Further financial folly from the Hammers

The signature of Matthew Upson from Birmingham could eventually cost West Ham as much as 7.5 million pounds. Alan Curbishley will argue that if Upson helps keep them in the Premiership, he will be have paid for himself several times over but there is no escaping that West Ham have paid well over the odds for a player whose contract expires in 18 months and they could have had for 1 million at the end of the season. To be fair to Curbishley, he had to do something as West Ham's defence is leaking goals in embarrassing fashion, but there will be dire financial consequences if the club goes down. Upson has apparently also had a clause inserted in his contract, like the now injured Lucas Neill, allowing him to leave the club in the event of their relegation. The irony would not be lost on Birmingham fans if they fill West Ham's place in the division and Upson is forced to move on once more.

Wise words from the old man may yet win Bale

Alex Ferguson's well-timed and equally well-chosen words in the Gareth Bale transfer saga showed that while he might not be as sharp tactically as in the past, his skills of media manipulation are as strong as ever.
Just when it seemed like Spurs had stolen a march in the race to capture the highly-rated Bale, having tabled a higher offer than United and promised him regular first team football, in stepped Fergie.

''Southampton said no to us because they are looking for more money, which they have every right to do,'' he said.
''The bid we made for Gareth reflected his potential. There were a series of build-ups in it because we have to protect our own club's assets too.
''We offered an initial fee with add-ons depending on how many games he plays, international caps and so on.
''I am not exactly sure what Tottenham have offered more but they have offered more and that has put them in pole position at the moment".
''Anyone who guarantees a player first-team football every week is wrong,'' he said.
''There are so many examples of young players being given a chance at this club, no-one could dispute the fact they will get opportunities.
"Maybe the boy himself would need to assess that.
''The fees don't frighten me, although it can sometimes frustrate me a little bit.
''When you are talking about signing young players with potential, you hope your decision-making and your assessment of the player is correct.
''You hope he won't be there for just one contract but for two or three. Then you get the longevity from that player, as we have done in the past with the likes of Roy Keane, Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce and Denis Irwin.
''That is the only way you can assess it".

This is classic Ferguson, challenging Bale to back his judgement of how best to treat a young player, and pointing to the success experienced by those who have done so in the past. His words are made more persuasive by his immense reputation and the signs that United are finally re-establishing themselves as a dominant Premiership force once more. If Bale does snub Spurs for United, then Fergie will also have saved United a few million pounds, as Southampton have been guilty of driving up Bale's price and would surely not turn their nose up at 8 million pounds for a 17-year-old.

Of course there is no law that says Bale need join anyone in this transfer window, and even if he does not move to United, if he does not join Tottenham either then Ferguson will have achieved his objective. There is always the summer after all, and it would be no great surprise if Bale is wearing red in 2008.

More to come from Arsene's youngsters

While the football world salivates unashamedly at the performances of Arsene Wenger's young gunners in the Carling Cup, unfortunately for the rest of the Premiership they are just the tip of the iceberg. The maturity of Denilson, Hoyte and co. have caused such a stir that everybody seems to have forgotten about the others in the Emirates stable, sent out to Championship clubs on loan in order to gain experience.

Birmingham lead the Championship thanks in no small part to the goals of Niklas Bendtner, the guile of Sebastien Larsson and the presence of Fabrice Muamba. Arturo Lupoli is impressing as Derby challenge, Kerrea Gilbert a fixture at Cardiff, and so well stocked is Wenger's pantry that Anthony Stokes has been allowed to sign for Sunderland despite scoring three hat-tricks in the first half of the season while on loan at Falkirk. With others presumably in the system of who we have yet to hear, Arsene Wenger's stock will surely continue to rise long after his retirement.

England cannot give up the fight

England seem to have reached their lowest ebb this morning, another unbelievably inept batting performance meaning another crushing defeat at the hands of the Australians. Adelaide is fast becoming England's room 101, it is fair to say that England's performance with the bat in the second innings of the Test and in the one-dayer this morning have been the most forgettable moments of a car-crash tour that has provided nothing if not a new sense of perspective for those involved with English cricket. It is clear that this tour is now inflicting some serious scars, not least on Andrew Flintoff's captaincy and the batting of Andrew Strauss, but there is no let-up in the schedule of international cricket nowadays. It is crucial that these players are strong enough to draw a line under what has happened and move on with their lives and their game.

The players looked defeated in every sense of the word as they left the pitch today but they must raise themselves, as there are more days to come, in this tournament, the imminent World Cup and the Test series against the Windies that starts straight afterwards. How the players respond over the next few months will be crucial to the next few years of English cricket. They must stand up and be counted. Vaughan's return will help, if he can stay fit, but the young men who have looked just that this winter must now show us that they are England's future and not their past.

Jol fails tactical test

Another day and another top manager fails the tactical test against Arsene Wenger. Spurs were winning 1-0 after 20 minutes, and in truth it could have been four, yet Martin Jol reacted to an injury to Dimitar Berbatov by switching his formation to 4-5-1, putting Robbie Keane into what deserves to be dubbed the 'black hole' somewhere behind Jermain Defoe. Defoe was left horribly isolated, Spurs stopped playing football, and despite a second goal the excellence of their early football with Berbatov on the pitch was emphasised by the poverty of their attacking intent forthwith. Arsenal took full advantage of the space afforded them, with the unfairly talented substitute Hleb to the fore, and deservedly levelled the tie. Spurs and Jol have suffered from their lack of ambition in the same way that Alex Ferguson did at the Emirates on Sunday. Get amongst Arsenal. attack them, and they are vulnerable. Give them space and the will kill you. Jol may come to regret his timidity in a week's time.

The myth of Fergie proves hard to swallow

'Alex Ferguson has done supremely well to create yet another Manchester United team ready to mount a genuine challenge for the Premiership title'. So said the commentator during yesterdays encounter between United and Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Absolute codswallop.

United are clearly now a force to be reckoned with, but it is a scandal that it has taken them so long to compete consistently for the Premiership again since the decline of Roy Keane and co began over three years ago. Ferguson was far too slow to address the problems right in front of him. One need only look at their opponents yesterday to see how a ruthless approach is crucial when rebuilding a team. Arsene Wenger has culled Patrick Viera, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell and now Freddie Ljungberg and the result is a precocious, vibrant team that, although too inexperienced to compete this time around will be right in the mixer next season.

Ferguson's record at Manchester United is beyond reproach- 24 trophies in 20 years as manager, including eight Premiership titles and a European Cup, are figures that are unlikely to ever be rivalled in the modern game. However, in recent years, his powers have sadly and undeniably been on the wane. United have not won the Premiership since 2002/03, having been overtaken firstly by Arsenal and more recently Chelsea. Ferguson's biggest mistake was the refusal to recognise the need to replace an ageing spine. He held on to Keane for too long, and the players he signed as replacements were quite simply not good enough- Kleberson, Liam Miller and Eric Djemba-Djemba have long since left the club with their tails between their legs. He displayed the stubbornness of an old-man in refusing to admit he needed to make a high profile central midfield signing to replace Keane, recently making do instead with Fletcher, O'Shea, and even a striker in Smith, none of whom would be first choice in that position at most of the clubs in the top division. This streak also reared its head when it came to filling the goalkeeping position, Edwin van der Sar's recruitment coming after a season dithering between the initially impressive Tim Howard and the perennially incompetent Roy Carroll.

What is ironic is that Ferguson's defining moment as a manager came when he cut loose Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis and Mark Hughes at the end of the trophyless 1994-95 season. The experts thought he had gone mad, but Beckham, Scholes, Neville and Butt proved he had made the right decision. He had judged exactly the right moment to shift the balance of his team, and the youth combined perfectly with the experience of Cantona and Schmeichel to win the Premiership title. Wenger has followed this blueprint to perfection, and although success may take his side longer to come by, they are undoubtedly going the right way. While Ferguson may not have youngsters of the same quality as Wenger coming through, this cannot be used as an excuse as he has hardly been short of backing in the transfer market.

To that respect, can Ferguson really be credited as being a genius for spending 30million on Rio Ferdinand, 31million on Wayne Rooney, 18million on Carrick and 12million each on Ronaldo and Saha and and finally hitting on a successful formula. The team's improvement this year can be put down to the coming-of-age of Ronaldo and the return to form of Giggs and Scholes more than the manager's cunning.

While Ferguson's man-management may be as sharp as ever, so off has his tactical radar been at times in recent years that he has actually proved a hindrance rather than a boon to the outstanding talent at his disposal. The hallmark of Ferguson's sides of the nineties was their dashing attacking play, centering around the speed of Giggs, the accuracy of Beckham, and craft and dynamism up-front. All this was backed up by the driving force of Keane and Scholes. The formation was 4-4-2, not flash, but the best of British and damned effective.

Yesterday, United fans must have been scratching their heads as Ferguson went with 4-5-1 and Rooney on the left. It is a formation he has favoured in European games initially since the arrival of Veron and van Nistelrooy, and is one which has proved singularly ineffective. United have not got past the quarter-finals of the European Cup since they started using this formation. It compromises the main strength of Ferguson's teams- attacking at pace, yet he is too stubborn to admit defeat and persists still. It cost them dear yesterday as with a team full of attacking talent they failed to look capable of scoring the crucial second goal and paid for it with defeat. Rather than settling for one-nil, he should have trusted his fowards to put the game beyond Arsenal.

United are at their best with two mobile forwards, to that end their improvement since the departure of the cumbersome and selfish van Nistelrooy is no surprise. His goal-scoring record is clearly phenomenal, but his penalty-box mentality helped to make United one-paced and predictable in the long-term. His and Veron's signing's hint at Ferguson's surprising insecurity in his own tactics in the wake of United's European Cup success. He tried to change the team's style, to create a super-team to dominate Europe, and Veron, van Nistelrooy and the shift to 4-5-1 would be the final pieces in the jigsaw. Rather like Woody Allen trying to make serious films, it didn't work. He should have stuck with what he knew, it worked.

With his achievements at Aberdeen and Manchester United Alex Ferguson has earnt the right to be considered among the top tier of managers that the game has known. However, these successes should not cloud analysis of his performance in recent years, which have simply not been up to scratch with the resources at his disposal. Sadly, it is the continued exellence of his great rival Arsene Wenger which shows this up in the clearest light.

Will the transfer window please hurry up and shut

A small rant about the transfer window. Why on earth is it a month long? All the excitement that has built up between September and January at the prospect of some good old transfer speculation, the prospect of replacing the moron at left-back etc. quickly dissipates after two-and-a-half weeks of constant and often ridiculous rumours and very little action indeed.

Most transfers seem to happen either right at the beginning of the window or right at the end. The delay in deals is inevitable as clubs on either side of the deal wait until the last possible minute hoping to squeeze an extra bit of cash out of the buyer or force the seller to lower their price. We saw it a few years ago with Louis Saha and Scott Parker, and this window Watford have shamelessly created what amounts to an auction for Ashley Young, pretending they don't want to sell when they have intended to all along. After a while it just gets bloody boring, and you can't wait for the thing to shut again.

One solution would surely be to shorten it to two weeks. That way clubs have enough time to do their business, less time to stand-off against each other, and less time to bore us rigid.

Foolhardy West Ham must beware the Leeds effect

For West Ham fans, this transfer-window must be a bittersweet time. Their side sits 18th in the Premiership, but has just embarked on a spending spree unprecedented in the clubs history. Financed by the mysterious new owner Eggert Magnusson, Alan Curbishley has signed Luis Boa Morte for £5m, Callum Davenport for £3m, Nigel Quashie for £1.5m, bid £10m for Ashley Young, supposedly £12m for Darren Bent and are reportedly on the verge of signing Lucas Neill for £2m.

This in itself is not cause for alarm. Magnusson appears to have the money to finance the signings, and West Ham are in need of some major reinforcements if they are to beat the drop this season. What makes for uneasy reading is the salaries that West Ham are apparently offering (all these terms have been touted by the tabloids, so must be taken with a pinch of salt) to try and entice these players to a club in a relegation battle. Young, a 21-year-old with half a Premiership campaign behind him, was reportedly offered £50,000 a week over five years, taking the total value of his deal to £20m. Bent tried to take advantage of the madness and asked for £100,000, while Neill has apparently turned his back on the 'dream-move' to Liverpool that he has hankered for all season after the promise £50,000 a week at Upton Park was more attractive than a paltry £35,000 at Anfield.

Fine, if West Ham stay up this season the policy will be deemed a success. They will be another club with an owner prepared to support a massive wage-bill, as don't forget those already at the club will also demand an increase. Next season they may even challenge for Europe with their re-jigged squad, and go some-way to paying back these transfer fees.

But what if it goes wrong? West Ham fans know only to well there is no such thing as 'too good to go down', and relegation would be a financial disaster. The playing staff would surely have to be gutted, for example one cannot imagine Neill's new found allegiance to West Ham would extend to playing in the Championship. Not only this, the club would be left with a crippling wage bill. One only has to look at Leeds, still paying £46,000-a-week to a player as average as Gary Kelly, not to mention subsidising Robbie Fowler's contract at Liverpool, to see what effect this can have. They too sit in the bottom three of their division, only they find themselves in danger of oblivion, relegation to League 1, and this a club who reached the semi-finals of the Champions League five years ago. And what about Magnusson? Will he hang around to bail out his new toy? He displayed a calculated coldness in his treatment of Alan Pardew and West Ham fans must hope he does not treat their club the same way at the first sign of trouble.

This may just be a hypothetical scenario. West Ham may stay up, in three years they might be bloody good, and Magnusson might be there lapping up the applause. But, if they flop and end up going down with the Watford, it'll be very interesting to see how long Magnusson, Neill and co hang around to get them back up again.

England get it wrong again

No sooner had things seemed to be looking up for England, than Michael Vaughan's untimely injury has created unrest once again. The selectors have been forced to make the one decision they didn't want to, that is to choose once more which one of Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss will take the reigns in Vaughan's absence. In reappointing Flintoff they have shown a refusal to learn from what has happened this winter, a lack of leadership themselves and an inordinate lack of guts. The appointment is to cricket what the choice of Steve McLaren over Martin O'Neill and Sam Allardyce was to football.

The decision appears to have been based more on a desire to not risk upsetting Flintoff than on any sound logic, much as it was before the Ashes, when Strauss could also have been given the job. The argument seems to be that to demote him from the role for a second time would be to make him a scapegoat for the team's failure, and the selectors want to show he has their backing. However, they should think more about Flintoff's long-term wellbeing and that of the team, rather than his appeasement in the short-term.

The Flintoff who attended today's press conference looked shattered, understandably, after the mauling both he and his team have been subjected to this winter by not only the Australians, but the media. He is already the scapegoat, regardless of the management's support. It may simply be coincidence that he produced his best performance of the tour on Tuesday, freed of the responsibility of captaincy. Regardless, such is his importance now to England's cause in Pietersen's absence, as their one world-class one-day player, it seems madness to over-burden him further.

The selectors have backed themselves into a corner now, much as they did at the start of last summer. By so prematurely appointing Flintoff as Vaughan's stand-in for the duration of the summer, they had little room for manouevre when it came to choosing the Ashes captain. Strauss' success in orchestrating a whitewash against Pakistan had made him the more viable option, but to appoint him would have constituted a massive snub to Flintoff. Similarly now, where can they turn when the captaincy becomes an issue again after Vaughan is gone? Will they again seek to protect Flintoff's ego, or make a decision based on the facts?

Flintoff had enjoyed success in India, galvanising a young team to victory in Mumbai. However, the cracks in his command shown when India briefly threatened at Nagpur were widened to chasms in Australia. He could not deliver on his promise to get the best out of Steve Harmison, and was unfortunately dragged into the selection mud-slinging by Duncan Fletcher. Tellingly, the team did not pull together under him when things went wrong. Splits emerged, accusations were thrown and performance levels dropped.
This is not to chastise Flintoff as a man, more to recognise that captaincy is an art in itself. It is an art that no amount of charisma can bluff you through. Charisma is of minor importance compared to a shrewd tactical brain, a knowledge of how to get the best out of individuals and an immunity to criticism. Vaughan, somewhat surprisingly, soon showed himself to possess all these qualities, and his strength as a leader of men is in stark contrast to Flintoff. Flintoff is cricket's Kevin Keegan, full of blood and guts and passion, but found lacking when it mattered most. That is why his re-appointment is a backward step.

There will soon come a time when there is no prospect of Vaughan returning to clear up the mess, and England's failure to draw a line under Flintoff's captaincy, to admit that it didn't work, is disturbing indeed. Strauss deserves his chance to stake a claim. He may not be the answer, but this winter has shown that Flintoff isn't either.

Newcastle show story-book can be reality....

Yesterday's match at White Hart Lane between Tottenham and Newcastle served as a welcome reminder of football's occasional ability to rise above the hum-drum and produce a genuine story-book ending.

Newcastle simply had no right to win the game. Missing a whole team, and a bloody good one at that, through injuries, they were most decimated in defence - reduced to fielding a back four of a right-winger and three raw, if talented, youngsters.

Early on a rout seemed on the cards, as Spurs poured forward with pace and verve and could have had four inside ten minutes. Surely Newcastle couldn't hold on? They didn't, Defoe had the ball in the net on 13, his third good chance, ironically this one was offside. Yet however inexperienced Newcastle's defence may have been, they had Given, and he was all that mattered. Captain in Parker's absence, he was as acrobatic in the early stages as Robinson was static when the ball drilled through his legs to make it 1-1. Spurs had led for just two minutes, and the scorer was the 19-year old left-back Huntingdon, in just his eighth appearance for the club. Boys-own stuff indeed. His other fullback wasn't doing badly either- Solano was everywhere, coming up with several goal-saving blocks as Spurs laid siege again. One such lunge to deny Tainio met with rough-justice as the rebound fell to Berbatov, who volleyed down into the ground and in. It looked like game over. Surely Tottenham, boasting a home record bettered only by Manchester United and Liverpool, would go on and win comfortably.

Thankfully football takes no notice of statistics. After Martins had smashed the equaliser Spurs looked stunned. So stunned, in fact, that they neglected to track Butt's midfield run and the game was lost. Butt, the match-winner, had of course spent all-week in bed with flu, losing 9lb's in the process. To add to the irony, he could easily have been sent off at half-time after an unsightly fracas first with Chimbonda and then his own team-mates. But that would have ruined the story.

Spurs will hang their heads, 24 shots and just two goals tells the tale, but they should take comfort from this when they next find themselves in trouble, and remember that occasionally the story-book comes true.

More Beefy and Boony ads....

Here's some more Beefy and Boony ads.... as well as an interview with the stars of the show!
Ad 1 / Ad 2 / Interview

England's cricketers must take note of Boothroyd's Watford

Catching the end of the Watford v Liverpool game earlier today, I watched mindlessly for a while before my eye was drawn to the score at the top of the screen. Watford were trailing 3-0, a score unsurprising in itself, yet one that did not seem in keeping with the game in front of me. Here was a side in Watford, 10 points adrift of safety with one win all season, facing another heavy defeat at home. By right they should have been a rabble, yet they continued to pour forward with verve and passion long after the game was lost. Liverpool- clearly superior in every department, would every so often slice through the opposition rearguard at will, but Watford, unfazed, came straight back at them, refusing to admit defeat. Here is a team with solid leadership- Adie Boothroyd is a strong, shrewd character who has no pretensions of where his team stands in the world order. Their pool of talent is lower than any other team in the Premiership yet they continue to perform above themselves, and hold their heads high. He has instilled in them a sense of pride in performance and a commitment that should embarrass many teams above them, and if they are relegated this season will no doubt return soon.

Among those who should take note are England's cricketers. The talent at their disposal is in a different league to Watford's, yet they have been reduced to a running joke before our eyes, precisely because they lacked what Watford have in abundance - strong leadership and a clear sense of direction. When a team lacks this, the wheels come off very quickly, as we have seen in Australia, as panic sets in and quickly becomes contagious. Strong leadership in itself is not a guarantee of success, but certainly a step in the right direction. What Boothroyd would make of Steve Harmison's antics one can only imagine. Michael Vaughan's strength of character has been emphasised by his absence, and his return has come not a moment to soon.

Assault and battery

Some lovely quotes about the West Indies' legendary pace attack....

"That was not great captaincy. That was barbarism." - Sunil Gavaskar on Clive Lloyd's handling of his attack, 1976.

"We have a saying in the West Indies- If you want to drive, buy a car."- Michael Holding told it straight in the 1980s.

"There's no rule against bowling fast."- Clive Lloyd.

Beefy and Boony: The Ad campaign!

Check out this link for the video for the Beefy and Boony ad campaign. Amazing.

English footballer? Heading abroad...? Beware.......

David Beckham's move to LA Galaxy spells the end of his career as a serious footballer at the age of just 31. While Beckham finds himself in the not exactly unfortunate position of earning half-a-million pounds a week, he cannot ever have envisaged his career unfolding in this way during the glory-days at Manchester United at the end of the last century. In a strange way, his bravest career move has hastened the end. Where was there for Beckham to go after Madrid? Tottenham? Bolton? West Ham? I don't think so... Italy perhaps, where one of the Milan clubs would no doubt have been keen to add him to their stable of global names, but he would merely have been treading water, trotting around for a season or two before the clock ticked for the final time. Rather than this he has embraced a new challenge in America, and should be commended for taking control of his future. He need only look at the fortunes of the other major English players who have played abroad since the 1990 World Cup to see the wisdom in his decision.

Three members of that 1990 team left for Italy soon after, and suffered mixed fortunes. Des Walker, at the time one of the most promising central defenders in Europe, joined Sampdoria, coached by a certain Sven. He was rescued by Sheff Wed a season later, but a serious injury deprived him of his pace and his England career ended in 1994 aged just 29, although he played on in the domestic game. Reasons for Gazza's demise are well documented, and he did not return to the England until he was well past his best in 1998, and was another not to play for England beyond the age of 31. David Platt was the third, and like Paul Ince a few years later, won plaudits in Italy, but on their return to England both found themselves gradually fazed out by their new clubs, Arsenal and Liverpool respectively. Steve McManaman returned after double European Cup success to play half-heartedly for Man City, before retiring in his early thirties last season. Of the current crop Michael Owen was forced to join Newcastle when no-one else would end his Real nightmare, while Johnathan Woodgate swapped Madrid for Teesside. Robbie Keane has been a success at Spurs, but I'm not sure his six months in Milan really counts.

What it adds up to is that players who have moved abroad have found the fanfared return home a decidedly anticlimactic experience. Far better that we remember Beckham for what he was in 2000, however much he tarnished this with his plodding in Germany, than for what he would be at West Ham in two years time.

England's top six... now or then?

Something that has been festering in the back of my mind for a while, and that has been exacerbated by our flimsiness in the Ashes, is the question of just how much better our top six are now than they were a decade ago? Call it rose-tinted specs, but I can't help thinking that a top-six including Atherton, Hussain, Thorpe, Stewart plus any two from: Butcher, Hick, Ramprakash, Crawley etc, would be a match for the current side. Granted- Hick, Ramps and Crawley never really did it for England, but all, at one stage or another, looked like they could have gone on to be the real deal. Under Fletcher that may have been different, but that is digressing.
The point I am making, is that our current top-order are flattered horribly by their averages. In this i am not narrowing the argument to games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, as at the present moment all the bowling attacks around the world are significantly weaker than they were in the 90s. Mike Atherton for example was made to work particularly hard for his runs, opening the batting against attacks such as Pollock and Donald of South Africa, Ambrose and Walsh from the Windies, Waqar and Wasim from Pak, McGrath and Gillespie from Oz, Vaas from SL and Srinath and Prasad from India, not to mention Cairns and Nash from NZ. To these add Kumble, Warne and Murali.
Looking around the World now, where are the quality pace bowlers? McGrath is all but gone, Lee is inconsistent, Shoaib and Bond never fit, Harmison gutless, Malinga, Jerome Taylor, Edwards and Steyn quick but raw. Sreesanth looks promising, while Pollock, Vaas, Stuart Clark and Hoggard perform with consistent success at a lesser pace. Ntini's excellence only serves to emphasise just how few fast bowlers there are in their prime today. As a result, runs must surely be considered cheaper now, even if there is more quality spin to contend with. How that top-order of a decade ago would fare now we'll never know, but it is worth considering that Strauss and co may not be quite the force we thought, and questioning whether we would have felt comfortable with Flintoff batting at six against any of the above attacks? This argument could run and run, the statistics have not even been touched here,but for the good of the game let us hope that the missing pacemen reappear soon.

Ganguly pinpoints England's problems.... No Afzaal.....

Now he's back in the India side Sourav Ganguly has decided to turn his hand to solving the worries of the England one-day team. The solution, he believes, is none other than Northants pie-muncher Usman Afzaal. Yes, Usman Afzaal. No, you haven't misread, Usman Afzaal.

“I have seen a lot of England’s ODI performances over the last couple of years, including the two in the Champions Trophy. I am very surprised that there is not room in that England team for Usman Afzaal.

If I was Michael Vaughan I would want Northamptonshire’s Usman Afzaal in my team. I have played with him at Northamptonshire and seen him play Test cricket for England and he is a consistent and brilliant one day player. He has that extra bit of special talent that is needed in one day cricket to be able to keep things going at the right momentum whatever the conditions.

He showed in his last test innings, which was against the world champs Australia and in which he made 50 odd, that he not only has class but also the temperament to succeed against the best. I just can’t see what he has done wrong to be consistently ignored by the selectors. He is the type of player that England need, especially in the sub-continent given that he is a one of the best players of spin bowling in England.”

Old Sourav obviously chooses to gloss over the fact that Afzaal looked anything but a Test player during his brief appearances in 2001, but, in fairness, he was a youngster, and he did average 64 in Pro-40 cricket last summer. The real clout behind the story soon emerges however, as Ganguly played with Afzaal at Northants last season, and the pair share the same agent. Cynical? Me? Never...

Brett makes India sweat

Slightly surreally, Brett Lee has shot to number 4 in the Indian music charts with his duet with Bollywood legend Asha Bhosle, entitled You're the one for me. Lee shot the video during last-year's Champions Trophy, and plays a foreigner trying to woo the locals. Hmmmm. Rumours that Mark Butcher was spotted on a plane to Bombay this morning are unconfirmed. Check out Brett for yourselves here.

Clarke goes for a quick Bingle....

News from the Australia camp is that Michael Clarke has been warming up for the one-dayers with scrumptious Channel-9 hottie Lara Bingle. Rumour has it that Clarke has dumped his girlfriend of eight years to be with Bingle, who has previously been linked to an affair with AFL star Brendan Fevola. As much as Statistics aren't everything does not condone this sort of behaviour, you can't really blame them....

'The thousand-yard stare of a Vietnam vet'

Spotted this quote on The Corridor and it's too good not to post. It's Simon Barnes, writing in The Australian, talking, in this excerpt, about England's surrender at Adelaide. Typically, it's brilliant.

It was cricket as it might have been written by Kafka: a hideous punishment, as unjust as it was incomprehensible, inflicted on people who had earned the right to expect better things from life. It was like playing cricket against the Gestapo: cricket as a form of atrocity in which resistance is useless. It was cricket as torture, in which pain and hatred become distorted into a loving and grateful submission to the torturer.
I shall never forget the streets of Adelaide afterwards, the numb shock of the England supporters. These things don’t happen. We couldn’t have seen that. Brains simply refused to process the information they had received. The England press corps, a more resilient bunch on the whole, were to be found the next day at the airport, each with the thousand-yard stare of the Vietnam vet.

Hands off TMS

In the most worrying turn of events to hit cricket coverage since Sky got their grubby mitts on the Test matches, there is speculation that the BBC are looking to revolutionise their Test Match Special radio program. Michael Henderson, writing in the Guardian, informs us that the top brass in the BBC are looking to modernise the programme, in their speak 'make it more accessible'. This immediately sets alarm bells ringing, and if these are the same PC idiots who appointed someone who has clearly never watched a game of cricket in their life to front the BBC Ashes highlights, not to mention letting Graeme le Saux and Lee Dixon loose on Match of the Day, then trouble could be afoot. In an era where our cricket is monopolised by Sky's charmless and banal coverage, TMS has provided a welcome escape from the colourless monotony of Ian Ward, Nasser Hussain, Bob Willis and co. Of course aspects of the programme need tweaking, as Henderson admits, but one can only hope that Blowers and Aggers survive the cull. They were born with what Hussain and Ward will never own- a voice capable of bringing cricket to life. The influx of ex-pro's are slowly squeezing the life out of sport's commentary in this country. Brian Johnstone must be turning in his grave.

Calm down Nasser....

Mike Atherton's interview with Steve Harmison after the close of the third day's play at Sydney has thrown up some interesting reactions..... Harmison's apathetic responses to some probing questions from Athers were obviously extremely disappointing, if, sadly, unsurprising. The difference in the style of reactions to this from two former England captains- Athers himself, and Nasser Hussain, has been particularly interesting. Hussain commentates as he captained: full of passion. "Ask the coach? Steve, how long have you been around? Ask yourself mate," he bellowed at the camera, eyes bulging, forehead gleaming. What he said was true, no doubt. It made for good television too, but still left one feeling slightly uneasy. The frenetic manner in which he voiced his thoughts, as though he were still central to the action, betrays how difficult he has found it to give himself a distance from the game that is obviously still his life. Athers, on the other hand, has broadened his perspective, writing a book on gambling among other projects, and this separation from the game has clearly benefitted his writing. His response to Harmison's words came a few days later in the Sunday Telegraph, and were delivered with a cool, considered, clinical touch which gave them far more clout than Hussain's tirade. Atherton is a Cambridge graduate and a good writer, but if Hussain is to prove himself worth listening to, he must learn some of the detachment that has become a hallmark of his former team-mate. If not, he will end up like another former England captain, Ian Botham. Botham's eagerness to offer up sensational opinions on just about everything illustrates how great players do not always make great analysts, and explains why people stopped paying attention to him a long time ago.

New Hope for Edgar?

After watching the hilarity that was the Bristol Rovers' 'ecstatic' delayed reaction to an away trip to glamorous Derby County on Sky Sports News I was shocked to see that Edgar Davids had taken some time off the Spurs reserves bench to do the draw. Mild disappointment set in when i realised that it was in fact England women's 'legend' Hope Powell....

What about Flower?

This weeks one-dayers will most likely see England fielding a 36-year-old wicketkeeper in Paul Nixon, and captained by a 32-year-old who has hardly played cricket for a year. Clearly, in the wake of the Ashes debacle any notions of planning for the future have gone out of the window, which begs the question as to why Andy Flower was not considered for selection, either for the one-dayers or indeed the main Ashes event? Granted, Flower is 38 and has not kept wicket at Essex for several seasons, but his batting would have added much-needed depth to England's fragile top-order, and allowed Andrew Flintoff to move down to number 7. Now England-qualified, he has even been in Perth as the A team's batting coach. It would, of course, not have been a long term move, but Flower scored 1424 runs at 67 in Division 1 of the championship last season, and quite clearly still has what it takes, especially when you consider Alec Stewart played for England until he was almost 40. If there was talent coming through, then this would have been a backward step, but the next cab off the rank from here, presuming Read and Jones are finished, is not immediately obvious. Matt Prior's technical deficiencies were clear in the ODIs he played, although he remains in the A squad, while for some reason Fletcher does not seem to fancy James Foster. Steven Davies at Worcestershire apparently has immense promise, but the selectors thankfully appear to have learnt their lessons when it comes to blooding young keepers with Read and Foster, and should allow him to develop his batting in county cricket first. Pothas at Hampshire has been mentioned, but at the moment Nixon looks in pole-position, which is not something that seemed likely barely even a month ago. If, then, age is suddenly not a problem, then why not Flower?

Bowling Mushy.....

Top Performer article from CricInfo on Mushtaq Ahmed... Click here

Read this before buying the Wii!

Anyone about to buy the Nintendo Wii should read this first, ConnecTv cricket epitomises the problems of 'physical' gaming... Here's my review on CricInfo

Amateur hour

A review of John Woods' book Test Cricket Annual 2005-06 on CricInfo... As you'll see, it wasn't great.... Click here...

Interview with Sir Garry Sobers

In November I was fortunate enough to interview Sir Garry Sobers, Wes Hall and Gordon Greenidge, but unfortunate enough to have a malfunctioning tape recorder... A great experience nonetheless... Here's an excerpt using the ten minutes i did get....

Oh dear Bob....

"I wouldn't enjoy making my living by criticising my former colleagues".

Bob Willis, 1983. The door's open Bob, and take Allott and the others with you.

Devon the destroyer

"I know you. You are the destroyer".

Nelson Mandela's words to Devon Malcolm in Soweto in 1995 made little impression on Raymond Illingworth.

'I don't like you Reeve'

"I don't like you Reeve. I never have have liked you. You get right up my nose, and if you come anywhere near me i'll rearrange yours".

David Lloyd gets it just right with Dermot Reeve.

Viv Richards: Record breaker

Article on CricInfo on when Viv Richards became the the first person to score a hundred and take five-for in an ODI... He remained the only man to have achieved this until Paul Collingwood no less battered Bangladesh in 2005.... Click here

CricInfo: Review of EA Cricket '07

Cricket 07 sadly fails to stir the blood, click here for my review on CricInfo

Poor old Gus

'Eeyore without the joie de vivre'- Mike Selvey on Angus Fraser