Last place at the world cup? The whole team resign from international competition. This drastic action was take yesterday to seal a week of bizarre sporting departures.
After the 3-2 defeat to Canada which confirmed their last place in the 12 team tournament, the motivation seems to be a fear of the wrath of a nation who revere hockey as their national sport.
“All the players in the team accept their responsibility for the humiliating performance in the World Cup and have decided to retire,” captain Zeeshan Ashraf said in a statement. The news leaves Pakistani hockey in complete disarray ahead of the Champions Trophy, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games later this year.
Is this type of self-sacrifice the deterrant needed for an England team to perform? Maybe it should apply to the tennis team?
none
The Ivory coast (or Côte d’Ivoire) have something that no European team will never have. While Ireland argue with France and Spain tussle with Portugal, the whole of Africa are gathering to get behind their best team.
As the African Cup of Nations come around once again, we are reminded of the miriad of talent that comes from that continent. Almost every premiership team will have to struggle on without a key player with Chelsea and Portsmouth (God help them) the worst hit.
Who are my bet? Ivory Coast of course. With a back three that includes Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Abdoulaye Meite, they are solid as any premiership team. Midfielders featuring Didier Zokora, Yaya Toure of Barcelona and Salomon Kalou. They’re spearheaded by the infallible and “world’s best striker” Didier Drogba.
Former South Africa striker Shaun Bartlett summed up the feelings of a continent by saying “If you look at the way they play, the quality of their squad and the teams their stars play for, it’s clear the Ivory Cost could do the unthinkable by winning the World Cup“. What a wonderful thought, a world cup win would give a powerful release for a nation in with such problems.
I am backing them to safely navigate their way past the group of death. It includes a Portugal team that stumbled through qualification and are ripe for the picking. However they are mistakenly dubbed as underdogs, there is certainly one Drog who will be reluctant to take this title on.
none
Farcical scenes. The O2 arena was witness to a ridiculous event last night. I would love to say it is unprecendented but sadly this is not the case. Here is yet another example of a sport being embarrased as an institution. With Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro and Andrew Murray all caught up in a ATP World Tour triangle of world class tennis, only two could squeeze through to the semis. With Murray either needing a Federer victory or if Del Potro was victorious, he would have to go through winning the highest percentage of game (goal difference.) The main thing standing in Murrays way was the fact that the ATP organisers have the arithametical ability of a dyslexic chimpanzee.
The cricket world cup final 2007 ended in near total darkness.
Murray was left furiously twittering “Anyone know what’s going on? I think I’m audi [out] but the rules aren’t worded too well.” The administrators rushed around wittering into their walkie-talkies and signalling various hand gestures that left the public (and more importantly the players) in no better position to find out who had won. Eventually it was decided that the Argentine had pipped our Brit by a single game.
A sense of deja-vu unfolded. The 2007 cricket world cup final played on in near total darkness as batsmen struggled to see the white ball. Who can forget the Henry hand ball that turns the FA’s respect campaign into a joke? Seeing Henry lead out France in front of a FIFA “Fair Play” banner would be a farce. The key word here is preparation. Prepare the refs, prepare the fans – the players play their game, why damage the experience with officials that can’t do simple maths?
6 com