Arsene Wenger: A hard look

Arsene Wenger seems to be running the wrong race! He is the best in the world at producing a profitable football club. Through a mix of smart expenditure and above average on-field results he has made Arsenal into a consistent profit maker. The unfortunate part for him is this is not something we judge football managers by- not only that, this is not even something we ought to judge football managers by. Results are what count the most.

What I care about as a die hard Arsenal fan is not value for money but about turning Arsenal into the best football team on the planet! Certainly when we were winning, it was good to point out how little we spent on our success, but without winning there is no argument. I do care that we play pretty football. I do care we have a nice stadium. I do care that we have made it to the Champions League a gazillion times in a row. But most of all I care to believe that Arsenal is capable of beating any team in the world- of at least winning a few trophies. The difference between the last 6 years (despite not winning trophies) and this year is that I don't honestly believe we can be the best in England, let alone being the best in the world. That is a step back.

 Let me lay my cards on the table. I have been a great supporter of Wenger and have extolled his virtues before (here). Arsene knows, we used to say and I firmly believed it. When he was under pressure in the middle of last season, after five seasons without a trophy, he said judge me after the season is over. So I did. We were two or three players and a lot of experience short of the best.

So what happens in the transfer window? Man U spends a net £43 million, Chelsea spends net £42 million, Man City spends net £52. Arsenal, they make a net £16 million profit! Even the two teams behind Arsenal out do them, with Liverpool at £34 million and Spurs at £13.5 million. In fact no other team other than Aston Villa make a bigger profit (£20.5 million). For all the sighs of relief among the faithful after the late splurge of spending after the 8-2 thumping by Manchester United, Arsenal have in effect exchanged Fabergas for Arteta and Nasri for Benayoun- both are down grades. The jury is out on Clichy for Santos and Park for Bendtner. The only real addition being Mertesacker, who despite fitting the bill, did not appear to be even among the top three choices for that position. Arsenal are better off from before the Man U game, but they are worse off since the end of last year. The five teams around Arsenal last year, are all stronger. It is a long season but three games in the conversation has already changed from winning the league to challenging for the fourth Champions League spot. That is Wenger's failing.

I was at the Stade de France in 2006 when we were leading Barcelona 1-0 with 10 men. It never crossed my mind that we couldn't win that match and be the best in Europe (and by extension the world). Fast forward to 10 days ago when we were visiting Old Trafford and I could feel a thumping coming- and I wasn't the only one. Despite having the same average squad age, the chasm in class between United and Arsenal- and believe me it hurts to say this- was huge.  And there is absolutely no amount of profitability that can compensate for that. Arsene knows, but he should know that his legacy will be measured by the number of trophies, not the numbers on the balance sheet. Time to stop burying your head!

When there is a will...

We shall overcome. When there is a will, there is a way! My glass remains a quarter full.

On the face of it there is every reason to despair. It is not the first time a Pakistani cricketer has been accused of corruption. The evidence this time is overwhelming it seems, and the corruption seems to run deep through the team and its administration- deemed to be systematic. Pakistani cricketers were already on thin ice after the inability to play domestically following the Sri Lankan incident and the inability to earn like their peers after the IPL snub. Among all this, Giles Clarke (the ECB chair) had gone out on a limb to support Pakistani cricket by opening the "home of cricket" in what was dubbed "the spirit of cricket" Test series. What a slap on the face for him. Who will ever support us now?

The shame is painful for those who have to bear it. You see, supporting Pakistan cricket has always meant defending its players and their actions. No, we don't tamper the ball any more than the others. Yes, there is such a thing as reverse swing and we invented it. No, we don't have a penchant for getting in trouble with umpires. Yes, there is a language problem for our cricketers to properly explain themselves. No, the team is not full of born again Muslim fanatics. And now this! It throws a cloak of doubt over everything you ever believed in. It kills your will to argue with the English press, the Australian players and your Indian colleagues at work

Was it not already difficult to comprehend why it was so tough to raise money for the flood victims. More people affected than the Tsunami, Haiti, Katrina, Kashmir earthquake and every other recent calamity put together and the response has been more tepid than for any single one. It was making my blood boil when I read explanations like "they don't believe the money will get to the people due to the corruption". But not anymore. There is no anti-Pakistan conspiracy out to get us. We do it to ourselves- and only we are able to set it right. We cannot sit there for some benign foreign power to come and pluck us out of our misery- we have to do it ourselves. We cannot keep sweeping the muck under the carpet and expect the stench to go away. We have to deal with these problems of our own making and not expect any favours from others.

The world is full of countries and civilizations that have made a come back from far more dire situations than this: Terrorism, floods, cricket corruption. We shall do it too. There has to be due process, there has to be fairness, but there has to be total accountability and exemplary punishment for those found guilty. And this time, let a life ban mean a life ban. Cricket, floods, terrorism, we can and we will sort it- there is simply no choice. Ourselves, one step at a time. This is a time for belief, not despair. When there is a will... there is a way!

Viva la football!

Those of you who have followed this blog know my liberal use of Nike advertisements. In this football commercial they have, tongue in cheek, captured the spirit of the greatest sports tournament in the world!

The sweet agony of defeat...

 The famous image of "agony of defeat" from Wide World of Sports

To have loved and lost, is better.. than to never have loved at all. Or better even, than to have loved and won!

A loss, if truly meaningful, teaches you a lot more than any victory ever can. A defeat gives you cause to pause and contemplate, to question, to reassess what went wrong. How can you rise from it? But most of all a defeat gives you perspective, a measure to value all your victories. I have been on the winning side more than a few times. Winning the game, winning the points, winning the girl. But in sports like in real life, winning the girl doesn't feel half as good as losing the girl feels bad...

The thrill of victory gives an adrenaline rush, sends blood coursing through the veins, leaves you with a sense of elation. But the agony of defeat hurts a lot longer. The pangs come for days and weeks and sometimes months. The heaviness of the heart feels like someone is kneeling on your chest with their knee. Those who have ever lost anything meaningful, will know what I mean.

My victories have given me hope to be better, faster, stronger. But my defeats have made me who I am!

I am an Arsenal supporter and I am on the plane back from Barcelona!

9.58 Seconds...

I remember when the LA Olympics were held in 1984, the world record for the 100m stood at 9.93 seconds. Last night at the fastest 100m ever run in history at the Berlin World championships, 5 sprinters finished in a time of 9.93 seconds or better. The pick of the bunch- as predicted in the last post from 2 days ago- was Usain Bolt in an astounding time of 9.58 seconds. Not long ago bio-mechanists thought such a time was not attainable by humans.

Bolt's astonishing feat could be judged by Tyson Gay- who in coming second in a US record of 9.71 seconds became the second fastest man of all time, but still trailed Bolt by about two meters at the finish. Seven of the eight contestants ran in 10 seconds or better to make it the fastest race in history. But they were all catching Bolt's shadows, who uncharacteristically for a sprinter was dancing and blowing kisses to the camera before the race. A far cry from sprinters like Maurice Green and Carl Lewis who used to strut around and focus on their race. But it wasn't just his attitude that was radically different to the others, his time was too. It will be a long time before anyone catches up to this time... a long long time.

The World's Fastest Men!

In all recorded history, a human being has run a sub 9.80 seconds time for the 100m sprint (electronically timed and not wind assisted) on only 15 occasions. The 14 fastest times of those have been recorded by three men: Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay. On August 16 of this year, the three of them are scheduled to meet in the 100m finals in Berlin and barring bad weather or wind, the world record of 9.69 seconds set in Beijing last year is surely set to fall.

All three contenders are of West African origin. Two of them have been born in the Carribean to parents of West African origin. You see where I'm going? What do Ben Johnson, Linford Christie, Donovon Bailey, Asafa Powell, Bruny Surin, Ato Bolden, Kim Collins and Usain Bolt have in common? Some of the greatest 100m sprinters in history- yes, but also all born in the Carribean. Careful not to extrapolate a different strain of Hitler's superman theory, I am never the less compelled to ask the question "is there a genetic disposition to fast running in Carribean men?"

Since the advent of electronic timing in 1976, every single 100m world record has been set by a male of West African descent, leading to un-empirical theories that suggest that Afro-Carribean runners benefit genetically from the slave trade, "with people on the western most parts of the Carribean being the progeny of only the fittest of fit slaves." While proper nutrition and state of the art coaching and facilities have their part to play in the making of world class sprinters, raw atheletic abilities are a critical ingredient.

So leaning towards the theory that it is some genetically inherited fast twitch muscles that make you move your legs faster, I researched the subject a bit and came up with the surprising result in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Research suggests that faster speeds are achieved with greater ground forces, not faster leg movements. If you compare the fastest runner against a slower runner, there is virtually no difference between them in how fast one repositions the legs for the next step.

A sprinter achieves a world record by packing more force into each stride and covering nearly twice the ground with each step, not by taking less time to swing the other leg and arm into position. This is part of the reason world class sprinters appear so elegant--the stride is fluid and casual. By hitting the ground harder they are able to increase both stride length and frequency and therefore run faster. But they don't need any more time to swing the arms and legs than we do.

So its technique after all? I'm as confused as you are but at least that explains why the taller Usain Bolt is set to run the fastest any human being has ever run over 100m in Berlin in two days. You heard it here first!

Just not Cricket: This time it is personal

This time it is personal. Long before I realized I loved the game of cricket, I remember hiding a transistor radio under the desk mid-lesson just to hear the score of the test match. Long before IPL and Stanford and Bollywood stars and commercial contracts, I remember improvising our writing pads into bats and scotch tape around scrunched up paper for a ball. It was just what you did as a Pakistani kid. This time it is personal. When I was fifteen and learned how to drive a car, I remember racing around the same Liberty round-about the bus was attacked. When I was 26, I remember sitting in the same Gaddafi stadium watching the same Sri Lanka chase 241 runs to become world champions. Yes, this time it is personal.

It is not that blowing up school children in a bus or businessmen in a hotel was any less tragic or underlined the ruthlessness and pointlessness of these perpetrators of terror any less. But targeting guest cricketers from a friendly country just crosses the line at so many different levels in the context of Pakistani culture.

Cricket is the one thing our struggling country has been able to be good at on a global level and consequently the one thing Pakistanis have come to closely associate with their sense of self worth. Foreign commentators on the country's obsession with the sport always seem to miss this point. It is the one thing that has united a divided country, across age, across ethnicity, across political or ideological leanings. To attack cricket is to make a statement that these terrorists will pull out all the stops. They will attack children, they will attack teachers, they will attack women, they will attack indiscriminately, and yes, they will attack cricketers as well. Yes, this time it is personal.

I don't want us to just condemn anymore. I don't want us to use scape goats anymore, to point to "foreign hands", to make excuses for our own impotency and political bickering. I don't want us to justify why such a thing might have occurred or to be defensive about why it could be our own mistake and our own people who are involved in perpetrating it. I am, we all are, tired and frustrated and exhausted with this very real problem, our problem, created by us... only ever likely to be solved by us... but only if we acknowledge it and face it as our own... or we will be condemned to be what Frantz Fanon described in a different context as "the wretched of the earth". Yes, this time it is personal, very very personal.

Pick Me!!!

American footballs' Super Bowls have become better known for half time ads and "wardrobe malfunctions" of pop stars than the game that is played. It was refreshing to see the focus back on the game this last weekend as the Cardinals and Steelers produced one of the most exciting Super Bowls of all time.

In honour of that, I'm reproducing one of the best viral ads for NFL fantasy football that has been doing the Utube and Facebook rounds:

A Crying Shame- The Greatest Tennis Player-Not that One!

Would Tiger Woods be considered the best of all time if he consistently lost to Phil Micklson, even if he inevitably overhauls Nicklaus' 18 majors? Can an athlete be considered the greatest of all time if he has an overwhelming losing record against the second best of his era?

By that token, can Federer be considered the greatest Tennis player of all time after having a losing record of 6-13 against Nadal? Federer went 0-4 the whole of 2008 and has now lost the last three grand slam finals they have contested to Nadal on clay, grass, and on a hard court. Can he really be considered the best in his sport when every time he is put under pressure by his nemisis in the fifth set, he seems to come apart at the seams?

Its a vexing question (thanks OS) to ask of Federer, who at 27 is already the most accomplished (well almost) as well as the most lyrical player anyone has ever seen. Sampras won 14 grand slams at the age of 31 having contested 52 grand slams. Federer has still only played 39. There are few detractors of Federer's claim to greatness- even Sampras and Laver have hailed him. But the question that now hangs over his legacy like a scimitar is: does he have a mental frailty dealing with Nadal?

And it is indeed a mental thing. Federer reached the Australian Open finals breezing over his opponents and serving like the champ he is. He sent down twice the number of aces as his opponent in downing Roddick- one of the most formidable servers in the game today. Yet, when it came to Playing Nadal, his first serve- a barometer of confidence- betrayed him. He only got in half of his first serves (52%). In the fifth set, when you expected Nadal to start feeling the effects of his epic semi-final with Verdasco and his body to run out of electrolytes, it was Federer that became flat.

I have been a big admirer of Federer (Federer Made me Fail the Tebbit Test), but even I can sense that the gap between him and Nadal seems to be growing into a chasm. And the chasm is not in the quality of the game. It is entirely mental. When you see Federer play anyone else, the elegant single handed back hand cross-court is serene, the inside-out forehand is unstoppable, and the killer serves are on tap. When he plays Nadal, and especially when the stakes are high, he seems to get thrown off his game. He got crushed in the French Open, flubbed a match point in the Wimbledon epic, and could not serve to save his life when it got to set 5 of the Australian Open. You can almost read his mind in the changeovers- "can I really beat this guy?"

Federer is considered for the title of greatest of all time because he measures up to the yardstick most used for tennis (or golf)- number of grand slams won. At 13, he is one shy of the all time best. Nadal has only got to 6 majors so far, but can Nadal be measured by another yard stick? Can he be measured by by Federer? Can he be measured against the contender for the title?

The two of them have now won 18 of the last 21 grand slams between them. They also collectively possess the longest winning streaks on each of the three surfaces- Federer on grass (65) and hard courts (56), Nadal on clay (81), and it has been the other man that ended each of those streaks. Previously on this blog, Nadal did not even make the list of the top 17 greatest tennis player of all time? (See Greatest Tennis Players of All Time- A Numerical Approach). Since then, he has taken his grand slam total to six, a number surely to go up. He has put together the longest ever 81 match unbeaten streak on clay. He has also beaten Federer at the peak of his game again and again, and on different surfaces. He still has ways to go, but is he rather than Federer, shaping up to be the best tennis player of all time?

Top 10 Sporting Moments of 2008

What a year it has been. A feast of excesses for the sporting fan. Most years we could struggle to make a top 10 list and this year events from other years' lists would struggle to get in. There were the spectacular Chinese Olympics to cap the year off but sports outside held their own, from golf and tennis to Formula 1 and cricket. Big Brown almost nipped the triple crown, IPL was born in cricket, Tampa Bay reached the world series despite never having a winning record and the US finally stormed the Ryder Cup of Golf. But none of these made the top 10. Here is the list of the top 10 moments as I saw them:

10. Greg Norman blows up at the British Open









It was reminiscent of the 1986 Masters that Nicklaus won at the age of 46. Except Norman was 53 now and led by 2 strokes going into the final round- and in true Norman fashion (1 for 7 when he led a major after 3 rounds) he blew up, opening with 3 bogies to relinquish the lead and then finishing with a round of 77 (winner Harrington scored a 69). But for three rounds he had everyone awake defying the wind and rains at Royal Birkdale. For three rounds he had everyone shaking their heads with smiles on their faces. For three rounds he had everyone loving the sport.

9. Celtics beat the Lakers








The most storied basketball rivalry in history (even with its own video game) was revived this year as the Celtics beat the Lakers 4-2 in the NBA finals. Together the two teams have won 31 out of the 62 NBA championships ever contended for but there hadn't been the same rivalry since Bird and Magic. This year they met up with more than the world championship at stake. Lakers coach Phil Jackson was going for his 10th championship, which would have overtaken the legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach on the all time list. Looks like it gave the Celtics that added incentive.

8. Defeat of Australian Cricket








Most non-Australians were looking forward to seeing the cockiness drain out of the Australian faces but when the moment came it turned out to be an anti-climax. It was always going to be difficult to replace the likes of Warne and McGrath, but within the frame of 2 series Australia lost to India away and now to South Africa at home. After a dominance of more than a decade there seems to be little the Australians can do to stem their decline.

7. Manchester United Double









This is a photo of John Terry of Chelsea taking the 10th and what was supposed to be the final penalty kick after the game was tied 1-1 after extra time. Had he scored, Chelsea would have won the Champions League- but he slipped and hit it wide while Van der Sar dived the wrong way, giving Manchester United a memorable Premier League and Champions League double.

6. Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 crown on the last lap








After 18 races the entire championship came down to a pass Hamilton made on the final bend of the final race (article) for the closest finish in the 58 year history of Formula 1. There was such confusion that both Hamilton's Mclaren and Massa's Ferrari garages rushed out in jubilation to celebrate their victories- only for the Ferrari people to realize they had been beat. Car racing mad Britain got its first F1 champion in 12 years.

5. Spain finally wins Euro 2008








Spain have always played creative and attacking football that is pleasing for the eye but had failed to win any silverware for 44 years. Boring defensive teams like Italy and Germany (not anymore) used to win but flair artists like Holland and Spain did not. Well they finally came through, with players like Torres, Alonso, Fabergas, Xavi, Villa and Casillas, beating Germany 1-0 in the final.

4. Rafa Nadal wins Wimbledon










John McEnroe called it the best Wimbledon final he has seen. Some praise since the Borg-McEnroe final is the only other one that would have been in contention. Nadal had thrashed Federer in the French Open final weeks earlier and most of us were expecting order to be restored. Instead Nadal came out all guns blazing and won the first two sets. Federer came back by winning set 3 and 4 in tie breaks (10-8 in the 4th). Nadal let 2 match points go in the fourth. Was his moment gone? In near darkness, at 9:15 at night, Nadal won the 5th set 9-7. A well deserved victory that also ended Federer's 65 match, 6 year winning streak on grass. By the end of 2008, Nadal had his fourth French Open title, a Wimbledon crown, the Olympic gold medal and the men's number 1 ranking as well.

3. Tiger gets a leg up in the US Open












He only seemed to wince when his shots went wrong. Surely, he was milking the injury, even if he had one. Showmanship notwithstanding, the caliber of the game was outstanding. First, he had to birdie the 72nd and last hole of regular play to make the 18 hole play-off with Rocco Mediate. On Monday he had to birdie the same hole again to extend his challenge to extra holes, before he won on the 91st hole. Oh, and any doubts about faking the injury were removed the next day when he announced he would have a fourth surgery on his left knee and also rehabilitate from the double stress fracture in his left tibia. Oops, guess he was in pain then.

2. Phelp's eight golds









It is easy to forget how close Phelps was to not achieving the magic 8 gold medals, not once but twice. In the 4X100m relay, Phelps team mate Jason Lezak touched the water half a second behind world record holder Alain Bernard of France and then out swam Bernard by 0.08 seconds by finishing his leg in an incredible 46.06 seconds (The world record for 100m is 47.05 and relay times don't qualify). Then in the 100m butterfly, he was trailing at the end and took an extra half stroke at the finish to pip Milorad Cavic of Serbia by 0.01 seconds. In all, he won 8 gold medals, broke 7 world records, and an Olympic record.


1. Usain Bolt's double










Running the fastest 100m by any human being ever, while slowing down in the last 20m by thumping your chest in celebration, with the left shoe laces open. If that doesn't take the crown of the best sporting achievement, what does? Well, you could double up by breaking the 12 year old 200m world record that many thought was unbreakable. And then just for good measure, win the gold in the 100m relay with a world record as well. Phelps may have the bigger achievement, but Bolt captured the biggest moment of 2008.

What it takes to be a Tiger! - the best print ad campaign

There is nothing exciting about going through an airport security line, especially if you happen to be Pakistani like me. Except... maybe Heathrow. Over the last few years every time I line up for the security check at Heathrow I have been captivated by the Tiger Woods theme print ads by Accenture, the consulting company.

The ads compare Wood's ability on the golf course to the traits of leading businesses, from foresight and preparation to flexibility on changing circumstances. The company claims that the campaign is based on a three year research program which analyzed thousands of companies worldwide to find the traits of high-performing companies. The arresting feature of the ads however, are the powerful visuals and the matching phrases attached to them.

Here are some examples I could find:

Shattering the World Record: Bob Beamon

World records are about fractions of a second, or inches. Sprinters yearn for a hundredth of a second and jumpers crave a quarter of an inch. But every now and then some one puts in a performance that doesn't just improve the record, it shatters it to smithereens. Recently, I read about just such an achievement in the long jump.

The inimitable Jesse Owen had owned the world long jump record of 26 feet 8 1/4 inches for 25 years until Ralph Boston topped it in 1960. Boston then went on to raise it another 5 times in the ensuing 8 years until the record stood at 27 feet and 4 3/4 inches. Would anyone ever beat that record? Would anyone ever cross 27.5 feet? What about 28 feet?

Then along came Bob Beamon. It was the 1968 Mexico Olympics and the 22 year old Beamon took 19 strides, hit the board perfectly and flew in the air like no human had flown before him. He crossed the world record, and then 27.5 feet, and then 28 feet, and then 28.5 feet... wait... there's more.. he passed 29 feet and landed at 29 feet 2 1/2 inches, nearly 2 feet beyond the world record!

That is an Olympic record that stands to this day 40 years later (although Mike Powell overhauled the world mark in 1991). His achievement inspired a new word in the English language: Beamonesque, meaning an athletic feat so dramatically superior to previous feats that it overwhelms the imagination.

The Most Dangerous Race: Isle of Man TT

The 37.7 mile course with over 200 bends rises and falls 1300 ft from the sea and is a circuit around the Snaefell mountain- famous because you can see six kingdoms from the peak- Man, Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and Heaven!

Heaven is where 223 people have ended (hopefully) since the world's oldest motorcycle race began here in 1907. The track was chosen on this island in the geographic center of the British Isles because of its lack of a speed limit, a quirk that persists to this day. While the average speed between hills, bends, rocks, telephone polls, houses, villages and stone walls is about 130 mph, riders get to top speeds of over 200 mph on the straights. There is nothing to keep them on the narrow twisting track other than hard concrete shoulders. In 1976 the TT lost its world championship status after 27 years because it was deemed too dangerous. But the crowds never stopped coming to the TT. The cult following increased. There is something forbiddingly alluring about a race that has claimed more lives than formula 1 has in its entire history.

There are dangerous tracks around the world. The cork screw at Laguna Secca California, Spa in Belgium, Indiannapolis' banked curve, Daytona 500, Le Manns 24hrs when its night or the Tamburello corner at Imola (where Senna died). But none approach the terror or the death toll of the Isle of Man TT. Here is a video of Milky Quayle from the centenary race to give you some idea of the terrain (he survived!):

Water Boy!

There is a famous saying "don't speak unless you can improve the silence". So I'll just shut up and let you watch the video...

Obama's Debt to Sports!

"She was there to see the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can."

So spoke Barak Obama about the 106 year old Ann Nixon Cooper last week in his acceptance speech. Yes they have come a long way and yes, there is hope now and everyone (outside the red states at least) seems to be happy. But before the halo on his head disappears, before the euphoria wanes, before it gets back to politics as usual, I want to take a moment and acknowledge Obama's debt to sports- yes you heard me right- to sports.

There was a time in America not long before Obama was born where not only life for African Americans was segregated, so were there aspirations and heroes. That seems to have changed over the last few decades and I would argue sports has had a bigger role in that transformation than almost any other single factor. Of course, the guy writing the sports blog will say that, I hear you thinking. But allow me to elaborate....

The most successful black political figure in America over the last hundred years or so has been Martin Luther King. Was he really successful in impacting the majority white view on blacks? Not really. Take sports starts on the other hand and you will see where I'm going with this argument.

Exactly 25 years before Obama's birth, the great American athlete Jesse Owens was running past white Germans to get the US national anthem played in a Berlin stadium. Hitler famously refused to shake Owens hand after his victory but then neither did FDR when Owen got back to America. This winner of four gold medals was reduced to novelty shows like racing thoroughbred horses to make a living.

Talking of beating Germans, there was the boxer Joe Louis who saved American pride again by flooring the German world champion Max Schmeling in just over two minutes in the ring. Louis later joined the army to fight for his country in World War II. The army he joined was segregated and when quizzed about it he is said to have remarked "Lots of things wrong with America, but Hitler ain't going to fix them."

The third great black American athlete of that era was baseball player Jackie Robinson. He was reviled nearly everywhere he went but now April 15 of every year is Jackie Robinson day and all major league baseball players, black and white, wear Robinson's number 42 jersey as a sign of respect.

These three athletes took the brunt of American injustice, but came out shining due to the inherent objectivity of sports. In the process, they also softened the perceptions of African Americans for coming generations of Americans. More importantly, they provided black athletes like Muhammad Ali the pulpit to share their views and opinions. Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the hall of fame basketball player, started bridging the perception gap, Michael Jordan converted it into commercial success and Tiger Woods perfected it. Swoosh was the sound of dollar bills being hoovered into their bank accounts, but it was also the sound of the colour barrier coming down.

Yes, Barak Obama stands tall, but partly because he stands on the shoulders of giants- giant athletes!

The Wizard of Ars (enal)...

"Arsene knows" goes the popular saying around Emirates stadium. You have to have been a follower of Arsenal Football Club to understand it fully. It is a testament to one of the greatest football coaches of modern times. His appointment, his playing strategy and his transfer policy have all been questioned again and again over the years. Yet, somehow, he has managed to carve out one of the most successful legacies in English football.

Wenger revived the beautiful game in English club football. Wenger brought diet control and no smoking to the players. Wenger won three Premier League titles and four FA cups while a study showed that he was the only manager to make a profit from his transfer activities among the 20 managers in the premier league. One would think- think- that would be enough to not be questioned again and again.

Not in this country. I have written previously about the fickle nature of the British press (Pressure- British Press Wags the Dog). So what do you think happened when Arsenal gave up a 4-2 lead against Tottenham one week and lost an away game to newly promoted Stoke the next? A deluge of newspaper articles appeared questioning the managers methods and wondering if his time is up (Times, Times, Telegraph, Guardian and Sun). How ridiculous!

So as the Manchester United dream team of Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov and Tevez all converged at Emirates stadium, it was clear that Arsenal needed a result more than a performance. Fortunately they got both. The second goal in particular, showed the manager's stamp more than individual genius- a 59 second, 16 pass move, in which every one of the Arsenal field players except for William Gallas got to touch the ball. It ended up with a thumping shot in the back of the United net by Nasri- another player plucked by Wenger.

It does not answer all questions about Arsenal's inability to win silverware in the last three seasons. It does not take care of the inconsistency playing bottom teams like Sunderland and Stoke. It does however, answer all questions about whether Arsene Wenger still knows- he does. Let's talk at the end of the season!

Lewis Hamilton by the Skin of His Teeth

After eight months and 18 races in five continents, with 11 victories between them, as Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa crossed the finish line in the fog of battle, both their garages went up simultaneously in a cheer of celebration thinking their man had won the world championship. Indeed, when Massa finished his race in first place, Hamilton was in sixth place needing at least fifth to finish as champion. At the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season, Hamilton grabbed the fifth place necessary to win the Formula 1 world championship by a single point. It has never been closer in the 58 year history of the sport.

Lewis became the youngest world champion ever, just when luck seemed to be deserting him. Comfortably cruising in the needed fifth position with four laps to go, rain forced the first five to stop for a tyre change. Crucially, sixth placed Toyota of Timo Glock took the gamble and opted to stay out on slick tyres. Hamilton rejoined the race still in fifth but seemed in trouble when Sebastian Vettel of Torro Rosso overtook him with two laps to go. Much as he tried, Hamilton's car simply did not have the grip to reel back Vettel. But just as all hope was given up by the desperate English commentators on ITV, the forgotten Toyota of Glock came into view, struggling badly on slick tyres. In a flash, Hamilton was through and Britain had its first F1 champion in the 12 years since Damon Hill.

Climbing K2: The Hardest Task in all Sports

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games." Ernest Hemingway

It is easy to forget standing on top of a mountain that the job is only half done. Legendary climber Ed Viesturs famously said, "getting to the top is optional, getting back to the bottom is mandatory". Mountaineers prepare for months and wait years just to take a crack at their target. All for what? A few minutes of taking in the scenery, waving a flag, snapping a photo and hopefully living to tell the tale. On August 1 of this year a record eighteen people managed to reach the summit of K2. Within 24 hours though, 11 of the climbers were dead- not around to tell the tale! (CBS Video).

The physical aspect of these climbs is daunting enough, but that is not the half of it. At these severe altitudes there is only a third the amount of oxygen available compared to sea-level and consequently the brain functions a lot slower. It debilitates your thinking and slows your reactions to the point of making you clumsy. Reaching the summit has its own exhaustion, so descents are even more dangerous and often more deadly. No surprise then that it was on a miscalculated descent, that most of the lives were lost!

If you ask a child to draw a tall mountain, they are most likely to come up with the form of K2. A jagged rock in Northern Pakistan rising steeply from its surroundings, at 8,611 meters (28,251 ft), it is the second highest peak on this planet. Yes, Everest is 800ft higher and better known, but in climbing terms it is simply no match for what has come to be known as "the savage mountain". K2's sharp ridges and icy slopes are steeper and the physical location of the peak makes it prone to severe storms and sudden avalanches. K2 was first climbed in 1954 by an Italian team (original story) and then remained unconquered for the next 23 years. It remains one of three among the ten highest peaks that no one has managed to ascend in the winter. By now 305 climbers have made it to the summit and 77 people have died in the attempt. That's a fatality rate of 1 in 4. By contrast the more popular Everest has been climbed 3,679 times with 210 lives lost- a 5% fatality rate.

There is reason to believe however, that much like the 1996 Everest disaster, made famous in the excellent Jon Krakauer book "Into Thin Air", the recent disaster on K2 involved human error. The various routes up the K2 all converge in an aptly named alley called "the bottleneck". This is where on the night of August 1 at least five different teams merged on their way to the peak. Bad weather had held them from making a push towards the peak for several weeks and the first break saw different teams summit bound at the same time. This resulted in a high altitude traffic jam.

Other factors contributed. Shaheen Baig, the most experienced K2 Sherpa was sent back down the mountain after suffering from altitude sickness. The other Sherpas sent ahead to attach fixed lines on the treacherous part of the climb at the end of the "bottle neck", laid them down too early and ran out of rope on the technically difficult top part. Then, making his way up the ropes, Serbian climber Dren Mandic lost his grip and plunged to his death. A Pakistani porter by the name of Jehan Baig lost his life trying to recover the Serb's body. The resulting delay pushed the summit push into late afternoon, assuring a treacherous descent in the dark. The expeditions should have turned back at this point. Lacking the benefit of hindsight, as well as 66 percent of oxygen feeding their brains, the climbers chose to go on. It would prove to be a fatal mistake.

To compound matters, a serac tore loose on their way back sweeping four more climbers to their deaths and tearing the fixed lines to be used by others in their descent. This trapped 17 climbers above 26,000 ft in the "death zone", known as such because it gets exponentially difficult to survive up there beyond 24 hours. During the nocturnal descent Frenchman Hugues d'Auberede and his Pakistani porter Meherban Kerim lost their footing and both were never found again. A team of three Korean climbers got tangled up in ropes and climber after climber passed them by unable to help. The Irish climber Gerard McDonnell went back to help them and all four died in a slide of ice and snow.

The post-mortem started immediately. Survivor Wilco Van Rooijen speaking from his bed in Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi told of many different expeditions trying to summit at the same time and having difficulty coordinating with each other. He blamed the commercial aspect of climbing where adventure tourists without adequate climbing skills were showing up to take trophies back home. As a team you are as slow as your worst climber, so it took them twelve hours through the seracs whereas normally it should have taken them four or five.

Unlike the doomed Everest expedition, where the real story only emerged a year and a half later, this one was bizarrely followed in real time by thousands on the blog of American climber Nicholas Rice, who had wisely decided to retreat from the bottle-neck. Modern technology might have changed aspects of how we communicate and spectate, but as far as mountaineering is concerned, it always comes down to man versus mountain- and we know only one of them ever blinks...

One Four Seven

It is an achievement to score the maximum possible in any sport. I have previously posted a video of the perfect "nine darter" in darts. Here is Ronnie O' Sullivan scoring the maximum of 147 in snooker.

Tottenham Coldspurs... Levy-tating in Relegation Zone

Juande Ramos is dead, long live the king. The coach Tottenham poached from two time UEFA champions Sevilla is gone. Sporting director Damien Comolli is dead, long live the king. First team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez are dead, long live the king. The king here is club chairman Daniel Levy and everyone but him is dead, fired, buried.

It's easy to forget that this is the same Levy who let Dimitar Berbatov leave. The same Levy on whose watch Robby Keane and Paul Robinson and Steed Malbranque and Pascal Chimbonda and Radek Cerny left- all members of the Martin Jol "underachieving" squad. Of course Martin Jol was fired as the Tottenham coach when the team finished fifth in the premier league- their best position ever- twice in a row.

Out with the old, in with the new- Ramos and Jol

Then Levy (through Comolli) proceeded to spend liberally on players he thought would elevate the club. In came David Bentley (£15mm), Verdan Corluka (£8.5mm), Luca Modric (£16.5mm), Roman Pavlyuchenko (£14mm), Heurelho Gomes (undisc, approx £10mm) and Giovani dos Santos (£4.7mm). The result saw the Spurs off to their second worst start in history with two draws and six losses after the first eight games.

So out went everyone including the coach, the sporting director, the assistant coach and the trainer. Everyone but the one person singularly responsible for the clubs' operating model (Tottenham have a continental management structure), hiring all the people who were fired and for spending the millions of pounds on new players.

Harry "the Houdini" Redknapp has become the new coach and was celebrated onto the pitch for the first game against Bolton. Its true that there is only one way for the club to go and Harry is also very good at getting the best out of his teams- but so was Ramos before coming to Spurs. The celebrations were even wilder after Spurs won the League cup last year, but the music soon stopped. Harry can pull some magic out of the hat but I am certain he can't get them to finish fifth- where they were with Jol. It defies belief that Levy is being hailed for finding a solution (Harry) to the very problems he created.