Monday International Sports News

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Bhogle, Shastri, Benaud voted
favourite commentators
Cricinfo
Cricinfo users have voted ESPN-Star’s Harsha Bhogle their favourite TV cricket commentator. A poll run on the site over May and June drew votes from thousands of users - a significant percentage of them Indians - who also voted for their top commentators in three other categories: Most Unbiased, Most Entertaining and Most Insightful.
Bhogle and second-placed Ravi Shastri, also of ESPN-Star, between them were the top choice for nearly a quarter of respondents. Channel Nine’s Richie Benaud was third. Tony Greig and Geoff Boycott of Sky were the others in the top five.
The ‘Most Entertaining’ category saw the closest finish: Greig pipped Boycott by just three votes. David Lloyd - also with Sky - came in third, Bhogle fourth, and Channel Nine’s Bill Lawry at No. 5.
Benaud was the clear winner in the ‘Most Unbiased’ category, with Bhogle following and Shastri narrowly taking third place from Michael Holding.
As may have been expected, the ‘Most Insightful’ title was a race between Ian Chappell and Benaud. Chappell won - though not by a large margin. Bhogle was a distant third.
Bhogle, though, was the only commentator who made the top fives in all three secondary categories.
The top ten
Harsha Bhogle, Ravi Shastri, Richie Benaud,Tony Greig, Geoff Boycott, Ian Chappell, Michael Holding, David Lloyd, Sunil Gavaskar, Ramiz Raja.
The list of nominees
Aamer Sohail, Danny Morrison, Ian Smith, Michael Holding, Richie Benaud, Alan Wilkins, David Gower, Jeff Dujon, Michael Slater, Robin Jackman, Allan Donald, David Lloyd, Jeremy Coney, Nasser Hussain, Sanjay Manjrekar, Arun Lal, Geoff Boycott, Kepler Wessels, Nick Knight, Simon O’Donnell, Barry Richards, Graham Gooch, L Sivaramakrishnan, Pat Symcox, Sunil Gavaskar, Bill Lawry, Harsha Bhogle, Mark Nicholas, Paul Allott, Tony Cozier, Bob Willis, Ian Bishop, Mark Richardson, Pommie Mbangwa, Tony Greig, Bruce Yardley, Ian Botham, Mark Taylor, Ramiz Raja, Waqar Younis, Charles Colville, Ian Chappell, Martin Crowe, Ranjit Fernando, Wasim Akram, Damien Fleming, Ian Healy, Michael Atherton, Ravi Shastri, Zaheer Abbas.


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Vieria encourages Lampard
to join Inter
Sportinglife . London
Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira believes Frank Lampard is more than capable of making his mark on Italian football if he completes his move to the San Siro.
Speculation has been rife that the Chelsea midfielder is on his way to the Serie A champions to link up with former Blues boss and new Inter coach Jose Mourinho, with the Nerazzurri already having had a bid turned down for the England international.
Vieira is well aware of Lampard’s talent, having squared up to him in midfield several times while playing for Arsenal, and the World Cup winner is convinced that Lampard is up to the challenge of Italian football.
‘It will be a big challenge for him but at the same time it will be a fantastic one,’ Vieira told the Sunday Mirror.
‘He has won everything there is to win at Chelsea, he is one of the key men in the team there.
‘Would he be welcome at Inter? He is a fantastic player and you want to play with players of that class. It will be one more good player.’
Vieira’s former team-mate at Arsenal, Dennis Bergkamp, found it hard to adapt to the defensive style of play and was one of the many high-profile flops in Serie A.
But the France midfielder is confident Lampard would not be among that number.
‘I know that the change in lifestyle would not be a problem,’ continued Vieira. ‘Frank would adjust to that.
‘On the field there is less space than there is in England. It is more congested and that is why you don’t get many 3-3 or 4-4 draws.
‘It is not as open as it is in England. But he can adapt, don’t worry.
‘A good player can play in any league in the world - and he is a good player. I do not believe that will be a problem.
‘When you are an international like him you get used to it very quickly.
‘You have to live with the problems outside the stadium, but I don’t think that will be a problem for Frank.’
Vieira believes Lampard could help finally end Inter’s Champions League hoodoo.
The Serie A giants have won the Scudetto for three years on the trot but last won Europe’s premier club competition in 1965.
Lampard helped propel Chelsea to the final last season and Vieira thinks the England player’s arrival could be the final piece of the puzzle.
‘He can enjoy himself at Inter, I really believe that,’ said Vieira. ‘Inter is a club that is going up as a football club. Now we want the Champions League. The club have the motivation and the ambition to do that.
‘If Frank comes here then we will be stronger. The better players you have then the better chance you have.’
Vieira also feels that Lampard will easily fit into the Inter dressing room.
‘I spoke with the players I know at Chelsea about him and all those players love him,’ he continued. ‘There must be a reason for that.
‘I talked to him and he was really relaxed. He was cool and he was joking. He was sounding like people were saying he was.
‘Now the aim is to win the league title in Italy, which we have done for the last (three) years, and the Champions League is a big target for us.’


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Stoner wins German MotoGP
Agence France-Presse . Sachsenring
Australia’s world champion Casey Stoner won the German MotoGP here on Sunday riding a Ducati to give the team their first win in the race and record Australian riders 100th victory in the top category.
Stoner - winning his third successive race - beat home five-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, on a Yamaha, while Stoner’s compatriot Chris Vermeulen was third on a Suzuki.
Rossi took the overall lead ahead of Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, who crashed out with 26 laps remaining when holding a commanding advantage.
Stoner’s achievement was all the greater as he had been feeling sick since Saturday morning.
‘I have been feeling sick since Saturday morning and my concentration levels were low,’ admitted Stoner.
‘I was losing it in all different places. We were lucky to come out of this with the victory.’
Rossi too was delighted with the result as it saw him move 16 points ahead of Pedrosa - 187 to 171 while Stoner is on 167.
‘I am very excited about the result as it has seen me take back the overall lead,’ purred the extrovert Italian.
‘I eventually got up to a great pace and very close to Casey. These 20 points are very important,’ he added.
Vermeulen was equally ecstatic especially as he had to hold off a stern challenge from Alex de Angelis for the final podium spot.
‘The team did a great job and I am sick in the positive Aussie sense of the word!’ he said.
Pedrosa got a great start in the wet conditions which saw Stoner fail to take advantage of his pole position and drop to third after the first lap as nearly 100,000 spectators literally soaked up the atmosphere.


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