A news review of the week

This week’s news headlines have been dominated by the tragic events in Cumbria where crazed gunman, Derrick Bird, shot dead twelve people on Wednesday. Thankfully, such incidents are rare in our country. Nevertheless, the incident has provoked the inevitable questions on the state of our nation’s gun-laws and whether or not they’re too lax. I was pleased to hear David Cameron’s reaction to such accusations. Of course, all laws should be subject to review in light of such an incident. However, we must also take note of the fact that our gun-laws in the UK are amongst the toughest in the world. 99.99% of all those that own shotguns or high-powered .22 rifles in this country are stable, law-abiding individuals. Sadly, the nature of human-kind will always leave laws open to some degree of exploitation and I am afraid that this appears the case in the tragic events in Cumbria.

The news has also continued to focus on Israel’s continued blockade of the Gaza strip in order to prevent the smuggling of terrorists or weapons into the region. Today, we learn that an Irish aid ship has been peacefully boarded and searched by Israeli authorities. I blogged previously on the original incident involving the Mavi Marmara and the clamour against Israel appears to have reduced as the facts (and video-footage) of the incident has emerged. I will continue to make the case that for as long as Hamas and other neighbours of Israel pursue violence, terror and deny the Jewish state’s right to exist, then  the blockade to prevent the smuggling of arms and terrorists into Gaza is entirely justified.

It has also been another tough week for British forces serving in Afghanistan. In the last week, two Royal Marines lost their lives in the service of their country and today, we learn that two servicemen from 1 Bt. The Mercian Regiment have also been killed in action. As summer closes in, we must brace ourselves for an increase in casualties as we continue to fight to make Afghanistan a safe-haven from terrorists. In order to honour those who have fallen, it is important that our mission-goals in Afghanistan are achieved.

Finally (and I couldn’t ‘not’ mention the World Cup), Rio Ferdinand, England’s captain has been ruled out of the tournament because of an injury picked up in training. As a Manchester United fan, I am personally gutted for Rio and happen to rate him as one of the best centre-halves in the world. No doubt also that Emile Heskey will be best remembered for his tournament-ending tackle on the England captain in training.

Premiership Dream XI 2009/10

As the Premiership reaches its end for the 2009/10 season, I will be offering my thoughts on not only a Dream Team of the Season!

I offer my starting XI for 2009/10:

• Edwin Van Der Sar (Man Utd- GK)- The Dutch veteran has been in imperious form when not affected by injury. Shay Given and Brad Friedel gave him a run for his money at Man City and Aston Villa respectively.
• Glenn Johnson (Liverpool-RB)- The young right-back has begun to make the position his own in the England side. Despite playing in a poor Liverpool squad, his performances, increasingly in defence, have been excellent.
• Richard Dunne (Aston Villa-CB)- Man City should curse their short-sightedness by leaking in goals in his absence. Aston Villa have capitalised on a strong, confident and reliable centre-back.
• John Terry (Chelsea-CB)- Personal problems have hardly affected England’s best centre-back and he has continued to lead Chelsea from the front.
• Patrice Evra  (Man Utd-LB)- Hardly any competiton for the left-back spot, both defensively and going forward, Evra has established himself as one of the best left-backs in the world.
• James Milner (Aston Villa-RM)- Milner has been a revelation this season both scoring and assisting goals at Villa. He has also become and England regular and deserves a starting berth in Capello’s England side.
• Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal-CM)- Fabregas has had yet another unbelievable season for Arsenal but has again ended trophyless. 15+ goals, plenty of assists and bigger clubs are inevitable chasing the Arsenal whizzkid.
• Frank Lampard (Chelsea-CM)- Lampard’s consistency season upon season gets him the starting place above Steven Gerrard. He scors goals, assists, tackles, passes and leads. He may well still win a league-cup domestic double this season.
• Antonio Valencia (Man Utd-LM)- Valencia came to United with the biggest boots in football to fill. Whilst he has not got the quality of Ronaldo, he has been an attacking menace down either flank and his goal and assist tally gives him a deserved spot in the starting XI.
• Didier Drogba (Chelsea-ST)- Another great goal tally, strong (if a little like jelly in the tackle) and a menace as much in the six-yard box as outside the eighteen-yard box.
• Wayne Rooney (Man Utd-ST)- Simply the best player in the Premiership this season and probably second only to Messi in the world. Class.

Warming the bench: Brad Friedel (Aston Villa-GK), Thomas Vermaelen (Arsenal-CB), Carlos Cuellar (Aston Villa-RB/CB/LB), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool-CM), Andre Arshavin (Arsenal-RM/CM/LM), Carlos Tevez (Man City-ST), Fernando Torres (Liverpoool-ST).

Cricket: a game of human error and endeavour

Sporting beauty has innumerable facets, but for many of us its greatest attraction lies in the potential for romance. At some point in our ordinary existence, we have played the perfect cover-drive, holed the 25-foot uphill putt, or performed a step-over that left opposition defenders with twisted blood. For that infinitesimal moment, we were Garfield Sobers, Jack Nicklaus or Christiano Ronaldo, with the world our oyster and dreams safely cosseted away from cold reality.

From the time we could grip a bat, we could argue like the best of our heroes. Anyone who remembers like me, kwik-cricket with stumps chalked on a playground wall could tell you that rants and raves were never far away. Those who couldn’t argue took the coward’s way out, skulking home with bat, ball or stumps while the rest jeered and hurled derogatory insults. Leg-before decisions were a parallel universe, and each time the ball slammed into the shin, someone over-eager for a bat would raise the finger. If you were at the receiving end, you whined but it didn’t stop you coming back for more the next day! 

That was the reason most of us went out to play in the first place. If you were the school dunce (just ask a few from my old school-team- Manuel), you could never dream of perfect marks, but on the field, even the most hopeless case could edge the boundary that won a match for his team. Nothing was black-and-white, and we found beauty in the many hues of grey.  And then came along technology. Suddenly, people needed to stare at slow-motion replays to see if a batsman was short of his crease. Batsmen, who used to nonchalantly stroll about the crease after getting the faintest nick through to the keeper, were found out by ingenious little devices like the snick-o-meter. They even took the uncertainty out of the lbw – sport’s equivalent of Russian roulette – by inventing an elaborate tracking system called Hawk-Eye.

So where and how will this trait end? If technology had been fashionable back in 1987, Sunil Gavaskar might have finished his final Test a winner. Instead, he was given out caught off the arm-guard when on 96, as India fell 16 agonising runs short of a famous victory, but do we really care? Indians savour that innings because it ended the way it did- that is part of the romance and the human error of our great game. Cricket’s splendour lies in the fact that while the best team on the day always prevails – that doesn’t happen in football or hockey, where a fluke goal can win a game – there is still plenty of opportunity to bemoan your fate: the no-ball that wasn’t called, the inner edge that kissed the stumps without toppling the bails, or the leg-before that the umpire haughtily turned away. Regardless of whether you’re Sachin Tendulkar or IM Pathetic, we’ve all been at the receiving end of what we’ve perceived, rightly or wrongly, as daylight robbery.

 But it’s not as though match officials haven’t made us smile down the years. We loved Dickie Bird’s just as we loved Pierluigi Collina’s shining pate and Martian eyes. The day you bring in machines, and eliminate human error – bat-pad catches wrongly given, legal goal disallowed – what would we talk about? “We wuz robbed” is every fan’s favourite theme. Take away the mistakes, and you might conceivably get perfect decisions … and no one to talk about them. We’ll take our beauty with a few scars.