the times | Friday April 8 2022 65
Sport
Lewis Hamilton is braced for more
misery in Melbourne after his Mercedes
team ruled out significant upgrades for
this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
Hamilton has already been cast 29
points adrift in the championship race
after he finished tenth at the second
round in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago.
Mercedes have dominated the sport
since 2014 — carrying Hamilton, 37, to
six titles and winning an unprecedent-
ed eight constructors’ championships
When Chelsea signed Romelu Lukaku
for £97.5 million last summer it was with
the expectation that he would make the
difference in their biggest matches. The
club hoped he would replicate his im-
pressive scoring record at Inter Milan
and buck the trend of expensive strikers
— Andriy Shevchenko, Fernando Tor-
res and Álvaro Morata, to name a few
— failing to live up to their price tags.
In Wednesday’s Champions League
quarter-final first leg against Real
Madrid, the 28-year-old forward was
initially on the bench but was thrown
on in desperation for the final 26 min-
utes with the Spanish side leading 3-1.
When Lukaku had the chance to
change the narrative and reduce the
deficit, his unmarked header from
seven yards drifted off target. “It was
very important,” Thomas Tuchel, the
Chelsea head coach, said of the chance.
“If we have only a one-goal deficit or a
draw, then you see the momentum
[comes] back when we score.”
The Chelsea fans who cheered Luka-
ku’s entry showed their frustration at
the miss and even they may question if
he will ever succeed in west London.
Lukaku is low on confidence and
looked like a spare part for the rest of
the match. He has started only two of
the past eight matches, against the Sky
Bet Championship clubs Luton Town
and Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.
Tuchel has often used a false-nine
system, with Kai Havertz at the tip, and
Lukaku’s struggles will raise more ques-
tions about his future at Chelsea
beyond the summer, when the club will
have a new owner. Tuchel hinted that
he had not pushed hard for Lukaku by
saying that the transfer was a question
of signing a striker who was available, as
they were unable to sign Harry Kane or
Erling Haaland.
There is no clear indication that
Lukaku wants to leave Chelsea,
although it would be understandable.
Ever since he flirted with Inter Milan in
a Sky Sport Italia interview in Decem-
ber, there have been rumours about a
return to the Serie A club, who have not
ruled out making a move. But it would
not be a straightforward proposition.
Inter are strapped for cash, could not
afford his weekly wages (about
£250,000 plus bonuses) and could only
finance a loan deal; Chelsea would not
agree to that. Inter have been preparing
to sell Lautaro Martínez and hope to
raise £65 million for the Argentina
forward, which they would use to
persuade Paulo Dybala to join as a free
agent from Juventus this summer. They
hope the rumours about Lukaku could
hasten Dybala’s decision.
Lukaku scored 64 goals in 95 appear-
ances over two seasons at Inter, work-
ing under Antonio Conte, whom he
credits with reviving his career. Conte
was at Stamford Bridge as a pundit
when Juventus beat Chelsea in Septem-
ber and concluded that Tuchel’s team
had yet to figure out how to get the best
from Lukaku. Conte’s style suited Luka-
ku but a reunion is not likely while the
Italian is in charge at Tottenham Hot-
spur and Kane leads the line for them.When Chelsea committed about
£180 million on Lukaku, in transfer fees
and wages, they would have expected a
better return than 12 goals so far this
season, which includes five in the
league and two in the Champions
League. He scored four times in his first
four games before he suffered an ankle
injury in October.
Under Tuchel, Chelsea like to build
up through midfield and methodically
probe opposing teams, but LukakuNo end in sight for Hamilton woes with Mercedes
in succession. But Hamilton and his
new British team-mate, George Rus-
sell, have all but written off their aspira-
tions unless Mercedes can radically
improve their underperforming car.
Mercedes’s season has been derailed
by “porpoising” — the phenomenon
seen this year when the car violently
bounces on its suspension at high
speed. The problem caught Mercedes
off guard and Russell, 24, said it was the
source of 99 per cent of their problems.
It had been suggested that the team
would bring a new rear wing and arevised floor to Melbourne for the first
race down under in two years. How-
ever, it is understood that no big
updates are planned.
It has been a trying start to the new
season for the cream of the British crop,
with Lando Norris also struggling at
McLaren. Norris, 22, finished seventh in
Saudi Arabia, almost a minute behind
the race winner, Max Verstappen.
Hamilton’s performance on the track
may not be the only thing subjected to
scrutiny in Melbourne after the race di-
rector Niels Wittrich issued a reminderto all drivers that jewellery and body-
piercing is forbidden whilst driving.
Hamilton has at some races in the
past worn a nose stud, although officials
insisted the warning issued before the
race in Melbourne was not aimed at him
or any other individual driver, and that
the rule had been in place since 2005,
but not always strictly enforced.
Wittrich said: “The wearing of jewel-
lery in the form of body piercing or
metal neck chains is prohibited during
the competition and may therefore be
checked before the start.”Formula One
‘MCC axing
Varsity match
was unlawful’
Ivo TennantA leading barrister and MCC commit-
tee member is to resign from the club
over its decision to stop Lord’s hosting
the Varsity match and Eton v Harrow
game. Robert Griffiths QC said that the
decision to drop the two oldest fixtures
in the game was unlawful as it was
taken without consulting the members,
who own the club.
Griffiths, who went to Oxford, sat on
MCC’s general committee for nearly 20
years and chaired the club’s Laws and
development committees. Legally he
has represented Muhammad Ali, Kerry
Packer and Surrey CCC, among others.
“In law, a decision must be executed
fairly,” he said. “Important decisions in
the past have been put to the members,
and this reflects the poor governance of
MCC as an institution.”
MCC’s intention is that the matches
will be replaced by finals of proposed
universities and schools competitions.
The decision, initially taken by its crick-
et committee, was made on cricketing
grounds and not based on gate receipts.
Griffiths said: “This does not give the
committee carte blanche. Ignoring the
views of members is a paradigm exam-
ple of the failure on its part to discharge
its duty to the members.”
The membership was informed of
the decision in February via a brief
mention in the middle of a long email.
Griffiths’s successors on the general
committee now accept the decision was
not well conveyed. MCC, still set on the
decision, declined to comment.Failing Lukaku’s vast wages
leave him in limbo at Chelsea
prefers the ball played to him quickly,
using his movement to keep defenders
on their toes. While the German coach
had an idea to partner Lukaku and
Havertz, it never worked out. Havertz
has grown into the role of leading the
attack, either in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1
system, and he is Chelsea’s leading
scorer since Tuchel took charge last
year. For as long as the 48-year-old
remains head coach, Lukaku may need
an escape route.JOSE BRETON/NURPHOTOFootball
Gary Jacob
Sale of club facing delay
The process to buy Chelsea could
be delayed after at least one of the
four bidding groups asked for the
final proposal deadline of April 11 to
be extended.
That has been granted by the US
bank conducting the sale on behalf
of Roman Abramovich, which in turn
could also mean the selection of a
preferred bidder for UK government
approval is also delayed. The week
beginning April 18 had been
pencilled in for the preferred bidder
to be presented to treasury officials.
Now, however, it may be that the
Premier League is asked to review
all four bidders, which could push
the final sale date into May.Lukaku disappointed the fans by sending his header wide against Real MadridDirection of playTale of two strikersMinutesBenzema LukakuTouchesTouches in opp box
3 33 0Shots on targetGoals86 2653 43/4 0/2New England
coach could
do other jobs
Cricket
Elizabeth Ammon
England’s next head coach could be
allowed time off to take on other jobs
such as coaching in the Indian Premier
League in an attempt to attract the
highest-profile candidates to the role.
Chris Silverwood was sacked after
England’s 4-0 Ashes defeat and a
permanent successor has yet to be
named. Paul Collingwood took on an
interim role for the 1-0 series defeat by
West Indies. It is expected that the role
will be split into two coaching jobs, to
manage the Test and limited-overs
teams, with flexibility over their sched-
ules for when England are not in action.
It would be similar to the England
rugby situation, with Eddie Jones, the
head coach, who at present carries out
a regular consulting role with Suntory
Sungoliath in the Japanese league.
The coaches will be appointed in the
next few months once a new managing
director of England men’s cricket is in
place but there is concern that some
leading candidates will not be interest-
ed because they can earn the same
money for shorter, less intense con-
tracts in T20 franchise cricket.
It is hoped, however, that by splitting
the roles and by allowing more time off
to take on or retain their contracts with
franchise teams, the ECB can attract
interest from some big names such as
Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, Mahela
Jayawardene and Gary Kirsten.
Joe Root’s Test team and Eoin Mor-
gan’s one-day teams are not back in
action until June, by when it is hoped
the coaches will be in place.