Root scores £200k with new bat deal
ENGLAND’S top Ashes runscorer Joe Root is changing his bat maker before the series against Pakistan in the UAE starting next month.
Root, who has used Gunn & Moore blades throughout his career, will sign for New Balance in a deal believed to be worth £200,000 a year when his current contract expires at the end of the month.
It is understood Root liked the feel of the new bat — plus the size of the offer — to the extent of taking the risk of switching just when he has established himself as one of the world’s best batsmen, with a current ranking of No 3.
Jonathan Trott, Ben Stokes, Gary Ballance and new Australia captain Steve Smith are also in the New Balance stable. Their other business includes being Liverpool’s kit suppliers as the Warrior brand’s parent company.
BT SPORT were told at a production meeting yesterday ahead of tonight’s Porto v Chelsea Champions League group game that pre-match interviews must be fast, with a maximum three questions. This follows Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho walking out of an interview with BT Sport reporter Ray Stubbs, who was questioning him over the transfer window pursuit of Everton defender John Stones. Mourinho told Stubbs: ‘Before the game, this is too long.’ EUROPEAN Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke is said to be showing the same attention to detail in preparing for next year’s contest in Minneapolis that was the hallmark of Paul McGinley’s victorious leadership at Gleneagles last year. But Clarke (right), who has reportedly mended a relationship with McGinley that broke down when the Ulsterman backed Colin Montgomerie to captain the 2014 Europeans, is keen to stamp his own personality on his tenure rather than just follow McGinley’s blueprint.
THE advancement of climbing, surfing and skateboarding to the final round of selection in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics shows what a trick cricket missed. If the proposed campaign ‘T20 for 2020’ had taken place, there is a good chance that 20-over cricket would now be in the mix for Tokyo. The two biggest opponents of an Olympic bid were understood to have been Indian cricket’s ruling body the BCCI and autocratic former ECB chairman Giles Clarke.