Strauss has the X Factor to take award

ONE of the most prestigious events of the year takes place on Sunday with millions across the country watching on TV and voting for their favourite to win.

No, not the X Factor final, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is what really matters. Ten worthy nominees go head to head for the great prize but for me one man stands out head and shoulders above the rest as having the X Factor. Having led the England cricket team to an epic Ashes victory over Australia, Andrew Strauss deserves to take the award.

Amazingly though, Strauss is not even expected to come in the top three, as far out as 40-1 with some bookies to win. That is a travesty. Winning an Ashes series is up there with winning the football or rugby World Cups and an Olympic gold medal, and Strauss was outstanding both as a captain and a batsman in England’s triumph.

It was more special when you look at the dire straits the England cricket team were in at the start of the year. When Peter Moores was sacked as head coach and Kevin Pietersen resigned as captain as their rift became public, England were heading nowhere fast and an Ashes win was unthinkable. But in Strauss, England had the best man for the job – a calm and thoughtful character, who did not panic at the situation, and he was well complemented by new head coach Andy Flower.

The role of captain in cricket is harder than it is in just about any sport, especially at Test level when there is so much to think about over five days of the most intense nature, and Strauss had a steep learning curve as England lost a series 1-0 in the West Indies, despite scoring three centuries himself. However, he turned things around quickly and an improving England side beat the Windies on home soil to build up momentum for the Ashes series.

While Australia might not have been the side they were in the past they still arrived in England on the back of a great series win in South Africa and as the best side in the world, and England were very average in comparison to 2005 when they last beat the Aussies. After England escaped with a draw in the first Test at Cardiff, Strauss swung the momentum of the series with his match-winning 161at Lord’s.

A rain-affected draw at Edgbaston was followed by a comprehensive Australian victory at Headingly with no-one giving England much hope for the final test at The Oval. But that was to become Strauss’ finest hour as he picked the team up to earn a thrilling win.

Throughout the series, he out-thought his opposite number Ricky Ponting and the triumph was even more incredible when you consider England were without their best player, Pietersen for most of the series, while the talismanic Andrew Flintoff looked on his last legs.

If that wasn’t enough, England have just become only the second ever team to win a one-day series in South Africa, under the captaincy of Strauss.

The favourite to win the Sports Personality award is Formula One World Champion Jenson Button. That was a magnificent story when you consider it looked as though he was going to be without a team just weeks before the season but the problem with that sport is it relies so much on the cars, and Brawn GP blew the rest of the competition away in the first part of the season.

For me, team principal Ross Brawn should take the most credit for that success. Like many others, I expect Lewis Hamilton to be in with a much greater shout of the world title when he is in the same car as Button next season.

Perhaps the reason Strauss is considered such an outsider for the award is that people prefer a working class hero like Andrew Flintoff, who won the award after the 2005 Ashes triumph, as opposed to the public schoolboy, mild-mannered character of the current England captain. But Strauss was arguably more critical to England this year than Flintoff was four years ago, and without him they would not have only lost the Ashes series but it may have been 4 or 5-0.

That is why he deserves to win the Sports Personality of the Year award.

One Hull of a recovery for Premiership strugglers

FOR as long as anyone can remember, all football managers have been fearing the vote of confidence, which often sees them lose their job soon after.

So you have to wonder if Adam Pearson pulled off a masterstroke when he refused to give manager Phil Brown any assurances over his long-term future when he returned as Hull’s chairman.

In a refreshingly honest approach, Pearson said Brown would be in charge of the next game against Stoke but that he hasn’t got a job for life. Since then Hull are unbeaten in three games, with two wins and one draw, and all of a sudden they look like they might have what it takes to stay up for another season.

Time to use video technology and punish cheats properly after hand of Henry

IN THE aftermath of Thierry Henry’s handball against the Republic of Ireland there should be two pressing points for FIFA to consider – introducing video technology in games and finding a way to sufficiently punish cheating.

Everyone who saw the TV replays could see Henry blatantly and deliberately control the ball with his hand (twice) before crossing for William Gallas to score. And no doubt the fourth official also saw it on the replay.

Which begs the question, why can’t they do something useful rather than trying to make sure the managers are inside the lines of their technical areas? If the linesman saw Henry handle the ball he could tell the referee and the goal would have been disallowed so why don’t the fourth officials have the same powers when they’ve got the advantage of being able to see a replay? For something that is so clear cut and when so much is at stake?

It’s been done before on the biggest stage possible – the last World Cup final in 2006, ironically involving France against Italy. In extra-time, Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi and the incident was missed by the three officials on the pitch but fourth official Luis Medina Cantalejo saw it on the replay told referee Horacio Elizondo, who sent the Frenchman off.

It didn’t matter how the decision was made, the important thing was that the right decision was made. If the fourth official was not used, Zidane might well have scored in the penalty shootout and France instead of Italy could have unjustly been crowned world champions.

That moment promised to be a revolution in football but I’ve not seen anything like it since. While it would be dangerous to question every decision using technology, as most contact decisions are debatable anyway, if the fourth official has got conclusive evidence to change the decision as in Henry and Zidane’s case, I see no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to tell the referee what they’ve seen.

While the handball decision cannot be changed and a replay would only open up a can of worms, FIFA can still punish Henry. Football is a long way behind other sports such as Formula One and rugby in terms of dealing out sufficient punishment for cheats.

If Henry was banned for five international games, thus missing some, if not all of France’s World Cup, it would surely make other professional footballers think twice about going to such extreme lengths to win. Similar punishments for players that blatantly dive to win a penalty when no contact has been made should be put in place.

As an admirer of Henry’s supreme talent of course it would be a shame if he was to play no part in what will almost certainly be his last World Cup. But surely it would be a much bigger shame if cheating was allowed to continue as just part and parcel of the game.