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The victory was set up by a trio of half-centuries from Ibrahim Zadran, Ikram Ali Khil, and Darwish Rasooli, to set up an imposing total of 284 for 7

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jan-2018Ikram Ali Khil gets off his feet to play a shot during his innings of 55•Getty Images

Reigning Under-19 Asia Cup champions Afghanistan reprised their regional success on a global stage at the World Cup in New Zealand, defeating Sri Lanka by 32 runs on DLS Method in Whangerei. Having already beaten Pakistan in Group D, Afghanistan clinched a place in the quarter-finals for the second time in their history, having done it in 2014 in the UAE before losing to eventual champions South Africa.The success for Afghanistan is also a 180-degree turn from the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, when they were similarly placed in a group with Pakistan and Sri Lanka but were defeated by both sides.

SL’s Kalana Perera out injured

Sri Lanka Cricket has named Thilan Wallekamkanamge as a replacement for left-arm spinner Kalana Perera, who has been ruled out of the World Cup with an ankle injury. Perera had hurt his ankle during a training session on January 16 in Whangarei.

Wednesday’s victory was set up by a trio of half-centuries from Ibrahim Zadran (86 off 112 balls), Ikram Ali Khil (55 off 89 balls), and Darwish Rasooli (63 off 44 balls) to set up an imposing total of 284 for 7. The chase was in the balance when rain arrived after 24 overs with Sri Lanka 108 for 3. A revised target of 127 off the final 14 overs was set when play resumed, and the required run rate jumped from 6.80 to nearly ten an over.Afghanistan’s bowlers seized on this to successfully apply pressure. Captain Naveen-ul-Haq snared two wickets in the first four overs after play resumed, including the well-set Jehan Daniel for Sri Lanka’s eventual top score of 48. Naveen finished with 4 for 35 in eight overs and also effected a run-out.Afghanistan play Ireland in their final Group D match. Sri Lanka play Pakistan with the winner joining Afghanistan in the quarter-finals. A tie or a washout would also put Pakistan into the knockouts due to the net run rate tiebreaker.

Stuart Robertson, the ECB marketing man who devised Twenty20, speaks to Andrew McGlashan

Andrew McGlashan13-Sep-2007

The first ICC World Twenty20 is a satisfying time for Stuart Robertson. Back in 2000, as the head marketing man at the ECB, Robertson was set the daunting task of trying to bring more people through the gates to watch English domestic cricket. Test matches and one-day internationals were routinely sold out, even when England weren’t winning, but county matches really were for one man and his dog.The idea he came up with is what we now know as the Twenty20 game. Seven years and 9000 km later, the Wanderers, Newlands and Kingsmead are guaranteed sell-outs to watch some of the biggest names in cricket at the first world championship in the new format.”The key is, it’s such a simple format,” Robertson, who now works for Hampshire, told Cricinfo. “It’s not rocket science and that’s the beauty of it. I wasn’t surprised how quickly the game took off in England, but the international growth was a bit more unexpected, especially the pace at which other countries introduced it into their fixtures.”Twenty20 made its debut in the 2003 English season, and that winter South Africa introduced Pro20. Two years later Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka all made room in their domestic calendars for a competition. Since then, New Zealand have also joined in, while Stanford 20/20 sparked popular interest in the Caribbean and has now been incorporated into the official WICB season. Even India, who have a stubborn love-affair with the 50-over game, yielded to pressure and played a domestic Twenty20 tournament last year, although the reception was lukewarm. Cracking that market remains the game’s major challenge.”The data we had was fairly black and white,” said Robertson. “Across the board, attendances were down 20 per cent over five years when the project began in 2000-01. My job was to put together a report, looking in detail at how to bring people back through the gates, but importantly, doing it from a consumer perspective. There had been plenty of committees set up to look at the issue in the past, but they’d involved former players and county chairmen whose findings were not always in the spectators’ interests.

“We looked at why people weren’t coming to the games and there was a key theme: accessibility. This was a physical reason – the timings of the matches; people at work couldn’t get to the games during the day. But there was a cultural, social aspect as well. A lot of people said: ‘I thought you had to be a member to go a game.'”Robertson and his team identified key groups of people who were barely registering in the county game; women, the 16-35 age group, and young families with children. “We needed a product that would be attractive to them, and asked if there was a game that took less than three hours, would they come to that? The overwhelming response was that they would, so we went back to the counties and in 2001 it went to a vote of the First Class Forum. It was passed 11-7 in favour and that was the start of Twenty20.”It wasn’t a faultless progression from idea to inception. As the voting suggests, the format didn’t gain wholehearted support, although Robertson was confident from the outset that the early misgivings could be overcome. “There was scepticism before and after the start of the tournament, but the great thing was that once it got off the ground, everyone got behind it. Even those who voted against the proposal initially didn’t stand back and say they wouldn’t embrace it.”The advantage was that virtually all the commercial and marketing men
could see the potential that Twenty20 had, but it was the chairmen – brought up in slightly different eras – who offered the early obstacles. Once Twenty20 was voted in, the marketing men could hardly wait to get working on it.”

It wasn’t only off the field that Twenty20 found itself struggling for recognition. During its first season, players didn’t quite know what to make of it, having been brought up on a diet of 50-over and four-day cricket. “From the playing side there was certainly a feeling in the first year that it was a bit of hit-and-giggle, and a few teams didn’t take it seriously,” said Robertson. “I spent a lot of time speaking and giving presentations on it through the PCA [Professional Cricketers’ Association] and slowly the mood changed.”Sometimes the early misgivings actually came from the international players who were used to playing in front of full houses and weren’t sure it could be replicated on the domestic level. But for the young, upcoming players performing in front of six or seven thousand people it was a totally new experience. It’s what being a professional sportsman was all about.”The question now is, how far can Twenty20 go? The ICC has put a limit on the number of international matches in a year and Robertson agrees the current level “is just about right” with a match or two against each touring side, and the World Cup. But he doesn’t support the view that there’s a danger of overload, especially at domestic level. “It’s been such a success. Why shouldn’t there be more of it? In England I certainly think there is scope for a tournament to run throughout the season, maybe on Friday nights, rather than just the two-week period in midsummer.”One enticing prospect is the idea of a Champions League-style Twenty20 league where the top domestic teams from each country play each other. “It certainly would be interesting,” said Robertson. It might sound slightly far-fetched at the moment, but so did the ICC World Twenty20 five years ago.

The Supreme Court had mandated the Law Commission to undertake such a study after the Lodha Committee recommended in its report that betting on cricket be made legal in India

Arun Venugopal08-Aug-2017Tasked with examining the possibility of legalising betting, the Law Commission of India has sought the suggestions of the BCCI’s member units before submitting its recommendations. The Supreme Court had mandated the Law Commission to undertake such a study after the Lodha Committee had recommended in its exhaustive report that betting on cricket be made legal in India.In a letter to the board’s member associations, Sanjay Singh, member secretary of the Law Commission, said the Commission would examine both betting and gambling given their “intertwining nature.””While the Law Commission has been reaching out to the various stakeholders to seek their observations and suggestions, it considers that the views of your association will be valuable in formulating its recommendations on betting,” Singh wrote in the letter accessed by ESPNcricinfo.”I would, therefore, request you to forward the views of the association on the matter to the Commission at the earliest, as we would like to submit our report in line with the directions of the Supreme Court, at an early date.”The debate over legalising betting has been a topic in Indian cricket ever since the match-fixing scandal rocked the sport in 2000. In fact, the creation of the Lodha Committee, which recommended a structural overhaul of cricket administration in India, was a direct consequence of the 2013 spot-fixing episode in the Indian Premier League.As things stand, horse racing is the only sport on which betting is legal in India, as a result of which betting on cricket operates in an unregulated environment run by illegal bookmakers.The Committee stated in its report that many respondents appearing before it were of the view that legalising betting would benefit both the sport and the country’s economy.”It cannot be overlooked that the worldwide legal sports betting market is worth over 400 billion dollars,” the Lodha Committee’s report stated. “However, with the interest of cricket being foremost in our minds, it would always be necessary to protect and invoke transparency from those involved in the game.”The Committee, however, was clear that betting must be legalised only with the following safeguards in place: “a) Regulatory watchdogs would be necessary to ensure that the betting houses as well as those transacting there are strictly monitored, failing which their registrations would be susceptible to cancellation; b) The Players, Administrators and others closely associated with the sport would be required to furnish the details of their incomes and assets for the sake of transparency; c) Licenses would have to be issued to those placing the bets as well, with age and identification details recorded; d) Strict penal sanctions would have to be imposed on those transgressing the license and other requirements.”BS Chauhan, the chairman of the Law Commission, had reckoned that there was a case for regulating betting through an enactment of a law rather than a blanket ban. “Harm resulting from excess is not limited to gambling alone, as an excess of anything may negate its benefits,” he was quoted as saying at a seminar organised by FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and the All India Gaming Federation in March in a report.”The response of the state in such a situation should be to regulate the activity, not seek to stop it completely. Legalisation would give the government the opportunity to bring gambling out from the dark corners of society, impose controls and extract some revenue … if betting were legal then a huge chunk of money that, at the moment, circulates only round the black market, would quickly become available,” he said.A BCCI official said, however, that legalising betting and gambling was a complex argument that required adequate spadework. “If you want to do it and make it successful, there is a lot to be done because it can’t be half-baked,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “If you legalise betting, then who runs the betting houses? Will it be done by the government or will there be certain companies? Is there going to be a structure in place for those companies? Have you thought of a system where you need gambling de-addiction centres? There are not enough liquor de-addiction centres in India, forget betting.”

Spin twins Mihir Hirwani and Ankit Sharma run through Tripura; Odisha thwart Andhra’s push for victory

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Oct-2017Legspinner Mihir Hirwani (5 for 22) and left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma (4 for 51) helped Madhya Pradesh pocket seven points courtesy a 10-wicket win over Tripura in Agartala.Resuming on 200 for 7, MP lost Puneet Datey and Hirwani inside the first eight overs of the morning with the addition of only 11 runs to take them just ahead of Tripura’s 205. However, Ishwar Pandey struck a 29-ball 47, including six sixes, and put on 49 runs for the last wicket with Avesh Khan to give Madhya Pradesh a 55-run lead. Left-arm spinner Gurinder Singh finished with four wickets for Tripura.Despite losing opener Bishal Ghosh in the sixth over, opener Udiyan Bose (27) and Rajesh Banik (29) steadied things with a 47-run partnership in the second innings. However, Ankit’s double strike to remove Ghosh and Bose in the space of three deliveries in the 23rd over triggered Tripura’s irreversible slide. Eventually, Tripura went from 57 for 1 to 103 all out in a little over 20 overs. MP openers Rajat Patidar and Harpreet Singh chased down the target of 49 inside 15 overs.Andhra’s push for an outright victory was stalled courtesy a 185-run stand between Odisha captain Govinda Poddar (111, 182b) and Subhranshu Senapati (91), in pursuit of Andhra’s 584 in the first innings. But they managed to hit back with late wickets as Odisha went to stumps on 294 for 6. Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with three wickets at less than two runs per over.

Blackburn Rovers admin hilariously trolled Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney after drawing Wrexham in the FA Cup fourth round.

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• Blackburn admin trolls Wrexham's Hollywood owners
• Asked if Wrexham needed directions to Blackburn's home
• Blackburn take on Wrexham in the FA Cup fourth round

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  After drawing Wrexham in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Monday, Blackburn X admin trolled the Welsh club's Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. They shared a wildly inaccurate map of UK football clubs – which emerged in the second season of the 'Welcome to Wrexham' documentary – to take a dig at the Red Dragons.

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• WHAT HAS BEEN SAID

  Quoting one of their old X posts from October 23, the Blackburn admin shared the map with the caption, "See you soon, @Wrexham_AFC. Let us know if you need directions?"

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The map that was shown in the documentary, attempted to show the location of UK football clubs, albeit unsuccessfully. The map was widely mocked for its inaccuracy, with Blackburn one of several teams unimpressed with their supposed geographical location.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR BLACKBURN AND WREXHAM?

  The two clubs are set to square off in the FA Cup fourth round between 26 to 29 January at Ewood Park. For now, Wrexham will shift focus to League Two where they take on AFC Wimbledon in a crucial encounter on Saturday. On the same day, Blackburn face West Brom in the Championship.

The U.S. may need some help in midfield, and the answer to the team's problems may lie in Spain

The fear was already there, but Gregg Berhalter's recent comments only added to it. It's been a question that has been lingering for quite some time: what will the U.S. men's national team do if captain Tyler Adams isn't available this summer?

It's a big concern, for sure. The U.S. will play in not one, but two big competitions over the next few months. First will be the Nations League in March and, after that, the big one: the Copa America. As things stand, it's been about a year since we've seen Adams fully fit and, with those games looming, there's no guarantee we'll see the best version of him this summer.

So, with that being the big question, does the USMNT have an answer? It seems so, in the form of two players currently killing it in La Liga. Both Johnny Cardoso and Luca de la Torre could be the natural cover for Adams, and both have stepped up massively for their clubs in recent matches.

There's no replacing skipper Adams; no player in the pool is quite like him. However, a quick glace at what Cardoso and De la Torre are doing in Spain proves that the U.S. has two players that could capably fill in if Adams isn't good to go.

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  'Taking it day by day'

  By the time the Nations League kicks off, we'll have seen Adams play just one match over the last 12 months. In addition, he hasn't featured for the USMNT since the team's round-of-16 loss to the Netherlands at the 2022 World Cup. Yes, it's been that long.

  His initial injury came all the way back in March 2023 while at Leeds United. A hamstring injury led to surgery, knocking out for the rest of the season as Leeds fell to eventual relegation. Adams, though, moved to Bournemouth this summer, but saw his debut delayed by that injury. Shortly after his debut, Adams was forced to go under the knife again, in October.

  He is continuing to rehab and it seems he may be back on the field soon, but Berhalter says Adams' status isn't totally clear at the moment

  “I don’t know,” Berhalter told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re taking it the same way he’s taking it, and that’s day by day. And as we get information, we’ll be able to make decisions, but for us, it’s just supporting him, continuing to communicate with his club, and really not getting ahead of ourselves."

  The hope is that Adams can go, giving the U.S. their midfield lynchpin and, more importantly, their captain. If he can't though, a spot in midfield is there for the taking, and both Cardoso and De la Torre look poised to take it.

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  Cardoso rewarded for big move

  For most of his USMNT career, it's been hard to really figure out what to make of Cardoso. He's earned nine caps, but has started just twice: once in a B-team camp against Bosnia & Herzegovina and then again in a 4-0 beatdown of Ghana in 2023.

  With him playing in the Brazilian league on the club level, he felt hard to compare. How did his exploits with Internacional line up with what others were doing in Europe? The Brazilian league is good, for sure, but it's fair to say that it's rarely the focus of American soccer.

  In January, though, everything changed. The midfielder made his big move, signing with Real Betis and, just a month into his time with the club, he's already a key player.

  He was instantly tossed right into the club's XI and hasn't looked back. On February 9, in just his fourth start, he provided an assist in a 2-0 win over Cadiz to earn man of the match honors. Then, in the Europa League on Thursday against Dinamo Zagreb, he ran the show, leading all players on the field in dribbles and duels despite a 1-0 defeat.

  Betis sit sixth in La Liga at the moment and have an outside chance at pushing for a Champions League spot. The signing of Cardoso may just help get them there as the midfielder is raising his level in a big way.

  For some time, there have been calls for the USMNT to take a longer look at him, and those calls are growing louder as he's shown the ability to run games in a league as good as La Liga.

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  De la Torre as consistent as ever

  It hasn't been the easiest season for Celta Vigo. They sit 17th in La Liga, facing a real relegation battle. De la Torre, though, has been one consistent positive as the American has put together a solid second season with the club.

  After joining in the summer of 2022, De la Torre became a regular for Celta relatively quickly, playing 30 times in that debut season. He hasn't slowed down in this sophomore campaign, either, featuring 26 times in all competitions for the club to date.

  Early in the campaign, he revealed a new nickname: The Aldi Frenkie de Jong; an insult, in one way, but a compliment in others. Like the Dutchman, De la Torre is a player who can contribute in all facets of the game. It's never too bad to be compared to an elite player, even if you are called the Aldi version.

  De la Torre recently put in his best performance of the season, leading the way in a huge 3-0 win over Osasuna. After assisting Jorgen Stand Larsen in the 24th minute, he then scored a goal of his own just 60 seconds later.

  The strike was his third in five games in all competitions as De la Torre is really rounding into form. In total, he has five goal involvements this season, with four of those coming within the last month. One of those efforts came via an outrageous heel flick – a highlight reel goal, for sure.

  Despite his club's struggles, De la Torre's stock is rising, and it's rising at a good time.

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  The case for De la Torre

  It's safe to assume that Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah will start for the USMNT whenever healthy. But, if Adams can't go in March or, worst case, to the Copa America, who is the third midfielder?

  De la Torre could be the guy. He has been before. With 20 caps to his name, De la Torre has filled in plenty of times, playing as both a No.8 and a No.6. He was a member of the World Cup squad in Qatar, too, even if he didn't play.

  The Celta midfielder isn't a destroyer like Adams, but rather more of a ball-playing midfielder. He doesn't offer the physicality that Adams does, but what he does offer is significantly more passing range and the ability to move the ball up the field quickly once he gets it.

  Statistically, De la Torre is in the elite percentiles of ball carrying, offering a different sort of presence to the midfield. He's the natural replacement for Musah, realistically, but the U.S. could go with Musah and De la Torre in a more progressive role with McKennie sitting deeper. They could also interchange any of those names due to their flexibility.

  Against some teams, that type of setup is great, against others, not so much. But, either way, De la Torre has the quality and, now a regular in La Liga, the high-level experience, to step in.

The pitch used for the first Test between India and Australia in Pune has been given a “poor” rating by the ICC match referee Chris Broad

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Feb-20171:04

Chappell: Such pitches provide variety to Test cricket

The pitch used for the first Test between India and Australia in Pune has been given a “poor” rating by the ICC match referee Chris Broad.Australia won the Test match, which ended in the post-tea session of day three, by 333 runs, bowling India out for 105 and 107. India’s match total of 212 runs was their lowest in a home Test in which they had lost all 20 wickets. Spinners accounted for 31 of the 40 wickets that fell during the Test.According to the ICC’s pitch and outfield monitoring process, a pitch is said to be poor if any of the following apply:

• The pitch offers excessive seam movement at any stage of the match
• The pitch displays excessive unevenness of bounce for any bowler at any stage of the match
• The pitch offers excessive assistance to spin bowlers, especially early in the match
• The pitch displays little or no seam movement or turn at any stage in the match together with no significant bounce or carry, thereby depriving the bowlers of a fair contest between bat and ball

In accordance with Clause 3 of the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, Broad submitted his report to the ICC, expressing concern over the quality of the pitch. The ICC has forwarded the match referee’s report to the BCCI, which now has 14 days to respond.

What they said about the Pune pitch

“I don’t think it was any different from the turners that we played in the past. We just didn’t play good cricket.”

“I think it was certainly a wicket that would more likely suit the Indian players. I think it evened up the contest a lot more.”

“There were small cracks running all through the surface (smaller cracks tend to open up faster than the big blocks), the topsoil was so loose that the first time it met the spikes underneath the players’ shoes, it started peeling off, and the surface felt abrasive on the touch.”

“It was dry, it had cracks but this was the first time I saw on an Indian turning pitch that fragments of the pitch, little bits on the top of the pitch, were missing before the first ball was bowled”

“I don’t think you could call it a good cricket pitch but sometimes I have seen these pitches produce exciting games. I wouldn’t like to see one of these for every Test but every now and then they provide a bit of variety”

Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s General Manager – Cricket, and Ranjan Madugalle, ICC’s chief referee, will review the BCCI’s response and study footage from the match, before ruling on whether or not the pitch was substandard.The penalty for a pitch that is ruled substandard for the first time – as would be the case for Pune, which was hosting its first ever Test match – is “[a] warning and / or a fine not exceeding USD 15,000 given together with a directive for appropriate corrective action”, according to Clause 4 of the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.Indian pitches have been under the ICC scanner for a while. In December 2015, the Nagpur pitch was rated poor by the ICC match referee Jeff Crowe after India had defeated South Africa inside three days.Earlier this month, the ICC chief executives committee, backed by the ICC board, decided to punish severely venues that presented substandard pitches. A system of imposing demerit points against each venue was proposed by the Chief Executives Committee. The proposal will be ratified at the ICC annual conference in June and subsequently, the news rules will take effect.”It was agreed that a system of demerit points be introduced, similar to the new Code of Conduct system. Demerit points will remain active for a rolling five-year period. When a venue accumulates 5 demerit points, its ICC accreditation will be suspended for a period of 12 months. Should a venue reach 10 points, its accreditation will be suspended for 24 months,” an ICC release said.

Down 1-2 in the series, this was a must-win game for Pakistan, and the pressure of the situation showed in the manner in which they approached their innings

On the Ball with S Rajesh16-Feb-2006Down 1-2 in the series, this was a must-win game for Pakistan, and the pressure of the situation showed in the manner in which they approached their innings. The Indian bowlers showed exemplary discipline early on, but Pakistan contributed with their attitude. The first couple of overs were maidens, and when the runs came, they were in trickles, interspersed with plenty of dot balls. The early defensive mindset of the batsmen allowed the bowlers to settle into a rhythm on a pitch which didn’t offer them too much assistance.The batsmen’s approach eventually resulted in a rash of poor strokes, so that after 15 overs their total read a miserable 38 for 4, from which there was no coming back. The pie-chart below shows just how much of a stranglehold the Indian bowlers had in the first 15: there were 32 defensive shots, while 18 balls were left alone. A comparison with the number of deliveries left alone in the earlier three games tells the story: in the previous match the number was six, while the figure from the first two games was three. Pakistan played 75 dot balls and managed just three fours in the first 15, and ultimately, that’s where the match was decided.

Ex-Chelsea star Diego Costa has joined Gremio on a free transfer after the Brazilian side lost Luis Suarez to Inter Miami.

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• Costa joins Gremio until 2024
• Striker deemed successor to Suarez
• Left Botafogo at end of last year

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The 35-year-old signed a contract with Gremio to revive his career in the land of his birth after a brief stint with Botafogo. He has penned a one-year deal until the end of 2024 with the Serie A outfit and will be tasked with filling the void left by Suarez, who chose to reunite with former Barcelona team-mates Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets at Inter Miami in MLS.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Costa had an underwhelming season with Botafogo in the last campaign as he scored just three goals in 13 matches. Over the past three seasons, he managed only 11 goals in 66 matches, including an underwhelming spell at Wolves in the English Premier League.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  In his prime, Costa was a force to be reckoned with as he netted 52 goals in 83 matches during his spell at Stamford Bridge and played a key role in inspiring the Blues to two Premier League titles and a League Cup. However, he is mostly remembered for his days in Spain with Atletico Madrid where he emerged as a feared striker under the guidance of Diego Simeone, scoring 83 goals in two spells.

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  WHAT NEXT?

  Costa will land in Porto Alegre in the next few days to undergo a medical examination before putting pen to paper. Fans will be eagerly waiting to find out if the striker can reignite some of his old magic in the twilight of his career in the Brazilian league.

Pep Guardiola has said he would have no problem with Manchester City selling players to Manchester United for the right price.

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• Guardiola has no problem selling players to United
• Berrada crossed divide to become Red Devils' CEO
• 'Nothing wrong with that'

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  City director Omar Berrada made a shock switch to become United's CEO last week in a major coup for the Red Devils' new minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe. And Guardiola sees no reason why some of his players could not also cross the divide to Old Trafford.

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• WHAT GUARDIOLA SAID

  "Why not? If a person is unhappy here and wants to go to United and there’s a deal for the right price then why not? No problem," Guardiola told a press conference. "If Omar is not happy here and wants to go there he has to go. What can we do? There is nothing wrong with that. In the clubs this situation happens. If we want a player from them, United have to agree to sell, and he wants to come and they agree a transfer, why should we not do it? Winning and losing doesn’t depends on these specific things. It depends on many things."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Carlos Tevez is the last major player to switch from United to City although he did so as a free agent as he was only on loan with the Red Devils when he made his infamous move to the Blues in 2009. Ryan Giggs went the other way when he left City's youth academy to join United as a teenager while legendary United manager Sir Matt Busby played for City as well as Liverpool.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR CITY & UNITED?

  Guardiola's side return to action after a two-week break when they visit Tottenham in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday. United, who City beat in last year's final, visit League Two side Newport County on Sunday.