No reason to post this, other than it's brilliant.

A good few years ago, (18 to be precise) I gave up playing cricket to spend more time on other sports. But for the past couple of years Anna has been trying to get me to take up the bat again.

Her reason is mainly that she likes the idea of coming along - sitting on the veranda of a pavilion, eating sandwiches, sipping wine, and reading.  In other words: coming along, but not to watch the cricket - more to get some peace and quiet and keep an occasional eye out for me.

This got me thinking… I suspect that in the same way most parks have benches on which parents sit to keep an eye on their children at play - so cricket pitches have pavilions. The polite applause, when a cricketer deftly sweeps the ball for four - equates to the "well done dear" when a young child swings from the climbing frame and shouts "Mummy look at me!"

I struggled to keep this "play-pen" view of cricket out of my head last night when I participated in my first game for 18 years. It wasn't easy - I was rubbish and the other boys threw the ball harder, hit it further and made nasty jokes about my shoes and bowling action. I wished Anna was there to give me some support - especially as I scraped my knee which could have done with a magic kiss to make the nastiness go away!

All urinals should have these fitted.

Disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers claims he has been made to "feel like a leper" on his return to the sport having served a ban for failing a drugs test.

The 29-year-old yesterday won his battle to be part of the British team at next month's World Indoor Championships in Valencia even though the UK Athletics selection committee were "unanimous in their desire not to select him".

He's a cheat.  A two-year ban wasn't enough. Would we have been happy seeing Ben Johnson representing Canada after his cheating was made public, or Justin Gatlin or Marion Jones representing the US again?  What about the other athletes who are competing for the UK, do they want to be tarnished with the same brush as Chambers?  What about the athletes who aren't competing, because Chambers has their place in the team?  

Do we know that the drug cheating he did didn't have any long-term residual effects that are benefiting him now? Do we really know that he's 'clean'?  Lot of questions, and sadly they'll continue whilst cheats like Chambers are allowed to compete in Athletics.  It's a sport that does its best to prove it's clean - but then rules like this make a mockery of that.

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England's Rugby Union team is in disarray. 

With most of the World Cup winning team having moved on, there was always going to be a period of transition.  The nature of the defeat by the All Blacks last weekend shows how the the team and the squad needs to come if England are going to have even  an outside chance of retaining the World Cup. 

Or should that be a chance of winning a game at the World Cup?  

England's Hopes? 

There are two players, who I think could have made the world of difference for England. 

One is the talismanic fly-half, Johnny Wilkinson.  Not only for his metronomic kicking ability, but also for his terrier-like defensive qualities and his all-round contribution to the team.  

Wilkinson hasn't played for England since that drop-goal in the World Cup final against the Aussies in 2003.  He's been plagued with injuries - including shoulder nerve, biceps, appendicitis, groin and, earlier this season, knee ligament problems, and recently came back after 2 months out from a knee injury, only to be injured again playing for Newcastle.  He will now be out again for up to 3 months - with a 'lacerated kidney'. Ouch.

The other player who can make a big difference to England has only played Rugby Union a handful of times.  However, for  well over a decade he has been one of the greatest Rugby League players in the World - Andy Farrell.

Some say it was a gamble to bring Farrell over to Union, especially in light of what he cost.  Others say it was a gamble for Farrell, risking his credibility and legacy moving over to a sport where he'd be a relative novice. 

He had nothing left to prove in Rugby League, where he's recognised as one of the best players to have ever played the game.  Described as having 'the brain of a back in the body of a forward', Farrell  missed the whole of his first season in Union through injury, and now time for him to get himself in the reckoning for the England World Cup squad is very short indeed.  He's playing at inside-center for Saracens this weekend for the first time, a position Rob Andrews thinks he could play for England.

I have no doubts about his talent and class - he is the best player I have ever had the privilege to see play live in either code.  He WILL be a success in Union - injuries permitting.  It's just a question of time.

Time is something England don't have the luxury of.  They need both Wilkinson and Farrell back, fit, and playing as soon as possible.

I've been getting annoyed recently with the number of football commentators who continue to criticise the defence of Liverpool.  As a Liverpool fan, I feel it's my duty to put people straight when they repeat the banal comments of a football commentator as though they are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  The same I've had to do for ages with regards to the abilities of Peter Crouch (but that's another rant entirely). 

Apparently, the Red's zonal marking that Rafael Benitez introduced is the cause of our defence leaking lots of goals.  But this is merely another factoid that has been repeated enough times so people have accepted it as fact…

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Watching the footy the other night I was looking at the England line-up. As the camera went from player to player I thought - what an odd looking bunch! Has there ever been a weirder looking England team? What do you think?