Sporting Spring

So, here we are in April and the sporting season really cranks up a gear now. Congratulations today go to India on securing their second cricket World Cup win over the weekend. The pre-tournament favourites certainly lived up to that billing and were worthy winners of the trophy, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in Saturday’s final. Over the course of the last 6 weeks there have been a number of memorable matches, most notably Ireland’s triumph over England during the group stage. England’s progress was stilted at best, and they were eventually eliminated at the quarter-final stage after squeezing their way out of their group. A thorough rethink needs to be carried out in the corridors of power if the home of cricket is ever to see a World Cup victory.

Elsewhere, as I said, the sporting season is now really kicking in. Having enjoyed the start of the F1 season a week ago, and the culmination of the cricket World Cup this last weekend, the next few weeks are crammed full with major sporting events. This coming week we have the US Masters at Augusta, Georgia – the first major golf tournament of the year. With 5 of the world’s top 6 players coming from this side of the pond, will we be seeing the first European victory at the Augusta National since Jose Maria Olazabal triumphed back in 1999? I have my doubts, but I will certainly be glued to the BBC’s much-truncated coverage over the weekend. Quite why they have chosen to only have live coverage for the last two days I don’t know – maybe budget cuts? Whatever the reason, it is another kick in the teeth for us non-Sky Sports subscribers. Sport is so becoming the pastime of the rich – or at least of the more well off.

This weekend will also see the 164th running of the Grand National, and hence my yearly flutter! Not that I will be risking large sums of money on my non-existent horsey knowledge. Rather I will be randomly picking 2 horses out of the list of runners, and along with other members of my family, I will put a massive 40p into the pot, with the person whose horse finishes nearest the front taking the whole darned lot home with them! Back in the day we used to get our dog to pick out a horse (by stepping on the list of horses) and he had a remarkably good record of choosing winners, or at least top 3 finishers. In other words, this race really is a lottery and I guess that is why it is the nation’s favourite.

The National is one of those events by which I mark the passing of the year. And another one will be coming along the following weekend, when the London Marathon takes place in the capital. That weekend London will also host both FA Cup semi-finals, which as I have discussed before, is geographically perverse (given this year’s participants) but financially understandable. That we have reached the penultimate stage of the premier cup competition in the country shows us that the end of the football season is very nearly upon us – although for some we are pretty much there already (I’m looking at you Swindon Town!). Then the great summer of sport will be upon us – one event of which I will be attending in person – but I will talk about all of that at a later date. Until then, just enjoy the feast of sporting fun that awaits us over these coming few weeks.

Til next time.

Up, Down and Round and Round

The last few days have been quite eventful sports-wise. We have seen the quarter-finals of the cricket World Cup, the start of the 2011 Formula 1 season, another round of European Championship qualifiers and the always anachronistic Boat Race!  Add to that another depressingly familiar defeat for Swindon Town and you have a weekend packed full of ups and downs.

Saturday was the busiest day, with the last of the cricket quarter-finals taking place, along with a host of international football matches and the aforementioned Boat Race. It was a day of mixed fortunes for England, as the cricket team were soundly beaten by Sri Lanka to exit from the competition, whilst the football team performed well for 20 minutes in their qualifying match in Wales, which was enough to secure the 2-0 victory. That means that England are now back on top of their qualifying group, and seem to be stumbling their way towards making it into next year’s tournament.

 John Terry, Photo by John Dobson

Talking of the football team, did you see the mess that Fabio Capello made of reinstating John Terry as the national team captain? Whichever way you look at it, it was poor management from Capello. You can argue whether the actual decision was correct, whether John Terry should be captain at all, but whatever you think the handover of the armband was a farce from start to finish. It does seem to be a trait of the Italian’s though. David Beckham was dropped via an ITV interview after many years outstanding service for the England team, and now Rio Ferdinand finds out he has been dumped as the latest England captain also via the media. Mind you, he also apparently found that he had been appointed as captain in the first place via watching TV, so maybe he shouldn’t have expected anything else!

I do have respect for Capello as a coach, but his man-management skills leave a lot to be desired, and let’s face it, the England manager/coach/whatever doesn’t actually need to do a lot of coaching. Good interpersonal skiils and motivation are his priorities and it is exactly here where Capello appears to fall down. Of course, none of us know exactly what goes on behind the scenes, and the media have a vested interest in playing up any story of this kind. But hopefully this will be the last such controversy and both “coach” and players will be able to concentrate on matters on the pitch for the remainder of the qualifying campaign.

Elsewhere, the F1 season finally got under way in Australia after the postponement of the Grand Prix in Bahrain. A convincing victory for current champ Sebastian Vettel will have been very ominous for his rivals in this year’s championship. The F1 roadshow now moves out to the Far East with Grand Prix in Malaysia and China before heading back towards Europe in May. If this year’s battle for the Championship is anywhere near as close as last season then motorheads everywhere will be very happy.

Oh, and Cambridge didn’t win the Boat Race. And Swindon are hurtling fast towards League 2 with no apparent prospect of even winning one match, let alone winning enough games to stay up. Ho hum. Sport – it enthrals and appals in equal measure.

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!