PERHAPS it was all the talk about Hawkeye which inspired our national football captain to have a Mohican haircut.

Warfare has moved on a bit since the Mohicans' heyday and the new Hawkeye uses missile tracking technology to work out whether a batsman is out lbw.

Whether Becks has a detailed knowledge of such technology I don't know, but when it comes to camera angles he certainly knows how to get them trained on him.

"David Beckham's haircut is a matter for him and him alone," said an FA spokesman.

Well, no it isn't actually. As our national captain he has an ambassadorial role to play and his haircut is as ill-advised as the shaven heads Leeds took into battle at Valencia.

Footballers should accept that with a fat wage packet goes some responsibility for projecting a wholesome image abroad. As it is the rest of Europe continues to look upon us as a nation of hooligans.

He may be an Indian, but I don't suppose Sunil Gavaskar, that prince among batsmen, sported anything resembling a Mohican haircut when he chaired a meeting to decide the future use of Hawkeye.

Gavaskar and his cohorts had the unenviable task of advising on how big a part technology should play in assisting umpires.

Probably the most valuable role it can play is to identify those umpires who are not good enough to stand in Tests. Hawkeye merely confirmed over the weekend that Peter Willey and Darryl Hair were doing an excellent job.

I DON'T imagine Lord Condon will earn the nickname Hawkeye for rooting out so little of real interest in his lengthy investigation into match-fixing in cricket.

This topic has set alarm bells ringing round the world, but not at 6am on Wednesday, when the Condon report was posted on the Internet. As the former Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Paul Condon is only too well aware of legal obstacles and his labours have posed more questions than they have answered.

He was surely not commissioned to come up with such pathetic ideas as the suggestion that cricketers should be paid more to reduce the temptation to accept back-handers.

HOW strange that while the signs are we will have more county matches lasting their full four days this season, another Test match ended in three.

With three counties having points deducted last season, warnings about sub-standard county pitches appear finally to have been heeded. This will persuade more batsmen to build an innings rather than slogging out in the belief that they might as well score what they can before the inevitable death ball comes along.

That was pretty much how the Pakistanis played, ensuring the loss of another day's takings following the first day's washout.

Not wishing to take anything away from the excellence of England's cricket, Pakistan have far too much talent to lose by an innings. Their unwillingness to knuckle down may well reflect their unhappiness with their schedule. But if Test cricket's new world championship is to have any meaning it will require a fully committed approach from all participants.

Perhaps Pakistan should line Geoffrey Boycott's pockets a little more to teach them the art of crease occupation.

IN my first column of 2001 I predicted it would be the year of the Tiger. Woods of that ilk is living up to all expectations, and the Leicester Tigers' treble in rugby union is every bit as laudable as Liverpool's in football.

Leicester's wonderful 34-30 win against Stade Francais in the Heineken Cup final further underlined how England have overtaken France in style as well as results.

A few years ago this would have seemed unthinkable, but with the national team showing the way, now even the Tigers' traditionally colourless approach suddenly sprouted more sparkle than the French could manage.

All Stade's points came from the boot of Italian Diego Dominguez, while Leicester scored three tries. But they didn't have to come back from as far back as Woods.

Ten behind at halfway in Germany, he won by four strokes, so in Ryder Cup year it was a perfect response for Sergio Garcia to win the Colonial tournament in Fort Worth.

The young Spaniard is a couple of places outside the top ten in the cup standings, but he has plenty of time to secure his place in a team which is taking shape nicely.

MY head's in a spin with this managerial merry-go-round. It's a cruel game when decent men like Harry Redknapp and Joe Royle suddenly find themselves out of work, while Terry Venables is spoilt for choice.

As a resident of Wynyard, it would have made more sense for Kevin Keegan to go to Middlesbrough than Man City, but perhaps one former England captain has been enough for Steve Gibson. Hopefully, when he officially announces Steve McLaren's appointment, he won't make the same mistake as the Manchester United chairman, who introduced him as Steve McClaridge.

Published: 25/05/2001