Sunday 17 August 2014

INDIAN CRICKET NADIR AS ENGLAND ENJOY BRIEF SUMMER.

What a pathetic collapse by the Indian cricket team.

After good performances in the first 2 tests, including a win in the second, they've fallen apart thereafter. England, if you believe the pundits, have been transformed from a team of no-hopers to a team of world beaters - if only it were true.

The players are the same, the only difference has been attitude and determination. Frankly, the Indians have shown little determination and their attitude has been pathetic; England, on the other hand, have been buoyed by some fine bowling by Anderson and Broad and some large slices of luck for their captain. Alastair  Cook has made a couple of good scores but has also been dropped numerous times along the way, not quite what would have happened against Ricky Ponting's Australians.

Earlier in the year, Cook's position both as captain and batsman, was under attack. Now, after a couple of decent scores, courtesy of one or three dropped catches, and some easy victories, he appears utterly secure. What has changed ? He's still a fine batsman having a poor spell, but a weak and uninspiring captain; in one position he should be a 'shoe-in', from the other he should still be on his bike. 

The latest crushing of the Indians in less than three days is an utter humiliation for the tourists and will be greeted as a terrific performance by England. In truth, the Indians capitulated as they did in the previous 2 matches, completely unable to deal with English conditions. Unlike the great Indian batsmen of the past, the modern crop don't understand what to do when the ball swings or seams and don't have the patience and/or ability to work out an approach. All of this has been with the one glorious exception of captain M S Dhoni who has shown his 'batsmen' how to do it from his position as captain, wicketkeeper and number 7.

Jimmy Anderson is, undoubtedly, one of the best bowlers in world cricket; Stuart Broad is a pretty good support for him. The rest, Jordan, Woakes, and so on, are nowhere near world class. If Anderson and Broad don't do it early on, the team will have problems; while the batsmen may pile up the runs, the bowlers will struggle.

England don't play another Test Match until they visit the West Indies for a 3 match series next April, which seems a very long time away. By then, Anderson and Broad will be a year nearer retirement and we still won't have a decent third seamer, let alone a spinner of any class. The batting looks good for years to come, the bowling appears horribly fragile; the captaincy is in the hands of one of the poorest to inhabit the role. Our chances don't look good.

EUROPEAN MEDAL RUSH MEANS NOTHING.

After a few days, the European Athletics Championships have ended and Great Britain & Northern Ireland (why not 'The United Kingdom' ?) has topped the medal table with 12 golds, ahead of France; whatever has happened to Russia and Germany ?

This was GB's best performance at a European championship and one has to admit that some of the performances were good. However, Europe is not the world and the excessive enthusiasm with which some of the successes were greeted by television commentators is a little questionable. 'Incredible', 'fabulous', 'unbelievable', 'wonderful', 'superb' and so on are words used by television reporters with such alarming regularity that they have become meaningless; actually, they need to invent some new words as they've used up all of the ones currently available to describe achievements of previously undreamed of heights. None of the performances actually required such excessive praise as the likes of Bob Beamon, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt and many others can give testimony to. Greg Rutherford is now the Olympic, Commonwealth and European long jump champion without ever coming within a couple of feet of the marks achieved by Beamon, Lewis, Mike Powell and a number of others. Is Rutherford really a great long jumper ? Is he simply the best of a poor bunch or were the 'super-jumpers' of the past all on drugs ? Who knows ? The only genuinely world class athletes that we know we have are Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis - their performances have been repeated and at world level.

Of course, the achievements of our athletes have been good but no where near good enough to deserve the ludicrous hyperbole heaped on them by the television bunch and general media world. What happens as a result of all of this silly nonsense is that our expectations are raised. Come next year's world championships and the 2016 Olympic Games, we'll all be expecting our athletes to be leading the gold rush; not a chance with the USA, China and all of the African nations taking part. There'll be a few medals and, with luck, a gold or two, but to hope for more is ridiculous. For those who present our sport to build up hopes in the way that they regularly do is to do a disservice to our often very, very good athletes; let's be honest and start out by expecting nothing. That way, we'll be surprised and gratified by every little improvement, personal best, season's best, national record, and, yes, medal.

For us to do anything else is childish and pointless.

BBC SPORT AT ROCK BOTTOM.

What is happening at the BBC ?

In what appears to be a mad race to achieve the mythical 'equality', the BBC seems intent on destroying itself. It's been very noticeable in recent months that an increasing number of women have appeared on our screens, almost always in inappropriate roles. In particular, much of the sports' reporting gas now been given over to women who clearly have no real knowledge or understanding of the sports on which they are attempting to report. It is also quite ridiculous to have women reporting on what are almost entirely male sports; what would be said if a gaggle of men suddenly began to present 'Woman's hour' ? It must surely be a logical necessity that presenters are matched to their subjects and not simply pushed forward because of some moronic notions of 'equality'.

Even worse has been the Beeb's coverage of the Commonwealth Games and European Athletics championships. Out has gone reporting and in has come interminable chat, much of it from a grouping of totally unnecessary women in the studio. I've never had any problem with Gabby Logan as a presenter of football programmes but her elevation to studio-lead alongside a collection of women - Paula Ratcliffe, Denise Lewis and Tanny Grey-Thompson, for the most part - has left me seething. Her apparent true belief in her abbreviated forename - 'Gabby' - and their shrill and mostly pointless waffle has turned the studio into little more than a TV version of woman's hour, and found me turning the sound off on numerous occasions as I've longed to return to some action, rather than listen to yet another rehash of some success, be it from the previous hour, day or century.

And, as if matters could get any worse, when we have returned to the track and field it's been to suffer the incessant natterings of the garrulous Brendan Foster, Steve Backley and, to a slightly lesser extent, Steve Cram. Fine athletes all, these 3 seem to believe that television audiences need to hear the same level of commentary as those on old fashioned 'steam radio'; Foster, in particular, has whittered on like an old woman, saying nothing in as many words as possible while both he and Backley have peppered their commentaries with ludicrous hyperbole. Cram has offended slightly less but the continuous stream of shouty noise coming from the television has had me tearing my hair out. 

Added to all of this, we've had the imbecilic interviews of almost every British athlete by Phil Jones, a man whose range of questions appears as limited as his pate, and cretinous attempts to jolly things along with cowbells in the studio. What Lord Reith would have made of all of this one can only guess, but we are surely nearing the end for this once great corporation.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

JO PAVEY : SUPERMUM !

Oh  Jo Pavey, you lovely girl !

I've been watching Jo Pavey compete as an athlete for England and Great Britain for decades. She's always been one of those who tried her hardest and was very good, but without being quite good enough to win major championships. A few silver and bronze medals and some very good times, but never the gold. Yesterday, everything changed.

A couple of weeks ago, Jo took part in the Commonwealth Games and won a brilliant bronze medal at 5,000 metres, being beaten only by 2 renowned Kenyan runners. In itself, this performance was good, but it becomes remarkable when realising that Jo is a women approaching 41 years of age and who gave birth to her second child only 10 months earlier. The manner of her success was also new, with Jo producing a storming finish to outlast one and nearly catch a second Kenyan.

Following on form that success, Jo was entered in both the 10,000 and 5,000 metres at the European Championships in Zurich and one German newspaper named her as 'one to watch'. How right they were ! Up first, the 10,000 metres was a relatively slow run race and the runners were bunched for much of the time. Jo stayed back and ran wide for long spells before moving up in the last 3 or 4 laps and staying with the leading group as it gradually pulled clear. With 3 laps to go, 5 were still in contention and by the bell for the last lap it was 3. Now Jo strode passed her French challenger, Calvin, and headed off for the tape. Every time Calvin closed up, Jo kicked away and, quite magnificently, she stormed clear on the home straight to win GOLD for the first time.

No competitor in recent times has ever deserved victory more than Jo yesterday. She always gives 100% every time she competes and she's been a wonderful stalwart of British athletics for nearly 20 years. She's now one of the best ever over-40 runners in the history of modern athletics and one wonders how long she will continue. With her getting better and better as the years pass, might we even see her at the Rio Olympics in 2016 ? On yesterday's form, there's no reason why not.

Not only is Jo a great athlete but, on the evidence of her television interviews and what everyone who knows her says, she's also a truly lovely person. Overall, she really is a SUPERMUM !