Juno Temple admits that “cogs are turning” for Season 4 of Ted Lasso, with an imminent spin-off to the award-winning Apple TV+ show being ruled out.
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No official word on fourth seriesCast & crew ready to get goingNew storylines speculated onFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
Speculation regarding a return to the small screen for AFC Richmond has been raging for several months. Leading members of cast and crew have spoken openly of their excitement at potentially reprising much-loved roles.
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Green lights for production are said to have been given, with lead star and writer Jason Sudeikis back on board, and there has been exciting talk of the latest series taking humours and emotional storylines in a different direction.
WHAT JUNO TEMPLE SAID
Temple, who plays bubbly PR specialist Keeley Jones, has told when asked for an update on Ted Lasso discussions: “I’ve heard the kind of stunt version of, yeah, potentially, it sounds like there might be a season 4. I don't know when. I don't know exactly who, what, why, where, but I think it sounds like those cogs are turning.”
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Amid the rumours of Ted Lasso looking to “self-reboot” in 2025, Temple added on the prospect of branching out on her own with new characters and tales to tell: “The idea of a spin-off with Ted Lasso is a complicated one for me, because it so feels like a team that I don't know if I would want to do a spin-off. I don't want to be a part of it if everybody else isn't. It's a team. It's a real team!”
Cristiano Ronaldo is “still in the elite” at almost 40 years of age, says Emmanuel Adebayor, with the Al-Nassr superstar “simply beautiful to watch”.
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CR7 remains an inspiration to millions
Sets the standard for those around him
No sign of slowing down in Saudi Arabia
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WHAT HAPPENED?
The Portuguese icon will be celebrating a notable birthday on February 5. There is no sign of him slowing down, with the goals continuing to flow for a man that is targeting 1,000 before any thought is given to retirement. Whenever that day comes, CR7 has earned immortality as a sporting GOAT.
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Adebayor worked alongside Ronaldo during a spell at Real Madrid, allowing him to experience what makes the legendary forward special and how his relentless pursuit of perfection took him to the very top of the game and kept him there for more than two decades.
WHAT ADEBAYOR SAID
Abebayor has told of working with Ronaldo and why, in his opinion, the Portugal international is the best to ever do it: “Okay, this is my first session, so I'll go at 8:30 or so and I'll be about two hours early. I arrived at 8:45. All the lights were off, the room was dark, so I was happy, ‘thank God, I'm the first one to arrive here, they will see that I am a professional, they will say that I am diligent’. But then I heard something, a noise in the background. I was like, what's going on? It was my first training session and I didn't know the facilities yet. I asked one of the physiotherapists what was going on downstairs. And he told me that Cristiano Ronaldo was there. I was like, 'Oh, come on, man, this guy’… In the end I was second.
“I went to see him and he said: 'Oh, Emmanuel, nice to meet you, how are you?'. He also told me that he would be with me, that he would help me and that I should tell him if I needed anything. I realised that he was there much earlier. I asked him what time he would arrive and he replied that at 7:30. I said: 'Okay, thanks, good luck, I'll see you later, bye’.”
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Ex-Arsenal and Manchester City striker Adebayor added: “Training started at 10:30 and you arrive at 7:30. To do what? Three or four hours early! I told myself to leave him in his own world, so that he could enjoy football and his career. And today he is 40 years old, still in the elite, playing football, at the top… It is simply beautiful to watch. A great example.”
Adebayor only spent a few months at Santiago Bernabeu, on loan from City, but went on to say of that spell giving him a chance to take inspiration from Ronaldo: “For me, having the opportunity to play with him, even if it's only for six months… And he knows the respect I have for his mentality, for the person, for the character he has. He always wanted to be the best. And for me, that's incredible.”
Watching international cricket at Old Trafford, it’s easy sometimes to forget you aren’t in the subcontinent for the atmosphere Asian fans bring to the stadium. But it was the surface upon which England scraped to an achingly tense three-wicket victory over Pakistan which made you feel they might as well have been back playing cricket in the UAE.A whirlwind half-century from Jason Roy helped England grab the momentum in a game that went to the final few deliveries, but his wasn’t by any means the only star contribution to a thrilling contest. Adil Rashid had set up a chase of 155 for the batsmen with a career-best 4 for 35, picking off the Pakistan top three early in the first innings. At that stage, it looked below-par, but a slow burn of a classic was only just beginning to reveal its hand.The visitors, who had opted to bat first after winning the toss, appeared always off-balance, behind the par score, and under pressure, even as they got off to a solid enough start, bringing up the 50 inside the Powerplay for the loss off just Babar Azam. On a pitch that was taking more turn than any previously this series, that was more than good enough, with this never likely to be the sort of run-fest Headingley and Trent Bridge habitually play out. The boundaries, too, were larger at Old Trafford than anywhere else in this T20I series, and both sides knew anything above 170 could become tricky to run down.But once Rashid ploughed through Pakistan, they slumped into consolidation mode, which, in England, seems like a losing strategy. The irrepressible Mohammad Rizwan carried his bat and dragged his side past 150, but the fireworks Pakistan might have been banking on at the death never quite materialised. Moeen Ali played a quiet but vital support act at one end, allowing just 19 in his four, and when Roy and Jos Buttler came out to bat, the spectre of a routine, one-sided chase hung gloomily over the contest.Roy did little to alleviate that impression in a supreme assault on Shaheen Afridi first up, smashing, caressing and placing him for four fours in an over, before taking the attack to Imad Wasim and Usman Qadir. His reputation against spin bowling stands significantly rehabilitated, and soon enough, the asking rate had been brought down below seven.But England began to lose regular wickets to the spinners, and once Mohammad Hafeez was belatedly thrown into the mix, the asking rate crept back up, and Pakistan crept back into the contest. Dawid Malan struggled to keep the runs flowing, and it wasn’t until Eoin Morgan clobbered Hasan Ali at the top and tail of the 18th over that the hosts climbed back into the ascendancy. Pakistan continued to chip away with the wickets, but when Chris Jordan squeezed one into the leg side and hared back for the second, Pakistan had run out of runs to play with.Rizwan’s radiant form When might it be fair to stop calling whatever Rizwan is doing in T20I cricket a purple patch and just accept he’s rather a good batter in the format? Months ago, most likely. He has now gone past 50 in eight innings in 2021, the joint-most in a calendar year, batting through an innings unbeaten four times: a T20I career record. On another two occasions, he was not out in a successful chase.He carried on that rich vein of form, holding Pakistan’s innings together even as England wreaked havoc at the other end. He was the one who got Pakistan’s innings up and running with successive boundaries off Saqib Mahmood in the second over and a six off the first ball of the fourth. But Rizwan, as has been the case all year, isn’t interested in cameos; he’s more into innings building and – given this this is Pakistan – innings rebuilding. After Rashid knocked both Sohaib Maqsood and Hafeez out in three balls, there was plenty of the latter in evidence.He played second fiddle to Fakhar Zaman while the left-hander stroked a breezy 24, bringing up his own half-century in 38 balls. When Zaman fell, Rizwan took control once more, and Rashid was clobbered for six off the first ball of his final over as Pakistan desperately tried to scrape to a total their bowlers would have a hope of defending. It looked as if Pakistan might have fallen just short, but with 76 off 57 Rizwan had done his best for the cause.Rashid’s record-equalling night Rashid was instrumental in derailing Pakistan’s chase in the second T20I, and equally detrimental to their hopes of piling on the runs here. The pitch helped, of course; only one T20I has seen more overs of spin than the 26 Old Trafford witnessed, and that came in Dhaka in 2011.The googly that had a lacklustre Azam stumped was a harbinger of how much turn the surface would offer the slower bowlers, but ironically enough, the double-strike in his second over had less to do with Rashid’s guile than poor Pakistani execution. Maqsood holed out to long-on off one that was tossed up and right in his arc, with Hafeez then sending a long hop down deep square leg’s throat. But the pressure Rashid built up over his spell forced errors from the batters, and off the final ball of his spell, he got what he hadn’t yet achieved in his international career: a T20I four-for. His dismissal of Shadab Khan took the legspinner level with Stuart Broad with 65 wickets in the format, behind only Jordan.More importantly, it kept slowing Pakistan down, and in a game that went to the 40th over, that might have made all the difference.
كشفت تقارير صحفية، سعي مسؤولو نادي حسنية أغادير لتمديد عقد أحد لاعبيه خلال المرحلة المقبلة، خوفًا من رحيله مجانًا خاصة في وجود عروض للاعب أبرزها من الزمالك.
ويتواجد فريق حسنية أغادير في المركز الـ14 بجدول ترتيب الدوري المغربي، ويمتلك في رصيده 21 نقطة بعد الفوز في 6 لقاءات والتعادل 11 مرة وتلقى 3 هزائم.
طالع | والد زيزو: مجلس الزمالك باع نجلي مرتين.. وسأكشف عن مفاجآت نارية
وأفادت صحيفة 360 سبورت المغربية، أن مسؤولي فريق حسنية أغادير دخلوا في مفاوضات شاقة من أجل تجديد عقد لاعبهم جمال الشماخ، الذي ينتهي عقده مع الفريق مع نهاية الموسم الكروي الحالي.
وأضافت أن هناك محاولات قوية من أجل اقناع جمال الشماخ للاستمرار مع الفريق وتمديد عقده خلال الفترة المقبلة.
وأوضح التقرير أن جمال الشماخ كان من اهتمامات عدد من أندية الدوري المغربي، على رأسها الوداد وكذلك نادي الزمالك لضم اللاعب خلال الانتقالات الصيفية المقبلة.
وأكد مصدر داخل نادي حسنية أغادير أنه لم يتم التوصل لاتفاق بين إدارة النادي وأحد الأندية خلال الانتقالات الشتوية الماضية، من أجل انتقال اللاعب مشدداً على أنه لا توجد نية في التفريط باللاعب.
The left-armer is excited at the prospect of using the Dukes ball against India
ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jun-2021
Trent Boult is likely to miss both Tests against England before playing the WTC final against India•Getty Images
Trent Boult is eyeing the chance to “create a bit of history” as he prepares to travel to England to join his team-mates ahead of the World Test Championship final against India later this month.Boult opted to return to New Zealand after the IPL was suspended to spend some time with his family instead of traveling to the UK via the Maldives, even though it meant a further two weeks in managed isolation and the likelihood of missing both Tests against England. Since completing that period, he has been preparing at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui ahead of flying to the UK on Thursday.”The way the group has travelled and performed around New Zealand and the world, the boys are in a great place to hopefully create a bit of history,” he said.Related
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“I’ve taken a while to understand the process with qualifying, how everything works with the points, still think no one knows how that actually works, but to get into that final the excitement is ramping up now. Once I step foot in the UK, get that chance to smell the English fresh air and see the ball move around a little bit I’ll definitely be excited.”Boult, who has 281 Test wickets at 28.02, has been getting used to the Dukes ball that will be used for the WTC final in Southampton and is excited about what it could offer him. His previous four Tests in England have brought him 21 wickets at 23.14.”I haven’t had too much experience with it, played a handful of Tests over in England. It reacts a lot differently, then you have to weigh in all these different venues,” he said. “I’m sure the boys are very excited to get it in their hands and see it move around, hopefully we can entertain you a little bit over the next wee while.”New Zealand coach Gary Stead said on Monday that Boult was unlikely to feature in the second Test against England at Edgbaston before the WTC final, although Boult himself suggested he had not completely ruled out hope of making an appearance. “Hopefully I can get over there, get settled in and be part of that second Test as well,” he said.After the final, there is a gap in New Zealand’s schedule and Boult will face another two weeks in a hotel on his return home. “If you can keep busy and not let yourself too deep in your thoughts and whine about things then you find a way to get through,” he said. “[We have] been very lucky to be still be working in this current climate so it’s the price you have to play.”He also has his eye on resuming his IPL stint with the Mumbai Indians if the tournament restarts as planned in the UAE in late September. “Looks like it’s moving forward to the UAE where it ran very nicely last year. So if I get the chance I’ll be looking forward to finishing that campaign off nicely,” he added.
West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen was dragged to the ground by Mario Lemina at the end of West Ham’s win over Wolves as a furious scuffle broke out.
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Hammers skipper netted winning goalTempers boiled over at the final whistleLemina argued with team-mates & coachesFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
After netting the decisive goal in a 2-1 victory for the Hammers, England international Bowen was eager to shake hands with Premier League rivals at the final whistle. Fellow skipper Lemina was the first player in his sights, but the Wolves midfielder brushed past Bowen’s outstretched hand.
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That show of petulance drew an inevitably fiery response from Bowen, who took to shoving Lemina in the chest and grabbing at his shirt. West Ham’s captain then tried to drag the Gabonese star to the turf, before being hauled to the ground himself.
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Players from both teams stepped in, as an unsightly melee broke out, but Lemina was not done there. He proceeded to argue with his own team-mates and members of Wolves’ coaching staff before being ushered away to calm down.
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With tempers boiling over in the Wolves camp, there have been suggestions that a managerial change could be on the cards. Gary O’Neil finds himself under mounting pressure after picking up just nine points from 15 games to sit second-from-bottom in the Premier League table.
Leeds United have made four signings to bolster their squad during the summer transfer window, which closes at the end of this month, so far.
Alex Cairns, Jayden Bogle, Joe Rodon, and Joe Rothwell have all been brought in to improve Daniel Farke's options across the pitch for this season.
Meanwhile, Charlie Cresswell, Glen Kamara, Crysencio Summerville, and Archie Gray have all been sold by the Whites ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
There is still plenty of work for Leeds to do in the transfer market before the end of August and they reportedly have their sights set on a Premier League defender.
Leeds eyeing up Spanish talent
According to The Athletic, the Whites are in the race to land Wolverhampton Wanderers left-back Hugo Bueno on a season-long loan deal.
The report claims that they could face competition from Dutch giants Feyenoord and Scottish Premiership champions Celtic, who are also keen on a loan for the Spaniard.
It states, however, that Wolves currently see the full-back as being an important part of their plans and they are not prepared to send him out on loan yet.
The outlet also reveals that the West Yorkshire outfit are a difficult team for Premier League sides to do loans with, as they do not offer guarantees on game time – as other clubs in the EFL do.
If the situation changes and Leeds are able to get a deal over the line for the Spain U21 international before the end of the window then they could land an exciting partner for Wilfried Gnonto down the left flank.
Exciting left flank for Leeds
Firstly, Bueno could come in to provide Junior Firpo with competition for his place in the team, whilst also being an alternative option for Farke to call upon when required.
When the Wolves loanee is needed, if they sign him, he could use his progressive play in possession to provide Gnonto, who could move to the left in the absence of Crysencio Summerville, with plenty of opportunities to make things happen in the final third.
In the 2023/24 Premier League season, the £10k-per-week star ranked within the top 24% of full-backs in the division for progressive carries per 90 (2.67) and the top 22% for successful take-ons per 90 (0.97).
This shows that he can get the ball up the pitch on a regular basis by taking on opposition defenders and carrying it forward, which could then allow Gnonto to make runs off the ball rather than being the one tasked with progressing the ball.
Appearances
15
49
48
Goals
1
4
1
Assists
3
10
1
As you can see in the table above, Bueno also has the potential to provide a creative outlet down the left side if Farke can help him to unlock his academy form at first-team level.
The 21-year-old ace, who Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs hailed as "exciting", could supply Gnonto with chances to score, which would allow the winger to thrive.
In the Championship last term, the Italian whiz scored eight goals from 5.36 xG, which speaks to his impressive finishing quality, and he could form an exciting relationship with Bueno, due to his creative and progressive qualities at left-back.
Shakib Al Hasan and Shadman Islam are out with injuries, while West Indies have no injury concerns
Mohammad Isam10-Feb-2021
Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque, among others, will have to do some heavy lifting in Shakib Al Hasan’s absence•AFP via Getty Images
Big pictureOh, how the tables have turned! How beautifully the momentum has shifted West Indies’ way, and the pressure towards Bangladesh.West Indies hold the lead in the series, and therefore the edge, after their debutants Kyle Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner put together a comeback for the ages on the fifth day in Chattogram. Mayers’ unbeaten 210 was only the second time a batsman struck a match-winning fourth-innings double-century. That it came from a debutant, who had very little familiarity with the pitch he was batting on, made it all the more remarkable. Bonner’s 86 was a coming-of-age innings for a cricketer who has waited long. While Shannon Gabriel’s show of deadly pace on such a slow pitch on the third evening was inspirational.Related
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A delighted Phil Simmons, the West Indies coach, continued to be cautious, stressing on finishing the job, something they have failed to do on several previous occasions. But, while the Chattogram win didn’t come easy – Test wins don’t – it is also true that such a result can do wonders to the overall confidence within a squad.Quite the opposite is the case in the Bangladesh camp. Bad as the result was, the news that Shakib Al Hasan wouldn’t be fit for the second Test made things worse. And opening batsman Shadman Islam joined Shakib on the sidelines when he failed to recover sufficiently from the hip injury he sustained while fielding in the first Test. Soumya Sarkar – who underwent the PCR test on February 7 and has been kept in isolation since – has been named Shakib’s replacement, while no replacement has been named for Shadman.Who slots in for Shakib is just one of many questions staring at the Bangladesh team management. Whether the spinners can find their rhythm in the Dhaka Test is going to have a bearing on their fortunes, because, while Mehidy Hasan picked up eight wickets in Chattogram, more would be expected from Taijul Islam and Nayeem Hasan. Bangladesh have a spin-centric bowling strategy, that has now failed more often than it has worked for them, and with the Dhaka pitch likely to be assisting spinners, the make-up of Bangladesh’s team will need careful thought.Form guide Bangladesh LWLLL West Indies WLLLL In the spotlightAfter his match-winning knock in Chattogram, Kyle Mayers will have the eyes of the world on him. He has called himself “a student of the game”, and it will be interesting to see how the newcomer goes, now that he will have a fair bit of hype to live up to. A maiden Test century to go with eight wickets in the Chattogram Test has given Mehidy Hasan back his Test spot. But he will have to put in another big performace, especially in Shakib’s absence. Team newsWhenever Shakib isn’t around, Bangladesh struggle with team balance. They have Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Yasir Ali and Saif Hassan among frontline batsmen and Taskin Ahmed, Abu Jayed, Ebadot Hossain and Hasan Mahmud among bowlers in the squad. Among them, Sarkar is the closest they have to an allrounder. Bangladesh (possible): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Mominul Haque (capt), 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Liton Das (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan, 8 Nayeem Hasan, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Abu Jayed It is unlikely that West Indies will make changes to the XI from the side that won in Chattogram. They have fast bowler Alzarri Joseph and left-arm spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Kavem Hodge and allrounder Raymon Reifer waiting in the wings, but they might have to continue to wait, barring an injury. West Indies (likely): 1 Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), 2 John Campbell, 3 Shayne Moseley, 4 Nkrumah Bonner, 5 Kyle Mayers, 6 Jermaine Blackwood, 7 Joshua Da Silva (wk), 8 Rahkeem Cornwall, 9 Jomel Warrican, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Shannon Gabriel West Indies are unlikely to make any changes unless they are forced to•AFP via Getty Images
Pitch and conditionsThe pitch should help spinners more than the one in Chattogram did. Sides batting first in the last five years have averaged around 332, with five out of six teams winning the match after batting first. Stats and trivia The 216-run partnership between Mayers and Bonner in Chattogram was the highest between two Test debutants in 57 years. Mehidy is two wickets short of 100 in Tests, while Liton Das is 34 runs short of reaching 1000 Test runs. Quotes”We start from zero again. We have to go back to the process, we have to practice and prepare well. It is going to be a different wicket, ground and everything. It is important for us to assess again. Going over the processes and ensure we do well.”
“It would have been great to have Shakib in the side in Mirpur but in his absence, myself, Taijul and Nayeem have to take more responsibility. We will try to bowl more in the right areas, so that they can’t play us easily.”
In response to KP’s 300, Central Punjab ended day two on 212 for 8
ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jan-2021
Usman Salahuddin hit nine fours•PCB
Usman Salahuddin and Saad Nasim struck half-centuries for Central Punjab in their response to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 300 in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final, but Irfanullah Shah’s four-wicket haul helped KP end day two as the happier of the two teams. CP ended the day at 212 for 8, with 88 runs behind KP.Shah made the early inroads for KP, removing both the CP openers Muhammad Akhlaq (4) and Ali Asif (8) cheaply. Salahuddin then repaired the early damage, adding 64 and 48 with Mohammad Saad and Saad Nasim respectively. While Saad fell for 26, Salahuddin and Nasim went onto make half-centuries. However, Nasim’s dismissal for 55 off 109 balls triggered a late slide as CP lost four wickets for a mere 22 runs. Shah played a part in it, claiming the wickets of wicketkeeper-batsman Ali Shan and captain Hasan Ali, who was dismissed off what turned out to be the last ball on the second day. Incidentally, Ali had got KP’s Sajid Khan off the last ball on the opening day.Shah was backed up by Khalid Usman, who came away with 2 for 29 in his 13 overs. Khan and Arshad Iqbal, meanwhile, picked up one wicket each for KP.Earlier in the day, KP added 15 runs to their overnight 285 for 7 before they were bowled out. From 266 for 4, they fell to 300 all out, with Ali returning the innings’ best figures of 4 for 62.
England have expressed concerns over the integrity of the teams’ bio-secure bubble in South Africa, leaving the ODI leg of their tour in jeopardy, after a positive test for Covid-19 from the hosts’ camp led to the first ODI being postponed on Friday.The match was called off an hour before the toss and has been rescheduled to Monday, with all players and hotel staff to be retested on Friday evening.However, South Africa have yet to determine how one of their players contracted the coronavirus and, although they maintain their confidence that the bio-secure environment works, a further round of tests scheduled for Friday afternoon may decide whether the three matches are able to go ahead.”There is a cause for concern and England has expressed a concern. England are questioning the confidence they have in the bio-secure environment and rightfully so,” Dr Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, said.”If there has been a player who tested positive in the last week, they have cause for concern and we respect that concern. We met with the English medical team and we have planned out a way. We will retest all players and hotel staff [tomorrow, later brought forward]. We will await the results and determine a course of action and then on Tuesday before the final ODI we will retest the team again.”ALSO READ: First ODI at Cape Town called off after Covid scareSouth Africa’s players have so far been tested five times, three times before the start of the T20I series which revealed two positive cases, and once in between the T20Is and ODIs. Although CSA have declined to confirm the names due to doctor-patient confidentiality, David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo are widely understood to be the first two players in question.The first player who tested positive did not enter the bio-bubble and isolated on his own while the second was removed from the bubble when he tested positive two days later. Both players tested negative on the fourth round of tests, just before the start of the T20 series last Friday, and rejoined the squad last Saturday.The third positive case was discovered a week later, from a test before the start of the ODIs yesterday, and CSA is unsure how it came about. Heinrich Klaasen was a notable absentee from Tuesday’s final T20I, with his captain Quinton de Kock stating at the toss that he was sick.”This test surprised us because we have confidence in the integrity of the bio-secure environment,” Manjra said. “Further tests indicate that this is a more recent case that occurred within the bio-secure environment. So clearly there seems to be some kind of breach which we have investigated in great detail to try and determined where this happened.The first ODI between England and South Africa at Cape Town was postponed due to a Covid-19 scare•Getty Images
“We have traversed a couple of different spaces, trying to recount some of the events: speaking to the player, looking at security cameras, looking at other information and we haven’t been able to date to identify where the source was but clearly it’s cause for concern.”The situation is understood to have unsettled the England camp, who have been staying at the same Vineyard hotel as the South Africa squad, albeit in separate wings with mixing between the two squads banned. Communal areas have been used on a rota basis and deep-cleaned between whiles, with the hotel staff also staying on the premises. Outside of travel to matches and practice, the teams’ only other authorised departures from the hotel grounds have been for rounds of golf at Boshenmeer, near Paarl, again subject to strict protocols.England’s 24 players, plus support staff, are due to leave South Africa on a chartered flight on December 10. With the prospect of Christmas at home for some members of the squad, and imminent stints in Australia at the Big Bash for others, there is believed to be a reluctance among the players to jeopardise those plans.A scheduled joint press conference between ECB and CSA was cancelled soon after the match had been called off, with Ashley Giles, the team director, later addressing the situation in a statement.”On behalf of the England touring party and the ECB, I would like to thank Cricket South Africa for their collaborative approach to postponing today’s one-day international,” Giles said.”Our number one priority is the health and safety of the England team and management group, and the correct decision was made following discussions between the two boards and respective medical teams.”The England party will remain at its base in Cape Town on Friday and Saturday, and we are hopeful that the three-match series will be played before we depart next Thursday starting with the match at Paarl on Sunday.”In conceding that a player may have breached protocols, Manjra was adamant that no-one was allowed to leave the team hotel in Cape Town unsupervised.”I can categorically state that there is no player who is able to leave the hotel environment by virtue of the fact that there is security around and the security will not allow the player to leave, unless that player is leaving in an assigned vehicle which is an official vehicle with an official driver,” Manjra said.”There is a command centre here led by the Colonel from the Claremont Police Force and they strictly enforce the bio-bubble. They wouldn’t allow anybody to leave.”ESPNcricinfo
However, earlier on in the tour, players did leave for what appear valid reasons. “In fact some players left as a group to go across to the Oval [across the road from the hotel] to train and that became a matter of concern because they had seen it and we had addressed that concern with the Colonel and the command centre. It is impossible for any player or official to leave this.”That revelation gives credence to Manjra’s suggestion that the bubble is not working as intended. “I am fairly convinced that 99% of the time this environment is working,” he said. “There may be a breach that is unbeknown to us. I am not saying there is zero risk. There may be a slight risk. There are a lot of moving parts in a tour such as this and we are trying to control that.”South Africa’s would not be the first breach of protocols in the new normal. Last month, West Indies’ players were barred from training during their period of managed isolation in New Zealand after sharing food and socialising in hallways, while Pakistan were put on a final warning that they would be sent back home after several similar incidents. Pakistan remain in isolation and have not been granted an exemption to train.This is South Africa’s first experience hosting a bio-bubble – the tour is believed to be worth £3 million to CSA – and they are due for three more this summer, with incoming tours scheduled against Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan. It is England’s first time in a bubble away from home, having successfully negotiated their home summer with a series of bio-secure environments.