South Africa is all padded up for IPL and we have witnessed some amazing European football in midweek, but that doesn't mean Fergie and Rafa Benitez have shut up shop! Never mind Andy Flower and the poisoned chalice that is the England coaching job. All this, and more, in the sporting Week in Quotes…

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

"This year I'm sleeping with all of them." — Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan has a queer idea of how to motivate his underperforming team. I know he is Mr Bollywood and a roll in the hay with 'King Khan' is quite an incentive, but surely the players would rather ride their luck on the field?

"I fought my swing all day and just kind of patched it up as I went around. I almost won the tournament with a 'Band-Aid' swing." — All the pre-tournament talk was about 'taming the Tiger' and it is probably a good thing that Tiger Woods didn't return to his dominant form at his first Major back from injury. I don't think it will be long though...

"Not speaking English is a problem. You've always got his interpreter running around the training ground. Sometimes you pass the ball through the middle and he chases it. And the interpreter is running alongside him and he gets in there and heads into the net!" — Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp isn't amused at Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko's linguistic abilities. Those Spurs training sessions must be a hoot though!

A FLOWER AMONGST THE THORNS:

Legendary Zimbabwean wicketkeeper-batsman Andy Flower has been named the new 'team director' of the England cricket team. I can almost guarantee it won't be too long till he is under pressure, but for the moment the players and management seem thrilled with his appointment.

"He brings honesty, integrity and has a clear vision where he wants to take England." — Managing Director of the England team Hugh Morris.

"He's a top man and I look forward to working under him." — Wannabe all-rounder Stuart Broad.

"All the guys have got to know him really well and everybody gets on really well with him. He's great to work with." — Left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom

"Andy is an honest man who knows the game inside out..." — Pundit David Lloyd, himself an ex-England coach.

It seems pretty clear that 'Petals' is a nice, honest guy. How long it takes for the notoriously backhanded English press to get hold of him — only time will tell...

SEASONAL SQUABBLES:

Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benitez have been at it the whole season and neither have missed an opportunity to stick to other — European ties or not.

"Ferguson is always talking about us which shows they are really under pressure. I don't care, but I know he's nervous, so it's good. You can see he's under pressure. I prefer to talk about football, but sometimes you have to hit back." — stated Benitez after beating Blackburn comprehensively to regain the top spot in the Premiership momentarily.

Ferguson didn't miss the opportunity to hit back after his side's nervy win over Sunderland: "The interesting thing as far as Rafa Benitez is concerned is that he's got a European tie (against Chelsea) and he's talking about Alex Ferguson. Fantastic — I didn't know I was that important."

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN:

The Indian Premier League starts on Saturday and the whole country — and the cricket-following world as a whole — is rather excited by cricket's travelling carnival. Well most of them at least...

"If Gavaskar asks me to walk on my head and run the team, I would. Any thing that Gavaskar says that has to do with cricket, if he mentions, should be followed." — Shah Rukh Khan clearly holds Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar's opinions in high regard. Not high enough to change coach John Buchanan's controversial 'multiple captaincy' scheme though, but who knows how much he likes Buchanan?

"The Indian Premier League is nothing but an over-hyped tournament. We have gone overboard with the whole thing." — India's first individual Olympic gold medalist (10m Air Rifle shooting) Abhinav Bindra wants other sports in India to be given more thought. That's all fair and well, but Mr Bindra should know better than most just how big cricket in India is.

"The IPL has been a journey and a half. To put this tournament in place in 20 days flat has been inspirational, to be honest." — South Africa's favourite nice guy (and former RUGBY player), Francois Pienaar, looks ahead to the IPL. (Wonder what Matt Damon thinks?!)


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