at 4.30pm and again at 5.30pm before finally, at 5.45pm, deciding to play the reduced game. The vast majority of a 4,000 crowd had already left.Having lost the toss and taken only 11 runs from their two powerplay overs, bowled by Azhar Mahmood and Charl Langeveldt, Hampshire quickly made up for lost time.Their left-handed opening pair of Jimmy Adams and Michael Lumb bludgeoned 28 from Simon Cook’s only over. The over included three consecutive sixes from Adams, one of which flew into the Kent committee marquee while the next sailed over it.Not to be outdone, Lumb then clipped four successive sixes in Adam Ball’s sole over of the evening, which also cost 28. Rookie left-armer Ball hit back by bowling Lumb for 35 from 11 balls with his final delivery to take the score to 67 for 1 after four overs.Matt Coles sent down a tidier final over to concede 11 and leave Adams unbeaten with 33 from 15 balls faced, while Spitfires faced a daunting asking rate of 15.8 runs an over for victory.Rather than opening up their reply with their big-hitters, Kent surprisingly stuck to their tried and tested batting order, only to lose openers Rob Key and Joe Denly inside two overs and with only 11 on the board.Darren Stevens temporarily improved their chances by taking 20 off Imran Tahir’s over, including a six onto the pavilion roof, but Chris Wood bowled a tidy fourth over, leaving Kent to hit 34 off the final over from visiting captain Dominic Cork. Cork, however, conceded just 13.Stevens had done his utmost for the Kent cause, to finish unbeaten with 45 from 16 balls, but Hampshire travelled home with the points.

James Taylor’s century and Ben Stokes’s fifty set up a series-clinching 135-run victory for England Lions over Sri Lanka A at Northampton

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Aug-2011
ScorecardJames Taylor’s century and Ben Stokes’s fifty set up a series-clinching 135-run victory for England Lions over Sri Lanka A at Northampton.It was Taylor’s second hundred in three games and helped the Lions bounce back emphatically from their 10-wicket drubbing the game before. Taylor and Stokes helped the Lions recover from 38 for 3 to post 282 before the bowlers finished the job in style, skittling Sri Lanka A for 147 with over 20 overs to spare.It was a captain’s innings in the old sense from Taylor, anchoring the recovery at one end while Stokes was more positive from the other. Tharanga Lakshitha had done the early damage taking each of the first three wickets before the fightback started.The pair added 98 with Stokes reaching his fifty first – from 45 balls – hitting seven fours and three sixes in his 65-ball 73. He fell just past the half-way stage to legspinner Seekkuge Prasanna. Though he had time to score plenty more his contribution would not have gone unnoticed by the England selectors who will be considering their squad for the upcoming India series.Taylor was more restrained, taking 91 balls to make his half-century but steadily increased his pace as the innings wore on. At one stage – when the Lions slipped to 178 for 6 – it looked as though he may run out of partners but James Harris offered him sound support with 29. It took Taylor just 37 deliveries to go from fifty to his century and by the time he was last man out in the final over, he had struck eight fours and a six in his 111.283 looked a challenging target and it proved much too difficult for the visitors. The promising four-pronged seam attack, which included Ireland’s Boyd Rankin for the first time, shared seven wickets, while Lancashire left-arm spinner Simon Kerrigan took the other three. The chase was as good as done by the third over when Sri Lanka A were reduced to 7 for 3.Captain Dimuth Karunaratne resisted grimly for 30 from 43 balls in a stand with Sachithra Chaturanga, who made 35. Aside from them, though, wickets kept tumbling. It needed a 38-run ninth-wicket stand to push Sri Lanka A towards 150 but Kerrigan and Woakes finished off the match to give the Lions the series.

Brendan Nash, the West Indies vice-captain, is hoping that a return to St Kitts will bring him another big score as his side aims to wrap up the series against Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff19-May-2011Brendan Nash, the West Indies vice-captain, is hoping that a return to St Kitts will bring him another big score as his side aims to wrap up the series against Pakistan. The second Test begins on Friday at Warner Park, where Nash last year made his highest Test score, 114 against South Africa.West Indies are coming off a morale-boosting victory in the first Test in Guyana, their first Test win in more than two years. However, Nash didn’t have much impact in the match, scoring 5 in the first innings and 3 in the second, and he wants to play his part in St Kitts.”Last year when we played here we got a really good batting surface and I managed to get a good century, which was my second century for the West Indies,” Nash said. “We were outplayed by the South Africans in the first match in Trinidad, but we rebounded to get what you could say was a fighting draw here in St Kitts.”I felt I batted really well, adding some valuable runs with Shiv [Chanderpaul], who also got a good century. Shiv and I put on a very good partnership. There were quite a few runs scored in that match and it was good the way we responded. Coming back here again this year I will be looking for another big score for the team. I didn’t get many in Guyana so I know I will be looking to make a greater contribution in this match.”We did some really good things in Guyana and we will be looking to do well again here. The bowlers were exceptional. [Darren] Sammy led from the front and the others followed. Ravi [Rampaul] got some great wickets for us and [Devendra] Bishoo was also very good in his first match. I rate the performance of the team very high.”Fourteen players have travelled to St Kitts to prepare for the second Test; the XI from the Guyana victory plus Fidel Edwards, Marlon Samuels and Kraigg Brathwaite. The squad will be trimmed to 13 on Thursday.

Everton are in a vulnerable position in the Premier League finding themselves in the relegation zone following a defeat in the Merseyside derby last weekend.

Frank Lampard has six games left to make the great escape to avoid the club’s first-ever Premier League relegation to the Championship, and should he keep his job at the club this summer there will be big changes needed to be made, no matter the outcome.

There are numerous problems in the performances and the quality throughout the squad this season, but one particular area of focus that has let the side down time and time again is the defence.

Jamie Carragher blasted the Everton defenders recently following a humiliating 5-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur calling the defence set-up “Championship level” in a scathing assessment on Sky Sports Monday Night Football show;

“That back four is miles away, it’s Championship level.

“They’re weak physically and it’s a massive problem for them going forward.”

The back four he was referring to included both Mason Holgate and Michael Keane who have been constantly costing Everton this season with their numerous errors and lack of basic judgement whilst defending the back-line, and Lampard should do everything he can to get rid of the pair.

According to SofaScore ratings, Holgate is one of the worst-rated players in the entire squad ranking 23rd out of 30 and for good reason when you consider his performances and statistics this season.

The centre-back has lost the majority of his ground duels (56%), is unsuccessful in the majority of his dribbles (67%), commits 1.2 fouls on average per game and has not only scored an own goal but has also served a three-match ban following a reckless challenge on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg just 10 minutes after coming on against Spurs at Goodison Park.

However, Keane completely outshines Holgate for poor performances this season, with the 29-year-old making a huge amount of mistakes this season on top of extremely average to poor performances every single week.

The Toffees defender has made several game-changing mistakes including two own goals in the space of two months that have led to defeats, with both of his own goals opening up the scoring for Norwich City and Spurs in the aforementioned embarrassing defeat.

On top of his two own goals, Keane has had two errors leading to a goal, hasn’t won possession in a single Premier League performance for the entire season and like his team-mate has also served a suspension when he was recently sent off against West Ham United for a reckless challenge following a yellow card.

With all of that in mind, there is no doubt that the Everton manager must find a way to either sell these two players or convince Farhad Moshiri to provide the funds to replace and upgrade the disaster duo ahead of next season if they have any hope of improving their position in the Premier League should they stay up.

AND in other news: Sources: Huge exit claim emerges out of Everton that will leave supporters fuming

Cricket Ireland (CI) has confirmed the appointment of Stephen Moreton as coach of the national Women’s squad

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2010Cricket Ireland (CI) has confirmed the appointment of Stephen Moreton as coach of the national Women’s squad. Moreton, who had first-class experience as a cricketer with Oxford UCCE, had been in the role on a temporary basis following the resignation of Paul Delany earlier in the season.”I’m delighted to be given the opportunity to coach the Irish side,” said Moreton. “I feel very lucky to have inherited such a talented group who are all extremely proud to be able to represent their country. We have a World-Cup qualification tournament in November in Bangladesh, and it is within our own hands whether or not we do well enough in this tournament to qualify for the World Twenty20 in 2012, and the one-day World Cup in 2013.”The recent tournament [ICC Women’s Challenge] gave us an indication about are position in relation to the other countries vying for qualification, and it will be a long, tough road – but one that I am excited to be involved in.””I feel the appointment of Stephen as coach to the Irish Women’s national squad, ahead of the start of 2011 season is a positive move by Cricket Ireland,” enthused Ireland captain Ciara Metcalfe. “Stephen was introduced to the team back in August as interim coach and during his short time has made a big impact.”2011 is a massive year for Irish Women’s Cricket and all our attention must be centered around the World Cup Qualification tournament in November. I have no doubt with Stephen’s cricket knowledge, some team commitment and hard work we can have a successful year.”

Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to get back to winning ways as their quest for a top-four finish continues with the visit of Leicester City in the Premier League this afternoon.

Antonio Conte’s men have slipped in recent weeks, drawing 0-0 to Brentford and losing 1-0 to Brighton last time they were in N17. It means arch-rivals Arsenal – who also play later today – are two points clear right now.

Spurs can put the pressure back on the Gunners with a valuable three points against the Foxes, but it won’t be easy as the Europa Conference League semi-finalists always pose a big threat on their day, with players like James Maddison, Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans at Brenden Rodgers’ disposal.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-spurs-news-transfer-rumours-gossip-levy-conte-paratici-thfc” title= “Read the latest Spurs news!”]

This encounter could be won or lost on the flanks, where the Italian’s system is heavily reliant on the wing-backs contributing both offensively and defensively, and it is also an area of concern in recent matches, too.

Emerson Royal has struggled to adapt to English football for large parts of the 2021/22 campaign, since his move from FC Barcelona in the summer, and with Matt Doherty’s season over through injury, it’s hard to drop him.

But that is indeed what Conte must do, with up-and-coming U23 starlet Marcel Lavinier waiting in the wings. He is also able to utilise a Lucas Moura, Steven Bergwijn or Dejan Kulusevski in the role if need be.

The visiting Midlands outfit possess some strong players in the wide department too – 42% of their play comes down the Brazilian’s flank, so you can expect Harvey Barnes to be very involved, if not Ademola Lookman.

Over the course of the campaign, supporters have been left frustrated by Emerson’s performances with many describing him as a “liability”, whilst former Lilywhites and Real Madrid defender Jonathan Woodgate once described the 23-year-old as “horrendous”.

The £25m-rated right-back is dribbled past an average of once per game, has been a part of only four clean sheets from 26 league appearances and only wins possession back 0.2 times per outing too, as per SofaScore, which only emphasises his weakness and up against Barnes and co, he could be badly exposed.

As such, the Italian head coach must make a bold and ruthless call to axe Emerson from his starting XI this afternoon. He’s short on options but it would be a telling sign of Emerson’s ability.

AND in other news, Conte drops Oliver Skipp injury update ahead of Foxes clash…

Trent Copeland has emerged as a telling reminder of Test cricket’s lowered place in Australian cricket’s pay structure

Daniel Brettig26-Jul-2011Trent Copeland emerged as a telling reminder of Test cricket’s lowered place in Australian cricket’s pay structure as the selection chairman Andrew Hilditch complained the central contracts system was “not ideal”.Like Michael Beer and Nathan Lyon, Copeland earned Test selection for next month’s tour of Sri Lanka from outside the list of 25 contracted players named by Hilditch last month. However as a medium-pace bowler equipped far better for the long forms of the game than the shorter ones, Copeland has been unable to join them in securing a Big Bash League Twenty20 contract.This means he will fly to Sri Lanka on a middling state contract of around $75,000 a year plus his tour fees, a pittance next to some of the wages being earned by team-mates blessed with Cricket Australia, BBL and Indian Premier League deals.Should he play in the series and the South African tour that follows it, Copeland will be upgraded to a CA deal, but his relatively modest means have provided an instant reminder of how little financial incentive there is left to aspire to a Test career, for all the talk about the lure of the baggy green not being diluted by T20 money.None of Beer, Copeland and Lyon were completely lateral choices, but their “ranking” under CA’s pay scales is severely weakened by the weighting given to limited-overs and T20 cricket. As such, none were deemed worthy of a contract, and Hilditch conceded the system was less than optimal for Test aspirants.”Our priority is Test cricket and I’m sure the players’ priority is Test cricket,” Hilditch said. “That’s the area where we’ve obviously fallen pretty poorly in the rankings and we’ve had the Ashes disappointment, so we’re very much of the view that we have to get back to where we want to be in Test cricket.”Because we rank three forms of the game… that’s just the way the contracts came out. Copeland and Beer were very much in line for Test-match selection. It’s really a totally different issue, the contract list, compared to the squad that we’ve picked for Sri Lanka.”When pressed to suggest a better system, Hilditch said it was not for him to decide, and reiterated that the limitations of the contract structure would not preclude the selectors from picking the teams they felt were the best to represent Australia in Tests.”It’s the system at the moment, but when we come down to pick the Test squad for Sri Lanka, I always knew there would be people from outside the system to be picked in that squad,” Hilditch said. “It doesn’t really affect the selection process at all.”It is obviously difficult when you have three forms of the game. There’s the potential to give 60 players a ranking in one form of the game. Obviously there’s a lot of overlap and it doesn’t work that way in reality, but the reality is a lot of players will get a ranking in one form of the game that won’t get a contract, but when we come to pick the Australian side we’ll pick the best team we can.”Australia’s Test selections may not be clouded by the lack of money seemingly available for Test-match specialists, but the future of the Test team certainly will be if all the money open to aspirants is funnelled into T20. The Australian captain, Michael Clarke, observed as much on the occasion of the 2000th Test, contested between England and India at Lord’s.”Governing bodies must prioritise player performance and payment in Test cricket,” Clarke told the . “The future of Test cricket relies on the investment in continuing to make it the pinnacle of the sport. “It is the toughest form of the game. It requires all the skills of the other two forms of the game, but over five days. The physical and mental intensity of a five-day Test makes Test cricket far and away the pinnacle of the game.”

Alex Crook has now dropped some key additional transfer news involving Aaron Ramsey and Glasgow Rangers.

The Lowdown: Imminent announcement

The Ibrox faithful are patiently awaiting for the official confirmation and announcement of Ramsey, as Italian football journalist and transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has even gone as far as to say that it is a ‘done deal‘.

He added that it is an ‘agreement on loan with buy option’, and so an deal will now have to be reached between the two clubs in terms of how to split his quite astronomical £400,000-per-week wages.

The Latest: Crook on wages

Taking to Twitter, talkSPORT journalist Crook has now revealed that Juventus will still pay ‘the majority if not all’ of Ramsey’s wages as he makes the move to the Teddy Bears:

“talkSPORT have been told Rangers are not smashing their wage structure for Aaron Ramsey so #Juventus will pick up the majority if not all of his wages.” The Verdict: Perfect

If the Light Blues can seal the deal for Ramsey and not have to pay any of his wages, then that quite literally would be perfect for them.

There is so much excitement over the Wales international arriving at the Gers, as Sky Sports journalist Keith Downie claims that he will be ‘the most extraordinary signing of Deadline Day’, while RFC legend Ally McCoist even goes as far as to claim that he would be ‘the club’s biggest signing since Gazza’.

Nonetheless, even if Rangers have to pay a tiny portion of his salary, it would still represent a great deal for them, and assuming that they announce him before the deadline, Ramsey would then be eligible to make his debut in the midweek Old Firm clash against Celtic, which would be a huge bonus.

In other news, find out which other Deadline Day move Rangers have been linked with here!

Michael Hussey will walk on to the MCG on Wednesday under immense pressure ahead of the Ashes, but his captain Ricky Ponting believes Hussey will come good before the first Test

Brydon Coverdale02-Nov-2010Michael Hussey will walk on to the MCG on Wednesday under immense pressure ahead of the Ashes, but his captain Ricky Ponting believes Hussey will come good before the first Test. Hussey has joined the ODI squad fresh from a disappointing Sheffield Shield match for Western Australia in Adelaide, where he followed a first-innings golden duck with 3 in the second innings.One domestic outing would not usually have any bearing on an established player’s place in the side, but Hussey’s Test form has been scratchy for some time. His career average hovers around 50 but in the past two years he has averaged only 34.18, and at 35 years of age the time to justify his position is rapidly running out.Adding to the selectors’ dilemma in the lead-up to the Gabba Test is the strong form of Usman Khawaja, who toured England with the Test squad this year and started the Sheffield Shield season with a double-century. While Hussey was struggling in Adelaide, his South Australian opponent Callum Ferguson posted 129, and the form of the much younger batsmen won’t make life any easier for Hussey.”He’s a bit disappointed with it,” Ponting said of Hussey’s Sheffield Shield performance. “I’ve had a good chat with him today. He’s very clear in his own mind about what he needs to do and he feels he’s on the right track and his preparation has been good for every game that he’s played. Class players like him generally find a way to get it done, and I’m sure that over the next few one-day games against Sri Lanka you’ll see him score some runs.”But the selectors must decide whether the ODI arena is the best place for Hussey in the build-up to the Ashes. Western Australia play a first-class game against the touring England side in Perth starting on Friday and it could be the perfect opportunity for Hussey to find some touch against the red ball and his Ashes opponents.Australia’s full-time selector, Greg Chappell, said there had been discussions about releasing Hussey to take part in that game, but the batsman wanted to stay with the one-day side. On Tuesday, Ponting had not looked closely at the state schedule but conceded the idea of getting more first-class cricket in to Hussey would have been spoken about.”There’s probably a debate around that,” Ponting said. “At the end of the day, all the players want to be playing as many games for Australia as they possibly can. It’s important then that you maximise your training time and the time you get in the middle to make sure your game is where it needs to be. I’m sure that’s what Mike’s thinking is this week.”All the Australian players will have at least one more opportunity to play Sheffield Shield cricket before the battle for the urn begins in Brisbane on November 25, but England will have three first-class warm-up games during the same period. The majority of Australia’s Test players are preparing to face Sri Lanka in a one-day series, but Ponting was not concerned about his men having a lack of first-class action ahead of the first Test.”The fact that Johnson and Hussey came home early from India to play that Shield game last week, we’re doing what we can to get as much first-class cricket in to our players before the first Test match come around,” he said. “The international programme is what we’ve got – there’s not much we can do about it. We’ve just got to make sure we’ve got all our guys in the best physical and technical shape that we can have them in come the start of the Ashes series.”