Annus horribilis for England's underachievers in all the sports that really matter (page 2 of 2)

When I was in Adelaide recently for the Test match during the interval the ground was full of very young children playing cricket as part of the national "Milo Have-a-go" program. Some of the kids were as young as five - and many of these played with an impressively straight bat.! Similar schemes in England tend to be tentative, insufficiently widespread and under-funded.

Top English domestic sport rewards foreign stars

The top clubs in all three of England's main team sports (Football, Cricket and Rugby Union) spend much of their income to attract and employ overseas stars. Arsenal often fields a team with no Englishmen in it at all and most top English rugby teams and counties in the cricket championship are stuffed with sportsmen who are not qualified to play for England. Mike Hussey, who has just hit England's bowlers off the park in The Ashes, honed his skills with three English counties for five years before he got his chance to play for Australia in a Test match!

The coaches never have a plan "B"

England's successes in Rugby and Cricket were both built on keeping a strong well-led team together and letting winning momentum carry them forward. Plan "A" (which worked) was to use the super-talented players skilfully (Jonny Wilkinson, Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen) under the leadership of intelligent and respected captains who were no mean players themselves (Martin Johnson and Michael Vaughan). The trouble was that when retirement or injury or illness happened to key players there was no plan "B". Contrast this with (say) the All Blacks rugby squad which has probably thirty-five players all of whom are true international standard and who often get their chnace to play. Or the Australian cricket squad system which could easily weather the temporary loss of a star player like Glenn McGrath or Shane Warne (as has happened in recent years) and keep on winning. (In English football, of course, Sven didn't even have a plan "A" let alone a Plan "B"!).

The media is more interested in celebrity than in proper sports reporting

Much of the British media (especially the tabloid press and commercial television) is obsessed with reporting the life and times of sporting celebrities rather than in reporting sports events (football excepted). When I was in Australia recently the main news included quite long reports on the Australian (national) Swimming championships which were underway in Brisbane. I cannot recall ever seeing or reading even a snippet about the comparable English event here in the UK. Aussies swimmers are well-known and successful with great facilities to develop their talents - their English equivalents are anonymous, have to fight hard for funding and facilities. Australia (population 20million) won 49 swimming medals at the Athens Olympics. Britain (population 60million) won 30.