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Former England captain admits personal tragedy helped change perspective, as he prepares for Red for Ruth Day at Lord’s

Matt Roller28-Jun-2023Andrew Strauss has a strong claim to be England’s most successful Test captain of the modern era: Ashes victories both home and away, more than twice as many wins as losses in charge, and a rise to the top of the ICC’s Test rankings clinched with a whitewash against India.And yet, as Strauss reflects on his career, he has a lingering sense that his team could have achieved more than they did. “We felt like we’d achieved everything we wanted to,” Strauss said, “but there was something slightly missing. And it was that excitement, that feeling of pioneering, trying new things. If I had my time again, maybe I would do things differently.”That view is informed, in part, by Strauss’s career since his playing retirement in 2012. As England’s managing director, he was an instigator of their white-ball revolution. Last year, back in the role on an interim basis, he appointed Rob Key to his old, position, and Key in turn then chose Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes as Test coach and captain.”That’s a reflection I’ve had for many years, starting with the white-ball revolution in 2015: that there are different ways to play the game,” Strauss said. “As I’m a bit older and have less hair now, my thinking on this has changed a bit from, ‘It’s only about winning’ to, ‘It’s also about how you win’.”That’s what Stokes and McCullum have done now: they’ve won, but they’ve won with style. They’re questioning centuries-held conventions in the game – and doing it with good reason. The game has evolved and changed dramatically over the last few years.”Strauss admits his glory with England was about personal goals and ambitions, whereas the foundation is about ‘something greater than me’•Getty ImagesBut Strauss’s perspective has also changed by events in his personal life. Five years ago, his wife Ruth was diagnosed with an incurable lung cancer that affects non-smokers. She passed away later that year, survived by her husband and their sons Luca and Sam.Strauss set up the Ruth Strauss Foundation in 2019 to provide support for families and raise awareness of non-smoking lung cancers, and Thursday marks the fifth annual Red for Ruth Day at Lord’s.”Seeing her courage and her bravery, you completely change your perspective in life about what’s important, where you get fulfilment and where purpose lies,” Strauss said. “I was very proud of what I was able to achieve in an England shirt but, in many ways, that was about me achieving my own goals and ambitions.”This is something much greater than me. I know how hard it is for all those families. It just breaks my heart that every day, there are hundreds of kids being put in the situation that my kids were put in. We can’t change that, but we can make it a little bit easier. If we’re able to do that, that warms my soul and I know it’ll be warming Ruth’s soul too.”The foundation has raised millions of pounds through previous Red for Ruth days, but the money itself is not the point. As Strauss puts it: “The Ruth Strauss Foundation is not here to raise money. The Ruth Strauss Foundation here is here to help as many people as possible.”But the Ashes provides an opportunity that other series do not: “People are going through this from all walks of life in all parts of the country, many of whom have never heard of Cricket or the Ruth Strauss Foundation. The Ashes Test match is hopefully a time when people that perhaps aren’t always watching cricket are suddenly tuning in.”Related

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In the past 12 months, the foundation has rolled out peer support groups for both the children and surviving spouses of people with incurable cancer. “People feel a really strong kind of desire and yearning to talk to people who’ve been through something similar to them,” Strauss explained.”It’s great having professional help, but it’s equally powerful just to talk to other people who’ve gone through it. And I think that’s even more the case for kids: kids find it hard to speak to adults, but they find it easier to speak to other kids. More broadly, [it’s about] having a conversation about death, which we’re just not very good at in this country.”In Strauss’s own case, “It was one of those situations that my friends and family, they just weren’t qualified to help me. And so I did reach out to people that had been through something similar; I hung on their every word. And of course for people that have been through it, it’s a lovely thing to share their experiences but also to remember their loved ones.”There was no shortage of criticism for England on Wednesday: for their selection, their catching, their lengths, their body language, their willingness to speak to Australia’s players. As Lord’s turns red on Thursday, perhaps it will provide an opportunity to remember that there are more important things to worry about.For more information and to donate to the Red for Ruth Foundation, click here.

Peter Moores says Hameed has “learned a lesson” since his dramatic loss of form for Lancashire

Matt Roller28-Apr-2021Any politician announcing a pledge to get Haseeb Hameed back into England’s Test side would receive a 10-point polling bounce overnight, such is his popularity. When he made his debut in India in late 2016, it was hailed as a triumph for modern Britain: the son of a driving instructor who had emigrated from Gujarat and settled in Bolton, opening the batting with Alastair Cook, whose knighthood was imminent. Virat Kohli said it was “a pleasure watching him play” and called him a “great kid” – after all, he was still only 19.But the years since have been a struggle. He lost his England place for the 2017 home summer, failing to make a County Championship hundred and averaging 28.50, and a return of 165 runs in 17 innings the following summer prompted Paul Allott, his director of cricket, to declare: “Not only is he a million miles away from England, he’s hanging on by his fingertips at Lancashire.”Hameed-mania fleetingly returned in 2019, when he strummed 117 in his first Championship innings of the summer on the back of a double-hundred in a warm-up fixture, but his next-highest score of the season would be 55. By the end of the year, the first related Google search next to his name wondered: “What happened to Haseeb Hameed?”ESPNcricinfo LtdThe slump necessitated a change of scenery, and he signed a two-year deal with Nottinghamshire at the end of 2019, with his contract since extended to the end of 2022. The disruption of the pandemic has limited him to 13 first-class innings for the club, but he is averaging 48.25 for them, with three fifties in the Bob Willis Trophy backed up by twin hundreds – and a Championship record for balls faced in a match – against Worcestershire last week. If the runs keep flowing, talk of an England return will not be far away.”I’ve no real worries about that,” Peter Moores, his head coach, told ESPNcricinfo. “I think he has his feet firmly on the ground. He’s been through that journey and I think he’s learned a lesson that you can’t get ahead of yourself in sport and have to play what’s in front of you. I’m pretty confident he will do that, get stuck in, and really build on a fantastic performance. There’s such a long run of games back-to-back that if you’re in good form, there’s a real opportunity to cash in.”Notts ‘desperate’ to shake losing run – Moores

Peter Moores has coached Notts during a transitional phase in first-class cricket, but knows their 30-match winless run must end soon; if their East Midlands rivals Derbyshire and Leicestershire were to endure similar streaks, it would prompt questions about their existence as counties.
“We’re desperate to win that game and move on,” Moores said. “Last year we got as many bowling points and more batting points than anyone else but missed some opportunities.
They have started the season with two draws and a tight defeat. “The first thing for any team is to stop losing games and start being competitive, which we’ve done across the last seven or eight games,” he said.
“The next run [of games] is an opportunity to move on again, put sides under pressure for a long period of time, and start to drive some of those opportunities home.”

The context of his hundreds made them particularly notable, saving a draw for Notts following a collapse. He spent all but 4.2 overs of the game’s final seven sessions batting, after Worcestershire enforced the follow-on, taking the best part of 14 hours to make 111 and 114 not out. His partnership with Ben Slater is blossoming, with stands of 115 and 236 (unbroken) in the match building on the foundations laid last season.Technically, there have been minor tweaks, primarily designed to strip his game back to the basics. There were suggestions during his time at Lancashire that Hameed’s response to a low score would be to try to reinvent his game overnight; instead, Moores has focused on reminding him what earned him his Test spot in the first place, particularly his patience outside off stump. He has been encouraged to think differently about batting too, focusing on scoring runs rather than avoiding losing his wicket.”Has played beautifully last week,” Moores said. “He’s really grown his game, I think. He got to a place where he was surviving as a player: trying not to get out and block the new ball, but he’s now someone who is a lovely player to watch with a lovely flow to him. You couldn’t score at a [fast] rate on that pitch, so he played each ball on merit and showed what made him a good player as a young man when he got that England opportunity; hopefully he’s reconnected to that side of his game but now with the new maturity he has found over the last couple of years.”Hameed is Notts’ vice-captain this season•Getty ImagesMoores is better placed than most to judge, having watched Hameed as a teenager in the Lancashire academy during his time at the club. “Like a lot of young players, they go through the dip,” he said. “They start very well, but then certain things happen to them, expectation gets increased, sometimes they try to move their game in the wrong places, and slowly but surely they start to find their true games. Has is finding that now. The version you’re starting to see is the one that will be really effective, not just in four-day cricket but in one-day cricket too.”There is a sense that Notts are backing Hameed publicly in a way that Lancashire rarely did. They successfully kept him out of the spotlight in pre-season, declining interview requests for him, though did give him the responsibility of the vice-captaincy. “He’s got a good tactical brain and there’s nobody who wouldn’t get on with him,” Moores said. He will lead the side in the Royal London Cup, with a swathe of first-team players away on Hundred duty, and while he is yet to make a professional T20 appearance, his ability against spin has translated into a solid List A record.It is too early to predict with any certainty whether Hameed’s recent form is proof that he is back to his best or another false dawn in a career that has fluctuated as wildly as a risky cryptocurrency stock. But the signs are positive, and at 24, he still has plenty of time to fulfil even the weightiest expectations.

Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino had an at-bat to forget during Wednesday's game against the Boston Red Sox.

During the first inning up against new Red Sox pitcher Dustin May, Pasquantino was sat down on strikes after swinging through a devastating sweeper. It was a nasty pitch, and it broke so much that despite Pasquantino swinging and missing, the ball ended up running all the way inside and hitting him square on the thigh.

It looked for a moment as if Pasquantino fouled the ball off, but in reality it just bounced straight off his thigh and he was ruled out on strikes.

On Thursday, the Royals first baseman posted the aftermath of his embarrassing strikeout on social media, revealing a massive bruise on his thigh while having a laugh at his own expense.

All in all, not a moment Pasquantino will look back too fondly on, though the welt on his leg will certainly serve as a frequent and painful reminder of it throughout the next few days.

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O atacante Aylon, do Ceará, deixou o clube após o encerramento de seu contrato. O destino do jogador de 33 anos é o Operário-PR, rival dos cearenses na Série B do Campeonato Brasileiro.

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➡️ Tudo sobre o Vovô agora no WhatsApp. Siga o nosso novo canal Lance! Ceará

Aylon chegou no Ceará em 2024 e exerceu um importante papel no acesso à Série A. Foram 53 jogos em tal temporada, com 14 gols e três assistências.

Tendo um menor tempo de jogo em 2025, o atleta passou a ser utilizado como reserva de Pedro Raul, titular incontestável no ataque. Aylon atuou 39 vezes no ano, somando cinco tentos. Além do acesso à Série A, o atacante obteve dois títulos estaduais na passagem.

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O Operário, novo clube de Aylon, foi o 12º colocado na última Série B, com 48 pontos. O contrato do jogador é válido até novembro de 2027.

— O Operário é um time que dispensa apresentações, sempre ouvi muito bem com relação à estrutura, ambiente e a cidade. Estou muito empolgado nesse novo capítulo da minha carreira – afirmou ao site oficial do Fantasma.

➡️ Ceará volta a buscar treinador após mais de um ano

Ceará volta a buscar treinador

A passagem de Léo Condé no Ceará durou 83 jogos. Foram 37 vitórias, 17 empates e 29 derrotas, com 103 gols marcados e 78 sofridos.

O clube já busca um novo técnico, que terá a missão de comandar o Vovô no Campeonato Cearense, na Copa do Nordeste, na Copa do Brasil e na Série B. A ideia é definir um nome antes da reapresentação do elenco, marcada para o dia 26 de dezembro.

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Manchester City are now obsessed with signing a “generational” forward, joining the race for his signature alongside a number of the Premier League’s top clubs.

Man City kicking into gear ahead of Real Madrid clash

Man City were a little shaky at the start of the season, losing against Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton, but Bernardo Silva believes they are starting to kick into gear, ahead of the tough Champions League clash against 15-time champions Real Madrid tonight.

Silva said: “The team has been growing a lot since [the start of the season]. We’re improving day by day. It’s true that our teams have always been much better in the second part of the season than the first and hopefully it happens again this season.”

Pep Guardiola’s side have looked very potent on the front foot, having already scored 35 Premier League goals, seven more than any other side, with Phil Foden starting to get back to his best, regularly providing goals and assists.

Phil Foden’s attacking record

Appearances

Goal contributions

Premier League

13

8

Champions League

4

3

EFL Cup

2

2

However, Man City remain keen on making more additions to their forward line, according to a report from Spain, which states they now have an ‘obsession’ with signing RB Leipzig star Yan Diomande, who has emerged as one of the most exciting youngsters in Europe.

A plethora of top Premier League clubs are keen on Diomande, including Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, but City are the ‘most persistent’, having conducted a number of scouting missions since October.

Leipzig have no desire to sanction a move, with the German club eager to tie him down to a new contract, and interested clubs will need to make offers in the region of €80m – €100m (£70m – £87m) to tempt them into a sale.

"Generational" Diomande likened to Haaland

Journalist Bence Bocsak is a huge admirer of the left-winger, recently saying: “Just catching up on RB Leipzig’s game tonight and oh my Yan Diomande is a special player. I actually think he’s one of those players you break all your recruitment models for.

Yes, the same size is small. But he’s a generational talent.”

Bocsak also likens the Ivorian to a current Man City star, saying: “Haaland was another level even to Diomande but the RB Leipzig winger is not far off.”

It is clear to see why the 19-year-old has received rave reviews, most recently making a real statement by scoring a hat-trick in RB Leipzig’s 6-0 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt.

The four-time Ivory Coast international has now amassed seven goals and four assists in 15 matches in all competitions, which is a very impressive tally, given that it is his first season in the Bundesliga.

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City certainly aren’t struggling from an attacking point of view, but the opportunity to sign Diomande may be too good to pass up…

Eight matches into his Rangers tenure, is Danny Röhl any closer to figuring out which players he can trust and who he cannot?

On Thursday night, the Gers were held to a 1-1 draw by ten-man Braga at Ibrox, despite taking the lead through James Tavernier’s spot-kick in first half stoppage time; the fact that only 38,014 spectators were in attendance encapsulates the mood.

So, with just one point on the board after five games, a frankly pitiful effort, unless they somehow manage to beat Ferencváros, Ludogorets Razgrad and then Porto, which seems unlikely if we’re being honest, the Gers’ Europa League adventure will be coming to a premature end in January, having got all the way to last season’s quarter-finals.

This will allow them to concentrate on domestic matters, which may be a good thing, given that they’ve slipped down to fifth in the Premiership table, despite having won all four league matches since Röhl’s arrival in Glasgow.

So, ahead of a visit from Falkirk, who would actually leapfrog their hosts with a shock victory at Ibrox on Sunday, what changes should the German head coach make?

Youssef Chermiti's uninspiring form

Back on Monday, it was announced that both chief executive Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell had been sacked, after overseeing a chaotic summer of recruitment, with the £8m, potentially rising to £10m, paid to sign Youssef Chermiti among the more egregious and baffling of their decisions.

So far, he has scored just one goal for the club, on target against Kilmarnock last month, already surpassing his tally of zero goals during two seasons at Everton, also brought to Merseyside by Thelwell for £14m when he was working at Goodison.

Aside from his lack of goals, the striker simply isn’t offering enough, often allowing matches to pass him by and putting in anonymous performances.

Following this week’s draw with Braga, Mark Atkinson of the Scotsman asserted that he is driving supporters ‘demented’, adding that he ‘spurned a couple of presentable’ opportunities and is so far proving to be a mere baffling expensive purchase.

So, ahead of a sequence of three Premiership matches in seven days, facing Falkirk, Dundee United and then Kilmarnock, Chermiti should be stood down and Röhl must instead deploy the “best player in the league” up front.

Rangers' superior Chermiti alternative

Of the 13 players Rangers signed in the summer, many are young and inexperienced, hoping to grow and improve in the coming years, but Bojan Miovski was supposed to be a ready-made starter, brought in to produce right away.

The 26-year-old, returning to Scottish football after a season at Girona, is a proven goalscorer at both club and international level, bagging his ninth goal for North Macedonia against Wales at the Cardiff City Stadium earlier this month.

Meantime, at club level, prior to his season in Catalonia, he had been outstanding during two years at Aberdeen, as the table below documents.

Bojan Miovski’s stats for Aberdeen

Stats

Miovski

Appearances

98

Goals

44

European goals

4

Goals vs Rangers

4

Goals vs Celtic

3

Shots on target per 90

1.1

Big chances missed

31

Average rating

6.9

Stats via Transfermarkt & SofaScore

As the table makes clear, Miovski was an elite-level finisher during his time at Pittodrie, scoring 32 Premiership goals, while his strike rate in Europe as well as against the two Glasgow giants underlines his quality.

Then-teammate Nicky Devlin asserted that Miovski was “the best player in the league in his position”, firing the Dons to a third place finish in 2022/23, before being sold for £6.8m, the Dons’ record outgoing transfer.

However, we are yet to see very much of that from Miovski in a Rangers jersey, scoring his first goal for the club against Hibs in the League Cup, while his only Premiership goal came at Falkirk Stadium in October, the day Russell Martin was sacked.

Since the appointment of Röhl, the North Macedonian has featured in all eight matches but has started just once, this coming at Dens Park before the international break, substituted at half time with the Light Blues leading Dundee 2-0.

So, for whatever reason, the German head coach appears to favour Chermiti and Danilo, despite the fact that Miovski is a proven goalscorer at both Premiership and European level, something this team desperately needs given that, 26 matches into this campaign, Tavernier and Djeidi Gassama are the only squad members who have four or more goals to their name.

Thus, when Falkirk visit Ibrox this weekend, surely Röhl has to bring Miovski back into his XI, ditching the ineffective Chermiti, with the former looking to net as he did against the Bairns once again, just as he did in Stirlingshire just last month.

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