Great Sporting Controversies of our Time #54

I have raised on these pages several times my apathetic approach to the sport of Cricket. England’s ashes triumph was celebrated wildly by those around me while I sat and pondered about how small and seemingly insignificant the trophy was.

That was one of the sports finest hours apparently (although I am sure no Australian would agree!) what went on yesterday however, was nobody’s finest hour.

I will never understand the need to make a game last five days just for the sake of it. The only games that ever lasted for five days were those football matches we used to play at lunchtimes in school. Those games that had 30 players a side and ended up with a Friday scoreline of 133-132, featuring pitches whose width was 3 times longer than it’s length.

The cricketing activities of Sunday took me right back to those days on the playing fields. Accusations of cheating followed by people refusing to play until somebody else apologised for calling their mother something unapropriate were a daily occurance when you were 12. At an international sporting event however...?

If it wasn’t bad enough for the Pakistani captain that he is going home after losing the series, and his being charged with ball tampering - he now has to get his entire touring side plus all their luggage through the current chaos of the British Airports.

Let’s just hope they’re not flying home on Monarch.

Still, if the accusations against them prove to be false I can more than sympathise. That Friday morning scoreline should have read 133-133, I was never offside!!!