The English language is very often a thing to marvel at. It is a huge melting pot of other languages with a literary tradition to rival many of the modern languages. It has a great fluidity and playful spirit at it’s core which lends itself to poetry and creative writing. All the rules are there to be broken and to use the same adjective twice is to sully the essence of the language with all the clumsiness of a striker putting a tap in over the bar.

Sports journalism has been a great beneficiary of the language. Cricket especially has embraced the language and it has at times existed in perfect syncronisation; an idiosyncratic language married to an eccentric sport. You need look no further than the work of Neville Cardus.

Neville Cardus
One of the great
sports writers

But like a new cricket bat of the finest English Willow, it’s effectiveness and worth can only become a valuable attribute in the correct hands. In the wrong hands it’s detrimental effect can blight sport and have a direct effect on it. Read the rest of this entry »

So lets look ahead prematurely to the Euro 2008 qualifying groups. In Scotland’s group, Group B, they have to contend with three World Cup quarter finalists in France, Italy and the Ukraine for the top two spots. This is ridiculous and compounded by the fact when you take a look at Group C, a group of Greece, Turkey, Norway, Bosnia and Hertzegovina, Hungary, Moldova and Malta. Not only did none of these teams fail to make it to the quarter finals of the World Cup, none of them even made it at all!!!

Surely the way groups are drawn needs to be looked at again sinc we have seen unbalanced groupings in Germany (two groups of deaths C and D and three weak ones A, B and G) and now this

“The decision to overlook key Liverpool players despite our magnificent achievement was frustrating,” Chief Executive Rick Parry told Liverpool’s official magazine.

“What do you have to do to be recognised by the powers-that-be? I don’t want to take anything away from the England cricketers and their wonderful Ashes success against Australia. But the fact that the inspirational efforts of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in helping us win the Champions League were effectively dismissed is little short of staggering.”

“Of course, we have been here before,” he said. “The achievements of the legendary Bob Paisley, the most successful English club manager of all time and three-times European Cup winner, were never truly recognised. My own bemusement now comes full circle to encompass the failure to recognise the achievements of the Anfield boys of 2005.”

Never a truer word spoken plus the fact that every member of the England Rugby Squad got a MBE including someone who played for 25 minutes against Uruguay and the physio. Paul Collingwood, who scored about 20 runs and took no wickets in the final test got one as did the England bowling coach who is an Australian!!!

Jonno

Add this to the fact that BBC1 (or MUTV2 as it is now known) are showing the Burton replay, meaning they have shown Man U play in 11 consecutive rounds of the FA Cup going back to the 2004 5th round. As well as two nights of George Best programmes (that included a show just on Man U and nothing to do with Best) and a programme on the Munich air crash this week.

Who is England’s most successful football club? I forget.

Unperturbed by the original schedule for the forthcoming tour of India, I was very close to booking my flights on Saturday morning. In hindsight I am now very grateful for the hangover that disturbed my slumber and had me bedridden for the day as I awoke on Sunday to learn that the BCCI had once again changed the itinerary of the tour.

Their tinkering and politics is as infuriating as ever and this tour is fast becoming a joke; illustrating perfectly why many people believe those on the BCCI are incapable of organising dysentery in Dehli, let alone the wealthiest cricketing board in the world.

Having moved the first test from Ahmedabad to Mohali they have added extreme inconvenience to anyone wishing to follow the tour. Anyone would think they couldn’t care less about the boost that the Barmy Army’s presence will give to local economies. But how stupid of me to forget…they couldn’t care less. Their own pockets will be lined regardless.

Just to follow the three tests, assuming you fly in to Dehli and out of Mumbai, you will have to spend 52 hours on trains and cover
3300 km. This is not to mention the One Day International schedule, which resembles the aftermath of a BCCI game of pin the tail on the donkey.

Gruff

The ICC has shown it is a spineless and impotent organization by refusing to intervene in the Zimbabwean cricket crisis.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said: “I am extremely saddened for the cricketers and people of Zimbabwe”.

The people of Zimbabwe don’t want sympathy, they want a cricket team they can follow with pride and affection. Not one ravaged by internal politics, and the refusal on the International ruling bodies’ reluctance to help.

Their captain Tatenda Taibu, has been forced into international retirement as well as hiding, after receiving death threats in front of Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka. The other players are considering whether to follow Taibu’s example.

“If the stand-off continues, I am afraid to say there will be no cricket to talk about in this country,” Taibu said. “We all know that it will die, so that effectively means we won’t be able to field a team in the West Indies.”

The ICC has directly contributed to the death of Zimbabwean cricket.

RIP Cricket in Zimbabwe.

On the weekend of all the home nations playing big games - what do the British Broadcasting Corporation choose to show? Two Foreign countries playing each other. Ireland v New Zealand - I accept as two of our former colonies we do take some interest but surely Scotland’s first full international under new management takes precedent.

Apparently not, Scotland whose premier team has flown to the top of the Celtic League, are relegated to BBC2 Scotland. Maybe Scotland should start a 25 year bombing campaign against the British army - we may then be given pride of place on BBC1!

Steven Fergus