Some 21 years on, the hollow feeling of emptiness, that betrayed my emotions, remains as strong as it was on the day in February 1991 when Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish walked away from his job as Manager of Liverpool Football Club.

In truth, he never walked away from Anfield, because like Paisley and Shankly before him, his spirit is engrained in the club’s fabric. He is the embodiment of all that we hold dear at Liverpool Football Club – competitive, a winner, yet humble with his roots firmly planted in the community, even more amazing when you consider that he grew up some several hundred miles north in Glasgow.

Never in those intervening 2 decades did I ever dare to dream that my boyhood hero would ever return to Anfield as Manager – when he did on 8 January 2011, it allowed us all to dream again, if only for a second before the reality of where we were as a club sunk in. What I could never ever have envisaged was Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish being dismissed from a job at Liverpool Football Club. His was the archetypal ‘job for life’.

However, neither life or sport therein is a romance. People may not want to hear this, but in the time since Kenny left in 1991, not only did Fergie knock us well and truly ‘off our perch’, but we managed to implode. What was once the best run club in sport has at times been reduced to a laughing stock by a series of administrators and owners, a list which is not limited alone to Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

We all prayed that Kenny would have the secret formula, and for just a few months, we believed like never before. We played like Brazil for a few meaningless months at the end of the 2010/11 season, and we marched in the King’s Army on that well-trodden road to the site of what was once Anfield South. We sung, we prayed, we dreamt. And yet, despite the Carling Cup success, and reaching the Final of the FA Cup, the league campaign always hung overhead, the dark looming shadow of reality. We bemoaned woodwork, we bemoaned luck, we despised Evra, and for much of the season, we could justify it to ourselves. But the further we got towards Spring, the more difficult it became to justify anything to anyone. Not only were the results poor, but some of the performances clueless, and there was no hiding from that.

Did Kenny get everything right this season? Nobody would or could claim that with any objective view. Did Kenny deserve to be dismissed at the end of this season? That is a very difficult question for me to answer with any type of objectivity. The man is my hero, and I felt sick to the stomach when the inevitable news broke this afternoon that he had been relieved of his duties.

Were it anyone else, I doubt that we would be having this debate. An eighth place finish, our worst home record in a generation – no amount of Cup Success could have saved anyone from those facts. And no, there is no agenda in my using the word fact! However, I also believe that having inherited the wreck that he did, Dalglish had done much to stabilise the club’s fortunes. Maybe he paid a price for the excellent end to last season, maybe expectations were just a little bit too high because his name was Kenny Dalglish. We know that the new signings were largely unsuccessful, but that has been the case with many Anfield legends before them in their first season, not least Jan Molby in 1984/5, a young man expected to walk into the shoes of Graeme Souness after the treble winning season on 1983/4.

I fully hoped that Dalglish would be given another season, because I genuinely expected him to succeed. Maybe that was just my dream of him delivering us back to the Promised Land. However, Fenway Sports Group had a decision to make, and have proven that they will not be swayed by sentiment or simply by pleasing the supporters. Tonight, perhaps for the first time since buying the club, it is theirs. Simply, they have cleaned their slate, yesterday is a non-entity, and the buck now stops with them. They have no excuses or hiding place, they have to get this right. Nothing else will be acceptable.

Who will replace him, well you can log onto to Twitter for the definitive answer or log on to Ladbrokes for conjecture. You could, of course, just wait for the Club to make an announcement.

Liverpool Football Club was at a precipice in October 2010, the likes of which it has NEVER faced in its proud history. John W Henry was the knight in shining armour who rode in from New England on a Red Horse to save the club from irreparable damage. For that alone, he and FSG deserve our thanks and backing. There is much that has not been done during the last 18 months, not least anything definitive in terms of a new Stadium or extension to Anfield. However, Rome was not built in a day. And on the day that the King has been asked to leave his throne, so they need to be decisive like Caesar in his Roman Empire. There is no decision that is going to universally popular with Liverpool supporters, but Henry and Werner have to be absolutely clear – target their man, go and get him, whomever he may be. The fact is that it matters not an iota what we think, because any manager who brings success will suddenly become an Anfield hero.

I have often said this season that just because he is Kenny, it did not make him exempt from criticism. That said, it truly pains me to envisage this great man thinking that he has let anyone down. Kenny Dalglish’s place in the Anfield pantheon is secure, not only for his exploits as a Liverpool player and manager, but above all for what he has given to the community. For that, we as supporters can never ever thank him enough. Just as at every turn since he took his 21 year sabbatical in 1991, he will never ever walk alone.

However, he would expect us, in fact demand from us, that we get fully behind whomever is charged with the unenviable task of guiding this wonderful club back to where it belongs.

The King is Dead? Never – but Long Live The King.

There is a common phrase regarding the inability of a purveyor of beer to arrange the inebriation of those attending a party in a beer factory. Or in plain English, one which mocks those that ‘couldn’t organise a p*ss up in a brewery.’

It might surprise many to read that I don’t consider the FA culpable of this crime. After all, they are arranging exactly that for corporates and various associations up and down the country, whilst committed fans sit at home on the evening of Saturday 5 May and the FA Cup Final.

The only surprise is that we actually continue to be surprised at the contempt in which the FA hold the game’s genuine supporters. Guardians of the game? What a joke. The fact is that Liverpool and Chelsea supporters are not the first to fall victim of the ticketing policies of the FA for what was once the showpiece occasion of the English footballing calendar. David Moyes and Everton were equally critical of the FA in 2009 when they reached the final:-

“The biggest disrespect has come from the FA in how many tickets they have given teams who get to the final. It is a little bit hypocritical. They want us to support the competition, speak well about it, play everyone in it and then when we get there give the teams a limited amount of tickets.”

He continued by saying, “We get 25,000, Chelsea get 25,000 and I think the FA get 40,000. Something is not right when 40,000 tickets have gone to corporate people.” Well, it would appear that nothing has changed, and as I said earlier, why would we be surprised by an organisation which to many seems bereft of moral fibre, a closed shop built on autocratic values to suit their own, a body that has totally failed in its duty to supporters, and its responsibility of producing a successful national side. Quite frankly, this is an organisation that never listens, one which makes the same mistakes time after time, seems accountable to nobody, and is despised by the footballing world at large.

So, to see the progress that the FA has made in 3 years since the words of Moyes, and to see the extra care of duty that they have to their supporters, let’s consider recent comments from Kenny Dalglish:-

“Sometimes the problems come when fans are taken for granted, I don’t mean the fans at this club but fans everywhere. If people have a complaint, I’d advise them to complain to the relevant authorities. I think they should be given a little bit more respect than they are actually getting. They have rebuilt Wembley but I don’t think the 25,000 is any greater number of tickets than what it was when I was playing.”

You do not even have to look that closely to see the common theme. RESPECT. How ironic that the FA have their own high profile ‘Respect’ programme, yet make it quite clear that they have absolutely none for those who part with their hard earned money every week to watch their teams. And these are not my words, they are clear in black and white from 2 of the most high profile managers in the game.

The Football Supporters Federation are clear in their call for a public debate into the allocation of FA Cup Final tickets. I would go further and call for government intervention – although that is possibly ironic when considering THAT phrase about inebriation and beer factories. Twelve months ago, it was no different prior to the final between Stoke City and Manchester City. The FSF website quotes:-

“At present each club is given around 25,000 tickets, another 17,000 go to Club Wembley (not in direct control of the FA), which leaves 23,000 to members of the “football family” minus the number set aside for sponsors. Furthermore, the club allocation for the final is 7,000 less than for the semi-final meaning 7,000 “real” fans whose money was good enough for the semi will miss out on the final itself.”

We are in a position where, year after year, football supporters are being driven away from the game in droves. The sad reality is that the FA will always find people to fill these seats, including the thousands which will appear on the likes of eBay and the black market over the next week.

To be honest, I have encountered worse in my life than missing out on a Cup Final ticket – it is relatively insignificant when compared to the death of my fiancée or even to being made redundant a few months ago. Despite that redundancy, I have still managed to spend several hundred pounds ensuring that I was there to support my team through every round of this Cup run to Wembley. For that alone, I am angry this evening, not just for myself, but for 7,000 or so loyal fans who will miss out, including several close friends. For that matter, I am also delighted for those friends who have been fortunate to secure a ticket via the ballot.

I do not, for a minute, hold Liverpool Football Club accountable for this farce. They can work only with the allocation of tickets that they are given. The FA, however, stand guilty of gross and utter disregard for football supporters everywhere, not just those of the 2 FA Cup Finalists.

The time has come for the FA to be made accountable. After all, even FIFA, hardly known as a bastion of morality, will do everything in their power to ensure that the World Cup does not come to these shores. Even ‘corporate rewards’ have limits when you are as detested globally as the FA.

Gordon Taylor always seems to have something to say for himself. Very rarely, I find myself agreeing with him, whilst on most occasions I perceive him as someone being paid a huge amount of money to interfere in the affairs of others, more often than not doing it clearly with some form of agenda.

Nobody will deny that the whole affair between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra in the latter part of 2011, and first few months of this year, was anything other than a calamity, handled awfully by both clubs, particularly Liverpool at times I am afraid to say, and equally poorly by the Football Association.

Of course, Taylor and his PFA, was just one of the parties who added flames to an already incendiary fire with his comments, amongst which was the following in February, on the day of the non-handshake at Old Trafford:-

“We need to have some respect for players between each other, respect for the laws of the game and, above all, respect for a social battle against racism whereby football, because it does achieve such publicity, needs to set the right example to the next generation and in fact to society as a whole. At the moment, it is plainly not doing that.”

Let me highlight a few words here:-

“(Football) needs to set the right example to the next generation and in fact to society as a whole.”

Move forward a few months to Sunday 22 April 2012 and the annual PFA Awards. The backdrop to this is the conviction on Friday of Sheffield United and Wales striker, Ched Evans, for rape. It is not my intention to judge Mr Evans, a jury of our peers has already done this. However, I am able to judge the sickening actions of the Professional Footballers Association.

Can you imagine the shock and dismay to victims of this most heinous of crimes, and those who campaign on their behalf, when the aforementioned Evans was named this evening in the PFA League One Team of the Year. If truth be told, I was neither shocked or surprised, such is the hypocrisy that has been rife within football for so long, exemplified by the Football Association and the PFA. Even so, I had to gasp upon reading the comments from Taylor in response to questions about Evans’ inclusion in the awards:-

“That was a football judgement by his fellow professionals, it was not a moral judgement and in no way does the PFA condone the offence for which he was convicted. If he had been removed from the team it would have created more of a storm and would have been manipulating the vote.” 

Sorry, did I really just read the above from the holier than thou individual on a one man crusade for self-publicity and cleansing of the soul of football? A clean vote is more important than removing a convicted rapist from your awards? If we look back just 2 months, racism is evidently unacceptable, but rape is? Football needs to set the right example so let’s absolutely belittle an already potentially vulnerable part of society by telling them that football condones the crime committed against them? Nobody with a common shred of decency needs me to answer those rhetorical questions.

Mr Taylor, I fully hope and expect that we will receive an appraisal of your own organisation and your immediate resignation on this, an evening on which the PFA thought it the right example to society to name a convicted rapist in the PFA League One Team of the Year.

Few can surely ever benefit from your ill advised self-importance, and utter disregard to any society beyond that of the footballers you represent. It is you, above all, guilty of bringing football into disrepute, and pouring contempt on decent society.

Full report and editorial to follow over the coming days.

Many of you will have noticed that Swinging Balls Online ceased publishing new content in November 2011. Simply, this was down to time constraints. I had been amazed at the commitment of a small crew of talented writers, not to mention the very high quality of content being submitted and the numbers visiting the site.

The simple fact, however, is that I simply did not have the time to plan, communicate and then edit some 30/40 pieces of content every month, organising monthly competitions and features and design, in the format of a monthly magazine. Certainly not when it is free and essentially non-commercial – the simple fact is that the day job must take precedence until a time comes when writing / editorial work pays a salary.

However, I really did not want the project to cease altogether. So what next? Well, it has been simple really. The issue was giving around 20 hours of my time on a given 2 days post deadline every month. The solution … simple …

That is to re-launch the site in blog format. It is certainly not difficult for me to give some 4 or 5 hours of my time every week whenever content is submitted. It also means that you, our audience will constantly see fresh content, as opposed to waiting 30 days every month for new posts. I genuinely think that this format will work very well, and I know that all of us are looking forward to bringing it to you.

It is my intention that the site will be live with fresh content from Friday 1 June 2012, here at hetoreahamstring.co.uk. Between now and then, you will see the post count increasing regularly, as we import the best archives from Swinging Balls.

The truth is that I would not have continued with this project without the encouragement and support from so many. Readers have thoroughly engaged with us, and the commitment of the writers has been immense.

This project is not about how many twitter followers we can get, nor how much controversy we can stir, but simply about giving talented writers – some student journalists, some just fans – the opportunity to express their thoughts to an audience, and asking that audience to engage back.

That their audience continues to return and grow says everything about the quality of the content.

I hope that you will love the new and expanded site here. We are always looking for new contributors. You don’t need an English A-Level or Degree, I’ve got that for you. What you do need is a passion for sport and a desire to share that openly – and being able to put a sentence together will make my job easier!! To join us, just send an email to rohan@hetoreahamstring.co.uk.

You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where we will start to post comment and competitions over the next few weeks.

With Olympic year upon us and much more, what a time to be a sports fan. Come and join our party.

One might this week be forgiven for thinking that we are living in a parallel universe, one where all notion of common sense has dissipated into thin air, one where the conviction of right and wrong, black and white even, has been blurred.

This was a week during which the country should be united in applause, despite the fact that it required 18 years and the necessity of uncovering institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police, that a family finally has a modicum of justice, non-existent as it may be in consolation, for the loss of their beloved son and brother in a heinous racial crime. And yet, the sporting tabloids seem more focused on uncovering innuendo.

Imagine my surprise, horror and shock, a mere 48 hours after the convictions of Gary Dobson and David Norris, to read the following tweet from the Chief Sportswriter of a National Daily, albeit that it is barely fit to carry the title newspaper:-

Is calling someone a ‘black c….’ racist? Spoke to a black player today who said racism is words like ‘c..n’, n-word, ‘w..’ etc. Don’t know

— Oliver Holt (@OllieHoltMirror) November 14, 2011

In-credible hardly seems sufficient to define that question. My own personal response would echo that of many … “come and call it me to my face Mr Holt, and you’ll soon see what I think of it.”

Quite frankly, I have found the standard of reporting, in particular over the Luis Suarez case, to be utterly shameful. There has been minimal objectivity, and I count those both in support of and objectionable to the Liverpool striker. Additionally, the labels given towards the club and its supporters have been nothing short of libellous and incendiary at best.

As a man of colour who has supported the club for over 30 years, I have quite frankly found them offensive. There is absolutely no doubt that Liverpool Football Club could have handled this very differently from the outset and I personally believe that they should have shown more contrition and humility at various times over the last few months. I also said, at the time, that the T-Shirts worn at Wigan in the aftermath of the FA decision were horribly ill advised, and I stand by those words now. That said, I utterly reject the right of the nation’s hacks – mainly tabloid some not, to label Liverpool Football Club and its supporters as racist.

Had the Suarez case been heard in a Court of Law, it would have been thrown out, such is the opinion of most legal experts based on what we have seen. The weighting of evidence, however, is very different in the Courts than it is with the Independent Commission of the FA. In this respect, it will be very interesting to see how the FA react to any legal verdict in the case of John Terry.

Either way, in the aftermath of the Suarez verdict, we all had the opportunity to sit back and reflect on what it really says about our communities, lives and the sport of football. However, we chose not to, instead deciding to argue amongst each other as to the rights and wrongs of a kangaroo court, as to whether Suarez had called Evra 5 or 7 times a Negro. The latter is quite frankly irrelevant, for if he called it him even once, it merited investigation. Of course, instead of educating, the FA chose to blame, and that is exactly the route that the likes of the aforementioned Holt has taken.

All we have been crying out for is a well reasoned article which lays out all of the evidence and discusses it rationally. In fact, despite the fact that the FA’s report confirmed Patrice Evra as stating that he didn’t think that Suarez was racist, what we have had is a backlash of hatred towards the Uruguayan labelling him as just that. Well that is just great investigative reporting.

If these last few weeks have not been unsavoury enough, we now have a scenario where the 20 year old Oldham defender, Tom Adeyemi, was seen to be visibly upset in the latter stages of tonight’s FA Cup tie at Anfield against Liverpool. As always, there has been accusation and counter-accusation as to whether it was racially motivated, with claims ranging from his being called a ‘black b*****d’ through to a ‘Manc t**t’, or even having coins thrown at him.

I will say one thing first – if it is found to be racist abuse, the perpetrator should be publicly named, shamed and banned from every sporting ground in the country – and not just for 8 games, for life. However, even at a time when the Merseyside Police were saying that no arrests had been made on racial grounds tonight, the Mirror and the Guardian were quick to publish articles accusing the Merseyside club and its supporters of racial abuse. This is, again, the very gutter of print and online journalism, and if it is shown not to be the case, I would hope that club and individuals would take legal action against those involved.

However, there is rarely smoke without fire, and what has been established is that the young man has made a serious allegation to Merseyside Police, one which they and Liverpool Football Club are investigating very seriously.

I genuinely hope that there is no foundation in the accusation of racial abuse, because it would be a disaster for the club’s image in light of recent events. However, it would also give the club the opportunity to show their opposition to such behaviour in how they deal with the offender, especially given the accusations they have faced in light of the Suarez incident.

Hypocrisy lives in all walks of life. People forget that this is the same club and set of fans who vehemently stood up for its players, one of whom had banana skins thrown in his direction in a Local Derby as recently as the late 1980s. This is a club that has had players from all races and walks of life during its illustrious history. Has it suddenly become racist? Absolutely not. Does it retain a duty to the sport to fight racism? Absolutely yes. And should it defend a player who it feels has been vilified unfairly? Absolutely yes, because were the roles reversed, those throwing scorn at them would do likewise.

Liverpool Football Club and its fans are far from perfect. Few are. However, some of the rubbish written in recent weeks beggars belief. In my opinion, whomever was abusing young Tom Adeyemi this evening, racially or otherwise, deserves a piece of his own medicine. What gives him the right to shout any type of abuse at a young 20 year old man who is just doing his job. And maybe we have gone too soft on football fans – so happy that the darker element of hooliganism is no longer as lucidly apparent, that we fail to see the abusive behaviour towards players week in and week out across the country. Yes, they may earn a lot of money, but I was not aware that you could shout out to a rich business man that he was an ‘effing this and that’ while he was on the way to his office. Not without being arrested anyway.

Maybe the time has come for football supporters to get a dose of reality. Abuse anyone in anyway, and you will be ejected and / or arrested. This is, of course, a pipe dream, and unlikely to happen. However, the overriding feeling within me is that football continues to be tribal, and as such will continue to be a means by which supporters release their verbal frustrations on those who are unable even to glance a look back at them without being charged by the FA.

To read the papers in recent weeks, you would think that we were back in the dark ages of race relations, a time when my ancestors and forefathers regularly bore the labels of wog, coon, Paki, sambo and of course the N-Word. Please do not be goaded by the insane ramblings of a tabloid hack who has not the intelligence to compute that which goes on around him.

Sadly, it is because of the likes of Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor that we have moved forward in this country. Are we perfect? Of course not, and there are elements of racism wherever you go, whether we like to admit it or not. But if you are going to try and educate me, Mr Holt and colleagues, tell me about the racial tensions between different groups of Blacks in the UK, that between various groups of Asians, and that between Blacks and Asians. This is not a case of black and white, but that is all you seem to know.

I wonder when any of the hacks from the National Press last took a walk through Handsworth, Toxteth or Moss Side, when they last engaged with the popular culture and lifestyle of Blacks and Asians living in the inner-city communities of the country.

Yes, they are quick to offer an opinion and equally so to judge, but on what basis? What, I ask, do you know about me?

I have read so much bullshit in the last 24-48 hours as to make me both cringe and laugh uncontrollably. So much expert knowledge about the word beginning with N … just for the record, the word is Nigger, and despite this country of political correctness gone mad, it exists. You can colour it as ‘Nigga’ or anything else you wish, but that is merely an indictment on spelling ability.

It is ironic really, this a country in which any insult that I receive would normally come in the shape of the word ‘Paki’, from those far too ignorant to understand that the British Empire did not limit the slave trade to Africa, and that many of us of Indian descent were also ‘shipped’ to the Caribbean.

That is, however, a digression. It just means that people are too stupid to realise that I am a Black man, but also an Asian one, blessed to share the culture and history of 2 great races.

There is a misconception in this country that the word Nigger is limited to certain scenarios and people:-

• Groups of Black youths in the USA, the rap music generation, who may greet each other as a term of endearment
• In books chronicling Black History
• As a racial slur

This we know, because … … …

Oh yes, because the journalist from a different community told us so. Am I cynical, yes the fuck I am, and with every justification.

Agreed, it is used as a ‘greeting’ between Blacks, but do not for a second imagine that it is not used between Blacks in less savoury circumstances, and do NOT even think about suggesting that this is limited to the streets of Compton and Harlem.

I will almost guarantee that if you see a Black on Black fight in the UK, you will hear the word Nigger used on more than one occasion.

Now I ask the question, does that constitute racial slander? Of course it doesn’t.

Semantics and context can of course be everything. I refer to a quote from the American journalist, Robert Lindsay:

“Who should be allowed to use the word?

Obviously, Blacks will keep on using the word themselves, as is their right. Further, Blacks can decide how, where and why they use the word, if at all. It’s only fair to give Blacks ownership over this word, which is really their word.

Blacks are perfectly correct that Whites should not use this word, and don’t give us that phony, “Well, Blacks use it, so why can’t we?” nonsense.

Semantics is a subfield of Linguistics. In Semantics, we say that words mean whatever people who use them say they mean. End of story. Nigger has one set of meanings when Blacks use it and another set when Whites use it. That’s not Black hypocrisy; it’s the way humans use language.

Should racists be granted the right to use the word? No, they use it as a weapon to attack others.”

The insinuation from the British Media in recent days is that a Black can use the word, and nobody else can. However, those are again the rules of those who live in a world far detached from that in which it is in use either as a term of familiarity or insult, from those who watch and judge from their Ivory Towers.

If these very same have no understanding of how the word is used in our own inner-cities, how on earth can they be in judgement of how it is used, perhaps, by one of Hispanic culture?

They have no idea about the modern and colloquial usage of a word which I, admittedly, find abhorrent, but accept as having meaning far beyond that by which it has historically gained notoriety. In the particular case in the limelight right now, the word in question was actually ‘negrito’, one used commonly in Latin South America and not considered to be a slander, racial or otherwise.

Am I saying that it is acceptable for a Uruguayan to call someone a Nigger or ‘Negrito’? Not for a moment. Am I about to stand in judgement of that individual? Similarly not.

However, I do have the intelligence to understand that this word, unfortunately, has multiple contextual uses, and though we may deny it, it only accentuates our ignorance that they are all in use right on our doorsteps.

I do not know if Luis Suarez was racially abusing Patrice Evra. The fact that Evra felt insulted was enough to merit serious investigation. Only Mr Suarez truly knows his own intentions, the rest of us are in nothing other than a state of conjecture.

What I do know is that the British Media and public have illustrated a sad ignorance not only of its own multi-racial culture, but also vilified a man without taking the opportunity to educate itself about his culture. It is a very sad indictment of the standard of journalism in this country and of our society.

When the FA is able to release its evidence and decision making criteria, I will read with interest. For now, I will say that Mr Suarez said something that was extremely ill advised, but would have been acceptable in his own country. Many of those judging his use of it do not even have the faintest idea about how it is used in their own.

Rarely do such cases of Black and White come with such a deep shade of grey. This situation demands our attention, not in hysterical denigration of an individual, but in educating ourselves and behaving with objective reason. We all own beautiful glasshouses, but the view is that which we choose.

“If players are guilty, they should be punished heavily without exception, dependent on the findings of ongoing investigations, and if this includes life bans, so be it. Whilst this would be tragic in the case of the 18 year-old and highly touted Amir, it would represent a message that no corruption will be tolerated in the sport.”

The above were my words, in the early morning hours of Sunday 29 August, 2010, in the immediate aftermath of sensational revelations of ‘spot-fixing’ during the 4th Npower Test Match between England and Pakistan at Lord’s. In reflection, the evidence seemed fairly damning even in that initial state of shock, and nothing has happened in the intervening 15 months to suggest otherwise either to me, or evidently to the jury that presided over the recent trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Cricket had certainly not been immune to scandal prior to this point, with the affair surrounding the late Hansie Cronje shaking the foundations of the game to its core in 2000. He was the highest profile victim in a series of investigations that would see many big names implicated and exonerated in an ongoing game of ‘Chinese Whispers’. Others who would receive lifetime bans were former international captains, Salim Malik and Mohammad Azharrudin.

Some 11 years on, the whispers are again proverbially Oriental, with jailed agent Mazhar Majeed implicating at least one further unnamed player in court, and others claiming that corruption has contaminated the game virally. The cricketing world is left at a crossroads of uncertainty, nervously awaiting that dreaded morning when they wake up to find that their favourite team or player, or even match, has been implicated in this sordid scandal. As Mr Justice Cooke said in sentencing:

“The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had.”

However, what are we to believe, the words of a dishonest man desperate to incriminate others, or the actions of most cricketers and sportsmen for whom victory counts above all else, even in a sporting world that has gone mad with money, and for which this might alas be a stern lesson?

It has been said that it is nigh on impossible to monitor spot-fixing within sport, given the random and high volume nature of events on which people can now bet. It has also been well documented that the sports betting syndicates, notably those in Asia, are continuing to wield an unhealthy influence within sport. This is not confined to cricket. Former World Snooker Champion, John Higgins, was suspended and banned over allegations that he enquired about betting against himself in a World Championship Final, and one of the most high profile cases in football surrounded former Liverpool goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar.

In a world where money talks with far too loud a voice, would it not be nice to go back to the days when athletes and Olympians in particular were amateur, and the only suspected corruption was amongst the judges.

There have been contrasting views from within cricket as to how widespread this may be, towards the severity of sentence, and also the work of the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit. I would have to concur with the views of former England Captains Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan, the latter of whom said “The ICC do a decent job but they could do a lot more.”

It is a very difficult task for Sir Ronnie Flanagan and his team, but the fact remains that this would have remained undiscovered but for the work of a sordid newspaper which is no longer in production due to its proclivity for similarly deceitful actions. Furthermore, and away from Flanagan’s remit was the fact that the ICC decided to hand out risible 5 year bans. In my opinion, and that of many others, all three of these men should have been thrown out of the game for life. As it stands, even with a short sentence in a Young Offenders’ Institution, Amir could be playing cricket again in his mid-20s, earning a lot of money for doing so, and I find this totally abhorrent and unacceptable.

In terms of sentencing, I also felt that the players involved could count themselves somewhat fortunate. Especially given the fact that they will be released at halfway points for good behaviour, sentences of 30, 12 and 6 months respectively for Butt, Asif and Amir seem very lenient. Having said this, Mr Justice Cooke had to sentence with a view to the nature of the crime in the context of a wider secular environment. This was, in the duty of the Court, conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments, and he had to sentence just as he would those employed in any other profession.

It is for this reason that I feel that they did need to be jailed, although understanding the point made by a man that I highly respect in Adam Hollioake, who said on his website that “I am not sure that sending people to jail for cheating in a game of cricket is where we should be at as a society.” I can see where Adam is coming from, but the bottom line is that sportsmen and women cannot and should not be treated any differently to others accused of the same crime. Of course, had they been caught in any other country, the punishment may have been different, but this was a crime committed in England and subject to British Law as such.
Either way, they will suffer, and their reputations have been stained and tainted irrevocably beyond recognition. As I said, however, they should never be allowed to set foot on a cricket field again.

I do agree with Sir Ronnie Flanagan when he says that corruption ‘is not rampant in the world of cricket.’ It would be far too easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment and start questioning every match that has ever happened or those that ever will. Having grown up and spent much of my adult life surrounded by professional cricketers and sportsmen, I have every confidence that the majority of them play absolutely honestly and with no other purpose than that of trying to win, some at all costs, which sometimes leads to cheating of a very different kind. And whilst money is an evil in modern day sport, it is a necessary one when we consider the era in which sportsmen gave their lives and health only to end up with literally nothing to show at the end of it.

Even in Pakistan, the country which is unfortunately in the headlines for all the wrong reasons at this point, and one which has suffered from shambolic mismanagement in its cricket, I firmly believe this to be true of the majority of professional cricketers.

These 3 men, however, have shamed themselves, their families, their country, their team mates, their sports, and millions of fans all over the world. For this reason, their punishments should have been reflective of the crime, and I still believe that they have all been leniently treated not only and especially by the ICC, but also by the legal system.

However, I do believe that a grave warning message has been sent out to others that might consider following the same course of action, and that is that it will not be tolerated. Future sentences will be harsher, and the consequences are clear with precedents in place. We will never rid the world of corrupt moneymakers and bookmakers, but we still have the opportunity to protect and punish, if necessary, those in the sport.

On a final note, legal investigations have not been the domain of cricket alone in the last few days and weeks. There has been much said about John Terry being selected for the forthcoming international friendlies, much of which I have read with interest. We live in a society where we go by the maxim of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and by that means alone it was right for him to be selected. However, if he is found guilty of racism, and this also applies to Luis Suarez of Liverpool, he should be punished to the full extent of the law and by the FA. In the case of Terry, his ‘previous’ should mean an end to his international career with no exception.

A mere 39 days after completing a 3-0 series win over India on home soil, England subsequently found themselves humiliated on the back of a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the same opponents.

England were outplayed, outclassed and out-thought by India in the one-day series, a sign that a significant amount of work is yet to be done before England can be serious contenders in the 50 Over format.

Captain Alastair Cook has his work cut out in analysing a horrid series for himself and his team, in particular the collapse in Kolkata, where England were well placed at 129-0, only to lose ten wickets for 47 runs to seal a resounding series defeat. Cook’s captaincy will be scrutinised, but it is important to remember that he is still new to the job and should use this as a learning curve to avoid a repeat in the future.

The series whitewash was an embarrassing result, but unfortunately it was not completely unexpected, as England have won just five of their last 20 ODI matches away from home. A factor in India’s series whitewash was England’s batsmen only passing fifty on six occasions during the series, with Cook contributing two half centuries towards that tally, in comparison with India, who passed fifty on nine occasions, with Virat Kohli the only player in the series to make a century.

Kohli’s 112* in Delhi helped him to top score for India in the series with a total of 270 runs in the five ODI matches, at an impressive average of 90. In comparison, there were only two England batsmen with an average above 40. Unsurprisingly, they were Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen.

Trott, who scored an unbeaten 98 in Mohali, has been criticised for slow run rate, but if you take Trott’s scores out of the series, the margin between the sides would have widened significantly. While he may not be able to give you the influx of runs expected in the one-day game, he provides stability to the middle order, which allows others to build on the runs he adds to the side. It is the lack of support around him that has led to England failing to post a total over 300 in the series.
The absence of Eoin Morgan from the middle-order was a huge miss for England, as his dynamic play is both clever and adaptable, especially in run chases. However, contributions are required from others in the side and the place of wicket-keeper/batsman Craig Kieswetter may be under threat after an underwhelming series with the bat and gloves.

A ready-made replacement could be Matt Prior, who has enjoyed a large amount of success in the Test arena, turning him into arguably the best keeper-batsman in the game today. Another possible change would be to bring in Ian Bell, who was rather surprisingly left out of all but one of the ODIs, whilst youngster Jonny Bairstow played all five games in the series, managing to make just 49 runs.

The bowling department was not much better, with Steven Finn the only stand-out, picking up 8 wickets, at an average of 31.62. The figures for the bowlers do not make impressive viewing, conceding 300 runs on two occasions and failing to bowl India out during the entire series. Jade Dernbach picked up just a single wicket in the series, at a cost of 168 runs, while Tim Bresnan and Samit Patel contributed 9 wickets between them, although their averages were too close to 50. Graeme Swann endured a torrid time, taking 2 wickets at an average of 95.50 in his four matches, resulting in Patel being England’s best spinner during the series.

England can take some encouragement from their performance in the T20 International, where Pietersen made a storming 53 from 39 balls, and Finn took 3-22 to guide England to victory.

Looking forward, England travel to the United Arab Emirates in February to play Pakistan in a series consisting of three Tests, four ODIs and three T20s. While this may be a new experience for a developing team, England need to learn from their tour of India and build a one-day team to match their successful Test and T20 teams, who top the rankings in for both forms of the game.

How important is Non League football? Not long ago, after a Ryman Premier League game, I had the opportunity to chat to Hugo Langton. If you’re not familiar with the name, Hugo is a UEFA A-licensed coach, and currently caretaker manager of Horsham Football Club.

Nobody really watches Non League football, not whilst there’s a culture of Premier League or nothing. Countless international breaks consistently provoke comments like, ‘what am I going to do this weekend with no football?’

The truth is, there’s always football. I spoke to Hugo about his time so far at Horsham, and his thoughts on this level of football. We started off by chatting about everyone’s favourite subject – money: ‘Some of the teams in this league have got enormous budgets, the ones that are currently sitting at the top of the table have 4/5 grand a week. The other end is those of us with small budgets, it’s funny how that works, isn’t it?’

Most players at this level have a full time job to go alongside their career, but that’s not always the case: ‘You’ve got players who have played at a very high level. We’ve come across some with Premier League experience this season. I think Non-League is highly underrated.People would realise when you go and watch games that, A: it’s cheaper, B: you can bring your kids, C: you can mix with players. You can have a beer, a sing song, there’s so many positives.’
It’s important to remember that all top flight footballers come from somewhere. Hugo gave a fantastic example of this: ‘Look at Chris Smalling; he’s gone from Maidstone United to Manchester United in two years, he’s playing for England, and fair play to him.’

One thing that has certainly taken me by surprise is the quality of football played by many sides in the league. Hugo agreed: ‘People think Non League football is just some sort of crappy kick and rush, but it’s a lot more than that. The people who think that, because that’s what the teams they support in the Football League do.’

Hugo does believe that the coverage this level of football gets is improving: ‘I think it’s getting better, things like Non-League Day help. Kids for a quid, that’s good stuff. You have the Non-League Paper and the Non-League Show; they are all trying to raise awareness of what’s going on at this level.’

When I spoke to Hugo, he was assistant, he’s now the number one, and despite a difficult start, he’s not losing hope. ‘We all look at things differently, I look at defeats positively, because it gives us something to do during the week on the training ground! It hasn’t been easy; it’s not going to get easier, if I’m honest with you! But we will keep plugging away and hopefully we’ll keep the club up and then we can push on next year.’