With Essex’s Mervyn Westfield the latest villain, Cricket’s dark side has re-emerged this week as the English county game loses its immunity.
There is irony surely that spot-fixing has returned to the limelight the week before an England/Pakistan tour, but it is clear that there is a blight endemic throughout the cricketing world.
Westfield has been stupid and will rightly be disciplined but there are surely many others in these shores and beyond who have yet gone unpunished.
The climate is one of corruption but also one of enthralling test cricket, and nothing should detract from what should be an absorbing series.
With two warm-up wins safely secured England are favourites and deservedly so, but Pakistan are unbeaten in five series and should not be underestimated.
England’s big selection quandary concerns their fourth bowler in the wake of Tim Bresnan’s injury.
Monty Panesar would be an aggressive and brave yet desirable choice, but his selection is highly unlikely given England’s ambivalence towards a second spinner. And given the strength of their seam resources, who could blame them?
Rugby has also seen its fair share of selection decisions this week and England have opted for youth and inexperience, as they finally shed ties with any remaining members of the 2003 World Cup brigade.
After spearheading Harlequins charge towards the Heineken Cup quarters, Nick Easter is one who can count himself unfortunate to have been omitted, but a new generation has emerged on and off the pitch and England’s back line in particular looks very exciting.
But in Football the re-emergence of grizzled veterans has been the order of the week as Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes each found the net on their respective returns from the wilderness.
Their recalls still bear the hallmarks of desperation, but the goals signified that blend of romance which only sport can bring, and it is worth stating that unlike these two great stars, neither Torres nor Carroll have scored in 2012.
This season’s only constant is its volatility, and while City’s stutter continued against Liverpool, Tottenham’s midweek rise (which was greeted by overdue eruptions of media excitement) was muted by a dogged display by Wolves.
Yet after their absurd decision to relocate to a 25,000 capacity cauldron of misery, Darlington’s impending extinction shows that a predictable reality will in certain areas always reign supreme.
We are two weeks into 2012 and already we have a tennis grand slam upon us. After qualifying success for James Ward and Laura Robson, It was great to see six Britons in the main draw down under, even if five of them lost on Day One.
Rather predictably one lone Scot is left to plough the British furrow, and if he is to reach his third Australian final on the trot, Murray will probably have to beat Novak Djokovic in the last four. That remains unlikely, but with the Murray/Lendl partnership now fully blooming it would be foolish to write him off...
LOCOG have experienced more problems as their ticketing system continues to malfunction, but Britons male gymnasts will be in attendance next summer as they vaulted and pommel-horsed their way to spectacular test event success.
With more attention than ever going to these summer stars, Britain’s winter competitors have struggled for publicity in recent times.
But the season is warming up well metaphorically if not climatically, and Shelly Rudman has returned to the top of our female Skeleton standings with a World Cup win in Koenigssee.
The Premier League is surely football’s most exciting, but the NFL is sports biggest franchise and in the first week of playoff action the 49ers edged the Saints in a mesmerising encounter, as the lead changed three times in the last four minutes.
And an unprecedented year of sporting action looks set to get even bigger as the Mayweather v Pacquiao fight moves closer. Prize money and prison sentences are small matters still unresolved but a Mayday showdown is likely after some remarkable Twitter exchanges.
Yet the jury remains out over whether social media is a good addition to the world of sport, as Rugby’s Rory Lamont became the latest miscreant after he bizarrely labelled Barrack Obama as a “whore” online.
Thankfully we still have Mario Ballotelli for harmless sporting entertainment, and after another week of money-throwing spontaneity he is becoming more endearing than ever. Saving Darlington Town must surely be his next move...
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