TalkSport pundit Jamie O'Hara has claimed that "a lot of billionaires" will want to buy Tottenham Hotspur if they are put up for sale.

What's the latest Spurs takeover news?

It was a terrible final home game of the season for Spurs on Saturday as they were comfortably beaten 3-1 by Brentford in the Premier League.

This means, the campaign will see Tottenham end without any trophies yet again, while the club don't even have a permanent manager or a sporting director in charge.

It certainly is a mess in North London right now and fans have been furious with ENIC and chairman Daniel Levy for some time, protesting against the ​​​​​​ownership set-up with growing regularity.

However, there is no guarantee that they would be bought by someone who would do a better job of running the club if Tottenham was put up for sale.

Even so, while talking about it all on TalkSport, former player O'Hara insisted there would be no shortage of offers for the Premier League asset if ENIC did opt to sell.

He explained: “I can assure you now if Tottenham went up for sale properly – and Joe Lewis did come out and say we're going to sell the football club – there'd be a lot of billionaires who would want to buy it.

"Are you joking? You've got concerts? You've got Formula One there. You've got NFL matches there. It's one of the most sought-after stadiums in the world."

Who wants to buy Spurs?

It's notable that O'Hara doesn't call upon any footballing achievements when listing while the football club would be a good asset for any prospective buyers.

To be fair to him, though the new stadium is a great venue, with deals struck to host music concerts, boxing and rugby in London N17. And the club have even, somewhat spuriously, estimated that 5.9bn people globally will be interested in events held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

However, even if it is a potentially attractive asset, as we've learnt with the saga that has developed after the Glazer family put Manchester United on the market this season, it wouldn't be simple to get ENIC out and someone else (someone better) in charge.

Still, there may already be a leading candidate to takeover Spurs with Iranian-American billionaire Jahm Najafi – chair of MSP Sports Capital – reportedly working with a consortium ahead of a possible £3b takeover in the near future.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Cricket Scotland announced a near-identical squad from their previous campaign – the ICC World Cricket League Championship against UAE – for the two ODIs against Hong Kong in Edinburgh on September 8 and September 10

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Sep-2016

Cricket Scotland announced a near-identical squad from their previous campaign – the ICC World Cricket League Championship against UAE – for the two ODIs against Hong Kong in Edinburgh on September 8 and September 10.Uncapped fast bowler Gavin Main was the only change in the squad, replacing Josh Davey. Main, however, is available for the second ODI only.Scotland coach Grant Bradburn was upbeat about the side’s chances following the 2-0 sweep over UAE at the same venue in August.”Our players will relish the opportunity to play two more ODIs before the summer ends and are eager to finish the home season on a positive note,” he said. “We have seen huge benefits this season from training hard as a wider squad and we now have more players than ever contesting selection in the national team.”Squad: Preston Mommsen (capt), Kyle Coetzer, Matthew Cross (wk), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Mark Watt, Alasdair Evans, Safyaan Sharif, Con de Lange, Craig Wallace, Chris Sole, Gavin Main (second ODI only)

Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is showing 'encouraging signs' in his new role under Jurgen Klopp, says journalist Pete O'Rourke.

What's the latest news involving Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Alexander-Arnold has been used in an inverted full-back role against Arsenal, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest for Liverpool recently, enabling him to step into the midfield area and influence play, resulting in the 24-year-old claiming four assists in his last three matches, as per Transfermarkt.

As per The Liverpool Echo, Reds manager Klopp spoke to the media about his usage of Alexander-Arnold in this position, saying:

“In each position he played for us, Trent was always a super-important player. This now slightly advanced role suits him in the moment really well.

“It's good, it’s a challenge for everyone else to cover the spaces when we lose the ball theoretically, but with him there we didn't lose that many balls, which was helpful as well."

WhoScored has shown the impact of the positional switch on his performance levels, as Alexander-Arnold has recorded a match rating of 7.88/10 vs Arsenal, 8.47 vs Leeds United and 7.44 against Nottingham Forest, respectively.

The £180k-a-week ace has adapted well to the tactical tweak by Klopp and has impressed his Liverpool teammate Virgil van Dijk with his ability to foray into central areas.

As cited by The Liverpool Echo, Netherlands international stated: "It's a work in progress but we all like it. We all have to be able to change in times and sometimes Trent has to drop, whereas sometimes he has to go higher."

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, journalist O'Rourke thinks that the change in role for Alexander-Arnold can only have a positive impact at Anfield moving forward.

O'Rourke said: "So this new role looks like it might suit him, it gets him further up the pitch where he can maybe create things for other people as well. It's still a work in progress, I think.

"Obviously, it's pretty new to Liverpool and obviously to Alexander-Arnold. A lot of time still to perfect it as well. Encouraging signs for Jurgen Klopp and everyone connected with Liverpool."

Should Trent Alexander-Arnold be deployed in this role for the foreseeable future?

It's hard to argue against the possibility of Alexander-Arnold being utilised permanently there for the foreseeable future, given that his license to roam has afforded him more frequent opportunities to express his creative qualities.

There has been a lot of criticism directed at the defender's ability to actually defend this season but his quality going forward has been undeniable with over 3.7 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (via FBref).

Furthermore, when done correctly, you only need to look at reigning Premier League champions Manchester City to see how successful operating with inverted full-backs can be.

Of course, there is an adaptation process to get used to that can go wrong if the left and right flanks aren't appropriately covered from a defensive perspective; nevertheless, playing in this style also helps to isolate attackers one-on-one with the opposition defence, which isn't a position many would feel comfortable in against the likes of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo or Luis Diaz, for example.

With Klopp seemingly in a mood to test drive new tactical theories ahead of next term, he may have found one that could be massively beneficial to Liverpool in the long run.

Phil Simmons, the West Indies head coach, has expressed concern over the “up-and-down” nature of the team’s performances over the course of the Test series against India, and believes the inconsistency may have something to do with the quality gap between Test cricket and the region’s domestic cricket.”I think the series was a little bit too up-and-down,” Simmons said. “We played well across maybe two hours, three hours sometimes, and the next two hours we would be down. And I think that was, for me, the major disappointment. We’ve shown that we can do things but not consistently enough. We batted well in Jamaica, but we went and did the same things we did in the first Test [again] in the third Test. It’s disappointing that we weren’t consistent enough.”Simmons said some of the West Indies batsmen might need to tighten up their techniques to be more consistent at Test level, but said the process should be happening in domestic cricket.”I think in some cases you have to adjust techniques, which is a sad thing because it’s something that we should be doing at a level below,” Simmons said. “I think the same thing with mentality because when we come up here it’s a lot harder to get runs and get wickets. I think at our domestic level it’s a lot easier, that patience and that time at the crease and things, if we bat two sessions in a domestic game a lot of the guys playing here would have a hundred or more. But if you bat two sessions here, it might be 60 or 70, so the patience at the domestic level is not tested as much as up here.”Calling for a unified approach to lifting the standard of cricket, Simmons wanted the coaching staff of the Test team to meet the coaches of the domestic teams regularly.”There’s a lot of things that I have asked for, and it’s not coming to fruition,” he said. “I’ve asked for coaches to meet twice, maybe three times a year, and discuss cricket and so on. We need to make sure that whatever we’re doing upstairs is going down to everybody.”You and me might be two coaches and might coach differently but the same objective we have to have. If we don’t have the same objective, then we spin it up in muddles. I think that’s lacking. It’s quite a few things to be fixed, but at the end of the day the quality of cricket that is downstairs is not good enough for the maturity of the players to be quicker.”Other measures, he said, would include improving the facilities all around the region.”Things like our pitches and our practice facilities need to be better, a lot better, in order to produce players, not just fast bowlers as we’re lacking now, but batsmen, because the better the pitches the better batsmen show themselves. Little things like that we need to put in place. The gap between [Test cricket] and our cricket needs to be filled, whether it can be done with an academy, which we don’t have right now, A-team cricket, which we have one [series] a year, we should have two to three a year. Something has to be done to fill that gap, you know? We’re missing a few things.”Only 22 overs of play were possible over the five days of the fourth Test at Queen’s Park Oval, and there was no play on the last four days despite the ground receiving plenty of sunshine in that time. Simmons said he could not put his finger on why the outfield failed to dry sufficiently to allow play.”Extremely surprised, because, as far as I know, in my years here, this has never been a ground like that,” he said. “I don’t know what is the position is over on the other side [the ground officials], but it was really bad and after two days of sun, and when I saw it yesterday morning, I couldn’t believe how bad it was. I don’t know what the position is there and what caused that, but I’m surprised and I never expected that here.”West Indies’ next Test assignment is a tour of the UAE to play Pakistan, who were recently crowned the No. 1 Test team in the world. Simmons said it was important for the Test players to get some rest after the series against India, but hoped they would have adequate preparation ahead of the Tests in the UAE.”I don’t know about [whether we need an] extended camp because you just played four Test matches, well three-and-a-quarter Test matches, back-to-back, and we underestimate the power of rest after Test matches, but we also have two T20s [against India in Florida]. We also have a one-day squad and T20 squad for the first part of the Pakistan series.”So from the point of view of being together, we’re trying to get the Test team to the UAE early enough, so that we can have enough practice time before the first two-day game. And this is something that I keep trying to get when we go on tour because I think it’s harder on tour. If we get two, sometimes three practice games before the first Test match, then that would be ideal.”Some places we can’t get it, but we have to keep trying to get that because we see that we improve [with warm-up games]. On the other side, it’s a case of us trying not to slack off now as players and coaches, and make sure that players continue to do what we’ve been doing over the last two weeks, with their technique and temperament and everything like that.”One positive for West Indies from the Tests against India was the promise shown by some of the younger batsmen, notably Roston Chase and Shane Dowrich. When asked where that left the Test career of Marlon Samuels, who has averaged 25.80 since the start of 2013, Simmons hoped the performances of the younger players would push established players to perform.”[Samuels’] Test career still stands there,” Simmons said. “[Younger players] are pushing him which is nice because when you have people pushing you from outside, you either get pushed out or you lift your game. So, I think it’s a case where you have youngsters pushing him now, and that’s good for the team.”Same thing with Shannon [Gabriel] and a few young fast bowlers coming out, Jason [Holder], everybody. You need that second team that’s up to the standard to push people so that they continue to produce. The great West Indies team had that, the great Australia team had that, so that’s what we need here.”Darren Bravo, West Indies’ best batsman, had a poor series, with only one half-century in seven innings, and ended the series with his Test average dipping below 40. Simmons backed Bravo to come out of his lean patch, and said his career record reflected the state of the team when he came into it, without too many world-class seniors to share their experience with him.”We talk about Darren Bravo, and we talk about him a lot because we see his potential and where he’s supposed to be right now. But you look back at things and you look at all the people around his age and what they’ve come through, the help that they’ve had in the team when they came in…”We talk about Virat [Kohli]. When Virat came in, look at the players around him. That’s where you get that little bit of experience, little bit of help from. Bravo’s had to turn up and be the senior player and I think sometimes that affects people. But no doubt about it, he’s working extremely hard on trying to get his game together and trying to score runs, just as he did when he came into the team.”

Faf du Plessis, speaking for the first time since being found guilty of ball-tampering, said he believed he had done nothing wrong

Firdose Moonda in Adelaide23-Nov-20164:31

‘I wasn’t trying to cheat, I was shining the ball’

Speaking for the first time since being found guilty of ball-tampering on Tuesday evening, South Africa’s stand-in captain Faf du Plessis used the first half of his pre-match press conference to continue to claim innocence. Du Plessis began with an explanation of what he considered the difference between altering the condition of the ball and merely looking after it, and that he firmly believed he was only doing the latter.”Yesterday was the hearing and the verdict was that I was guilty. I completely disagree with that. I felt like I have done nothing wrong,” du Plessis said. “There’s two ways of looking at it, either ball-shining or ball-tampering. For me, if you talk about ball-tampering, that is something that’s wrong. It’s picking the ball, scratching the ball.”Shining is something that all cricketers would say is not in that same space. It is something all cricketers do and I think there will be a lot of emphasis after this incident on where the game is going, what the ICC is going to do about it. I don’t believe shining is wrong. It’s not like I was trying to cheat or anything. I was shining a ball and I see no problem with that.”Du Plessis admitted he had a “massive mint” in his mouth and was not trying to be insidious about what he was doing in using saliva that had mixed with the sweet to shine the ball, but he questioned why he would have escaped charge had his actions not been seen by television cameras. “I wasn’t trying to actually hide it,” he said. “I put a massive mint in my mouth and my mouth was that wide open. Whether you shine the ball with a sweet in your mouth or whether you don’t see the sweet, and the sweet is still there, it’s exactly the same thing.”And according to du Plessis, he has received enough support from both current and former players, including Australian captain Steven Smith, who in his own press conference said his team “along with every other, shine the ball the same way”, to know that it is commonplace in the game.”The ex-players have spoken about it. It’s part of our game. It’s been an unwritten rule,” du Plessis said. “Some people use sunblock to shine the ball. I know of people who carry lip-ice in their pocket and shine the cricket ball or gum. So many things. It’s just so difficult to say what is right and what is wrong. To say that when you have a sweet in your mouth, it’s wrong but when you have a sweet in your mouth and the camera doesn’t pick up on it, it’s okay. It’s just a really massive grey area.”The everybody-does-it defense made headlines in the lead-up to du Plessis’ hearing, when footage emerged of Virat Kohli shining a ball when he appeared to have gum in his mouth, and David Warner shining a ball after applying lip-balm to his mouth. Neither Kohli nor Warner were charged – the visuals of their actions emerged after the ICC’s five-day window for reporting incidents – and although du Plessis would not be drawn on whether they should have been, he asked for consistent application of the rules. “I just ask that everyone gets treated the same way,” he said. “The ICC has taken a stance against me to use me as a scapegoat. All you can ask for is that everyone gets treated the same.”He also, along with Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat, who was present at the press conference, hoped there would be clarity on what constitutes an artificial substance, and believes his case could lead to thorough research into whether sugar can make the ball swing.”Ninety percent of the time, cricketers have got sugary saliva,” du Plessis said. “Whether we are drinking Powerade, Coke, Gatorade, eating sweets, sucking on jellies, our mouths are always full of sugar. It’s such a grey area in the laws of cricket and its something that will be looked at. Us as cricketers, we think that it makes a difference but we are not scientists. We are not sure if it makes a difference. It’s opened up a can of worms, what’s going to happen now, going forward with the game. Something like this needed to happen to create a little bit more awareness on it.”Lorgat confirmed that CSA will engage the ICC on the matter at the next cricket committee meeting but until then, du Plessis has asked not be branded underhanded and for the practice to be considered acceptable. “It’s never nice to be in a position like this because with ball tampering, it’s a really negative connotation that gets put to it and the term cheat has been thrown around and that’s something I do not take lightly,” he said.”It’s something I don’t want to be associated with in any space and as I said, I felt I did nothing wrong. I was shining the cricket ball. I’ve been doing that for my whole career and every single team I have played in does exactly the same thing and it’s not something that’s frowned upon my anyone, not even the umpires. So to make such a big thing, I just think it was a little bit blown out of proportion by everyone.”He has also thanked his team-mates for their united showing of support when Hashim Amla addressed the media at the MCG last Friday, with the entire squad alongside him. “If you know the character of someone like Hashim Amla, you will understand that for him to go out and stand in front of the press and say the things that he said, he will feel very strongly about it. He is just the most honest guy on the planet so for him to say that means a lot,” du Plessis said. “It’s speaks a lot about our culture and how we don’t let any outside noise creep into our space.”The noise may not have got in, but du Plessis has been warned to expect a hostile reception at the Adelaide Oval, perhaps from the opposition but definitely from the crowd. While he does not think Smith and co will have anything because he believes they do the same thing.”I think the Aussies won’t talk about it at all because they know that’s part of their team as well. It’s not been driven by the cricketers. You don’t expect to go out there against Australia and walk out with a clap and welcome to the crease. It’s part of playing against Australia, you expect that and that’s something I have grown used to,” he said, but challenged fans to understand his perspective. “I’m hoping that cricketing sense will be prevail. It’s obviously something that if you are a cricketer and you understand cricket that this is not actually that big of a deal.”With the ball in the spotlight, du Plessis’ tactics on shining the pink ball will come into focus but he has indicated it may not need as much work. “The timing is perfect that it’s the pink ball. Apparently it swings more. It will be interesting to see how to shine the ball. I will probably just touch my finger like that and get a little bit of spit on it,” he joked.And will he still use mints as the sugary substance of choice? “Possibly just for bad breath now, not for shining the ball. I still the feel exactly the same way. Whether I was guilty or not, whether the sentence was different or not, I still feel exactly the same way. Maybe that needs to change now but possibly for this one game, I just maybe need to stay away from the mints.”