Eat's just not cricket!

TRULY one of the most bizarre sights ever seen on a cricket field.

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi bites - yes BITES - the cricket ball. I’m lost for words!

Watch it:

As if things couldn’t get any stranger, at the end of the match a spectator jumped - yes JUMPED - on top of Khalid Latif!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: keep it clean.

This is cricket, not football; there ain’t no John Terrys in the gentleman’s game.

FIFA v ISS: The verdict

  

YEAH, I know, they’ve already been out a few months, but hey, what with stuff and all that, I haven’t had a chance to play them. So, with the snow and ice putting paid to any action yesterday, I decided, finally, to give the latest versions a try.

So what did I think? Starting with FIFA, I gotta say, I was pleasantly impressed. FIFA 2010 is a cut above previous versions of the game, none of which have been a patch on ISS - but the new FIFA does have certain advantages over it.

In terms of individual brilliance, skills and tricks, you can do more with FIFA than ISS - take Messi or Ronaldinho for a run on the practice ground and you’ll get what I’m saying. The kits are also better, and the facial features sharper - the players actually look like they’re meant to.

It also has the edge when it comes to playing online: whereas with ISS you can only have a maximum two controllers a side, FIFA allows you to have more. The commentary, however, is as annoying as ever, pairing Martin Tyler alongside Andy F***ing Gray!

  

Onto ISS, as always the number one in terms of match playing, with Mark Lawrenson a slightly more bearable summariser, and the shots on target actually going in more often than not rather than striking the post, which happens freakily too often in FIFA.

It’s also on top in terms of players’ touch, feel and control, and they’ve improved the awareness and speed off the line of the keepers.

ISS also, to my mind, has the lead when looking at the classic teams. They’re now more generation-specific - Brazil v Argentina using the USA ’94 squads - more realistic than pairing Pelé with Sócrates, for example, and featuring players who’ve actually played in my lifetime.

Overall, then, as with the past 15 or so years, I’m giving the nod to ISS, or PES as it’s now known, though FIFA have definitely reduced the gap. Some day they may even overtake it.

All in all, a most productive day’s work, and it’s like totally whetted my appetite for the World Cup, exactly five months today and counting; can’t wait!!

• EA Sports: FIFA 10
• Konami: PES 2010

Jermaine Beckford before he was famous

DATELINE: Tuesday, October 25th, 2005, a Hellishly cold night; the venue: Chestnut Avenue, Northwood, a million miles from Old Trafford on a crisp, Sunday afternoon, 75,000 in the stands, millions more watching on TV.

Welcome to the world of Leeds’ FA Cup goal hero Jermaine Beckford up until a few years ago. A stunning goal at Old Trafford today, chasing down a long ball, controlling it, slipping it between Wes Brown and the hapless Tomasz Kuszczak into the net; a missed penalty and a fluffed one-on-one back then.

And how, you might ask, do I know this? Well, that game five years ago was when I made my debut as a reporter for the Non-League Paper, a game that sticks in the mind, along with the teams and players who graced it.

So earlier tonight I clambered up into the loft, dug out my old notebook and reminisced.

Beneath the reporting instuctions - Wealdstone v Hampton & Richmond Borough, 7:45pm kick off, 170 words, email editorial@sportsbeat.co.uk tomorrow morning - are my match notes.

Behold this brief selection:

H/T: Leaves scattered across the pitch. 1st half - way too many long balls, way too many fouls.

68’: Stones 9, clean through, hits the keeper’s legs, right footed. Controlled the through ball, should’ve scored.

89’: Stones 9, penalty, weak, to keeper’s left, comfortable save.

Man of the match: Hampton 9 - Beckford’s opposite number.

Quite a rise to fame for Beckford, and good luck to him. It’s always good to see someone you’ve known about come good, and it’s equally refreshing for someone who’s made it up from the bottom to receive the plaudits and experience the glory.

It could just be the start, if rumours are to be believed, with a move up into the Premier League in due course. One things for sure: he’s come a loooooong, long way from the Ryman Premier League.

He’a a great talent; long may his rise continue.

• 3rd January 2010: Manchester United 0-1 Leeds United
• 25th October 2005: Wealdstone 1-2 Hampton & Richmond Bor.

England should go for the throat and wrap series up

Newlands, Cape Town, third Test:
South Africa v England (3rd - 7th January)

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ENGLAND go in to the new year Test at Newlands confident of winning the match and series following their stunning innings win in Durban last week.

With Paul Collingwood struggling, England have called up Hampshire batsman Michael Carberry as cover. If, as seems likely, Collingwood is ruled unfit, Carberry will make his debut, with England sticking to their six batsmen, keeper, four bowlers policy.

It is South Africa, however, who have the biggest selection headaches - their leading batsmen, to a man, failing dismally in the second innings at Kingsmead, and their leading bowler, Makhaya Ntini recording figures of 0-114 to go with his match haul of 2-119 in the first Test at Centurion.

Ntini’s iconic status - he remains the only black African to have made the grade for the Proteas - makes him virtually undroppable, the pressure to pick him immense, and a worry that weighs heavily on Graeme Smith’s shoulders.

  

All of which begs the question of whether England wouldn’t be better off fielding a 5-1-5 line up if Collingwood fails to pass his fitness test. Instead of drafting in Carberry, England could do worse than select Liam Plunkett or Ryan Sidebottom.

Following the return to form of Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, and the scoring potential of Matt Prior (60 in Durban), Stuart Broad (37 runs this series) and Graeme Swann (85 in Centurion and a quickfire 22 in Durban), it is difficult to see England being significantly worse off with only five specialist batsmen - especially given the travails of the South Africa attack.

Ntini, playing what would be his 102nd Test, looks shot to pieces, a shadow of his former self; Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis have only just returned from injury; Morne Morkel lacks consistency - evidenced by just one five-wicket haul in 35 innings - and Paul Harris went from taking seven wickets at Centurion to just one in Durban.

South Africa will not bat as badly again. Kallis, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy won’t be shouldering arms again in a hurry. Failing to field an extra bowler could be the biggest gamble of all; for all the runs in the world, if you don’t take 20 wickets, you ain’t gonna win no Test match.

• Cricinfo: Live text commentary from Newlands
• Test Match Special: Live audio commentary

2010: Dare to dream

2010, a new year, a new decade,
A new dawn, or the same old gloom?
To look forward or to look back,
To bemoan past disasters or anticipate future glories?

Looking ahead, it’s all to play for,
Defeat is not inevitable, victory can be ours;
With the best man at the helm,
And the best men on the ball

So pull together and cheer on the boys,
Come on England, bring home the Cup;
44 years of despair, 44 years of hope and fear,
Jo’burg July 11th, England atop the world

Rooney, Rio, Gerrard, Capello,
England expects, England awaits;
Brazil, France, Germany or Spain,
We don’t care, we don’t give a damn;
Coz We’re England, we’re England,
AND WE’RE GONNA WIN THE CUP!