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Manchester United have certainly had a hectic few days to contend with off the pitch, after it was confirmed Ruben Amorim had been sacked from his managerial post.

The 40-year-old left the role after 14 months at the helm, but he was only able to achieve a 40% win percentage despite leading the club to a Europa League final.

He leaves the club sitting sixth in the Premier League table, with the Red Devils currently sitting just three points off a place within the division’s top four.

However, matters should still be somewhat focused on recruiting new players, with the January transfer window now open and presenting a chance for INEOS to strengthen any Champions League push.

Despite the managerial situation, the hierarchy have already identified numerous options in the market, with work being done to try and improve the first-team squad.

Man Utd make huge bid to land European sensation

The midfield department at United is one that has needed addressing for many months now, with Brighton and Hove Albion star Carlos Baleba just one option being considered.

Over the last couple of days, the Red Devils have once again registered their interest in the Cameroonian international, but any deal would certainly be expensive for INEOS.

It’s been reported that the Seagulls are demanding a fee in the region of £100m to part ways with the 22-year-old this winter, with the player open to a move to Old Trafford.

However, a new attacker also remains firmly within their sights at present, with RB Leipzig star Yan Diomande another player firmly being pursued by the hierarchy.

According to African Foot via Sport Witness, the Red Devils have made a €90m (£76m) bid to sign the 19-year-old who has scored six times in 14 Bundesliga appearances.

The report also states that the winger is on the radar of numerous other teams in England’s top-flight, with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham all tracking the teenage sensation.

Why Diomande would get Sesko firing at Man Utd

Only last summer, United spent big on new attackers to try and inject needed quality into the frontline to help bolster their chances of success in the Premier League.

Benjamin Sesko was just one of the players signed by the club during such a spree, with the hierarchy paying £74m for his signature from German outfit RB Leipzig.

High expectations were placed on the attacker given the nature of the transfer fee, but it’s safe to say his time at Old Trafford has been a disaster to date.

The Slovenian international has featured in 16 league outings so far in 2025/26, but has only registered two goals in the process – currently enduring nine games without a goal.

At just 22, he has bags of time to turn his career around in England’s top flight, but he could certainly benefit from some added creativity around him in the final third.

A move for Diomande could provide just that, with the Ivorian international enduring a phenomenal breakthrough campaign in Germany under the guidance of Ole Werner.

Whilst he’s only laid on two league assists so far in 2025/26, his underlying stats on FBref showcase the incredible talents he possesses with the ball at his feet within attacking areas.

Diomande, who’s been hailed as a “generational talent” by journalist Bence Bocsák, has completed 6.3 progressive carries and 4.3 successful take-ons in the Bundesliga this season.

Such numbers showcase his ability to get the ball into dangerous areas, with no player in the division able to register higher tallies in the aforementioned departments.

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The teenager has also registered 1.4 key passes and 1.4 passes into the opposition box per 90, subsequently showing the end product needed within the final third.

Yan Diomande – Bundesliga stats (2025/26)

Statistics (per 90)

Tally

Games played

14

Goals & assists

8

Pass accuracy

82%

Progressive carries

6.3

Successful take-ons

4.3

Key passes

1.4

Passes into 18-yard box

1.4

Carries into final third

3.9

Carries into the 18-yard box

3.4

Stats via FBref

His mazy runs, combined with his consistent end product, could hand Sesko the tools he needs to finally hit the ground running after his tricky start to life in Manchester.

As for Diomande, his talents are further reflected with his impressive tally of 3.4 carries into the final third per 90 – also the highest in the league – reaffirming his creative ability with the ball.

£76m would be yet another mammoth statement of intent from the hierarchy, but it’s a deal that would certainly inject the further added quality they have been hunting for.

Whilst the manager situation no doubt remains a priority, whoever takes the reins in the near future would have a serious talent on their hands should a deal be completed for the Leipzig sensation.

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Posts 3 ByEthan Lamb

Sky Sports journalist Florian Plettenberg reports that West Ham United are set to give Nuno Espirito Santo one more game to save his job at the London Stadium.

The reporter claims that the Portuguese boss is on the verge of being sacked by the Premier League strugglers, but he will be given the opportunity to manage against his former club, Nottingham Forest, on Tuesday night.

It is a huge game at the bottom of the table, with the Tricky Trees one place above them, and a defeat would mean that the Hammers are seven points from safety.

It has been reported that former Hammers manager Slaven Bilic is willing to take the reins until the end of the season, but they should avoid going down that route.

Why West Ham must avoid Slaven Bilic

West Ham should avoid going for Bilic because the Croatian boss has been out of management since August 2024, and has not had much in the way of success in his recent managerial spells.

The 25-year-old manager was let go by Saudi Pro League side Al-Fateh with 1.32 points per game, and more losses than wins, and that came after he left Watford in tenth in the Championship and Chinese outfit BJ Guoan in fifth after 21 matches, per Transfermarkt.

Bilic’s last spell in the Premier League came with West Brom, after he won promotion from the Championship with them, and he was sacked after eight losses in the first 13 games.

Bilic’s last 24 PL matches

Stat

Bilic

Games

24

Wins

3

Draws

7

Losses

14

Points

16

Points per game

0.67

Stats via Transfermarkt

Couple that run with six losses in 11 games at the start of his final season with West Ham, as shown in the table above, and he has a 0.67 points per game rate over his last 24 Premier League games.

Bilic did finish seventh and 11th in his first two seasons at the club, ending his time in London with more losses than wins, but his recent managerial experiences, particularly in the English top-flight, suggest that he would not guide them to safety.

West Ham's possible Bilic alternative

Instead of going for Bilic as a replacement for Nuno, who has won two of his 13 games in charge so far, the Hammers should look to one of their former targets.

Manager Focus

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In April 2024, Ruben Amorim apologised to Sporting supporters after admitting that he did travel to England to hold talks with David Sullivan and Co about potentially replacing David Moyes for the 2024/25 campaign.

After that, Julen Lopetegui arrived at the London Stadium and Amorim eventually replaced Erik ten Hag in the dugout at Manchester United. Both of those moves failed to work out.

The Portuguese boss was relieved of his duties by Manchester United on Monday morning, with the Red Devils sixth in the table, and he departed with a points per game rate of 1.23 in the Premier League.

That is not good enough for a United manager, as evidenced by their decision to sack him, but he had averaged 1.55 points per game this term, per Transfermarkt. Say West Ham lose on Tuesday and sack Nuno, 1.55 points per game would take them to the magical 40-point mark in the final 17 games.

What is good enough for Manchester United at the moment is very different to what is good enough for West Ham, given the situation that they are in, which is why the club should consider taking advantage of Amorim’s sacking with an approach to bring him to the London Stadium.

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The Portuguese manager’s Premier League record this season, with United in sixth place, and his previous managerial experience with Sporting and Braga, suggest that he could be a good appointment.

Amorim’s Liga Portugal record

Season

Points per game

24/25 (Sporting)

3.00

23/24 (Sporting)

2.65

22/23 (Sporting)

2.18

21/22 (Sporting)

2.48

20/21 (Sporting)

2.50

19/20 (Sporting)

1.91

19/20 (Braga)

2.78

Stats via Transfermarkt

As you can see in the table above, Amorim was a serial winner in Portugal, averaging over two points a game in all but one spell, before his move to England.

This suggests that he even has the potential to take West Ham to the next level if he can get his 3-4-2-1 system to work in a way that he was unable to at Old Trafford.

Crystal Palace are a good example of how a midtable team can use a 3-4-2-1 to create a solid base that allows them to compete against the best teams, and it helped them to win the FA Cup and the Community Shield in 2025.

It is a blueprint that West Ham could follow by swooping for Amorim to replace Nuno, in the hope that he can guide them to the magic 40-point mark, before building on that in future seasons.

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Posts ByDominic Lund

	The Dolphins would have objected to Johan van der Wath’s selection © Cricinfo Ltd

The Eagles have refused to allow Johan van der Wath, the allrounder, to play in the Standard Bank Pro20 semi-final against the Dolphins at Kingsmead due to his links to the Indian Cricket League (ICL).van der Wath played for the Mumbai Champs and the ICL World XI in the recently-concluded second season of the ICL. Though Cricket South Africa (CSA) has refused to recognise the ICL, Norman Arendse, the CSA president, had earlier said it was up to the franchises, rather than the board, to decide whether their ICL players could play for them. It is understood that the Eagles wanted to pay him on a match-by-match basis instead of handing a contract, to avoid legal problems.Boetta Dippenaar, the Eagles captain, said he was disappointed at the decision to leave out van der Wath. “We applied for permission at the beginning of this week and didn’t hear anything,” Dippenaar told . “We enquired again on Thursday and were told that permission had been denied. It’s very disappointing.”Cassim Docrat, the president of the KwaZulu-Natal Cricket Union, the home base of the Dolphins franchise, said they would have protested to the South African board if van der Wath had been allowed to play as two of their players, Dale Benkenstein and Lance Klusener, have been left out after having played in the ICL.”Our information is that no ICL players are allowed to play domestic cricket,” Docrat said. “We have two rebel players, Dale Benkenstein and Lance Klusener, who would have made a big difference to our team, so it would have been unfair if the Eagles had been allowed to play van der Wath.”The Dolphins have made one change to the line-up, dropping the opening batsman Doug Watson for Hashim Amla.

Former Australia captain Mark Taylor, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Holding, the ex-West Indies fast bowler, are among the people who will form part of the ICC’s newly-constituted cricket committee. Also included are Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel, chief ICC match referee and former Sri Lanka captain Ranjan Madugalle and Craig Wright, the former Scotland captain.The new structure is designed to be representative of all interests in the modern game and replaces the previous set-up which was made up of the nominated representatives from each of the Full Members (boards and players) and leading Associates.The new 13-member committee, which will meet for the first time on May 30 and 31 in Dubai, will be chaired by ex-India captain Sunil Gavaskar, a World Cup winner in 1983. It will also feature recently appointed Western Australia coach Tom Moody, another player to enjoy World Cup success – with Australia in 1987 (as a squad member) and 1999 – and someone who coached Sri Lanka to the final earlier this year.The ICC executive board, which previously approved the recommendation of the chief executives’ committee (CEC) to amend the structure of the cricket committee, approved the personnel set to sit on it at its meeting in Cape Town in March.The remit of the cricket committee is to discuss and consult on any cricket-playing matters and to formulate recommendations to the CEC which relate to cricket-playing matters.The committee (and the interests from which its members are drawn) will be made up of the following people:Chairman – Sunil Gavaskar (former India captain and opening batsman and World Cup winner in 1983)Past players (2) – Ian Bishop (former West Indies fast bowler) and Mark Taylor (ex-Australia captain)Representatives of current players (2) – Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka captain; Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman, was the original nominee for this position but he is unavailable due to commitments playing county cricket in the UK) and Tim May (ex-Australia offspinner, World Cup winner in 1987 and now CEO of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations)Full Member team coach representative (1) – Tom Moody (former Sri Lanka coach)Member Board representative (1) – Duleep Mendis (former Sri Lanka captain and now SLC Chief Executive)Umpires’ representative (1) – Simon Taufel (member of the Emirates Elite Panel and named Umpire of the Year three times in a row at the ICC Awards)Referees’ representative (1) – Ranjan Madugalle (ICC chief match referee and former Sri Lanka captain)Marylebone Cricket Club representative (1) – Keith Bradshaw (took over as the MCC’s Secretary and Chief Executive in October 2006 in succession to Roger Knight; former first-class cricketer for Tasmania in Australia. MCC is the custodian of the Laws of Cricket)Statistician (1) – David Kendix (a statistician/scorer and the man responsible for the creation and development of the LG ICC Test and ODI Championships and nominated by the ICC to sit on the committee)Media (1) – Michael Holding (former West Indies fast bowler and now part of the commentary team for Sky Sports in the UK)Associate representative (1) – Craig Wright (former Scotland captain)Commenting on the change to the cricket committee, ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said: “It is excellent news that both the new structure and the make-up of the committee have been approved. The game of cricket now has at its disposal a group of outstanding cricket brains covering all aspects of the game and with their collective input we will be able to ensure that, moving forward, a strong sport is able to grow even stronger.”Simon Taufel said: “The Emirates Elite Panel of umpires is very pleased to have representation on the cricket committee and be able to have input into how the game is structured at the highest level. There is an enormous amount of cricket experience on the Elite Panel of umpires and we hope to be able to contribute in a positive way to improving the game for all participants and spectators.”Michael Holding, who has already sat on an ICC panel of experts that examined the issue of illegal bowling actions, said: “If the ICC believes I can make a contribution to the committee then I am delighted to take part as I am always happy to be involved in anything that is for the betterment of the game.”Details of the committee’s agenda and of the meeting itself will be announced in due course.

Ethan Dube, on of Zimbabwe’s leading administrators, has quit as chairman of the Matabeleland Cricket Association, citing “confusion” in the structure of the game.Dube has been at loggerheads with Peter Chingoka and the interim Zimbabwe Cricket board, and in March he was one of the senior administrators who wrote to the ICC explaining their major grievances with the way the sport was being run. That letter was effectively ignored.”All structures have collapsed,” Dube told Zimbabwe’s Independent newspaper. “I do not want to be associated with that confusion. Cricket in Zimbabwe is in a sad state. The level of destruction has been alarming. We have lost our best players and our best administrators. This doesn’t bode well for Zimbabwe cricket.”Dube, a former national selector, became Matabeleland’s chairman last year when Ahmed Esat left for the USA. But his tenure has coincided with the collapse of the domestic game, and in March most of Matabeleland’s senior clubs split from Zimbabwe Cricket and decided to form their own breakaway league.”So many things have happened that we do not know what normal is anymore,” Dube said. “Domestic cricket has collapsed. Development programmes have gone to waste. Right now there is not even a first-class competition although we keep being told that it will be played before the end of the year.”The Logan Cup, which has been played for more than a century, has not been staged this season, although a Zimbabwe Cricket spokesman insisted that this would be held when the West Indies tour was over.”We need to sort out domestic structures,” Dube insisted. “We need to get back the players we have lost if we are to have any respectability on the international stage.”Elsewhere, as revealed by Cricinfo last week, Themba Mkhosana, ZC’s general manager, has also quit only a few months after returning from England where ZC had paid for him to study for a sports management degree.It is thought the ZC interim board initially refused to accept Mkhosana’s resignation, although ZC declined to comment when asked.

Stuart MacGill leaves the field with a torn calf muscle © Getty

It will be another 24 hours before a conclusive appraisal can be made on the injuries that Stuart MacGill and Jason Gillespie have picked up during the first Test at Perth. Both will be monitored closely to assess their availability for the second Test, which starts in Sydney on Friday.Errol Alcott, the Australian team physiotherapist, said, “Given the nature of the injuries and the short amount of time between matches, it is concerning, and I guess that puts a cloud over their availability for Sydney. With Jason Gillespie, he felt a degree of discomfort early in yesterday’s second innings. He wanted to keep bowling, he wants to bowl today, but scans have revealed that his grunt [sic] muscle is strained, so in the interests of his longer-term future, we need to hold him back.”Gillespie said it was another injury at a time when he felt the ball was coming out nicely. “I understand the need to take a cautious approach to this injury because it has set me back in the past,” he said. “I will do whatever it takes to get things right prior to the second Test, and I guess we will have a better idea as to how the injury is going over the day or so.”Alcott said MacGill had experienced sharp pain while he was bowling. “The calf is torn, which is a genuine concern considering it is his set-up and landing leg. We will treat him and assess his progress over the course of the next 24 hours.”Australia’s squad for the second Test is expected to be announced at 11am tomorrow (Sydney time).

The new cover featuring Australian captains past and present, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting© John Wisden and Co.

Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, has been named as the Leading Cricketer in the World by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, whose 141st edition is published on Thursday, April 8.Ponting is the first recipient of the new Wisden accolade, started as a counterpart to the traditional Five Cricketers of the Year award, which dates back to 1889. This year’s Five Cricketers include two Englishmen – Andrew Flintoff of Lancashire and England, and Chris Adams, the Sussex captain – two South Africans – Graeme Smith and Gary Kirsten – and the Australian Ian Harvey.No-one can be among the Five more than once and, with the arrival of the new honour, the Five are once again being chosen on the time-honoured criterion “influence on the English season”.But the Leading Cricketer award can be won an unlimited number of times. The almanack has also named The Wisden Forty, including Ponting and his 39 nearest rivals, based on their form in 2003. The list includes 14 Australians, seven South Africans, five Indians, four Pakistanis, three Englishmen – Flintoff, Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan – three Sri Lankans, two New Zealanders and one each from West Indies (Brian Lara) and Zimbabwe (Heath Streak).Ponting shares the cover with his predecessor as Australian captain, Steve Waugh. This follows Wisden’s first-ever pictorial cover in 2003, which featured Michael Vaughan. This year, the front has been redesigned to re-incorporate the famous woodcut by Eric Ravilious. Readers who object to pictures on the cover (or to Australians) can write off to Wisden for a picture-free version.The Notes
Wisden’s Notes by the Editor, cricket’s traditional fire-and-brimstone annual sermon, breaks with precedent by praising the game’s administrators. Matthew Engel – returning as editor after three years’ absence, spent mainly in the US – says “the game has been better run for the past few years than at any time in history”.But Engel then attacks both the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over the current crisis involving Zimbabwe and the Champions Trophy tournament, scheduled to be held in England in September.Describing Zimbabwe as a “wretched tyranny”, he says the majority of cricketing countries will earn “the contempt of thoughtful individuals across the globe” if sanctions are invoked against England for refusing to tour there. But he adds that the English position has been “incoherent and inconsistent” and says the ECB’s plans for the Champions Trophy look like producing something “between a squandered opportunity and a total fiasco”.

Mike Atherton – critical of the county game© Getty Images

Engel points out that the competition is due to go on almost until October – far later than any major cricket has ever been staged in England – and that the final will be at The Oval rather than Lord’s. Even The Oval will not be properly ready: it is being rebuilt for the 2005 Ashes. He adds that the England team will be “knackered” after a non-stop six-month programme, thus endangering any prospect of a home win to build popular support for the game.Engel also criticises the ECB’s domestic opponents, the Cricket Reform Group, headed by the former England captains Mike Atherton and Bob Willis. After analysing their manifesto, which proposes a greater emphasis on club rather than county cricket to produce England cricketers, he concludes: “I am gobsmacked that Mike and Bob expect English cricket to be more competitive by becoming more amateur.”The Articles
The lead article of Wisden 2004 is a graceful tribute to Steve Waugh, the most successful Test captain of all time, by the former England captain Nasser Hussain. Another ex-captain, Mike Atherton, profiles Graeme Smith as one of the Cricketers of the Year.The other articles all add to the long tradition of Wisden as a repository for some of the best writing in sport. They cover such subjects as the future of wicketkeeping, Over-Forties in Test cricket, the role of players’ agents and a comparison of the lives of footballers and cricketers. (“I reckon the only advantage they have over us is that their game lasts 90 minutes not five days,” says Graham Thorpe, the former England Schools midfielder and current Test batsman.)There is a tribute to Sussex, the county champions, by their former captain, and trenchant journalist, Robin Marlar. The weatherman Philip Eden shows that 2003 was not quite such a long, hot summer as people believe. This year’s book reviewer is Barry Norman, who chooses No Coward Soul, the biography of Bob Appleyard, by Stephen Chalke and Derek Hodgson, as his book of the year.The Round the World section includes reports from inside one of Saddam Hussain’s palaces on the Baghdad Ashes (four for the first landing of the marble staircase, six for the second landing), from the salt plains of East Timor and the lava fields of Rwanda, where the players learned about volcanic bounce the hard way. The Chronicle section reports on Darren Gough’s debut in The Beano and on the player who missed most of the season after breaking his collarbone – in the fathers’ sack race.And Wisden also attempts to answer the one cricketing question the book has never tackled before: What

Overcoming the disappointment of their early exit from the World Cup and switching back into Test mode will be the key to New Zealand’s hopes of holding their Test ranking of No 3 in the world in their forthcoming Test series with Sri Lanka.The side leaves for the Test leg of the series next week, and will be going without stalwarts Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan and Chris Cairns. Astle is having surgery on a long-standing knee problem, McMillan has been dropped for this tour and Cairns is available only for the One-Day International tri-series after the Test matches.That third ranking is important to the Kiwis, it is not a position that has often been their property in the past, even in the unofficial rankings before the implementation of the ICC Test Championship.”Everyone else refers to it so we have to and we want to hold onto the third position which I think we have deserved over the last two years,” New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming says.With all the emphasis on one-day cricket this summer in preparation for the World Cup, New Zealand has been starved of Test action, playing only two Tests over the summer.That has made life tough for Test match specialists like opener Mark Richardson who only really picked up his best batting form in the latter stages of the domestic season, this despite playing some key innings in the Test series victory over India.Fleming said there would be no problem getting prepared for the Sri Lankan series after the disappointments of the World Cup.Just like falling off a horse really, the best medicine is to get straight back on.”There was a disappointing feeling after the Cup but the best medicine is to get back into it straight away. The challenge of the Tests is what I am looking forward to in Sri Lanka,” he said.Fleming enjoys touring Sri Lanka and recalls the success he had during the last Test tour when hitting his highest Test score of 174 not out.”Winning the first Test is crucial in a two-Test series and we will have to go hard for that.”We will have to soak up the pressure in their conditions and they will be very tough Tests,” he said.The Test series is an important one for many reasons. New Zealand has a winter off this year, but once the summer of 2003/04 starts it is all on in a big way.It has a tour to India and then the two home series against Pakistan and South Africa before a tour to England. Somewhere along the way the missing Test against Pakistan from that disrupted by the bomb which forced New Zealand home from Karachi last may has to be fitted into the calendar as well.Depth is lacking in some areas, especially the opening role and also in spinning. The spinning lack is probably the longest-standing problem in the New Zealand game. From the days through the 1970s and 1980s, when every New Zealand province had at least one quality spinner, the situation has deteriorated badly.Various methods have already been tried to improve the situation and another is to be tried on this tour with two promising young spinners, left-armer Bruce Martin and off-spinner Jeetan Patel being taken along for the ride to get some exposure to the international scene, and no doubt to do a lot of bowling in the nets.Their involvement is seen as part of a longer-term initiative, the finer points of which are still to be worked out.Off-spinner Paul Wiseman has been included for the tour despite some unconvincing performances in the New Zealand domestic season.But Fleming says Wiseman has experience of Sri Lankan conditions and he expects him to relish the opportunity the tour provides to shore up the spin-bowling options in the New Zealand side. He does come off some lengthy match bowling having sent down 63.2 overs in Canterbury’s last State Championship match against Central Districts this year. His reward was one wicket for 165 runs.Adding to the concern in the spin department is the relative lack of use of key spinner, left-armer Daniel Vettori.He had been hamstrung by the pitches that have been provided in New Zealand over the last summer, and on the portable pitches in the first and third Tests against England last summer.While Fleming looked to attack with him as often as possible, it was a fact that the wickets the side had been playing on had not allowed the opportunities.”You have to keep looking at the wickets, and the figures of the domestic cricketers are just the same.”The return of Matt Horne should strengthen the batting options at the top of the order while Fleming’s Wellington team-mate Richard Jones should bring a strength of attitude when he gets the chance.Going on tour without the support in talent and experience that Astle, McMillan and Cairns offered him did make for tougher going for Fleming but he said their absence provided chances for Horne, Mathew Sinclair and Jones.The extra responsibility that will go on Fleming would be significant and his recent run of form could be just what he needs to set the pace from the front. He has been happy with his form of late, and there has been a sense of reward for the work he has put in. But there is still more he wants to do, and that has to be encouraging.The tri-series with Sri Lanka and Pakistan will offer more opportunities for New Zealand to address their shortcomings in the one-day game.Fleming commented that it is the lack of opportunity for the one-day side to play together, with all its key performance elements, as often as possible that has been one of reasons for the side not achieving a level of consistent success since he has been captain.There was also a need for a greater understanding of the game and learning to apply the lessons of defeat at the right time when opportunities arose.Chopping and changing of players, especially in the twin areas of concern, opening the batting and the bowling at the death, had not helped this development.On this occasion Chris Nevin, a controversial omission from the World Cup team as an opening batsman, had the chance to stake a more permanent claim in the side while Horne was another who had plenty to offer.The problem with settling the issue of bowling at the death was that it was really a skill that was acquired as the result of experience at bowling in tight situations.Shane Bond still represented a chance in that role, although he had been used in the World Cup to try and polish off sides earlier. But Daryl Tuffey, Andre Adams and Ian Butler were others who could have a role to play.There are still plenty of questions to be asked, and answered, for the New Zealanders but Sri Lanka represents a significant opportunity for some players, and the success of the tour may depend on how well they take them.

Having been declared winners on a better run rate in a rain affectedmatch on Thursday, West Zone lost a match the same way on the secondday of the Inter-Academy cricket tournament for the Col. Hemu AdhikariTrophy in Bangalore on Friday.West Zone had got the better of North Zone in the group B match on theopening day. Today at the Central College grounds, Central Zone weredeclared winners on a better run rate.Winning the toss, Central Zone were all out for 212 off 49.5 overs.The final total constituted a good recovery for Central Zone had lostfive wickets for 86 runs. MV Surendra Singh (60) and wicketkeeper NVOjha (28) initiated a rally by adding 50 runs for the sixth wicket off10.3 overs. The momentum was maintained with Surendra Singh and AfrozKhan (12) putting on 48 runs for the seventh wicket from 6.4 overs.Surendra Singh who faced 68 balls and hit seven fours, was eighth outat 193 in the 47th over. KR Adhav was the most successful bowler withthree for 46.West Zone lost two wickets for 29 but their hopes were revived by athird wicket partnership of 56 runs between opener SO Kukreja (30) andRK Solanki (18). Thereafter however wickets fell at regular intervalsand a valuable unbeaten 34 by VA Indulkar who hit three boundariesproved to be in vain. Central Zone conceded 35 extras but were stillable to get two points as West Zone were reduced to 160 for nine off43.3 overs. Rain halted the match at 4.21 pm and it was called off at4.45 pm. SK Shulka who caused most of the damage late in the inningstook three for 37 off ten overs.

Rangers starlet Rory Wilson has ‘knocked back’ a historic contract offer from the club, according to Football Insider.

The lowdown

16-year-old Wilson, billed a ‘wonderkid striker’ by FI, has already racked up 40 goals this season. The Daily Star’s Chief Sports Writer, Jeremy Cross, has called that an ‘astonishing’ tally.

And at international level, he’s also been prolific, bagging six goals in his first seven caps for Scotland’s Under-17 side.

Cross writes that Rangers are likely to receive only £300,000 in compensation if Wilson seals a move away.

The latest

The contract on the table is thought to be ‘the most lucrative first-year professional deal’ in Rangers’ history, FI report.

A source has revealed that the player and his family met for talks with sporting director Ross Wilson and manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who tried to ‘sell the club to them’.

But neither the offer nor the pitch were enough to win the player over, and he’s made it clear that he wants to leave Ibrox this summer.

It looks as if he’ll be joining a Premier League club amid ‘extensive interest’ from the English top-flight.

He’ll sign a scholarship deal at first before penning a potential contract with his new team when he turns 17.

This, FI say, will come as a ‘major blow’ to Van Bronckhorst and the Gers.

The verdict

Where could Wilson actually end up?

Well, Cross claims that three of the Premier League’s top six – Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United – have all been monitoring him.

Leeds United and Newcastle United could join them in fighting it out for his signature.

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If it’s any consolation for the Gers, arch-rivals Celtic are in a similar position with one of their ‘brightest academy prospects’ right now.

The Athletic’s James Pearce reports that Ben Doak, who is the same age as Wilson, has turned down a professional contract too as he seeks a move to Liverpool.

Both clubs are having trouble preventing youngsters’ heads from being turned.

In other news, there’s been a worrying injury blow ahead of the Old Firm.