Can City emulate Chelsea?

Before Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea, the London club, situated in one of the trendier spots in the West End, was better known for its fashionable supporters rather than any substantial accumulation of silverware.

The Russian's arrival changed all that, at least on the trophy front. He started off by buying a complete squad full of world-class talent. More importantly, he backed that up by hiring the best young manager in the business in Jose Mourinho, without whose innate tactical nous Chelsea might not have had the success they did from 2004 to '06.

Manchester City appear to be adopting a similar model. With Arabian petrodollars to back them up, they are in a position to - theoretically, at least - outbid every other team in the English Premier League, including Chelsea.

However, despite having all that cash to spend, they haven't yet been able to hire a bona fide top-liner. Rejections from Kaka in January and John Terry in the past week would've hurt. City's biggest challenge over the next season or two would appear to be to do well enough to start attracting the bigger stars who, at this stage, prefer one of the Big Four.

What City do have in Mark Hughes is a good young manager who has the potential to become their long-sought messiah. After successful stints with Wales and Blackburn Rovers, much is expected of 'Sparky' at Eastlands.

The Arab sheikhs have passed the first test of their credibility by resisting the urge to sack Hughes after a relatively disappointing 2008-09 season. Such a knee-jerk reaction would've been more than harmful. If City are to make a sustained attempt to join the Big Boys, managerial stability will be essential. The example of Alex Ferguson's longevity at their cross-town rivals is one they would do well to try and emulate.

Already, City appear to have won the opening battle of wits with United. The well thought out poster of Carlos Tevez, decked in City blue, welcoming visitors to Manchester, has prickled Ferguson. That's a sure-fire sign that the United manager is worried about City, whatever he might say to the contrary. Hughes strikes me as the quiet but intelligent sort of chap who, whilst he might not engage Ferguson in the verbal jousting at which the latter has few equals, might well end up being a more worthy adversary than Rafa Benitez has proven to be in the mind-games stakes. Mancunians are in for some fun in the forthcoming season!

On a more serious note, do City have the cattle to mount a credible challenge and break into the Top Four, for which a Champions' League spot is the enticing reward?

At first glance - and a second and third, for that matter - they appear to have a surfeit of strikers. Tevez might well find, to his consternation, that it'll be more difficult to find a regular starting berth in blue than in red. It's at the back that City appear to be a tad vulnerable. Shay Given is one of the better 'keepers in the EPL but the defence in front of him doesn't inspire too much confidence. Micah Richards' progress has stalled somewhat alarmingly over the past year and Richard Dunne isn't getting any younger. Terry would've been a great acquisition but Kolo Toure, the latest mooted target, will, if he arrives, provide much-needed solidity.

Gareth Barry, a poor man's Claude Makelele, should, nevertheless, provide an adequate shield in front of the back four and there's no lack of creativity further up-field. Stephen Ireland is a busy little player who's still improving and I reckon Shaun-Wright Phillips could have a break-out season if he stays fit. There's no shortage of options up front, of course: Pick two or three from Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Bellamy, Benjani and Bojinov and hope they're all satisfied with the game-time they're getting!

Despite being a lifelong United supporter, I've always had a soft spot for City. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say they'd be my 'second' team. It's no surprise then, that I wish them well and hope they can challenge the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool for a spot in the top four - I don't think they're quite in United's or Chelsea's league just yet.

Good luck, Sparky!

Freddie and the umps reignite Ashes / Hello Skipper!

It appeared, after Cardiff, that there would be little to pique my interest in this particular Ashes series. All the signs suggested Australia would steam-roll their way to another facile triumph. Instead, the home side's first win in 75 years over the old enemy at Lord's, heartily cheered by neutrals around the cricketing globe, has rekindled interest.

England's search for a worthy successor to Ian Botham had been long and largely fruitless until Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff came along a decade ago. Frequent injuries, often caused by his knees having to bear the brunt and grunt of a naturally large frame that wasn't exactly trimmed by off-field activities, have marred what should have been a far more brilliant career than we've witnessed. Over the past decade, only the now-retired Glenn McGrath has matched the sustained hostility allied with nagging accuracy that Flintoff can consistently produce over a 5-to-6 over spell. There is no more dangerous bowler in the game today. What a pity that this is going to be his last Test series!

Flintoff also has the knack of rising to occasions - the 2006-07 disaster in Oz can be considered an anomaly, albeit a hugely embarrassing one for the then skipper. However well Michael Clarke and batsman-wicketkeeper Brad Haddin had done to revive Aussie hopes on Day 4, the feeling persisted that Freddie would have the final say on the last day. England will be able to cover the loss of his batsmanship, not least due to the presence of another batsman-'keeper in Matt Prior, but who are they going to turn to for that badly-needed breakthrough when they're toiling in the field?

The umpiring at Lord's was quite abysmal. Cricketers can usually accept genuine mistakes but it's hard to fathom the reasoning behind Billy Doctrove's decision to uphold Andrew Strauss' non-catch in the slips from his own vantage point at square-leg. 'Catches' picked up that close to the turf are difficult for even the fielder in question to be completely confident about. With near fool-proof technology on offer as backup, why wouldn't Doctrove avail of it? His performance made the mercifully-retired Darrell Hair look a half-decent umpire, something I thought I'd never ever come close to suggesting!

Having hinted at the fast-diminishing standards of wicket-keeping at Test level, it's worth looking at captaincy levels, which haven't quite been on the rise either.

I'm as big a fan of Ricky Ponting the batsman as anyone else, having 'discovered' him before he made his Test debut back in the mid-nineties. As a skipper, though, he has flattered to deceive. That decision to bowl his part-timers to speed up the over-rate in a Test in India last year, seemingly to prevent the prospect of himself being consequently banned from a home Test against New Zealand, even if it was to be at the cost of the Test he was actually playing at the time, was one of the most perplexing in Test history. Can you imagine the likes of Ian Chappell, Mike Brearley or Clive Lloyd even contemplating something like that in their worst possible nightmares? Whilst Ponting's extremely dubious performance in Nagpur could be explained by the basest instinct of self-preservation, it's hard to fathom why he employed similar tactics towards the end of the Cardiff Test, when all Australia needed was the scalp of either No.10 or No.11. No wonder James Anderson and Monty Panesar were reported to have whooped for joy when they saw Marcus North was going to start turning his arm over!

Ponting isn't quite Crusoe in terms of modern captains, mind you. Apart from Stephen Fleming and Michael Vaughan, whose performance in 2005 was Brearleyesque, I can't think of any Test captain in recent times who would've been fit to lace the boots of Messrs Chappelli, Brearley and Lloyd.

Has the surfeit of limited-overs so-called cricket, with the limited demands it makes on cricketing skill but which is lapped up nevertheless by the modern generation whose calling card appears to be its own limited attention span, succeeded in dulling the antennae of modern captains?

Will we ever see another Test captain possessing the innovative guile of Ian Chappell, the tactical acumen of Mike Brearley or the dignified leadership of Clive Lloyd?

Hello Skipper! Is there anybody out there?

The Open: Tiger or field?

If you ask golf followers about their favourite tournament, a substantial majority would be likely to pick The Masters, which is played at Augusta National in April each year.

For me, The (British) Open has always been the one. I got hooked on it during the four years I spent in England back in the eighties and still watch it as earnestly as ever, especially as the time-slot here in Oz is somewhat more hospitable than that for the other three majors that are played in the US.

The most appealing aspect of The Open is the variety of venues on offer. This year, it's the turn of the fabled Ailsa course at Turnberry in Ayrshire. There's nothing like a links course on a windy, rainy day to test the technique and temperament of the best golfers in the world. It should, yet again, make for fascinating viewing.

The most intriguing group to follow over the first two rounds will be the one that includes Tiger Woods, Englishman Lee Westwood and the exciting 17-year-old Japanese prodigy Ryo Ishikawa, whose fan-base in some parts of the world is beginning to rival that of Tiger himself. Another not dissimilar trio will consist of former champion Tom Watson, now the oldest in the field at 59, Sergio Garcia, my personal favourite, and 16-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero, who became the youngest ever to win the British Amateur Championship last month.

In the unfortunate absence of Phil Mickelson, whose wife and mother are both battling breast cancer, the bookies have installed Woods as an almost unbackable favourite. One set of odds I saw yesterday had him at $3.50, with the next best, a group including defending champion Padraig Harrington and Garcia, as far back as $26.

I'm no golf expert and shall be barracking for Garcia to make his long-awaited 'major' breakthrough. However, after scrutinising some analyses elsewhere on the web, these look like value bets for those wishing to having a flutter - might put a pence or three on one or two of them myself (in addition to Sergio, of course):
Jim Furyk (paying around $34): Four top-5 finishes in past Opens; having a very consistent year.
Paul Casey ($34): World No.3 has been practising extensively on links courses recently.
Henrik Stenson ($36): Should be able to use his favourite 3-wood often on this par-70 course.
Ernie Els ($36): Can't believe Ernie has fallen this far; with seven Top 7 finishes in his past eight Opens, he's great value at these odds.
Steve Stricker ($41): Won last week and has Top 10 finishes in his last two links events.
Kenny Perry ($61): Prolific winner - only Tiger can better his 5 wins on PGA tour over last 2 years.
Sean O'Hair ($76): World No.13 is a quality ball-striker and ready to make an impact at a major.
David Toms ($101): Finished second twice in his last four events.
Brian Gay ($101): Two wins on the PGA tour this year; is a very good putter.
Soren Kjeldsen ($101): Missed the cut at three of the last four Opens but is probably the most improved European golfer over the past year.
Soren Hansen ($101): Why are Danes so under-rated? Can't believe his odds are the same as that against Greg Norman, whose chances are about as low as those of New South Wales winning another rugby league State of Origin series against Queensland any time over the next decade.

If you're having a punt on any of the above, it might be best to spread your money and go each-way, combining a Win bet with one for a Top 5 / Top 10 finish.

Good luck and happy viewing!

And Go Sergio!

Here's the official site of The Open: http://www.opengolf.com/ChampionshipGolf/TheOpenChampionship.aspx

Spoilt on Sunday

Sports fans in Oz had a treat last Sunday.

To start with, there was the Aussie Rules blockbuster in the afternoon between St Kilda and Geelong, who both went into the game with 13-0 records. For once, the hype was beaten by the occasion itself as the two sides played out a thrilling finale. The Saints made a startling start, piling on the first five goals to romp to a 30-point lead in the first quarter. The Cats then started clawing back and even led briefly in the final term. Scores were locked at 85-85 with just over a minute to go and it seemed we would still have two unbeaten sides after Round 14, only for Michael Gardiner to soar above the pack and haul in a mark just outside the goal-square before kicking what was to be the final scoring shot of a marvellous contest. The ladder-topping Saints are now 14-0. Can they go through the whole season unbeaten? I wouldn't bet against them, although the Cats, who had the gifted Steve Johnson missing for this clash, might be just a tad tougher to beat in September.

A few personal observations on Australian Football for our overseas friends who may not have had the pleasure of watching much of it:

I'll be the first to admit that it's an acquired taste. Indeed, large pockets of New South Wales and Queensland have yet to fully integrate with the rest of Australia, in that they still regard the indigenous football code as somewhat of an anomaly.

It took me a year or two after I settled in Oz back in 1990 to fully appreciate the nuances of the game but I consider myself extremely fortunate that unlike the aforementioned folk from NSW and Qld, I stuck to learning the basics because now, I'd go as far as to suggest that, at its best, a game of Aussie Rules is better to watch than even a hypothetical football spectacular between Barcelona and Brazil at their best.

Other sports stand no comparison. The two rugby codes feature overweight blokes who wear bulky shoulder-cum-chest pads and run into each other under the guise of tackling. The helmeted giants who play American Football - a misnomer if there ever was one; wouldn't American Handball be more apt? - wear even more body armour, while all they seem to do is to make ungainly attempts to block their immediate opponent from making a play.

Aussie Rules footballers, who wear no protective clothing whatsoever, get tackled at high speed from all corners of the compass - not just from in front of them as the rugby and gridiron players usually do. Besides the raw courage that it demands, Aussie Rules also requires all its players to be skilful with both hand and foot. There is no more exhilarating sight in sport than that of Aussie Rules footballers flying high to take pack marks. The sport simply doesn't accommodate unfit, unskilled, near-obese, so-called 'athletes' who appear to find it easy to walk - and walk is the operative word here - into rugby union/league and gridiron sides.

To those who haven't yet discovered the joys of Australian Football, I'd heartily recommend a visit to www.afl.com.au where you'll be able to download highlights of games. Make a start, give it a bit of time and get hooked!

Time to get off the soapbox and look back on the second big event that lit up last Sunday.

So convinced was I that the Wimbledon Men's Singles Final, which started shortly after 11:00 pm on Sunday night (Sydney time), would be a one-sided encounter that I was seriously considering recording it and watching it after work the next day. In the end, I was glad I stayed up to enjoy what turned out to be a pulsating four-and-a-half-hour classic - and sad that I didn't record it!

I've long considered Andy Roddick a bit of a hack - one of the biggest servers in the history of the game but not much chop otherwise. He has certainly proved me wrong over the past fortnight. Take a bow, Larry Stefanki, although I've read elsewhere that Roddick's previous coach, some bloke named Jimmy Connors, might have had something to do too with encouraging him to try and be more aggressive by coming to the net as much as possible - quite interesting because attacking the net wasn't exactly Jimbo's preferred style of play. And where did Roddick's double-handed down-the-line winners come from? It was like watching Marat Safin in disguise! At the end, I felt more than a tinge of sympathy for Roddick. You'd have got astronomical odds against yours truly ever experiencing that emotion about him before Wimbledon 2009.

Roger Federer, the very embodiment of poetry in motion, wasn't to be denied, though, and that record-breaking 15th Grand Slam triumph was duly his in front of the watching - and, dare I say, adoring - McEnroe, Laver, Sampras and Borg.

After enjoying the sight of John McEnroe in action almost two decades ago, I never imagined I'd be lucky enough to watch another tennis player who'd out-do SuperMac in the 'sublime' stakes. Had I been religious, I would've suggested that tennis afficionados have been blessed to have seen two such talents in one lifetime. As I'm not of that persuasion, I prefer to think of it as yet another example of evolution. Each generation gets better than the previous one. The species would die out otherwise, as Charles Darwin theorised with such immaculate vision a century and a half ago.

A St Kilda v Geelong thriller followed by a Roddick v Federer nail-biter. We were well and truly spoilt on Sunday.

The Ashes: Does anyone care?

There was a time when England v Australia stirred the senses. Indeed, my own favourite boyhood cricketing memory is of being tucked up in bed back in India, wireless tuned to Test Match Special, listening to John Arlott, Brian Johnston, Alan McGilvray, Trevor Bailey and Freddie Trueman painting a verbal picture of that marvellous 2-2 series in 1972 when Ian Chappell's young side stood toe-to-toe with Ray Illingworth's more experienced outfit. Bob Massie marked his Test debut at Lord's with a 16-wicket haul that (northern) summer and although he never quite went on bigger and better things, the Lillee-Massie duo proved to be a pretty good appetiser for the Lillee-Thomson main course that was to stun a by-then ageing England side back in Australia in 1974-75. My standout memory of that series is the 40-plus Colin Cowdrey being flown into what would prove a very unequal battle against Lillee and Thomson.

With the onset of Kerry Packer's World Series circus, there were several under-strength series in the late '70s and early '80s but they did see the emergence of Allan Border as a batsman and leader - if not quite a tactician - for Australia and that for England of David Gower and Ian Botham, whose exploits in 1981 were quite extraordinary. England had the upper hand for most of the '80s, not least due to the enforced absence of several first-choice Aussies who had elected to go on a rebel tour of South Africa.

From 1989 onwards, Australia started dominating and, for me, the lustre of the Ashes began diminishing due to the largely one-sided nature of the contests. The Aussies dethroned the Windies as the best Test side in the mid-nineties and, on the back of some all-time greats such as Warne, McGrath, S.Waugh and Gilchrist, went on a near-15-year run that was perhaps the most decorated in Test history, highlighted as it was by some brilliant attacking cricket that proved better to watch than the one-dimensional - as in pace, pace and more pace - Windies strategy in the '70s and '80s.

The 2005 Ashes proved to be an exception to the general rule, providing some nail-biting finishes as the home side, against all odds, stunned the world's best. Hopes were high that the return series in 2006-07 would, at the very least, be competitive. Instead, Ricky Ponting's men thrashed Andrew Flintoff's sorry side 5-0. Whither English cricket? Withering on the vine.

What can we look forward to in 2009? Australia have regrouped impressively since losing the four aforementioned greats and look to be in pole position to hold on to the urn. England have avenged their loss in the Caribbean recently but will, once again, be relying on Flintoff's fitness to provide a serious challenge. The Lancastrian remains the best all-rounder in the game when he's up and running but has had several injury niggles over the past few years. One doubts, though, that Andrew Strauss' side are capable of repeating the heroics of 2005. Indeed, the most interesting aspect of the series might well turn out to be how the pitch holds up at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, the venue for the First Test that starts on Wednesday.

Perhaps I'll go back to listening to the wireless rather than tuning into the largely anodyne coverage one usually gets on the box these days. That might regenerate some interest as it would be much like reading a good book instead of watching its inferior movie equivalent. Alas though, Messrs Arlott, Johnston, McGilvray, Bailey and Trueman aren't with us anymore and even Tim Lane has jumped ship from the ABC to one of the commercial networks here in Oz.

Sri Lanka and Pakistan began their three-Test series at Galle yesterday, with several new players on view on either side. Now, that seems like it might stir the senses.