His batting record as captain may be hard to beat, but a dive into his numbers hint that he could soar even higher as non-captain

Daniel Brettig07-Nov-2019All year, seemingly, the debate has carried on, the questions many but all related. How will not having the Australian captaincy affect Steven Smith? How much better did Smith perform in England because he was not captain? When should he be returned to the Australian captaincy, if ever? How would the pressures of captaincy affect the output we saw during the Ashes?Intriguingly, the debate has arrived at a very neat point of Smith’s Test career, in terms of splitting his terms as captain and not captain in two. As of the end of the Oval Test, the final match of a series in which Smith was the clear difference between Australia retaining the Ashes and failing to do so, he had played 34 matches as captain of the national team, and 34 as just another member of the XI.Asked in Perth on Wednesday evening whether or not the “pressure” of returning to captaincy would have a negative impact on his batting – his exploits in England aside, more recently he also has strong displays in the Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan – Smith recalled his own statistical split, with a fair degree of accuracy.”I actually think I play better with pressure, that extra pressure when the team needs something more and things like that,” Smith said in Perth. “My record probably is better when I’m captain than when I’m not. That sort of pressure doesn’t really bother me. But I’m not thinking about captaincy or anything at this point in time. I’m really comfortable where I’m at and I’m enjoying what I’m doing.”As for a quick fact-check on Smith’s recall, yes, he is quite right. In 34 Tests as a player, Smith has averaged 59.17 while scoring 3314 runs and compiling 11 centuries. Impressive as that may sound, it is dwarfed by his returns in 34 Tests as captain: 3659 runs at 70.36, with 15 centuries. The argument for leadership detracting from Smith’s batting does, in this light, look somewhat hollow.

“My record probably is better when I’m captain than when I’m not. That sort of pressure doesn’t really bother me”Steven Smith

But, as ever, there are more nuanced ways to look at things. There are numerous phases Smith’s Test career can be grouped into, both as captain and as a player. The first, from mid-2010 until January 2011, saw the youthful, precocious Smith’s first five Tests, a period in which he is universally regarded as having struggled to cope with Test cricket before he was quite ready for it. An unclear commission, as neither fully fledged batsman nor specialist spin bowler, did not help as he tallied 259 runs and zero hundreds at a tick over 28.Phase two began in early 2013 on an Indian tour Australia lost 4-0. Here, Smith demonstrated that he had developed considerably as a batsman, but it took a little while for his talents to be seen in full, as he grappled with overseas conditions, experienced bowlers and his own self doubts about gaining a secure place in the national team. Over this period, running up until late 2014, his returns grew steadily, ultimately tallying 1490 runs in 18 matches at 51.37 with five centuries.It was at this point that Cricket Australia, requiring a new leader after Michael Clarke was invalided out of the 2014-15 India home Test series with hamstring and back problems, chose to elevate Smith to captaincy rather than handing the role to a more experienced temporary captain such as Brad Haddin. Smith, surrounded by a strong group of senior players and operating in home conditions, bloomed into the first truly prolific series of his career: 555 runs in three Tests as captain after having made a century in the first as a batsman alone, with three further hundreds at an average of 92.50.At summer’s end, the switch was made back to Clarke in time for the latter stages of the 2015 World Cup, and he would go on to lead the Australians on a dual Test tour of the West Indies and England. Smith, returning to the ranks, churned out 791 runs in seven matches, tallying three centuries – including scores of 215 and 199 – and averaging 71.90, a handsome return if somewhat diminished by a critical run of low scores in the pivotal Birmingham and Nottingham Tests against England that saw the Ashes lost.Getty ImagesClarke’s retirement returned Smith to captaincy, this time as the full-fledged leader for the biggest single continuous chunk of matches in his career, lasting from late 2015 until March 2018 and the Newlands scandal. A far bigger sample size, in which Smith was able to compile 3104 runs over 46 completed innings with 12 centuries, meaning an average of 67.47.It was not a period without troughs. Series against Sri Lanka and South Africa in 2016 were notable for reduced output, as were tours of Bangladesh in 2017 and finally South Africa in 2018. The longer Smith’s captaincy went on, the harder it appeared for him to maintain the level he had established earlier on, and a notable feature of 2017-18 was how he clearly dialled down his scoring rate in order to mitigate risk and stay at the crease.Nonetheless, those numbers created considerable doubt in the minds of many as to what exactly Smith would do when he returned to Test cricket in England this year as a batsman alone. The outcome, of course, was a glut of runs from a visibly refreshed and hungry player, in some of the most difficult batting conditions of his career, split up by a serious blow to the head from Jofra Archer at Lord’s that cost him the Headingley Test due to concussion. His return effort, a double-century at Old Trafford as the urn was retained by a team led by Tim Paine, will live long in the memory. So too will 774 runs from four matches at 110.57.One thing that brings a fairer split to the captain versus non-captain records for Smith is to eliminate his first five, formative Test matches, to count only those in which he was clearly playing as a batsman alone. That brings his non-captaincy average up to 65 from 47 innings, as opposed to 70.36 from 52 completed innings as captain – a far less yawning gap that can be closed further should the counter begin at the time of the 2013 Perth Test against England, the moment Smith himself has reckoned to be the day he first felt at home as a Test batsman.But perhaps the most telling way to look at Smith as a captain and non-captain is to examine his trends. As a captain, Smith had the advantage of starting near to the peak of his batting powers in late 2014, meaning his average as a leader was 80.50 at the end of his first Test as captain, then 92.50 at the conclusion of his first series. Over time, with a few exceptions, that average has gradually dipped – as of the end of the fateful 2018 trip to South Africa, not sitting above 80 since the 2016 Sri Lanka tour. A fabulous start with a gradual trend downwards.

The chairman of Cricket Australia looks back at the eventful days following the Newlands scandal and cultural review, and to bigger challenges that lie ahead in his role at the ICC

Daniel Brettig23-Dec-2019Earl Eddings was sitting in the Qantas Lounge in Canberra airport on the morning of November 1 last year when he took a call from Cricket Australia chairman David Peever. Eddings was Peever’s deputy on the CA board, and they had spoken much over the preceding six years. This was not a pleasant call.A few days had passed since the release of the Ethics Centre’s damning independent review of CA and its culture, during which time Peever had proven himself a leaden-footed public performer in a time of crisis. Having already endured the traumas of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, this was another storm, just days from the start of the international season.As a result, Peever had lost the vital support of Cricket New South Wales to continue leading the game in Australia.”David, to his credit, said, ‘Well, this is damaging the sport, and if I haven’t got the support, I will stand aside for the good of the game’,” Eddings says. “That was really tough to hear him say that. I was left thinking, ‘Oh dear, it’s me now, so what am I going to do to fix it?’ It was quite a seminal moment in my life.”ALSO READ: Calmer Cricket Australia sizes up future challengesFour days later, having watched Australia’s ODI team get thrashed by South Africa in Perth the previous evening, Eddings was packing to leave for Melbourne when he took another call of import. Mark Taylor, the most experienced and widely respected director on the CA board, was resigning too.”Tubby rang me and he thought I was back in Melbourne, so it was 5am in Perth and I was packing to go to the airport. He said, ‘I’m leaving, I can’t do this anymore,'” Eddings says. “It was a big week, losing the chair, then losing Tubby, and certainly a very lonely time there for a bit.”In cricket and in business, Eddings had dealt with his share of scrapes, but nothing quite so public as this. Unlike Peever, however, he had a deep understanding of all the links in the chain from Australian cricket’s grassroots to the top of the game, having taken the traditional path once trodden by all cricket administrators, starting as a player.***At the time of the Ethics Centre review, the widely respected former CA chairman Bob Merriman pushed publicly for Eddings. Merriman, still a figure of enormous influence in the Geelong region, had been a mentor to Eddings when he first joined the Cricket Victoria Board in 2005. Eddings had already cut his teeth in the game as captain and coach, and then in other roles at the North Melbourne Cricket club in the decade after moving from Northcote in 1992.Eddings had grown up in working class Bundoora to Melbourne’s north, an area that grew swiftly from the early waves of post-war migration before it saw the construction of Latrobe University in the 1960s and an RMIT campus in the 1990s. As a young man, Eddings balanced university study and business involvement with playing plenty of cricket and hockey. It was enough of a rough and tumble background to help equip him for the hard conversations to crop up in running the game.

“The outpouring of grief [after Cape Town] really showed how important Australian cricket is to the tapestry of Australian society – it’s part of our DNA”

“No one grows up wanting to be a cricket administrator,” Eddings says. “I think like most you get thrown into it because there’s no one else to do it. When I was at North Melbourne we were a struggling club, had no money and a lot of debt, so I was president, coach and No. 1 sponsor, because there was no one else to do it.”At that stage in my business life, my first business [Ark Consulting] made the BRW top 100 fastest-growing companies, top 25 start-ups. And at that time the Cricket Victoria board was looking for some renewal. You’re young, you know business, you know cricket, why not get involved. So it sort of happened from there, and happened much quicker than I thought. It was never a plan to do that, just the way the cards fell.”Along with Merriman, Geoff Tamblyn, the chairman of the Cricket Victoria board when Eddings came on, were key influences on how Eddings grew to see the running of the game. “They were great exponents of understanding the game at its grassroots but also saw the bigger picture. They were really strong role models.Eddings joined the CA board in 2008. “The first five years when I was on the board was really very parochial around states, a typical member-based board in a federal model. It wasn’t what I’d call a governance structure per se, more about how you make things work for different stakeholders.”ALSO READ: Belinda Clark: ‘I don’t think Australia wants to become a place where we just watch others play sport’A critical lesson came from Tamblyn, who accepted that, in order to bring about the governance reform that many CA directors, including Merriman, had attempted in the past, he would have to be the proverbial turkey voting for Christmas. In expressing to the board his intention to resign and so make room for independent directors on a smaller, nine-member board, Tamblyn helped open a gate that had remained locked for more than a century.”Probably without Geoff and [CA chairman] Wally Edwards, the governance reform wouldn’t have happened,” Eddings says. “I don’t think Tambo gets enough credit for that – he’s the one who threw himself under the bus as the first state chair to say, ‘I’m going to stand down.'”It’s not uncommon in 2019 to hear Eddings describe himself as the most dispensable person at CA, an attitude informed by the examples of Tamblyn and, latterly, Peever.Governance reform helped CA operate more strategically, rather than as state-based seagulls fighting over the financial chip. But it also arrived at a time when CA was growing more ruthless, more performance-based, more about “winning at all costs without counting the cost”, as the Ethics Centre review so damningly stated. The warning signs can be seen in hindsight, but the way the Newlands scandal blew up was still a shock for Eddings, who by this time had been installed as Peever’s successor.”David [Peever], to his credit, said ‘Well, this is damaging the sport, and if I haven’t got the support I will stand aside for the good of the game.'”•Getty ImagesOn the evening the ball-tampering news broke, Eddings had been watching his beloved Collingwood play their first game of the AFL season at a friend’s house. He was not initially sure what he was seeing when the channel flipped. “I could see this yellow piece of paper and I thought, ‘Why are they focusing on that, someone must have run a note out to the captain or something.’ Then I turned the volume up and realised what was going on. I quickly realised it was going to be a big week.”It was late at night, about 11-11.30pm. David was on a plane home, he didn’t know about it. James [Sutherland] was on the phone in the middle of the night, and then we were made more aware of it first thing in the morning. That was around the time Gerard Whateley had just started his [radio] program on SEN, and they went to a special the next morning and every man and his dog rang in and fanned the flames, if you like.”For all the issues that Newlands and its aftermath raised, Eddings thinks the board functioned as well as might have been expected. In concert with the then CA head of integrity Iain Roy handing down a series of penalties for Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft that balanced the storm of the moment with wider concerns.”You were virtually on the phone all day and all night with various board members trying to work out what was going on,” he says. “It was a case of not panicking, given the amount of emotion that was flying around, people saying ban them for life and whatever else. I thought we kept our heads pretty well. We didn’t get caught up in the emotion.ALSO READ: Why is Australia so outraged at Steven Smith’s team?”We discussed, ‘Okay, what do we do, this is more than just accepting a ban from the ICC, this is something that goes against the whole fabric of what Australian cricket stands for’. I think we [knew] that we had to make a stand as a board.”That stand resulted, too, in the commissioning of the review by the Ethics Centre, after a tender was put out for the task. While the Ethics Centre had in the past been somewhat kinder to the Australian Olympic Committee, among other organisations, this was a review that left no one in doubt that Australian cricket’s leadership was in the dock.”If I look at the events in South Africa, that wasn’t a one-off,” Eddings says. “I look at the MoU dispute, some of the behaviours before that and some of the relationships we had. So it had been eating away at our culture, but you couldn’t ever really put a finger on it.”If I’m trying to find a positive out of Cape Town, it’s that it allowed us to really reflect as a sport on what’s important to us, and while it was really difficult at the time, the outpouring of grief really showed how important Australian cricket is to the tapestry of Australian society – it’s part of our DNA.”

” We all had everyone on the same page, so it allowed us to do the right things rather than be rushed into action through the scoreboard pressure of losing”Eddings on the team’s recovery after the ball-tampering scandal

When asked how he and the chief executive Kevin Roberts could justify their roles given how deeply they had been involved in the previous administration, Eddings says, “Are we part of the problem or part of the solution? I like to think we’re part of the solution, because cricket is such a complicated business, it’s not as simple as people think. You’ve got a range of competing interests, from overseas with the Future Tours Programme, broadcasting, state associations, the grassroots, the players, and your corporate sponsors.”It’s a really complicated business model, and despite all the angst we went through, cricket was still in good shape. In the really dark times the women’s team were great ambassadors, great team players and great cricketers coming out of the same system. So it’s not all broken.”Slowly but surely, the broken bonds began to be mended, aided greatly by the way that Justin Langer, Tim Paine and Aaron Finch were able to bring the men’s team closer in line with the behavioural record of the women. Eventually, too, results began to improve, helped along by the returns of Smith and Warner from their bans. “We also knew it would take time. Putting Justin in, there was a really strong line between all the key people,” Eddings says. “We all knew we were in this together, we all knew we had each other’s backs.”You take two of the best players in the world out of your team and any side would struggle. We also knew we had good, young talent coming through, a big year coming up with the World Cup and the Ashes, so we had something to aim for.ALSO READ: Review gives CA board more than it bargained for”On-field performances didn’t bother me – you always hate losing – because we knew we were on a journey and it wasn’t going to be fixed overnight. We all had everyone on the same page, so it allowed us to do the right things rather than be rushed into action through the scoreboard pressure of losing.”The way the men’s team responded, I was and still am very proud of how they took ownership and said, ‘Yeah we’ve got such a strong role in Australian society that we have to lift our game.’ We’ve seen that change now in how they’ve played over in the UK and how they’ve started this summer. That was really critical, getting the players understanding their role as custodians of the game.”I went over to the UK and saw some of the ODIs when we were getting smashed – that was pretty tough, but we knew we had a plan.”When that plan came together for the retention of the Ashes for the first time since 2001, Eddings was a far happier spectator than he had been 12 months previously.***Speaking to Eddings, there is something almost folksy about how he speaks – in a way familiar to so many in cricket’s club and community heartland. That relatability is helping in rebuilding relationships, for Eddings possesses a far more natural, affable style of interaction than the often stilted and overly corporate ways of his predecessor. This is not to say that the road ahead is smooth, far from it.As the Australian Cricketers’ Association has shown over the Emily Smith case, every relationship is only as good as how it can stand up to the next issue to arise.Eddings now has to find the balance between looking after cricket in Australia and being a custodian of the global game•Getty ImagesWith Greg Dyer moving towards the exit at the ACA, and a new, more contemporary president arriving in Shane Watson, there is a new relationship to be formed. Watson has publicly expressed a long-held displeasure at the ability of cricket boards to control so much of the lives of players they centrally contract. At the same time the exorbitant figures fetched by the likes of Pat Cummins in the recent IPL auction speak of the other side of this complaint.As someone who married hefty club cricket involvement with his business career, Eddings is eager to see a better balance struck in the life of players in CA’s care. Not only to make them better people and athletes but also to ensure they have the diversity of experience the game’s leaders need.”We’re always keen to have contemporary cricketers on the board, which is why Mel Jones [who took over Mark Taylor’s seat on the CA board] has been fantastic,” he says. “That allows us to keep in contact with the game when it’s changed so much in the last ten years. You need to be connected with it, you can’t be too far removed because you’re looking through a different lens. Players now leave school straight into a career of cricket and they don’t have the luxury of having another job or having other life experiences.”So trying to get a pool of ex-cricketers with the skills to sit on a board from a governance perspective is going to be more challenging. Certainly the ACA and us do a lot in that area, but we could always do a lot more. Also the players have got to want to deal with it as well.”I’m really proud we can pay our players really well, but we’ve also got to give them other life skills for their wellbeing. That’s always a challenge when they’re travelling all the time and playing different formats, and something we’ll keep working at.”ALSO READ: James Sutherland: ‘No one should think of themselves as indispensable’Equally, the international scene is facing significant change. The return to traditional governance for a more muscular BCCI in India takes place alongside the early months of Manu Sawhney’s revenue-raising commission as the new chief executive of the ICC.ICC chairman Shashank Manohar has charged Eddings with reviewing the ICC’s governance, a vexing task, and with Roberts has recently met with Sawhney to try to find a middle ground between cricket’s financial behemoths Australia, India and England, and the mounting need for ICC revenue among the game’s other nations.The new BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s recent pronouncements about a new, annual ODI “Super Series” to feature India, England Australia and one other nation have illustrated how far apart the two poles currently are. As Edwards discovered between 2011 and 2015, domestic reform was a simple task next to finding international balance – the man who granted CA an independent board for the first time found himself a party to the self-centred “Big Three” move alongside N Srinivasan and Giles Clarke in 2014.”I don’t think that did cricket any favours,” Eddings says of the Big Three. “You find that balance between looking after your own backyard and understanding your responsibilities as a custodian of the global game, and that’s always a challenge. But certainly we walk into those conversations saying we need to look at bilateral cricket, but as members of the ICC, also have a responsibility and accountability to maximise it and make it work for everyone.”In that sense, the global scene may turn out to be more difficult for Eddings than even the darkest days of 2018, for as he says, the cultural problems at CA were distinct from structural or financial issues. “There was never a sense of panic,” he says. “We had a good business model, a good strategy and money had come into the game with a really good broadcast deal. So we weren’t trying to fix the whole business model at the same time. It was purely a cultural fix.”In trying to find a balance between the players, the BCCI and the ICC, Eddings is about to contend with elements of all three at once.

Nail-biters, rollercoasters, unexpected contests and sweet comebacks – our correspondents and writers pick their most memorable matches of the last ten years

31-Dec-2019England v New Zealand, World Cup final, Lord’s, 2019
By Sambit Bal
So, what do we remember? The dream or the tragedy? The drama that lasted all day or the mockery in the final moments? Ben Stokes’ nerveless brilliance, or the accidental six that rolled off a ricochet? The two heart-stopping ties, or the ridiculous tiebreaker? England’s coronation after 40 years of longing, or New Zealand’s heartbreak to last a lifetime?The truth is that we will forget nothing: the slow burn, the twists, the blunders, the absurdity, the unimaginable finish, the cruelty and the euphoria, and the whole damn rollercoaster of it. Add to this the weight of the occasion and the poignancy of the two perennial World Cup bridesmaids seeking their first title. This was a match like none other.It was just as well that the World Cup belied the expectations of being a run fest, because rarely do run fests produce the humming tension of low-scoring thrillers, and at long last, we were rewarded with a final that can lay claim to be the greatest World Cup match ever.Some would argue that it would have been just to have joint winners after the Super Over was tied, but in some ways, the imperfect result etches the match even deeper in memory. Beyond outcomes and heroics, the purest joy of sport lies in the experience, and if you were at Lord’s that Sunday, to even consider any match to be greater would feel like infidelity.After the storm, the smiles•AFP India v Australia, first Test, Mohali, 2010
By Sharda Ugra
This is a favourite, which edges out Durban 2010 for sheer sentimentality, and the madcappery of its last day. The Test was one final flourish of the big rivalry of the previous decade – Australia v India. At its centre was the batsman who, amid many skirmishes between the two sides, became his team’s totem.A target of 216, the eighth wicket falling at 124, with only Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha to follow. There was only one being who could haul tailender-ass over the finish line, and had made a habit of pulling victory out of the straitjacket of looming defeat. Mohali 2010 was the complete VVS Laxman package – the impossible task, the dicky back, the snarling Aussies, the company of two eager but far from qualified companions.Our composure was being shred one over at a time. We, who had sort of given up, couldn’t move, because Laxman kept the score moving. Then, finally, when there were six runs left, Ojha was almost run out, and there came a rare sighting: total meltdown from Mr Equanimity, an all-around pleasant fellow with an absence of epithets. We saw Laxman lose it, in an angry, bat-jabbing tirade – but he ensured that India didn’t. At the end, all was forgiven in a sunburst of smiles and celebrations.India won a few more home Tests that followed, and then began the slide of the last of their titans into their other lives as coaches, commentators, celebrities, comics. They have left us, of course, with the memory of many Mohalis.Bangladesh’s nine-run victory in Dhaka was followed by a nail-biter in Mirpur that sealed a 4-0 whitewash of New Zealand by the hosts•Associated PressBangladesh v New Zealand, fourth ODI, Dhaka, 2010
By Mohammad Isam
New Zealand’s record against Bangladesh coming into this 2010 ODI series was 17-1, and the home team was without regular captain Mashrafe Mortaza and Tamim Iqbal. It was supposed to be a cakewalk. Enter stand-in captain Shakib Al Hasan, then 23 years old.Shakib was instrumental with bat and ball in the first two games, and with the series on the line, he made a century from 44 for 3, which gave Bangladesh a competitive 241 to defend. As ever, he was not content with doing well in just one department. He took 3 for 54 with his slow left-arm spin, sometimes teasing the batsmen in the air, sometimes making the ball fizz off the black pitch. He was the most animated person in the field too, especially while talking to his bowlers.In front of a full house at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Bangladesh prevailed by nine runs, in a match that has entered folklore. It was their first ever series win against strong opposition, and it was fitting that it came at the start of the decade, starring the man who would define Bangladesh cricket in the 2010s.Spooktacular: Abdul Razzaq hauled Pakistan over the line with a 72-ball 109 on Halloween in 2010•AFPPakistan v South Africa, second ODI, Abu Dhabi, 2010
By Danyal Rasool
That this game took place this decade is incongruous enough. Just look at that Pakistan line-up: Fawad Alam actually playing; Zulqarnain Haider – who would famously disappear before the final game of the series – the first-choice wicketkeeper; and, as cricket looked ahead to a decade dominated by T20 opulence, Asad Shafiq opening the batting.They took on a juggernaut of a South African side, which had won ten ODIs on the bounce, including the first one of this series. Now, a Colin Ingram hundred helped them to 286, and Pakistan were already battling history: never had they chased down a score north of 223 to beat South Africa. They slumped to 70 for 4, and at 228 for 7 needed 59 in 5.5 overs.They had Abdul Razzaq, though, a T20 finisher since before the format existed, and on his day as unstoppable a hitter as – the comparison is unapologetic – Viv Richards himself. It wasn’t until Razzaq’s three sixes in the 47th over that a Pakistan win appeared even conceivable.It came down to the last wicket and 14 off the final over, but by then Razzaq had found all the cheat codes to batting, and unleashed them upon Albie Morkel. He hit six sixes and three fours off his final 19 balls, getting himself up to a 72-ball 109, while the tail contributed a solitary run. Pakistan swung an absurd one-wicket win on Halloween night, thanks to a man possessed who had spooked South Africa.You know it’s a big win when the sprinkler dance makes an appearance•Getty ImagesAustralia v England, fourth Test, Melbourne, 2010
By Andrew McGlashan
For someone who grew up in the 1990s, winning in Australia is a rare thing. The three Ashes series hosted in Australia either side of England’s 2010-11 triumph are 14-0 to the home team. Maybe English sport does wallow in the past too much, but what Andrew Strauss’ side achieved in 2010-11 remains special.There were many high points, but nothing was better than the MCG – and specifically the opening day. Australia had won in Perth to make it 1-1 and anticipation was high that they could halt England’s ambitions on Boxing Day at the G. Midway through the day, the scoreboard read Australia 98 all out. A few hours later there was the added line, England 157 for 0. It was a thing of beauty.The rest of the match was a procession towards England retaining the Ashes. And there was also the bonus of watching Ricky Ponting lose his cool. Early on the fourth day, with the 19,000-strong crowd made almost entirely of England supporters, Tim Bresnan claimed the final wicket. There are worse ways to spend Christmas.When 2 becomes 1: Vernon Philander’s five-for sealed a 2-0 win for South Africa to displace England at the top of the Test rankings•PA PhotosEngland v South Africa, third Test, Lord’s, 2012
By Firdose Moonda
South Africa have not won the World Cup, but their pinnacle came at Lord’s in 2012, when they took the Test mace off England in a match worthy of the occasion. After Hashim Amla’s triple-century opened the series in emphatic fashion at The Oval, where South Africa won, and rain and a rampant Kevin Pietersen ensured a draw at Headingley, the teams headed into the final Test, which England had to win to stay No. 1.England eked out a six-run first-innings lead, and at 259 for 4 in the second innings, South Africa looked as though they would be content to bat England out of contention. An inspired second-new-ball performance from the home attack ensured that did not happen: England took 6 for 92 and needed 346 to win. At 16 for 2 on the fourth evening, with Vernon Philander giving a masterclass in the art of subtle seam movement, England looked unlikely to get there. But on an electric final day, Jonathan Trott, Jonny Bairstow and Matt Prior made a fight of it.Eventually, Philander – loved at home, looked down upon away – seamed it South Africa’s way. His 5 for 30 took South Africa to the top of the Test rankings, where they stayed for the best part of three and a half years, and his “stats don’t lie” comment will be long remembered as the crowning moment for South Africa’s golden generation.More picks by our writers and correspondents hereMore in the decade in review, 2010-19

As Manchester City look to rebuild, Pep Guardiola has reportedly personally requested that the Blues make a statement move to hijack one of Arsenal’s best players.

Man City eyeing Dias upgrade

Whilst the international break at least ceased the Citizens’ misery before they impressively earned their way into the FA Cup last four over Bournemouth, it didn’t take long for injury to strike once more. In a season full of absentees, Erling Haaland became the latest to limp off against Bournemouth and it’s bad news for the Norwegian superstar.

Following their latest injury blow, it remains to be seen whether that will be the final nail in the coffin for Manchester City’s Champions League hopes. Even if that does prove to be the case, however, they’re reportedly looking to make a statement this summer.

According to reports in Spain, Manchester City are now willing to grant Guardiola’s request to sign William Saliba from Arsenal this summer in what would be one of the moves of the summer.

Not only would they be signing one of their rivals’ most influential players, but they would also be taking him out of the clutches of Real Madrid, who have been eyeing another free deal upon the Frenchman’s contract expiry in 2027.

Related Better than Hugo Larsson: Man City make £50m star their top summer target

He could cost Man City upwards of £50m

Posts ByJoe Nuttall Apr 1, 2025

If the Citizens are to solve their defensive problems once and for all then signing Saliba should certainly be among their priorities this summer. Whether they’re in a position to lure the impressive centre-back away from the Gunners is another question, however.

"Superb" Saliba is one of the best

At 24 years old, Saliba is at the peak of his powers and that peak has taken him among the best in the world in his position. The Frenchman carries every trait needed to be a top defender in the modern game and represents a player that Guardiola is almost certain to love just as Mikel Arteta does at Arsenal.

Praising his star as early as his Premier League debut, the Arsenal boss told reporters in 2022: “Saliba was superb. For his age, he is built really well. You need the right balance. Physicality in this league is something where you can’t come up short. If you do, you will be exposed.”

Only getting better ever since, there’s every argument that Saliba would become Manchester City’s best defender if he completed a shock move to the Etihad this summer.

Premier League stats 24/25 (via FBref)

William Saliba

Ruben Dias

Minutes

2,364

1,461

Progressive Passes per 90

4.30

5.56

Tackles Won per 90

1.18

0.43

Ball Recoveries per 90

4.49

3.09

Earning a reported £190,000-a-week at Arsenal, Saliba has proved to be worth every penny and the same would be said if he joined Manchester City in the coming months.

In what would be a major coup, Wolverhampton Wanderers are now reportedly eyeing a move to sign a teenage sensation ahead of several Premier League sides.

Wolves targeting attacking reinforcements

Still in a good position to secure survival, Wolverhampton Wanderers can seemingly set their sights on welcoming some much-needed reinforcements ahead of Vitor Pereira’s first full campaign in charge.

On that front, the first task on their summer list of priorities will likely be to replace Matheus Cunha, who has attracted impressive admirers across the Premier League.

Wolves make contact in shock move to sign "special" winger once worth £73m

This would be a major coup…

ByTom Cunningham Apr 4, 2025

After Cunha recently commented on his future, claiming that he wants to be fighting for titles, Pereira responded by telling reporters: “Next season, I don’t know [if Cunha stays]. The focus is the next game and the team, and Cunha is a part of the team. In the summer, we will see what happens but in my opinion, it is normal that a player of his potential is ambitious.

“If the training gives me the confidence to go with Cunha, I will go with Cunha because he has the quality to help us and he has already helped us a lot with goals and assists.”

If those in the Midlands are to replace their star man then they will need to set their ambitions high, which could yet see a player of Sem Steijn’s calibre arrive. The FC Twente attacking midfielder has scored as many as 26 goals in all competitions and should certainly be high up on Wolves’ list of candidates to replace Cunha this summer.

Meanwhile, names such as Jadon Sancho have recently been mentioned in what would be the ultimate shock this summer. The Chelsea loanee has struggled once again in the Premier League this season and looks destined to return to Manchester United. It’s then that Wolves could pull off one of the most interesting deals of the transfer window.

Wolves join race to sign Rayan

Away from Sancho and on to stars for the future, those at Molineux have also set their sights on the next South American wonderkid. According to The Boot Room, Wolves are now eyeing a move to sign Rayan from Vasco da Gama ahead of Liverpool this summer. The 18-year-old winger has impressed in Brazil, with Liverpool, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Wolves and Nottingham Forest all lining up for his signature.

Praised for an “exquisite finish” for Brazil’s U20s by South American football expert Nathan Joyes, Rayan looks set to have quite the decision to make when the summer arrives. Whether it’s Wolves who benefit from that decision or another Premier League side remains to be seen, however.

What Wolves can offer that Liverpool will struggle with is key game time and that should be the focus if they are to push on for Rayan’s signature in the coming months. A rising star who has already earned plenty of praise, Wolves could yet sign the next big thing this summer.

Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta has already decided to part company with a member of the Gunners squad this summer, and it is very likely he’ll join the plethora of stars who appear destined to depart N5.

Arsenal set for busy summer window under Andrea Berta

Berta’s arrival could signal the start of a serious overhaul at the Emirates Stadium, with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta anticipating a “big” first summer transfer window under the Italian’s leadership.

Arsenal offer "underrated" star a £192k-per-week contract to join Arteta

Andrea Berta is moving with intent ahead of the summer.

ByEmilio Galantini Apr 10, 2025

GiveMeSport have previously claimed that as many as seven major signings worth up to £300 million could be made before the start of the next Premier League season, including a new back-up keeper, full-back, two midfielders, a left-winger, right-winger and striker.

Brentford (home)

April 12th

Ipswich Town (away)

April 20th

Crystal Palace (home)

April 23rd

Bournemouth (home)

May 3rd

Liverpool (away)

May 11th

High-profile departures are also anticipated, especially Jorginho and Thomas Partey, who are both entering the final two months of their contracts at Arsenal, with both deals set to expire on June 30th as things stand.

Jorginho is attracting interest from Brazil, and pre-summer talks have been held with Flamengo, while left-back Kieran Tierney is also set to leave at the end of the season as Celtic prepare for his arrival at Parkhead on a Bosman deal.

“During the January 2025 transfer window, we acquired the permanent registration of Jota and the temporary registration of Jeffrey Schlupp,” confirmed the Hoops.

“In addition, we extended the contract of Kasper Schmeichel and entered into a pre-contract agreement that will see Kieran Tierney return to Celtic in July 2025.”

Partey, meanwhile, put on a phenomenal display in Arsenal’s most recent match, a 3-0 dismantling of Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League tie, prompting some calls for the Ghanaian to be handed a new contract at N5.

However, it remains the belief that Partey is looking to leave Arsenal and embark on a fresh chapter this summer, with Barcelona among the African’s preferred destinations (Mundo Deportivo).

Arsenal will sell Oleksandr Zinchenko this summer with decision made

Now, an update has also come to light on £150,000-per-week defender Oleksandr Zinchenko and his future at the Emirates.

The Ukraine international has seriously struggled for game time, thanks to a combination of injuries and competition for places at left-back, with Jakub Kiwior, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori all fancied ahead of him.

Journalist Graeme Bailey, speaking to The Boot Room, says Arsenal will sell Zinchenko this summer as a result, and it is believed Ajax starlet Jorrel Hato could even come in as a replacement.

“Zinchenko will be allowed to leave, although that will be easier said than done considering his wages and Tierney is going,” said Bailey.

“Jorrel Hato is still a player they love – they’ve done all the work on him for years – they’ve been following him since he was 16. Liverpool like him as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if Hato came to England this year.”

Arsenal’s credible links to Hato stretch back to 2023 (The Athletic), with the teenage Dutch starlet capable of playing at both left-back and as a left-sided centre-back. Hato has come on leaps and bounds since then as well, becoming a mainstay for the Eredivisie side and even managing to chalk up six assists in the top flight this season.

One Manchester City star has now held positive talks to join a shock club, according to a new transfer update.

Players who could leave Man City this summer

After a busy January transfer window that saw five new players brought in, Pep Guardiola looks set to shake things up again over the summer as he continues his Etihad rebuild.

A plethora of players are out of contract at the end of the 2024/25 season, and there have been claims on a number of Man City stars being sold.

Man City players out of contract in 2025

Kevin De Bruyne

Ilkay Gunogan

Scott Carson

Jack Grealish, who scored against Leicester City in midweek, may well be one who the club decide to cash in on, whereas Bernardo Silva has been linked with a move to PSG.

As we know, Kevin De Bruyne is one of three who can leave and the Belgian has now announced his departure this summer. Releasing a statement on Friday De Bruyne said: “Dear Manchester. These will be my final months as a Manchester City player. Nothing about this is easy to write but as football players we all know this day eventually comes. That day is here – and you deserve to hear it from me first.

“This city. This club. These people … gave me EVERYTHING. I had no choice but to give EVERYTHING back! And guess what – we won EVERYTHING. Whether we like it or not, it’s time to say goodbye … Every story comes to an end but this has definitely been the best chapter. Let’s enjoy these last moments together.”

It looked as if De Bruyne was on course to move to the MLS with San Diego FC, however, now, it looks as if he could be heading elsewhere.

Kevin De Bruyne holds positive talks to move to Saudi Arabia

Previously, De Bruyne claimed he’d be open to the possibility of moving to Saudi Arabia to earn an “incredible” amount of money.

“At my age, you have to be open to everything. We are talking about incredible sums of money for what could be the end of my career. Sometimes, you have to think about it.”

Already on more than £20m per season with Man City, De Bruyne has now held positive talks with Neom SC, a club who play in the Saudi second division. Described as a powerful and extremely wealthy team by Foot Mercato, Neom SC are serious about signing De Bruyne, who also has interest from River Plate, Galatasaray, and Fenerbahce.

After moving to Man City in 2015, De Bruyne looks likely to leave the Etihad after 10 successful years where he has made more than 400 appearances and scored over 100 goals.

Related Would cost £0: Man City hatch plan to sign "deadly" PSG striker for free

The Sky Blues have set their sights on a forward who could join on a free transfer this summer.

Posts ByDominic Lund Apr 3, 2025

He’s picked up 18 honours in Sky Blue and will be hoping to add another FA Cup title to his name before potentially heading to Saudi Arabia.

Andrea Berta has been making all the Arsenal headlines this week following his official appointment, with Edu Gaspar’s replacement already very busy ahead of a vitally important summer transfer window.

Andrea Berta set for "big" summer at Arsenal

The 53-year-old is being tipped for a “big” summer of spending and recruitment, even by Mikel Arteta, who expressed his excitement over Berta’s arrival in north London.

Arteta now "determined" to sign £200k-per-week Man United player at Arsenal

The Spaniard personally thinks he’s perfect.

ByEmilio Galantini Apr 4, 2025

“I think it’s a big addition to the club, a big addition to the team,” said Arteta on what Berta will bring to Arsenal.

“A team that is already formed with a lot of great people. Richard [Garlick] leading it, obviously. But as well with James [King], with Jason [Ayto], with a lot of people at the club that have been doing such good work.

Everton (away)

April 5th

Brentford (home)

April 12th

Ipswich Town (away)

April 20th

Crystal Palace (home)

TBD

Bournemouth (home)

May 3rd

“So it’s about building out that chemistry. And I believe Josh [Kroenke] has been fully involved in the process as well. So we are all very excited to have him. You just met him, and straight away the words that come out are always winning, improving and demanding. And he’s a person who is very honest, very straightforward, with a very clear vision of what he wants to do.”

While Arsenal prepare for another Premier League clash away to Everton on Saturday, Berta has already got to work on potential transfers in the background.

Bukayo Saka’s recent injury lay-off, not to mention Leandro Trossard’s uncertain long-term future, has highlighted the need for reinforcement out wide – leading Berta to start laying groundwork on a potential deal for Athletic Bilbao starlet Nico Williams.

The Spain international’s reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting young forwards is well known by those within Arsenal, who’ve been repeatedly linked since last summer.

His contract also includes a £48 million release clause, and despite his reportedly sky-high wages at Bilbao, the Gunners are set to try and lure him to England.

Berta is reliably reported to have held talks with Williams’ agents this week, and journalist Graeme Bailey has shared his own update on the situation in a piece for The Boot Room.

Andrea Berta convinced Nico Williams wants to join Arsenal

According to his information, Berta is convinced that Williams is “hugely attracted” to the Arsenal project, following this meeting with the 22-year-old and his representatives in the last few days.

Bailey adds that the £200,000-per-week winger is currently on a long list of winger targets, which includes Mohamed Kudus (West Ham), Matheus Cunha (Wolves), Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford), Leroy Sané (Bayern Munich), Jacob Ramsey (Aston Villa), Alex Baena (Villarreal), Yeremy Pino (Villarreal) and Arda Güler (Real Madrid).

This also follows “constant communication” between Arsenal and the player’s camp over the last 12 months, with Berta outlining during the most recent round of talks with Williams’ agents that he’d be a key player in Arteta’s side.

Berta ended these discussions with the feeling that they’re favourites to sign Williams, if he does opt to finally leave Bilbao this year, so this could come as a very encouraging bit of news for supporters who want to see him at the Emirates.