Trevor Bayliss has described speculation over Alastair Cooks future as captain as a pain in the backside and insisted that the dressing room is united in its support for him.Cooks future has been called into question since he gave an interview to the Cricketer magazine on the eve of the Bangladesh and India tours in which he said: Deep down I dont know how much longer I am going to carry on. It could be two months, it could be a year.Suspicions he was preparing to step down only escalated after Cook described Joe Root as ready to captain following defeat in the Mumbai Test. That result meant England had lost three Tests in succession, four of their last five and five of their last seven. From a position where England were a result or two from reaching the top of the Test rankings in August, they are now facing the prospect of dropping to fifth if they lose the final Test of the series against India in Chennai.But Bayliss, the England coach, is clearly in no doubt that he wants Cook to continue. Describing Cooks record as fantastic, Bayliss acknowledged that talk of him standing down had become a distraction.I think everyone, to a man, in the dressing room would be disappointed if he wasnt captain, Bayliss said. But when its constantly in the media all the time, its a bit of a pain in the backside. Especially when no one around the team believes that or thinks that. Its a little bit aggravating.I suppose anyone whos done the job for that long, theres always going to be questions towards the twilight of his career. But the job hes done with the group, I think, has been fantastic.Bayliss was especially frustrated as talk over Cooks future had, he felt, detracted from all the good things England have achieved on the tour. And it is true that, while the scoreline is grim, England can take some comfort in the emergence of a couple of promising top-order batsmen, in Keaton Jennings and Haseeb Hameed, and the improvement in Adil Rashids legspin bowling.It takes the focus away from all the good things weve done on this tour, Bayliss said. I think weve played some good cricket here. Weve got to give credit where credits due: weve played good cricket and theyve played even better cricket.Bayliss now plans to speak to Cook and Andrew Strauss, the managing director of the England team, to resolve the uncertainty over the captaincy.Weve had some discussions in the past, he said. But those two guys - Cook and Strauss - have obviously had a big history. Im sure well have a chat between the two or three of us.Bayliss has previously stated that he expected Cook to be captain for the Ashes series in 12 months time. Hes talking about the next Ashes series and being out in Australia, Bayliss told the BBC last week. Sometimes there are little comments made along the way and they get blown out of all proportion.Hes certainly up for the fight. I havent had any discussion with him any other way and thats what weve been working towards. I was as surprised as anyone when I saw that in the papers. Swell Flaske Salg . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Swell Flaske Nettbutikk . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. http://www.swellflaskenorge.com/ .C. -- Manny Malhotra had two goals and an assist, leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Swell Flaske Blå Marmor . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. Swell Flaske Butikk .Y. - Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson has earned NHL first star of the week honours after winning in his first three appearances of the season. DAVIE, Fla. -- Twelve months ago, when the Miami Dolphins lost on the road to fall to 1-3, they fired their coach.Now theyre again 1/3 after another away defeat, which shows their progress. Or lack thereof.The offense still sputters, with the line unable to carve out running room or keep pass rushers off Ryan Tannehill. The defense still gives up too many scoring drives and cant come up with enough big plays.But the coach isnt going anywhere. Adam Gase is still in the honeymoon phase in his first season, and confident he can fix his teams many problems.I dont think were off-course, Gase said Friday. Everybody wants to just, `The sky is falling. Youve got to keep working. Good teams keep working.The Dolphins arent a good team yet, as Thursdays 22-7 loss at Cincinnati showed. They managed only eight first downs, while the defense gave up five scoring drives of 45 yards or more and didnt have a takeaway.Miamis record isnt surprising -- all three losses have been on the road against 2015 playoff teams -- but the mostly dismal performances have been distressing. The lone win was in overtime against lowly Cleveland, which came within a last-second field goal of an upset.I hope everybodys uncomfortable at this point, defensive end Cameron Wake said. You dont want to be in this situation.Gase, a former offensive coordinator and Miamis play caller, is unhappy mostly with the inability to move the ball. But he said his offense also sputtered early in the season in 2015 at Chicago and in 2012 in Denver, when the quarterback was Peyton Manning.Its no fun going through this part of it, Gase said. But the way this offense goes, the longer youre in it, the easier it gets and the faster you can play.Tannehill sounded even less patieent than his coach about the lack of productivity.ddddddddddddIt has gone on too long, Tannehill said. It has to be important to everyone who steps on that field. We have to get it fixed right now.In defense of the Dolphins, they did play without six injured starters at Cincinnati, while Gase benched a seventh, cornerback Byron Maxwell, who didnt get on the field. His replacement, Tony Lippett, struggled A.J. Green , who caught 10 passes for 173 yards and a score.Three-time Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey, who missed the first four games with a hip injury, is expected to return to practice Monday and bolster a line that has been awful. The Bengals sacked Tannehill five times, had seven knockdowns and 10 hurries, and forced him to fumble.Tannehill draws criticism for indecision when the pockets collapsing, and Gase acknowledged theres room for improvement, but added: We need to do a better job of actually blocking guys, too. Everybody wants him to step up. Where?The players are off this weekend and then have four consecutive home games: against Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and the New York Jets, who are a combined 5-7.Gase said hell spend this weekend evaluating the first four games. He wants to pare down a four-running back rotation.Will there be other lineup changes? I dont really foresee anything, but things can change over the next three days, Gase said.Lippett remains a starter for now, he said.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steve-Wine. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/steven-wine ' ' '
