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Former Premier League striker Tomasz Radzinski has thrown up the name of a shock winger as a potential replacement for Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah. Salah’s public outburst last week, in which he accused the club of mishandling him and hinted at tension with manager Arne Slot, has intensified the speculation about his future. At 33, and with three consecutive games spent on the bench, the Egyptian superstar suddenly appears closer than ever to ending his decorated Anfield tenure.

Salah’s future in doubt as rift with Liverpool's deepens

Salah signed a two-year contract extension earlier this year, but recent events have thrown his long-term commitment into doubt. Despite his status as one of Liverpool’s greatest-ever forwards, many have asked why he chose to air frustrations publicly at such a sensitive moment in the club’s season, while Jamie Carragher believes the timing was deliberate, to send a strategic message to the board. And with the Africa Cup of Nations call-up imminent, some believe he may have already played his final match for Liverpool.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesRadzinski: 'Anything can happen'

Speaking in an interview with ComeOnabout Liverpool’s delicate situation, Radzinski insisted the Reds need not panic, even if their talisman departs.

"It's a very funny situation over at Liverpool, so it's hard to judge from the outside. We don't know what's going on at the training ground," he said. "I think they have enough players. I think they've done, in my eyes, fantastic deals in the summer. I just don't think the players who they brought are performing at the moment, but it probably has nothing to do with their personalities or whatever. It's just sometimes when you come from a different competition, different teams, not every team suits every player. This is how it is."

Then came his eyebrow-raising suggestion: Harry Wilson.

"Harry Wilson to Liverpool, why not? If he can perform this well for Fulham," he suggested. "Before Mohamed Salah became one of the greatest players in the Premier League, he had to move to a few other clubs as well. At Chelsea, he was not really rated and he had to go to Italy only to come back to the Premier League to be exceptionally fantastic. Anything can happen. The sky is the limit.

"It's all up to the individual himself and obviously the chemistry together with the manager at that moment and the way the team is playing. If you come to a team and you start playing a new formation and style, it's going to be strange for your head. So you're going to have to adapt to that as well. But, Wilson can do it."

Wilson expected to leave Fulham

Radzinski went further, suggesting Fulham may already have accepted losing their star winger in the summer, who has just over six months left in his current deal.

"If the contract has not been signed until now, it is unlikely it will be signed. The fans should be concerned because Harry Wilson is a really important player," he opined.

"This suggests the management was not up to scratch, I'm guessing. If you know you have such talent and someone who can perform this well for so many years, you don't wait until December to think about a contract extension. You do that last season in December. So, I'm almost sure that Harry Wilson is going to be leaving."

Praising Wilson’s technique and vision, he said: "You see the goal, the way you think about making that pass and then making that shot that he did with the outside of his foot. This is of the highest quality in the Premier League. This is something only the top 5% can think about and then execute as well. He's fantastic. He will be missed and unfortunately, he will be leaving. You know already now that he's not going to be wearing Fulham colours from next summer."

Getty Images SportWhat comes next?

While Wilson’s potential move is one storyline, the most seismic plot centres on Saudi Arabia’s growing confidence in landing Salah. Saudi Pro League chief executive Omar Mugharbel confirmed the league’s interest, calling Salah "welcome" and naming him among their primary targets. According to , Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad are already preparing substantial offers. One senior figure was quoted as saying: "We are absolutely convinced that Mo Salah will come to Saudi. No doubts about it. We don’t know if it will be January, in the next market, or next summer."

The next chapter in the saga will unravel on Saturday when Liverpool face Brighton in the Premier League. It will be Salah’s final match before joining Egypt for AFCON, and his place in the starting XI could speak volumes. If he starts, tensions may be easing. If he is benched for a fourth straight match, Saudi clubs will sense their moment.

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O Fluminense recebe o Alianza Lima-PER nesta quarta-feira (29), pela sexta e última rodada da fase de grupos da Copa Libertadores. A bola rola a partir das 21h30 (de Brasília), no Maracanã, com transmissão da Globo e do Star+ ((Clique aqui para assinar e assistir no Star+!)).

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Confira todas as informações que você precisa saber sobre o confronto entre São Paulo e Talleres (onde assistir, horário, escalações e local).

✅ FICHA TÉCNICA
FLUMINENSE X ALIANZA LIMA
COPA LIBERTADORES – 6ª RODADA

🗓️ Data e horário: quarta-feira, 29 de maio de 2024, às 21h30 (de Brasília)
📍 Local: Maracanã, no Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
📺 Onde assistir: Globo e Star+
🟨 Árbitro: Jhon Ospina (COL)
🖥️ VAR: Nicolas Gallo (COL)

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⚽ PROVÁVEIS ESCALAÇÕES

FLUMINENSE: Fábio, Marquinhos (Guga), Martinelli, Felipe Melo e Marcelo; Alexsander, Lima e Paulo Henrique Ganso; Jhon Arias, Keno e Germán Cano Cano. Técnico: Fernando Diniz.

ALIANZA LIMA: Saravia, Zambrano, Garcés, Ramos, Freytes e Huamán; Castillo, Neira e Cabellos: Arriba Serna e Waterman. Técnico: Alejandro Restrepo.

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Faça as suas apostas na Libertadores 2024: quem será o campeão? Vem pro Lance! Betting!

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Sousa e Red Bull Bragantino se enfrentam nesta quarta-feira (1), pelo jogo de ida da terceira fase da Copa do Brasil. A bola vai rolar a partir das 18h (de Brasília), no Estádio Marizão, na Paraíba, com transmissão do Amazon PrimeVideo (streaming).

➡️ Copa do Brasil: aposte e fature com os mercados a longo prazo do Lance! Betting!

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➡️ Siga o Lance! no WhatsApp e acompanhe em tempo real as principais notícias do esporte

Confira todas as informações que você precisa saber sobre o confronto entre Sousa e Bragantino (onde assistir, horário, escalações e local).

✅ FICHA TÉCNICA
SOUSA X RB BRAGANTINO
COPA DO BRASIL – TERCEIRA FASE – IDA

🗓️ Data e horário: quarta-feira, 1 de maio de 2024, às 18h (de Brasília);
📍 Local: Estádio Marizão, em Sousa (PB)
📺 Onde assistir: PrimeVideo
🟨 Árbitro: Lucas Guimaraes Rechatiko Horn (RS)
🚩 Assistentes: Michael Stanislau (RS) e Mauricio Coelho Silva Penna (RS)
🖥️ VAR: Diego Pombo Lopez (VAR-Fifa) (BA)

⚽ PROVÁVEIS ESCALAÇÕES
SOUSA (Técnico: Paulo Schardong)
Bruno Fuso; Douglas Dias, Breno Cézar, Marcelo Duarte e Jackson; Emersonn Bastos, Hebert Cristian, Alexandre Aruá e Reinaldo; Hiago Ramiro e Diego Ceará.

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RB BRAGANTINO (Técnico: Pedro Caixinha)
Cleiton; Nathan Mendes, Pedro Henrique, Eduardo Santos e Juninho Capixaba; Jadsom, Eric Ramires e Gustavo Neves; Vitinho, Mosquera e Eduardo Sasha.

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Arshdeep Singh is learning how to enjoy the “boring times” in red-ball cricket and has spent the last few months working on his “mindset” as he tunes up for the upcoming season.Arshdeep, 26, is currently playing for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy match against East Zone in Bengaluru, his last competitive game before the 2025 Asia Cup, which begins on September 9 in Abu Dhabi.”In Test cricket or red-ball cricket, there is a time when the day gets boring,” Arshdeep said. “In the session after lunch, mostly the ball doesn’t do anything. So, how can you enjoy that?”I spoke to [Mohammed] Siraj and he told me that when nothing is happening, how you enjoy that phase would tell you how successful you could be in red-ball cricket. He gave me this small tip. I really liked it.”Related

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• Meet the spinner known as Manishi

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• Auqib Nabi shakes up the Duleep Trophy with four wickets in four balls

Before this, Arshdeep last played competitive cricket at IPL 2025, where he finished as Punjab Kings’ highest wicket-taker with 21 wickets in 17 matches. He earned a maiden Test call-up for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy and was in contention to make his debut in the fourth Test, but injured his bowling hand and was ruled out.Having gone close to three months without a game, Arshdeep put in a long shift on the second day, bowling 17 overs, the most by any North Zone bowler. While he only got one wicket, he “felt really good” with the number of overs he got in.”In the last couple of months I was with the team, I trained a lot, bowled a lot and worked a lot with the S&C [strength and conditioning],” Arshdeep said. “I worked on fitness as well and that helped me bowl a decent long spell. After 15-17 overs, my body feels well. It’s [the ball] coming out really well. Not many wickets but yes, they will come as well in the future.”India fast bowlers Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana and Mohammed Shami share a light moment•PTI

Did it get frustrating at any point in England, having to spend almost two months on the sidelines? How did he keep himself motivated?”When you are not playing, you just try to push your limits. The training is almost the same,” he said. “You just put in more work when you are not playing. More overs, more strength work, more training, so that whenever you get the chance, you are ready and fully fit to go.”I don’t know how many thousands of balls I would have bowled in practice. It’s not like there was a lack of bowling. I was properly managing my workload. The aim is to stay ready whenever you get a chance.”Arshdeep will have to make a quick switch to white-ball cricket, with the Indian team slated to reach Dubai for the Asia Cup preparations on September 4. The fast bowler, however, doesn’t feel the switch to T20 cricket will be tough, and insists it is all about adaptability.”Right from the last Test [at The Oval], I had started practising with a white ball,” Arshdeep said. “I didn’t know that there was a Duleep Trophy match in between. At the end of the day, red ball, white ball or pink ball, you have to play cricket and try and enjoy it.”I have got a chance here [at the Duleep Trophy], will play with a white ball next [at the Asia Cup]. So the aim is to put in a lot of overs under your belt and play any format. The mindset is about how quickly you can adapt. In today’s cricket, a batsman can hit against the red ball and he can play conservatively against a white ball.”So, it’s all about how you can adapt according to the situation, according to the wicket, according to the weather, when you have to put in effort, when you have to conserve yourself.”India’s first game at the Asia Cup is against UAE on September 10. They will play Pakistan on September 14 and Oman on September 19 before the Super Four round gets underway from September 20.

The players and umpires congregated near the pitch while the stands emptied quickly after the 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit part of Bangladesh and India

Mohammad Isam21-Nov-2025

Play had to be halted for three minutes after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake caused severe tremors in parts of Bangladesh and India in the morning session of the third day of the ongoing second Test between Bangladesh and Ireland in Dhaka.There was immediate panic in the stands as the jolts were felt, and the players and umpires gathered near the pitch. Both dressing rooms emptied at around 10.38am (10.08am in India). The small crowd looked for open areas to escape to. Some went out of the stadium while others tried to get close to the ground. The media centre, a five-storey building at the north end of the stadium, also emptied quickly as people tried to go out to safe spaces.While there was some confusion about the magnitude of the earthquake, local media in Bangladesh has reported that it was recorded at 5.5 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre in Madhabdi, a municipality around 40 kilometres east of Dhaka. There have been reports of at least two damaged buildings in the capital city but no confirmed reports of casualties.”I have been personally involved in in a couple of earthquakes,” Ireland coach Heinrich Malan said after the day’s play. “I have lived in New Zealand for a while. It’s never a nice feeling. You are trying to understand what is happening at the minute around you. But also you have to think about some bigger impacts, about where the earthquake obviously struck, and hopefully that’s not too bad. Everything stood still for a couple of minutes, and we got back to business. We are just thinking and hoping that there wasn’t too much damage done. We will obviously find out about what that happens as we go.”Reports from Kolkata, across the border from Bangladesh in India’s West Bengal, said tremors were felt there too, as was the case in Guwahati, the venue of the second Test between India and South Africa from Saturday, and in other parts of northeastern India.Play resumed in the Dhaka Test after the pause, with Ireland losing two more wickets in the first session to go to lunch on the third day at 211 for 7 in reply to Bangladesh’s 476.

Yves Bissouma is facing fresh disciplinary action from Tottenham after footage emerged of the midfielder inhaling laughing gas for the second time in just over a year, reigniting concerns over his conduct and future at the club. Spurs have launched a new investigation into the 29-year-old, who was previously suspended for the same offence and has yet to feature this season under Thomas Frank.

• Tottenham launch investigation after Bissouma's laughing gas incident

  Tottenham have launched an internal investigation after Bissouma was filmed inhaling nitrous oxide from a balloon during the early hours of November 3, with the footage reportedly recorded at a party in London and reported by . The video, which he is said to have sent to a woman invited to join him, has raised immediate disciplinary concerns, given his previous suspension for the same behaviour. Spurs confirmed that the matter is being handled internally after the footage was published, intensifying scrutiny on a player who is already out of favour this season.

  The incident is particularly serious because possession of nitrous oxide for recreational use has been illegal in the UK since 2023, carrying potential criminal penalties. With Bissouma having already apologised for a similar offence last year and having served a club suspension as a result, this second episode has sparked renewed questions over his professionalism at a time when he has not played a single minute this campaign.

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  Bissouma's turbulent period at Tottenham

  This latest controversy adds to a turbulent period for Bissouma, whose Tottenham future has been uncertain since he was dropped from the squad for persistent lateness at the start of the season. Thomas Frank has left the Mali international out of both his Premier League plans and Spurs’ Champions League squad, noting at one point that there was still a way back but emphasising standards that must be met. The landscape has worsened for the midfielder following an ankle injury sustained on international duty, keeping him sidelined during a period when he needed to rebuild trust.

  Off the pitch, Bissouma has endured further turmoil with revelations in November that he had been the victim of a major fraud, losing £800,000 from a Coutts bank account. Although the club maintain an option to extend his contract beyond June, his position is fragile, with Spurs considering triggering the clause primarily to protect his transfer value ahead of a possible January sale. The latest footage contributes to a pattern of off-field issues that could accelerate an exit, especially with earlier interest from Turkish clubs failing to materialise in the summer.

• Bissouma suspended last year for the same offence

  Bissouma was previously suspended in August 2024 after posting clips of himself appearing to inhale laughing gas, prompting Ange Postecoglou to sanction him for what the manager described as a failure to uphold professional standards. The midfielder issued an apology at the time, acknowledging a “severe lack of judgment” and stressing the importance of his responsibilities as both a footballer and a role model. After serving his punishment, he worked his way back into the side, making 44 appearances last season and playing the full 90 minutes in Tottenham’s Europa League final win over Manchester United.

  Despite that recovery, his situation deteriorated sharply early in the current campaign, with Frank dropping him from matchday squads due to tardiness. The club’s decision to omit him from its Champions League squad reflected a further slide in standing, compounded by an ankle injury suffered while representing Mali in World Cup qualifying. With his contract approaching its final months and the club assessing long-term options, the recurrence of last year’s misconduct has become an additional complicating factor.

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  Tottenham launch internal investigation into Bissouma

  Tottenham’s internal investigation will dictate the scale of any new disciplinary action, with another suspension possible given the seriousness of the repeat offence. Bissouma must wait to recover from injury while also attempting to repair his standing with Frank if he is to regain consideration for first-team football. Whether Spurs choose to sell him in January, activate the one-year extension or give him a final chance will depend heavily on the outcome of the probe and the midfielder’s response in the weeks ahead.

Aaron Boone and his Yankees are heading north of the border for the AL Division Series after taking care of the Red Sox. Now, they have another rival in front of them in the AL East champion Blue Jays.

Toronto and New York finished the regular season with the same record (94-68), but the Blue Jays took the division and a bye to the ALDS thanks to owning the tiebreaker over the Yankees. During the division race, Blue Jays broadcaster and former big leaguer Buck Martinez didn't hold back his true thoughts on the Yankees.

"Ya know, the Yankees, they're not a good team," Martinez said on a broadcast Sept. 9. "I don't care what their record is. They have a lot of wild pitches, they make a lot of mistakes in the field, they don't run the bases very well. If they don't hit home runs, they don't have a chance to win."

Boone certainly recalled those choice words and is using them as motivation ahead of Game 1 against the Blue Jays Saturday.

"I feel like the last couple months, we started to play really well. Contrary to some thoughts up here, we're a really good team," he said to reporters Friday via SNY.

After a follow-up question, the Yankees manager addressed Martinez's shade directly. "I know Buck had some thoughts, that's all I was responding to. He's wrong," he continued.

The Yankees won a decisive Game 3 against Boston Thursday at Yankee Stadium to keep their season alive. And ironically, they didn't hit a home run in the big 4-0 win. Now, Boone's squad has an opportunity to prove Martinez wrong with a trip to the ALCS on the line.

كشف منتخب مصر الثاني، المشارك في بطولة كأس العرب، عن تعرض واحد من اللاعبين للإصابة، خلال الساعات الماضية.

وسقط منتخب مصر، في فخ التعادل الإيجابي بهدف لكل فريق أمام منتخب الكويت، في اللقاء الذي أقيم في الجولة الأولى.

طالع | ترتيب مجموعة مصر في كأس العرب 2025 بعد التعادل مع الكويت ويقع منتخب مصر في المجموعة الثالثة التي تضم الإمارات والكويت والأردن، ضمن البطولة المقامة في قطر خلال الفترة من 1 حتى 18 ديسمبر.​

وأوضح مصدر خاص لـ”بطولات”: “كريم فؤاد تعرض لكدمة وسيخضع لآشعة غدًا الخميس؛ لكن حالته مطمنئة”.

ويواصل منتخب مصر مبارياته في بطولة كأس العرب، بمواجهة هامة أمام الإمارات، باللقاء الذي يجمع بينهما ضمن منافسات الجولة الثانية من مرحلة المجموعات للبطولة الدولية.

It’s not rocket science: the more they play at one venue, the more their game will develop, especially with the red ball. But where is that one venue?

Vishal Dikshit14-Sep-2024Where do you feel at home?Maybe where you’re most comfortable. Or most loved. Or have a strong support system. Or where you think you truly belong.It doesn’t have to be all of the above. A couple, maybe even one, could do the job. Unfortunately, Afghanistan don’t even have that much when it comes to a “home” venue.Since June 2017, when they were granted Full Member status, Afghanistan have played their home internationals in the three major cities of the UAE, in Dehradun, Lucknow and Greater Noida in India (which was also home before they became a Full Member). In between that, there’s been an ODI series in Sri Lanka, and even one in Qatar in early 2022. Credit to Afghanistan, that despite playing their home ODIs and T20Is across Asia – except never in their actual home – they have improved immensely in the white-ball formats.Of the five home Test matches Afghanistan have played so far – the one against New Zealand in Greater Noida would have been their sixth – they have not played more than twice at any one ground. They have played Tests in Dehradun and Lucknow, two at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and one at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi; even within Abu Dhabi, they have had to play at two different grounds.Related

• Inexperienced SA brace for Afghanistan challenge amid loud backlash

• Shahidi wants 'one good home venue' and more Tests for Afghanistan

• Slushy patches, wet weather prevent Test from starting in Greater Noida

• Afghanistan coach Trott: Sometimes we take things like drainage 'for granted'

The least a growing side like Afghanistan deserves is a dedicated home venue that they can reach without crisscrossing international borders and adjusting to different conditions. They have played half of their Tests against the other non-World Test Championship (WTC) Full Members, Ireland and Zimbabwe, and facing a much higher-ranked team like New Zealand would have been “historic”, according to their head coach Jonathan Trott.”I think we could have gained whether we won or lost,” Trott said after the one-off Test in Greater Noida was abandoned on Friday without a ball bowled across the five days. “I think the players would have learnt a hell of a lot in this format of the game, which is the challenge going forward in red-ball cricket for Afghanistan.”So why don’t Afghanistan have a dedicated home venue? Why do they have to hop between the UAE and India, and play on Indian grounds (barring Lucknow) that do not even host domestic matches regularly?Because of the political situation in Afghanistan, of course. The UAE is Afghanistan’s adopted cricketing home, which is why they have played three of their five home Tests there. But when those grounds there are not available, Afghanistan are forced to play in India.Once the Test against New Zealand lost the first two days because of a wet outfield, despite the pitch being baked by the sun and no rain during the hours of play, questions started to crop up about why this little-used ground with seemingly substandard facilities was hosting a Test match in the first place. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) explained that the match could not be held in the UAE because of extreme heat at this time of the year (the only Test to take place in the country in September started on September 28, between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2017).The one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand was washed out without a ball being bowled•AFP/Getty ImagesDehradun also usually witnesses rainfall in September, so the options the ACB was left with were Bengaluru, Kanpur and Greater Noida. Bengaluru and Kanpur, which host international matches regularly, were unavailable because of India’s domestic games, so the ACB had no choice but to go to Greater Noida. At least there would have been a feeling of familiarity. They had already played 11 international games there (six T20Is and five ODIs) since 2017, and logistically too it made relatively more sense, with limited connectivity by commercial flight in and out of Kabul these days. “You can get a flight maybe from Kabul and from Dubai to Delhi, and then [the ground is] two hours drive from there,” Menhajuddin Raz, ACB’s international cricket manager, had said during the Test.But the big risk they were running was handing a Test debut to a ground that is rarely used even for domestic cricket and last hosted an international game in March 2020. The last first-class match played there was between Afghanistan and Ireland, part of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, in March 2017. Apart from that, the venue has hosted just eight first-class games, all between December 2015 and December 2016.To add to that, Greater Noida is the suburb of a suburb – outside Delhi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and the ground comes under the control of the local administrative authority (Greater Noida Authority), not under the BCCI or the state association (UPCA). The Greater Noida stadium’s first-class matches are almost a part of forgotten history and accountability for its maintenance is hard to trace. All in all, the Afghanistan team once again suffered for no fault of their own.Afghanistan have started playing Tests relatively more regularly in the current FTP cycle (21 from 2023 to 2027, as opposed to 13 in the previous five-year cycle), but it’s home advantage they are desperately missing. It’s not rocket science that the more Afghanistan play at one venue, the quicker they will figure out ideal combinations and strategies based on the conditions and oppositions. Their Test captain Hashmatullah Shahidi rightly pointed out before the scheduled start of the New Zealand game that the opposition has played more Tests in India than them, and probably had better knowledge of local conditions than the “hosts” Afghanistan.”If you see, India is our home but when we host teams, the other nations have played more cricket than us here,” Shahidi had said. “So hopefully we will get one good venue here in India and we stick with that. If we stick with one venue, it will be more effective for us.”The fans in Afghanistan have to content themselves with watching international games on TV screens•Associated PressThis problem does not seem to have a ready solution but Afghanistan at least have some time to figure it out. Their next Test series consists of two away games in December against Zimbabwe, whom they are slotted to play again in another away series in October 2025, after a one-off Test in Ireland in July. Their next Test against a significantly higher-ranked side will come after a wait of nearly two years, when India host them for a one-off Test in June 2026.For now, Afghanistan pack their bags and prepare to fly to Sharjah – their original home away from home – to host South Africa for three ODIs. Since becoming a Full Member, Afghanistan have won seven of their ten completed ODIs in Sharjah, all against either Ireland or Zimbabwe. South Africa, at the same venue, have beaten teams like India and Pakistan with a 10-2 win-loss record in ODIs.The question arises again. Who really has the home advantage?

The assistant coach during Scotland’s run to their maiden World Cup is New Zealand’s frontline offspinner at the tournament

Shashank Kishore02-Oct-2024In June 2022, Leigh Kasperek, at 30, found herself at a crossroads. She had just lost her New Zealand central contract and wasn’t sure of her immediate international future. But a trip to Scotland to see family that winter opened new doors.A casual stop at the Scotland camp to catch-up with old friends led to her stumbling upon an opportunity to coach. In April this year, Kasperek was Scotland’s assistant coach at the T20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE. Now, Kasperek has returned to Dubai to be a part of the World Cup, not as a coach though, but as New Zealand’s frontline offspinner.On Thursday, when Scotland play their first-ever women’s T20 World Cup game against Bangladesh, Kasperek “will have a small piece of my heart” with the team that she was a part of not long ago.Related

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• From Edinburgh to Otago – Leigh Kasperek's route to the White Ferns

• October 3 at the World Cup: Debutants and dark horses

“When one door shuts, you have no option but to try and see how another one opens,” Kasperek says philosophically. “Watching the Scotland girls go about their work [during her stint with the team] and enjoying themselves was a good reminder of why you play the game.”Now, as a player, I am just trying to embrace that a little bit in my own cricket moving forward. It [coaching] probably gave me a little bit of an outside perspective. It’s pretty funny because when I was coaching on the sidelines, I felt very relaxed. I just enjoyed watching the girls go out there, and I have been able to take that little bit more of that into my playing career again.”At Scotland, Kasperek was coach to many whom she grew up playing with. Like Abbi Aitken-Drummond, the former Scotland captain. They played pathways cricket together until Kasperek decided to embark on an adventure of a lifetime.In Dubai, Kasperek and Aitken-Drummond may not cross paths on the field as New Zealand and Scotland are in different groups – the top two from each group make the semi-finals. “I’m looking forward to seeing her in the semi-finals,” Kasperek laughs.”Abbi has gone through some injuries, had a kid and now has fought her way back in. For someone like her who has gone through the tough times, it means a lot to make it to a World Cup.

“Watching the Scotland girls go about their work and enjoying themselves was a good reminder of why you play the game. Now, as a player, I am just trying to embrace that a little bit in my own cricket moving forward”Leigh Kasperek

“Priyanaz Chatterji and I played Under-17s [together]. So yeah, it was an obvious decision to be able to work with them in a different capacity [when the opportunity came]. It was really rewarding and enjoyable. I’ll be rooting for them when they play that first game.”Kasperek’s own career received a massive fillip earlier this year. Having been recalled during the T20I leg of a tough England tour in June-July, she will now feature in her fourth T20 World Cup, having played previously in 2016, 2018 and 2020.”I actually first got a call-up last July as a replacement for the Sri Lanka tour, but it was totally out of the blue,” Kasperek says. “I was meant to be away in the Netherlands with the Scotland team but had to pull out of the tour when I got the call.”I came back from Sri Lanka and kept working with Scotland and went to the pre-qualifiers in Spain, where we came up against sides like Italy and France. Then they [Scotland] had a great series in Ireland. Then I came back to play for Wellington in the [New Zealand] domestic summer. So yeah, it’s been quite an interesting journey.”Scotland were keen on having her as part of the backroom for the World Cup, but she wasn’t going to let a chance of playing for New Zealand pass.Scotland are playing their first women’s cricket World Cup, across formats•ICC/Getty Images”It would’ve been lovely to play in Bangladesh [the original hosts for this World Cup], with all those spinning wickets,” she chuckles. “But I guess the UAE isn’t all that bad in terms of pitches either. As a spinner, it’s just trying to add more tricks to your bowling in terms of change of pace and angles, to stay one step ahead.”Another change in the women’s game [compared to the men’s] is only having four fielders out [after the powerplay]. So, I guess, in a sense you’re slightly limited in what lines you can go with. Sometimes you feel like you can bowl really well and get hit around the park and it can be the other way round too, so yeah, I’m always on my toes.”Kasperek’s perspective on her own cricket may have changed in recent times, but not the drive to keep getting better. Her decision to leave Otago and move to Wellington in early 2021, once cricket resumed post-pandemic, is a prime example.”I made the move because at the time it had the best training structure in New Zealand,” she says. “I just thought if I wanted to try and kick on a little bit with my cricket then, they had like full-time coaches and great facilities. I just thought that I wanted to try and give myself the best chance to improve. And I really enjoyed the city, the vibe around the team we’ve got there.”Kasperek still divides her time between New Zealand and Scotland, but there’s more clarity and purpose to her pursuits. “It’s been hectic, but also very rewarding,” she says. “I guess I really had to invest in other parts of my life outside of [playing] cricket. It was forced upon me [because of not having a contract].”Having got into coaching, I feel a lot less daunted about the future planning. Even if I won’t get many more opportunities [to play], the place I’m in today, I’ll be okay. I’ve enjoyed coaching and would love to go down that path.”For now, winning as many games as possible for New Zealand will do.