IT was quite a coincidence that Marcus Trescothick should make the rather pointless statement about his retirement from international cricket on the same day as Steve Harmison dubbed Geoff Boycott "a waste of space."

The two Ashes heroes might have seemed like big, tough cricketers in the glorious summer of 2005, but both have a problem when it comes to travelling abroad.

They deserve sympathy rather than condemnation, but in Harmison's case his home form for England has not been great either in the last two years, so Boycott is entitled to his criticisms.

Doubtless Harmison is frustrated as his loss of form has nothing to do with a lack of effort, but he does himself no favours through his illnatured responses to his critics.

He says of Boycott: "Inside the England dressing room his views are regarded as a joke." Boycott himself should have been dismissed as a joke after making a complete buffoon of himself in court when accused of assaulting a woman. But his views on cricket are not to be taken lightly.

Boycott has always been a selfish individual; never a team man. So it's no surprise that in his desire to be noticed through blunt expression of his opinions he feels no constraints from any wish to curry favour with current players.

He was honest enough to admit he was wrong about Paul Collingwood, who he claimed wasn't up to Test standard. But Boycott is not exactly alone in his assertion that Harmison is not worthy of having his central contract renewed.

After a Test series win, the paceman must be behind Matthew Hoggard in the queue to get back in, and with the likes of Chris Tremlett, Liam Plunkett, Graham Onions and Sajid Mahmood knocking on the door even a repeat of last year's early-season county form might not be enough to earn a Test recall.

The selectors could decide that Harmison is never going to overcome totally his homesickness, and in the face of all this competition it would be unfair to select him only for home Tests. But whatever happens, no-one can take his 208 Test wickets away from him, and for someone from Ashington to have risen to the top of the world rankings guarantees his place in history.

THE top man now in the England attack is Ryan Sidebottom, whose release by Yorkshire has proved to be one of the more embarrassing gaffes in the county's turbulent history.

When they let him go to Nottinghamshire at the end of the 2003 season he had just finished top of their averages with 35 championship wickets at 20.28, but hadn't played after late July because of an ankle problem. With Steve Kirby proving a prolific wicket-taker at the time, and with Tim Bresnan also emerging to support Matthew Hoggard and Chris Silverwood, Yorkshire must have felt Sidebottom wasn't worth fighting over.

The folly was compounded by the subsequent release of Kirby and Silverwood, leading to the current situation where they are desperate for Rana Naved-ul- Hasan to be available. It now looks as though he will be as the farce surrounding Indian Cricket League players continues to evolve.

SOME sportsmen, like politicians, don't always say what they mean. So when Rob Andrew used to insist that an RFU job didn't interest him, it didn't always ring true.

But when he did take off for Twickenham 18 months ago there was a suspicion that the decision was motivated partly by a belief that he had taken Newcastle as far as he could.

Equally, it seemed that by promoting a person of far lower profile, John Fletcher, to take over, club chairman Dave Thompson was leaving the door ajar for Andrew to return should the Twickenham corridors prove too constricting.

After the defeat by bottom club Leeds, the Falcons will have to seek fresh blood or greater motivation over the summer, otherwise they will be favourites for relegation next season.

As he grapples with the dilemma of an England management structure in which Martin Johnson would want total power over coach Brian Ashton, Andrew must by now be wondering what his own future role will be. But if he did come back to Newcastle would the current acting boss, Steve Bates, want to work with him?

SO the exclusive club of Peter Shilton, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and Billy Wright have been joined by an LA Galaxy player. Wright married one of the Beverley Sisters, who were the Spice Girls of their day except that everything was a little more dignified then. Perhaps they were a celebrity couple, but they didn't flaunt their stardom or make vulgar attempts to cash in on it.

So now that the latest member of the 100 Club has his coveted place in the galaxy, let him ride off into the LA sunset never to be seen or heard again