Aus T20 team abandons green goes black

Cricket Australia has unveiled an unconventional black strip as their new Twenty20 uniform.

Skipper Cameron White paraded the outfit on Tuesday complete with a green and gold trim more resembling the Jamaican national colours than the traditional Australian hues, reports the Telegraph.

Cricket Australia says the new colour scheme will resonate better with the younger generation, a demographic cricket desperately needs to win over as participation rates and interest continue to drop.

Australia's new one-day and Test uniforms were also unveiled, although those changes are not nearly as extreme.

The preferred one-day outfit retains the canary yellow, while the alternative strip is green. The only change to the Test uniform is the logo on the sleeve of the new apparel sponsor, Asics.

White, who leads the Twenty20 squad to South Africa on Saturday for two games on October 13 and 16, highlighted the benefit of black being a 'slimming'colour.

Warner blasts NSW into semis

David Warner blasted an unbeaten 135 runs to set up a 46-run victory for New South Wales (NSW) over the Chennai Super Kings and ensure a place in the semi-finals of the CLT20 in Chennai on Tuesday.

Chasing 202 off 17 overs in order to qualify, Chennai were never in the hunt, as first Stuart Clark and then Steve O'Keefe ripped the heart out of the Super Kings' line-up, leaving them staggering on 111/5 in the 14th over, reports Supersport.

To put the finishing touches on a golden evening, Warner also took two catches and effected a run-out.

O'Keefe bagged three wickets for 28 runs, to top the bowling.

Earlier, having elected to bat first, Warner's blitzkrieg boosted New South Wales's score to 201 for two.

Warner and Shane Watson added 54 runs for the first wicket before the latter tried to sweep Ravichandran Ashwin, but he fetched the ball too far outside off and Mahendra Singh Dhoni completed the catch.

Steve Smith (31) supported Warner well, and the pair put together 101 runs for the second wicket.

Warner was unstoppable, batting both right-and left-handed, connecting with nearly all of his switch-hits.

He faced only 69 deliveries and hit 11 fours and eight maximum, being especially severe on the medium-paced Dwayne Bravo who conceded 24 runs off the penultimate over.

Even Doug Bollinger was not spared, bowling only three overs, but he went for 48 runs.

Chennai have been eliminated from the tournament as the only team to have lost three matches.

Jury sworn in for spot-fixing trial

A year on from the spot-fixing allegations that rocked the cricket world, Pakistan's Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif appeared in court as the trial into one of the sport's greatest controversies began.

Former opening batsman and ex-Test captain Butt and swing bowler Asif sat in at the start of the case at Southwark Crown Court, reports ESPNcricinfo.

They are yet to speak as two hours of legal arguments ensued and an appropriate jury was sworn in after lunch with a mixture of racial backgrounds and sexes (six men and six women). Both players were asked if they had any objection to the jury formed and they said: 'No objections'.

Just 30 minutes was required after the lunch break to settle on a jury and Justice Cooke informed the court that proceedings would resume at ten the following morning.

Cooke told the jury: "I think you will find this an interesting and unusual case."

He also suggested that some of them would be aware of the case because of its high-profile nature but they were ordered not to research it or to discuss the case outside of the jury room

Butt and Asif, who flew in at the weekend from Lahore, are facing the possibility of a custodial sentence if deemed guilty, though both are pleading not guilty. They are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord's Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired to bowl pre-determined no-balls.

Both wearing suits, without a tie, they sat in a dock sealed off by a Perspex screen with holes in for hearing purposes. Butt sat alone and listened intently, often leaning forward with a concentrated look on his face. Asif was accompanied by a Punjabi interpreter.

Butt's barrister, Ali Bajwa QC, immediately informed Justice Cooke that his client did not require the services of an interpreter because he had a confident grasp of English.

Behind the players' dock sat interested journalists taking up every seat in the public gallery. They would no doubt have been pleased when Justice Cooke noted early on that they could 'tweet' from the courtroom as long as they did it quietly.

With reporting restrictions in place, the detail of the legal arguments cannot be repeated at this stage.

But Justice Cooke did agree to three clauses that he later read out to potential jurors who were walked into the courtroom. They were told they would need to be available for up to five weeks, and were also informed that they would need to fill out forms asking three questions and if they answered 'yes' to any of them they could not sit in the jury.

The questions were: 1) Have they or any family members ever worked as a professional journalist or currently work in that capacity. 2) Do they or any family members earn their living from professional cricket? 3) Are they or family members working in the gambling industry?

Windies land in Dhaka

The West Indies cricket team arrived in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

The Emirates flight carrying the 19-member Caribbean cricketers landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 7:55pm.

The Windies, who flew from Dubai after defeating ICC Associate side Afghanistan by five wickets on Monday, will play two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 international against the Tigers.

But prior to that, the team will play two practice matches on October 7 and 9 at the Fatullah Stadium.

The only T20 between West Indies and Bangladesh will be played on October 11 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. On October 13 and 15 they will go head-to-head in the first two one-dayers at the same venue. These are to be day-night matches.

The last ODI is to be played at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on October 18. The first Test will commence there on October 21.

The second and last Test match will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from October 29.

After the month long tour, the team is scheduled to leave on November 3.

Iniesta declared fit

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta has been given the all-clear after three weeks out with a muscle tear, the Spanish and European champions said on Tuesday.

The Spain playmaker, who will miss his national team's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Czech Republic on Friday and Scotland on Tuesday, should be back for Barca's La Liga game at home to Racing Santander a week on Saturday.

Champions Spain have qualified for the Euro 2012 finals in Ukraine and Poland with two matches to spare.

"After pulling a hamstring against AC Milan on September 13, Iniesta is back to full fitness," Barca said in a statement on their website (www.fcbarcelona.cat).

Barca have suffered a string of injuries in recent weeks, with midfielders Cesc Fabregas (hamstring) and Ibrahim Afellay (knee surgery), forward Alexis Sanchez (thigh) and defender Eric Abidal (hamstring) all sidelined.

Abidal was not as badly hurt as feared in Sunday's La Liga game at Sporting Gijon and was able to join up with the France squad, Barca said on Tuesday.

Stosur sent packing

US Open champion Samantha Stosur lost in the second round of the China Open on Tuesday, beaten for the second time in a week by Russian Maria Kirilenko.

Australian Stosur, the sixth seed and world number seven, was beaten 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 by Kirilenko, who defeated her at the same stage of last week's Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

"I didn't get off to as good a start as you want going into a third set," said Stosur.

"Three love down and then 5-2 down – that's not a deficit you want to be in when it's the last set of the match.

"I've only played two tournaments since winning the US Open, so I don't think it's the end of the world with the two results that I've had," she added.

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki reached the Beijing third round with a text-book 6-2, 6-3 win over Australian Jarmila Gajdosova.

The Danish world number one, who had struggled in her first round, was rarely troubled by the big-hitting, 34th-ranked Gajdosova.

She will now meet Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, who beat her in the third round in Tokyo last week.

Men's first seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga smashed his way to the second round, beating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-6, 7-5.

The 70th-ranked Dimitrov made Frenchmen Tsonga work hard, forcing a tie-break in the first set, but the world number seven broke serve twice from four opportunities and sealed the match with an overhead smash to signal his title intentions.

"Of course I think I have chance, but it's tough for me to say how much," said Tsonga.

Spain's Marcel Granollers beat fifth-seeded Frenchmen Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-1 while Czech Tomas Berdych, seeded third, defeated Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 7-5.

The showcase WTA women's and ATP men's tournament at the National Tennis Centre in the Chinese capital have suffered a bout of shock exits and injury pull outs.

Home favourite and world number six Li Na exited in the first round while world number two Maria Sharapova pulled out with injury.

Men's world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic also withdrew with a back complaint.

EU court says fans can watch soccer via foreign boxes

Europe's highest court has opened the way for British sports fans to watch live matches through cheaper foreign TV services, sparking a showdown with rights holders who will seek to protect their broadcast rights.

The legal case, which will have huge ramifications for the way rights are sold, was sparked by English pub landlady Karen Murphy who was fined for screening live English Premier League matches via a Greek pay-TV decoder.

The court found in Murphy's favour and ruled that the sale of rights on a country-by-country basis breached EU law.

"This will introduce greater competition into the marketplace which has got to be good news for consumers," Murphy's lawyer Paul Dixon told Reuters.

However other lawyers and analysts said the ruling would simply spark a scramble by rights holders such as the Premier League to come up with a new system, and one that could even cost sports fans more dearly in the future.

"Football associations, and other rights holders, will have to tear up their strategy of granting access to broadcasts of matches and other content on a country-by-country basis," Ashurst partner Dominic Batchelor said.

"However, broadcast rights are so lucrative that rights holders are bound to seek other ways to maintain their revenues. This decision may even be an own-goal for fans if the cost of watching broadcasts becomes fixed at the highest price attainable in the whole of the EU."

Broadcasters in Britain, such as BSkyB, pay much higher fees for the Premier League rights than broadcasters in other parts of Europe.

One option would be for the Premier League to sell rights on a pan-European basis, which carries the risk of the cost increasing in other European markets.

BSkyB owns nearly all the live rights to broadcast English Premier League soccer and has been keen to clamp down on the numerous pubs around Britain which show matches via foreign services instead.

BSkyB and ESPN paid a combined 1.78 billion pounds for the British broadcast rights for a three-year deal starting in 2010. International rights raised over a billion pounds.

Shares in BSkyB were down 1 percent, slightly outperforming the wider FTSE 100 which was down 2.1 percent.

"The Court of Justice holds that national legislation which prohibits the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards is contrary to the freedom to provide services and cannot be justified," the court ruling said.

Laurence Cohen, an intellectual property specialist at London-based law firm Latham & Watkins, told Reuters that rights holders could stop selling to certain markets, or impose a time delay.

"I see major sporting events being affected but frankly I don't see it as something having a massive economic impact," he said.

The court ruling came down in part to the ownership of copyright. It said the Premier League did not own the copyright to matches but it did own copyright to the graphics, anthem and video clips that run before games.

A pub could get around this issue by not showing the opening sequence. However Liberum financial analyst Ian Whittaker noted that the Premier League could embed more 'copyrighted' material such as graphics in to matches to cause more of a problem.

Whittaker said the issue would hang over Sky until it was fully resolved, noting that the broadcast of matches in pubs and commercial venues was a high margin business for Sky.

The London High Court will now decide how to apply the ruling in Murphy's case.

Tevez sticks to his version of events

Carlos Tevez continues to insist that he refused to warm up but didn't refuse to play when ordered to by his manager Roberto Mancini during Manchester City's Champions League match at Bayern Munich.

Tevez has been quizzed by the club over the controversial incident and ESPNsoccernet understands that his distinction regarding his indiscipline might not be enough to save the striker from a charge of gross misconduct by the club.

City's lawyers are studying the terms of Tevez's contract after the 50 million pound striker was interviewed at his Cheshire home on Monday.

A club car carrying a legal representative and a member of City's human resources staff arrived at the player's house in Alderley Edge at about 1600 BST and left 80 minutes later.

City were anxious to hold it away from the Etihad Stadium and the Carrington training complex for fear of a media scrum, and it is possible that he could be interviewed for a second time before a final decision is reached.

Tevez continues to deny Mancini's claim that he refused to come on as a substitute. He claims that he told Mancini that, having already warmed up, there was no need for him to warm up again.

Tevez does not believe he needs to apologise to Mancini as he still insists he has done nothing wrong. But it was pointed out to Tevez and his camp that immediately after the game he gave a televised interview in which he stated he was not in the right mind to play.

That footage forms part of City's internal inquiry, while Mancini has submitted an official complaint to his employers. Members of the coaching and fitness staff who were in the dug-out back up Mancini's version of events.

City have interviewed most of Tevez's team-mates who were on the substitutes' bench but not all of them as yet.

The outcome of the internal enquiry is due by the end of this week, and it doesn't look promising for Tevez.

ESPNsoccernet has learned that the club's owners and hierarchy are backing Mancini's stance that Tevez will not play for City again.

A two-week suspension with full pay is currently in place but if gross misconduct is established, then Tevez will be fined two weeks' wages.

The next step is to take the issue to the Professional Footballers' Association to have a further six-week ban and fine imposed A total of two months' wages will cost the player around 2 million pounds.

With the transfer window opening in January, Tevez will then play reserve team football for a month. If he refuses he will be suspended and fined all over again. That could take the cost of his actions above the 3 million pound mark.

City are concerned that Tevez has hired a PR representative since Munich and there has been, according to club sources, a great deal of mischief making - to the extent of a smear campaign against Mancini.

City have not ordered Tevez to call off a holiday with his family, as he is not in Argentina's squad for their first two World Cup qualifiers, but merely to stay for the interviews, and Tevez will be permitted to leave the country as soon as the hearing is concluded.

Every record can be broken: Ronaldo

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo sees no reason why he cannot go on to break the goal-scoring record he set last season in the new campaign.

Ronaldo picked up the Pichichi award for scoring the most league goals in the Spanish top flight last term with a record tally of 41.

The Portugal international's haul of 41 goals broke the previously unbeaten mark of 38 goals set by Telmo Zarra and Hugo Sanchez.

"In football nothing is impossible and every record can be broken," Ronaldo told Marca, reports ESPNstar.

"I hope to surpass the previous record, but I want to thank my team-mates for making it possible for me to win the trophy.

"We will see what happens in the future, you never know what may happen, but I could beat the record."

Ronaldo already has seven league goals to his name this season - including two hat-tricks - and scored a wonder goal against Ajax in the Uefa Champions League. However, he did not score in Madrid's 4-0 win over Espanyol on Sunday, but maintains he was delighted to lay on two goals for his team-mates.

"I like helping my team-mates score, it is also part of my job," he said.

"They pass to me and I pass to them. I always do my best for the team so we can win."

There is some debate as to whether Ronaldo's 41 goal record set last season is the accurate number. Spain's Professional Football League (LFP) gave a deflected free-kick goal from last September against Real Sociedad to team-mate Pepe while Marca chose to credit the Portuguese with the goal instead.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo's arch-nemesis Lionel Messi continues to create his own legacy at Barcelona. He recently reached 194 goals for the Catalans to equal Ladislao Kubala in the club's goal-scoring charts.

Australian Open 2012 to be richest Grand Slam

Next year's Australian Open will be the richest Grand Slam tournament in history with the men's and women's champions each taking home A$2.3 million ($2.18 million), organisers of the Melbourne event said on Tuesday.

The total prize purse for the January 16-29 tournament has also been hiked to A$26 million, the organisers said in a statement on their website (www.australianopen.com).

They also announced a new women's legends event, which is set to feature three-time Australian Open champion Martina Hingis, and the extension of the use of hawk-eye technology to the Margaret Court Arena.

"The Australian Open inspires players at an elite and grassroots level, particularly after the success of local hero Sam Stosur, who was so impressive winning the 2011 US Open singles title last month," Victoria premier Ted Baillieu was quoted as saying in the statement.

Messi eyes end to Argentina misery

Forward Lionel Messi showed his concern over the 'several failures' that Argentina's national football team has been 'gathering' for the last years.

"We haven't reached good results with the national team, we keep on collecting failures. I wish that we can begin with a victory against Chile," Barcelona's player said during an interview with Buenos Aires Herald.

Referring to the classification matches for the 2014 World Cup, he assured that "these matches are getting more difficult, because all the teams have the same level and complicate the situation by having a lot of players in the midfield."

The captain of the national team will arrive in the country on Tuesday to get prepared for the matches against Chile and Venezuela for the first two qualifying rounds for Brazil 2014.

Argentina will receive Chile at River Plate's Monumental stadium of Friday and will face Venezuela on Tuesday 11 in Puerto La Cruz.

Referring to the team coached by Claudio Borghi, he said that "it's a team that works a lot and likes to put pressure on their opponents."

He also stated that he is not in conditions to win a match by himself and that results depend on all of his teammates "like it happens in Barcelona," which he referred as "the best team in the world."

The player born in Rosario city ratified that 'it's not good' to compare his performance in the national team with the one he has in his club because sometimes he plays in different positions.

"I just want to have a good performance in the national team. I feel the people's love in the streets and I feel happy when I meet an Argentine and he tells me positive things," he concluded.

Iniesta to return to action soon

Barcelona finally had some positive news on the injury front on Monday when medical staff said midfielder Andres Iniesta was about to be declared fit after three weeks out with a muscle tear.

The Spain playmaker's return would be a welcome development for coach Pep Guardiola, who has lost midfielders Cesc Fabregas (hamstring) and Ibrahim Afellay (knee surgery), forward Alexis Sanchez (thigh) and defender Eric Abidal (hamstring) to injury in recent weeks.

Iniesta was "already on the verge of receiving the all-clear," club doctor Ricard Pruna said at a news conference following Afellay's knee operation on Monday.

Arsenal and Spurs unite following ugly chants

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur put their intense on-field rivalry to one side on Monday by taking the unusual step of issuing a joint statement condemning the chants of some of their supporters at Sunday's north London derby at White Hart Lane.

Arsenal fans were offensive towards their former striker Emmanuel Adebayor who now plays for Spurs, mocking the gun attack on his Togo team bus during last year's African Nations Cup tournament in Angola which left three members of the Togo party dead.

The Arsenal fans chanted: "It should have been you, it should have been you, killed in Angola, it should have been you."

Spurs fans targeted Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger with their own offensive insult as they have done for much of the last decade.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp was scathing of the Arsenal fans afterwards, describing the chants at Adebayor as 'disgusting' and Spurs confirmed on Monday that several fans from the home and away sections of the crowd were ejected during the game.

"How do you chant something like that. You can't be right mentally. There were kids up there," Redknapp said.

Wenger said he had heard the chants and added: "We respect everybody and want to be respected too."

The statement, issued on their websites read: "Both clubs were extremely disappointed to hear the chants from supporters at yesterday's game.

"Neither club tolerates foul language, racist chanting, homophobic chanting or any anti-social behaviour from its supporters.

"We shall be working closely with each other to identify the individuals involved."

A Tottenham spokesman said Spurs, in line with club policy, would ban for life any fan found guilty of offensive chanting during the match which they won 2-1.

Despite Monday's united front, it was not all harmonious between the clubs immediately after Spurs' victory.

Tottenham's assistant coach Clive Allen described Wenger as 'two-bob' - a derogatory put down - for refusing to shake his hand after the final whistle.

Wenger replied: "Nothing happened. I shook hands with Harry and (assistant) Kevin Bond. How many hands do I have to shake?"

SL minister to probe medical unit

The sports minister in Sri Lanka has said he will launch an investigation into allegations that the ministry's own medical unit provided banned substances to some of the country's sports personnel.

Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told the BBC Sinhala Service that he was sacking the head of the unit, Dr Geethanjana Mendis, and replacing the whole team with sports medical experts, reports BBC Sport.

"We have received numerous serious complaints from sports personnel and sports associations that individuals at the unit provided banned substances," said Aluthgamage.

"The unit also does not have any sports medical specialist. Under these circumstances, mainly due to the recent doping incidents, we need to strengthen the unit to conduct a wider anti-doping programme island-wide."

Cricketer Upul Tharanga was banned for three months by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after he was found guilty of taking a banned drug during the 2011 World Cup.

Two Commonwealth Games medallist, boxer Manju Wanniarachchi and weightlifter Chintana Vidanage, were among the other national sportsmen to be banned from the international game, together with a group of rugby players.

Aluthgamage said there was an urgent need to strengthen the sports medical unit with a "good administrator" and specialists in order to initiate a wider anti-doping programme.

Dr Geethanjana Mendis refused to comment when contacted by the BBC.

IAAF assured London stadium will retain track

London 2012 organisers showed off their newly laid Olympic track on Monday and assured visiting officials assessing a bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championships that it would be there for keeps.

"The athletics track is a non-negotiable part of the legacy of this stadium," Sports and Olympics minister Hugh Robertson told Reuters on the track after meeting an International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) inspection commission delegation.

"Once we had spoken to them, there were no questions afterwards," he added.

"We have now a letter of guarantee from the treasury solicitor that says the track will remain in the stadium in legacy mode and all the indications are that that has now put that argument to bed."

Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur are fighting a legal battle over the future of the Olympic Stadium in east London.

A court hearing into the awarding of preferred bidder status to take over the Stadium after the Games to West Ham United is scheduled for October 18.

Tottenham, who would have removed the running track after the Games had they won the bid, argue that a 40 million pound ($62 million) loan from Newham council gave West Ham an unfair economic advantage.

The uncertainty had threatened the bid for the 2017 championships with the IAAF making clear that London had no chance without the Olympic Stadium being available.

NON-NEGOTIABLE

Robertson said even if Tottenham won their hearing, it would be a hollow victory.

"The judicial review is about the process by which the decision was reached, not the substance of the decision itself," he said.

"So therefore if the litigants were to win in the high court, and I don't think they will, we would simply start the process again and make the athletics track a non-negotiable part of the solution."

London 2012 organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe, a twice 1,500 metres Olympic gold medallist, turned out in his running kit to give the track a test along with British athletes hoping to be in the medals next year.

They were joined on the track by children from a local primary school before reporters were also allowed to try out the springy, 13.5mm deep surface for themselves.

"It's a lovely surface, it's a really good surface," Coe declared of the red Mondo surface which was laid in August with a training circuit nearing completion outside the main stadium.

"Instinctively, it felt a bit like Zurich," added the 54-year-old. "Which was good for me."

"It's an intimate stadium...and of course as we pointed out to the IAAF this morning, there will be some reconfiguration if we get 2017."

Coe said he had organised a private meeting with IAAF officials and tackled the main issues head on.

"They went away with the guarantees they needed," he said.

"We didn't leave them in any doubt at all about the commitment to the stadium.

"We made a very strong case this morning and we will continue to make that case, and it's a compelling case."

London is bidding against Qatar's Doha for the championships, with a decision due to be taken by the IAAF in Monaco in November.

Mohsin Khan named interim Pakistan coach

Pakistan chief selector Mohsin Khan will serve as the team's interim coach for the series against Sri Lanka beginning later this month.

Mohsin steps in to fill the vacancy created by Waqar Younis' departure after the tour of Zimbabwe as the PCB is in the process of appointing a full-time coach. Ijaz Ahmed will be the team's assistant coach, reports ESPNcricinfo.

The PCB committee tasked with finding the new head coach had shortlisted five names for the position out of a list of thirty-seven applicants.

Twelve foreign and 25 local coaches had applied for the job. Those in contention for the top job reportedly include Dean Jones, Dermot Reeve and Aaqib Javed.

The committee hadn't finalised on a candidate, though, in time to take over before the Test, ODI and Twenty20 matches against Sri Lanka in the UAE.

Mohsin was appointed chief selector in March 2010 and was also involved in the PCB's fast-track coaching programme at National Cricket Academy, where he coached batsmen.

Colonel Naushad Ali will take charge as associate manager for the Sri Lanka series and the tour of Bangladesh.

He will function as manager for the Tests against Sri Lanka, though, in the absence of Naveed Akram Cheema, who will take over as manager for the limited-overs leg.

Cheema, a PCB governing board member and also the managing director of WAPDA, was appointed manger for the Zimbabwe series, replacing Intikhab Alam.

The Pakistan squad will assemble in Lahore for a pre-series camp between November 10 and 13.

Ancelotti keen on English return with Spurs

Former Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti wants to manage again in England and has hinted he would be interested in the Tottenham Hotspur job if Harry Redknapp takes over England when Fabio Cepello retires after Euro 2012.

Ancelotti, who won the 2003 and 2007 European Cups with AC Milan, was sacked by Chelsea at the end of last term after going trophyless only a year after winning a Premier League and FA Cup double in his debut season.

"In a few months Capello's job will go to an Englishman that will free up a spot at a club. Only big jobs interest me like Liverpool and Tottenham. But I'm not in a rush," the Italian told La Repubblica newspaper on Monday.

"I still have a very strong desire to stay in England. For a coach, it is the ideal country. In Italy it is difficult to get full intensity during a training week, in England it is the opposite. It is difficult to reduce it."

Tottenham's Redknapp is the bookmakers' favourite to replace Capello.

Ancelotti also said Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger's job could be in jeopardy given their poor start to the season while he reiterated long held wishes to one day manage Italy, favourite former club AS Roma and Ivory Coast.

In a long interview which included references to Italian cheese rivalries, wine and his calmness when confronted by a bear on holiday in Canada, Ancelotti also said his time in England made him warm to Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson.

"He is a great person, he is humble, he is part of the history of football but he doesn't show it," he said.

Amla to skipper in ODIs and T20

Hashim Amla will make his international captaincy debut for South Africa in their upcoming T20 and ODI series against Australia.

He replaces the injured AB de Villiers, who was named captain in both limited-overs formats in June. The series were due to be de Villiers' first as skipper but he was ruled out for between four and six weeks after breaking a finger while practicing with the Royal Challengers Bangalore during the Champions League, reports ESPNcricinfo.

Amla was chosen as de Villiers' vice-captain but there was speculation that he would not captain the side straight away, having never done the job before, and described himself as 'more of a backroom guy'.

But the selectors have shown faith in their decisions and handed Amla the leadership role in both formats. Amla has only played three T20s for South Africa, but has plenty of experience in ODIs, having played 49 matches and is currently ranked the top batsman in the 50-over format.

AB de Villiers' absence also meant that South Africa had to search for a new wicketkeeper and have turned to an old favourite. Mark Boucher has been recalled to the ODI side having last played an ODI on South Africa's tour of West Indies in May last year.

He was left out of the squad that took part in the World Cup earlier and had made public his desire to return to the limited-overs format of the game, insisting he has plenty of offer in that department.

Heino Kuhn has been named wicketkeeper for the T20s while Morne van Wyk, who took part in the World Cup and can bat in the top five, has been excluded from both squads.

Andrew Hudson, the convenor of selectors, doesn't believe the one-day squad needs to be tampered with much, despite the disappointing World Cup campaign where South Africa crashed out in the quarter-finals. Boucher's inclusion will beef up the middle order along with David Miller, who replaces Colin Ingram.

There are plenty of options in the bowling department, with all three spinners who did duty in the World Cup being retained, but no space for Albie Morkel who is only in the T20 squad.

"We will probably go in with seven batsmen, including Boucher at No 7, and we have kept all our bowling options that worked well at the World Cup," Hudson said.

"We will be able to go in with four specialist bowlers plus the back-up of Kallis, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis."

The only new cap is in the T20 squad which includes Cobras opening batsman Richard Levi. He has had an impressive run of form domestically and scored 43 off 27 balls in the team's Champions League opener against New South Wales. With the mix of youth and experience in the T20 squad Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn are being rested.

Both are taking part in the ongoing Champions League, and have enjoyed five months away from cricket since the end of the IPL, but Hudson said leaving them out was part of CSA's rotation policy.

Imran Tahir, who burst onto the international scene at the World Cup, and took 17 wickets in 16 matches at an average of 16.88 for Hampshire in the English Friends Life t20 domestic tournament, has not been included in the T20 squad.

"With the ICC World Twenty20 less than a year away we need to keep a solid core of experience around the side," Hudson said.

"At the same time we want to give younger players a run as well and this certainly applies in the case of Richard Levi and David Miller. We don't have a lot of T20 International matches before the ICC event so it is important that we give the likes of Levi, Miller and Colin Ingram an extended run."

Graeme Smith, who stepped down as T20 captain in August last year and ODI captain after the World Cup, and batted for the first time in a competitive match after having knee surgery for the first time on Saturday, has been named in both squads.

South Africa's series against Australia starts with a T20 on October 13 in Cape Town and that will be followed by another T20 in Johannesburg then three ODIs. The two-Test series starts on November 7 and the Test squad will be announced after three more rounds of SuperSport Series matches.

ODI SQUAD:
Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Jacques Kallis, David Miller, Morne Morkel , Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

T20 SQUAD:
Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, JP Duminy, Colin Ingram, Heino Kuhn, Richard Levi, David Miller, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell , Robin Peterson, Graeme Smith, Rusty Theron, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Italy not scared of Serbia trip: Prandelli

Italy are not scared of the feverish atmosphere they could encounter in Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier against Serbia in Belgrade, coach Cesare Prandelli said on Monday.

Italy's home qualifier between the sides a year ago was abandoned early on after Serbian fans threw flares on to the Genoa pitch, leading Uefa to hand the Azzurri a 3-0 walkover win.

"We don't have any fears over the game in Belgrade. There will be no sort of problem with their fans," Prandelli told a news conference.

"Serbia need a win and we have already qualified. Let's not speculate on the result, but I expect a good performance."

Serbia are second in Group C and need a win from their penultimate qualifier to fend off the threat of Estonia for a play-off berth for June's finals in Ukraine and Poland.

Despite his side having already topped the group, Prandelli has picked a strong squad and hopes Manchester City's temperamental forward Mario Balotelli is finally showing signs of maturing.

"I have found him to be a bit calmer. I hope he gives me a selection dilemma. This is an important moment for him," Prandelli said.

He added that AS Roma's Pablo Osvaldo, Juventus's Simone Pepe, Fiorentina's Alessio Cerci and Atalanta's Ezequiel Schelotto were pushing to make future squads if Balotelli flopped.

Cook rubbishes ball-tampering talk

Alastair Cook has vehemently denied Umar Gul's accusation that England bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson have engaged in ball-tampering.

Gul was quoted by the PakPassion website claiming Anderson tampered with the ball during Pakistan's controversial 2010 tour of England and that Broad did the same in the most recent Ashes series in Australia, reports ESPNstar.

The Pakistan right-armer has since clarified his comments in a statement to the same website, claiming he intended them to mean that any bowler could be accused of ball-tampering.

But England one-day skipper Cook hit back at the 27-year-old's claims, saying:
"We certainly haven't tampered with the ball and if he did have any complaints he should have gone to the ICC over that.

"I think he has almost said himself that it has been a bit of a mountain out of a molehill."

Gul came out with accusation that Broad and Anderson illegally tampered with the ball after reading retired Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar's autobiography, which contains a confession that he took part in ball tampering during his career.

Cook was speaking at London Heathrow airport ahead of his team's departure to India, where they will play five 50-over games and one Twenty20 over the next four weeks.

Cook led the ODI team to a 3-0 win over the Indians in England this summer after Andrew Strauss had skippered the team to a 5-0 Test whitewash.

Cook admits playing the 50-over world champions on their own soil will be a much harder task, but has still backed his men to win.

"I certainly think we can beat India," Cook said.

"It will be incredibly tough. We need everyone to be playing very well.

"We all know what the one-day crowds are like over there. They love their cricket.

"Delivering our skills when 50,000 or 60,000 people are screaming and when balls are flying all over the place will also be a key factor, but certainly with this squad I think we can do something really special."

Gayle(46-ball 86 runs) blast sets up RCB win

Chris Gayle blasted a 46-ball 86 to set up the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a massive 51-run win over Somerset in their Champions League T20 match in Bangalore on Monday.

Chasing a daunting 207 to win, Somerset made a brisk start with Peter Trego making 58 off only 38 deliveries, reports supersport.

However, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes kept pegging away at the wickets at the other end, and by the time Trego succumbed to Raju Bhatkal, caught in the deep by Vettori, the writing was on the wall for the English team.

Vettori finshed with 2/25 and Sreenath Aravind was even more miserly, conceding only 23 runs for his two wickets.

Earlier, Gayle's onslaught propelled Bangalore to 206 for six, having been asked to bat first.

Tillakaratne Dilshan took the initial responsibility on what started off as a slow and damp wicket and, riding his luck, scored a quick 23 runs off 16 balls before being bowled around his legs.

Virat Kohli joined Gayle and, with the track flattening out, the pair scored with greater ease and brought up the 100 in the 11th over.

Steve Kirby stuck to his guns to first remove Kohli, bowling him with a yorker, and he followed up that success by having Saurabh Tiwary caught at deep mid-wicket.

Though wickets were falling around him, Gayle kept his concentration and continued to attack the bowlers, hitting four boundaries and eight sixes, before Alfonso Thomas had him caught in the deep.

Kirby finished with 2/23, commendable figures in an innings where the run rate exceeded 10.

Benzema ruled out of France qualifiers

France striker Karim Benzema has been ruled out of Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier at home to Albania and next Tuesday's game with Bosnia because of an abductor muscle problem.

"The nature of the injury means we couldn't have him for the two matches. He must return to Real Madrid tonight," France coach Laurent Blanc told reporters on Monday but said he did not know if he would call up a replacement.

France lead Group D by a point from Bosnia with just the two home qualifiers left.

Spot-fixing trial set to begin Tuesday

Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif begin their trial at a criminal court in London on Tuesday, more than a year on from the spot-fixing allegations that engulfed the cricket world during Pakistan's troubled tour of England.

The former Pakistan Test captain Butt, 27 on Friday, and fast bowler Asif, 28, will appear at Southwark Crown Court with the possibility of a custodial sentence awaiting them if deemed guilty, reports ESPNcricinfo.

Both players are pleading not guilty. Reporting restrictions are in place on this event.

The players are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord's Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired to bowl pre-determined no-balls.

Butt and Asif, along with teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir, were exposed by the now defunct British tabloid the News of the World in an undercover sting operation. Their former agent Mazher Majeed was recorded by a secret camera, saying when no-balls would be delivered by the bowlers.

The fact the case is being heard at a crown court shows the seriousness of the allegations facing the defendants, with crown court being the more senior of the criminal courts.

One of the complexities of this trial surrounds its high-profile nature. Because the issue was so well reported globally at the time, after it was revealed in the News of the World, it is likely to be difficult to find a jury that has not in some way heard of the case or information about it and therefore inherited some amount of bias.

A re-trial could therefore occur, though how any future jury would also have no previous knowledge of the story is also difficult to quantify.

The players have already been punished by the ICC after a disciplinary hearing in Doha, Qatar. There, the three players were each banned from the sport for at least five years. Butt received a further suspended five-year ban and Asif was handed a further two-year suspended sanction.

All three players have filed appeals against their bans at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The Pakistan team has admirably set about recovering from a controversy that shocked the sport, after the key players were suspended. Asif, the right-arm swing bowler, and left-armer Amir quickly became one of the most potent new-ball attacks in world cricket. Butt, meanwhile, was a respected opening batsman and was seen as an articulate, diplomatic captain by the British media on that tour last year, prior to the allegations.

The most important aspect at stake during the trial is for cricket as a whole and its integrity, honesty and transparency, according to sports lawyer Max Eppel of McFadden's LLP, who has worked on cases involving cricket and football among others.

"The most important thing for any fan of sports is to know the teams are going out there on a level playing field," he said.

"If there is any hint of corruption, the sport could be destroyed. Ultimately, any kind of hype about a criminal court trial is bad publicity for a sport, but if there are good things to come out of it, it is that the sport will get a chance to see any ramifications there are for ever getting involved in this sort of stuff."

Windies arrive on Tuesday

The West Indies cricket team will reach Dhaka on Tuesday to play against Bangladesh.

The 19-member squad, led by Darren Sammy is scheduled to land at 8:00 pm, BCB media and communication manager Rabeed Imam told bdnews24.com

The players who are participating in the Champions League in India will join the team later.

The West Indies will play a T20, two Tests and three one-dayers against the Tigers. But prior to that the team will play two practice matches on October 7 and 9 at the Fatullah Stadium.

The only T20 between West Indies and Bangladesh will be played on Oct 11 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. On October 13 and 15 they will go head-to-head in the first two one-dayers at the same venue. These are to be day-night matches.

The last ODI is to be played at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on October 18. The first Test will commence there on October 21.

The second and last Test match will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, initiating from Oct 29.

After the month long tour, the Caribbeans are scheduled to leave Dhaka on November 3.

ODI AND T20 SQUAD:

Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Devendra Bishoo, Carlos Brathwait, Darren Bravo, Danza Hyatt, Anthony Martin, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Dinesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels and Lendl Simmons.

TEST SQUAD:

Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh (wk), Devendra Bishoo, Craig Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Kirk Edwards, Kieran Powell, Dinesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels and Shane Shillingford.

France's Benzema, Ribery and Matuidi ruled out

France trio Karim Benzema, Franck Ribery and Blaise Matuidi have been ruled out of Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier at home to Albania and next week's final group game with Bosnia because of injuries, the French Football Federation said on Monday.

The three were part of the 24-man squad named by coach Laurent Blanc last week but fresh injuries while on club duty mean France will be stretched as they try to wrap up qualification for June's finals in Ukraine and Poland.

"MRI scans...have shown that all three are unable to play in the matches," a federation statement said.

France lead Group D by a point from Bosnia with just the two qualifiers at the Stade de France left.

Regulars Philippe Mexes, Yoann Gourcuff, Abou Diaby and Guillaume Hoarau were already out with long-standing injuries and on Sunday Bacary Sagna pulled out after breaking his leg playing for Arsenal, leading to a call-up for Mathieu Debuchy.

Real Madrid striker Benzema is suffering from an abductor muscle problem, Bayern Munich winger Ribery has calf injuries and Paris St Germain midfielder Matuidi is struggling with thigh trouble.

Defenders Eric Abidal and Laurent Koscielny remain in the squad but are doubtful with knocks.

"It is part of the job of national coach," Blanc earlier told reporters about his squad's fitness.

"Players are subjected to quite a tough regime with (club) matches every three or four days and muscle injuries can multiply. Eric is very important to us. I really hope he will be fit to play."

A decision on possible replacements for the injured trio has not yet been made and depends on whether Blanc sticks to his usual plan of having one man up front or switches to 4-4-2 given that Albania are likely to play defensively on Friday.

France may try to attack more than normal as they need to beat Albania to guarantee they stay in front of Bosnia ahead of the final showdown with the Balkan side on Oct. 11.

Razzaq to lead Pakistan in HK Super 6s

Pakistan national selectors named experienced all-rounder Abdul Razzaq as captain of the Pakistan squad for the Super Sixes tournament, to be held in Hong Kong later this month.

Razzaq, who has been ignored for national selection since the World Cup and was not considered for the Test series against Sri Lanka, will lead a strong seven-member team for the Hong Kong event, reports PTI.

Besides Razzaq, the selectors also accommodated other national team players, Umar Akmal, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Shah, Hammad Azam and newcomer Sharjeel Khan in the Super sixes squad chosen on Sunday.

Pakistan have featured regularly in the Hong Kong sixes event, which is held annually with teams from all Test playing nations taking part in it.

Umar, Sohail, Tanvir and Yasir had all toured Zimbabwe with the senior team in August, but were dropped for the Test series against Sri Lanka in the UAE.

Jerseys of joy

http://cricket.bdnews24.com/video.php?id=72&cid=26&p=1&search=&sort=&searchtext=&sdate=

I didn't question Sachin's greatness: Afridi

Pakistan's former captain Shahid Afridi has now stated he did not intend to question Sachin Tendulkar's greatness and was only talking about one incident.

"I am not denying what I have said. I have seen that Tendulkar was not at all comfortable against Shoaib in Kolkata Test in 1999. It was Shoaib's first tour of India and he bowled out Sachin without giving him a chance to open his account. He also claimed (Rahul) Dravid's wicket in both the innings," Afridi told PTI from Karachi.

"Shoaib was in full form on that tour and had tremendous speed. He terrorised almost all the batsmen in the world at that time. I have seen Sachin trembling as I was fielding at square leg. I am still saying that.

"But this was only one incident. He never spared Shoaib after that. We all have seen what happened in 2003 World Cup," he added.

Afridi went on to state that the Indian batsman does not need his certificate.

"Sachin is one of the best batsmen and the whole world knows this. He does not need mine or anybody else's certificate. His records speak for him," Afridi said.

The controversy-prone former captain yesterday backed his Akhtar's claim that Tendulkar was uncomfortable against his pace, saying that he had once witnessed the Indian batsman "trembling" while facing the pacer.

Afridi, who retired after revolting against his own board and has a history of making controversial remarks, said Tendulkar was uneasy against Akhtar, a claim which the pacer made in his recently-launched autobiography 'Controversially Yours'.

Afridi said his remarks should not be construed as demeaning to Tendulkar.

"I am not raising any question on Sachin's greatness.

"Everyone knows that how many sixes Sachin has smashed on Shoaib's bowling after that. But sometimes it happens. I got out on a duck against a weak opponent like Zimbabwe in Peshawar when I was at the peak of my career," he said.

"Any batsman can go through this on a good wicket and opposite a good bowler. That was Shoaib's day and Sachin was nervous that day. Media should not read much into it as it can happen to Don Bradman as well," added the all-rounder.

Afridi said he is a huge fan of Tendulkar both on and off the field.

"I am a huge fan of Sachin. He is not only a great cricketer but a humble human being as well. I have only one photograph on the wall of my drawing room and that is of Sachin. It has Sachin's autograph on it, do I need to say more," said Afridi.

When asked if he will talk to Tendulkar to clarify his position on this issue, he said that there is no need for it.

"The whole matter is blown out of proportion by Indian media. Sachin is a great cricketer and he will understand what I am saying. I have not said anything wrong," he said.

"Media should play a positive role to reduce tension between the two neighbours. When we went to play the World Cup in India earlier this year, we saw all the negative reporting against Pakistani team. Indians love and respect us but not their media," he said.

On the possibility of his comeback in international cricket, he said that he wants to play for another two-three years.

"Inshah Allah, I will be back in national team. I think I can play for 2-3 years. I am not going to beg for it but I know that I will represent Pakistan again," said Afridi.

Gul, Riaz recalled for series against SL

Pakistan have recalled pace bowlers Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz for a three-Test series against Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates starting on Oct 13.

The only notable exclusion from the squad is batsman Umar Akmal.

Pakistan play all their home Tests in the Emirates because of security fears in their own country.

Squad: Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Younus Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Shoaib Malik, Adnan Akmal, Abdul Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Junaid Khan.

IPL fails to clear players' dues: FICA

The cash rich Indian Premier League has failed to clear dues of cricketers despite repeated reminders, the international players' union has claimed.

The Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA) has claimed that the IPL organisers are yet to clear the "contract payments" of some foreign players despite repeated reminders, reports ESPNstar.

The FICA said that Australia's Simon Katich and Ramnaresh Sarwan of the West Indies were among a number of players whose contracts were not honoured by the IPL.

"A number of players whose contracts were 'subsidised' by the BCCI have contacted FICA to assist in recovering the amounts," FICA chief executive Tim May was quoted as saying by news reports.

"Despite numerous attempts by players to recover these amounts, not only do the amounts still remain unpaid, but the IPL/BCCI have recently failed to respond to communications made by the players," he added.

"FICA last month wrote to the (then) IPL chairman Mr. Chirayu Amin on behalf of the players to draw his attention to the matter, but to date neither we nor the players have received a response," May said.

FICA said the unpaid amounts relate to the third edition of the Twenty20 league in 2010.

Although, both Katich and Sarwan did not play in the IPL in 2010, they remained under contract with the King's XI Punjab franchise as they were signed for three years.

The FICA chief executive called for the intervention of newly-elected BCCI president N Srinivasan and IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla and hoped the duo would resolve the issue.

"We trust that these two gentlemen will ensure that BCCI will address these payments as a matter of urgency," May said.

No DRS for BD-WI series

The Decision Review System (DRS) will not be used for the Bangladesh-West Indies series, according to a Bangladesh Cricket Board official.

The West Indies will play two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 international in Bangladesh this month but BCB media chairman Jalal Yunus said the board's agreement with the broadcaster, Nimbus, does not cover the technology required, reports ESPNcricinfo.

"It would be difficult to use DRS given our agreement with Nimbus," Yunus said. "The replays for DRS won't be clear. We have consulted with the ICC and they have also agreed with the issue."

At its annual conference in June, the ICC had decided to make the DRS mandatory for all Tests and ODIs, subject to certain minimum standards and commercial considerations.

The use of Hot Spot was made mandatory while ball-tracking technology was made optional. BCB had originally considered adopting the minimum standard but Nimbus said could not provide Hot Spot.

The DRS has come in for a lot of criticism recently. The BCCI reverted to its stance against the use of the system at this annual general meeting last month, with the new board president N Srinivasan saying the current technology was simply not good enough after Hot Spot proved inconclusive on a few occasions during India's tour of England.

And during the Sri Lanka - Australia, series, Hawk-Eye admitted the depiction of Phil Hughes' second-innings lbw dismissal in the Galle Test was rendered inaccurate by "a tracking mistake".

Marchisio double downs Milan as Juve go top

A late brace from Claudio Marchisio sent Juventus back alongside Udinese at the top of Serie A after deservedly defeating champions AC Milan 2-0 at their atmospheric new arena on Sunday.

The Italy midfielder scored his first with a lucky ricochet with three minutes to go after playing a one-two with Mirko Vucinic before making the game safe in injury time, firing a 25-metre volley through goalkeeper Christian Abbiati's legs.

"We deserved to score a long time before," Juve coach Antonio Conte told Italy's Sky Sports TV. "Our intensity and approach were brilliant. We dominated possession, which was very important against a side like Milan, but the best thing that came from tonight was the way we played as a team."

The once mighty Turin side, seventh the last two terms, are unbeaten under new boss Conte with three wins and two draws.

"I'm not looking too far ahead," added the ex-Juve player. "The only promise I will give is to make the team competitive because Juve deserve to be challenging among the best."

Earlier on Sunday, Udinese beat Bologna 2-0, while 2-0 victories for Cagliari and Palermo over Lecce and Siena helped the island teams join Napoli within a point of the leaders.

A Sebastian Giovinco brace helped Parma beat Genoa 3-1 and Lazio grabbed the three points at Fiorentina thanks to a late Miloslav Klose header in a 2-1 win.

Encouraged by a noisy crowd, Juventus edged a fast-paced opening quarter with ex-Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo coming closest with two trademark long-range swervers that Abbiati had to watch closely.

Juve's Vucinic, playing as the lone striker in Conte's 4-5-1 formation, came close to giving the home side the lead with two sublime pieces of skill just after the half hour mark.

First, on 33 minutes, the Montenegrin had Abbiati scrambling to his left to save after turning sharply in the box and fizzing a right-foot shot towards the corner.

Then, three minutes later, the ex-AS Roma man brought the Turin crowd to their feet as he killed the ball 20 metres out and bent a dipping shot against the underside of the Milan bar.

With the champions struggling to contain the inspired forward, Vucinic's next trick was to shift the ball onto his favoured right foot and fire a raking drive just wide of the upright as Juve pressed for the all-important first goal.

Gianluigi Buffon came to Juve's rescue six minutes after the restart, stretching out his giant hand to turn aside Boateng's angled volley as a more aggressive Milan attempted to up the pace.

Vucinic threatened again on 67 minutes after latching onto a misplaced Mark van Bommel backpass but the lightning fast Thiago Silva recovered to save the Dutchman's blushes.

SECONDS REMAINING

Juventus continued to dominate and Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal saw two long-range efforts flash wide as the pace slowed with a quarter of an hour to go.

On 80 minutes Vucinic thought he had won it but could only hold his head in his hands as his shot from just outside the box bounced the wrong side of the post.

But the Bianconeri's luck changed dramatically in the final stages as Marchisio, running on to Vucinic's pass, deflected Daniele Bonera's clearance into the net on 87 minutes.

With seconds remaining Milan's Kevin Prince Boateng, who had already been booked for dangerous play, was giving his marching orders for catching Giorgio Chiellini with his hand before Marchisio compounded the champions' misery.

"This was our worst performance of the year," Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "We didn't play at the right rhythm and gave the ball away too much. We played badly both in defence and attack.

"We have to improve and fortunately there's now a break next week that will help us regroup."

Goals from Mehdi Benatia and Antonio Di Natale sealed Udinese's win.

Moroccan defender Benatia opened the scoring with a rare goal on 29 minutes, poking the ball home from a corner before striker Di Natale settled the contest with a 72nd-minute penalty to give Udinese 11 points from five games.

Promoted Novara and Catania played out a six-goal thriller in the early kick off with Alejandro Gomez equalising for the Sicilians in injury time after second-half goals from two ex-Catania players Takayuki Morimoto and Jeda had looked like giving the hosts the win.

In Saturday's games, Napoli defeated Inter Milan 3-0 at the San Siro while Roma recorded their second straight victory, beating Atalanta 3-1.

Reality bites for Wenger as Arsenal slump continues

Just seven games into the Premier League season, Arsene Wenger all but conceded an Arsenal title challenge after a 2-1 defeat at north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

A fourth defeat was compounded by a serious injury to France right back Bacary Sagna and Wenger was in a gloomy mood when asked about Arsenal's chances of competing at the top.

"At the moment we have to set ourselves a realistic target to get in touch with those teams who are fighting to stay in the Champions League," Wenger told reporters.

"To say we will win the league is not realistic. We are 12 points behind Manchester United and Manchester City so it is not realistic today to say that we will win the league.

"We have to fight to come back into a much better position."

Sagna fell awkwardly under challenge from Benoit Assou-Ekotto in the second half and after leaving the field on a stretcher he was diagnosed with a fractured fibula, according to the French Football Federation.

"The France team doctor, Fabrice Bryand, was informed by his Arsenal colleague of an unstable fracture to Bacary Sagna's right fibula," the FFF statement said.

Since Wenger took charge of Arsenal in 1996 they have never finished outside the top four and are virtual fixtures in the Champions League. But their worst start to a season under the Frenchman has now put their place among the elite in jeopardy.

Wenger was even asked whether he thought Arsenal, only two points above the bottom three, were in danger of a relegation battle.

"No," was his emphatic reply, although with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri gone and Jack Wilshere ruled out until after Christmas with an ankle injury, these are clearly worrying times at The Emirates.

The mood was not improved by the sight of Sagna leaving the ground on crutches although Wenger saw some encouraging signs against Tottenham, who won a fourth consecutive league match with goals from Rafael van der Vaart and Kyle Walker either side of Aaron Ramsey's equaliser.

"In the first half I felt we played a little but with the handbrake on," Wenger said. "Even playing like that we had four chances. At halftime we came out and had a go at them and got it back to 1-1.

"I felt again that we didn't push on enough and let them get back into the game. We lack a little bit of confidence at the moment, and we just need to protect a result when we have one."

Wenger was rattled by questions over his failure to shake hands with Clive Allen, one of Tottenham's coaching staff, and felt Van der Vaart's opening goal should not have been allowed.

"It is frustrating as well because their first goal was handball," Wenger said. "I wonder what the linesmen do in these situations. It is a second yellow card as well because he already had one -- for handball, on purpose."

Tottenham have gone from strength to strength since losing their opening two league games to Manchester United and Manchester City and are up to sixth place, three points behind fourth-placed Newcastle United with a game in hand.

"They (Arsenal) got off to a better start in the second half, got the goal, and watching the game you would have thought, 'they are in the ascendency. We could be in trouble'," Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said.

"But we upped it. We got better and stronger and we took over. We deserved the win in the second half, I thought we were excellent. We had all the good chances."

Tumbling Tiger Woods set to drop out of world's top 50

Tiger Woods will plummet to depths he has not reached in 15 years as he is projected to drop two spots to 51st in the world rankings to be issued on Monday.

The former world number one has not triumphed anywhere since the 2009 Australian Masters and has been steadily losing ranking points because of his struggles on and off the course.

In Monday's rankings, Woods is expected to be sandwiched by South African Louis Oosthuizen (in 50th) and fellow American Jonathan Byrd (52nd), the first time he has been out of the top 50 since he was 61st on Oct. 13, 1996.

Ever since his private life unravelled in sensational fashion at the end of 2009 and he tried to repair his crumbling marriage, Woods has been a shadow of the dominant player he once was.

It has been just over three years since Woods clinched the last of his 14 major titles and he has not competed on the PGA Tour since missing the cut at the PGA Championship in August.

However, Woods will return to the U.S. circuit for next week's Frys.com Open at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, California, his first ever appearance in the PGA Tour's Fall Series.

Real fine Mourinho for failing to wear official club suit: report

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has been fined on at least three occasions for failing to wear the club's official suit.

It is understood that the club have not been happy with the coach's choice of attire during matches, according to a report in El Periodico de Catalunya, reports goal.com.

Mourinho has often preferred to wear his own suit, flouting rules which state that he should wear only official club suits. The coach's staff have also refrained from adhering to wearing the suits provided by the club.

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon recently claimed that the Portuguese tactician is running the show at the Santiago Bernabeu.

He labelled current chief Florentino Perez 'Mourinho's puppet', and said the coach might as well be president because of the control he enjoys there.

Udinese go top in Italy

Udinese climbed above Napoli to the top of Serie A on Sunday as goals from Mehdi Benatia and Antonio Di Natale gave the Bianconeri a comfortable 2-0 home win over lowly Bologna.

Moroccan defender Benatia opened the scoring with a rare goal on 29 minutes, poking the ball home from a corner before Italian striker Di Natale settled the contest with a 72nd-minute penalty to give Udinese 11 points from five games.

Palermo and Cagliari stayed a point behind the early pacesetters with 2-0 victories.

A Giulio Migliaccio header and an injury-time penalty from Uruguayan striker Abel Hernandez gave Palermo three points at home to Siena while two first-half strikes from Davide Biondini and Ribeiro helped Cagliari to a 2-0 win at Lecce.

Sebastian Giovinco jumped to the top of the scoring charts with a first-half brace as Parma moved fifth following a 3-1 win over Genoa.

An 83rd-minute header from German forward Miroslav Klose, his third in five Serie A games, brought Lazio a barely deserved 2-1 win at Fiorentina.

Earlier on Sunday, promoted Novara and Catania played out a six-goal thriller with the exciting Alejandro Gomez equalising for the Sicilians in injury time after second half goals from two ex-Catania players Takayuki Morimoto and Jeda looked like giving the home side all three points.

In Saturday's games, Napoli defeated Inter Milan 3-0 at the San Siro to move second while Roma recorded their second straight victory to move to seventh position, beating Atalanta 3-1.

Champions AC Milan visit Juventus in Sunday's late match.

Umar Akmal dropped from Test squad

Umar Akmal has been dropped from the Pakistan Test squad for their series against Sri Lanka in the UAE starting later this month. Shoaib Malik, who was on Pakistan's tour of Zimbabwe after gaining clearance from the PCB, finds a place in the 15-man squad.

Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz return to the squad after being rested from the Zimbabwe tour, and are joined by Aizaz Cheema and Junaid Khan in the fast-bowling department, with no place for Sohail Tanvir or Tanvir Ahmed, reports ESPNcricinfo.

Imran Farhat, who returned to the Pakistan squad for the Zimbabwe tour, has been picked as a third opener along with Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar. Abdur Rehman returns after being rested for the Zimbabwe tour, and joins Saeed Ajmal in the spin attack.

Umar Akmal has not scored a Test century since his debut in 2009. After a poor year in 2010, when he averaged just 24.33, he was left out of the XI for the two Tests in New Zealand.

He returned to the side for the Tests in the West Indies, but after scoring just one Test half-century this year, and struggling to play long innings in ODIs as well, he has been left out of the Test squad.

Umar Akmal's exclusion means Asad Shafiq and Shoaib Malik will be fighting for a middle-order spot. After a year out of the Pakistan setup, Malik gained clearance from the PCB's integrity committee just in time to go to Zimbabwe.

He did not play the Test there and did not make an impact in the ODIs and Twenty20 internationals. He has been consistently performing on the domestic circuit, finishing as the second-highest run-getter in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division One last season, with 799 runs at an average of 73.57.

Shafiq, meanwhile, has struggled in Tests since getting half-centuries in each of his first two innings.

The other notable exclusion from the squad is Tanvir Ahmed, who has taken 16 wickets in the four Tests he has played since debuting against South Africa in November last year.

He was not on the tour of Zimbabwe, though, and Cheema, who took eight wickets on debut in the Bulawayo Test and another eight wickets in the three-match one-day series, keeps his place.

The first of three Tests starts on October 18 in Abu Dhabi.

SQUAD:

Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-haq (capt), Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Aizaz Cheema, Wahab Raiz, Umar Gul, Junaid Khan

Standby players: Tanvir Ahmed, Mohammad Talha, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Yasir Shah

Capello brushes off Anzhi talk

England head coach Fabio Capello has played down reports linking him with the vacant managerial post at Anzhi Makhachkala.

Russian club Anzhi, who at present have Roberto Carlos in interim charge, are seeking a new manager after the sacking of Gadzhi Gadzhiev, and Capello has been mentioned as a potential target, as well as Guus Hiddink, reports ESPNsoccernet.

Capello, though, remains focused on leading England to Euro 2012 - after which he will step down - with his team on the brink of qualification, needing just a point from their trip to Montenegro on October 7.

The Italian said: "I am really focused on the Montenegro game. No-one has spoken to me from Russia, so I was surprised by everything that I read.

"But I read my name with Inter. I read my name with other teams, now the Russian team. The answer is always the same. I am really focused on my job, to go to the Euros.

"Before we think about the summer, we need to reach to the Euros. I will speak to you about the future after the next game. We need to think about qualification first. The other things are completely out of my mind."

Gul opposed to legalising ball tampering

Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, has claimed ball tampering is not new to cricket and that there are legal and illegal methods to change the condition of the ball.

He was also opposed to legalising ball tampering, in contrast to Shoaib Akhtar, who wrote in his recent autobiography that it wasn't a bad idea to "set rules" for tampering, ESPNcricinfo.

"The claims [of ball tampering] have always emerged against Pakistan but have never been proved," Gul told reporters at National Cricket Stadium in Karachi.

"There are many ways to tamper with the ball that are illegal, like using your nail, but there are other ways to change the condition that are legal. A player can throw the ball on the bounce to make it rough or the ball can be damaged when it hits the advertising boards on the boundary."

During the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009, Gul's ability to reverse-swing the ball early had drawn concern from the New Zealand camp but he shrugged it off.

Gul did not think ball tampering should be made legal, though, saying it would make it too easy to bowl reverse swing, which is an art, and some of the beauty of the game would be lost if the practice was legalised.

"I don't think the way is to legalise it. Leave cricket with its traditional ways rather than making changes that would take all the charm out of it."

Gul also responded to comments in Akhtar's autobiography about Sachin Tendulkar being afraid of the former Pakistan fast bowler.

"I can't say specifically that I saw Tendulkar running away from Shoaib, but no one can deny that when Shoaib was at his fastest and best the world's best batsmen were nervous against him and there is no batsmen who is not nervous or ruffled when facing a pure fast bowler," Gul said. "Even Brian Lara, who I rate as the world's best batsman, admitted to feeling ruffled when he was hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Shoaib."

Pakistan leave for the UAE on October 15 to take on Sri Lanka in two Tests, three ODIs and two Twenty20s, and Gul, who was rested for the tour of Zimbabwe, is likely to be back in the squad.

"I am all fit but need a flow for which I have to have lengthy bowling spells," Gul said. "I am bowling regularly and will be playing first-class cricket. If selected, I will train in the nets to quickly get back my form."

NSW beat Mumbai by 5 wkts

mumbai lost
New South Wales survived a very shaky start to beat the Mumbai Indians by five wickets in their Champions League T20 match in Chennai on Sunday.

Having had to defend a low 101, Abu Nechim put up his hand for Mumbai and removed the top three batsmen. Lasith Malinga and Yuzvendra Chahal joined the party with a wicket each, and the Blues suddenly found themselves five down for 28 runs, reports supersport.

But, the arrival of Ben Rohrer stabilised the innings, as he nudged the ball around for singles which Mumbai opted not to save.

Together with man-of-the-match Steve Smith (45 not out), the pair saw their team home with three overs to spare, bossing their net run rate and keeping their hopes alive in the tournament.

Earlier, Mumbai Indians could only reach 100 for seven after electing to bat first on a terribly unresponsive pitch.

Thanks to an undefeated 42 from James Franklin, Mumbai managed to reach double figures, but Patrick Cummins bowled with pace and venom to keep the other batsmen honest, conceding only 13 runs off his four overs.

Both Stuart Clark and Steve O'Keefe bagged two wickets.

Spurs compound Arsenal's misery

Frank Lampard's hat-trick inspired Chelsea to a 5-1 thumping of Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur poured more misery on Arsenal with a 2-1 victory in a controversial Premier League north London derby on Sunday.

Chelsea were four goals up with less than half an hour played as they sent a reminder to their free-scoring Manchester title rivals that they can also find the net at will.

Spurs waited until five minutes before halftime to break the deadlock at White Hart Lane when Rafael van der Vaart beat Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny, though he appeared to handle the ball before shooting into the bottom corner.

Arsene Wenger's side pulled level through Aaron Ramsey before the hosts snatched all three points on 73 minutes when defender Kyle Walker's fierce shot swerved past Szczesny.

Victory lifted Spurs to sixth, four points behind third-placed Chelsea who are three adrift of leaders Manchester United and Manchester City. Usual top-four side Arsenal are languishing in 15th with just seven points from seven games.

On a mild but gloomy afternoon at the Reebok, Chelsea took less than two minutes to get off the mark when Daniel Sturridge, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Bolton, rose above Gretar Steinsson to nod in a Lampard corner.

The pair combined for the second goal on 15 minutes when Sturridge found Lampard with a neat pass which the midfielder swept in with his right foot past keeper Adam Bogdan, who was standing in for the injured Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Sturridge drove in the third on 25 minutes after cutting in from the right to unleash a bobbling left-foot shot that Bogdan should have held.

PINK SHIRT

Two minutes later Lampard added the fourth, scooping in the rebound after Bogdan, enduring an afternoon as shocking as his pink shirt as he flapped between the posts, could only parry David Luiz's powerful shot.

Sturridge, applauded by home fans before the game in recognition of the eight goals he notched in 12 Bolton appearances, did not celebrate either of his goals.

Bolton came out from the break pumped up and immediately got on the scoresheet when Boyata jumped high to head in a Martin Petrov free kick.

They continued to enjoy a lively spell before spirits were crushed when Lampard completed his hat-trick on 59 minutes with Chelsea's fifth goal.

"We have been looking for this victory for quite some time," Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas told a news conference.

"It fills us with pride.

"It's not that we have not been trying to do this before … (but) for various different reasons we weren't able to find a result with this expression before. We have been creating the same amount of opportunities but we were more prolific (in this game)."

Arsenal also created opportunities and they looked more comfortable than they have in recent weeks, only to be undone by shaky defending once again.

After enjoying the better possession of the first half, when Gervinho squandered a golden chance, they fell behind in the 40th minute when their former striker Emmanuel Adebayor put Van der Vaart through with an angled pass.

The Dutchman controlled the ball with the top of his arm before sending it flying past Szezesny. The hand ball was not spotted by the referee and the goal gave Spurs extra momentum.

Arsenal came out looking hungry after the break and soon levelled when Ramsey turned in Alex Song's cross.

But there was one final twist in an end-to-end game as full back Walker fired a swerving long-range shot past Szczesny, who should have done better, to notch his first goal for the club.

"There were some encouraging signs but we need points," Wenger, whose side have fewer points than all three promoted sides, told Sky Sports. "We are not where we want to be.

"We lost a game when we were on top and we conceded two poor goals, I think the first goal was hand ball and a second yellow card … how can the linesman not see it? After the second goal I think we defended badly."

Lampard was not the day's only hat-trick scorer as Fulham striker Andy Johnson hit three goals in a 6-0 rout of local rivals Queens Park Rangers 6-0 and Swansea City beat Stoke City 2-0.

Trinidad stun Chennai Super Kings

Sunil Narine took 3-8 to lead Trinidad & Tobago to their first victory as they prevailed over the Chennai Super Kings by 12 runs in their CLT20 match on Sunday.

Man-of-the-match Narine snapped T&T out of their limbo, taking the first two crucial wickets, that of Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina, before Ravi Rampaul dismissed Mike Hussey to have the the IPL champions lurching on 27-3, reports supersport.

Chennai kept to their task, but at far too slow a pace thanks mainly to tight bowling and a tardy track, and eventually they just ran out of deliveries.

Dwanye Bravo tried his best to get his team as close as possible to the target, thereby limiting the damage to their net run rate, with an unbeaten 22-ball 32, and Morkel Morkel joined him in this quest, hitting two massive sixes off the final two deliveries.

Earlier, three wickets for Doug Bollinger helped restrict Trinidad & Tobago to 123 for eight.

Having elected to bat first, T&T started off well enough - albeit a tad slow - with a 52-run partnership for the first wicket between Lendl Simmons (20) and William Perkins (34) off 9.3 overs.

But, it all went pear-shaped as they lost both openers in the space of three six balls, and T&T were not able to string together any significant partnership after that, losing wickets at regular intervals. T&T did, however, strike out in the final five overs with 49 runs, even though they did lose four men doing so.

Bollinger finished with three for 30.

Real's Higuain scores hat-trick, Barca go top

Gonzalo Higuain scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid crushed Espanyol 4-0 away, moving them to within a point of new La Liga leaders Barcelona who won 1-0 at Sporting Gijon on Sunday.

The Argentina striker completed his treble in the 89th minute, shortly after substitute Jose Callejon had made it 3-0.

Champions Barca were 1-0 victors at bottom club Sporting where a 12th-minute strike from Adriano Correia was enough to earn them their first away success in the league this season.

Barca have 14 points from six games and are ahead of second-placed Levante on goal difference, after one of the season's surprise early form teams beat another, Real Betis, 1-0 away.

Juanlu's volley went into the net off the legs of Betis goalkeeper Casto Espinosa in the 33rd minute and from there on their rugged defence held firm to maintain their unbeaten start to the campaign.

The Valencia-based club, who claimed the scalp of Real two weeks ago, were one point ahead of Jose Mourinho's men in third, and Malaga and Valencia who both won on Saturday.

"I would like to have one more point, but one point is nothing really," Real coach Jose Mourinho told reporters. "The team that deserve all the attention (at the top) are Levante.

"They are the smallest, they don't get the same attention and they deserve it."

LIGHTNING QUICK

Sevilla went sixth with 12 points, ahead of their city rivals Betis on goal difference, after a 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid where goalkeepers Javi Varas and Thibaut Courtois both shone.

Real�s lightning-quick counterattacks sank a spirited Espanyol in Barcelona with Cristiano Ronaldo laying on the first for Higuain after 17 minutes.

The Argentine, starting in place of the injured Karim Benzema, lashed his second into the far top corner in the 66th and Callejon sealed the win from Ronaldo's lay-off in the 82nd.

The youngster apologised to home fans who had idolised him over the previous three seasons before he returned to the Bernanbeu during the summer, and Higuain grabbed a late fourth.

"I had to work very hard to get back to playing again," Higuain told Spanish television, referring to the back injury that made him miss much of last season.

"I recovered as best I could and I'm now delighted to have had a game like this."

GOLDEN POINTS

Barca's Adriano scored after Xavi's shot came back off the post, but the visitors were not at their best and a third successive away draw was always a possibility in the face of a combative hosts.

"It was hard work but it was worth it," Adriano told reporters. "The points are worth their weight in gold."

In the midday kickoff, Real Sociedad's Inigo Martinez scored from inside his own half in the Basque derby, but Fernando Llorente's brace made sure Athletic Bilbao earned a 2-1 away win.

Centre back Martinez let fly from over 50 metres out and caught Gorka Iraizoz off his line, the visiting keeper perhaps distracted after one of his defenders had just been carried off on a stretcher.

Spain striker Llorente had put Bilbao ahead, turning in the area to score in the 34th minute, before Martinez levelled just past the hour mark in a sun-soaked San Sebastian.

Llorente then struck a superb volley to restore Bilbao's advantage in the 71st minute and earn under-pressure Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa a first league win this season.

Bilbao climbed out of the bottom three to five points from six games, two behind their hosts in ninth.

Manchester pair neck-and-neck at top

Manchester City's tough week ended on a high note on Saturday when they won 4-0 at Blackburn Rovers to maintain their unbeaten start in the Premier League and stay level on points with Manchester United at the top of the table.

They sent Blackburn crashing to their biggest defeat of the season with second half goals from Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli and substitutes Samir Nasri and Stefan Savic who both scored their first goals for City.

It was their first match since their Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich on Tuesday when Carlos Tevez allegedly refused manager Roberto Mancini's instructions to come on as a substitute and their delight at the end was in stark contrast to the gloom that has hovered around the club since then.

Champions United also maintained their unbeaten start with a 2-0 home win over Norwich City thanks to second half goals from Anderson, who scored with a header, and Danny Welbeck which gave them a club record 19th successive home league win.

United, who were far from convincing and could easily have fallen behind to any number of Norwich chances including one that hit a post, stay top on goal difference from City with both teams taking 19 points from their opening seven games.

United have a goal difference of +19 compared to City's +18.

United manager Alex Ferguson agreed Norwich made it difficult for his side, telling Sky Sports: "I thought we were far too slow in the build up in the first half but we changed things around in the second and we dominated, but the thing about that kind of game is when you dominate and don't take your chances you're liable on the counter-attack, but we deserved to win it in the end."

In the day's lunchtime kick-off, Liverpool won 2-0 at Everton in the 185th Merseyside league derby with late goals from Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. Everton played for more than an hour with 10 men after Jack Rodwell was sent off in the 23rd minute.

The dismissal was a controversial one because Rodwell played the ball cleanly and made minimal contact with Suarez as the momentum of his body carried him forwards, but referee Martin Atkinson showed him an instant red card.

Everton manager David Moyes said afterwards he was disappointed that a foul was given, never mind a sending off.

"It's not for me to criticise the referee, but he probably ruined this game of football today," he told Sky Sports.

THIRD PLACE

Newcastle United maintained their surprisingly good start to the season to remain unbeaten after seven matches following their 2-1 win at Molineux to inflict a fourth consecutive league defeat on Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Newcastle won with goals from Demba Ba, his fourth in two games, and Jonas Gutierrez to climb to third after their best start in 17 years and they will stay there at least until Chelsea play at bottom-placed Bolton Wanderers on Sunday.

Wolves had a late goal ruled out when a linesman, wearing a cap to shade his eyes from the sun, ruled that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up, although it appeared he might have got his call wrong.

Aston Villa, also unbeaten with two wins and five draws from their opening games, sent Wigan Athletic to a fourth successive league defeat and down to 17th with a 2-0 win at Villa Park.

Gabriel Agbonlahor and Darren Bent were on target for Villa who ended the day in sixth place.

Sunderland drew 2-2 with West Bromwich Albion after trailing 2-0 inside the opening five minutes at the Stadium of Light.

Steve Morison and Shane Long gave West Brom the early initiative but Sunderland were level with two quick goals of their own midway through the first half from Nicklas Bendtner and Ahmed Elmohamady.

FANS PROTEST

Manchester City were the highest scorers of the day with their four at Ewood Park, but their afternoon was marred when Argentine striker Sergio Aguero limped off in the first half with a groin injury.

He will now join his compatriot Tevez on the sidelines, but for totally different reasons following Tevez's suspension from the club for Tuesday's incident.

While the game ended well for City it was another unhappy afternoon for Blackburn, who are one off the bottom, with fans staying behind after the final whistle with banners and posters demanding the sacking of manager Steve Kean.

It was the second time in two weeks fans protested against the manager, but he told Sky Sports afterwards: "I hope they change because we are working hard.

"I know they are frustrated, we, the staff and players are as well, but I say, stick with us we will turn this around. We've got a lot of bright young players, but we are in a difficult moment."

Four matches are scheduled for Sunday with Bolton hosting Chelsea, Fulham playing Queens Park Rangers, Swansea City hosting Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur facing Arsenal at White Hart Lane in the always eagerly-awaited north London derby.

Messi-Ronaldo debate useless: Figo

Luis Figo believes it is not right to compare Barcelona star Lionel Messi with Real Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi netted a brace in Barca's 5-0 Uefa Champions League win over BATE Borisov on Wednesday to equal Ladislao Kubala in the club's goal-scoring charts with 194 goals.

Messi just needs another 42 goals to beat Cesar Rodriguez's tally of 235 to become the club's all-time leading goal-scorer while Ronaldo continues to be no slouch himself in front of goal for Madrid.

However, Figo, who currently works as an ambassador for Inter Milan, thinks it would be a futile task to sit down and compare the two players.

"It is not right to compare them [Ronaldo and Messi]," Figo told FCInternews.it, reports ESPNstar.

"I like watching both of them when they play, why ask which one is the best?

"It's like when you eat something, why choose one meal, when you can try both?

"Both [Cristiano] Ronaldo and Messi are different players, they have different personalities."

Figo, who played for both Madrid and Barcelona during a stellar career, recently rejected reports of a return to the Bernabeu as part of their technical staff.

Napoli go top after winning at 10-man Inter

Napoli shot to the top of Serie A with a controversial 3-0 win at 10-man Inter Milan on Saturday as Claudio Ranieri suffered his first defeat in charge and was sent off at halftime.

Earlier, Bojan, Pablo Osvaldo and Simplicio were on target as fourth-placed AS Roma beat Atalanta 3-1.

After an end-to-end start at Inter the game turned dramatically on an incident four minutes before the break when Joel Obi was handed a second yellow card for bundling over Christian Maggio on the edge of the box.

Julio Cesar saved Marek Hamsik's resulting penalty but defender Hugo Campagnaro followed up to give Napoli the lead.

Ranieri was sent off for remonstrating with the referee as the teams trooped off at halftime.

"He ruined a beautiful game," the Inter coach told Sky Sports. "He was not on his game. What he could get wrong, he did get wrong.

"The boys gave their all and should not have been punished in this way. I don't normally complain about these things but today was an exceptional occasion."

In a more subdued second period wing back Maggio added a second goal on 57 minutes, lifting the ball over Julio Cesar, before Hamsik slotted home the third with a quarter of an hour to go to seal Napoli's first victory at the San Siro in 17 years.

Inter have only four points from five games while Napoli, who finished third last season, go two points clear of Juventus, Udinese and Roma ahead of Sunday's main programme.

The hosts, without Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito, edged the opening exchanges at the San Siro with Diego Forlan going closest to scoring after fizzing a low 25-metre drive just wide on 13 minutes.

Despite missing striker Edinson Cavani through injury, Napoli enjoyed plenty of possession in a refreshingly open start and Colombian left back Juan Zuniga headed weakly wide with a back-post header after 19 minutes.

The home crowd then started to jeer when Campagnaro put Napoli in front.

The visitors made it 2-0 when Giuseppe Mascara played an innocuous ball over the top of the Inter defence for the energetic Maggio to outpace substitute Yuto Nagatomo and beat Julio Cesar.

DISJOINTED INTER

With a disjointed Inter leaving huge gaps at the back, Hamsik ran on to Ezequiel Lavezzi's slide-rule pass to ensure Napoli ended a run of eight straight defeats at Inter.

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri, who turned 50 on Saturday, thanked his players.

"It's a beautiful present the boys have given me," he said. "For the penalty I don't know if it was a mistake or not, I have to see the replay.

"But I do know Napoli played a great game and deserved to win. We've had decisions go against us so I hope there won't be too much said about it."

At the Stadio Olimpico, Roma resisted a second-half fightback from promoted Atalanta to earn Luis Enrique's side their second successive win.

Spanish striker Bojan opened the scoring on 20 minutes, grabbing his first goal in the Giallorossi shirt with a left-foot shot.

Argentine forward Pablo Osvaldo doubled the lead with a cool finish just after the half-hour as Roma dominated the opening period.

The second half was a different story after Argentine forward German Denis halved the deficit with a back-post header from a well-worked corner on 48 minutes.

The home side were then made to defend for long stretches until midfielder Simplicio played a delightful one-two with Miralem Pjanic before finishing neatly on 81 minutes.

"It was a difficult game against the in-form side in the league," Luis Enrique told Sky Sports after Roma's first home win of the season.

"The Denis goal meant we had some difficult moments but we were able to survive. We're improving but we need more patience to be able to dominate possession throughout the match."

Atalanta, docked six points for match-fixing, stayed on four points after suffering their first defeat of the season.