We're Number One !

It's a great time to be an English cricket fan. And speaking as hardy types who endured a time when it was considered a good idea to make Chris Cowdrey England captain (did that actually happen or have we invented it as an apocryphal story ?, no just checked Wikipedia it did happen.) I think we deserve to enjoy it.

I don't think its fanciful to compare them with the Aussie team of the 90s and early 2000s. In terms of batting if a couple of players fail somebody always comes good. And the bowlers are a proper unit who hunt in packs. But most of all they have that 'fuck you' bullying attitude that the Aussies had. So even if the opposition show some resistance they're patient then bang ! One out three out.

The Beautiful Game

Well we're out, spectacularly out. I mean amazingly out. Mainly as the result of some defending that at the most charitable could be described as amateurish. The main talking point through the game was about the blatant goal that England were denied. Now this should not totally distract from England's woefulness. However it was clearly a turning point. Had we come back from 2-0 to 2-2 in two minutes then we truly would have been sailing with the wind full behind us and I think we could certainly have gone on to win the game.

The inevitable talking point after the game surrounds the further introduction of technology. I am certainly in favour of goal-line technology. However the difficulty this brings is that ionce introduced for goalline technology pandora's box is openned. As I type Argentina are leading in a game where their first goal came from a laughably offside position. Lineker et al are discussing how they could use technology for that. And therein lies the problem. So I'm inclined to think stuff it. Don't bother with any of it and just let the officials do their job. As a white midle class male I have little to kvetch about. It may as well be about that instead of immigrants nicking my job or women being confident in themselves getting me into a lather.

As for England. There is something rotten in the state of our football and I think it is all about money. We have few brilliant up and coming players and those that are up and coming cannot play in the premier league because our teams are 75% made of foreign players. We are told that we have the best league in the world. But what this means, and lets be clear it is Sky and The Premier league who say this, is it is the richest league in the world.

Except that it is bankrupt. Half the clubs are heavily indebted. Meanwhile we have lost to a young German side. I can't help but think it is significant that German teams have a rule about so many young German players being in every matchday squad. This can never fly in this country because it may harm their chances in the Champions' league which would adversely effect their ability to service their debts. How I pray for the day when English club football's bubble eventually bursts. Its coming I know. One of the bigger teams will collapse and there will be nothing the premier league can do about it. The only losers will be the money men. The fans will survive.