INJURY TIME
MIC DROP
HOW DO you drop the mic, without literally dropping the mic? Mohammad Amir knows how. It hasn’t all been sunshine and roses in the Pakistan camp on this tour of South Africa. There haven’t been any late night visits to strip clubs as happened on a previous tour here, just a heated post day meeting after the second day’s play in Centurion and then admonishment from the captain Sarfraz Ahmed in Cape Town because he felt his bowlers weren’t bowling fast enough – all quite normal. At the end of the first day’s play, Amir was outlining Pakistan’s happiness at bowling South Africa out, when he took a question from a visiting scribe and turned that question into the last question of the press conference. “Sarfraz said at the end of the last Test he was not happy with the pace of the bowlers, is this….” came the inquiry. “Please, please leave this question. Are we done?” went Amir, and got up and left. Mic Drop. Press conference over.
EASIER FOR ELGAR
FOR DEAN Elgar, his second go at the captaincy was a great deal easier than the first. In 2017 Elgar skippered the South African team at Lord’s in the absence of Faf du Plessis who was at the birth of he and wife Imari’s first child. In England the captain has mutiple media engagements before a Test match, especially the opening game of the series. There’s a radio interview, a TV interview then the press conference with the main papers and then he and the opposing captain pose – in Elgar’s case at Lord’s with Joe Root – with two trophies in front of the Old Pavilion. “This has been much easier,” he said Thursday before the final Test against Pakistan. Only one TV interview and the press conference had 50 fewer hacks. “It’s not as hard dealing with the press here than in England,” Elgar mused. “We will try harder Dean,” came a swift reply from one insulted scribe.
FIVE THINGS
ONE OF the Internet’s favourite things to do nowadays is ‘Five things’ – five things you may have missed, five things this, five things that – it’s dof. The Daily Mirror were at it this week when they visited Manchester United’s training session and later Liverpool’s. From website football365.com: “Among the five things that the Daily Mirror ‘noticed’ at Manchester United training is that David de Gea ‘has had to work hard’ to be really good, some of the players are quite young, and Scott Mctominay needs to stay hydrated. Among the five things that the Daily Mirror ‘noticed’ at Liverpool training is that Fabinho is ‘part of the first team’ now, that Mo Salah wasn’t there, and that Roberto Firmino has ‘really white teeth.” Is it possible to lose brain cells purely by reading something on the internet?
OLD CONTRACT
HE’S OLDER than most managers. But Kazuyoshi Miura is still going, aged 51 and he’s just signed a contract extension with Yokohama FC in Japan’s second tier. He started his career way back in 1986 and will now play in the Japanese second division until at least the age of
52 – an age he reaches next month. “I will not waste it for one minute, one second,” he said. “I think that I want to go face to face with football and go to daily training with maximum power.” Miura was born in the same month as Italy legend Roberto Baggio, who retired in 2004, and broke Stanley Matthews’ record as the oldest professional to score a goal in 2017. He failed to score in nine appearances in the 2018 season, which saw Yokohama lose in the play-offs.