suit. What is it about these South Africans? Well, for a start, they have been the better team but this time they had a secret weapon. England’s batsman, and possibly best batsman, Kevin Pietersen, who was born in South Africa but qualified to play for England, allegedly contacted some South African players with text messages with derogatory comments about Strauss and coach, Andy Flower, and with suggestions as to how they could dismiss Strauss when he was batting. Should this be proven to be true then it would be the most appalling betrayal of a team mate, let alone your captain and coach. Strauss claimed that his resignation was not influenced by the Pietersen situation, but it is hard to believe that it did not have some effect. The opportunity to lead England to a third successive Ashes Series victory in 2014 would have been a great temptation for Strauss. Many will put Strauss amongst the best and most successful of England’s past captains along with Sir Len Hutton, Mike Brearly and Michael Vaughan. He played in one hundred Test matches and captained the side in fifty of them. He played the game with great dignity and with coach, Andy Flower, took England to number one in the World Test rankings. He will be sorely missed. And what of Pietersen who not long ago announced that he did not want to play One Day or Twenty20 international cricket for England anymore. Then he announced he would make himself available for all formats of the game, but with the proviso that he miss the Test series against New Zealand so as to play the full annual Indian IPL Twenty20 tournament with all the personal riches that accompanies that competition. That proviso led to his omission from England’s provisional squad for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka. One player, no matter how good, cannot pick and choose when he wants to play for his country. If he wants the riches of the IPL and cricket with Surrey County Cricket Club, so be it. Discussions continue with the England and Wales Cricket Board to see if there is a way back into the England set up for Pietersen, but if the allegations about the text messages to South African players is proven, he surely cannot possibly be allowed back into the England teams. England are the current World Twenty20 champions and ranked number one in this format of the game. The next World championships takes place in Sri Lanka between 18 September and 7 October. The Women’s Twenty20 World Cup takes place in Sri Lanka at the same time. The location will be difficult for the England teams. Spin bowling will be prevalent in Sri Lanka and England’s batters have not shown the greatest technique against such spin. After the Twenty20 World Cup, England will play a four Test Series in November and December
against India in India - that will not be easy either!! Golf What an astonishing finish to The Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes when Adam Scott of Australia snatched defeat from the jaws of victory over the final four holes. With four holes to play and leading by four strokes the bookmakers had Scott at 1-50 to win the coveted claret jug. How could it be that Scott would then bogey the last four holes whilst Ernie Els, the South African, pared 15, 16 and 17 and then birdied the 18th to win by one stroke? Shades of that other Aussie, Greg Norman, at The Masters at Augusta and the Frenchman, Jean Van de Velde, at The Open. It just shows, yet again, what can happen in sport when all seems lost but you just keep asking one more question of your opponent right to the very end. It was ten years since Els last won The Open at Muirfield. Els had finished second in 1996 and third in 2001 at Royal Lytham and this latest victory puts him level with Phil Mickelson on four majors. Coming up next is The Ryder Cup which will be held at Medinah, Illinois from 28 to 30 September. The captains’ “picks” have been made to join the automatically qualified players and the chants of “USA USA” and “Europe Europe” will soon be heard around the Medinah course. It looks, once again, to be a tight contest. Let’s hope it will be played with the traditional sportsmanship of the Ryder Cup and with traditional impartiality we can only say “Come on Europe”! Soccer It did not take long - Premiership and League soccer is back again! It’s too soon to consider early results but Manchester City and Chelsea have again laid out massive amounts of money to strengthen their squads, and the latter have got off to a good start with three straight wins. Hopefully, the Premiership will be as exciting as last season with lots of surprise results and “top” teams falling prey to lesser rated mortals. Last season, for example, Arsenal lost ten of their thirty eight games and finished third! In earlier times, that record would have been mid-table. In the European Champions League, Manchester City have drawn a difficult Group with Real Madrid of Spain, Ajax of Holland and Borussia Dortmund of Germany. Chelsea, the reigning champions, also have two difficult opponents in Juventus of Italy and Shaktar Donetsk of the Ukraine but an easier opponent in FC Nordsjaelland. Arsenal will play Scalke 04 of Germany, Olympiacos of Greece and Montpellier of France. Manchester United have the easiest task on paper having drawn Braga of Portugal, Galatasaray of Turkey and CFR Cluj.
The Group stage will be complete by the time of our winter issue - hopefully we can report that all four English clubs will have progressed to the knock out stage. Scotland have one club that has qualified for the Group stage after an elimination play off. Celtic have drawn Barcelona of Spain, Benfica of Portugal and Spartak Moscow of Russia. Very difficult but Celtic should remember Ernie Els! In the Europa Cup, Liverpool will play their Group matches against Udinese of Italy, Young Boys of Switzerland and Anzhi Makhachkala of Russia. Newcastle United have drawn Bordeaux of France, Bruges of Belgium and Maritimo of Portugal. Tottenham Hotspur, who were denied a place in the European Champions League as a result of Chelsea winning that tournament last season and taking Spurs fourth placed Premiership position, will play Panathinaikos of Greece, Lazio of Italy and Maribor of Slovenia. Although this is Europe’s secondary competition, the quality of the teams remains very high with many having had past experience in the Champions League competition. England have got off to a mixed start in their Group stage of the World Cup qualifying competition for the 2014 finals in Rio beating Moldova (away) 5-0 in their opening game but managing only a 1-1 draw against a very good team from the Ukraine at Wembley. England will next play San Marino (home) on 12 October, Poland (away) on 16 October, San Marino (away) on 22 March 2013, Montenegro (away) on 26 March, Moldova (home) on 6 September, Ukraine (away) on 10 September, Montenegro (home) on 11 October and, finally, Poland (home) on 15 October. Hopefully, we will then be on our way to Rio for the finals the following summer. NFL in London Probably the item of most interest to our expat readers is that Wembley Stadium will again be hosting an NFL International Series game, this time between the St. Louis Rams and the New England Patriots. The Rams are designated as the home team and quarterback, Tom Brady’s Patriots as the “road team” - that’s so much more descriptive than the Brits’ “away” team designations! The match takes place on Sunday 28 October. The Patriots played an NFL game at Wembley in 2009 and defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-7, so Old England may be a lucky venue for New England! n Well, it has been a fantastic summer of sport led by the amazing Olympic and Paralympic Games which have inspired the nation and generated a great sense of national pride and patriotism. I don’t think so many Union Jack flags have been seen for many a long year - like America with its Stars and Stripes, long may it continue. 19