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Jon's Blog
July 2007 Archive
Tue 31st Jul
England : Batsmen Fail The Test
Whilst by some standards England's third innings was not bad but equally it was not good. Yes Strauss got another 50 but again his match total is not great. Prior may, just, have scored more runs than his execrable clown act behind the stumps cost - indeed his defense of childish insults to opposition players would be droppable if anyone in the selectors and management wanted to set some standards, even low ones.
Yes England lost the toss and had a few poor un's against them when the wicket still had enough for them to restrict India. However today Vaughan was not given earlish plumb LBW. Too many batters got out just when another 30 or 40 would have materially affected the game - the 90s England affliction. It was not as though enough of them made India get them out. Indeed India yesterday afternoon showed bar the umpire and boredom there was not a lot to get people out in this pitch. Indeed at times India gave up and bowled Tendulkar's dreck yet they have only 63 more to win.
We also see the price of picking Vaughan v the West Indies without proving himself as no one bar Owais Shah, knowing he would be dropped, was tried. Strauss is surely still droppable. Prior should be because I don't see him making enough runs against decent bowling to justify his dodgy keeping. Probably the person most likely to go given Strauss has 3x50s in 3 matches is Anderson. On that wicket 33 overs 1/131 is complete dreck and arguably without him England may have a chance of winning - see Brisbane with him and Harmless and Gilo.
With 4 bowlers consistency is more important than being an occasional match winner. Plus Anderson does not have the ability that allowed England to accept total crap on the tour of South Africa from Simon Jones and still play him in the Ashes. With only 3 seamers Anderson is too much a risk.
Moores has to break the cycle of people being hard to get out of the team. Indeed as Anderson at Lords showed and Harmison the inverse in the winter England bowlers need to prove people wrong for motivation. Yes it is horrible and weak but look at the refuelling habits and fitness regimes of player guaranteed a place and tell me I am wrong? I would go to a squad system for all bar Australia, not because of the Ashes but because at present they are the team to build up to beating.
Mon 30th Jul
India : Why They Call It Test Cricket
Hopefully England's bowlers will not lose heart from the reverses of the last 2 days. They have bowled well at times. Sure Anderson still comes across as not having the ability to bowl consistently. However Panesar, Tremlett and Sidebottom persisted with minimal luck. Like at Lords where Vaughan and definitively Strauss piled on runs without actually looking in command this can happen in cricket. The big thing now is on a flattening pitch for England's batters to perform when not on top in a test. Something that is questionable as to whether they have done in a while.
One thing is clear to me, albeit subjective, that this clown Prior does not have a great range in terms of catching or preventing byes. He reacts slowly and his John Burridge diving* means even when he reaches some balls he just speeds them to the boundary. The 2nd innings will be yet another big pressure opportunity for him to get big runs when they are needed. Personally I think he is far too poor a keeper for test cricket and unless we get a world class batting all rounder who can bet in the top 6 he needs to be dropped i.e. any batting surely matters less with 6 front line batters. Andrew Flintoff is surely no longer the threat to bat 6 he was in 04 and 05. That means the main function of the wicket keeper is keeping not being the top up when you play 5.75 batters (ala 5 batters and Flintoff).
* John Burridge a 70s 80s keeper who would make spectacular vertical leaps to save balls he could catch without moving.
One oddity is in his efforts to add value as the great captain, he surely is, Vaughany is using odd fielding positions. The result of which I suspect bowlers are unclear if they are trying to get people out or feed their best strokes to get catches in odd places to prove how great their captain is. OK that is a cheap shot and I have little idea how true it is but hey this is a blog and we blow smoke and sometimes hit targets others are too hero worshipping to even identify.
Sun 29th Jul
Vaughan : Collingwood Does He Have Photos?
Does Paul Collingwood have photos and insists the captain bowl him? We all recall Fletch and Buffoon this winter picking 5 bowlers and using Pietersen and Collingwood. Well Mickey our self styled greatest ever captain bowls Collingwood before Panesar. I can't recall Collingwood's last wicket whereas only lousy umpiring with 2 plumb'ens prevented Monty getting wickets in his first 2 overs. Even with a newish ball Collingwood is not as good as Monty. When Australia use their batters it is almost always as fear inducer before lunch (fear of getting out to rubbish as Robert Key did) or to fill in till the shiny new cherry. Bowling him before trying the man who has been as good as anyone over the last year or so is frankly compete stupidity.
Sun 29th Jul
Armstrong The Ghost Of Tours Past Turns Up
Wow only slightly better than Rasmussen winning we have a Discovery rider winning the tour. Contador is too young to have any suspicious history but the third placed rider Leipheimer is also like Armstrong and Rasmussen associated with the Dr Michele Ferrari - look him up on Wikipedia if you want. You can bet the tour organisers were cheering for Cadel Evans and Contador in that order.
Indeed Levi Leipheimer may have had the time trial of his life today yet the extraordinary becomes the suspicious. This even before the soiled figure of Armstrong turns up to sing along with his former team. Today like Vino last week where, as Wiggins euphemistically, said at the time I think I've done well and then someone beats me 3 minutes. Or as Chris Boardman put it people who he beat 5 minutes could beat him 5 minutes in the middle of the tour.
Look I know Lance Armstrong never failed a test and frankly all his opponents (Vino, Ullrich, Pantani, Hamilton, Landis et al) can say is that he cheated better than they did if he cheated at all. However Armstrong's behaviour and associations did not seem designed to kill all suspision. Like Rasmussen this year he increasingly only really rode to win the tour ignoring other targets and further fostering suspision.
In some way like the Cheltenham Gold Cup The Tour is almost too big. Like the 80s and 90s Gold Cups until recently brilliant horses were ruled out by its demands and a series of limited champions arose - at least now the last 6 winners have been brilliant horses - Best Mate, War of Attrition, Kauto Star and Kicking King. The tour raised cyclists who could time trial and climb mountains into gods. Whereas Merchx and co would have ridden every race the modern Tour winners became specialist tour winners - remote and held in suspicion whether they were guilty or not.
Sun 29th Jul
Drug Cheats Coe Says : Hang Them
Sebastian Coe has been: A paid ambassador of Nike - the company that allows third world workers to work for it for a pittance in horrific condition: Chief Of Staff to William Hague a man who put out a Tory manifesto that tripped the light fantastic on the lines between xenophobia, racism and just plain bigotry: One of the best athletes of my life time. Indeed one wonders if when Coe was meeting the IOC he was explaining the Tories attitude to Johnny Foreigner when his old boss was in charge.
Cheating occurs in every walk of life but when it is in sport people want to end careers, believe you me I do when I see Vino, Landis, Rasmussen and Armstrong. The problem is that people then suggest these kind of things after seemingly considering it without the bile rising. We hear clarion calls of life bans and demonising of people.
Coe now is asking for a 4 year ban with the familiar support of Dick 'Dick' Pound of WADA (World Anti Doping Agency). The point is that Coe is either incredibly virtuous and I totally miss read polictics and/or he is naive or he applies ludicrous high standards to sport that he does not expect in other walks of life. Or his value system is well not in the same universe as mine.
Draconian bans when substances like cocaine are treated as deliberate cheating or the use of this level of testing in team sports which run as a business makes less sense to me - why should anyone be banning division 2 footballers for a joint? What purpose does that serve? By rights under a 4 year ban WADA code Rio Ferdinand would have been banned for 4 years - I don't recall many who would have supported that. The point is when it is ageing cheats defiling their own sport like Rasmussen and Vino no ban can be long enough - indeed they may find no ban matters as they are now poster children for cheating and no sane team manager will want them. When it is David Millar who accepts his guilt and indeed was only caught because he kept the empty needles as a sign of shame it would seem punitive (indeed for any other national federation at the time Millar gets 1 year not 2).
To be honest I am happy to go further in one respect to accept without a test result what many did and got away with. If people want to hang around with Dr Michele Ferrari like Leipheimer, Armstrong and Rasmussen they should not be allowed to compete - cycling is all about athleticism and it is clear not even the Peleton believe in the tour leaders. I believe that cycling as a sport needs to make the ability to ride to be based on showing you are clean. The sport, like Athletics, has no other options. This is of course possible to bring in in a sport that mainly takes place in Europe. For other sports like athletics the problem of the US courts and constitution not to mention 3rd world compliance makes cleaning sport up very difficult. Also unlike cycling sponsors and money may not be the force they will surely become in cycling when Rasmussen next tries to get a job.
To sum up I am not arguing against drug testing or even for lighter punishments. I do react to the almost total fascism of it all and the failure of its proponents to accept that extending athletic style testing to chess, golf and even premiership football, never mind championship, is using murder sentences for assault in some cases.
My point is not to damn Coe just to point out that he has represented things in my opinion as bad as and worse than cheating at sport. Just as Barry Bonds might be a wanker with no redeeming features but he never fixed a game and he did not kill any dogies!
Cheat is getting like racist where the tag equates the bigotry and unconscious thought that some groups of people are better suited to some things than others with the out right loathing of people of a different race. Ron Atkinson is a racist as are the Klu Klux Klan. Equating and ignoring moral relativism makes life easy for the simpleton but it is no more justice than a light punishment.
Sat 28th Jul
Swinging Ball Racism
OK OK it is small 'r' racism, mere bigotry in fact. However when the West Indies were over here we heard reams of bullshit about how they were unable to play the swinging ball - flat home pitches etc etc. Well India have turned up with some young thrusting seamers and England cannot either. Memo to commentators a moving ball misses bats and gets people out who ever is bowling or batting.
This is not quite the racist suggestion of the early 80s that black people were genetically better suited to fast bowling due to thigh length - yeah Donald, Khan, Lee, Shoaib, Wasim, Harmison, Flintoff etc all wasted their time trying to bowl fast - completely blew their careers. Nearly as big a waste of a career as Roger Clemens being a power pitcher in the American League when the National league was the fast ball league.
In some ways despite him being a favourite player I am probably one of the damn critics where John Terry is concerned. I certainly do not see how you can pick him for England and then play 442 with no height up front - stretched pitch because he defends deep and has no pace, hence whilst all England defenders stay deep he has to and it cannot be coached out of him.
Added to that Chelsea and the league's top salaried player is coming off his worst season and his body was breaking down to boot. OK it looks like Jose will go back to the 433 with Essien in front however that hardly makes Terry really valuable or essential. He will be covered by 20 million Ricardo Carvalho and 24 million Essien no wonder he will look better, Essien may even be a step up the Makelele of 2 and 23 years ago. In addition behind is the most valuable player in the world for me the surely destined to be an all time great Petr Cech. The point is Terry is surely being paid as a symbol of the club and leader. There must be doubts with his physical problems and 100% commitment that he will play 50+ games a year for 5 years his salary demands.
At least it makes more sense than giving the more valuable Lampard a 4 or 5 year deal at the same money (and that makes more sense than anything else Chelsea do these days). Make no mistake I was that hard core who don't understand why England play 442 and Terry, Gerrard, Owen and Beckham when they had Lampard. The only reason now is Frank plays too many games and maybe at 29 England should look elsewhere. However whilst the more reliable than a Rolex Lampard came out on the pitch 68 times for club and country last year he was not the same player come season end - albeit late in extra time in the cup final who fed the Drog for the climax?
Thu 26th Jul
Tour Leader Rasmussen Low Life Scum
Doper moi? Of course says Razzie it is all a misunderstanding. However his team's lawyer knows he is bang to rights morally and starts the campaign to protect him by trying 'the Danes have no right to check up on him as he is registered in countries that do not dope test'. You'd be a dope to believe a word Razzo says after Rabobank's own lawyer chose the legalistic defense preparation for his client. Rabobank clearly know what is going on and what they have been up to.
If, as he says, Rasmussen does love the sport he will of course withdraw and spend a year with regular published blood tests, say weekly, before coming back to win next year. He clearly does not mean a word he says - just ask his team's lawyer.
Like a dodgy ship registed in Liberia Rassie hides in Mexico and Monaco who for some reason never test anyone. Rather than love the sport these false heroes are killing it.
Wed 25th Jul
Infamy is Vino's Reward
The news that Alexandre Vinokourov failed a drugs test is a shocker although his Landis like return yesterday did not have the anything other than a queasy effect on me. Indeed although they got caught Landis and Vino have showed that cheating is not just taking things in advance but a fine tuning daily event despite the scrutiny and the drug testing. Indeed what must be dispiriting for clean cyclists is that looking at Vino go from god to complete chump to god in 3 days shows how good some of these products must be.
David Millar is no stranger to the 2 year ban but at least he held his hands up and said I soiled the sport. As he said of Rasmussen if he is innocent he has shown a shocking disregard for the sport. You'd think any clean cyclist would be going out of his way to prove he was clean.
It all shows sportsmen and women are always professing love for their sport, country and club but even the clean ones don't mean it. For the vast majority of sports people are self centred obsessives who have been cosseted. Maybe that is melo dramatic but the Tour de France should have its theme song as "No More Heroes Anymore".
Tue 24th Jul
Moral Hazard Of Managers
Last year both Chelsea and Man United ran out of defenders at a crucial time. However their main players also got very tired chasing multiple trophies in a league where the ball is often in play 75 minutes a game. It is understandable that their managers would hang on to players then.
However in the case of Arjen Robben surely only fear prevents the sale of a weak man and personality. Yes on a good day he is great but Chelsea won plenty of games without him. I contend his inability to play when anything but 100% fit and his ability to get injured overall make him a liability. Surely getting their money back and letting Madrid have this cancer would not be the worst thing in the world. Indeed their failure to sell Duff for more money to Liverpool looks amazingly bad business in that they must have known how bad a player he had become.
Quite why United offered the chance to get a large fee for a full back back like Heinze is beyond me. It took an amazing run of injuries to reduce United to a skeleton crew and frankly the team tired as much as anything to cost them against Milan. Given they could sell Heinze and Richardson for the thick end of 13 million and get a promising player or even a centre half instead. They have O'Shea, Silvestre and Evra who can cover the position. Heinze is 29 and a poor contract for Liverpool to take on. He is not even their first choice. He has missed a lot of games injured and someone thinking from a club PoV surely sells.
In the end top managers know they have the power, given the paucity of options, to keep players and hoard them. They also can then survive anything but the Tsunami United faced last year in terms of having name players. However if the worst happens filling in with ageing players on high wages and no motivation may not be the best way anyway. Also Chelsea found losing two top cats for months in 1 game sometimes it is not meant to be.
It will be interesting with a Billionaire chairman if Allardyce now plays the hoarder or as much he can with Shepherd's half price leaving clauses.
Tue 24th Jul
Rasmussen Allegations Kill Tour Joy
The allegations against Michael Rasmussen and the missed tests will hopefully be the end of any innocence and cause the authorities to start chase suspicious behaviour even harder. Unlike golf the taking of EPO and other blood doping products is the most important in cycling - this is not a game like golf. Athletics and Cycling will always be, as pure physical sports, be the ones that have to remain vigilant on doping. It is an open can of worms and the public will not stand for fudge.
The real shame is with no dominent rider or team this was shaping up to be a great tour. However now by far the most likely winner is a soiled character. Even if Contador breaks Rasmussen he will need 2 more minutes and then to beat Rasmussen as far as he did in the last time trial. Needless to say most nuetrals now favour that scenario.
Mon 23rd Jul
KP - Nearly Perfect
Oh KP how good are you? He fought his way past troublesome bowling and then as the wicket got lower and slower he cashed in and took the game, seemingly, away from India - then the normally secure Taufel gave a questionable one on Dravid to make it very difficult.
If only KP could bat with the tail! 5th ball of over he pushes a 3 and takes 2... So single off the last? No massive mow and miss. Next over Sidebottom is out. Indeed as in the one days seemingly when he tries to slog now KP finds it harder to score than when he plays cricket shots. This is marginal criticism of a Brit who is not yet drunk on hubris and negativity about proving people wrong. Albeit if Prior had not made half an attempt to prove me wrong with a solid 40 KP would have got a lot less judged on this.
As to Prior I still get the impression he allows more byes than a Jones or a Reid would and 40 runs is nothing those two could not manage. My jury is still out.
Mon 23rd Jul
Open : Choked Up Over Euro Triumph
Wow did the Open tell you all you need to know about why top European golfers struggle to win majors. Gifted a 3 shot lead with 5 and 4 to play Garcia and Harrington played "after you" "no after you" "no after you" "no I insist" It was amazing. This was not 2 middle ranking pros like Van der Velde throwing it away but 2 of our best, if not our best. You can see how easy the Ryder Cup is where you only have one opponent to beat and the match play format - where you could until last year play underdog.
Carnoustie for the 2nd time left 2 Europeans in a play off and had Romero not gone 65 it would have had one outsider as last time. As it was 6 by Harrington and 5 by Garcia meant it went to a play off. Harrington having played to lay up with a 2 shot lead hit an atrocious 3rd to make it down to the wire even in the play off - when he must have felt he was playing with house money to be in this position after twice being in the water on the 72nd hole.
Even now one to ponder is this in the last 32 majors Europe has matched Michael Campbell, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Angel Cabrera and is behind Fiji/Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.
The next Ryder Cup I feel, having been premature last time, will be harder as: they will be favourites: Azinger as captain will not allow the love in: the Darren Clarke thing will surely not be there to take the competitive edge off: and hopefully a few Euros will follow up Padraig Harrington and win a major and make them the ones with something to lose. The last being wishful thinking on today's evidence.
The fact is when Campbell, Romero and Cabrera who they have played for years are challenging is it not about time more better Euros were putting themselves in position to win? Credit to Garcia and Harrington, despite their horrible finish, for at least putting themselves up there - as hard as it is that is the first step to winning. Even so has any major winner played the last hole par 4 hole in 46465 to win a major?
In the end for all the frippery golf is an individual sport and the pinnacle is the 4 majors, not a team exhibition. Hopefully the likeable and able Harrington can use this to spring board to being a regular top performer when it really counts. Hopefully Garcia will take this experience of leading for most of 4 days and use it as motivation. Hopefully Casey, Donald, Rose and others will aspire to more. Hopefully.
Mon 23rd Jul
Drug Testing In Golf : WADA Load Of Bollocks
To middle class journalists there is not bigger issue in sports than drug testing. Like paedophiles it is an issue they feel they can demand more and more intrusive and fascistic laws because no one dares be seen speaking in favour of doping bar the desperate and the pathetic. However increasingly we see more and more people banned for next to nothing. For legal things we might take almost every day. Added to that in most sports like Golf where skill is more the order of the day few are caught taking anything deliberately performance enhancing.
Increasingly the goal of this is mired. It seems more in premiership football to ensure the players stay within the laughably inconsistent and muddled national laws - you know the ones that allow us to drink, drive and smoke ourselves to death but outlaw, say, the relatively harmless ecstacy in a class with cocaine and heroin (source The Academy of Medical Sciences).
Now they want to have golfers peeing in cups and subject to the ridiculous bureaucracy, not to mention expense, of testing and notifying of where people are at all times. Even in UK football there has only been one proper performance enhancing fully guilty cheat, unless you take the laughable view that those taking cocaine were somehow improving their performance. Even that case has had Man United fans whining and complaining when I even suggest that Rio Ferdinand was bang to rights. Indeed to show possibly chronic and thankfully only just non fatal naivety most people probably accept at worse Rio had something other than EPO/anabolic steroids in his system. Indeed so poor were the methods his I forgot was actually possible - the crack about meeting his friend Eyal Berkovic being the hard part for people to believe - Berkovic who was once kicked in the head by 'gentle' John Hartson and no one came to his aid.
Chess now ridiculously has signed up to WADA for reasons of funding and stupidity. Golf if it does not need public money and has no wish to be an Olympic sport should surely resist the small minded cretinous calls of the likes of Dick Pound. Sure there could be a scandel but as the FA have found newspapers have an interest in these stories and the media pressure is self serving nonsense.
If Golf is to do it I would suggest they say piss off to WADA and introduce the odd random test at the odd big tournament. Anything else assumes a problem and just sets you up for more scandels than not doing it. I would also argue they only really look for genuine performance enhancing drugs rather than create a rod for their own back.
Personally I see the journalistic obsession with drug testing as weak little people with no talent wanting to feel better than other people - like criminals pointing at the nonces. Honestly drug cheats attract more opprobrium than anything. Like sports should somehow be a sacrosanct part of life where people don't use every trick to get on in life....
Last weekend and week for the sports geek was terrible. Barely any sport and reduced to resisting wasting breath on David Beckham. This weekend Test v India, Open Golf, Tour de France crucial time trial and first day in the Pyrennes and a Grand Prix.
Sat 21st Jul
England Bowl Em : Prior Probation Surely?
Well after years of pissing in the wind those of us who advocated bowlers bowling are laughing. Sidebottom, Anderson and Tremlett bowled well after coming in as 2nd choices whilst all the cossetted Fletcher men are, as usual, injured. It also makes the TWSI point Ebngland can go to a squad system with the bowling at least. With so much international cricket players need a break from the focussed demands of it. The best way to do this is planned rest periods - play for their counties and relax even. As we can see in the summer England have a plethora of English seamers for English conditions so no time better.
A side caveat here it would not need much more success and it will be hard objectively, in a world based on merit not celebrity, to justify bringing back as a first choice rather than alternate when others are resting the likes of Harmison. At his best or on the right wickets hard to argue against but overall his bowling has been mixed and his behaviour a pathetic cuntery frankly. He is essentially harmless and not nasty but when you consider all the effort put into him getting over a minor injury 9 months ago. Then last test v West Indies he comes to the party on the last day, with people saying he is back to his best, and gets an ordinary 4/170. That was after being handed a confidence booster on a wicket especially for him at Old Trafford and getting 6/148 - barely par frankly.
Additionally if, as we must, we go with 6 batters then the only route back in a world based on merit for Flintoff is to prove he can bowl 20 overs a day. Luckily for 'Fred' Graveney treats him like his child and calls him 'Fred' and who would drop a pathetic loveable clown named after Fred Flintstone.
With the keeping I fear we are in Geraint Jones territory again... The first time I would not have dropped Jones they did. Jones became a top class cat, to my eye, and I would bet, no one bizarrely keeps figures, he even had a better range, got to more catches and balls, than Reid. Now like Jones Prior got off to a good start on a nice strip and with the added bonus of a truck load of runs already on the board. However Prior is at present a liability behind the stumps, buffoon even, and has yet to show he can get consistent runs against anything approaching a decent attack. On first class batting form Reid, Jones and a host of keepers are similar. Prior does not yet say to me there is a reason, especially with 6 batters, not to have the best cat. After all he has 50 Jaffer runs on him in this match. Indeed when they throw the loveable clown back in the team he'll bat 8 and that means wicket keeper runs are less necessary.
Sat 21st Jul
Test Cricket - Fuddy Duddy Moi?
Today like most old grouch's I could whine about adults reading children's books and everything to do with Harry Potter.... However as this is a sports blog I'll lay off.... I'll show my age in another way... OK I was at Lords Thurs and despite the criminal over rate and modest summer temperatures we now have the drinks break enshrined in the session, why? 5 more minutes out of the play each session.
Another facet of modern test cricket that bugs me is why teams allow 4 easy runs through the slips? Tendulkar, according to our Indian correspondent, cannot catch up with a fast ball... To use another baseball call he is chasing out of the zone and is an easier bat to miss. Again like India with Strauss England have mid on and mid off yet no runs go through there and not many catches get to them. Yes it is a nice place for the captain to stand but say conservatively 15 4s go through 3rd man area that would save conservatively 35 runs. It would also force the batter to play straight bat shots forward of the wicket against the seaming ball. I just don't get it... Bah Hum bug. Against young in form batsmen who attack the ball maybe you leave it clear but against ageing, limited and out of form pros surely you make them drive for boundaries?
Fri 20th Jul
Mido : 6 Meeellion You Sure?
Last year TWSI suggested that for the price of Carrick quoted, 18 million or so plus bungs, you could apparently get Barton, Mido, Bellamy and Nolan. Well Bellamy and Barton disgraced themselves and the game and became worth more! Nolan looks increasingly large and like a player without a position. Mido skulked in the reserves with concerns over fitness as Berbatov reduced his terrific 05/06 season to a faint memory.
Of course the stupid money that sees teams swapping malcontents and favourites to and from the same teams has seen the stated value of Bellamy and Barton rise significantly. Now even Mido who could have been got for 3 million in January is 6 million. Of course as his transfer was cancelled in January like Barton going from 5.5 million to 5.8 million one wonders if Mido's behaviour is pocketing him the rest as buy off fee.
What we can say is that lots of people (players, agents, manager's swiss account etc) who may not seemingly deserve it are bathing in money at the moment. Bent, Reo-Coker, Bellamy, Chopra, Richardson, Nugent and Mido will not be the last "Really" transfers of this summer.
If Mido does his best make no mistake there are few better big strikers than he was in 05/06 alongside the under rated Robbie Keane. Certainly only The Drog and Berbatov I would say were definitively better last 2 years. Look what has been paid for the unproven Nugent one year off a free. Of what Liverpool have spent trying to get 1 all round big man with Crouch, Kuyt and now Torres. Then again as with Barton and Bellamy maybe Birmingham think they can off load the head case for more money next year if it does not work out - I would not bet on that mind.
For fans of decent dignified players with seemingly the right attitude will have enjoyed Andrew Strauss 96 which may have seemed like a boon to a flagging career. Short term it is of course. However watching at the ground that positive spin is all there is. He scored 64 of his 96 from boundaries punishing width and bounce. However the nagging thought as one watched him become becalmed for periods was he has been found out. He does seem to lack the shots to get the ball away when not provided with width and height - cross batted shots. There are batters who just can never get 96 in test cricket however many times dropped.
I just wonder if the direction overall is still down for Strauss. He is already out of the one day team. Personally I hope he gets a shot of confidence and moves but to me he was fooling no one who cared to look hard.
Jose Mourinho was talking about playing with 2 wingers and saying there was one less player needed inside. Intriguingly was this 442 or 433.... Will he select as though the Balls and Sheva nightmare never happened and Chelsea merely be paying 12 million a year to 2 literal fat lumps of dead weight. Does it mean Robben will once again be forgiven his increasingly endless acts of tossery? I suspect it means 4321 and hope it means a return to the more attacking play of 04 to 06. Taken with Manchester United's increasing pursuit of attacking players to challenge and push their squad forward, especially young Wayne, we could be in for some good football.
Unfortunately outside the top 3 recycling seems more in vogue. Quite what Villa fans think of raiding West Ham for Harewood and Reo Coker I don't know. Newcastle have loaded up with players from similar/lower clubs last year. Spurs changed their 3rd striker and left lots of full back options with Bale and Kalouda. Millions of pounds change hands for players of little pedigree like Richardson and Chopra to Sunderland. Little makes sense as the domestic player pool seems moribund. Indeed it gives lie to cretinous views of local talent being choked off when one considers Villa have flashed the thick end of 20 million for Ashley Young and Nigel Reo Coker...
Wed 18th Jul
West Ham Stealing Tevez?
There seems to be a glimmer of light in the Tevez thing as apparently the lawyers for the premier league reckoned the agreement for economic rights with MSI is valueless. Which maybe means West Ham got something for nothing.
What is clear is that as with Howard not appearing against United and 2nd teams fielded by United against the Hammers the premiership does not care if its rules are followed in spirit or subject to a lucky legal break. As the On Digital thing showed it is one thing to get lawyers, who will make money, to tell you you have a good case another to win it.
I am quite interested in what Tevez mostly ordinary first season at West Ham makes him worth. Another point given Tevez is hoped to be Rooney but a better 0-0 player, one assumes, if United truly want to pay a massive fee when they probably liked a 1 or 2 try before you buy or Rooney grows up loan. I personally am not one dimensional about stats and performance but turn 7 goals and 3 assists and 26 games played into more than 5 stretch 10 million and hope he settles next year into the 30 million quoted and I'll believe it when I see it. As with other pros the publicity is good for Tevez value it just remains to be seen who benefits.
Sun 15th July
Pietersen Shouted Down : Harmison Injured
Kevin Pietersen gave an honest answer to an honest question he said his form was suffering from fatique and exhaustion. I would surmise much of that is mental from the treadmill of cricket the ECB's vast money making edifice needs to continue to pay injured players central contracts. What KP found out was ex players and current players paid by newspapers do not say nice things about more talented and honest players than themselves. That all the media sessions are run in the hope of you telling the truth so little people can mock you.
This is a press core who were quite qualified in their critique of the clown's culture of England this winter. They said nothing until their boy Fred's pedalo incident handed them easy stories. That stayed quiet when supposedly England's key player's comeback from injury appeared to feature appearing at as many televised events the worse for wear as he could. The press they would rather laud the ones who don't stay fit and act like children. What that says about the UK is not for me to say.
There is a serious point mind for cricket. When people need operations like Harmison don't delay them, do them. When you rest people rest everyone, even the best for 4 to 6 weeks two or three times a year even (especially?) if it means them missing some international cricket. Prioritise. Whilst it was lovely for a few players averages did we need to have our best players slug through 4 tests and 5 one days with the West Indies before July after a winter with 3 tours? Champions Trophy massive 5 test 10 one day Ashes tour and World Cup?
And finally this is another boot in the nuts about the Trescothick bigots. Guess what Harmison and Vaughan may be injured again.... Yeah but we cannot have someone who has been depressed they might drop out! Nonsense.
Fri 13th July
Trescothick : Vile Stupidity
We assumes that Marcus Trescothick has suffered from depression and regrets he refers to his illness as a "stress related illness". Notwithstanding his reaffirming a moronic prejudice that equates depression with being unhappy as though the two were anymore related than a paper cut is with the Guillotine. Nonetheless the absurd suggestion England should exclude him from a list of 30 for a tournament in September beggers belief - especially considering how woeful we are.
Indeed the best [re]introduction for anyone to international cricket is surely a bit of competitive banging that is twenty20. He is no more likley to break down than Vaughan's knee or Flintoff's ankle. Indeed if his problems re-occur he will not play rather than play half fit and kill the team.
It is unbelieveable to me in a country that so indulges the drunken clownery of the persistently injured Flintoff suddenly develops a shocking confabulating problem mentality to mental illnesses. People get depressed whether they have money or not. At least unlike the injuries of other players it is generally linked with pusghing yourself too hard and demanding too much of yourself unlike some players 'injuries'.
The other angle I take from this story and all the talk of Borg the other day is that we judge exterior too much. We see some people are emotional and others are not. Yet those like Borg and Trescothick are not necessarily steely behind their steely eyes. We should concentrate more on objective analysis of sports and less on the outward demonstrations.
In conclusion depression happens to lots of people in all walks of life. Most get past it even with the odd relapse. After England's recent performances we should be happy that there is even a chance a top order banger might be available.
Whilst one can go and read about Ken Bates to be honest ones judgement of him is easy to make by looking and listening to the stream of self important self righteous drivel he speaks. There is something about football that attracts this kind of garbage like moths to a flame. Brown formerly of West Ham and Dein formerly of Arsenal are sure to pop up soon with their brand of cuntery somewhere.
However there is no line to draw given Abramovich was allowed to be a part of the leagues. At least Roman Abramovich stays quiet and out of it unlike Bates.
Wed 11th July
West Ham In Trouble? Surely?
West Ham's decision to play Carlos Tevez after the fine now looks one that has a chance of huge reward, albeit the risks are ridiculous. If they can get the money for Tevez they will be paid for a player they did not even buy. Of course the opposite is that if their legal agreement they claim to have ripped up is upheld a body with any regard for the integrity of the game will re-charge them for playing Tevez for the final 3 games and as a willful 2nd offence they should be lucky to stay in the Championship. Of course the fact that Scudamore and co are conniving with them to make their view of history correct shows Wednesday have as much chance of justice as Man United playing their best team against West Ham on the last day of the season.
Frankly this whole mess even if West Ham can duck it with legal semantics is caused because for convenience they chose to play Tevez for 3 matches. the league acquiesced on the surely spurious grounds they could just rip up a legal agreement! It is hard to tell what is worse for football West Ham winning or losing. All that can be said now is the Premier League's slowness to act, its willingness to allow Maschareno's ridiculous move to Liverpool, the failure of the panel to drop West Ham enough points to relegate them and the failure of the appeals panel to rule that the original Tevez decision was a joke have led us to here. Indeed without being a lawyer it seems clear if the High Court upholds Tevez's leash holders right West Ham have willfully committed a 2nd offense and a points deduction would come with the rider if they are lucky. Of course we are talking about the premier league who will be very reluctant to do anything as they are yet another craven un-principled bunch of lackeys of the big clubs.
Tue 10th July
Gallas : Bandwagon Jumper
William Gallas apparently did not go to Arsenal to challenge for 3rd. Well no, he went there for the money as we all know. He should also be grateful as most think Arsenal will challenging for 4th.
Mon 9th July
Roger The Greater : Thanks To Nadal
It is an oddity of a tennis career that being too good is not what you need to be... To win tight hard games you maybe should win nicely is the way to headlines. An epic defines you. Borg would have an epic every year against even p1ss poor players like Victor Amaya. In some ways till Sunday Federer's progress to the promised land appeared to have been so uneventful that people barely could remember a game he struggled in.
What is interesting is that most problems came from two opponents who have taken sets off him before at Wimbledon Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero. Given Nadal's struggles and the clay profile of 2003 French winner Ferrero it maybe shows that Fed struggles with people who sit deep and retrieve. They certainly would not be the first choices to make Fed struggle on grass. This of course may also show why you don't see many serve volleyers in the 2nd week at Wimbledon anymore. It also maybe is just indicative that the one thing Federer lacks is the free points of a Sampras service.
What is intruiging for me is that Nadal is barely 21 and whilst not an all court threat has an almost Borg profile in doing best at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. You can see why he breaks Federer heart on clay. Even at Wimbledon it sometimes seems as though you have to win every point twice. In terms of him ever being as dominant as Federer in the future whilst he seems to have been around for ever he is barely 21 and is younger than when Federer won his first grand slam tournament.
Nadal is also according to Nick Bollettieri he is one of 7 21 to 23 year olds stepping up. He has also only reached the quarters at the other 2 grand slams. So whilst it is no gimme he will become the next no 1 it may be a few years before anyone challenges him in France. Indeed on the rate of progress of the last 2 finals he has got closer to Federer at Wimbledon. Roll on next year.
Sun 8th July
Rugby Sky : Treadmill Brings Money Short Term
Better Sport?
Before I start I confess that Sky irks me with its ignorant coverage of football. With its continual use of soiled ex-managers as pundits. Its choice of ex-footballers as pundits who can barely tell who is trying to score in which end never mind what day of the week it is. I also see the problems for sports as more long term than now. Administrators in sports act like a loss of revenue will kill the sport at all levels which is palpable nonsense. How many football clubs have disappeared because of bankruptcy? For instance if English cricket went bankrupt what would stop over night? club game? No! County game? No. Massive wages for players? Probably. No more cricket fans over night? No. Bankrupt organisations don't kill sports - the ICC shows moral banruptcy does not. Of course no sport can give up the heroin over night or volunteer to which is the problem, it is a super tanker to turn round until Sky cut the umbilical cord themselves (niced mixed metaphors!).
If you were to criticise Sky over their destruction of meaningful sport you'd always get the example of the premiership thrown in your face. Of course this is not a sport Sky can actually own. Yes revenue would fall off but Football has alternative broadcasters and would be commercial suicide for Sky to lose. Yes like other sports rules and discipline have been forgotten in the orgy of money but Football does not need Sky and with its Setanta and foreign earnings rising and stadium rising income it could call the shots more - with better leadership (see West Ham).
Fans of cricket facing up to packed schedules of meaningless international games in the name of revenue may wonder where the current Sky deal leads. Well as the sport and its wages get hooked on the drug another Sky deal and maybe not for ever more money as the sport disappears more and more from the mainstream over the next 20 years. Whilst the revenue grabbing happened in this country more recently look at what happened abroad: a constant diet of lousy meaningless one day games: test cricket watched by 5 people: corruption is widespread as players react to the money the corrupt "leaders" have earned: the complete lack of care who wins most cricket games - see world cup games without Australia and Sri Lanka: the casual way a dictator backed federation ends an umpires career for making a decision he was entitled to make and allowed to just let off its drug cheats.
Seriously the West Indies just beat England in an ODI series, too bad never mind. You try telling a fringe player not to take money not to score runs.... or bowl wides in games with that much emotionally attached to them. Cricket and especially twenty20 is becoming the ultimate drinking backdrop and nothing more.
Recent test series like the one played between the West Indies and England was played in relatively cold weather and it was hard to discern any intensity in much of the play outside Monty Panesar's 'appealling' play. Imagine an England team 25 years ago against anyone on then relatively low wages, that led many to soil themselves in South Africa, playing in such timid games against anyone.
This winter in Rugby Union has seen abortive tours by England to South Africa: A Super 14 tournament played without the best New Zealand players for a period: A Tri-Nations test between a 2nd tier South African team and Australia. All because of TV arrangements that have English rugby hooked on playing innumerable competitions of varying validity. Deciding the best team in toss of a coin grand finals. A schedule determined in a contract that year on year makes no allowance for anything. Like Paulie in the Goodfellas good week bad week pay me until the leech sucks you dry and moves on. Yes it is a world cup year but England teams have this problem every year with no sign of change.
Even a relative, I am told but don't actually believe it, success like Superleague has seen the international game reduced to a farce as so called 3rd best nation Great Britain teams travel abroad and many players treat other countries as one long bar from beginning to end. Discipline as the recent premiership season in football shows disappears as the power of TV and money matters more and TV does not care if player bet on the opposition or is correctly registered. See the woeful slap on the wrist Sean Long and Martin Gleason got in 2004. Bet on the opposition, banned for life right? 5 years surely? 3 and 4 months.... If that is a serious sport I am a Frenchman.
It will be interesting how any of the sports fare during what is hopefully a long way off recession. There is a tendency to forget revenues do go back and interest does ebb and flow. Some already seem in trouble and whilst Rugby Union and League does benefit from brilliant coverage on Sky one cannot say the same about cricket and the boys club of ex England captains with their mates.
Sun 8th July
ODI Ask Me Next Year
England's ODI team failed to beat the West Indies and when they lost they lost badly. I don't think 3 is a big enough sample although taken with the world cup we can say that England cannot seem to build or chase down big totals. They tend to start slowly and collapse trying to accelarate. It maybe they don't have the batters or it maybe one of those short term things. On the bowling the great Alan Donald miracle took 2 games to fade.... There are no panaceas and turning points just hard work and the long haul I am afraid.
The times England win generally speaking they get early wickets. The bowlers seemed to take it in turns to be hero and goat with Anderson and Broad role reversing in the last 2 matches. The only real point is that Shine, Donald, Moores, Collingwood and uncle Tom Cobley the time to build something. As usual TWSI just hopes they are working to an ethos and a game plan and not falling into the random pointlessness of just hoping it goes right.
Sat 7th July
Nugent Player Power
Darren Bent started it turning down West Ham for Spurs and less money and maybe costing Charlton a few bob. Now Nugent is threatening to force a move to Everton from Preston for less than Sunderland and Portsmouth offered. With the young and physical Anichebe and Vaughan to compliment the speedy Johnson and Arteta's delivery with Cahill's late arriving no wonder Everton are a team to join. Cahill and Arteta are committed for a few years after recently signing contracts. Oh and Nugent would not have to leave home.... One hopes that is not his reason....
Sat 7th July
Bartoli No Evidence Of Competitiveness
Defenders of the women's game might say that Marion Bartoli's appearence in a women's final is somehow proof of a more competitive game than I implied this week when calling for a last 16 with an enhanced qualifying. Well no frankly. Whilst I have no wish to tell women what shape they ought to be I can say that bartoli is hardly in shape. This for me makes my other point that a poor player like Sharapova who would be no match for a fit Williams (either) is no 2. That if the gap between the 1st and 2nd tier has closed it is not because the 2nd tier have got better. The third tier still is often poor players and completely unfit.
If Bartoli beats Venus well done as I like women are are so shaped but don't tell me it means anything positive for the game.
Fri 6th July
Carlos Tevez To United - Lawyers to Make More Money
Some things are unusual in Carlos Tevez "loan" move to Manchester United a) United will be getting him cheap without fee b) Lawyers will earn a lot of money trying to square this with Premier League rules c) West Ham will say or do anything but behave with a vestige of honour d) Tevez regardless of the semantics was never their player and he should not have played for them from when the new owners were aware of this e) West Ham will be unlikely to get any money for their player. Some things are common Premier League executives look like a bunch of powerless little minions being highly paid to do what they are told.
As said 100 times before whilst the money continues to roll in and foreign punters continue to spend fortunes buying clubs that are as businesses often worthless then issues will not be tackled. A list of some of last season's transgressions and game soiling themes is listed below:-
In the end the right team won the championship and in footballing terms the right teams were probably relegated with Wigan maybe lucky. However how long before graft, expediency and corruption embarrass the league? Baseball and steroids come to mind - chickens do come home to roost eventually although whether it affects a sport maybe only Italian football could answer yes to that. Maybe the fans don't care enough and will continue to roll in. Who knows?
Thu 5th July
West Ham - More Carlos Tevez Lies?
According to the Telegraph - "It is understood his future has been discussed in talks between United, Tevez's owner, businessman Kia Joorabchian, as well as representatives from his former Brazilian club Corinthians."
If this is true it means that a third party still has control over a West Ham player. It also means their claim to have ended this control was a lie, or at best their legal opinion they could rip up an agreement. What this says is that even after their sanction they continued to blithely ignore the rules. The penalty the Premiership has now determined should have been docked points, effective relegation. To do it twice implies a much more swinging punishment than the original that their own arbitration panel deemed absurd but not perverse enough to over rule.
This says they continued to play a player who was under the control of a 3rd party - they are merely Tevez registration holder. Any other position, than relegation and at least a doubling of the fine, makes absolutely no sense - or else all premier league rules can be considered null and void like the one about putting out a competitive side Man United abused to allow West Ham to stay up.
Of course one hopes they sell Tevez and they get the money but one doubts that they could so easily break an agreement. Given that this breach if confirmed was by the current owners cynically in plain sight it is hard to hold the line at the simplistic view they deserve only 1 relegation and a meaty fine.
Richard Scudamore and co will sit there waiting for this to go away. They will wail at the temerity of some clubs and journalists to demand they actually enforce their own rules like they actually believe they should be adhered to.
Whilst TV companies fall over themselves to throw more money at the Premiership Scudamore and co will get praise from the illiterate about "what a great job they are doing" and be bona fide teflon. Nothing will change imminently.
Thu 5th July
England Rugby - Just Bizarre
The sight of England rugby players training in Madelaine McCann T Shirts was just plain bizarre. I sort of know what is wrong with this bizarre behaviour but don't quite have the words, also the accuracy of language, required not to make it sound nasty rather than just bizarre. All I can say is that a) it is not helping to find the missing child b) the type of sentimentality hardly making any sense in the context of a sport where commentators, equally bizarrely it has to be said, often use battle and war analogies.
Equally at odds with this sentimentality was the decision to train with the Royal Marines. You will hear tosh about team building and finding people out but frankly it is a sort of Phil Space by the coaches. Personally I don't view this as contemptible as the ritual humiliation the South Africans put themselves through to no benefit for the last world cup but not far off it. The idea in the military is to build a team to take orders and fight for their lives.
It reminds me of the ludicrous trend in management once to go on physically demanding outward bound courses. Most turned into a jaunt to discover those who would take on dangerous tasks because they were told to and those who thought for themselves who could then be excluded. I of course always felt very ill and was regretably unable to take part in such bonkers crap. My manager nearly drowned in a canoe, go figure.
Wed 4th July
Chelsea 30 million A Year For Nothing?
Lampard and Chelsea it appears are involved in the annual Henry/Vieira ducks and drakes spotting contest. Where everyone expresses genuine love for each other right up till the breach. Leaving aside whether Lampard or Chelsea are in the wrong - I would argue the 2nd rate rags and journalists are.... I do wish players and clubs would stop acting out this childish stuff in the press. Both leaking stories etc. Like a bunch of Paris Hilton's without her stain of dignity.
As dignity is not an issue Stamford Bridge cares about the real problem here is what Chelsea will be paying to old or already delining players in 3 years time. Terry, Lampard, Sheva, Balls and Drogba are either coming off a poor season, Terry Sheva Balls, or past the age of 29 when decline sets in (all bar JT). Lampard is the right age to thank for his service, 29 2 weeks ago (just as Balls and Sheva were the wrong age to pay for what they had done). It is arguable if the amount of football finally caught up with him but basically as a game in game out force the following dropped off at 29 Beckham, Zidane, Figo, Henry, Vieira, Sheva and a few others whose names escape me.
The premiership is very hard and Lampard even if he regains his standards is being paid to be at his best for years - year 3 and year 4 of this deal might look poor. It is increasingly for hard working players a young man's game.
With Terry having a down year physically as much as anything. Drogba 29 Chelsea seem to be commiting potentially 35 million to 5 players (avec Lampard, Balls and Sheva) for 3 or 4 years of likely/continued decline. This maybe stretching it in Terry's case but the others will get the thick end of 30 million if Lampard's contract offer is anything to go by.
The next manager will surely have to face benching the wages equivalent of a small premiership side - worse leave some in the stiffs or pay for them to play for someone else. Indeed every upstart kid will want parity with the top earners and indeed like Lampard with Balls and Sheva more to reflect what they return. Not quite the glory game Roman had in mind paying ludicrous wages for past it performers.
Wed 4th July
Big Sam Easy Does It
I criticised the addition to the Newcastle squad of Barton and Viduka. Whilst I may well be right about those players I think the angle of the critique was wrong. I was like how are you going to stop Liverpool and Arsenal just playing to do well in and qualify for the Champions League? Well not by trying to go from 10th to 3rd in an orgy of spending in one year. As Newcastle are finding even less than steller players with few places to go like Martins and Owen can still work against the club over the summer as their agents try to sell them to a better club or climate.
Now with Rozanthal and Geremi the trend of taking limited but reliable players continues for a club relying until now on the likes of Bramble and the illogical fitness regimes of the likes of Owen, Dyer and others. Added to the mix Allardyce will clearly create a back room to die for.
In football just because you have a lot of money does not mean top players want to come and play for you. Hence Ronaldinho and Kaka do not line up for Chelsea. You cannot go from tee to green in 1 shot or even 2 unless you have huge money and get lucky. This summer ordinary players will change hands for vast fees and Newcastle likely have upgrades at not too much expense.
Newcastle need European football before getting a shot at 2nd tier footballers. I would imagine with any likely improvement from competent management alone they are nailed on for Europe then again Everton and Spurs fans no doubt feel the same.... there are only 3 places even if Chelsea and co win the cups and fill runners up slots again. At least we should be safely be able to say Newcastle are in the mix...
Tue 3rd July
Hantuchova : Lets Just Have A Last 16
John McEnroe was right when he said that Wimbledon had to get the prize money sorted between men and women. However having just seen Serena use one leg to beat Hantuchova (I only saw last game) all I can say is that if she is the 10th seed play the top 8 and make the rest qualify for the other 8 slots. The idea she will earn more than people who fought through 5 hard sets in earlier rounds is sickening or even the average wage in Britain, never mind the world. Give the top women all the money to force the others to try or even get fit.
Indeed it is bilge to say that the women have more depth because Serena Williams opted not to stay fit and as dominant as she could have been. Yes grand slam tournaments are spread around between 3 or 4 players but frankly how many of the rest are even half fit when Serena Williams can turn up and win a slam as she did in the shape she did in Australia. Indeed that an unremarkable player in terms of anything but shrieking like Sharapova has 2 slams hitting half court dross condemns the game worse than I can with mere words.
Much as I love Serena Williams I do just wonder if a teensy weensy part of her was playing the drama queen today. Obviously when given a choice between her and the excessive grunting of Sharapova and the cheat Henin it is a no contest who I want to see crowned champ come Saturday, any Williams or Mauresmo.
Mon 2nd July
England One Day : Nice Win
The tendency in one day international cricket is to look at the last game. However all we can really take from the game is the usual lessons a) that England set their sights on a par score they seem incapable of acheiving batting first, sometimes/often this leads to a massive collapse as people try to go from 4.5 odd an over to 8 or 9 b) England pass up the chance to score quickly with the field in for the powerplays - generally first 20 overs c) England can defend a total when they take wickets early ala the Commonwealth Bank series - a nice way of saying England rarely haul back a team that starts well.
The point being many of these things are true of most winning sides - score runs, take wickets, win game da-da. The only conclusions I can draw as an observer is we should continue to bowl agressively early in the innings, regardless. We should not get hung up on scores we think we should get and take what is on offer. Seriously better to be 20/30 short than 60, 100 and more. At least against the West Indies we did not get the consistent death rattle of stumps till the 42nd over.
Team and individual performance in ODIs can only be judged over time. Quite a long time as variations of form, the toss and opposition vary so much. For me the key is to keep using young bowlers who can take wickets early and are not mules in the field in 50 over cricket. For our batters to take what is there and play more for their counties and practise stepping up and hitting. Good teams make their score early and if we don't have those kind of guys we'll have to do it our way.
Mon 2nd July
England One Day : The Dumb View?
Some Mirror hack was on cricket journalists saying that 10 overs up to test cricket it was the same game and pick the same squad. This has to be the easiest opinion ever as it basically is a great way to have to make no decisions or evaluation. Of course the opinion is supported by Ian Botham but generally speaking no one else. It is a great opinion if others let you hold it without mocking you, as you deserve, because test cricket is so an easy medium and so exposing good players stand out - you never have to make a call or judgement as generally speaking there is no/little debate on the test team outside these humble pages.
There was a point when England packed their 50 over squad with so called all round players (Hollioakes, Ricki Clarke and others) who could not bowl at less 5 an over in regular cricket. Then it could be argued that whilst 1 or 2 players should differ from the test side wholesale filling of the side with dreck labelled all rounder was wrong.
Indeed test players even in 50 over games can cause problems with scoring. For instance in the last 3 days even KP seems to struggle when asked to push on at more than 4 or 5 an over - when he has to start inventing strokes. One hopes it is an adjustment from the man rated no 1 in the world but even in the world cup he could not seem to accelerate - indeed gave the impression he was playing for 3 figures. The point is that amazingly given his general scoring rate there is no guarantee that as he has aged and matured even Pietersen can adjust (not that I would bet that way).
Indeed a look at the admittedly new stats from the twenty20 league show some players, especially slower bowlers like Doshi, are better suited than any other form of cricket. Like baseball batters have to look to hit almost every ball - just taking 4/5 and over in singles offered is not good enough. Indeed packing your side with ageing mules in the field is not clever either.
With ODI cricket one mistake England make batting first is to collapse a lot accelerating mid innings. This is partly as they don't use the first 20 properly. However maybe we should accept what is there and not worry about falling 20 or 30 short when the down side can be 60 to a 100 plus.
Personally I wish there was more objective analysis in sports, albeit even with sabermetrics Eric Young can go on ESPN's Baseball Tonight and say the Rangers Stink because they are not playing well..... No mention of ERA, K rates, walk rates, OBP etc. Nonetheless in even cricket there is enough to shoot down the ridiculous view Vaughan and Strauss should open at twenty20 as the Mirror hack was implying.... Reverse it and would we drop a test player for one day form? Of course not because the opinion is utter bollocks.
Saturday morning would have had Chelsea fans sobbing into their Corn Flakes as the man responsibile for the best 20 games in a single premiership season decided to stay with Chelsea - by someone not called Cech. Of course the problem is there has been over a 100 others he has flatly missed or been unfit or been troubled by a graze or paper or shaving cut. Nothing says stagnation more than last year's ageing Chelsea squad (29+ Drog, Lamps, Sheva, Balls, Ricardo Carvalho, Makelele) with ordinary/decent/unspectacular stuff like Pizarro (28), Sidwell, Ben Haim and Alex added. Will Mourinho sacrifice time to Arnesan's produce whilst he has a bigger squad? Are Chelsea waiting out Mourinho whilst targetting the Champions League? i.e. are they becoming Liverpool? How many of these new lads will get a look outside of the Carling and African Cup of Nations? Sheva crap at 30 better at 31? Et Tu Ballack? Honestly I slaughter the guy personally but would actively bet against any other manager in this situation but not the sourer of everything Mourinho.
Sun 1st July
Torres Liverpool - An Upgrade
Can't say I watch enough Spanish football to know Fernando Torres inside out. However unlike what pundits in the country, and fans, demand he is not a one dimensional goal scorer i.e. a natural i.e. a self serving player whose extra goals can in a flowing team come at the price of others. His recent goal totals are 20, 16, 13 and 14 in what is on average an ordinary side who barely stayed up last year. The Athletico fans certainly like him. He has played 35 plus games in each of the last 4 seasons as well and is 23. At 6ft 1 he would appear to basically be a better version of the earnest Kuyt.
With at present 4 decent forwards (Torres makes Kuyt, Crouch and Bellamy a decent 2,3,4 when they were probably short as 1,2,3). In Sissoko and Maschareno a decent challenge to say Essien and Mikel and Carrick and Hargreaves. The defence will one assumes be bolstered and hopefuly Carson can push Reina to be his best more often. The main problem as I see it is out wide with a smorgas bord of mediocre players like Zenden, Kewell, Pennant and as he is not really a winger and does not produce enough goals and assists Gerrard. I would imagine they will mostly play 442 and be a better version of last year.
If Torres and a bit of extra confidence and a good start occur then if a United side trying to fit in Hargreaves and go to 451 off Rooney does not gel (or fit Hargreaves into their flowing 442) then Liverpool could have an outside shot at the title. I say this as I think Chelsea did as well as they could last year and it is not wild to expect a fall off in the ageing Lampard and Drogba. Makelele is gone and Mikel is unconvincing at times. Terry appeared in decline albeit a summer off he is not that old at about 26. Ricardo Carvalho will have a season. Of course most crucial is that Cech plays a whole year were he at Spurs it is not hard to imagine him being worth 15/20 points - that good.
Put simply Liverpool being in a title race where 90 points are needed would not be on for me. 85 if they can start next season. There is no guarantee the underdog mentality so eloquently expressed by Steven Gerrard after he said the mental pressure of being third favourites for the last world cup should never happen again - being 6 or was it 8/1 is unbeleivable pressure! - better to let Milan get 3-0 in front and be a 100/1 - trouble is that rarely wins leagues against teams as stacked as Man U and Chelsea.
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