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Daily Mail, Friday, September 6, 201983
THE ASHES FOURTH TESTFA INVESTIGATE
INNISS AFTER
BITING CLAIM
THE FA will investigate
after Crystal Palace
defender Ryan Inniss was
accused of biting West
Ham’s Reece Hannam
while on loan at Newport.
Inniss, 24, was sent off
after an off-the-ball clash
at a corner with Hannam
in Newport’s EFL Trophy
tie with West Ham
Under 23s on Wednesday.
Inniss has an automatic
three-game ban for the
red card but the FA can
impose further anctions.
Newport boss Michael
Flynn said: ‘Their player
said he got bitten.’HUDDERSFIELD have
been fined £50,000
after admitting a charge
relating to the FA’s kit
and advertising
regulations. The club
wore a sash-style shirt
which bore the logo of a
bookmaker in a friendly
against Rochdale on July- The logo exceeded
the FA’s guidline of 250
square centimetres.
FOOTBALL DIGEST
GARETH BALE broke his
silence to tell Real
Madrid they are the
ones with questions to
answer following a
tumultuous summer.
Bale captains Wales in
their Euro 2020 qualifier
against Azerbaijan
tonight. He looked
certain to leave the
Bernabeu in the
summer after falling
out with boss
Zinedine Zidane. In
July he was set for
a £1million-a-week
move to Chinese
side Jiangsu
Suning,but Real’s board pulled
the plug. Bale (below)
said: ‘I wouldn’t say it’s
the worst time of my
career. I remember not
playing for a year
(at Tottenham)
under Harry
Redknapp. If you
want answers
maybe you need
to ask Real
Madrid.’ASK MADRID
FOR ANSWERS,
INSISTS BALE
THE demise of Bury is
to be probed by
Parliament. A House of
Commons’ Select
Committee will hold an
inquiry into the club’s
plight and into football’s
governance. Bury became
the first club expelled
from the Football League
since 1992 when a last-
minute takeover failed.FORMER Charlton
defender Richard
Rufus, who is accused of
defrauding several
victims out of millions of
pounds in an investment
scam, will return to court
on October 3 after his
pre-trial hearing was
adjourned for four weeks
yesterday to give him
time to find a legal team.SHEFFIELD Wednesday
striker Fernando
Forestieri has had his
appeal against a
six-match ban dismissed.
The ban was imposed by
the FA’s independent
regulatory commission
for racist language aimed
at Mansfield defender
Krystian Pearce in July.CONTRIBUTORS: Adrian Kajumba and Daniel MatthewsMcKAY BLASTS
‘WITCH HUNT’ AS
HE DENIES FRAUD
WILLIE McKAY, the former
football agent who
booked the doomed flight
which killed Cardiff striker
Emiliano Sala, claimed he
is the victim of a witch
hunt after denying
charges of fraud in court
yesterday. The 60-year-
old appeared briefly at
Manchester Magistrates’
Court, where he denied
splashing out on a £54,000
Jaguar and a £9,100 Rolex
watch for his wife despite
owing £902,000 to HMRC
in unpaid tax and interest.THE ASHES
LAWRENCE
BOOTH
Wisden Editor
at Old TraffordBroad the
unsung
hero can
hold his
head high
S
tuart Broad
knows all about
dropped catches,
especially at slip —
and especially off hisown bowling. But that
hasn’t stopped him from
keeping the faith.
In the split second between tim
Paine’s wild drive in the first over
after lunch and Jason roy’s
botched effort at second slip,
Broad’s eyes lit up, as if hope had
trumped expectation. Perhaps he
should have known better.
to groans around old trafford
— a noise that would become
familiar as the afternoon wore on
— the catch was spilled. Broad
briefly looked aghast, before
remembering he had been here
before. Familiarity can breed
weariness, as well as contempt.
It was thought to be the 103rd
chance gone begging off his bowl-
ing since his debut in december
2007, on a Colombo pitch so flat it
ought to have prepared him for
the heartbreak ahead.
Consider this: of his 461 test
plus the rediscovered pace of Mark
Wood — not to mention the speed
of olly Stone on test debut against
Ireland — Broad was in danger of
being left behind.
National selector Ed Smith was
keeping a close eye, unconvinced
that Broad could still run through
a side, as he most famously did
while taking eight for 15 to seal the
ashes at trent Bridge in 2015.
Broad has been aware of the
scrutiny and has responded like a
champion, reinventing himself in
order to survive, and shoulderingthe burden in anderson’s absence.
More than that, he has prospered.
In five tests this summer, he has
taken 24 wickets at 22, the lowest
average of any season he has
played in, home or away. He has
pitched the ball up more than ever,
and he has bowled faster than he
has for years — 87-88mph rather
than 82-83.
He has inflicted a nightmare
series on david Warner, whom he
has removed five times for a
single-figure score while bowling
round the wicket and crampinghim for room. that has confirmed
his evolution. In the previous two
ashes, Broad aimed outside off in
an attempt to find Warner’s edge.
He failed to take his wicket once.
this summer, he has brought
Warner’s stumps into play, open-
ing up lbw and bowled, as well as
threatening the outside edge. the
ploy has worked a treat, neutralis-
ing australia’s second-best bats-
man. and he has repeated it
against australia’s other left-hand-
ers. When he trapped travis Head
lbw yesterday morning for 19, itwas the third time he had removed
him in the last three tests.
Given the lack of support he has
received from his team-mates in
the field, Broad’s tactic of bringing
the stumps into contention is a
sensible insurance policy. and if it
means he has been driven more
than usual as he goes in search of
movement from a full length, it has
been a price worth paying.
Suddenly, concerns that England
might have to replace anderson
and Broad at the same time don’t
seem quite as pressing.STUART’S UNWANTED CENTURY
WHEN Jason Roy dropped Tim Paine in the slips it was
the 100th catch shelled off Stuart Broad’s bowling in
Test cricket since 2008 — far more than anyone else.
Here are the 10 unluckiest bowlers in that time...1 STUART BROAD England 100
2 JAMES ANDERSON England 80
3 NATHAN LYON Australia 76
4 RANGANA HERATH Sri Lanka 62
5 RAVICHANDRAN ASHWIN India 60
6 DALE STEYN South Africa 46
7 GRAEME SWANN England 44
8 MORNE MORKEL South Africa 44
9 MITCHELL JOHNSON Australia 42
10 SHAKIB AL HASAN Bangladesh 40conjure up 12 or 13 wicket-taking
moments per innings.
Broad finished yesterday with an
ill-deserved tonking from Mitchell
Starc, who put an unsightly dent
in his figures. But it couldn’t
detract from the truth: Broad has
been little less than heroic this
summer, which wasn’t necessarily
the script many expected.
despite being four years younger
than his old mucker anderson, it
was Broad’s body that was
expected to break down first. and
with the arrival of Jofra archer,
wickets, 303 have been
caught. Fielders have
spurned more than a
quarter of the chances
he has created.
In reality, it’s worse,
as 111 of the 303
catches have been by
the wicketkeeper. So
when it comes to
opportunities for field-
ers who don’t have the
benefit of gloves, Broad
has a roughly one-in-
three chance of being
backed up.
and records kept by
oPta suggest that,
since the start of 2008,
he has suffered 20 more
drops than the next
unluckiest bowler —
Jimmy anderson, as it
happens — confirming
that England need to
Caught short: a furious Broad reacts as
Roy drops Aussie skipper Paine at
second slip just after lunch POPPERFOTO/BBCad’b hi f thth