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General Sports News

Capello plays down Redknapp rift

Author: Rose Young
Date: 28/03/2009

England boss Fabio Capello has attempted to play down reports of a rift with Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp.

Earlier in the week Redknapp had criticised England's treatment of Ledley King.

The Spurs boss was unhappy when the central defender was included in the squad for the games against Slovakia and Ukraine only to then be released due to his chronic knee condition.

Interim manager Guus Hiddink has revealed that Chelsea have offered him a consultancy role when his current contract expires at the end of the season.

The Dutchman is managing the Blues as well as continuing in his role as Russia boss but has impressed the Stamford Bridge hierarchy since replacing Luiz Felipe Scolari last month.

Austria international Emanuel Pogatetz has refuted reports suggesting he will leave Middlesbrough in the summer if the Teessiders are relegated to the Championship as online betting pundits are predicting.

The 26-year-old has made almost 150 appearances for Boro since joining the club from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2005 and insists he has no intention of leaving.

In formula one, Toyota's Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli will start Sunday's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne at the back of the grid after their cars were found to have broken technical rules.

Glock had finished sixth in qualifying and Trulli eighth but officials said their cars had rear wings that were too flexible.

Williams are also launching a protest against the rear wings on the Red Bull and Ferrari cars.

Stewards said Toyota's wing showed 'flexibility of an extreme nature'. Flexible rear wings are banned in Formula 1 because they can bring performance advantages.

Toyota's misfortune means Lewis Hamilton will start the race from 18th position. After qualifying from 15th he had been demoted five positions because of a gearbox change.

Jenson Button is in pole position for the race and is joined on the front row of the grid by team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

In cricket, England captain Andrew Strauss admitted an abject batting display was to blame for his side's thrashing in the third one-day international against West Indies.

England were dismissed for only 117 before their hosts reached their target in rapid time.

Strauss admitted: "It wasn't good enough, it was humiliating to be honest. There was some very poor batting early on and we paid the price.

"There are 11 guys in our dressing room who are feeling pretty down on themselves right now. It wasn't a contest, we didn't play well and there wasn't enough thought in the way we batted.

"We have got to take it on the chin. We know we played very badly and we haven't done ourselves justice and I suppose the only positive is that we have a game in two days time to put it right."

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