It’s all about the money

Watching Britain in the Olympics was something of a thrill for us Brits who have endured a particularly miserable time watching our sports teams over the years. England football fans have had to suffer the ignominy of penalty shoot-out defeat after penalty shoot-out defeat, blinding us to the fact that we didn't even deserve to get to that stage anyway. The Scottish fans, at least, put a brave face on successive failures.

English cricket is at a low ebb, and it seems that no matter who captains the England one-day side, atrocious management will always out. For some reason, the men who appoint the men who run the England team decided not to go with experience, but went with a man who had a couple of good seasons with Sussex. Congratulations. Why can't we do it like the cyclists?

Let's put it like this - our Olympians were nationalised long ago. Just like the failing banks, we decided to take them under the wing of the state (oh how very communist of us) and fund them until their muscles nearly burst. Yes, you and I, the great taxpayer, paid for the Olympic medals so proudly worn by Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton et al - and even into the swimming pool. Team GB is our team, funded to the hilt with corporate-style targets to be met for a nation hungry for its Olympiad haul.

For once, we can thank the men in charge for putting the money in the right places, funding the right people, creating the right training facilities and giving opportunities where there were once none. A job well done.

So what of football? Ah well football is pretty much left to fund itself. You and I still pay for it, paying through the nose at the gate to keep the players paid. The set-up at grassroots level, however, is shocking. Trevor Brooking came out and admitted as much last week by saying that despite the money floating around, the FA has done next to nothing to promote football at grassroots level. Our kids can't go out and play on the beach as they do in Brazil, they need facilities (preferably indoor, given the weather), they need coaching in skills and technique, and what do they get? A system that lags behind those of France, Germany and Spain.

The same goes for cricket. A massive following for international games is mirrored by a growing following for the Twenty20 cash cow. Wouldn't it be wonderful if some of that money went into development so that we could develop top-class test players for the future? Heck, we don't even have an Allan Stanford. The mismanagement of English cricket has been quaint, yet now sees us losing every one-day international to the country that now effectively manages the entire game, having taken it out of the hands of the ECB.

For all his faults, Allan Stanford has a long-term plan for the game of cricket. He claims to love (a version of) it, and has put his money where his mouth is, backing the development of players for the future in the West Indies. English cricket has been mismanaged to the point that we can't even hit the ball.

If the government is serious about sport, it should take the control of our future cricket and football stars away from the idiots in cloistered rooms whose only interest is self-interest and self-aggrandisation. We did it with the Olympics, and we can do it with the sports that people follow day in, day out. Surely, in these days of nationalisation, we can nationalise our own national sports? And don't even start me on the rugby.........

published: 25th November 2008 by Free Bet Bookmaker

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