I have great admiration for the sportsperson who knows when their time is up and retires from the game whilst still well regarded and with the public wanting more but even I am wondering if Stephen Hendry may be a little premature in considering retiring from snooker in the summer. On the face of it his heavy defeat to Mark Selby losing 13-4 in the World Championships may focus his mind after an inconsistent last few years where he has failed to win a ranking event and his position in the top 16 is in jeopardy.
   The main difference is that as snooker is an individual sport you are only going to let yourself down and there are enough supporters still keen enough to watch him play and to be in the top 20 of any sport is to still be competitive. The difference of course is knowing within yourself that from the heights that you have achieved to be on a downward path it may be better to end it before the choice is no longer yours and you are unable to qualify for events. Again there is conflicting role models in Jimmy White who struggles to qualify but who can still draw a large audience and obviously loves the game and Steve Davis who again is a shadow of the player he was but there is still affection for him and people are genuinely pleased to see him play even if he is not as competitive, perhaps because he remains self deprecating and the nostalgia glow when watching him can mask some shortcomings.
   For Hendry, I believe he could still be competitive for a few more years yet but he may wish to avoid the gradual slide down the rankings and if he does, snooker will be for  the worse without him.

An intriguing FA Cup final in prospect as Manchester City will face Stoke City with it being 30 years since the former were last there and, surprisingly for a club with Stoke's history, this will be there first FA Cup final. Man City will undoubtedly start as favourites but playing against a well organised team is never straight forward and the pressure of the millions pumped into the club demanding silverware may prove not to follow the script as Arsenal found to their cost in the League Cup final against Birmingham.
   It is interesting to note that Manchester City's first silverware for over 30 years may not be enough to keep Roberto Mancini in a job should they fail to finish fourth in the league and miss out on the Champions League whereas Tony Pulis has further cemented his position by taking Stoke this far. Immediate success is a very hard thing to perform no matter the size of the budget and everyone needs time to build something and for Man City winning the FA Cup could be the kickstart that is required to show the team that they can win things but if the manager constantly has the threat of the sack hanging over him then this will not make the task any easier.
   I, personally am a little disappointed that the other semi-finalists did not win out. As a Man United fan to lose to City was initially a let down although the limpness of the defeat was worse. However, talk of the treble will at least be stopped and whilst it is nice to see your team win trophies for this current United team to be talked of as treble winners seems a little ridiculous when they would not have won the league in other years. Nothing against Stoke in today's match but in the year that Nat Lofthouse passed away it would have made a fitting tribute to see Bolton make the final.
   So the nouveau riche multi millionaires with the superstar players will play what is perceived to be an old fashioned family club with its promising youngsters and honest(ish) journeymen(ish).

My what a lot of sport we've been having recently - so much in fact that the annual daft couple of quid on the Grand National never materialised and as such I did not pay much attention to the event. A reluctance to take a 16 month baby into a betting shop and not being arsed to set up an online account for all the various family wagers at least meant that I broke even as I would not have backed the winner. Instead the Masters provided more than enough entertainment by promising a first European win in 11 years, threatened a win for Tiger Woods who had a little charge on the last day after being written off beforehand and eventually saw the little heard of South African Charl Schwartzel claim the green jacket.
   The last couple of years have shown that European players have managed to shake off their major winning hoodoo but it is still a relatively new dawn for them and confidence is not yet fully formed. At the start of each major championship their Ryder Cup and tour performances are praised and they may place well but in this century out of 45 major tournaments only five have been won by Europeans and Padraig Harrington won three of them himself. When Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer won last year it felt like the flood gates may open but Rory McIlroy's capitulation means that they will have to wait a bit longer.
   There is a danger that as long as they are labelled a golden generation before earning that moniker like their football counterparts that the likes of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and even Sergio Garcia may flatter to deceive. There is no doubt they are all quality players but the question of temperament will continue to be asked as long as their talents are not showcased on the largest individual stage. Lesser names from the United States, South Africa and elsewhere have shown themselves capable of holding their nerve on the big occasion and the Europeans will have to wait until at least June to prove that they are worthy to join this elite club and merit their high rankings.
  
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   Disappointing as McIlroy's fall from the leader board was he is young and talented enough to recover. The most disappointing thing that I've encountered this past sporting weekend (and depressing) is the over commercialisation of the IPL. I am aware that it's whole raison d'etre is as a commercial venture but you've really got to take a step back and wonder if you've gone too far when you start replacing perfectly ordinary words with company names. Batsmen no longer hit a six but a DLF as the Indian real estate company have paid for such a shot to be branded a "DLF Maximum" Will footballers now score a Coke (on the pitch) or perhaps Andy Murray will be serving to win a Barclays. Whatever the upshot it certainly restricts a commentator in his use of language which should be his major skill and instead finds him shouting out company names rather than commentating.

Summer's here. At least it feels like it now the cricket season has started. A strange contrast as Twitter has been providing me with updates of Durham's progress against Hampshire at Southampton in the County Championship whilst I have been watching the start of the IPL in the TV where Chennai Superkings (surely a brand of cigarette) beat Kolkata Knight Riders. A good start for Durham but disappointing for England players in general as Cook and Bopara failed for Essex and Eoin Morgan dropped a sitter and made 6 for Kolkata. There was a time when I would not pay as much attention to the cricket season whilst the football season was underway and likewise the footballers could play as much as they wanted in August but I would not pay much heed to any results until the resolution of the cricket season.
   There is the obvious reason that the finale to any season is of more interest than the opening matches but now I feel genuinely excited about the the commencement of the cricket season. This is despite plenty to still be resolved in the football but I have really started to lose interest in that sport. I speak as a follower of Manchester United, who are still going for three trophies, and I will keep an eye their results but my general interest in the game has waned. Poor performances by the national team without anybody doing anything to change, blanket coverage by the media or the obscene amount of money being thrown around may all have contributed to my apathy although I do feel more kindly to those lower down the league pyramid.
   For that reason I have more interest in seeing Norwich get promoted from the Championship or if Darlington can make the Conference play offs (former looking good; latter not so) but in the meantime at least I have the cricket to distract me.

No matter the result there was always going to be a story in today's cricket World Cup final. For certain journalists the prospect of Sachin Tendulkar scoring his one hundredth century on his home ground in a final whilst Muttiah Muralitheran's last match provided others with a chance to salivate at the opportunity for him to take the winning wicket. In the end Tendulkar scored 18 and Murali failed to take any wickets which in terms of this final may be for the best as it does detract from the actual match, which may have been the case had one of those scenarios occurred. Personally I am sure that there first concern would be to win the match and for that reason Tendulkar will be pleased enough that he did not reach his milestone in this match but for Murali this does not detract from his career which is worthy of all the accolades he is sure to now receive.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/engine/current/match/433606.html