AC Milan Rallying Around Cassano; Juve At Napoli

Rome, Nov 3: AC Milan has already won four straight in Serie A and now the Italian champion has something extra to play for.

The Rossoneri want to show their unity and support for forward Antonio Cassano, who is slated for heart surgery after suffering from stroke-like symptoms following the team’s win over Roma last week.

Having rallied to within two points of league leader Juventus, Milan hosts Catania at the San Siro on Sunday.

Cassano already missed the 1-1 draw with BATE Borisov on Tuesday that qualified Milan for the next round of the Champions League.

After Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored against BATE, teammate Kevin-Prince Boateng celebrated by lifting his jersey to reveal another shirt with Cassano’s name and No. 99 on it.

“I put it on because Cassano is like a brother to me,” said Boateng, who is suspended for two league matches for insulting the referee after getting sent off against Roma.

Cassano only joined Milan in January, but quickly became a key contributor in the Rossoneri’s run to their first Serie A title in seven years. This season, as Milan struggled early on without injured forwards Robinho and Alexandre Pato, he has been an even bigger factor.

“We can’t deny that the squad feels the psychological impact,” said Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini. “Antonio’s condition has affected all of us. ... We all wish him the best of luck and hope he returns soon.”

With Robinho back, he and Zlatan Ibrahimovic will anchor Milan’s attack for now, while Pato is expected to return from a thigh injury after the upcoming break for national team fixtures.

Nineteen-year-old forward Stephen El Shaarawy could see some more playing time in Cassano’s absence, as could 38-year-old striker Filippo Inzaghi.

But with Cassano expected to be out from four to six months, Milan will likely try to sign another forward during the January transfer window, with the Gazzetta dello Sport reporting that Juventus reserve and former Italy striker Luca Toni is on top of the wish list.

Juventus, the only remaining unbeaten squad, faces a tough test this weekend at Napoli, which gave Bayern Munich a scare in a 3-2 Champions League loss Wednesday.

Having failed to qualify for Europe this season, Juventus has the luxury of not playing many midweek matches and has had all week to regain its composure after an emotional 3-2 win over Inter Milan.

A large part of Juve’s success has been attributed to new coach Antonio Conte, a former midfielder with the club who has the squad playing much more physically than in recent seasons.

“He’s surprised me,” said Pavel Nedved, another former Juve midfielder, who is now among the club’s management members.

“I knew he was good, but I didn’t think he was this well prepared,” Nedved told the Gazzetta. “His character and will to win rubs off and he’s also doing quite well tactically.”

Udinese and Lazio, which are each just one point off the lead, play Siena and Parma respectively this weekend. Both clubs were also playing in the Europa League on Thursday.

Also this weekend, Fiorentina coach Sinisa Mihajlovic and Roma manager Luis Enrique are facing fan pressure to win.

Fiorentina plays at Chievo Verona and Roma visits newly promoted Novara.

Inter, which is hovering just one point above the relegation zone, visits Genoa, which has announced that ticket sales from the match will go to relief for nearby coastal towns struck by recent floods and mudslides.

Newly hired coach Daniele Arrigoni makes his debut for last-place Cesena against Lecce.

Also this weekend, Palermo hosts Bologna and Atalanta faces Cagliari.

Striker Olivier Giroud Called Up To France Squad

Paris, Nov 3: France coach Laurent Blanc has called up Montpellier striker Olivier Giroud for the first time, including him in the squad that will play friendlies against the United States and Belgium this month.

Giroud is currently the top scorer in the French league with eight goals and has been instrumental in Montpellier’s rise to second place.

Last month, France finished top of its qualifying group to secure a place at next year’s European Championship.

France will host the United States on Nov. 11 and Belgium on Nov. 15.

France is unbeaten in its last 15 matches, including friendlies.

The draw for Euro 2012 will be held on Dec. 2 in Kiev, Ukraine.

Tendulkar Rates 2000 Semifinal Win His Best Ranji Moment

Mumbai, Nov 3: Sachin Tendulkar has rated Mumbai's semifinal victory over Tamil Nadu in the 1999-2000 season as his most memorable moment in the 33 appearances he has made in the Ranji Trophy the 78th edition of which got underway in various centres on Thursday.

"We chased 484 runs and the funny thing was, we had to score 42 runs with only two wickets in hand. I ended up scoring those 42 runs and No 10 and 11 both scored zero. The competition was so fierce and intense, I didn't realise that both batsmen [No. 10 and No. 11] hadn't scored a single run.

"It got to that moment where we scored the winning run and my reaction said it all. That has to be my favourite moment," the batting maestro told the BCCI's website "www.bcci.tv".

Tendulkar made an unbeaten 233 off 234 balls with five sixes and 21 fours and in that match held at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

Incidentally, Mumbai played against Hyderabad at the same venue in the final and vanquished the visitors by 297 runs to clinch the title, with Tendulkar making 53 and 128 in the match.

The champion cricketer also emphasised the importance of the national championship in a young cricketer's growth.

"I think Ranji Trophy is an extremely important tournament. I remember in my case, when I was part of the Mumbai Ranji Trophy squad, we had possibly seven or eight Test players and to rub shoulders with the likes of (Dilip) Vengsarkar, (Ravi) Shastri, (Sanjay) Manjrekar, Lalchand Rajput, Chandrakant Pandit, Raju Kulkarni, Suru Nayak, all these top players, it was a great opportunity for me to learn at such an early age. I thoroughly enjoyed my season. I was only 15 then but it was great fun to be part of that team."

Tendulkar feels the competition in the championship is intense but emphasises that good performances on good tracks and against strong opposition have to be given importance.

"The competition is fierce and that is how it should be. You've got to have good tracks to play on and good opposition to play against. That's what raises the standard of playing. If somebody performs well against a good opposition, then that performance has to be recognised.

"I'm sure the selectors are trying their best to watch most of the matches. To have the top players playing this tournament is always an additional bonus," he told the BCCI's website.

Another India batting stalwart Rahul Dravid echoed Tendulkar's views about the importance of Ranji Trophy in the overall health of the game in the country.

"It is an extremely important tournament. It is just a step below international cricket. High standards in the Ranji Trophy lead to the creation of a strong international team, hence it is very critical that the Ranji Trophy is played in a competitive manner, on good grounds and on good wickets. It has to be played with positivity and intent," Dravid said on the BCCI website.

Spot Fixing : Without Trust, Sport Will Become Worthless

Often, the best place to study the good, the bad and the ugly sides of humanity is in the petri dish that is professional sports. That was truer than ever this week, in the tears of a grieving father on a floodlit football pitch in northern England and on the ashen, clouded faces of crooked cricketers who met justice in a courtroom in central London.

First, the good. Billy Sharp's 2-day-old son, Luey Jacob Sharp, died on Saturday. Yet, somehow, Sharp still found the courage, the fortitude and the will to turn out and score for his team, Doncaster Rovers, on Tuesday night in English football's second-tier league, the Championship.

After his left-footed volley curled over the Middlesbrough goalkeeper in the 14th minute, Sharp lifted up his jersey to reveal the tribute, "THAT'S FOR YOU SON," written on his undershirt.

Before kickoff, Sharp cried as his fellow footballers and spectators marked his baby's brief life with a minute of applause. Admirers on Twitter quickly and rightly noted that Sharp's professionalism starkly contrasted with the spoiled-brat behavior of the far better-paid and better-known star Carlos Tevez, who rowed with his club, Manchester City, over his manager's allegations that he refused to do what he was told.

Doncaster manager Dean Saunders said Sharp phoned him the night before the match to say that he wanted to play.

"Unbelievable, really, considering what's happened. I mean, you know, how bad can it get?" Saunders said. "But, sometimes, getting out on the pitch is the best possible way of putting your mind at ease a little bit."

It was, in short, one of those sporting moments where people transcend themselves, where they inspire, touch our hearts and our souls, generate respect and a rainbow of emotions that can run from distraught to delighted.

Sports provide many such moments. As well as Sharp, recall the trembling hands of Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996 or Alex Ferguson's breathless "Football, bloody hell!" when his Manchester United team scored twice in the last minutes to win the 1999 European Cup -- just two of countless examples when sports make us go, "Wow!"

Which is why is the cheating, greed and corruption of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir is so bad and so ugly.

When such people fix games, and when they take money to do so, they erode trust in sports. They undermine the idea that sports people -- win, lose or draw -- will always want to do their best and always try their hardest. If that belief in the integrity of sports and those who partake in them was ever allowed to die, then belief in the feats of people like Sharp, Ali and Ferguson's Cup-winning team would die, too. That must not be allowed to happen.

Match-fixing and its links to massive illegal gambling markets are clearly threats to sports. Whether they become truly mortal threats remains to be seen.

Illegal gambling generates estimated revenues of almost US$500 billion (360 billion euros) in Asia alone, the secretary general of the international police agency Interpol, Ronald Noble, said this March. Organized crime is often involved, he added. IOC President Jacques Rogge on Wednesday called illegal sports betting "endemic" and said "there has been match-fixing in many, many sports." European football boss Michel Platini in September appealed for political action, saying sports administrators alone cannot stop the "alarming" spread of match-fixing.

"European football is afraid, and I think I can even say that European sport as a whole is afraid," Platini said.

Afraid, but not fatalistic. The battle is not lost yet and won't be as long as cheats like Butt, Asif and Amir are caught and remain, as now, the minority. The players could be jailed for as long as seven years. Sentencing is on Thursday. The hope of many in cricket is that the high-profile case will spur more action against match-fixing and corruption both from the sport's administrators and in Pakistan, a long-troubled cricketing power.

Still, without shady investigative reporting by the now defunct British tabloid News of the World, Pakistan's cricketers may never have gone on trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Working undercover, reporter Mazher Mahmood handed over bundles of marked cash to a fixer in a covert sting that exposed the cheating.

Cricket's administrators and many other media organizations would balk at the methods that The News of the World employed. Now the tabloid is no more, closed in July after evidence emerged that its reporters hacked phones, who will climb into the gutter of sports next time to unmask the criminality that goes on there?

"I do accept and acknowledge the investigative journalism that led to this trial," Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne said outside the court after Butt and Asif were convicted Tuesday of fixing parts of a test match against England in August 2010 at Lord's, the home of cricket.

Amir previously pleaded guilty. Thank goodness that he, in particular, was caught early in his career. Just 18 at the time of the Lord's fix and the youngest cricketer to take 50 test wickets, it's frightening to imagine how many other matches he might have gone on to corrupt.