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Long-serving Morris to leave Saracens

Published in Rugby
Friday, 17 May 2024 07:03

Saracens centre Dom Morris is to leave the Premiership club at the end of the season.

The 26-year-old, who has spent this season on loan at Welsh side Ospreys, has played 61 times for the club.

He is one of three more players who will depart in the summer, alongside winger Ben Harris and loose forward Ollie Stonham.

They follow the likes of Owen Farrell, the Vunipola brothers and Alex Lewington in deciding to end their time at the club this summer.

"Ive made lifelong friends, memories and genuinely feel like Ive grown from a boy to a man at this club having played here since the age of 15," Morris told the club website.

"Never in a million years did I think Id put on the Saracens jersey, the team I grew up supporting, once, let alone be apart of this team for the last nine years."

Elrington among five to leave Gloucester

Published in Rugby
Friday, 17 May 2024 07:46

Prop Harry Elrington is among five players to leave Gloucester at the end of the 2023-24 season.

The 30-year-old made 59 appearances after joining the club in 2021 from London Irish.

This season however he has started only five of his 19 matches.

Elrington joins former England winger Jonny May, Scotland fly-half Adam Hastings, Argentine prop Santi Socino and back Alex Hearle in exiting the Cherry and Whites.

May is yet to agree terms elsewhere but is hoping to join a club overseas, while Hastings will return to Glasgow, Socino is joining French side Agen, and Hearle is moving to Newcastle Falcons.

England's Kildunne wins Player of the Championship

Published in Rugby
Friday, 17 May 2024 05:22

Elsewhere, Italy wing D'Inca won Try of the Championship for her score against France.

The Team of the Championship contains nine players from the Red Roses, two Italians, two Frenchwomen and two Irish players.

2024 Team of the Championship: Ellie Kildunne (Eng); Alyssa D'Inca (Ita), Megan Jones (Eng), Beatrice Rigoni (Ita), Abby Dow (Eng): Holly Aitchison (Eng), Natasha Hunt (Eng); Hannah Botterman (Eng), Neve Jones (Ire), Maud Muir (Eng), Manae Feleu (Fra), Zoe Aldcroft (Eng), Aoife Wafer (Ire), Sadia Kabeya (Eng), Romane Menager (Fra).

Source: Chelsea get extra 5m from Hazard move

Published in Soccer
Friday, 17 May 2024 08:58

Chelsea are set to land a bonus in the region of 5 million ($6.3m) as part of Eden Hazard's transfer to Real Madrid, despite the former Belgium winger retiring from football last October, a source has told ESPN.

Hazard's 130m transfer from Chelsea to Madrid in 2019 contained a number of performance related add-ons, one of which was triggered by Carlo Ancelotti's side reaching next month's Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Although the 33-year-old reached an agreement to terminate his contract last summer before announcing his retirement at the age of 32 in October, the club-to-club element of his contract remains active and therefore Madrid owe a further payment to Chelsea.

Sources at Chelsea have repeatedly insisted the club are not concerned about complying with the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules but their 1bn outlay since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover two years ago has left them with limited headroom this summer.

The Hazard windfall will therefore be welcome for the west London club as they seek to invest in their squad once again while Madrid will further question the value of a deal for a player who scored seven goals in 76 appearances across all competitions during his four seasons in Spain.

Slot confirms he will be next Liverpool coach

Published in Soccer
Friday, 17 May 2024 08:58

Feyenoord coach Arne Slot has announced he will be appointed to succeed Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool manager from next season.

"I can confirm that I will become the trainer there next year," Slot told a news conference.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Klopp confirmed in January that he will step down from his role as Liverpool manager at the end of the season, with Slot emerging as the leading candidate to replace him.

As with Klopp on Friday, Slot used his prematch news conference to bid farewell to his club.

"Until now I was not thinking about this being the build up to my last match, but that starts coming now," Slot said.

"At the beginning of the week you are thinking about training and those kind of things. But the feeling gets stronger now. That is why I'm a little bit late now [for the news conference], because I wanted to say goodbye to some people personally and take time for them, more then just shaking hands.

"So yeah, the feeling grows. I understand that good results help, but it is very nice to feel that people really are thinking it's a pity that I'm leaving. You can say that with words, but you can feel it if people truly think that way. That does mean a lot to me."

Slot, 45, signed a three-year contract last year after guiding the Rotterdam-based club to the Eredivisie title. The former AZ Alkmaar coach rejected offers from Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur last summer to commit his future to Feyenoord.

Although Liverpool have yet to confirm Slot's appointment as their new manager, they have reached a 9.4 million ($11.8m) compensation agreement with Feyenoord.

Sources have also told ESPN that Slot is planning to make Sipke Hulshoff, his assistant at Feyenoord, the first appointment to his backroom staff at Liverpool.

Hulshoff, 49, has worked alongside Slot at Feyenoord since 2022. Hulshoff has also worked as Netherlands assistant alongside former Everton manager Ronald Koeman since January 2023.

Information from ESPN's Mark Ogden contributed to this report.

LIVERPOOL -- Jurgen Klopp knew the Premier League title, and his dream of a glorious farewell as Liverpool manager, was gone. A 2-0 Merseyside derby defeat against Everton at Goodison Park last month left the team still with a mathematical chance of winning the league, but as much as he is a romantic, Klopp is also a realist.

Twenty-four hours later, defending champions Manchester City had the opportunity to take advantage of Liverpool's slip by winning at Brighton. City and manager Pep Guardiola have been a constant thorn in Klopp's side throughout his eight and a half year reign at Anfield, and the 56-year-old had no appetite to stay at home and watch his rivals on TV -- they would win 4-0 and leapfrog Liverpool in the table -- so he went to the pub.

At 6-foot-3, Klopp is an imposing figure, easily recognisable with or without the baseball cap he often wears. On this day, however, he was in no mood for selfies or autograph hunters as he walked to The Freshfield, the pub less than a five-minute stroll from his home in Formby.

The seaside town 10 miles up the coast from Liverpool makes for a tranquil spot. Klopp's road is lined by towering Scots pine and sycamore trees all the way up to the squirrel sanctuary that butts against the sand dunes. It's a nice escape from the intensity of the title race, that physically and psychologically draining nine-month, 38-game battle to win the Premier League. But what happened at The Freshfield epitomised the unique bond that Klopp has forged with his club's supporters and the city of Liverpool.

"My son was here and the last thing we wanted to do is to watch City playing," Klopp said. "So we went out and in that time we were there, I think 20 people just came to say 'Thank you' and I was really not in the mood. I wanted to apologize for the night before because I know what it means to the people. And the response is, 'No, forget that. No, no, no. Thank you for what you have done.'

"It's crazy how the people in Liverpool people are. It's exactly what I learned here."

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Klopp will take charge of Liverpool for the final time when Wolves visit Anfield on Sunday, and tickets are already being sold online for more than 1,400 ($1,775). The most expensive ticket, purchased through official channels for a Premier League game at Anfield, is usually 61 ($77).

Klopp has revived Liverpool since arriving at the club in October 2015. He has won every major trophy, with the exception of the Europa League, at least once and the team's title win in 2019-20 ended a 30-year wait to become champions of England again. But his impact has gone beyond the confines of Anfield.

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Marcotti: Klopp's departure the end of an era at Liverpool

Gab Marcotti analyses Liverpool's future when Jurgen Klopp leaves at the end of the season.

Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones said in January, days after the manager announced his decision to step down at the end of the season, that Klopp was the "dad of the whole city," while Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, told ESPN that the former Borussia Dortmund coach is "as revered in the religion of Liverpool football club as the Pope is to Catholicism." One Liverpool source said that Klopp "made Liverpool cool again," drawing more positive attention to the city than any of its high-profile figures since the Beatles in the 1960s.

To outsiders, Klopp can be a divisive figure, one who has been punished on a number of occasions for berating match officials during games. He can also be tetchy on camera or if he believes that his right to privacy away from the game has been denied by fans or paparazzi. But he is also perhaps unique in the Premier League era as a manager who has forged a sense of unity and affection like no other between himself, his players and the club's supporters. Sir Alex Ferguson did not manage that at Manchester United and Guardiola hasn't achieved it at Manchester City, but at Liverpool, you would waste a lot of time trying to find anyone with a negative word to say about Klopp.

"He lit a fire under the place when he arrived," Dan Morgan, the author of "Jurgen Said To Me: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool and the Remaking of a City," told ESPN. "The best way to describe his time as manager is that it has felt like being at a kitchen party after everywhere else has closed."


What drew Klopp to Liverpool

"I am the normal one," Klopp said in his first news conference as Liverpool manager in 2015. "I am a totally normal guy."

Due to a lack of space at Anfield, Liverpool had considered staging Klopp's introductory news conference at the Titanic Hotel in the city, but abandoned the idea when it was suggested that launching a new era in a building named after a ship which sank on its first voyage would not be the greatest idea.

Tongue-in-cheek remark aside, Klopp had already proved himself to be something more than normal during seven years in charge of Borussia Dortmund, guiding the club to two Bundesliga titles in an era otherwise dominated by Bayern Munich. He also took Dortmund to a Champions League final in 2013 before losing to Bayern at Wembley, but on his first day at Anfield, he was smart enough to avoid the trap of echoing Jose Mourinho's legendary introduction at Chelsea in 2004, when the Portuguese coach described himself as the "Special One."

A year earlier, Klopp had rejected an approach from Manchester United to succeed David Moyes as manager at Old Trafford. Ed Woodward, United's then-executive vice chairman, had try to sell the vision of Old Trafford being an "adult version of Disneyland," but Klopp was distinctly unimpressed by the sales pitch. As someone who has never hidden his socialist beliefs, the corporate spin delivered by Woodward completely misjudged the person at whom it was being directed.

Liverpool were in a different place when they approached Klopp in 2015, a club struggling to recreate its glorious past while carrying a fanbase and history every bit as big and demanding as United's. Michael Edwards, then Liverpool's sporting director, had secretly scouted Klopp for months, even booking himself into the same hotel as Dortmund prior to a Bundesliga game simply to watch how Klopp interacted with players and staff.

By the time Liverpool came calling, Klopp was four months into a sabbatical following his departure from Dortmund at the end of the previous season. However, the chance to revive the club and build a new team at Anfield convinced him to cut short his planned yearlong break and take on the challenge of restoring the club as one of the best in the world again.

Klopp spoke of turning "doubters into believers" at that first news conference and said there would be a title "within four years." He proved to be one year out, though nobody was still counting by then. "The day Jurgen was appointed, I said, 'Fasten your seatbelts,'" former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish said. "We're off and running here."

Dalglish's perspective was quickly shared by the players. Liverpool had narrowly missed out on the title in 2013-14 -- they finished second, with 84 points to Man City's 86 despite Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge scoring 52 combined league goals -- but manager Brendan Rodgers had lost his grip on the squad, and belief and morale was low by the time he was fired. Klopp immediately injected energy and optimism.

"When he [Klopp] came in in the early days, things started to change in training -- buzzwords like 'counter-press' and all the players bought into it," Sturridge told Sky Sports. "Then the first preseason was the one when you kind of realized, 'Okay cool, this is very different.'

"The way in which we were preparing, how fit we got ... And I think as time went on, the tactics and the mindset of the team changed and they were right on point with how he wanted us to be. We were going to run through a brick wall for this guy. He gave us a tenacity that we probably didn't have as much of before. Throughout my time at Liverpool with him, never once did we go into a game thinking we couldn't win or there was a negative mindset on the approach."

Klopp's attention to detail and demand for the highest standards was evident from the outset. In his first game in charge, against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, Klopp noticed how smart and imposing the Spurs players looked in their fitted training kit compared to Liverpool's players warming up in baggy, ill-fitting red tops. "Our boys looked like Captain Picard [from Star Trek]," Klopp said. "It was all the wrong size, it didn't fit and I wasn't happy. How can you already be second best before the game has even started? So the next day I asked for meeting and changed it immediately. Those kind of things are important."

He also hired the world champion high-wave surfer, Sebastian Steudtner, to give a motivational talk to the players about taking on ever-more daunting challenges. Klopp was laying the foundations, though his team was still miles from competing for the title and would finish his first season in eighth position, losing the Europa League final against Sevilla. It didn't matter; he was making his mark.

"Jurgen started to introduce training sessions in the early evening and a lot of players didn't like it," a Liverpool source told ESPN. "A couple of the senior players went to see him and said some of the lads weren't happy and wanted a rethink. Jurgen said, 'Fine, tell those players to come and see me and we'll sort it out.'

"The message went back to the dressing room and not one player took him up on the offer. He'd made his point: he was the boss."


'He really is the best of us'

There have been many glory days and nights during Klopp's time as Liverpool manager. There was the club's sixth Champions League crown, secured with a 2-0 win against Tottenham in Madrid in 2019, and an end to the 30-year wait for the title during the 2019-20 season that was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Under Klopp, Liverpool fans have celebrated cup wins at Wembley in both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, a FIFA Club World Cup triumph in Qatar in 2019, and also the unforgettable 4-0 win against Lionel Messi and Barcelona at Anfield in the 2018-19 Champions League semifinal that overturned a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 first-leg deficit.

Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold and many others have become club legends with Klopp as manager and the football played by his team has been enthralling, exciting, pulsating and breathtaking, often at the same time. He's also had a proven track record of ensuring that academy players have a path to the first team; Klopp promoted Alexander-Arnold from the Under-18s in 2016-17, while also bringing through Jones, Jarell Quansah and Conor Bradley (among others) in recent seasons, inspiring young stars to keep pushing.

But what makes Klopp so revered at Liverpool is the man as much as the manager. He has spoken out against Liverpool's attempt to form a breakaway Super League, echoed fans' concerns over ticket prices and fought the supporters' corner when they were being condemned for the chaos which preceded the 2022 Champions League final in Paris -- UEFA later admitted it was wrong to blame Liverpool fans for the delayed kickoff.

Klopp also backed the fans when criticised for booing the national anthem at Wembley. "When people have condemned us for booing 'God Save the King,' Jurgen just said that we must have a reason for doing it," author Morgan said. "As fans, you just feel that he has got your back."

During the pandemic, Klopp's wife, Ulla, handed out 1,000 worth of food vouchers to staff at a supermarket in Formby as a thanks from the couple to those who'd put aside the risks to ensure customers could purchase essentials during the first lockdown. Quite simply, there is a sense within the club's fanbase and city as a whole that Klopp "gets it" like few others.

"Do you know what will happen in a few years' time?" Rotheram said. "Everybody, Everton fans included, will recognize fully the part that Jurgen played in the leadership of the city rather than just being a football manager. Rivalry seems to sully any thought outside of the tribalism of football, but when you get away from that and see, for instance, during Covid, the way he led and how the fans got him on side with ticket price. I just think he espouses the same sort of values and principles as the ordinary fans.

"He has a special quality. I'm just glad that he didn't decide that he wants to be a politician because God knows what chance anybody else would have. But if he did lead the world, it would be a better world to live in."

Klopp has also worked closely with supporters in several areas, helping them to gain support for campaigns or simply encouraging them to pursue their beliefs. In 2021, Klopp met Paul Amann, the founder of Liverpool's LGBT+ group, Kop Outs, after games against Chelsea had been marred by homophobic chanting by some Liverpool supporters, and Amann said that Klopp's intervention proved crucial.

"No other person in football has spoken up on the issue like Jurgen Klopp," Amann told ESPN. "When I met him, we sat down and he wanted to know about the chant, why it mattered to us as fans. By speaking to us, and using our conversation on a video clip, Jurgen amplified our voices rather than allow others to ignore them. The impact on social media saw a 50-50 split in terms of support and abuse change to 90-10 and when a sporadic idiot chants now, the vast majority of decent fans shout them down. Jurgen unquestionably helped rid Anfield of the chant.

"He really is the very best of us. He has supported our campaign, local hospitals, the Hillsborough families. He spent time making Teams calls to supporters who were isolating during the pandemic -- none of that is in his job description.

"If you look at the stereotype of a Liverpudlian, it is all about solidarity, a civic mentality and passion. Jurgen fits the archetype of the values of a Liverpudlian. But most of all, he is all of us. He acts like the maddest fan on the touchline at times, but he's living out our joys and frustrations."


'It's not so important what people think when you come in, it's what people think when you leave'

If Klopp had won four more games over his nine-year spell at Liverpool, he would be leaving with three Premier Leagues and three Champions Leagues rather than one of each. It is a simplistic way of highlighting what could have been, but had Liverpool beaten Real Madrid in their two Champions League final encounters in 2018 and 2022, those additional European Cups would have been added to Anfield's trophy room. Liverpool lost just one league game in the 2018-19 Premier League season and finished one point behind champions Manchester City -- it's worth noting no English team has ever won 90-plus points and 30-plus games in a single season without lifting the trophy -- and they fell one point short again in 2021-22 as Guardiola's side emerged victorious.

Such fine margins show just how close Klopp's Liverpool have come to reaching even greater heights. They have had the misfortune to enjoy their own period of success at the same time as one of English football's greatest-ever teams, so has the Klopp era been a story of great things or what might have been?

"I honestly believe if you start looking at what he hasn't done, I think you're missing the point of what this guy has done, not just on the pitch but also off the pitch," former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp said. "If you look at the what could have been, there's obviously the two Champions Leagues, but he got Liverpool in the mix. He got them back from being a club that was not really getting talked about.

"He's made people believe again that this club is a huge club, which is exactly what it is. He has been phenomenal."

"No, I'm delighted with what we have had," Amman said. "This has been done with a great manager, not some wannabe, but somebody who is the real deal and the football has been incredible. We have followed the rules and our success has been indisputable. The only trophy we haven't won is the Europa League, so I have no regrets about what might have been."

For some supporters, Klopp's achievement in restoring Liverpool to football's elite in England and Europe will be his legacy.

Liverpool hadn't won the English title since 1990 until Klopp delivered it in 2020, but the club had also won just one trophy, the Carabao Cup, in the nine years prior to his arrival. Some of the team's best players -- Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, Luis Suarez -- had left Anfield because they could not envisage their ambitions being realised at Liverpool. Klopp changed all of that. "He puts us back on our perch," Rotheram said.

Morgan, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, believes that Klopp did all of the above but also gave a new generation of fans their day in the sun. "Until Jurgen arrived, a lot of fans were ready to give up," Morgan said. "We'd all heard stories from our fathers and grandfathers about the success they had seen, the European Cups and league titles, but this generation had only really seen failure and had been starved of those great stories.

"But Jurgen arriving was like alchemy at the perfect time. We had had so many false starts and nearly dawns, but Jurgen's greatest gift has been to deliver on the promise he made when arrived, to bring success again. The only regret is that we didn't get to watch the culmination of the title-winning season because of the pandemic. But we have had an unbelievable time under Jurgen Klopp. All eyes were on us and it's been amazing."

When he sat down and gave his first statement as Liverpool manager, Klopp made one viewpoint clear. "It's not so important what people think when you come in," he said. "It's what people think when you leave."

When he walks off Anfield for the final time Sunday, Klopp will be in no doubt as to what they think of him in Liverpool.

Former India batter Gautam Gambhir is on top of the BCCI's wishlist take up the position of India men's head coach after Rahul Dravid's term ends at the conclusion of the 2024 T20 World Cup in June.

ESPNcricinfo has learned Gambhir, who is currently the mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, has been contacted by the BCCI to gauge his interest in the job, and further discussions are expected after KKR complete their IPL 2024 campaign. However, the deadline for applying for the India head coach job is May 27, a day after the IPL final.

Dravid, it is learnt, has communicated to the BCCI his decision not to seek another tenure.

While Gambhir, 42, has no experience of coaching at international or domestic level, he has been in charge of the coaching staff at two IPL franchises. He was the mentor at Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2022 and 2023 - they qualified for the playoffs in both seasons - before joining KKR for the 2024 season, where they will finish the league stage on top of the points table. Gambhir's move to KKR for IPL 2024 was unexpected but it is learned he was persuaded to become the team's mentor by the franchise's principal owner Shah Rukh Khan.
Gambhir was part of India's T20 World Cup triumph in 2007 and the ODI World Cup victory in 2011. He captained KKR for seven IPL seasons from 2011 to 2017, and they qualified for the playoffs five times and won two titles in 2012 and 2014 under his leadership. They also reached the final of the defunct Champions League T20 in 2014.
Last week, the BCCI posted an advertisement seeking applications for the position of India men's head coach. The job, the BCCI said, would be for all three formats for a duration of three and a half years starting from July 2024 until December 2027.

Dravid had begun his two-year term as India's head coach after the 2021 T20 World Cup. His stint was supposed to end after the 2023 ODI World Cup in November last year, but he agreed to an extension until the end of the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will be played in West Indies and the USA in June.

From that squad, they have retained Sunil Narine, the star of KKR's table-topping run in the league stage of the ongoing IPL 2024, Andre Russell, Jason Roy, Spencer Johnson, Unmukt Chand, Ali Khan, Saif Badar, Nitish Kumar and Shadley van Schalkwyk, and drafted in local players Derone Davis, Matthew Tromp, Cirne Dry and Adithya Ganesh for the upcoming season.
Greater challenges lie in store, ideally in the Caribbean next month, but Jofra Archer gave the impression that he'll be ready to make his England comeback against Pakistan next week with a lively six-over display for Sussex's second XI against Kent in Beckenham.

It was a low-key outing, overseen by a handful of spectators and media on a sunny morning in South London, but when he walked off the field on the stroke of 12pm - exactly one hour after he had been parachuted into the final day of this four-day fixture - he took with him figures of 6-1-11-1, and a heightened belief that another injury-plagued year could finally be behind him.

Archer has not played for England since the tours of South Africa and Bangladesh in early 2023, and even that short-lived comeback came after nearly two further years on the sidelines, as he struggled initially with a long-term elbow injury, and then a stress fracture of the back.

And while he admitted in a recent interview that "another stop-start year" could force him to consider his options at the age of 29, Archer showed few signs of reticence in a feisty display that featured one wicket, one further appeal for a leg-side catch, and a fierce blow to the helmet that required some running repairs for the batter, Ekansh Singh.

Amid the anticipation, Archer's first delivery was a short and wide loosener that the Kent opener, Ben Dawkins, slapped up and over backward point for four. He didn't receive many more in his half after that, with Archer's very next ball significantly shorter and sharper, and causing the keeper to leap high to his left to gather.

Ekansh then wore another sharp bouncer on his visor, and was soon undone by Archer's pace and lift in the channel outside off, as he fenced loosely off the back foot for Henry Rogers, at third slip, to dive across second and cling onto a sharp chance. Archer responded with a pump of his fist as he jogged over to celebrate with his team-mates, his broad grin confirming the personal importance of the moment on this long road to recovery.

He was less impressed half-an-hour later, however, throwing his arms out in frustration when he thought he'd landed his second. Gareth Severin, en route to a hard-earned half-century, jabbed a lifter on his hips through to the keeper, only for the umpire to shake his head - rightly noting that the ball had flicked Severin's shirt.

Archer's final over of the morning was a maiden, whereupon he walked straight off the field and back into the pavilion, ready to link up with England's T20I squad in Headingley over the weekend, ahead of their first practice session on Monday afternoon.

Jos Buttler, England's white-ball captain, told the PA news agency that Archer's comeback was a "huge encouragement", but guarded against expecting too much too soon, as his team sets about fine-tuning their plans ahead of their defence of the T20 World Cup title that they won in Australia in November 2022.

"Everyone knows what he is capable of and the attitude he possesses," Buttler said. "As a captain he is someone you can always turn to in a game because he always has a trick up his sleeve.

"It's great to be able to call on him but it's important to manage expectations. He has been out of it for a while now so we will need to look after him and realise that it might just take him a little while to be the Jofra of 2019.

"He is a proper superstar but we do have to be smart with him. It's a jump in intensity from what he's doing now to international cricket and you can't really replicate it."

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket

The PSL will get two new franchises from 2026, making it an eight-team league. This was officially confirmed in a media release by the PCB, who called the upcoming season in 2025 - the tenth edition - the "last six-team event".

While this had been likely from the day the PCB and the PSL franchises agreed not to add further teams until after the tenth season, this is the first time the PCB has publicly confirmed the PSL expansion. It will be the first time in nine years that a new team enters the PSL, Multan Sultans' entry in 2018 until now the only addition to the original five. The process for deciding which cities the new teams represent has not begun yet.

The year following the tenth season is potentially one of sizeable flux and jeopardy for the PSL, with the ten-year lease ownership agreements the PSL reached with franchise owners expiring in 2025. ESPNcricinfo understands Sultans' lease is also up for renewal next year, despite them joining the PSL two years later than the rest. All six owners have right of first refusal, meaning ownership of a franchise only goes up for sale in the event of a current owner declining to match the franchise's valuation.

What is more contentious, however, is when the IPL will be played from next season onwards. The Champions Trophy will be played in the traditional PSL window in February-March, and with the ILT20 and the SA20 cutting in on PSL territory, the PCB wants a more reliable window. Their current preferred solution is the move the PSL into April and May, carving out a six week window from April 7 to May 20 next year, and clashing directly with the IPL. More contentiously, the PCB aims to make this the PSL's permanent window rather than an ad hoc solution to a crowded calendar next year.

There is by no means universal agreement for this option. Most of the PSL franchises initially opposed the idea because of the implications it would have on player availability and the inevitability of playing second fiddle to the IPL, and at least three of the six franchises remain firmly opposed to it. A PCB official, though, told ESPNcricinfo they remain confident the franchises will come around to it. It is also worth noting that franchise opposition to the idea cannot necessarily stop it happening; those decisions are made by the PSL governing council. De facto, that means the PCB could decide to play the tournament in any window, with or without the support of the franchises.

The PCB has offered to tweak player recruitment rules and open up fiscal space to allow franchises to sign one marquee player independently of the draft to alleviate concerns around player availability. With their current broadcast partnership ending in 2025, the next season could effectively become a test case for the future viability of hosting the league at the same time as the IPL. In addition, the league's expansion to eight teams would have necessitated a larger window anyway, with the three-month window currently carved out for the IPL providing enough time for a slightly extended PSL.

However, this also necessarily means the PSL will effectively only have overseas players available to them who go unselected at the IPL, given the large financial disparity between the two leagues. This, for example, effectively rules out Rashid Khan turning out for the Lahore Qalandars - one of the franchises opposed to the window - for the foreseeable future. Qalandars opted to retain him for PSL 2024 despite knowing he would not be fit to ensure they would be able to keep the Afghanistan legspinner the following year. However, it is likely he would turn out for the IPL if the two leagues clash.

ESPNcricinfo also understands the PCB is seriously exploring the possibility of hosting the playoffs and final of PSL 2025 in the UK if this April/May window is finalised. Lahore is unseasonably hot in mid-May - temperatures are currently hovering in the mid-40s. The move to the UK, according to the PCB, does more than mitigate against the weather, though; it also globalises the reach of the PSL. The UK is also believed to be a more cost-effective option than the UAE, which has, in the past, hosted every PSL match that did not take place in Pakistan.

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Klopp: Liverpool ready for exciting new direction

Klopp: Liverpool ready for exciting new direction

EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsJürgen Klopp has said Liverpool will move in an "exciting direction...

Madueke backs Lavia to take Chelsea to next level

Madueke backs Lavia to take Chelsea to next level

EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsNoni Madueke believes Chelsea are starting to "take shape" under Ma...

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UEFA

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Basketball

Pacers spurred by fiery Carlisle, roll into Game 7

Pacers spurred by fiery Carlisle, roll into Game 7

EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsINDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana Pacers fell behind 2-0 in their se...

Sources: Porzingis likely out for start of East finals

Sources: Porzingis likely out for start of East finals

EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsBoston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis is expected to remain side...

Baseball

Twins frustrated by plate ump, rare rule violation

Twins frustrated by plate ump, rare rule violation

EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsCLEVELAND -- Following a one-run loss, Minnesota manager Rocco Bald...

'This fan base is going to fall in love with him': How Luis Arráez is following in Tony Gwynn's footsteps

'This fan base is going to fall in love with him': How Luis Arráez is following in Tony Gwynn's footsteps

EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsComparisons to Tony Gwynn began to follow Luis Arráez when he first...

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  • FIFA

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    International Table Tennis Federation
  • NFL

    Nactional Football Leagues
  • FISB

    Federation Internationale de Speedball

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