Eidur Gudjohnsen signs two year deal with AEK Athens

Eidur Gudjohnsen seriously thinking

Former Chelsea and Barcelona forward Gudjohnsen has signed for Greek Super League side AEK Athens on a two-year contract.

Eidur Gudjohnsen, 32, had been close to a move to npower Championship club West Ham, but after the deal stalled he quickly decided on a move to AEK.

The Icelandic international has played for Tottenham, Stoke and Fulham in the past 18 months but told AEK's official website he is now looking further to the challenge of playing in a new country.

Disappointed Eidur Gudjohnsen

He said: "I'm happy and excited to be here. It is a new step in my career and a challenge for me. I will give it my all."

Eidur won the Eredivisie with PSV also as back-to-back Premier League titles during his time at Chelsea, while his spell at Barcelona culminated in winning the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions League.

Russia's Alisa Kleybanova diagnosed with cancer

Alisa Kleybanova

Russian tennis player Kleybanova, who feted her 22nd birthday on Friday, has revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer.

Alisa, the world number 28, is suffering from Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

"It's my birthday today and I want to thank all of you for the wonderful messages. I haven't written anything for a long time about why I haven't been on Tour, so that's why I'm writing this today," she said in a statement.

"It's not an easy time for me right now. I've been a bit unlucky with my health. I have Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer.

"I've been having treatment in Italy and it has been going well, but it takes lots of patience and I've had to be really strong to get through this. The good news is after I do treatment for a few more months, if I feel well, there's a chance I'll be able to play tennis again.

"I really miss playing - I miss seeing fans and friends Around the world, I miss hitting the ball, I miss everything. Tennis has been my life for the last 15 years."

The Moscow-based player reached a career high of 20 after the Dubai tournament in February, but illness pulled her out of the French Open and Wimbledon.

The Fed Cup team member is undergoing treatment in the Italian city of Perugia.


"Second, they have a really great hospital here that specializes in this problem; I've been going there since the problem started, so the doctors know me well. It's the best place for me to be - the surroundings help me stay strong.

"This is the toughest time in my life, and I hope it always stays the toughest time in my life. I'm sure I'll be able to overcome this - it's just a matter of patience and time. When this is over, everything will be even better than before.

"I won't be on tour for a little while, but I will see you all again soon."

The WTA praised Kleybanova's courage.

"The thoughts of the WTA and the entire tennis family are with Alisa and her family at this difficult time," said a WTA statement.

"Alisa is a very strong and optimistic person and we wish her a speedy and full recovery."

Fellow players also sent their best wishes to Kleybanova.

"Wishing Alisa Kleybanova all the best as she battles Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Will miss her on Tour, great player and lovely person," tweeted Britain's Laura Robson.

Germany's Julia Goerges also tweeted: "girl I wish u all the best."

Kleybanova has collected two WTA titles at Kuala Lumpur in 2010 and in Seoul in 2008 with her best Grand Slam performances coming at Wimbledon in 2008 and the Australian Open in 2009, where she attained the fourth round on both occasions.

Bobby Labonte searches rebound

Bobby Labonte

Bobby Labonte doesn't want to talk about past season. It was one of his most difficult ones, driving for four owners, and he failed to record a top-10 finish.

Instead, Labonte is concentrated on this season and has a rejuvenated energy with his new team, JTG Daugherty Racing. He opened the season with a fourth-place run at the Daytona 500, and has had a competitive car in every race since, including a 13th-place finish in Bristol, Tenn., three weeks ago.

Labonte looked to have another top-15 finish in him during the Goody's Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, but a five-car wreck on Lap 229 knocked him out of contention. He wound up 27th.

Labonte said he believes he can rebound this week at Texas Motor Speedway, driving the No. 47 Bush's Beans Toyota in the Samsung Mobile 500 on Saturday night.

Former England captains warn of Tendulkar threat

Former England captains Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch have warned that even at the twilight of his international career, Tendulkar would be the biggest threat to England when they take on India in a Test series starting on July 21.

"Sachin`s a different player now from 2007; the best players in the world change little things about themselves to keep themselves in the game. In the last two years he`s become more aggressive, he`s gone back to his old way of trying to score when for a period he tried to survive," Vaughan told a magazine.

"Chris Tremlett bowled well against him in 2007 and he`s a miles better bowler now. But Sachin doesn`t have any weaknesses although every batsman is vulnerable on and around the off stump early on. England might go aggressive at him, test him with a few short balls - I`ve seen people do that over the last two years and it hasn`t affected him," he added.

Hussain said Tendulkar has rediscovered his aggressive instincts in recent years.

"Technically and mentally Sachin has changed little over the years but he has changed his game plan. He began as a flamboyant, extravagant stroke-maker who had all the shots and simply loved the game.”

"Once the records and the hundreds started to be racked up, he turned into a run-machine. His priority was his wicket. Once Sehwag arrived, he was happy to let him tee off. In the last couple of years he has rediscovered his flamboyance and is playing shots again," he added.

Atherton recalled how disastrous it can be to give Tendulkar a life when he is not settled.

"I dropped him in the gully at Trent Bridge (in 1996) and he went on to get a big hundred. He`s not a man you want to put down early on. He was calm at the crease, difficult to get out of his bubble. There weren`t any flaws. He was just a very solid, orthodox player.”

"One of the most remarkable things is that he has hardly changed at all - exactly the same set-up, very few changes to his method. He`s trusted in his technique and power all this time. He`s stayed true to his game," he said.

Gooch went down memory lane to recall the young Tendulkar.

"No one had ever seen him in 1990. As a 17-year-old it was evident that the lad had great skill, great balance, great timing, an eye for the ball. You could see he had all the attributes to make a top player.”

"For one so young he had a poise and composure about his batting. You don`t often get that in young players; you get the talent and the stroke-making but poise, authority and composure normally come," he said.

WIPA welcomes Caricom's initiative on Gayle

The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has welcomed the lead taken by Caricom (Caribben Community) to resolve the ongoing dispute between estranged Jamaican opener Chris Gayle and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

In a statement on Monday, WIPA said it viewed the move with "considerable optimism" and thanked Caricom for deciding to play an active role in the impasse.

"WIPA is pleased that Caricom has heeded the call by Chris Gayle to intervene. Chris made a telling point which we see that the Heads of Government have picked up," said WIPA president and CEO Dinanath Ramnarine.

"West Indies cricket is bigger than the WICB. West Indies cricket belongs to the people of the region and not a miniscule group of administrators who want to dictate to everyone.

"We fully support the move and will do all we can to make it succeed in its desire to put our cricket on a firmer foundation."

Caricom chairman Denzil Douglas, the prime minister of St Kitts and Nevis, announced on Sunday that the Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on Cricket would be revived in an attempt to broker a solution in the standoff that has seen Gayle repeatedly overlooked for selection for the ongoing India series.

The announcement came after Gayle made an impassioned plea last Friday for the regional Heads of Government to get involved.

His appeal was backed by Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo who on Saturday criticised the WICB for acting as if they were the "private owners of West Indian cricket".

Gayle has been at loggerheads with the WICB ever since he gave a highly controversial interview to a Jamaican radio station in April when he was highly critical of the Board.

Ramnarine pledged WIPA's full cooperation with the Caricom sub-committee.

Read More >>

Many questions remain unanswered in Afridi’s case

While the raging dispute between Shahid Afridi and the Pakistan Cricket Board has come to a close, the governing body of the game in Pakistan has succeeded in avoiding many important and pertinent questions which were raised during the last two weeks.

This was stated by Mehmood Mandviwalla who appeared as counsel for Shahid Afridi in the case.

Mehmood felt that the main question is whether there is a link between the grant of the NOC to play for Hampshire with the disciplinary proceedings since the ICC clearly lays down the guidelines for refusal of NOC by a home board.

"The question is whether the PCB follows such guidelines or again uses its own judgement to grant, refuse or take away an NOC that has already been given," Mehmood pointed out.

He added that the ICC recognises that players have a fundamental right to earn a living and hence cannot be deprived of an NOC by a home board and that an NOC is only a guarantee that the player should remain available to play for the national side and the player’s fitness should not be comprised while playing county cricket.

He further stated that the PCB does not appear to have a permanent disciplinary committee and it functions on a need-basis with excessive authority that is delegated to them. 

Read more >>

I am not against DRS, says Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar is not against the controversial Decision Review System (DRS) but he wants it to be more consistent, the Indian batsman said.

The general perception is that the powerful Indian cricket board's steadfast opposition to DRS stems partially from the apprehension that Tendulkar and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, share about the technology's accuracy.

Tendulkar, however, said he was not altogether against the technology.

"I am not against DRS, but I feel it will be more effective with the support of the Snickometer and Hot Spot technology. This will give more consistent results," he told a cricket website.

The Snickometer is used detect edges, while Hot Spot gives more convincing indications of the ball's point of contact. Hawk Eye technology, used more often, replicates the ball's trajectory.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recommended the mandatory use of DRS, under which teams currently can make two unsuccessful appeals against an umpire's decision per innings, in all formats of the game but the Indian cricket board have vowed to oppose it.

Incidentally, Tendulkar's one-day opening partner Virender Sehwag is an admirer of it while former India coach Gary Kirsten has also backed the technology which, the ICC claimed, has improved correct decisions by seven percent.

"I have even told the ICC that we have no problem with Hot Spot. Our objection is to ball tracking," Indian cricket board president Shashank Manohar told website.

BCCI secretary N Srinivasan shot off an angry letter to the ICC in March, claiming the technology's "inadequacy" had been exposed in this year's 50-over World Cup, which was won by India.

The BCCI's opposition meant the DRS would not be used in India's tour of England starting next month.

Read more >>