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Champions League: Five things we learned from Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona

Arsenal did not make the mistake of showing Barcelona too much respect – and terrified them with pace




  • Alex Song lived on the edge during Arsenal's Champions League meeting with Barcelona after being booked for a foul on Lionel Messi, right, but he stayed on and his side came back to win 2-1. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images 1 Arsenal did not park the bus

    But maybe they should have done. Their approach worked – for about 10 minutes. Before this match much of the talk was about how to beat Barcelona. Arsenal had played a very intense game in a 2-0 win against Wolves at the weekend, pressuring the opposition all over the pitch. The suggestion that they were preparing for Barcelona appeared confirmed here. If Arsenal had shown Barcelona too much respect last year, it was a different story this time. Within five minutes, Dani Alves, Xavi and Maxwell had already lost the ball as Arsenal set about them high up the pitch, with Robin van Persie leading the pursuit and Cesc Fábregas coming in from behind him. Even Gerard Piqué found himself hurried into passes, Barcelona resorting on a couple of occasions to clearing any way they could. But bit by bit Barcelona played the ball, maintained possession and rode the storm. By half-time they were in control. Ultimately, when it came to pressure, the side that did it best were in green. Arsenal's high line, meanwhile, provided the space for David Villa to give Barcelona the lead.
    2 Messi cannot do it in England

    If "it" is score goals. Seven times now Lionel Messi has played in England with Barcelona – and he has not scored once. He should have done. After 15 minutes, he was racing through all alone, feinted to shoot, left Wojciech Szczesny on the floor, clipped the ball beyond him – and fractionally wide of the post. Soon afterwards, he clipped a weak shot into the goalkeeper's arms. And when he did get the ball in the net, Nicola Rizzoli, the Italian referee, wrongly ruled it out for offside. But Messi's title of "false No9" is instructive. Although he has scored 40 times this season in all competitions it is not just about the goals. Dropping deep, constantly involved, he seemed to complete more passes than any Arsenal midfielder – including the perfectly weighted pass between Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny after a scurrying run that Villa dashed on to to score the opener. It was Messi's 20th assist of the season.
    3 Barcelona are vulnerable to pace

    For all their control and possession – and at times, it was quite astonishing – Barcelona remain vulnerable to pace. Especially when employed directly, and especially behind the full-backs. Beyond the technique and the talent, Pep Guardiola's obsession is pressure – a word he repeats like a mantra. That means a very high defensive line and full-backs who attack and push their opposition wingers back. Particularly Alves. If the wide midfielders are prepared to risk leaving them to advance, space does open up behind. There was more evidence here of the fact that Theo Walcott's pace concerns Barcelona. That was exactly what happened for Arsenal's second, scored by Andrey Arshavin. A Barcelona attack broke down on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area and a swift break found Samir Nasri racing through. His pullback, with Barcelona's defence exposed, reached the Russian, whose finish was true. Perhaps surprisingly, both goals came after Walcott had made way. The first was a clever ball over Piqué to Van Persie, whose shot, struck true, found its way between a poorly positioned Victor Valdés and his near post. Even when he is not at his best, Van Persie makes a huge difference to Arsenal. Barcelona learned once again that possession is not always nine tenths of the law.
    4 Song treads a fine line

    It was dissent that begat Arsenal's descent against Newcastle, when Abou Diaby was sent off at 4-0. Arsenal's midfield could have found itself weakened again here. Before the game Jack Wilshere had called on his side to be a bit "nasty" – at times you wondered if Alex Song was being too nasty. He was handed a yellow card for a bad challenge on Messi and had committed five fouls more before the first half was out. He had also been guilty, like Diaby before him, of talking back at Rizzoli.
    5 Villa is a fabulous striker

    OK, so we did not exactly learn that here but some seem to have taken rather a long time to work it out. Villa's goal against Sporting Gijón at the weekend means that he has now scored at least 15 goals in every single top-flight season he has played – at Real Zaragoza and Valencia, too. As well as finishing as top scorer at the 2008 European Championship and the summer's World Cup. In this game, his opening goal was a model of intelligent movement and clinical finishing. This summer he joined Barcelona for €40m. The only surprise is that, at 29 (28 at the time), it took so long – €40m is a bargain.
 
Champions League: Five things we learned from Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona

Arsenal did not make the mistake of showing Barcelona too much respect – and terrified them with pace




  • Alex Song lived on the edge during Arsenal's Champions League meeting with Barcelona after being booked for a foul on Lionel Messi, right, but he stayed on and his side came back to win 2-1. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images 1 Arsenal did not park the bus

    But maybe they should have done. Their approach worked – for about 10 minutes. Before this match much of the talk was about how to beat Barcelona. Arsenal had played a very intense game in a 2-0 win against Wolves at the weekend, pressuring the opposition all over the pitch. The suggestion that they were preparing for Barcelona appeared confirmed here. If Arsenal had shown Barcelona too much respect last year, it was a different story this time. Within five minutes, Dani Alves, Xavi and Maxwell had already lost the ball as Arsenal set about them high up the pitch, with Robin van Persie leading the pursuit and Cesc Fábregas coming in from behind him. Even Gerard Piqué found himself hurried into passes, Barcelona resorting on a couple of occasions to clearing any way they could. But bit by bit Barcelona played the ball, maintained possession and rode the storm. By half-time they were in control. Ultimately, when it came to pressure, the side that did it best were in green. Arsenal's high line, meanwhile, provided the space for David Villa to give Barcelona the lead.
    2 Messi cannot do it in England

    If "it" is score goals. Seven times now Lionel Messi has played in England with Barcelona – and he has not scored once. He should have done. After 15 minutes, he was racing through all alone, feinted to shoot, left Wojciech Szczesny on the floor, clipped the ball beyond him – and fractionally wide of the post. Soon afterwards, he clipped a weak shot into the goalkeeper's arms. And when he did get the ball in the net, Nicola Rizzoli, the Italian referee, wrongly ruled it out for offside. But Messi's title of "false No9" is instructive. Although he has scored 40 times this season in all competitions it is not just about the goals. Dropping deep, constantly involved, he seemed to complete more passes than any Arsenal midfielder – including the perfectly weighted pass between Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny after a scurrying run that Villa dashed on to to score the opener. It was Messi's 20th assist of the season.
    3 Barcelona are vulnerable to pace

    For all their control and possession – and at times, it was quite astonishing – Barcelona remain vulnerable to pace. Especially when employed directly, and especially behind the full-backs. Beyond the technique and the talent, Pep Guardiola's obsession is pressure – a word he repeats like a mantra. That means a very high defensive line and full-backs who attack and push their opposition wingers back. Particularly Alves. If the wide midfielders are prepared to risk leaving them to advance, space does open up behind. There was more evidence here of the fact that Theo Walcott's pace concerns Barcelona. That was exactly what happened for Arsenal's second, scored by Andrey Arshavin. A Barcelona attack broke down on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area and a swift break found Samir Nasri racing through. His pullback, with Barcelona's defence exposed, reached the Russian, whose finish was true. Perhaps surprisingly, both goals came after Walcott had made way. The first was a clever ball over Piqué to Van Persie, whose shot, struck true, found its way between a poorly positioned Victor Valdés and his near post. Even when he is not at his best, Van Persie makes a huge difference to Arsenal. Barcelona learned once again that possession is not always nine tenths of the law.
    4 Song treads a fine line

    It was dissent that begat Arsenal's descent against Newcastle, when Abou Diaby was sent off at 4-0. Arsenal's midfield could have found itself weakened again here. Before the game Jack Wilshere had called on his side to be a bit "nasty" – at times you wondered if Alex Song was being too nasty. He was handed a yellow card for a bad challenge on Messi and had committed five fouls more before the first half was out. He had also been guilty, like Diaby before him, of talking back at Rizzoli.
    5 Villa is a fabulous striker

    OK, so we did not exactly learn that here but some seem to have taken rather a long time to work it out. Villa's goal against Sporting Gijón at the weekend means that he has now scored at least 15 goals in every single top-flight season he has played – at Real Zaragoza and Valencia, too. As well as finishing as top scorer at the 2008 European Championship and the summer's World Cup. In this game, his opening goal was a model of intelligent movement and clinical finishing. This summer he joined Barcelona for €40m. The only surprise is that, at 29 (28 at the time), it took so long – €40m is a bargain.
 
Arsène Wenger promises Arsenal will 'go for it' in Barcelona second leg

• 'We are not favourites but believe we have a chance'
• We've beaten best team in history, claims Cesc Fábregas



  • Jamie Jackson at the Emirates Stadium
  • The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011 <li class="history">Article history Cesc Fábregas of Arsenal, right, tussles for the ball with Barcelona's Daniel Alves during the home side's 2-1 win. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images Arsène Wenger believes a vital psychological barrier has been breached with the defeat of Barcelona. Wenger, who will take his Arsenal team to the Catalan capital next month with a 2-1 lead, said: "We are not favourites. We believe we have a chance. Barcelona are still favourites and we know tonight that we can beat them &#8211; which we did not know last year."
    Arsenal drew at home and were hammered 4-1 in the second leg of last season's Champions League quarter-final, which finished 6-3 to Barça on aggregate.
    "We were not only strong on the physical side but on the mental side; we kept resilient," Wenger said of this game. "We took advantage of one special piece of skill from [Robin] van Persie [for the equaliser] and that goal and the second was after some good build-up play.
    "Tonight's result gives us a chance to go to Barcelona with belief. It is a special lift for my team. Our players have shown exceptional strength tonight, and togetherness. This will enforce that. I am proud for Arsenal football club. Everyone urged us to play differently to our nature so it is good. I believe this can strengthen the belief in our philosophy. We know it will be a very difficult game [in Spain] but we will prepare well. We will be highly focused and we go to win our game. We will go for it."
    Pep Guardiola believed the game had many similarities to last year's first leg at the Emirates, where his Barcelona side dominated the first half but ended up with a draw. "We created more chances than last year," he said. "It's a pity, but we knew they're a very, very good team. On the counterattack they're dangerous. But we have the second leg &#8230; They are a tough, tough team, but we dominated and more or less took control of the game. It was more or less the same as last season."
    Wenger did admit that Arsenal were constantly on edge. "We suffered for some periods in the game but we never gave up and stayed mentally strong. You're always on the border of collapsing against them; if you give just a bit mentally you will be punished," he said. "The team wanted to go as long as they could."
    Cesc Fábregas believes that a year on from their quarter-final defeat, Arsenal are maturing. "First of all [this time] we don't have five or six injured players," the captain said. "Second, we are all one year older, we have closed the gap on them. We are 23, 24, 25, 26 years old &#8211; mature enough to play big games. We showed it here but if we don't show it in the Camp Nou it's nothing to us. It's just one game &#8211; it's a nice compliment to us, that's all.
    "They are the best side in football's history, in my opinion, [but] the tie is 90 minutes and we've only played 45 [minutes]. It gives confidence to the team."
    Wenger admitted he took a gamble in the second half when replacing Alex Song, one of his holding midfielders, with Andrey Arshavin, an attacker, to give Arsenal an extra man going forward for the closing moments.
    "It was a mixture of yellow card [which Song had received] and that I wanted to go for it," Wenger said. "We finished with Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fábregas, Samir Nasri, Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie. [At 1-0 down] we needed to score two goals &#8211; we took a gamble and it could have backfired and we lost 2-0 or 3-0 to them. It worked."
    Wenger hailed an outstanding display from Wilshere, who continued his impressive season by out-performing Andrés Iniesta and Xavi, who finished second and third in the 2010 Ballon D'Or. "He was outstanding tonight," the manager said. "He was not fazed by the occasion in difficult periods. He took the ball and [often played] out of the pressure.
    "I am highly delighted because it was a special night. The game promised a lot and absolutely fulfilled the promises between two exceptional football teams who always try to play."
    Van Persie said Barcelona had been beaten because Arsenal had taken the contest to them: "In my opinion, and in our opinion, if you drop back too much they are so good they will in the end beat you by far. We had to beat them in their own style. We got a bit lucky but it was a fantastic win."
 
Arsène Wenger promises Arsenal will 'go for it' in Barcelona second leg

• 'We are not favourites but believe we have a chance'
• We've beaten best team in history, claims Cesc Fábregas



  • Jamie Jackson at the Emirates Stadium
  • The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011 <li class="history">Article history Cesc Fábregas of Arsenal, right, tussles for the ball with Barcelona's Daniel Alves during the home side's 2-1 win. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images Arsène Wenger believes a vital psychological barrier has been breached with the defeat of Barcelona. Wenger, who will take his Arsenal team to the Catalan capital next month with a 2-1 lead, said: "We are not favourites. We believe we have a chance. Barcelona are still favourites and we know tonight that we can beat them – which we did not know last year."
    Arsenal drew at home and were hammered 4-1 in the second leg of last season's Champions League quarter-final, which finished 6-3 to Barça on aggregate.
    "We were not only strong on the physical side but on the mental side; we kept resilient," Wenger said of this game. "We took advantage of one special piece of skill from [Robin] van Persie [for the equaliser] and that goal and the second was after some good build-up play.
    "Tonight's result gives us a chance to go to Barcelona with belief. It is a special lift for my team. Our players have shown exceptional strength tonight, and togetherness. This will enforce that. I am proud for Arsenal football club. Everyone urged us to play differently to our nature so it is good. I believe this can strengthen the belief in our philosophy. We know it will be a very difficult game [in Spain] but we will prepare well. We will be highly focused and we go to win our game. We will go for it."
    Pep Guardiola believed the game had many similarities to last year's first leg at the Emirates, where his Barcelona side dominated the first half but ended up with a draw. "We created more chances than last year," he said. "It's a pity, but we knew they're a very, very good team. On the counterattack they're dangerous. But we have the second leg … They are a tough, tough team, but we dominated and more or less took control of the game. It was more or less the same as last season."
    Wenger did admit that Arsenal were constantly on edge. "We suffered for some periods in the game but we never gave up and stayed mentally strong. You're always on the border of collapsing against them; if you give just a bit mentally you will be punished," he said. "The team wanted to go as long as they could."
    Cesc Fábregas believes that a year on from their quarter-final defeat, Arsenal are maturing. "First of all [this time] we don't have five or six injured players," the captain said. "Second, we are all one year older, we have closed the gap on them. We are 23, 24, 25, 26 years old – mature enough to play big games. We showed it here but if we don't show it in the Camp Nou it's nothing to us. It's just one game – it's a nice compliment to us, that's all.
    "They are the best side in football's history, in my opinion, [but] the tie is 90 minutes and we've only played 45 [minutes]. It gives confidence to the team."
    Wenger admitted he took a gamble in the second half when replacing Alex Song, one of his holding midfielders, with Andrey Arshavin, an attacker, to give Arsenal an extra man going forward for the closing moments.
    "It was a mixture of yellow card [which Song had received] and that I wanted to go for it," Wenger said. "We finished with Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fábregas, Samir Nasri, Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie. [At 1-0 down] we needed to score two goals – we took a gamble and it could have backfired and we lost 2-0 or 3-0 to them. It worked."
    Wenger hailed an outstanding display from Wilshere, who continued his impressive season by out-performing Andrés Iniesta and Xavi, who finished second and third in the 2010 Ballon D'Or. "He was outstanding tonight," the manager said. "He was not fazed by the occasion in difficult periods. He took the ball and [often played] out of the pressure.
    "I am highly delighted because it was a special night. The game promised a lot and absolutely fulfilled the promises between two exceptional football teams who always try to play."
    Van Persie said Barcelona had been beaten because Arsenal had taken the contest to them: "In my opinion, and in our opinion, if you drop back too much they are so good they will in the end beat you by far. We had to beat them in their own style. We got a bit lucky but it was a fantastic win."
 
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In the quarter-finals of last season's Champions League, Arsenal came from two goals down to draw the opening leg against Pep Guardiola's side at The Emirates. The second leg was rather more forgettable for Gunners fans as Lionel Messi scored four goals in a rampant individual display. Not much chance of a goalless draw tonight then Photograph: Tom Jenkins for The Guardian


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Arsenal v Barcelona - in pictures

Tom Jenkins's best pictures from the Emirates where Arsenal host Barcelona in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League match








Top marks for the banner from these youngsters. Wonder who was the brains behind it? Photograph: Tom Jenkins at The Guardian


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Fortune favours the brave as Arsenal fight Barcelona fire with fire

Arsène Wenger answers Barcelona's first-half goal by insisting Arsenal continue to drive forward



  • David Pleat
  • The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011 <li class="history">Article history Arsène Wenger celebrates Arsenal's first goal against Barcelona with the scorer, Robin van Persie. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters This had the feeling of a freakish result, a victory for never-say-die attitude against all the odds, yet fortune can favour the brave. Arsène Wenger might have been scarred by Barcelona's first-half incision but rather than fretting about his squarish defence, his philosophy was less "How do we stop them?" and more "How do we hurt them?"
    His substitutions were positive, whereas Pep Guardiola's replacement of David Villa with Seydou Keita was far more cautious.
    The occasion went with the mood. Perhaps it was the only way Wenger could react to the runaround inflicted before the interval.
    Barcelona's quick, short-passing game had enticed Alex Song, Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fábregas towards the ball to challenge, only for the visitors to move it on in a trice before any of the home side's midfield could intercept. Barça had been conjurers &#8211; now you see it, now you don't &#8211; with Lionel Messi their magician-in-chief.
    Messi's movement after passing was lethal as he combined with Iniesta and put Villa through. Arsenal stunted the Argentinian's impact after the interval Arsenal were too high defensively in the first period and the Spanish side squeezed the ball through the gaps at will.
    So dominant had the visitors been that Wenger might have been forgiven for considering the employment of a five-man defence after the interval to cover the defensive width of the pitch, with his three central midfielders protecting in front.
    That would at least have suffocated the space that had been exploited so ruthlessly up to then, even if the flipside would have been to have left Robin van Persie too isolated up front to force parity.
    Instead, Wenger was bold. His side's passing was speedier in the second period, their desire to surge forward more pronounced.
    Introducing Andrey Arshavin and, later, Nicklas Bendtner while retaining Samir Nasri ensured there were more passing opportunities for Fábregas and Wilshere to pick out, with the pair emerging more strongly into the contest, and Barça became more becalmed.
    Perhaps the visitors had subconsciously taken their foot off the gas. Maybe they were physically unable to maintain their intense pressure of the first half. But they certainly gasped for a while and coupled with Arsenal's suddenly upbeat tempo, the home side were ruthless where the visitors had been so profligate earlier in the piece.
    Messi, so sharp and incisive in the first period, rather ran into trouble, over-playing and trying to run with the ball too often where, previously, he had been happiest in his one-touch combination play with Xavi and Andrés Iniesta at his side.
    He was outnumbered and crowded out at times so with Arsenal closer together at the back and narrower across the pitch, the spaces in which he had initially flourished were finally snuffed out.
    The result should not blind us about some of the wonderful pass-and-move moments provided by the visitors, but Arsenal enjoyed reward for being bold.
 
Barcelona's beauty not useless but Arsenal exposed their frailties

Wenger's players refused to be dazzled by 'the best team in the world' and Barcelona's travails abroad continued




  • Barcelona's Lionel Messi was often a picture of exasperation as his team were beaten by Arsenal. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/REUTERS It was 2009 before Barcelona were finally able to say they had won more European Cups than Nottingham Forest. For all its artistry and rhetoric Catalonia had not been a regular destination for club football's grandest prize before the victory over Manchester United in Rome pushed Barcelona one ahead of Brian Clough.
    The problem with sporting the first three home in the race for the Fifa Ballon d'Or is that it renders Champions League domination more or less obligatory. That strain may be deeper than we knew. Against an Arsenal side who refused to play the assigned role of dazzled spectator Barcelona took the lead through David Villa but then lost it to goals by Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin. A 1-0 home victory in the return leg would send them on their merry way but suddenly the rest of football is resisting.
    "You're always on the border of collapsing against them," said Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's jubilant manager. Out there on the frontier the Gunners held on, asserting their maturity and capitalising on Barcelona's inability to convert more than one of their many chances. Pep Guardiola, Wenger's counterpart, for all his talent, has yet to win a Champions League knockout match away from home.
    "We controlled the game but we know they play very well positionally. They are very quick on the counterattack. They're a very good team," Guardiola said of Arsenal. "We just need to convert those chances. It's the most difficult thing to do. In general I'm happy with the performance. The result is the thing I don't like."
    Still hanging over this Barcelona ensemble is the memory of their failure to break down Internazionale's defensive block in last year's semi-finals. This defeat will sharpen the sense that greater dangers lurk beyond Spain's borders. Technically Barcelona are not the best side in Europe, never mind "the world", as their president, Sandro Rosell, bragged recently. The continental title belongs to Inter until Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi (Fifa's 1-2-3) can take it back off them.
    Thus a last-16 first leg with the English xerox known as Arsenal was freighted with extra tension for the side dressed in operating theatre green. The last song they would want to hear in May is Elvis Costello's All This Useless Beauty.
    Barça had never lost to Arsenal in Champions League action but they feared the enterprise and thrust of Wenger's men. The Gunners, said Guardiola, were a team for watching, not playing against. This sounded charitable when Messi combined with Villa to put himself in an ideal chipping position on the right edge of Wojciech Szczesny's six-yard box. To his own bafflement Messi scooped the ball past the right-hand post. His exasperation spoke of an inability to believe the ball had disobeyed him. After 43 goals in 39 games for club and country this season alone, Messi shoots with a sense of destiny.
    From the side who drew 2-2 here 11 months ago, Eric Abidal replaced the injured Carles Puyol, Iniésta reclaimed his place from Seydou Keita and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been shipped out in favour of Villa. In other words this was a stronger Barça starting XI. Yet this was to be no beauty parade for the hot tournament favourites. It was a night of industry, of toil. After the interval Arsenal were too eager and ambitious to allow Barcelona their usual scintillating rhythms. Guardiola's men were forced into a more frantic contest.
    Messi, the destroyer of all worlds, endured one of those nights when the faintest imprecisions spoil a beautiful thought. After the dud chip he bundled the ball in with his head but was judged offside. After the break he clipped one into the side-netting. Not for the first time he dipped his head and cursed in frustration.
    With Villa's withdrawal on 69 minutes in favour of Keita, Messi took up centre-forward duties. Overall English clubs have a decent record of squeezing The Flea's freedom, but you can never bet against the dramatic break-out. The best example was at the Camp Nou, on 6 April last year, when Nicklas Bendtner impertinently opened the scoring and Messi replied with a machine gun rattle of four.
    What we learned about Barcelona was that they can adapt when a resolute opponent tries to dictate the shape of the game and denies them the usual liberty to entertain. They can play more than one way. But we saw vulnerability too, when Víctor Valdés stood so far off his near post for Van Persie's tight-angled equaliser that a shopping trolley could have passed between the goalkeeper and the wood.
    Minutes later Barça's defence were opened up again, when Arshavin met Samir Nasri's cross to give Arsenal the lead with seven minutes left. Messi tried to dribble a lone path through Arsenal's defenders but was blocked every time.
    Guardiola was in the Barcelona side who won the European Cup at the old Wembley in 1992. To be at the new one for this year's final, 19 seasons on, they will have to shift an Arsenal who were never daunted, never Barcelona-lite.
 
Andy Murray pulls out of Dubai Open with injury

&#8226; Wrist injury forces Andy Murray out of ATP World Tour event
&#8226; British No1's next tournament set to be Indian Wells



  • Reuters
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 09.27 GMT <li class="history">Article history Andy Murray's wrist injury has ruled him out of the Dubai Duty Free Open. Photograph: James D. Morgan / Rex Features Andy Murray has pulled out of next week's Dubai Open, citing a wrist injury.
    "Andy would like to apologise to both the tournament and its fans," a two-sentence statement on his official website read.
    The Scot was last week bumped out of Rotterdam by Marcos Baghdatis, his first match since losing the Australian Open showpiece to Novak Djokovic last month. That Melbourne defeat was the third time a grand slam final appearance has ended in defeat for the world No5.
    His next tournament is now listed as the Indian Wells Masters event, which runs from 10-20 March.
    Murray last year came under fire in Dubai for saying after a loss at the tournament that he had employed experimental tactics. He was beaten by the unseeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic after an unusual display in which he charged the net more than usual and went for a greater number of winners.
    "I think it was a good learning experience &#8211; if it was a slam, my tactics would have been different," Murray told reporters afterwards.
 
Why I'm not sorry to miss cricket World Cup's opening ceremony in Dhaka

Bryan Adams headlines at the start of the 10th World Cup but he will have to go some to top the summer of '99




  • The Canadian rock star Bryan Adams will headline the 2011 World Cup's opening ceremony in Dhaka. Photograph: JP Moczulski/Reuters The World Cup gets under way with an opening ceremony at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, to be described no doubt as "glittering", the like and extravagance of which will not have been seen in Bangladesh before. Apparently among others more appropriate to the hosts, it is to be headlined by the rock star Bryan Adams, whose anthem Summer Of '69, may not be a eulogy to the time he got his first real six-string (he would have been nine when Jimmy quit the band they formed at school and Jody got married) so much as a celebration of Yorkshire winning the seven-year-old Gillette Cup and Lancashire taking the inaugural 40-over Sunday League title. Limited overs cricket has come on a bit since the best days of his life.
    Alas, I shan't be there to witness these ceremonials. Actually I'm not a bit sorry because although I did enjoy a few &#8211; such as that which preceded the 2007 World Cup, the best part of the whole event &#8211; I have an aversion to opening ceremonies, particularly those at sporting events in which enormous sums of money are spent on what is little more than an exercise in willy-waving.
    The lighting of the Olympic flame cuts the mustard, of course, but that is genuinely iconic. But not the choreography, special effects, lasers, fireworks and showbiz stars that are deemed de rigueur for any large tournament. It is unfair to equate the millions spent on these excesses with schools or hospitals not built for lack of funds, but legitimate to query whether money might better be spent on sporting facilities (two grand will buy an artificial cricket pitch in Afghanistan, as Guardian readers will know) rather than, say, Mr Adams, however highly he might be revered in that part of the world.
    And you don't pitch up to a sporting occasion to hear your national anthem sung by Christina Aguilera in a manner that makes fingernails on a blackboard seem a pleasure.
    Maybe it is because of the fact that by and large cricket, operating on smaller budgets, tends to do these things so ineptly by comparison. This is the 10th edition of cricket's World Cup and I'm not sure any prelude has progressed entirely without hitch. For the first three, all in England, hazy memory suggests nothing specific beyond a speech or two in front of the assembled teams, which means that the first real attempt at a spectacular was in India in 1987.
    This, I recall well enough for it took place at a Delhi hockey stadium. The teams were lined up in the arena and then marched up into the back of a stand where, in the shadows, they shook hands with someone who may or may not have been Rajiv Ghandi who, not without good reason as it transpired four years later, was under the strictest security.
    The symbolic (apparently) release of hundreds of white balloons followed and this did not go well. They were contained in a line of cages of a kind that once would have been used for mailbags on a station platform, and from the outset something was not quite right. We twigged: they were all skulking at the bottom of the cages rather than bursting to get out. Someone had puffed them up with a hand pump so when released they skittered in the breeze along the ground.
    Those who recall the scene in that year's television adaptation of Porterhouse Blue, where David Jason's college porter Skullion is seen manically stamping on hundreds of inflated condoms in the college grounds, can picture the scene that followed. Now that was entertainment.
    Australia 1992 was mercifully free of ceremony, and it took the 1996 opener at Eden Gardens to redress the balance, where the $3m Son et lumière laser show (I think Jean Michel Jarre may have collaborated) had not catered for a strong wind billowing the huge, filmy-fabric projection screen like the sails on the Cutty Sark. It was so humiliating there was talk of Jagmohan Dalmiya, head of Bengal Cricket Association, being prosecuted for misappropriation of public funds.
    By 2003 things were back on track with a cut-price $2m buying an uneventful few hours of entertainment at Newlands. Truth be known it needed it, for the nadir of opening ceremonies, the absolute pits, the apotheosis of ineptness, had been reached in England in 1999, where a budget that would not have kept a family of four in food for a week bought a box of Brocks fireworks, and Tony Blair claiming to have seen things that never actually happened. If only we could have recognised that trait for what it was at the time.
 
England given scare by Canada in World Cup warm-up

&#8226; England win by just 16 runs against Canada
&#8226; Kevin Pietersen excited by World Cup opener role



  • David Clough in Fatullah
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 12.17 GMT <li class="history">Article history England's Kevin Pietersen, promoted to opener, feels the pressure against Canada in Fatullah, Bangladesh. Photograph: Themba Hadebe/AP Kevin Pietersen is confident his surprise move up to open the batting will prove a success for England in the World Cup. Pietersen, previously a fixture at No4, instead took on the new ball in Wednesday's narrow warm-up victory over Canada.
    After making 24 on a painfully slow wicket, he could claim only an acceptable initial experience &#8211; as could England, who came embarrassingly close to a shock defeat against the World Cup minnows in their opening warm-up match.
    Pietersen has had only fitful opportunities as an opener at any level, but England have confirmed he will stay there in this tournament. "We spoke about it going into the end of the Australia tour," he added. "We feel at the top of the innings is a really nice time to bat.
    "I'm excited by it; the team are excited by it - and I'm looking forward to it. I'll look to play my normal game. It's not a pinch-hitting role. It was put to me, and I was very excited &#8211; and the team are right behind the decision."
    Andrew Strauss's team got more than they bargained for against Canada as Rizwan Cheema's thrilling counterattack put the underdogs on the brink of a notable chase.
    It seemed Canada had no chance in reply to 243 all out, after Stuart Broad (five for 39) and Ajmal Shahzad reduced them to 28 for five. But Cheema (93) had other ideas, making a mockery of everyone else's laboured batting with a display of sustained hitting which contained 10 fours and five sixes from 70 balls to put his team well ahead of the run rate.
    In the end, a victory margin of 16 runs grossly flattered England. They had earlier been indebted to Matt Prior (78), down at No6 after opening the batting in five of this winter's seven one-day internationals against Australia, for his combined effort with Jonathan Trott (57) to muster a competitive total.
    Pietersen has long been inked in at No4. But England revealed they intend to use him at the top of the order in this tournament, in preference to wicketkeeper-batsman Prior. The new incumbent made an acceptable start, after the early loss of Strauss, until he became the second of three victims for Khurram Chohan.
    Strauss chose to bat first but fell in the second over, under-edging a pull behind off the skiddy Chohan.
    Pietersen was joined by Trott, only to go for 24 to Chohan &#8211; switched to the Pavilion End &#8211; when his attempt to squeeze a single off the medium-pacer resulted instead in an inside edge on to the base of leg stump on a predictably slow surface.
    Ian Bell was unable to prosper either, trying to steer runs behind square on the off side but edging Chohan (three for 34) behind.
    Paul Collingwood failed the patience test, stumped on the charge after missing a leg-break from Balaji Rao. But the in-form Trott was ideally suited to awkward circumstances and responded with a typically hard-working 50.
    Prior played admirably too &#8211; adding 54 for the fifth wicket with Trott, who went to a mistimed sweep at the off-spinner John Davison &#8211; and then 51 with Broad, after Mike Yardy and Luke Wright both fell cheaply to Henry Osinde to put England back in trouble on 158 for seven.
    Prior had to rein in his attacking instincts, and was counting only his third four when he pulled Osinde to the boundary to bring up a 60-ball half-century.
    He was eventually bowled by a slower ball from Harvir Baidwan (three for 50) but helped to add an important 63 with the tail in the last 10 overs.
    England were denied permission by the International Cricket Council to select the stand-by fast bowler Chris Tremlett as James Anderson sat out the match with a stiff back &#8211; the Lancastrian is expected to be available against Pakistan on Friday.
    But with the new ball, Broad proved his wellbeing after Tuesday's stomach upset &#8211; working up good pace to intimidate Canada's top order, in his first match since suffering the abdominal muscle tear which ended his Ashes in Adelaide in early December.
    Shahzad, back from a hamstring injury, helped Broad put Canada in instant disarray as both openers were bowled.
    Davison played all round a length ball from Shahzad, and Nitish Kumar edged Broad down on to off stump.
    Broad soon added the wicket of Ashish Bagai, the Canada captain backing away to try to carve off-side runs and looking astonished when he merely presented Pietersen with a routine catch in the gully.
    The procession continued as Jimmy Hansra aimed across Shahzad's full-length swing and was lbw in front of off stump, and Broad had three when Ruvindu Gunasekera flailed an edge behind.
    Cheema, choosing an entertaining method which went well beyond mere damage limitation, more than trebled the score with Zubin Surkari for the sixth wicket. Surkari was well caught by Collingwood away to his left at cover, driving at Yardy.
    But Cheema, having found a new ally in Chohan, escaped a half-chance on 68 to a tumbling Yardy off Collingwood at short third-man &#8211; and greeted the return of Broad with two huge leg-side sixes. Another attempted big hit at Broad saw him caught at last at long-off to end a stand of 60 in only nine overs.
    Yet still England's superiority was in serious doubt, as Chohan shepherded the tail &#8211; until he was last out, lbw to the returning Broad with almost four overs still remaining.
 
The swallow-diving, badge-kissing, baby-rocking world of celebrations

Chris Ashton's Superman-style soar may seem smug let's hear it for ridiculous overexcitement



  • A not too unfamiliar Graeme Swann celebration. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP It was inevitable that the first question Chris Ashton was asked after his four-try, man-of-the-match performance against Italy in the Six Nations wasn't anything to do with the game but was, instead, about his instantly infamous "swallow dive".
    Ashton had, apparently, been given a stern ticking-off about his try-scoring celebration after England's game against Wales, and promised the manager, Martin Johnson, that he wouldn't be doing it again. Then, three minutes into the Italy game, he had a free run for the line. "I was doing eeny meeny miney mo," he said afterwards. "And when I got there I think I was on the mo and thought I will just have to do it."
    Whoever coined its name (surely soon to be trademarked, patented and merchandised), is probably not a particularly keen ornothologist; there is emphatically nothing swallow-like about a 15st Superman double throwing himself into the air, his arms levelled at the crowd like flesh-covered Gatling guns. It involves, effectively, celebrating before he's even grounded the ball, although his critics seem less bothered about the danger of him dropping the ball than they do about him looking arrogant and self-congratulatory. A bit, you know, smug.
    We have a tendency to react as if there's something rather deviant about sporting celebrations. Perhaps that old Victorian strain still endures in our collective psyche, and the exhibitionism and emotion feel somehow un-English. Deep down, maybe we'd rather sportsmen acknowledged their flashes of brilliance with a gruff nod and a manly slap on the back from their team-mates. Cartwheeling across the pitch is just rubbing the opposition's noses in it, and not very dignified at all. You can still see a vestige of this in the solemn reaction when a player scores against his old club, particularly in the Premier League. There's a uniquely constipated look that comes over footballers as they try to arrange their features into po-faced solemnity, while their inner workings are engaged in the serious business of keeping their middle finger sheathed.
    Happy to mock the sporting celebration in its many forms, we like nothing more than to see them end in hubristic farce (for those of you who think Ashton is a showboater, check out Lindsey Jacobellis's snowcross final in the 2006 Winter Olympics &#8211; a certain gold until she fell attempting a celebratory jump in the final seconds). Or we cringe loudly when we see them poorly effected. The Tim Henman fist-clench, probably one of the least aggressive gestures ever seen on a sporting stage, seemed only to reinforce the belief that here was a lovely young chap who was never going to win a grand slam but would be an ideal invitee for tea with granny.
    And yet: I loved Chris Ashton's ridiculous overexcitement. Just as I love the sight of Graeme Swann ending his skippy wicket dance in an incongruous Arnie pose, or a striker at a Sunday league game sprinting off on a 100-yard dash only to realise that no one in his team has followed him. They're a kick of shared adrenaline, a glimpse of uncensored emotion, the kind that's been smoothed out of so much of sport's slick corporate image, and vetted from the post-match quotes. If players look a bit silly while they're doing them, that's a bonus &#8211; a rare glimpse that they might, under all the designer clobber, be a bit like me. After all, as anyone who has enthusiastically celebrated a table tennis triumph over their 10-year-old godson knows, the air-punch can be a very hard manoeuvre to pull off.
    Not everything works. Badge-kissing, once the prerogative of only the most ardent veterans, is now the universally acknowledged sign that you've been caught flirting with another club, or that you're originally from South Africa. Pointing to the sky, in this irreligious age, tends to give the impression that you've been distracted by an aeroplane. And if anything leaves me completely cold it's the preconceived choreography born of one WKD too many at Faces nightclub. Baby rocking? Samurai swords? Nicolas Anelka's "butterfly"? If I wanted contemporary mime, I'd have gone to the Edinburgh Fringe.
    Personally, I'd love to see shirt-waving back on the football field, a much missed artform. I still struggle to believe that, in a game that boasts sex scandals, corruption charges, outrageous salaries, diving and disrespect for referees, the one thing that the authorities really need to make a zero tolerance stance on is bare-chested men, or, worse, men making vaguely political statements on their undergarments. Until their return, I'll just keep enjoying the work of James Anderson, whose understated and effortless wicket celebrations are one of the coolest things in an joyously uncool sport. Sadly, attempts to replicate them, running the length of the office at the completion of an article, continue to fail. Guess I'll just have to stick with the somersault.
 
Graeme Swann cleared of drink-driving charge

&#8226; England spinner found not guilty at Nottingham court
&#8226; Judge says blood sample could not be used as evidence



  • Andy Wilson
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 11.49 GMT <li class="history">Article history Graeme Swann was cleared at Nottingham Magistrates' Court. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Graeme Swann has been found not guilty of drink-driving after the Nottingham District Judge ruled that the blood sample with which he tested positive last April could not be used as evidence.
    Swann's defence was famously built around the need to drive to Asda for a screwdriver after his pet cats had been trapped under the floorboards in the early hours of the morning, but his reprieve came after his solicitor argued that the blood sample could have been contaminated.
    The trial has had several adjournments because of Swann's long winter away with England for the Ashes tour. But the Nottinghamshire spinner has still to join England's squad preparing for the World Cup in Bangladesh because his wife is due to give birth in the next few days so he attended the hearing, at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.
    Swann showed little reaction as the judge delivered her not-guilty verdict. "I'm just looking forward to getting on with it &#8211; child due tomorrow, and winning the World Cup," he said when leaving the court. He returned home early from the Ashes tour because of a back problem, and when asked about his fitness, he answered: "Getting there. It's a bit stiff but I've had a lot of physio."
 
England release Jonny Wilkinson to Toulon ahead of Six Nations 'decider'

&#8226; Fly-half returns to club to face Agen in Top 14
&#8226; France game likely to decide Six Nations 2011

  • Mike Averis
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 17.22 GMT <li class="history">Article history Jonny Wilkinson has been released from the England Six Nations squad back to Toulon for their match against Agen. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images A rare example of entente cordiale or an illustration of where Jonny Wilkinson stands in the England pecking order, the fly-half has been released back to Toulon and will play against Agen on Saturday.
    While Martin Johnson might once have wrapped Wilkinson in cotton wool ahead of big games, the England manager has decided to allow the 31-year-old to play in the Top 14 fixture only a week before England meet France at Twickenham in what is being seen as the game likely to decide the Six Nations.
    With Toulon's fly-half understudy Felipe Contepomi injured and the back-up signing Gavin Henson not ready to play, Johnson's gesture, although not yet mentioned by the England camp, has gone down well in the Var département. However, Toulon's team manager, Tom Whitford, denied it stepped outside the bounds of an agreement struck between the England team manager and the head coach, Philippe Saint-André.
    "I think Jonno just wanted him to get a bit of game time after a couple of matches starting from the bench. I don't think it had anything to do with the specific number of minutes he played against Italy," said Whitford, ending suggestions that Wilkinson would automatically have been released had he played less than 10 minutes last Saturday.
    As it was, Wilkinson left the replacements' bench with 25 minutes to go and will be sharper for starting for Toulon, fourth in the Top 14, against Agen, who are 11th, 21 points adrift of a team which continues to recruit from around the world.
    This week Matt Giteau, the Wallaby midfielder, said he was leaving the Brumbies for 18 months in the south of France, after the World Cup. The announcement came a day after the Brumbies announced that Giteau would captain the side and play fly-half when they open the Super Rugby season against Chiefs on Saturday.
    At the same time, the Melbourne Rebels said another England fly-half, Danny Cipriani, has not made the starting XV for their first competitive fixture. He will make his debut in the Super 15 against the Waratahs from the bench on Friday, with James Hilgendorf starting at fly-half and Julian Huxley at full-back.
    The former Gloucester captain and Wales international Gareth Delve starts at No8, but Cipriani was considered to be the marquee signing when he signed, only for some inconsistent performances in their warm-up matches to undermine his position.
    In another statement of intent, the new executive director at Sale, Steve Diamond, has bought one of the biggest forwards in Europe rugby as his first signing. The Irish tighthead prop Tony Buckley, weighing in at 21st 5lb, joins from Munster on a three-year deal. "We want to build a team around a dominant pack of forwards," Diamond said.
 
England release Jonny Wilkinson to Toulon ahead of Six Nations 'decider'

• Fly-half returns to club to face Agen in Top 14
• France game likely to decide Six Nations 2011

  • Mike Averis
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 17.22 GMT <li class="history">Article history Jonny Wilkinson has been released from the England Six Nations squad back to Toulon for their match against Agen. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images A rare example of entente cordiale or an illustration of where Jonny Wilkinson stands in the England pecking order, the fly-half has been released back to Toulon and will play against Agen on Saturday.
    While Martin Johnson might once have wrapped Wilkinson in cotton wool ahead of big games, the England manager has decided to allow the 31-year-old to play in the Top 14 fixture only a week before England meet France at Twickenham in what is being seen as the game likely to decide the Six Nations.
    With Toulon's fly-half understudy Felipe Contepomi injured and the back-up signing Gavin Henson not ready to play, Johnson's gesture, although not yet mentioned by the England camp, has gone down well in the Var département. However, Toulon's team manager, Tom Whitford, denied it stepped outside the bounds of an agreement struck between the England team manager and the head coach, Philippe Saint-André.
    "I think Jonno just wanted him to get a bit of game time after a couple of matches starting from the bench. I don't think it had anything to do with the specific number of minutes he played against Italy," said Whitford, ending suggestions that Wilkinson would automatically have been released had he played less than 10 minutes last Saturday.
    As it was, Wilkinson left the replacements' bench with 25 minutes to go and will be sharper for starting for Toulon, fourth in the Top 14, against Agen, who are 11th, 21 points adrift of a team which continues to recruit from around the world.
    This week Matt Giteau, the Wallaby midfielder, said he was leaving the Brumbies for 18 months in the south of France, after the World Cup. The announcement came a day after the Brumbies announced that Giteau would captain the side and play fly-half when they open the Super Rugby season against Chiefs on Saturday.
    At the same time, the Melbourne Rebels said another England fly-half, Danny Cipriani, has not made the starting XV for their first competitive fixture. He will make his debut in the Super 15 against the Waratahs from the bench on Friday, with James Hilgendorf starting at fly-half and Julian Huxley at full-back.
    The former Gloucester captain and Wales international Gareth Delve starts at No8, but Cipriani was considered to be the marquee signing when he signed, only for some inconsistent performances in their warm-up matches to undermine his position.
    In another statement of intent, the new executive director at Sale, Steve Diamond, has bought one of the biggest forwards in Europe rugby as his first signing. The Irish tighthead prop Tony Buckley, weighing in at 21st 5lb, joins from Munster on a three-year deal. "We want to build a team around a dominant pack of forwards," Diamond said.
 
Chris Ashton sends rugby union diving head-first towards entertainment

Wigan can be proud of the dash and fun rugby league convert Chris Ashton has brought to Twickenham



Wigan's Chris Ashton brings a little exuberance to the business of thrashing wooden spoon contenders Italy. Photograph: Henry Browne/Action Images Watch almost any rugby union international these days and the screen quickly fills up with Wiganers. There's Shaun Edwards organising the Welsh defence and Mike Ford doing the same for England, both rugby league products who briefly played together at Central Park in the mid-80s and shone in the 1985 Challenge Cup final. Strictly speaking the latter hails from Oldham, though he rose to prominence in Wigan, as of course did Jason Robinson. Martin Johnson is the son of an Orrell man, just outside Wigan, raised on respect for rugby league, and his predecessor Brian Ashton actually is from the borough, with a father who played professionally for Leigh.
The Wiganer everyone is talking about at the moment, of course, is Chris Ashton, and no one is saying how well he has adapted to rugby union or how reliably he hits the line at the right moment to score all those long-distance tries, but how long it will be before he drops the ball over the line in mid-swallow dive and makes a fool of himself. OK, that is a slight exaggeration. Within the England camp there is no shortage of admiration for Ashton's pace, anticipation and ability to find openings, but commentators and sports editors appear to be sniffily disapproving of what they term premature celebrations, even though they never seem to tire of using pictures of the winger flying through the air with the ball in one hand. There is a strong suspicion in the Wigan pubs where this column takes refreshment that the day he does drop one the captions will begin: Rugby league convert Chris Ashton &#8230;
Study those pictures just a little more closely. Ashton does not actually have the ball in one hand, he has it locked between fingers and wrist. He probably will drop it one day, especially if he carries on at this rate of scoring, though it is slightly insulting to his professionalism to assume there is anything unduly risky about carrying the ball in such a manner. One could, if one so wished, admire the ease with which Ashton transfers the ball to one fist in order to start pumping the air with the other &#8211; most us would have to stop running to do that, or at least slow down to think about it &#8211; yet it appears from the rumpus in the last few days that natural grace and a bit of youthful showmanship are not to be preferred to the prospect of a player receiving a bollocking from his manager.
One imagines Johnson will wait for Ashton to learn his lesson the hard way rather than try to impose discipline when there is no need. The winger is unlikely to attempt anything spectacular if the situation or the game does not allow it, and neither does he insist on embellishing all his tries with a personal celebration. Of the four against Italy at the weekend, only two produced swallow-dives. That is why it is hard to understand the fuss being kicked up about being disrespectul towards opponents. If flying through the air with arms aloft is disrespectful to opponents, what is walking on one's knees like a duck after scoring a goal in football, or flinging the ball high into the sky on taking a catch in cricket? Still with cricket, bowlers often point to the pavilion in no uncertain manner after taking a batsman's wicket, while in tennis it used to be the norm for the victor to invade his opponent's territory by vaulting the net after a successful match point.
Yes, you might say, but all those celebrations occur after the point of scoring or of dismissal. Ashton is guilty of jumping the gun, prejudging the issue, being flashy before he has put the ball down. While that is true up to a point, it does not recognise how much rugby union has moved on in recent years. To all intents and purposes, the "try" is now scored when a player of Ashton's pace breaks the line cleanly with the ball safely in hand. With no one in front of him the touchdown is a mere formality, and until such time as Ashton starts to do something really daft such as going over backwards or throwing the ball up in the air and catching it again there is surely no harm in him celebrating the fact that he has made a decisive breakthrough. Those who rather starchily insist the ball should be put down with two hands with as little fuss as possible are not really confronting the fact that union these days sees a lot more tries run in from around halfway than it used to, with defenders more or less giving up the chase once they see one of the quick guys has got into space. Ashton is only doing what comes naturally. It certainly looks a lot more natural than walking back to his own half to start celebrating, or going into a crazy dance on his own in the in-goal area after carefully placing the ball over the line.
If defenders feel insulted by such showboating, they need to do a better job of denying Ashton the space in which to operate. They have no business moaning if he crosses the line with no one in shouting distance, even if he crosses it like Superman. If Ashton beats the cover to spy an unguarded line he is entitled to enjoy the moment. I once saw Martin Offiah walk in a try for Widnes by jogging backwards for the last 30 yards, and while that got him into trouble for being a bighead, he only did it because all the chasers had stopped around halfway, recognising the absolute futility of trying to make up the ground. What would be provocative and disrespectful in these situations would be for the ball-carrier to wait on the line, and perhaps lean on one of the posts with a mocking smile before grounding the ball at the last moment. Football does not have anything directly comparable, but you may occasionally have seen players taking the mick after rounding the goalkeeper to make a goal virtually certain, flicking the ball up for a header, perhaps, or attempting to backheel into the net.
I am fairly sure Ashton means nothing so disrespectful to opponents, he is merely enjoying a big stage and showing understandable exuberance after timing a run just right. I know it must be hard for some Twickenham types to get their head round but it's called entertainment. Most seem to like it, others seem determined not to, but it would be wholly wrong to accuse Ashton of trying to goad or belittle opponents. The only person who stands to end up looking foolish is himself, and that hasn't happened yet. Until it does, perhaps the sceptics could consider the swallow-diving as an added extra, a bit of will-he-won't-he drama thrown in free as a bonus. Anyone knows Ashton is quick enough to score if he breaks the line from 30 or 40 yards out, he did it against Australia as well as against Italy, but there is nothing in the rulebook that says he must do it in the most boring way imaginable. Perhaps this is just his way of trying to make union that little bit more interesting. He is from Wigan, after all.
 

Racing calls for betting right to replace sport's Levy funding system

&#8226; New figure set between £73.7m and £80.8m
&#8226; Government determined to be removed from process



  • Owen Gibson
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 18.15 GMT <li class="history">Article history Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of the Jockey Club, has called for fundamental reform to the way racing is funded. Racing hasrenewed its call for a so-called "betting right" to replace the Levy system, amid signs that a government review could investigate the possibility of extending such a model to all sports.
    After a long and acrimonious negotiation between the racing industry and bookmakers failed to reach agreement, the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, accepted the advice of independent members of the Levy Board and set the terms for 2011-2012 between £73.7m and £80.8m. That is likely to mean a modest rise on the £75m collected by racing this year, a total that it argued would ultimately put courses and jobs at risk if it continued to dwindle.
    Hunt signalled his determination ultimately to remove the government from the Levy process and replace the anachronistic mechanism with a commercial negotiation between the two sides.
    The decision, broadly as expected, will be claimed as a victory by both sides. Under the Racing United banner the sport had argued that as much as £150m a year would be a "fair return", given the betting revenue that was no longer captured by the mechanism. Bookmakers, who argue racing is less fundamental to their business, had proposed a figure of between £56m and £64m and will argue the final figure is much closer to their assessment.
    The headline rate of Levy &#8211; the percentage of gross profits that bookmakers must pay &#8211; will increase from 10% to 10.75%. The racing industry won a minor victory in a change to the "threshold" &#8211; the level beneath which betting shops pay a reduced rate. It will come down from £88,740 to £50,000.
    Will Roseff, chairman of the Bookmakers' Committee, said the change was a "major concern" and would result in job losses and shop closures. But he welcomed the decision not to include foreign racing shown in British shops within the Levy. Both sides said they agreed with the need for reform of the system &#8211; but are likely to clash bitterly over the nature of it.
    The government is expected to bring forward proposals to license offshore operators before the end of next month but any proposal to force them to pay the Levy would require new legislation. As such, a broader debate on the role of betting exchanges and consideration of the merits of a "betting right" for racing and sport as a whole is expected to follow.
    The Jockey Club chief executive, Simon Bazalgette, called for "a more commercially focused value transfer between betting and racing". He added: "This could take the form of a 'racing right' with a payment for the right or license to take bets on our sport. Only then can racing focus on growing our sport, to the benefit of all."
 
Beauty before finesse

To show you are a true master, you cannot just rely on a jack or queen being in the right place





  • Zia Mahmood
  • The Guardian, Thursday 17 February 2011 <li class="history">Article history The final of the NEC Cup in Japan provided one of the most beautifully played hands of the year so far, although quite why it was is something of a mystery. Perhaps it shows how a true expert will do anything rather than take a finesse &#8211; no one will believe that you are a master player if you just rely on a jack or a queen being in the right place. Anyone can do that, but not anyone can do this &#8211; game all, dealer North:
    When Li Xiaoyi sat South for the Chinese team, he received a club lead from West against four hearts. The club finesse was right and the spades would play for only two losers, but the hearts were 4-1 and the jack of diamonds was over the 10, so it seemed that the contract must fail. It didn't seem that way to Li, who played dummy's queen of clubs and won East's king with the ace, then drew two rounds of trumps to discover the awkward break. Only one sequence of plays would do now, and Li found it: a club to the jack was followed by a spade to the king (it would not help West to put in the ace, since the suit would then play for only one loser). A second spade went to East's queen, and the defender exited with a trump. When West was put in with the ace of spades, he had only minor-suit cards left. A club would give declarer a ruff and discard, so West tried a diamond. But that did him no good, for declarer could allow a low diamond to run to his hand (forcing East to part with the jack) or, as actually happened, cover the nine of diamonds with the 10 (and again East's jack was destined not to take a trick). That worked well, but everyone wondered why Li had chosen to play that way. After all, if the clubs had been divided 5-4 &#8211; much more likely than the actual 6-3 break &#8211; then West could play a club when in with the ace of spades, and East could play another club when in with the ace of diamonds. These would force out the last trump from both declarer's hand and dummy, and East would be left with the master heart. Still, one does not argue with success, and especially not with beauty.
 
World Cup needs classic moments &#8211; not Bryan Adams &#8211; to be a hit

The 2011 Cricket World Cup needs to be more exciting than the last two editions to justify its existence



  • Long before the 10th football World Cup kicked off in 1974 its immediate predecessor's place in the hearts of the public suggested it was going to be a tough act to follow. The vibrant colours from Mexico, the trebly resonance of the commentary beamed for the first time via satellite and Brazil's stylishly sadistic attacking football whose scintillating use of speed, grace and space exhausted then annihilated most of their opponents and gave it a lustre. That sheen made the West Germany tournament, for all the breathtaking brilliance of Total Football and the hosts' dash and resilience, seem second-rate.
    The 10th cricket World Cup, to be heralded by Bryan Adams fawning over Maid Marian at the opening ceremony in Dhaka, has no similar peak to overshadow it. Indeed the last two in 2003 and 2007 were such gruellingly tedious one-sided affairs, littered with meaningless "Super" stage matches and spineless collapses by the few teams who could potentially test Australia, that this year's event has to have only three close games to make it seem like a classic by comparison.
    This is supposed to be the tournament that puts all those moribund moneyspinning seven-game series into some sort of context beyond the purely financial. But it has been so badly served by administrators' bloating the itinerary and so thoroughly eclipsed by a flashier, even more ephemerally enjoyable format that a failure to excite this time will just about render it redundant. It may endure a living death in the future as a made-for-television marathon devoid of emotion and substance, as an upmarket version of the Champions Trophy, but it needs a jolt to save its soul and significance.
    When the inaugural World Cup began in 1975 it seemed such a bold and radical idea given that West Indies and India had played only two one-day internationals each before it, Pakistan one more, Australia and New Zealand seven apiece while England were by far the most experienced with 13. That lack of practice was apparent in India's case, Sunil Gavaskar perversely taking 174 balls to make 36 not out when he deemed the target of 335 set by England as too high to chase.
    West Indies, however, with a smattering of thirtysomethings making their last hurrahs &#8211; Roy Fredericks, Rohan Kanhai, Vanburn Holder and Keith Boyce &#8211; tackled the new game with the peacock strut of Vivian Richards at cover point and the languid buccaneering of Clive Lloyd at the crease. They played with an exuberance that was matched by the boisterous crowds they drew to The Oval and Lord's, none more so than the one at the final whose premature celebrations almost allowed Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee to steal victory by running 20 when the field was overrun.
    Four years later they triumphed again after England's mastery with the ball through Mike Hendrick's fiendish swing and Geoffrey Boycott's surprisingly difficult to hit induckers deserted them in the final once Collis King came out to bat and inspired Richards back to his devastating best.
    It took India in 1983, who had given no hint up to that point that they understood how to play the one-day game, to pounce once West Indies' expectation of dominance turned into hubris. I'll never forget Madan Lal's prodigious leap in his delivery stride, the ball wobbling under dense, oyster clouds and Kapil Dev gambolling in the deep to catch Richards. At that moment cricket was turned upside down and India's talent finally began to win out over perceptions of timidity.
    The next three tournaments were studded with iconic moments from Eddie Hemmings spinning out India in the semi-final and the punchy innings of Mike Veletta that pushed Australia's totals from stolid to stiff in 1987, to the last knockings of Ian Botham's ability to send Australian minds haywire and Pakistan's late verve in 1992 to West Indies' twitch-on-the-thread victory over Australia at Jaipur, Sri Lanka's electrifying onslaughts and Neil Smith's vomiting at the crease that condensed England's 1996 campaign into an unimprovable visual metaphor.
    Even 1999 when England troughed too early at their own party saw two memorably titanic battles between South Africa and Australia when first Steve Waugh and then Shane Warne emphasised the gulf between promise and attainment. That tournament at 37 days was long enough compared to the fortnight span of 1975 and 1979 but by 2003 it lasted six days more and in 2007 it was stretched beyond everyone's patience to seven full weeks.
    Mercifully the 2011 World Cup has lopped off seven days and the stagnant, superfluous round robin but it still needs a spark to ignite, a beautifully crafted Aravinda da Silva knock, a Mushtaq Ahmed googly utterly bamboozling Graeme Hick, Richards stepping to leg and firing Bob Willis over extra cover or even Boycott turning his cap back to front and confounding everyone. There is still time left to save the 50-over format but if this World Cup falls as short of excitement as the last two we might as well give up. If there is no pinnacle, there is no point.
 
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