Hi all FOC here,
Forgive me readers for I have sinned, it has been 4 days since my last blog post. In my defence I have been busy gaming. Sorry about that, I know you all hang on my every word :).
What an eventful 4 days it has been though hasn't it? England get beaten by Sri Lanka in the cricket, Murray flatters to deceive in the first set before Nadal steps up his game and Haye finally faces an opponent that's too good for him. All we needed was a miserable performance from the England football team to have a true weekend of British sport. Lucky they weren't playing really...
All of this got me to thinking about the state of British sport. Some people say that in this country we love the loveable loser. The plucky Brit who tries against all the odds but just falls short. Now about 10-15 years ago I would have agreed. Henman, Bruno, the England Cricket team of the 90's, all plucky but ultimately they all lost and we loved them despite this. But now we are getting angry as a nation when we lose. We have had an era of almost but not quite and I think the nation is less forgiving of defeat. This has given rise to two interesting phenomena.
Firstly our expectations have been raised. Why can Spain win everything in football and we get schooled by Germany (again)? Why can't we have a world beater who sweeps all before him? Our expectations have been tempered by years of disappointment and we no longer find it endearing. As a nation are beginning not to accept defeat lightly, we now expect success. Almost but not quite doesn't cut it any more.
Secondly, many of our sportsmen and women have got better. There is no doubt in my mind that Murray is orders of magnitude better than Henman. England now have (in my opinion) the best Test Match team in the world. British Olympic teams now accumulate buckets of gold medals. In cycling, sailing and Rowing we are a significant force. In rugby the home nations no longer get routinely schooled by the southern hemisphere giants. In many sports we have steeled ourselves and got better. Look at Rory McIlroy's imperious display in the US Open for a good example.
This success is in marked contrast to the England football team of course who (if anything) have got worse over the years. The fans are restless because we all see other British sportsmen and women doing well and we can't understand why England football can't emulate them. This doesn't include the women's team of course who have progressed impressively- now there's a team to follow. The British sport paradigm has shifted, we've had enough of losers, we want winners now.
As to this weekend's events well here's my opinion (you lucky things). Murray lost to a genius, pure and simple. Murray is a great player and if he doesn't end up winning a major eventually I will be surprised. I do think however that if he does win a major it will be on the hard courts of the US or Australia which suit his style better. As to Nadal, what a player and what a performance, most players wouldn't have even taken a set so Murray has some reasons to be cheerful. Murray's time may yet come.
Heavyweight boxing is not where it's at now really. Athletes from all around the world have realised that you can get more and earn more playing sports that don't require you to get punched repeatedly in the face. Why be a heavyweight boxer when you can be an NFL linebacker? It's more money and (presumably) less pain. For me Haye was always a cruiserweight pretending to be a heavyweight. As soon as he came up against a decent opponent his weaknesses were exposed. In my opinion Haye should call it a career now as he has vowed to do. He was a two weight champion, he's earned a lot of money and he just came up short of the best. Do what Hatton failed to do, bow out gracefully.
Finally English cricket. There's a strange thing in cricket that you can be massively impressive in one form of the game and an also ran in another. The fact is England are much better than Sri Lanka at test cricket and the positions are reversed in one day cricket. There are signs of encouragement though. Keiswetter is a better choice than Prior as the wicketkeeper and the likes of Bresnan and Morgan should provide a good backbone for the side going forward. There's no doubt though that England need to learn the game better in the 50 over format and must improve. But at least they haven't been whitewashed by Sri Lanka this time so clouds and silver linings and all that.
So this weekend has been a moderately depressing one for a British sport lover but that's only in the context of our new found expectations for our sportsmen and women.
Your resident pundit
Fall of Camelot
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