LONDON: Harry Kane says he is disappointed by the high number of withdrawals from the England squad this week, insisting the national team must come first.
The Euro 2024 runners-up head to Greece for Thursday’s must-win Nations League match before a Wembley meeting with Ireland on Sunday.
But interim boss Lee Carsley’s final camp, before the arrival of Thomas Tuchel as the new manager, has been hit by an eye-watering eight pull-outs.
The situation has frustrated Kane, who will lead the side out at the Olympic Stadium in Athens knowing key players are absent for a match they must win to stand a chance of automatic promotion.
Asked if there was one thing former manager Gareth Southgate put in place that senior players need to ensure is not lost, the striker told ITV: “I think the joy to play for England. I think he brought that back.
“I think every camp people were excited to come, every camp people wanted to play for England and, yeah, that’s the most important thing.
“I think England comes before anything. England comes before club.”
The Bayern Munich forward said it was a “shame” that so many players had withdrawn.
“It’s a tough period of the season and maybe that’s been taken advantage of a little bit,” he said.
“I don’t really like it if I’m totally honest. I think England comes before anything, any club situation.”
Eight players withdrew from Carsley’s initial 26-man squad for the Nations League double-header including Declan Rice, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Cole Palmer.
Jarrad Branthwaite was among five players brought into the squad but the Everton center-back is a major doubt, having been unable to train with the group so far.
Kane disappointed by England Nations League withdrawals
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Kane disappointed by England Nations League withdrawals
- The Bayern Munich forward said it was a “shame” that so many players had withdrawn
- “It’s a tough period of the season and maybe that’s been taken advantage of a little bit”
ICC Champions Trophy promo confirms Pakistan as host
- The video comes days after the ICC informed Pakistan that India had declined to play in the country
- Pakistan has said it is not interested in a hybrid hosting model adopted during last year’s Asia Cup
ISLAMABAD: The International Cricket Council’s promotional video for the Champions Trophy 2025 has portrayed Pakistan as the tournament host, with the global governing body for cricket promising a “thrilling competition” in a statement released on Wednesday.
The video comes just days after the ICC informed Pakistan that India had declined to play tournament matches in the country, prompting Pakistani authorities to rule out the hybrid hosting model adopted last year for the Asia Cup, where India played all its matches in Sri Lanka.
Political tensions between the two countries have led the Indian team to avoid traveling to Pakistan since 2008, with both sides only competing in multination tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
The ICC has not directly commented on the situation, though the promotional video clearly showed visuals communicating that the tournament will be arranged in Pakistan.
It promo displayed an unconventional logo, which the ICC said was designed to be “bold, loud, confident, and fun,” saying the visual identity was digital-first while calling it a dynamic, typographic logo.
“The two weeks of thrilling competition the event is renowned for is reflected in the bold and loud edge to the brand,” ICC Chief Commercial Officer Anurag Dahiya said in a statement. “The new elements are accompanied by the distinctive white jackets which nod to the history of the Champions Trophy and its unique, global appeal.”
The men’s Champions Trophy is set to return in 2025 after about eight years, with Pakistan clinching the title in the 2017 final against India.
The tournament was last held in England.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi that are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games scheduled to be held between February 19 and March 9.
Bento feeling the heat as UAE look to revisit former glories
ABU DHABI: A familiar crunch point awaits the UAE and their long-held — but stubbornly unfulfilled — dream of a World Cup return.
Hopes of repeating the heroics of 1990 in 2026, so high after the Whites opened the third round of qualifying with a resounding 3-1 victory over double Asian Cup holders Qatar in September, are receding following a dispiriting single point earned from three subsequent outings.
Their impending double-header in Abu Dhabi against Kyrgyzstan (Nov. 14) and Qatar (Nov. 19) will decide much for Group A’s third-placed outfit. With a team this mercurial, the UAE could just as easily pass the halfway stage, hot on the heels of automatic entry for the 2026 World Cup, as be cast aside.
Last month they were valiant in narrow defeat to second-placed Uzbekistan and insipid throughout a stultifying 1-1 home draw against bottom-placed North Korea.
Paulo Bento is the latest manager to feel the heat. His predecessors — Rodolfo Arruabarrena, Edgardo Bauza, Mahdi Ali and others — all came up short. What can the former Portugal and South Korea head coach do differently to ensure a different outcome?
“I am confident, because I saw the way that the guys approached the training sessions and their focus,” Bento told reporters at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium on Wednesday.
“This, for me, in this moment, is enough. We need to prove this on the pitch. I don’t hide my feelings and my thoughts, they (the players) know the way that we approached the game against North Korea and how we are doing now, it is different.”
The biggest challenge for the 55-year-old is to plot a course without star attacker Ali Saleh, the Al-Wasl talisman who cut Qatar to ribbons in September. Sadly, he is ruled out thanks to injury.
Instead, an engine room also lacking the dynamism of suspended Al-Wahda tyro Abdulla Hamad will be fueled by a recall for Al-Ain’s ceaseless AFC Champions League-holder, Mohammed Abbas, while Sharjah’s versatile Majid Rashid also returns to the fold.
This month’s Ligue 1 breakthrough for Montpellier forward Junior Ndiaye — Dubai-born son of prolific former Al-Nasr attacker Samba N’Diaye — has also been rewarded with a return.
Another naturalized addition is Fleetwood Town utility player Mackenzie Hunt, who provided an assist on his debut at Qatar. Asian football’s rapid improvement leaves question marks about the lasting impact of someone who was a regular on the bench for Premier League club Everton last season but who is yet to find the net in 14 League Two appearances during this one.
Fabio De Lima’s clean bill of health after an enforced absence in October is another welcome boost. With 12 international goals to his name he is three ahead of any other current squad member — namely Caio Canedo, on nine.
It is this lack of lethal players up top that will cause sleepless nights for Bento. Just two goals have been scored in three successive (winless) home qualifiers across the second and third rounds.
The UAE are also Group A’s joint-second lowest scorers, with four strikes in four matches. A cause for concern when just two points separate them, in third, from North Korea in sixth.
Baniyas loanee Fahad Bader, Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai winger Harib Abdalla and club-mate Yahya Al-Ghassani have all yet to find the net in the 2024/25 ADNOC Pro League. Last month’s naturalized debutant, Bruno, is experiencing his most productive start to a domestic campaign, with four goals in seven top-flight games, but he experienced a chastening opening to his international career.
Breakout Asian Cup hero Sultan Adil — with six goals from 11 caps — has not yet kicked a ball in the current campaign.
However, the current crisis has not prompted Bento to turn back the page.
A rapprochement with 85-goal record marksman Ali Mabkhout has stayed off the agenda, despite the 34-year-old’s revitalized vigor at new club Al-Nasr, where five strikes in seven league appearances leave him sitting comfortably as the season’s current lead Emirati goal scorer.
With the number of teams increasing to 48 for the 2026 World Cup, there are greater opportunities for the UAE. The team still feels the burn of 2022, when an agonizing near-miss by a single goal against Australia in the fourth round prevented them from progressing.
This time offers more chances in a new-look fourth round, with the third and fourth-placed finishers pitted against each other. There are also the dreaded inter-confederation play-offs, if required.
Bento’s mission is more than just assembling a winning XI on the pitch. It is to instill the belief that a less-heralded squad can tread where their predecessors could not.
Confidence, however, remains fragile. Wounds from January’s Asian Cup elimination by debutants Tajikistan in a penalty shootout remain fresh. The UAE was further unpicked by qualifying reversals to Iran and Uzbekistan, and an inability to defeat unfancied North Korea still stings.
Recent history, however, provides some encouragement that Bento will eventually prove his worth.
Scathing criticism following quarterfinal failure at the 2019 Asian Cup transformed into glowing tributes when he departed as South Korea’s longest-serving manager, coming on the back of an encouraging 2022 World Cup which included group-stage victory over his native Portugal.
Another redemption arc will secure Bento a cherished spot in UAE sporting lore.
Cricket battles to address its sustainability issues
COP29, the 29th UN annual conference on climate change, opened in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Nov. 11, providing another opportunity for international collaboration.
Last year’s event confirmed that international action to address climate change was way off track against target, and a focus of COP29 is how finance can be made available to developing countries to enable climate action. Achieving agreement is fraught with difficulty.
Given that there is such a gap between promises and action at national level, it should be little surprise that initiatives at a micro level have been piecemeal. In December 2018, the sports sector and the UN launched the Sports for Climate Action Framework. Its objective is to draw together sports organizations, teams, athletes and fans to raise awareness and develop actions to meet the UN goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The original signatories to the 2018 initiative numbered 17. Today, there are around 200. The list contains only six cricketing bodies — the England and Wales Cricket Board, Marylebone Cricket Club, Melbourne Cricket Club, Gloucestershire Cricket, Surrey Cricket and the Desert Vipers. The latter is one of six franchises in the UAE’s ILT 20 League and has sustainability at the core of its operations.
What also stands out from the current list is the presence of the national, international and world governing bodies of most other sports. Neither cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, nor 11 of its 12 full-member boards are signatories.
The sports sector generates emissions in various ways, including travel, energy and water use, catering, equipment production, pitch preparation, venue construction and in-stadium activity. Cricket is no exception. Hence the lack of commitment by most of its leading bodies to the Sports for Climate Action Framework is disappointing. It appears to reflect a lack of concern about cricket’s contribution to climate issues. There are few obvious external signs amongst the game’s custodians that a coordinated effort is being orchestrated and encouraged.
In fact, there are strong counterviews. Evidence of these erupted in early 2023 following the announcement that Alinta Energy’s sponsorship of Australian cricket, worth $40m over four years, would end in June 2023. Australia’s men’s captain, Pat Cummins, was accused of influencing the decision because of his climate activism.
Cummins is the public face of Cricket for Climate, an organization working to help local clubs install solar panels. He has insisted his personal stance played no part in either Alinta’s or Cricket Australia’s decision. This did not stop vitriolic personal attacks against him, and he was called a “climate catastrophist clown” and accused of “incoherent far-left activism” on Sky News. The channel went further by suggesting: “Sporting bodies need to understand that it’s one thing to alienate sponsors, but they are also alienating fans.”
This is heady stuff. Cummins has dealt with the criticism with dignity, doubling down on his activism. He and his peers have reminded people of the extreme climate conditions which players endured during the ODI World Cup in India in November 2023. These included exceedingly high temperatures, off-the-scale air quality readings and heightened fatigue levels, each of which had adverse impacts.
In some quarters, the riposte is that the players are handsomely rewarded and should keep quiet about societal issues. This puts me in mind of Milton Friedman, the free-market economist, whose stance was that the business of business is business, allowing no room for social responsibility. Cricket is a creator of emissions and waste for which, arguably, it should take responsibility. It is also one of the most vulnerable sports to extreme climate variations. Setting aside apocalyptic visions of stadiums on fire, floods devasting stadiums beyond recovery and unbearable air quality causing death, there is evidence of adverse effects on the game.
One example is the flooding of grounds by rivers bursting their banks in successive years. Worcester is one example, with relocation under consideration. This is ironic, given estimates that an international cricket arena requires around 60,000 liters of water per day.
Cricket seems to react to disasters rather than having plans to prepare for them. It does not appear to be taking steps to anticipate or accept changing trends in weather patterns or putting strategies in place to cope with them. The ECB, to its credit, launched an Environmental Sustainability Plan in November 2023. This has three priority areas — tackling climate change, managing resources and waste, and protecting the natural environment. Some county cricket clubs have sustainability strategies in place.
Within the ECB’s overall plan is an aim to build a more circular economy to replace buy-use-dispose-buy. This applies to equipment and it is in this context that the Desert Vipers’ initiative is so relevant. Their playing kit for the 2025 ILT20 league is produced by a local UAE company, Palmfit, obviating the need for long distance transport and creating local employment opportunities.
The kit uses recycled materials, reducing the need for new ones and lowering carbon footprint by approximately 50 percent. Water-based inks are used, eliminating some harsh chemicals. The kits are printed-on-demand, so made only when needed.
Whether the Indian franchises will follow suit is unknown, but there have been some initiatives in the Indian Premier League. In 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore wore jerseys made from recycled stadium waste in a match against Rajasthan Royals. However, even with schemes by other franchises, there is little evidence of a coordinated effort across the league.
Cricket is not only a potential victim of a mercurial climate; it is a contributor to environmental degradation. Despite being resource-heavy, it lags behind other sports in calculating its environmental impact, whilst development of sustainability plans is slow compared with other sports.
The reasons for this are not entirely clear but international leadership seems lacking. A balance needs to be achieved between the requirements of development, growth and environmental preservation.
Cricket’s leaders should not expect direction from COP29. They should generate it.
‘Nothing is impossible’ — jiu-jitsu athlete fights back from coma to compete in Abu Dhabi World Masters
- The 41-year-old’s journey in the sport almost came to an end 4 years ago
ABU DHABI: Swiss jiu-jitsu athlete Gionathan Campana took to the mats at the 16th Abu Dhabi World Masters Jiu-Jitsu Championship on Wednesday, marking an extraordinary comeback from a life-threatening injury that left him in a coma.
Representing Jiu-Jitsu School Ticino, Campana competed in the Men’s GI/Black/Master 3/85 kg division in the competition, which is currently taking place at Mubadala Arena.
The 41-year-old’s passion for jiu-jitsu started over a decade ago.
“I’ve been practicing martial arts for several years, and around 12 years ago, I started with jiu-jitsu,” he said. “I immediately fell in love with it and continued training, even when I couldn’t find a teacher nearby.”
With no coach available, he trained on his own and eventually earned his brown belt two years ago, followed by his black belt this year.
Four years ago, however, an accident almost ended his sporting career.
“It was a bad injury that put me in a coma,” said Campana.
“When I woke up, I decided that I had to get back in shape and that I wanted to do something great for myself … so I decided to resume my jiu-jitsu training. Above all, I wanted to teach my daughter that nothing is impossible.”
Campana has since returned to competition with a new determination.
“So I am here to participate in my first-ever Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship,” he said. “Here’s to many more years of participation, hopefully.”
After ODI series win, Rizwan to lead Pakistan in first T20I against Australia today
- Pakistan to play three-match series against Australia on Nov. 14, 16 and 18 in Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart
- Rizwan’s side defeated Australia 2-1 in three-match series last week to win first series in Australia since 2002
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan will lead his side for the first time against Australia in a T20I format at Brisbane today, Thursday, after steering the green shirts to their first ever ODI series victory against the 2023 world champions since 2022.
Rizwan will become the 12th person to assume Pakistan’s T20 captaincy when he takes the field in Brisbane for the first T20I. Pakistan’s cricket team, encouraged by stellar performances from fast bowlers Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, beat Australia 2-1 in the three-match series that concluded last week.
After Thursday’s match, Pakistan will play against Australia in Sydney and Hobart on Nov. 16 and 18 respectively. Pakistani cricketers Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Omair Bin Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Sufiyan Moqim and Usman Khan joined the T20I squad in Brisbane on Nov. 11 after undergoing a five-day training camp in the southern port city of Karachi.
“We are confident after beating Australia in the ODI series but international cricket is always challenging so we aim to do things as better as we can going into this T20I series against Australia,” Rizwan said a day before the match.
“We have determined the roles of various players in the team and look forward to executing our best plans not just in this series but also in the upcoming white-ball fixtures against Zimbabwe and South Africa.”
The Pakistan captain said he wanted to keep all the players involved in the series motivated.
“Of course, the conditions have helped the bowlers on this tour so far but we also want to prove our mettle as a batting unit and I look forward to an exciting contest in the three matches,” he said.
Pakistan last faced Australia in a T20 contest in March 2022 when the two teams played a one-off T20I in Lahore, which Australia won. In Pakistan’s last T20I series in Australia in November 2019, the hosts won 2-0 after the opening match ended in a no result.
Josh Inglis will lead Australia in the T20I series while Tim David and Nathan Ellis have joined Australia’s T20I squad. Josh Philippe, meanwhile, has replaced the injured Cooper Connolly.
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (captain – wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha (vice-captain), Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Bin Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufyan Moqim, Usman Khan
