Category Uncategorized

In the Calcutta of the 1970s and ’80s lived a young Parsee who made her community proud with her sporting achievements

Shamya Dasgupta06-Jul-2024It was 1972 or 1973. Kumkum Banerjee was part of a group of five well-connected society ladies with an interest in sport who were tasked with finding young players to put together a Bengal women’s cricket team for the launch of the three-day national women’s first class championship.”But there were no players,” Banerjee says with a laugh, 50 years on. “There was no structure. Some clubs let women play, some girls played in their neighbourhoods with the boys, but it wasn’t serious. We were all excited about it, but there really was nowhere for us to start.”So the group that made up the “selection panel” decided to go out and find them: athletic girls, young, fit, hopefully tough, ready to give cricket a try. They went around the sprawling Calcutta (now Kolkata) Maidan in search of candidates, almost like a casting crew looking for the perfect face for a movie. Only, they needed a whole bunch.Banerjee can’t recall where it was that she saw two girls she liked the look of. Likely at the West Bengal Basketball Association premises at the Maidan, west of Red Road, she thinks.One of them was Sreerupa Bose, the other Shireen Contractor.”They were both so fit, agile. Back then, everything was different. I was in a saree. I always am. But these girls, they were in shorts and T-shirts. They were fantastic. I knew they were right for us.”Banerjee didn’t know then that while Bose was just waiting to exhale, so to say, as a cricketer, Contractor was already a top athlete. She had represented India at the Asian Women’s Hockey Championship in New Delhi in December 1967. And, while being a regular in India’s hockey team, had also made her international basketball debut, playing for India at the Asian Women’s Basketball Championship in Kuala Lumpur in 1970.She had never played cricket seriously but had played enough of it with the boys in the neighbourhood to know that she was ready if given a chance. She got it soon enough – and so became the first female Indian triple-international.

****

Though the name was new to me, “Shireen Kiash” seemed to be on everyone’s lips as I scoped around the Calcutta Parsee Club. As it turned out, she was something of a legend there.The Calcutta Parsee Club was established in 1908, about the time that Parsees started moving to Calcutta in numbers from the west of the country. The city was then the capital of British India (though not for much longer), and the Parsees, a trading community, were looking for opportunities on the eastern coast.”She was a triple-international,” just about everyone in Kolkata will tell you. And add, “She is in the .” And often: “A natural, she could play any sport, and she was better than everyone else, .”Such praise comes from, among others, the likes of Rusi Jeejeebhoy, the only Calcutta Parsee to get anywhere near an India cap in cricket. He was the reserve wicketkeeper on the historic India tour of the West Indies in 1971, but didn’t play a game. He was, by all accounts, a good wicketkeeper but not much of a batter, as a first-class average of 10.33 tells us. They are still upset about his missed chance in Kolkata, especially since P Krishnamurthy, who played all five Tests – the only ones he ever did – scored just 33 runs in six innings and averaged 5.50. His first-class average was only slightly better than Jeejeebhoy’s: 14.98.Jeejeebhoy’s family lived in Khorshed Madan Mansion, a building in central Calcutta built for impoverished Parsees by a wealthy businessman from the community, Jamsetjee Framjee Madon, who, it is said, owned 120 cinema halls at one time. Jeejeebhoy moved out later but, now past 80, continues to live in the vicinity. The building is where Contractor’s family lived when they moved from Bombay (now Mumbai), and that’s how Jeejeebhoy met her.Contractor (bottom row, first from right) at the Calcutta Parsee Club after the women’s team won a tournament. Rusi Jeejeebhoy is standing, centre•Kermeez Kiash”There were 23 flats in that building,” Jeejeebhoy says. “I was already there, I must have been 15-16, and I was playing cricket quite seriously.”She was a proper tomcat [tomboy]. She was quite young still. Not yet in her teens. She would play all the games with the boys. Hockey. Cricket. Football. Badminton. And she grew up to be… what’s the best way to put it? A jewel. She was a jewel of the Parsee community in Calcutta.”

****

Contractor’s daughter Kermeez, a human resources professional in Sydney, says her mother was born on November 1, 1949 in Bombay. She moved, with her parents and other members of the family, to Calcutta “when she was seven or eight”.”The family was very well off. They were major building contractors in Bombay but they lost everything in the stock market,” Kermeez recalls being told when she was quite young. “My grandpa didn’t get a job immediately in Calcutta. My granny worked as a manager at a hair salon to support the family.”She also says, in part from having heard from her mother and others, that growing up without affluence might have helped her mother become the person she was.”She was in no way inferior to anybody,” Jeejeebhoy says. “I mean, for a girl playing against boys – she did everything and asked for no mercy or any quarter.”Attached to that building was a small playground. She would be there for every sport we played.”I was a bit of a to the kids there, and she was my favourite. She would tell everyone that I was the greatest cricketer in the world. She was like a little sister to me. All the families had one or two children who played games, and they used to look up to me, because I was playing in the league in the city already. We were a sporting building. And I was the best known. But she was the best.”Objectively speaking, she was a fantastic cricketer. She had style and grace as a batsman. She was a natural. And she was never scared of anything. Of getting hurt. She gave back as good as she got when she played football. She had the spirit to excel, which made her stand apart.”Khushroo Kiash in the doorway of the train compartment with wife Shireen after he got on board at the last minute, having decided he couldn’t let her go to Pune for a tournament without him soon after their wedding•Kermeez KiashGargi Banerjee, who started playing for Bengal a few years after Contractor did, agrees: “She was spunky. I think a lot of us were quite meek – most of us came from poor families and didn’t know much about the world, but Shireen spoke English. She didn’t take any nonsense from anyone.”Kermeez can attest to this. “[The Bengal team] went to Chandigarh once to play hockey, my mum told me, and a lot of the guys [who came to watch] were giving the girls a hard time, passing comments and wolf-whistling. The ball went out of the ground and no one wanted to fetch it because of the boys. Mum had to get it each time, and if anyone said anything, they got a tongue-lashing. One time, one of the boys said something to the girls, and mum picked up a stick and was ready to attack him.”Another time, they were going to a country kind of area to play, and a guy on a [bicycle] went past them on the road and said or did something. And mum went chasing after him, caught up with him, pulled him off the bike and flung the bike away.”

****

Contractor became a triple-international when Australia’s Under-25s came over to play three unofficial Test matches in February 1975. From that visiting team, Christine White and Deborah Martin went on to represent Australia at the senior level.The three “Tests” were played in Poona (now Pune), Delhi (at Railways’ home ground, the Karnail Singh Stadium) and Calcutta’s Eden Gardens. They were three-day matches, and all of them ended in draws. India were led by Sudha Shah in the first two games and Sreerupa Bose in the last. Their line-up was full of names who would go on to play international cricket. Fowzieh Khalili, Shobha Pandit, Meena Thakkar, Ujwala Nikam, Rajeshwari Dholakia, Sharmila Chakraborty, Lopamudra Bhattacharjee and Runa Basu from that team all played official Test cricket. Along with the captains Shah and Bose, Diana Edulji and Shantha Rangaswamy went on to become bona fide legends of the game.Not Contractor, though. Despite returns of 21, 20, 4, 29 and 6 not out – not fantastic, not terrible – in the three Tests.That year, before the Australia series, she married Khushroo Sorabjee Kiash, a marine engineer, amateur sportsman and motorbike enthusiast. The two met, Kermeez says, when they were kids.A story many at the Calcutta Parsee Club remember is of how Kiash went to the railway station with his father-in-law to see his wife off for the Australia U-25s series, but just as the train for Poona was leaving, decided he had to go with her, took some money from Contractor’s father and clambered aboard.Ladies who hoop: Contractor (middle row, second from right) with the Calcutta Parsee Club’s basketball team in 1968•Calcutta Parsee ClubSharmila Chakraborty, who played 11 Test matches and was a part of that 1975 squad – and one of the players Banerjee had found during her scouting days in the early 1970s – remembers the incident, and “Khushroo “, well.”Shireen – she passed away, didn’t she?” she asks, having lost contact after their days of playing together. “Oh, he was a good man, a very good man,” she says of Kiash. “He was friendly and helpful. I remember how he got on the train, and we ribbed them both about it.”Contractor and Kiash moved from Calcutta to Sydney to give Kermeez and her older brother, Danesh, a better life. “They were trying to move to Canada or Australia for a while, and it came through in 1991,” Kermeez says. This was when Contractor, at about 45, appears to have taken an interest in netball, a sport popular in Australia and a new thing for her.”In 2000 my brother got married. That was the year mum got cancer,” Kermeez says. They were trying times but there was also sport, and there was fun, she remembers.”The Olympics were in Sydney. And mum had decided she would be there to see it. She hadn’t seen an Olympic Games before that. She had surgery and radiation sessions lined up. But she said she wouldn’t be doing them, because she had to go to the Olympics. End of story.”Lots of negotiations happened, and she was allowed to go to the Olympics on condition that she got to the chemos immediately after that. That she did.”Later, when she was wheelchair-bound, Contractor joked – or maybe she was serious – that she would give the Paralympics a go, be a “quadruple-international”.She died in 2006, and Kiash four years later in a motorcycle accident on the Bombay-Pune highway.

****

At the Calcutta Parsee Club, Prochy Mehta, community historian and an able sportsperson in her own right, handed me a copy of , a nicely produced volume commemorating the club’s centenary in 2008. Contractor features all over in the section on the community’s sporting achievements. If in 1967 she is representing Bengal in the hockey nationals along with Zarin Rustomji, the next year she is at the Asian women’s basketball tournament with Behroze Billimoria. In 1969, she is back at the basketball nationals. Then back at the hockey. Back to basketball. Club. Bengal. India.In 1975, “Shireen Kiash represents Bengal in the cricket nationals at Kolkata. She follows this up by playing for India in all three Tests against the visiting Australia women’s cricket team and also plays against them as a member of the East Zone team.”Shireen Contractor’s name is written in legend at Kolkata’s Parsee ClubNot long after, “Shireen Kiash is felicitated on June 21 for being the only club member and possibly the only Indian at that time to represent India in three different sports” and “she is also awarded the Ladies Study Group Award for being the most outstanding woman in sports in 1974″.It goes on. Every year till 1982, after which, at 33, she appears to have eased off a bit. Marriage. Kids. Life, perhaps.Dinyar Mucadum, one of the best all-round male sportspersons from the Parsee community in the city, is much younger than Contractor would have been if she were alive, still in his early 60s. Still quite active on the city’s club sports circuit, a regular opening batter with Arun Lal for the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club, and much else besides.”She was a mentor to me, and she loved me like anything,” he says. “She was older than me, but not much. She saw me and thought of me as a younger brother or son or something…”She was a lovely person, a superb person. No airs. There were others who played only one sport. She played three. She could have played more. I don’t think there will ever be another like her.”How good was Contractor really? In an unprofessional era, with the people in charge only looking for athletic girls (“cricket can be taught”) did she deserve to be an international cricketer?”She played with a straight bat,” Jeejeebhoy says. “She was tall. Solid defence.”Those days you didn’t need to score quickly. She played with a vertical bat and scored down the ground. Good student. She was not a great bowler – ordinary, but stuck to the basics. She used to get wickets. But she was good with the bat.”Gargi Banerjee is more emphatic. “She was very good, and she was a good team player. We needed someone like her, who wasn’t scared of being a girl out in the world.”And see, we weren’t trained cricketers to start with. If Shireen had proper training, she could have been as good as anyone.”Contractor lived for many things, but most of all, she lived for sport. A love that became stronger after marrying a man who was always up for a kickabout. “Our car boot had a cricket bat, tennis racquets, footballs, cricket balls, tennis balls…” Kermeez says. “When we were out, if we happened to stop anywhere, we just opened the boot and started playing something or the other. Always.”Contractor is mostly forgotten now. Possibly she was never known outside of the circles she was part of. But in those she remains a legend. One of a kind, clearly.

His credentials are hard to ignore, but how does he fit in for the defending champions?

Alex Malcolm02-Jun-20222:24

Vettori: David’s six-hitting is like Pollard’s in his heyday

Every T20 team in the world right now wants Tim David. Every team it seems, except Australia.To be fair to Australia’s selectors, the world’s most in-form power-hitter is front and centre on their radar and chair George Bailey has been in contact with him. But they are wrangling with how and when to fit him into a side that are the defending T20 World Cup champions.As Australia’s T20I side congregated in Sri Lanka on Wednesday night ahead of a three-match series starting next Tuesday, David remained in England representing Lancashire where he is dominating the Vitality Blast.Australia have picked a near full-strength squad for Sri Lanka, with only Pat Cummins (rested) and Adam Zampa (paternity leave) missing from the side that won the T20 World Cup. It is the first time they have assembled a near full-strength unit since the World Cup last year after resting a number of key players for the five-match home T20I series against Sri Lanka in February and the limited-overs tour of Pakistan in March and April.Related

'He could actually win you a World Cup' – Ricky Ponting pushes Tim David's case

Australia challenged to 'find a way' to fit Tim David into the T20I side

Starc to miss third T20I against Sri Lanka with finger injury, in doubt for ODIs

Near full-strength Australia brace for trial by spin as Sri Lanka search for formula

Hazlewood comfortable in new avatar as full-time T20I bowler, part-time Test quick

By every conceivable measure, David should be among them. Since the start of 2021, he has made 1413 runs in T20 cricket, averaging 32.11, at an absurd strike-rate of 170.65 (*stats as of Wednesday June 1), playing almost exclusively as a finisher.In the same period, Glenn Maxwell has scored 1777 runs at 32.90 with a strike-rate of 149.57 while the prolific Mitchell Marsh has scored 1432 runs at 40.91, and a strike-rate of 138.09, albeit batting exclusively at No. 3. Marcus Stoinis, who is currently Australia’s T20 finisher, made 1048 runs at 30.82 with a strike-rate of 143.75, although he batted in the top three in 15 of his 49 innings. Globally, since the start of 2021, only New Zealander Finn Allen has a higher strike-rate than David of those who have faced more than 500 balls.That the selectors baulked at adding David to the Sri Lanka squad was understandable. Australia announced their touring squads back on April 29. Even Mumbai Indians, who had invested $US 1.1 million (AUD 1.53 million) in David at the IPL mega auction, decided not to select him for six games between April 2 and April 30 after he missed out in the first two matches of the tournament.While David had monstered bowling in Associate cricket for Singapore, as well as the BBL, the PSL, the Blast, the Hundred and the CPL, there was a still a slight query, rightly or wrongly, over his ability against world-class attacks and spin in particular. But even then he ranks in top eight in the world for strike-rate against spin in the last 18 months.But when Mumbai finally realised the error of their ways, having lost all six games David didn’t play, he showcased his full capabilities in the final six matches of the season smashing 173 runs at an astronomical strike-rate of 230.66, to help Mumbai win four of them. He struck a boundary every 2.78 deliveries and a six every five balls.It was power-hitting that only Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell can match. Even more impressively, it was easy power, from a stable base, with the ability to go off side, straight or leg side. And all against international quality bowling. Neither Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Anrich Nortje or Shardul Thakur were spared from disappearing to and over the rope.Australia captain Aaron Finch admitted David is building a case that is hard to ignore.”He’s been in fantastic form for a while now,” he said. “The back end of the IPL was fantastic for him. He was at his brutal best. The ability to hit from ball one is a pretty rare skill. And he’s done that plenty of times now and for him to keep being so consistent, that’s something that we’ll definitely look at over the next little while.”David’s consistency, in arguably the most volatile role in T20 cricket, has been remarkable. He’s reached double figures in 18 of his last 20 T20 innings and stuck at above 140 in all 17 of those knocks, and above 175 in 13 of them. (*As of June 1)Australia have been searching for a specialist power-hitting finisher for years. Now, one has arrived on their doorstep and they are struggling to fit him in.Any question surrounding David’s allegiance to Australia need not be a concern. He was born in Singapore and has played 14 T20Is for them but he is an Australian citizen, having grown up in Perth and spent far more of his youth in Australia than other recent internationals in Marnus Labuschagne and Josh Inglis. The notion that he has turned his back on the Australian system is also a misnomer, having been contracted by Western Australia before being discarded aged 23 and forced to look for opportunities elsewhere.Tim David has scored runs all over the world in T20•Ron Gaunt/BCCIHe also wouldn’t be the only player without a state contract to play for Australia if selected, with Chris Lynn, AJ Tye and Dan Christian all doing so in recent times. David did play in the Marsh Cup for Tasmania last summer.The only question is when and how David can break into the side. The earliest opportunity he could play would be a T20I series in India in September, where some senior players might be rested and he has proven himself in the conditions but that is barely a month before the World Cup.Fitting him into a stable set-up for the World Cup is another debate. He is a specialist finisher, with those roles currently occupied by semi-final heroes Stoinis and Matthew Wade. Both of those men fill dual roles and would not be like-for-like swaps for David. Wade also keeps wicket (and provides a left-handed option) while Stoinis is one of three allrounders who provide vital bowling flexibility, given Australia have settled on playing just four specialist bowlers alongside seven batters.David would have to play as a specialist batter, with his very part-time offspin unlikely to be used at international level. But his presence would change the dynamic of the order. If he replaced Steven Smith, for example, it would deepen the power-hitting at the expense of a versatile role player who could be promoted or demoted up and down the order depending on situations, although both Wade or Stoinis have the experience to fill a versatile role further up the order.The only other scenarios are if injury or form prevents one of the top four from playing. But Australia are intent on sticking with their skipper Finch, who is in the midst of a lengthy lean patch, while David Warner, Marsh and Maxwell are locked in.Where there is a will, there is a way. Australia’s selectors would have to be willing to pick a T20 specialist, something previous panels have rarely done.David possesses the rarest of skillsets. Australia know they need to improve their side to defend their title. On present form, David could make them a goliath.

The left-arm spinner created dot-ball pressure on Virat Kohli and dismissed Aaron Finch early in Capitals’ win against Royal Challengers Bangalore

Vishal Dikshit06-Oct-20201:29

Axar one of our unsung heroes – R Ashwin

Scorecards in cricket often don’t show you the true picture. In T20s in particular, the story narrated by scoreboards is even more distant from reality. The Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore scorecard from Monday will mostly tell you that Kagiso Rabada ran through the opposition with his 4 for 24, or how Marcus Stoinis powered the Capitals to 196 with his quickfire 53 not out. Their impact on the result remains undeniable, but the real game-changer was left-arm spinner Axar Patel.Although Patel didn’t get Virat Kohli or AB de Villiers’ wicket, by bowling well in the powerplay, he created dot-ball pressure on Kohli and had Aaron Finch caught behind early in the innings.In a Capitals squad stacked with spinners, that Patel towered above the rest and kept the opposition on a leash remains testament to his USP so far in four games: a stunning economy rate of 4.57 from 14 overs, the best in the tournament yet.”He always goes under the radar because he bowls good overs, builds the pressure for someone else to capitalise the wickets,” R Ashwin said of Patel at the post-match press conference. “These are the heroes who get really appreciated inside the dressing room for us in Delhi Capitals and Ricky [Ponting] is very particular on that, and we stick to the roles, and when we get appreciated people want to hold on to their roles.”ALSO READ: Ashwin issues season’s ‘first and final warning’ to offending non-strikers as coach Ponting smilesThe Capitals have had a clear plan for Patel this IPL: bowl him mostly in the first 10 overs. After Patel did not concede a single boundary in their tournament opener against the Kings XI Punjab, the Capitals first used him in the powerplay against the Chennai Super Kings opener Shane Watson. In eight innings before that match, Patel had dismissed Watson five times and conceded at only 6.63 runs per over. And on that night in Dubai, Patel became the first spinner to open the bowling in the ongoing season of the IPL. He proved his efficacy almost immediately: two dots and two singles later, Watson holed out to deep midwicket and the left-arm spinner ended with 2 for 18 from four overs.Against the Sunrisers Hyderabad he was held back until David Warner was dismissed; Patel gave away 14 runs in the two overs he bowled. In the game against the Kolkata Knight Riders, however, he was left out as soon as Ashwin regained full fitness from his shoulder injury, and against the Royal Challengers, Patel would have probably been excluded again had their veteran spinner Amit Mishra not been ruled out of the tournament.Axar Patel struck with the new ball once again•BCCIAfter getting his well-deserved place back in the XI, Patel was facing arguably his biggest challenge so far this IPL: bowling to Kohli, who had just regained his touch with a half-century only two days ago.Patel’s initial plan was to be defensive, considering he was bowling the fourth over. Try anything fancy and you’ll be hit for boundaries with only two fielders in the deep. After bowling his first ball too full, which Kohli dispatched with his trademark cover drive, Patel went back to his stump-to-stump line. Patel’s fourth delivery, however, made him lick his lips and he raised his game to another level. The ball went slow through the air, dipped in front of Kohli, who leaned forward to defend, and turned after pitching to just beat the outside edge.ALSO READ: Why did Kohli not choose to bat?There was a good amount of turn on offer and that helped change Patel’s “gears” from being defensive to attacking, as he confirmed in the presentation after the match. Patel could afford to change his plans immediately because the Capitals batsmen had told him in the break that the ball was “gripping a bit” and the pitch “was a bit slow”. What also helped him was that there was hardly any dew on Monday night.Two balls later he bowled a beauty to Finch: a classical spinner’s delivery flighted at 82.3kmh on that perfect length in front of the off stump which Finch thought of defending on the front foot but ended up edging behind. Finch was beaten so comprehensively that he didn’t even bother looking at the umpire. By now Patel had found his plan to mix things up for the next three overs, especially for Kohli: aim for the stumps from around the wicket, flight the ball keeping the behavior of the pitch in mind, and vary the pace between 85 and 95kmh. Patel even placed a straight-ish midwicket for Kohli to deny the single, and soon this plan had pulled Kohli’s strike rate to under 100.By the end of his four-over spell, which Patel sealed with Moeen Ali’s wicket as the asking rate surged, he had bowled 17 balls to Kohli, of which 10 were dots, for only 14 runs. No bowler has kept Kohli so quiet for 15 or more balls in a single match in the IPL since 2017.For Ali’s wicket, Patel could even afford a low full toss because the risk of getting hit with the turn by a left-hand batsmen was reduced by the fact that Ali’s leg side had a bigger boundary, which is why he was caught at deep midwicket.That dot-ball pressure eventually led to Kohli’s wicket as the Royal Challengers captain went after the fast bowlers and perished against Rabada. Patel has been told of his specific role in the first 10 overs, and that Shreyas Iyer mostly keeps three of Rabada’s overs for the second half of the innings sends a clear message to Patel about his role: to build pressure.Patel may not mind that at all even if it means more wickets for his team-mates than for himself as long as he’s fulfilling his role with his precision.

MatériaMais Notícias

O São Paulo rapidamente se manifestou sobre as acusações de John Textor. Sem apresentar provas, o sócio majoritário da SAF do Botafogo afirmou que a derrota tricolor por 5 a 0 para o Palmeiras, em outubro do ano passado, foi manipulada.

continua após a publicidade

➡️ Siga o Lance! no WhatsApp e acompanhe em tempo real as principais notícias do esporte

O empresário explicou que chegou à conclusão através de análises de “grandes especialistas e inteligência artificial”. Repudiando a afirmação, o Tricolor classificou o caso como “infundadas acusações” e acionou seu departamento jurídico para cuidar da situação.

➡️ Textor cita jogos do Palmeiras em que houve suposta manipulação e acusa jogadores

– O São Paulo Futebol Clube tomou conhecimento e repudia veementemente as graves e infundadas acusações de participação de atletas do elenco tricolor em manipulação de resultado feitas pelo dono da SAF Botafogo. Tal afirmação sem nenhum vestígio de prova ataca a idoneidade de jogadores do elenco profissional masculino e a lisura da instituição São Paulo FC em seus 94 anos de história.
O clube já acionou seu departamento jurídico, que estudará e tomará as medidas cabíveis na esfera legal – afirma o comunicado do São Paulo, sobre Textor.

continua após a publicidade

O empresário vem acusando de que o Palmeiras teria sido o clube brasileiro mais beneficiado por um esquema de manipulação de resultados nos últimos anos. Entre as partidas do Verdão, Textor também cita um confronto com o Fortaleza, em 2022.

O QUE TEXTOR DIZ

– A vitória de 5 a 0 do Palmeiras, que foi o começo de aparentemente uma retomada impossível (e agora histórica) sobre uma equipe do Botafogo que tinha um recorde de pontos do primeiro turno do Brasileirão, após 14 vitórias em 17 jogos, foi manipulada.

continua após a publicidade

O jogo entre Palmeiras e São Paulo em outubro de 2023 foi, de acordo com especialistas e inteligência artificial, manipulada por ao menos cinco jogadores do São Paulo. Um total de sete jogadores mostraram desvios anormais em situações cruciais de gols, apesar de que apenas cinco foram julgados de terem ultrapassado limites que deixam claro e convincente a manipulação. É preciso deixar claro que a prova não estabelece motivos, e também não sugere que nenhum clube foi responsável pela manipulação além dos jogadores identificados.

O relatório match-fix nível II que prova, após conclusão do match-fix nível III, manipulação da partida em Palmeiras x São Paulo foi enviado ao STJD no fim de 2023, mas o STJD teve uma decisão clara de não investigar mais a fundo. Nomes dos acusados são, e sempre deverão ser, redigidos e não mostrados a uma justiça desportiva. Tamanhas provas devem ser apresentadas apenas para procuradores constitucionais e investigadores governamentais. Eu não tenho intenção de prejudicar os acusados antes de eles conseguirem se proteger.

Tudo sobre

Futebol NacionalJhon TextorSão Paulo

Manchester United have now moved into pole position in the race for a “sensational” star, and a £30m offer is being prepared.

Ruben Amorim identifies top midfield target

It is becoming increasingly clear that Man United will look to sign a new midfielder in 2026, and Ruben Amorim has now identified Elliot Anderson as his top target, although a deal could be on the expensive side, with a £100m fee being touted.

However, the Red Devils may be forced to move on to alternative, potentially more affordable options, with it recently emerging that the Etihad Stadium is Anderson’s preferred destination.

It would be disappointing to miss out on the Nottingham Forest star, who is now an established England international, having picked up six caps since the start of September.

The 23-year-old is not the only English midfielder of interest to Man United though, according to a report from Spain, which states they are now leading the race for Atletico Madrid’s Conor Gallagher, who has fallen down the pecking order at the Spanish club.

Several Premier League clubs have emerged as potential suitors for Gallagher, but United are the frontrunners, and a £30m opening bid is in the works, with the La Liga side willing to sanction a departure for a fee in that ballpark.

With the Englishman not receiving much game time under Diego Simeone, a January move could make sense for all parties, with Man United certainly in need of additional reinforcements in midfield…

"Sensational" Gallagher could be solid addition for Man Utd

Despite not being the flashiest of signings, the former Crystal Palace man could be a solid addition for the Red Devils, who need to sign at least one new midfielder, amid the uncertainty surrounding Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo’s future.

It has now been revealed that United could be willing to let Mainoo leave this winter, should they manage to find a replacement, while Casemiro’s future is under review, with the Brazilian’s contract due to expire in the summer.

As such, two new midfielders may be required, and Gallagher could be a good squad player, having been lauded as “sensational” by journalist John Cross.

Man Utd could break club-record transfer fee to sign "amazing" £100m midfielder

Man United could shatter their transfer record to sign a top target.

ByDominic Lund Dec 2, 2025

The 25-year-old is very experienced in the Premier League, making 136 appearances in the competition, while he has also tested himself in the Champions League, netting one goal in five appearances this term.

£30m feels like a reasonable fee to pay for the 22-time England international, so it makes sense for Man United to pursue a January move, although Anderson should remain their top target.

Mikel Arteta has got a lot right in the almost six years he has spent in the Arsenal dugout.

He has generally got rid of the right players at the right time, he’s changed the culture for the better and reconnected the club with the fans.

However, he has also overseen his fair share of dud signings, with Raheem Sterling’s loan move last season perhaps being the worst.

Arsenal have made more good signings than bad over the last six years, but it looks like new Sporting Director Andrea Berta may have already made his own Sterling-type addition to Arteta’s side.

Sterling's forgettable Arsenal spell

To describe Arsenal’s transfer dealings in the summer of 2024 as disappointing would be an understatement.

Yes, the club did sign two excellent players in Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafiori, but they also failed to sign the lights-out attacking star the team were so clearly crying out for.

It might have been this lack of forward signings that led the club to go out at the last minute and bring in Sterling on a season-long loan.

During his announcement, the Chelsea loanee told the Emirates faithful they would “see the best” of him, but that was as far from what actually happened as possible.

The former England international certainly tried to make a mark in North London, but he looked miles off the pace and was limited to minor appearances throughout the campaign.

In fact, the multiple league winner played just 1134 minutes for the Gunners across 28 appearances, of which only 13 were starts.

The Kingston-born Premier League legend left N5 with a single goal and five assists to his name, and unfortunately, a total, undeniable flop.

Now it looks like Arsenal might have another Sterling situation on their hands with a Berta signing.

Arsenal's new Sterling

Unlike last year, it would be hard to call Arsenal’s summer anything other than a roaring success.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Berta and Co signed the likes of Eberechi Eze, Martin Zubimendi, Christian Mosquera, Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres.

However, unfortunately, there is one summer addition who could potentially fall into the Sterling category: Christian Nørgaard.

Now, before the pitchforks come out, nobody is saying that the Danish international will be as big a problem for the club as the Englishman was, in terms of wages and blocking a loan slot.

Nor is he likely to be as noticeably off the pace compared to the rest of the team as the Chelsea man was.

However, what is also undeniably true is that at the moment, it’s hard to see where he is going to get any game time at all.

The 31-year-old joined the club in July, and at the time of writing, has made just seven first-team appearances, totalling 302 minutes, of which three have been starts.

Worse still, he has played just 14 minutes of Premier League football this year, with 13 minutes of those coming against Burnley.

It’s a bizarre situation, as the 39-capped international captain of Brentford last season and ended the campaign having made 34 league appearances for them, totalling 2830 minutes.

Now, nobody expected the veteran midfielder to be even a semi-regular starter for the Gunners, but it seems like Arteta has no trust in him whatsoever, refusing to bring him on when Declan Rice came off against his old side.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of the FA Cup for the summer signing, but even then, it feels like the manager will turn to someone else.

Ultimately, Nørgaard didn’t cost much, is a consummate professional, isn’t a media focus, and, in that way, isn’t really a problem for Arsenal.

However, it does feel like Arteta doesn’t really fancy him, and, like Sterling last season, his stint in North London will be short-lived.

A Saka & Olise hybrid: Arsenal in contact over signing £70m "superstar"

The incredible talent would be as game-changing for Arsenal as Bukayo Saka has been over the years.

By
Jack Salveson Holmes

Dec 5, 2025

England international Ivan Toney was led away in handcuffs after allegedly headbutting another reveller in a London nightclub. The 29-year-old striker, who now plays his club football in the Saudi Pro League for Al-Ahli, was looking to enjoy an evening out with friends during a visit to his homeland. He found himself caught up in an unfortunate incident that saw said festivities cut short.

Witness explains what happened with Toney

has obtained footage of Toney being escorted out of a trendy London nightspot by local police forces. Trouble is said to have been sparked when a fan grabbed at the former Brentford frontman in a bid to take a selfie.

A witness told The Sun: “He walked past a table of a group of lads. One of them recognised him and said, ‘Oh, it’s Ivan Toney’ and tried to put his hands around his neck to get a photo with him. And then Toney has said, ‘Get off me, get off me’ and ended up headbutting one of the guys.”

AdvertisementWhen police arrived at the nightclub in question

The alleged victim is said to have been left with “blood leaking from the bridge of his nose”. It is suggested that Toney may have felt “threatened by the group” that approached him for pictures, with the Three Lions forward sporting some expensive accessories.

The onlooker added: “He’s a superstar – he gets half a million a week in Saudi Arabia. He had his jewellery on and he had a real nice watch. He might have thought they were trying to attack him to take his chain or watch off him.”

The Sun’s insider went on to say of police arriving within 30 minutes of the headbutt incident taking place: “We noticed about five officers in uniform walking down the stairs. And then they’ve gone over to Ivan Toney’s table and asked his name. He’s given his name and they said, ‘You’re under arrest for assault’ and then they put his hands behind his back in cuffs and off he went.”

Statements from London Ambulance Service & Met Police

There are said to have been “a ton of police cars rushing up Wardour Street” as they responded to reports of an attack. A local bartender says that police returned to the area the following day to continue their investigation into what went on.

London Ambulance Service confirmed that a vehicle was sent to Soho at 1:57am following reports of an injury being sustained. A spokesperson said: “We assessed three people. We took one patient to a local hospital and discharged the other patients at the scene.”

The alleged victim is said to have been treated for facial injuries, including a broken nose, and damage to his ring finger. The Sun claims to have seen photos that show the bloodied person in question being tended to by paramedics.

In a statement of their own, the Met Police stated: “We were called to Wardour Street at 00:47hrs on Saturday following reports of an assault. The victim was taken to hospital and his injuries are not believed to be life-changing or life-threatening. A 29-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of two counts of assault and one count of affray. He has since been released on bail while inquiries continue.”

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

(C)Getty ImagesJanuary transfer: Does Toney need move to make World Cup squad?

Toney was back in London during a break in Al-Ahli’s schedule. He met up with England international team-mate Declan Rice after seeing Arsenal beat his former club Brentford in Premier League action at Emirates Stadium.

A return to English football for Toney has been speculated on ahead of the January transfer window. He has been overlooked by Thomas Tuchel in recent Three Lions squads, with it being claimed that a switch may be required in order to earn selection for the 2026 World Cup.

Toney moved to the Middle East in the summer of 2024 and helped Al-Ahli to win the AFC Champions League Elite title during his debut campaign. He has been competing with Portuguese GOAT Cristiano Ronaldo – who is now with Al-Nassr – for Golden Boot honours in Saudi Arabia.

Eight matches into his Rangers tenure, is Danny Röhl any closer to figuring out which players he can trust and who he cannot?

On Thursday night, the Gers were held to a 1-1 draw by ten-man Braga at Ibrox, despite taking the lead through James Tavernier’s spot-kick in first half stoppage time; the fact that only 38,014 spectators were in attendance encapsulates the mood.

So, with just one point on the board after five games, a frankly pitiful effort, unless they somehow manage to beat Ferencváros, Ludogorets Razgrad and then Porto, which seems unlikely if we’re being honest, the Gers’ Europa League adventure will be coming to a premature end in January, having got all the way to last season’s quarter-finals.

This will allow them to concentrate on domestic matters, which may be a good thing, given that they’ve slipped down to fifth in the Premiership table, despite having won all four league matches since Röhl’s arrival in Glasgow.

So, ahead of a visit from Falkirk, who would actually leapfrog their hosts with a shock victory at Ibrox on Sunday, what changes should the German head coach make?

Youssef Chermiti's uninspiring form

Back on Monday, it was announced that both chief executive Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell had been sacked, after overseeing a chaotic summer of recruitment, with the £8m, potentially rising to £10m, paid to sign Youssef Chermiti among the more egregious and baffling of their decisions.

So far, he has scored just one goal for the club, on target against Kilmarnock last month, already surpassing his tally of zero goals during two seasons at Everton, also brought to Merseyside by Thelwell for £14m when he was working at Goodison.

Aside from his lack of goals, the striker simply isn’t offering enough, often allowing matches to pass him by and putting in anonymous performances.

Following this week’s draw with Braga, Mark Atkinson of the Scotsman asserted that he is driving supporters ‘demented’, adding that he ‘spurned a couple of presentable’ opportunities and is so far proving to be a mere baffling expensive purchase.

So, ahead of a sequence of three Premiership matches in seven days, facing Falkirk, Dundee United and then Kilmarnock, Chermiti should be stood down and Röhl must instead deploy the “best player in the league” up front.

Rangers' superior Chermiti alternative

Of the 13 players Rangers signed in the summer, many are young and inexperienced, hoping to grow and improve in the coming years, but Bojan Miovski was supposed to be a ready-made starter, brought in to produce right away.

The 26-year-old, returning to Scottish football after a season at Girona, is a proven goalscorer at both club and international level, bagging his ninth goal for North Macedonia against Wales at the Cardiff City Stadium earlier this month.

Meantime, at club level, prior to his season in Catalonia, he had been outstanding during two years at Aberdeen, as the table below documents.

Appearances

98

Goals

44

European goals

4

Goals vs Rangers

4

Goals vs Celtic

3

Shots on target per 90

1.1

Big chances missed

31

Average rating

6.9

As the table makes clear, Miovski was an elite-level finisher during his time at Pittodrie, scoring 32 Premiership goals, while his strike rate in Europe as well as against the two Glasgow giants underlines his quality.

Then-teammate Nicky Devlin asserted that Miovski was “the best player in the league in his position”, firing the Dons to a third place finish in 2022/23, before being sold for £6.8m, the Dons’ record outgoing transfer.

However, we are yet to see very much of that from Miovski in a Rangers jersey, scoring his first goal for the club against Hibs in the League Cup, while his only Premiership goal came at Falkirk Stadium in October, the day Russell Martin was sacked.

Since the appointment of Röhl, the North Macedonian has featured in all eight matches but has started just once, this coming at Dens Park before the international break, substituted at half time with the Light Blues leading Dundee 2-0.

So, for whatever reason, the German head coach appears to favour Chermiti and Danilo, despite the fact that Miovski is a proven goalscorer at both Premiership and European level, something this team desperately needs given that, 26 matches into this campaign, Tavernier and Djeidi Gassama are the only squad members who have four or more goals to their name.

Thus, when Falkirk visit Ibrox this weekend, surely Röhl has to bring Miovski back into his XI, ditching the ineffective Chermiti, with the former looking to net as he did against the Bairns once again, just as he did in Stirlingshire just last month.

Not just Djiga: Thelwell flop who lost ball 17x looks finished at Rangers

Rangers’ wait for a first Europa League victory goes on, held to a 1-1 draw by Braga at Ibrox, and a summer signing was just as bad as Nasser Djiga.

ByBen Gray Nov 28, 2025

After John Souttar was forced to miss Scotland’s dramatic victory over Denmark earlier this week, Rangers have been left to sweat over his availability ahead of their clash against Livingston this weekend.

It was about as dramatic as it gets for Scotland as they booked their place at the 2026 World Cup. What started with an incredible Scott McTominay overhead kick to send them into dreamland soon transcended into a nightmare when the 10 men of Denmark equalised once through Rasmus Hojlund and then a second time through Patrick Dorgu late on.

It looked as though history was about to repeat itself and Scotland were destined to miss out on automatic qualification, until the ball fell the way of Kieran Tierney. Even Rangers fans may have cheered the Celtic hero as he found the back of the net to send Scotland to the World Cup, before Kenny McLean’s halfway-line goal ended an absurd evening.

Celebrations will no doubt go on, but the rivalries will also return with the action in the Scottish Premiership as Rangers aim to continue their turnaround under Danny Rohl.

The Gers are set to play host to Livingston on Saturday afternoon in an attempt to make it four wins from four under Rohl in the Scottish Premiership and continue to close the gap on shock league leaders Hearts.

Rangers teenager was their next Igamane in the making but he left for £0

Rangers must regret losing this young star who could have been their next Hamza Igamane at Ibrox.

ByDan Emery Nov 18, 2025

The German manager has already picked up more league points than Russell Martin did, which highlights just how disastrous the former manager was at Ibrox, but could yet run into his first problem this weekend.

In amongst the celebrations in Scotland, Souttar was forced to miss out on a starting place after suffering an injury in the warm-up in what should be a concern for Rangers.

Rangers handed fresh John Souttar concern

As confirmed live on Sky Sports News by Gail Davis ahead of Scotland’s victory over Denmark, Souttar picked up an injury in the warm-up and has handed Rangers a fresh injury concern ahead of their return to action this weekend.

Scotland were able to replace Souttar with the experienced Grant Hanley, but the Gers are unlikely to have the same luck. The central defender has started all but one game for Rangers so far this season and remains one of their most important players.

At a time when their fortunes are beginning to turn, the last thing that those at Ibrox need is an injury to such an influential player. Unless they receive some positive news, however, the Gers must find a replacement for Souttar.

Described as “excellent” by former Scotland manager Craig Levein, there’s no doubt that Rangers need the defender to make a return to action as soon as possible.

Thelwell let Rangers star go for £0; now he'd walk into the XI over Aasgaard

India cruised to the highest score of the tournament

Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Sep-2025

Abhishek Sharma hit 61 off 31, Tilak Varma struck 49 not out off 34, and India cruised to the highest score of the tournament, posting 202 for 5 without ever looking like they were breaking a serious sweat.Sri Lanka too, made no serious errors. In fact they caught well – Maheesh Theekshana and Dushmantha Chameera taking outstanding catches off their own bowling – while the groundfielding was in good shape. None of their bowlers leaked more than 15 runs in an over, and the frontline bowlers all completed their quota.And yet, India kept finding the boundary, first through Abhishek, before Varma and Sanju Samson set themselves up in the middle overs to hit 66 runs off 42 balls together. Wickets fell too, but such are India’s riches, and so in control were they of this innings, that dismissals did not lead to major hits to the scoring rate.Sri Lanka’s bowlers did pose threats. In fact, five bowlers took wickets. But none took more than one, and not a single bowler of the six used went at less than six an over. Whatever Sri Lanka threw at India, the India batters negotiated with measured aggression.