ThrAshes And The Mad English Media

The Aussies thrashed England by about 250 runs in the first test. The English batsmen always seem to struggle against McGrath and Warne even the two bowlers are past their prime. I'll have to eat my words on what I said about Pieterson in my previous post. In his debut test match, he did not seem to show much nerves and was the only player who seemed to stand up to the challenge and scored half centuries in both innings. Whatever happened to all the talk about the challenge the strong English side would pose?

Well, the English media is always known to glorify their team and players but equally ruthless when it comes to burying them. It happens almost every year during Wimbledon when they hope for an implausible miracle from Tim Henman.

Tim Henman is undoubtedly not as talented as the English media project him to be. They expect him to salvage the British pride by becoming the first British player in almost 70 years to win the Wimbledon. Every year, there is lot of hope when the Championships begin but questions about his retirement pops up as soon as he fails. This is the era of Roger Federer, who has already won Wimbledon thrice in as many years and it'll be nothing short of a miracle to beat him. Age too is not on the side of Henman and at 29 (I guess), he better bid farewell to his hopes of raising aloft the Wimbledon trophy lest he faces the media which would question him his passion for the game and hunger for success, after every failure.

It's a pity that the English football team with all the talent has only to show a World Cup success achieved some 40 years back and still pride themselves to be the very best among European leagues. Come World Cup or the Euro Championships, the media just sings paeans about their formidable team and how this year would be 'the year'! Somehow, they always seem to lose and an attack by the media follows, who would quite often find a scapegoat to blame.

In World Cup '98, it was Beckham's irrefutable red card against Argentina, in 2002 it was the costly error by ageing goalkeeper David Seaman and in Euro 2004, the referee who disallowed a goal that should have stood. The media has already started hailing the mid-field pair of Lampard and Gerrard as the best in the world and with the self-proclaimed world's best defender Rio Ferdinand in the team and teenage wonder-kid Rooney at the front with goal-scoring machine Owen, the media has identified the next year's World Cup as their best chance to end their drought of trophies. It would be difficult for the team to escape unscathed from the media, should they fail!

Meanwhile, Alonso now has a firm grip on the F1 Championships after winning the German Grand Prix yesterday. His challenger Raikkonen retired due to his car's mechanical failure and Schumi only managed a fifth position. Narain Karthikeyan finished 16th. Montoya came 2nd and Jenson Button managed to be on the podium after a very long time with a 3rd placed finish. Button, being British, too came under the media spotlight during the previous race at Britain. He did not perform well and the media again came on to him.

Maybe, it's the fear generated by the media in the hearts of these sportspersons the reason for lack of success. Although, the lack of any success of great significance in recent years has the media craving for a champion in some sport!