YOU don't need me to heap vitriol on Sven when the world and his dog have already done it. It's easy to speak with hindsight, but he was absolutely right to play Gerrard and Beckham against mighty Liechstenstein otherwise we might never have breached their steely defence.

"We said we wanted free points and free points is what we got," observed Becks profoundly after he and Gerrard had created the killer second goal.

They managed to avoid the bookings which would have seen them banned for the group decider in Turkey, so Sven can raise two digits to his critics and continue to spin his "live for the moment" philosophy.

But I can see where the knockers were coming from.

One careless tackle, or a refereeing error, could have brought out the dreaded yellow card, and all for the sake of beating a country with a population a third of the size of Darlington's.

Still, we'll bank the "free" points and move on, safe in the knowledge that after recent evidence to the contrary everything is hunky dory in the British sporting firmament.

Rarely can one weekend have produced more glorious confirmation of this.

The footballers triumphed in Macedonia, the cricketers rose like Lazarus against South Africa, the Walker Cup golfers completed a hat-trick, and Zara Phillips did jolly well at Burghley. Oh, and the England rugby team, back to full strength, thrashed the French. But we expected that.

What we definitely didn't anticipate was the cricketers' comeback. After all the post-Headingley doom and gloom, and the renewed belittling of county cricket, suddenly everything was blissful again.

We have a habit of celebrating wildly after doing well in the final Test, usually when we have already lost 4-0 to Australia. But this was much more commendable as the pressure was on to square an enthralling, competitive series.

Everyone played his part, and while Andrew Flintoff's thunderous hitting would have emptied any bar, there was equal pleasure for me in watching how well Martin Bicknell and Stephen Harmison complemented each other on the final morning.

Bicknell's skill opened the door as two excellent in-swingers were followed by the perfect out-swinger to remove Mark Boucher. Day in, day out, Bicknell has been the best English bowler in county cricket since his injury-plagued days in his mid-20s. But at 34 it is too late to contemplate an England future and he can count himself unlucky not to have played more.

Harmison, on the other hand, could have a brighter future than looked likely when he was bowling all those wides in Australia last winter.

It didn't take a genius to spot his potential, but the difficulty can be in spotting that someone has the character to work on that potential and the England hierarchy deserve credit for persevering with Harmison.

It is a mystery why England have not renewed the contracts of either Harmison or Matthew Hoggard as fast bowlers need protection more than anyone.

Paul Collingwood's contract is a surprise, but it is a sign that the selectors believe that here is another North-Easterner with the character and determination to keep making progress. Sadly for Durham it means they will be lucky to see him for more than two championship games next season.

THIS column is the scourge of those who lack bottle, and I am tempted to observe that there have been few greater examples of this declining commodity than Justine Henin-Hardenne's epic victory against Jennifer Capriati in the US Open tennis semi-final.

Capriati won the first set and led 5-3 in the second and 5-2 in the third but finally lost in three hours and three minutes, after which her opponent was put on an intravenous drip. She recovered to beat fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters in the final the following day, only for her apparent bravery to be clouded by insinuations of drug-taking.

Leo Clijsters, Kim's father, hinted that Justine's increase in weight and muscle was "unusual."

She says her only doping is work, and I prefer to believe that her increased bulk is a result of her determination to match the unfeminine power of the Williams sisters.

FURTHER to my querying of what on earth racing's shenanigans have got to do with the Office of Fair Trading, I see that our esteemed Sports Minister, Dick Caborn, has offered his sympathy. But it seems his department is powerless to intervene, which just about sums up the average politician's attitude to sport.

THE week of English sporting triumph was crowned by a 12th successive professional victory for Audley Harrison, who swept to victory inside three rounds against some loser from Louisiana. I heard the news at 7.30am on BBC television, when it was announced that the highlights could be seen 17 hours later. I did not wait up.

Published: 12/09/2003