Captain Hook

Well the vultures are circling as England engineer another batting collapse to hand India a victory at Lords. The pundits have been lining up to call for England captain Cook to be dismissed and it looks like he could be on his way out after this dismal display. Given the way three of the batsman ludicrously holed out after lunch today, I would suggest Captain Cook be replaced by Captain Hook for this really was a pantomime performance.

Number 1 but who saw it?

It is a fantastic achievement for the England cricket team to be crowned as the world's best Test playing nation. Some question marks remain over the side's ability to win consistently on the Subcontinent but let that not detract from what has been a glorious summer of great individual performances and consistently high achievement for the team. To whitewash the top team, India, over four matches and to capture their crown demonstrated the fact that England are the real deal and deserve all the plaudits they are getting at the moment.

The only problem with England's moment of glory is the question of how many people, and young people in particular, actually got to watch England's triumph? Since the suits who run English cricket sold the game's soul to Sky several years ago, most of us have had to satisfy ourselves with odd snatches of action in brief highlights packages in the evening. At the moment the highlights are consigned to Channel 5, a station you couldn't even receive in large swathes of the country until the digital switch over. Gone are the days when the nation's sports fans could gather round their T.V.s on an afternoon to celebrate an Ashes victory. Now the great game played over five days (that's the idea even if India seem to have forgotten) is reduced to three minute news packages and 45 minutes on the Big Brother channel.

I will be interested to see what the viewing figures are for this summer's Test matches. That will be of little concern to the money men at English cricket's HQ as they bank the subscription T.V. dosh. But how many youngsters will be heading into the garden or down to the local park to emulate their cricketing heroes if they never get to watch them play? Who will be inspired to become the next Cook, Prior or Anderson? It is one thing to put some money back into the grass roots game for those already in local clubs. It is a much greater challenge to attract potentially gifted future cricketers if they have never seen and grown to love the game in the first place.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ireland: Rugby Six Nations Grand Slam Champions

They never make it easy for us but finally Ireland have won the Grand Slam Rugby Six Nations and laid to rest the burden of 61 years of trying. This is a team that has threatened and never quite reached its potential until yesterday in the Millenium Stadium. In a fantastic, no holes barred, bone crunching, gut wrenching, conflict between the two best teams in the tournament the result was on a knife edge until the final kick. It looked as if Ireland had choked once again when, with no time on the clock, they gave away a moronic penalty only to see the kick drop short. The final whistle blew and it was all over.

The first half was a tense battle and when the break came Wales were 6 points up despite constant Irish pressure. Yet again in this tournament it looked like indiscipline and penalties would decide the outcome. Then in the opening exchanges of the second half Ireland blitzed two tries; the first from O'Driscoll who seemed determined to win this match on his own if necessary and the second from Tommy Bowe sprinting on to an O'Gara kick. Surely in this position Ireland couldn't blow it but they tried. Point by point, penalty by penalty Wales came back and eventually took the lead. Then with little time left Ireland gained a crucial lineout and after manouvering position the ball was fed back to O'Gara for an exquisite drop goal. The game was won until Ireland gave away a needless penalty just inside their own half. Stephen Jones seemed destined to rob Ireland at the last but as the kick sailed towards the posts the tragectory indicated that it was too short. The final whistle blew and the whole of Ireland roared in jubilation and not a little relief.

Come the day and come the hour the boys held their nerve and delivered a fabulous victory. Many will have secured their place in the British Lions tour of South Africa this summer, none more so that Brian O'Driscoll who must be made captain again after his nightmare Lions tour of New Zealand.

Wales 15 Ireland 17. Will the Irish economy recover from the massive hangover that awaits once the celebrations have died down in a few weeks time: Who knows and Who cares?

Honourable mention must be made of the England Women's Cricket Team who have just won the Cricket World Cup to show the men how it should be done. Andy Murray continues to give us hope after beating Roger Federer in the tennis. All this softened the blow of a miserable afternoon for Man Utd who seem determined to make me sweat until the last kick of the season. Get a grip Sir Alex and give Rooney, Scholes, Ronaldo and the other headless chickens a taste of the hairdryer treatment before they completely blow the championship.

grubby - english cricket

Grubber is a cricketing term for a ball that bounces unusually low and is therefore difficult for the batsman to hit. Underneath grubber in the cricketer’s dictionary should be a new term; Grubby. Grubby just about sums up the state of English cricket following the Stanford affair in which the ECB sold its soul to a Texas billionaire whose financial empire seems to have collapsed amidst accusation of massive $8 billion fraud.

The Stanford affair is only the latest episode in the sorry tale of English cricket. For me the real rot set in when the ECB decided that home Test Matches would no longer be shown live on terrestrial television. This followed England beating Australia and winning the Ashes in 2005. Set aside the embarrassing spectacle of England cricketers staggering around London for several days in a drunken stupor (can you imagine the opprobrium that would have been heaped on footballers behaving in such a manner). The ECB ran straight into Sky’s arms and, at a time when they could have drawn in millions of new fans and grass roots players, they guaranteed that the majority of potential fans wouldn’t be able to watch test cricket. O.K. there would be a short highlights package on Channel 5 but you couldn’t even receive this channel in some parts of the country; my relatives in Devon for example. What on earth the government was doing not including test cricket in the 'crown jewels' of protected sporting fixtures I do not know but I guess the cricket authorities persuaded them it would be a revenue winner.

English cricket’s lowest point came, however, when Stanford flew into Lord’s Cricket Ground in his helicopter and pulled out $20 million. You can read about the whole sorry affair here. In summary the ECB agreed to play a Stanford series in the Caribbean, the highlight of which would be a 20/20 tournament with the winning side standing to win $1 million per player. Look at the figures, $1 million per player for half a days work. Now imagine how the members of the England squad left out of the side would feel watching their team mates raking in the dosh. What effect on team moral would this have? The ECB have effectively said that the England cricket team is up for sale to the highest bidder. There is only one word for it; grubby.

As it was, the match was an embarrassment and England truly pathetic, being trounced by the Stanford team. The only good thing to come out of the event was that some not so wealthy West Indies players received a welcome income, though the news following Stanford’s collapse is that several of them reinvested their winnings in his businesses. Events around the tournament were cringe worthy but the ECB didn’t seem to care because Stanford was pouring money into the English game through sponsorship and the county chairman lapped up the money. The players looked and sounded humiliated; torn between chasing the cash and not wanting to appear as money grubbers. It wasn’t their fault as they were put in this invidious position by their bosses, the ECB.

And now the chickens are coming home to roost. Stanford’s empire is collapsing and the ECB has belatedly withdrawn from the partnership. English and county cricket has already received substantial payments from Stanford’s sponsorship and is struggling to explain how they didn’t conduct due diligence before entering the partnership. Actually the ECB board claims it did conduct due diligence which by all accounts amounted to little more than checking Stanford had the money, not questioning how he got the money. The U.S. authorities claim they’ve been investigating Stanford’s businesses for years, yet, everything smelled of roses to the ECB.

As I write this I’m listening to Gary Richardson on Radio 5 Live grilling a county cricket chairman on Stanford and it is embarrassing to hear the prevarication, equivocation and self justification. There are a few exceptions amongst the county chairmen, most notably Neil Davidson of Leicestershire who has called for resignations. What is becoming clear is that no one is prepared to take responsibility for the debacle and the board’s chairman, Giles Clarke, and chief executive, David Collier, are refusing to stand down.

Stanford may have bowled English cricket a grubber but the way the England and Wales Cricket Board has batted has been truly Grubby.