A late New Year's resolution - my 2015 campaign to see a massive variety of local sport

It is statistically (un)proven the New Year’s resolutions which are most easily broken are the ones made half-cut at 12.01am on New Year’s Day - those ones which have had no thought put into them whatsoever.

So, therefore, using the same reasoning, the best time to make a resolution must certainly be at the start of February. So, here is mine.

This year, I want to watch live as many different sports as I possibly can, at a variety of different levels in Berkshire and North Hampshire (for the simple reason I grew up in Reading, work in Slough where I cover the Windsor patch and live just in Hampshire in Tadley).

And this is where I want some help; I want suggestions on what sports and teams I should go to see over the remaining 11 months or so of 2015 to add to this crude list I’ve made below which will also outline why I’ve chosen that sport/team or who has suggested it.

Football

Reading FC - hometown team, supported since I was five-years-old and, to be honest, an easy one to add to this list as I would be seeing them already this season anyway. DONE - AWAY AT FULHAM FC, SATURDAY 17 JANUARY

Basingstoke Town FC - fitting in with my relocation from Reading to Tadley, Basingstoke are the nearest semi-pro side around (and my girlfriend’s boss owns the place so it would be rude not to divert some of my income that way)

Reading Town FC - there has to be a lower league outfit in this list and seeing as RTFC play at Scours Lane around 15 minutes walk away from the house in which I grew up, it kind of makes sense.

Cricket

Berkshire CC - when I was studying journalism at university, I did a ‘day at the cricket’ as a feature piece for the sports journalism section of my course. Unfortunately, that day largely consisted of eating the food the club generously laid on as heavy May rain caused the match at Falkland CC to be called off. Time for a re-visit.

Basketball

Reading Rockets - They are the only basketball team playing at a decent level in the region so kind of a forced-hand but they have been pretty handy in recent years, so Wikipedia tells me.

Rugby

London Irish - I am in no way a fan of rugby but as a proper UK sport, it must be done and I may as well see what is the cause of why the Madejski Stadium pitch is a bit ropey at times. Plus the promise of St Patrick’s Day being the day for this trip is kind of enticing.

Ice Hockey

Basingstoke Bison - I can’t remember where the idea for 2015 being the year of diverse spot for me came from but Basingstoke Bison features somewhere in there so they have to feature. DONE - HOME TO GUILDFORD FLAMES, SATURDAY 28 FBERUARY

Hockey

Reading Hockey Club - Back to Reading again (this is becoming awfully Reading-centric), but both the men’s and women’s team compete in the top tier of English hockey with many an international player among them which is something of a rarity in this list.

Boxing

No idea where yet but there is always some amateur boxing going on in Reading or Slough... no reference to nightlife chortle, haha, etc and so on.

Horse Racing

Newbury, Windsor, Ascot - plenty of choices here to get pissed in as classy a way as there is.

Got anything else I should add to this list? Tweet me or leave a comment!

Life (and cricket) is what you make of it

Perspective makes the world go round. Different interpretations of situations leads to different opinions and outcomes. More often than not, the two foremost opinions make the most sense.

Take the American debt crisis. The USA has a large spending deficit (some $13 trillion or so) which needs trimming. However, the perspectives of the Republicans and the Democrats lead to different preferred outcomes. The GOP wanted huge spending cuts which make sense as to fight a debt, you spend less. On the other hand, the Democrats wanted less drastic spending cuts as they reasoned that would leave a vacuum in the public sector that may well lead to further economic problems later down the line. Both sensible policies which were each watered down to a compromise.

Naturally, this leads me on to cricket and the latest Test between England and India at Trent Bridge.

The decision by MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, to reprieve Ian Bell after he was run out in bizarre fashion has been lauded by both newspapers and TV coverage; showcasing the unique sporting nature of cricket and the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ notion.

For the unaware of the event, Bell, having thought he had hit the final ball before the tea break for four, walked towards the pavilion, only to see Dhoni whip off the bails of the stumps, meaning Bell was run out. However, as was fairly clear, Bell leaving his crease had been a misunderstanding (although a somewhat ditzy moment for the batsman) and Dhoni withdrew his appeal for the wicket after the tea interval, leaving Bell to resume batting. As veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid put it “it didn’t feel right”.

The aftermath of the event clearly benefitted England with Bell going on to get a further twenty runs and provide the base to allow Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior, Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad to meat out more batting punishment against the Indian bowlers to give England an unassailable lead and crush the Indian bodies and minds in the process. Finally, the resultant England victory means that they are more than likely to supplant India as the foremost Test-playing nation come the end of the series.

Here’s where the question of perspectives comes in. If the roles had been reversed with England calling back an Indian batsman and the decision contributing in large part to the loss of the Test and our place as No. 1 in the word, would the media have been so gushing in its praise of Andrew Strauss? Or would they deride him as weak and use the eternal comparison to the Australia of Steve Waugh (mental disintegration and all that) and whether they would have acted the same?

Shane Warne wrote this morning about the Australian-like attitude of this England team and the need to be mentally tough and demanding to command the No.1 spot in Test cricket for an extended period of time and the withdrawal of the appeal by Dhoni can be seen as a lack of this attitude in the Indian team which hastens their descent from the summit.

As Steve James put it in the Telegraph, the notional ‘Spirit of Cricket’ is just that, a notion and the aim of the game is to win. However, perspectives regarding the spirit of the game are seen differently by different sporting cultures and different media cultures (indeed, double standards) which dictate the unwritten conventions of the game. Where these conventions lie is a matter of debate and context surrounding the incident.

Perhaps if England had been the generous party and it had led to a crushing defeat, maybe the reaction would have been different.

Five Things We Learned From England VS India

Well, that was bloody tense wasn't it? The first classic match of the tournament, so what have we learnt from it?

1. Andrew Strauss is by far and away England's most complete batsman

Captain Inspiration in Tests is now Captain Inspiration in ODIs, with probably the best innings played by an Englishman at a World Cup, becoming the first England captain to score a century at a World Cup in the process. His innings was the perfect combination of aggression and circumspection, knowing exactly when to accelerate, when to hold back; when to get carried away and when to pull oneself back in. He has already scored more runs in two innings than in his entire 2007 World Cup and while his captaincy in this format still leaves a bit to the imagination, his form, more than anyone's, will determine how well England do in this tournament.

2. This England team has character

We already knew this but it's worth repeating, this team has cojones. Bouncing back from a poor all-round team performance against the Netherlands last week, and all the associated flak that comes with it, losing your best pace bowler on the morning of the game, getting pasted around the ground for 45 overs (the last five overs of the Indian innings we can ignore) and then every single batsmen putting his hand up (give or take) shows this England team has something no other English ODI team has had for a very long; bottle and plenty of it.

3. England's bowling still leaves a lot to be desired

Yes, Stuart Broad was missing and yes, Tim Bresnan took a five-for but this was still a pretty poor bowling performance from England. All but one bowler going for more than 6.40 an over shows a serious lack of control from England's bowling and a definite lack of personnel (apart from Bresnan) for Strauss to turn to when run stemming is needed. Michael Yardy certainly isn't the answer to the second spinner question, Swann's lack of threat and/or ability to keep an end quiet on sub-continental tracks is a concern and Jimmy Anderson's form must be worrying England's management. But, that said…

4. Indian bowlers weren't much cop either

Whilst there were no terrible performances from the Indian bowlers, their own economy rates were nothing stand-out terrible but outside of a brief period where Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla strangled the life out of Strauss and Ian Bell and Zaheer Khan's late flurry, the lack of threat from the Indian bowlers was palpable, allowing Strauss and Bell to accumulate at a fair lick with no real pace and allowing the England tail to finish (sort of) the job. Perhaps it was quite a dead pitch, explaining both bowling performances, but time will tell whether the lack of real, express pace for both sides will prove an issue.

5. We were looking at two semi-finalists

We kind of knew this already but today's game showed the qualities, and indeed the flaws, of these two teams. Both sides have very strong batting line ups, capable of batting any bowling attack out of a game. India's bowling is better than England's, although still lacking a X factor, but England field more intensely (at times!) and more bottle but also the historical weight of failure. What is clear is that of the matches seen so far, this featured two of the favourites and on today's evidence, rightly so.

Five Things We Learned From England Vs The Netherlands

1. Graeme Swann is by far our best bowler

Taking two wickets and going at a measly 3.5 runs an over after flying halfway around the world following the birth of your first child. All in a day (or so) work for England's premier spin bowler. We all knew he would be our best bowling option in this sub-continental World Cup but how much daylight there was between him and the rest was something of a surprise. Not only did he keep things quiet, he took the wickets of a set batsmen (Borren) and a dangerous one (Zuiderent) and should have cut short ten Doeschate's stay at the crease but for some calamitous fielding (more on which later). However, it must be remembered, we were playing the Netherlands.


2. England were due an off day

After the near faultless display of fielding in the Ashes series, where pretty much every chance offered was pouched, England were due an off day in the field, and boy what an off day. Anderson and Pietersen's hysterical-if-it-wasn't-so-tragic lack of communication, the numerous dropped catches and the pièce de résistance, having a wicket struck off as there were only three fielders inside the circle at the time of the ball being delivered, only for the same thing to happen again a few balls later. Let's hope that this was just an off day and not something more serious, not that the two Andys would allow such a drop in standards.


3. England's batsmen look in good shape

Every batsmen getting at least 30 should be cause for celebration as does capturing the third highest successful run chase in World Cup history. Strauss and Trott starred with some very impressive finishing work from Collingwood and Bopara, both of whom were in need of knocks. Hopefully these scores can be converted into 50s and 100s in the rest of the tournament although, it is worth repeating, we were playing the Netherlands.


4. England should have brought a second spinner of quality

Yes yes, we did bring Michael Yardy and James Tredwell but come on. Yardy, who is one of our most important players in T20, does not have the same wicket-taking and run-smothering impact in the 50-over game and Tredwell has very little experience at this level and spins the ball the same way as Swann. It couldn't have hurt to bring Monty Panesar or Adil Rashid along instead of Tredwell as other options, with Panesar's experience in the sub-continent and Rashid's batting ability both bringing something else to the table. Perhaps their fielding counted against them but they probably would have got the dolly Swann put down.


5. Losing the Associate Nations will be something of a travesty

The best World Cup memories this century have been of the Assoicate nations; Kenya reaching the semi-finals in 2003, Ireland beating Pakistan on St Patrick's Day and reaching the Super Eights in 2007. But the ICC has deemed these nations surplus to requirements from the next World Cup in 2015 which is a great shame. There are often some embarrassingly one-sided games, such as Kenya Vs New Zealand the other day, but there are some stormers such as England Vs the Netherlands. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh started out as Associate nations and became Test playing nations through the experiences of high-class 50-over games. With Associate nations only being allowed to play top-class 20-over games from now on, where is the incentive for growth into the other formats of the game, to diversify Test match cricket to new outposts.