Fulham owner Al Fayed will not rush manager appointment

Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed is refusing to panic over the club's failure to find a new manager.

The season begins in three weeks and the Cottagers' attempts to replace Roy Hodgson have so far drawn blanks.

A bid to install Ajax boss Martin Jol at Craven Cottage collapsed after the Dutch side refused to release him.

But a Fulham spokesman says the chairman will not be rushed into an appointment and will make a decision "as and when he sees necessary".

According to BBC Sports News Correspondent Dan Roan, Fulham are "hugely disappointed" with Ajax's refusal to allow Jol to return to the Premier League.
"Whoever Fulham decide to appoint will be immediately undermined by the fact they they are clearly the club's second choice," said Roan.

"A senior member of Fulham's board of directors told me the club's sense of grievance has only been intensified by their contrasting willingness to allow former boss Roy Hodgson leave for Liverpool, and not stand in his way.

"Fulham want to make an appointment before the start of the season but are not currently negotiating with any candidates."

Caretaker manager Ray Lewington is currently overseeing Fulham's pre-season tour in Sweden, which ends with a friendly against Malmo on Tuesday 27 July.

And while Fulham are still looking for a new manager, Al Fayed is understood to be content with Lewington's preparation for the Premier League season, which begins against Bolton on 14 August.

"The chairman is obviously confident that we will have someone in place but we won't be rushed into making a decision," the club spokesman added.

"We have our second friendly of the pre-season tour of Sweden [on Tuesday] and the chairman is very happy with the way that preparations are going under Ray Lewington so we are not panicking.

"It's business as usual. Ray Lewington is doing a great job with the pre-season campaign and the managerial situation will be resolved as and when we have the right man for the job."

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is thought to be on the club's wish list although the Swede's agent, Athole Still, has said that Fulham have yet to get in touch.

Bookmakers have also made Cardiff manager Dave Jones one of the favourites for the job after his success in guiding the cash-strapped Welsh outfit to the Championship play-off final last season.

Jones insists, however, that he is committed to the Bluebirds.
"I'm fully behind this football club," Jones said. "I can assure our fans that I am - as always - 100% working at this football club to try and get things right, as I have done every season and during the season."

Another manager to be linked with the post is United States boss Bob Bradley, and the 52-year-old received the backing of Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
"I like Bob. I like his approach. I think he has got a steely determination about him. I think he has done a fantastic job," said Ferguson, whose side are in the US on a pre-season tour.

"I know he's been linked to the Fulham job and I don't think it's beyond his boundaries at all.

"He is a young man. And I do not think there is anything wrong with him seeking a challenge in Europe or England, for that matter."

Ferrari boss slams F1 'hypocrisy' after Alonso win

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has slammed the "hypocrisy" of those who have criticised Fernando Alonso's victory in Sunday's German Grand Prix.

Ferrari have been fined $100,000 for appearing to give Felipe Massa a coded order to allow Alonso through to win and referred to F1's governing body.

But Montezemolo replied: "Enough of the hypocrisy. This has always happened."
"If one races for Ferrari, then the interests of the team come before those of the individual," he added.

The result at Hockenheim put Alonso firmly back in what looks a five-way fight for the drivers' championship, with McLaren pair Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber the others in with a realistic chance of battling for the title.

Alonso is now 34 points behind championship leader Hamilton with eight races remaining, while Massa, who had failed to score a single point in the previous three races, is 38 points adrift of his Spanish team-mate.

The controversial incident occurred when Massa, marking the first anniversary of his near-fatal crash in Hungary, was given a veiled radio message on lap 47 indicating that the Spaniard was the faster of the two drivers and, two laps later, the Brazilian slowed to let Alonso past.

It prompted heavy criticism from outside the Ferrari camp, though, with the likes of Button, Red Bull boss Christian Horner and BBC F1 pundit Eddie Jordan questioning the Italian team's race strategy
Montezemolo remained unrepentant, though, telling the Ferrari website : "The polemics are of no interest to me.

"These things have happened since the days of (Tazio) Nuvolari (a Ferrari driver in the 1930s) and I experienced it myself when I was sporting director, in the days of Niki Lauda.

"Therefore, enough of this hypocrisy, even if I can well believe that some people might well have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another, but that is definitely not the case for me or indeed for our fans.

"I am very happy for all our fans who finally saw two Ferraris lead from start to finish as they dominated the race.

"The result is down to the efforts of all our people, who never give up.
"Now we have to continue working like this, to improve the car so that is competitive at all the circuits we will encounter.

"Alonso and Massa also did very well, giving their all throughout the weekend."
The next race is at Hungary this weekend.

GB women's volleyball team in bike-ride fund raiser

The Great Britain women's volleyball team have embarked on a 272-mile bike ride to raise the £250,000 necessary to keep their 2012 Olympic dream alive.

Following funding cuts, the team may have to cancel training programmes and thereby jeopardise their chances of being competitive at the London games.

They began their journey from their Sheffield base to London on Saturday.
They are due to arrive in the capital on Tuesday, two years exactly until the London Olympics opening ceremony.

"It's no surprise to me the girls are doing this, knowing their determination and energy," coach Audrey Cooper told the official GB women's volleyball website.

"They are not willing to turn up at London 2012 under-prepared. They want to be as
good as they can be at our home Olympics to make the country proud.

"We started from nothing in 2007 and we've improved out of sight since then. We are simply not prepared to give up now."

The ride has also received the backing of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is the MP for Sheffield Hallam.

"It gives me great pride as a local MP to see that the ladies GB volleyball team are prepared to cycle to London to raise as much money as possible so that they can fund their training," he said.

"This really is an inspirational act and I am sure that the public will be backing the team and offering their encouragement to them on their journey."

The planned route will take the team through Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicester, Stratford, Oxford, Reading, Hampton Court, Richmond Park, Westminster and Trafalgar Square, before coming to an end at Earls Court on Tuesday night.

Along the way, they will take part in demonstration volleyball events, offer the public rides on a seven-seater-bike, provide an inflatable volleyball court and meet local people to spread the word of their venture.

Volleyball was one of eight sports to have had London 2012 funding slashed in January because of a £50m budget shortfall.

Murali: The man who reinvented spin bowling

Muttiah Muralitharan, who played his last Test on Thursday, may have been the greatest bowler to spin a cricket ball. Sports writer Suresh Menon reflects on the career of a remarkable cricketer.

Before the start of the Galle Test, Muttiah Muralitharan's last, India's ace spinner Anil Kumble paid him one of the warmest tributes from one great bowler to another.

"When you see that Murali has played exactly the same number of Tests as me and taken 173 wickets more," he said, "you begin to understand the magnitude of his achievement."

Spin bowling is about masks and disguises, sleights of hand and tempting arcs.
Batsmen reach for the ball that is not there, or adopt a superior air, ignoring the one that seems set to go past but then inexplicably changes course. They are rendered illiterate - unable to read the spinning ball.

Muralitharan's greatness lay in the fact that even when batsmen read him, there was little they could do to keep him out.

Test cricket's most successful bowler is 38, and even if the spirit is willing there is only so much a body can do.
Defining the delivery

Murali's record 800 wickets are likely to stand forever given the diminishing interest in Test cricket, but figures do not tell the full story.

Murali was responsible for cricket's first proper attempt to define the legal delivery.

Thanks to his action, umpires know there is a difference between what the eye sees and the computer calculates.

That he reinvented the art of spin bowling tends to be forgotten in the light of this fundamental contribution.

While studying Murali's action, it was noticed that some of the finest bowlers known for their smooth actions did, in fact, send down illegal deliveries.

By the earlier system - the naked eye - someone like Australian fast-bowler Glenn McGrath was seen as picture perfect. Then technology showed that he too fell outside the demands of the legal
That led to a new world order where a flexion (the act of bending) of 15 degrees of the bowler's arm was allowed.

Those who criticise him base their observations on the naked eye; those who absolve him go by the definition. Murali's action is legal, but he has suffered more than anyone needs to.

Few cricketers have had to shoulder his burdens - as a minority Tamil in a strife-laden country, as a bowler worshipped and reviled in equal measure, as a player in a team whose fortunes rose or fell according to his performance.

In nearly two decades at the top, he won over everybody - both sides of the ethnic divide and both sides of the bowling-action divide.

His work after the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka released him from the narrow confines of a sporting hero and anointed him a national icon. Through it all he has remained rooted, a charmer who finds it hard to believe that by merely doing what he loves the most, he has rewritten the rules of his craft.

Unlike most spinners, Murali didn't appear on the international scene a finished product, every trick in place, every nuance worked out.

It took him 27 Tests to claim 100 wickets; the hundreds thereafter came in 15, 16, 14, 15, 14 and 12 Tests respectively.

This wasn't a genius that was created behind closed doors, but one that evolved out in the open, in front of thousands of spectators.

Symbol

Every ball, every wicket, was tucked away in that remarkable mind; nothing was forgotten, nothing was useless. Muralitharan is the man who remembers everything.
He brought to the craft a new way of doing things, converting a finger-spinning exercise into a wrist-spinning one. He remains the symbol of a resurgent Sri Lanka, a talented side from its pre-Test days but one that needed a touch of iron to perform consistently.

Sri Lanka have won 61 Test matches in all. Muralitharan has played significant roles in 54 of these, claiming 438 wickets at 16.18, taking five-wicket hauls an incredible 41 times.

He might have finished with the best-ever figures for a single innings, but after he had claimed nine wickets against Zimbabwe at Kandy, Russel Arnold dropped a catch at short leg. Then, while bowlers at the other end tried desperately not to take a wicket, Chaminda Vaas accidentally had the last man caught behind amid stifled appeals.

Murali has taken 10 wickets in a match four games in a row. Twice.
That record alone would have ensured Murali a place in the pantheon.

But his influence is not restricted to his country's improved performance.
With better bats, shorter boundaries and tougher physiques, batsmen have threatened to eliminate the offspinner from the game.

Murali has kept the craft alive with a simple ploy - being successful at it. By developing the doosra - a ball which turns the opposite way to a traditional off-break - that was invented by Saqlain Mushtaq, he widened its scope.

He expanded the horizons of the game, bringing in elements that make it more complex, and therefore more interesting, and providing challenges in the meeting of which international batsmen made their reputations.

Nobody bowls like Murali; sadly, not even Murali towards the end, and the time had come. But he will be missed, as any one-of-a-kind performer will be.

There is no "Murali" school of bowling, no successor who bowls in his unique style. Murali stood alone, and now that he is gone, only memories - and video replays - remain.

New Pakistan captain Salman Butt savours winning start

Captain Salman Butt savoured victory in his first match at the helm as Pakistan drew the series with Australia 1-1 after a three-wicket win at Headingley.

"For young team to beat Australia, the best Test playing nation in the world, is going to do the world of good to Pakistan cricket," he told BBC Sport.
"We dedicate this win to the people of Pakistan who would have loved to have come and watched us playing at home.

"We remember them and hopefully we'll be back soon playing in Pakistan."
"It was really nerve-wracking towards the end and I think my young team did a great job," added 25-year-old Butt, who was grateful Australia captain Ricky Ponting chose to bat first in helpful bowling conditions on the opening day.

"He would bat on a river as well I think, he bats everywhere!
"It looked good to bat but Mikey [former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding] told me you look up at Headingley not at the pitch and I think he was right."

Pakistan had gone five matches without a Test win, stretching back to New Zealand in December 2009, and had lost 13 successive Tests against Australia.

Butt took over in testing circumstances when Shahid Afridi quit Test cricket following the 150-run defeat in the first Test at Lord's.

"The whole team contributed and it has been a wonderful experience for me. It is difficult to take decisions but that is the time when you are tested and that is the time when you learn," he stated.

"It's a whole new outlook, all of the boys are very young, some of them making their debut, some playing under 10 Test matches."

Looking ahead to the four-match Test series with England beginning at Trent Bridge on Thursday he said: "This is going to be a huge boost for us but England is a different side we have to go to our plans again, see how they are playing and what their line-up is and plan accordingly."

Australia captain Ponting saw a run of seven successive Test victories come to an end and is still to lead his side to a series victory in England in three attempts.
His side could not come back from a disastrous 88 all out on the opening day and asked if he would still have batted first given the opportunity again he said: "Not if I knew the wicket was going to do that much.

"Anyone who saw that wicket would have been surprised by how much it did seam because it looked fairly dry. Pakistan used the conditions perfectly and had our batsmen under pressure all the time.

"We had a good chance to bowl on that first day and they were two for 130 odd which told a big story in the game. We haven't done much right and you can go right back to the toss and everything that happened on the first morning.

"We were always pushing uphill after that first day.
"I'm still pretty happy with where we're going as a group and as a bunch of players, the commitment and fightback we've shown in the last half of the game has been good but not good enough to win a Test."

The 35-year-old was uncertain whether he would return to England as Australia captain in 2013 but when asked if Pakistan would beat Andrew Strauss's team in the four-Test series beginning on 29 July he said: "Let's hope so."

Maria Sharapova – Sexy Tennis Star

Beautiful and sexy Maria Sharapova boasts the most ear-shattering grunt in women’s tennis: over 100 decibels. That drowns out Monica Seles (93.7 decibels), but falls short of a jet at take-off (125 decibels).

When asked about the equal pay at Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova states, “It’s incredible. I think all the girls have stood up as a team and have been fighting for such a long period of time. I remember last year it was one of the questions that was greatly asked in all the press conferences that most of us got.”

After her second Grand Slam title at the US Open, Maria Sharapova said “I just think there’s more of a rush outside me. I didn’t have any rush feeling within myself because I knew what I was capable of. I always told people, Look, I have won a Grand Slam, but I won it when I was 17. I really thought that I was physically and mentally ready to do it. It showed, especially beating Amélie in three sets and going the next day and beating Justine in two.”

On missing the innocent days, Maria Sharapova responded “I definitely felt like that’s the first time on an international level I was starting to get some recognition, when I actually realized that people are starting to look at me and to watch my tennis and all that, pay attention more closely than they did before.”

Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, has struggled recently and never really achieved the star status that many had hoped. Many say her beauty supersedes her tennis playing ability.

The Open - Brilliant Oosthuizen seals shock Open win

Unfancied South African Louis Oosthuizen kept his cool to claim a first Major title with a crushing seven-stroke victory in the Open at St Andrews, the home of golf.

The 27-year-old brought the Old Course, and the rest of the field, to its knees with an assured display of ball-striking and control to become the sixth South African Major winner, and the first at the Open since Ernie Els in 2002.

"I would like to take this opportunity to say happy birthday to Mr Nelson Mandela back in South Africa," Oosthuizen said after being presented with the trophy on the 18th green.

It was the former South African president's 92nd birthday on Sunday.

Oosthuizen, who had missed the cut in all his three previous Opens and was a 200-1 outsider before the tournament started, never looked like being headed after starting the day four clear and he finished with a 71 for a 16-under total of 272.
The 27-year-old sank a short par putt at the 18th, took off his cap to acknowledge the thunderous applause from the crowd that lined the revered fairways, hugged his caddie before embracing his wife Nel-Mare and young daughter Jana.

England's Lee Westwood emerged from the pack to finish second, a 70 putting him on 279.

Compatriot Paul Casey (75), who began the day as Oosthuizen's closest challenger, ended in a tie for third spot on eight under alongside Sweden's Henrik Stenson (71)
and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (68).

From the moment Oosthuizen took the lead with a birdie at the seventh hole early on Friday morning, the cynics have been predicting his downfall, but the man nicknamed Shrek not only held on to it but methodically extended it despite all the brickbats the course and weather could hurl in his path.

Born Lodewicus Theodorus and named after his grandfather, to the Claret Jug engraver's eternal gratitude he is known simply as Louis.

The scene was set for a titanic battle between the final pairing when Casey missed a five-foot putt at the first for a birdie that would have put Oosthuizen under early pressure, and when the Englishman bogeyed the second the South African's lead was five shots.

Casey cut the deficit to four with a birdie at the sixth but as the chances went begging and no-one from the chasing pack threatened to take the Old Course apart, the title looked like Oosthuizen's with every passing hole.

The South African even escaped with a par at the fifth after his second found the deep gorse and his recovery scooped up an enormous tuft of undergrowth on his follow-through.

A bogey from Oosthuizen at the eighth cut the deficit to three for the only time in the day but a superb 40-foot putt for an eagle two at the ninth restored the four-shot cushion and the momentum moved inexorably in his favour.

Casey's chances of mounting a challenge vanished along with his ball in the fairway gorse when his drive at the 12th found an unplayable lie.

He took a penalty drop and went on to card a triple-bogey seven to Oosthuizen's birdie and all of a sudden the lead was eight and there was only going to be one winner.

"To win an Open championship is special but to win it here at St Andrews is something you dream about," he said after revealing compatriot and nine-times Major winner Gary Player had called with words of encouragement on Sunday morning.

The win, which moved Oosthuizen from 54th to 15th in the world rankings, earned him £850,000 and made a mockery of the form book. Not only had he never made an Open cut before but it was only his second professional win outside South Africa while his previous best finish in a Major was 73rd in the 2008 US PGA Championship.

World number one Tiger Woods endured another torrid day on the famed links and even his decision to restore the putter he ditched for Thursday's opening round failed to produce results.

His outward 37, scarred by two double bogeys, saw him sink down the field to finish on three-under in a tie for 23rd.

"You just can't play and expect to win golf tournaments if you have nine or 10 three-putts in a week," said Woods who won the last two Opens staged here. "No one can win doing that."

McIlroy's second-round 80 looked bad when he finished on Friday, it looked even more costly on Sunday after his closing 68 maintained the 21-year-old's run of never carding a round in the 70s here.

"I couldn't help but think about Friday going up the last hole there," he said. "If I had just sort of stuck in a little bit more on Friday and held it together more, it could have been a different story."

Westwood was delighted to emerge from a wretched week of putting, where nothing really dropped for him, by going one better than his tie for third at Turnberry last year.

"I keep putting myself into contention in these Major championships and keep finishing in the top three. It's not really to be sniffed at and complained about," he said.

South Korea's Jin Jeong made sure of the Silver Medal for leading amateur, signing off in style with an eagle two at the 72nd hole for a share of 14th place.
Oosthuizen labels Open win "special"