A pious young cricketing fan,
Cheered Middlesex and Pakistan;
For with contemplation
On God’s revelation
He found neither team in the Koran

Kind of says it all doesn’t it?

As you may have guessed, at least some of this was tongue in cheek.

Yahya Birt provides a more considered perspective

http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/misc/drugs.htm

I must also point out that assault of ones children in order to toughen them up is not part of “Islamic” parenting.

I wouldn’t be so quick to blame British yob culture on lax middle-class parents who won’t hit, because a lot of the out-of-control kids aren’t from that background anyway. Remember that we have a lot of single-parent families (by choice – I’m not talking about cases of widowhood or even divorce).

In Paula Yates’ passing, England lost the chance of its greatest ever cricket captain.

The only pom in recent times to travel to Australia, f*** the Aussies and bring back the ashes (cue drum roll).

In answer to JDsg. In all probability; yes – bar your last question. Us child beaters just keep out heads low.

Milady likes to watch “Supernanny,” and I’ve caught an episode or two. The one thing that amazes me with all these problem children is how none of the parents punish their kids despite all their misdeeds. Corporal punishment? Horrors! My parents would never have tolerated such misbehavior out of me and my siblings, nor would I or Milady out of any of our kids (or our neices and nephew for that matter). I watch “Supernanny” and can’t help but wonder:

* Is this how British “yob” culture got its start, because British parents couldn’t control their kids?

* Is this the same country that produced a world-wide empire?

* Is Britain then nothing but a country full of pussies?

It sure seems like it.

Speaking of which, I’d like to take this opportunity to launch a special appeal, if anyone should find Beckham’s missing Y chromosome, I say we donate it to Henman for Christmas; Becks has retired as captain but Henman still has years of disappointment ahead of him.

Anyways, the fact that all these non-men happen to be English is just bad luck, but we can not blame bad luck forever. I think the main problem here is the British public have been like loving wives to these boys, they have supported them through thick and thin, believed in them when the rest of the world didn’t, cheered them on when they cried, stood in the rain as they failed, understood and forgiven them when they lost. And in the end, they have never exceeded any expectations or wins from all this obstructive mothering. Real men learn that masculinity isn’t given, it must be earned. So it’s a great injustice to these guys. You support a boy’s loss and losing is all he knows. In future, he’ll play well but you can not guarantee his losing instincts won’t kick in. If he doesn’t have the fear of rejection and humiliation (instead of open arms and heroism) taunting him, if you lovingly stroke that fear out of him, then he will literally hit/kick/throw like a girl and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.