The Pacman's Midweek Multiple / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 15 January 2008 /

Tennis has the "Magician" Fabrice Santoro, a player whose entire gameplan revolves around frustrating his stronger and more talented opponents into making unforced errors.

Understimate the 35-year old at your peril though as Agassi, Sampras and most notably Marat Safin have found out. Snooker in turn has the "Wizard of Wishaw" John Higgins. The current world champion faces Ding Junhui in the first round of the Masters tomorrow afternoon in a mouth-watering encounter and I'm more than happy to side with Higgins at [1.96]. Wembley was the venue where Ding endured his most painful experience in snooker to date, being heckled and humiliated by a partisan north London crowd wiling to take the law into their own hands as their idol Ronnie O'Sullivan faced the young Chinese prodigy in last year's final. Ding will have to battle those demons as well as the shorter first-to-6 format which I always feel makes it more difficult for the "shot-makers" and natural potters to get into the groove. Higgins' experience could be the difference between the two and the Wizard is the first of my selections.

A few years ago I read Dickie Bird's autobiography where he recalls an anecdote involving Geoffrey Boycott at a wedding. On hearing that Boycs was present, some friends of the groom grabbed a bat, ball, stumps and pads from the boot of their car and persuaded the former Yorkshire opener to have a quick bat in the car park. Two hours later they returned to the reception dripping with sweat, bow-ties undone and generally in no state to be attending any sort of wedding reception. Boycott walked back unscathed and fresh as a daisy. More importantly, he left the crease "not out". Another player I have noticed who appears to increasingly play for his average is the West Indies' Chanderpaul. For sure, he's been their best batsman for at least four years (even when Lara was around) but finishing not out time and time again rather than going for shots at the end of an innings isn't always best for the team. Chanderpaul's impact will be limited in the Twenty20 format on Friday with less time to play himself in. Big hitter Graeme Smith's influence on the match on the other hand could well be greater than normal in this format and a few blows of that big bat in the first few overs could be enough for South Africa to win this comfortably. Add into the equation South Africa's superior fielding, the superb form of Dale Steyn and the probable absence of Chris Gayle for the Windies and I'm left with no choice but to be with South Africa at [1.34].

I wonder what odds you would have got on both Rio and Anton Ferdinand both scoring goals on Saturday. Shorter odds than you would on either of them saying something remotely interesting or articulate in the post-match interview I suspect. Anton will be in action on Wednesday night at the Eastlands against a Man City side going through a mini "crisis" that has seen them drop from fourth to seventh in the league over the last few weeks. West Ham's away record isn't too bad but Man City's home record is pretty special and with key man Elano coming back into some form I think the Foreign Legion-like Man City side should win this FA Cup replay in normal time. It's [2.01] and at that price I'm having Eriksson's boys as the third selection in my Multiple.

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