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The left-arm fast bowler has played three first-class matches and four List A games, picking up seven and five wickets respectively

Cricinfo staff23-Sep-2009Jack Shantry, the left-arm fast bowler, has signed a two-year full-time contract with Worcestershire that will keep him with the county till 2011.Shantry, 21, made his first-class debut against Nottinghamshire in August this year in the County Championship. He played three first-class matches and four List A games, picking up seven and five wickets respectively.Worcestershire have been relegated to Division Two of the County Championship and look set to lose Kabir Ali, who was given permission to seek out other clubs earlier in the month. Gareth Batty and Steven Davies will also be heading for Surrey next season.However, they will be boosted by Matthew Mason, Chris Whelan, and now Shantry, signing on new contracts. Alan Richardson has also been included from Middlesex, while SImon Jones has not been offered a contract renewal.

Paulo Fonseca, who has held ‘informal contact’ with Aston Villa, is also open to talking with Newcastle United regarding their vacant managerial position, according to Sky Sports.

The Lowdown: Villa contact Fonseca

Dean Smith’s position at Villa Park is thought to be in ‘serious jeopardy’ following four defeats in as many games in October.

The Daily Mail revealed earlier in the week that Villa have made initial contact with Fonseca, who has been out of work since the end of June.

A defeat to Southampton on Friday will reportedly lead to a review by the Villa board, but they now may have to act even faster if they want Fonseca.

The Latest: Sky Sports claim

Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie made an live-on-air claim regarding Fonseca on Wednesday afternoon.

Cited by Football Daily, Downie told Sky Sports that a ‘source close to him has told us’ that he’d be keen to speak with Newcastle.

This will be a blow to Villa fans, who were delighted on social media when the Portuguese tactician was linked with a move to the Midlands.

He went on to add that it has been a ‘bonkers 24 hours’ after Unai Emery decided to stay at Villarreal, with Roberto Martinez and Eddie Howe also linked with a move to St James’ Park.

The Verdict: Smith hoping a move goes through?

Smith may well be hoping the Portuguese coach makes the move to the north east, as it may keep him in a job a little longer – if the Villans can’t obtain their ideal replacement, perhaps the former Brentford boss will get time to turn things around.

However, results need to improve regardless of what happens with Fonseca and Newcastle, starting this Friday, otherwise, you’d expect Villa will look at a number of other candidates to replace Smith.

He can start to build bridges with a win at St Mary’s, but it’ll be interesting to know what Villa’s stance is on Fonseca and a potential move to the Magpies – perhaps the Toon’s interest may even force NSWE into quicker action.

In other news: ‘Welp’ – Many AVFC fans erupt as Preece shares ‘terrible news’ on Leon Bailey. 

New South Wales have been flexible without being gimmicky, and Katich has had an answer for every situation, Kieron Pollard excepted

Dileep Premachandran at the Feroz Shah Kotla21-Oct-2009There must have been a few Chelsea and Manchester United fans who felt a little odd when the two teams clashed in the 2008 Champions League final. The venue, Moscow, was 2500 km away from the scenes of their usual skirmishes, Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford. Compared to the sense of displacement felt by supporters of New South Wales and Victoria in Delhi tonight, that was nothing though. As the crow flies, it’s 10,193 km to Melbourne, 10,416 to Sydney. For one of sport’s most ancient rivalries – spanning 262 games and 117 years – this truly was a step into the unknown.New South Wales have been dominant both at Sheffield Shield (45 wins to Victoria’s 27) and 50-over cricket (nine triumphs to four), but the Twenty20 format is one in which the poorer cousins from Melbourne can claim greater mastery. They were well on course for a fourth consecutive success in the Big Bash last January until Ben Rohrer’s 20-ball 44 and a bye off the final ball gave NSW the trophy for the first time.On a slow and low pitch where both had previously excelled – Victoria thrashed the Delhi Daredevils, while NSW were way too good for both Eagles and Sussex – you expected a closely-fought game. Apart from a Shield match at Albury (countryside NSW, in 1989) and a 50-over contest in Canberra (2006), the contest had never strayed too far from the traditional venues in Melbourne and Sydney, but never had there been so much at stake as on this early winter’s night at the Feroz Shah Kotla.In financial terms, the difference between exiting the tournament in the semi-final (US$500,000) and winning it (US$2.5 million) was huge. It’s probably fair to say that there’s never been a domestic match with so much riding on the outcome. Sadly, the occasion seemed to get to Victoria who were never in the game after a tidy first over from Shane Harwood.David Warner and Phillip Hughes are quite an opening combination, one determined to bust the myth that left-handers make more elegant batsmen. If Hughes’ bat comes down like an axe, the Warner method is redolent of the blacksmith on his anvil. Between them though, they took Peter Siddle apart, combining straight-bat flails with tennis-forehand smears. One such swipe from Hughes, down to the sightscreen, was spectacularly ugly. In this format though, aesthetics mean nothing, and by the time the Powerplay was over, New South Wales had 56 on the board.”We’d pretty much summed up in a team meeting last night what we were going to do,” said Warner after the game. “The plan was to target the sightscreens. When Phil was playing across the line, I told him, ‘Mate, we can’t afford to do that at the moment.’ He played his natural game after that. “Only Harwood and Andrew McDonald, with his slow medium pace pitched short of a length, adjusted to the conditions. Siddle was too full and Jon Holland, the left-arm spinner, was also brutalised. And though the batting lost some fizz in the second half of the innings, 169 was at least 30 more than Victoria could reasonably have expected to chase.”They took the game to us,” a disappointed Cameron White said. ‘It’s not easy to play like that on a pitch like this. But we were a little too full or a little too short with our bowling.”While other captains have whined about having to play on these Delhi pitches, Simon Katich has been utterly phlegmatic about it. “It’s like the slow pitches we play on in Sydney,” he said when asked if he would have preferred to play the semi-final in Hyderabad. “We’re quite used to it.” He and his side have made the adjustment seamlessly, and Katich’s captaincy deserves plaudits, both for giving Nathan Hauritz a share of the new ball this evening, and also for bringing on a left-right combination against the spinners earlier in the game. New South Wales have been flexible without being gimmicky, and Katich has had an answer for every situation, Kieron Pollard excepted.Brett Lee has bowled with impressive control and fiery pace, and the support from Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark and the innocuous-looking Moises Henriques has been tremendous. And with Hauritz getting prodigious turn to go with his new-found self-belief, no batting side has really looked at ease against them. Pollard’s heroics in Hyderabad merely obscured the fact that Trinidad and Tobago were comfortably second-best for 35 overs of that match.Add in the likes of Rohrer, who produced another cameo tonight, and the promise of Steven Smith, and it’s not hard to see why Katich’s side will be huge favourites on Friday night, no matter who they play. They may be a long way from home, but Australia’s most successful state side seem intent on proving that, like the national team, they’re a class apart.

Celtic duo Albian Ajeti and Osaze Urhoghide could leave Parkhead in January to make room for winter transfer window additions, The Daily Record have reported.

The Lowdown: Out of favour…

Neither of those has made the impact they may have hoped for under Ange Postecoglou.

The Hoops brought in four attacking additions over the summer in Kyogo Furuhashi, Liel Abada, Jota and Giorgos Giakoumakis, which has resulted in Ajeti starting just five games all season when options have been limited.

The 24-year-old cost the Hoops £4.5m from West Ham, but he last started a league game back in September.

Urhoghide, who was a beast for former employers Sheffield Wednesday, was Celtic’s first signing under Postecoglou, but he is yet to kick a competitive ball for the Hoops’ first team, and it seems as if the pair could depart in the New Year.

The Latest: A busy January?

The Daily Record shared a story on Saturday, looking at six players who could be in line to leave the club to make room for new additions that Postecoglou has promised.

Two of those were Ajeti and Urhoghide, with The Daily Record claiming that the Hoops are ready to cut their losses when it comes to the Swiss forward.

Meanwhile, they suggested that the young defender, labelled as ‘quick’ by Postecoglou when he signed in the summer, could be shipped out on loan after struggling in his early months at Lennoxtown.

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The Verdict: Correct calls?

With no director of football or head of recruitment in place, you’d expect that interim CEO Michael Nicholson will be the man in charge of incomings and outgoings in January.

It appears to be a wise move on both players, especially with Ajeti, who is picking up £18,000-a-week in Scotland and hardly contributing. Celtic are thought to be in for Japanese forward Daizen Maeda, so moving on the Switzerland international, even if it is for less than £4.5m, would seem to be a smart call.

Loaning out Urhoghide, who was playing regular first-team football in the English Championship last season, could also be a shrewd move.

If a temporary move materialises, hopefully it could benefit the centre-back as it would afford him the opportunity to play senior football on a regular basis, which could then give him a better chance of featuring at Celtic Park next season.

In other news: Hart and Juranovic delighted as Celtic announce more official contract news

In the Australian team Michael Clarke is viewed as a reliable vice-captain and the most consistent batsman in the team, but the outlook from over the fence is less glowing if a News Ltd survey can be believed

Peter English25-Nov-2009In the Australian team Michael Clarke is viewed as a reliable vice-captain and the most consistent batsman in the team, but the outlook from over the fence is less glowing if a News Ltd survey can be believed. Clarke is the country’s most over-rated cricketer according to the results, a claim which was immediately dismissed by a confused Ricky Ponting.”No one can doubt his cricket ability,” Ponting said of his deputy. “He’s a highly talented player who has played as well as most other players around the world in the last couple of years. As far as Michael being over-rated, that’s a bit harsh.”Only 14% of the respondents chose Clarke as the most over-hyped, but he was still ahead of Shane Watson (11%) and Shaun Tait (10%). Ponting said the public perception of his men was often misplaced and that surveys returned results that “don’t make a load of sense”.”To tell the truth, I’m not sure the public know a lot of us that well,” he said. “It’s very hard what we do, being probably reasonably public images out on the field playing and training all the time, but as I’ve always explained it, it’s a helmet on, helmet off sort of scenario. Everyone sees you with your helmet on and how you play your cricket, and makes judgments on how you are on the field. Quite often it can be a fair way away from the way you are off the field.”Ponting said the focus was something a lot of international sportsmen struggled with, but he felt his players in their “everyday people” roles did their best to combine promoting the game with doing the right thing by themselves. Clarke is on billboards selling energy drinks, on television advertisements catching tennis balls in his undies, in the celebrity pages with his model fiancée, and a high-profile part of Cricket Australia’s campaigns.In between all his off-field duties this year he has guided Australia’s batting through the unsuccessful Ashes campaign, scoring 448 runs at 64, and been promoted to lead the country’s Twenty20 side following Ponting’s retirement. “I’m 28 so a lot of the guys can relate to me,” Clarke said during the week.Ponting also defended Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, with 73% of people in the survey voting he should be sacked. Hilditch and his panel have been under fire for the past year for the side’s results in India, Australia and England, and the criticism reached its peak after the Ashes loss at The Oval, where no spinner was chosen on a turning surface.”I don’t think the selectors have done too much wrong in the last two years,” Ponting said. “Quite often when you’re in those sorts of positions you’re on a hiding to nothing. You try and do everything right by Australian cricket with the way you look at the team and pick the team and you still have people calling for your head.”

With Liverpool wingers Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah contributing to 16 out of the 31 Premier League goals that Jurgen Klopp’s side have managed to score so far this season, there’s no denying that the duo are incredibly important for the Anfield side from an attacking point of view.

Taking this into account, it appears that the Merseyside club could be looking to bring in a familiar face to the squad that could compete with Mane and Salah for a place in the team.

What’s the news?

It has recently been claimed by journalist Ekrem Konur that Liverpool could be set to put in an offer for Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling amidst recent uncertainty around his future at the Manchester club.

Before joining City back in the 2015 summer transfer window in a deal worth a reported fee of £49m from Liverpool, the winger racked up a total of 129 senior appearances for the Reds across all competitions in which he managed to score 23 goals and provide 25 assists in the process.

During his time with Pep Guardiola’s side, the 26-year-old, who is currently valued at £81m according to Transfermarkt, has scored 116 goals and provided 89 assists in 307 appearances across all competitions, winning 11 trophies along the way.

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So far this season, Sterling, who been labelled as an “exceptional” player by Guardiola, has only started six of the 13 appearances he’s made for City across all competitions, which has led to speculation over his future with the Citizens.

In terms of a potential move back to Liverpool, if current sporting director Michael Edwards could secure Sterling’s signature for a transfer fee around or below the fee that the Reds picked up for him back in 2015, this could be his final transfer masterclass at the Merseyside club before leaving his position in the summer.

After all, if you consider the goals, assists and trophies that Sterling has racked up during his time away from Anfield, he would be an incredibly valuable asset to have.

However, if Sterling does end up back at Liverpool in a few months time, it would be hard to see him starting ahead of the likes of Mane and Salah on a regular basis given how important the pair have proven themselves to be in recent years. That said, Sterling would provide some useful attacking depth given his experience and skill set, attributes that could take the Reds towards another domestic title.

In other news: Edwards must seal dream Liverpool swoop for 41-cap demon who’s “got everything” – opinion

The South African and New Zealand players associations have pushed for a separate window for the annual IPL and the Champions League

Cricinfo staff11-Dec-2009The South African and New Zealand players’ associations have pushed for a separate window for the annual IPL and the Champions League, in such a way that it does not disrupt other international fixtures.”Yes, there is a need for an IPL and Champions League window but then they must not expand outside this window,” Tony Irish, CEO of South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), told PTI. “International cricket, IPL and Champions League must co-exist and not compete. Players should not be put in a position of having to choose between playing one or the other.”Two editions of the IPL have been completed, but not all international players have been able to participate, owing to their international commitments. The England players in particular have found it hard to take part because the IPL coincides with the start of their county and international home season.Heath Mills, the CEO of the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association (NZCPA), said players in his country could be tempted into opting for cash-rich Twenty20 leagues if there is a constant clash of schedules.”It is absolutely essential that there are windows created for the IPL and the Champions League,” Mills said. “If they do not create a window for the IPL then I am certain our best players in New Zealand will not sign central contracts in the future so they can choose to play in the IPL ahead of any clash that may occur with the Blackcaps’ schedule.”The ICC said in July that it wasn’t considering the proposal for a permanent window for the IPL. The president David Morgan said that only players in the brink of retirement were likely to opt for such domestic leagues over their international commitments. Shane Warne, who captains the Rajasthan Royals, had earlier called on the ICC to create a window going by his rewarding experience in 2008.

Newcastle United are currently enduring a difficult season in the Premier League as they sit rooted to the bottom of the table.

The Magpies are winless in their first 12 matches and are in the bottom three alongside Dean Smith’s Norwich and Sean Dyche’s Burnley.

Despite their rough campaign so far, one player has been able to stand out as a consistent performer in the team – Allan Saint-Maximin. He has averaged a superb WhoScored rating of 7.29, with three goals and three assists in the top-flight.

Dream deal

Newcastle sealed a dream deal when they landed the Frenchman two years ago. The club reportedly paid £16.5m to sign him from OGC Nice in the summer of 2019. He came to Tyneside off the back of managing nine goals and 12 assists in his last two Ligue 1 seasons for Nice, showing off his ability to make things happen in the final third.

The 24-year-old ended his first campaign at St. James’ Park with five goals and seven assists in all competitions, dazzling supporters with his incredible dribbling skills. He averaged a whopping 4.7 completed dribbles per game in the Premier League, with an average rating of 7.29, showing his ability to take players on and get fans off their seats.

Speaking of which, earlier this year, Steve Bruce reserved high praise for the Frenchman, whilst ruling out a sale for him over the summer. He told The Mirror:

“You can never say never but absolutely, 100%, I will say that we are keeping him.

“I said when I walked through the door two years ago, and he did too, that the supporters will enjoy watching him.

“Whether you’re a Newcastle fan or not he’s worth his admission fee alone, isn’t he? In terms of his trickery, pace and power, he’s such a natural footballer, the kid.”

To date, Saint-Maximin has racked up 24 direct goal contributions for Newcastle, with ten strikes and 14 assists in all competitions for the Magpies. This has led to his Transfermarkt value rocketing up to an impressive £27m, an improvement on the £16.5m they reportedly paid for his services.

At the age of 24, he could also have more growth to go through as a player. This means that, if managed correctly, his value could continue to soar if he is able to increase his numbers in the final third by adding more goals and assists to his game.

Therefore, Newcastle sealed a dream deal when they brought him to the club as they landed a quality young player with the potential to progress and be worth far more than they paid for.

AND in other news, Howe may find Janmaat 2.0 in NUFC deal for “underrated” £30m gem, fans would love him…

Daniel Vettori, trying to regroup his troops after being bowled out for 99, said there was still time in the Test to stage a comeback

Cricinfo staff04-Dec-2009Daniel Vettori, trying to regroup his troops after New Zealand were bowled out for 99, has said there was still time in the Test to stage a comeback. New Zealand conceded a 165-run first-innings lead to Pakistan after being bowled out inside 37 overs on day two in Wellington.”Obviously the batting display, to only put 100 runs on the board, is not where we want to be,” Vettori said. “It’s a really tough day, particularly with how we played in Dunedin, to back it up with a performance like that is tough. But there’s a lot of time left in the game and we’ve got to make sure that we don’t give it up now.”New Zealand lead the series 1-0 after beating Pakistan in Dunedin. They scored 429 in the first innings but were bowled out for 153 in the second. However Shane Bond and Iain O’Brien managed to bowl out Pakistan for 218 in their chase of 251.Vettori said a target of 400 would not be impossible to chase and mentioned New Zealand scoring 431 in an unsuccessful chase of England’s 553 in Napier last year. He said the top-order batsmen would have to step up but added there was no need for them to change their technique against the Pakistan bowlers after the first-innings collapse.”The only thing we can do is try and be as confident as possible. We all know they [batsmen] are good players, they all have runs at Test-match level and they’re going to get an opportunity on a good deck come the fourth day, or hopefully tomorrow at some stage. They’ve got to believe and we’ve got to believe in them.”Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan fast bowler who took four wickets in the innings to take his series tally to 12, said 400 would be a good total for his side. New Zealand began their innings just before lunch and lost their first wicket in the first over when Mohammad Aamer had Martin Guptill caught for a duck. They lost three more wickets in the second session, going into tea at 77 for 4. In the first ten overs of the final session they lost their last six wickets for 22 runs. But Asif said the pitch did not greatly favour the bowlers. “The pitch didn’t do a lot actually but if you bowl in the right area there is something happening.”

Following on from their 2-0 victory over Ipswich Town at the weekend, Sunderland are back in League One action this evening with an away clash against Shrewsbury Town, who only have 15 points on the board from 17 games.

After the Ipswich win, Sunderland manager Lee Johnson revealed that defender Dennis Cirkin will be out of action for the next few weeks with a hernia injury, with fellow full-backs Denver Hume and Niall Huggins out injured for the Shrewsbury match as well.

Taking this into account, here’s how we feel Sunderland could line up for their game against Shrewsbury. 

In goal, with Ron-Thorben Hoffmann having played in the majority of Sunderland’s league games so far this season, we can see him taking his place once again on this occasion.

For the defence, we think Johnson will stick with the same back four that started against the Tractor Boys with Luke O’Nien, who scored their goal of the game at the weekend, staying at left-back with Carl Winchester on the right and the duo of Callum Doyle and Bailey Wright in the middle after managing to keep a clean sheet at the weekend.

In midfield, we think Johnson will keep Dan Neil and Corry Evans in the central roles but replace Nathan Broadhead, who is currently earning a weekly wage of £2.9k-per-week according to Salary Sport, and Lynden Gooch with Aiden McGeady and Leon Dajaku coming in to freshen the team up alongside Elliot Embleton.

Then for the attack, with Ross Stewart having scored ten goals in 19 League One games for Sunderland this season, it would seem likely that Johnson will keep him in the team on this occasion to see if he can continue his good run of goalscoring form and secure another win for his team in the process.

Whether Johnson goes with this exact starting XI or not, this is still a good opportunity for Sunderland to get another win on the board and keep them towards the top of the league table considering how Shrewsbury have lost more games (10) in the league this season than any other team alongside Doncaster Rovers and Crewe Alexandra.

In other news: Johnson must ruthlessly axe “versatile” £5k-p/w SAFC dud, he’s becoming a liability – opinion