So we’re now Riverside FC, eh? Why exactly are we copying an ineffectual Man Utd protest?

Walking down Sloper Road in the afternoon sun on my way to the match yesterday I saw a couple of new additions to the stock on sale at Billy the Badge’s emporium of poor quality Cardiff City merch. First of all there were lots of Malaysian flags, which makes sense what with our prospective Malysian benefactor supposedly being in attendance (my favourite banner at the match simply read ‘Selamat Datang’ which means welcome in Malay). The second were some weird chocolate and amber scarves. I thought it might be some sort of show of support for newly promoted Newport County. Turns out they were the colours for Riverside FC (never knew what their colours were before). For those not up to date on their Cardiff City history, Riverside FC was the original team that became Cardiff City AFC after Cardiff was granted City status and just before we joined the football league.

So, it now looks like we’re trying to do a Man Utd and protest at the club’s running by wearing the scarf that our great-grandfathers would’ve worn if they’d gone along to Sophia Gardens in the 1900s? Well, I have a number of problems with this.

One is that we are NOT Man Utd. Copying a protest like theirs makes us look like a tinpot outfit. Related to this is that I think the whole Newton Heath thing is a bit pathetic. It’s given us the ludicrous sight of someone wearing a £5 Newton Heath scarf presumably in protest to the Glazer’s ownership whilst also wearing a replica shirt that has put £50 directly into their hands. Oh yeah, and a season ticket that’s probably cost the best part of a grand. Basically it’s an easy way for fans to feel like they’re ‘making a statement’ but without actually doing anything. The situation at Man Utd will only be resolved by some serious action. That means people not buying Man Utd branded stuff, not turning up to matches, not giving the Glazers money, joining the Supporters Trust and trying to help organise and support the ‘Red Knights in their takeover. It may mean that they have to forego truly supporting their heroes on the pitch, whom they have only love and respect for. Which is a hard thing for a football fan to do, but that’s the nature of the situation at that club. A green and gold scarf won’t cut it.

The situation at Cardiff is different. Our chairman, though dodgy as hell, is actively seeking new investors so he can ease himself out of the picture. We’re pursuing a wealthy benefactor in the mould of the Glazers to bail us out. Who knows if he’ll turn out to be as rich as he claims, or any good? Also, boycotting merch is a bad idea what with the club still possibly facing administration. Trying to draw parallels is daft.

Two is that I’m not really sure where this has come from. I had a scout around and the usual places haven’t provided any info on this, so I’m not sure whether the Riverside scarf thing is actually a fan started grassroots protest, but instead simply a merch seller who’s had a word with a Mancunian mate of his who told him how much of a killing he’s made on this Newton Heath scarf craze.

Three is that they look like Harry Potter scarves. Which is cool in its own way. I’m tempted to buy one just as a surreptitious way of supporting City while out and about, but if I do buy one it won’t be in protest at anything. I protest in the best way, ranting anonymously through the interweb tubes.

Insert cliché about Bollywood glamour here

Tamim Iqbal: sadly not taking part in the IPL

The third edition of the Indian Premier League is kicking off tomorrow and promises to be another instalment of top entertainment, with some cricket thrown into the mix. I watched a lot of last year’s tournament, which was held in South Africa due to security issues in India to do with something along the lines of the need to police the biggest example of the democratic process ever carried out anywhere. Anyway, last year the players involved showed us brilliant hitting and canny bowling, with some pretty awesome fielding thrown into the mix too, with Deccan Chargers coming out as winners.

The whole IPL experience last year was also enlivened by an interesting website, Fake IPL Player who blogged spurious rumours and innuendo about the Kolkata Knight Riders (hilarious team name BTW). It seemed the more FIP blogged the worse Kolkata did until they imploded and finished bottom of the table.

As mentioned previously on this blog, I’m an admirer of Twenty20 as a format and I’m especially glad that this year’s IPL is being shown on free to air TV courtesy of ITV 4. It’s also nice that my ITV watching will extend beyond Jeeves and Wooster reruns, Poirot, and their excellent regional news coverage. Here’s hoping they do a good job, the Bollywood presenter they’ve brought in for it is suitably attractive so that’s a start at least.

There have been some slightly puzzling developments in the IPL this year to do with overseas players. One is that no Pakistan players have been bought up by any of the franchises, despite them being the Twenty20 world champions and boasting players such as Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir and Umar Gul, all of whom have been hits in this format. I know there are extreme tensions between India and Pakistan but it does seem strange that no Pakistan players were bought up by the franchises.

Equally puzzling is the total lack of Bangladesh players in the IPL. While Bangladesh overall may not be an especially good side they boast some outstanding talents in the form of Shakib al-Hasan and most spectacularly in Tamim Iqbal, a young man who could go on to be one of the game’s great limited-over batters. While the Bangladesh v England Test series is going to be taking place for the first part of the IPL, English players such as Keven Pietersen and Eoin Morgan have been picked up, yet no Bangladeshis. It also seems daft that Kolkata, given its proximity to Bangladesh, haven’t picked up any Bangladeshi players.

This leaves the IPL relying on the talents of, well, the rest of the world really. There’s pretty much all the stars from world cricket you’d want to see play in this format (Dhoni, Murali, McCullum, Gayle) plus some over the hill Aussies and journeymen Saffers. Looks like it could be a good one. Would’ve loved to have seen Tamim Iqbal though. That boy’s a bit special.

Megabus Smegabus

Aye, you can fuck of an' all smiley

Despite its low low fares making it the choice of conveyance for the poor/students and that it could provide a green (ish), cheap and sensible solution to nationwide travel (well, intermediate distance travel anyway), I’ve had enough of the Megabus and coach travel in general.

This may well stem from when I was 17 and coming back to South Wales from the Midlands. Not only did this particular journey take ages and feature a stop of more than an hour in Birmingham, it also occurred when the nation happened to be in the grip of one of its epic downpours. In trying to negotiate a very large puddle on the motorway the bus managed to flood the luggage bit and soak all my stuff in muddy water. It wrecked a whole load of my clothes and it was still bloody late. Not happy.

It could also have something to do with ludicrously long coach trips of well over 24 hours through continental Europe while on school ski trips.

Anyway, since then I’ve been an infrequent coach traveller, preferring the train if possible. But I’ve now had 2 fucking horrendous coach journeys courtesy of Megabus over the last few months and I’m turning my back on coaches.

The first of these journeys from hell followed an awesome weekend in London. It was a truly epic one. Coming back from the American Football in Wembley on the Sunday night I knew there were no trains running that late that I could guarantee catching, so had booked the ‘red eye’ leaving at half 11 and arriving at about 3 on Monday morning. Fine, I thought, I’ll catch some zeds on the way back. It started badly as the match had finished early so I’d rocked up with over an hour to spare so was forced to hang around lying on the floor with 3 heavy nights on the booze, all day drinking on Sunday and crashing on random sofas kicking in. When I finally got on the bus it was packed, cramped, roasting hot, smelt terrible and I had some metaller kid blasting shitty death metal at ear drum shattering decibels sitting next to me. Needless to say the experience was fucking awful and I didn’t sleep at all.

However today took the biscuit.

I was heading down for an interview for a job in London. I’d looked at trains but they were too expensive due to the late notice and the fact I had to travel at peak time, so I decided Megabus would have to do. I arrived in plenty of time, but the bus came 15 minutes late. As soon as I’d boarded the driver announced that there was a problem with the electrics so they had to change the bus in Cwmbran. I was just thinking I could have had an hours extra kip if I’d stayed at my parents house. So we’re now super late and the new bus’ heating doesn’t work so it’s freezing. We then get caught in traffic all the way down, especially in central London.

Now, I ain’t daft. I’d made contingencies for this. I thought half hour delay was expectable and reasonable so had made provision for that. Unfortunately we rocked up 45 minutes late, prompting a sprint to Victoria rail station as I searched the TfL website on my phone trying to figure how the fuck I can get to Catford in 40 minutes. What ensued was a madcap dash across London with an apologetic phone call to my prospective employers en route. Not exactly ideal prep for a job interview.

Seriously, Megabus can suck my ass.

But I’ll forgive it a touch if I get the job as then I won’t be poor enough to have to resort to using it.