Sports �n� All � Spying, Lions and Fists Flying

Hello again SABers, it�s been a fairly quiet week in the world of sport, but there are a couple of things that have leapt to my attention as I�ve been scouring the sports pages of this fair country of ours (England in case anyone�s wondering).

The one big thing that is threatening to set up camp on back pages is the spying row in Formula 1. According to the BBC�s website, Lewis Hamilton�s F1 Championship hopes could be in jeopardy if the investigation finds McLaren guilty. The hearing will take place on 26 July and, for anyone who hasn�t heard about this, will be accused of illegally receiving information about bitter rivals Ferrari. More specifically it is their chief designer who is the man in the spotlight. There are fears that Hamilton could have points deducted or even worse if the FIA take strong action against McLaren. This is typical isn�t it. The one time we get a guy really putting in the good race times and bringing a bit of glory back to Blighty and it could all go wrong while he�s still getting started. Ah well, at least it means that F1 isn�t boring at the moment, I don�t know about everyone else but I haven�t really followed it properly since the mid 90s. It really had become a procession last season, so I was glad to see that tyre changes had been brought back. This season has even been quite entertaining! I�m so surprised I nearly made that the headline of this piece.

Moving away from the race track to the gladiatorial honour of boxing. Amir Khan has had the age old accusation of taking easy fights to move his career along aimed at him. I always find this particularly amusing because any boxer can lose an easy fight if a rogue punch slips through the defences (Lennox Lewis vs Hasim Rahman in 2001 is a prime example). Also I remember some sources not being convinced about Ricky Hatton�s pedigree even after he had battled his way through matches against quality opponents like Kostya Tszyu and Jos� Luis Castillo. One source could only say that Castillo was past it and washed up - some people have to put a cloud over every achievement. As far as I can tell Amir Khan is a fighter in the best tradition; hard working, determined and most importantly a talented boxer. Imagine if Khan had been thrown into the ring with a top quality opponent the moment he became professional. He�d have been soundly beaten and never been heard of again. Everyone needs to find their feet and people need to give the guy a break, after all he�s only had 12 fights. With the right guidance he should be a top quality fighter.

England�s Lions are in action today. No that�s not a misprint because I�m not talking about rugby. I�m actually referring to every lazy sunny summer day�s sport of choice�cricket. It�s good to see the new look England coaching staff putting out a team made up of first team players and young hopefuls. Too often players play one test match or one-dayer before being banished back to the rural backwaters to play out their careers. This way, talented players who are on the fringe will be able to gain experience without too much pressure. The Lions� match against India is happening as I write this and Strauss has got out cheaply. Talk about a dip in form, Straussy seems to be at the bottom of the Grand Canyon drifting in his canoe without a paddle. But he is a gifted batsman so I�m still convinced there�s a big score waiting for him.

Anyway that�s about it for this week�s blog. Not much about football in it, but I�m sure there will be next week, particularly with the Tevez/West Ham/Man Utd issue likely to come to a head. I didn�t do a �how much could you get for the price of these footballers� this week, I think I�ve made my point on that one. Anyway, enjoy your jobs or whatever you do to pass the time and I�ll sling another sporting review/commentary/blog at you next week.