BEN STOKES - COMETH THE HOUR ..........

A couple of months ago I suggested, quite strongly, that appointing Ben Stokes as the captain of the England cricket team, in succession to Joe Root, would be a big mistake. I suggested that what was needed was an outsider rather than another 'one of the boys' - it may well be that I was wrong.

The recent performances of the England team have been little short of revelatory as they've adopted a far more aggressive, and successful, approach than has been seen for many a long year. Of course, the new coac, Brendon McCullum, must have played a big part in this change of attitude but just watching Stokes on the field shows that he's also been a major influence. While Root always seemed to be in pain and rarely appeared to be in real control, rarely engaged with his players on the pitch, Stokes is all action. he moves around with speed and determination, he is clearly in control and gives the appearance of a man who is very happy in his role.

So far, Ben Stokes has very much looked the part. All he has to do now is to continue in the same vein for another 3 or 4 years and make sure that his team performs in similar fashion against stronger sides than the New Zealanders who, in all honesty, have frequently looked bereft of ideas and little match for this rejuvenated England team. If he can do that, then I'll happily accept that I was wrong and he really is the right man for the job.

KANE BEATS USELESS VAR !

With the football World Cup now in full swing, refereeing decisions are back in the headlines.

Theoretically, the advent of the Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, system means that there should be less argument over the decisions of referees, be they right or wrong;  indeed, VAR is also supposed to see some things that the on-field referee misses and bring them to his attention.  In the first few games of the competition this seemed to work quite well, with offsides being adjudicated and penalties being awarded which otherwise would not have been, but last night was a different matter entirely. 

For England's match against Tunisia, it appeared that the VAR was only working part-time. The assistant referees appeared to be flagging for tight offside decisions which it had previously been said that they should leave to the VAR, while the VAR seemed to be only partially sighted when he did intervene. After a VAR review confirmed that Kyle Walker's swinging arm had made contact with a Tunisian, who promptly fell on the floor as though pole-axed, and awarded the African side a penalty, far more deliberate and blatant acts against England were totally ignored.

While the penalty awarded against England could be the subject of dispute, Captain Harry Kane was the victim of the most obvious foul play on at least two occasions, being grabbed and wrestled to the ground by Tunisian defenders who clearly had eyes only for him. In the penalty area and paying no attention to the ball, the Tunisians seemingly had only one aim, that being to stop Kane any way that they could. The Colombian referee either didn't see the incidents or chose to ignore them, while the VAR sitting in front of numerous screens in Moscow saw nothing which required him to raise concerns. WHY ?

Nothing could have been more clear and yet the system failed completely. Thank heavens that Captain Kane eventually took the result of the match out of the hands of these incompetent officials.