Worth waking up for

As i go to bed for my last night at University before Christmas tonight, I'll be setting my alarm for 7am. Why, when i have no lectures just an exam at 9.30? OK 7am may not seem early to most people and I do wake up way earlier than this for work many times a year. But as a student, when you don't have to wake up for anything why would you?

There's only one reason why I am and that is due to the resurgence (again) of English Cricket and also the fact is that Australia are losing and losing bad too!

The way England now play with fear of no-one has turned the tide of past ashes series where it’s been Australia pounding fearful England teams into the ground. It’s been further proved by the strength of not only the English team but the squad of the replacements that they have at their disposal. As Stuart Broad was ruled out of the third test in Perth, a three way battle was immediately taking place to take his spot. Chris Tremlett won that battle and has started brilliantly causing havoc to the Aussie top order taking 3-63, once again piling pressure on Ricky Ponting as he tries to figure a way of having a chance to reclaim the ashes once again.

Ponting would love to call upon Tremlett like England can with such ease, or even Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad (the two who missed out on Broad's place). England also has spin options with Monty Panesar ready to call upon, with Graham Onions to come back from injury for future tours. Whilst Australia are trying to replace the considerable gap left by Legends Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and others with players who have hardly played at first class level let alone excelling at it.

So as i wake up for the final session of day 2 I assume to see two of England’s top order knocking the Aussie bowling attack like a colts side.

But England are England and who's to say i won't wake up with Australia batting again showing their persistent and somewhat frustrating fighting spirit. I may just put my alarm back on snooze if they do.

Protest Anyone?

Is it me or are protests becoming an everyday occurrence?

Obviously the headline making news in the past week has been 'those disgraceful students!' smashing up half of London (before anyone says anything I'm only joking and think it’s a travesty that Tuition fees are increasing so much!)

It’s not only here though, a number of Italians decided to destroy half of Rome today in retaliation to Silvio Berlusconi being kept in power (somehow) for the immediate future. One of the most controversial people in not only Italy but the World is also the owner of AC Milan, he, like a number of other football club owners, seem to make people go 'protest crazy'.

Just ask a Newcastle, Manchester United or Liverpool fan on how much they have spent on placards in the past few years. Yes it seems to be the new trend of not only buying a football club and wasting your money by giving managers and players crazy contracts but to sack a manager for getting good results as well as stabilising the club. The latest inductions into the ‘Owners hall of shame’ are Blackburn’s new owners from India. The Rao family have now joined a long line of people in power positions to abuse their power and go against all logic that is obvious to the general public (ring any bells Mr Blatter?)

Once again the only losers out of this situation is the fan, sure the manager gets fired but he gets his huge contract pay out and sympathy from the rest of the football world and will most likely be back in work again within the month as another fellow manager joins the managerial merry-go-round. The owners then either sell up to another ‘Middle Eastern or American oil tycoon’ or stay on and let that fans suffer both in their pockets and on the field of play.

So as you wonder ‘Why has my season ticket gone up again?’, think back to that lucrative five year contract that was given to your club’s old manager before he was sacked and all the transfer money promised to the new manager when he arrived- someone’s got to pay it. Sure won’t be the new owners from India, who are more interested in Hockey being played on the other side of the world than the Football taking place right in front of them that will foot the bill.

Well I didnt see that coming!

Just when you think you can predict what’s going to happen, life throws you a curve ball!
Firstly to my great happiness, West Ham pulled off the miracle no-one saw coming, did anyone have Jonathon Spector to get the first goal combined with a 4-0 West Ham win on their betting slip? (£1150 to you off a £1 bet if you did) The sheer delight of beating one of the biggest club sides in the world was tarnished by people saying 'it was only the league cup' and 'how many players did they rest?’ Anyone who watched the game (or watched West Ham this season) would have seen that there was no Scott Parker, the heartbeat of the side and without some people would suggest whether West Ham would be playing Championship football this year. But without him West Ham rose to the occasion, inspired by an early disallowed goal, Spector on a mission and even Tal Ben Haim playing acceptably and the season was suddenly looking upwards despite still being bottom of the Premier League.

2nd shock!
Russia and Qatar!
Yes, as the rest of the country was playing in the snow or trying to fight against it (Britain shutdown once again). I was at work checking my phone every two seconds hoping to see who had won the World Cup bid for 2018, but instead of an ecstatic 'We got it!' text it was instead a much more muted 'its Russia'.
This, as most people will know, doesn’t explain the whole story- if i start on my own opinion about Fifa and world football's general opinion of the English game i won’t stop. But perhaps an even bigger shock was the text i received 10 minutes later. 'Qatar got 2022!'
Perhaps slightly naive to even consider their bid beforehand and assuming that USA or Australia would win, i didn’t even look at what the tiny middle-eastern country intends to build and what an event it plans to put on in 12 years’ time. It is very ambitious and very impressive falling into line perfectly with what their motto intends to do 'Expect Amazing'. Even without a great (if any) football history it'll be interesting to see how the Qatari side perform in 2022 and its effect on middle eastern football in general in the future. Both of these successful bids will both be scrutinised by rival associations and media outlets until both countries have hosted their tournaments and thereafter. Will this bombardment of pressure from all areas influence Fifa to reform or independently review their own voting system or own family, time will tell.

To my own personal sporting life, i will be doing the Bushy Park Parkrun tomorrow morning www.parkrun.com- snow permitting! Which will hopefully bring a bit of sporting normality back to my week after cloud nine on Tuesday night to the disappointment on Thursday afternoon, but who knows if these sporting shocks continue then i may well be talking about how i smashed my parkrun PB in my next post. Now that would be a shock!