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Manchester City may not have won either the Premier League or Champions League this season, but they could end 2024/25 on a high note next weekend.

Of course, winning the FA Cup won’t right the wrongs of what has been a largely dismal campaign for the Etihad side, but it would be a nice consolation prize.

While everything will be focused on that final next week, Pep Guardiola will certainly have one eye on improving his squad, especially with the transfer window set to open in a few weeks.

City will take part in the revamped Club World Cup in June, and the window opens on the first of that month, before closing ten days later. This is to give those who are partaking in the event this summer a chance to get a head start on their business.

Despite bolstering the first-team squad in January with signings such as Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez, Guardiola wants more this summer.

Players such as Florian Wirtz and Morgan Gibbs-White have been heavily linked with a move to Manchester this summer as replacements for the departing Kevin De Bruyne.

Could City’s first signing be a defender, however? As it appears, Guardiola is closing in on a deal to sign a player could replace Kyle Walker at right-back.

Kyle Walker’s future with Man City is uncertain

After eight and a half trophy-laden seasons with the club, the Englishman joined Milan on a six-month loan deal during the winter transfer window.

He has played 14 games for the Italian giants, but it looks as though he is likely to return to Manchester once his temporary spell ends in a few weeks.

Football Insider stated last month that Walker is likely to take a pay cut should he return to his parent club, and it is highly unlikely that he would be the starting right-back heading into the new campaign.

An upgrade or replacement for the former Tottenham Hotspur man is certainly needed.

Man City closing in on move for Brazilian defender

According to journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, City are pressing ahead in their bid to close in on the signing of Flamengo defender Wesley Franca before the Club World Cup starts next month.

He goes on to state that Wesley is the preferred option to come in as the new right-back next season, placing him higher than Newcastle United’s Tino Livramento.

The Brazilian came close to sealing a move to Atalanta last summer, but the move broke down at the final hurdle. Flamengo had even rejected a proposal of £20m by Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg earlier this year, meaning City might have to splash the cash.

Mathues Nunes has been deputising at right-back for City in recent months, and it is clearly a position which needs strengthened heading into the 2025/26 season.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

With interest in Wesley intensifying, Walker might have to get used to playing a backup role next term.

Why Man City want to sign Wesley Franca

Wesley is still only 21 years of age, but has already racked up a total of 127 appearances for Flamengo, winning the Copa Libertadores and two Brazilian Cups during his embryonic career thus far.

His progress in Brazil has been followed by U23 scout Antonio Mango, who recently took to X to praise the youngster, saying: “Wesley França (21, 2003) has really been coming of age recently.

“He’s been exceptional for Flamengo this season, his games matured which brought super consistency. Be surprised if he doesn’t play in Europe next season.”

Elsewhere, he was hailed as the “best RB in Brazil” by respected analyst Ben Mattinson earlier this month and Guardiola could have a star in the making should he make the move to City.

His philosophy recently appears to be signing players who have yet to hit their peak that have the potential to become world-class stars in the future.

Wesley certainly fits this bill well indeed. Should City secure his signature, ideally before the Club World Cup, then the Spaniard will have the right-back position locked down for the next few years.

Especially as he is a better option than a returning Walker, that’s for sure.

Why Wesley Franca is an upgrade on Kyle Walker

When compared to his positional peers in the men’s next 14 competitions, Wesley has shone in a range of metrics. He currently ranks in the top 14% for progressive carries (2.72), successful take-ons (1.29) and progressive passes received (9.48) per 90 over the previous 365 days.

Compare this to Walker, who fails to even rank in the top 60% for progressive carries (1.26), successful take-ons (0.46) or progressive passes received (2.28) per 90 when compared to his peers across the top five leagues in Europe. It is clear who has offered more going forward in the previous 12 months.

Comparing Wesley and Walker this season (top flight statistics only)
Metric	Wesley	Walker (PL only)
Key passes per 90	1.3	0.5
Big chances created	2	2
Assists	1	0
Total duels won per 90	6.1	2.3
Successful dribbles per 90	1.3	0.2
Stats via Sofascore

Defensively, Wesley ranks in the top 7% for tackles won (2) while also ranking in the top 17% for percentage of aerial duels won (60.5%) per 90 when compared to his peers.

Yet again, Walker trails his younger rival in these metrics, ranking in the bottom 69% for tackles won (1.01). Although he does rank in the top 19% for percentage of aerial duels won (59.4%), this is still lower than Wesley’s output.

It is evident that Walker is on the wane and if he remains with City throughout next season, he likely won’t be starting many games. Perhaps Guardiola will retain his services due to the experience he can provide in certain matches, but going forward, someone younger and fresher will be key to City’s success in this area.

Wesley ticks all the boxes and would be an important signing for the club. Can they bring him in before the Club World Cup starts? Or shall Flamengo hold firm until the competition is over.

Things could get interesting over the next few weeks. Watch this space.

Man City preparing for summer move to sign "incredible" £80m West Ham star

They could finally get their man…

By
Tom Cunningham

May 8, 2025

Manchester United’s Premier League campaign is all but over as they cannot be relegated, and they cannot push on to finish in any of the European positions.

The Red Devils, who were beaten 4-3 by Brentford on Sunday, are now 15th in the table and only have the Europa League to play for before the end of the season.

It has not been good enough for Ruben Amorim’s side on the domestic front, which could lead to some business in the summer transfer window to improve the squad.

In fact, United have already been linked with potential targets to bolster the team, including one player who currently plays in the Championship.

Man Utd target Championship star for summer move

According to The Boot Room, Manchester United are one of the teams interested in a deal to sign Sunderland central midfielder Jobe Bellingham ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

The report claims that both the Red Devils and fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace are both eager to sign the England U21 talent in the summer window.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

It also reveals that Borussia Dortmund are eyeing up the English midfield star and that Sunderland have set a valuation of £20m for the promising youngster.

Manchester United should now push to win the race for his signature in the summer window because he is an exciting prospect who has shades of Paul Pogba.

Jobe Bellingham has shades of Paul Pogba

The 19-year-old starlet is yet to prove himself in the Premier League, having only played in the Championship for the Black Cats so far, but he has already shown plenty of promising signs.

Analyst Ben Mattinson once stated that Jobe “carries the ball with such elegance” and that the teenage gem is a “top athlete” and “box-crasher”. Remind you of anyone?

Ryan Giggs once said that Paul Pogba was physically “immense” and that the France international had “everything” in his locker to succeed, as the midfield maestro offered a physical presence to go along with his technical qualities.

Jobe, who stands at 6 foot 2, has shades of the former United star about him as he mixes physical and technical attributes to offer an all-round presence in the middle of the park.

Appearances

40

xG

3.14

Goals

4

Big chances created

4

Assists

3

Duels won per game

5.9

Duel success rate

52%

As you can see in the table above, the £20m-rated dynamo has provided a threat at the top end of the pitch whilst also winning almost six duels per game, and winning the majority of his physical battles, despite being just 19.

The Sunderland star, who was described as a “freak of nature” by teammate Dan Neil due to his physicality, has already shown that he can compete physically against senior professionals, which suggests that he could deal with the step up in intensity that comes with a move to the Premier League.

Like Pogba, Jobe could offer physicality, goals, assists, and drive in midfield for Manchester United and Amorim, whilst also having plenty of time left to develop and improve as a player at the age of 19.

He's more prolific than Cunha & Mbeumo: Man Utd in talks for £60m "monster"

Manchester United are in regular contact over a deal to sign a £60m star who has outscored Mbeumo and Cunha.

ByDan Emery May 5, 2025

Whilst he may not be an instant success at Old Trafford, due to his age and room to grow, the English youth prospect could be a future star in Manchester due to the technical and physical qualities that he possesses.

Head coach returns to county cricket after two decades, with a focus on high standards and no excuses

Andrew Miller17-Mar-2025The first thing that strikes you, on seeing Adam Hollioake in the flesh for what feels like the first time in two decades, is his breadth. He fills the doorway with the stature of a bouncer, a neck the size of an average person’s waist, and a gruff Aussie voice that is the very epitome of no-nonsense.”G’day … Adam Hollioake,” he intones, as if any sort of introduction is necessary. Despite his long years away from English cricket, it’s striking how ubiquitous he remains – for his stature, his back story, and his litany of achievements, most of them as captain of one of the great Surrey teams, but also as one of the great leaders that England didn’t quite have.And now he’s back, after 20 extraordinary years of self-imposed exile in Australia, as head coach of Kent – a fact that seems to have caught him as much by surprise as it did the rest of English cricket, when word of his appointment first circulated in December.”The way I’ve lived my life, I’ve kind of … what’s the right word? … free-styled, and just accepted whatever’s come my way,” he says in Canterbury, on the club’s pre-season media day. “I’ve just seen where life’s taken me, and in this instance, it has brought me down here today. I don’t know why, because the crowd always hated me down here. So not sure why God’s sending me down this way, but he’s done it.”Hollioake’s referencing of his faith is fleeting but instructive. Twenty-three years ago this week, English cricket was rocked by the death of his brother Ben, in a car-crash in Perth, and Adam’s own world was turned upside-down. The journey he’s since been on has seemed, from afar, like his personal Calvary. He’s accumulated his scars like badges of honour – including those earned during his brief pivot to cage-fighting – while the collapse, in the mid-2010s, of his £13 million property empire was another crushing experience that, if nothing else, reinforced that vital recognition that real life is what happens away from the field of play.Hollioake’s CV includes a brief stint as an assistant coach with England in 2017•Getty Images”Everyone always says your school years are the best years of your life,” he says. “I don’t think so. I’m 53 now and the best years of my life were playing professional cricket. Those years come and go very quickly, so make the most of it, give it your best shot, enjoy it along the way because, at the end of the day, it is just a game.”Whatever we do in life, some things are transferable back into cricket. When I went into fighting, everybody said, ‘what’s cricket and fighting got in common?’ And it turns out there’s a lot of things, like discipline, controlling your arousal levels, preparing and getting yourself into the right shape for an event. It just emphasises to me that there is a process to go through to have success back here in cricket, which is where I began.”I’ve always felt like my destiny is to be a head coach, but my first priority over the last decade has been bringing my children up,” he adds. “The most important thing in life was to be a dad and give them the best start in life, but now I’ve got to the point where, thankfully, they’ve left [laughs]. Now it’s my opportunity to bring on some of these guys and hopefully turn them into better players and better men. And do some stuff for myself.”Related

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Perhaps it’s glib to make the comparison, but the parallels with England’s unveiling of Brendon McCullum in 2022 are striking. Each man arrived in their respective roles with little by way of a conventional coaching CV – McCullum had before never overseen a red-ball team, while Hollioake is embarking on his maiden head-coach role – and each entered a dressing-room that was visibly down on its luck.”I know about Bazball and I love the idea of Bazball,” Hollioake says. “I haven’t analysed in depth what his message is with the England team, but I like it, so if you’re comparing me, that’s a compliment.”When I saw it, I thought ‘this is really smart’, not because tactically it’s wise, but what it does is remove the fear of failure which, historically, English players are handcuffed by.”That certainly seemed to be true for Kent in a grim 2024 campaign. Their relegation in the County Championship was compounded by a rock-bottom finish in the T20 Blast South Group. But, if there’s any sense that the players are still feeling sorry for themeslves, then as Sam Billings, their T20 captain, acknowledged, a 10-minute chat with the new coach is as likely as anything to snap them out of it.”I don’t necessarily deserve respect. I’ve got to earn that every day, just like when I was [Surrey] captain,” he says. “I’ve no idea what they did last year, I don’t concern myself with the past. It’s just about turning up with a good attitude, wanting to play hard and work hard. If that’s a shift, then they were obviously doing something wrong in the past.Hollioake (left) with his mixed martial arts coach Stephen Ng”What I can do is be clear with my messaging, and the standards that I expect. Just simple things like the state of the balls we were warming up with. We had white balls, red balls, old balls, new balls, all in the same bag. Our kit was all over the place. The standards of what we expect was just not good enough.”We need to respect ourselves and expect more from the club. If that message is helping them, then great. If it’s not, then they’ll learn.”Although Hollioake’s appointment has brought with it a tangible level of excitement and interest, it’s also hard to ignore the realpolitik at play where clubs such as Kent are concerned. They are due their share of the Hundred windfall, as and when Surrey complete their negotiations with their new partners at Oval Invincibles, Reliance Industries Ltd, but that deal in itself merely exacerbates the sense of them and us that is a growing feature of English professional sport.Hollioake, however, has a terse opinion of such navel-gazing. “The first thing we’ve got to do is stop using that as an excuse,” he says. “Money can be important, but it doesn’t mean that if you haven’t got it, you can’t be successful. I’m happy to acknowledge that sides like Surrey might have more money than us. That doesn’t give them a right just to come out and beat us. Hollywood’s littered with stories of underdogs. So let him make some movies about us.”It’s a variation on a theme he has encountered before – back at Surrey, no less, who had waited 18 long years for a County Championship title until Hollioake helped guide them to three in four years from 1999 to 2002, plus four further white-ball trophies.”We had a big excuse culture back then,” he recalls. “It was like ‘everyone cheats and changes the pitches against us’, or ‘the umpires don’t like us’. I find that when you start complaining or moaning about stuff, it gives you an excuse to lose. It’s subconsciously giving yourself a soft way out, or you can use it as a motivation. Certainly in my time at Surrey I did. I was like, ‘everyone hates us. Good!’ Let them hate us. I don’t care. We’re not here to be liked.”It’s the same here. No one’s going to look back in a hundred years’ time, and look at who won the Championship or T20 cup, and say, ‘well, how much money did you have?’ You don’t. It’s all about who wins.””We’ve got 11 guys that go out on the pitch. Two fists, one heart. They’re the same as the opposition.”

India are in transition but the leader of their attack in the West Indies stepped up big time

Alagappan Muthu24-Jul-20231:01

Dasgupta: Siraj led the pace attack under pressure

“In the morning, we chatted about it, that the wicket was tough to bowl on. It’s slow and nothing is happening, like seam movement or spin. At the end, there was some turn but overall it was very easy for batting.”Their batting was also very defensive. So there were no chances for us because they didn’t play any attacking shots. To sum up our effort, it was great from our bowlers and each one of them did what was expected of them.”A little over 12 hours after India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey said all of that, he was watching his boys cut through the West Indies line-up.The missing link between India needing 67 overs to pick up four first-innings wickets on Saturday but only 7.4 to pick up five on Sunday was the new ball. It swung.This was a significant window of opportunity, which came with the catch that it was likely to be a small one. These are the moments that a good team seizes.India have been at this crossroads many times in overseas Test matches. Two of the more high-profile ones turned on the back of not so much the mistakes themselves but the timing of them. Their collapse on the sixth day of the first World Test Championship final and their letting Travis Head off the hook by never inviting him to hook when he was new to the crease in the most recent World Test Championship final.That hurt will never go away. Like 8-0 in 2011-12 never went away. In fact, a straight line can be traced from there to India having much improved fast bowling stocks. Perhaps in a similar way, the limitations that cost them those two ICC titles will now help them build once again.2:38

Siraj: Taking a five-for on a flat wicket isn’t easy

There were some good signs in Port-of-Spain, particularly from Mohammed Siraj. Did you know that he has been among the toughest quick bowlers to face in the last year? He has induced a false shot 211 times in 13 innings. And that’s while playing on the raging turners of Mirpur and Nagpur. The featherbed at Ahmedabad. And of course, this one here at the Queen’s Park Oval. The other quicks above him – there are 11 – the likes of Stuart Broad and Mitchell Starc and Matt Henry and Kagiso Radaba tend to play at venues much more suitable to their craft.Only a few minutes after Siraj walked back to the pavilion having bowled 3.4 overs for 13 runs and four wickets on the fourth morning, West Indies leaked 100 runs in 12.2 overs. This guy is that good and he has worked really hard for it. He didn’t rest on having a top-notch outswinger to the right-hand batters. He went out and found a way to bring the ball back into them. He knew that in order to be great, he had to test both edges of the bat. He had to create that uncertainty. In some of symmetry’s best work, two of his wickets came from balls leaving the right-hand batters and the other two from balls snarling back into them. Jason Holder’s downfall had the added subtlety of a bowler going wide of the crease to trick the batter into playing the angle, and therefore playing inside the line to be nicked off.Siraj is dangerously close to being a complete fast bowler. And he has only been playing Test cricket for two-and-a-half years.Mukesh Kumar looks a quick study as well. The control he offered on day three was crucial. The wickets he took were also significant. He had Alick Athanaze lbw with conventional swing. He used reverse seam – the ball moving off the pitch in the direction of the shine – to subdue Kirk McKenzie. And he hounded Kraigg Brathwaite on the front foot because he knew that’s the one place on a cricket field he doesn’t feel comfortable. On a quicker pitch, he might have had him lbw too.India have dominated this tour but that was expected when they were up against a team ranked eighth and a batting line-up that has routinely underperformed. Even so, the fact that they made what needed to happen happen – a collapse so that they can get in to bat early and set the pace in order to leave themselves enough time to bowl West Indies out again – will please the team management. They know they are in the middle of a transition but it is entirely possible that they’re relishing the hell out of it. Mhambrey’s smile as he greeted Siraj, who returned to the dressing room with the ball held aloft, was a dead giveaway.

New Zealand quick has had extraordinary start to his career … because he is extraordinary

Jarrod Kimber20-Jun-20214:15

Match Day Masterclass: Swing vs seam – Dale Steyn explains

Batters wait patiently for tall bowlers to deliver full balls. They talk about the floatiness of these deliveries. When the ball is over-pitched, they go into attack mode.Because of this, tall bowlers rarely pitch the ball up. Instead, they stay on their best length and keep the batter stuck on the crease. The problem is that to get a lot of swing, you need to bowl fuller. So throughout the history of cricket, you don’t see a lot of tall bowlers in Test cricket over 80 miles per hour consistently swinging the ball.Today, Kyle Jamieson bowled very full, swung the ball massively, touched 87mph/140kph, while delivering it from 2.3 metres which is 30cm higher than a standard seam bowler. His Test bowling average is 14.13. This is a scary collection of skills in one person. If you were designing a creature in a lab to be a perfect seamer, this is pretty close to what you’d choose.

****

There have been many changes to bowling styles over the years. After the war, the most common form of delivery was the outswinger. It dominated cricket until the West Indies method of seam bowling took over.And while West Indies had quite varied bowlers, their fundamental skill was pretty simple: fast bowlers, who were tall, and who got something off the surface, not through the air. The thought process was that swing is fickle and can disappear. Fast and tall will last you through the day.Kyle Jamieson pinned Virat Kohli lbw with a near-unplayable full-length seamer•Getty ImagesThe need for speed has changed what we look for in bowlers. Speed and seam can go together, as Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada, among others, have shown us. But few bowlers have swung the ball at speed. And those who do tend to be left-armed, which is an advantage already, as it generally allows them to over-pitch more. Or short and fast guys with a full natural length.It’s not that the tallest bowlers can’t swing the ball. Rather, it’s because their fuller balls are the easiest to handle, and they have so many other advantages naturally, so they rarely develop the skills. Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose, Steven Finn, and Morne Morkel could occasionally swing the ball, but their strength is hitting the track on a length.Watch cricket on ESPN+

The WTC final is available in the US on ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the match.

When you have tall bowlers swinging the ball, it’s either only for short periods or from bowling more slowly. Jason Holder is an example of that in modern cricket. His speeds are significantly less than the traditional six-foot-plus quick, and so he gets consistent swing.But Kyle Jamieson is quicker than Holder, and he’s certainly more than a bowler who can just swing it occasionally. He’s a proper tall fast-medium consistent swing bowler. Test cricket really hasn’t seen many of those ever. And he can move it both ways, and also perform his craft from around the wicket. He’s got a magic toolbox. For someone who came late into bowling, either Jamieson is an excellent mimic, or a natural for seam positions.And facing someone like Jamieson is already an extra challenge. He is a faster bowler than most players his height, but any bowler of his size is tougher to pick up. Australia used to call Morkel a monster because of his release point.After just seven appearances, Jamieson is an automatic pick in New Zealand’s world-beating Test team•ICC via GettyTest match batting is something you get good at by consistently practising the same skills until you can filter information quickly enough to face someone at 80 miles per hour. Jamieson’s so tall that his release point is way higher than average. There is an adjustment that needs to be made for that which isn’t easy to make at his speed.But that’s only the first problem with his height; the second is the bounce. Bowlers have, at that height, a near-permanent tennis-ball bounce. If you’ve ever played cricket with both a tennis ball and a proper ball, you’ll understand the difference in facing both. Those kinds of balls need different shots. So this means that, in a way, shots played to a tall bowler have to be different to others. His height makes the game different.Now, add swing.

****

Kyle Jamieson has the third-best Test bowling average of any player with 40 wickets. If you discount the bowlers before 1900 who had no assistance from the days before liquid manure was used in pitch preparation, he’s No.1.Now we know he won’t keep this average up. Quite apart from the very helpful people on social media who keep pointing out that he hasn’t played in Asia yet, Jamieson is not seven runs a wicket better than Malcolm Marshall, the bowler with the lowest average of anyone with 200 wickets. For fun, the next two bowlers on this list are Garner and Ambrose, two other tall men.Jason Holder lacks the extreme speed of many tall bowlers, so relies more on swing than seam•RANDY BROOKS/AFP/Getty ImagesJamieson’s first-class bowling average when not playing Tests is 24.21 from 28 matches. There will be a regression to the mean. People will get more used to him; he’s not bowled that much in his career to date, so with IPL and Test duties, he’s about to get a workload that will chip away at him.But this is an incredible start; and that’s before you even glance at his batting, in which he currently averages 47, towering over his first-class record of 21.This has been a remarkable run of eight Tests. If it happened in the middle of someone’s career, it would be a highlight, the fact it’s occurred at the start is even more amazing.

****

So what does all this make when you combine it? Jamieson’s only obvious weakness is that he’s not a 90mph bowler. He’s accurate, swings it both ways, and delivers it from a comical height. If he was regularly over 90mph/145kph, he’d have achieved seam bowling’s singularity.So far in this Test, he’s averaged more swing than everyone except Tim Southee, at height. This is such a weird thing to play against.Look at his wickets in this match. Rohit Sharma’s was a simple outswinger that swung early and then travelled a long away, taking the edge. Rishabh Pant’s was a rare poor ball, and an even more poorly executed shot – but one that was also induced by the extra bounce. Ishant Sharma faced a ball angling into the stumps that swung before landing, and then hit a trampoline when it pitched. To follow that up, Jamieson started a yorker to Bumrah that tailed in from well outside off stump, as if it had a homing beacon on it.And then there was Virat Kohli’s delivery. This pitched outside off stump, went very straight, and then seamed back sharply. It was essentially an offspinner bowled from 230 centimetres at 85mph / 138kph. I am not sure how you play that. And apparently, neither is Kohli.

****

Think about this New Zealand attack. They have three of their best bowlers ever, 827 wickets between them. Three completely different styles of bowling that complement each other well. They’ve travelled the world, carried New Zealand to No.1 in the rankings, and into the World Test Championship final. And coming into this match, had New Zealand chosen a spinner, most probably one of Trent Boult or Neil Wagner would have missed out.Related

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And while the others are more experienced and tested, given the combination of all Jamieson’s skills and his recent record, his spot was clearly safe.This is a great era for seam bowlers. Guys like Suranga Lakmal and Sharma have pulled in ridiculous numbers after years of huge bowling averages. Since the start of 2018, there isn’t a Test seamer with 50 wickets who has taken them at more than 30. Yet there are two, Ishant and Holder, under 20. All these things have to be taken into consideration, as do Jamieson’s eight Tests being split between New Zealand and England.But he’s averaging under 15 and taking a wicket every 36 balls. This isn’t normal, no matter what the conditions are.And, this isn’t just about natural talent and an incredibly handy combination of skills. There are plenty of bowlers who arrive with a natural talent that their opponents work out over time. That process slows them down, after which it’s about how they adapt. Jamieson’s end-of-play chat with the ICC crew showed that he recognised what he done wrong (relatively speaking) on Saturday and corrected it on Sunday by bowling fuller.This is someone in his 36th first-class match, who began bowling only a few years back, adjusting his length to bowl unnaturally full. This adjustment lead to him taking his fifth five-wicket haul in seven and a half Tests.Kyle Jamieson has height, some speed, swing, seam, control and the ability to change his plans. He’s not perfect, but if you’re standing at the other end when the ball is swinging, it may just feel as though he is.

Game 7 of the World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers had sports fans across two countries biting their nails into the wee hours of the night.

Some of those baseball fans happened to still be enjoying other sports while keeping an eye on the game. Such was the case for fans of the Edmonton Oilers, who were watching their team take on the Blackhawks while also, presumably, tracking Game 7 on their phones and across in-arena televisions.

But this split attention can lead to some extremely difficult moments, especially when the game you’re watching on mute in the background in tied in the ninth inning with a championship on the line. Across the arena at Rogers Place—a four-hour flight or 32-hour drive away from the Rogers Centre in Toronto—a swell of cheering fans took to their feet after a close play at home in the bottom of the ninth inning briefly looked like it might have brought a championship to Canadian baseball for the first time since 1993.

The cheer was so great that the announcers calling the game on television called the Blue Jays champions, before quickly needing to rescind the title.

In a heartbreaking turn of events, not only was that not the championship-winning play, but the Blue Jays would ultimately fall to the Dodgers in extra innings.

Baseball fans will never forget where they were watching the Dodgers win the 2025 World Series. For a select few Oilers fans, they’ll never forget when the Blue Jays briefly won the 2025 World Series too.

Door left ajar for Pat Cummins to return as captain with Australia still debating the make-up of their side

Alex Malcolm03-Dec-2025Pat Cummins is a chance of making a stunning comeback to Australia’s XI for the second Test against England at the Gabba with a final decision to be made by selectors on Wednesday afternoon following a further inspection of the pitch.Australia’s stand-in captain Steven Smith did not confirm the final XI on Wednesday’s press conference, with an update later in the day saying it would be named at the toss, keeping the door open for Cummins to return as captain and also leaving open the possibility of Australia excluding their sole specialist spinner Nathan Lyon for the second day-night Test in a row.Australia also need to replace injured opener Usman Khawaja, and Josh Inglis appears the favourite to come into a middle-order role ahead of Beau Webster, with Travis Head to shift up to open. But Smith could not confirm that either.Related

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“A whole heap of things I think are on the table,” Smith said. “We’ll wait and see what the wicket looks like, and from there we’ll determine a playing XI.”Cummins’ inclusion would be a surprise given he was not named in Australia’s 14-man squad for the Gabba Test when it was announced last Friday. However, he was never officially ruled out because of how well he had been bowling in the nets in Perth and Brisbane after recovering from the bone stress injury in his lower back.”He looks pretty good to me the way he’s bowled in the nets,” Smith said. “Obviously, games are a different intensity, for sure, but he’s tracking really nicely. He knows his body well, and yeah, we’ll wait and see.”There is a possibility that he could replace Brendan Doggett in the XI but that would come with risks regarding his workloads. Given he has not played any cricket since July, there would be more comfort among Australia’s medical staff if he played in an all-pace attack given his bowling loads would likely be less in such a scenario if Australia’s selectors decided Lyon was surplus to requirements in the pink-ball game.0:46

McGlashan: An unfortunate end if Khawaja’s Test career is over

Lyon was left out of Australia’s most recent day-night Test in Jamaica in July and only bowled one over in last year’s pink-ball Test in Adelaide against India. He also did not bowl a ball in Australia’s last Ashes day-night Test in Hobart in 2022. He only bowled two overs in the first Test in Perth, both of which came in the first innings, as England only batted for 67.3 overs across the two-day Test.Lyon did bowl 50 overs in the last day-night Test as the Gabba in 2024 but Smith wasn’t sure if he was assured of his place.”I’m not sure,” Smith said. “We’ll look at the surface, as I said, and we’ll sum things up from there. And I think here’s a place where Nathan’s done really well in the past. He’s a quality bowler. But we’ll weigh up the options and we’ll see how we go.”The Gabba surface has looked very green from afar in the build-up to the Test match. There is warm, dry weather expected in Brisbane for the first three days of the game.”It’s still quite grassy, a little soft,” Smith said. “It’s obviously going to bake under the sun again today, and I think [the curator] is going to take a little bit off it, so might look a little bit different in a couple hours’ time.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has revoked its provisional suspension on batter Haider Ali, who has not played any competitive cricket since he was cleared of rape allegations in Manchester in September.Related

• Haider Ali under criminal investigation in the UK, suspended by the PCB

• Haider Ali arrested and granted bail after report of alleged rape

• Manchester police drop all charges against Haider Ali

The PCB on Wednesday confirmed that Haider had been issued an NOC to play in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), alongside Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed, Sahibzada Farhan, Faheem Ashraf, Hussain Talat, Khawaja Nafay and Ehsanaullah.Haider, who has represented Pakistan in 35 T20Is and two ODIs, was touring England with the Pakistan Shaheens squad when a UK-born Pakistani woman filed charges of rape against him with the Manchester city police.The PCB had suspended Haider “pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation.” The Manchester police dropped the charges against Haider on September 25, stating they had not found sufficient evidence to send the matter to court.

Shaw reached his double century in just 141 balls and only Tanmay Agarwal and Ravi Shastri have gotten there faster

Shashank Kishore27-Oct-2025Prithvi Shaw slammed the third-fastest double century in Ranji Trophy history on Monday — his maiden first-class century for Maharashtra and 14th overall — as Maharashtra set themselves up to try and force an outright result in an Elite Group B fixture against Chandigarh in Chandigarh.Shaw got to the landmark off 141 balls, which is a shade behind Hyderabad’s Tanmay Agarwal (off 119 balls v Arunachal Pradesh in 2024-25) and Mumbai’s Ravi Shastri (off 123 balls v Baroda in 1984-85). Incidentally, Shastri hit six sixes in an over in that match, making him the first and only Indian yet to achieve this feat in first-class cricket.Shaw’s 222 contained 29 fours and five sixes, helping Maharashtra score at 6.9 an over as they declared their second innings on 359 for 3. Chandigarh then ended strongly on 129 for 1, needing a further 335 runs.Related

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This is Shaw’s second impactful knock in four outings for his new side. Having begun with a four-ball duck on Maharashtra debut last week against Kerala in Trivandrum, he struck an aggressive 75 in the second innings to help consolidate their lead in a drawn fixture. In Chandigarh, Shaw managed just 8 in the first innings, before he stormed back into form with his double-century.Shaw’s up-turn in fortunes comes on the back of a forgettable 2024-25, where he found himself out of the Mumbai setup across formats. At the time, his poor fitness and lack of discipline had been cited as the reasons for his ouster. He also went unsold at the IPL mega auction last November.Ahead of the new domestic season, Shaw touched upon his work behind the scenes, including on his fitness and diet, during the pre-season Buchi Babu Invitational tournament in Tamil Nadu, where he flayed a century in his very first outing.”I mean, these two-three months [before the season] I had my trainer [working with me],” he had said. “He used to come personally to train me. And I’ve got a dietitian as well, and he gives me the meals [plan] and everything – like what a dietitian does. So, all this stuff in three-four months has really changed me physically and mentally as well. And, you know, it can be seen on the field.”Shaw had also said the transition to Maharashtra was smooth thanks to his familiarity with Ankit Bawne, the captain, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, with whom he’d played for India A.”Mumbai is not that far away from Maharashtra,” Shaw had said. “I mean, half of the team I know. I mean, obviously, I’ve played with Rutu, [and] Ankit; Mukesh [Choudhary] is there. Prashant Solanki and few other players are there. I just got to know a few youngsters. You know, Arshin [Kulkarni], Sachin Dhas and everyone. They have been really nice and welcoming to me.”While Shaw is unlikely to come into India conversations just yet, his knocks could serve a reminder to the selectors of his imposing presence at the crease should there be a need to pick a reserve opener, considering Abhimanyu Easwaran seems to have fallen out of favour for the moment. Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who could’ve been possible contenders, now bat in the middle order.Shaw has so far played five Tests, the most-recent one coming against Australia in Adelaide on the famous 2020-21 tour. His last appearance overall for India came in July 2021, when he featured in three ODIs and a lone T20I in Sri Lanka with a second-string India squad.

تنقل مباريات بطولة كأس العرب 2025، المشارك به منتخب مصر، خلال الفترة من 1 حتى 18 ديسمبر 2025، عبر 4 قنوات.

ويشارك في بطولة كأس العرب، 16 فريقًا بداية من دور المجموعات للبطولة، حيث تأهل 9 منتخبات، ويتبقى 7، سيتم حسمها من مباريات التصفيات التي تقام يومي 25 و26 نوفمبر من مباراة واحدة، والفائز سيتواجد في دور المجموعات.

طالع | مواعيد مباريات منتخب مصر في كأس العرب 2025

وأسفرت قرعة بطولة كأس العرب عن تواجد منتخب مصر في المجموعة الثالثة مع الأردن والإمارات والفائز من (الكويت ضد موريتانيا).

وستنطلق بطولة كأس العرب، يوم الإثنين 1 ديسمبر، بمواجهتي تونس والفائز من المباراة التأهيلية سوريا وجنوب السودان، والمباراة الثانية تجمع بين قطر صاحب الأرض مع المتأهل من فلسطين وليبيا.

ويستهل منتخب مصر مبارياته في كأس العرب بمواجهة المتأهل من مباراة الكويت وموريتانيا، ثم يلاقي الإمارات ويختتم دور المجموعات بمباراة الأردن. القنوات الناقلة لـ كأس العرب 2025 بمشاركة منتخب مصر

قناة بي إن سبورتس.

قناة الكاس.

قناة أبو ظبي الرياضية.

قنوات دبي الرياضية.

قنوات إم بي سي مصر 2