So here we are again, the great and the good of British (men’s) sport meet in Salford to fight it out for the trophy first won by Christopher Chataway in 1954. (His defeat of Roger Bannister was considered highly controversial, how times change!)

 

This year the controversy kicked off when the nominees were announced. The omission of every female sportswoman in Britain was held up as example of the misogyny of sports journalism, one of the most male dominated sectors of the British press. Allowing the august sporting publications Nuts and Zoo to vote was clearly a mistake, but for my money the voters didn’t get their choices far wrong.  Chrissie Wellington has cause to be genuinely outraged that she didn’t make the list; winning her fourth Iron Man Triathlon World Championship in the last five years. Iron Man has a strong claim to be the most demanding sport in the world, and to master such a sport for such a period is remarkable. Rebecca Addlington and Keri-Anne Payne both received votes and nearly made the list. While both would’ve been worthy, both won world titles this year, swimming is a sport that’s top prize is Olympic gold, so neither has quite scaled the heights needed this year. Hopefully they can do it in 2012 and then we can all be truly appalled if they fail to make the list!

As remarkable as Wellington is she still wouldn’t be my pick for the win even if nominated. So let’s take a look at the contenders!

 

Mark Cavendish (Cycling)
Easy start, the ‘Manx Missile’ has to win. He’s already the best sprinter of his generation, if not all time. This year he won the World Road Race Championship and the Maillot Vert for the best sprinter of Le Tour de France, and won on the Champs Elyssee for the 3^rd year in a row.  If this award was being held almost anywhere else in Western Europe, Cavendish would get every vote available. It’s time Britain woke up to the fact that he is great.

 

Darren Clarke (Golf)
Won the Open in horrific weather  conditions in a year when he considered quitting golf after one of the worst performances of his professional career. Quite a comeback for anyone but to do it at the age of 43 is very special. On personality alone Clarke would walk it; the man is a professional sportsman who enjoys cigars and Guinness, and yet still manages to win, but the golf vote is split three ways this year.

 

Alistair Cook (Cricket)
Started the year helping England win the Ashes in Australia for the first time since the 1980s and followed that up with 927 Test Match runs and 600 One Day International (ODI) runs. The only blot on his copy book is the 5-0 whitewash inflicted in his first series as ODI Captain. Still a great year for the English batsman, but he won’t win.

 

Luke Donald (Golf)
For my money the shakiest of the three golf nominations on this list. For many years Donald has been considered a player who placed high but didn’t win, took his big cheque and went home happy. That all ended when Donald became world No 1, in a ranking that rewards consistent high finishes, and sees the step from 10^th to 9^th as just important as the step for 2^nd to 1^st. Ah. Donald also became the first person to top the Money List on both the PGA and European Tours, but he didn’t win any of the four majors, and for my money winning is more important than consistent top 10s when judging great sportsmen. Sorry Luke.

 

Mo Farah (Athletics)
Mo finished 2^nd in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in 2011, overtaken in the final strides. Pretty impressive, but not enough to get you on this list. Farah wasn’t content to take his medal, and head home with his funding secured as a ‘Podium Prospect’ for 2012. No, he went out and fuelled by the disappointment of coming so close in the 10,000m proceeded to become Britain’s first ever long distance world champion, and first European since 1983, in the 5,000m. Deserves a Top 3 finish.

 

Dai Greene (Athletics)
Dai Greene is now European, Commonwealth and World Champion in an event, 400m Hurdles, once christened the ‘man killer’. Impressive, but unfortunately this year it won’t be enough for the win. If he wins Olympic gold in London he will be my early pick to win the trophy next year. For a man that starting his sporting career playing for Swansea City that would be a heck of a pinnacle.

 

Amir Khan (Boxing)
Alastair Brownlee
Rebecca Addlington
Keri-Anne Payne
Chrissie Wellington
Anna Meares
That is an abridged list of British world champions, Amir Khan’s name is not on it. This is because Amir Khan is not a world champion. In a sport that awards almost 50 world titles, 8 in the weight classes Khan has boxed in, he has failed to hold on to a single one. It is ridiculous that he is on this list. Talented he may be but 2011 was not his year. Khan only sneaked on to this list by one nomination and was part of the male only lists submitted by Nuts and Zoo. If they felt they couldn’t vote for women, may I suggest Alastair Brownlee instead?  He’s northern like Khan, he has a brother who’s followed him into the same sport like Khan, but unlike Khan he is a world champion and this year won on the course to be used for the 2012 Olympics. Much more worthy I feel.

 

Andy Murray (Tennis)
Didn’t win a Grand Slam. Isn’t world No 1. Why is he on this list? A solid year, but solid doesn’t cut it in British sport anymore. Sorry Andy, there are worthier candidates.

 

Rory McIlroy (Golf)
After three rounds of the Masters golf tournament this year McIlroy led by four shots, he’d led the whole tournament and looked set to walk away with the title and be hailed the ‘New Tiger’. 18 holes later and McIlroy had completed one of the most spectacular collapses in sporting history, losing by 10 shots. A lesser competitor may have taken a long time to get over this disaster, but two months later Rory had won the US Open setting 11 records in the process. McIlroy is clearly a special talent and has had a good year, with a few more major wins he’ll be a major contender in years to come. Not this time though.

 

Andrew Strauss (Cricket)
Strauss’ year was the antithesis of his opening partner Cook’s. He had a poor year with the bat, scoring only one century, but he captained the England team to No 1 in the world for the first time. Strauss won’t win because his contribution to the England team can’t be expressed in statistics or by holding up medals. He’s a stoic, firm leader who manages to hold together a team of highly talented, and often highly strung players, coaxing out of them world beating performances. Along with coach Andy Flower they’ve pulled England up from and Ashes white wash 5 years ago to a team even the Australian Cricket Board admit must be copied. The two men deserve a huge amount of credit for nurturing the team and for proving that ranting and screaming maybe isn’t the best way to encourage the best from your players.

 

My dream top 3
1. Mark Cavendish
2. Chrissie Wellington
3. Alastair Brownlee

 

My nominated top 3
1. Mark Cavendish
2. Andrew Strauss
3. Mo Farah

 

Expected Top 3 on the night
1. Mark Cavendish
2. Darren Clarke
3. Rory McIlroy