WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017 SPORTS Indian great spinner Ashwin joins Worcestershire LONDON: Indian spinner Ravichandran for the second-tier side. The county will tional cricketer who is currently in terrif- eter for us to have at a crucial point in and has scored 2,004 Test runs at an Ashwin will play for Worcestershire for hope Ashwin, ranked number three in ic form with his game,” purred our season. “It is a really important last average of 32.85 with four centuries and the rest of their County Championship the bowler’s Test world rankings and Worcestershire’s chief executive Steve few games in the Championship and to 11 fifties, and had been an opening campaign, it was revealed yesterday. second in the all-rounder lists, propels Rhodes in a statement released by the have someone of his class is a huge batsman before turning to off-spin. The 30-year-old — who took 17 wick- them to promotion in their final four club. “He is ranked in the top three as a boost for the club.” Worcestershire presently occupy ets on the recent tour of Sri Lanka as matches. Ashwin will be the first Indian bowler in Test cricket, is a wonderful all- Ashwin has taken 286 wickets in 51 the second and last spot for promotion India completed their first three-Test player to play for Worcestershire since rounder who can bat six and scores hun- Tests, including five wickets in an to the first division, 15 points clear of series sweep on foreign soil on Monday Zaheer Khan resurrected his internation- dreds in Test cricket. innings on 26 occasions, 150 ODI wick- third-placed Northamptonshire, whilst — will replace Australian John Hastings al career after a superb season with “It is unlucky for John Hastings with ets and 52 in T20Is. Sussex and Kent are a further two as the county’s overseas player in a coup them in 2006. “Ravi is a fantastic interna- his injury but Ravi is a wonderful crick- Ashwin is also a force with the bat points adrift. — AFP Five incredible sulks LONDON: Diego Costa’s stand-off with Tevez played up to his nickname of ‘Apache’ English Premier League champions Chelsea by refusing to warm up to potentially go on is just the latest in a long line of disputes as a substitute for Manchester City in the between players and their employers. last moments of a Champions League Here AFP Sport picks out five such infa- match in September 2011 against Bayern mous examples: Munich. Manager Roberto Mancini said Tevez, then 28, would never play for City FRENCH WORLD CUP SQUAD’S again. But a combination of his massive ‘BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY’ wages and the huge fee City were asking Probably the most spectacular and meant there were no takers. Tevez holi- humiliating spectacle experienced by a dayed in Argentina and considered retiring national side as the entire squad — cap- before eventually returning to the first tained by Patrice Evra and including icon team in March 2012. He was to leave in Thierry Henry — refused to get off the bus 2013 for Juventus. for a training session at the 2010 World Cup. Their fury at unpopular coach VAN HOOIJDONK LIGHTS FOREST FIRE Raymond Domenech had been provoked Dutch international striker Pierre Van by the sending home of the player nick- Hooijdonk’s goals had been instrumental in named ‘The Incredible Sulk’. Nicolas Anelka Nottingham Forest returning to the had launched a foul-mouthed tirade at Premier League at the first time of asking in Domenech at half-time over his tactics in the late 1990s but he went on strike at the the first-half of the opening loss against beginning of the 1998/99 season because Mexico, and was duly punished. he was furious key players had been let go. Unsurprisingly given the venomous atmos- He then trained at his old club NAC Breda phere, France went out in the first round. and demanded a move, which was reject- Evra, Anelka and others were severely disci- ed. He eventually yielded and then-manag- plined on their return whilst little has been er Dave Bassett felt compelled to play him. Olivier Ntcham with the ball heard of Domenech since. But the depth of antipathy at the club was reflected when he scored his first goal on SOCCER BLAME IT ON THE BOGARDE his return and the players congratulated Costa will have to go some to outdo Scott Gemmill for creating the chance and Dutch international Winston Bogarde in not the goalscorer. Forest were relegated causing as much trouble for Chelsea. and he left, Vitesse Arnhem buying him for Celtic looking to French Signed aged 30 and apparently without the £3.5 million. knowledge of then Blues manager Gianluca Vialli in the 2000/01 season, the ‘GODFATHER’ JUST THE latter’s successor Claudio Ranieri disliked SPUR FOR BERBATOV connection against Astana him so much that he wanted the player to Moody Bulgarian international striker leave just weeks later. Bogarde dug his Dimitar Berbatov tested the patience of the heels in and stayed for four years, despite Tottenham Hotspur hierarchy and manager GLASGOW: Olivier Ntcham is aiming to emulate being dropped first to the reserves and Juande Ramos as he looked to engineer a Moussa Dembele by becoming the latest French then the youth team. He justified his multi-million pound “dream” move to import to make an impact at Celtic. Broad backs Anderson behaviour by declaring in his biography: Manchester United at the beginning of the The 21-year-old midfielder followed in the “This world is about money (he was on a 2008/09 campaign. Appropriately for a footsteps of his under-21 international team- reported £40,000 a week), so when you are player who learnt English by watching the mate as he made a £4.5 million ($5.8 million) to fire in Ashes offered those millions you take them. Few Godfather films, he awaited an offer Spurs move from Manchester City to the Scottish champions in the summer. The firm friends’ people will ever earn so many. I am one of couldn’t reject. He refused to play in the LONDON: Stuart Broad is “very confident” Anderson and Broad are already estab- fledgling careers have followed similar paths the few fortunates who do. I may be one of Premier League game with Sunderland and longstanding new-ball partner James lished as one of England’s greatest new-ball the worst buys in the history of the was threatened with demotion to the since the pair from the suburbs of Paris met when they turned out together for the France Anderson will play a “big part” in England’s pairings, having taken a combined 720 Premiership but I don’t care.” reserves. Spurs complained to the Premier upcoming Ashes defence in Australia. wickets in 94 Tests together. League about United ‘tapping up’ the strik- under-16 side. While Dembele’s arrival in Glasgow came via Anderson recently turned 35 and there Asked about the possibility of extending TEVEZ REFUSES WALK-ON PART er but eventually sold him on September 1 are concerns a five-Test series ‘Down Under’, that figure to 1,000 wickets, Broad said: “It’d Argentinian international striker Carlos that season for £30 million. — AFP a spell at English second-tier Championship side Fulham, Ntcham started out kicking a ball about which starts in November, could be a tour be pretty special, but we’d have to see how the streets of Longjumeau — a commune in the too far for England’s all-time leading Test long the old bloke (Anderson) wants to go southern suburbs of the French capital — before wicket-taker. The Lancashire paceman has on for. “I’ve been lucky to bowl at the other turning out for Le Havre’s under-23 side. A move taken 487 wickets at 27.90 apiece in 126 end to him and I know if I hadn’t done, I Five teams to watch to English giants City materialised, but Ntcham Tests but his 43 on Australian soil have wouldn’t have as many wickets as I have failed to break his way into the first team and come at a more expensive average of 38.44, got.” Broad himself is now just five away out for this season spent the last two seasons out on loan to Italian although Anderson was a key member of from surpassing Ian Botham’s mark of 383 side Genoa. His impressive displays in Serie A the England touring side that won the Test wickets and so becoming England’s caught the eye of Hoops manager Brendan BERLIN: Five teams to keep an eye on in the LEIPZIG 2010/11 Ashes. second-most successful Test bowler. Rodgers, who persuaded him to make the move Bundesliga, which starts Friday. Leipzig took the rest of the Bundesliga by And Broad, speaking ahead of England’s “Obviously he (Botham) is the biggest to Glasgow — with a little help from Dembele. surprise by finishing second and earning an home three-Test series against the West player English cricket has ever had proba- “Moussa told me the club was good, it’s big BAYERN MUNICH automatic Champions League qualification in Indies, had no doubt the swing specialist bly,” said Broad. “Anyone who’s done what fun here,” Ntcham revealed. “I was 16, maybe Few expect anything other than Bayern its debut season in the top division. Leipzig, could be a central figure once again, what- he has against Australia I’ve got a lot of even before, 14, when we first played together Munich extending its Bundesliga record to six however, only had the Bundesliga to contend ever the conditions.