IT WAS a sad coincidence that in the week Matthew Hoggard became the tenth Englishman to reach 200 Test wickets, one of the two other Yorkshiremen in that elite group, Fred Trueman, was reported to be suffering from cancer.

Even as he undergoes his treatment, it is possible to imagine Fiery Fred being apoplectic about the nine dropped catches which cost England victory against Sri Lanka.

Even the Rev David Sheppard was not spared when he put down a slip catch off Fred, being told: "Pretend tha's praying next time, reverend, and keep thee hands together."

Trueman was my boyhood hero. Among other great fast bowlers, his run-up and action have been surpassed only by Denis Lillee for sheer ferocity and Michael Holding for the tip-toed athleticism which embodied his "whispering death" qualities.

Fred seemed to have been hewn from millstone grit. Playing two three-day matches a week, as counties did in those days, he would bowl 1,000 overs a season and never seemed to be injured.

He was the first to 300 Test wickets and finished with 307 from 67 Tests. His average of 21.57 has been bettered only by a trio of West Indians, Curtly Ambrose, Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner.

Darren Gough, the other Yorkshireman past the 200 mark, finished with 229 wickets from 58 Tests at 28.39, which is a similar strike-rate and average to Hoggard. In other words, good as they are, they are not in the Trueman class.

It has been suggested that sunglasses may be one reason for England's dropped slip catches and we can be sure that if anyone had dared to don a pair in Trueman's day they would have been dismissed as limp-wristed posers and told to go and lie on a beach.

BRITAIN'S only three decent tennis players seem to be no better at hanging on to the baton than our sprint relay teams. Tim Henman passed the No 1 seed mantle to Andy Murray, who quickly handed it to Greg Rusedski, who promptly lost 6-1, 6-1 to a French qualifier in the Masters event in Hamburg.

The British No 1 ranking should not elevate anyone to such heights as to prompt an attack of vertigo, but it currently seems to be a poisoned chalice. When Murray, who was 19 this week, regains it he should leave his two rivals way behind, but we should spare him the burden of Murray mania at Wimbledon because a much more likely 19-year-old winner is the Majorcan magician Rafael Nadal.

He and Roger Federer pulled out of Hamburg after the sort of five-hour final in Rome which makes female demands for equal pay so ludicrous. Nadal is unbeaten in 53 matches on clay, but can he continue his mastery of Federer at Wimbledon?

AFTER being spoilt for choice between Matt Dawson, Kyran Bracken and Andy Gomersall, the dearth of top-class scrum halves in English rugby was underlined by the announcement of the squad to tour Australia.

They include Leicester's Scott Bemand, who I assumed must be the squad's answer to Theo Walcott as the Tigers sent on Austin Healy as their replacement for Harry Ellis in last weekend's Premiership play-off thrashing of London Irish. However, it turns out that Bemand is 27 - not an age beyond which scrum halves are likely to improve greatly. So if he can't get in the Leicester squad, why might he be good enough to play for England?

On the plus side, it's marvellous to see Wolsingham's Mathew Tait in the squad, and hopefully his long-term development at outside centre will be helped by a short-term decision to have Mike Catt creating the space inside him.

IT'S strange that Ricky Hatton's superb capture of the WBA welterweight belt from Luis Collazo in Boston has not met with universal acclaim. Some saw it as the sort of gruelling battle which can only shorten careers and even Hatton's trainer was not happy about him moving up from light welterweight, saying it happened only because television wanted it.

Hatton has a three-fight deal with American television giant Home Box Office and could earn mega-bucks from fighting such big names as Oscar de la Hoya. It's clearly a risk, but presumably Ricky finds the money, the challenge, or probably both, irresistible.

THE Rawalpindi Rickshaw, otherwise known as Shoaib Akhtar, is to undergo some fitness tests to determine whether he can tour England with Pakistan in the second half of the summer. Barely a month seems to have passed in the last few years without the Rickshaw developing some new ailment, yet he managed to sustain peak form in the home series against England last winter.

He likes coming to England, where he seems to find the girls more accommodating than back home, so don't be surprised if he is declared fit. Whether he will be sufficiently motivated to continue taking English wickets is another matter as he might feel he's done enough to silence his critics.

Published: 19/05/2006