Cricketers Must Show Home is Not Where the Fainthearts Are

Richard Williams: England's decision to leave India suggests they lack authoritative leadership and have succumbed to the celebrity bubble
The Ryder Cup is played in even-numbered years these days because, back in September 2001, the event was postponed for 12 months after the United States team took an apparently unanimous decision not to get on the plane that would take them to England. The 9/11 attacks, coming just over a fortnight before the tournament was scheduled to start at The Belfry, convinced them that transatlantic flying was, for the time being, a bad idea. I don't suppose any one of them has ever regretted the choice, although some of us felt it was taken in haste and without real regard to its effect on the lives and livelihoods of others less able to countenance such a gesture - people running concession stands, bed and breakfast establishments and car parks. Over the next few days the England cricket team will be facing a similar decision. Should they go back to India to play a two-Test series, now rearranged for Chennai and Mohali, or are they better off staying at home with their nearest and dearest? Individuals are being left to make their own choices, without pressure being applied by the officers of the England and Wales Cricket Board, and it seems likely that some will stay and some will go. The swiftness of their return home after last week's attacks in Mumbai suggests that the party is lacking the sort of authoritative leadership capable of advancing preferable options. Staying put would have been the best course of all, standing firm and making some sort of common cause with the Indian people, who would have taken comfort from their presence. A temporary retreat to Dubai, followed by a swift return to action, would have been the second best choice. Instead, no doubt swayed by the voices of players who had been listening to their families' entreaties, they were home before the siege of the Taj Mahal hotel had reached its conclusion. Now it seems to be taken for granted that Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison will be the first to announce a decision to opt out of the Tests. They are fortunate that the game has given them sufficient material wealth to cushion them against the potential consequences of their absence. They, and any other players considering a similar course of action, would do better to demonstrate their solidarity with the rest of the squad. The unlikelihood of that course of action says something about the way the England cricket team is run. A hotel in which they recently stayed had become a war zone and of course they were affected by the terrible sights. But recent newspaper columns by Harmison and Kevin Pietersen have the sound of men not in control of their own emotions. "I'm still shaking from the terrorist atrocities in Mumbai," the captain wrote. "Every time I see the TV footage I realise how close we were to death." Well, as close as the 800 miles between Mumbai and Bhubaneswar. Or, if you like, as close as the two weeks since the squad checked out of the Taj Mahal, leaving their Test match kit to await their scheduled return. I don't think they're faint hearts. I just think they're indifferently led and prey to the delusions that tend to affect the behavior of English sportsmen when they enter the celebrity bubble. If the Foreign Office says that the situation is too dangerous, then of course they should stay at home. But I can't help remembering the absurd precautions taken to guard England's footballers during the last World Cup - the helicopter escorts, the squads of mounted police and the street closures that caused inconvenience to bemused German motorists - and I wonder about the quality of the advice the cricketers are receiving from those whose careers are, to some extent, dependent on the existence of a threat. Bullies off hockey, for London's sake It is 20 years since Great Britain won the gold medal in the men's hockey tournament at the Seoul Olympics, when eight goals in the tournament made Sean Kerly a national hero. The game seemed certain to grow in popularity. In the last few days, however, we have been told that the sport is likely to be among the victims of the government's failure to come up with the £600m budget for elite sport that Gordon Brown pledged to deliver back when the London 2012 euphoria was still in full bloom. Now UK Sport faces the unpleasant job of telling certain sports that their recent performances have not justified a claim for funding. Hockey is among them, despite the men finishing fifth and the women sixth in Beijing, positions from which a medal push ought to be possible. Sport is not alone in facing up to cuts. But the money, although aimed at potential medal winners, was supposed to encourage participation at all levels. And hockey - still a grass-roots sport despite the artificial pitches that have made it a much improved sport for players and spectators alike - seems the wrong target. Milan the club to keep Beckham going If David Beckham has been watching Ronaldinho lately, he will be convinced that he is going to the right place this winter. When Barcelona offloaded the 28-year-old Brazilian to Milan in the summer, the deal was interpreted as yet another example of Silvio Berlusconi's weakness for ageing stars. But that marvellous free-kick which began the Milan revival at Fratton Park was typical of Ronaldinho's performances so far this season. On January 7 Beckham is due to report for duty at the MilanLab, the facility that has kept Paolo Maldini going past his 40th birthday. If anyone can help the former England captain secure the two international appearances he needs to surpass Bobby Moore's 108 caps, it is Berlusconi's specialists in the black art of propping up geriatric footballers. A natural circuit except to Ecclestone A spectacular new Argentinian race track opened last week. Winding around a volcanic lake in the mountains near San Luis, it looks like something from the dreams of formula one fans who remember an age when heroes raced on circuits that followed the natural contours of the land. Nowadays the new tracks are designed on the computer of Bernie Ecclestone's favored circuit architect, and are carefully "packaged" in order to make the most economical use of the available real estate. The other reason why the Circuito Internacional Potreros de los Funes will never host a pukka grand prix is that the government of Argentina is neither rich nor irresponsible enough to cough up the sort of fees regularly transferred into Ecclestone's pockets from the public purse of countries whose rulers account to no one. In remembrance of Rob Partridge My friend Rob Partridge died the other day after enduring a long and painful illness with courage, grace and mordant humor. His exploits in the music business - with the likes of Bob Marley (for whom he organized football matches in Battersea Park and elsewhere), Tom Waits, U2, Marianne Faithfull and the Streets - are described in today's obituaries pages but I shall miss his running commentary on the fortunes of Queens Park Rangers, a club whose quixotic adventures were suited to his wry, resilient temperament.