MURRAY BROUGHT CRASHING DOWN !

Following his heroics of the last 12 months, with wins at the Olympics, US Open and Wimbledon, Andy Murray's world collapsed around him yesterday as the Swiss number 2, Stanislas Wawrinka, simply destroyed him.

 

Murray has played Wawrinka before and usually had the better of him but yesterday was different. The Scot had no answers to the powerful play of his opponent and was blown away in straight sets; perhaps it was an overdue reaction to the events of the last year. Whatever the reasons, Murray was never settled in the match and seemed horribly ill at ease with himself; his post-match interview was a twitchy affair as he moved constantly in his seat while fielding questions. All-in-all, the impression given was that he was close to breaking point.

 

As for Stan Wawrinka, the perennial Swiss number 2 behind Roger Federer may be on the point of overtaking his compatriot in the rankings. As Federer's star appears to be waning rapidly, Stan's chance may have come; one or two more good performances could see him outshining the Great Man. How ready he is to assume such a mantle may be revealed by his next match, against the world number 1, Novak Djokovic, in tomorrow's semi-final.

BALE TRANSFER SHOWS FOOTBALL HAS GONE MAD.

The conclusion of months of gossip about the possible move of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid must come as a huge relief to many people. It's been clear for several weeks that Bale was on his way out of White Hart Lane, with Tottenham anticipating the sale by spending enormous amounts in the transfer market; now that Bale's gone, this outlay has been recouped and their accountants must be happy once more.

 

The real question is whether anyone who kicks a football around can be worth paying £85.3m for, and whether they can be worth paying £15.6m per year in wages. In my view, the answer is an emphatic "NO".

 

We hear and read much about greedy bankers and other business leaders who receive large salaries and bonuses, though few of these came close to the numbers now routinely bandied about in the world of football. Those who run major multinational corporations are often responsible for many thousands of employees and company budgets of many billions of pounds; whole economies may depend on their success or failure, as we discovered when banks began to fail 5 or 6 years ago. The people who have ultimate responsibility within such vast entities need to be the best and that means highly paid, but even they are not paid the staggering sums received by some sports 'stars'.

 

When it comes to sport, matters should be rather different. Those who choose to follow this largely selfish and egotistical path do very little to manage anything, create employment or enhance the world in any other tangible way; in fact, it seems that their primary purpose is to fleece the poor supporter out of as much money as possible while becoming enormously rich for doing what they themselves most enjoy, be it playing football, tennis, golf, basketball or a myriad of other essentially pointless games. They are the true parasites, not the bankers.

 

Gareth Bale is a great footballer but is he worth paying £85.3m for ? Certainly not. Is he worth paying £300,000 per week as has been reported ? Of course not, it's a ludicrous amount of money to pay someone for playing a game, no matter how good they are.

 

The world has gone mad.

RIP CRICKET - WE NEED A NEW SET OF ASHES.

Watching the final moments of the fifth Ashes test match, one has to bemoan the death of cricket.

 

When I was a lad, it was perfectly normal for 100 and more overs to be bowled in a 6 hour day; today, this rarely, if ever, happens. In test matches, the rule is that there have to be 90 overs in a day that now extends to a maximum of 6½ hours, but there appears to be no penalty for missing this target and no way of making up the deficit unless it was caused by bad weather or bad light. Even then, umpires seem to be beset by a plethora of rules and regulations that require them to react in particular ways, usually without the slightest consideration of the paying public. The public are expected to accept a confection that crawls along at a snail's pace and is stopped at a moment's notice for the most bureaucratic of reasons.

 

The premature end to the final test, albeit at 7:40 pm, was stupid and certainly did not please the paying public; how was it that David Hughes once won a Gillette Cup match at something around 9:00 pm and no one complained about the light ?

 

Today's cricket is a pale shadow of the wonderful game played by the likes of Grace, Hobbs, Hammond, Bradman, Headley, Compton, Hutton, Gregory and MacDonald, Lindwall and Miller, Trueman and Statham, Hall and Griffiths and the like. Today they play on manicured pitches with so much in the way of helmets and padding, not to mention worries about a few drops of rain or a bit of dodgy light, that it's a wonder that the game has survived at all. How any of today's players can be compared with the greats of the past is a mystery - one or two perhaps but generally speaking any comparison is laughable.

 

England retained the Ashes by beating one of the worst Australian teams ever to tour this country. They may well repeat this feat by winning again in Australia in the coming winter, but it will be a hollow victory. Cricket, as anyone over the age of 45 ever knew it, is dead; the money men have finally got their claws into it and the future is the crash-bang-wallop rubbish of 20-20, with its accompanying paraphernalia of noise and hype. One of the major consequences of this is the death of real cricket; county, state and test matches that last for more than a day.

 

Cricket is no longer a game played to entertain the paying public, it's simply a money machine; as such, it has an enormous bureaucracy that determines how it works and that develops rules and regulations for every possible eventuality. As such, it does nothing but serve itself and drive real supporters away while constantly congratulating itself on how well it's doing.

 

Let's not be fooled. Real cricket is dead but not quite buried yet; I hope to see a bit of the real game in the coming week though I wonder for how many more years it will continue. With luck, it will last longer than I, though I have my doubts.

MO FARAH, SUPERSTAR !

Every now and then a special performer appears and, right now, it's Mo Farah.

 

A few minutes ago, Farah put himself into genuine superstardom with a stunning performance in the World Championship 5,000 metre final. Following his win in the 10,000 meters last weekend, he bided his time and only seemed to take the race seriously in the last 2 or 3 laps. With less than 800 meters left, he finally moved to the front and, despite the best efforts of his opponents, he refused to be passed, eventually storming to victory and even going away from the others over the last 50 metres.

 

Farah has now become holder of both the Olympic and World 5,000 and 10,000 metre titles at the same time, something only previously achieved by the great Ethiopian, Kenenisa Bekele. Of course, others may have achieved the same had the opportunity arisen, but the World Championships have only been held since 1983 so many great athletes never had the chance; whether or not Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek or Lasse Viren could have achieved the same will never be known but even to mention Farah's name in the same breath as these athletic greats tells how exceptional is his performance.

 

Farah's achievement must rank with the very greatest in athletics history and must certainly make him the greatest distance runner ever to represent the UK.

 

Well done, Mo, and more power to your elbow !

PHIL MICKELSON - CHAMPION GOLFER !

And so it was not to be Westwood's year.

 

After going into the final round of the Open Championship with a 2 shot lead, which was extended to 3 at one point, Lee Westwood's bid for immortality eventually faded away with a string of wayward blows. Tiger Woods challenge never materialised though Ian Poulter made a determined bid from several strokes back, though he also faltered towards the end. Others came and went at the front, including my own choice for the title, Adam Scott, who looked a near certainty before either the course or his nerves, or both, produced several dropped shots in quick succession.

 

At the death it was the American Phil Mickelson who burst out of the pack with a magnificent round of 66 and claimed a title he's always coveted. Mickelson's eventual winning margin of 3 shots was a true reflection of his dominance on a day when few others made a real challenge and most of the round 3 leaders simply fell away. It was his 5th major triumph and he also became the first golfer to win the Scottish Open and The Open in successive weeks. Westwood finished third, alongside Ian Poulter and Adam Scott, 4 shots behind, while the runner-up was the hardly-mentioned Henrik Stenson.

 

Mickelson is one of those sportsmen about whom it's very hard to find anything bad to say. He is always courteous and polite, he smiles a lot with no effort and he truly loves his sport. He also loves his family and is effusive in his thanks to and praise for others; in short Phil Mickelson is a truly great sportsman. If he has one slight drawback, it's that he's American and not British, but he's also such a great gentleman I'm even prepared to forgive him that and cheer him on.

 

Well done, Phil Mickelson, "Winner of the Gold Medal and Champion Golfer for the Year" !

WESTWOOD FLIES THE FLAG AS ROSE, McILROY AND DONALD DISAPPOINT.

As usual, the media built up British expectations to fever pitch prior to the start of the Open Golf Championship, this year being played at the Muirfield course in North Berwick.

 

Would McIlroy regain his form ? Could Rose add 'The Open' to his US Open title ? Might it be time for Donald to win his first major ? In the event, none of these three vaunted players has even survived to play the last 2 rounds, having failed to make the half-way cut. Yet again, the great British media built them up only to see them fall flat.

 

Muirfield has proved to be a very hard test, even though the weather has been beautiful. Warm and sunny, no rain and just a bit of wind, and yet the world's finest golfers have struggled to break par. With 2 rounds completed, Spain's 'old man', Miguel Angel Jimenez, has the lead at three under par, but he's hotly pursued by another 9 players within 3 strokes, including the ominously placed Tiger Woods. Jimenez's immediate pursuers are a mixed bunch, though, including 4 from the US, another Spaniard, a Swede, an Argentinian, a Scot and an Englishman.

 

The Englishman who's emerged as the current leading contender is Lee Westwood, now getting a bit long in the tooth but playing some lovely golf before losing his way a bit over the last 6 holes of round 2. Martin Laird of Scotland is there and looking good while the 2011 winner, Darren Clarke from Northern Ireland, and England's Ian Poulter are only another shot behind. Also close at hand is my tip for the title, Adam Scott, the Australian who missed out narrowly last year and is on one over par.

 

Who will win ?

DRUG CHEATS CAUGHT BY THE DOZEN.

Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson and 3 other Jamaican athletes have been caught using banned substances. A few weeks ago, another Jamaican, Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, was caught.

 

As usual, there will be protestations of innocence or ignorance; there will be suggestions that "it weren't me, guv, I was let down". As usual, the athletes will be banned for a period of time, probably 2 years, and the ones who are young enough will be back in competition in time for the next Olympic games.

 

How many athletes have to be caught cheating in this way before there is some real action ? Marion Jones, one of the greatest of all female athletes, was a cheat as was her onetime husband, C J Hunter; so were 1988 Olympic 100 metre winner Ben Johnson, our own Dwain Chambers, the 2012 women's shot putt winner, Ostapchuk, our shot putter Carl Myerscough, and dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands, of others. Of course, athletics is not alone and competitors in other sports have been found cheating, notably cycling which has produced the most appalling cheat in sporting history, Lance Armstrong. The testing conducted in football, cricket, rugby, tennis and so on seems to be limited or even non-existent, so how many of the 'great' players in these and other sports are also cheats is unknown; the odds must be that many are.

 

Ever since sport became big business, with competitors being able to accrue vast fortunes from their participation, cheating has prospered. Those who pay stupid amounts of money to watch sporting events are regularly let down by their idols, but they never get their money back; instead, the cheats receive a slap on the wrist and a brief ban from competition before returning to carry on where they left off.

 

Gay, Powell and the others who've been caught recently have disgraced themselves and brought their sport into disrepute. Ban them for good, strip them of all of their medals and awards and erase their performances from the record books; that's the only way to deal with them.