Monte's Multiple / Jaymes Monte / 18 November 2008 /

So close yet so far, last week's Multiple got off to the worst possible start with the first of the 3 selections rendering the other 2 useless. Ryan Day came up against a resurgent Matthew Stevens who, after beating Day in a final frame decider, took his new found form all the way to the final of the competition. Arsenal's kids were impressive winners over Wigan and Murray managed to see off Federer in 3 sets. This week we combine Football, Snooker and Cricket for our Multiple.

Bet 1: Football - Internationals

The Maradona media circus has made its first stop in Glasgow, Scotland this week. His appointment as national team coach rose more than a few eyebrows in the world of football and there is still a bit of ambiguity surrounding his appointment, as it is unclear at this stage what his actual role will be.

It seems "El Pibe" has been named as coach and the 1986 World Cup winning manager Carlos Bilardo has been named general manager. We may have to wait a while to be sure what their official job titles are - it's important for the old CV, you know.

Nevertheless, one thing is for certain, the players pulling on the famous sky blue and white striped shirt on Wednesday will be doing their upmost to impress Argentina's favourite son. Argentina will be missing the man regarded as the 'next Maradona', Lionel Messi due to an agreement between the president of the Argentine F.A., Julio Grondona and Barcelona that, following his participation in the Olympics he would not be called up for friendlies. However, they do have a wealth of talent to fall back on including the likes of Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and new skipper Javier Mascherano.

Scotland, in contrast, are without the main backbone of their team with James Morrison and Kenny Miller's withdrawals adding to Darren Fletcher and Craig Gordon's omissions due to injury. There also seems to be some unrest in the Scotland camp, highlighted by Kris Boyd's decision from a month ago to rule himself out of any future squads as long as George Burley is at the helm.

All things considered, Argentina should have too much for Scotland. Their passing game and added incentive of impressing their idol (who most of them would never have even dreamed of sharing a dressing room with) makes the [1.67] available to back Argentina look like a great value bet.

Selection: Argentina to beat Scotland @ [1.67]

Bet 2: Snooker - Premier League

Mark Selby became the first player to make it into the semi-finals of the Premier League snooker last week beating John Higgins 4-2 to book his place. Selby has, surprisingly to some, been a revelation in the Premier League format by not losing a match so far. He has chalked up 4 wins and one draw which came against Ronnie O'Sullivan. Although Higgins was comfortably beaten by Selby, Selby's record shows that there is no shame in this and the "Wizard of Wishaw" has been playing some good snooker of late, recently picking up his 19th career ranking event in Glasgow just last month.

On Thursday he comes up against Joe Perry, who has recently suffered a dip in form, losing 5-0 in the second round to Stephen Maguire in Bahrain and at the same stage against Judd Trump in Glasgow three weeks previously.

Those defeats were either side of two Premier League fixtures where he beat, a then out of form Stephen Hendry but was defeated by Ding Junhui a week later. Higgins needs to win his remaining 2 matches in the competition to stand any chance of qualifying for the semi-finals and making his second final in a row. And with the second of those matches coming against Steve Davis, who has struggled with the format this year, it means that this match against Joe Perry will go a long way to deciding his fate.

The Wizard of Wishaw can be backed at a very generous [2.3] to win his match against Joe Perry and looks like very good value to do just that.

Selection: John Higgins to beat Joe Perry @ 2.3

Bet 3: Cricket - India v England

"We need the bowlers to take wickets and the batsmen to score runs." Aristotle - 320 B.C.? Surprisingly, no. These were in fact the wise and wonderful words of England Captain, Kevin Pietersen after watching his side get demolished for the 2nd time in the 7 match, one-day series against India.

On Thursday the teams go to Green Park, Kanpur, a ground where India have won three of their four ODIs since the turn of the millennium and have a 70% win record throughout history. England have played at the ground twice and never won, with an 8 wicket defeat being their latest effort back in 2002.

There are 4 survivors from that game that are still on show this series; Flintoff, Collingwood, Sehwag and Harbhajan. Yuvraj Singh, who has been in scintillating form in the first two matches with centuries in both, has a 47.5 average from his two previous ODI's in Kanpur.

There were glimpses of hope for England on Monday, reducing India to 29-3 before Gambhir and Yuvraj turned on the style, and Flintoff looking impressive on his way to knocking 43 from 35 balls. But, ultimately as Pietersen so shrewdly stated, the bowlers aren't taking the wickets and the batsmen aren't scoring the runs. With only two days between games it doesn't give much time for England to address these issues in the nets, and India's strength and depth should shine through and back up the stats.

Selection: India to beat England @ [1.44]

1. Argentina to beat Scotland @ [1.67]
2. John Higgins to beat Joe Perry @ [2.3]
3. India to beat England @ [1.44]

£10 @ [5.56]

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