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A round-up of the second day’s play of the seventh round of matches of the Ranji Trophy Elite, 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2011Group AFor the second day in a row, eighteen wickets fell at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. With two more days to go, Saurashtra brightened their hopes for a knockout berth by setting a target of 247 and then reducing Railways to 97 for 6.Railways, reeling overnight at 71 for 8, could only add a further ten runs in their first-innings. Subsequently Saurashtra, sitting on a comfortable lead of 94, failed for the second time in succession as they mustered a meagre 152, but the target set seemed to be enough going into the third day.With the exception of Ravindra Jadeja, who played late to top score with 45, the visitors showed the same lack of application as that of the Railways’ batsmen. Luckily it did not hurt Saurashtra so much as Kamlesh Makvana ripped apart the Railways’ batting order in their second innings with his fastish offbreaks, which fetched him his fifth five-for in first-class cricket. There was not much hope for Railways when senior batsmen like Sanjay Bangar and Shivakant Shukla gave away their wickets by charging out to Makvana.The Railways coach Abhay Sharma, however, didn’t blame the nature of the pitch for the slew of wickets. “Some of our batsmen played bad shots. I don’t think the curator is responsible in any way. When you have a three-day gap between two matches, a curator could have hardly done anything,” Sharma said. “In northern India, it’s difficult to water the pitch as it might remain wet and also you can’t just use the roller on a dry pitch.”Orissa were staring at a big first-innings deficit as they ended on 76 for 6 in reply to Rajasthan’s 423 in Jaipur. Robin Bist’s unbeaten 127 and Puneet Yadav’s 63 were instrumental in Rajasthan getting to an imposing score. The pair added 124 for the fifth wicket before Yadav was caught behind by Alok Mangaraj. The 24-year-old Bist, originally from Delhi, continued till he ran out of partners, hitting 16 fours in his knock. This is his fourth century in five matches for Bist, who at 829 runs is the top run-maker of season so far. Basanth Mohanty finished with 4 for 104.Rajasthan’s Pankaj Singh then made early inroads with the ball before Sumit Mathur, instrumental in Rajasthan’s victory against Saurashtra last week, took three wickets in five overs to leave the visitors in trouble. With Orissa still adrift by 347 runs, the defending champions would like the enforce the follow-on and try and go for an innings victory to get the bonus points and keep alive the chance of a knockout berth for second year in a row. If they do manage to do that, Rajasthan would have to thank Bist a lot. “This has been my best season in Ranji Trophy. Before this season, I had just one Ranji century. Now, I have five,” Bist told the at the end of the second day’s play.Wasim Jaffer became the highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy and, along with the belligerent Suryakumar Yadav, steered Mumbai past Punjab’s first-innings total during a typically elegant knock. Punjab toiled all day but were blunted by Mumbai’s ultra-defensive approach in the first session, and later by Jaffer’s and Yadav’s aggression. With Saurashtra and Rajasthan in strong positions in their games, Punjab’s chances of making the quarter-finals were slim. Read the full report here.The second day’s play in Shimoga followed the course of the first, as Uttar Pradesh mirrored Karnataka’s batting effort to finish 39 runs short of the first-innings lead, with four wickets standing. Like their Karnataka counterparts on day one, UP built a solid base in the morning, only to lose wickets in a clump in the lead-up to tea. Like Stuart Binny on the first day, Mohammad Kaif battled through the slump, before stalling it with a dogged seventh-wicket stand. Read the full report here.Group BTamil Nadu strengthened their position against Madhya Pradesh in Chennai, with Dinesh Karthik scoring 156 – his second century in as many games – to take the team to 486. The hosts then consolidated their position by sending the vistors’ top order comprising Naman Ojha, Mohnish Mishra and Devendra Bundela – essentially the MP batting’s engine-room – back to the dressing room in no time.Earlier Karthik was bold in his strokeplay, despite having only the tail for support. Yo Mahesh, M Rangarajan and L Balaji all frustrated the MP bowlers, while Karthik went from strength to strength. After the debuant Amarjeet Singh failed to latch on a hard-hit return catch when Karthik was on 89, the former Tamil Nadu captain progressed to make 156. For MP, Ishwar Pandey finished with 4 for 123 off nearly 40 overs. Zafar Ali, the MP opener, witnessed three partners depart before stumps, leaving plenty for the visitors to do on the third day to match TN’s score.Gritty half-centuries from Sourav Ganguly and Anustup Majumdar put Bengal well on course to take a first-innings lead against Baroda at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara. It was an eventful day for Ganguly who started the morning by wrapping up the Baroda innings while he finished with figures of 3 for 1. But Bengal were in for a rude jolt when they were wobbling at 98 for 4, which included the wicket of Manoj Tiwary, who had scored a century in each of his previous three matches. Bengal lost their opener Jayojit Basu to the left-arm seamer Gagandeep Singh, before Firdaush Bhaja had Arindam Das caught in the slips. Shreevats Goswami’s boundary-filled 38 came to an end when he nicked Gagandeep to the keeper. Gagandeep struck again when he had Manoj Tiwary caught at cover.Luckily Ganguly found a stable partner in Majumdar and the paired added vital 93 runs for the fifth wicket before the former Indian captain retired hurt due a left hamstring pull. Till then, Ganguly had 60 runs to his credit including nine fours. Majumdar, who ended the day unbeaten on 71, added a further 73 with Laxmi Shukla before stumps.Gujarat just about managed to take a slender first-innings lead of 21 runs against Haryana in Surat. Resuming on 46 for 1, the Gujarat top order showed an appalling lack of discipline and application, with no one managing even a half century. Luckily for the team, Pratharesh Parmar and Manprit Juneja showed some resistance, adding 63 for the fifth wicket, to help Gujarat to match Haryana’s score. For Haryana the job was done by India legspinner Amit Mishra and the debutant offspinner Jayant Yadav, as the pair took three wickets apiece to peg the hosts back. The other debutant, Mohit Sharma, took two wickets.Haryana erased the deficit of 21 by ending the day on a healthy 61 for no loss. If Gujarat lose this match, they would be relegated to the Plate division. And with the pitch aiding the spinners, a result seems likely. “The match is wide open and any target above 250-275 is going to be difficult to chase in the fourth innings on this ground with the wicket taking spin,” Jayendra Saigal, the Gujarat coach, said. “Our batsmen did not do justice to their talent today.”

Middlesex ended Sussex’s unbeaten start to the Friends Life t20 with afive-wicket win at Hove

10-Jun-2011
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Middlesex ended Sussex’s unbeaten start to the Friends Life t20 with afive-wicket win at Hove. The visitors reached their target of 164 with a ball to spare with ScottNewman’s 39 not out guiding them home.Middlesex began the final over needing eight to win but Rana Naved ran out JohnSimpson off the first ball. His next delivery was a wide and Newman and RyanMcLaren kept their nerve to secure their first win in the South Group.Newman was dropped three times, firstly when Mike Yardy failed to hang on to adiving effort to his right and twice in the same Monty Panesar over by Rana onthe mid-wicket boundary.Middlesex had been put on course by a second-wicket stand of 70 from 47 ballsbetween Australian Chris Rogers and Steven Crook.They came together in the fourth over after Paul Stirling was caught off atop-edge to give left-armer Chris Liddle the first of his two wickets.Rogers and Crook found the gaps expertly to take their side to 101 for 1 whenPanesar dragged Sussex back by taking two wickets in the 12th over. Crook holedout to long off and two balls later Rogers was held by wicketkeeper Andy Hoddfor 46 off 40 balls with five fours.Earlier, Luke Wright scored his second successive half-century as Sussex made163 for eight on a slow pitch that suited bowlers who took pace off the ball.None more so than Panthers’ skipper Neil Dexter who finished withcompetition-best figures of four for 21 from three overs including two wicketsin the final over.Dexter probably felt he owed his side those wickets after badly dropping Wrighton 57 at extra cover off McLaren. He went on to make 71 from 45 balls with sevenfours and two sixes to follow his unbeaten 81 in Sussex’s win over Essex onWednesday.Wright put on 31 for the opening wicket with Chris Nash and then added 47 in 33balls with skipper Yardy for the fourth wicket.Dexter claimed his first wicket when he bowled Yardy as he made room to cut andSussex lost their way when Joe Gatting was run out after failing to beatStirling’s throw from long off and then Yardy was held at long on off the firstball of the 17th over.Rana Naved did smash 19 off seven balls including a straight six over thesight-screen but it did not prove enough.

West Indies coach Ottis Gibson is banking on his pace bowlers to challenge India’s strong batting line-up during the three-Test series starting at Feroz Shah Kotla on Saturday

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Nov-2011West Indies coach Ottis Gibson is banking on his pace bowlers to challenge India’s strong batting line-up during the three-Test series starting at Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday. West Indies arrived in the country following a short tour of Bangladesh, where they won the Test series 1-0.Gibson said the team is high on confidence after that win and are suitably warmed-up to subcontinental conditions.”Over the last six to 12 months our fast bowlers, Ravi Rampaul, Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach and Darren Sammy have done well and won us matches,” Gibson said. “We know that India obviously will be heavy on spin but we believe in the quality of our fast bowlers.”We have Fidel bowling quick at the moment and we hope we can cause some problems to the formidable Indian batting line-up. We believe that we have the quality to back ourselves. We know that the ball doesn’t swing very long. You need to have added skills and we pay a lot of attention to that. We are skilled enough to reverse it and get wickets as well.”India are playing their first Test series since their poor tour of England where they were whitewashed 4-0. The injury-ravaged team struggled against the fast bowlers, and as a result, lost their No.1 ranking in Tests. Gibson said India were still a formidable side despite their recent setback.”Against this Indian batting line-up, you probably need to play seven bowlers,” Gibson said. “We will look at that over the course of the next few days and work on our combination.”Edwards and legspinner Davendra Bishoo took five-wicket hauls in the second Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur, which the visitors won comfortably by 229 runs. Gibson praised Bishoo’s performance in Bangladesh and was confident he would be a threat in India as well.”Bishoo is a talented bowler and has got 32 wickets in seven games. He never hesitates to ask questions and his capacity for learning is showing. Coming to India, he understands that he can really come into his game in these conditions.Commenting on India’s bowling combination Gibson said felt that India may not feel the absence of offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who was overlooked in favour of the rising R Ashwin.”Somebody like Harbhajan has taken a lot of wickets and you might look at that (his absence) as a negative but Ashwin has been outstanding in one-day cricket. When a player makes his debut, people tend to think ‘oh he may not be ready’ but obviously the selectors believe that he is ready and that makes him very dangerous.”

Fast bowler Kyle Jarvis is close to a national re-call after being included in Zimbabwe XI’s squad for their two-day match against Australia A at Kwekwe

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2011Fast bowler Kyle Jarvis is close to a national recall after being included in Zimbabwe XI’s squad for their two-day match against Australia A at Kwekwe. Jarvis, 22, was fast-tracked into the national side after the appointment of Heath Streak as bowling coach but picked up a stress fracture in his back during the tour of the West Indies in 2009-10.One of the fastest bowlers in the country, Jarvis travelled to England during the Zimbabwean off season after completing his rehabilitation and played club cricket with Burwell before being picked up by Essex’s Second XI. With his inclusion in the team to face the Australians, he is one step closer to adding to his nine internationals for Zimbabwe, but insisted he could only make the national side on merit.”Honestly I am not going to just walk into the national team,” Jarvis told . “I have to first get myself back in the team and I am going to do that by getting a few performances in.”I would like to say I am where I was and I would like to get faster than I was; plans are there to get me quicker over the next few months as well. I am much lighter and stronger than I was before now.”Australia A surged unbeaten to the final of the A Team Tri-Series in Harare, sneaking past South Africa A by two runs on Friday. Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus have since been added to their squad, and after their warm-up match they will face what is effectively a full-strength Zimbabwe in two four-day games, the first of which starts at the Country Club in Harare on July 15.”They [Australians] are class players and I have played against class players before,” Jarvis said. “I just have to worry about what I do at my end [and] not what they are going to do. So as long as I do what I do best then I will be fine. I am definitely excited about what’s coming up.”

Jamie Cox has cleared the way for a complete overhaul of Australia’s selection panel by standing down and declaring he will not reapply for the role of part-time selector

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2011Jamie Cox has cleared the way for a complete overhaul of Australia’s selection panel by standing down and declaring he will not reapply for the role of part-time selector. Cox’s decision means that all four of the Australian selectors who picked the side during last summer’s disastrous Ashes campaign have now moved on.The Argus report last month recommended a five-man selection panel with a full-time chairman, a move that ruled Andrew Hilditch out due to his business commitments, while there will also be no place for the national talent manager, Greg Chappell. The fourth selector, David Boon, had already quit during the off-season to become an ICC match referee.Cox spent nearly five years as a selector, but it was far from a successful tenure. He was the selector on duty at The Oval in 2009, when he was responsible for leaving Nathan Hauritz out of the side on a dry pitch that proved to be of great assistance to the spinners; Graeme Swann took eight wickets in the match and England’s victory meant they won the Ashes.Cox also faced criticism over a potential conflict of interest, as he juggled the selection role with his full-time job as South Australia’s director of cricket. By declaring he won’t reapply for one of the two part-time positions on the new selection panel, Cox has ensured Australia can make a clean break from the Hilditch era, although he will stay on until the new panel is appointed.”There is a clear mood for change and I think it’s time for a new panel to be given the opportunity set its own direction without links to the past,” Cox said. “It has been a true privilege to serve Australian cricket in this role since the 2006-07 summer and whilst the transition from our era of dominance has been challenging, I leave the role strong in the belief that we have a terrific group of young men emerging, to lead Australia back up the Test cricket rankings.”Cricket Australia’s new selection panel, which will include the captain and coach, won’t be confirmed until after the appointment of a general manager of team performance, a new role that will be created as a result of the Argus report.

Niall O’Brien’s 10th first-class century dug Northamptonshire out of a hole on the opening day of the County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Bristol

11-May-2011
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Niall O’Brien’s 10th first-class century dug Northamptonshire out of a hole on the opening day of the County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Bristol.The visitors had been reduced to 125 for 5 after winning the toss when O’Brien and Andrew Hall (90) came together for a sixth-wicket stand of 182. O’Brien ended the day unbeaten on 123 in a Northamptonshire total of 381 for six, achieved against a home attack featuring 16-year-old Craig Miles – the fourth youngest player to have made his first-class debut for Gloucestershire.Swindon-born Miles took 1 for 51 from 13 overs with his seamers, his maiden Championship wicket coming when Alex Wakely drove a catch to cover.Northamptonshire looked to be in for a tough day when, with the total on 18, opener Stephen Peters edged a defensive shot off Jon Lewis to Alex Gidman at first slip. Without addition to the score, Gidman pouched another catch in the same position to dismiss Mal Loye, with left-armer David Payne this time the successful bowler.Rob White was dropped on 25 by Kane Williamson in the slips off Ian Saxelby and survived to be 48 not out at lunch, which was taken at 97 for 2. But, in the over after the interval, White fell leg before wicket trying to work a ball from Will Gidman through the leg side.It was 115 for four when Wakely (32) was caught low down by Chris Taylor and 125 for five when David Sales drove a return catch to Saxelby, having made only 10. Gloucestershire were on top, but began to concede too many boundaries as O’Brien and Hall counter-attacked. Hall hit eight fours in reaching his half-century first off 75 balls.The tea score was 228 for 5 and the sixth-wicket partnership continued to flourish at the start of the final session, left-hander O’Brien posting his fifty off 68 deliveries, with eight fours.Hall looked set for a ton when the second new ball was taken with the total 292 for five. But in the second over with it he got a leading edge to Saxelby and lobbed a simple catch to Taylor at cover. The South African had faced 128 balls and extended his boundary tally to a dozen.O’Brien continued his chanceless knock and reached three figures against the county his younger brother Kevin will join later this week for the remainder of the season. He had faced 124 balls and hit 14 fours in an innings full of meaty drives and cuts.But nothing could spoil a memorable day for Miles, whose debut came at the age of 16 years 295 days. WWF Pullen holds the record as the youngest ever Gloucestershire player to appear in a first-class match. He was 15 years and 346 days when he played against Middlesex at Lord’s in 1882.

Gareth Rees scored his first fifty of the season and James Harris took five wickets for 39 runs as Glamorgan moved themselves into a strong position against Gloucestershire at Cardiff

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-2011
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Gareth Rees scored his first fifty of the season and James Harris took five wickets for 39 runs as Glamorgan moved themselves into a strong position against Gloucestershire at Cardiff. Glamorgan ended the second day of the County Championship Division Two match on 185 for 3 in their second innings – an overall lead of 199 after they had bowled the visitors out for 188 in 89.1 overs.But the Welsh county did not have it completely their own way today, with a frustrating eighth-wicket partnership between Jon Lewis (56) and Vikram Banerjee holding them up. The home side were not helped that left-arm seamer Graham Wagg was off the field after suffering a hamstring injury on the first day.But early on Glamorgan did not require his services as Harris broke through in the sixth full over of the morning to have Will Gidman caught at square leg by Rees. And Adam Shantry claimed his third wicket when he bowled Ian Saxelby as Gloucestershire, who had resumed the day on 76 for 5 – 126 behind, were reduced to 94 for 7.That was effectively 94 for 8 after Chris Dent suffered a double fracture of the finger in the field and was unable to bat. But Lewis and Banerjee frustrated Glamorgan either side of lunch putting on 77 in 39 overs.Lewis brought up his half-century in 94 balls with three fours before Harris struck in the fourth over with the second new ball. Substitute Stewart Walters, on the field for the injured Wagg, took a stunning slip catch swooping to his right at second slip to dismiss Banerjee to give Harris his fourth victim. Harris claimed his fifth wicket when Lewis was the last man out caught behind to finish with impressive figures of 5 for 39 from 25.1 overs.Glamorgan openers Gareth Rees and Alviro Petersen raced to 44 in 10 overs before tea. But although Rees lost his captain, who was trapped leg before by Saxelby, he went on to register a 71-ball half-century with nine fours. After putting on 65 in just 11 overs with fellow left-hander Will Bragg, Rees also went leg before wicket to Will Gidman, who also bowled Michael Powellfour overs later.There were no more scares for Glamorgan, however, as Bragg and Ben Wright hadadded 42 runs for the fourth wicket by the close.

South Africa Under-19 completed a clean sweep of Zimbabwe across both limited-overs formats with a crushing eight-wicket win in the second Twenty20

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jan-2011
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South Africa Under-19 completed a clean sweep of Zimbabwe across both limited-overs formats with a crushing eight-wicket win in the second Twenty20 at Northerns-Goodwood Cricket Club Oval in Cape Town. Quinton de Kock’s imperious hundred helped his team to easily overhaul Zimbabwe’s 151 for 8, the landmark coming from just 51 balls as victory was achieved with 25 balls to spare.Zimbabwe gave themselves a chance of scoring a consolation win to close their tour when Matthew Bentley bowled Regardt Verster to reduce South Africa to 68 for 2 in the eighth over. That was as good as it got for them, however, and the match slipped rapidly away in the course of de Kock’s whirlwind innings.He had looked a threatening prospect in the first match at Paarl, making 49 in 29 balls to go with 118 runs in three innings during the one-day series, and took full toll today hitting 13 fours and three sixes. Only Roy Kaia and Liberty Nherera escaped the full wrath of de Kock’s bat, with Tochukwu Enwerem, Vuyisile Mapala and Peacemore Zimwa conceding 58 runs in a combined four overs and five balls.Grant Edmeades was a mere spectator in an 87-run partnership for the third wicket, the runs flow at better than 10-an-over as de Kock stormed towards his hundred and the series whitewash for South Africa.Zimbabwe had once again relied upon a couple of good individual performances to shore up their batting after South Africa’s bowlers scythed through their line-up. Kevin Kasuza was in the runs once again, making a confident 39 to go with his half-century yesterday before he was stumped by de Kock off Malcolm Nofal. Kaia’s unbeaten 60 held the rest of the innings together, with every South African bowler finding some reward to set up a triumphant end to a one-sided tour.

It’s the lack of consistency of high-level competition that Peter Borren says undoes the Associates at global tournaments

Firdose Moonda in Mohali02-Mar-2011Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain, was a shattered man after his team’s 215- run defeat to the West Indies on Monday. He arrived at his post-match press conference looking exhausted, more emotionally than physically, and he offered no excuses for the batting line-up being shot out for 115 after the bowlers conceded 330.He’s had two days to let that disappointment marinate in his mind and now he has answers for why it happened. “It is very difficult coming into a competition to play Full-member teams when we haven’t for a long while,” Borren said in Mohali. “We don’t play at this level enough and we played fantastically against England and poorly against West Indies and that’s the second and third ODIs against Full members we’ve had in two years.”It’s this lack of consistency of high-level competition that Borren says undoes the Associates at global tournaments, and it would do the same to any team, minnow or not, that wasn’t continually playing some of the others. “How do you think a Full member would go if they didn’t play other full members for four years and then had to come into this World Cup?,” he asked the journalist who questioned why the Dutch had gone from a team that was competitive against England and rolled over against West Indies.The opportunities for them to compete against Full-Member countries come rarely, with Netherlands only playing against one, Bangladesh, in their last 28 ODIs before this World Cup. They have never played a series against a Full member and spend most of their team competing against Afghanistan, Kenya, Canada and Ireland. While the Full members must abide by the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, Borren says they make little effort to visit the Associates outside of that. “The same countries that say we shouldn’t be at World Cups are the same ones that don’t play us between World Cups and that’s difficult.”Peter Borren has called for more games for Associate nations against the Full-member teams•Associated PressMajor tournaments present them with the chance to play more than one Full Member in a space of a few weeks and even though upsets are only occasional, Borren thinks the experience comes from simply being a part of the event. “I think we learn a lot,” he said. “Some people say we don’t learn much, but I disagree. We struggle to learn from playing a lot of games against the same teams. We need to play at higher levels at times to learn a bit more.”That’s why, according to Borren, despite knowing that they may be in for a pounding, the Associate teams look forward to testing themselves against Full Members and judging whether or not they have improved. “It’s exciting to play against the world’s best players. It’s a real big challenge and something to look forward to.”Results have become almost secondary to the Associate cause, especially as the tournament draws on and they’ve already registered a few losses. It’s the small milestones, like batting out a full 50 overs, scoring a few more runs than the last time, conceding fewer boundaries and taking the tough catches, that start to matter. Borren calls it, “playing to our own standard,” and he feels Netherlands “haven’t reached or even come close to that” in their first two games.Their bowling has been their biggest downfall. “We lost [against England] because we didn’t bowl the right areas and we didn’t do again against West Indies. I was not happy after the England game because I thought we could have bowled in better areas.” Most of the team practices on artificial turf at home but that’s not an excuse for Borren who wants a better showing from the bowlers.Borren also wants more from all of his batsmen, and not just ten Doeschate. Although he called the performance against England “close to what we can do with the bat,” he still thinks there is room for improvement. That innings was largely the work of ten Doeschate and Borren wants to see the rest of the batsmen “spending time at the crease and building partnerships.”The Dutch have had just three days to strategise about how they are going to improve almost all elements of their game. It may too little time to realistically think all the changes will be possible, but for Borren, it’s been just enough time to be hungry enough to want to play for pride. “After what was a disappointing performance we can put it right tomorrow.”

Journalist Pete O’Rourke has urged Celtic to offer a new deal to keep first-team coach Gavin Strachan at Parkhead. 

The lowdown: Strachan a favourite of Celtic’s board

The 43-year-old survived a coaching staff overhaul and has since continued to impress in the role of first-team coach following the departure of Neil Lennon in February 2021 and the subsequent arrival of Ange Postecoglou.

A recent report from Football Insider claimed that the Parkhead hierarchy were keen to secure Strachan’s long-term future at the club and have duly opened contract talks with him, given his status as as a highly-regarded figure in Glasgow.

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As the Bhoys set their sights on a 52nd Premiership crown to add to their Scottish League Cup success from earlier in the campaign, there could also be positive off-field developments in the near future…

The latest: O’Rourke endorses Strachan extension

Speaking to GiveMeSport, O’Rourke has implored Celtic to persuade Strachan to stay on.

The reporter outlined: “I think it would be a positive move for Celtic. It would just keep that continuity within the coaching group right now.

“If they can agree a new contract, it will just keep things ticking over nicely for everybody involved there.”

The verdict: He’s right

As the summer fast approaches and the managerial merry-go-round begins to fire up, the Hoops should be acting fast to appease the former Doncaster Rovers man after he turned down the opportunity to manage English League Two outfit Hartlepool United back in November.

Postecoglou is clearly onto something with the current setup at Lennoxtown, and retaining the status quo within the coaching ranks is equally as important as keeping hold of key players.

Having endured a torrid 2020/21 campaign, Celtic have been crying out for stability, and as such the club should be doing everything to keep the likes of Strachan, assistant manager John Kennedy and coach Stephen McManus in place at Parkhead.

In other news, an expert has made a key claim regarding the ownership of Celtic. Read more here.