Sporting Observations

Well at last England were put out of their misery in the cricket World Cup – and how!

I’ve spoken to a lot of people lately who think the world is going through the inevitable stages of Armageddon, what with earthquakes, tsunamis, demonstrations, uprisings and now sporting meltdown, it certainly looks like something is going on.

Andy Murray hasn’t won a set since being beaten by Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open in January and Ireland beat England in a World Cup group match in Bangalore in the most improbable fashion possible. It wasn’t the victory that was so remarkable, as my mother country tends to always raise its game against England at any sport (just ask rugby fans), but Ireland actually required 168 runs from the last 20 overs with only five wickets remaining. Now in a Twenty20 match with all wickets intact that would be improbable, with only four lower order batsmen to come in the task was impossible…….and yet!

Today was embarrassing. To see Trott literally trotting around as if he were playing in a five-day Test match, knocking the ball around lazily for singles. The selectors haven’t got a brain cell between them in my opinion. I remember the days when the great Surrey batsman Ken Barrington was dropped from the Test side after scoring too slowly in a previous match, although he was the top scorer. Now Ken was not a slow scorer by any means. He was known for his trademark six-hitting when approaching his century.

To those defenders who might argue that Trott is currently the top scorer in the World Cup I would say one thing. OF COURSE HE IS NO TEAM WANTS TO GET HIM OUT. And Strauss gives the same post-match talk every time. He clearly feels as though England can justify their mediocrity in the one day game as long as they are not totally humbled. Well today they lost by 10 wickets and their lack of spirit was there for the world to see. Yes they won the Ashes because the selfish players such as Trott, who refuse to risk giving their wicket away cheaply, come into their own. In the one day game he is a liability and always will be by dint of his nature. For the same reason another South African import Kevin Pietersen is not the great one day player he could be. Kevin often scores quicker in Test Matches than he does in the one-dayers. This is basically because he is a natural stroke-maker and is given more freedom in the Test arena where bowlers are not so intensely guarding every run. In the one-day game he gets bogged down and frustrated when he cannot score at his optimum four or five an over. Contrast this with Morgan, Bell and Collingwood who irrespective of form always have a go and play the game to give the team the best possible chance. England won the Twenty20 World Cup for one reason. They really didn’t care less about the results as they believe it is a second rate competition anyway. There is a large element of luck to it and they played freely in the knowledge that the stats are separate from their Test or One-day tallies. A 50 over match is an extension of Twenty20 and yet England have always played when batting first as if they have the best bowling attack in the world. All I’ll say is this. Please do not ever play Trott again in one-day cricket but keep him for Test matches where his Boycottish attitude will be a positive boon rather than the hindrance it has become in limited over matches. Please do not inflict him on us unsuspecting fans who wish to live in our fantasy world that England can play poritive cricket throughout a match. And before anyone says well his scoring rate is not the worst in our side all I’ll say is it is all about momentum (that word that is always bandied around in all sport nowadays) and his methodical style and general languidity and lack of urgency is detrimental to team spirit as one always feels as though he is the ‘new’ batsman in any partnership and this puts pressure on them. Would we have rather of seen England possibly bowled out for 160 today in 30 overs by having a go or scoring 229 in 50 overs knowing we require a heap of luck. Well England have chosen the second course of action all the way through this competition and so it was inevitably doomed to failure. Ross Taylor might struggle to get in the England Test team but the New Zealander has played some memorable knocks for his country and also in the IPL where he is more valuable than any English player. I rest my case. We need at least two more Morgans, a decent fast bowler and a truly positive captain not someone who has been on a media course of how to say the right things.

While on the subject of sport can I just say how horrified I was by the way an element of the crowd pelted Adrian Lewis with beer and coins during his Premier League darts match against Gary Anderson at the SECC in Glasgow. Admittedly Anderson did himself no favours by talking up the match for months beforehand, almost inciting the crowd to this sort of behaviour - but he himself was clearly shocked by the level of abuse and lost 8-3 in a match that was totally ruined as a spectacle. For goodness sake Lewis is a world champion sportsman not an aunt sally!

While I am on my sporting soap box may I finally mention one of the most interesting human studies in sport - tribal warfare. How is that a snooker player will call his own fouls whilst in football a player will dive in the box to gain a penalty or pretend he has been virtually assassinated in order to gain a free kick or get a player sent off. Is it something endemic in the type of people that play these sports. Of course it isn’t. It is all about acceptable behaviour, trends and conventions. In the old days cricketers walked. Nowadays you are either a walker or you are not. Neither one nor the other is particularly frowned upon or embraced. It is a fact of the modern game that famous walkers such as the great Australian Adam Gilchrist are sometimes pilloried in the dressing room by not being more team conscious in their honesty. And some of the catches claimed nowadays defy belief. It is as if the fielders forget there are a half a dozen cameras on them. In my opinion what has happened is this. Sportspeople like to reflect their glory quite often. It shows appreciation and modesty when all the world can see with their own eyes that they are the talent. In team sports an athlete can justify cheating to themselves as it is to put one over on the opposing army. In individual sports you will be a lonely forlorn figure if cheating is perceived as merely helping your own cause. For this reason I say we should bring cameras into play for all major football matches as the game is far too big to be left to the military minds of the teams. Look at England in the last World Cup. Useless – yes – but cheated most certainly. A simple ten second glance at a replay would have told the ref that he was wrong. I’m fed up with seeing po-faced managers denigrating highly trained referees when the poor blighters haven’t got a chance of handling the sort of pressure they are under. In cricket it has been a positive boon and quite often the most interesting part of the game. Bring it on FA. And Andy – start practicing on grass NOW – you can win Wimbledon and become a sporting god for evermore.