Now Kane’s a keeper

ENGLAND manager gareth Southgate’s raft of team-building initiatives includes closing the doors of the hotel at St george’s Park to the public when the senior squad are in residence during international weeks.

During that time the players will share the massive facility only with people booked in on football business. This decision, put into practice for the first time this week, has seen players wandering around the hotel far more than they would have done if — horror of horrors! — members of the public or the media had been staying there.

This new freedom saw an impromptu game of indoor cricket taking place at SgP on Tuesday with Harry Kane keeping wicket, Jamie Vardy bowling and a fire extinguisher serving as stumps.

Perhaps they had been inspired by West Indies’ astonishing Test victory against England that day, which the players were watching on TV in their meal room.

ONE rare company who have at least shown interest in the domestic Test cricket sponsorship vacancy or the Blast T20 opportunity is Vitality, the health insurance firm who have England captain Joe Root as an ambassador and star of their TV advertising campaign. THERE is major upset in horse racing that ruling body the British Horseracing authority intend to replace the 97 part-time voluntary stewards with a professional group. This is seen by the amateurs as dangerous to the sport, as it is feared a professional set-up would be very expensive and lack the integrity and experience of the current stewards.

They say the BHa are trying to fix something that isn’t broken and blame aussie regulations chief Jamie Stier for trying to introduce australian methods into British horse racing. a consultation process is ongoing.