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.