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LEFT SIDE: “Where the left side, the left side, the left side and werehere.”MIDDLE: “Where the middle, the middle, the middle and were here.”RIGHT SIDE: “Where the right side, the right side, the right side and werehere.”ALL TOGETHER: “You’re the Sri Lankans, the Sri Lankans, the Sri Lankans andyou’re over there.”According to the Barmy Army melody (and it is not a hard one) you eithersupport England or you don’t. Broken into three bays upon Yabba’s Hill,Sydney Cricket Ground, the Barmy Army do their best to upset opposing fans,and during the England v Sri Lanka game, this Australian journalist learnt alot about the English spirit.Spending time with the Barmy Army is a multitude of melody mixed withgenerous serves of humour. Being able to take a joke is important whenaround the Barmy Army. This I soon discovered after enquires were made aboutmy favourite player and my response of Steve Waugh brought about a smile anda knowing look between members that made me think perhaps there was a betteranswer.Soon I was serenaded with a few Steve Waugh songs – Waugh: what is he goodfor and one about the current Test skipper not making the plane to Jamaicaand going into obscurity just like Mark.I assumed they would be cheeky and to the point. And I also assumed theywould be good fun. I wanted the fun and was not sure whether my thick skincould handle the criticism but luckily today Australia was not playing. (Forif the green and gold¹s were playing my skin would be thinner and theinsults would bring a defensive nature about myself.)Although, these boys and girls can sling mud better than any supporter groupI have known, they also respect and support their own to the death. SteveHarmison bowled a shocking first over; dot, wide, wide, wide, dot, dot, noball, dot, wide, three and six. Not the most impressive over from apromising young bowler but what impressed me was the support given by theArmy. Coming back to his fielding position in front of the Army they clappedand chanted OeStevo¹ as if the lanky quick had just taken a wicket.But being in the Barmy Army means you must also be cheeky.A few bays over to the left a contingent of Sri Lankan supporters haveamassed. Today they have brought with them drums, cymbals and horns to joinin with their clapping and singing as the Sri Lankans do good things.At every run, the horn blare, the cymbals crash and the drums are beaten -for this the Barmy Army really have no comeback. But wait, they start up aruckus chant of “You¹ve only got one song” and take off their shoes and bangthem above their heads to imitate the Sri Lankans. The Sri Lankans playlouder with the entire orchestra joining in. Generous laughter ripples fromthe surrounding England supporters and one journalist as I laugh at them.I find myself laughing a lot. They poke fun at everyone includingthemselves, and me, but they have an affable nature and it¹s not done in amalicious way at all.It¹s fun and done with good taste – they mean nothing by it. Today the pointof their chants is Sri Lanka, next week it may be Australia and in a coupleof months it will be the entire world – well those unfortunates who will goup against England and the Barmy Army at the World Cup.And today the aim is also directed at the Sydney Cricket Ground itself.According to the Barmy Army – it is curry day. When they were here for theTest, the SCG did not sell curry. But today because England is playing SriLanka curry is on sale. So the first commandment is to eat all the curry sothe Sri Lankans are forced to eat pies and chips.With only a small number remaining they may well fall short of the target.In addition to eating all the curry, the Army has made up a tune to go handin hand with Curry Day. Soon OeThe 12 days of Christmas¹ becomes OeThe 12curries of Sydney¹.The song written on a piece of paper at the pub this morning by two of themembers is soon rushed to a local Internet café where 200 copies are madeand then distributed to Army troops. The song is sung with gusto as Englandtries to keep the total as low as possible.The Barmy Army though is more than a bunch of English people who gettogether to sing songs and annoy the fellow spectators. During the week, thelads went up against the Kings Cross World Bar side in a match of cricket.With three balls to spare from a 30-over-a-side match played at CentennialPark, the Barmy Army XXI beat a World Bar XIX with all the money raised fromthe match going towards the Leukemia Foundation – it also gave England theirsecond win against Australia this tour.The time spent with the Barmy Army was fun and entertaining. They lovecricket and enjoy a joke along with a beer whether it is on the left, rightor in the middle.

Indian captain Saurav Ganguly on Sunday put up a brave face followingyet another failure with the bat and drew solace from the fact that heclaimed two wickets in the triangular one-day series match againstZimbabwe.”If not with the bat, at least with the ball I had something,” saidGanguly after India’s comprehensive nine wicket win over Zimbabwe. “Itwas good I had a couple of wickets and a catch from the game.”Expressing satisfaction with his team’s performance, Ganguly said, “Webowled and batted well. It’s just one game and we still have fourleft, including the final. It will be all-important because we havenot been doing well in finals.”Ganguly admitted it was an important toss to win. “The toss wasimportant because the wicket was doing a bit. Our bowlers bowledpretty well and they (Zimbabwe) didn’t bat that well. I thought it(toss) would make a difference but I never thought it would make somuch of difference,” he said. “It was a good wicket when India wentinto bat. You rarely get such wickets with so much of life in thefirst session in a one-day match. I had seen it in Toronto whenwickets had so much life and I saw it today.”

An update has emerged on Rangers and Gio van Bronckhorst’s plans for the future of the number one position at Ibrox…

What’s the talk?

According to the Daily Mail, the Gers are one of the teams plotting a swoop for a player in the second division of English football.

It’s thought that Rangers want to sign England stopper Sam Johnstone when the window opens in a few months’ time.

The report claims that they are looking at potential replacements for 40-year-old shot-stopper Allan McGregor and have identified the West Brom man as a player who could come in.

He is out of contract at the end of the season and a number of Premier League sides are set to battle the Glasgow giants for his signature. The Daily Mail state that Tottenham, Newcastle, West Ham and Southampton are all eyeing the Baggies star up.

Bargain

Van Bronckhorst is plotting a swoop for the 29-year-old and Ross Wilson must ensure that he can get this deal over the line as it would be a bargain signing for the Gers.

He is available for £0 in the summer because of his contractual situation at The Hawthorns, with his £18k-per-week wages being the only issue for Rangers. Nine of the current squad are reportedly on as much per week or more than the ex-Manchester Unite man, which suggests that the club can afford his wages.

The shot-stopper would be a bargain addition as he has proven his quality south of the border. Steve Bruce, who managed him at Aston Villa, previously showered Johnstone with praise. He said:

“We all knew he was a top class goalkeeper and he’s looking the part now.

“He’s a diamond – first in, last out. He’s a typical goalkeeper who wants to learn. A big pat on the back to my coach, Walshy, too. He’s worked hard with him and has always said to me ‘take him, he’s the best young goalkeeper in the country’.”

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Micah Richards once dubbed the monster as being “exceptional” on Match of the Day and his form in the Premier League for the Baggies backed that up. In the 2020/21 campaign, he averaged an impressive SofaScore rating of 7.01 across 37 matches, making zero errors directly leading to goals and saving 69% of the shots against him.

McGregor, meanwhile, has averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.80 in the Premiership. He has saved 68% of the shots on target against him and made three errors directly leading to goals, which suggests that he is more prone to making mistakes than the Englishman.

Therefore, bringing Johnstone in would improve the Rangers XI as he is more reliable between the sticks and he has proven his quality at the top level. He is also 11 years younger than McGregor and this means that he could be the Gers number one for many, many, years to come.

AND in other news, GvB can save Rangers millions with “brave” 48-goal teen who’s “clinical and calm”…

	Shivnarine Chanderpaul has had a productive year for West Indies but Guyana were denied his full contribution as he retired out on 78 © Getty Images

Shivnarine Chanderpaul might have picked up a host of honours at the West Indies Players’ Association awards but in doing so he infuriated both his own team and his opponents in their ongoing Carib Beer Series match. Chanderpaul was unbeaten on 78 at stumps on the first day of Guyana’s home game against Windward Islands when he departed for the awards ceremony in Trinidad.However, neither Guyana’s manager Carl Moore nor their coach Albert Smith was able to explain Chanderpaul’s absence and he was deemed “retired out”. Smith said it was disappointing the batsman had not discussed the situation with the team’s management.”He is our most dependable batsman and has done so much for West Indiescricket as a top-class batsman,” Smith told . “But if he knew he was just using this game for some practice and would then leave the guys he should have at least informed me as the coach and maybe allowed one of the youngsters to play.”The situation so incensed the Windward Islands that when they started their innings after lunch they refused to let Guyana use a substitute fielder. The Windward Islands manager Lockhart Sebastien was furious at the seemingly blasé attitude to a first-class game.”This is not a curry goat match,” Sebastien said. “This is a first-class encounter and things like this are allowed to happen and we wonder why West Indies cricket is in the state that it is in.”Chanderpaul told Devon [Smith] yesterday [Saturday] that he was here just to take a knock but we assumed he was joking. If he knew he had to leave then he should not have played and given one of the other youngsters a chance.”

Division One

Darren Gough suffered a broken hand – and will be out for a month – after turning back the clock and taking his best figures for seven years as Yorkshire made Kent follow-on at Tunbridge Wells. Geraint Jones (62) and Andrew Hall (77) added 126 to give Kent hope of staging a fight back, but Gough ran through the lower-order having earlier claimed Neil Dexter. However, trying to stop a straight drive from Ryan McLaren, Gough suffered his injury although still managed to remove McLaren after the blow. But two balls into his 17th over was forced off as his hand began to swell. Trailing by 259, Joe Denly fell went for 9 before Robert Key and Martin van Jaarsveld responded with an unbroken stand of 135. Key, who reached 62 in the first innings, batted for another three hours but needs to continue his rearguard on the final day. “It is a sickening blow,” said Gough following the x-ray which proved a broken metacarpal, “and the only consolation is that we have just one Championship match against Sussex at Headingley next week before the start of the Twenty20 Cup. I think I should be fit to return once these games have ended.”Chris Adams’ blistering 103 set Hampshire an unlikely 500 to beat Sussex on the third day at Arundel. Murray Goodwin fell for 99, but Adams motored onwards cracking 11 fours and three sixes in his 95-ball 103 as Sussex declared on 360 for 5. The two Hampshire openers, Michael Brown and Jimmy Adams, both fell cheaply leaving Hampshire struggling on 133 for 2, with Michael Lumb unbeaten on 62, still requiring a further 367 to win.Lancashire set up the platform to have a final-day push for victory after building on a lead of 55 with a positive second innings, extending their advantage to 365, against Durham at Chester-le-Street. Another five-wicket haul for Muttiah Muralitharan secured Lancashire the useful lead then Paul Horton (56) and Mark Chilton opened with a stand of 92. The healthy progress was maintain by Stuart Law’s 69-ball 61. Durham, though, continued to chip away and at 215 for 6 there was a chance to keep the target down to something manageable. But Luke Sutton (41) and Dominic Cork (48) added 90 and the home side face a day of trying to repel the mastery of Muralitharan.Surrey’s middle-order collapsed on the third day against Worcestershire at New Road, slipping to 370 all out. Surrey were going nicely with Jon Batty notching 114 and Mark Ramprakash 84, putting on 165 for the second wicket. However, both fell in quick succession as Surrey slipped from 271 for 2 to 370 all out – still trailing Worcestershire’s mammoth 701 by 331 runs. Kyle Hogg, on loan from Lancashire, and Gareth Batty each took three wickets. Following on, Surrey lost Jon Batty for 13, going to stumps at 59 for 1 with one day remaining in which to salvage a draw.

Division Two

4th dayDean Cosker took 5 for 69 as Glamorgan registered their first Championship win of the season, over Nottinghamshire, who they beat by 55 runs on the final day at Swansea. After bowling out Glamorgan for 263, Nottinghamshire were set 263 from 72 overs but collapsed to 207 all out. Jason Gallian and Bilal Shafayat fell cheaply before Mark Wagh (50) and David Hussey (63) gave hope of Nottinghamshire chasing down their target. However, from 115 for 4 they slumped dramatically, Wagh falling to Cosker and Robert Croft picking up David Hussey. Graeme Swann struck a fighting 37 before Alex Wharf wrapped up the innings with two quick wickets.Gloucestershire’s match against Derbyshire ended in a draw at Derby, after the visitors racked up an imposing 441 to deny Derbyshire’s push for victory. Hamish Marshall fell without adding to his overnight 120, and Alex Gidman couldn’t add another century, falling four short. But Mark Hardinges held up Derbyshire’s march and, finding useful allies in David Brown (43) and Carl Greenidge, posted his fourth first-class hundred. This left Derbyshire 200 to win from 28 overs, and they finishing on 40 for 1 from 15 overs.3rd daySomerset wrapped up the most comprehensive of wins over Leicestershire at Taunton with Charl Willoughby picking up the final two wickets. Stuart Broad and David Masters (31*) delayed the inevitable, extending their ninth-wicket stand to 48, but Willoughby yorked Broad for 35 to signal the end. Nick Walker, the No. 11, lasted eight balls, to hand Somerset an innings-and-259-run win.Essex continued to boss proceedings at Chelmsford and have teed up a winning position for the fourth day. Although rain washed out most of the morning, there was still time to bowl out Northamptonshire for 241 – James Middlebrook leading the way with 4 for 53 – and then take two more scalps as the visitors followed on. Northants face an uphill battle to save the match, still trailing by 297 runs with eight wickets remaining, and hopes will rest largely on Stephen Peters, who is unbeaten 51, and the in-form Lance Klusener, who was left stranded on 70 in the first innings.

Ramnarine: ‘We will sign the retainer contract once we believe that it is a fair and reasonable contract and it is in the best interest of the player’ © Getty Images

Dinanath Ramnarine, the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president, has said that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is slowing down the process of trying to conclude an agreement over long-standing issues.Speaking in an interview with CMC Cricket Plus on the fourth day of the Carib Beer Series final between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago at Guaracara Park, Ramnarine said a recent letter from Ken Gordon, the WICB president, appeared not to rubber-stamp an agreement that had been earlier reached with other WICB executives.”One of the constraints that we have is that you would have heard around February 6, the chief executive of the WICB basically saying we reached agreement on the collective labour agreement, the code of conduct and the memorandum of understanding,” Ramnarine said. “I recently received a letter from the president of the board basically saying those agreements were drafts. Our position is that we signed off on the agreement. There wasn’t a signature, but it was agreed across the table.”The two parties met last Thursday in an effort to try and resolve issues that have plagued West Indies cricket over the past two years. “What [has] frustrated the whole process in dealing with the WICB is every time we negotiate with them and you reach an agreement across the table, the next meeting everything changes,” Ramnarine said.Recently, Clive Lloyd, chairman of the WICB’s cricket committee, called on WIPA to try and reach an agreement over retainer contracts by mid-April. Ramnarine said, however, WIPA would not rush to sign a contract for the sake of signing.”The gist of it and the question we have to ask ourselves is if we sign the retainer contracts, are the players going to be better off. We are not going to be pressured by anybody into signing a retainer contract because we are the only team that does not have a retainer contract. We will sign the retainer contract once we believe that it is a fair and reasonable contract and it is in the best interest of the player,” said Ramnarine. “We are not going to be put under pressure by anybody. I don’t have any pressure from my members. They are well aware of what is taking place and are very supportive.”

Thilanga Sumathipala, the former president of Sri Lanka Cricket, will take up a new formal role as the board’s official representative to International Cricket Council this weekend. Sumathipala is scheduled to attend the ICC’s executive meeting in Lahore on October 16 and 17.”The executive committee unanimously decided to request Mr. Sumathipala to attend the ICC executive meeting in Lahore on October 16 and 17,” a media release said. “Sumathipala is the longest serving ICC executive board member, who has been handling the most important affairs in the international arena for Sri Lankan Cricket.”Sumathipala decided not to run for a fourth term as board president earlier this year, after an immigration scandal led to him being held in police custody for nearly five months. But he remains a powerful and influential figure in the current administration.The position as an international envoy had been offered earlier in the year, but Sumathipala, at the time under police guard in a private hospital, turned down the post. He was released on bail in June and has now been handed back his passport.The immigration case, however, still continues with the next hearing set for later this month. The case revolves around Sumathipala’s alleged assistance of Dhammika Amarasinghe, a man implicated in more than 28 murder cases, to obtain a forged passport and travel to London as a cricket board guest in 1999.

The Indian side parade (c)Getty Images

Traditional dances, callisthenics and spectacular fireworks lit up the opening ceremony for the Under-19 World Cup in the Dhaka. A full house of around 30,000 people packed the Bangabandhu National Stadium.Sixteen countries, including the 10 Test-playing nations and six associate members of the International Cricket Council, are participating in the biennial tournament that started in 1988.Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia formally opened the tournament, which runs from February 15 to March 5 and will be played at six venues. “Bangladesh is now ready to host World Cup Cricket and we are committed to cricket,” she said. “I hope our youth and organisers will strive to turn this pride into success.” Ehsan Mani, the ICC’s president, and Malcolm Speed, its chief executive, also attended the ceremony.

One of the 5,000 performers (c)Getty Images

Some 5,000 performers of Bangladesh Army, Navy, Rifles, Ansar, Shilpakala Academy and Rifles School took part in the two-hour-long opening pageantry. It also featured a march past by the 16 teams.The teams now have five days to acclimatise with warm-up matches, before the tournament opens on Sunday with hosts Bangladesh playing New Zealand at the Bangabandhu.

On the eve of 2003 Somerset County Cricket Club received another boost when they heard that they have the two best qualified cricket coaches in the country.Kevin Shine and his assistant Mark Garaway who recently completed the first ever ECB level 4 coaching course have just heard that they have come out as the top two in the group.For the past thirty months Kevin Shine and Mark Garaway have been attending the ground breaking course amounting to fifty days in total, in addition to carrying out their normal workload.Earlier this week the Somerset head coach told me: "This was the pilot course and it’s been tough covering twelve different modules and a massive time constraint. We were both lucky enough to be selected to take part in this and once we were, we were determined to stick with it."He continued: "The course was not just about batting and bowling but covered all aspects of life. It is really all about giving the players different options. There isn’t just one way because it’s all about what is best for the player and the club.""Now it’s our job now to spread the word and hopefully the players at Somerset and English cricket will feel the benefit of this course and help the E.C.B. achieve their aim which is to become the top cricket playing nation by 2007."Chief executive Peter Anderson said: "It is very satisfying to know that we have the top two qualified coaches in the country, and I’m sure that this will enhance our chances of making sure that the most talented young players get the best possible coaching and hopefully develop into top class players."

It was surprising that, with one hand apparently firmly on their first overseas Test series victory since 1986, India should relax their grip and allow Zimbabwe to scrape home to level the series in the Second Test match.Well though Zimbabwe played at Harare Sports Club, the result was perhaps due more to India’s failures with the bat than any other factor. Both Test matches had in common the fact that the team winning the toss wasted that advantage by batting badly and eventually lost the match. In Bulawayo it was Zimbabwe; in Harare it was India.India’s 237 on the first day of the Harare Test was a poor effort that reflected on the lack of application of their batsmen, most of whom fell to soft dismissals. They fought back with three quick Zimbabwean wickets before the close.The first turning point of the game came when Grant Flower dug in and shared fighting partnerships with the all-rounders in the team, earning Zimbabwe what was really no more than a useful lead of 78 on first innings. The pitch was sound for batting, even if the ball did not come on to the bat as well as the players would have liked, and with India’s batting power it was quite possible that in the second innings they would be able to set a target that was beyond Zimbabwe’s reach.The Zimbabwean team is still not as confident with the bat as it should be. The Flower brothers and Heath Streak have shown they can handle pressure, but the rest, for the most part, have too many failures under pressure behind them or were untested in that kind of situation. 63 all out when chasing 99 against West Indies last year, under admittedly more difficult circumstances, is an example of what can still happen all too easily under pressure. I said at the time that if Zimbabwe failed to bowl out India for less than 200 in the second innings, they could be in trouble.One over from the end of the fourth day, Zimbabwe were indeed heading for trouble. India were 197 for three in their second innings. The second new ball was available for just one over before the close, and Zimbabwe took it. This was the second turning point of the match. Andy Blignaut had Rahul Dravid caught at the wicket, and they followed it up in the first half-hour of the fourth day with four more wickets for just 10 runs.Zimbabwe were set 157 to win, in theory not a difficult target under the circumstances. But, with Zimbabwe’s past record, it was not a foregone conclusion, and it was indeed to prove a tense struggle. The final turning point of the game was the innings of Stuart Carlisle.Carlisle has no great record in Test cricket, with an average in the twenties and, before this innings, only four fifties to his credit, the highest of which was 58. He often stabilized an innings at number three with a solid twenty or thirty, before getting out just as he was looking well set. But the Zimbabwean players and selectors know him as a man with a big heart, one who is dedicated to his game and a wonderful trier.On this day Carlisle got his reward with what must, under the circumstances, go down as one of the most vital innings ever played for Zimbabwe in a Test match. With Andy Flower suffering a finger injury, the team as a whole must have suffered a psychological setback in chasing their target. But Carlisle was the man who put his hand up, with an innings of superb temperament and judgement. He played scarcely a false shot in seeing his team home with a new Test best of 62 not out. Single-minded determination was the hallmark of his innings, evident in every ball he faced. It is to be hoped that this innings will give him the confidence to go on to greater things and higher scores in future.There was much good bowling from both sides. Zimbabwe had to struggle for runs throughout the match against the Indian pace attack of Javagal Srinath – below his best in the first innings but magnificent in the second – Ajit Agarkar, who was most unlucky, and Ashish Nehra, perhaps the find of the tour for India. Then there was Harbhajan Singh, who was never mastered by the Zimbabweans, but neither did they let him intimidate them.Zimbabwe, for their part, also benefited from fine bowling by Heath Streak, Travis Friend, on his debut, and Andy Blignaut, who won the Man of the Match award and was often superb. They bowled a tight off-stump line, perhaps a little too defensively at times, but it kept the Indian batsmen in check during that crucial second innings when they looked ready to take the game out of Zimbabwe’s reach.Both sides fielded superbly. Zimbabwe have always been known for this virtue, but India often matched them. The Indian close catching in the series has frequently been brilliant, with Shiv Sunder Das, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman all worthy of special mention.It has been a good series, and it was a pity the Zimbabwe Cricket Union were unwilling to play a three-match series, for financial reasons, so there could be a decider. The series draw will no doubt increase India’s desire to win the triangular tournament, starting on Saturday, so as to salvage a rare triumph from an overseas tour.