World of Sport

I know it’s only a pre-season competition, but Lancashire coach Peter Moores has his first title after seeing his side claim the inaugural Barbados Twenty20 Cricket Cup title this evening.

Lancashire virtually played flawless cricket in each of the three matches, although they were pushed the closest by the Barbados XI on Saturday evening.

They hammered both Essex and the students of the University of the West Indies XI, the latter being in the final, at the Kensington Oval today.

While Steven Croft will probably take the tag of Lancashire’s player of the day with 52 in the semi and 46 in the final, Stephen Moore undoubtedly played the innings of the competition with 91 not out off 59 balls in the final.

Moorey, as he’s been nicknamed in the dressing room, clobbered seven sixes and five fours as Lancashire amassed 183-3. In fact, he walloped four sixes in the 17^th over alone!

The fact that Lancashire’s innings included 13 sixes is a massive positive. It’s a simple point, but you need people who can clear the ropes in the 20-over form of the game. They seem to have found one in Stephen Moore.

Although the students started their chase well, they were never really in the running to take the pot.

The one thing that has struck me over the last 12 months or so, not just this weekend, is that Lancashire’s players all know their specific roles within the side.

Role awareness was something the squad talked about during their 2006 run to the C&G Trophy final, but I reckon it was lacking in ’07 and ’08 for one reason or another.

I don’t think that’s just confined to T20 cricket either. The Lightning had a good one-day season all round last season.

I guess we’ll see whether my point is further vindicated over the next two days when they play a couple 40-over matches, the first of which is against Derbyshire at the Weymouth ground tomorrow.

I had to chuckle at the misfortunes of the Yorkshire Radio crew who are out here covering Yorkshire’s pre-season fortunes.

They had talked up this Twenty20 weekend as the chance to follow Yorkshire’s matches live, and that they would also be providing ball by ball commentary on the other matches at Kensington too.

What they didn’t bank on was Yorkshire getting bundled out of the competition – or into the Plate game at the 3 Ws ground to be more precise – in the very first match by UWI.

They were left to head up to Cave Hill with no commentary facilities up there, and had to trudge back to Kensington to commentate on a Lancashire victory in the final. Needless to say, it wasn’t a neutral commentary.

I also had a chat to former West Indies pace bowler Wayne Daniel, who was commentating for a local station today, about Daren Powell. Some very interesting stuff from the big man about Powell being a work horse, but lacking the pace he once had.

Lancashire have just sneaked through to Finals Day of the Twenty20 competition at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

The Red Rose county were made to work hard with the bat in their pursuit of 131 against a select XI from the host Island, but Tom Smith’s 48 was the mainstay of their reply. The Lightning won with three wickets and two balls to spare.

The left-hander looked upset at being given out caught behind when the ball seemed to loop up off his pad onto his gloves and through to the keeper.

I remember him telling me last year that he was gutted not to be there at the end of a win against Glamorgan at the SWALEC after doing all the hard work, and this was a similar circumstance.

Lancashire will now play Essex in the first semi-final early evening your time back home (5.30pm), while Roses rivals Yorkshire were the shock losers of the day. They went down by 58 runs to a University of the West Indies XI after being bowled out for 63!!

There were a couple of hundred spectators throughout the day at the impressive Kensington Oval, and there are a few more expected for the Finals Day tomorrow due to the fact that there is some home presence in the students.

There was a little bit of a worry for the Lightning, with skipper Glen Chapple taking a bang on his finger during fielding.

He only bowled two overs before leaving the field and letting Mark Chilton take over the leadership duties.

Chappie came back out to bat later on to help guide his side over the winning line, but Peter Moores said afterwards that he might not be fit to play in the semi and hopefully final of the Barbados Cricket Cup.

I remember the ex-England man tearing a hamstring in Sharjah last pre-season, but this injury doesn’t sound anywhere near as serious.

He just keeps on doing it year after year. Heaven knows where Lancashire would be without Glen Chapple.

Three early wickets on the second day of the two-day friendly against Essex at the Weymouth ground on Thursday suggest the captain and all-rounder will be crucial to his side’s chances again this summer.

A little bit of movement off a flat pitch and through the air with the new ball accounted for Billy Godleman, John Maunders and Tom Westley.

The Lancashire coaching staff, comprising of Peter Moores, Mike Watkinson and Gary Yates, can’t been any happier with the way the match went. Essex bowled out for 183 in reply to 328-6 declared. Not bad for starters!

Tomorrow and Sunday are the most anticipated days of the tour, with Twenty20 matches at the Kensington Oval.

The fact that four English counties are out here doesn’t seem to have been too well publicised by the organisers, but news that there are matches at Kensington seems to be spreading via word of mouth.

I told my taxi driver the other day, and he was changing his weekend plans on the phone before the end of journey.

“Relax little lady, this is cricket at Kensington. I have to go,” he bellowed down the line as he took a corner. I can only presume he was talking to his wife or girlfriend.

Today is scheduled to be a rest day for the teams, although I believe Essex have asked for some nets to be laid on for them. I know that a couple of the Yorkshire party were planning a game of golf earlier in the week.

For me, it’s off to the beach in a bit for a gentle stroll. I may even watch another kids football match on the pitch down the street. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality the other night.

Footy seems to be a popular sport with the youngsters over here. It comes nowhere near cricket though.

Catch you tomorrow from Kensington.

Peter Moores had said that the selection of the team for the ongoing two-day friendly against Essex in Barbados would not give any indication as to what the side will be for the Championship opener against Warwickshire at Old Trafford.

He quite rightly pointed out that there was a lot of cricket to be played before April 15, and that there were a number of players looking in good nick.

I bet you though, after watching Stephen Moore and Tom Smith share 178 for the opening stand today, he is sat right now having something to eat thinking ‘that’s one and two sorted then’.

I have to say that I think Smith and Moore is the right choice to go with. I said in a blog a couple of days ago that I thought Horton should bat at No. 3 because that’s where your best player bats.

I reckon Paul has earned that tag with his performances over the last couple of seasons.

Some of you will no doubt feel that an Ashwell Prince or a Kumar Sangakkara should bat at three, and they may well do so, but we don’t know how long they’re going to be around for. Surely you’ve got to have a settled top three.

The overseas, for me, should bat at four now that Lancs have got a few more batting options. Having said all that, it was a pretty weak looking Essex attack that Moore and Smith were facing. Slip Danish Kaneria in there and it looks a whole lot different.

Steven Croft also demonstrated that he is ready to fill the boots of Francois du Plessis with a breezy 65, while Gareth Cross put a little bit of pressure on Luke Sutton behind the sticks with 43.

Tomorrow it’s the turn of the bowlers. Should be interesting!

Before I came out here, the one bit of advice I was given was to go with the flow. I honestly can’t tell you how good a piece of advice that was.

If you try to go against the flow, you’re on the road to ruin.

A good example is to tell you a little story about the MEN photographer Simon, who is out here.

Last night he was told that a driver would be taking him from his hotel at 5pm to the opening ceremony at the 3 Ws ground. The driver didn’t turn up, so he had to get a taxi.

Anyway, when he finally caught up with his supposed driver at the reception and questioned him, the bloke just shrugged his shoulders: “Sorry man, I got it wrong”, he sighed.

Simon had been furious, but quite rightly said that he couldn’t be too annoyed because the chap just admitted his error and got on with it.

He pointed out that in England there would be all manner of excuses made as to why he or she didn’t show, from a blocked toilet to a dead uncle’s brother’s son’s pet parrot.

Lancashire trained again at Windward today with their eyes firmly fixed on tomorrow’s match against Essex at the Banks Brewery ground.

Here’s another example of the locals’ attitude. I turned up at the ground to check where it was – about five minutes drive from my place.

I will digress slightly for a moment, if I may.

I was greeted by former West Indies opener Sherwin Campbell, who is captain and coach of the club team. I had a bit of a natter with him about watching him in a Test match against England at OT in 1995.

It was the one when Dominic Cork took a hat-trick in the second innings. England won by six wickets. Second innings: SL Campbell c RC Russell b M Watkinson 44. I’m sure Winker will be having a word tomorrow.

Anyway, myself and Simon introduced ourselves, and said we just wanted to check out the ground before tomorrow’s match.

The groundsman looked shocked: “What match?” he said. “There ain’t no match here tomorrow. Lancashire is off cos it’s too wet after that rain last night.”

No sooner had we assured him that everybody was expecting to play, he shot off onto his roller with a “Don’t worry, relax man, it’ll be ready”.

One of the great things about sport is you don’t know what is going to happen. Expect the unexpected and all that.

United coming back from a goal down to snatch the Champions League in ‘99, City coming from two goals down to beat Gillingham in the year’s Div Two play-offs. Great stuff.

But just as sport serves up the highs, it also delivers the lows. The weekend just past was a sporting low.

Let’s start with the 6 Nations rugby. England and Scotland bored their way to a 15-15 draw with a try nowhere to be seen. I half watched the game but there wasn’t much there to keep me interested. England seem like they’re going backwards.

Then the Grand Prix came and went. Again, I tried to watch a bit of it but couldn’t hold on for long. Whose bright idea was it to get rid of fuel stops? Surely that is taking away a load of strategy and propensity for screw ups out of the race. And let’s face it, F1 is only really interesting when there’s a bit of mayhem going on.

The football on Sunday went utterly to type – United easy win City underwhelming draw – and then there was the supposed Tiger Woods return teleconference that turned into a plug for some tournament sponsors.

To finish off the anti-sport weekend we had the five-day grind that was England’s first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong.

All in all, a forgettable spell. Let’s hope we’ve got some decent action in store this week to make up for it.

:: The Cheltenham festival might provide a highlight or two. I was looking down the guide for today’s Champion Hurdle and it referred to one of the horses having experience. I’m not sure if that’s an attribute I would give a horse. I’m not sure if Punjabi would arrive at the course thinking ‘Ah, I remember this place, always a good crowd in and I must remember not overstretch myself at the second last, I nearly did my cruciates last year.’ For the record, I’ve gone with Solwhit, for absolutely no reason. Go on my son.

* post race update: Binocular clearly had the experience.

You just couldn’t write this kind of stuff, you genuinely couldn’t. It’s not rained for months in Barbados. “Everything and everyone is withering cos we have no rain” cried a resident at my guesthouse.

Don’t worry, you just wait until Lancashire’s cricketers turn up. Then it will hose down. And it duly did.

I’m not one for looking at the forecast during an English summer, as I’m sure most of my colleagues will confirm, and I don’t like talking about the weather. But this just had to be noted.

I am staying in a guesthouse with a tin roof in St Lawrence Gap in the South, and I felt like I was under siege last night it rained that hard.  

I attended Lancashire nets this morning at Windward CC over on the South East of the island, and the journey was pretty uneventful.

I had been told to expect some hairy moments with cab drivers, but mine was fine.  Desperate to talk about cricket he was. Has gotten out of watching the Windies, but loves to support his grandson at under 11s.

They lost a semi-final yesterday, failing to chase down 110. “They got out to stupid shots, stupid shots, stupid shots. They are better than all the other teams, then lose a semi-final,” he bellowed in the distinctive Caribbean accent that we all know too well.

Lancashire’s gruelling three hour plus net session was interrupted only once by the elements, briefly I may add too. Those boys don’t half work hard. Running, stretching, batting, bowling, fielding – all copious amounts of it too.

If the Championship was won on fitness, I’d say whoever finished above them would take the pot.

I had a brief chat with Peter Moores afterwards, and he says a decision will be made on who will open the batting against Essex on Wednesday after training tomorrow.

My guess is that Tom Smith and Stephen Moore will open with Paul Horton batting at three.

Many say that you should have your best player batting at three. That, for me, is Horton.

Off to the opening ceremony at the 3 Ws ground tonight. All four counties – Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Essex – all due to attend.

United 7 Milan 2 – I didn’t see that coming.

The Rossoneri, a supposed powerhouse of European football, were way below Utd’s level. The obvious difference was the work rates. Darren Fletcher and Ji-sung Park were all over the place.

And although Ronaldinho probably has more ability than those two put together, that’s no good if you have no time and space on the ball.

Will United win it? They could do for sure, but I’m not convinced. I think the threat is coming from Arsenal and Chelsea – I’d be surprised to see Barca win it again even though they probably have the best side.

:: We’ve an interview with Colin Bell today and the Blues legend is urging City to play to win. Sounds obvious doesn’t it, but if you’ve seen some of City’s recent performance it’s a point worth making. Sunderland are in form after thrashing Bolton in midweek and will be up for a game on Sunday. City should give it to them. The last thing City want is to get bogged down in a midfield scrap. City should back their quality, play and win.

:: The build up to the F1 season continues apace. I keep seeing steely photos of Michael Schumacher on our wire service (can’t show them here because of licencing) – I swear he hasn’t aged a day since he last, quite liderally, hung up his steering wheel. The question is will the wily old driver still have his killer instinct? In his pomp ‘Schumi’ would have rammed anyone threatening his racing line (ie the track). Allegedly. No doubt we’ll find out on the first corner of the Sakhir circuit.

:: Quick update on my latest golf round as I know you’re all desperate to know – an 83 around Didsbury. The big furniture was firing, and, but for a disobedient lob wedge (how do you hit those things?), I may have cracked 80. There, you can carry on with your lives now.

I watched a fair bit of football one way or the other this weekend and found myself really wound up by the commentating.

And it’s not the oft-criticised summarisers that I’m complaining about, it’s the main commentators. It was just a constant stream of partly scripted mangled cliches and clunking word play.

Lines like, ‘Bury may have lost their cut, but they’ve certainly kept their thrust’, or ‘Bury have unleashed their fair share of slings and arrows this season, but that was outrageous fortune.’*

It was driving me mad. The problem is that these commentators are clearly very articulate people, but they can’t help themselves pushing it down people’s throats.

There is a famous tip for aspiring writers that instructs them to ‘murder their darlings’. It means that if you’ve written something that you’re particularly proud of, or if you read it back and a certain phrase smacks of ‘good writing’ then you should strike it out.

I would give commentators similar advice. If you’ve thought of something you think sounds particularly clever, don’t say it, it just sounds smug. Just call the  game.

*I’ve just made those up but no doubt they have been/will be used at some point

:: Has there ever been an F1 season where there hasn’t been controversy over car design? The latest one I’ve seen is the complaint over McLaren’s rear wing. The technical niggles are half of wha’t interesting in F1 though – all grist to the rumour mill.

:: GB tennis hit new lows with Davis Cup defeat against Lithuania. According to the Press Association the LTA receive more than £25million from Wimbledon each year. The Lithuanian tennis budget is less than £100,000.

I watched England v Egypt last night. Well, most of it. Rubbish.

They had the same problem that Liverpool had the other week when they were playing City: Gerrard was too far forward.

A midfield of Barry and Lampard is just too one-paced. Neat and tidy but no drive. They obviously looked better after the substitutes came on.

I never thought I’d say this, but Peter Crouch is probably our best bet to start up front. I’m not convinced by him as a footballer – he’s decent of course – but what you can say is that he’s different to what most international defences will be used to. He’s a bit of a curve ball.

That’s the glory of the World Cup of course, seeing what other nations have up their sleeves. Remember Blanco for Mexico doing that daft jumping trick to go through two defenders? Great stuff.

:: Haile Gebreselassie is going for a world record when he runs the Manchester 10k in May. The man is incredible. I thought you were meant to get slower with age, but at 36 the Ethiopian great is still going strong.

:: As promised, a report on my golf course debut for 2010. And as predicted, despite my ropey range form, I nailed my opening tee-shot a good 220 down the middle. Not Daly distances, admittedly, but it was a three-wood and it was freezing. I played solidly until the 15th when, trailing one of playing partners by a stableford point, I crumbled to a triple bogey, bogey, double bogey triple bogey finish. Cometh the hour, cometh the bottler.