• Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores face sack

England's captain and coach could receive their P45s after Hugh Morris was handed the mandate to sort out the civil war.

  • Tottenham throw late party for Jermain Defoe

Tottenham Hotspur 4 Burnley 1As Spurs fans toasted return of pintsized Jermain Defoe White Hart Lane fittingly staged Carling Cup game of two halves.

  • Mark Cueto ready for return to England squad

Mark Cueto has put himself in line for an England recall just six months after fearing his career might be over.

  • Tottenham get Jermain Defoe for just £9m

Tottenham Hotspur will pay Portsmouth only £9 million for England striker Jermain Defoe despite deal's total value of £19m.

  • Playing rugby popular in Scotland

Figures released by the Scottish Rugby Union reveal a 10 per cent yearonyear increase in the number of people playing the game.

  • Mushtaq Ahmed lands coaching role with Sussex as well as England

Mushtaq Ahmed will coach Sussex as well as England's spin bowlers for three months next summer.

  • Florent Malouda holds key says Scolari

Luiz Felipe Scolari is unlikely to partner Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka in attack against Manchester United.

  • Honda line up Ferrari for engine deal

Ross Brawn has confirmed he has lined up a potential engine supply deal with Ferrari for new season.

  • FA cut price of tickets to England matches at Wembley

The FA have ticket prices by up to 25 per cent for England's Wembley internationals.

  • Scottish FA should ban referees for inconsistency says Mark McGhee

Mark McGhee has said he initiated the selfimposed gag on Scotland's top managers who unirormly refuse to criticise match officials.

  • Tottenham hit back to hammer Burnley

Spurs take a huge stride towards the Carling Cup final by thrashing Burnley 4-1 in the semi-final first leg at White Hart Lane.

  • Australia v South Africa scorecard

South Africa are looking for a series whitewash in the third and final Test against Australia in Sydney.

  • Arsenal 'interested in Arshavin'

Arsenal are interested in signing Andrei Arshavin, according to Zenit St Petersburg's coach Dick Advocaat.

  • Benitez relaxed on Reds transfers

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez says he is unlikely to do any major transfer deals in January.

  • Beckham makes bow in AC Milan win

England's David Beckham plays 45 minutes on his AC Milan debut as the Serie A side run out winners on penalties against Hamburg.

  • Should Spurs have brought back Defoe?

Harry Redknapp has brought the 26-year-old back to White Hart Lane less than 12 months after prising him away to Portsmouth. But will Defoe prove a better fit at Tottenham the second time around?

  • Football: David Beckham makes his debut for Milan in draw with Hamburg

David Beckham made his first appearance for Milan during a 1-1 draw with Hamburg in Dubai

  • Football: Nigel Clough takes charge at Derby

Nigel Clough has followed in his father's footsteps and become the new manager of Derby

  • Ricky Hatton set to fight Manny Pacquiao in May

A deal is close to completion that will see Ricky Hatton fight the Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on 2 May. Talks were continuing today aimed at securing a site to stage the contest with the MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood casinos both prepared to pay multi­million-dollar fees to the promoters.

Pacquiao has become one of the sport's hottest properties with his brilliant win over Oscar De La Hoya, while Hatton remains hugely popular, not least with casinos who can be guaranteed to have their business boosted by the thousands of fans who will travel in support of the hero. The winner of such a high-profile contest would be likely to entice the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr, ?conqueror of Hatton in 2007, out of retirement for another lucrative superfight.

Even allowing for the economic downturn, which has had major repercussions for the Las Vegas gaming industry, it is estimated that Pacquiao-Hatton could generate around $20m (£13.4m) for each fighter. Not only would there be a guaranteed sell-out crowd at either the MGM Grand Garden or the Thomas and Mack Center, which will be the venue if Planet Hollywood wins the right to host the fight, but there would also be huge revenue to be made from television sales.

Although all Hatton's major fights have been televised in Britain by Sky, with his most recent contests shown as pay-per-view attractions with Sky Box Office, they will face serious competition for British rights from Setanta Sports, who recently signed a deal with Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, to show all his Top Rank promotions.

Similarly in the United States Arum is testing the market to see if the cable network Showtime might be prepared to outbid boxing's major player HBO, with the support of its free-to-air parent company CBS.

Hatton's promoters Golden Boy have already verbally acquiesced in the face of Arum's insistence that the fight should be in the US rather than an open-air venue in the UK, such as Wembley Stadium, which would have been Hatton's preference. Arum, 77, has been the dominant force in forging the deals surrounding the fight.

Hatton, 30, is currently fulfilling a series of speaking engagements and is planning a cruise with friends and family before going into a likely 12-week training camp for the contest, which is to be made at Hatton's normal 10-stone fighting weight, the light-welterweight division limit, even though Pacquiao beat De La Hoya at welterweight.

Floyd Mayweather Sr, Hatton's trainer, has said he believes Hatton's strength will help him to a stoppage victory. But the bookies disagree, having installed Pacquiao as the 2-1-on favourite, with Hatton quoted at 6-4 against.

  • Premier League: Simpson praises the Allardyce effect on Blackburn

Recalled Rovers defender heaps praise on manager's rescue mission

  • Arsenal: Fabianski spurred on by glove rival Almunia

Football: Arsène Wenger admits Arsenal's reserve goalkeeper is 'pushing very hard' for selection

  • Premier League: Darren Fletcher is determined to cement his spot in Sir Alex Ferguson's starters at Manchester United

Since joining Old Trafford as a trainee eight years ago, the midfielder Darren Fletcher has forced his way into the starting side ? but he is still not taking anything for granted

  • Carling Cup: Derby v Manchester United: Hulse says semi-final pressure is on the champions

Carling Cup: Confident striker says the pressure is all on the European champions as Derby enjoy first semi in 33 years

  • Sportsblog: Guinness Premiership race tightens as play-offs loom on horizon

The toughest sporting event in the world has to be the Vendée Globe round-the-world yacht race. Having spent some time aboard Mike Golding's boat Ecover last summer my eyes were prised open to the sheer mental and physical torture involved in confronting a challenge which spits out world-class sailors like so many orange pips. When the supremely prepared Golding was dismasted just before Christmas, it was proof that even the best can be tossed aside by the whims of cruel seas and savage oceans.

Even the punishing Vendée, though, feels like a relative blip in the calendar compared with the Guinness Premiership. After four months we have only just reached the halfway point in the league campaign, with 11 games gone and another 11 to be played before the end-of-season play-offs. Depending on your perspective, the glass of stout is either half empty or half full but the statisticians have seen enough to predict this will be the closest-fought season on record. Five different clubs have led the table to date, the most since 1999-2000, and picking the winner remains a matter of conjecture rather than comfortably anchored certainty.

Even the defending champions, Wasps, back in eighth place as they were at this stage last year, have not entirely given up the chase. Better than anyone else they understand the Premiership is both a marathon and a sprint, a question of peaking in May having weathered the troughs of midwinter. The prop Phil Vickery described the team's first-half performance against Harlequins on Sunday as the best 40 minutes he had been involved in at club level this season; Quins, it has to be said, were below-par but belief is nine-tenths of the required formula for potential champions. With 48% of this season's results having been decided by seven points or fewer, tenacity is also critical.

So how do the half-term reports read? From where I have been sitting, London Irish have a fine chance not simply of making the last four but finishing top of the heap provided they hang tough in their next six games, starting at Sale Sharks on Friday night and continuing against Gloucester, Harlequins, Bath, Leicester and Wasps. Visits to Stockport, Kingsholm, the Rec and High Wycombe will also show whether the Exiles have the staying power which their head coach, Toby Booth, is convinced they possess, particularly as the grounds firm up. It will be tougher over the Six Nations period, particularly if the Armitage brothers, Delon and Steffon, Nick Kennedy and Shane Geraghty are required by England. Other clubs, however, will be similarly affected and Irish won their three games during the November international window. Their South Sea islands contingent are increasingly reliable men for all seasons, as are the Australian Peter Hewat, the captain, Bob Casey, and the scrum-half Paul Hodgson.

Bath, notwithstanding their narrow defeat to Leicester, also look well placed for a top-four finish and may yet have the all-round power to go all the way if they can secure a home semi-final draw. It is interesting that the departures of Steve Borthwick and Olly Barkley have not obviously weakened them; if anything they look a side of increasing potential rather than a team in decline. Steve Meehan may not be the most vociferous of Premiership coaches but he deserves much credit for the job he has done so far. The trick now is to take that crucial final step.

As for Sale, looking at their remaining fixtures they also seem destined to be in the shake-up, possessing too deep a squad to be distracted by the impending exit of Philippe Saint-André and Sébastien Chabal. The Sharks were extremely ordinary in Montauban, and scoring tries remains an issue away from home, but Sale finally seem to be running into form and will be difficult to stop if their key men stay fit. That leaves five sides potentially chasing one final play-off spot. Gloucester should be favourites but they still have a nasty habit of failing to deliver in the really major games; Leicester and Harlequins have their moments without ever looking as though they are firing on all available cylinders for 80 minutes, while Saracens and Wasps cannot yet be entirely discounted. I have a hunch that Leicester, as they did last season, will edge through as the best of the rest: the Bath result was a big one for them, they will be keen to do the currently absent Heineke Meyer proud and still have Bristol to play twice.

Which leads us, inevitably, to the identity of this season's driftwood. Friday the 13th (of February) looks like being unlucky for someone; it is the night Bristol play host to Newcastle, with the losers almost certainly doomed. It would be tough on Newcastle's hard-working captain, Phil Dowson, but the Falcons are in a worrying tailspin, having not won in the league since September ? at home to Bristol. They desperately need Jonny Wilkinson back, with or without his crutches.

Quantum leap in conversation

Talking of Jonny, I sadly missed his discussion with Jarvis Cocker on Radio 4's Today programme on the subject of quantum physics. There is, as Eric Morecambe used to say, no answer to that. Coming soon: Dolly Parton talks to Mark Regan about rocket science.

Intimate tour of pride of Lions

Highlight of the festive period? No contest. Take a bow, Sky Sports, for the inspired decision to broadcast Living with Lions ? the unmissable fly-on-the-jockstrap account of the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa ? on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. What strikes you now is the number of impressive individuals among the squad, conclusive proof that the key to a successful tour mostly lies in the initial selection. There also seemed to be a hell of a lot more ball-handling than you would find in modern-day games, and a lot more humour. "There are only two types of rugby player," growled the assistant coach, Jim Telfer. "Honest ones and the rest."

Anyone wondering if a Lions tour is still worth the extra sweat and tears should get the DVD and be instantly inspired.

  • Carling Cup semi-final first leg: Tottenham v Burnley - live minute-by-minute report!

New York times: It seems the Big Apple is tonight infested with Brits following this here MBM. Here's another one: "I've no idea which New York Peter Lavelle and Alix Sharkey live in," naysays Nathan Smith. "I'm another expat in NYC and am surrounded by American's complaining about the weather, the cost of living and the overcrowded subways. They all want a return to the days of Studio 54 and cheap hookers in Times Square. Who am I to argue, though I'm unsure why it was warmer back then"

45 mins: The White Hart Lane are pleading for the half-time whistle, and when it comes it's greeted by contemptuous boos: their team have been outplayed in every way so far. Redknapp will surely have to adjsut his formation as Burnley are slicing through the middle with ease. My guess is Campbell will be sacrificed as his non-effectiveness smeans Spurs have basically been playing with one up front anyway. O'Hara will probably come on and play in the middle instead, with Modric reverting to his role in the hole. There is no guarantee, of course that any of that will break the rhytmn of a Burnley side who have been impressively in the groove so far.

45 mins: Tottenham again work themselves into a decent crossing position only for Lennon to let the side down with another feeble delivery. "Does Lennon possess a left foot?" warbles Seth Ennis. On this evidence, Seth, he has two of them.

43 mins: Yet more nimble play by Burnley, who are confident and inventive on the ball and are forcing countless last-ditch interventions by Spurs defenders around the box.

40 mins: Bentley juggles with the ball down the left wing ... and then passes it to a Burnley defender. He hasn't been good tonight, the boy Bentley, continually cutting inside to no good effect. He might be better off switching to the right, where he can keep things simple: just dash down the flank and ping in a cross, Stewart Downing-style.

38 mins: Burnley mount another attack and as usual they get plenty of men forward, but this time Spurs get enough back too, and eventually bundle it away. "By the way, I'm watching this online over in NY and your update is coming instantly to what's happening on the screen," reveals John Lally. "So either there's a delay on this "live coverage" from England fans' favourite broadcaster or you type real quicker." The truth, John, is that I am fast as a shark, as Accept memorably put it.

35 mins: Corner to Spurs as a Lennon cross is deflected behind after good work by Bale, who has again shown himself to be a darn sight more effective going forward that he is at the back (Eagles wriggled past him far too easily for the goal). Like a plastic tree, the corner bears no fruit.

32 mins: Another wonky cross from Lennon. "Is our main hope them having to use up all three subs by half time then having their goalkeeper sent off for Frazier Campbell diving over him in the box again?" wonders John Lally. It might jsut be, John, though I don't think Campbell is playing tonight. No, hold on, I've just checked the team sheet - apparently he is out there somewhere.

29 mins: Lennon scutters towards the box and then shoots straight at Jordan, who then clears with ease. And on that note, another Burnley player - McCann this time - goes down injured. He seems to have picked up a strain or twist of some sort. But he clambers back to his feet and looks like he's going to try to run it off, the trooper.

27 mins: Inury-enforced substitution: Gudjonsson off, McDonald on.

25 mins: What an instinctive save by Jensen! Bentley sent a corner to the back post, where Woodgate rose and headed to Pavlyuchenko, who swivelled and tried to turn it into the net from three yards. But the keeper plunged to his right and scooped it away. "As another expat New Yorker, I can tell Peter Lavelle that its citizens never moan about its lousy weather, incessant noise, general aggression, air pollution, overcrowding or extortionate cost of living for one simple reason: we're all living in denial," splutters Alix Sharkey. "Either that, or it truly is the greatest city in the world."

24 mins: More splendid play by Burnley, who have Tottenham on the rack. Again they stretched them with speedy simplicity and before Eagles drifted a dainty cross towards the six-yard box and Blake beat Tottenham's defenders to it but nodded fractionally wide.

22 mins: Gomes hurtles off his line to snuff out another Burnley attack. Then Tottenham break with menace for the first time in many minutes, but Modric over-hits his attempted through-ball to Pavlyuchenko. Sky's Alan Smith said of the goal that it was an 'unmissable chance' for Paterson," barfs Tom Chivers. "That is demonstrably untrue. It looked almost exactly like any one of several that Robbie 'the Hitman' Keane has missed for the Liverpool in recent weeks." Speaking of which, Spurs will presumably put in a £40m bid for Keane some time soon?

19 mins: This really is an excellent display so far from Burnley. Their doing all the grubby stuff better than Spurs, but they're also producing most of the pretty play. Spurs have simply not been given any chance to get back into the game as Burnley continue to press them onto the back foot.

15 mins: If you have to lose a bet, that's not a bad way to do it: Burnley have just scored a lovely goal. The ever-lively Eagles tricked his way past Bentley and Bale on the right and surged to the by-line before crossing neatly to Paterson, who tapped the ball into the net from three yards. Speed, deftness and precision in one crisp move.

GOAL! Spurs 0-1 Burnley (Paterson 15')

13 mins: Bentley intercepts a rare slack Burnley pass and lets fire from 25 yards. It swerves in the air but Jensen keeps his eye on the ball, and then his hands.

12 mins: Modric - whom I have backed at 12-1 to be the first scorer tonight - shimmies past his marker with characteristic gracel, but then mucks things up with a sloppy pass.

9 mins: It really is a pleasant spectacle so far. Burnley have certainly not come to cling on for a draw: they are full of offensive intent and passing quickly and adroitly. Spurs are their usual pacey and attack-minded selves, but wayward final balls have let them down so far, principally from Lennon and Croluka down the right.

7 mins: Eagles wriggles past Zokora in the middle and then scampers forward and nutmegs Dawson before Woodgates hurries across to curtail his nifty work. Good defending after some fine attacking.

5 mins: Lennon gets those little legs of his pumping and scurries down the left. Somehow Elliott keeps up with him and puts in a strong tackle to knock the ball out for a corner - which Jensen punches well clear. "I agree that the Defoe thing looks like bad business, but Michael Owen?!" carps Eliot Crowe. "As if Spurs don't have enough perma-injured players! also, that whole thing about managers talking about how much they need new players always seems like a double-edged sword to me. I reckon it demotivates the existing players and gives them a good excuse if they lose."

3 mins: Slick, enterprising stuff from Burnley. With a series of smart first-touch passes they again created space for Eagles, but again the former Manchester United man finished badly. Wayne Rooney would be proud.

2 mins: Nice, pacey, open start to this game, which is being played in a heaving atmosphere. Eagles has just put in the match's first shot, collecting a pass from Elliot and curling the ball well wide from 25 yards.

1 min: We have kick-off. "Is Owen cheap when we can expect him to spend most of the season in the treatment room?" mulls Michael Philip. "I dare say Defoe is not such a bad choice in terms of money as they did get a lot of dosh for a lot of tosh in Keane and Berbatov." But Michael, Spurs don't seem to mind paying players who can only play every now and again, viz: Ledley King.

7:58pm: Two teams are now on the pitch, which is a handy coincidence really becauase 36,000 people have turned up tonight in search of a football match.

7:55pm: Defoe toddles out onto the pitch ironically dressed like Oliver Twist. He receives a hearty welcome from the Spurs faithful.

7:52pm: Note to Peter Lavelle: Sky's camera has just panned to two hardy Burnley fans in White Hart Lane who are chanting their love for their team ... while bare-chested! Everyone else in the ground appears to be sporting several layers of duffell, fleece, wool and what not.

7:49pm: Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks for all your smart-arse emails about certain team-list issues. Shoddy cutting-and-pasting, I'll admit. The line-ups are now intact, I think. Meanwhile, one Peter Lavelle wants attention. "I'm an expat living in New York," bellow Peter. "I see people are worried about -10c weather back in Blighty. Three weeks ago here it was -22C with windchill here and there was nary a complaint from the natives. I had a good moan, mind."

Preamble:
You can be sure that Harry Redknapp will want to win this tie. Not so much because he craves the Carling Cup, but rather because progress to the Final would enable him to continue moaning about how small and ill-equipped his squad is for "battling on all fronts". His customary bleating, as always, has two purposes: to convey the impression that winning so much as a throw-in with such meagre resources makes him a managerial genius; and, of course, to convince his employers to give him lots of lolly and permission to go a-frolicking in the transfer market. Speaking of which, isn't Spurs signing of Jermain Defoe for twice the fee they themselves got for him last year a spectacularly misguided piece of business? Particularly as Defoe was never consistent for Spurs and, say, Michael Owen would have been available for a fraction of the price (and less wages than Newcastle giddily gave him).

*if I had enough money to buy a football club I would not be stupid enough to buy a football club. No, it would be a mansion in the tropics and regular jaunts to space for me.

Tottenham (who, it seems, will be deployed in a 4-4-2, giving Luka Modric another chance to show he has the wherwithal to survive and thrive in the hurly-burly of English football's midfields): Gomes; Corluka, Dawson, Woodgate, Bale; Bentley, Lennon, Zokora, Modric, Pavlyuchenko, Campbell.

Subs: Gunter, Dos Santos, Taarabt, Boetang, O'Hara, Alnwick, Rocha.

Burnley: Jensen; Alexander, Duff, Carlisle, Jordan, Elliott, McCann, Gudjonsson; Eagles, Blake, Paterson.

Subs: Penny, McDonald, Kalvenes, Akinbiyi, Mahon, Rodriguez, A MacDonald

Referee: Yes