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Wicked Games

This weekend is a new low from my sporting perspective. The '115-rules-breached' team have been allowed to complete the English football treble and the Indian cricket team are poised to lose another World Test Championship final. 

I use the word 'allowed' deliberately; last week, Man United did not stop Team 115 in the F.A Cup final. The result was easier to accept since T-115 were better on every metric - team on pitch, fewer mistakes and players on bench. But the Premier League and Champions League? If the authorities knew FFP rules may have been breached, why not take some/any action earlier? Why wait till the season is over and everything is won, when any decision will only create further controversy? Maybe ChatGPT will know.  

Meanwhile, Man United have a long way to go, a journey made infinitely harder by the ball-n-chain that is the Glazers ownership and the long-drawn-out sale of the club. Who cares if these delays completely fuck up the planning for next season right? MUFC have made it to the Champions League so that means more money for the Glazers, so they don't care. Of course it will eventually be sold to INEOS and Jim Radcliffe because the Glazers get to keep their suckers on the footballing udder that keeps on giving. That's the way of the world. 

And what can we say about the test at the Oval? Never mind India's toothless bowling and predictably insipid batting, whose idea was it to bowl first after winning the toss? Why drop your brightest and best spin bowler for an absolutely average all-rounder? Unless the pitch is absolutely green and/or the weather favours swing bowling, why would you not want your batters to get out there first, face some testing bowling and trust technique and patience to win the day? 

Did I just answer my own question? RS, the captain is an opening batter. The only ones with surefire technique are CP and VK. But I really can't explain RA being left to cool his heels on the bench. I'm also starting to doubt Dravid's coaching pedigree. There, I said it. 

I used to think the MUFC footballing downwards spiral had gone on so long, they'd either hit bottom or see light (having dug all the way to the other side). There's only more darkness instead. 

I used to think the Indian cricket team had stopped making blatantly bad decisions. But they're always ready to make yet another and justify it too. 

So tired.

Song for the moment: Roll with it - Oasis

P.S.: Yes, the SFTM is irony.

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