Why I don't support England anymore...

Before last night's match against Ghana, I got bored of England. I used to support them but I'm just not feeling it now. They are far from a quality team, and with all due respect to Ghana, a world class team would have beaten them comfortably. England could only draw. I love Ghana and they are a good team, but Spain, Brazil or Germany would have beaten them.

England are not World Cup winners and everybody in England is way too optimistic about their performance. I've basically lost interest in the team, they don't play particularly attractive or interesting footy and the team are full of massive egos.

England have gone off the rails in recent years, and really I don't know who I should support next. Ghana are actually a team for the future, none of their outfield players are over 30, and look promising, but I'm really not sure. There other teams, Brazil is quite tempting, but I've not yet decided. Who do you think I should support? Comment below or tweet me.

England, you suck at 50 Over Cricket

I knew it before the World Cup and I most definitely know it now. England suck at 50 over cricket. Andrew Strauss, everybody was haling you as the new God after winning the Ashes, but after England's performance at the World Cup, a hell of a lot of people are thinking again.

Strauss got it easy in the Ashes. They were playing a greatly under par Australian team, and never really deserved the recognition they got. Now I'm probably being a bit harsh on them but still, everybody overrated them after the Ashes.

And now their having to hold their heads in shame. They got knocked out by Sri Lanka AND LOST TO IRELAND!! What's more, they almost lost to Holland and really looked dismal throughout. How they won any games let alone got through I don't know, but that team needs change, maybe not at Test level, but most certainly at ODI level.

Strauss is the best captain England have in their squad (their's nobody in the current squad who could do better), even though when you look at previous England captains, Strauss is next to nothing.

Strauss shouldn't retire from ODIs, as England will really struggle, and I can't think as to who would replace him. Vaughan suggested Stuart Broad, but for me he's too young and he's always got some injury problem that can never be solved. I think the next best captain would be Graeme Swann, but really, the future looks confusing and slightly problematic for England, especially when it comes to 50 over cricket.

What do you think? Should Strauss remain England ODI captain? I mean Ponting is stepping down, should Strauss do the same? Please leave your comments below or tweet me.

Gregory Bauge: Easily Better Than Hoy

His third World Championship in a row that he won yesterday clearly shows that he is undoubtedly the best track sprinter in the world. Chris Hoy, really, you had your time, but the fact that you get beaten by Jason Kenny just shows you don't have the legs anymore to compete at the top level.

Any British people expecting Chris Hoy to perform at London 2012, prepare yourselves for disappointment, because I fear that won't be the case. Until somebody new comes along who's better, Bauge will win all the sprint competitions. Jason Kenny, as demonstrated yesterday, is good, but not that good. There has been no fantastic new talent in the GB cycling team of late, and Hoy's legs are seriously going.

The question is now raised as to who, over a career has done more: Bauge or Hoy. And I would say Bauge. Don't get me wrong, Hoy has won 3 Olympic gold medals but at the same time he has not won a lot at the World Championships. He has only won the sprint title once, in Manchester, and for a guy of his calibre it really isn't enough. Besides, me personally, I value World Championships more than the Olympics, but that's another blog post for another day.

Buage on the other hand has already won 3 World Championships and 1 Olympic silver and he's only 26, so unlike Hoy at 32, he's still got a lot of his career left to win more.

RUBBISH ENGLAND EXAM BOARDS!!!

I haven't not talked about sport or technology in a while, I've I've had a good rant either, so here is the opportunity for me to kill two birds with one stone.

I recently sat my AS exams in January (some of them). Everything went fine, until I got my History result. I got a low B, which isn't exactly bad, but I was confident that after what I thought was a pretty successful exam I would scrape an A. I get the paper back, and it's exactly as I remembered it: I think I did pretty good.

I give to my teacher (a senior examiner at Edexcel, she writes the bloody books that people up and down the country learn their Edexcel history out of) and she tells me I've been really under marked and that she thought it deserved a high B or a low A. Now, as you can imagine, this really pisses me off. Furthermore, two other people got their papers backed and them as well were drastically under marked.

What the hell is the bloody problem with private exam boards?? It's absolutely ridiculous and a disgrace that England have 4 different exam boards, run FOR PROFIT, who have crap, badly trained examiners correcting scripts. Now, my History was Edexcel, and I don't know about the other boards and how they mark, but it's all for profit.

This means that by definition they will do everything they possibly can to make you retake if you ask for a remark. Any excuse at all they can find for under marking your paper and they will take it. Because they get the money both from retakes and remarks (if it is successfully remarked, they have to pay you back).

England are the only country in the world (as far as I know) who have 4 different private exam boards. All you need to do is copy the model of any European country where there is one board, usually government run, that corrects everything. The education system in England really is a mess, and having screwed up exam boards is a big part of it.

Again, I'm only talking for Edexcel here, but I assume the others are roughly the same, so that's why I generalised it a bit.

NBA Dream Team: 2011

Here is my 2011 NBA dream team, and the choices aren;t exactly surprising, but enjoy the mix that I put together. Who's in your NBA 2011 Dream Team?

Song: SOS-Take That

Why Ireland beat England

It is good to see England lose. I am English but I hate the rugby team. Ireland played really well and England basically imploded. But how did they dominate so much? Simple, they played old style rugby.

When teams play England using the modern game, using heavy props and locks to break through the defence, England will almost always win. It's the game they play, and they know how to defend it, especially seeing as they have a forward coach in Martin Johnson.

What Ireland did, to a lesser extent in the second half, was play using backs. It is something that only 3 teams do on a regular basis in the world: South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. All from the southern hemisphere. This is really why the southern hemisphere almost beat the northern hemisphere.

Backs are much more effective than forward play in terms of scoring tries. If you keep a deep line, you backs can get momentum and for the most part break through the line. Now this may sound pretty obvious but I fail to understand why more teams don't play using their backs.

All I can say is well done Ireland, well done O'Driscoll for your 25th 6 Nations try (the new record) and thank you for beating England and ensuring that they didn't make the Grand Slam. Rugby is becoming too much like american football, and somebody must do something to make sure the game doesn't become a defensive, low scoring bore and also ensure that there aren't stoppages every 5 seconds, like in American football.

UFC 128: What's gonna happen?

I'm looking forward to UFC 128 more than any other MMA event for a while. Jon "Bones" Jones is taking on Shogun Rua for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship and Mirko Cro Cop takes on Brendan Schaub as well as Urijah Faber taking on Eddie Wineland in the bantamweight division.

Now I don't know much about the bantamweight division, but as for Rua vs Jones, I don't know. My heart says go with Jones, as he is one of my fave fighters, but my brain says Rua. He's more experienced and Jones was tossed into this bout at the last minute, due to an injury to Rashad Evans. He won't be as fully fit as he could be, and Rua is a decent fighter who can easily beat the best.

Noe for the fight I'm most looking forward to, as it has my favourite MMA fighter of all time in, Mirko Cro Cop. I'm sure that Brendan Schaub is perfectly decent, but I really don't see him beating Cro Cop. Mirko might not necessarily win by knockout (if he does great!), but he will definitely win in my mind. He is just too good. Even though his knees are a bit dodgy nowadays, he is till easily the best kicker ever in the UFC and the best kicker today, even at 35.

Joey Barton=Paul Scholes?

As I watched Arsenal get well beaten by Man Utd this weekend, watching Paul Scholes really reminded me of watching Joey Barton. Both are small, terrier like midfielders, both have discipline problems and both can really pass a football.

Some people (Man Utd fans) might kill me for making this comparison, but it's true. Joey Barton is the successor to Paul Scholes. However I would say that off the pitch they are totally different. Barton is a complete psychopath who goes around beating people up whereas Scholes is quite reserved and is a family man.

But on the pitch they are almost identical. Barton has the most brilliant passing skills, and in that regard he really is as good as anybody in the Premier League, not to mention that he is also good at corners and free kicks. Scholes same thing, although he is getting old and will presumably retire soon.

I hate Joey Barton as a person but I love the player. With Scholes, I can't really like him as he plays for Man Utd, but he is my least disliked player on their side.

The Best English Striker?

Well who is the best British striker out there at the moment? This may surprise some, but I say Andy Carroll. He's definitely not worth the 35 million that Liverpool paid for him, I would have only paid around 20 million, but I really think he is, at this moment in time, better than Wayne Rooney.

He's got all the attributes you want from a number 9: he's strong, brilliant at heading (Carroll is what Peter Crouch wants be) and also quite aggressive, which you need, but only in small quantities. What's more he's passionate and i really think he is the future of the England team along with Jack Wilshere.

There is no doubt that Wayne Rooney in his prime is better than Carroll but the problem is that when it matters, it rarely is. At all World Cups he's participated in he's failed, and the thing to see will be whether Carroll will do the same or actually be regular and score some goals.

Liverpool have now got two really good strikers in Suarez and Carroll, and I definitely think they've done a good deal this transfer window, as when you look at Torres' performances now, they really are rubbish.

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

I don't know how many posts I've done on referees who suck balls, but I've done a lot. And here's another one!! Massimo Busacca, you can add this guy's name to the list of people who don't know the rules of football. He sends off Van Persie for timewasting????

There are bad decisions and bad decisions. Van Persie being sent off was terrible. I can't remember a worse decision (well, maybe a few at the World Cup), but Van Persie wasn't even time wasting. He was taking a bloody shot. He was marginally offside (and even that's debatable) and the amount of noise that was resonating in the Nou Camp was incredible, so no wonder Van Persie didn't hear it.

I have a conspiracy theory that seeing as Platini hates British teams, he will want them eliminated ASAP. If Tottenham get eliminated tonight, it will be good but it will also further prove this theory. I wonder if Platini didn't slip a few thousand euros more into Busacca's paycheck last night, just to make sure Van Persie or a player would be sent off.

I really want Platini to step down. He's really biased and although he was a good player, he's developed into a really unpleasant person and I want him out.

Haye vs Klitschko: FINALLY!!!

David Haye as finally decided to show some balls and sign a contract, and I am really looking forward to the showdown between the two. My prediction: Klitschko easily, whether it be by knockout or unanimous decision. The final details of the fight are not yet clear, the date is either going to be the 25th of June of the 2nd of July and it is not sure whether Haye will be fighting Vitali or Wladimir.

Presumably it will be Wladimir, but even then, he might get injured. Still Vitali will still beat Haye easily in my opinion, even though he is 39. Haye does not realise what he's getting into: he has not yet faced anyone at heavyweight who is really really good. Valuev was far from his top form when he lost to Haye, and some even argue whether Haye won the fight. Personally I don't think so.

Then he faced Ruiz, an ageing fighter who really sucks balls, it has to be said, even though at some point he somehow managed to be world champion. Then Haye faced Harrison in his last fight, who really didn't deserve a world title opportunity. Haye just wanted a whipping boy to slap around for a bit.

The Klitschkos will be a totally different class to Haye: these are guys who actually know how to fight. They will slap him around, and I doubt they will knock Haye out, as he is one tough bugger, but they'll hit him hard. And he won't like it one bit.

E.P.I.C

What a game!! The best game of the season so far and I was really lucky to be there. The Nets edged out the Raptors 137 to 136 in THIRD OVERTIME!!! Andrea Bargnani has to be the man of the match even though he was on the losing side, he got a massive 35 points even beating Brook Lopez who got 34.

The Nets star has got to be Deron Williams though, he got a massive 18 assists and really provided the spark for his team. Kris Humphries also performed, he got a double double and apart from his free throw shooting, he also gave a solid performance.

I'd never been to an NBA game before this, and I was shocked about how many timeouts they call, especially at the end when the teams are really close. Not even 5 seconds of play before a timeout was called, whether it be a full blown one or just a 20 second stoppage. It really made the game go on for ages. I understand that it's all to do with tactics, but really, do you need that many time outs to give instructions to your team.

Finally, I think the moment of the match has got to be, for me at least, Sasha Vujacic draining the 3 point shot to keep the Nets in it and to tie it all up. That was really crucial and without that, the Nets would have lost. And of course, Travis Outlaw sinking both free throws to win the game at the end was also key.

Nets vs Raptors!! Who will win???

I'm delighted that I'm going to see the Nets take on the Raptors at the O2 this Saturday in the second game. It's the first time that regular NBA season games have been played in Europe so it will really be a historic event.

I think that one game will be won by the Raptors and one by the Nets. Which one I don't know, but both I think will be good games, especially with Deron Williams. There are doubts whether he'll play, but I hope he does even if he doesn't start. Brook Lopez should feature though so it'll be good to see him action.

As for the Raptors, Andrea Bargnani will be their main star as always. I really admire him as a player as he can really do anything. Block, rebound, shoot, score 3 pointers. I think he's underrated. I have to grudgingly admit he is better than Brook Lopez. But overall, the Nets are have more talented players than the Raptors at almost every position.

When it comes to fan base, I think there are more Nets fans in Europe, but the Raptors also have many fans, their roster being super international. I guess that's why they were chosen as the two to play abroad: they are both really really international, which is great.

iPad 2: Some Improvements

The iPad 2 has JUST been announced. Quite literally. So what's new? Well firstly, the thing is a hell of a lot thinner and lighter. 33% thinner to be exact, which is great, and it's only 1.3 pounds, so it seems that they've really addressed one of the main problems of the first iPad in it being too heavy. They are also shipping it in both white and black, which is good, as it gives more diversity.

It also has a dual core processor, which really puts it up to speed with it's other competitors. They haven't changed the pricing at all, it's still like before, with the entry model being 499$. One of the main things they did was add cameras: front and back, and with that obviously comes Facetime and Photobooth, both of which look pretty slick on the iPad UI.

iMovie and Garageband were also announced, and they do look pretty awesome (Garageband is practically exactly the same as the full version on Mac) and they also made some tweaks in the new iOS 4.3 update (added more features to Airplay and of course added camera compatibility).

The final thing that featured on the iPad (literally, on the iPad) is this weird looking cover. It's sold separately as far as I can see and it attaches via magnets at the side. When you lift it off the iPad turns on, which I think is a nice touch.

My overall opinion: I slightly expected more. For me the thing that really lets the iPad down is not accepting Flash, which is something a lot of websites are based around. However when you compare this iPad with other competitors the iPad is lightyears ahead, even more than it was before. For me though, I'm not really a tablet person and I much prefer having a full fledged Macbook or iBook which can run independently, so I doubt I'll be getting the iPad 2. Still, it's improved and I'm sure there will be massive queues outside Apple stores on the 11th and 25th of March (US and other countries) when it comes out.