HOT WHAT’S NOT WHAT’S

HOT MICHAEL OWEN

WHO knew that wrapped in a vanilla cloak all these years was such a gloriously twisted firestarter? Shearer, Beckham, Newcastle, Capello — he burnt them all after two decades of saying precious little of interest beyond that time he tweeted his devastation at running over a rabbit. The book makes you wonder if that truly was an accident.

US OPEN TENNIS

HOW nice that the semifinals featured only Rafael Nadal of the game’s behemoths. Doubtless it is harder to draw viewers without Federer and Djokovic, but it is no bad thing to get an occasional glimpse of what tennis might look like if they ever do get pensioned off.

ROMELU LUKAKU

CREDIT, firstly, for speaking out about the moronic and racist fans at Cagliari. And credit also for providing the catalyst for Inter’s ultras to make a shambolic defence of their racism. Maybe with the confession of what we already knew, Serie A’s rulers will grow a backbone and issue a ban. Maybe.

NOT SIR ALASTAIR COOK

A LIKEABLE man with a sterling career that he has now logged in a book, released this week. It is perhaps unfortunate, though, that his typically considered musings and recollections on everything from farming to cricket via Kevin Pietersen have been drowned out by the publicity given to one written by Owen.

WADA

FOR reasons few of us can figure out, the World AntiDoping Agency has a rule that allows a certain type of ‘whereabouts’ failure to be backdated to the start of each quarter rather than date of the breach. Presumably the only person who sees any kind of sense in that weird regulation is Christian Coleman.

T20 BLAST

YOU have to wonder about the logic that saw Lancashire play a quarterfinal with Essex at Chesterle-Street. The Ashes at Old Trafford made the problem, but the sight of one man and three dogs watching Essex win suggests the final answer on an alternative venue was not the best one.