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Fernando Alonso will bounce back from the disappointment of losing this year's drivers' title at the last race and be as strong as ever in 2013.

That's the view of his Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali, who says Alonso "would have deserved the title".

"It is not easy when you do such an incredible season to lose in that condition," Domenicali said.

"But the strength of a champion is to make sure that in this break you recharge and once again be the best." After losing the title by three points to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel after finishing second in the Brazilian Grand Prix last month, Alonso talked of his "pride" at putting together such a strong challenge in a car that was never the fastest in the field.

But Domenicali, who was speaking in an exclusive interview for the BBC F1 review programme, admitted the Spaniard had been devastated to lose out.

Domenicali said: "If you put yourself in his shoes, he knows and he knew at that stage he would have deserved the championship. Honestly.

"That's without putting any negative words on Sebastian - he won and so he deserved that.

"But if you look at the way [Alonso] performed since the first race, with a very difficult car in the beginning, then was able to maximise [his result] every time.

"In the races I think he was the one that did more overtaking than anyone else.

"In his mind he understood that in a way he lost his opportunity to win the championship and you cannot win the championship every two seconds, so I think that's why he was so down in that moment. As were the team." But he said Alonso would have the mental strength to recover and fight again next season after a winter of preparation.

"If you don't have this kind of approach, not only in sport but everywhere, you will lose all your opportunity and strength and this is something I'm sure Fernando will not do," Domenicali said.

He added that Ferrari would try to absorb the lessons of 2012 in an attempt to ensure they could mount a stronger challenge next season.

"We learned the things that have to be improved, mainly on the development of the car, no doubt, but these things need to be discussed internally," Domenicali said.

"I don't want to use you, the media, to say what we are doing because this is something that is not representative of how I want to work, but here in our offices we know what we need to do."

Asked whether he shared Alonso's view, expressed at the Indian Grand Prix in October, that he was battling against Red Bull's design leader Adrian Newey as well as Vettel, Domenicali said: "If you look at the situation with Vettel and (team-mate) Mark Webber, Vettel was able to maximise the performance of the Red Bull in a different way. That is a fact.

"Red Bull have shown in the last couple of years to have one of the best cars. So the reference is for sure a different performance level than we had in Ferrari and this is something we have to take as an example to improve.

"If others are doing a better job you have to understand why. It is a matter of people, of methodology and of tools, of a lot of combinations and organisation, and you have to work in all these elements to make sure you can maximise what you have."

The BBC F1 2012 review show will be broadcast on BBC One on 29 December at 13:00 GMT







BBC Sport - Fernando Alonso will bounce back from missing out on title say Ferrari

1. Gary Bettman, Commissioner, National Hockey League

"A good leader needs to have a compass in his head, and a bar of steel in his heart." – Robert Townsend

What, him again? You bet your Bill Daly him again.

Bettman may be a despised figure among hockey fans, but he garnered more top votes than anyone else, and that says power.

This is a man who knows what he wants and has the steel heart to hold on long enough to get there. Influential? When the commish tells the gaggle of NHL owners there’s more out there, they will nod. When he says this is the best we’re going to get, they will nod, call their GMs and say "let's go."

Problem for Gary, however. There's a new 1A out there who himself would easily fit the above quote.
2. Donald Fehr, head of the NHL Players’ Association

"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion, than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep." – Charles Maurice De Talleyrand

De Talleyrand was a diplomat who died 174 years ago, but he would have recognized Fehr.

Last time out, the NHLPA did, by most accounts, send out a big baaaah after a long fight and allow themselves to be sheared.

After a group of the sheep turned on a couple of new herders, they came up with the former baseball players' association head who has never backed down from a fight, and rarely lost one.

Now the sheep have some sharp teeth and are willing to follow this guy as far as possible.

Like Bettman, when Fehr says there’s more, the players believe him.

That's how we got to this point.
3. Alex Anthopolous, General Manager, Toronto Blue Jays

"Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too." – Robert Half

A couple of good deals and you’re suddenly No. 3. But when it comes to influential, there has to be a lot of votes for anyone who can get the sports media lined up and convinced you’ve built yourself a winner two months before pitchers and catchers report.

There is an argument that team president Paul Beeston should be ahead of his young GM on this list, because he’s the one who convinced owner Rogers to pony up the money for that big deal with Florida and others moves.

Be that as it may, the one they call AA has put a AAA repair on his roster and has Canadian baseball fans chomping at the bit for the new season.

He works incessantly, peeking around corners, lifting up the box lids, checking his list and checking it twice. Reminds one of a guy they used to call Segap Wolley (hold your computer up to a mirror): Hall of Famer Pat Gillick.
4. Christine Sinclair, Captain, Canadian Women’s Soccer Team

"Eagles don’t flock, you have to find them one at a time." – H. Ross Perot

By a slim margin, a female soccer player has slipped ahead of the nation’s most famous hockey performer. What a year for the newest hero in Canadian sport, one who led the national women’s side to the first team Olympic medal since 1936.

Think about that …76 years.

Sinclair showed once-in-a-generation skill, plus leadership, toughness and a willingness to call a lousy ref a lousy ref, and we fell in love with her.

What’s interesting will be seeing how this new influence plays out in the coming months as Canada prepares to host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. How will she use it? Will we follow her?
5. Sidney Crosby, Member, NHL Players' Association

"The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive." – Joe Batten

This is a tough one.

Crosby was a key addition to the 2011 list because of his struggles with concussion and how that made the problem so much more high profile across the country.

None of that has changed, but with no hockey being played we don’t hear much about it anymore.

Where he's shown influence is in the attempt (one that, by the way, we still haven’t seen come to either fruition or naught yet) to orchestrate an end to the NHL lockout by joining with his Pittsburgh Penguins’ owner and his own agent to help get things going.

A gutsy move, actually, because if things don’t work out he’ll be seen as ineffective. Crosby could easily have hid behind his money and not said a thing. He chose another path.
6. Marcel Aubut, President, Canadian Olympic Committee

"Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision." – Henry Kissinger

Aubut, the Quebec lawyer and former boss of the old Nordiques, has been working two sides of the avenue in Canadian sport, both showing he sees a way forward.

One is the ongoing attempt to bring the NHL back to Quebec City, something you don’t hear a lot about right now because he and Bettman and playing the long, quiet game that returned the sport successfully to Winnipeg.

Two, as the COC president, he’s pumping new monies into the high performance system with a view to continuing the medal success of the Vancouver Games in 2010 and, to a lesser extent, London 2012.

That means, among other things, keeping his influence among the halls of power in Ottawa. You don’t see it, but PM Harper listens to the man.

Remember the old days when the federal government of the day doled out monies for amateur sport by trickle and dime? Those days are gone.
7. Mark Cohon, Commissioner, Canadian Football League

"I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it." – Harry S Truman

In 44 years as a follower of the CFL, your correspondent cannot remember a time when this league has been stronger or less given to controversy.

Cohon has spent five years herding the most rambunctious group of ownership cats in sports (some feral, some owned by multiple parents) towards fiscal sanity, slapping down early attempts to circumvent the salary cap, improving and expanding the relationship with league sponsors and changing the atmosphere at games.

There are no panic moves, no awarding of franchises willy nilly, no ridiculous player signings, no moving off the plan. Now, he's beginning to work on a new TV contract for 2014

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Bradley Wiggins has been voted the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The Tour de France and Olympic time trial champion, 32, beat 11 other contenders to the prestigious title.

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis was runner-up while US Open winner Andy Murray was third. "I will say thank you to everyone who voted," said Wiggins, who became the first Briton to win the Tour and followed that triumph by claiming his fourth Olympic title.

After receiving the main award from the Duchess of Cambridge, he added: "We have had all that jungle stuff and X Factor in the last few weeks, so for people to pick up the phone and vote in half an hour, thank you very much.

"What a year. To stand on this stage with the people next to me is incredible. I'd like to thank my team-mates - I wouldn't be on this stage without them. I'd like to thank [British Cycling boss] Dave Brailsford, the coaches, British Cycling, Team Sky and all the Olympians."

Prime Minister David Cameron posted a message of congratulation on Twitter.

"Congratulations to Bradley Wiggins - a truly inspirational winner, after an incredible year for British sport," he said.


More than 1.6m phone votes were recorded for the 12 BBC Sports Personality contenders, with Wiggins taking 30.25% of the vote.

Wiggins mixed track and road cycling from an early age, but first came to wider public prominence in the velodrome, when he won 4km individual pursuit gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The Lancashire-based athlete followed that up with two more golds on the track at the Beijing Games in 2008, a year in which he also picked up three titles at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

Wiggins showed his Tour pedigree when finishing fourth overall in 2009 (later promoted to third following the disqualification of third-placed Lance Armstrong) before securing a first Grand Tour podium place with third in the Vuelta a Espana two years later - a place behind Team Sky team-mate and fellow Briton Chris Froome, who was to play a key supporting role in Wiggins's 2012 Tour win.

In total, the Briton won Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie, the Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour de France during 2012 - the only cyclist ever to achieve that feat in a single season.

And just over a week after his Tour victory, the Belgium-born rider won the time trial at London 2012 to take his tally of Olympic medals to seven, a haul only equalled among Britons by fellow cyclist and 2012 Sports Personality nominee Sir Chris Hoy.

Below are the results of the phone voting for the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year main award:

Total votes: 1,626,718

1. Bradley Wiggins 492,064 (30.25%)

2. Jessica Ennis 372,765 (22.92%)

3. Andy Murray 230,444 (14.17%)

4. Mo Farah 131,327 (8.07%)

5. David Weir 114,633 (7.05%)

6. Ellie Simmonds 102,894 (6.33%)

7. Sir Chris Hoy 42,961 (2.64%)

8. Nicola Adams 35,560 (2.19%)

9. Ben Ainslie 35,373 (2.17%)

10. Rory McIlroy 29,729 (1.83%)

11. Katherine Grainger 28,626 (1.76%)

12. Sarah Storey 10,342 (0.64%)



BBC Sport - Bradley Wiggins wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year

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BBC Sports Personality of the Year showcased a glorious 12 months for British sport and its star performers. But what happens when the adoration of a nation comes to an end and the crowds stop chanting your name?

It is said sports stars die twice, the first time at retirement. If you are no longer a sporting superstar, then who are you?
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Someone who knows this struggle better than most is boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. He vividly recalls the feeling he experienced at the moment of victory and how he found its allure too enticing to resist.

"Nothing could satisfy me outside the ring," he says. "There is nothing in life that can compare to becoming a world champion, having your hand raised in that moment of glory, with thousands, millions of people cheering you on." Speaking to BBC Sport, Leonard reflected on how his inability to separate the boxer from the man became all-consuming, forcing him to the depths of depression and leading him to make repeated comebacks.

"When I came back I felt safer in the ring. I could defeat those demons that possessed me outside the ring," he recalls. "It was such a release when I trained for a fight because all of a sudden I'm totally clean, whether it was from cocaine, or alcohol, or depression. It gave me a sense of calm."

Two of Britain's best-loved sportsmen, boxer Ricky Hatton and former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff, have suffered from depression. Both recently made high-profile returns to professional sport, each citing unfinished business as the main motivating factor.

For athletes who are at - or close - to their physical peak, whose lives have been dedicated to intense physical challenge, retirement can lead to a range of mental and physical problems.

Some people are sceptical as to how sports stars, with all their wealth and fame, can suffer from depression, but sports psychologist Andrea Firth-Clark argues "they should not be denied the same level of understanding and help that anyone else may expect". Bill Cole, a world-renowned peak performance coach based in California, has worked across dozens of different sports and seen many athletes struggle to come to terms with their retirement. A significant contributory factor is the profound sense of loss they experience.

"Athletes identify themselves by what they do," he says. "Take that away and they feel abandoned and naked and at a loss for how to make sense of it. It's as if a major piece of themselves has gone missing."

Leonard agrees. He claims that this feeling is common among top-level athletes.

"I spoke to my friend Wayne Gretzky [the legendary ice hockey player] recently about how you have that feeling of loss if you're not a boxer, not a hockey player," said the 56-year-old American. "Sometimes we don't listen to our bodies. The body says it's time, but within our hearts and minds we tell ourselves 'one more time'. It's always one more time!"


Read More: BBC Sport - Why do so many athletes struggle to cope with retirement?

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Former Ospreys coach Lyn Jones has urged the people running Welsh rugby to stop talking and take action to halt the regional game's decline in Wales.

The Welsh Rugby Union and regions recently set up a new board to boost the four teams on and off the field.

"I know there's yet another committee been formed," said London Welsh head coach Jones.

"But I hope it's not a talking shop and I hope things can.. be actioned upon to move the professional game forward." Ospreys chief operating officer Andrew Hore has recently hit back at criticism after a disappointing return by three of Wales' regions in the Heineken Cup.

The Ospreys have won two out of four games, while the Blues and Scarlets are winless in the opening four pool rounds of Europe's top tier tournament this season.

Jones, who was Ospreys coach from their 2003 launch until his May 2008 departure, says all four Welsh regions lack financial resources.

The man who has witnessed his Exiles side impress on their debut season in the Aviva Premiership, detects a major difference in Wales since he left the Ospreys.

"When I was involved in regional rugby the union and regions worked very well together when we all started and we were all pushing in the right direction for the greater good of the national side," said Jones.

"I'm not really sure what's happened since, but there's obviously a lack of investment into the professional game, which I'm sure the regions are desperate to address." The four regions are working under self-imposed annual salary caps of £3.5m, which many argue has contributed to the departure of high-profile players from Welsh regional to French club rugby.

Welsh Grand Slam winners of recent vintage Gethin Jenkins (Toulon), James Hook (Perpignan), Luke Charteris (Perpignan), Lee Byrne (Clermont Auvergne) and Mike Phillips (Bayonne) are among the Welsh stars playing in France.

Blues centre Jamie Roberts is set to join them at the end of this season, though the Cardiff region hope to secure 22-year-old international wing Alex Cuthbert on a three-year deal.

Cuthbert remaining at the Blues would be welcomed in Wales amid what is seen as a worrying trend in the face of heavily-bankrolled French clubs.

On the field, coach Simon Easterby, has guided the Scarlets to second behind Ulster in the Pro12 only to see his side lose four times in the Heineken Cup this season.

Exeter completed the double over the Scarlets following earlier defeats by Leinster and Clermont Auvergne.

And while Easterby understands the criticism that riled Hore, he says a more "balanced" view should be considered.

"What's slightly unbalanced [about the criticism] is the fact that we're battling against teams with huge budgets [and] bigger depth in their squads.

"And ultimately that is going to have an effect if you can't put your first team out week-in, week-out at the top level - and we haven't been able to do that in every game."



BBC Sport - Welsh rugby regions: Lyn Jones calls for action, not words

Stand-in captain Eoin Morgan is backing his inexperienced England Twenty20 side to follow the Test team's lead by upstaging India on their own turf.

Morgan will lead England in a two-match series starting in Pune on Thursday.

"We are going in as underdogs which is a great label to have with such a young side," Morgan told BBC Sport.

"I personally would back every one of them. In this cauldron that is India it's tough conditions, but it would be great to win these two games."

Morgan is captaining England's Twenty20 side in the absence of the injured Stuart Broad. With regulars Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Steven Finn all rested after their exploits in the 2-1 Test series win, England's 15-man squad features seven players under the age of 24.

India, in contrast, only have three players under 24 in a strong squad featuring Twenty20 veterans such as Mahendra Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina.

Morgan, however is confident his team won't be overawed. He said: "It would be quite an achievement (to win the series) and the expectation on the guys is quite low.

"But a lot of our guys have been involved in the Champions League and played in front of the big crowds.

"Twenty20 is one of those formats where, at any stage during the game, you will be given a moment to stamp your authority. If some of the boys can do that, we will be in with a chance."

Morgan said he had taken advice from Broad and Test and one-day skipper Alastair Cook about captaincy.

"I've spoken to both of them and I've had great advice," said the Dubliner. "Most of them will be natural because things happen quickly in Twenty20 and we will have most of our tactics sorted pretty much before the game starts."

India captain Dhoni said his team's first home Test series defeat since 2004 would have no bearing on the Twenty20 series, which concludes in Mumbai on Saturday.

"It's a completely different format, so I don't think there's any point carrying anything from the Test series into this," he said. "You have to start from scratch every time."

India Twenty20 squad: Mahendra Dhoni (capt & wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Parvinder Awana, Piyush Chawla, Ashok Dinda, Gautam Gambhir, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh.

England Twenty20 squad: Jonny Bairstow (wk), Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Alex Hales, James Harris, Michael Lumb, Stuart Meaker, Eoin Morgan (capt), Samit Patel, Joe Root, James Tredwell, Luke Wright.



BBC Sport - India v England: Eoin Morgan relishing T20 underdogs label

Manchester City midfielder YayaToure has been named the African Player of the Year for a second time.

Toure beat fellow Ivory Coast star and former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba into second place with former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song third. He won the 2012 poll in a vote of head coaches or technical directors of countries affiliated to the Confederation of African Football.

Ex-Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o holds the most titles, having won four times.

African Nations Cup winners Zambia were named team of the year with their coach Herve Renard named coach of the year.

Song currently plays for Barcelona while Drogba signed for Shanghai Shenhua in May.

Toure, who won the award last year, is part of the Ivory Coast team heading to the Africa Cup of Nations that starts in South Africa next month.




BBC Sport - Yaya Toure is named the 2012 African Player of the Year

Malaga have been banned from European competition for at least one season because of unpaid bills.

The suspension will not affect the Spanish club this campaign, as they aim for the Champions League last eight, but any time in the next four seasons should they again qualify for Europe. The ban has been issued by football governing body Uefa, which is seeking to stop clubs spending beyond their means through Financial Fair Play.

Malaga lie fourth in La Liga.

A Uefa statement said: "Uefa's club financial control body has taken its first decision due to the presence of significant overdue payables.

"Malaga is excluded from participating in the next Uefa club competition for which it would otherwise qualify for in the next four seasons."

The club responded by claiming they have been made a "scapegoat" by Uefa.

"Malaga wishes to express its total disagreement at the decision issued today by Uefa, and considers the intended actions against the club to be completely unjustified," said a statement.

"The club believes they are being made a 'scapegoat' and an 'example of' by Uefa by this unfair treatment."

Malaga were also fined 300,000 euros (£244,000) and face a further season's ban unless they can prove by the end of March that they have settled outstanding payments to other teams, staff and tax authorities.

The fortunes of Martiricos, who face Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League, looked to have changed for the better when Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani of the Qatari Royal Family was named owner in June 2010.

Argentine defender Martin Demichelis, Brazil's Julio Baptista, Frenchman Jeremy Toulalan and Chile's Manuel Iturra have all been brought in by manager Manuel Pellegrini over the last two years as the club qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history.

However, Malaga sold key players Santi Cazorla, who is now at Arsenal, and Joris Mathijsen, to Feyenoord, last summer.

And there was internal trouble with former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cazorla among a handful of players to threaten legal action over unpaid wages last season.

The LFP (Liga de Futbol Profesional) had imposed a transfer ban in January after the club missed a payment to Osasuna for Spain full-back Nacho Monreal.

Meanwhile, five other clubs face similar one-year bans during any of the next three seasons unless they can convince the governing body they have cleared stipulated debts.

They are Hadjuk Split and Osijek from Croatia, Rapid Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest from Romania, and Partizan Belgrade from Serbia.


BBC Sport - Malaga given European ban for unpaid bills

It was not the clamour for his retirement but the thought of the Indian cricket team's preparations for the next 50-over World Cup in 2015, which prompted Sachin Tendulkar to walk into ODI sunset here today, according to a top BCCI official.

"What he has expressed is his concern that India has to prepare for the next world cup. From that point of view, he felt that it was time that he retired," said Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI's chief administrative officer.

One of the game's all-time greats, Tendulkar, announced his retirement from one-day cricket, bringing to an end a glorious 23-year-old career in the format during which he rewrote numerous batting records.

Cricket Board general secretary Sanjay Jagdale said Tendulkar had informed them about his decision before the team was picked for the upcoming ODIs against Pakistan.

"It was not sudden. He informed us before the selection about his decision. We should respect his decision. The way BCCI and cricket lovers respect him, the same way they should respect his decision," Jagdale said.

"He was not only a great Test batsman but also a great one-day batsman. In T20 also he has batted well in whatever matches he played. We wish him the best. It is his own decision and people respect it.

"He spoke to me and the president about his decision. Naturally he must have been (emotional) I can't say we just spoke on the phone," Jagdale added.

He further said: "A person of his calibre knows what to do. He has always taken the right decision at the right time. He will continue to do that in future as well.

Jagdale refused to comment on when exactly Tendulkar conveyed his decision.



2015 World Cup preparations prompted Sachin Tendulkar to retire: BCCI - Sport - DNA

Kevin Pietersen has not been named in England's one-day and Twenty20 squads for the upcoming tour of New Zealand.

Pietersen, 32, has been left out by the national selectors as they look to better manage the workload of players.

James Anderson, Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann return to the side after being rested for the ODI tour of India. Stuart Broad is back to captain the Twenty20 team after a recent heel injury, while Joe Root will skipper the second-string Lions side in Australia.

Spinner Swann, rested from both limited-overs series against India, also misses the T20s in New Zealand.

National selector, Geoff Miller, said: "Following on from the ODI tour to India, the tour to New Zealand will require players to adapt to different conditions and will prove a real challenge for the squad as we look to continue the progress we have made in limited-overs cricket.

"There are a number of players who we have decided not to select for parts of the competitive programme this winter as we look to manage their workloads effectively while ensuring we remain competitive across all formats. "We feel this is the best way of keeping players as physically and mentally fresh as possible during a demanding 2013 and beyond."

The tourists will fly straight to New Zealand after their one-day series in India concludes at the end of January.

Recently appointed limited-overs coach Ashley Giles will pick from a 14-man T20 squad and a 14-man ODI squad for the three Twenty20 internationals and three ODIs against the Kiwis.

Broad and fellow paceman Steven Finn, who missed the end of the Test series and the T20s in India with injury after originally being named in the squad, will be in both squads down under.

In the ODI squad, spinner Danny Briggs and pacemen Jade Dernbach, Stuart Meaker and Chris Woakes join Pietersen in making way from the players selected to face India, although Briggs, Dernbach and Meaker are in the T20 squad.

After two warm-up games in Whangarei, the first T20 match takes place in Auckland on 9 February.

England will also play three Tests in New Zealand, starting with the opening match on 6-10 March in Dunedin.

The England Lions will play a five-match one-day series against Australia A at the same time, with the side led by Root who impressed in the final Test against India this month.

Root, who made his Twenty20 international debut in Mumbai on Saturday but was not required to bat or bowl, misses out on the full squads, as does uncapped seamer James Harris who was another late call-up to the T20 squad in India but did not feature.

Twenty20 squad for New Zealand: Stuart Broad (capt), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler (wk), Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Michael Lumb, Stuart Meaker, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, James Tredwell, Luke Wright.

ODI squad for New Zealand: Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott.

England Lions squad for Australia: Joe Root (capt), Gary Ballance, Scott Borthwick, Danny Briggs, Varun Chopra, Matthew Coles, Ben Foakes (wk), Alex Hales, James Harris, Simon Kerrigan, Toby Roland-Jones, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Reece Topley, Chris Wright.





BBC Sport - Kevin Pietersen: England batsman misses New Zealand games

THE wages earned by Irish soccer stars and golfers who make it to the top of their game are the reason why they, unlike GAA, rugby and boxing stars, don't have to worry themselves with university and third-level education.

A prime example is West Bromwich Albion and Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long, who jacked in a promising hurling career in his native Tipperary to play soccer in England.

With a reputed salary of £40,000 (€49,000) a week according to one British newspaper, it is understandable that Long did not set his sights on a third-level qualifications after completing his secondary education at Scoil Ruain in Killenaule.

In contrast, their counterparts in amateur and lower-paid professional sports must instead try to cram a course or some sensible educational career steps somewhere along the way on their paths to sports glory.

World-beating athlete Katie Taylor has had to break off from her UCD degree to pursue the intensity of Olympic boxing gold while international rugby superstar Jonathan Sexton has stretched his UCD degree out over six years to make sure he can slot an education between the posts.

In second-level, Irish schools intensely glorify their sports stars, listing more of them on the alumni sections of their websites than any other type of past pupil. Some schools have become factories for their sports.

Take St Kieran's College in Kilkenny, which calls itself the "nursery for hurling." It has turned out Henry Shefflin, DJ Carey and Tommy Walsh, perhaps the greatest hurlers of their generations.

There are GAA football schools too. St Declan's in Dublin contributed to the great Dublin teams of both the 1970s with various batches of Brogans and another Dublin CBS, St Vincent's in Glasnevin contributed to the capital's football prospects with Sherlock, McCaffrey and Farrell.

St Jarlath's in Galway has also managed to turn out a long list of football stars.

In the realm of rugby, we have the fee-paying schools of Dublin (Blackrock for Brian O'Driscoll, St Mary's for Jonathan Sexton) compete with both fee-less (Ardscoil Ris for Paul O'Connell) and fee-paying (Pres Cork for Ronan O'Gara) rugby schools of Munster.

But when it comes to earning the big readies, the soccer players don't come from one school but from all over.

Richard Dunne is from Killinarden School, Robbie Keane from St Aidan's Community School and Kevin Doyle from Dermot Desmond's alma mater, Good Counsel in New Ross.

Andy Murray's mother Judy says her son can enjoy even more success in 2013, and has praised the impact that coach Ivan Lendl has had on his career.

Murray enjoyed his best year in tennis, winning Olympic gold before lifting his maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open, and was runner-up at Wimbledon.

"It's been a significant year for him," Judy Murray told the BBC.

"It's given him a lot of confidence. He's worked even harder than before to go after another Slam in Australia."

The 25-year-old joined forces with eight-time major winner Lendl 12 months ago and the partnership has been a huge success, as Murray threatens to reach the top of the world rankings. "He's been a crucial factor in Andy's improvement and success this year," said Judy.

"The wonderful thing about Ivan is that he's very similar in character to Andy, not least they have the same awful sense of humour! But seriously, he's very driven, very dedicated and he absolutely has his eyes on the prize.

"He knows what you have to go after and he knows that you have to be very single minded about going after it.

"He's got a real sense of direction, a real toughness and he's really helped Andy with the mental side of the game, about being able to reset if you suffer a disappointment, a bad call or a run of bad games. That's allowed him to play his best tennis for much longer periods of time."

Murray, from Dunblane, recently finished third in the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award and has been in Miami for his annual pre-season training camp, but will take a short break before flying east.

"He's come home for Christmas for a couple of days for the first time in about four years. He leaves on Christmas night to go to Abu Dhabi to play in an exhibition event and then on to Brisbane for the warm-up tournament before the Australian Open," his mother explained.

And Judy, who captains Great Britain's Fed Cup team, feels there is a crop of young Scottish players ready to step onto the world stage.

Maia Lumsden, a 14-year-old from Glasgow, beat fellow Briton Gaby Taylor, from Hampshire, in the final of the Orange Bowl event, considered one of the most prestigious in the world junior game.

The Fed Cup skipper added: "Anna Brogan is the best girl in Britain in the 1997 age group. Maia is the best born in 1998. For 1999 there's Anastasia Mikheeva who's the number two in Britain. And born in 2000, there's Ali Collins from Dunblane who's the British number one under 12.

"There's a bright future ahead for British girls' tennis if we can get the next stage of the players' development right."

William Hill has agreed to a £485 million purchase of leading gambling and betting provider Sportingbet, but protest from online joint-venture partner Playtech could stop the deal in its tracks.

Hill-Playtech Dispute

William Hill and junior partner GVC Holdings made an offer for Sportingbet last week, following prolonged negotiations for the business involving two suitors. The deal would see Hill take over Sportingbet's coveted Australian telephone and online gambling business, plus its growing Spanish operations.

But software firm Playtech argued that the acquisition of Sportingbet would add "considerable value" to William Hill Online, in which the two are partners. It said the potential contribution of Sportingbet activities should be taken into any consideration as part of any valuation to buy its share in WHO.

Source of Discontent

The source of Playtech's discontent is its potential split from WHO. Hill took the first steps to buying out Playtech's share when it asked a group of banks to value the software firm's stake in their joint venture. The valuation is due to be delivered in February.

Should William Hill activate its call option n Playtech's 29 percent share in their online gambling venture, it would see the British betting operator take over full control of the web division, William Hill Online.




William Hill, Playtech at Odds Over Sportingbet - The Headlines - Onlinecasinoreports-com

Tsgabu Grmay dreams of becoming the first African winner of the Tour de France and the 21-year-old Ethiopian's impressive showing at the African Cycling Championships suggests it is far from an impossible dream.

Grmay won gold in the under-23 individual time trial in Burkina Faso and also finished second overall in the senior standings.

And while he said his silver medal in the seniors came as a major shock, many of his coaches and team managers told me they were not surprised.

Grmay is a product of the World Cycling Centre, a body which receives the majority of its funding from the sport's world governing body, the UCI, and the Olympic movement.

Think of it as a training college for riders with the potential to step up to the professional ranks - they're invited from across the continent to the centre's African base in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Jean-Pierre van Zyl, a former Olympian, is the centre's director. Part of what he does is to prepare young riders for life on the European circuit.

How African riders adapt to that cultural shift is crucial. While I was in Burkina Faso, I saw Eritrea's Daniel Teklehaimanot ride and win as temperatures hit 46C - very different from life at the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland where he needed long gloves and leg-warmers in conditions considered "normal" by his European team-mates. Cycling is all about teamwork, and there is now an African team with enough financial backing and ambition to seriously mount a challenge for cycling's biggest prize.

South Africa-based MTN-Qhubeka also has strong links with the World Cycling Centre, creating a route to success for a rider as promising as Grmay. MTN is the commercial sponsor, while Qhubeka is a non-government organisation which provides bicycles for African children in rural communities.

African athletes, born and trained at altitude, have dominated middle and long distance running for decades. But why have those conditions not already helped the continent produce cyclists capable of winning the Tour de France?

When I spoke to the leading African riders, coaches and team managers they told me it was more complex than that. To suggest a runner could just jump on a bike ignores the importance of tactics and technique.

Van Zyl says these "aren't acquired during your first season. [A rider] can be strong on the bike, but if [he and his team does not] have tactics, he can't win".

So when will an African win the Tour? The least optimistic forecast, "not in my lifetime", was from the Namibian Cycling Federation president Mannie Heymans; but the general consensus was that the continent could produce a winner within the next decade.

There were those at the African Championships, like UCI president Pat McQuaid, who made the point that Chris Froome, who came second in the 2012 Tour de France, is Kenyan-born and "very proud of his African heritage".

Sky rider Froome even went to a World Championship with Kenya, but these days he represents Great Britain.

What about an African with home-grown coaching and finance behind him?

Grmay was the only rider I spoke to who, rather than tell me he wanted to participate or win a stage on the Tour de France, said he would aim to win it outright.

And, at 21, he has got plenty of time to learn from his mistakes.

In his first interview as a professional cyclist, he told me he wants to be as famous back home as his legendary Ethiopian compatriot, runner Haile Gebrselassie.

Grmay's potential has certainly been recognised. Of 500 cyclists who have passed through the World Cycling Centre's African satellite, nobody has impressed Van Zyl as much.

"Some champions," he said of the Ethiopian, "are born, not made."




BBC Sport - Can Tsgabu Grmay win a first Tour de France for Africa?

Everton defender Seamus Coleman has signed a new five-and-a-half-year contract with the Premier League club.

It means the Republic of Ireland international has extended his stay at Goodison Park until the summer of 2018. Coleman, 24, joined the club from Sligo Rovers in 2009 and has gone on to make 85 appearances.

"Signing a contract here is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the next couple of years, " Coleman told EvertonTV.

"I'm glad to get it all done and to sign for so long at a club like Everton is a great achievement - I want to be here for as long as possible.

"I'm going to keep working as hard as I have done since day one and keep improving every day in training to impress the manager.

"I'm really happy to have signed for the length of time that I have."

Coleman has missed the last three games through injury.



BBC Sport - Seamus Coleman signs new Everton deal

Owen Gibson (Fears over sporting legacy, 27 December) highlights the strategic challenges in turning the intense interest in sport generated by the Olympics into tangible outcomes. The choice of where to invest – between schools, elite sports provision or specialist clubs – is one that no one yet seems satisfactorily to have grasped. But if the aim is to ensure that more young people are able to participate in sport, then perhaps the answer may be on our doorsteps.

Community-based youth clubs give thousands of young people the opportunity to enjoy sport, often for the first time, in a setting in which they feel safe and comfortable. In London, since 2009, almost 6,000 young people, most of whom had previously not engaged in sport at all, have taken part in structured sessions in one of London Youth's 400 member clubs, giving them access to specialist coaching in any one of more than 30 sports, as well as the chance to gain coaching qualifications. Some of these young people will progress to elite sport: Britain's judo silver medallist, Gemma Gibbons, started off in the community-based Metro Judo Club in Charlton.

But for far more of the young people who participate in these programmes, their progress can be measured in terms of their health, self-confidence and re-engagement in school and the wider community. A group of young Muslim women in Tower Hamlets are now running their own non-contact boxing sessions at their local youth club, helping other girls to gain confidence and fitness in ways they wouldn't have thought possible previously.

Gibson highlights how local authority sports funding has been cut. The situation is the same for youth services, meaning many clubs now struggle on from one week to the next uncertain of long-term funding. Perhaps the best legacy from London 2012 would be a real commitment, locally and nationally, to fund sports provision in community youth centres, so that all young people have the chance to enjoy the benefits that sport and exercise can bring.


Letters: Give youth clubs money for sport | UK news | The Guardian