SWANNY'S WORLD OF SPORT: England should stop recruiting foreign players, Fury at a boxing farce, my hero is a Scottish cricketer, Federer is far better than Nadal
Brad Shields shouldn’t be allowed to play for England having already represented the All Blacks at under 20 level. Patriotism is not something that should be switched because you’re not good enough to play for your own country.
FURY AT LATEST BOXING FARCE
I honestly have no idea why boxing fans put up with so many stage-managed mismatches involving hand-picked opponents with no chance of winning. Tyson Fury’s return bout against Sefer Seferi was the latest farce. It was like watching a fat grizzly bear wrestling with his cub. Only in the movies can a plucky little fighter beat someone three times bigger.
HERO OF THE WEEK
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Hide AdI never envisaged having a Scottish cricketer in this slot, but if Calum MacLeod’s brutal ton hastens the departure of England coach Trevor Bayliss he’ll be one of the heroes of the summer. And Bayliss, who is usually seen sitting on a balcony looking thoroughly disinterested, can take useless Sam Billings, selfish Alex Hales, and overrated David Willey with him.
SALUTE RAFA, BUT DON’T GO OVERBOARD
Winning the same major tennis event 11 times is a miraculous achievement so Rafa Nadal should be saluted for his French Open dominance.
But it wasn’t a great spectacle again. Umpires need to clamp down on his brazen flouting of the time rules between points.
I do hope Nadal never catches Roger Federer in the all-time Grand Slam winners list though. Federer is by far the better players when all playing surfaces are taken into account.