SHOW US SOME LOVE
Sterling asks fans for World Cup send-off to remember Root has swipe at shamed Smith
RAHEEM STERLING says England players need to “feel the love” from fans at Wembley as they face tonight’s final audition before Gareth Southgate names his 23-man World Cup squad. The Manchester City winger has suffered at the national stadium and been booed for below-par displays. He was even the subject of a bid by some fans to fund a private plane to fly him home from Euro 2016 in France because of poor performances.
After a brilliant season for City, Sterling says he has turned the negativity into a positive but says ahead of the sell-out clash with Italy that it would be much easier if the fans were simply nice in the first place.
“You can use a negative to be a positive but why not just be positive?” he said. “If you want your country to do well, bring a positive light into it. Make the boys go off to the World Cup with a clear JOE ROOT has accused disgraced Australia captain Steve Smith of letting his players down during the ball-tampering scandal that has rocked the cricketing world.
Smith and deputy David Warner were forced to step down from their posts before the final day of their team’s third Test against South Africa in Cape Town, which they lost by 322 runs.
The Australia captain has also been banned for one Test after admitting orchestrating a ball-tampering plot carried out by rookie batsman Cameron Bancroft, and faces the sack once Cricket Australia conclude their investigation into the scandal.
But England’s skipper stopped short of accusing the Australians of cheating during this winter’s Ashes series, saying: “I personally wasn’t aware of anything going on throughout that series.
“I was not aware of any ball-tampering. Not to my knowledge.
“I have enough to worry about – but it’s disappointing for Test cricket and cricket in general.”
But he did not hold back when discussing the ethics of captaincy.
“As a captain, you’re responsible for the way everyone else behaves and you want to make sure that’s within the laws of the game and within the spirit of the game,” said Root.
He was speaking after footage emerged of Bancroft putting large