On The Attack Pt. 11 - Magpies, Maria Sharapova and Sticky Wickets

The Sporting Summer is hotting up in both action and talking points. The Lions got off to a great start with a series opening win against the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday night while England will aim to overcome India in the ICC Champions trophy final in Birmingham on Sunday.

Get in touch on Twitter @thesportinghack and use #TSHontheattack to have your say on the outlined topics.

Pardew: keeping his (limited) tactics close to his chest

While TSH predicted departures at St James’ Park following the arrival of Newcastle United’s newly appointed director of football, Joe Kinnear, we didn’t expect it to be the man who allegedly helped bring him back to the north-east, Derek Llambias.
Managing Director Llambias, whose name Kinnear embarrassingly mispronounced as “Lambayzee” during an interview with Talksport, issued a statement saying that he wished the club well; just a day after welcoming the Irishman in to what will be a hotseat. As reported by TSH (http://thesportinghack.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/theres-only-one-joke-in-here.html ) we expected that manager Alan Pardew may feel undermined by the arrival of the Irishman and choose to walk away with his dignity intact, and former Magpies legend Alan Shearer agreed, saying he felt “sickened” by events on Tyneside. Media hype has intensified dramatically already before a ball has been kicked in the new season, which is not ideal for the error prone Kinnear, who once referred to ex-winger Charles N’Zogbia as ‘Insomnia’. It could be sleepless night all round the Toon given current proceedings.

Sharapova: concentrating on her tennis

“What I do on the court and what I talk about in my press conference is strictly about my career,” were the words uttered by world number 3 Maria Sharapova, who also – rather hypocritically – went on to talk at length about how fellow tennis star Serena Williams should handle the media. Williams was forced to backtrack on comments she made about the rape of a 16 year old girl in Ohio, which has prompted the Russian to comment. “If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids,” said the French Open finalist, who lost in straight sets to the American at Roland Garros earlier this month. The pair are seeded on opposing sides of the draw for Wimbledon and cannot meet until the final – perhaps Sharapova should be more worried about how to stop the rejuvenated 31 year old winning her fourth title in five outings at the All England Club.

Old Trafford also in all her stunning glory. Ahem.

Just days after skittling Essex all out for a measly 20 runs in their County Championship Division 2 match at Chelmsford, Lancashire were on the march again, taking just two days to overcome title rivals Northamptonshire at Old Trafford on a controversial pitch.
Northamptonshire CEO David Smith complained that the wicket was “akin to an out-ground and a poor one at that.”
“What level of preparation went into this wicket? We can only guess but it looked underprepared and the scorecard supports this view.”
It is the same pitch that was marked as sub-standard last year in a clash with Worcestershire. Experienced seamer Kyle Hogg recorded match figures of 9/73 – seven of those wickets coming in an eventful first days play in which 18 wickets fell. The red rose have defended the Ashes test venue and their protestations were backed up as the pitch – several yards away from the one which will see the likes of Alastair Cook and Shane Watson take guard – was declared fit by an ECB official.

So that's where Fat Ronaldo is these days...

And while we’re at it...what would the Confederations Cup be without street protests and violence to gain people’s interest? The ongoing demonstrations have added far more talking points to what appears a fairly lackadaisical competition which scarcely snatches at the conscience.