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da mrbet： Southampton will aim to pick up a much-needed win playing in front of the St. Mary's masses tonight, Russell Martin's men losing their last two clashes on their own patch to the dismay of the disgruntled home supporters watching on.

da gbg bet： Martin will hope his Saints troops are buoyed on by the nature of their dramatic win against Birmingham City last time out to pick up another result, Joe Aribo's 96th minute tap-in handing the stuttering automatic promotion hopefuls the three points in an action-packed 4-3 contest.

The 38-year-old boss will be wrestling with what side to pick for the task of overcoming Ryan Lowe's Preston North End now, with one usually reliable star potentially being sacrificed for fresh blood to instead get a chance to impress.

Flynn Downes' performance vs Birmingham in numbers

Usually one of the first names on Martin's teamsheet, West Ham United loanee Flynn Downes could find his once secure spot in his manager's first-team plans up in the air against Preston after a below-par showing last match.

Downes' performance was timid when compared to the likes of Will Smallbone dazzling in the centre of the park for Southampton, with the homegrown Saints man picking up two assists to play a key role in the exciting 4-3 win.

In contrast, the ex-Swansea City midfielder was quiet.

Downes did come away from the barnstorming victory with four key passes notched up and a 96% passing accuracy next to his name, but that didn't translate into the 25-year-old picking up an assist or goal for his troubles.

The Hammers loanee also dodged winning his fair share of duels in the 4-3 win, passively winning just one of the four duels he launched himself into.

Once labelled as being a "monstrous" talent by his Saints manager who managed him further when the pair were both at Swansea, Downes could now well drop out of Martin's lineup for him to test out a different central midfielder from the get-go against Preston.

The player that could replace Flynn Downes

The most logical switch-up would see Aribo come into the first-team fold after bagging the vital winner against the Blues, the ex-Rangers man rewarded with a start subsequently.

Southampton's £70k-per-week man has been knocking on the door for more first-team opportunities recently, impressing away from just being the hero at St Andrew's.

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The Nigerian midfielder would only need 45 minutes against Hull City in mid-February to bag another goal for the Saints, winning seven duels in that 2-1 defeat too in what proved to be an impactful off-the-bench appearance for the 27-year-old.

Aribo played the role of heroic substitute perfectly again in the 4-3 victory over Tony Mowbray's hosts last time out, managing to upstage Downes with a solitary duel won alongside firing in the crucial winner at the death.

Aribo's numbers vs Birmingham

Minutes played

20

Goals scored

1

Touches

25

Accurate passes

20/22 (91%)

Duels won

1/1

Possession lost

2x

Stats by Sofascore

It could well be argued that axing Downes completely could be viewed as an overreaction, but Martin would be silly not to unleash Aribo from the start after offering up yet another energetic run-out for his promotion-chasing side from so little time on the pitch.

With Smallbone and Stuart Armstrong offering more than Downes did last time out – the Scotsman livelier when committing himself into duels with three won – the regular first-teamer could be given a rare day off for Aribo to shine.

da pinnacle： In 2020, Manchester United paid £9m to sign attacker Facundo Pellistri from Uruguayan club Penarol, snapping him up at source rather than waiting for him to flourish in Europe and drive up his price tag.

da betsul： In the first transfer window after his arrival in Manchester, Pellistri was loaned to Spanish club Alaves, and he would play his football there for 18 months before returning to United.

After a season and a half at Old Trafford, Pellistri made another temporary move to La Liga in January, this time joining Granada. Now 22, it's unclear whether he'll make it at Erik ten Hag's side, or whether they'll eventually look to sell him on for a profit.

Facundo Pellistri stats

Vol.

Minutes played

429

Appearances

24

Starts

4

League apps

13

League starts

1

Pellistri's somewhat underwhelming impact hasn't dissuaded United from exploring the South American market, though, and they're now in contention to sign an exciting talent from Brazil.

Man Utd battle Man City and Chelsea for Thalys

As reported by Italian outlet Calciomercato, Man Utd have joined the race to sign Thalys from Palmeiras. The Red Devils are hoping to prevail in a battle featuring Premier League rivals Manchester City and Chelsea and European giants like Barcelona, Juventus and PSG.

Related Ratcliffe not hanging around: Man Utd already eyeing "powerful" £34m player

The Red Devils are already looking to the summer transfer window.

Posts ByBen Browning Feb 8, 2024

Palmeiras have slapped a price tag of up to €40m (about £34m) on Thalys, though they may be amenable to a lower fee if they're guaranteed a healthy sell-on clause.

"Immense" Thalys could follow Endrick to Europe

An 18-year-old, left-footed centre-forward who's also played as a second striker and an inverted right winger, Thalys has passed every test he's faced since arriving at Palmeiras in 2021.

He scored 15 goals across his first two seasons with the under-17s, including seven on his side's run to Brazilian Cup glory, and he won Player of the Tournament at the FAM Cup too.

In 2022, he was part of the Palmeiras under-19 squad that headed to the Czech Republic to compete in the prestigious CEE Cup, and he was once again named the tournament's best player after netting three times.

He's now reached eight goals for the under-20s, including two in two in the Copa Libertadores (a continental competition), and signed a new contract in October that runs until 2026.

Described as "immense" by under-23 scout Antonio Mango, he's already commanding a huge fee considering that he hasn't played any first-team football, but the extent of the interest puts Palmeiras in a strong position. Perhaps this year we'll see him take the step to the first team, and then follow in the footsteps of Endrick, who's due to join Real Madrid in July.

The ACB has sanctioned him for breaching a code-of-conduct policy that requires players to seek the board’s permission before travelling abroad

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2019Mohammad Shahzad, the Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batsman, cannot play “any form of cricket” for a year. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), which had earlier suspended Shahzad indefinitely for breaching the board’s code of conduct, has fixed the term of his suspension.Shahzad’s suspension comes after he breached of a policy that requires players to seek the board’s permission before travelling out of the country. ESPNcricinfo understands that Shahzad is based in Peshawar, Pakistan, and was recently seen training there.”ACB has well-equipped training and practice facilities within the country and Afghan players do not require to travel abroad for such purposes,” the ACB said in a statement on Sunday.Last year, the ACB had fined Shahzad and asked him to relocate to Afghanistan permanently or risk having his contract terminated.Shahzad spent his early years in a refugee camp in Peshawar, but his parents are originally from Nangarhar, Afghanistan. Like many of his Afghanistan team-mates, Shahzad grew up near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; he also got married in Peshawar. A significant number of Afghans, once refugees, now reside in Pakistan, mainly in Peshawar, registered in the country as temporary residents.Shahzad has been in the news a fair bit in recent times. He was sent back home from the World Cup because of a knee injury but told media in Kabul soon after that he was fit to play and hinted that the team just didn’t want him with them. “If they don’t want me to play, I will quit cricket,” he had said at the time.The senior cricketer, an integral part of Afghanistan’s rise up the ranks to Test status, had also served a retrospective one-year ban in 2017 for “inadvertently” consuming a banned substance.

Tottenham Hotspur have submitted an initial €60 million (£51.8m/$70m) bid with RB Leipzig to sign Xavi Simons before the September 1 transfer deadline. The transfer fee could potentially increase to €70m (£60.5m/$81.7m) if all the bonuses are achieved. Spurs are moving aggressively in the transfer market as they look to beat Premier League rivals Chelsea in the race.

Spurs submit bid for SimonsDetermined to beat Chelsea to sign the DutchmanSimons travelled to London to secure a transferFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

According to , Spurs have tabled an initial €60m bid to sign Simons from RB Leipzig before the summer transfer window closes next Monday. The initial transfer fee could rise to €70m with all the bonuses that have been included in the deal. No agreement has been reached yet, although claim the English and German sides are close to sealing the transfer. 

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Spurs are determined to secure a transfer for Simons after missing out on key targets like Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze, while star attacking midfielder James Maddison suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury during pre-season. The north London club are also acting quickly to beat Premier League rivals Chelsea to the Dutchman's signing.

DID YOU KNOW?

further claim Leipzig granted Simons permission to travel to London and finalise his move, although they won't give a green signal to any transfer unless their asking price is met.

AFPWHAT NEXT?

Chelsea are on the verge of sealing a transfer for Manchester United outcast Alejandro Garnacho, while they are also close to selling Christopher Nkunku to AC Milan. It now remains to be seen if the Blues make a late push for Simons in an attempt to hijack Spurs' move.

Sunday's draw against Sheffield United in the Premier League was characterised by a dearth of control, but the crux of West Ham United's season remains the need for a gleaming new centre-forward.

Danny Ings started at Bramall Lane and was lively in a deeper-lying role, making four key passes and providing a consistent outlet, but the 31-year-old is yet to score this term and has just three goals from 42 appearances for the Irons.

The other established frontman, Michail Antonio, 34 in three months, has been sidelined for over two months and is ostensibly declining. Edson Alvarez's absence in Sheffield proved decisive in the failure to win, but for the long-term fluency of a remarkable side, signing a striker must be David Moyes' priority.

West Ham's striker search

According to the Sun, West Ham are ready to smash their transfer record to sign Bayer Leverkusen talisman Victor Boniface, who has been in fine fettle for Xabi Alonso's Bundesliga-topping team this season.

Chelsea and Newcastle United are both interested but Moyes will hope that the promise of a leading role could tempt the Nigerian to move to east London this summer, with a winter transfer unlikely but being pushed by Hammers’ technical director Tim Steidten.

January transfer window: All the deadline day deals from England and Scotland

Stay on top of all the latest transfer deals across the Premier League, EFL and SPFL as the January window closes.

ByCharlie Smith Feb 1, 2024 How Victor Boniface compares to Darwin Nunez

Valued at £52m by CIES Football Observatory and contracted to the BayArena until 2028, it's safe to say that Leverkusen are in no haste to cash in.

The 23-year-old has scored 16 goals and supplied eight assists across 23 matches in all competitions this season, earning praise for his "monster" presence in the frontline by Molde assistant coach Trond Strande, signing him from Union Saint-Gilloise for €20m (£17m) plus add ons last summer.

Invariably menacing in the final third, the four-cap Nigeria international ranks among the top 7% of forwards across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for goals, the top 1% for assists, the top 12% for shot-creating actions, the top 5% for progressive carries and the top 3% for successful take-ons per 90, as per FBref.

With a hunger for goals and assists in their hordes, a fleet-footed gait and a tendency to drift in from the left, West Ham could finally land a striker of Darwin Nunez's mould, with the Liverpool star considered the 6 foot 2 Boniface's most comparable player of FBref.

In January 2022, six months before the Uruguayan signed for Liverpool in a club-record £85m deal, Moyes fought to land Nunez before the transfer deadline, sadly coming up fruitless after seeing a €45m (£37m) bid rejected.

Nunez has been a polarising figure in the Premier League, and while detractors cherish the wayward finishes and scorn the lapses of focus, the 24-year-old is one of the most dynamic and devastating players around.

Scoring twice against Bournemouth just hours after West Ham's contest against Sheffield United finished 2-2, Nunez has now taken his seasonal tally up to ten goals and ten assists apiece across the board, despite starting just 18 times.

The £140k-per-week phenom also ranks among the top 18% of forwards for goals, the top 5% for assists, the top 14% for shot-creating actions and the top 12% for progressive carries per 90.

Boniface, similarly, might cause frustration among Irons ranks at times, ranking among the top 1% of positional peers for shots taken per 90, but he offers something brilliant, intangible, in the attacking surges.

Goals, assists, disruption, despondency. Boniface unleashes mayhem as Nunez does and pocks the opposition goal with craters after barrage upon barrage of fire, also intelligent and selfless enough to know when to place a pass and provide for his teammates.

Nunez, too, boasts such qualities, more composed and economical in his overall play this season. West Ham might have failed to bring the Anfield talisman to the London Stadium but they could now find the missing piece to complete Moyes' team, with Boniface tailor-made to cause a stir in the Premier League.

The Sri Lankan smashed a 22-ball fifty, but it wasn’t enough to take defending champions Knight Riders home in a chase of 161

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu11-Oct-2019
The last time Barbados Tridents made the CPL final, in 2015, Kieron Pollard was their captain. Four years later, Tridents, led by Jason Holder, toppled Pollard’s Trinbago Knight Riders in front of a raucous Trinidad crowd to set up a final clash with Guyana Amazon Warriors, who have won 11 of their 11 games in CPL 2019 so far.A torrential downpour had delayed the arrival of Tridents’ team bus, a floodlight tower experienced power failure, JP Duminy was forced to retire hurt in the first innings, but Tridents overcame the odds to end Knight Riders’ hopes of a three-peat.ALSO READ – Pollard: A mercenary and a legendAfter helping Tridents loot 43 off their last two overs to finish with 160 for 6, Ashley Nurse took 2 for 14 with the ball to send Knight Riders’ chase spiraling out of control. When Pollard was run out for 23 off 16 balls, the crowd fell silent and Tridents’ owners were celebrating. Knight Riders’ Sri Lankan recruit Seekkuge Prasanna, however, threatened a jailbreak with 22-ball half-century and dragged the chase to the last over.Knight Riders needed 14 off the final over and Prasanna was on a boundary-hitting spree, having launched slower-ball specialist Harry Gurney out of the ground. Left-arm seam-bowling allrounder Raymon Reifer, who had earlier hit an unbeaten 24 off 18 balls, pinned Prasanna in front with a dipping yorker to seal Knight Riders’ fate.Third-time unlucky
Javon Searles drew an outside edge from Johnson Charles with the second ball of the match, but wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin dropped it. Searles then had the opener skying a loft in his second over, but neither Lendl Simmons nor Chris Jordan attempted the catch in the infield and reprieved him again. Charles then managed a mere eight runs off 15 balls from Sunil Narine and Khary Pierre before searching for a release against Ali Khan. Charles ventured another lofted hit, but the USA seamer hit a hard length and had him splicing a catch to mid-off.ALSO READ: Pierre: Trinbago Knight Riders’ master of thriftOh hello, Ashley Nurse!
Before this game, Nurse had last bowled on September 22 in Tridents’ first home match of the season. He hadn’t quite fired with the bat either until Thursday. While other higher-profile names like Alex Hales and Shakib Al Hasan fell cheaply, Nurse punched 24 off nine balls at a strike-rate of 266.66.When Nurse entered to bat, Tridents were 112 for 6 in the 18th over and their coach Phil Simmons confirmed that Duminy would not return to bat because of a “hamstring twinge”.Nurse was up against the Barbados-born Jordan, who had conjured a double-wicket over earlier in the evening. But the onset of dew meant Jordan couldn’t grip the ball and dished out a beamer that was smoked for a six over the bowler’s head. Jordan then attempted a slower ball later in the over, but Nurse manufactured pace for himself and slugged it over midwicket for another six.He cracked another six in the last over of the innings, bowled by Ali Khan, to push Tridents to a competitive total along with Reifer.Seekkuge’s salvo
Narine kickstarted Knight Riders’ chase with four fours off the first over, bowled by Shakib, but was tricked by Gurney’s slower cutter in the third. Lendl Simmons, the second-highest run-getter this season, had a rare failure, chipping a similar slower ball from Jason Holder to mid-on. USA’s legspin-bowling sensation Hayden Walsh Jr. and Nurse then carved up the middle order, leaving Knight Riders at 81 for 5 in the 12th over.

Seekkuge Prasanna! Take a bow! He takes the play of the day crown for this huge SIX!!! #CPL19 #BTvTKR #BiggestPartyInSport #CricketPlayedLouder pic.twitter.com/yD9bhcWrFD

— CPL T20 (@CPL) October 11, 2019

Pollard briefly gave his side hope by muscling Walsh Jr. for a brace of sixes down the ground, but a mix-up with Prasanna four overs later resulted in his dismissal. At this point, Knight Riders still needed 41 off 25 balls. Prasanna then went cray-cray, as did the Knight Riders fans. Guney was dumped onto the roof, and the ball bounced out of the Brian Lara Stadium. Walsh Jr. wasn’t spared either as Prasanna took him for back-to-back sixes. However, Reifer had the final say, ensuring we will have a new champion this season.

U.S. men's national team winger Tim Weah has apologized for his inexcusable red card in the shocking Copa America loss to Panama

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• USMNT embarrassingly fall 2-1 to Panama
• Weah received 19th-minute red card
• Winger issues apology for recklessness

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  After seeing red in the 19th minute of the USMNT's Copa America loss vs Panama, USMNT winger Tim Weah issued an apology via social media. After a very quick VAR review, the Juventus forward was deemed to have committed violent conduct, and was thus sent off.

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  Weah posted the apology to Instagram, where he stated he "let down" both his country and his team. After seeing red, the USMNT rallied behind a sensational strike from Folarin Balogun which saw them take a surprising lead. The eventual 2-1 loss has, however, put them in a position in which they will need three points against Uruguay in their final group-stage match of Copa America to avoid elimination.

• WHAT WEAH SAID

  "Today, I let my team and my country down," he posted. "A moment of frustration led to an irreversible consequence, and for that, I am deeply sorry to my teammates, coaches, family and our fans. Moving forward, I am committed to learning from this experience, not allowing an opponent to provoke me, and working to regain the trust and respect of my team and supporters.

  "No matter what I will always fight for my team and my country till the day I'm no longer needed or capable to!! Sincerely apologize to everyone. My love for this team goes beyond just football and I'm so sad and angry at myself for putting my brothers through what they went through tonight."

• Getty
  

  WHAT NEXT FOR THE USMNT

  The U.S. will take on Uruguay Monday night in their final match of the Copa America 2024 group stage. Their opponent, Uruguay, will be their toughest task yet having won both of their games so far – and now, it's win-or-go-home for Gregg Berhalter's side.

There was a period of time when the mere thought of dropping Mateusz Klich from the Leeds United team was unheard of.

Axing him from the starting XI would have sent shockwaves around Elland Road and it’s clear to see why.

The Poland international was a dedicated and influential figure, one that typified Marcelo Bielsa’s brand of football.

Klich could do it all; defend fiercely but also provide a spark in the final third.

At one stage, he’d started 92 consecutive matches under Bielsa but the brutal cutthroat nature of the Premier League has gobbled him up and spat him back out for the media and supporters to tuck into their own feast of criticism.

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The 31-year-old stands proud at the moment as one of the best players to grace Leeds in recent memory. He is a promotion-winning midfielder and has played for the Whites on 176 occasions, scoring 22 times in the process.

His partnership with Pablo Hernandez was a sight to behold in the second tier and it’s remarkable he even had the chance to establish that connection, let alone become a Premier League regular.

Bought to the club in 2017 as Thomas Christensen’s first signing, he was soon exiled on a temporary basis.

Yet, enter Bielsa, a man who not only transformed Leeds but rescued the career of Klich, a battling technician who was in danger of throwing away his prime years.

The Pole was nearly out the door until a meeting between him and Leeds’ former manager changed things.

Sadly, five Premier League goals later and his career is diminishing again. Many at LS11 can be accused of underperforming this term but Klich is surely one of the chief suspects.

Dubbed “non-existent” by Sky Sports pundit Clinton Morrison at one point this season, it’s not hard to see why that assessment has been brought into play. Klich has recorded a SofaScore average match rating of just 6.69 which paints a sorry picture.

He has found the net just once all term – a strike against Everton on matchweek 2 – and his performances lead us to believe that he should never be considered to start again by Jesse Marsch.

His display versus Arsenal on Sunday afternoon was particularly ropy too, with the lowlight including a rash and cynical tackle on Granit Xhaka that prompted a yellow card and some minor handbags just inside the hosts’ half.

Substituted during the interval, it was a symbol that even when the going gets tough, Klich cannot be relied upon anymore.

He no longer has Bielsa to comfort and cradle him and in Marsch, perhaps he finally has a coach who can get the best out of Leeds without him.

He lost the ball eight times during his 45 minutes on the field, meaning he lost it every 4.1 touches and 5.6 minutes.

Furthermore, the experienced midfielder completed just a mediocre 79% of his passes and lost a whopping 84% of his defensive battles.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he made only the solitary tackle and played 0 key passes. His influence on the game was significantly less than young Lewis Bate who after being introduced in the second period, added a purpose to the Whites’ play. The highlight was a delightful cross-field ball into open space on the left that picked out the man perfectly. Right there we saw the future of Leeds; not Klich.

With that in mind, Marsch must take the bold decision to keep him from the starting XI between now and the season’s end. It could just keep Leeds in the division.

AND in other news, Shocking: £13.5m-rated Leeds dud who lost ball every 2 touches dropped another stinker…

News from around the counties in the 2019 Championship season

David Hopps27-Jun-2019Assumptions that Reece Topley’s cricketing career is over appear to be premature. There is at least a possibility that he will revive his professional career with Sussex in this summer’s Vitality Blast as he tries to pull off a remarkable recovery against the odds.Topley has suffered four stress fractures to his back in recent years (two separate breaks that then reoccurred) and has not bowled a ball in competitive cricket since last July but following brief periods training with the Melbourne Renegades and Middlesex, he has pitched up at Hove.”Reece has had some injury issues over the last 12 months and there was no guarantee that he’d ever play again,” said Sussex’s head coach, Jason Gillespie. “So we came to an arrangement whereby, with no pressure at all, he could come here, do some training and build his bowling back up.”We’ve got the gym and we’ve got medical support and we said that if he was in a position to play some cricket later in the summer then we would explore that possibility. It’s very early days, he’s just building himself up and he’s going to play a little bit of club cricket but if he’s fit and firing, we know what a fine bowler he is.”Topley is a free agent since leaving Hampshire after playing only 21 games in three years. Just to fulfil even a white-ball contract last season he had to inject a hormone in his stomach daily and once a month had an anaesthetic in his spine. But England Lions still took a look at him before he broke down and his 10 ODIs and six T20s for England are a reminder of his potential.Sussex have kept faith with another left-arm quick, Tymal Mills despite a back condition that restricts him to T20 only. Mills’ life was changed with a £1.4m IPL deal with Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2017, but he went unsold in the subsequent seasons and had a disappointing Blast campaign in 2018, taking only seven wickets in nine matches.***Another player once billed as possessing England potential has an uncertain future, at 27. Less than three months ago, Adam Riley was talking optimistically about how the retirement of James Tredwell and flatter Division One surfaces might give his offspin more of an opportunity at Kent. But after taking only two expensive wickets in two Championship matches, he has left the county by mutual consent.Riley was mentioned in despatches in the general panic about English spin-bowling resources when Graeme Swann abruptly retired during the 2012-13 Ashes series. He broke through as Kent’s first-choice spinner in four-day cricket in 2014, taking 48 wickets in 15 County Championship appearances, and made his England Lions debut against South Africa A in Bloemfontein in February 2015.But England spin specialists tried to quicken his pace through the air and he was plagued by attempts to tweak his action.***Surrey’s Tasmanian head coach Michael di Venuto was flummoxed briefly at a members’ forum this week when he was asked whether Jason Roy should open for England in the Ashes. “Do you want the answer from me as Jason’s coach or from an Australian point of view?” he replied.That answer pretty much gave away his thoughts, but di Venuto proceeded to articulate them anyway. “If I was England, and I am certainly not, I think the captain [Joe Root] should put his hand up and bat at No 3 and Jason would be a very good No 4 in Test cricket,” he said.”I get where they are coming from – he is an exceptionally talented cricketer – but opening in Test cricket is extremely different to opening in one-day cricket. People make the comparison with David Warner, when Warner has been opening all his life. Jason is a middle-order player.”Di Venuto thinks England should heed what he described as “the Aaron Finch experiment.” Finch, who will return to Surrey for the Blast this season, underlined his quality as a white-ball opener on Tuesday with his World Cup hundred against England. But he averaged a modest 27.80 in five Tests going in first against Pakistan and India last winter.”The results could be the same,” Di Venuto warned. He would certainly be surprised if both Roy and Finch, whose World Cup form has also encouraged Ashes speculation, won the opportunity to open the innings when August comes around***This should have been the summer that Joe Clarke’s transfer to a big county helped him catch England’s eye ahead of the Ashes. Instead he has three ducks in his last four games and a top score of 29 in that time and Nottinghamshire are adrift at the foot of Division One without a Championship win for a year.The fallout is still evident after a court case in which Alex Hepburn, a former Worcestershire team-mate, was found guilty of oral rape and jailed for five years in April. Clarke was not on trial, and neither was another former Worcestershire batsman, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, but they were both named at Worcester Crown Court as fellow members of a WhatsApp messaging group which boasted about sexual conquests. The judge called the sexual contest “pathetic, sexist and foul”.Now the ECB has charged both Clarke and Kohler-Cadmore with bringing the game into disrepute, and England are in no rush to forgive.There is always a question about when it is appropriate for a sport’s governing body to play the role of moral arbiter. But sports stars are role models whether they want to be or not and the ego-centric environment of professional sport clearly needs an element of intervention. Few will chide the ECB for taking this particular matter further and for the players to understand that would be a further stage towards redemption.***Warwickshire will feel they deserve a good result against Essex next month after long hours spent finding a venue for the Championship fixture between the sides. Ironically, the outcome announced this week of switching home and away meetings was their first-choice solution when a clash of scheduling with the World Cup became apparent last year.Edgbaston will host a World Cup semi-final on July 11 and it is reserve venue for the final three days later, meaning the Essex game from July 13-16 must be staged elsewhere. Warwickshire were told initially that a swap with Essex was not possible and even asked about giving up reserve status for the final on the basis that it almost certainly won’t be needed.Eventually, they chose Worcester as an alternative home, only for the latest heavy flooding of New Road to leave the ground unfit. So, with no other plausible option, what might well be viewed the best solution will prevail after all: July 13-16 at Chelmsford, September 10-13 at Edgbaston. Assuming, that is, Chelmsford avoids fire, plague or pestilence over the next three weeks.Meanwhile, Surrey have reiterated their position to the ECB that The Oval should be used for part of the county’s 50-over competition next season, even though it is a venue for The Hundred in the same calendar block. “We will make sure we are not thrown out for the entire time period,” Richard Gould, the chief executive, said.

JP Duminy will miss both South Africa’s upcoming limited-overs tour of Australia and the Mzansi Super League to undergo surgery for an injury to his right shoulder.Duminy had been announced as the marquee South African player for the Cape Town Blitz in the MSL, but he will now be replaced by Quinton de Kock. Duminy’s time out for surgery means that South Africa will be without two of their most experienced players on their trip to Australia. Earlier this week, it was announced that Hashim Amla would also not be touring as he is given time to fully recover from a finger tendon injury picked up during the Caribbean Premier League.”JP aggravated a pre-existing shoulder injury during the recently-concluded series against Zimbabwe,” South Africa team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee said. “The injury will require surgical management, thus ruling him out of the immediate tour of Australia and the upcoming MSL. At the moment, we can’t say how long he will be out for, that is dependent on the results from the surgery.”South Africa’s squad for the Australia tour, consisting of three one-day internationals and a solitary T20 international, will be announced later this week. The tour begins with a warm-up game against a Prime Minister’s XI on October 31, while the MSL kicks off on 16 November and runs until 16 December.