My Favourite Cricketer: Ray Bright, by Dan Lonergan of the ABC

In sport I’ve always admired the underdog. That’s probably why I follow the Western Bulldogs in the AFL, who will always be the underdogs. I will admit I do support Manchester United in the English Premier League, but I started following them in the mid-1980s when they weren’t the club they are today.

In cricket, Greg Chappell was a hero of mine. Growing up, my first real memory of the game was as a six and seven year old watching the 1975/76 West Indies series where he plundered 829 runs including 3 centuries. I loved the way he played.

I also liked left handed opener Alan Turner, who obviously wasn’t in the same league as Chappell but played some good innings in that series. However, a Test average of 29 isn’t going to put him in the "All-Time Great" category. I suppose I admired the fact he was limited, but playing a role in a strong team that contained some of the best cricketers Australia has produced.

But a left-arm spinner from the same era was my favourite cricketer growing up - Victoria and Australia tweaker Ray Bright. I will admit my interest in him almost got to fanatical levels. The reasons for it are not very clear, but again I admired the fact that he got the most out of himself; in fact in my opinion his bowling stats are an example of statistics and numbers lying. He was from Victoria, which helped, and played District Cricket with the Aussie Rules team I barracked for, Footscray. I was happy with that.

He took over 400 First Class wickets at more than 32 and played 25 Tests, picking up 53 wickets at over 40. The Test figures are not impressive, but if you break it down and look at the number of overs he bowled and how economical he was - generally conceding about 2 runs an over, while holding up an end "containing" greats like Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Sunil Gavaskar - he just about ranks as one of Australia's more effective spinners, an Ashley Giles prototype.

Courtesy: ESPN Cricinfo

I took a real shine to Bright in the 1976-77 season after the twin retirements of South Australian and Australian spinners Ashley Mallett and Terry Jenner. Bright took 5 wickets in an innings against a powerful WA team in Perth to put himself in contention to play in the Test series against Pakistan and I got really excited.

He wasn’t selected as Kerry O’Keeffe chosen after his fine start to that summer. Bright though was 12^th man for the Third test in Sydney and later went to New Zealand.  As an 8 year old, I was so impressed with him that I demanded his selection in the team for that two-Test series by writing a letter to selector Sam Loxton.

Incredibly, he replied and I still have it somewhere. He was actually candid and told me that Ray was close, but the New Zealand pitches didn’t really suit playing two spinners and O’Keeffe had cemented his spot with good performances. He was right, but I was still disappointed.

Before writing this article, I looked up the scorecards of the Tour matches of that New Zealand Tour and on performance, Bright should have been selected. He took wickets regularly and was handy as usual down the order with the bat.

Ironically, Alan Turner was out of form and should have been left out as Ian Davis and Rick McCosker could have opened and all-rounder Gary Gilmour was capable enough to bat at six. Anyway, it didn’t happen, but I saw my hero field as a sub in the Centenary Test after McCosker had his jaw broken, but sadly he didn’t touch the ball.

Bright finally made his Test debut in that disappointing Ashes series in 1977 and played three Tests before enhancing his growing reputation in World Series Cricket. Unfortunately these records are discounted, but he was a permanent member of the Australian team during those two seasons and took the second most Supertest wickets after Lilliee.

The great players he came up against during WSC learnt to sit on him, so when he returned to the establishment in 1979, he had become a containment bowler moreso than a wicket taker. Greg Chappell always rated him highly, saying his change of pace, flight and dip were impressive weapons.

There were some moments in the sun, when he was unexpectedly chosen on numerous tours after hardly playing a Test in that Australian summer. He took seven wickets in an innings in Pakistan in 1980 and five during that famous Ian Botham Ashes domination a year later.

He was sometimes described by fellow cricketers as an accidental tourist after his first tour as a teenager to New Zealand in 1974. On that tour was another of my underdog heroes, South Australian opening bat Ashley Woodcock, who played one Test.

However, anyone who makes his first class debut at 18 and keeps his spot for the next 16 years can play. I obviously thought he should have played more Test cricket and, despite thinking his international career was over in the early 1980s, he was chosen out of nowhere as Australia's Vice Captain against New Zealand and India.  He subsequently starred in the 1986 tied Test in India, taking
five wickets in India’s second Innings.

That year, he also captained his country in a One Day match in Sharjah. Not many players can say they achieved that honour.

After his retirement, I got to know Ray Bright and am pleased to say he's a lovely bloke; a guy who got the most out of his career. I still believe he was one of the greats. Not many agree, but as legendary Rugby League figure Arthur Beetson used to say, opinions are like backsides - we all have one!

He still remains my favourite player, but David Boon pushed him close. Like my beloved Western Bulldogs, I used to get when they would play poorly, but bask in the glory of their good moments.

Well Played Spotty!

Everton failing to paper over the cracks

It’s time to talk about money.  To be precise, about Everton FC owner Bill Kenright’s lack thereof. 

One of England’s great clubs has begun the slow decline that accompanies a squad’s ageing and find themselves in eleventh position.  They are in no threat of relegation, but the club faces a greater existential crisis than any other club with a similarly storied history.

The Toffees have been on the market – if not officially, certainly on the sly – for much of the past decade.  Kenwright has attempted to fund assaults on the Champions League, but lately manager David Moyes’ spending money has become increasingly scarce.  Over the past two years, impact players have rarely made the sojourn to Goodison Park and Moyes has repeatedly squeezed blood from young, cheap stones like Seamus Coleman and Ross Barkley.

Much has been made of Everton’s fiscal situation, as well it might.  Moyes has been able to propel small, limited – and often injured – squads to outstanding achievement in the past.  He and a small band of loyal overachievers have been able to mask a fraught balance sheet.  He has been the Premiership’s MacGyver manager – able to create ingenious macguffin lineups out of little more than what he finds in his pocket.

As things now stand, more apparently than at any time in the past decade, the Toffees lack bite on the field.  Mikel Arteta has left the building; the ghosting runs of Tim Cahill now fail to deliver goals and Marouane Fellaini is no longer thought of as a potential World-Class prospect.  Their players have all been solid, but the Blues need more – the element of magic exists now more in the computers of their accountants than on the field.  Their top scorer in all competitions this season is left back Leighton Baines.

Great Premiership players have become simply good ones.  Over the past two seasons, the players who’ve tried to fill the practically-vacant striker position include the ageing, hamstrung Louis Saha and the underwhelming trio of Jermaine Beckford, Denis Stracqualursi and Victor Anichebe.  Papering over the offensive cracks in the Everton lineup has become a full-time occupation.

This hardly speaks for Moyes’ management skills and he is still held in incredibly high regard by football people all over the British Isles.  However, the regeneration required for clubs to keep themselves at the top level has eluded the Toffees.  Disconcertingly, there is every chance their best attacking player is the on-loan Landon Donovan and their best player overall his USA teammate Tim Howard. 

Unless this dearth of upper echelon talent is rectified, their run as Premier League overachievers will almost certainly end soon.

Balanced Sports on the Back Page Lead

An adaptation of the piece published here on Friday on Denver quarterback Tim Tebow has been published on Australian sports website The Back Page Lead.  You can view the article here - all comments and ratings are much appreciated.

On Tebow, Divine Intervention and Subtlety

Yesterday, USA Today released a poll that said 43% of Americans believed Divine Inspiration was the primary reason behind the Denver Broncos victory over the heavily favoured Pittsburgh Steelers in their first-round playoff encounter last weekend.

Why would God favour the Broncs?  Because their quarterback is Tim Tebow.

Tebow was described last week by TIME Magazine as “perhaps the most significant evangelical Christian in the USA”.  He the most divisive athlete in the USA: Christians and romantics love his underdog status, while he’s disdained by those who think he, or his religion, or his God is a phony.

As a practicing Christian myself, I find Tebow a fascinating study.  His back story is incredible, starting with a long-shot birth that led him to appear in anti-abortion ads.  When he prays visibly before and after matches, presumably asking the Lord for help and guidance, he does so ostentatiously on one knee.  When at the University of Florida, he began writing bible verses on his eyeblack, the NCAA instituted a ruling prohibiting messages to be written on eyeblack.  He won a Heisman Trophy as College Football’s best player, and was drafted to the NFL late in the first round.

The thing is, Tim Tebow isn’t that good – at least, not fundamentally.  Although he throws a good long ball, his short passing is inaccurate: he completed only 46.5% of his passes this year, the lowest of all the NFL’s starting QBs.  This impacts his versatility, as his team’s offence must be built around his strengths.  No-one questions his leadership; but his game skills are far below most other QBs remaining in the playoffs.

Yet when the Broncos stood at 1-5 and named him their starter, he led them to seven wins in eight.  He played ugly quarterback football; but his team won, often overturning significant fourth-quarter deficits in the process.  A run of three straight losses to end the regular season dented fans’ hopes of a similar postseason run, but their upset overtime win has brought Tebow-mania to the forefront of this week’s sporting conscience.

Very few people, especially athletes, engender the same national polarisation.  Tim Tebow is liked – and disliked – because his story is steeped in Christianity.  It’s easy to divide the admirers and haters along religious lines.  However, to suggest that God cared about Tim Tebow winning or losing a football game, for whatever ends, is perhaps too simplistic.

Does it take Divine Intervention, rather than simply the Steelers’ injuries catching up with them, the Broncos’ home-field advantage or even Tebow – and receiver/favourite target Demaryius Thomas – playing out of their respective skins, for a relatively unskilled QB to lead his team to an upset?  Hardly.

Crucially, for his team and his narrative, Tim Tebow passed for exactly 316 yards on Sunday, the TV ratings peaked at 31.6 (in the most-watched first-round game in ages) further fanning the flames of fundamentalist fervour.  Not coincidentally, John 3:16 was Google’s most-searched term the day after the match.

Commenting on this issue becomes fraught with danger simply because it involves using black and white terms to describe a full-colour issue.  However, given an Evangelical Christian bent for literal interpretation of the bible, the notion of angel-with-a-flaming-sword-style Divine Intervention being behind Tim Tebow’s football victories can be seen most prominently (among many) either as God elevating his man for a role, or rewarding him for faithful service. 

Both arguments are flawed, but neither can be discounted entirely.  The first reason suggests familiarity with the methods and motives of an omniscient deity who’s really, really good at forward planning.  The second minimises the God-given talents of Denver players and coaching staff, making them all secondary to the Tebow story.  Many “haters” will suggest this is apt, a poignant reminder of the Cult of Tim – which benefits one man and his possibly-imagined deity.

That is not to say that God isn’t (potentially) behind the Broncos’ success.  As Tebow himself would attest, he has been blessed with size, talent and situation.  But to suggest the result of a football match, no matter how many Google hits it generates, is a high priority for an omniscient deity is to suggest that God has favourites – in opposition to biblical precedent and context.  This isn’t to say their victory wasn’t due to Divine Intervention; just that such a conclusion seems remarkably unsubtle, rather unlikely, and therefore shouldn’t be the first one leapt to.

No matter what the motive or result, taking individual matches as proof that God is helping a young Christian to win football games simplifies an entire religion so far that it can fit inside a full matchbook.  Religion, except perhaps Verdukianism, is almost never that simple; like an Aaron Rodgers QB sneak, it is almost always more subtle.

A truly fatal four-way

If the Australian selectors are starting to consider playing four pacemen for the third Test against India in Perth, they’re just as muddle-headed as the team they replaced. 

Let’s not go into the ramifications of kicking another promising young spinner in the teeth (cf. Beau Casson, Dan Cullen, Nathan Hauritz and Michael Beer), it belies common sense and, eventually, come back to bite Australia fairly and squarely on the bum.

Since 1990, Australia has played 21 times at Perth.  In those games, their Win/Loss ratio stands at thirteen wins, three draws and four losses.  Australia has played an all-pace attack in three of those games: in the Ashes last year, versus India in 2007-08 and in the 1998-99 Ashes series, where “Funky” Miller got the nod while Shane Warne was injured. 

Although they won the WACA match last year – and against the Old Enemy a dozen years before – they were absolutely pillaged in 2007-08 against the Indians.  This 2-in-3 success rate seems about right for what amounts to a gamble.

There are four iron-clad reasons why an all-pace attack should be vetoed with as much haste as possible.

First, Australia seems to have a great wealth of fast bowling talent at present.  Unfortunately however, the nation seems to be injuring that talent as quickly as it arrives.  With James Pattinson, like Pat Cummins, succumbing to the dread foot stress reaction, Australia are likely to head into Perth dressing the indefatigable Peter Siddle, the injury-prone Ryan Harris and the revitalised Ben Hilfenhaus.  Add a fourth to that lot (Peter George?  Mitch Starc?) and suddenly Australia’s attack, should/when Harris break down again, looks quite thin when compared to a batting lineup boasting near enough to 50000 Test runs. 

Peter George, courtesy: perthnow.com.au

This doesn’t even begin to answer the questions as to whether Starc, who looked game but perhaps overwhelmed against New Zealand, or indeed George, are polished enough for Test level at present.

Secondly, the effects of dropping Lyon would be tantamount to a slap from a wet fish.  Sure, he has cumulative figures of 2/180 so far this series, but he’s played on pitches hardly amenable to spin (Indian compatriot Ravi Ashwin has 4/298).  He’s also on track to be the best off-spinner Australia’s had since arguably since Ian Johnson, who retired in 1956.  He is worth persisting with and needs his captain, coach and even the ball-boys to tell him his place is secure.  Nathan Hauritz, though captained by a man who thinks spin is something that dryers do, was never told this.  And it showed.

This dovetails nicely into the third reason – Australia should play Lyon because he’s better-suited to the Perth pitch than to almost any other strip in the country.  While a bigger turner of the ball than Hauritz (as are many), he still doesn’t rip the ball or have quite the grip and turn of the likes of Saqlain Mushtaq, Harbhajan Singh or Graeme Swann.  What this means is that he’s a thinking bowler, and could – should? – become the Anil Kumble to Swann’s Warne, a player reliant on subtle variations … and aided enormously by bounce. 

Finally, while Australia has opted for a four-pronged pace attack in the past, it has done so when conditions merit.  Those conditions are best defined by the following questions:

           

            Does the pitch take spin - at all? 

            Will the strip break up?

            Can variety be provided by bowlers whose name isn’t Mike Hussey?

            Are the four best available bowlers pacemen? 

            If so, how far ahead of the competition/spinner are they?

            Are any of the four liable to collapse in a screaming heap?

           

Unfortunately for those advocating a fatal four-way, even the most ignorant of cricket fans knows the answer to all the above questions without even needing to think.  Australia would take a retrograde step in taking four speedsters to Perth, a step with both long and short-term implications.

#freeLyon

Why the Melbourne Victory looked overseas

When Mehmet Durakovic was fired last week as boss of the A-League’s Melbourne Victory, their coaching search immediately led them overseas to names like Roy Keane, Graeme Taylor and Iain Dowie. 

The Victory eventually ended up with Jim Magilton, the Northern Irish manager recently involved in Shamrock Rovers’ run to the Europa League and also a finalist for the Northern Ireland job vacated by Nigel Worthington. 

That the negotiations were swift only bided well for those who hoped Magilton would end up in blue and silver.  By acting swiftly, the Victory ensured a repeat of last offseason’s stuttering interview process wouldn’t occur.  It could be said that Durakovic got the job – as good as his lesser-league management had been – because he already occupied the caretaker’s seat.

Magilton is an appealing candidate, with his teams known for playing good football.  What makes him more appealing is that he’s not Australian, or wasn’t previously based in Australia.

With every A-League vacancy, the same names are put forward by media types as potential successors.  That list includes Jason’s Dad, Branko Cŭlina and former Socceroos and Brisbane Roar boss Frank Farina.  Had John Kosmina not gone back to old club Adelaide the week before, rest assured he too would have been included in the Victory’s coaching search.  This is in part due to a relatively uninformed public, where many passing sports fans recognise only the larger names in the sport.  It’s also due to a natural lack of talented, credentialed local managers.

Of the 31 coaching appointments in the A-League’s seven years, twenty-five coaches have been employed.  Of those coaches, seven have been re-treads – Cŭlina (twice), Kosmina (twice), Gary Van Egmond, Ian Ferguson, Miron Bleiberg.  18 had already been “in the system”, involved in the A-League or FFA.  Paying release fees for coaches in this league is nearly unheard of, so current A-League managers can be ruled out.

There is a dearth of available high-level coaches available to succeed the current middle-aged monopoly.

Damningly, the average number of A-League games for each manager has been in charge is quite low – a little under two seasons, at 59 games.   When the pool of available coaching talent is observably low, the Australian football hierarchy must be concerned that managers now must be brought in from overseas as local boys haven’t been able to make good (or at least, not good enough for their bosses).

For the Victory, a foreign hire had to be made, because the available high-level coaches haven’t cut the mustard at A-League level.  That 59-game figure above is made more understandable by the following table, which shows the records of “local” coaches with A-League coaching experience but not currently coaching upper echelon football.

Coach	Games	Win	Loss	Draw	Win %
Branko Cŭlina	66	21	30	15	31.81
Ron Smith	33	5	16	12	15.15
Lawrie McKinna	138	50	49	39	36.23
David Mitchell	67	24	29	14	35.82
Mehmet Durakovic	14	3	6	5	21.43
John Adshead	21	1	17	3	4.76
Rini Coolen	42	16	15	11	38.10

A cringeworthy bunch, no?  It’s hardly like Adshead would be considered given his retirement from coaching the New Zealand Knights after a spectacularly unsuccessful inaugural A-League season.  Of the bunch, only Mitchell and McKinna boast finals appearances; while McKinna is the only man to lead his team into the Asian Champions League. 

With international management often being the reward for a prosperous club career, could we look at an A-League manager who’s taken up a position for a national setup?  Ernie Merrick recently took up a position to coach Hong Kong’s national side, while Frank Farina is involved at a high level in football in Papua New Guinea.  Although it is undoubtedly too early for Merrick to return to the Victory, both he and Farina boast considerably better records than those above.  Aurelio Vidmar, now of the Olyroos and assistant to Holger Osieck at the Socceroos is another name worth considering.

Coach	Games	Win	Loss	Draw	Win %
Ernie Merrick	141	64	34	43	45.39
Aurelio Vidmar	107	42	42	23	39.25
Frank Farina	72	29	23	20	40.28

This list includes the A-League’s most successful coach and the Australian coach who took his Reds to the Asian Champions’ League Final against much more well-financed competition.  Each win/loss record is impressive, given their competition above, but hardly awe-inspiring.

There simply isn’t enough top-level coaching and managing talent in Australia to warrant promoting an up-and-comer.  By going initially with an almost-impeccably credentialed top-flight rookie in Durakovic, the Victory flamed out.  Their only choice was to look to the British Isles and those names on their shortlist before the season.  Even then, looking abroad has it’s own concerns.

The A-League needs to look abroad for coaches, because we certainly don’t have the amount of quality coaches needed to ensure a growth of the home-front top tier.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: Cricket's Moneyball effect

Ben Roberts

It's my turn to throw my voice into the vortex of latter opinion and desire borne out of the 2011 release of Moneyball. I only recently watched this film, and enjoyed it immensely. It's release has awoken the rest of the sporting world to a concept that was not even new in the period portrayed in the movie, but has been around for over 30 years. Suddenly everyone wants a piece of the action, and to find the killer measurable statistic for their sport of choice that separates the wheat from the chaff.

Baseball is a sport made for such a concept. Without going into much detail, in my opinion baseball lends itself so easily to this analysis due to: 1) being very static in gameplay with players not moving around the field randomly but in a definite order; 2) having direct cause-and-effect relationships in the game play, (for example an out always equals a run saved); 3) Major League Baseball being a market based sport (also replicated in many others but not cricket) meaning that value is something more easily determined as it comes in dollars and cents.

Cricket by contrast does not have such a static nature nor cause and effect relationships. While commentators always say that the best way to restrict scoring is to take wickets this is not an absolute (like baseball) until you talk about the 10^th wicket falling. Neither does the sport have a market-based nature, although players are shifting first-class teams more today, the game remains a sport played at the highest level as a regional representative.

The key premise of the theory is stated early in the movie when Jonah Hill's character tells Brad Pitt's character that for years they have been asking the wrong question. They should be trying to buy wins (a direct result of runs scored and restricted) not players. The improvement in statistics themselves had been around for many years, the trouble was the ignorance of the users.

Cricket has a multitude of data already at its disposal. Former Australian coach John Buchanan was known for recording extensive data and this became the norm for most first-class teams. The difficulty is that unlike baseball - where you can name what you want - in cricket, you cannot be as sure. Yes, more runs are important, but in Test matches you need to take wickets also.

So what if we just use such analysis for limited over matches where it's all about runs. Good idea, except last night I saw a rain interrupted T20 match get decided by the Duckworth-Lewis method which relies on wickets in a calculation of a par score. As well, we still seem to value bowling in limited over games, if we are truly only after more runs why not simply stock your team with 11 batsman who can nominally roll their arm over and field well?

The difficulty is that we do not know what the question to ask is; that is, what constitutes total value in a game of cricket? The entire premise of using such statistics is to restrict the questions that you want the statistics answer, unless you want your statistics to prove any and all manner of things. 

To give an extreme example: You have two batsmen, 1 and 2. In traditional statistics both average 36 and have a strike rate of 72 runs per 100 balls. A normal innings therefore for either is to score 36 runs off 50 deliveries.  We have a dilemma: if we need to choose, both look equal - based on traditional measures. Turning more detailed statistical analysis, we find that Batsman 1 gets those runs in 36 singles, where Batsman 2 usually hits 6 sixes (I told you the example was extreme). Which batsman is the more valuable?

My initial reaction is to say Batsman 1 is more valuable in that they turn the strike over to the other batsman giving greater chance for team scoring while they are at the crease whereas Batsman 2 faces a stack of dot balls. But what is the effect on the bowlers? Does the potentially greater runs scored per single ball by player 2 make them more valuable? Unless you know what you really want statistics can tell you anything.

Don't read me wrong - such analysis has every place in the game but requires a liberal amount of common sense to be applied. You can easily measure the worth of two identically skilled players as above. You may use the above analysis in comparison to what the team needs, but you cannot make the clear cut decisions that they can in baseball as there is no single measure of value.

Ed Cowan at his best; (c) Balanced Sports

How would you statistically make the decision (as for the recent Melbourne Test) whether to play an opening batsman Ed Cowan or all-rounder Daniel Christian? To do so compares apples with oranges. In baseball, you can use a standard measure of total value to the team and cut through inconsistencies, in cricket understanding and intuition must still be applied.

I have only a rudimentary understanding of statistic usage, and someone more esteemed than I may be able to prove that there is a methodology escalating statistical analysis beyond being a support category in cricket decision making. But until that time remain wary of the limitations when trying to apply to cricket. Mark Twain believed it was Benjamin Disraeli who said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Though it remains historically an un-sourced statement, there is still much truth to it.

Victory sack Durakovic - let the merry-go-round commence!

Mehmet Durakovic has been fired as manager of A-League side Melbourne Victory, with the club enduring its worst ever start to a season. The team, who splashed out - big time - for Harry Kewell during the offseason, languish in eighth position in the ten-team competition, with only perpetual strugglers Perth and Gold Coast sitting below them.

Durakovic was never likely to have a lengthy career at one of the league's most successful and high-profile clubs. Although his resume boasts numerous Socceroo appearances and stints in charge of the Victorian Institute of Sport and the Victory's youth setup, he simply didn't have the profile - or personality - to be successful at a club like the Victory. While technically adept, he couldn't command the team's attention or respect like former coach Ernie Merrick.

Image courtesy: heraldsun.com.au

The usual suspects are likely to be trotted out as candidates for the job. Branko Culina, recently fired from Newcastle, and former Brisbane Roar boss Frank Farina are the chief names associated with the position now, but that's because they're suspects for every single available A-League job. "Bigger" names like Roy Keane, Iain Dowie and Graham Taylor have also been rumoured to be in the running again, but the Victory's tailing finances probably make the first two long-shots at best.

Graeme "My coach is my friend" Arnold and Ange Postecoglu are probably the best coaches in Australia, but are unlikely to be available for - or want - the position. There will be a groundswell behind local boy and former captain Kevin Muscat - who, although put in temporary charge of the club, is said not to be a candidate. In many ways it's a pity that John Kosmina was recently re-employed by Adelaide: although his arrival would have infuriated Melbourne supporters - and later, the Victory board, given his propensity for rubbing owners the wrong way - he is a talented coach who gets results from unbalanced squads.

The best man for the job could well be Aurelio Vidmar, the former Adelaide coach now assisting Holger Osieck at the Socceroos. Whether he would be interested in taking over former rivals Victory would be questionable, but given Melbourne are likely to appoint a caretaker manager he could be swayed by the end of the season.

Balanced Sports on One Hand, One Bounce cricket podcast

Matthew Wood was last week featured in World Cricket Watch's weekly podcast, One Hand, One Bounce.  You can listen to the podcast here, or download it from iTunes.

The Football Year 2011

Best Moment: Wayne Rooney's overhead kick against Manchester City to cement a derby win and Manchester United's nineteenth domestic title.

Best Team: Barcelona. Although their reign of terrifying beauty may come to an end sooner rather than later if the defense is not reinforced.

Most disappointing Team: The A-League's Adelaide United, despite bringing in quality during the offseason (Dario Vidosic), last week fired manager Rini Coolen after finding themselves near the table's lower reaches. His replacement is former boss John Kosmina, who will undoubtedly achieve results, but a team which had high expectations are unlikely to trouble Playoffs predictors this year.

Best Manager: Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri led the Partinopei to the Champions League behind the attacking triumvirate of Marek Hamsik, Ezequiel Lavezzi and one Edinson Cavani. While only sitting in seventh position at the moment, he also masterminded qualification for the Champions League last sixteen from a very tricky group. Honorable mentions go to Juventus' Antonio Conte and Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini, who started the year amongst the favourites to be sacked. Mancini loses out as his team drew a tough Champions League group but should still have qualified for the second round.

Man of the year: Mario Balotelli, for his emergence as a figure both of awesome talent and application, but also for having a sense of fun so all-encompassing that he's gone from villain to hero in the course of six months. His resume this year includes throwing darts at youth team players, popping out for an iron and coming back with a Scalextric track, attempting a back-heel in a friendly against the LA Galaxy, nearly burning his home down when lighting fireworks in his bathroom and unveiling a T-shirt after scoring saying "Why always me"?

Signing of 2011: Even though he's unlikely to win any popularity contests and seems to attract headlines at the same rate as Balotelli, Luis Suarez scores goals more regularly than the guy he replaced, Fernando Torres. Runner-up goes to Manchester City's Sergio Aguero, who looks already to be the one of, if not the, best striker in the Premiership.

Unheralded Signing of 2011: Mauro Rosales of the Seattle Sounders was a magnificent pickup and headlined the MLS Team of the Year. Staying in North America, the Montreal Impact selecting Justin Mapp from Philadelphia in the Expansion Draft.

Worst Signing: It's harsh given his status as the reigning World Cup Most Valuable Player, but Inter Milan's acquisition of Diego Forlan - under the short and star-cross'd reign of manger Gian Piero Gasperini - to replace Samuel Eto'o was bemusing given his ineligibility to play for Inter in European competition.

Most stubborn resistance to commonsense: FIFA's refusal to countenance the use of technology - especially on the goal-line - belies the fact that journalists, players and administrators insist it's needed due to the increased speed of the game.

Goal of the Year: Benji de Ceulaer's strike for Lokeren against Brugge in the Belgian League was a combination of skill, touch and positioning.

Gaffe of the year: Theyab Awana's back-heel penalty for the UAE against Lebanon wasn't necessarily a gaffe per-se, but it did lead to his substitution for showboating only minutes after being introduced. The UAE youngster died in a road accident only two months later.

Poorest Managerial Fit: It has to be Gasperini, who replaced Leonardo, who superseded Rafael Benitez, who inherited the blue side of Milan from Jose Mourinho. Gasperini set the Nerazzuri up in a 3-4-3, while not having defenders mobile enough to pull it off.

Explosion of 2011: David Silva has always been known as a talent, but this year he emerged as perhaps one of the world's top three footballers. He is justifiably favourite for the English Footballer of the Year award and has kept big-money signing Samir Nasri out of the first team picture at Manchester's Etihad stadium.

Implosion of 2011: After surrendering to Stoke City 5-0 in the FA Cup semi-final at the end of last season, Bolton Wanderers have struggled badly as key players have been injured or badly out of touch and star centre-back Gary Cahill is counting down his days at the Reebok Stadium. The Trotters look like they'll need a lot of luck to escape relegation.

Villain of 2011: Could it be anyone else but Carlos Tevez? The world's most malcontent footballer attracts controversy like no other. After losing his starting place to the firing Edin Dzeko and Kun Aguero, he - allegedly - refused to enter a game and has hardly been seen since. Some big European clubs are interested in the diminutive Argentine, but aren't prepared to stump up the cash City would like.