McIlroy is odds-on make it seven non-English winners from eight. Which would
make America’s recent record in the Ryder
Cup seem commendable.
Osborne will never admit it, but he would be concerned because politicians
love nothing better than a glittery stage, a TV camera and a Clare Balding
to hail all things England. But should the normal, non-prejudiced folk of
the green and promised land be worried?
Should they, for instance, analyse the results of last year’s SPOTY and try to
work out how a country which accounts for almost 85 per cent of the UK
population could not even manage to get one in the top three? Or should they
simply say: “Pah, who cares? We’re all British and this is clearly a
coincidence.”
Yes, we are all British, except when we are cheering on the major team sports.
But maybe they would be right, maybe this is a simple accident of fate. Yet
what an accident it happens to be.
Dig deeper into the archives and consider that for 46 years before Calzaghe
won, only three recipients of that mini-Dalek trophy were from Scotland,
Wales or Northern Ireland. So for England it was 43 in 46 – and then, just
like that, it was one in seven. Strange, no?
Admittedly some of those results in that three decades of Anglo dominance
could be queried, most famously 1971. First: Princess Anne. Second: George
Best. Third: Barry John. But in the main, and notwithstanding the absurd
bias for athletics and Formula One, the winners were worthy. So what has
happened and is England’s failure actually reflective of its diminishing
standing in sport in relation to some Celtic uprising?
The football fans of Scotland,
Wales
and Northern
Ireland, with their national teams flying high in European
Championship qualifying, might answer in the affirmative and while their
positivity would, forgivably and unashamedly, be over the top, there can be
little argument with the Welsh and Irish rugby fans, who declare that their
national sides punch well above their weight in comparison to England.
In golf, England has saluted two world No 1s, as well as a major winner in the
past five years, so there is no problem with that sport. And tennis? At
least the Lawn Tennis Association has been unfailingly consistent with its
barren harvests. There is Laura Robson, but we must wait until she can
emulate the likes of Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes as English females who
transcended sport and so overcame the SPOTY discrimination.
But what about the individuals? Lewis
Hamilton may push McIlroy hard and there are boxers such as Carl
Froch and an athlete in Mo Farah, who continues to be underrated in his own
country. Yet, other than cricket, in which the best England
cricketer of the past decade was South African, what of the sports which
command the back pages?
Who is currently the best footballer from the UK? Gareth
Bale. The best tennis player? Andy
Murray? The best golfer? McIlroy. The best cyclist? That goes to the
Isle of Man’s Mark
Cavendish. Can England unequivocally claim the best rugby player?
Certainly not.
Is that not quite incredible when one thinks of the numbers? For example, more
people in England play football once a week than actually live in Wales. And
one could make the same ludicrous contrasts with the other principal
pursuits.
Of course, there is no way of knowing when or why talents such as McIlroy and
Bale come along and, definitely with the latter, it has absolutely nothing
to do with the Football Association of Wales.
But why is England not producing the UK’s top sporting superstars, as it
always did before? Can this freakish period really be down to the lottery of
the gene pool? If so, Osborne might be minded to drain it dry, as is his
usual tactic when it comes to sport.