Sport - Access Interviews

Frank Lampard

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Frank Lampard talks to Andrew Dickens about Thierry Henry's handball and England's World Cup hopes. Chelsea have often been criticised for producing football that’s more efficient than effervescent. Off the pitch, though, the club isn’t short of fireworks, with tabloid controversy as regular as Didier Drogba’s scoring record.

Rio Ferdinand

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

WITH bayonet fixed, Private James Foster charged through the thick Somme mud towards the German lines as all hell broke loose around him. The Yorkshire miner, already a veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, wore the cap badge of the Australian Imperial Force - having emigrated to Tasmania to seek his fortune.

Bernie Ecclestone

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

You need nerves of steel to take on Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. Here he talks about Max Mosley, those controversial comments about Hitler and still being in love with his former wife

Tzofit Grant

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

The Portsmouth manager’s TV star spouse tells Kate Weinberg about celebrity marriage, life apart and John Terry’s missed penalty .

Aaron Ramsay

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

AARON RAMSEY has spoken for the first time after his horrific leg break last Saturday. Ramsey, 19, was left with a fractured tibia and fibula in the incident at the Britannia Stadium. He said: "I remember what happened clearly.

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Former international insists Manchester City mean more to him than winning the World Cup

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Decision by games richest backers to snub top-flight offers in favour of QPRs family feel sums up their prudent management

Jenson Button

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Jenson Button talks about preparations for the forthcoming F1 season, joining up with Lewis Hamilton, testing his new car and the pressure of starting out as world champion

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Rugby's toughest administrator is moving on after 12 years. Some will miss him, others won'tOn a shelf in Francis Baron's sleek new office at Twickenham is a photograph dating from his previous business incarnation with First Choice Holidays. A mustachioed Baron is embracing two bikini-clad ladies, clearly unconcerned by such trivial issues as taste or political correctness. "Those were the days," he says a touch wistfully. Above his head is another framed picture dominated by the single word "Strong". Sometimes you discover a lot about people's self-image before they say a word.When Baron departs the Rugby Football Union in July after 12 years as its knuckle-dusting chief executive, he is unlikely to be remembered as a laid-back renaissance man with socialist leanings. People will associate him with three things: the completion of a gleaming stadium, a flourishing multi-million pound business and the subtle diplomatic touch of a sledgehammer. "You're not paid to win popularity contests ... if you want to be popular don't become a CEO," he says proudly. There may never have been a sports administrator in Britain with thicker skin.But the end is nigh. Next Saturday's Six Nations game with Ireland will be Baron's last home Test at the helm: he says it is time to go but RFU insiders insist he was pushed. On Baron's watch, the political in-fighting made the hundred years' war seem positively abrupt. He also has to shoulder blame for the structural instability that has undermined the national team. "He's done an amazing job commercially but the rugby's suffered," says one source. "He's a very difficult man to deal with."Other descriptions routinely used for the 64-year-old Baron are "abrasive" and "ruthless" but even his enemies accept he knows his way around a balance sheet. When he joined in October 1998 the loss-making RFU was "teetering on the verge of going bust" as it struggled to finance the initial West Stand development. It now has a net worth of £150m and announced a turnover of £119m and profits of £9m last year. A Twickenham international is worth £10m in terms of sponsorship, television revenue, ticket sales and corporate spin-offs. Back in 1998 it was less than £4m.Despite the World Cup win of 2003 and the successful bid to host the 2015 event, some wish Baron had left long ago. The hitman, who can turn memorably vituperative after a couple of drinks, has long had his detractors. "I found the spectacle before the New Zealand game of Baron opening an unfinished and expensive new stand, as the team on the field withered and died from neglect, highly symbolic," Sir Clive Woodward wrote in 2006. "Ultimately, Baron has to take responsibility for the decline. When England won the World Cup in 2003, it probably seemed to the outside world we were travelling on a gleaming, modern cruise liner. We were not – we were on the Titanic."Baron, not surprisingly, has a different perspective. Ask him about his personal contribution and he harrumphs modestly about shared credit and allocating Woodward plenty of dosh. Together they were the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of English rugby, the gifted salesman and his often exasperated straight man. "I had to say no to him quite a few times," Baron admits. "It was fairly feisty ... Woody always had great vision but creative people sometimes come up with ideas that more practical people like me just don't think will work."The vision thing has always been Baron's problem. The players' strike of 2000, the endless feuding with the clubs, the flawed coaching structures ... he viewed all of it through cash-register eyes. He remains adamant a percentage of players' match fees must be performance-related, refusing to listen to the argument that international players work just as hard, win or lose. Only a last-gasp meeting with Martin Johnson headed off a potentially disastrous strike before a November Test against Argentina. "Any CEO who lasts 12 years will inevitably have had battles to fight. You're only still here if you win them. Yes, there have been things you'd have preferred hadn't happened. But look at where we've got to. When I joined the game was divided. I think it's as united now as it has been for years."The harsh fact, nevertheless, is that all that performance-related pay has failed to net England any sort of trophy since 2003. Is that primarily his fault? Woodward thought so but Baron deflects the accusation. "The resources have always been there. Woody used every conceivable trick in the book to fund performance ... he was brilliant at it but other coaches have not done the same. Johnno is now deploying everything available to him to get England back to where we all want to be."He insists Johnson is "doing a great job" and has "absolutely the right support structure in place" but acknowledges that choosing head coaches is a fraught business. "Every coach we've appointed in my 12 years is always a risk. You just don't know how the individual is going to work out. No one is perfect. You've just got to make sure you support the person through their learning curve and cover any lack of experience in a particular area. That's what we've done with Johnno."Baron has also ridden out the bad old days when his stubborn streak drove everyone barmy. He was almost statesmanlike in 2008 when a sex scandal hit England's summer tour of New Zealand, though many unions worldwide remain resistant to his charms. "We are the Manchester United of rugby ... there's always an element of jealousy, suspicion or fear," he says with a shrug. "Over the last five years I think relationships have improved enormously. I took this job in the first place because I wanted a challenge. My wife said to me, 'What the bloody hell are you doing?' I told her it was a 'turnaround' situation and that I'd do it for three-to-four years before going back into business." When he reflects on his "personal balance sheet" it is with the air of a man who feels he is comfortably in credit.It will still be interesting to see what an old foe such as Northampton's Keith Barwell writes in his valedictory card. Barwell has been a long-time critic of the RFU – "I remember him saying he wouldn't trust us to sell a free-sheet" – and may be concerned to hear that Baron, who rises at 5am most days, wants "to remain active in rugby" beyond July. "There are other things I want to do in life. A deckchair? That's not me." Does he have a tip for his so-far unnamed successor, who is due to be confirmed at the end of April? "My advice would be, 'Just remember, this is not like a plc.'" He is not wrong. Should England flop against Ireland next week, another strong set of year-end figures will not soothe the sceptics.Rugby unionEngland rugby union teamRobert Kitsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Goodison's returning Spaniard is ready to make up for lost time in midfield after year on the sidelines with a serious knee injuryA confessional in the latest edition of the Evertonian fanzine When Skies Are Grey shows there is still a place for idolatry in the Premier League and at Goodison Park that place is reserved for Mikel Arteta Amatriain. "As I saw him run on to the Goodison pitch after far too long away," writes the author of an article on whether it is permissible to cry at the match, "tears streamed down my face and my wife looked at me with a mixture of disbelief and resignation. It was a wonderful moment and proof to me that, along with Duncan Ferguson, Peter Reid and Bob Latchford, he will always be, forgive me for a Kenwright-ism, a God to me." And Everton lost that day too.There were many upset Evertonians on 23 January, mainly due to an FA Cup exit at home to Birmingham City. The return of Arteta to the substitutes' bench against Alex McLeish's side was to provide immense consolation, however. Eleven months and three operations since rupturing a cruciate ligament at Newcastle United, the midfielder whose composure and creativity had been painfully missed by David Moyes's team replaced Landon Donovan to a riotous reception with 15 minutes remaining. There was to be no fairytale comeback to save interest in the Cup but, after almost a year in professional purgatory, when every setback fuelled Merseyside rumours that he might never play again, preserving a career was all that mattered.Arteta, an affable and optimistic soul, says he never allowed the worst fears to fester in his mind. But there were plenty of dark moments, not least when his scheduled return was aborted due to a third unforeseen complication. "The lowest point was after the third setback in November," the Spaniard recalls. "I was in Barcelona at the time and came down for dinner about 8pm. I walked downstairs but felt a bit sick and my missus said: 'Look at the size of your knee.' It had really ballooned, so I went straight back to hospital that night. They told me it didn't look good, so they drained it, but the next day it was the same again. They had to go inside it to have a proper look, get the fluid out and test everything again."The stitches in my knee had flaked and had to be repaired. I'd gone through it all before, having the brace on, working on mobility and strength and I was back at the start. That was a really bad time. It put me back a few months because the bacteria could have affected the cruciate too and the cartilage. I feel like I've done a masters in medicine, I've learned that much."That he hit the depths in Barcelona is a painful coincidence not lost on the 27-year-old. It was in Catalonia that Arteta launched what became a nomadic career until finding a connection with Everton. Invited to join the Barcelona academy at 15 from Antiguoko – his boyhood team in San Sebastián, where he played alongside his close friend Xabi Alonso – the midfielder made his senior debut at 16 as a substitute for his childhood hero Pep Guardiola. That fleeting appearance in the first team found the teenager in the company of Luis Figo, Rivaldo and Luis Enrique but more recent experiences in the city have been far removed from Camp Nou's glamour."I travelled between here and Spain about 15 times in the last year and made a lot of friends in the [Quirón] hospital," he adds. "I went to see Ramón Cugat in Barcelona, who is in the top three knee surgeons in the world, and it was just very fortunate that when the knee did swell up I was still in Barcelona. I was due to come back but because I had started running that week he asked me to stay a bit longer and see if there was any reaction from the impact."If I'd been in England when it happened, I wouldn't have been able to fly back and would have had to wait until he was free to come here, which would have set things back even further. But staying in the hospital in Barcelona put a lot of things into perspective for me. I saw a lot of things with the kids that were unbelievable. I'd just had a baby and when you see youngsters who are ill it is even worse. I knew that at the end of all I was going through I would be fine but a lot of the kids in there wouldn't be."Gabriel Arteta was born last July with an eye condition that required frequent medical attention but, like father, like son, his recovery is now well underway. On a professional level, tThe torment of being sidelined as an injury-plagued Everton team lost last season's FA Cup final and toiled through the first half of this campaign also had an impact. "I watched every match from last season while I was doing my rehab and, while I love watching football, it was really hard watching Everton. I hated it," he recalls. "You know what they're going to do because they're your mates and you work with them every day. Watching them win was beautiful but losing is even worse because you can't do anything to help. When we played Benfica in Europe and lost 5-0 [in October] I felt embarrassed because I hated the image of us that it gave to everyone else."It may surprise those at Rangers who recall a talented but fragile midfielder that Everton's adulation towards Arteta is based on spirit as well as quality. The characteristics that prompted the club's effusive chairman, Bill Kenwright, to draw comparisons between Moyes' £2.2m signing - repeat, £2.2m signing - and Alex Young, 'The Golden Vision', have not diminished during Arteta's prolonged spell on the sidelines.As the Everton manager has stressed, his No10 should be making only cameo appearances as he builds match fitness and still has a psychological barrier to overcome regarding fully committed tackles. But he has started in Everton's last two important victories, against Chelsea and Sporting Lisbon, due to the ankle injury to Marouane Fellaini that will deprive the team of a captivating central midfield partnership for the next six months. Despite being back in action for only a month, it is typical of Arteta's standing at Goodison that much will depend on his influence when Manchester United arrive on Merseyside today."We were planning for me to have three or four weeks just training with the lads but we got a few more injuries so I had to speed it up," Arteta says matter-of-factly. "Everyone at Everton has been really good to me, keeping in touch with texts and calls from the lads, the medical staff, the manager and the chairman. They told me to take as long as I needed, to stay with my family and friends. They trusted me basically, they knew I wasn't going to be lying around on the beach and to come back and beat Chelsea last week was fantastic. You know you can pretty much beat anyone if you can beat them but for me it's just great to be involved in everything again."EvertonPremier LeagueAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

The Los Angelese-born sprinter reveals how running the second-fastest 100 metres brought more suspicion than praiseThe fastest woman alive stirs four sachets of sugar into her breakfast grits and dips three hash browns into a pool of ketchup: a veritable champion's breakfast. At 30 years old Carmelita Jeter has yet to win a world title or an Olympic medal, but when she twice dipped into 10.6-seconds territory running the 100m in September her name became famous the world over.Last year the Los Angeles-born sprinter ran 10.67sec in Thessaloniki, and then 10.64 in Shanghai – the latter making her the second-fastest female 100m sprinter in history, behind Florence Griffith- Joyner, who ran 10.49 before the introduction of mandatory random drug testing.That day in China, Jeter stole some of Usain Bolt's limelight, something no female sprinter has managed since his world-record-breaking performances. It also made up for finishing third at the World Championships last summer.Jeter, "the Jet", smiles at the memory. This afternoon, at the Birmingham Grand Prix, she hopes to add a fast 60m indoor time to her CV; the achievements make up for years of injury. "Oh gosh that was the worst," she says, rolling her eyes. "It made me want to quit. I pulled my hamstring after the 2004 Olympic trials and I was literally laying on the track crying." A year of rehabilitation followed – "I was having deep-tissue massage twice a week for months" – but it was not until 2007 that Jeter regained her form, winning bronze in the 100m at the World Championships.Even then the road has not been smooth. "I ran so well in 2007 I kind of got a big head, you know? My 2008 was not good. I was thinking I was guaranteed to make the US [Olympic] team and then I didn't and I got a reality check. But that was the best thing that could have happened to me. I came back in 2009 and I was just so hungry, I never wanted to be beaten again. I never wanted to have that feeling of being left behind again. That hurt."Jeter changed coach at the end of 2008 and began working with John Smith, best known for coaching Maurice Greene to multiple world and Olympic titles. It was Smith who, she says, "literally ripped my race apart and put it back together again". At the beginning of last season he predicted Jeter would run 10.6, when her previous best was 10.97. She did not believe him. "I was just looking at him like, 'What is he talking about?' But I went to Shanghai and ran 10.64 and I was like, 'OK this guy knows what he's talking about.'"Jeter speaks with a southern drawl – "Everybody is like, 'Where are you from?' I'm like, LA!" she laughs. It's not the only assumption made about her. Being the fastest woman alive in a discipline so tainted by drugs invites a measure of scepticism and Jeter coolly pre-empts the inevitable questions about doping. "I got so much negative press after I ran 10.64 like, 'Is she clean? Is she this? Is she that?'". She is realistic enough to concede that running faster than the convicted drugs cheat Marion Jones and closest to Griffith-Joyner is going to raise eyebrows – perhaps even among fellow competitors. After the Beijing Olympics the Jamaican Veronica Campbell said even 10.6 was out of reach. "How many have even run 10.6 in the past 20 years since Flo Jo set that record?" she asked. The answer, before Jeter did so, was only the disgraced Jones."You know that's honestly the first thing I heard after that race," says Jeter now. "It was like 'Well she's faster than Marion and a little slower than Flo-Jo, hmm.'" She purses her lips. "I look at it like this, I surround myself with people that care about me. They know I'm going to practise every day, that I'm in the weight room every day, that I'm working my butt off. The other people I don't have time for. You can whisper under your breath all you want but I don't give an s-h-i-t. It's unfortunate that I work this hard and I don't get the credit I should get but that's life."Being thick-skinned is her only option. In the online forums, speculation over her improved performances – prior to 2008 she had not run below 11 seconds – is rife, with bloggers comparing before and after photos of her musculature. The comments are hurtful. "My grandmother called me one day, crying. She watched one of my races on YouTube and she read the comments underneath it. She said, 'Why are these people calling you this and that?' I was like, 'Grandma stop reading the comments please'. She was very emotional, she was a mess. I had to calm her down. That day was the worst, she had me crying."But from her family she gains her strength. "My dad always says when people stop talking about you that's when you're not doing nothing. In 2008 I wasn't running good and there was nobody talking about me. When you start running well everybody will talk about you. Good and bad your name's in somebody's mouth, so I'm like, 'Hey, keep my name in your mouth!' When you stop talking about me that's when I'm going to worry."I can't be upset about those questionsbecause we have a person who everybody adored for years and then she got caught in a scandal [Jones]. Then we have another person who everybody adored but there's a lot of, 'he said, she said' about them [Flo-Jo]. I mean I understand that I'm in the middle of them. But there's nothing I can do about it. What do you want me to do? Run slow?"She laughs. As she lines up for the 60m sprint in Birmingham this afternoon, nothing will be further from her mind. There is still the US team to make for next month's World Indoor Championships, and then the fastest indoor performer of the year to beat in the Virgin Islands' LaVerne Jones-Ferrette. She scrapes up the last of her grits and smiles. "These next four years are going to be big for me," she says. "I can just feel it."AthleticsAnna Kesselguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Scotland's barmstorming No8 believes Scotland must be ready for the physical fight when they take on Italy this weekendFor Scotland it has been a long 12 days since Cardiff. "I haven't enjoyed the break at all," Johnnie Beattie says. "It meant going away and thinking about the game, analysing and over-analysing what went wrong in that last 10 minutes." The stitches on Thom Evans's neck and bruises on Chris Paterson's back are clearly not the only scars that the 31–24 defeat to Wales left on the squad."To be honest you can think about it all too much," Beattie continues. "We just didn't control the last 10 minutes as we should have." After the match Andy Robinson spoke eloquently about how proud his players and their fans should be about the Scottish performance. Beattie does not buy into that. "Anyone who looks back at the championship table in five years' time will only see that we took zero points from a game we were well and truly capable of winning," he points out, "As a team we're not judged by performance. It comes down to where we finish in that table. That's just the way it is."That shows how expectations in the Scotland squad have risen since Robinson became coach, a change which bodes badly for the Italians on Saturday. "I think everyone is just looking forward to getting out and playing again," Beattie says. "I am gagging to get to Rome." There the No8 and his team-mates will face opponents who have won three of the last five matches between the sides. Word has reached the Scottish camp that the Italians have been speaking out about how they are specifically targeting this game. It is shaping up to be a brutal, unforgiving match."The Italians make it really hard to get into their half of the pitch because they kick pretty much everything," Beattie says, "and they flood the pitch full of defenders and try and hunt you down in your own half. We've just got to be as attritional and as physical as we can at the breakdown."Even the absence of the great Sergio Parisse does not seem to have weakened the Azzurri's back row all that much. "Alessandro Zanni has come in and been exceptional," Beattie says, "and with Mauro Bergamasco you always know they have that kind of kamikaze physical threat. Josh Sole is a big, physical fella as well. So it really is a good unit. We're going to have to front up physically."Beattie talks with natural authority. His Scotland career is only nine caps old, and he has only become a regular since Robinson took over last summer. Together with his Glasgow team-mates John Barclay and Kelly Brown, Beattie has become part of a back-row unit that is the heart of the national team. Brown has already been signed up by Saracens, and Beattie's performances at No8 have been attracting a lot of attention from other clubs.He and Barclay were both approached by a team from England's Premiership, and a trio of French clubs have also made offers. But Beattie has settled on staying in Scotland. "I am a Glasgow boy and love playing for Glasgow every opportunity I get," he says." I owe it to myself and people who come to watch that I give more performances to Glasgow and help us get back up to the top of the league." Judging from the way he talks about his commitments to playing in Scotland, Beattie is clearly part of a new generation of players who believe that something worth being part of is being built north of the border.If he is right, then some day people may finally stop asking Beattie about his father. "My dad?" he says. "Yeah, he played a bit. A long time ago." A bit? John Beattie was a two-time tourist with the Lions and won 25 caps for his country as a barnstorming No8. These days he is a commentator for the BBC, a set-up which Johnnie reckons troubles his dad a lot more than it does him.If John Beattie is reading this, he will be wincing. "I do also worry every time I see a report that says 'Johnnie Beattie, son of the Scotland back-row, Lions, whatever' because that doesn't help him," Beattie Sr told the Scotsman recently. "It raises expectations, which can be hugely damaging to a young person trying to find their way in sport."He should stop worrying. Beattie Jr turned 24 on the very day that he starred in Scotland's 9-8 win over Australia last November. It was a coming of age for the player and the team.Scotland rugby union teamSix Nations rugbyRugby unionAndy Bullguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

The battle between Paul Nicholls' two champions at Cheltenham next month is their most keenly anticipated yetPaul Nicholls thinks the struggle could go on and on but realistically this is the decider. At Cheltenham on 19 March the champion jockeys of England and Ireland will clamber aboard the two great Gold Cup winners to determine which is the master of the Nicholls yard in Ditcheat, Somerset, where the four-legged aristocrats live snout by snout and are known to the staff as "mates".The Kauto Star v Denman script was always good but this year it bursts with unsurpassable equine drama as Tony "AP" McCoy takes the ride on Denman, the 2008 winner, and Ruby Walsh hunts a third Gold Cup on Kauto Star, the first horse to regain the Cheltenham crown and a four-time winner of the prestigious King George VI Chase at Kempton Park. On that bare reading Kauto Star is over immortality's horizon and cannot be caught by his bigger, brooding stablemate. Yet a second win for Denman would render him the pre-eminent Gold Cup horse in races the two have contested and send National Hunt racing traditionalists into raptures.To golden-agers Denman is the hulking winter beast of legend. A dark bay with a menacing eye, he seeks to destroy with strength and power. He is built to tame steeplechases' fences and gallop other creatures into the mud. Kauto Star, in the next box along, is a lighter, flashier, more telegenic athlete: a product of the modern taste for speed and French-bred agility.In the soft rain of this endless winter Nicholls laid out the grounds for faith in the two animals and talked hard to erase the doubts raised by Denman's blunder in the recent Aon Chase at Newbury, where he unseated McCoy, his new pilot, at the third-last. As the pretty boy of the street (his sire, appropriately, was Village Star), Kauto Star will maintain his fitness with routine work between now and Gold Cup day. Denman, though, can expect a lung-busting entrance to spring."He'll have three weeks of seriously hard graft now. And anyone who writes him off does so at their peril," Nicholls said. For Britain's leading jumps trainer the joy of victory is invariably accompanied by the anguish of defeat for one of his champions. To ease that discomfort he allows himself to imagine many more such confrontations, even though the horses would be 11 in next year's race and thus past their peak according to Cheltenham age averages."It's one-all. If they both stay in this shape they could meet again. Why not?" he says. More feasible is a repeat of Michael Dickinson's "famous five" in 1983, when one yard saddled the first five home in steeplechasing's blue riband event. The Nicholls quintet are Kauto Star (Walsh), Denman (McCoy), My Will, Taranis and Tricky Trickster (Sam Thomas)."We finished one-two-four-five last year and one two-three the year before that. I'm not going into it with any ideasof doing that [training the first five home]," Nicholls said. "We just want to win the race."At each open day, every February, he is urged to declare his love and pick between the pair. Most years he is also obliged to explain away an alleged weakness in one of the horses. Yesterday he also dismissed suggestions that McCoy's aggressive, attacking style is not the best match for Denman, who requires careful handling and is thought by many experts to need the kind of control he had when pummelling Kauto Star from the front on softened ground two years ago."All this nonsense about whether McCoy is capable of riding him is the biggest load of twaddle I've heard in all my years in jump racing," Nicholls said."I wasn't perturbed by what happened at Newbury. Kauto, two years ago, unseated Sam Thomas at the last in the Betfair Chase and it was all doom and gloom. The horse was going to be retired. Next time out he wins the King George pulling a cart."I was very happy with Denman's Newbury run. He made a mistake and paid the penalty. On the landing side of the fourth last he slipped, went out left-handed and it was game over [he unseated at the next]. If he hadn't made that mistake he'd have won – it's as simple as that. How anyone can say he was beat at the time I don't know."McCoy gave an opinion afterwards but it was the first time he'd sat on him and he doesn't know where I am with the horse. Denman was happy at that point and I just know if he'd jumped that fence McCoy would have given him a belt and he'd have taken off."Those big races like the Hennessy, where they go end to end and keep attacking, suit him. The Aon wasn't that sort of race. He's one of those horses who perform at their best on the biggest occasions. It will wake him up. He was nowhere near ready."With his low head carriage and his habit of turning his copious rear on visitors to his box, Denman might be the Sonny Liston, more than the George Foreman, to Kauto Star's Muhammad Ali. Old school National Hunt aficionados prefer this more natural animal state to the undoubted flamboyance and limelight-awareness of the more extrovert of the champions. Kauto Star pokes his head out of his box and studies the parade of other horses with lordly condescension.Nicholls, though, has to do his talking for him: "I think his King George win this year was as good as anything he's ever put in. That was an awesome performance. It was the manner of it that impressed so much. He went round there on soft ground and you wouldn't have thought he'd even been down to the start. And he seems in that form now. Kauto, as far as I'm concerned, is probably the best he's ever been."There used to be a few doubts with his jumping but he's older, wiser and Ruby knows him very well. He doesn't really mind what the ground is, though good spring ground suits him better. If he can stay sound, there's no reason why he can't run in the next three Gold Cups, as long as we look after him, but we're not thinking that far ahead."If he turns up at the top of his game it would require a monumental performance to beat him." The terminator, the enforcer, next door, has his "graft" mapped out and his mission defined. It is to wipe the showbiz gleam from his neighbour's eye. But Kauto Star looks fit to dance forever.Paul NichollsCheltenham festivalDenmanKauto StarHorse racingPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

The City goalkeeper tells Daniel Taylor why his team-mates can finish a turbulent season on a highThe sixth floor of Arndale Tower, the 1970s monstrosity that would figure on any list of the low points of Manchester architecture. Shay Given has had a sleepless night, still ruminating on the more traumatic moments of a thoroughly depressing week for everyone associated with Manchester City, but he fixes a smile that comes from years of practice. Putting on a brave face comes naturally for someone who spent more than a decade at Newcastle United before swapping one madhouse for another.He is here as an ambassador for the Paralympic World Cup, to be staged in Manchester in May. Given is one of those guys who likes to help out – he has his own charity foundation and is a patron for Macmillan Cancer Support – and for those of us who are bored of Ashley and Cheryl, Terry and Toni and the French one with the tricky surname, it is almost therapeutic to be reminded that modern-day football is not this tabloid world of divas and divorces.But there are glimpses of hurt. On Wednesday night Given was beaten three times as the most expensively assembled team in English football were knocked out of the FA Cup at Stoke. The second goal was a goalkeeping mistake. The one criticism of Given is that he is not dominant enough in the air but, on this occasion, he came off his line to try to intercept one of Rory Delap's throw-ins. Ryan Shawcross got there first and, after that, Roberto Mancini's blue and white scarf must have felt like a noose tightening around his neck.The ramifications could eventually cost Mancini his job and, in this divided city, it means the now-famous banner at Old Trafford mocking City's chase for silverware will stay in place. Their last trophy, as if any self-respecting City fan needs reminding, was back in 1976. Newcastle's own obsessive search stretches back to 1969. At one point Given leans back in his chair and jokes: "It's me, I'm jinxed."Deep down, though, there is an aching sense of disappointment. Given looks tired. "I didn't sleep," he says. "You can't sometimes. You try but it's just impossible. Everything is still running through your mind, the disappointment of the whole thing. It takes a few days to get it out of your system."This is his first full season at City and it has been a lesson for him – if he needed one after 482 games at Newcastle – that nothing should surprise you in football. By mid-December the team had lost only twice and were fifth in the league. Then the players arrived for a game against Sunderland and found the newspapers heavily tipping Mark Hughes for the sack. Given's first reaction was one of disbelief."I didn't see it coming at all," he reflects. "Everybody else seemed to know but we didn't find out until afterwards when he was called in to see the chairman. It was just devastating really from a personal level that he wasn't allowed to see the job through. It was Mark who brought me to the club and I was very sad to see him leave. But the decision was out of our hands."The Mancini era began with four successive victories but the team have won only four of 11 games going into a match at Chelsea that, on current form, threatens to be an ordeal for more than just Wayne Bridge. "He's doing fine," Given says of his team-mate. "It's a personal decision [not to play for England] but I think he has been fantastic. He hasn't let what has been going on distract him. [Fabio] Capello came to see us in our last home game and he [Bridge] was probably our best player. We're looking forward to it."And, besides, there is more riding on it for City than the sideshow of Bridge's first encounter with Terry, the man caught having an affair with his England team-mate's ex-girlfriend. This is a crossroads in City's season – the Champions League in one direction, failure in the other.There is a strange vibe. Given cannot quite put his finger on it. "I wouldn't say we are flat but it is disappointing because our recent performances haven't been good enough. We've got to believe we can still finish fourth but otherwise it will have been a disappointing season. We started the season trying to win something and that has gone now. Fourth would soften the blow a little and we're in a strong position, fifth with a game in hand, so we have to believe we can do it, but we are going to have to pick up on our recent form. Our last few away performances, in particular, haven't been good enough."Stoke was a case in point. "We went into the game wanting to get into the quarter-finals and it's bitterly disappointing. If we had put in our chances we could have been two or three up at half-time but it's easy to sit here and say that now. Stoke deserve credit, you know. You can say all you want about their tactics and their long throws but they deserve credit. And we deserve the criticism, I suppose. We're out of the FA Cup and, with the people we have at the club, we should be doing better. There's no point pretending otherwise. We should be going there and getting through to the next round."Being pro-Hughes does not make Given anti-Mancini but the squad are still learning about their new manager. "I'm sure he'd like to express himself better because his English isn't perfect. But if I went to Italy I'm sure I would struggle to express myself as well. It will take time for him."The training methods have been adapted so the emphasis is less on ball work than before. "Roberto does a lot of tactical stuff and a lot of the players maybe aren't used to it," Given says. "In the past we maybe did it once or twice a week but he wants to do it every day. It's called shadow play: games without an opposition. It's tactical, where he wants the players to be. He shifts the ball around, sets up different scenes and shows us where he wants the players to be."It's mainly to get a defensive shape. Attacking-wise, we are more free-flowing and off the cuff but when we lose the ball he is very thorough about where he wants us to be. We've done it before but not to the extent of Roberto using it every single day and it's possibly a case of just getting used to it. He's brought in zonal marking as well when we are defending corners and set pieces and it takes time to get used to it. Stoke scored from a long throw-in but, to be fair, it's been working pretty well."But something has gone wrong. "It's hard to pinpoint just one thing. Different players have been missing at crucial times. Carlos [Tevez] has been badly missed with his family situation. Craig [Bellamy] has had his knee injury. Ade [Emmanuel Adebayor] had his situation [the shooting of the Togo team bus in the Africa Cup of Nations] and now he's going to be suspended for another four games so that's another big blow to us. These are all important players but the other side is that we have a squad that's big enough to combat these things and, for whatever reason, we really haven't been good enough."He remains optimistic, though, citing the huge financial backing at Eastlands whereas "the pressure at Newcastle was because the fans are almost religious about the club". Yet it has been a trying period for the man Mancini rates "among the top five goalkeepers in the world".Given says he has now got the Thierry Henry handball that denied the Republic of Ireland a place in the World Cup out of his system. But it is difficult to believe him when you ask whether he would mind Henry joining City, as has been mooted, and he blows out his cheeks in horror. Patrick Vieira sidled over to Given recently and asked him if he wanted any tickets for the World Cup. "I will be on holiday with my family," Given said firmly.Manchester CityPremier LeagueDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Defeat to France has ruined grand slam ambitions but men in green are still hungry for a triple crownThe inquest goes on. This week at the Ireland base camp, a rather smart hotel half an hour south of Dublin and just around the corner from Dun Laoghaire, Paris is still very much on everyone's mind. No matter that the team to play England has just been announced, the chatter is about France 33 Ireland 10 and the game that ended Declan Kidney's 12-match unbeaten run as Ireland coach."We thought after 20 minutes we were probably the better side," is the analysis of Stephen Ferris, and he is not wrong. Ireland through Leo Cullen, Jamie Heaslip and Paul O'Connell had stolen ball at three French lineouts, Gordon D'Arcy was the bounce of a ball away from a try, and Ferris and Heaslip had rumbled an Irish attack to the home line and looked like claiming squatters' rights.Unfortunately that is where the Irish dream ended and Ferris's continuing analysis is just as accurate. "Then they scored, we went into our shells a bit and they got another one. After that we started chasing the game and had we picked up a few points before half-time it might have been a different story in the second half. But fair play to France they ended up going away from us at the end."Spend 10 minutes in the company of Ferris and the hurt is there for all to see and it has produced some interesting changes in attitude. Pre-Paris it seemed that Kidney would do anything to get his blindside flanker on to the field, this week Ferris was taking nothing for granted.In the run-up to France, Kidney threw convention to the wind and even risked busting the programme printer's deadline in allowing Ferris all the time he wanted to prove his fitness. "I'm not too sure he would have waited on me this week," says Ferris almost bridling at a report that he had missed one training session. Perhaps the change in mind-set is to do with the selectorial blood that Kidney had just splashed around the room in which Ferris is talking, dropping Cullen who did little wrong in Paris, while possibly signalling the end, or at least the beginning of the end, of Ronan O'Gara's illustrious career. Or perhaps it is because, as Ferris puts it, he had a "very, very difficult day at the office".Put simply Ferris is paid to tackle and he did not – or at least not often enough. "In international rugby you're probably talking 15 tackles a game, sometimes pushing up towards 20. In Paris, I think I made six or seven. Everyone else was in the same boat. And the tackles that the team missed as a whole... we're not usually like that. Usually when we tackle we stick and slow down the ball, but every time we seemed to hit anybody there was an offload, another line break and another offload."Add to that the fact that the ball was in play for close to 45 minutes – "that's the most by far of any game that I've played in. Ulster it's usually between 30 and 35 minutes every week" – and you can understand Ferris's discomfort.In 17 internationals the Ulster man is not used to losing, and with David Wallace of Munster and Heaslip of Leinster has formed a back-row partnership that, injury permitting, should see Kidney up to and well beyond next year's World Cup. Certainly the Lions coaches came home from South Africa in the summer purring at the potential of the trio they would almost certainly have put into all three Testsagainst the Springboks had Ferris been fit.In the past fortnight, however, every Irish position has been under the Kidney microscope and the coach said as much when he announced the team for Twickenham."We were frustrated and very disappointed at the way we performed in Paris," said Ferris. "We went over the video of the game last week and we did have a few opportunities in the first half but the margin between winning and losing is very small and they were on fire. But maybe we can learn from them, play a bit of rugby like they did in Paris. They opened us up on a few occasions and if we do the same against England we are going to have to do what France did and score points."Much as Ireland have done in all bar one game since England won the 2003 World Cup. Since then Ireland have won five of the six meetings and even allowing for Parisand the seemingly endless nightmare that has followed, the flanker is eyeing at least a triple crown to replace the vanished hopes of another grand slam. Asked to run the rule over England's unchanged back row, a flicker of confidence returns: "They're all fine players, no doubt about it. I've played against [James] Haskell a couple times this year with Stade and Nick Easter with Harlequins a couple of times last year. They are very good ball carriers, they get around the park."There's no doubt they are a very strong back row, but saying that if we can perform as we have done in the past there shouldn't be anything to worry about."Ireland rugby union teamSix Nations rugbyRugby unionMike Averisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Ashley Young says he has added a new dimension to the fast, direct approach that makes him such a potent weapon against Manchester UnitedAshley Young breaks into laughter as he listens to a few comments from Peter McParland about him in tomorrow's Carling Cup final programme. "I like Ashley when he plays a straightforward game," says the former Aston Villa winger, who scored twice against Manchester United in the 1957 FA Cup final and also grabbed the winner in the inaugural League Cup final four years later. "Sometimes he annoys me when he mucks about – get on with it, you can skin these guys."It is probably the closest anyone connected with Aston Villa has come to saying anything negative about Young during the past two years and even then the criticism is laced with a compliment. Young is still grinning as he politely points out he has not been "mucking about" on the wing this season, although he also acknowledges that one of the reasons he has looked so impressive in recent weeks is that he has adopted a more direct approach.Gaël Clichy discovered as much last month when, in the words of the Villa manager, Martin O'Neill, the Arsenal defender was "taken to the cleaners" by Young. Since then the 24-year-old has looked like the winger who won the PFA young player of the year award last season, with his return to what he describes as his "best form" coming as Villa prepare to take on Manchester United at Wembley tomorrow in their biggest match for a decade and Fabio Capello ponders his latest England squad."I think there's been a lot said about the way that I've played this season and how I've not been at the same standard as last season," says Young. "But I go out there to do well for the club, and the manager has always had faith in me to put me in the team. And I think if you look at my displays over the last couple of months, I've been delighted and the manager has been delighted and that's all that matters."Sir Alex Ferguson once talked about Ryan Giggs giving defenders "twisted blood" and when Young is at his exhilarating best, as he was in front of Capello's assistant, Franco Baldini, against Burnley last weekend, he has a similar effect on opponents. For much of this season, however, he has been a marked man and he admits it has taken a subtle change in his play to allow him to break free from the shackles and make the penetrative runs on the flank that open up defences."I think [recently] I have been a lot more direct when I've got the ball," says Young. "That's my game, being direct and going at players. But there are obviously times where things became difficult and you have to work out a different strategy to break someone down. At times this season teams have doubled up or even tripled up. I can remember Portsmouth at home and coming in at half-time and the manager saying that I had three players around me."Manchester United will no doubt be paying close attention to Young on an afternoon when Villa will need their most influential players to be on form if they are to get their hands on a first trophy in 14 years. Young was still attending primary school when Brian Little and his players were celebrating Villa's 1996 League Cup triumph over Leeds United but he had already decided back then that being a professional footballer was the only career that he wanted to pursue.Riches have followed. From the diamond ear-stud to the designer watch and the brand new Porsche, the monetary rewards are there for all to see but it is days like tomorrow, when more than 30 of his family and friends will be at Wembley to see the most important club game of his career, that provide Young with the greatest motivation. "I'll relish playing at Wembley in a major cup final," he says. "It's a great achievement for me and it's why I became a footballer, because I want to win medals."There could be another chance of silverware in the FA Cup, where Villa take on Reading next weekend for a place in the semi-finals, and there is also the pursuit of a top-four finish in the Premier League. Throw in the prospect of travelling to South Africa in the summer as part of Capello's England party – something that five of his Villa colleagues are also targeting – and it is easy to see why Young sounds so excited about the next few months."I've been on best form for the last few weeks and if I can continue that until the end of the season then, fingers crossed, I do get on the plane to South Africa. But there are important things to take care of at Aston Villa at the moment. We've got a big game tomorrow, we've got the quarter-final of the FA Cup to look forward to and we've got the league as well. But hopefully I can keep my form going."He will certainly not struggle for opportunities. Young has started 35 of Villa's 37 matches this season, more than any other player, and he admits that O'Neill is wasting his time whenever he talks to him about watching a game from the sidelines and taking a breather. "There have been times when the manager has rested players here and I've been asked if I want to have a rest. But I don't want to. I want to play every game."Hugging the left touchline is where he is happiest and no more so than when a drop of the shoulder has put the right-back on the seat of his pants. "It's a great feeling when you know that you've got the beating of your man and you're playing in a game where it feels like everything you do is coming off," says Young. "Burnley was one of those games when I was just smiling throughout because things were going really well."United will know they are in trouble if the grin is back on his face tomorrow. Young and his Villa team-mates cannot wait. "It has been a long while since we have won something but Villa is a massive club and it belongs in finals like this," he says. "We do want to change that part of the history that we haven't won anything since 1996. As players we want to write ourselves into the history books and bring some silverware and now we've got the opportunity."Aston VillaCarling CupStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

Fourteen years wearing the red rose have not dimmed the competitive spirit of the Wasps lockSimon Shaw is leaning against a pine tree on a sodden midweek afternoon in Surrey. If push came to shove, even at the age of 36, you would still bet against the tree. At 6ft 9in tall, the Wasps lock is rugby's equivalent of a giant redwood, albeit one with an increasing number of grey hairs and a slightly weary demeanour. "If you could inform people that Nick Easter is greyer than me I'd appreciate it," murmurs the big man, heaving his laundry bag over a massive shoulder as he shambles back indoors. Even the strongest lumberjacks need a lie down occasionally.Thankfully for England, Shaw's long, slow walk into the sunset is not over just yet. No one has played more Premiership games – 222 and counting – and he remains committed to adding another World Cup tournament to his portfolio next year. The weariness is explained by the fact his wife, Jane, gave birth to the couple's fourth child, a girl named Sienna, last month. "When you don't get any sleep at all and then come here and get 10 hours you suddenly become completely lethargic for the whole day," he protests. After 14 years of international experience, there is no need to be coy with interviewers.At four o'clock this afternoon, though, the giant will rouse himself as he always does. Look back at England's finest performances since Sir Clive Woodward's tenure ended in 2004 and Shaw's name tends to be the common denominator. More importantly, he is living proof to his younger colleagues that world-class performance and a sense of fun are not mutually exclusive. The up-and-coming Courtney Lawes was a toddler when Shaw made his senior debut for Bristol but the old stager has scarcely changed. He has been much taken, for instance, by Andy Powell's golf buggy antics on the hard shoulder of the M4. "Within old-school rugby circles he'll go down as a bit of a legend. Sadly, as a professional, you can't be seen to be doing that, unless you happen to find a quiet dirt track somewhere ..."The laconic pay-off is Shaw's stock-in trade. He cares about his rugby, but not so obsessively he forgets to have a life. He may look tired but still sounds happy, particularly when recalling the riotous, evenings which were the norm after England-Ireland games in his early days. "I was talking to Nick Easter the other day about the old tradition of first caps having a drink with everyone else in the squad. I remember when Austin Healey won his first cap against Ireland in 1997 he had his stomach pumped and had to be resuscitated behind the sponsorship boards at the post-match dinner at the Burlington Hotel. It's always a great night out in Dublin."Shaw was playing big games at Lansdowne Road as long ago as 1994 when he played for the Barbarians against South Africa. It now sounds like a parallel universe, the entire Baa Baas squad having toured the Guinness factory by way of preparation. "One of the strongest memories I have is the half-time break. I walked into the toilet area to find the front-row all having a cigarette." His autobiography 'The Hard Yards: My Story' is full of similar anecdotes, book-ended by casually recounted tales of epic contests, not least in Pretoria last summer where he won the man of the match award after a 12-year wait to represent the Lions in a Test match.All this makes Shaw invaluable to an England team still feeling its way. He knows plenty about Ireland – he roomed with Keith Earls and Tommy Bowe on the Lions tour where he and Bowe made up two-thirds of the entertainment committee and Earls's stories of gangster battles in Limerick "freaked me out a bit" – but understands the English rugby psyche instinctively. All those years of being overlooked by Woodward – comments made in the serialised extracts of his book prompted a successful legal action by the former England head coach – have primed him for days like today. "The Six Nations doesn't change in terms of competitiveness. Occasionally you get a pretty game but most of the time it's a slugging match."So where does he stand on England's current methods, having been among those who expressed public frustration at the tactical strait-jacket imposed on the team last autumn? Is he any happier now? "Very much so. The change has been pretty significant. I think the management read the reports in the papers and took a bit out of that. They came to the realisation that we don't want to be seen to be stifling guys. There's a fantastic amount of talent in the Premiership and, for whatever reason that wasn't being translatedinto the national team's game. That issue has been resolved."Sure, but that Rome performance scarcely set the world alight. Shaw counters that patience is required. "You can't just say, 'We're going to play the way we play for our clubs' and expect it all just to fall into place. When the result is under threat and sticking the ball in the air is going to help you win the game you'll settle for that. Sometimes people do get bogged down with results and don't look at the bigger picture. Our objective is clearly to win the Six Nations. That would be a huge step towards building the confidence to challenge the top three in the world and having a successful World Cup. But for this group in particular, it is about the next game and the game after that."Maybe he is right. Victory today would certainly do wonders for red rose confidence and endorse Shaw's dictum that happy, settled sides are successful ones. "I'd always encourage guys to enjoy the off-field stuff. You put a lot of time into training and you give up a lot in your personal life. To do that you need a release valve, otherwise it's all-consuming." If this England side do become a revitalised force in the next 18 months, Shaw's barrel-aged sense of perspective will have played a major role.England rugby union teamSix Nations rugbyRugby unionRobert Kitsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

He has finally hung up his boots aged 38, and football's notorious playboy has another target in mindIt is 11am on a sodden day in central London and as he steps into a cosy room located at the rear of the opulent Haymarket Hotel, Dwight Yorke looks tired but content. Dressed in loose-fitting jeans and an even looser shirt, a gleaming chain dangling from his neck and a large baseball cap shadowing his face, the former Manchester United forward falls on to a sofa and explains where he has been."I've just flown back from the Trinidad Carnival," he says. "It was wicked, thousands of people on the streets, half-naked women everywhere, and Beyonce singing. Let's just say I ain't slept much the past couple of days."Yorke is a walking, talking trick of the mind. To be in his company is to question if the past 11 years even took place. It is that long since he helped United secure an unprecedented treble and yet he appears exactly the same. He is as slim now as he was in May 1999, his face, when uncovered, shows little sign of age, and then, of course, there is the playboy lifestyle.Read Dwight Yorke's Carling Cup final previewAged 38, does Yorke think now may be the time finally to settle down and get married? "No fucking chance," he responds, before flashing that trademark ice-white smile.Mischief is in the air but Yorke is also at pains to insist he has grown up. It is eight months since he retired from football and there is a new focus. "I'm doing my coaching badges at the moment with the aim of becoming a manager," he says. "I've been considering it ever since my spell at Sunderland [Yorke briefly worked as an assistant to Ricky Sbragia at the club, the last of his career, following the departure of Roy Keane as manager in December 2008]. I have an idea of how to do it, and having been involved in the game for 22 years, I definitely have a lot of experience. I've seen a lot change, a lot."The biggest change as far as Yorke is concerned is one that will have his critics screaming "hypocrite". According to the man who filled his autobiography, Born to Score, with tales of how he used to sneak women into his hotel room on the eve of games, not to mention stories about his relationship with a certain ample-chested model, modern players are too flash."In my time you had to be the main man year after year to be able to demand respect at your club, but now it's too easy because of the financial rewards on offer," he says. "Everybody can go out and buy fancy things and, while I don't have a problem with that, I do think players should earn the right to say 'I deserve this big contract and all this money'."Yes, I've done a lot of things in life, but I've also achieved a lot, I've won trophies. When I was at Sunderland I looked through the dressing room and thought 'who's won anything substantial here?'. Nobody had and yet they all had a flashy car and an opinion."Yorke has no obvious solutions to such shifts in dressing-room culture but could always seek advice from the man who ultimately defined his career. Sir Alex Ferguson turfed Yorke out of United just four seasons after bringing him to the club, a reaction to his increasingly wild antics, but, the player insists, there is no lingering bitterness."I've been back to United numerous times since I left and things between me and Fergie are fine," he says. "I'm even thinking of doing my coaching badges there. The truth is I was never wary about my relationship with Fergie because he has always been good to me. I remember when I left United he called me into his room and said, 'Things haven't worked out for you here but what you have done for this club will never be forgotten'. That was phenomenal given what happened."Yorke went from scoring 26 goals and winning three major honours in his debut season at United to four goals and nothing in his final year there prior to being sold to Blackburn Rovers. Ferguson tried his best to rein in the player, even demanding that he get married, but there was no getting through and in July 2002 it was decided Yorke could go."In hindsight I could have done things differently," concedes Yorke, who spent three seasons at Ewood Park before playing for Birmingham City, FC Sydney and Sunderland. "But would I give up the women and nights out for another year at United? Would that make me happy? Would that make me the person I am today? I'm not sure. I have no regrets. I went to United to win things and I achieved that."Yorke's fondness for United is obvious and is only matched by his love for the club that sold him to Old Trafford in the first place. Aston Villa brought the then 17-year-old Tobagan to England in 1989 and during eight seasons at the club he scored 73 goals in 232 appearances, won the 1996 Coca-Cola Cup and became an integral part of the side. Indeed, such was the sense of loss felt at Villa when Yorke moved to United in August 1998, the club's then manager, John Gregory, said he could have "shot" the player for leaving.A reminder of the threat does not rile Yorke, who scored 15 times in 52 appearances for his country, and instead he reflects on his time in the Midlands with satisfaction. Indeed, he rushed back to the country to watch them face United in tomorrow's Carling Cup final and while refusing to pick a winner from his former clubs, it is obvious who Yorke hopes will prevail: "It's 14 years since they [Villa] last won a trophy and that's far too long. I'm on the fence but if United don't win, I won't feel bad."Talk of his first English club brings Yorke back to his managerial ambitions. "I'd like the Villa job for sure," he says. "I think that's a realistic target for a young ambitious manager like myself." Given his past, though, does Yorke believe any chairman would be brave enough to appoint him? "I don't see why not," he replies. "I've got a reputation but everybody's got a reputation. You should be judged on what you've done in football and there's not a lot of people who have a CV like mine."Ideally I'll get a chance in the Championship. People say I should go somewhere like Lincoln, like [Chris] Sutton did, but I don't want to be struggling down there. If Roy Keane can start in the Championship, why can't I?"The reference to Keane, who Yorke fell out with spectacularly during their time together at Sunderland, makes United the centre of focus once more. That smile shines again as Yorke remembers how Ferguson once gave him the "biggest bollocking" of his life and even blamed him for turning his hair grey.If he does become a manager, would Yorke ever tell one of his own players to settle down and get married? "No way!" he chuckles. "They can talk to me about anything but I wouldn't tell anyone to get married. I'd say get two or three women instead!"Dwight Yorke is a studio expert for Sky Sports' live and high definition coverage of the Carling Cup final on Sunday — the first of nine live finals on Sky Sports this seasonAston VillaManchester UnitedSir Alex FergusonSachin Nakraniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

IPL chairman sees no let-up in cricket's commercial and sporting revolution and expects to challenge football's Premier LeagueAt 9.30 on Saturday night in Mumbai, while a fevered city eases into the weekend and the spring spiritual celebration of Holi, Lalit Modi keeps grinding away. The chairman of the Indian Premier League works incessantly as he expands an empire that has transformed the way in which cricket is played and watched around the world.Work comes to Modi in many guises. He still faces various late-night meetings to assess the few remaining security issues before the latest IPL tournament starts a week on Friday. Beyond this interview, and his ongoing analysis of international sporting trends, Modi's work is also shaped by constant tweeting as he uses Twitter to communicate the IPL's unstoppable blend of Twenty20 cricket, Bollywood and big business.Ambition and entertainment fuse further in his mind as he digests the soap opera of a clash that took place three hours earlier between his beloved Chelsea and a bristling Manchester City on the other side of the world. The Premier League is a striking barometer for the massive scale of Modi's IPL – and more relevant to his global plans for Twenty20 cricket than an insignificant one-day international being played this same Saturday evening between India and South Africa in Ahmedabad."Unfortunately I never get a chance to watch cricket – ever," the bustling but charming 46-year-old says. "Even with the IPL I've never watched a full match. It's unfortunate but I'm working and I only get to watch a few small sections of matches. We're up a lot of nights, until two or three every morning. The IPL keeps me busy."Modi laughs huskily – then unveils his ultimate goal. "We hope to become the dominant sporting league in the world," he says calmly, brushing aside the swaggering football powerhouses across Europe and the giant franchises of American sport. "That's our aim. We are only a two-year-old league but we had close to 3.8 billion eyeballs last year. I use that phrase every time a person sits down and watches an IPL game live or on TV – that's an 'eyeball'. Every game last year we had 100m eyeballs. But because our objective is to become the most watched sporting event in the world we are now targeting 150m every day."This new deal with Google and YouTube will take us to a new level. I strongly believe my job as an administrator is to make sure our product is available to the widest possible audience in the world. Until now, if you're sitting in America or Finland and you want to watch cricket, you have a problem. Because cricket is not a major sport in these countries it will not be broadcast. But the IPL will now be live on YouTube. If someone watches the IPL we can monitor it and the numbers will mean advertisers and subscribers are going to follow."Of course we want it to be traditionally broadcast as well. The IPL has sold broadcasting rights for $2.4bn [£1.6bn]. Our Champions League, for clubs, will receive a billion dollars for 10 years of broadcasting rights. But there are so many devices now you can just connect your broadband to the TV and watch that way. Or you can watch it on your mobile. The consumer can decide. He can communicate with his friends on a social network site at the same time as he watches the IPL."Modi stresses his belief that Twenty20 cricket will eventually surpass the Test game. "Twenty20 will become the dominant format – without doubt. It lasts only three hours and people don't have time any more to sit all day watching cricket. We're competing with football and other sports and I think three hours is a good time limit to help us expand the market. We are definitely bringing new consumers to cricket."All this talk of "product" and "consumers" will distress followers of the ancient and still compelling art of Test cricket. But Modi is relentless in his logic. "I am a great supporter of Test cricket. People say I'm not but I also run the marketing department of the BCCI [the Indian board of control] and Test cricket is extremely important to us. All I am trying to do is remind people that we live in a modern age and Test cricket has a big problem: it is played in the daytime when most people are working."We should be embracing every opportunity for getting viewers into watching Tests and the most effective way is making it a day-night game. If you take it to day-night, then people can watch it on TV when they get home from work – or they can go to the stadium. There has been a big drop in Test cricket viewing [outside England and the Ashes] and it's because people don't have the leisure time in the day to watch it."If Test cricket does not adapt to a floodlit future could it eventually disappear? "Yes," Modi says, "because the broadcaster won't be interested. Whether we like it or not, broadcasting determines whether a game survives. Without broadcasters you don't have money to pay players or keep the sport alive."Intriguingly, for a man wedded to the modern media phenomenon, Modi does not believe Test cricket needs to change its actual format where matches can unfold with deliciously slow subtlety. "The five-day game should still be the pinnacle and the ultimate test of skills. You don't need to fiddle with the format at this stage. All you need do is change the timing. If we went day-night then we would see a real resurgence in the ratings. Look at Twenty20. It has gone to night cricket and the viewership has exploded."In the face of Modi's rampant commercialism fears have grown in England. There have been concerns he could threaten the stability of England's Test team or use his Champions League to ride roughshod over the County Championship. Yet, diplomatically, he seems willing to compromise. Commenting on his strained relationship with English administrators, Modi is conciliatory: "I don't really blame them. They have a schedule to worry about. I understand that. All I keep saying is that we are ready to adjust and bring our games forward a few weeks. If they do the same and move their season back a few weeks, we'll find a happy medium."Modi talks animatedly about how Twenty20 cricket, unlike its Test equivalent, can reach new markets in America and China. He also believes the IPL can eventually take on the Premier League. "Don't forget that our model is unique. All our teams are equal. And the sports fan wants unpredictability. Look, my son is a Manchester United fan and I'm a Chelsea fan – and I was very upset to see my team lose [last Saturday]. But, normally, we know exactly what is going to happen. My son and I know that nine times out 10 either Man U or Chelsea is going to win it. The Premier League is basically so predictable. I wanted to base my league on an unpredictable model – so we don't have a Man U or a Chelsea in the IPL."Everybody has the same purse and it is a healthy purse. Individual players are earning a lot. Some are earning $200,000 a day as they only play about 14 IPL matches. But the IPL is built around the teams. You all buy on the same auction day and you all have a chance to pick the best players. One team may pick up the best batsman but someone else will get the best fast bowler or the best all-rounder. It automatically gets evened out."If you look at our ratings, all 59 games in the IPL last year were within a 5% margin of each other in ratings. That has never happened in any other league in the world. From a broadcaster's or advertiser's point of view this is a dream because when they buy a match, or advertising, they know they are going to get value for money. The other key point is that 52 out of those 59 matches went down to the wire. No one knew who was going to win until the final stages."The IPL's unpredictability will continue this Sunday when Modi holds another auction for new franchises to emerge. "Our model works but a lot of English football clubs are going under. Look at Portsmouth going bankrupt. With the next auction we might have even more surprising figures and people coming into the IPL."Yet uncertainty also prevails in a worrying security risk which, last year, forced the IPL to move temporarily to South Africa. "This year we are definitely going ahead in India. Our top priority is to ensure security – but we cannot let terrorist organisations dictate to us.That's why we work closely with national security companies and governments. I think all the players will be here for the IPL because we have made the correct precautions. Reg Dickason [English cricket's security expert] had some suggestions which were very good. He also wanted to know how some of our strategies were being implemented but I don't see any problems."Nothing can be guaranteed in a volatile world. And there is fleeting weariness in Modi's voice when he reflects on other serious concerns closer to home. His wife, Minal, has been stricken with cancer. "She has been in the US for treatment and she just got back home. She is recovering and the outlook is good but it has been very tough to deal with and to balance my time with her and my family and the IPL."Modi takes refuge in more amusing stories – and laughs uproariously when confirming that he shocked his family when he went to university in the US. His millionaire father had given him $5,000 to buy a second-hand car. Modi, instead, used the money for the first instalment on a spanking new Mercedes. That same gambling instinct emerged when, over a cup of tea at Wimbledon in 2007, Modi broached his ideas to Andrew Wildblood, a sports agent with IMG."I had been working towards the IPL for 14 years when I asked Andrew to help me prepare a blueprint. When we announced our plans in September 2007 India had not even played a Twenty20 match. But then they went to the Twenty20 World Cup and won it. Everything changed. I knew cricket had undervalued itself for so long but I still thought it would take us five years to get where we were in year one. So it was quite dramatic – even for me. And, now, all our hard work is paying off. The future looks very promising."IPLTwenty20CricketDonald McRaeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:12:02 +0000

So far the Lotus T127's first test has been going pretty well. The reliability seems to be there and it was only the enthusiasm of driver Heikki Kovalainen that cut short their Thursday session at Jerez, after he spun the car into the barriers at the Spanish circuit. With no spare nose available, Kovalainen was forced to wait until Friday to return to the track, but that didn't dampen the Finn's mood when it came to the T127's prospects