TK Strakonice

After a series like this one, I want to get out to Sri Lanka as quickly as possible. Our first of two warm-up games starts on 15 March, but I'd like to have at least 10 days out there before that so I'm ready for the two-Test series that starts on 26 March.

The problem with making a saint of someone is that it can be hard to accept he might be a sinner, too. Somewhere beyond the martyrdom which has engulfed Luis Suarez, there must be space for him to be assessed for what he is – a supremely gifted player with a heart of darkness – without that being read as an accusation that he is predisposed to racial prejudice.

Tiger Woods last night called on the golfing authorities to ban belly putters. His view is bound to cause reverberations across the sport, particularly as the former world No 1 revealed he has been in talks with the Royal and Ancient "for a number of years".

Jack Wilshere is using an ultrasound device in an attempt to aid his recovery from injury. The Arsenal midfielder has not played since picking up a stress fracture on his right ankle during pre-season.

Britain's Anne Keothavong yesterday beat the world No 16, Dominika Cibulkova, 6-4, 6-1 at the Pattaya Open in Thailand.

Stoke City have lost their appeal to the Football Association against the red card that defender Robert Huth received during Saturday's home clash with Sunderland and the player must now serve a three-game ban.

Tony Mowbray is incredulous. "I would never have dreamed of going into Bruce Rioch's office and moaning about this and that," he says. "You just got on with what you were told to do." We are talking about one of his Middlesbrough players, who has a desire to go out on loan. The incredulity soon passes. Mowbray is too affable and engaging for that, as Rioch would testify.

Heart of Midlothian were yesterday threatened with liquidation by HM Revenue & Customs, after failing to pay a tax bill.

Martin O'Neill has suffered for his support of Sunderland. As a youngster it was with the strap, in his increasing years through the expectation that whatever can go wrong eventually will.

The government of Argentina has played an unlikely card in the escalating dispute over the Falkland Islands: re-naming its domestic football league after the General Belgrano, the warship controversially sunk during the last military conflict there.

The Ukrainian organisers of Euro 2012 insist there is ample accommodation on offer for England fans in Donetsk, the city where Fabio Capello's side will play two of their three group games, although they admit that there is a shortage of hotel rooms.

It is a simple, healing phrase and, when the Beatles voiced it, much of a generation was touched. But if Kenny Dalglish wasn't listening then, he certainly isn't now. Let it be. They are not the hardest words, certainly not as tough to utter as sorry, but they are plainly beyond the manager of Liverpool.

Nathan Redmond's career is turning into the most exciting teenage rampage St Andrew's has seen since Trevor Francis plundered four goals in one game when he was still 16. The 17-year-old substitute struck four minutes from time, lifting Birmingham into third place in the Championship and leaving Portsmouth bereft after a battling display that belied fears over the club's very existence.

The Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp's trial for tax evasion will go into a 13th day today, after the jury failed to reach a verdict following three hours and 50 minutes of deliberations yesterday.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, has made his first contribution to the debate on the re-emergence of racism in football, suggesting four days before Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez face each other again at Old Trafford that he does believe the issue is returning to the game.

Fabio Capello, the England manager, will meet the Football Association chairman, David Bernstein, today for talks on the Italian's publically-stated unhappiness over the governing body's decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) believes new research expected before the London Olympics could suggest that as many as one in 10 athletes at international level may be involved in doping. David Howman, the Wada director-general, said that annual drug-testing statistics suggest 1-2 per cent of athletes who are tested are cheating.

The usual currency of the Six Nations Championship – predictable team selections mixed with unpredictable added extras, generally of the disciplinary variety – was turned on its head yesterday. Everyone knew by the end of the opening weekend that Bradley Davies, the Wales lock, would be dragged before the bench to answer for the spectacularly dangerous tackle he inflicted on Donnacha Ryan during his side's compelling victory in Dublin, and he was duly cited yesterday. Meanwhile, the France coach Philippe Saint-André sprang the first major surprise of the tournament by stripping out his winning forward pack ahead of Saturday night's meeting with Ireland.

Just as England's latest contender for a long and productive run in the red-rose back row was revelling in his first taste of international rugby – "Something I'll remember and treasure for the rest of my life," said a star-struck Ben Morgan yesterday, reminiscing about the dozen minutes or so he spent on the pitch at Murrayfield last weekend – one of the Scots who started that game was putting his Test career firmly behind him. Dan Parks, never the most popular outside-half north of the border but occasionally the most effective, will not wear the blue shirt again.

The Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has said that the team owed their manager, Arsène Wenger, a big performance to get their Premier League campaign back on track. Arsenal thumped Blackburn 7-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday – their first league win of 2012 closing the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea to three points.