12/12/2025

SPORTS FRIDAY | DEC 12, 2025

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Hamilton, Leclerc free to criticise team publicly: Ferrari boss

Ű BY KIERAN JACKSON

added. “The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Always that I’m not there to have (drivers telling me)] ‘we are doing a good job on this and this and this’. “But their DNA and my DNA is to try to push the team to do a better job. It means they have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, when it’s not Lewis, it’s Charles, it’s both of them. They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit. Everywhere, on every single area and for sure, we can improve and we can improve every where.” – The Independent Kiwis nose ahead against Windies OPENER Devon Conway and debutant Mitchell Hay struck half-centuries to earn New Zealand a handy first-innings lead of 73 before their depleted bowling attack reduced West Indies to 32 for two to take control of the second Test in Wellington yesterday. Having bowled out West Indies for 205, New Zealand posted 278 before being all out in the final session on day two at Basin Reserve. West Indies wobbled in their second innings as well. Brandon King was batting on 15 with Kavem Hodge on three at the other end with the tourists still 41 behind. New Zealand fast bowler Blair Tickner did not bat in the first innings, and will not bowl or field in the match having dislo cated his shoulder while diving to stop a boundary on Wednesday. “I think there might be a couple of guys that are gutted to get the start and not quite kick on, but I think 80-90 lead and we got them two down already, so I think I’ll be happy with that,” New Zealand bowler Jacob Duffy said. Earlier, New Zealand captain Tom Latham lost his off stump to Kemar Roach after the hosts resumed on 22 but Conway and Kane Williamson steadied the ship with a 67-run stand.

“The most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results. “The fact that they are emotional sometimes on the radio and it depends on the guys… all of you know Charles. (He) is always a bit critical with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it’s always with a positive dynamic. “I would be destroyed if I had the drivers tell ing me that we are doing a good job,” Vasseur

year-old Briton failing to secure a podium for the first time in 19 F1 seasons. Ferrari chairman John Elkann last month encouraged Hamilton and Leclerc to “focus on driving and talk less” but Vasseur, who signed a new contract in July despite Ferrari’s shortcom ings in 2025, believes the two drivers simply want to push the team forward internally. “I don’t pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen,” said Vasseur after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, where Leclerc finished in fourth and Hamilton in eighth.

V ICTOR OSIMHEN-INSPIRED Nigeria are hurting after another unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign, and the quickest route to recovery would be win ning the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. Since 1990, the Super Eagles have never until this year failed twice in a row to secure a place at the global showpiece. After finishing runners-up to table toppers and automatic qualifiers South Africa in Group C, Nigeria were given a second chance as one of the best four second-placed nations. But after walloping Gabon 4-1 in a playoffs semifinal in Morocco with star striker Osimhen scoring twice, they lost on penalties to the Democratic Republic of Congo and were elimi nated. “Our players are suffering and we must find a cure. Instead of hurting, we must hurt our oppo nents,” Ivory Coast-born head coach Eric Chelle told reporters. Turkey-based Osimhen said: “Nigerians keep telling us we are a golden generation. But we have now failed twice in succession to qualify for the World Cup. “If we are that good how come we keep failing? Now we have to return to Morocco and win the Cup of Nations. “Our squad is packed with great Nigerians playing for some of the best clubs in Europe. The time has come to translate that greatness into tro phies.” Nigeria are in Group C with Tunisia, Tanzania and Uganda, and as top seeds will enjoy the advantage of playing all their first round matches in northern city Fes. The Super Eagles and the Carthage Eagles are ranked much higher than the east African nations and their Dec 27 clash should decide who finishes first. It will be the seventh meeting between two for mer champions in the premier African football competition. Nigeria have won three, lost one, and two were drawn. Hamilton, in particular, was regularly outspo ken in his criticism of this year’s car, with the 40 FERRARI team principal Fred Vasseur says he is unbothered by criticism from his drivers in the media pen after disappointing races. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc endured a frustrating season with the Scuderia , with the team failing to win a race for the first time since 2021 and finishing a distant fourth in the con structors’ championship.

Super Eagles seek redemption

Osimhen, Nigeria eye Afcon glory after another World Cup flop

African player of the year Ademola Lookman, Victor Boniface, Samuel Chukwueze, Tolu Arokodare, Moses Simon, Adams

“Tunisia have had an excellent year,” says Chelle, referring to a team that held record five time world champions Brazil in a friendly in France last month. “Uganda are improving consistently under (Belgian coach) Paul Put and many of the Tanzanians play in one of the strongest domestic leagues in Africa. “My squad and I are under enor mous pressure because there are about 230 million Nigerians – which means 230 million national coaches. “I have avoided social media for some time to dodge the noise and concentrate on working with my technical staff.” Chelle took Mali to the 2024 Afcon. They con ceded late in regular time and again late in extra time to finish unlucky 2-1 quarterfinal losers to hosts and eventual champions Ivory Coast. The 48-year-old tactician says one of his big gest challenges in Morocco will be picking his strike force from an array of top-class strikers. Apart from Osimhen, he can call on 2024

Akor and Chidera Ejuke. Tunisia coach and former defender Samy Trabelsi calls Nigeria a “continental powerhouse with a vast pool of talent play ing for top European clubs”. But he is not dismissing the hopes of his own team, saying “anything is possible” at an Afcon. – AFP

Victor Osimhen. – AFPPIC

Anderson Phillip (3-70) clean bowled Williamson for 37 and Roach removed Rachin Ravindra for five to put the pres sure back on the hosts. Hay, however, looked keen to capi talise on his Test debut replacing Tom Blundell, who suffered a hamstring injury in the drawn series opener. Soon after bringing up his fifty, Hay hit Ojay Shields for back-to-back fours before pulling him straight to Roach at square leg. Hay’s 61 included nine fours and a six.

Australian press mock England’s Ashes plans

Notices

322

Ű BY CHRIS WILSON

West Indies got a double-reprieve early in their second innings when opener Brandon King drove Duffy, who spilled the return catch and the deflected ball narrowly missed the stumps at the non-striker’s end with John Campbell well out of the crease. A much-relieved Campbell (14) cele brated by hitting Foulkes for three fours in Anderson Phillip walked in as the nightwatchman but returned after a three ball duck, pinged lbw by Duffy, who convinced his skipper Latham to review the original not-out deci sion. – Reuters the next over before shoulder ing arms to a delivery from debutant Michael Rae that crashed onto his stumps.

wear helmets”next time when asked by local media. The break comes after England fell to another limp defeat in the second

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AUSTRALIA’S tabloids have mocked the England cricket team’s recent trip to a beach town in Queensland, with references made to head coach Brendon McCullum’s assertion that the tourists had “trained too much” before the second Ashes Test. The touring squad were spotted in the town of Noosa, just north of Brisbane, with captain Ben Stokes taking pictures with fans and vice-captain Harry Brook pictured alongside Zak Crawley and others drinking beer at a beachside bar. And the host nation’s papers delighted in the tourists’ mid-tour trip, with headlines including Sun’s out, runs out accompanied by various photos of the travelling squad. On back foot, England bails to the beach , read one headline, with another going with Life’s a beach, even for the sinking Poms . The West Australian , which had previously poked fun at England with a head line of Baz bawl , highlighted McCullum’s comments with a title of: ’ Overprepared’ to the Bitter End . “After gallivanting around golf courses in Perth and joyriding without helmets on E-scooters in Brisbane, England favoured rest and relaxation for their laTest mid-series break,” read the article, refer encing a “controversial” incident in which some members of the squad were pictured riding E scooters without helmets. A bemused Stokes later issued a blunt reply promising that the players “will

Test of the series in Brisbane, with the tourists now 2-0 down and needing to win in Adelaide,

Melbourne and Sydney in order to retain the Ashes. And the squad will revert to their usual three-day preparations – rather

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than the five days that prompted McCullum’s comments – ahead of the third Test, with players given five days of downtime in between. While this prompted confusion among some pundits and ex-players, Australia wicket keeper Alex Carey pointed out that the tourists might need time to “refresh the batteries”, explaining: “The Ashes is very hotly conTested. You don’t want to be thinking of cricket every single day of the tour.” The third Test begins in Adelaide on Dec 17, with England looking to be just the second team to come back from 2-0 in an Ashes series after a home Australia team did so in 1936/37. – The Independent

NZ wicketkeeper Mitchell Hay celebrates the wicket of West Indies’ Anderson Phillip at the Basin reserve in Wellington yesterday. – AFPPIC