British Tennis

The problem with British tennis, as it is Wimbledon time of the year it feels appropriate to talk about the lack of British tennis players. Andy Murray has a fine chance of winning Wimbledon but this can not hide the problems of the game in Britain. Eight players went out in the first round with Murray left this is not really good enough for a country that is a home of the ground slam. Is funding a problem? British tennis has had more money than most other sports it of a similar size so funding is not a problem.

The problems with British tennis can not be characterised by one specific issue but can only compared with other countries. Australia is the first country to look at, Australia is a small country population wise but has produced some of the greatest tennis players ever to play the game, Laver, Newcombe, Goolagong, Cash and Hewitt. In the same period Britain has produced none. The reason for Australian dominance has been speculated on but the main reason seems to be the outdoor lifestyle and the amount of space. It was easy for Australians to go outside and have a hit. Allied to the Aussie need for competition this created a winning combination for Australian tennis players. The other interesting comparison between Britain and Australia on the tennis court is that British tennis is game played usually in tennis clubs. In Australia cheap land meant that most houses could have a tennis court, making the game more egalitarian.

The other country to look at is Russia, the women's game especially has been nearly overwhelmed by the preponderance of Russian players. The reason for this is simple, Boris Yeltsin. In the early 90's Yeltsin, a tennis obessive decided that Russia would become good at that most western of games. State funding followed and the game flourished and grand slam champions arrived. In the same period Britain has produced no champions.

So what too do, cutting state funding for mediocrity is essential, find the players with talent and give them the best coaches if this means trips to Spain or America fine. Cut the cost of tennis at clubs and get the general population playing tennis. Make the game of tennis less about the game two weeks a year and more about the joy of participation in sport.

the scrum

After the first Lions test in Durban there is lots of disappointment and negativity regarding the result. The upside maybe hidden but it there is an upside. The scrum is back and important in the game of rugby union. As Phil Vickery was twisted and turned into the shape of a twiglet by the Beast. The game of rugby was rejoicing because despite the best efforts of Australia to get rid of the scrum on Saturday it roared back it too prominence.

 

The scum is a great way to restart the game of rugby union but to non-rugby people it is a mystery and a dangerous mystery. Firstly the scrum is a dangerous place. If the scrum goes wrong the consequences can be and have been fatal. The scrum has also disappeared in rugby league or is now a sham version on the scrum just used to get the players running into each other. In rugby union the scrum is a mythical thing. The scrum is an intensely unpleasant place especially in the front five. it is a place of complete discomfort and effort. It is the place on the rugby field that it is most primordial it is who pushes who forward. It is also a place that embodies the best of rugby union. What I mean by this is that the scrum is the creation of the sum of its parts, the hit by the front row has to be violent and controlled the effort by the locks is consistent and unrelenting and the back row has to retain effort while keeping their heads up always aware of the breaking ball,

The scrum is also the dictator of the spirits of the men in the game. The scrum goes badly and the teams head drops the scrum goes well the team are happy. So despite the best efforts of the Australians long live the horrible sweaty mess that is the scrum.

The weekend football ate itself!

Football has eighty million reasons to have lost touch with its roots and reality this weekend. The game of the people. The game that has prided itself as being the same on the park pitch on a Saturday to the floodlights of Old Trafford has gone crazy. Cristiano Ronaldo was purchased for eighty million pounds by Real Madrid. To put this in context Newcastle United football club who until the end of May in same league as Manchester United was recently put up for sale for one hundred million pounds with the common consensus being that it could be purchased for less. That is right one of the twenty richest clubs in the world could be purchased for the same cost as a player.

Why have Real Madrid done this? Jealousy. Barcelona won the champions league and Real Madrid can not stand it. The hatred goes back to the Spanish civil war and has driven the avarice in football to new levels. As I write this Madrid have spent 139 million pounds on new players. This has huge repercussions on the rest of the game has it has already inflated the prices of players all over the world. The gap between rich and poor is now greater than ever. Madrid has made this move during a worldwide recession.

Football has gone success mad to such a degree that it is hard to imagine where it will stop the pursuit of success has made it so that clubs would rather be in so much debt than think about failing. Their are exceptions to this rule. Arsenal football club have built a new stadium and rather than buying great new players are paying off the stadium. Every club in the premiership is leveraged to the hilt. The problem with all this money sloshing around out at the top is the fact that the bottom of the game is forgotten. Not just non league football but the level where kids play football in the small junior clubs.

Maybe the ridiculous spending is the turning point for lots of fans, not the fans do not want success but the thought is that when a player earns more than a fan could earn in a hundred lifetimes. Sky sports a company built on the subscriptions of football fans is already feeling the pain, despite paying a record amount of money for the rights to broadcast football in the UK the number of subscriptions have dropped. The clubs of the premiership have struggled to sell season tickets. Football is eating itself, there can be no doubt of that. Will their be an economic realignment? Probably not but the connection with the local community is now hanging by a thread.

Is their something rotten in the state of Rugby Union?

Is something rotten in the state of the rugby union. Why the gloom, why the doom? The world of rugby union has surely never been healthier? A lions tour is currently under way under the greatest lions guardian of tradition in Ian McGeechan. The end of the northern hemisphere season was concluded in the most exciting of circumstances with a fine victory by Leinster. There are still things that nag away at me. The first thing that worries me is the danger of the professional game. Recently Matt Stevens received a two year ban for recreational drug abuse. The post ban conversation has talked about the professional rugby game and the physical and emotional pressures that led to cocaine abuse. This is a convenient story and taken at face value makes sense. The back story to the whole cocaine story may run deeper and is being born out by the current resignation by three Bath professionals for allegedly refusing to take compulsory drug tests.

The question is not weather these players are guilty or not it is the fact that rugby playing and training as a professional is allowing them the opportunity to even think about taking drugs. The example can be seen in Australian Rugby League. The NRL has terrible press for many reason's the first is the sex scandals that have blighted the game. Accusations of gang rape and dodgy tackling practices. The worry is that rugby union is heading the same way as Australian rugby league.

The professional governing bodies of the game of rugby union have to act now. The game of rugby union is now losing its last generation of amateurs. What I mean by that is that they are the last generation of players who played rugby before the incentive of payment came in and before rugby was a viable career. Their has to an infrastructure put in for players young and experienced to learn to cope with their spare time. If the infrastructure of the game can be put in place not just to make money but to help players cope with the demands the professional game can put on young players.