You could have been mistaken for thinking last week was a quiet sporting week. The fact that Crystal Palace beat a Manchester United Z team barely caused a tremor on the sporting richter scale. England's opponents in the Euro 2012 Football finals didn't really bother people and probably won't bother most people till the start of the Euro 2012 finals. In fact the burning issue of the week thAe BBC Sports Personality of the Year nominations did not include a single nomination for a British female sports star. Yes apparently 27 editors from various British publications concluded that not one single British female sportswoman was worthy of a nomination for the prestigious award this year.
The furore this has caused amongst British female sports stars has created several column inches in those exact publications that created the nominations for the Sports Personality of the Year. Of course in 2011 their question is, why on earth is a woman not nominated in one of the most prestigious awards of the sporting calendar?
There are of course two questions that need answering here, the first one being for own satisfaction.
Firstly why in the god name's hell is the award entitled Sports Personality of the Year? For anyone who witnesses this event every December, they would know that this award has absolutely nothing to do with personality. It is purely as simply a measurement of sporting achievement for the year. Why pretend it is anything but?
Secondly, i'm the sort of person who is of the belief that irrespective of whether you are are sportsman or sportwoman, if your nomination for an award is merited then fair play to you, you have earned the right to be lauded by the Great British public. I personally think it is an insult to women to simply have a nomination for an award purely because of their gender. If their sporting achievement justifies recognition however, that's a whole different kettle of fish.
Which leads us neatly to the runners and riders for the 2011 Sports Personality of the Year. I have placed these gentlemen in three particular categories.
1) Merited - 100% - No arguments if you see them standing with a Sports Personality trophy in their arms.
2) The Jury is Out - Can't see them lifting the trophy, but they've had a reasonable sporting year.
3) Really! - Why on earth were they nominated?
Mark Cavendish - Merited
The Manx man became the first British man to win the Tour De France Green Sprinter Jersey in 2011, taking his overall career number of stage wins to 20. He then went on to win the World Road Race title in Denmark. Pretty good year by anyone's standards really.
Darren Clarke - Merited
The Northern Irish golfer delighted sports fans around the world with is victory at the British Open this year, after years of often emotional toil on the tour, especially during time his late wife Heather became ill. If this was purely about personality then Darren Clarke would win hands down. Who can forget Guiness O'Clock.
Alastair Cook - Merited
The fact of the matter is that this year thanks to Cook scoring a gazillion runs in test cricket, England have had an almightily successful year in test cricket. He wasn't bad leading the side as Captain in his first series in One Day International Cricket against India. Less said about his first overseas tour in this position the better.
Luke Donald - Really!
No denying this fella is a great golfer and his consistent results have meant he has become World Number One golfer, but he hasn't won a major yet, and that is what you he will be remembered for at the end of his career, not the fact he won the BP Open in Ohio (made that up by the way, but i'm sure you catch my drift).
Mo Farah - Merited!
Impressive is what can be described as Mo Farah's season. A World Championship Gold Medal in the 5000 metres, and literally metres away from achieving a golden double in the 10,000 metres.
Dai Greene - Merited!
This 400 metres hurdler carried on his success of 2010, by beating an impressive line-up to win Wold Championship Gold in Daegu, Korea this year.
Amir Khan - The Jury's Out
It cannot be denied that after a shaky start to his professional career, Amir Khan is going from strength to strength having unified the World WBA and IBF Light Welterweight crowns. For Amir to reach the next level, he may well have to step up in weight to Welterweight where the likes of Floyd Mayweather awaits. Rather him than me and i'll personally hand him the award if he is successful.
Rory McIlroy - Merited!
What a year for the young Northern Irish golfing star. Having had in anyone's parlons a nightmare on the final day at the US Masters at Augusta, he then proceeded to leave the rest of the field out of sight at the US Open a few months later to win his first major. Added to consistent results and victories throughout the course of the season, McIlroy is now on the tails of Luke Donald for the Number one spot.
Andy Murray - The Jury's Out
You could argue Murray has had a pretty decent season on the tennis circuit. He reached the final of the Australian Open and the semis of all the other Grand Slams. Add to that a few titles and it's been ok. However, these is an underlying feeling that at present he is not getting closer to winning a Grand Slam. Whether that is simply due to three certain players being simply better than him or Murray's mental frailities who knows, but you sense until he wins a Grand Slam he will not be worthy of the the Sports Personality trophy.
Andrew Strauss - Really!
Not sure leading a succesful test side justifies a nomination in a Sports Personality award. As per any captain in a team, you do lead by example and that means performing to the highest levels yourself, and i'm afraid in the case of Strauss he did not perform to nearly as high a level as his colleague Alastair Cook this year.
I think you can safely say women have made a worthy point. The likes of Rebecca Adlington, Kerry Anne Payne and Chrissie Wellington should be there with at least a chance of winning the spoils. Editors, what the hell were you thinking!
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