The Future Now

Consistently inconsistent

Two indications that summer has finally arrived in the UK:  It's warm and sunny - no doubt by the end of the week we'll be in the midst of heatwave of which we ungrateful Brits will complain as vociferously as we do about the more typical lack of warmth - and the England cricket teams is once again performing like a bunch of one-legged budgerigars.

After an early season series win over a poor New Zealand side, word was that England would come unstuck against the recently much improved proteas.  And so it has come to pass.  For the first two days of the Lord's test, England batted well, albeit on a (very) flat pitch.  But they then failed to bowl out South Africa taking just three wickets in the last two days. For those of you not well-versed in test match cricket, that's twelve hours of play.

As I write, England are one wicket away from an innings defeat in the second test at Headingly, having been comprehensively outplayed in every department.

So why are England so consistently inconsistent.  It's not just at cricket that we fail to live up to expectations and to deliver the kind of team performance of which such a good (on paper) collection of individuals should be capable; the same happens routinely on the soccer and rugby fields.

We Brits seem to have lost the ability to excel at team sports.  Our football teams may do well in Europe, but then they field very few home grown players.

The two sports at which we are currently able to punch above our weight are golf - look how many Brits (including the amateur, Chris Wood) did well in the Open at Royal Birkdale which concluded yesterday, and cycling, in which we are phenomenal.  And these are both individual rather than team events.  On the other hand, we perform very badly at tennis, compared, for example, with the French.

I don't have an explanation for these continuing failures - especially those on the cricket field - but it is getting a little tedious.  The Australians are back next year, and a home whitewash is surely on the cards.

ps: thanks to Stuart Broad, at least South Africa are having to bat again, but with just nine runs required, it hardly seems worth the bother.

Ski-less Sunday

I have a piece over at comment is free just now lamenting the dumbing down of much of what is shown on TV these days.  Specifically the new format applied to the BBC's Ski Sunday which, on the evidence of last weekend's programme, has pretty much dispensed with skiing.

The Third Coming

So Kevin Keegan is to return as manager to Newcastle United Football Club.  I like Keegan: his autograph, in gold if I remember correctly, decorated my very first pair of football boots.

Much has been written about Newcastle in the last few days.  Frank Clark reckons it's an almost impossible to club to manage.  Chris Dillow offers the most insightful explanation of the club's ongoing difficulties, even if Michael Hann provides the most stimulating.

What Newcastle fans tend to forget is that Keegan is a perennial nearly-man.  Although he won honours at Liverpool, he left for Germany after just one European Cup success.  He was the star player in a very mediocre England team which failed to qualify for either the 1974 or 1978 world cups.  And while he transformed Newcastle during his first period in charge, he is best remembered for getting pipped at the post for the premier league crown by Manchester United in 1996.

His appointment is symptomatic of much that is wrong with the sport in the UK.  It's the boot it upfield and hope approach to footballing success.   Not that Keegan's Newcastle are likely to adopt such tactics.

I wish him all the luck in the world.  I suspect he's one of the more genuine blokes in the game, and football in this country would certainly benefit from a revival at St James's Park.