A masterclass in evasion

It had to be about Tiger Woods, following his first appearance before the press since. Well, since. There was the odd probing question, he did admit using controversial doctor Tony Galea, but the Times’ John Hopkins felt it was the world No. 1 still controlling things.

How should we view Tiger Woods after his press conference in Augusta yesterday? With disappointment and with dissatisfaction. Although some questions were answered, too many were left unanswered. This was a frothy, light-as-air souffle when one had been hoping for something more substantial.

Is it too much to expect that if Woods was prepared to be questioned, then we had a right to expect him to answer those questions. And although some of his answers were germane to the question he had been asked, many were not. Overall, it was a masterclass in evasion and avoidance, of speaking without saying much, of being elliptical, of answering questions but often not the questions he was asked.

We know little more this morning than we did yesterday morning about certain important issues. Why, for instance, did Woods become involved with a Canadian doctor who is known to administer human growth hormone and is under investigation by the police?

Another example. Many of those who listened to his stumbling mea culpa in Jacksonville in February got a clear impression then that he would be away from golf for a long time. Yet only eight days later he had returned from his therapy clinic and was hitting balls, raising the question of why Woods had spoken in the week of the Accenture Match Play Championship when he could have waited another ten days.

Woods was asked about this apparent contradiction and again he gave an answer that barely dealt with the question. “When I gave my speech in February, I had no intentions of playing golf in the near future at all,” he said. “I just had barely started practising two days prior to that. That was the first time I hit balls. And then I started hitting more balls and more balls and more balls and I started getting the itch again to start playing again. . .”

So his long-term commitment to staying away from golf, to sorting out his marriage, his family, his friends, that all went out of the window because he “started getting the itch again”. That is what we are left to conclude from this rambling answer.

To give credit where it is due, while the conference was ended after only 35 minutes, which was rather short, there was no attempt to censor the questions. Woods looked relaxed and composed, much more like the Tiger Woods of old and not at all like the heavily directed, nervous individual who had appeared in front of a hand-picked, sympathetic audience in Florida two months ago.

Yet this is what creates a sense of dissatisfaction. Woods answered nearly fifty questions and he made sure he looked his questioners in the eye when he did so. He declined to say what he was in therapy for and he explained that Elin, his wife, and their children will not be joining him at Augusta.

But did he really convince us that he was genuine in his contrition? Not really. Did he address the key issues? Not really. Does he think that he has played the most difficult shot of this Masters week and that from now on there will be a a lot of players saying, “Welcome back, Tiger”. Probably.

Bedser a giant of the game

Sir Alex Bedser passed away at the weekend at the age of 91 and he was a true giant of the game. Derek Pringle pens a fitting tribute in the Telegraph.

Few bowlers ever get to be knights of the realm and as Sir Alec Bedser used to point out, not always in jest, he was the first since Sir Francis Drake. The honour was thoroughly deserved, not just for his selfless deeds as a bowler for Surrey and England but for the lifelong loyalty to a game he cherished deeply.

In a sporting era where materialistic rewards were few, his playing career was the very epitome of service, a foreign word to most modern players. His 236 Test wickets were the most ever taken by the time he played the last of his 51 Tests in 1955. His total would have been even greater but for the Second World War denying him the opportunity to take advantage of his physical prime.

big man, 15st and 6ft 3in, his bowling was based on rhythm and economy, being brisk rather than quick. Inswingers and a nagging accuracy were his main weapons, though their effectiveness increased once he learned to bowl the leg-cutter by wrapping his enormous fingers around the seam. It was a leg-cutter that famously dismissed that other cricketing knight, Sir Don Bradman, for a duck at Adelaide in 1947. Bradman, who remained a lifelong friend, maintained it was the best ball that ever got him out.

Set your loved one free

Steven Gerrard looked bewildered when Liverpool took Fernando Torres off against Birmingham with the game still in the balance and Ian Wright, writing in his column in the Sun, feels it was the moment that suggested the time had come for him to move on.

It was the moment that may have broken the camel's back as far as Steven Gerrard's Liverpool love affair is concerned. The look of dismay on the skipper's face when Rafa Benitez inexplicably substituted Fernando Torres with 25 minutes to go in Sunday's 1-1 draw at Birmingham said it all.

For the first time since he broke into the first team 11½ years ago, Stevie G looked like he wants out of Liverpool. And, with the way things are at Anfield right now, who could blame him?

With Premier League and Champions League hopes having long disappeared, the consolation prizes of fourth place in the table and the Europa League are now even touch and go.

It appears the only certainties on the horizon at Liverpool this year are more in-fighting and uncertainty.

Gerrard deserves better. Much better. He turns 30 at the end of next month. It's a milestone that is bound to make him take a long, hard look at himself and his career.

It would be totally understandable if he came to the conclusion that he needs a new club. I know the Kop will be up in arms at this view, as they were when their inspirational captain came close to joining Chelsea in 2004.

Gerrard turned down a reported £20million switch to join Jose Mourinho and it proved the right decision. He led Liverpool to a Champions League triumph over Milan 12 months later, an incredible FA Cup final win over West Ham a year after that before another Champions League final appearance in 2007. But things are totally different this time. Gerrard's body language as he trudged off at St Andrew's suggested he needs a new challenge and the Koppites should respect that.

As the old saying goes, if you love somebody set them free. That is how Liverpool fans should be with Gerrard.