Every little helps
Posted on 11/08/2010With the FA still searching for a new chairman, the man responsible for Tesco's success has been lined up as Lord Triesman's replacement, according to Charles Sale in The Daily Mail.
Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy is the heavyweight name being promoted inside and outside the FA as the preferred choice to be the next chairman of English football's ruling body.Support for Leahy has grown since he announced he would step down as Tesco chief executive in March, which fits the FA timetable of appointing a permanent chairman after the 2018 World Cup vote in December.
Leahy would also suit the Government, who want a properly independent FA chairman rather than someone from inside the football family.
The FA are in the process of abolishing the statute requiring their leader to have been free of football ties for 12 months.
But Leahy, who first watched Everton in 1962, has plenty of football knowledge gained through his Goodison attachment as well as Tesco's FA sponsorship and his England 2018 advisory role.
The void at the top of the FA is all too clear and reluctant caretaker chairman Roger Burden announced during his speech before the Community Shield that it would be the last time he was heard at Wembley.
Beleaguered Club England and Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards, under increasing pressure to step down from one of those roles, is speaking for the FA before tonight's England match.
Broad the playground bully
Stuart Broad found himself in hot water following his 'inappropriate' throw at Pakistan batsman Zulqarnain Haider at Edgbaston, and Mirror columnist Ian Botham hopes it was an uncharacteristic blip rather than a sign of things to come from the fast bowler.
I have one question for Stuart Broad - would you have thrown that ball at Ricky Ponting? I don't think so, because if you had, the chances are someone would have had to retrieve a cricket bat from a rather unpleasant part of your anatomy.That whole episode struck me as the behaviour of a school playground bully who will happily try it on with someone smaller and younger than him, but will keep quiet when up against the older boys.
It is just not part of the game and I hate to see it.
Hopefully, this disciplinary hearing will have been a wake-up call for Broad, because if he does it again you can bet he won't be available afterwards.
Broad has been walking a fine line for some time now. His histrionics and double teapot stance whenever things don't go his way has to stop.
If Stuart thinks that is the way to be tough on a cricket field, he has got it all wrong.
Your toughness comes from letting your cricket do the talking for you.
It comes from beating the bat, it comes from a well-directed bouncer or from extra pace and taking wickets.
That is what you're judged on, not these little hissy fits - because that's all they are.
Frustration and annoyance got the better of him. But he must learn to rise above it.
The last thing England want is to see him banned because he is a good cricketer who we need in our team.
He will be crucial to our fortunes over the next few years - but only if he is on the pitch.
Broad's behaviour was the worst example, but England have a bit of work to do across the board when it comes to staying calm and patient when the heat is on.
There is no question that life is going to be tough for them in Australia on flat pitches with a Kookaburra ball that doesn't swing much.
You can't lose your rag when you've probably got at least a day-and-a-half in the field ahead of you under baking sun.
When the impressive Zulqarnain Haider got going, England became ragged.
They dropped a couple of catches and their ground fielding became unusually sloppy - these are areas they need to tighten up.
They must learn to be patient, go back to the basics of bowling at the top of off stump and create pressure on the batsmen.
This is a good England side that is getting better and better. They are hammering teams, having won six on the trot - you can't ask for more than that.
And I rate this side very highly indeed.
Don't forget Australia drew 1-1 with Pakistan just before this series. To my mind, Graeme Swann is proving himself to be the best spinner in the world and a weapon that other teams envy.
He is the finished article now and I can see him being England's match-winner for years to come.
He can do for England what Shane Warne did for Australia and if the Ashes are won Down Under, it will have a lot to do with him.