KEVIN PIETERSEN - R.I.P.

Kevin Pietersen has raised his head above the parapet once more, this time to throw a whole variety of brick-bats at his former team mates and team manager. Of course, the main reason for his re-appearance is to publicise his autobiography, which appears to be little more than a diatribe against those whom he blames for his own demise, and a self-justificatory monologue.

The evidence appears to suggest that Pietersen was, at least partially, responsible for his own troubles. As a captain, he was a disaster; as a player, he seems to have been much more interested in his own achievements than in supporting his team mates. His regular disruptive acts, whether planned or simply thoughtless, created difficulties which must have been problematic for the team and its management. In the end, he made his own bed and now he appears keen to set fire to it. 

Whatever the rights and wrongs of it all, Pietersen has now burnt his boats once and for all; he will never play for England again and is most unlikely to ever play any other part in the national cricket set up. A highly talented player has allowed arrogance, pride and his own ego to destroy him.

RYDER CUP POSTSCRIPT

Oh, My God !


Just seen that the trophy has been presented by Alex Salmond, wearing the most appalling pair of tartan trousers.


To have Salmond presenting the trophy was, on it's own, contentious given that more than half of the Scottish population didn't vote for his independence motion and the 'welcome' he received from the crowd showed this. His presence was a purely political move and is deplorable; his trousers simply made the matter worse.


Why do politicians feel the need to intrude into non-political arenas in this way ? Why don't they, instead, concentrate on the often earth-shaking events for which we elect them ? Only they can say, though we all know.

EUROPE WINS RYDER CUP - AGAIN !

A brilliant European team retained the Ryder Cup with an emphatic victory over the USA at Gleneagles. Leading 10-6 after the first 2 days, it would have been easy to think that ultimate victory was a foregone conclusion but, at times, the final day looked anything but easy. When Graeme McDowell and Justin Rose were 3 and 4 down, it seemed that the Yanks might be about to repeat the 'Miracle at Medinah' in the opposite direction, but both clawed their way back in to their match and gained vital points. In the end, the European team were stronger overall over the 3 days and deserved their eventual victory by the quite emphatic margin of 16½-11½.

The one down side for me was that I had to watch it on the SKY platform. While the general commentary was fine, I don't think it was anywhere near as good as the BBC manages for their golfing coverage. The studio analysis was often somewhat lame, with Colin Montgomery, fine golfer though he was, proving yet again that he's pretty bloody poor as a studio analyst / summariser. His remarks were usually 'of the bleedin; obvious' or were just irrelevant. Additionally, trying to keep track of the overall match was almost impossible as the coverage switched from game to game, often with no reference to which hole was being played and with some games being largely ignored; a summary scoreboard was shown but so rarely that it was of very little help. Frankly, finally being mugged by Alec Ferguson, who appears to have hung around in the background for ages waiting to be interviewed, was the final straw for me as I have no idea what he had to add; it was clearly one of those stupid 'celebrity opportunity moments' so beloved of broadcasters but which add nothing to an occasion. SKY need to give some serious thought to their coverage of this event if they're to remain as its principal broadcaster and to have any real credibility.

Regardless of any criticisms of the television coverage, this was a great few days for European golf and it showed that, while the Americans have many of the world's top players, so does Europe, the only difference being that the Europeans are usually less well known but, possibly, have greater determination. Roll on 2016, when another team of lesser known but determined Europeans will again beat the all-powerful Americans, this time on their own soil.

ALASTAIR COOK MUST GO.

Is there the slightest chance that the unbelievably arrogant Alastair Cook will resign the England captaincy following his side's latest destruction at the hands of their Indian opponents ? Sadly, I doubt it very much.

The current England team is a bit of a mess, but the biggest problem is its leadership. Cook, on form, is a fine batsman at least in Test cricket. In the one day format he is less than adequate and shouldn't be there anyway; as captain, he is a pointless hindrance. His whole approach to cricket is weak and ineffectual; he is utterly risk averse and has none of the drive needed to motivate a side. He is, quite simply, no captain.

Not only should Cook not be captaining the one-day team, he shouldn't even be in it. By all means, retain him in the Test side, but, please, please, please, not as captain. He simply doesn't have the aptitude or skills needed for the job. HE MUST GO !

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.