Annus horribilis for England's underachievers in all the sports that really matter

We dine and imbibe and gossip with our peers, rub shoulders with some of the great and the good from British sport and applaud the success of our chosen award winners. The last few years we have had much to cheer: Rugby World Cup success for England in 2003, Olympic success for Kelly Holmes and others in 2004 and The Ashes and Liverpool's Champions League trophy in 2005. But the 2006 lunch was a rather sombre affair.

Not much to cheer in British sport in 2006

This year's individual SJA awards went to a couple of aging pugilists and to that prodigiously privileged princess Zara Phillips - and the Team award went to the splendid Ryder Cup team - a European rather than a British triumph. Ms Phillips expressed the hope that more people would be inspired by her success to take up three-day eventing - and I am sure that all the young people with ponies, paddocks, stables and rich daddies will be enthused to do so. For the rest of us there was precious little to inspire us from our sporting 'superstars' in 2006. The Ashes are gone; the Football World cup campaign was a disaster; England's rugby team has fallen so far from grace that they have been beaten by all and sundry and a British Golf Major or Tennis Grand Slam winner seems as far away as ever. Is this all a coincidence of under-performance, perhaps attributable to a poor alignment of the planets and will we soon bounce back? Or are there some common themes which make our sportsmen so incapable of fulfilling their potential, as individuals or as teams? Let's look at some of the reasons.

Britain's sports administrators' incompetence

Where to begin? With the Rugby Football Union where the Old Farts still rule, dithering over coaching appointments, failing to establish an effective relationship with the top clubs (who regard them with contempt) and generally frittering away their substantial resources on Twickenham rather than creating a sustainable structure for English rugby? With the England and Wales Cricket Board who in the inebriated aftermath of 2005's Ashes success arrogantly dispensed with the services of one of the architects of that success (bowling coach Troy Cooley) whilst time and again lying about the fitness and form of key players (Vaughan, Trescothick, Flintoff et al)? With the unspeakable and amoral apparatchiks of the Football Association who stuck with the expensive services of the ineffable Sven Goran Eriksson - despite it being clear that he had no coherent plan for the World Cup? Or perhaps with the most venal of them all - people like Ian Wight, the director of England's second most important tennis tournament, who has suggested, with mind-blowing snobbery, that tennis is best played by the intelligent and well-heeled middle classes rather than the great unwashed !

Lack of proper facilities for those learning the game

If little Jimmy shows a sign of talent in a sport, and his parents are minded to make the effort to try and develop that talent and have the resources to do this, then they can probably find a way. But if Jimmy's chances have to be left to his state school, especially one in the inner cities, it is highly unlikely that anyone will have the ability to spot his potential - and it is almost certain that his school will have little time for sport in its curriculum and little in the way of sporting facilities. What if Jimmy is a budding Roger Federer (who stared playing tennis at school at the age of six)? The chances are that there won't be a tennis court for miles around - and that no one will ever think to put a racquet in his hands. 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.