What more can Messi achieve?

Messi could become the best of all time

When the world appears to have collectively run out of superlatives what more can you say about Lionel Messi?

A four goal haul, his fourth hat-trick of 2010, dumped Arsenal emphatically out of the Champions League at a mesmerised Camp Nou last night.

Arsene Wenger, one of footballs most articulate spokesmen, was reduced to the kind of base exultation most football fans use for the diminutive Argentinean.

“Messi is the best player in the world by a distance,” said the Frenchman.

Without starting up a pointless debate on the vagaries of the ‘Best player in the world,’ tag, Messi is currently in awe-inspiring form.

Last night’s goals took his tally for the season to an astonishing 39, already one more than his total during last season’s treble winning campaign.

But it is the manner of the goals, as well as they way he lights up a football pitch, which has everyone involved in the game purring.

Pep Guardiola, himself a legend at the famous Catalan club, already considers Messi among the finest players in Bracelona’s history at the tender age of 22.

And Patrick Barclay, the Chief Football Correspondent of The Times this morning insists that Messi will be remembered alongside Pele and Maradona as the game’s finest ever players.

I hope not.

Messi has enough time on his side and enough ability to leapfrog both those names and occupy his own Bradmanesque pedestal as the undisputed greatest.

This summer’s World Cup is being cited as the real benchmark of Messi’s current stature and his struggles as the rudder of a disjointed Argentinean team are well documented.

His Barcelona team-mates Xavi and Iniesta may yet take the spoils in South Africa but Messi could potentially play in three or four more World Cup’s.

It seems inevitable that at some stage he will have his Maradona moment and until then we can rest assured his efforts for Barcelona will continue to enchant on a weekly basis.

The growth-hormone treatment he endured in his youth and numerous thigh injuries which plagued his early career come may also back to haunt him.

But Messi looks set to pass 50 games in a season for the second year running and thanks to some careful game management he is peaking at the perfect time in the season.

Whilst this might feel like the peak, it could simply be the beginning and that is a stunning thought.

England can be satisfied with Bangladesh efforts

Graeme Swann has moved to no.2 in the world rankings

SO what have we learned from a fast and sometimes fraught sojourn in Bangladesh?

First things first, beating any international opposition 2-0 with half of your first choice bowling attack injured,  your captain left at home and on some excruciatingly deadpan pitches is a good effort.

Those casting an uninformed eye over the series might snort at England’s efforts but the truth is that Bangladesh are a vastly improved outfit with two emerging, world class cricketers in Tamim Iqbal and captain Shakib al-Hasan.

They’ve posed most nations a few problems on home soil and England, who often toil in sub-continental conditions, were worked hard.

But in reality Alistair Cooks jolly as England captain couldn’t have gone any better.

The 25 year old bagged two centuries and continued his development from a successful series in South Africa.

Often in the past Cook has been excruciatingly becalmed by spin bowling but the sight of him launching two massive sixes during his 173 in Chittagong was refreshing and hinted at a future in T20, a format he currently doesn’t play internationally.

New captain’s react to the job differently and the signs are that Cook’s inhibitions might be released and despite his admittance that he still has a lot to learn as a captain, the sound of Michael Vaughan awarding him 9 out of 10 for his efforts will have gone down well.

Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood suddenly sounds an incredibly soothing middle order and Kevin Pietersen returned to form despite his continued struggles against left-arm spin.

Johnathan Trott meanwhile no longer resembles the calm, assured presence he appeared to be when he made his Ashes winning debut last summer.

The Warwickshire batsman has already batted in three positions for England which can unsettle any player and his place in the team would have been threatened had Michael Carberry taken his chance in Chittagong.

And though he was unlucky in Dhaka, Trott’s past slumps at county level suggests he may face a battle to regain form. A few games at Edgbaston before Bangladesh arrive in the UK might be the ideal tonic for the right hander.

On the bowling front, two things we already knew were once again blatantly obvious.

England’s seam attack work hard but struggle to take wickets in batsman friendly conditions and as a consequence rely much on the magic of Graeme Swann to win matches.

Luckily, Swann is the best spinner in the world at the moment and the 31 year old, who moved up to second in the ICC World rankings was man of the series once again.

The fact that England can rely on the Nottinghamshire man to take wickets from day one of a Test is vital to their chances, at home and abroad.

Swann has been helped by the fact that umpires are much more willing to give LBW’s to spinners than in previous era’s but more than anything else it is his personality which inspires England.

Much like Shane Warne, his’s in-your-face attitude and infectious positivity can force wickets in all conditions.

His tempestuous youth is often mentioned but he has matured into England’s leading cricketer and a trusted, respected part of Andy Flower’s set-up. There might still be some clowning around but Swann’s has become England’s talisman.

Stuart Broad in particular will be glad of Swann’s input. It is hardly groundbreaking but Broad is not a man to lead the attack and he struggled in the absence of Anderson and Graeme Onions.

He should not and will not be axed any time in the near future but Broad remains a microcosm for the England attack; workmanlike, often frustrating and sporadically brilliant.

But Tim Bresnan and Steve Finn, the latter of whom could be a handful on bouncy pitches in Australia, impressed Andy Flower significantly.

While England seem intent on pursuing a four man bowling attack right through until the Ashes, Bresnan’s all round form and ability to bowl a ‘heavy ball,’ might persuade them otherwise.

Swann and Broad had batting averages around the 30 mark and Bresnan’s presence would mean England have genuinely strong batting through to no.9.

Assuming the top five remain in good form and Pietersen can be persuaded to bat at no.3, England could realistically field a four man seam attack in the future.

Where do Pakistan go from here?

So how do you solve a mess like Pakistan? Well apparently it involves banning your two finest batsmen indefinitely and handing out a whole host of fines, suspensions and probations to five other squad members.

Wednesday’s decisions were made following the results of an inquiry into the team’s farcical efforts in Australia this winter where they lost each of the nine internationals played.

The report, which the Pakistan Cricket Board have refused to release into the public domain, examined the supposedly crippling infighting and power grappling which has undermined the team’s efforts in the past few years.

“Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude has a trickledown effect which is a bad influence for the whole team should not be part of national team in any format,” said a statement from the PCB.

And Ijaz Butt, the BBC chairman told the BBC that: “When one was captain he threw the other out, when the other was the captain he threw the other man out in spite of the fact that they would have been selected.”

Such a brutal player cull is unprecedented, even in the permanently tumultuous world of Pakistani cricket.

Some of the player conduct in Australia- particularly Shahid Afridi’s inexplicable ball biting fiasco- was at best regrettable and at worst utterly deplorable, and it could well be the case that internal discipline is now far beyond repair that excluding Younis and Yousuf is simply unavoidable.

But in purely cricketing terms it may be a disastrous decision and one fears for the team they scramble together to face England and Australia in just a few months time. The PCB have blithely dismissed this issue citing the number of talented youngsters throughout the country, but there is no substitute for experience, particularly in the Test arena and whoever is chosen to captain the side will have his work cut out.

In the meantime Pakistan will attempt to defend their World T20 title in the Caribbean this May with a squad including Afridi and the Akaml brothers, Kamran and Umar, who were both also fined for supposedly destabilising the team.

No captain has been named however, and it will be interesting to see how that particular scenario develops now that an experienced player with a clean slate has become a rare commodity.

Financially, the PCB are now effectively the players’ only paymasters after the IPL franchises controversially shunned the chance to bid for the Pakistani’s offered to them in February.

As a consequence, there is unlikely to be a player led backlash against the PCB and the likelihood is that we will see most of the shamed stars again in the near future.

And what of Yousuf and Younis?

Well if the last few years are anything to go by, there is still a long way to go in this sage. Neither is a spent force and at just 32 Younis in particular should still be at his peak.

And for all its posturing the PCB has been keen to stress that neither player has been handed a life ban, merely an indefinite one.

A window of opportunity then for a triumphant return, possibly in time to play against Australia? You wouldn’t bet against it.