While cricket betting fans try to make sense of the erratic performance of the England team in the slightly surreal circumstances of their encounter with the West Indians, at the back of our minds is the forthcoming visit to our shores by the Australians in the summer of this year. Lest we forget the significance of this forthcoming Ashes battle, the redoubtable Shane Warne has entered the arena, even at this early stage, to dispense his wolf-in-sheepÂ’s-clothing advice which, as ever, is cunningly designed to intimidate rather than assist.

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The writing is very much on the wall for Scots Rugby coach, Frank Hadden. If Scotland lose to Italy at Murrayfield this Saturday then Hadden’s days as the Scotland boss will be short. Despite glimpses of promise of what this Scotland team can produce, it’s results that matter. With the 2011 Rugby World Cup creeping ever closer, Scotland need to feel that they have the right man for the job in place. Scottish rugby needs victories, not promises of what-might-be, and Hadden needs to deliver.

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It wonÂ’t just be the army of golf betting fans who will be scrutinising Tiger WoodsÂ’ return to the professional game in the Accenture World Match Play in Arizona this week. Nervous fellow competitors will join them as the Tiger endeavours to show the world either that he can still work the old magic or that he has lost his touch after so much time away from the fray. At the back of playerÂ’s minds will be the worrying notion of a third possibility after the claim from the maestro himself that he believes he will now perform better than ever before.

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After a two year ban, Dwain Chambers, has finally been reselected for Team Gb and will run in the 60m at the European Indoor Championships in Turin on the 6-8 March 2009 – he has been automatically made favourite by the bookies upon hearing the news that Chambers will run. The powerhouse sprinter was sidelined by UK’s governing athletic body (UKA) after testing positive for a banned drug.

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The UEFA Champions League returns this week with sixteen teams left and the knockout round about to begin. Reigning champions, Manchester United plus Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool represent the English contingent and football betting fans will be scrutinising the form of their opponents in their efforts to decide the chances of another final between two Premiership clubs. Last year it went to the wire for Chelsea and Man U when the Blues were defeated on Russian ground in a nail-biting final.

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The third Test match in the Caribbean will be much discussed by Lords Taverners and cricket betting fans in future years, not least because of the manner in which the Windies snatched a draw from what looked like certain defeat only a couple of hours before the match ended. West Indies fast bowler, Daren Powell was not shy about praising his own batting ability and his confidence that he could create a draw out of hopelessness. Declaring that he was ‘in his zone’ he tells us ‘I was the master of the situation. It’s nothing new to me.’ While our English reserve brings recoil at such self-regard, we might do better to grasp that this man is merely stating facts as a professional and that this is the kind of attitude that wins cricket matches.

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Richard Branson and the Virgin Group are deep in talks about buying Honda’s Formula 1 team. With the new season beckoning (29th March) it is hopeful that Honda and Virgin can quickly come to some arrangement before deadlines are reached. Honda is currently for sale at the price of £1.00 but any buyer would need around £40 million to bankroll the team for just 1 season. If no deal is reached then Honda would need to get rid of their Formula 1 team, around 700 employees including British driver Jenson Button.

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The weights for the 2009 John SmithÂ’s Grand National have been announced and Exotic Dancer tops the list with a weighting of 11st 10lb. For those horse racing betting fans who struggle with the rationale behind the handicapping system, the harshness of such a burden will do little to enlighten them. The net result is that this great horse has now slipped to 33/1 in the betting. Of course, Denman had been expected to carry the top weight but has been withdrawn after his poor showing at Kempton a couple of weeks ago.

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On February the 22nd 2009, Hollywood shall once again put on its sparkle as the Oscars come to town. This year, one film has caught the imagination of a nation. Slumdog Millionaire, a small British film, directed by Danny Boyle, is the story of a boy from India’s slum in a rags to riches drama – a true underdog movie. Slumdog has been nominated in 10 categories including Best Picture and Best Director. In India alone a staggering $41 million has been placed on Slumdog in this years Oscars betting 2009.

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In this age of celebrity, a small number of sportsmen grapple with the conflict between the love of their sport and the glittering temptations and adoration offered by the world of celebrity. There is surely no better example of this than David Beckham, the biggest of them all. His crossroads came a couple of years ago when he took football betting fans by surprise and forsook the premier ground of his sport by leaving Europe and joining LA Galaxy, a stratospheric drop in footballing finesse but presumably compensated for by the potential rewards of A list status in the home of popular culture.

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