Taking sport too seriously

There'll be short posts as well as long posts. So, in cricket, right, I generally stand by modern coaching decisions and believe they've analysed things carefully, and that standard policy, though sometimes counter-intuitive, is overwhelmingly the right decision e.g. in limited overs, taking your batting powerplay late, e.g. safe rather than daring declarations e.g. no third man e.g. six batsmen, four bowlers. But here's a thing. When I played cricket, and a ball came in the air towards me, the last thing I wanted to hear was some overexcited team-mate shouting "Catch it!!!!" Yes, I know, it's in the air, coming towards me, i recognise the positive effect catching it will have on my team's situation, I don't need you to prepare me for that situation. All you're doing is putting me off, tightening my muscles. If i catch it, I wil be able to excuse your enervating cry as over-enthusiasm, if i drop it, i will hold it against you for the rest of my l

My hope for this blog is that I find things to write which are slightly against the accepted thinking of things, that pick up on lazy journalism, that use factual analysis to expose sporting myths. However, at the moment I find myself generally in keeping with the mood of the nation and the press in my response to the merry goings on in Zurich in the last week and round the world over the last two years. For the first time in my life I have felt strong stirrings of English patriotism (which would no doubt appal both my parents and my past self), so disgusted am I by the global football family led by The Dark Lord Sepp. In all seriousness (well, semi-seriousness) I today suggested that it was time for the real FA to seize back control of the game from the johnny-foreigner-come-lately upstarts who are desecrating what this great nation created ... God help me. At this stage, I'm all for the wounded pride, the indignation and shock, the sense of being cheated, the sense of fuck you,

Watching Carl Froch's shut-out masterclass pummelling of feared German opponent Arthur Abraham last night on pay-per-view channel Primetime, I realised I was probably one of under 100,000 in the UK watching it. Looking at the Observer this morning - which usually has pretty good boxing coverage, and went overboard on the Haye-Harrison abomination a fortnight ago - I saw nothing but a tiny paragraph about the fight. This lack of coverage and recognition has been Froch's bugbear for several years and nothing he has achieved in the meantime seems to have changed it, despite the fact he has put together a boxing CV that dwarfs anyone else in this country. In a highly competitive, admired division, he has defeated in turn Jean Pascal (Future Ring Light Heavyweight Champ), Jermaine Taylor (Former Ring Middleweight Champ), Andre Dirrell (one of the slickest undefeated prospects in US boxing), then lost a controversial decision to former Double Super Middleweight Champ Mikkel Kessler,

Not one of the the 25 greatest cricketers of the last 25 years is English. Why is that? Well, first I should answer a different question - Is that true? I wrote it, and I'm not entirely certain it's true. I'm pretty confident up to about 20, but there's a decent chance an Englishman or two creeps into the Top 25. You're mad, you're saying. Well, are any English cricketers of the last 25 years greater than these (not in order)? Warne Sangakkara Imran Khan Hadlee Marshall Lara Pollock Kallis Tendulkar Muralitharan McGrath Ponting Wasim Akram Lara Vettori Ambrose Gilchrist Waqar Younis Waugh S Kumble Dravid Inzamam Donald Flower A Hayden The answer is no, my friend. Ian Botham would creep into the lower echelons of that list if we could take into account his achievements before 1981 but his stats throughout the 80s are very average, and, anyway, I haven't included Kapil Dev, whose career test stats are pretty much his equal. All the chaps above dwarf and domina

Of course I do. As should you. If not, I wouldn't bother reading this. It will not be a whimsical sideways glance, it will not be esoteric, it will, I hope, be an attempt to say worthwhile and interesting things about worthwhile and interesting aspects of sport. While writing my last blog, which wasn't a whimsical sideways glance at anything either, but at least made steps towards being esoteric on occasions, it struck me that, really, while I was writing about music and life and other boring stuff, I brought it back round to sporting matters as often as I could. I also often felt stilted and embarrassed writing about music and life and other boring stuff, and I never feel embarrassed expressing my thoughts on sport, so, I thought, for my next trick ... Having said that, I finished that last blog months ago, so I clearly haven't been spilling over with enthusiasm and ideas to get this started. A couple of reasons for this. 1. I've been busy, not that busy, but busy enou