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An unlikely comeback was thwarted and India have won the 2nd Test comfortably.  I missed the first couple of days and much of the third but the damage was done on day one with England slumping to 169 -7 when the match finally started at 3:00pm.  Difficult conditions apparently, but they probably should have done better and offered more resistance - the reward would have been bright sunshine to bat in the following day, which the Indians exploited to the full.

The result was England chasing a 240 run deficit in their second innings and this is where I got interested and ultimately cursed them.  With Vaughan reaching a century I tuned in and was rewarded with him getting out a few balls later and after that the usual England collapse took shape.  

A couple of things which stood out for me - one was KP failing  again.  Is it me or is it that since he became ODI Number one batsman he has had a sudden dip in form?

The other was Ian Bell’s second innings.  I’m going to be harsh but it has to be said.  In any ODI, when you want him to score quickly he hangs around for 3 hours scoring at 1 or 2 an over.  Yesterday when you want him to hang around for 3 hours and use up some time, when 1 or 2 an over might have been OK he gets out 2nd ball.

When I initially tuned in I thought foolishly we might be able to bat out the day and maybe till lunchtime today, and then give the attack something to defend - 150 or 200 might have made it interesting.  But within a couple of hours it was all over.  The only ray of light in the tail being Sidebottom hitting 25 off of 26 balls.

Tremlett sounds like he bowled with some hostility taking 3 wickets - will look forward to seeing that this evening, but ultimately they were never going to defend 73.  Even the West Indies could have got those runs. 

So yet another in a long long line of doing scandals has rocked the Tour de France.  Alexandre Vinokourov has tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion after winning Saturday’s time trial.  No real surprise there to be honest looking at the way he finished.

The massive question is why?  Presumably they take drugs to improve their performance and win.  Yet if they win they will undergo a drugs test and not only be stripped of their victory, but be banned and bring the sport they presumably love into disrepute.

It seems impossible to stop these athletes cheating to gain that extra little advantage they might need, and the sport just seems to be spend a fortune on testing and monitoring.  So here’s a radical thought.

Why not remove all drugs testing from the sport, with the exception of the Olympics.  Let these guys pump their bodies full of whatever they want to, with no regard for the long term effects to their own bodies or to the sport itself.  Save all the money time and effort spent on trying to keep the spprt clean as this clearly doesn’t work - they are happy to win by any means fair or foul and so clearly have little or no integrity.  Personally it would be a hollow victory for me if I knew I had cheated to win but it obviously means nothing to these guys. 

I don’t buy the excuse that has been given to me that they all do it  and so need to in order to compete, or that the team doctors just give the cyclists stuff and they don’t know what it is half the time.  I’m certain that I would want to know what was being pumped into my body, and you can’t tell me that Vinokourov had no idea that he was being given a blood transfusion!

The entire sport is under a permanent cloud of suspicion anyway so lets just make it a battle of the synthetic athlete and be done with it.  It is practically that now anyway, and could become a unique experiment on what the human body is capable of when abused to the maximum. 

What a fantastic weekend of sport, with the European Grand Prix, a “weakened” England cricket team in pole position and one of the most exciting finished to The Open ever.

It’s not just hindsight, but I did say on Saturday that I doubted Sergio Garcia would hold on to his 3 stroke lead to lift the Claret jug.  I thought though that the challenge might have come from Ernie Els and not either Romero or Padraig Harrington. 

After 6 holes I was wishing I had put my money where my mouth was when Els was on a charge but this soon fell away - how must he rue the 8 he took the day before.

However, with the course according to the experts playing “easy for the last 4 holes”, it seemed it was all down to nerves, and not so much who was going to win it but who was going to lose it.  First Romero and then Harrington threw away 2 shot leads over the closing holes, with Harrington hitting into the bairn twice on 18.

The psychology books tell you to avoid looking at the score board if possible, so as not to put yourself under extra pressure.  Romero admits to knowing he was in the lead when teeing off on 17 and then changing his mind on which club to use for his second shot - the demons of self doubt and pressure costing him the Championship.

Harrignton seemed to avoid looking at the scoreboard and Garcia when they had to pass each other at one point, but still let his nerves get the better of him. It must be impossible these days to not know what the score is.

Garcia, who has shown his fraility of mind on more than one occasion in the past “only” had to make parr on 18, but only managed a bogey 5 having found the bunker and then saw his putt to win spin round the inside of the cup before shooting out.  The toughness of the 18th showed, in that 5 out of the last 6 players made either bogey or double bogey.  All this though made for riveting entertainment for all of those except the friends and family of the players involved no doubt.

The 4 hole play off was pretty much decided after the first hole when Garcia bogeyed and Harrington made birdie, although Garcia had a half chance to force sudden death.

Garcia has said that he had a large number of putts lip out during his last round, but really he hit some loose shots early on, putting himself under too much pressure on he green.  I’m not sure how he will come back from this - I fear he could be another Colin Montgomerie, and never actually win a major, but only time will tell.

The best thing for me about the entire final round was that not only was it exciting but I really didn’t mind who won - I was just glad that neither Tiger Woods or any other American were in contention.  Finally a European winner to the best championship in the World.

I haven’t sat down to watch a boxing match for years - I think the last time probably Bruno v Tyson and the less said about that the better.  This Saturday however called for it.  With a couple of the lads around, curry bubbling away on the stove and beer in hand it needed something manly on the TV, so we sat down to watch Amir Khan bid to take the Commonwealth lightweight title from Willie Limond.

Khan started well but without taking any kind of clear advantage, and then in the sixth round got caught, and as he was falling got hit 3 more times such was the speed of Limond.  Khan’s protest that he was pushed was disproved by the replay, and the following 90 secs saw Limond throw everything at the 20 year old, who was trying to hang on for dear life while praying for the bell.

It looked as if I had brought the “Bruno curse” to the 21st century as nobody thought he would last much longer.  But Khan surpreised everybody with coming out hard again and a serious of crunching uppercuts broke the Scotsman’s jaw and forced him to retire giving Khan his 13th pro win.

Now I don’t know a lot about boxing (I actually thought Bruno stood a chance against Tyson) but to me it was a remarkable turnaround and showed that Khan has the ability and fear of losing that will take him far. 

People who are far more qualified than me e.g Barry McGuigan and his own promoter Frank Warren have said that techincially he has a lot to learn, and wont challenge for a World title for another 5 or 6 fights.  What he does have in spades, is confidence and a desire to win, and with the right management he should be able to go all the way!

While I can understand the basic feeling and apathy towards football in North America, I still think that if anybody can make an impact then Beckham can.

Contrary to the comment in this blog, he is and always has been a World Class player - wouldn’t have played so long for Manchester United and Real Madrid, the two biggest and richest clubs in the world if that were not the case.

Admittedly he had a poor World Cup, but so did a lot of other players (particularly English unfortunately!).  Since then however, and since he resigned the captaincy for his country he has got back to top form again.  The evidence for this is that both the English coach AND the Real Madrid President both made complete U turns having said he would not play for them again.

Being cynical however, I would suggest that the biggest reason for LA Galaxy bringing him to America is the “merchandisers dream”, which is David Beckham.  I read a report earlier this week stating that since he has been at Real Madrid their merchandising revenue has increased by 153% and that £300M of this is attributed to shirts bearing Beckhams name and number!  You can expect that most, if not all if these people will rush out and buy a new Beckham shirt, and if he only makes a small impact in North America where the market is huge, this number will increase significantly.  Point being, that even if in 5 years time there are no more players taking up the game in North America, both team Beckham and LA Galaxy will have had their money’s worth!

Lewis Hamilton has stated that he needs to “up his game” if he is to finish World Champion at his first attempt, despite making it 9 podium places in 9 races.

The young Brit started on pole position but finished third, and admits to making several mistakes in the race.  Up until now he has an unblemished record in that area.

He openly admits to choosing the wrong tyres, not having balance in the set up during the race and making an error in the pits, which cost him time.

The good news is that despite all of that he is still 12 points ahead of Alonso in second place.  However, is this just a minor blip or is the lack of F1 experience and the pressure and expecation of a nation starting to take its toll on the 22 year old.  It would be no surprise if this were the case.  Let’s hope he can make amends in Germany on 22nd.

I sat down to watch the start of the Las Vegas Desert Classic hoping it would provide more excitement than watching England get thumped in the cricket again.  It was in all honesty big on excitment with most matches in the short race to 6 format with no tie break going down to the wire.  But what a lack of atmosphere provided by the normally loud and brash Yanks.  After the exctiment of the PDC Premiership darts league this year, we are now used to a roudy loud and noisy atmosphere with each decent score or miss greeted with a cheer or groan.  There is more life in a tramps vest than there is at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.  Strange for nation that don’t observe such calm on other sports where such etiquette is the norm.  For example Golf, where every shot is greeted with “get in the hole” and a large whoop, and who can forget the scenes when they won last the Ryder Cup, walking all over the green before the European team had actually putted out.

Anyway the real reason for this comment is for a quiet word about Colin Lloyd.  He has to be currently the most unlucky person in darts.  He has struggled for form in the televised tournaments for a couple of years but in the last 3 months or so has finally knuckled down, put the work in and hit some form.  But when he does he comes up against a player who in just for the occasion plays out of skin.

In the Premier League earlier this year he lost to Terry Jenkins despite hitting an average of 104.  Last night he face the little know (comparitively) Wes Newton, who just happens to feel most at home in Vegas.  Lloyd finished with a respectable average of 97 and checkout stats of over 60%, stats which on the night would have beaten pretty much everybody else, including Dudbridge, who beat World number one Phil Taylor.  Unfortunatley for Lloyd though Newton was in inspired form and ran out a 6-3 winner.  It said it all when in the 7th leg, Newton shooting for 90 made a mess with his first dart and hit a single 1, but then hit treble 19 and double 16 to finish.  Lloyd just turned away and afforded himself a wry smile. 

I am now looking forward to seeing how it might pan out, with some big names falling at the first hurdle and an open draw.  There are bound to be some great matches over the next few days, lets just hope the American crowd join in.

Lewis Hamilton made it 8 podium places in 8 starts finishing third in the French Grand Prix yesterday, and extending his lead to 13 points over team mate Fernando Alonso, who finished 7th.  However, there was the first chink in his armour, as he was overtaken for the first time, having started in 2nd.

Ferrari finished in the first two spots and appear to now be mounting a challenge to McLaren in the constructors championship. 

The race itself was a tactical battle with McLaren seemingly content to settle for third place early doors when it became clear it would be difficult to catch the Ferraris. 

All eyes are now on Silverstone next week where Hamilton will be keen to impress in front of his home crowd.  He remains his confident self though and is convinced that McLaren still have the upper hand on Ferrari.  Let’s hope that’s the case and that he can finish the season as World Champion.  I have got bored with F1 over recent years, as have a lot of people I think, but have tuned into the last few races now that there is a genuine chance of a British World Champion.