Didier Deschamps hails Desire Doue's effectiveness, citing his dribbling, work rate and maturity as the rewards of a "planned" development.

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Deschamps not surprised by Doue's formWinger stunned in Champions League finalBrings focus on his "planned development"Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

In a recent interview with , Deschamps shared his thoughts on Doue's Champions League final performance. Deschamps wasn't surprised, praising Doue's ability to beat defenders, cover ground and his overall maturity. The World Cup winning manager emphasised that Doue's success is a result of a "planned and mapped out" progression, rather than accidental, making him a valuable asset for the France squad.

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Doue was signed by PSG in 2024 from Rennes. The French winger had been impressive in the league but his three-goal contribution in the Champions League final against Inter etched him in the pages of history. Doue might be a new name on the lips of football fanatics but for Deschamps, Doue was a potential waiting to explode. The French manager had scouted the player since his time at Rennes when everybody who coached him could see the dripping potential and this was when Doue got his first call up to the France squad for their clash against Croatia in the Nations League.

WHAT DIDIER DESCHAMPS SAID

He said: "I wasn’t surprised. He went from Rennes, where he was doing good things, to PSG, where there were various steps to take and he took them all. I brought him into the France squad. I knew he had the potential and I’ve obviously picked up information on his personality and things like that. Being capable of doing that at his age in a Champions League final… Bravo. And it means he’ll turn up with a big smile on his face!”

The France head coach further said: "He has the ability to beat people. He has the ability to cover a lot of ground, which isn’t always the case (for players with his profile). That’s why he’s able to play in attack and in midfield. And he’s young. He turns 20 on Tuesday (June 3). Things haven’t happened by accident for him. Everything has been planned and mapped out. And you need that."

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AFPWHAT NEXT FOR DESCHAMPS?

Deschamps has a lot of superstars in his team. The question is how you fit them together with some players overlapping the profiles of other, but one thing for sure, Doue will get his due after his incredible performance against Inter. France is set to face Spain in the Nations League semi-final on 6 June 2025 in Germany.

Neymar's father has made it clear he wants his son to stay at Santos as the Brazilian's contract ticks towards expiring.

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• Neymar's Santos contract set to expire
• Brazilian's father issues update
• Provides insight into his son's situation

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  Neymar Junior is in the last weeks of his Santos contract but is yet to put pen to paper on an extension. Now his father, Neymar Senior, has revealed the 33-year-old is happy at the Brazilian Serie A side and hopes he will stay put as they gave him the chance to resurrect his career after a string of injuries.

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  WHAT NEYMAR'S DAD SAID

  "I want him to stay. Santos at that moment opened the door for Neymar to recover. He needed to play, we knew about the minor injuries. It's not just him, he was out for more than a year and a half. The biggest work was in his head. We know about his dream," he said, via ESPN.

  "Neymar is living here again, happy, close to his friends and family. Santos is the right environment for him to continue, but we have to make many situations viable. Maintain his social and work life, but maintain the brand he built. Create this demand to achieve his goals.

  "He is very intense, you can't control him. He fought for the ball in the air the whole time. He is completely stable now. And we are very happy. For the second half of the year we have a guy who is still concerned about getting better. We had offers, Neymar was never left out of any window and he wouldn't be left out of this one.

  "We don't accept it because he wants to recover a little more, to reach his ideal level. Neymar is living here again, happy, close to his friends and family. Santos is the right environment for him to continue, but we have to make many situations viable. Maintain his social and work life, but maintain the brand he built. Create this demand to achieve his goals."

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Neymar has had an up-and-down stint at Santos but it has been far better than his disastrous spell at Al-Hilal, where his contract was eventually terminated. When fit, the ex-Barcelona man has shown his quality but there is no guarantee he will stay at his boyhood team.

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  WHAT NEXT?

  While a player like Neymar is unlikely to be short of offers, with a return to Europe mooted, the former Paris Saint-Germain star could be set for his last Santos game on Thursday away to Fortaleza.

Results of extensive investigation by Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket to be published on Tuesday

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jun-2023English cricket is bracing for the publication of an extensive report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) on Tuesday, the day before England Men’s second Ashes Test against Australia at Lord’s.The commission was instigated more than two-and-a-half years ago in response to the murder of George Floyd in police custody and the Black Lives Matter movement, which prompted numerous claims of institutional racism within English cricket.Cindy Butts, the ICEC’s chair, said last October that the commission had “captured the lived experiences” of more than 4000 people involved in cricket, met with “over 70 individuals and organisations” and collected “over 550 documents from cricketing bodies and experts”.Butts added: “As a commission we have been humbled by the level of courage demonstrated by so many who want to help the game to be equitable, diverse and inclusive.”The report’s publication takes place on the same day as Yorkshire’s sanctions hearing at the International Arbitration Centre, after the club admitted four breaches of ECB Directive 3.3 – which relates to bringing “the game of cricket… into disrepute”.Ollie Pope, England’s vice-captain, said that the team were conscious of trying to make the game as inclusive as possible. “The next guys, doing what we’re doing now in 20 years, we want to have the whole country to choose from, not just a certain group of people,” Pope said. “That’s something we talk about as a team and are aware of.”I think it is [an inclusive sport] but I think there is a lot more we can keep doing as players as well. As an England team, we’re in a great position where we have got all eyes on us. It is definitely something we’re aware of and definitely something we can keep driving forward especially.”We have seen that over the last year or so. Hopefully as a team we can keep doing what we can over the next year or two to keep promoting that, because it is a sport for everyone and I think it definitely, 100 percent, should be.”The report will be published in full on the ICEC’s website on Tuesday.

Stuart Broad said he had been told by umpire Kumar Dharmasena that if zing bails had been in use for the Ashes Steven Smith would have been given out on the second day at The Oval, but he was comfortable with the borderline decision having gone Smith’s way.What could be a vital moment in the Test – and crucial to whether the series ends 2-2 – occurred in the 78th over when Smith, on 42, took on the arm of substitute George Ealham, the son of former England allrounder Mark, who sprinted in from deep midwicket and produced a rocket-like throw which was collected by Jonny Bairstow.Initially, it appeared that Smith was short of his ground – and with Ricky Ponting on Sky Sports commentary mentions of Gary Pratt soon followed – but on subsequent replays umpire Nitin Menon ruled that the bail was not completely dislodged from both grooves until Smith, who had pulled out a full-length dive, was in his crease. There was also debate about whether Bairstow had dislodged the stumps fractionally before taking the ball.”I honestly don’t know the rules,” Broad said. “I think there was enough grey area to give that not out. It looked like benefit of the doubt sort of stuff, first angle I saw I thought out, and then the side angle it looked like the bails probably dislodged.”Kumar said to me if it was zing bails it would been given out, I don’t really understand the reasoning why.”Under the Laws, the bail has to be completely removed. Law 29.1 states: “The wicket is broken when at least one bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or one or more stumps is removed from the ground.”Related

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, MCC’s Official Interpretation of the Laws of Cricket, adds: “For the purposes of dismissal – a bail has been removed at the moment that both ends of it leave their grooves.”Smith had started to walk off when he first saw the replay on the big screen. “I saw the initial replay and saw the bail come up, and when I looked at it the second time looked like Jonny might have knocked the bail before the ball had come,” he said. “Looked pretty close at that stage, if the ball had hit at the initial stage when the bail came then think I was well out of my ground.”Smith admitted he was caught out by Ealham’s swift work. “I know now that he’s very quick,” he said. “The next one we hit out there when it was a similar push for two, I was like, gee, this guy’s tearing around the boundary, he’s coming at pace. Had I known that previously I might have just stayed there for the single.”Had Smith been out it would have left Australia 194 for 8 and facing a considerable deficit, but he went on to make 71 before skying a whip across the line at Chris Woakes having added 54 with Pat Cummins. Todd Murphy then swiped three sixes off Mark Wood, adding a further 49 with Cummins, to gain a narrow lead.”Did I pull the trigger too early? Maybe,” Smith said. “But had I not got out, Murph might not have come in and smacked 30 like he did. We are in the position we are because of our batters, you can’t fault what the bottom few did. Thought the partnerships they put together were outstanding.”A lot of us got starts, the scorecards are very similar in a way, and we weren’t able to capatalise and [turn] one of those partnerships that were 40-50 into 100-150 and that gives us a decent lead. Bit disappointed from that aspect.”

While rain couldn’t prevent a decisive result at the Chinnaswamy, it ensured the West-Central game in Alur finished in a draw

Himanshu Agrawal08-Jul-2023What was smooth sailing for most of the journey turned into a rocky ride towards the end, as South Zone, in pursuit of 215 against North Zone, slipped from 191 for 4 to 213 for 8 in their run chase. Eventually though, Sai Kishore kept his calm and deposited the opposition captain Jayant Yadav over long-on to steer South to a two-wicket win, and with it, a place in the Duleep Trophy final. South hunted down their target at better than a run a ball in Bengaluru, where there were two lengthy rain delays on the fourth and final day.The South batters kept playing their shots despite wickets falling in a hurry, with the finish line nearing, after the experienced Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari laid the foundations for their victory, which Ricky Bhui and Tilak Varma built upon with an aggressive partnership for the fifth wicket.Heading into day four, South needed another 194 to win with all ten wickets in hand, and the free-stroking Agarwal dominated his opening stand off 44 with Sai Sudharsan. Vaibhav Arora then removed Sudharsan and R Samarth in quick succession to leave South 59 for 2. That brought their captain Vihari to the crease, and with dark clouds overhead and rain in the air, he got into counterattack mode alongside Agarwal.They doubled the score in quick time, adding 59 off 47 balls while driving and punching boundaries at will. That forced North into defensive fields, but Jayant got rid of Agarwal for 54 to give North Zone a glimmer of hope. Vihari kept motoring at the other end, however, and even after he was dismissed for 43 by Harshit Rana, South were only 74 away with six wickets standing.Bhui and Varma then added 50 off just 33 deliveries, before Bhui’s wicket for 34 opened the floodgates, with Rana and Baltej Singh striking twice each in the space of 3.4 overs. In the end, South just scraped through, with defending champions West Zone waiting for them in a replay of the last Duleep Trophy final.File photo – Rinku Singh lit up a drab final day in Alur with a 30-ball 40•CABWest Zone 220 (Sheth 74, Mavi 4-43) and 297 (Pujara 133, Suryakumar 52, Jain 4-56, Saurabh 4-84) drew with Central Zone 128 (Rinku 48, Nagwaswalla 5-74) and 128 for 4 (Rinku 40, Dodiya 1-16)Defending champions West Zone qualified for the final of the 2023 Duleep Trophy on the basis of the first-innings lead after persistent rain in Alur forced their semi-final against Central Zone to end in a tame draw. West will face South Zone for the title clash, starting on July 12 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.Resuming the day on 292 for 9, West’s last pair could add only five runs before Saransh Jain dismissed Yuvrajsinh Dodiya in the second over of the morning.Central never threatened to chase down 390. They lost their openers, Himanshu Mantri and Vivek Singh, for single-digit scores. Dhruv Jurel and Amandeep Khare took them past 50 before Dharmendrasinh Jadeja had the former stumped for 25.Rinku Singh took the attacking route and hit three fours and as many sixes to take Central past 100 at lunch. But Dodiya ended his innings on 40 off 30 balls with the first delivery after the interval.Rain, though, allowed only six overs in the second session, forcing both captains to shake hands around 2.20pm local time.