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| Alastair Cook wanders from the wilderness with timely ton | Paul Weaver The England opener's first Test century in seven months was a welcome return to form, and turned thoughts to Ian BellToday the sunshine has been brilliant and the afternoon has resembled a gleaming pane of glass in a houseful of dirty windows, for some forecasts suggest the weather on the last two days will be as sullen as the first two.It has been a day for batsmen or, to be more precise, one batsman, for Alastair Cook has wandered from the wilderness to score his first Test century for seven months.Cook scored 160 against an ordinary West Indies attack at Durham's Riverside in May. But since then he had averaged just 22 in 11 innings, following a disappointing Ashes series with scores of 15 and 12 in the Test opener in Centurion earlier this month.There is not much wrong with Cook's batting when the ball is short enough to cut or pull. But his weakness – or at least his perceived weakness – is against the delivery pitched up on or just outside off-stump.That is where South Africa targeted him today. Wally Hammond might have scored a hundred in a little over an hour. But Cook showed admirable discipline, leaving more often than a fickle lover, and defending when he was required to do so.He scored a high proportion of his runs on the leg-side, though he cut lavishly when length allowed. How England and Cook himself ached for this innings.Cook, who was 25 on Christmas Day, broke a clutch of records at Bedford School and was soon thrust into the Essex side beneath Graham Gooch's admiring gaze.Three years ago, he became the youngest England batsman to make a century on debut since Peter May in 1951. He was still only 22 when he scored his fifth and sixth Test centuries. He suggested greatness. But England would be happy to settle for a proper and reliable Test player, especially as they have no spare opener on this trip. No spare batsman, indeed.Those sons of South Africa, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen, soon departed and then it was the very English partnership of Cook and Paul Collingwood who moved the match towards their side.The wind blew hard enough to remove a bail and have the umpires holding on to their hats. And South Africa bowled better than they had the night before. But Cook's concentration was massive.Well though he and Collingwood batted, it was thoughts of Ian Bell that often came to mind, as he fretted in the dressing room before his next Very Important Innings.Bell desperately needs a score here to salvage his Test career. Now in the middle of his 51st Test, he is Peter Pan in flannels, the batsman who has not grown into what might have been, what should have been.He is cricket's enduring cherub, who looks as bright-eyed and nervous now as when he walked out for England for the first time five years ago. And when he walks to the crease he carries all our nerves with him.It is batting at six where he had found most of his success, where he has scored four of his eight Test hundreds. He has scored two each batting at four and five but none at three, where he was most needed, and where he has played most of his cricket (33 innings out of 90) but averaged only 31.44.His Test batting average is 19.89 this year and 38.90 overall, some 17 runs short of Ricky Ponting, the batsman he would most like to be. But he would have been quite happy to be Alastair Cook today.England in South Africa 2009-2010England Cricket TeamSouth Africa cricket teamCricketPaul Weaverguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
White's jungle noises can cause big break Snooker's comeback king feels his sport can be a craze again, thanks to the revivalist powers of Barry HearnJimmy White chews thoughtfully on a chocolate-coated cockroach and lets out a little sigh. "The things I do for Barry Hearn, eh?" he says. It was the new chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's idea to have White doing bush tucker trials at the Rainforest Cafe in London this week to promote the Masters, which begins at Wembley tomorrow.White is a wildcard at the tournament but, washing locust legs down with a swig of tea, he does not seem too thrilled about the promo. "Can't be as bad as looking up Jordan's skirt!" says Hearn's son. 'The Whirlwind' does not seem so sure.Fresh out of the I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! jungle, the 47-year-old's voice is barely audible under the canopy of parrot squawks, monkey screeches, waterfalls, and tropical thunderstorm effects at the West End cafe as he recalls his experiences."I made a lot of new friends in there. Me and Gino [D'Acampo, the celebrity chef] and George [Hamilton, the American actor] had a great camaraderie because we were the oldest three blokes. If there was a bit of tension we'd nip it in the bud." But what made him think it would be a good idea to go into the jungle in the first place? "Well, snooker had been a bit quiet for a while …" he says, before launching into an anecdote about a one-eyed horse."To get to the camp they stuck me on a horse that was blind in his left eye! We had to go down these hills, and for him to see over this ledge sort of thing he had to keep moving his head like that just to see out of his eye!" At this, White mimes precariously balancing in the saddle. "I'd never ridden a horse before and we was on them for three hours. When we got to the camp I laid on the bed and I thought, 'What have I done? What have I come here for? I've not come here for the money, what am I doing here?' My body was aching."In contemplative mood, the nation's favourite snooker player, who finished third in the reality series' public vote behind D'Acampo and Kim Woodburn (the celebrity cleaner), muses on how his life changed dramatically after that. "Not so long ago I was thinking of moving to somewhere hot and just playing bad golf," he says, "But being in the jungle gave me a lot of time to think and now that's the last thing on my mind. I really do want to pursue my career in snooker, and now Barry Hearn's involved the excitement's come back and I'm absolutely buzzing." What if Hearn hadn't got on board? "I would have played on until I was about 50, and then – if the game hadn't changed – I would have walked away from it. I wouldn't even have considered commentating."White looks serious, and there is a sadness in his voice as he considers how the game has changed over a professional career that spans three decades. Back in 1981, when White first played in the world championship, it was boom time for snooker. As many as 18 million viewers would camp out in front of their television sets to watch and snooker players were household names – they even had top-10 hits. But the sport has changed. The money has dried up, the crowds have fizzled out, and snooker is fast appearing outdated. "It was depressing to see it go back to Pontins for the qualifying round last year," White says. "I used to go there when I was 13 and there used to be 1,600 people playing snooker tournaments. You go there now for qualifying and you're in a cubicle with a table, a referee, and 10 people watching. That's depressing."We've got to the stage where there was no players' room, there was nothing going on. Things have just got worse and worse. Snooker's only popular in China now. Well China's OK to go to once or twice a year but to go and play six or seven tournaments there is too much."But I'm sure Barry will change all that. Hopefully we'll have a proper calendar with ranking tournaments spread all over. And everyone will know where they're going to be each month – because for the last five years no one's even known where they're going to play. Snooker's got a chance to grow now. Barry's got a lot of hard work to do but if anyone can do it Barry can."That's all very well, but has the downward spiral turned the next generation off pursuing a career in the sport? "Absolutely," White says. "I mean what's the point of them becoming professional snooker players? If there's not much money in the game, if there's no guarantee of future tournaments, if no one knows what's going on."Suddenly distracted, White jumps up to greet a young woman coming down the stairs. "Hello!" he says, hurrying to fetch an extra chair before pulling her in for a kiss, and then a joke about what "disgusting" things he's just eaten. His new girlfriend is probably too young to remember the days of snooker's past glories, but in her company he looks the happiest he has been all afternoon. "She won't marry me, though," he says, in mock indignation, "she says I'm too ugly."Barry Hearn, the celebrity jungle, the new girlfriend, all seem to have given White a new lease of life. But in a sense White has always been the comeback king. The best snooker player never to win a professional world championship title – "although making the final six times is something to be proud of" – not only did his career require tenacity, but his personal life did, too. In the mid-90s White suffered three torrid years: first he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, then he lost his brother Martin to lung cancer, and then his mother died the following year. Away from the baize he struggled to maintain focus, whether it was suffering from plantar fasciitis – a foot condition that left him in agony if he stood for too long – or going on notorious drinking benders with Alex Higgins or Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stones guitarist.He says those crazy days are gone now. "I have more motivation now than I ever did. I used to be jack the lad, I was out a lot, I was mainly waking up with hangovers at tournaments rather than preparing … of course the newspapers exaggerated a lot of that. I do like to have a drink, I like to have a good time, and Ronnie's a good friend of mine, but it's all exaggerated. I don't drink now during tournaments. We've got the Masters, and I shall be on the practice table every morning. Them days of waking up not feeling too good they're all gone. You can't change the past, but you can do your best in the future."White says the celebrity jungle experience changed him. Not because he earned money, or gained extra publicity – "I've always been famous, anyway" – but in a more profound sense. "It was an opportunity just to find out about myself. I found out that I can be a lot calmer, I've slowed down quite a bit since I've been out of there. I'm usually terrible in traffic, I'm terrible if I'm late where, when I was young, I didn't really care. I've gone back to that and I think that's healthy."But realistically what can an ageing player ranked 56 in the world expect to achieve? White's response is bright and breezy. "I want to get in the top 32 so I only have to play one round before the TV cameras, and I want to win tournaments. I want to prove to myself I can win another rankings tournament, my last one was in 2004, before that was 1998, so there's a six-year gap between each one. Being in the Masters is the perfect place I want to be."Tomorrow White takes on Mark King, ranked 16 in the world, attempting to make it past the opening round for the first time in five years. It is going to be a long shot, but White says he is optimistic. "This is where I want to be. Do I have any regrets about my life? No. If I could go back the only thing I would change is to have prepared more. But I've had an amazing life and I'm still here, I've got a beautiful girlfriend and lovely kids. What more could I want?"SnookerI'm a Celebrity ...Anna Kesselguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Manchester United stake all on £500m bond issue Manchester United are accustomed to selling themselves to the world. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
Chicago Cubs likely to stay in Mesa The Mesa City Council is expected to approve an $84 million project for the Chicago Cubs on Monday to keep the team's spring home in Mesa. feeds.bizjournals.com |
South Africa sack entire selection panel • Procter says decision was shock to selectors• No rift between coach Arthur and captain SmithCricket South Africa has sacked the country's entire selection panel, a day after head coach Mickey Arthur resigned ahead of a tour to India. Mike Procter, convenor of the selectors, said that "a meeting held last week with CSA bosses did not go well"."Whatever transpired at that meeting led them to get rid of Mickey and also the selectors," Procter said. "[CSA chief executive] Gerald Majola called me up and told me that the selection panel was dysfunctional. It was a huge shock to us all."He said this selection panel would not be required in future ... I think we had too short a time in the business: as selectors we always gave our own thoughts, we never ended up voting on issues, we talked around issues, we enjoyed each others company and I think we were doing pretty well. The time we had was too short but we did introduce some new players."The former South Africa and Gloucestershire all-rounder disputed earlier reports that Arthur's departure was due to a clash with captain Graeme Smith – reports which also upset Smith."Yesterday was a tough day for me," said Smith, who sat next to Arthur at today's news conference, and at one stage rested his head on Arthur's shoulder."Mickey brought a lot of stability and calmness to the team and, having worked so closely together, it was disappointing, it hurt me, to hear the media telling everybody our relationship had broken down. I can tell you we spoke a few times on the telephone yesterday, so much for our relationship being irreparably damaged, we had a very healthy relationship and I gave him my full support."Other reports had suggested that the surprise resignation of Arthur, together with the dismissal of the selection panel, was linked to the contentious issue of quotas for more black players in the national team.Procter said that only CSA could answer the question of whether quotas and racial transformation of the team was the reason the selectors were fired.An interim selection committee, which will replace the one led by Procter, comprises Majola, high performance manager Corrie van Zyl, who has also been appointed as interim coach, and former captain Kepler Wessels.Craig Matthews, a member of the sacked selection panel, told Cricinfo: "We weren't given any reason for the decision [sacking]."All that was said was that the board felt the selection process was flawed and that they want to restructure it. It might be a transformation issue, but they didn't give us any reasons, all they said was that the process needs to be reworked. I have been part of South African cricket for many years, nothing really surprises me anymore."Arthur later blamed "differences" between himself and CSA for his departure."I've decided to resign as I feel it is of the best interests of me and the team. Differences have arisen between the board of Cricket South Africa and me and I don't believe I can take the team forward under the present circumstances."There comes a time when you have to move on and I know in my own mind that I've taken the right decision."South Africa cricket teamCricketguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |