Why current players dont make great pundits

Anyone listening to the inquest on Test Match Special will have heard the problem of current players acting as pundits on sporting events. Taking away the fact that Geoffrey Boycott’s rant at Broad was a little ludicrous, it did display that current players will not be able to offer their own real views on what has happened, but will churn out the party line. Broad spoke of taking positives from the game and looking to build momentum, which Boycott described as rubbish. Indeed, Boycott described everything about England’s performance as poor or rubbish, without offering a great amount of further insight, no doubt to the delight of TMS listeners who play Boycott Bingo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/testmatchspecial/4910566798/). Yet, current players are never going to be able to offer their own personal opinion if it could affect their relationship with the team, Broad would never single players out for criticism, these players are going to be team-mates for many years and indeed many will be his friends. Broad would not risk upsetting the England team and management for the sake of a few sound bites on the radio. The same situation is often seen on Sky and on Match of the Day 2, where current pros are in the studio. In these cases, they are never going to risk upsetting current players for fear of getting a bad reputation in the industry.

Understanding my blog stats

So I had a look at my recent stats for blog visitors and saw the following countries had visited the page, which included visitors from Iraq, Singapore, the US, Australia and Japan amongst others. This surprised me somewhat, given the nature of my articles, however the multi-talented writer Munaza Kulsoom has provided me with some reasons as to why this is the case!


Singpore: a bored business man, who was bullied by daddy into finance when all he wanted to do was play darts.
US: ex -pats starving for something that isn't about obama being muslim.
Japan: they love british sport and more ex-pats.
India: yorkshire backpackers who hate cricket.

I'd particularly like the Singapore reasoning to be true! Although I shall be writing about cricket soon so my Yorkshire backpacking friends will be disappointed!

Munaza's blog can be found at
http://postcodedabsurdity.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-personal-signs-of-winter.html

please go and visit it, as she is ace!

Sports Personality of the Year – Time for Taylor?

The line up for the 2010 Sports Personality of the Year has been announced and the name of Phil Taylor has been included on the list of candidates, which also features sporting luminaries as David Haye, Jessica Ennis and Graeme Swann. Taylor’s inclusion is based at long last on the recognition that he is simply the greatest player to play the sport of darts. For years Taylor has been at the top of his game, without as much as a nod from the BBC. So what has changed amongst the powers that be, which allows Taylor to take his place on 2010’s list?

1. The image of darts
The old argument, ‘darts isn’t a sport, it’s a pub game’ etc. Certainly there is no doubt in the feeling that bosses at the beeb and many newspaper editors have viewed darts with a certain amount of snobbery over the years, particularly throughout the 80s and 90s. Indeed, the absence from Taylor on many shortlists from national papers demonstrates this attitude. However, the PDC has taken the sport of darts to a level whereby the amount of money on offer to darts players means that a career as a professional player is eminently achievable. Furthermore, new young players in the scene such as Jelle Klaasen and James Wade are a world away from the image of overweight lads drinking and smoking on stage in between throws. As a result, players are now fitter than ever, as on stage conditions can be merciless for overweight players, as was sadly seen with Andy Fordham in his clash with Taylor in 2004. Taylor himself has acknowledged the need to go to a gym and get himself in better state for tournaments.

Moreover, as a consequence of the rising profile of the PDC, the crowd figures for events such as the Premier League are increasing year on year. Darts players are now becoming well known in households across the country and events on TV attract some of the best viewing figures at Sky. Phil Taylor will now be known to the millions of people, and guest appearances on programmes such as Coronation Street will only enhance his profile.

2. The achievements of Taylor himself

In 2007, Taylor lost in the first round of the Las Vegas Desert Classic and World Grand Prix to Mark Dudbridge and Adrian Gray respectively, prompting suggestions that his reign as the king of darts was coming to an end. Yet Taylor re-designed his darts with his manufacturers Unicorn, and came back stronger than ever, winning the 2009 World Championships with a record average and dominating the major tournaments. The highlight of this resurgence came in the final of the Premier League in May 2010, when Taylor hit two nine-dart finishes on his way to regaining the trophy. Such a feat had never before been witnessed and was testament to the hours of dedicated practice that Taylor puts in between each tournament. Such commitment and domination deserves to be rewarded given that Taylor continues to overcome challenges to his no.1 spot from players such as Raymond van Barneveld and James Wade. Indeed the manner in which Taylor has dominated van Barneveld has seen the Dutchman’s form drop considerably due to an acknowledgment that he couldn’t live with Taylor in big matches.

3. Thirdly, the list of competitors Taylor faces in the 2010 SPOTY is not strong. Some candidates such as Jessica Ennis are more likely to win the event in 2012, whereas David Haye has probably lost support given the nature of his win of Audley Harrison last month.

It would appear that Taylor’s main rivals will be the golfer Graeme McDowell, who has enjoyed a successful year and possibly Graeme Swann, who may have spun England to regaining the Ashes by the time of the announcement of the results in December. Certainly, it would seem that 2010 would be an appropriate time to acknowledge the achievement of a true British champion.

Revealed! Those World Cup hosts

2018 - Russia
2022 - Qatar
2026 - The Falklands Islands
2030 - Papua New Guinea
2034 - Isle of Man
2038 - Sepp Blatter's back garden