Thunderbirds Were Go

Congratulations to the Adelaide Thunderbirds, who made sure that South Australia will celebrate a premiership in 2010. Sadly for the Thunderbirds, their moment in the media spotlight was marred by the blanket coverage in the local Advertiser of Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams' resignation, but when they finally hit the court yesterday, the Thunderbirds were not in the mood to share top billing with anybody, least of all the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic. They stifled legendary Magic shooter Irene van Dyk from the start, jumped the Magic and powered away from the Kiwi side, which was flattered by the 52-42 scoreline. The ANZ Championship is a spectacular competition, with an astounding level of skill and controlled aggression on display. It is only marred by a huge level of difficulty in winning across the Tasman, for each country's teams: but much longer-established competitions in other sports have that, too. But it is great to see these elite players playing in a competition that is improving the standard of the game, and not only in the Antipodes: the imports from Britain and the Caribbean playing in yesterday's match can only benefit, too. Australia-New Zealand netball Tests have long been some of the most intense sporting competitions you could hope to see: they can only get better now that this league is such a success.

Barcelona celebrates foreign win

So the World Cup resides in Madrid for the first time after a suitably tense final, in which the better team won. The final was certainly not a free-flowing celebration of the beautiful game: in fact a constant flow of fouls (mostly from the men in orange) disrupted the rhythm of the game and detracted from the spectacle. The first half was a dire plod, but the second was slightly better watching as the urgency increased. Yes, you can point the finger at the Dutch team for its cynically physical approach, but it was not Holland's job to yield space and create a tableau for Spain's gifted passers to decorate: it was their job to harass, retreat in an intact zone, force Spain wide and seek to create on the break when they could - the recipe by which Switzerland beat the Spanish in their opening match. In truth they over-did the harassment - eight of the starting eleven received yellow cards - but they had a World Cup to win. And they could have won it, had they seized their chances: Arjen Robben will be haunted for years by how Iker Castillas saved with his leg on 62 minutes, after Wesley Sneijder had played arguably the pass of the tournament to put him through one-on-one. But of course the Spanish could have sealed it earlier had they taken theirs. When the Dutch went a man down after Johnny Heitinga was sent off, a sense of inevitability crept in and it was ultimately no surprise when a Dutch defensive howler let Andrés Iniesta in for the moment that will crown his career - and which sparked scenes of delirium in Madrid and Barcelona (oh, so you Catalans deigned to consider yourselves Spanish today, did you?) But the time has come for FIFA to accept that the game has passed it by in terms of relying on one referee. In particular, the Dutch were left flabbergasted when English referee Howard Webb denied them a corner in the 115th minute after a Sneijder free-kick took a big deflection off a Spanish defender. You have to wonder how someone standing so close to the action misses that, but Webb did - maybe in the relief that it wasn't deliberate, and that his cards could finally be returned to his pocket - but five minutes from the end of extra time in a World Cup final that is still locked at 0-0, it is a big blunder. This is 2010: there should be the means for a second ref to speak to Webb down his earpiece and say, "it was a corner, Howard - big deflection off a defender." As it was, Spain's build-up to its winning goal was started by a goal-kick it should not have had. In the litany of referee howlers from South Africa 2010 it was only a middling one, but it was the wrong time to make it. Let's face it, the system is broke. The final word on the World Cup and this is truly bizarre: the only team to come out of the tournament undefeated was ... New Zealand.

And it was all yellow

It was great to see Cadel Evans snaring the yellow jersey in Le Tour. Cadel Evans is loving being back in the maillot jaune for the first time since the 2008 event, and says he is a lot calmer than then. That's good, because the precious leads we eagerly wait for in the mornings - 20 seconds over Andy Schleck, 61 seconds over Alberto Contador - are at this stage essentially meaningless, although any kisses you can snare from the canary-clad French lovelies at each evening's presentations are better than none. Evans says his job at the moment is just to "put time in" to Schleck and Contador, and he's right, but in truth, there is no time cushion that he could have prior to the Pyrenees climbs that he could really feel comfortable having. On those 12- and 14-degree climbs, Contador just keeps chugging: if it is hot, his incredible stamina and ability to accelerate when others are flagging becomes doubly important. Evans could have 10 minutes' break on Contador coming into the Pyrenees, but in the right conditions, that merely becomes a target in the fearsome calculations of time, distance, degree of climb and energy surplus in which the Energiser bunny of cycling specialises. That's not to say Contador is unbeatable: but Evans has a power of work to do if he doesn't want to be following Contador down the Champs-Elysées again.

Slow burn on the Webber

Mark Webber continued a great weekend for Australian wheelmen, winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone (er, I am not going to mention Troy Corser's and Mark Vermeulen's tough weekend in the Czech Republic.) Webber was clearly miffed at having to give his car's front wing to Sebastian Vettel after qualifying, and his post-chequered flag comment to his team over the radio, of "not bad for a number two driver" speaks volumes for his competitiveness - as does his controlled driving that forced Vettel wide, without a repeat of the collision in Turkey a month ago that spoiled Red Bull's chances of quinella. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button they are not, but Webber seems to be thriving in the Red Bull team dynamic, and the weird concept that the Formula One team environment has become. If he repeats this weekend's performance at Hockenheim in a fortnight, not only will he not care what Vettel thinks about it, even the bromance between Button and Hamilton might be tested.

Banga shuts up ranga

Now to cricket, where we owe a big thank-you to Bangladesh, which took England down a peg or two at the weekend with its first win over it in any format. England was the last Test-playing country that had not lost to the Tigers, but succumbed in the Bristol ODI to what was actually an undermanned Bangladesh team. Coming as it did just after Paul Collingwood had declared that the Australians had forfeited the "right to sledge" England in this summer's forthcoming Ashes series, the loss to Bangladesh was a welcome reminder that England might not be as good as it thinks it is. (Although Collingwood happens to be right: if there has been any heat in the kitchen in Australia-England games in the last 18 months, it's the Australian dressing room where the temperature has got far too uncomfortable; and what sledging that has come from the Australians has not carried with it any credibility.) Of course, before it gets the chance to make Collingwood eat his words Australia has to negotiate a tricky couple of Tests against a seemingly rejuvenated Pakistan. Mike Hussey managed to tame the fearsome Derbyshire (second-bottom in Division Two) attack, warming up for the Test series against Pakistan with a typical fill-your-boots century. New boy Usman Khawaja did not play against Derbyshire, so the full Test batting order got a work-out, although Shane Watson and Michael Clarke would not have called it that, lasting 11 balls between them. This week's First Test should be a good contest, with the Pakistani seamers more comfortable in the conditions at Lord's than they were for most of their Australian tour last summer, Steve Smith set to make his eagerly awaited Test debut and for the first time ever, three Tasmanians in an Australian Test side: captain Ponting, debutant keeper Tim Paine and a fully-fit Ben Hilfenhaus returning to the attack. Pakistan's off-season clean-out - yes, elderly Test batsmen can be dropped if they don't make runs, there isn't actually a law against it - has weakened its middle-order on paper, although I am looking forward to seeing more of the prodigiously talented Umar Akmal (who was told by the Pakistani cricketing authorities to pull his head in and do all future talking through his bat) and those beautiful parabolas bowled by Mohammad Aamer. It's called swing, Shane.