While were all
rightly ensconced with the Olympics, not totally insignificant events have occurred in
the sporting world outside of the London Games. Here’s a brief overview of the
more important ones :
Rory McIlroy convinced a lot of doubters (including your truly) that he is truly destined
for greatness with a dominant triumph at the US PGA Championship to claim his 2nd
career major title. Rory’s CV now reads 2 major victories at the age of 22,
with one victory each in the last 2 years. More important was the style of each
of his wins. Akin to Tiger of old, the Northern Irishman won his latest major
with a 6 stroke lead. As for Tiger, it was a deep sense of déjà vu,
where he placed himself firmly in contention over the first 2 rounds before
horribly losing the plot over the weekend – a malady which has plagued him in
each of the last 3 majors.
McIlroy : A New Face to Fear in Sunday Red
The other pantomime
which served no one well (with the possible exception of the South African squad)
was the Kevin Pietersen fiasco. Just days after playing one of the more
memorable test innings in recent times , KP was yet again embroiled in the whole brooding ‘no one
loves me’ saga with some alleged texts about his teammates sent to the
opposition players. The ECB considering the scenario had pretty much no choice
but to drop him in spite of an all too late public video pledging his career to
England. Watch this space , but it will be one of the travesties of cricket if
this supremely gifted batsman does not play test cricket again.
The other big news
headlines were of course made in the transfer market. The big headline of
course being in the NBA where star center Dwight “Superman” Howard was finally
traded to the LA Lakers , to give Kobe Bryant the suitable arsenal to launch
one final title assault while he can still be ‘Kobe’ , especially given that
the Miami fortress is now firmly entrenched.
While all and sundry were crying foul about the in justice of the whole affair
and the case of making the rich-richer, unlike last year’s Chris Paul scenario
, the NBA powers that be could not hijack this deal.
Superman moves to Hollywood
The other major
travel has of course been in football where the European season is days away
from kick-off. In England , Arsenal protected their legacy of selling a major
player every year with Captain Robin van Persie joining Manchester United , the
first time since 1981 that the Gunners have sold a player to Man U. The Luca
Modric transfer sage to seems to have concluded , though no official deal with
Real Madrid has yet been announced. More detailed analysis on the entire
transfer season to follow shortly.
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