Liverpool fans are never going to allow Chelsea to live down the fact that they sold Mohamed Salah in 2016.

The Egyptian international spent two years on the books at Chelsea, but struggled to find a way into the team, eventually spending loan spells at Fiorentina and Roma.

Just one year after being sold by the Blues to Roma, Salah found himself at Anfield, where he has shone.

With the Champions League final left to play, the 25-year-old has scored 44 goals in all competitions, and he has taken home a cabinet of awards, including the PFA Player of the Year, Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year, and the Premier League Golden Boot.

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Chelsea may feel that they made a mistake, and Liverpool fans are hopeful that the Blues will make another one in the sale of young midfielder Isaac Christie-Davies.

According to ESPN, the 20-year-old is expected to sign for Liverpool after he was not offered a new deal at at Stamford Bridge.

The publication claims that the Reds have been left impressed by the youngster, who was given a trial in March.

Fans have given their verdicts on Reddit.

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Resuming the innings on 219-2 after the tea interval, Lancashire lookedintent on building a big score quickly.Flintoff smashed his way to a half century off only 59 balls whilst Crawleywas playing the anchor role at the other end. Flintoff’s ability to hit hardand straight lofted drives featured strongly in his innings which was fullyappreciated by the spectators.His innings came to an end when he was caught at silly mid-off off a thininside edge. A wicket was desperately needed by Leicestershire at this point and once again their leading wicket taker this season, Anil Kumble, duly obliged.This brought Ganguly to the crease and he did not find life easy at thebeginning. Infact, he faced 17 balls before scoring.Leicestershires troubles seem to be mounting as not only were they missingtheir opening bowler Jimmy Ormond for most of the day through injury, butPhil Defreitas then pulled up in a delivery stride and did not bowl for therest of the day.With Lancashire now only a few runs behind it will be interesting to see howthey will play this game tomorrow. Their overall run rate per overthroughout the day was 3.6 and they should look to maintain and improve onthis from the start tomorrow.

Openers Steve Titchard and Steve Stubbings have recorded the second highestpartnership in Derbyshire’s history but their feat carried little relevancebeyond the statistical as their team’s Championship fixture with Kent endedin a tame draw at Canterbury today. Titchard and Stubbings battedundisturbed through the fourth and final day of the match to take thevisitors to a second innings score of 293/0 before play was called off inlate afternoon.Titchard’s unconquered 141 represented his highest score for his new teamsince his transfer from Lancashire at the start of 1999, while Stubbings’135 snared him a morale-boosting maiden hundred for the county. Bothplayed very straight – on and off drives were in abundance – but neitherthe pitch nor the attack posed too many terrors. It was a measure of theextent to which the match had lost any genuine meaning that Kent captainMatthew Fleming even found time toward the end to ensure that all eleven ofhis players received a chance to bowl at some stage of the day. The hometeam also took the opportunity of resting Rahul Dravid and Min Patel justafter tea, sending on substitute Ben Trott and physio Martin Sigley intheir places as the inevitable early finish loomed.By the time that the match was finally brought to a merciful halt at5:20pm, the teams had each taken nine points away from it. This a resultwhich leaves Kent entrenched in sixth place on the Division One table butwhich has seen Derbyshire relegate Hampshire to bottom position. It isHampshire which Derbyshire meets in its next match (beginning on Wednesdayat Derby). Kent’s players, meanwhile, stay at home to ready themselves fora clash with Leicestershire which starts the same day.

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Mahmudul Hasan’s unbeaten fifty gave Bangladesh Under-19 a two-wicket win against their South African counterparts in the opening match of the Tri-Nation U-19 tournament in Pretoria.Bangladesh bowled out South Africa for 158 in 40.5 overs. South Africa began poorly, losing opener Pieter Malan with the score at 1. They had collapsed to 35 for 3 in the tenth over when Reeza Hendricks was joined by Johnathan Vandiar at the crease.The two added 27 together before legspinner Mohammad Shakil struck with three quick wickets. The first to go was Hendricks, bowled by Shakil for 17. In his next over, Shakil trapped Vandiar leg before and when it seemed a useful partnership was forming between top scorer Yaseen Vallie and Kelly Smuts, Shakil had Vallie caught for 24. The last five batsmen added 68. Rubel Hossain and Nasir Hossain picked up two wickets each.Bangladesh began the chase in meekly and after 30 overs they had lost six wickets for 98. Hasan’s 38-run partnership with Nasir Hossain was broken by Vallie, who took 3 for 31 in his 10 overs. But despite receiving very little support from his team-mates Hasan managed to complete the win with more than two overs to spare.

ScorecardAlviro Petersen shared a 321 stand with fellow South African Ashwell Prince•Getty Images

One rather doubts that the songs of George Formby feature prominently in Lancashire’s post-match victory celebrations; judging from what can be heard near the dressing room: a strident beat recognisable from rugby league matches and the repetition of the county’s name does the job perfectly well. Still, there were times on the first afternoon of this game when it seemed that Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince could play Glamorgan’s bowling with “little sticks of Colwyn rock”.By the close, Petersen and Prince’s unbroken third-wicket stand of 321 had steered Lancashire to 425 for 2, a score which already puts the Division Two leaders in a virtually impregnable position. They had inflicted suffering on the grand scale, destructive almost as soon as they began their partnership and they wreaked progressively more havoc as the afternoon drifted into the evening. In the final session 192 runs were scored off 32 overs.The Port Elizabethan pair’s demolition of Glamorgan’s seven-man attack was appreciated by all the 2200 spectators and it gave partisan pleasure to at least half the crowd. While this may be Glamorgan’s home game, the delightful Penrhyn Avenue ground is only an hour and a half’s drive from Formby’s birthplace in Wigan; it is far easier to get to for most local Lancashire supporters than it is for the Glamorgan followers living in the valleys, where some rather different singing goes on.The red rose was, therefore, as well represented as the daffodil in the throngs enjoying their burgers and pints on the popular side. There were plenty of Lancastrians, too, on the attractively-tiered green slope. Indeed, some might argue that this outground is the envy of millions of people in the Western economies at the moment: they have a bank which is conveniently situated and it makes them money.They may have applauded even more loudly had their team been steered to prosperity by two batsmen whose development had taken place in Lancashire but they are also aware that they lead Glamorgan by 47 points, albeit having played a game more. Should Lancashire win here, promotion will soon be a matter of quite simple arithmetic.The truth, however, is that neither side should lose this game, for it is being played on a wicket as flat as the most avaricious batsman could desire. Add to that, short boundaries and a fast outfield and you have the sort of conditions ripe for plunder and record-breaking.Neither Petersen nor Prince passed up the opportunity to boost their already healthy averages. One therefore had to be careful not to be sucked into a swamp of statistics by the sort of cricket that sends Opta men into numbers nirvana; much better, surely, to select the most significant records that were broken.Let it be noted, therefore that when Prince and Petersen returned to a standing ovation from the members in the pavilion at close of play, their stand was already a third-wicket record for matches between these sides. The pair had set a comparable record when they put on 258 against Derbyshire at Southport in May but their partnership is also now the second highest third-wicket stand in Lancashire’s history. Only Michael Atherton and Neil Fairbrother’s 364-run partnership against Surrey in 1990 lies ahead of them.The stroke-making of both players was close to faultless. They performed with the confidence of batsmen who had absolute trust in the surface on which they were playing. One lost count of the times Prince crunched the ball through midwicket or the occasions on which Petersen drove relatively blameless bowlers through the covers. Boundaries, rather than wickets, came in clumps but by the end of the day, the pair were not sated. There could have few more ominous sights for Glamorgan’s bowlers than seeing Petersen pat back Dean Cosker’s final over.Petersen will resume tomorrow on 205 which is only five short of his career-best first-class score; he has already hit 27 fours and a straight six off Cosker which landed in the gardens of one of Penrhyn Avenue’s russet-roofed houses. Three Lancashire players were sent to look for the ball for there was little prospect of them having anything else to do.By contrast, Paul Horton’s part in the day was long completed by the time Petersen and Prince came together. The Lancashire opener was trapped leg before in the seventh over by a ball from Michael Hogan which perhaps kept a little low. Horton took his leave with a reproachful glance at the pitch although he had probably changed his opinion by the end of the day.The rest of the morning was taken up with Karl Brown batting as felicitously as anyone to make his sixth fifty in seven Championship innings. Timing the new ball with seemingly little effort, Brown batted with grace and style but then frustrated his supporters when he was bowled when playing across a straight ball from David Lloyd. Some thought that a Brown century was going to be the main course at Colwyn Bay; instead it was merely the amuse bouche.As for Glamorgan’s bowlers, they did their best on a surface they must have come to loathe. In the 85th over Hogan was driven three times in succession to the extra-cover boundary by Preince; a few minutes later Petersen hit Lloyd for six fours in seven balls.”Come on Glammy, give us a wicket!” some yelled but it was a voice crying in the wilderness. By that stage Jacques Rudolph’s bowlers could have been forgiven for reckoning that they would have been better employed following George Formby’s example and cleaning a few windows instead of playing this wretched game.

Allrounder Stuart Binny has been added to India’s Test squad for the Sri Lanka series. He will join the team ahead of the second game, which begins on August 20 in Colombo at the P Sara Oval.The BCCI confirmed that there was no fresh injury concern for any other members of the squad, that Binny was just an “addition” to the 15-man unit. Binny, seen as someone who can bat at No. 6 and be a fifth bowling option, will provide the team management with an additional all-round choice. He has played three Tests, all on India’s tour to England in mid 2014. While he did not pick up a wicket in any of those games, he scored a handy 78 in his debut Test, in Nottingham, to help India draw.India do have a couple of already existing injury worries going into the second Test, around their openers. M Vijay, who had missed the first Test with a hamstring niggle, was on the mend the board said, though a decision on whether he will return to the XI would be taken closer to the game: “Improving every day and the team physio is working with him. The final call will be taken one day before the Test.” There was no further update on Shikhar Dhawan, who had batted through the Galle Test with an injury to his right hand.India lost the first Test of the Sri Lanka series, in Galle, after being ahead for a large part of the match. There are two more matches to go, both in Colombo, one at the P Sara Oval and the other at the Sinhalese Sports Club. With the P Sara Oval, considered Sri Lanka’s most seamer-friendly wicket, it is possible that Binny could slot in. Leading up to the game, the indication is that a pacer will in all likelihood replace the third spinner, especially as Harbhajan Singh was largely ineffectual on a turning pitch in Galle.Despite the Sri Lankan elections taking place on Monday, India will train at the P Sara Oval in the late afternoon.

Sanjay Bangar, the India batting coach, has hit back at Rohit Sharma’s critics, saying that the batsman has “definitely contributed to the team’s cause”. Bangar also praised Cheteshwar Pujara but backed the decision to prefer Rohit over him.”If you look at the numbers, he has played 13 [14] Test matches and scored 800-900 [870] runs at an average of 40 [37.82] with two centuries, four half-centuries. I think if his critics can go back and compare the first 13 Test matches of any other cricketer who has played for a while, I think they would probably be less harsh on Rohit,” Bangar told ESPNcricinfo in an interview after completing a year as India batting coach. “I believe that in the matches he has played so far – obviously everybody wants to contribute more – he has definitely contributed to the team’s cause.”Bangar insisted that the team management decided to play Rohit at No. 3 in the fourth and final Test in Australia since “Pujara was having a tough time”. Bangar, however, admitted that once Rohit was brought lower down the order, the move worked better for the batsman and the team.”We are clear in our mind that we need to give enough time and opportunity for a player if we put him at a particular position before making the change. Pujara was having a tough time, so he [Rohit] was given a fair run at No. 3. He batted very well in Sydney (53 & 39). He got starts in both the innings but could not convert it into a big one.”Bangladesh was just one innings. But you could see that just three innings prior to P Sara (second Test against Sri Lanka), he was scoring runs at No. 3. After those five opportunities, we felt that moving him down the order would benefit the team more. And it also made sure that he got some time because he also had put a lot of pressure on himself to perform. Somebody who constantly wants to contribute to the team’s cause. And it worked out beautifully. In both the Test matches (P Sara and SSC), he played vital innings for the team.”With the new Test captain Virat Kohli stressing on playing five bowlers, Pujara has had to sit out. But Bangar was delighted with the way Pujara played a match-winning innings as a stopgap opener in India’s series-decider at the SSC.”Pujara has tremendous hunger, tremendous temperament. Again somebody who had a dip in his career but who is right up there. This is the batting group which is going to be the core of India’s batting for the next five years. Obviously there are going to be players who are going to miss out because of injuries but every new player who has come in has scored runs.”Pujara appears to get bogged down, especially at the start of his innings. His inability to take singles consistently tends to put pressure on the batsman at the other end. Bangar, however, didn’t single him out for failing to rotate strike.”Strike rotation is something we are all making our batsmen (aware) of. We are working on it. It is not only for one individual batsman but it is for the entire batting group. How you can achieve it is you need to know the fields, you need to know the bowling plans, you need to play with softer hands closer to the body. That is an awareness the batting group is working on and there has been a marked improvement in that area.”Bangar, along with bowling coach B Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar, is the first Indian member of the team’s support staff in five years. According to Bangar, the trio has made a strong case for the Indian coaches’ fraternity.”Being a group of Indian coaches, there was a bit of pressure to justify that Indian coaches can handle the national team effectively. There also was an additional sense of responsibility towards the Indian coaching fraternity. And I think we have been able to maintain the standards. That is something that I think we have been able to achieve.”The assistant coaches, along with team director Ravi Shastri, have been working on a series-by-series basis. With the BCCI still not sure about the structure of the support staff, none of the coaches has been appointed for a longer term. While Bangar admitted that “ideally” it would be better if coaches are assured of a longer tenure, he said it wasn’t a concern.”It’s a massive privilege to be able to discharge the duties of batting coach of the Indian team. Ideally, a longer stint is better for the individual concerned but again even if it’s just for a series, it’s a huge opportunity and accomplishment.”

The strikes down the ground are high and sweet. His pull is whiplash-quick and the cut severe. So it’s not his strokeplay Jermaine Blackwood seeks to sharpen in Sri Lanka. It is his instinct to survive. “If I’m at the crease for a long period of time, I’ll be making runs,” is his belief.Blackwood has been among West Indies’ brightest emerging talents over the past 18 months, in which he has put together an encouraging record spanning 11 Tests. He averages 42.47 from 20 innings so far, and has runs against quality Test attacks.His maiden innings of 63 against the likes of Tim Southee and Trent Boult suggested West Indies had unearthed a good batsman. His excellent turn against James Anderson, Stuart Broad and England in the middle of the year, confirmed it. He hit 311 runs at an average of 77.75 in that series, having struck a first Test ton, then hit the winning runs in a chase that leveled the series.A relatively lean series against Australia followed, but Blackwood has rebounded in Sri Lanka, hitting 92 from 135 balls in the second dig in Galle, while his team-mates floundered around him. Blackwood says it was restraint that allowed him to unlock his attacking game, after having fallen for 11 in the first innings.”I made a mistake in the first innings playing to a ball outside the off stump that I shouldn’t be playing to,” he said. “After I get out I go back and rethink my innings. I got out there in the second innings and told myself I’m not going to play any balls outside the off stump early up. I did that and in the end I got a good result. I was trying to push into a century but in the end I get out in the last. I thought it was a good innings.”It is the kind of restraint he seeks to refine and reproduce. Sometimes hailed as a disciple of the destructive school of Caribbean batting, Blackwood said he is learning to incorporate prudence into his attack.”There’s one major issue that I’m still working on – shot selection early up in my innings. Once I’m past that early phase it’s quite easy for me. I used to play a lot of shots and loved to feel the ball on my bat. When I reached Test level I realised it’s much different because you get less bad balls in Test cricket than you do in first-class. So I need to learn to be much much patient. Once I’m patient I’m adapting to that very quickly.”Blackwood was among the few West Indies batsmen to survive long spells from Rangana Herath, and even ventured two straight sixes and a four in one Herath over, near the end of the Galle Test. His team has come to Sri Lanka with a poor reputation for playing slow bowling, but Blackwood is undaunted by Sri Lanka’s top spinner.”Herath is a wonderful bowler, but a bowler is a bowler,” he said. “Once he bowls a bad ball, I’m going to hit any bowler. If we can bat him out, it’s going to be much easier for us.”Right now my defence is pretty good, as you can see. Last game Herath was bowling brilliantly and I was batting easy. For me it’s about staying patient and batting more sessions. If I do that I’m going to score more runs. I just need to control my tempo while I’m batting and trust my defence.”Blackwood has not made a limited-overs debut yet, but said Tests had always been his dream format and remains his “pride and joy”. He wants a hundred in his next match, as every batsman does, but he has high hopes for his batting statistics as well. He averages 45.66 so far in 2015, with one hundred and four fifties from 14 innings.”I do want to get my Test average for this year up to 50,” he said. “For that I’m on the right track right now. My gameplan is very simple. If I see a ball to hit, I’ll hit it.  Choosing the right ball to hit – that’s what I’m working towards.”

New Zealand’s captain Brendon McCullum is confident that fast bowler Tim Southee will be fit for the second Test at the WACA after suffering back pain during the loss at the Gabba. Southee was the most threatening of New Zealand’s bowlers on the first day in Brisbane but an irritated disc in his lower back forced him from the field on day two, and he did not bowl again in the match.The depth of New Zealand’s attack was found wanting in Southee’s absence and with fellow new-ball bowler Trent Boult struggling to find his rhythm. Doug Bracewell finished with match figures of 0 for 170, Jimmy Neesham with 1 for 111, and offspinner Mark Craig leaked runs in both innings and finished with 3 for 234.The short turnaround between matches – the second Test begins in Perth on Friday – means that Southee has little time to prove his fitness. However, McCullum said the initial signs had been good and he was hopeful that Southee would be available to lead the attack again.”Pretty confident – he’s started to come right pretty quickly, which is a good sign,” McCullum said. “There’s a bit of an understanding with some back injuries that sometimes they can recover pretty quickly. We’ll give him every chance.”He’s one of our leaders within the group and he’s an outstanding bowler. He showed in that first innings that he’ll pose a lot of questions for them as well. Hopefully he’ll play and we’ll have a full squad to pick from in that second Test.”Adding to New Zealand’s concerns, Neesham has been ruled out of the rest of the series with a back injury, which has led to fast man Mitchell McClenaghan joining the squad ahead of the Perth Test. Neil Wagner had already been called in as cover for Southee, and regardless of whether Southee is fit, the balance of the attack will be altered by Neesham’s absence.Matt Henry was close to selection at the Gabba and will be firmly in the frame at the WACA, but consideration might also be given to including the spinning allrounder Mitchell Santner to balance the attack without Neesham. Southee’s fitness might leave the selectors reluctant to choose him in a three-man pace attack, as they did at Headingley against England this year.”If he is 100% fit then that’s something we’ve got to entertain the thought of, as we did at Leeds,” McCullum said. “If he is a little bit uncertain then we may have to bolster the stocks. We’ve got plenty of options within the squad and we’ll find 11 that we’re comfortable heading into a Test match with and I’m sure we’ll be better than what we were in this Test match.”I’m expecting Tim will be available. He’s hard as nails and if he is anywhere near fit then Tim will play. If Matt gets the opportunity we’ve got total confidence in him. We’ll get to Perth and look at the conditions and make sure everyone has pulled up as we expect them to and we’ll then make a decision.”

Mohammad Amir has been included by the PCB in a 26-man squad for a conditioning camp at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore ahead of Pakistan’s upcoming tour of New Zealand. The camp, which stretches from December 21 to January 6, will also serve as a barometer to assess the fitness and performances of players leading into the World Twenty20 in March.Amir’s selection is a major leap in his reintegration into the national set-up. Amir, who completed his five-year ban for spot-fixing in September, has been active in domestic cricket since January. His latest stint with Chittagong Vikings in the Bangladesh Premier League was a success – he finished the tournament as the highest wicket-taker for the franchise.Amir’s return, though, has also led to reservations from certain quarters about him being in a Pakistan dressing room. While few players have raised eyebrows at the prospect of playing alongside him, the PCB is open to considering him for selection and is working a way out to settle any unwelcoming sense at the top. Inviting Amir for the training camp and getting him to mix with the top players in the country is seen as a stepping stone towards his comeback.The national selectors, however, dropped Sohail Tanvir, while Harris Sohail was left out because of his continued struggle with a knee injury, which requires him to have surgery in Australia. Rafatullah Mohammad, the 39-year old batsman, and Imran Khan, the pacer, have been axed, while uncapped left-arm seamer Ruman Raees has been included.Umar Gul is also in contention following a productive first-class season with Habib Bank Limited. He was dropped after Pakistan’s ODI series defeat in Bangladesh earlier this year and has missed a major chunk of international cricket since 2013 over fitness and form.The main objective of the camp is to improve the overall physical fitness of all players. The performance report from the camp is likely to influence the PCB’s annual retainers next year. Player fitness had been given greater priority since last year and made a compulsion as part of a new clause in the central contracts. The fitness clause became one of the three major criteria – performance and integrity clearance being the others – that define a player’s prospects of making the Pakistan side.According to the 2014 contracts list, the physiological screening protocol has been divided into five levels, with a player having to undergo 17 different tests. Each component is marked on a scale of 100. Level 1, also called the fundamental level, has marks ranging from 0 to 20 – a score that is considered unacceptable. The fitness test conducted in May 2014 was considered as a benchmark for the players. Seniors like Afridi and Umar Akmal had then been fined for maintaining a below-par fitness level.Meanwhile, the players who are engaged in the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Super Eight round have been granted permission to play their domestic matches scheduled between December 20 and 23, and asked to join the training camp on or before December 24.Pool of 26 players: Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sharjeel Khan, Azher Ali, Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed, Umer Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Shahid Afridi, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Bilal Asif, Sohaib Maqsood, Amir Yamin, Wahab Riaz, Anwer Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Umer Gul, Rahat Ali, Junaid Khan, Ruman Raees, Immad Wasim, Yasir Shah, Saad Nasim, Mohammad Amir