Daily Mail - 27.08.2019

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Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 27, 2019

THE favourite for the job as chief executive of

the Football League is Jez Moxey, now CEO of

Burton Albion but best remembered for his

time in a similar role with Wolves. As such he

helped take the club into League One with a

£25m wage bill because it had not been

anticipated that players’ contracts would

need cutting in the event of relegation.

It was also Moxey who spoke of establishing

Wolves in the Premier League as a priority,

the same season they fell out of it. Still, he did

at least appoint the man who began to turn

the club around, Kenny Jackett — even if at

the time he was Wolves’ fifth manager in 16

months. These are troubling times for the

Football League and insight into why some

clubs turn into absolute disaster areas would

very much come in handy. Perhaps this is

what makes Moxey the frontrunner, it being

one topic on which he is surely well versed.

ALUKO STORY YET

TO BE FULLY TOLD

IT IS very

understandable that

umpire Carlos Ramos

and Serena Williams

were kept apart at

this year’s US open.

It was Ramos who

provoked Williams’

spectacular loss of

control there last

season when he dared

treat her like any

other player. ‘You will

never, ever be on

another court of mine

as long as you live,’

Williams (right) raged.

And Ramos hasn’t.

Some think the

United States Tennis

Association have

chickened out, but a

Williams game with

Ramos in charge

would have become a

circus. To be fair on

her, the umpire, and

the opponent, it was

best left to lie.

Just as long as it is

remembered who

was responsible for

this unfortunate

state of affairs.

It wasn’t Ramos.

THERE is no pleasure in

reporting that, for the

second season in

succession, West Ham

failed to win a league

game until Jack

Wilshere was absent

from the starting

line-up.

Both times, the club

won its first

outing without Wilshere

(below) by scoring three

goals. Manuel Pellegrini has

faith, but Premier League

football is increasingly

passing Wilshere by.

It appears he will need

months more than weeks

to get match ready, and

no club can afford to

wait that long.

GAME IS PASSING WILSHERE BY

MAXINE BLYTHIN, the transgender

cricketer with ambitions to represent

England’s women, also plays at club level for a

local men’s team.

For Chesham second XI, she has an average

for 15. For her women’s team, St Lawrence

and Highland Court, her average is 129.

At the weekend Blythin made 145 not out

against Ansty, who were all out for 155. Her

numbers in men’s 2nd XI cricket suggest a

distinctly average talent. Transported to the

Women’s Southern League Premiership,

however, she becomes a star, and a county

player for Kent.

Blythin identifies as a woman, which is her

right. Only those in complete denial, though,

would refuse to concede this raises serious

issues around the future of women’s sport.

Poch is refusing to face facts

MAURICIO POCHETTINO is an

intelligent man. So it

always seems bizarre that

he is tetchy when probed

on team selection in the

wake of defeat.

‘If the score was 3-0 you

wouldn’t ask me,’ he said

on Sunday, questioned

why Christian Eriksen did

not start. And, yes, when a

manager wins 3-0 his

every call is vindicated.

But the score wasn’t 3-0.

It was 1-0 to Newcastle

and Tottenham lacked

creativity. So, does

Pochettino no longer rate

Eriksen? Does he want to

sell Eriksen? Is he trying to

make the player unhappy

so he will take any move on

offer before the European

transfer window deadline?

And of what benefit would

that be to Pochettino,

considering he cannot

recruit a replacement with

the money? It makes no

sense — although neither

does failing to equate

results and talking points.

Late arrival:

Eriksen

came on

after 62

minutes

GETTY IMAGES

ENI ALUko says that

many of her England

team-mates have

never apologised for

failing to support her

claim of racism

against Mark

Sampson, and its

handling by the

Football Association.

She has written an

autobiography and

says the low point was

seeing her former

colleagues racing over

to celebrate a goal

with Sampson when

the allegations were

at their height.

There has never been

a convincing

explanation for that

public show of

support. Why were the

players still behind

their manager given

what was being

alleged? And why,

even now, are they not

behind Aluko (above)?

Maybe it will take

more than one book

on the subject for

both sides of that

story to come out.

RIGHT TO SEPARATE

SERENA AND RAMOS

ARE EFL AFTER AN

EXPERT IN FAILURE?

From this morass of mundan-
ity, the game shifted. There was
a faint chance England might
win. Ashley Giles and Darren
Gough skittled Pakistan, and
England were set 176 at a rate
of four per over, given the time
remaining.
Pakistan then went on a
match-throttling go-slow.
Saqlain Mushtaq took eight
minutes to bowl one over,
Waqar Younis took four min-
utes to arrange the field. The
hero of the hour was referee
Ranjan Madugalle, who used
the tea break to pointedly
inform Pakistan captain Moin
khan that these overs would
be completed, whatever.
By the end, Pakistan fielders
were complaining they could
not see the ball as Graham
Thorpe knocked off the win-
ning runs in near darkness. It
was the type of light you only
played in as a kid in the back
garden. Another five minutes
and they would have had to
suspend play.
And, against this gloomy
pressure, England won their
first series in Pakistan for 39
years. Naturally, Atherton’s 125
across nine hours and 39 min-
utes earned him man of the
match. It was utterly compel-
ling, utterly thrilling. It was one
of the greatest things I have
seen on a sports field.
Why? Because, by then, so
much was invested in it. Just
as so much was invested at
Headingley, in 2019 or 1981, or
whenever a Test match reaches
a see-saw conclusion. There
are so many moments when a
game has ebbed and flowed in

any one of three directions, so

many nuances, passages of

utter tedium, followed by

sparks of wonderful life.

one might think a particular

session holds the key to the

entire game, only to discover a

red herring. Who would have

imagined, for instance, that

Friday morning and England’s

67 all out would not be the

most significant phase of play

this week? Who would have

thought that Jofra Archer’s

six for 45 would not be the

highlight of England’s

performance?

over five days Test cricket

has so many more opportuni-

ties to confound, wrong-foot

and surprise. It is a team sport

that places enormous pressure

on individuals. Football ana-

lysts talk of players ‘hiding’.

There is nowhere to hide in

cricket. Nowhere to hide even

for the greatest Test batsman

in the world, Steve Smith,

nowhere to hide when tossed

the ball against Ben Stokes.

Cricket rewards the strictest

technique, yet also the most

maverick flair. It has elements

of grace and beauty but also

shocking, visceral danger. It

delights in gentleness and

guile, yet also energy and brute

force. And those who play it,

love it too.

Even in numbing defeat on

Sunday there was a sense that

Australia’s players knew they

were 50 per cent of one of

the greatest matches the sport

had witnessed. That bowling

out England for 67 was a feat,

and one that raised Stokes’

achievement, and therefore the

narrative.

Players invest in the Test

arena, too. The white-ball

game, the Cricket World Cup,

can be wonderful, but it can

never match the concentration

demanded as the long

form unfolds.

Maybe, with football, famili-

arity breeds contempt. There is

so much of it and, at elite level,

so much that is good that we

are almost full. Tottenham beat

Ajax in the final minute of a

Champions League semi-final

and it was the greatest come-

back since — well, the night

before, when Liverpool pulled

back a 3-0 deficit against

Barcelona, winning 4-0.

Then, from a personal per-

spective, there are deadlines.

Most of the greatest memories

— the 2003 Rugby World Cup

final, Andy Murray’s first Wim-

bledon win, Stokes at Heading-

ley, the coxless fours edging out

Canada by eight hundredths of

a second in Athens — have time

on their side.

Football has Lionel Messi and

Cristiano Ronaldo and Leices-

ter and the Nou Camp in 1999,

but it is also fraught with late

kick-offs and frantic rewrites.

Too busy reporting it to watch

it is not a joke. I was present

for the Miracle of Medinah in

the Ryder Cup, which took

place approaching midnight

Uk time. one day, it would be

nice to discover what the hell

happened there.

Test cricket is different. It can

be breathed in, consumed

luxuriously over the best part

of a week. So when, after all

that time, it boils down to one

session, or one over, or one

wicket or — as on Sunday —

one man, the painstaking

progress to that point makes it

all the more exhilarating.

So, in answer to the question,

my favourite sport is Test

cricket. Some people think it’s

boring. And it is, sometimes. But

that’s sort of the point, too.