• Pakistan sports minister threatens India with sport boycott
• Indian officials say visa concerns were behind IPL rejections

South Asia’s latest cricket spat went political today as the governments of Pakistan and India engaged in a bout of diplomatic mud-slinging following the exclusion of Pakistani players from the forthcoming Indian Premier League.

None of the 11 Pakistanis on offer were selected at last Tuesday’s IPL player auction – even though several were part of the squad that won last year’s World Twenty20 championship – triggering a wave of indignation.

Today Pakistan’s sports minister, Aijaz Jakhrani, condemned the “humiliating” affair and threatened to boycott other sporting events between the two countries. A parliamentary delegation pulled out of a visit to New Delhi as the speaker of parliament, Fehmida Mirza, spoke of a “planned conspiracy”.

Pakistani television coverage of the story was awash with outrage. Among those excluded was the flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi who, paradoxically, featured prominently on IPL advertising billboards in India.

But Indian cricket officials said the Pakistan players were rejected over fears that their visas could be revoked amid continuing tensions between the two countries – cross-border exchanges of fire erupted in disputed Kashmir earlier this week – while the Indian government insisted there was no political hand in the rejection.

“The government has nothing to do with the IPL,” said the Indian foreign minister, SM Krishna. His ministry issued a statement urging Pakistan to “introspect on the reasons which have put a strain on relations between India and Pakistan”.

Pakistani analysts agreed the players may have fallen foul of a combination of bad politics and cold financial logic. “It’s a hard business decision,” said Osman Samiuddin of cricinfo.com. “The clubs were worried the Pakistani players might get visas this year but not the next. If that happens they lose their investment.”

What is not clear is why the Pakistanis were allowed to proceed to auction: according to some Indian reports it had been clear for several days that the IPL would shun them.

The former Pakistan Test player Aftab Gul said he was sure “some level” of pressure had been exerted on Indian clubs. But he said the principal fault laid with the Pakistan Cricket Board, which has come in for frequent criticism over its management of the game. “It’s all very easy to blame Indians. When there’s no rain, sugar or wheat, they are the bogeyman. But I’d like to take stock of what’s happening in Pakistan. Our cricket is in tatters,” he said.

Cricket has long been hostage to diplomatic relations between the two countries. International fixtures have been suspended, sometimes for decades, due to outbreaks of war in 1965, 1971 and 1999.

But cricket has also been used as an icebreaker. In 2005, the then president Pervez Musharraf took advantage of a fixture in New Delhi to advance peace talks with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, in an episode that became dubbed “cricket diplomacy”.

Now, though, relations are at a low again. The November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which caused India to cancel a planned tour of Pakistan one year ago. As seen in the latest row, what happens in south Asian politics inevitably spills on to the cricket pitch.

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• Englishman holes 70-foot putt on the 18th green
• Poulter tops leaderboard with Keith Horne and Richard Bland

Ian Poulter holed a mammoth 70-foot putt on the final green to earn a share of a one-stroke first-round lead at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship after carding a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 today. The South African Keith Horne, who finished second last week in Johannesburg, and Richard Bland matched Poulter’s effort to top the leaderboard ahead of a group of nine at six under par, including Sergio García and Rory McIlroy.

García recovered from back-to-back early bogeys, while McIlroy blamed a “mental error” for a double-bogey, although he did respond in style with two consecutive birdies. The former champion and last year’s joint runner-up Martin Kaymer dropped only one shot during a five-under 67 to share third with a bogey-free Louis Oosthuizen, who also claimed a runner-up spot at Abu Dhabi Golf Club 12 months ago.

Poulter said he was hungry to compete after a six-week Christmas break and all signs point to a positive result this week after he returned from a similar break to end a two-year winless streak in Singapore at the end of last year.

“I wasn’t expecting to come out quite as fast, but I’ll take it – I hit it lovely. I started practising on Tuesday and I didn’t feel 70% let alone the way it was today,” the world No12 said. “I put an extra session in on Tuesday and Wednesday, my hands were raw and sore. I’ve done an awful lot of hard work and it definitely paid off. I hit my irons very solid and I holed some nice putts.

“One of my goals at the start of the year was to hole more 20-foot putts which I haven’t done a lot of. And I said to my caddie: ‘I hope you’re keeping count, a few of those are going in,’ and they kept going in. They dried up on the back nine a little, but there was a little bonus on the last.”

Garcia, the world No13, is still struggling with the hand injury he picked up at the end of last year, but he bounced back from his early setbacks by picking up seven shots in 10 holes around the turn. “It didn’t look great for the first four holes, but I played fairly well and it is definitely a good comeback,” said the Spaniard, who finished eighth here last year. “There are still a couple of shots I need to fix, there’s obviously a little bit of rust still in my body, but overall, I think it was a good comeback and a good solid round to start the week with.”

McIlroy, who is currently No10 in the world, has targeted breaking into the world’s top five this year and picked up where he left off in 2009 by signalling his intentions today, despite opting for the wrong club off the tee at the 11th which resulted in the only blot on his scorecard.

“I’m very happy. Apart from that one loose tee shot it was really good,” said McIlroy, who finished fifth 12 months ago. “I made a lot of birdies and converted a lot of my chances. So any time you open up a tournament with a 66 you’ve got to be happy.”

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• Italian club claim money is owed for Sulley Muntari deal
• Muntari joined Pompey for £7m and left for £12.7m

Udinese have confirmed they will take Portsmouth to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a bid to recoup money they claim to be owed following the sale of Sulley Muntari.

Muntari joined Portsmouth from Udinese in 2007 for a reported fee of £7m and moved on to Internazionale in 2008 for around £12.7m.

“I can confirm that Udinese today has reported Portsmouth to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne in connection with a missed payment for Sulley Muntari,” said a spokesman for Udinese.

The deal for Muntari is the only one of Portsmouth’s outstanding transfer payments that has not been paid or rearranged, after the Premier League paid around £5m directly to the club’s football creditors last week.

Ali al-Faraj, Portsmouth’s owner, is fighting a winding-up petition that was served by Her Majesty’s Revenue & ­Customs before Christmas. The Saudi-based businessman may have to find around £10m by early next month.

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• John O’Shea was ‘at risk of amputation’ over blood clot
• Alex Ferguson’s defensive injury worries continue

Manchester United’s injury problems in defence have been worsened with the news that John O’Shea is likely to miss the remainder of the season because of a blood clot on his leg. O’Shea has not played since damaging his thigh in the second leg of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup play-off against France on 18 November.

The injury has since become so serious that doctors believe he could have been at risk of needing an amputation if it had gone undetected and Sir Alex Ferguson will now have to plan the next four months without a player whose versatility could have been invaluable to United at a time when injuries in defence have contributed to the team’s stuttering form.

“He’s got a terrible injury at the moment,” Ferguson said. “It’s one of those sorts of injuries that are unusual. It’s like a dead leg, except a dead leg is ­usually only three or four days. The problem is that the blood clot became all knotted and when it gets knotted you get calcification so therefore it’s a long process to clear that up and he’ll probably miss the season now. It’s a bad blow for the boy and for the team because he can play anywhere.”

United have had so many defensive injuries this season there have been times when Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick, midfielders by trade, have been asked to move into the back four. Nemanja Vidic has been troubled by a succession of calf and ankle injuries while Rio Ferdinand has not played since October because of a long-standing back problem and there are still doubts about when he will be in contention to return to the team.

“When you look at all the problems I’ve had with the back four this season, he [O’Shea] could have played every single one,” Ferguson added.

O’Shea will also miss Ireland’s friendly with Brazil at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on 2 March but Ferguson has questioned the wisdom of arranging the game in the first place. The United manager has long been frustrated about the scheduling of international friendlies at such a critical stage of the season.

“I don’t even think the international managers think they are all that important now,” he said. “They never play their full team and there are always drop-outs.”

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Leonardo and Milan were lambasted after their derby drubbing in August, but as the sides prepare to meet again it’s the Brazilian who has the momentum – he’s even got the best from Ronaldinho

To put Milan’s appalling derby experience from earlier this season – a 4-0 thrashing inflicted in front of a home audience – into perspective, the only time they have lost to Internazionale by a bigger margin was in 1910. The experience symbolises a period when Milan were drowning in mediocrity.

By the beginning of October, a lethargic start to the season dragged them to an intolerable 12th position in the table. Then they were embarrassed in the Champions League, losing at San Siro to FC Zurich. One newspaper headline summed up their plight evocatively enough: “A Milan to make you cry.”

But now, with the derby return looming on Sunday evening, Milan are all smiles. They have been so resourceful in their recovery they can almost touch the Serie A summit. If they can beat the champions, and the formbook suggests they have a reasonable chance, they will move to within three points of Inter with a game in hand. They are no longer just peering over the neighbour’s fence to cast a nostalgic eye over the scudetto silverware, they are plotting to vault over and grab it.

That they are in such a position is a credit to everyone at the club for holding their nerve when the problems appeared insurmountable. Leonardo, in particular, has confounded the critics who predicted an early retirement for a novice coach who seemed to have been appointed because Silvio Berlusconi had no one else. In October he looked out of his depth and the general view was that he was too nice, too inexperienced, and had too little to work with to discover the secret to footballing alchemy. As things stand, he is a contender for coach of the season, having manufactured a turnaround as miraculous as anything in Europe.

It is even more admirable considering Ciro Ferrara, the other rookie installed at one of Italy’s institutions, is floundering despite having had a barrel full of money to spend on high calibre players expected to make Juventus Inter’s main challengers.

It all began to click with a change of system, as Milan settled into a formation that allowed them to be more cavalier and play to their strengths. Since the nadir in October they have averaged three goals a game and their Serie A record reads W10 D1 L1. A front three with Marco Borriello flanked by Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato (with David Beckham currently filling in), provides a variety of threats. Andrea Pirlo is positioned behind them to pull strings, supported by two anchoring midfielders.

If one man sums up the renaissance it is Ronaldinho, who has been transformed from blasé to blazing. It is as if Leonardo walked inside the man’s head and switched the light back on. Ronaldinho may not quite be capable of the magic that made him World Footballer of the Year twice, in 2004 and 2005, but he is sufficiently reborn to have earned plaudits from far and wide.

“For me there is only Ronaldinho,” says Diego Maradona. “He is one of the greatest players of all time and I hope to see him at the World Cup.” A fine hat-trick last weekend amply demonstrated his new motivation.

Ronaldinho knows he has the chance of working his way back into the Brazil team in time for the World Cup in South Africa. He also knows he can be adored enough as his club’s fulcrum to keep him buzzing – something that couldn’t happen while Kaká was in Milan. And he knows he has someone in the dugout who has made a special effort to spark his footballing imagination in Leonardo. The coach has proved himself a good psychologist in that regard.

“I feel loved and respected,” Ronaldinho explains. “I’m happy. I go on the field upbeat and always try to give my best to give our fans great emotions. I have been important and a protagonist in all the teams in which I have played. But, in actual fact, I feel that I have realised more here in Milan. I am proud of it. In fact I want to play football for as long as possible because I feel so happy and complete.” He is by all accounts discussing a contract extension with the club.

It is Leonardo’s luck that the older generation are coping fitness wise. Even Ronaldinho looks a little more professional, and trim, than in his best partying days. Most of the squad are in good shape, with the notable exception of young Pato, who is back in Brazil in the hope that the warmer conditions will speed up his recovery from a thigh strain and enable him to play against Manchester United when the Champions League restarts.

It is remarkable that Leonardo is now in the position where he has to check fluttering expectations. Even the former Inter manager Roberto Mancini admits the heat is on for his former club. “It’s impossible to say it, but Milan have the chance of a lifetime,” he mused recently. “They are doing very well, while Inter seem to have been treated badly a little.”

And here’s the rub. While Milan improve, Inter have been scrabbling for form. After such a powerful start to the campaign, lately they have shown cracks. In their last two games they have snatched points from the jaws of defeat against Bari and Siena. Atalanta were another lowly team to cause them problems this winter.

But how many would dare to bet on Leonardo and Ronaldinho usurping José Mourinho and Diego Milito, not just this weekend, but between here and May?

Don’t blink, as it would be a shame to miss anything from what could be a sequel worthy of following up that Milan 0 Inter 4 drama all those winding weeks ago.

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Agreements with corporate hospitality companies ‘cover less than 2% of total tickets’

Olympic organisers were accused today of “betraying” Londoners over a corporate hospitality deal to provide tickets for the 2012 games. But they fought back over claims that it would diminish the chances of members of the public getting seats for the most prominent events.

Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Olympics spokesman and chair of a committee examining its legacy, claimed that deals with JetSet and a joint venture between the former England rugby international Mike Burton and a French catering company, Sodexo, were unacceptable.

“This news is a complete betrayal of the promises made to Londoners over the 2012 games. Secretive ticket deals made exclusively with the rich and influential undermine the very spirit of the Olympic games,” she said.

“Londoners are paying £625m to stage these games. It is disgraceful that ordinary sports fans are relegated to the back of the queue for tickets to a once in a lifetime sporting extravaganza.”

But the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) has denied that it will put UK fans at a disadvantage, pointing out that the number of tickets reserved under the deals, believed to be about 130,000, represents less than 2% of the total of 7.7m.

The Mike Burton-Sodexo deal is understood to include corporate boxes at stadiums staging the Olympic football tournaments, Wimbledon and the O2, the venue for the gymnastics and basketball finals. JetSet will have access to about 60,000 tickets that will be bundled with flights and accommodation for overseas visitors.

Neither deal had been made public, but Olympic organisers insisted it was standard practice to disclose the identity of partners only if they were official sponsors. Thomas Cook, which was last year named as the London Olympics domestic travel partner, will receive about 250,000 tickets that will be bundled with transport and accommodation for UK visitors.

JetSet’s founder and owner, the Yugoslav-born multimillionaire Sead Dizdarevic, dominates the international Olympic hospitality business. He has been the official hospitality provider at every games, summer and winter, since Salt Lake City and he is also the exclusive ticket agent and Olympic travel package provider for several national Olympic committees, including the US, Canada and Australia.

London Olympic organisers, who have sought to project an image of inclusivity, insisted today that the deals would cover all 26 events, including potentially less popular ones such as taekwondo and handball.

“We are hosting the two biggest sports events on the planet [the Olympics and Paralympics] so providing tickets to international audiences to come to London and the UK is a standard part of hosting an international event,” said a spokeswoman.

“Less than 1% of the tickets will be sold internationally through JetSet. These tickets cover all sports and will cover a range of prices. These international visitors are an important part of inbound tourism to London and the UK that major events such as the Olympic and Paralympic games can provide.”

Olympic tickets will not go on general sale until next year. Locog officials are working on a sales strategy that they hope will strike a balance between generating the £700m they need to stage the games and ensuring that venues are full of committed fans. The Beijing Olympics were criticised for banks of empty seats in some venues and the reservation of more than 650,000 tickets for sponsors.

London organisers have promised a “fans-in-front” policy and a wide range of affordable tickets. But they have refused to reconfirm promises made at the time of the London bid that 4.3m tickets costing less than £20 would be available, due to shifts in exchange rates and changes to the Olympic programme.

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• Struggling club are looking for potential investors
• Former owner has approached boxing promoter

The boxing promoter Frank Warren could be about to help rescue the troubled Blue Square Premier club Chester City, reports suggest. The club have been served with a winding-up order by HM Revenue & Customs are hoping to attract investors in order to stay afloat.

Chester City’s former owner, Stephen Vaughan, said the boxing promoter is one of a number of people he has approached. “I have been speaking to possible investors in the football club and one potential investor in talks has been boxing promoter Frank Warren.”

The club’s officials have been summoned to appear at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 27 January and must also explain their financial position to the Football Conference this week. Chester City have been unable to pay their players since November.

Chester went into administration in May last year after their relegation from the Football League and were then bought by a consortium involving the family of their former owner Vaughan. He was not allowed to take a hands-on role at the club, though, after failing the league’s fit and proper persons test.

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Self-styled Stanley Baldwin has taken on the West Ham messiah role and seems to have introduced his own dress code

It makes no commercial sense for anyone to buy this club, explained David Sullivan of West Ham on Tuesday, having done just that with his chum David Gold – a man who has long pulled off the staggering feat of partnering with someone to whom he could be compared as “the nice one”. As if to underline his descent into ostentatious insanity, Sullivan swept into Upton Park wearing what appeared to be Ian Wright’s smoking jacket from the Chicken Tonight advert, although inevitably his status as one of our premier jazz mag-nates saw the garment draw comparisons with Hugh Hefner.

Somehow, though, the echo of that other smoking jacket aficionado Noël Coward feels most appropriate. It’s not so much Sullivan’s debonair charm – though that is undisputed – more his decision to use the pair’s first press conference to position himself as an engaging raconteur. His tale was of the sensationally dire straits in which he and Gold had found West Ham.

“It’s amazing that two other people wanted to buy it,” he told hacks. “Every stone you turn is a negative to the cash flow and viability of the club …” On and on it went, till you could be forgiven for thinking Sullivan was talking dahn the pahnd, as our Cardiff-born Cockney would doubtless have it.

Clearly the 16 years at Birmingham prevent us from seeing the two Davids as naive plonkers in the Mike Ashley mould. And yet the mad altruist pose they seem to have adopted is similarly unconvincing. Or rather, unconvincing to most. It never ceases to amaze how willingly some people will accept whatever a new owner promises in the aftermath of purchase, in contravention of all logic. When Sven‑Goran Eriksson took charge at Notts County he immediately spoke not just of taking the club to the Champions League, but winning the thing, and there will have been those this week who swallowed Sullivan’s and Gold’s “Champions League in seven years” line, despite the fact they had just painstakingly itemised a financial dystopia, and offered no glimpse of how they could possibly ever compete with the breed of Premier League owners spending money on which they expect no cash return. Rather like hypnosis, this sort of schtick only works if you want it to happen to you. The only people who succumb are those irrationally conditioned to suspend their disbelief rather than to consider the worst. Which is to say, most of us, were it our football club.

Only in such a delirious atmosphere could Sullivan possibly dare to style himself as a slightly eccentric, twinkly uncle. “I’ve got a dodgy heart and David’s 73,” he declared. “But … maybe we’ll beat the odds.” God bless you, Tiny Tim. But let’s not forget this is the same chap who was once caught on camera attempting to solicit an interview with Cilla Black, whose husband was suffering from what turned out to be terminal cancer, and when Cilla declined the then Sport proprietor left an answerphone message saying he would be forced “to resort to things which aren’t very nice for you and aren’t very nice for us”.

Inevitably, the Sullivan-Gold ability to engage the public is not to all tastes. As the Crystal Palace chairman, Simon Jordan, once memorably observed: “If I see another David Gold interview on the poor East End Jewish boy done good I’ll impale myself on one of his dildos.” I trust Simon has an arsenal of the things to hand, then, as we look to be in for a run of them.

Even for the serial optimists, the alarm bells might have rung at the point Sullivan announced that they’d be asking investors including Tony Fernandes, whose bid for West Ham they beat, to take on a minority stake in the club. “If you imagine a government of national unity in national crisis,” football’s Stanley Baldwin explained, by now presumably just floating this stuff for a dare, “this is the board equivalent of that.”

Mm. It is worth remembering that Sullivan once said of the acquisition of Birmingham that “what was pleasing was that everything was so badly run that we could only improve it”, and he seems to be encouraging people to think of West Ham in similar terms. Eventually, of course, that messiah complex modulated to an open distaste for Birmingham supporters’ aspirations. “It’s like when you’ve been with the same bird for years but you think Miss World is around the corner,” he came to rail. “Well, she isn’t.” Come come, David. That smoking jacket was clearly the evening-wear round. We await the swimwear with interest.

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• £200,000 needed to save British skiing federation
• Chemmy Alcott may not be able to compete

The participation of up to 15 British athletes at next month’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver is under threat with the British Ski and Snowboarding Federation (BSSF) on the brink of going into administration.

The BSSF, which trades as Snowsport GB, needs a cash injection of £200,000 before the end of the month if it is to continue as a business. If that does not happen and the organisation folds, the likes of the skier Chemmy Alcott and the snowboarder Zoe Gillings may not be able to compete in Canada as athletes require a member federation to take part in the Olympics.

The BSSF’s chairman Oliver Jones has admitted that going into administration is a possibility after two funding streams were deferred and the Royal Bank of Scotland withdrew a £30,000 overdraft facility. However, he insists it is not a foregone conclusion.

“Administration is only one of a number of outcomes which may come out of this,” he said. “The federation has had a particularly difficult year, made worse by the economic background. As a winter sports federation, we have seen our funding substantially curtailed in recent years and we have become increasingly dependent on more private funding.”

He added: “I know we are living through extremely tough times, but I find it extraordinary that we have not been able to raise the £200,000 we need. It is not too late for someone in government or the Royal Bank of Scotland to think again.”

The British Olympic Association insists steps can be taken to ensure the British athlete’s involvement, such as immediately forming a new federation, but it is unknown whether that will satisfy the International Olympic Committee..

“We are fully aware of the situation and have been briefed on the steps being taken by Snowsport GB to remedy the financial shortfall,” said the BOA’s chief executive Andy Hunt. “The BOA’s absolute priority is to do everything possible to ensure that the athletes are able to compete in the Vancouver Games as members of Team GB. We have developed a contingency plan and, should it become necessary to do so, will submit it to our board for consideration.

“We are in communication with the relevant team leaders and officials to reassure them that we are monitoring the situation closely and are doing everything we can to support them.”

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• Arsenal defender will not be punished retrospectively
• Midfielder Davies may have suffered ankle break

Arsenal’s defender William Gallas will not face retrospective disciplinary action from the Football Association following his late tackle on Bolton’s Mark Davies in last night’s 4-2 Premier League win at Emirates Stadium.

Bolton’s manager Owen Coyle labelled the challenge, which happened in the build-up to Arsenal’s crucial equaliser at the start of the second half, as “akin to assault”, however scans today revealed the damage to the midfielder’s ankle was not as bad as feared, allaying worries it might be broken.

Arsenal’s manager Arséne Wenger was quick to issue an apology if the incident was, as television replays suggested, a foul. However, it is understood that as the referee Alan Wiley viewed the challenge as two players coming together at the time and so allowed play to continue, no separate disciplinary proceedings can be implemented, as the FA does not re-officiate matches.

Coyle was less than impressed by the challenge. “The second goal was the big turning point,” Coyle said. “Clearly it was a foul, and closer to a red card. It was akin to assault and it changed the game.

“However, the fact is the referee has not seen it, and the lad is prostrate on the ground, and Arsenal being full of fair play, as we keep hearing, have carried on and scored an equaliser. That is hard to take. I don’t want to sit here and make excuses, but I have seen red cards for less.”

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