Push The Boundaries

Poor Sussex - after the nail biting climax to their season, clinching them the county championship, their open-top bus 'parade' looked absolutely pathetic. Perhaps they'd simply bundled their way on to a replacement bus service covering engineering works on Southern Railways and just hadn't told anyone.

By contrast, India whooped with delight after staking their claim to the first Twenty20 World Championships. Bright flashy kits with squad number and letters on the back, a cosmopolitan party audience, and the tension of a penalty shoot-out style 'bowl out' to decide a tied game - this is cricket turned sexy.

Traditionalists have been quick to castigate those who believe this is the sole way to open up cricket to the masses, and it's difficult not to agree with them - while the new format is designed to promote sharper bowling and spectacular drives to the boundaries, it leaves players open to silly mistakes and games can often be thrown through reckless batting.
The truth is that Twenty20 compliments ODI and full-on test cricket just fine, and that with time we'll come to appreciate the three more as disciplines of the sport rather than have each one alienated from the others.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel we're missing a trick with Twenty20. In five years time, Lords will open their doors to fans of the bow and arrow - Olympic archery will be held in the ground for the 2012 games. Now we have a discipline of cricket that can be completed in half a day, why not put the sport forward for the London games? It would seem apt to mix such a traditional sport with the celebration of sporting triumph - but enough of the cheesy stuff, for once we can add a genuine, globally-celebrated sport to the list of Olympic events when in the past, modern additions have been mickey mouse at best (ballroom dancing) to the downright daft (like the time when an entrant for Olympic Judo thought he was entering for Olympic Ludo).
Better still, Olympic Cricket would provide some fantastic opportunities for countries further down the medals table. US and Russia, for once, won't stand a chance even for the bronze.

We can but hope that Twenty20 will evolve to a point where it's played particular in youth competitions as a starting point for full-on test match cricket and a will run as a neat double-act for the 50-over one day structure.

Ashes? What Ashes?

So long, Jose, and thanks for all the eggs

Please forgive this article for writing this in the style of stream-of-consciousness, but there’s been such a flurry of activity this morning it’s hard to shepherd all of one’s thoughts in to a carefully penned article.

This morning I overslept only to be ushered in to the front room, where trying to readjust my eyes to the burning daylight, the news running along the ticker bar was unmistakable; Jose Mourinho and Chelsea were no more. Through a haze of jam on toast and cold tea, names were suddenly flying about, trying to pick out managers who were either:
A) world class and up for the job;
B) out of work;
C) an option if Chelsea needed them; or
D) not even managers, but suitable heirs to Jose’s crown.
And so it began – the first ones were already being bandied about on Sky Sports News; Guus Hiddink listed as favourite. Then came the not-so obvious. Martin Jol could do with a change. Steve McClaren, if England failed to qualify (see previous article). Sven could be drafted in at a push. Colin Calderwood wasn’t having much luck with Forest this season. Even Ghandi was mentioned. Yes, Ghandi. It was very early on in the morning.

As it turned out, his successor is none other than Avram Grant. As the football world frantically consults Grant's entry to Wikipedia for more information on this man seemingly plucked from obscurity, it transpires that he had more than a hand in team affairs while Jose was in charge.

Which leaves us with speculation on where Jose will go next - frankly, it won't matter to most. The bookies seem to be offering distorted prices on his next move and once he'll have sorted out the severance package from his contract (due to run until 2010) he'll be able to take a while to consider his options.

So it turned out that the Cantona-esque egg conference was to be his last philosophical rambling with the Chelsea lion stitched to his jacket. For some who have grown jealous of his remarkable tactical ability conjoined with his arrogant post-match wit, they say good riddance. For others, who recognise the need for characters such as Jose in football, he will be sorely missed. For Chelsea fans, the blow is devastating.

How nobody saw it coming boggles the mind. Two draws and a loss from the last three games in all competitions is certainly not great, even without Drogba or Lampard, but cast your mind back to Christmas last year and things were certainly looking just as bleak. It was here that Chelsea lost last season's trophy, scraping a 2-2 draw with Wigan and only managing to cajole the same result against Fulham, before drawing a blank against Villa. Cup wins against lower league opposition did nothing to mask the fact that, without John Terry and Petr Cech, Chelsea were a shadow of their former self, and eventually slumped to a 2-0 defeat to the hands of Liverpool. Played four, won zero, drawn three, lost one. Three points from a possible twelve. Sound familiar?

In the notorious 'sack race' at the start of the season, indifferent starts are often cited as the main reason for when the axe is swung. Chelsea's start may not yet be as bad as their Christmas form of before (yet), but it's the timing of the poor run that's all important.

Speaking of timing, the circumstances surrounding the final hours of Jose's reign are a sight to behold. Manager and squad alike go to the cinema not far from Stamford Bridge to watch DVD of the last three years premiere at the cinema. Essentially, this new DVD is a celebration of Jose's time at the club. If only the producers had waited a little bit longer before taking the final cut to the pressers, they'd have had the timely ending to boot. Meanwhile, an emergency board meeting agrees that the omelet-lover's time is up. A quick meeting later and it's all complete, with the two parties agreeing to a mutual consent departure in the small hours of Thursday morning. The whole thing is hushed - yet how can you expect the fallout to be hushed? Were the board simply hoping that nobody would notice Jose wasn't at his post any more until people started wondering why he wasn't in the dugout Old Trafford? The club's website 'statement' read thus:

Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have agreed to part company today (Thursday) by mutual consent.

That's not the gist-of-it version, that's the whole statement. Either the club didn't want to get too drawn in on things or the statement-writer was on holiday. It would seem something fishy is going on, and Grant's quick appointment suggest he's known for a while he would be next in line - being good chums with Abramovich helps. Now his first task is to get the dressing room morale back up, bring John Terry back to form, and find a team sans Drogba and Lampard to beat Manchester United. It's going to have to be a Special One.

Do You Still Believe In Steve?

Rejoice! The disbelievers are silenced – we are better than Israel and Russia at home. And well done to Steve for making the brave decisions that won the day – and that includes picking Emile Heskey twice. The back pages are full of praise and the qualifying table has swung round to balance in England’s favour.

I hate to be cynical, it’s just something is niggling in the back on my mind. We’re in second place. One point behind Croatia. Maybe it’s the modern pressures of the drive to win that’s flooding the Premiership, but I really want England to win Euro 2008. Or, at the very least, make the final – give us something to be proud of. Will we win against France, Germany, Italy or suchlike in the quarter- or semi-final stage? With the current look of things, the answer is no.

Before the Israel game, my mind was made up; McClaren must go, even if England were to win both games. Now that they actually have won them, the task of convincing has been made all the more difficult.

The first factor in wanting McClaren to go is the reason mentioned above; if we manage to scrape through, do we really believe we have a chance of winning the Championship? It’s simply not good enough to get by with the minimum of decent performances and perhaps even finish second in qualifying on head-to-head on goal difference against teams we really ought to be rolling over with ease. If we’re struggling to do that, what hope do we have when it comes to the big games?

The FA made a big mistake in rushing to ask Luiz Philipe Scolari if he’d take the England job just days after he made it public knowledge that he had a gentleman’s agreement with Portugal. Obviously part of their criteria was to employ Sven’s replacement before the start of the World Cup in 2006, but if they’d made an exception to the rule with Big Phil, we would’ve steamrolled this group. But I gripe.

The second argument for keeping the pressure on Steve is because he needs it. Despite looking thoroughly browned off with anyone with a Dictaphone in their hand after the Andorra debacle, he rose to the challenge and, finally, the results are in full bloom. In the run-up to the World Cup in 1998, the respected sports magazine l’Equipe piled a ruthless, unrelenting hate campaign against national coach Aime Jacquet, calling for his resignation numerous times. For the most part, it was pretty unfair; France had no qualification games to have to contend with, as they were in the finals automatically as hosts. They gained maximum points from the group phase and battled to beat Paraguay and Italy after extra time and on penalties respectively. They eased past a tricky Croatia semi-final and, after spotting that Brazil can be a little slack on set pieces, the rest is Zinedine.

Perhaps it was that torrid pressure that helped Jacquet through. We heaped the same pressure on Sven, but he managed to brush media attention aside quicker than you can lay Ulrika. Sorry, that should be say Ulrika. With Steve, the hate mob appeared to get to him at first, but this is a man who sees things through to the end – he’ll never jump before he’s pushed.

So McClaren’s job is safe and all we can do is hope he’s got things right. England has an excellent new depth in midfield with Sean Wright-Phillips, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole. Many are worried that having an excess of choice is bad for the English game – I welcome it with open arms. If these players really want to play for their country, let them prove their worth. And even if we end up with Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and company on the bench, opposition must be quaking in their boots, and the tactical options at our disposal will become a huge weapon in McClaren’s hands.