Murray's time to shine

Andy Murray takes to the tennis court in Australia this morning looking to end Britain's quite astonishing 74-year wait for a Grand Slam title.

The Scot has been in scintillating form down under and now only a certain Roger Federer stands in the way of Murray making his own little piece of history at the Australian Open.

I have to confess that I am not his biggest fan. He spent the early part of his career emphasising his Scottish heritage, which was fine, and belittling England, which wasn't.

However, he does seem to have matured and progressed both on and off the court over the past couple of years and, although I wouldn't say I am warming to him, he at least seems to be growing a personality.

The last time a British man won a Grand Slam was back in 1936 when Fred Perry won Wimbledon. And, to be honest, I find it almost unbelievable that they have not managed to generate one male tennis player capable of winning a big title for nearly eight decades.

Tim Henman, of course, came relatively close on the odd occasion, as did Greg Rusedski. But the former lacked the killer instinct to be a major champion, while the latter, apart from actually being Canadian, only really had a big serve to his game.

There must be some underlying reasons as to why a nation of 60 million people is incapable of producing a decent amount of tennis stars.

Most people suggest it is because tennis in Britain has traditionally been a bit of an elitist sport. A game reserved for the privileged few with regular access to courts rather than something the masses can enjoy.

And there is undoubtedly a large element of truth in that logic. Tennis is not the cheapest or most convenient of sports.

However, I also think there is another, more fundamental reason why Britain isn't regularly producing tennis stars.

In contrast to team sports like football, cricket or rugby, for example, the chances of making a good living out of tennis are limited. There are probably half a million or so people round the world making a living from football and many thousands making obscene amounts of money. You don't need to be in the top 50 footballers in the world to make millions of pounds a year from the game.

A footballer in the English Championship, for example, can earn anything up to a couple of million a year. He may not even be in the world's top 10,000 players in terms of ability, but will still end his career rich beyond most of our wildest dreams.

Tennis, however, only rewards the very best. Sure, you can make a living by being one of the also-rans endlessly touring the circuit. But a not-quite-good-enough-to-be-the-best tennis player is never going to earn as much as a not-quite-good-enough-to-be-the-best footballer. It's just a fact.

And that, I believe, is the key reason why so many young Brits, assuming they have the choice, pick footballs over rackets - it's a case of opting for the sporting dream which has considerably better odds of being realised.

This morning, Murray not only has the opportunity to make a name for himself and end Britain's ridiculous period of hurt, he also has the opportunity to strike a blow for tennis back in Britain.

By securing a Grand Slam he will be proving that, yes, it is a monumental dream to chase, but it is not an impossible one to achieve.

And on that basis, despite the fact that I still don't really like him, Murray will be getting my support this morning.

Kings of Africa

The African Cup of Nations climaxes today after three weeks of intense football action.

Overall, it has been a pretty successful tournament, although it will always be remembered for the horrendous terror attack that took place in the build-up.

The entire event was inevitably devalued by the fact that the Togo team, which was on the receiving end of the attack, withdrew from the contest. But full credit to the remaining 15 teams for proving that the show can go on despite the threat of terrorism.

Special mention at this point to Algeria. Their semi-final against Egypt last week almost added a new definition to the concept of a match being one-sided. Not merely because they were spanked 4-0 but also because they almost ended the match without any players on the pitch.

It's one thing getting your players all fired up to take on your bitter rivals but it's quite another when they are so psyched that three of them get sent off, including your goalkeeper.

Tonight's game sees favourites Egypt play Ghana, who reached the final by adopting a 10-men-in-front-of-the-goal policy throughout. It may not have been pretty but it turned out to be effective.

Nobody is giving them much of a chance against the technically superior Egyptians. But then again, nobody gave them much chance of reaching the final itself.

So I will be having a crafty fiver on Ghana lifting the trophy. It's just been that kind of bizarre tournament.

Bells tolling for Pompey

If there was any doubt about the depth of Portsmouth's financial problems then they must have been dispelled on Thursday when the club's website was taken offline when they failed to pay their bill.

A club spokesman apparently confirmed that it was due to a 'payment plan' not being met, although he didn't elaborate. Maybe the phone was cut off before he had chance to explain further.

Seriously, though, you have to fear for the future of the club. It looks increasingly like it is going to be the first Premiership side to go into administration, which is an absolute joke considering the money it has earned during its time in the top flight. There are plenty of people responsible for the mess, not least of which are the club's succession of previous foreign owners.

But if the worst does happen, then the Premier League and the Football Association itself also need to admit responsibility as, ultimately, it is their 'fit and proper person' test that has let the club and its fans down.

Your say

"I may be the umpteenth Liverpool FC fan to write to you, but I am not going to criticise anything you have recently written about my preferred club. Instead I would like to comment on your article last Sunday about Manchester United's debts.

"This is the sort of thing the UK financial services authority should take care of. From what I gather, in the UK it is possible to buy a company and transfer debt onto that company's assets. This happened first with United and then with Liverpool FC.

"Why does this UK authority let this happen? As you rightly said, United where almost debt-free, as were Liverpool, but now they're both owned by Americans who have no passion for football and are just out to make money.

"They should follow the example of Mr Abramovich at Chelsea or the Sheikh at Manchester City. They should invest in their 'toys' to make them function better, not saddle them with enough loans to run most of the lower divisions, as you rightly said.

"The UK financial services authority should push for legislation so that sports clubs and other companies do not get gobbled up by sharks. Arsene Wenger is right when he criticises these laws.

"In the meantime, teams with great histories are getting into a spiral of debts that are impossible to get out of, except through humongous cash injections. If people like George Gillett, Tom Hicks and Malcolm Glazer are not stopped it will not just be the end for great clubs but the end of a superb league.

"Others who need to be stopped are the greedy owners. I blame ex-chairman David Moores for Liverpool's predicament. He should have seen it coming, or he should have sold his shares to someone who is passionate about football, not just out to make money.

"Club owners should be like Messrs Abramovich and Moratti. They treat their possessions with care."

Silvio Abela, Rabat

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com