Sport The Sunday Telegraph l http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport l Saturday 24th April, 2016

There is a reason most neutral football fans want to see Leicester City win the Premier League title this season: to see the smile on the face

of their utterly engaging manager Claudio Ranieri, w r i t e s M a r k O g d e n

My past life as a sports editor on the London Evening Standard co-incided with the Italian’s spell as head coach of Chelsea (September 2000 to May 2004). Despite the pressures and difficulties he was under, he was always unfailingly helpful to our sports team.

During his spell at Stamford Bridge we learned some surprising things about him, not least that for a football manager he is a very cultured man. He loves his art, his antiques and his literature. Things were tricky when he arrived to take over from Gianluca Vialli. The Rome-born former manager of (among others) Napoli, Fior-entina and Atlético Madrid was 48 when he arrived in

London and spoke hardly any English. He relied at first on the helpful Chelsea backroom man Gary Staker to translate for him while he took English lessons.In his first season, he was known to make lots of for-mation changes, rotate the players and introduce the odd substitute or three during matches, and he laughed when I asked whether Chelsea’s players thought he overdid the meddling with formations. “I hear what they’re saying,” Ranieri said. “I ask my English tutor what is this word ‘tinkerer’?”

Ranieri loved living in London and, as the son of a butch-er, enjoyed the range of restaurants on offer in the cap-ital. Lebanese and Indian seemed to be his favourites for eating out, as well as the Lincolnshire sausages he would buy from Newark marketplace when he and his wife would go to antique fairs.

The Italian spent a lot of his spare time travelling around

F O O T B A L L Manchester United v.

Everton FC BT Sport +, BT Sport +HD

Kickoff: 13:15. Chelsea v. West Ham United BT Sport +, BT Sport +HD

Kickoff: 14:30

C R I C K E T Essex v. Somerset

Sky Sports 1 Starts 9 AM, Saturday. Surrey v. East Anglia

Sky Sports 2 Starts 11 AM Saturday

What’s on Telly

FOOTBALL Liverpool 1-0 Norwich M’boro 5-0 Ispwich

Arsenal 2-2 West Brom

CRICKET Bangladesh def.

Zimbabwe by 5 runs India def Sri Lanka

by 7 runs.

TENNIS Andy Roddick def.

J.W Tsong, 6-4, 7-6,6-3

Results at a glance

Ben stokes opens up on captaincy, the ECB teammates and more

“ We do not dream

continued on pg. 26continued on pg. 27

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Sharapova struggle continues with WTA

ban impending

How a man like no other, crafted a storty like none other

Continued on p 24

T E N N I S C R I C K E T

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Year of the FoxClawing their back up the ranks, Leicester City managed to re-enter the premiership in 2014 afte 8 years outside it. Since then, they faced a bitter struggle to survive, with many writing them off. A year on, and the Foxes hav eremarkably changed their fortunes winning game after game, to claim their maiden English league title. Here are four moments defined their ascent to the very top this term.

Gary Lineker Match of The Day Pundit

Leicester triumph one for the ages

While Leicester City went on to become one of the best defensive units in the league, it took them until their 10th Premier League game of the season to earn a clean sheet.

The Foxes’ hunger for a first shutout eventual-ly paid off, as they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at King Power Stadium in October. Claudio promised piz-za and delivered – not literally of course – as the squad headed to local pizza house Peter Pizzeria. ‘I pay. They deserve this pizza and today we will eat. It’s good to stay together,’ he said. ‘It was a very tough game against Palace — it’s good. I hope they enjoy it today.’Ranieri laughed: ‘Drink? Drink water, yes.’ Ranieri scoffed at the thought of buying pizzas in at the King Power Sta-dium, preferring a restaurant more akin to the cooking of his homeland.

1 8th Aug, Leicester City 1 Sunderland 0

29th Nov.Vardy scroes eleven straight

19th Dec. A Christmas Miracle

1st May, Captain Morgan seals titleWhile Leicester City went on to become one of the best defensive units in the league, it took them until their 10th Premier League game of the season to earn a clean sheet.

The Foxes’ hunger for a first shutout eventual-ly paid off, as they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at King Power Stadium in October. Claudio promised piz-za and delivered – not literally of course – as the squad headed to local pizza house Peter Pizzeria. ‘I pay. They deserve this pizza and today we will eat. It’s good to stay together,’ he said. ‘It was a very tough game against Palace — it’s good. I hope they enjoy it today.’Ranieri laughed: ‘Drink? Drink water, yes.’ Ra-nieri scoffed at the thought of buying pizzas in at the King Power Stadium, preferring a restau-rant more akin to the cooking of his homeland.

POCHETTINO SPUR’D AT LAST HURDLEP O C H E T T I N O S P U R ’ D AT T H E L A S T H U R D L E Several rivals, including Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas and West Bromn boss Tony Pulis, openly stated that they wanted to stop Spurs from winning the Premier League despite hav-ing no part in the title race. With many neutrals supporting Leicester City already, Pochettino believes that the football community shouldn’t have been so open in it’s bias towards the Foxes.‘Maybe in the last few weeks or months, we know football people maybe don’t behave like professionals, we need to be careful,’ said the Argentine. ‘Sometimes my press conferences are boring because I’m very polite or political. No, I am professional. That’s a big difference.‘I don’t want to be popular. I want to be professional. That’s the most important thing. ‘It’s easy to say big things against our enemy because: ‘oh, the people love me, I’m very strong, so I’ll say things like this.’ Come on. We are professional. ‘The managers, the league, the players’ association, need to say that we must behave professionally. We need to play, be honest and show integrity and be professional always.

‘When you are professional, not give your opinion, your personal opinion, if I support Tottenham, play against some team which fights for the title or to survive then I can’t give my opinion like a supporter. I need to give my opinion like a professional. ‘It’s always dangerous when something happens like that.‘Maybe in the next few meetings of the Premier League, the managers and also the staff, we need to sWay that in future we must be careful with all these comments in public.’ Asked whether it would be possible to build a Totten-

ham dynasty in the mould of Ferguson’s at United, Pochet-tino replied: “Why not? Sir Alex Ferguson is a very special person. He was given the security to build his legacy at Manchester United. I believe we are special too and we can build it here together.

“This club is special. I feel the love from the beginning, from the very first day. I am very happy to be here to hopefully achieve big things. I think the potential is fantastic, with the new stadium. I think the club is coming to a very tough peri-od because we are building a new stadium and we may focus sometimes on that, but at the same time it is very exciting. “It is important for all to know I believe in this club, the players, the staff, the supporters and the people here. This is important. That is why we have decided to stay here. We have made steps in the time we have been here and we believe in more time we can achieve big things.”

Pochettino was this week linked to the Paris St-Germain job and had also been touted as a candidate to replace Louis van Gaal at United, but he insisted it was a straightforward decision to commit his future to Spurs. “It was an easy decision [to agree the contract],” said Pochetti-no. “When you are happy and feel the love of the people and the potential of the club is massive, why change, why not stay here? “We have created a very good atmosphere in the changing room and the training ground with all the staff. We have an excellent relationship and I think we can achieve big things in the future. “I believe in the club, our players, our staff and support-ers, and for that I say yes to stay here and extend the contract

Fairytale ending: Claudio Ranierikisses the Premier League trophy after 10 months at the helm of Leicester, giving the fairytale story a fairy-tale ending.

“He was given the security to build his legacy at Manchester United. I believe we are special too and we can build it

here together.”

After netting a late penalty at Bournemouth in late August, few could have predicted the goalscoring run that would subsequently follow for the striker. Finding the back of the net against Aston Villa, Stoke City, Arsenal, Norwich City, Southampton, Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion, Watford and New-castle United, Vardy had already equalled Manches-ter United great Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record of scor-ing in 10 consecutive Barclays Premier League games. The side Vardy could break his record against? Man-chester United, of course. It would take a moment of brilliance to breach the Red Devils’ defence, and when Christian Fuchs delivered a stunning no-look pass into the feet of City’s No.9, Vardy made no mis-takes, before wheeling away in wild celebration.

It was a memorable Christmas Day for Foxes fans all around the globe, as they witnessed their side dis-patch Everton 3-2 at Goodison Park on 19 Decem-ber, as two Riyad Mahrez penalties and a strike from Shinji Okazaki ensured City would be top of the tree. In Premier League history, no team had ever been bottom of the table at Christmas one season and top the next. Moreover, in the last 10 seasons of the premier league, the team leading at Christmas would go on to win that league. Leicester had broken all superstition upto that point, but entertaining the thought of being cham-pions of England, after being at the bottom exact-ly 12 months before, was too special to not celebrate. Afterwards the team celebrated with a classic trip to Tony's pizzeria with a plate of hot wings and cool drink of WKD

2

3

4

Pochettino dejected after a drawing 1-1 to Everton

F O O T B A L L

Something extraordinary is happening in the world of football. Something

that defies logic. Something truly magical. Something that makes me well up with emo‑tion because this something is happening to my team. The team I have supported since I was the size of a multipack of crisps. I watched Leicester City lose in the 1969 FA Cup final with my dad and granddad when I was eight and cried all the way home. I have seen them get promoted and rel‑egated. I played for them for eight years. I even got a group of like‑minded fans and friends to stump up a few quid to salvage the club when they went into liquidation. But nothing compares to this. Nothing. Things like this just do not happen to clubs like mine. Before Monday night’s fix‑ture against Newcastle, Leices‑ter are top of the Premier League. Not just top but two points clear with a game in hand, and it’s not September, it’s March. This is, with a couple of notable additions, the same Leicester side that at this stage of last season was languishing, seemingly doomed, at the bot‑tom of the table. What has happened since then is beyond remarkable. Firstly, under the guidance

of Nigel Pearson, the Foxes staged the most miraculous of escapes to maintain their top‑tier status. Pearson then, much to the disappointment of the vast majority of Leicester fans, was sacked, presumably for the outrageous behaviour of three young players on tour, one of whom was the manager’s son. Enter Claudio Ranieri. At this point I feel I should come clean and say that, like many others, I felt it was a pretty uninspired choice. In his pre-vious job he managed a Greek national side that lost to the Faroe Islands. Not that I could have got away without such a statement anyway – Twit-ter would never allow that to happen. Oh how wrong I was, how wonderfully, spec-tacularly, blissfully wrong. The Foxes will no doubt face an uphill battle when they enter the champions league, but if the board can retain the core of their high performers, Europe could yet be bllue The bookies agreed with me, Leicester were the over-whelming favourites to be relegated. Who then could possibly have envisaged what would transpire?

Gary Lineker can be followed @GarryLinkeker

Thomas Thorn Smith Editor-in-Chief

Alasdair Hall

F O O T B A L L 25The Telegraph, Sunday 24th April, 2016

Vardy Party: Jaime Vardy scores his 11th consecutive goal against United to break Van Nistel-rooy's record

WW

The Telegraph, Sunday 24th April, 201624

I will probably never play like this ever again in my life,But I’ve done it once, so at least I can say that. I

was trying to hit as many boundaries as I could because it was too hot to

run.

England's 2015 Ashes-winners Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow have been chosen among Wisden's five

Cricketers of the Year.All-rounder Stokes and wicketkeeper-bats man Bairstow, whose prolific run of form for Yorkshire helped win him back his Test place last summer and bring a second suc cessive County Championship to Head ingley, are joined by New Zealanders Brendon McCullum and Kane William son and new Australia captain Steve Smith. Wisden has also named Williamson as Leading Cricketer in the World after his 2,692 international runs across the formats in 2015 - the third-highest annual aggregate ever.The historic and prestigious Cricketer of the Year accolade can be won just once by any

player, and is judged pri-marily via influence on the previous English

summer.

Stokes' and Bair-stow's were evident in England's thrilling

3-2 Ashes victory, and both went on to fur-ther enhance their standing through a win-ter in which their record partnership of 399 against South Africa in Cape Town featured the Yorkshireman's maiden Test century and an astonishing display of sustained hitting as the Durham all-rounder racked up 258.McCullum's New Zealand were credited by many at the start of last season with helping England set a new tone of adventure in a drawn Test series and a limited-overs run-fest too.That accounts in part for the captain and the prolific batsman's places in Wisden's cov-eted category - while their compatriot Suz-ie Bates is named as the women's Leading Cricketer.Wisden editor Lawrence Booth congratu-lates England, in his notes section, for their re-emergence after the World Cup debacle of early 2015.He describes their transformation as "the most uplifting story in international cricket".Booth adds: "[in May] a timid defeat in Barbados was followed by a tumultuous victory over New Zealand at Lord's - and England instantly became a side you want-ed to tell your friends about.

English Cricket's Ginger Prince

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Ben Stokes, speaks to The Telegraph on the winning the Wisden award, captaincy and the future of English Cricket.

Dawn of an era: Stokes embraces his helmet after a match winning double century, against the West In-dies sealing the series with a whitewash 3-0

Morgan looks ahead after a challenging twelve months

Eoin Morgan has a strong affinity with Ireland, the land

of his birth. But when the opportunity came to play for England, he was on the first train to Lord’s. He may have a strong affinity with his adopted country, too. But no, he will not sing the national anthem just to appease petty Englanders. The point is that Morgan has no interest in impress-ing you. This much has become increasingly clear over the past few years. He maintains a modest so-cial media profile, speaks

frankly in interviews, signs as many autographs as he is asked to. But he will never be anyone’s totem. He likes a pint, a round of golf, a game on the Xbox, a flutter on the horses, a night out. But his personal life is his and his alone. Morgan is not the sort of guy you will find f r a t e r n i s i n g with Fleet Street hacks in the hotel bar, or pimping him-self out on the celeb-rity circuit. He is his own man: quietly but stridently independent, whether it comes to his unorthodox technique, his unortho-dox captaincy, or even his

unorthodox career path. He may be friends with Kevin Pietersen, but when confirming in a re-cent interview that Pieters-en’s England career was over, he insisted on tak-ing personal responsibil-

ity for the decision. (“Kevin will not

be picked,” he said. “That’s from me.” He has no interest in the

sport’s various tribes, factions

or cliques. In many ways, he is English crick-et’s answer to Rick Blaine, the character played by Humphrey Bogart in Cas-ablanca: “Gentlemen, your business is politics.

Mine is running a saloon.” The question comes when the saloon stops running the way it should. As England’s firework of a World Twenty20 cam-paign ricochets towards its final group match, against Sri Lanka on Saturday, the form of their lead-er is a familiar concern. A concern, because he has now gone 20 innings without a half-century in all forms of the game. Fa-miliar, because more than most players Morgan goes through peaks and troughs, and there is often no telling when one will morph into the other. Wickets will further drop but Morgan's will power will serve to define him.

Jonathan Liew Cricket Co loumnist

26

by David Todd

Ronay's CornerWhy Andy Flower's England axe was the best for everyone.

There have been moments in the past 18 months

when it seemed possible the best starting point for anyone compiling an anatomy of the state of English cricket would be a shortlist of the things that aren’t actually broken yet. Understandably, at a time when the England team have won only 22 of 70 interna-tional matches since the 2013 Oval Ashes Test, the tempta-tion has been to reach for the grand narrative of decay and decline: from the sell-the-fam-ily-silver disappearance from mainstream TV of what was once a national summer sport; to the sense of wider aliena-tion exposed by the dropping from the team of a popular star batsman. The England and Wales Cricket Board has at least been busy. Heads have rolled, per-haps even some of the right ones, and the chairman and chief executive are “finalising the job description” for a new

cricket director role that will, it is hoped, provide a decisive flushing out of the various blockages and constipations clogging the system. Admit-tedly this has already been go-ing on for quite a while but ex-citement is still mounting over what could yet be one of the great job descriptions – per-haps even the outstanding job description of its generation.

It is easy to mock what is a very ECB kind of revolution (when in doubt, appoint an-other senior manager). But this a fascinating process in its own right. With all due respect to the more orthodox coaching credentials of Peter Moores, it is probably worth acknowledg-ing at this point that in many ways the person the ECB is trying to replace with the new role is Andy Flower. Remem-ber him?

Andy Ronay can be followed on @AnRoney

C R I C K E TThe Telegraph, Sunday 24th April, 2016