FERDINAND TO RETAIN CAPTAINCY

Fabio Capello is set to announce that Rio Ferdinand will continue as England captain despite his recent injury troubles and the recent success of Steven Gerrard in that role.Ferdinand was handed the armband when John Terry was stripped of the captaincy following the Wayne Bridge saga, but has since been overlooked for the armband at club level due to recurring injury concerns. Gerrard has lead out the team in England’s two impressive victories at the beginning of this Euro2012 campaign and was expected to be handed the roll on a permanent basis ahead of tomorrow night’s game against Montenegro.Betfred make England odds of just 1/4 to continue their impressive start to the qualification campaign with a win. However, Montenegro have three wins from three themselves and will prove to be no pushover at Wembley tomorrow night.In cricket, Australia continue to struggle in their preparations for this winter’s Ashes series. Following defeat in the opening Test match against India the hosts look set to post a big total in response to Australia’s 478 all out in the second Test.Sachin Tendulkar looks set to make a double-century and Murali Vijay achieved his maiden test ton as the Indians took control of the final Test match of the series in Bangalore.Australia remain favourites to regain the Ashes on home soil, but Stan James now make them an 8/11 chance to do so with England available to back at 9/4 and a drawn series at 4/1.Finally, Aiden Grimshaw has made it a quartet of acts at the top of the X-Factor winner’s betting following his impressive performance on Saturday night’s show. He shares favouritism, along with Matt Cardle, One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson, all of whom can be backed at odds of between 4/1 and 5/1.