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Manchester United are set to launch a fresh enquiry into signing a £100m-rated midfield star this month, according to recent reports.

Man Utd in pole position to sign La Liga star

It could be a busy month for the Red Devils, who seem destined to welcome at least one midfield reinforcement after Ruben Amorim has seen the depth of his squad tested to its limits in recent weeks.

It was another evening to forget for the Man United boss last time out as his side were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford. The Midlands club picked up just their third point of the season and even had chances of their own to secure what would have been a famous victory,

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United, meanwhile, were given a stark reality check that they must heed heading into the new year if they want to finally turn a corner. And if INEOS were watching, then they should act sooner rather than later in the January transfer window.

To that end, Conor Gallagher is a name to watch. According to recent reports, Man United are now in pole position to sign the Atletico Madrid man, who is seeking a return to the Premier League this month.

A deal to sign the England international would have to be permanent rather than on loan and it remains to be seen whether that deters Man United this month.

It could force them to turn towards their long-term options six months early, including Brighton & Hove Albion’s Carlos Baleba.

Man Utd set to launch fresh Baleba enquiry

According to TeamTalk, Man United are now set to launch a fresh enquiry to sign Baleba from Brighton this month. The Red Devils have been monitoring the midfielder alongside the likes of Liverpool and could now make their move when he returns from AFCON.

Alas, the deal won’t come cheap. Just like in the summer, Brighton reportedly value Baleba at a hefty £100m which would instantly make him the most expensive player in Man United’s history. For that price, they simply must make sure that the 21-year-old is the man to transform their midfield.

PL stats P90 25/26

Carlos Baleba

Manuel Ugarte

Minutes

896

554

Progressive Passes

2.4

5.16

Tackles Won

1

2.74

Ball Recoveries

5.1

5.16

On current form, the truth is that United should be steering clear of Baleba at £100m. The Brighton star showed what he’s capable of at his best last season, but has struggled to repeat that form in the current campaign. Whether it’s a knock-on effect of missing out on a big move in the summer is not something that United should find out.

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The Red Devils need a midfield reinforcement and that should come in the form of either Adam Wharton or Elliot Anderson, not Baleba this year.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:12

Zimbabwe beats Bangladesh for third time in T20Is

Zimbabwe’s batting line-up put up a power-packed performance, something they hadn’t done earlier in the series, to keep it alive with a 31-run win in the third T20 against Bangladesh. Zimbabwe’s spinners continued to pick wickets, like they had done earlier in the series, and derailed the hosts’ chase around the halfway mark despite their strong start.Marshalled by Vusi Sibanda at the start and Malcolm Waller later, Zimbabwe’s sustained aggression took them to a challenging 187 after stand-in captain Hamilton Masakadza had said the “160-mark” would be decent on this pitch in Khulna. Tendai Chisoro, Graeme Cremer and Sikandar Raza took all six wickets and conceded only 40 runs in their 10 overs.There were useful contributions from all of Zimbabwe’s top five batsmen, and each of them had a strike rate of over 120. Sibanda showed his intent from the first ball he faced by charging at left-arm pacer Abu Hider, one of the four Bangladesh debutants, to drill him through the covers for four. He carved out a pretty wide ‘V’ on both sides of the pitch by dispatching meaty drives and flicks. Masakadza also got going after a slow start, and hammered Mohammad Shahid, another debutant, for four consecutive fours, but fell for 20 when in search of a fifth.Hider and Shahid were punished for 45 runs in the first four overs and Sibanda welcomed the third debutant Muktar Ali with a four as well. Zimbabwe were 59 for 1 when rain interrupted and Shakib Al Hasan had Richmond Mutumbami and Sibanda caught at deep midwicket after the break, in consecutive overs, to drag the run-rate from over ten to under eight.Meanwhile, Waller and Williams were getting themselves set. And having faced about ten balls each, they unfurled a barrage of boundaries to help Zimbabwe swindle 85 runs from the last seven overs; six of those went for at least ten an over.Mosaddek Hossain dropped Williams on 12 at backward point, but it was Waller who caused more damage. Shahid, Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib – all were punished for sixes before Waller eventually holed out to deep midwicket, for a 23-ball 49. Williams continued till the last over and some late strikes from Peter Moor too meant the Bangladesh bowlers got no respite.Chisoro dented Bangladesh’s chase in the first over to dismiss Imrul Kayes, playing his first match of the series, for 1 but Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman kept the hosts in the hunt. Sarkar used his wrists to find gaps and Sabbir targeted the leg side, just like he had done in the second T20, with pulls and slogs. Sabbir mirrored Masakadza by dispatching three straight fours in the sixth over that hauled their run-rate over nine. Zimbabwe also paid the price for Mutumbami’s mistake when he missed Sarkar’s stumping off Williams’ first ball. That over cost 12 runs and the visitors seemed unsettled.Zimbabwe caught a break when Sarkar top-edged a slog sweep for an easy catch at midwicket in Cremer’s first over that broke their most productive and threatening stand, of 67 runs. Masakadza rotated his spinners for the next nine overs, the asking rate shot up and the wickets came down. Sabbir brought up a 31-ball fifty with a four in the 11th over but fell two balls later by holing out in the leg side.Their hopes fell on Shakib, but he found Waller at long-on with 86 required from 36. Mahmudullah top-edged Cremer in the same over to give Mutumbami an easy catch. As well as Nurul Hasan scooped during his 17-ball 30 and Muktar supported him with 19 from 15, it just wasn’t enough.

Zimbabwe’s selectors are not expected to spring any surprises when they name their 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship to be held in South Africa next month.Although Zimbabwe has staged a domestic Twenty20 competition of sorts, the pool of players available for selection is shallow and so the squad will be based on recent one-day performances.The only surprise could be the inclusion of Charles Coventry who has not played international cricket for over a year. Coventry, a hard-hitting batsman, is better suited for the Twenty20 game and was named in a provisional 30-man squad that was never made public. Also in that group was Gregory Strydom, who is playing club cricket in England at the moment.Coventry walked out on Zimbabwe during their tour of the West Indies in May last year after he fell out with coach Kevin Curran and Andy Pycroft, at the time the team manager. He failed to resolve his differences with Curran and never reported for camp ahead of the World Cup, missing out on the prestigious event.

Rahul Dravid is put through his paces in the nets © Getty Images

What have baseball-style throws, golf balls, baseball bats and gym-style mats got to do with cricket? On the surface, not a lot, but India’s elite cricketers have made use of all of the above at various times during the innovative training camp that will come to a close tomorrow as the team gears up for cricket’s most arduous challenge – contests against Australia (and West Indies), albeit in the neutral environs of Kuala Lumpur.After a mishap that involved overenthusiastic fans and a barbed wire fence yesterday, it was expected that the six players assembled for the last leg of this camp would go through the training drills in the empty concrete bowl that is the Chinnaswamy Stadium. But in the morning, with fielding practice first on the agenda, the more sylvan settings of the B ground adjoining the main venue once again rang out with adrenaline-fuelled shouts as the players worked on throwing the ball.Dinesh Mongia, who spoke to the media later, said: “Greg [Chappell] spoke about the use of the hips, not just the shoulder and the arms. He spoke about using the whole body in a throw, and how it’s much better than just using an arm or something like that. So we are working on that.”Greg said that if the skill is right then there would be less injuries and the outcome is much better. So today’s morning session was about that.”Thilak Naidu, once on the verge of national selection and a Karnataka stalwart, watched the goings on with great interest, and spoke of the influence of Mike Young on teams worldwide. The old-timers may have considered it sacrilegious at first, but the American baseball coach undoubtedly played an enormous role in taking Australia’s ground-fielding – and especially the throwing – to another level.Naidu himself couldn’t speak highly enough of Young, whose methods he has watched in person once while in Australia. Mongia, when pressed to mention the major difference between this and previous camps, spoke quite animatedly about the greater emphasis on skill, and not just in the fielding department.”Previously, two or three years back when John [Wright] was there, he was more into physical fitness and all that. I guess that was also very crucial because John brought all that in. Now I think that Greg and Rahul [Dravid] are very keen for the skill work.”The skill-work that Mongia spoke off involved a session with golf balls and a stump in the morning. The batsmen fronted up on a concrete pitch, and played their shots armed with a solitary stump as the dimpled ball was pinged down at them from a distance far less than 22 yards.The extra bounce tested both footwork and reaction-time, and there was more of the same later in the afternoon when the bowling machine came into play on the main ground, with the ball coming down at the batsmen from the sort of height once associated with the likes of Joel Garner and Vincent van der Bijl.Mongia, who has been around a while, added that the extra height from which the ball was delivered made all the difference. “It is something new because with the bowling machine at that height. I think it’s about ten feet and with the ball coming out at that height, it’s really good practice.”

Sachin Tendulkar fine tunes his game before India head to Malaysia © Getty Images

Considering that Australia will most likely play the tall trio of Glenn McGrath, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson, the practice certainly won’t go waste, even if the pitches in Malaysia aren’t expected to replicate the trampoline bounce that once characterised the WACA in Perth.And as Harbhajan Singh and Ramesh Powar took their turn in the nets, and in front of the bowling machine, Dravid, Mongia and Sachin Tendulkar moved back to the B ground for slip-catching practice. Ian Frazer, armed with a baseball bat, kept the edges coming, and a narrow cordon struggled initially to get their bearings. Once they did though, there were some stunning reflex takes, with Mongia – who has never looked like a consummate athlete – earning applause from the two legends for a couple of audacious one-handed grabs.He knows though that it’s his batting and bowling that will come under intense scrutiny with many others biding their time on the sidelines. “In last two to three years, I have worked hard on my bowling, batting and fielding, so I obviously want to prove a point as an allrounder,” said Mongia, who earned a recall largely on the strength of his performances for Leicestershire in the county season. “I have spoken to Greg and Rahul and they think that I have a role to play as a bowler as well.”With Australia having struggled at times against more guileful left-arm spin from Murali Kartik, Mongia may yet have a crucial role to play in Malaysia. And after the Sri Lanka triangular fell victim to bomb blasts and poor weather, the opportunity to swap baseball bats and stumps – innovative as such drills may be – for a 3lb willow and 5 ½ ounces of stitched leather will be a welcome one indeed.

Kabir Ali gave it a whack © Getty Images

England emphatically retained their Hong Kong Sixes title by passing Sri Lanka’s total of 61 in just 3.1 overs after Kabir Ali walloped 34 off 11 balls in the final.Accurate bowling from England stifled Sri Lanka’s batsmen, with only two Sri Lankans reaching double figures. Graham Napier conceding just six runs and took one wicket in his one over.Matthew Maynard, England’s captain, was clear about how the victory was achieved: “We bowled magnificently. Our bowlers won the game for us.” Only Pakistan, in 2002, and England themselves in 1994, have won the Hong Kong Sixes in successive years before.To reach to final England had beaten United Arab Emirates by 15-runs in their semi-final. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan to by 10 runs in the other semi, as Dilruwan Perera, an offspinner, took a hat-trick.In the final of the Plate Competition, for the sides that were knocked out yesterday, Hong Kong’s total of 135 proved too much for Kenya, who lost by 50 runs.

Lord’s pavilion: no more comings and goings for a while© Getty Images

The historic 19th-century pavilion at Lord’s is to be closed down on Monday afternoon, for a six-month refurbishment project that will restore the building to pristine condition ahead of next summer’s Ashes series.The pavilion, designed by Thomas Verity and built in 1889-90, is being done up at a cost of around £8.2million. That represents the biggest refurbishment in the building’s history, and takes MCC’s overall expenditure on ground improvements past the £50million mark since its bicentenary in 1987.To enable the contractors to press ahead with the project, the pavilion will be completely shut to MCC staff, club members and the general public until mid-March 2005. It has never previously been closed for any such length of time; even during the two World Wars. In 1914-18, the Long Room was used to produce hay-nets for Army horses, and in 1939-45, it was used for aircrew training.Among the changes in prospect will be the creation of a new roof terrace, the redecoration of the Long Room and the reinstatement of its fireplaces, and the two pavilion turrets being brought back into use.

The England & Wales Cricket Board has resisted the temptation to cook its golden goose, and has announced that the Twenty20 Cup will remain largely unchanged for next season’s competition.The only major alteration will be the inclusion of a quarter-final stage. Both semi-finals and the final will, once again, be held on the same day, despite some criticism that the showpiece day was rather too long. Even though Surrey won the inaugural final with more than nine overs to spare, the day’s activities didn’t finish until 9.35pm, some 11 hours after the first ball had been bowled.The success of the competition, however, is not in doubt. More than 250,000 spectators attended group games in the 2003 competition – a rise of 353% compared to the old Benson & Hedges Cup, which Twenty20 cricket was designed to replace.But county executives were split over its future. Leicestershire, Glamorgan and Worcestershire preferred to play next season’s group games in two pools of nine, which would guarantee each county twice the number of home games. But the ECB management board agreed unanimously to keep the existing three pools of six, and the venues for each match held in 2003 will be reversed.The quarter-final stage will increase the interest in the group phases. The sides finishing first and second in each group will qualify automatically, with the other two quarter-final spots going to the two third-placed teams with the best records. The tournament has also been delayed by two weeks to avoid clashing with the European football championships.”The issue was about how best to build upon the tremendous success of the competition in its first year,” said ECB chief executive Tim Lamb. “Ultimately it was unanimously decided by the ECB management board that the format of the competition should largely be unchanged in 2004.”

Bangladesh are fighting to avoid innings defeat at the M A Aziz stadium at the end of the fourth day of the second Test against Zimbabwe. At stumps, the hosts had reached 227 for the loss of 4 wickets with opener Javed Omar and Ashraful still at the crease.When Bangladesh followed on, it was Henry Olonga who once again made the breakthrough. He trapped Al-Sahariar lbw for 40 – an innings that included five boundaries.Habibul Bashar, the man in form, compiled another superb knock of 76 before being caught at long off. He and Javed Omar shared a partnership that took the total towards respectability. They both were set and dealt with the Zimbabwean attack with ease.Before tea, Bangladesh were in a reasonably comfortable position at 184 for 1. Bashar was approaching his second successive century and it was not unachievable the way he was batting. But he looked impatient just after tea and attempted to go for his shots. He lifted Grant Flower to long off a couple of times – he got two from the first and a boundary from the second. An excited Bashar, while attempting to lift the same bowler over long off for a third time, mistimed his stroke and offered an easy catch to the fielder positioned there.The quick fall of Aminul Islam and Akram Khan changed the scenario. Zimbabwe took over control as Grant Flower dispatched them both. Aminul offered a catch to silly point for 1, and shattered the stumps of Akram Khan for 2.Javed Omar and Mohammed Ashraful survived the remainder of the day peacefully. Ashraful, reputed as a natural stroke player, batted quiet unusually. At the end of the day he was still there with just a single to his name after facing 53 balls during his 95-minute innings.Javed Omar batted brilliantly to record his third Test half century, all coming against Zimbabwe, and remained not out with 80. He batted for 415 minutes and faced 320 deliveries.Grant Flower, not widely recognised as a front line bowler, looked deadly on this track. He was getting sharp turn like the previous day and was difficult to put away. He had only taken 10 wickets in his entire Test career, but here he has taken seven already – exactly half the Bangladeshi wickets to fall.Bangladesh are still 64 runs behind the Zimbabwean total, going into the final day of the match.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, suffered a heart attack on Thursday evening, and has undergone an angiogram at the BM Birla hospital in Kolkata, a senior Cricket Association of Bengal official told ESPNcricinfo. He was in a critical care unit, but was reported to be stable.Dalmiya, 75, had not been in good health since beginning his third term as BCCI president in March this year, having taken over from N Srinivasan. A long-serving cricket administrator, Dalmiya has been president of the ICC, has held different offices in the BCCI, and occupied top posts in the CAB in a career that began in 1979.Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is joint secretary of the CAB, and other board officials had arrived at the hospital to visit Dalmiya, who is expected to remain under observation for a few days.The hospital’s medical bulletin, accessed by the Kolkata-based said: “Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, 75 years, came to BM Birla Heart Research Centre at around 9 pm today, almost 6 hours after the onset of chest pain, with a history of acute extensive anterior myocardial wall infarction… His blood pressure and pulse were stable.”Patient after initial clinical assessment was taken to cath lab for coronary angiography. Multiple lesions were observed with total occlusion of left anterior descending coronary artery. Thrombus aspiration was performed but significant residual thrombus load persisted with poor distal run off in capillary bed. It was not advisable to do a primary stenting at this point of time.”The patient is currently under requisite medication protocol and is being closely monitored in coronary critical care unit.”

Pruning the national selection committee from five to three, as the Lodha report has recommended, would be a bad idea given the size of the country and the number of first-class teams involved. That’s the opinion of three former selectors – Dilip Vengsarkar, Kiran More and Sanjay Jagdale – who say that the increased workload cannot be offset by the proposed Talent Committee that will do the basic scouting.One of the key reforms proposed by the Lodha committee, which submitted its various recommendations on Monday, was to limit the selection panel to three former players, all Test cricketers, retired at least five years prior to their appointment. According to the Lodha committee, a Talent Committee would facilitate the national selectors, reduce their workload and effectively “increase the authority” of the panel.But all the former selectors ESPNcricinfo spoke to disagreed. “India is such a vast country. At the moment the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy [the domestic Twenty20 tournament] is taking place across four venues. Suppose there are three selectors, then how many games can they watch?” More, the former Indian wicketkeeper, said. According to More, it would not be the right decision to adopt the same structure that is in place in countries like Australia, which have only a handful of first-class teams.More felt at least four selectors are required, but he was happy to have the four best men from around the country chosen instead of zonal representation, which has been the norm for long and opens up the possibility of nepotism.Former Madhya Pradesh allrounder Jagdale, who served two terms as a national selector between 2000 and 2008 as part two selection panels, said that the five-man panel was a “proven formula”, so why change that now.Former India captain Vengsarkar said he would stick to five-selectors policy. “The game has spread even to the small cities. The BCCI is sending grants to every association and they in turn are creating the infrastructure to encourage youngsters to play the game. So the player pool has increased now,” Vengsarkar, who is now the director of the National Cricket Academy, said. He pointed out the proposed Talent Committee has already been put in place by the BCCI, with the plan to appoint 30 talent and research development officers (TRDOs) comprising three scouts at the Under-16 and Under-19 levels each, across the five zones.Asked whether three selectors would not be enough, given the 30 scouts on the junior circuit providing feedback, Vengsarkar felt more is still better. “It always helps to have more views and opinions on a particular selection at times,” he said.According to More, relying on talent scouts was never enough. “Recommendations are fine. But you have to see the player yourself, you have to study the conditions. One guy could score a century but a on a (flat) wicket whereas another batsman might score 50 on a difficult wicket.”As for the proposal on the panel comprising only Test players, Vengsarkar and More differed. More preferred a mix, keeping in the mind the importance of limited-overs cricket and how it would not be correct to ignore former players who might have been good in the shorter formats but missed out on playing Tests. Vengsarkar felt if a player had dealt with the rigours of Test cricket successfully, he could easily adapt his thinking to the shorter formats even if he might never had played or excelled at them.Jagdale did not want to comment whether having a Test cap was an important prerequisite for being a selector. “It would not be fair for me to say anything,” he said. “I was a non-Test playing selector for such a long period.”