Andy favourite for BBC award
‘Sports Personality’
LONDON, Nov 27, (AFP): Andy Murray was installed as the overwhelming odds-on favourite to win the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award for 2013 after being named Tuesday in a 10-strong shortlist.
This year saw the Scot end Britain’s 77year wait for a men’s singles winner at Wimbledon when he defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the final of what is now the lone grasscourt event of tennis’ four major championships.
Leading British bookmaker William Hill installed Murray as the 1/50 favourite to win the award.
“The Sports Personality Of The Year did not even exist the last time a British (male) player won Wimbledon so it is fitting that Andy Murray is such a hot favourite in what is the award’s 60th year,” said Hills spokesman Rupert Adams after the shortlist was announced.
Also included on the shortlist in an award reserved for British sportsmen and women alongside Murray were US Open winner Justin Rose, Tour de France champion Chris Froome and jump jockey Tony McCoy.
The other nominees for an award decided by a public vote were world champion athletes Mo Farah and Christine Ohuruogu, sailor Ben Ainslie, England cricketer Ian Bell, rugby union star Leigh Halfpenny and wheelchair athlete Hannah Cockroft.
This year Rose gave the UK its first US Open champion since Tony Jacklin triumphed at Hazeltine back in 1970.
Froome followed his team-mate Wiggins, unable to defend the title because of injury, in winning the Tour de France while McCoy, who won the BBC award in 2010, became the first jump jockey to ride 4,000 winners earlier this month.
Ainslie, already a multiple Olympic champion, turned around the fortunes of Team USA in their come from behind victory in the America’s Cup, with the eventual champions winning the last eight races after he was brought in as their tactician.
Farah repeated his double London Olympic triumph by winning both the 5,000 metres and 10,000m at this year’s World Championships as well as breaking Steve Cram’s 28-year-old British 1500m record in Monaco in July.
Also in Moscow, Ohuruogu won her second 400m world title which, together with her Olympic gold from Beijing in 2008 and London bronze, make the Londoner Britain’s most successful female track and field athlete.
Warwickshire batsman Bell was nominated after scoring three hundreds in England’s 3-0 Ashes series win over Australia earlier this year. Africans in United Arab Emirates at the start of the month, Pakistan turned the tables dramatically weeks later to send South Africa to its first one-day series defeat at home in over two years. The Pakistanis have the chance to become the first team to ever whitewash South Africa at home in the final game in Centurion this weekend.
Pakistan wasn’t even meant to tour now, but was asked to fill a gap in South Africa’s home schedule after India shortened its upcoming series. It also lost key players to injury before the series started and still came through for a momentous win.
Shehzad’s 102 off 112 balls with eight fours and two sixes laid a winning platform in Port Elizabeth. He shared a 124run partnership for the third wicket with Sohaib Maqsood (42) after coming through an early onslaught by Steyn in overcast conditions at the start of the day.
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Misbahul-Haq hailed his country’s first win in a bilateral series against South Africa.
Misbah admitted that a win seemed unlikely with two overs to go.
He said: “But there is always pressure on the side batting second. We knew that we would have a chance if we had one good over so that South Africa needed more than a run a ball in the last over, especially if they had new batsmen at the crease.”
“It really means a lot to us to beat South Africa in a bilateral series for the first time, especially doing it in South Africa,” said Misbah.
It was especially satisfying because Pakistan were recently beaten 4-1 by the same opponents in the United Arab Emirates. was among the newspapers that did. The tabloid newspaper did, however, quote Sandy Gordon, the former psychologist of the Australian cricket team, as saying “we all need to get over this macho view that someone dealing with a psychological condition is somehow less worthy than others. I find that view quite worrying.”
England coach Andy Flower suggested he might meet with his Australia counterpart, Darren Lehmann, in talks designed to place limits on sledging ahead of the second Test starting Dec. 5 in Adelaide.
The England coach and captain Alastair Cook both said comments by Australian opening batsman David Warner regarding Trott in a news conference last weekend were “disrespectful.” Flower said those comments had nothing to do with Trott’s departure after just one of five Test matches. After Australia’s 381-run win in the first Test, Warner admitted his comments “probably went a little bit too far.”
Former Australia opening batsman Matthew Hayden told a breakfast television show Wednesday that Australia should rebuff any attempts by England to scale down the amount of sledging, saying “it’s all part of the game.”
And Jauncey admits that while Flower’s suggestion of peace talks makes sense in the context of the last few days, it might work against him and England.
“The very fact that Flower is asking for it, the Australians might think they’re getting under his skin, ‘so we must be getting to them,’” he said. “Or it might show strength from Flower, let bygones be bygones. Perception is in the eye of the beholder.”
Meanwhile, Australia coach Darren Lehmann has rejected the idea of a meeting with England counterpart Andy Flower to set some sledging ground rules ahead of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.
Flower told British media that the right balance needed to be found with on-field banter after frustrations boiled over on the final day of the first Test in Brisbane, with Australian skipper Michael Clarke fined 20 percent of his match fee.
Clarke was caught by a stump microphone telling pace spearhead Jimmy Anderson to expect a broken arm, with leg spin great Shane Warne claiming it was sparked by the fast bowler threatening to punch George Bailey.
“Now you have brought it up (talking to Lehmann) I’ll have a think about it,” Flower said.
“A balance has got to be found on the pitch between competitiveness and not overstepping the line.”
But Lehmann said talks on the issue were not necessary as he looks to build on Australia’s huge 381-run victory in Brisbane that left England bruised and battered.
“From my point of view, Andy looks after his side and I look after my side, that’s what you do in the game of cricket,” he told commercial radio in Adelaide late Tuesday.