Who would have thought it? A club the size of Coventry's being made to groundshare with lowly Northampton Town. The whole situation with Coventry City has become a complete joke and they now find themselves without a permanent stadium and having to share a 7,500 capacity Sixfields over 40 miles away from the City. Add on top of that the club still being in administration and hit with a transfer embargo with owners who are utterly useless, then it is extremely difficult to see a way out.
The fact that the owners SISU were unwilling to do any sort of sensible deal to play in the Ricoh, how some of the SISU board members managed to buy the other part of the club through acceptance from the administrator and how the Football League could ratify the ground share really opens up a numerous amount of questions. Some of these questions include how on earth have SISU managed to get away with all this. Usually when a club gets bought after going into administration, it means new owners, the club coming out of administration and a fresh start. But in this case, the club got completely bought by the existing owners, are still in administration and the gloom continues. It is a mystery to how they have been able to do this without the Football League or the administrator getting involved.
It seems like SISU are a cancer trying to kill Coventy City Football Club and won't stop until they do. It is clear they don't care about the club or football as they would have left by now if they did. They are just in it for the money side of things in terms of not being willing to leave until they have made some sort of profit and gain some sort of percentage in the Ricoh, much like a hedge fund.
With this ground share, it is hard to see too many Coventry fans turning up and who can blame them. 40 odd miles is a long way to travel just to watch your home side play and it turns out most of the matches will be played on a Friday night due to fixture clashes with Northampton. They will do well to get 1,000 in all honesty. A truly ridiculous state of affairs with a perfectly good 32,500 capacity stadium now just sitting there in Coventry. This is well and truly a new low for Coventy City and if things carry on the way they are, it is hard to see a prolonged future for the club.
Monday 8 July 2013
Tuesday 2 July 2013
India's Young Guns Pick Up More Silverware
MS Dhoni's men won the Champions Trophy just last week and what a performance by Team India it was. It was 2 years ago when they lifted the World Cup in Mumbai but the difference this time was most of that squad had been dropped in the subsequent years. No longer do India rely on the class and aggression of Virender Sehwag, the genius of Sachin Tendulkar, the all round prowess of Yuvraj Singh or the craftmanship of Zaheer Khan. In fact, only 4 members of that World Cup winning squad remained for the Champions Trophy which is another reason why this victory was oh so sweet.
Leading into the final against England, there was no doubt that India were the best team of the tournament. They blew away every team that stepped in their way and they had got the balance between their bowlers and their batsmen just right. But England were always going to be a handful in home conditions, especially with the type of seam attack they have. In a rain affected final which was reduced to 20 overs a side, England won the toss and decided to bowl first which took place 5 hours before play finally got under way. Conditions were tough early on and after a solid start of 38-1 from 6 overs, the rain further delayed proceeding destroying any momentum India might have had. On a slow pitch, part timer Ravi Bopara struck 3 times with his slow medium pacers to restrict India to 66-5 off 13 overs. Kohli played a useful hand of 43 before he was dismissed in the 19th over and it was only until Jadeja struck a quickfire 33 that India got to 130-7 which seemed like at least 20 runs off a par score.
England lost Cook early and quickly slumped to 46-4 on a turning track after a debatable third umpire decision which saw the demise of Ian Bell. Dhoni decided against bowling spin in the middle overs and seemingly relieved the pressure off of England with some hapless bowling from Ishant Sharma. This saw England to a comfortable position of 110-4, needing just 20 from 16 balls. That was until that man Sharma picked up 2 wickets in just 2 balls to turn the final on its head. England then lost a further 2 wickets to collapse to 113-8 and fall 5 runs short of what should have been a certain victory. England once again fell short in a final and India once again win a major ODI trophy.
This young Indian side were very impressive throughout the Champions Trophy. Shikhar Dhawan won player of the tournament and most runs whilst Ravindra Jadeja took the most wickets. These two players were the stand out performers for India with Dhawan scoring back to back centuries in the group stage after a two year absence from the side. Jadeja proved to be a very useful all rounder with his spin proving his worth to the team. He hasn't always had the praise he might have deserved from the Indian media but surely now that will change. MS Dhoni proved why he is probably the best captain in World cricket. Bold moves were made throughout which went a long way to him lifting the title. So this new, young Indian side looks like it could be around for years to come and with one eye on the 2015 World Cup, they could well be the team to beat.
Leading into the final against England, there was no doubt that India were the best team of the tournament. They blew away every team that stepped in their way and they had got the balance between their bowlers and their batsmen just right. But England were always going to be a handful in home conditions, especially with the type of seam attack they have. In a rain affected final which was reduced to 20 overs a side, England won the toss and decided to bowl first which took place 5 hours before play finally got under way. Conditions were tough early on and after a solid start of 38-1 from 6 overs, the rain further delayed proceeding destroying any momentum India might have had. On a slow pitch, part timer Ravi Bopara struck 3 times with his slow medium pacers to restrict India to 66-5 off 13 overs. Kohli played a useful hand of 43 before he was dismissed in the 19th over and it was only until Jadeja struck a quickfire 33 that India got to 130-7 which seemed like at least 20 runs off a par score.
England lost Cook early and quickly slumped to 46-4 on a turning track after a debatable third umpire decision which saw the demise of Ian Bell. Dhoni decided against bowling spin in the middle overs and seemingly relieved the pressure off of England with some hapless bowling from Ishant Sharma. This saw England to a comfortable position of 110-4, needing just 20 from 16 balls. That was until that man Sharma picked up 2 wickets in just 2 balls to turn the final on its head. England then lost a further 2 wickets to collapse to 113-8 and fall 5 runs short of what should have been a certain victory. England once again fell short in a final and India once again win a major ODI trophy.
This young Indian side were very impressive throughout the Champions Trophy. Shikhar Dhawan won player of the tournament and most runs whilst Ravindra Jadeja took the most wickets. These two players were the stand out performers for India with Dhawan scoring back to back centuries in the group stage after a two year absence from the side. Jadeja proved to be a very useful all rounder with his spin proving his worth to the team. He hasn't always had the praise he might have deserved from the Indian media but surely now that will change. MS Dhoni proved why he is probably the best captain in World cricket. Bold moves were made throughout which went a long way to him lifting the title. So this new, young Indian side looks like it could be around for years to come and with one eye on the 2015 World Cup, they could well be the team to beat.
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