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Saturday 16 August 2008

Punch drunk

I’M normally quite a calm person, but the Olympic Games has got me fighting mad.
The Frankie Gavin weight farce; Bradley Saunders’ statement that he is glad he lost so that he could go home (this from an “amateur” who has received around £140,000 in tax-payers’ money to help get him to Beijing) and the over-fussy referees are bad enough.
Now there is talk of women boxing at the Olympics ..... and don’t even get me started on that computer scoring system. It's enough to drive you to drink.
It must be disheartening for boxers, a real body blow, when they land half-a-dozen good punches and get back to the corner to find it’s still a 0-0 draw.
The scoring works like this. Three of the five judges need to press their buttons at the same time for a punch to register.
Body shots don’t seem to count - even though you can knock your man out with a body punch - and combinations are just too quick to register.
To score you apparently need to throw single jabs or, maybe, an upper-cut will count .....if you are lucky.The computer scoring system was introduced to stop biased judging. Cheating basically.
But a judge can, in theory, just delay pressing his button for a fraction of a second. That way the punch will not score - but it will still register on his scorecard at the end of the bout.
For me, it has not solved the problem. It has simply ruined amateur boxing as a sport.
Still, I suppose it’s better than Judo.......

Monday 4 August 2008

Desperate decision

ENGLAND have made the worst possible choice in Kevin Pietersen to replace Michael Vaughan as England skipper.
A bold decision or one born out of desperation?
And, if he was the only choice as skipper, what does that say about the current state of English cricket?
In case you haven’t noticed from his accent - like Tony Greig before him - he’s South African.
Yes, he’s got massive ability....but he’s also got an ego to match.
He has been at the top for three years now. And there is no doubting that he is an immensely gifted, exciting player.
But is he a team player? Does he bat for the team or himself?
You only need to look at what happened at Edgbaston to answer that question.
Instead of getting his head down and helping England to victory he tried to hit a spinner over the top to reach his century with a six. For me, that was a turning point in the match. He let the side down. Simple as that.
Ok, he’s averaging almost 55 this summer. But isn’t there is a real danger that the heavy burden of captaincy will affect his batting?
Look what has happened to Vaughan, Hussain and, to a lesser extent, Atherton, in the past.
Clearly, Pietersen has the natural ability to become one of the best batsmen in the world. But what qualifies him to become England skipper? How many sides has he captained?
And how long before he chucks his dummy - and kit - out of the window and heads for India?