Sports puzzlers to ponder
Some questions to ponder: Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany at home in a Football World Cup semifinal. If Pakistan had suffered a similarly monumental defeat in a major cricket match, wouldn’t every cricket follower have thought the match was fixed?
On a related subject, why is Lou Vincent treated by some as a sort of cricket hero? He match-fixed for years all over the world and ‘‘ owned up’’ only when those investigating match- fixing had him in their sights. Has any New Zealander done more to blacken our sporting name?
What’s with all this talk about Commonwealth Games gold medals being soft? Tell that to our netballers and sevens rugby players, cyclists and swimmers, lawn bowlers and hockey players.
Why do people keep saying the Commonwealth Games are not the Olympics? Who ever claimed they were?
Despite the prophets of doom, Brazil hosted a memorable Football World Cup. What’s the bet the naysayers will still be out in force in two years, saying Brazil isn’t ready to host the 2016 Olympics?
Admit it – though Tiger Woods may no longer be your favourite golfer, won’t the British Open this week be much more interesting with him in the field?
Why was it deemed a news story that Lydia Ko might retire when she is 35? She’s 17, so that’s more than her current lifetime away.
Is it really fair for the media to refer to Ko as ‘‘continuing to have problems in Majors’’? Before last weekend’s British Open, she’d played in nine and finished 39th, 17th, 25th, 36th, 42nd, 17th, 2nd, 29th and 15th, and never missed a cut.
We wouldn’t mind one of our male golfers failing like that.
Has Roger Federer ever been greater than in his defeat by Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon singles final? The Fed, almost 33, showed he can scrap and fight with the best of them.
Incidentally, what perspirant does he use?
What is it with the women’s tennis rankings? Serena Williams has lost in the fourth, second and third round of the three Grand Slam events this year, yet remains the world No 1 by a colossal margin.
Swim champion Ian Thorpe’s announcement that he is gay made headline news. Does that mean as a society we are inherently sexist? After all, we don’t give a toss about all the gay female golfers, tennis players, athletes etc.
If Super Rugby prizes were
anti- handed out for the flashest losers and the ugliest winners, Hurricanes and the Crusaders would claim them. Which team rewards its supporters better?
Besides me, who else will now admit they were wrong to criticise the replacement of Warriors coach Matt Elliott McFadden?
Joseph Parker is about to be ranked inside the world’s top 20 by some boxing organisations. How can this be when he has merely fought a series of aged hasbeens and never-weres? Does that
by
Andrew say more about Parker or boxing?
In the past two years, Tino Best (West Indies) has scored 95, Ashton Agar (Australia) 98 and James Anderson (England) 81, all batting at No 11 in tests. Are No 11s getting better, or are bowlers getting worse?