The Wrap - Every Dog Has Their Day

1. Moises Henriques. Firming for a Test debut. Hits the ball very well when on song and a sparkling century from all reports. We have a rich tradition of bringing back old hard headed experienced blokes who hold the show together in the middle order - Lehman, Voges, Bevan, Hussey... Travis Head's double century doesn't hurt either. About time we started to see some longer form of the game. The strength of the bowling is not at its best with so many in NZ getting their tails kicked. Aaron Finch is woeful. What is worse, he does not seem that worried - nor do the selectors.

Cameron Green with another Shield ton continues to excel. 168no remains impressive in anyone's books. Even Bancroft hit a ton.

Not sure why we need Pat Cummins bowling in the Shield at present? Next we'll have injuries and more problems than the federal government.

2. India v England Cricket. As predicted, we are definitely looking at a 3-1 defeat by England which will almost certainly deliver a Test Championships decider to NZ v India at Lords. The state of that last pitch is a complete disgrace. This old trick is one Murali benefitted from big time and it is how Ashwin has rocketed to 400 Test wickets so soon. Nullify the opponent's strength (pace, seam bowling with a pink ball) and feather your own strengths. Not good enough. Imagine the outcry if we had a deck like that in Australia? Not surprisingly the Indian officialdom are sitting on their oversized cheques and remaining quiet. Unacceptable, no matter how many straight balls the Poms missed. Jonny Bairstow will be lucky to play again based on his effort in getting a pair. Hitting straight balls needs to be a priority at the top order - not guessing. The England rotation selection policy is a joke too. They were smug after the first test (like Australia were) and now pay the price. 

3. EPL - Man City. 20 wins in a row tells you they are not losing the PL race this year. Tough win against West Ham, but call the engraver.

4. NRL. Is it possible to predict the whole comp after only one weekend of trials? Not much changes.

Melbourne. Dominant again. Souths flashy and skilful. Roosters powerful with brilliant youngsters. Penrith winning, even ugly ones. Parramatta OK, but simply have no pace and not enough points in them. Cowboys tenacious. Canberra and Knights solid, but limited in attack. Bulldogs and Gold Coast improving gradually. Broncos inconsistent. Tigers look a little faster, but will struggle. Manly injury riddled and will be OK if Turbo stops running up the Corso. Cronulla sleepy in defence. Warriors limited. Dragons woeful.

Anthony Griffin is under immense pressure already - as is the whole administration of that place.

5. NRL Incidents. They need to crush some of these disgraceful player behaviour moments and remove more from the game. They could start with domestic violence matters. Great to hear that Penrith stood down the cocaine taking Naden, when the NRL couldn't find the strength. He needs to have a good think about things I suspect. Tom Trobjoevic is another one who may need to reflect on being a goose running up the Corso and pulling a hammy during/ after. What gets into these blokes' heads?

Has Corey Horsburgh from the Raiders set a record? Reported twice in two different trial games on the same day? Channelling Chris Guider type memories.

6. Waratahs. While there have been flashy great moments, inevitably, this team is a poor imitation. Why is it that the Brumbies always seem to be a super competitive rugby team. The Waratahs...what a humiliation: 61-10. Is this the best that this proud state of GPS/ CHS loving rugby types can produce for NSW? Or is state footy a thing of the past? Good luck to the streaming service who picked this code up.

7. AFL Trials and WAFL. The sport starved southern states are all over it! They love the game, but draws in AFL trials could be as bad as it ever gets.

8. Tennis. So Djokovic with his dreadful mid tournament injury, recovered in quick time to give Medvedev an old fashioned towelling. 18 Grand Slam wins is elite. Nice to see Roger Federer back into things as well. These hard headed experienced guys are supreme athletes, the likes of which we will never see again. Serena Williams was not far away either, but will be better for the run. Intriguingly she has been in 33 Grand Slam finals for her 23 wins. She has not won one since 2017 but has made four (losing) finals since then. An absolute legend.

Federer 20 wins out of 31 finals. Nadal 20 wins out of 28 finals and Djokovic 18 wins from 28 finals. Losing about 10 each, generally to each other.

9. Tiger Woods. Tiger unfortunately almost met the premature fate of many superstars, rock stars, child prodogies and sports elite. Thankfully he will recover. Not sure golf is high on the agenda right now. I suspect with his millions, he should be employing a driver. Cars and Tiger have had a chequered history from golf club attacks/ fire hydrants, roadside breath tests and now this. Time to invest.

10. Great News. Great to know Lady Gaga's dogs are safe too. Rest up. Your work is done.

The Wrap - Impossible Petty Logic (IPL)

1. IPL. The auction is an amazing thing with no logic. How can you pay over a million for Riley Meredith, two million for Jhye Richardson and then $400K for Steve Smith. Not sure what Ponting was doing there as the franchise coach. A little disrespectful to Smith to be honest. Not sure Ricky would have coped silently in his day. To then leave Alex Carey with no contract is staggering. Basically, you need to be an all rounder to make money - or have extreme pace. 

THE AUSSIES PURCHASED IN THE IPL AUCTION:

Glenn Maxwell $2.52m (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Jhye Richardson $2.48m (Punjab Kings)
Riley Meredith $1.42m (Punjab Kings)
Nathan Coulter-Nile $885,000 (Mumbai Indians)
Dan Christian $850,000 (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Moises Henriques $743,000 (Punjab Kings)
Steve Smith $390,000 (Delhi Capitals)
Ben Cutting $132,750 (Kolkata Knight Riders)

2. Sheffield Shield. A terrible Shield loss by NSW to Victoria. Paper thin batting again and they had the Test bowling attack. We need new fast bowling stocks. No excuses either. The GOAT did well (10 wickets), but Test bowlers should dominate at this level. They have had a few weeks off. Surprised to see Starc bowling so soon actually. Great win by QLD. Apart from Marnus, not a lot of consistent batsmen. Burns, Khawaja got runs, but I would be looking closely at Jordan Silk.

3. Indigenous All Stars v Maori. Good to see footy back on the screen, Some players looked razor sharp already - David Fifita is an awesome player. James Fisher-Harris, Josh Kerr and Blake Ferguson excelled. Plenty of niggle and push and shove throughout the whole night! Andrew Fifita still runs across field too often. Some big defence. Not sure as a coach I'd like this type of trial. No golden point stumped them too. 10-10 was a fair result. An amped up trial really.

4. Cameron Smith. Please, how ridiculous. Cameron is now moving into that territory where people think less of one who is so talented and revered. Heaven help the club that may land him. It is starting to look like it is all about Cameron. A circus and late in the pre-season.

5.  Naomi Osaka. A crushing semi final victory v Serena and Jennifer Brady was never beating her in the final. Four Grand Slams now edges her up the pole. She is one short of Hingis and Sharapova who both have five Grand Slam wins. Her limitation is the hard court surfaces and needs to play clay and grass as well.

6. Novak Djokovic. A fake injury? No winning a popularity contest. A crushing forehand... on the cusp of yet another title. Interestingly, not a word from Kygrios who may now be 18 Grand Slams behind Novak now. Novak should crush Medvedev eventually. He is right too...there are lots of talented blokes (Zerev, Thiem, et al), but they don't put the work in to be better. Right now with the 'big three' still in operation, you need to work harder than ever before in the history of tennis!

7. Waratahs. It looks like a long and cold winter ahead. Do the fans care or have they given up? No one wants to go searching for a Super Rugby game to watch. The product is on the nose. Interesting to see Andrew Mehrtens praising Coach Rob Penney as a hit worth investing in. Hopefully.

8. Bulldogs. Every year this joint finds controversy. Adam Elliott has some explaining to do. The drink does strange things to people as well all know. Is there a reason why sex addiction is only diagnosed when someone is caught?

9. EPL. It's all over. The chances of Man City being run down are near none. It is a rare day to see West Ham hunting for a top four finish. A great effort. Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal all need a miracle this year... and maybe a new manager is on the horizon for all - as hard as that is to believe for Klopp.

10. A-League. This competition slides on through again, providing the fill for broader sports streaming services. Central Coast sitting pretty and got severely dudded this week. Sadly, for football to takeover in Australia, they need to straighten out a lot of things. There is as much chance of it being a huge success nationally in Australia as Dustin Martin playing for the Swans!

The Wrap - Top Notch

1. Super Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Superbowl glory! They were stunned and had every right to hold their buccan ears on either sides of their buccan heads in victorious hysteria! We have tracked the journey all season and what an outcome for the QB and his team. They can defend too. Fascinating that he gets a couple of mates to come with him too to feast on the glory too - Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski ('The Gronk'). What a legend he is. They were delighted in Tampa Bay (Just quietly, how good is Mahones however?). Superb. Tears in New England who are about to crucify Coach Belichick. This is not what they wanted. New England need a QB and should bring him home. If not, they need to get busy in the recruitment stakes. They seem very quiet at present.

2. Nick Kgyrios. Is anyone upset that we may not see him again? Does anyone care that he was turfed out on his ear? He started well and got run over. Dom Theim is a gun and likes to play long into matches. Sadly Nick's lack of fitness and a coach to get him right, cost him. Retirement might be best for Nick. Listening to tennis on radio is another good tip for a Kgyrios tennis game. Maybe he can go and join Greg Norman on his ranch and walk next to him on that beach in his blue shorts. Sad, but a wasted talent. He also has 17 fewer Grand Slams than Novak Djokovic who he bags all the time - even when he loses in the doubles too. More losses in one tournament than Djokovic has in a long stretch.

3. Rafa Nadal. Can he become the greatest Grand Slam winner ever? If he wins, he will move ahead to 21 Grand Slams of the great Roger Federer (20). Novak Djokovic (17) is right up there too, but he sadly brings a shadow to some of his work at times. He seems to pull a hammy too often when times are tough. Dominic Thiem avoided Kygrios, but was torched by Dimitrov today. The challengers are falling fast.

4. England Victory and Pending Loss v India. Jimmy Anderson still has got the goods. He is lethal if that pitch seams. What a superb performance by England. I suspect in the four test series however that they might follow our example and get run over. Root on fire. Some question marks emerging over the Kohli leadership style too. They need Jadeja back in the team and Siraj. Curious how many changes come when Kohli returns. He has his favourites and dictates to the selectors something fabulous. Not all are happy in that team I suspect.

Surely there needs to be a rule against a pitch like the current one on Day One of a Test? Winning the toss has put India in the box seat. England will struggle to get 100 runs in both innings. 1-1 beckons.

5. Junior Paulo. An impressive boxing display. Nothing like how M4 road rage training can position you well for a boxing career. He has silky hands on the field and can turn them into sledgehammers in the ring. A talent.

6. St George-Illawarra Dragons. What is going on at that place...? Corey Norman involved in off season biff and nonsense (how long before he leaves us?), Israel Folau going to be signed then discarded after sponsors rise up, they offload their only defensive bookend in Cameron McInness to the hated Cronulla, who now has done his knee, they sack Wendell's young bloke and are scratching around for Andrew McCullough who had serious injuries last year. They also have Bird in the centres who can barely stand up. The place is in turmoil. The new coach is a top fellow by all reports (Dean gave him a lift home one night and can confirm), but he inspires no early confidence that they won't get the spoon.

7. What A Great Era. How fortunate we have all been to see some of the all time greats...Kelly Slater, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Stephanie Gilmore, Shane Warne, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and the great Adam Voges in our time. 

8. Manchester City. Skating away with the championship right now. Too far ahead now and 16 wins in a row. Meanwhile Liverpool and Tottenham stumble and bumble. The efforts of the Liverpool keeper are something to behold! Leicester and coach Brendan Rodgers are doing the business as well.

9. Ash Barty. Will she be the one to break our 40 year Australian Open duck? Serena looks switched on after a hiccup today. The traditional Serena determination looks sharp at present.

Wrap - Super Bowl of Medals

 1. Cricket - India v England. Joe Root - first player to score a ton in his 98th, 99th and a double ton in his 100th Test. Super streak of form at present. Rishabh Pant again played a blinder of an innings, attacking his way to get India back into the contest. Out in the nineties yet again, but he doesn't care. He plays to win.

2. Cricket - Pakistan v South Africa. This Rizwan, the Pakistan keeper and Faheem Ashraf seem to be capable of amazing rear guard work down the order. Over 300 for South Africa to win. A tough chase.

3. BBL Final. Cracking game, but great batting from James Vince and Cameron Bancroft it must be said. Steve O'Keefe recovered after a woeful early dropped catch. His bowling bewitches. Mitch Marsh showed a surprising lack of composure in the field and at the crease. His dismissal reminded me of the Damien Martyn effort at the SCG v Fanie de Villiers. Who could ever forget? The Sydney Sixers are a highly successful franchise. The pink colour is daring but gets lots more women to the game and is so identifable as their cricketing stamp!

Scorchers and Sixers have won three times each now (6). Everyone else has won it once (4), except the Hobart Hurricanes and the Melbourne Stars who have never won it!

4. Cameron Smith. Is it time for Cameron to come out from hiding so we can talk normally. Like a kid who keeps playing the game long after it has ended. Very odd. Clearly he will not be with Bellamy as he would not possibly put up with these shennanigans. Tell us you're playing Cameron and we will be happy for you. Tell us you are retiring and we will salute you. Make a move.

5. Israel Folau. Israel has some choice to make quickly. Go back to Catalans Dragons, remove hate posts off your Twitter and reconcile while remaining silent online and in person... play AFL again perhaps?

6. Paige Spiranac. Is it an obligation for Paige to weigh into every golfing controversy and get her headline? She is obviously a great golfing talent. Like a few before her, focus on the game, excel at that and leave the media to do the rest.

7. Merv Hughes - Cricket Australia Hall of Fame Cricketers. Merv was inducted this week, but while we all admired his character and heart, were there more deserving recipients? Allowing for the five years retired rule, let me add some other names for closer consideration: Ian Redpath, Kim Hughes, David Hookes (posthumously), Michael Slater, Justin Langer, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie, Mitchell Johnson, SCG Macgill, Geoff Lawson... Is Merv better than these names? 

As enjoyable as he was to watch and cheer along, I think not. Ian Chappell once famously said at the Gabba when Ian Botham was teeing off "the problem with Merv Hughes is he thinks he's a fast bowler". Harsh and Merv showed a lot of people he could win games for us - and did. A hattrick too! Hall of Fame...ummm...

8. Allan Border Medal. Has this ridiculous farce reached its end yet? The structure of it is completely weighted to certain cricketers who play all forms of the game - especially Australian captains as highlighted. Dave Warner has done well here. Ponting and Clarke (4) lead the frequency race.

9. Australian Open Tennis. Finally the echoes of whingers are fading and the game begins. Barty won a wombat trophy last week, but the big one awaits. Serena will be charged up and ready to fly. Can someone please save us from St. Nicholas Kgyrios? The lectures, rants and histrionics are very tiring. Maybe he could just win and let everyone else talk.

10. Liverpool v Man City. If Liverpool can't get points tonight, their defence could be done. Man City are rolling on and are in a rick streak of excellent form at present. Matt Ryan at Arsenal struggled early but bounced back. They are in strife.

11. Super Bowl - Kansas City v Tampa Bay. Huge parties in the US tomorrow. Tom Brady could surprise, but anything less than a Kansas City win would be a staggering upset. Love the NFL brutality and strategy. New England Patriots fans will be fuming if Brady wins again! Apparently 11 franchises have made fewer Super Bowl appearances than the great man. He also will be the oldest QB to every win a Super Bowl if they get over the stripe!

Wrap - Operatic Bats

1. India v England in Test Cricket. This looks to be a very interesting series coming up. It could be a cracking struggle, especially if Broad and Anderson fire. Interesting to see Pakistan dominate South Africa in their first test. The South Africans are really struggling like Australia these days. Some good bowlers, but no batting. We know it well. Hopefully the development programs of India are copied for our teams and structures... a bit like laptops in dressing rooms. Once upon a time it was only cricket gear.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have hit rock bottom and West Indian cricket lurches from disaster to disaster. Perhaps Bangladesh will be a future shining star on the world stage, but they put the cleaners through the Windies. The Bangladeshi U/19 form recently has been exceptional. India of course are the masters here and their younger players, including Pant, have graduated well from here.

2. Tom Brady - Super Bowl #150. Can he do it? A remarkable turn of events for him. No one in New England will be happy at all, but all strength to him. He has lit Tampa Bay up with his brilliance. His team mates can play too and he is surrounded with some emerging stars. A great story.

3. BBL. The competition that never ends. It has been a cracking series and great to see some of its stars selected for Australia too...Tanveer Sangha, Josh Phillipe, Alex Carey, Riley Meredith. These blokes deserve their spots. Cracking players. The best hitter of the tournament is easily Alex Hales. The bloke is such a crisp striker of the cricket ball. His bat usually sounds like an opera. Tonight it sounded like a choir of plastic recorders v the Heat.

4. AJ Tye. Whatever way you cut it this was a terrible wide to then prevent a ton being scored from James Vince. Slippery, ill directed? In a normal over you would need to hose him down it was so bad. And your team cops a complete belting! Daniel Hughes hitting a four just before didn't really help. Great innings by Vince and hard to see the Sixers losing this comp. You would need to see a corker of an innings by an opponent too. That Jordan Silk is a gun. I would have him in my Test team. He has great character and poise. The best fieldsman in Australian cricket.

5. Justin Langer. It didn't take long before the pressure mounted. It is truly absurd that one coach takes all three forms of the game, but Langer's intensity is his strength - and his weakness. Players are expert too at trying to deflect blame. We will need to look closely at the team moving ahead to judge, but Ricky Ponting is surely our best next option. 

Soft players with lots of excuses and whining is incredible. Can you believe a Test player was putting a toasted sandwich in his pocket and going out to field? We'd blow up in the park with that sort of idiocy. He got a little annoyed when told by Langer to wake up. Honestly. The arrogance and childishness of some players is incredible. Yet they only sack Wade. We need to be really cultivating an 'Australian A' culture with our best and brightest young stars... Harvey, Phillipe, McGurk, Meredith, Sams, Agar, Turner, Davies, Bryant... on it goes.

What about Jhye Richardson making the team with one healthy arm? Ridiculous.

Not sure that Andrew 'Ronnie' McDonald is the best option for us as our future national coach. Andrew is pictured here below and has been enjoying his cricket for years. 

5. Benji Marshall. Not sure why you would knock back a massive contract to play for the Rabbits, but maybe premiership glory has something to do with it. Remember Bennet brought back an ageing Alfie to win Origin. Perhaps a similar story. Souths look strong on paper, but will need to keep their forwards healthy because they are a little shallow there, despite the signing of Arrow. To win a comp you need a quiver.

6. The Olympics. Are they becoming increasingly irrelevant? Certainly not what they once were and now will teeter on the brink, with their own amplified brand of international athletes who have no brains or sense about pandemics. That is why half their countries are struggling and people are sadly dying en masse.

7. The Australian Tennis Open. A great message to the world that you can manage COVID through the crowds at these events. Don't get too close to players and coaches however. The stench of the whinging may land you in quarantine for a month. Wouldn't it be nice for the 'policeman of the tour', Nick Kygrios, if he took his own advice. Perhaps when Nick wins his twentieth Grand Slam, he might be able to offer some opinions. Of course, Rafa and Roger remain sensibly distant and professional. This expectation that they have some sort of duty to defend the whining lower ranked player is a nonsense. Give us a break. That is why they are champions. They welcome adversity and pain and triumph through it.

8. EPL. Nice to see the West Ham 'Hammers' up near the top of the table. A rare moment! Oh how we love an underdog!

9. Patrick Reed. A cheat? No. The officials call out this I thought - not the media. How the golf world loves a scandal! Four shots ahead at the time tells you he may have just been following advice from officials, especially when the audio says it did not bounce. Not his fault... sadly for the scandal mongers. Adam Scott may be able to pounce here.

The Wrap - Indian Cricketing "All Blacks" Domination

1. Indian 'All Blacks' Domination. As mentioned last week, India are the All Blacks of world cricket and should dominate the world of cricket (and us) for many years to come. Their traditional respect for our cricket is fast evaporating (with plenty of justification). A top class win by the Indian team. Attacking and backed themselves.

Meanwhile we have massive problems. We need a strong Shield season lead-in before every Test series. Now we can't choose anyone else in the team for South Africa because they will need to determine the team before the Shield resumes. Where is the traditional ODI or international T20 season? We are so not ready and our annual cricket agenda is a mess. Cricket Australia need to sort out their nonsense.

Tim Paine needs to learn how to attack. Our batting did not get enough runs in the second innings - and not fast enough. It was interesting hearing Ponting's views on commentary. He has a different view of cricket to Paine. I am tiring of the sympathy captaincy appointment argument - and continuation in the role as some sort of reward for past deeds.

Langer is under pressure too. Ricky Ponting needs to come in as soon as possible.

2. EPL. A great piece of good fortune for our Aussie goalkeeper Matt Ryan to get a transfer loan from Brighton to Arsenal. He would be pinching himself and has every chance to stamp his name in their books more powerfully. Probably as lucky as Central Coast Mariners who lead the A League after a million wooden spoons in recent years. ManU on top. Leicester poised

3. UFC. Connor McGregor seems to lose a lot these days. He's a hype machine, but getting knocked out is a shorter career than most.

4. James Anderson. He has been playing for a million years and this week recorded his 30th 5 wicket haul. Awesome. Over 600 test wickets.

5. Greg Norman. For all his skill, the man has truly lost the plot. He has been quoted as telling the world he has no ego and he is just simply too fit. His ridiculous schlong photo tells us he has no perspective whatsoever. He is a prize tool these days. Now he is designing Holey Moley course world wide. Fair dinkum.

6. BBL. Jordan Silk is one of the most consistent BBL players. Great fieldsman and times the ball beautifully. Phillipe and Dan Christian are incredible too. Daniel Sams has been great with bat and ball in 2020. Riley Meredith has sheer pace like Jhye Richardson. I like this young Harvey and Fraser-McGurk too. We have some talent out there.

The comp seems busted however. I am tipping the Sydney Chunder may not progress at all, but the Sixers will be hard to beat - esp. with Sean Abbott coming back into the team.

7. Australian Open Tennis. The spoilt brat is alive and well. The string of whingers (hangers on and all ranked outside of the best players) have no respect. The tournament performance from the weaker players will be blamed on quarantine. If they played with a different attitude, they may succeed more often.

8. NFL. The Green Bay Packers take on Tom Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers tomorrow morning for a Super Bowl gig...and the Kansas City Chiefs play the Buffalo Bills. Some newer team names arising at the business end!

The Wrap - Double The Payne Paine

1. Test Cricket - Steve Smith. Shadow batting? Work on shadow scratching the pitch markings. Silly nonsense. ‘Stay off the pitch’ is a good rule. He needs to be smarter than this and avoid any storms in teacups. After all, he created the opportunity for some awful commentary.

2. Captain Competence. Tim Paine’s poor judgement is an ongoing worry with ridiculous DRS errors and deep fields at silly times. Lack of attacking fields, especially as pressure mounts. He skippers like an Englishman or a New Zealander too often. Dropping catches seems to be a too regular occurrence too.

3. Cameron Green. Comparatively, great hands in the field often reveals a great talent. He needs to up his aggression factor with the ball. Rip in!

4. Indian resilience. Amazing strength and self belief right through the Indian order. All the injuries and omissions. They should never lose to us. Great depth nationwide.

5. Bug Snapple. We struggle to find two openers when India have a zillion options. Hazelwood has been exceptional this series. Cummins too. Labuschagne has also been outstanding. More reliable at number three than we have seen since David Boon. Composed under pressure and incredibly talented. (He was a Greg Chappell discovery!).

6. Warner Retirement? I get the feeling Dave Warner may surprise us all and retire from Test cricket soon. Young family and a wonderful T20 career to sustain him and his family.... he just doesn’t move his feet quickly enough and we have seen this at least three times now (including in the Ashes) and they are becoming more frequent with lesser space between them. Ominous. Having said that, a blistering Day 4 ton will suffice!

7. Aaron Finch. His T20 form as Australian T20 Captain has been woeful in the BBL. Appalling really. Is his time up?

8. The Broncos. Payne Haas arrested. There is something magical in a team who got the wooden spoon being given free rein on the Gold Coast. Great judgement by someone in team management. Payne needs to show more self discipline. It is poor on the field sometimes (eg. Origin 2020), so as a young man, it is time to grow up.

9. NFL. How good are the Buffalo Bills going? They have been caught up in the backdraft of the Patriots for many years and have one more win for an unlikely SuperBowl appearance. Bill Parcells would be proud.

A big test for Tom Brady tomorrow with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers! How long will their show continue?

10. EPL. ManU on top of the table and Leicester rallying hard. Liverpool v ManU is set to be a cracker overnight.

11. Australian Open Tennis. How predictable that lightweight spoiled brats behave so appallingly. They come from countries where they have made a hash of managing the dreaded COVID and expect total and open slather. Respect for the host country seems not to apply to some countries by a handful. Lots of others are simply toughing it out. These will be the ones in the finals following some hot Melbourne weather - not the COVID whingers. Some may need to head to the nearest airport.