Don't Bet on This GG!

As always it has been a busy and eventful week in the world of sport. This weekend saw the start of the cricket World Cup, taking place in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The opening game took place on Saturday in Bangladesh where the hosts were beaten convincingly by India. Predictable wins followed on Sunday for New Zealand and Sri Lanka against Kenya and Canada respectively.

In all there will be a total of 49 one-day games played over the next 6 weeks, with the final being played in Mumbai on April 2nd. England have yet to win a World Cup, despite hosting 4 of the 9 tournaments so far. Even though they performed heroics in the recent Ashes Test series in Australia, it looks like that wait for the trophy may have some way to go yet. The following One Day International series against the Aussies was far less successful, and although the team has certainly improved over the last few years, this tournament may have come a little too early for them. India look to be the favourites this time around.

In the world of football, this last week has also been mainly about cup action. The 5th round of the FA Cup, or some of it at least, took place over the weekend with Leyton Orient grabbing a draw against the mighty Arsenal to force a replay. Other notable results were the narrow 1-0 defeat of non-league Crawley Town by world superpower Man Utd, and the deposing of the cup-winners of the last 2 seasons, Chelsea, by Everton in a penalty shoot-out – although I should point out that that game was actually a 4th round replay.

The real fireworks though occurred in the Champions League, which returned from its winter hiatus last week. Sadly those fireworks had little to do with the actual football though. AC Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso seemed to lose the plot and bizarrely lashed out at renowned former hard-man Joe Jordan, now assistant boss at Spurs. Anybody who chooses to headbutt Joe Jordan may need to re-examine their thought processes – there is a reason why he has 2 front teeth missing!

What would have been really interesting is if everybody else there had just taken a step back and let Gattuso and Jordan go at it. Gattuso may be a sportsman still playing at the peak of the game, and Jordan may be 59 years old, but I know which one my money would be on!