FOOTBALL is a cut-throat business, as scores of managers cast adrift by impatient or under-pressure chairmen will surely testify.

But in the long list of bosses to have been shown their P45, few can have been given such a damning epitaph as Steve Bruce.

Bruce left Huddersfield Town some three months ago but as recently as last Saturday chairman Barry Rubery left no-one in any doubt about where he places the blame for the Terriers' current plight near the foot of Division One.

Rubery wrote in Town's match-day programme: "The biggest mistake I made was believing that a great footballer would make a great manager. I was wrong.

"Some £3 million was wasted on players brought in by Steve Bruce, who we have thankfully parted company with, and that's money that could and would have been spent more wisely by a more experienced manager."

Bruce, looking for a new job, responded by confirming yesterday that he plans to take legal action against Rubery.

And Bruce's replacement as boss, Lou Macari, admitted the chairman's comments hadn't done him any favours in lifting his players before Saturday's crucial game against Norwich City.

Hardly good management by Mr Rubery. And while the chairman's outspoken comments might have made refreshing reading in the world of football-speak, wasn't this the man that appointed Bruce on the back of a short stint in charge at Sheffield United and who, presumably, wasn't being quite so vocal at Christmas-time last season when Huddersfield were second in Division One?

IT just won't be the same at the Crucible Theatre next month when the young guns slug it out for the Embassy Snooker World Championship.

If ever there was a defining moment in the sport then last weekend surely provided it when Sheffield legends Steve Davis and Jimmy White both failed to book their finals berth.

Six-times former champion Davis and White, the greatest player never to have won the championship, haven't missed a Crucible date for 20 years.

But last-round qualifying defeats consigned the pair to the list of also-rans -- hopefully not for ever -- as John Parrott, at 36, was confirmed as the oldest starter in the 32-man field.

IF the proposed Test Cricket World Championship duly gets off the ground, then England's constant treadmill of international duty will be set in stone.

But for now their current tour of Sri Lanka looks like one trip too far.

Having played (and won) in Pakistan before Christmas there was always scope to slot in this three Test series.

But peering in from afar it always looked like a potential viper's nest. Motivation in debilitating weather conditions -- particularly amongst the quicker bowlers -- was always going to be a test for Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher, as was combatting the Sri Lankan's prodigious spinners.

And now some appalling umpiring decisions in the lost First Test and subsequent disciplinary problems concerning Darren Gough have added to the frustrations.

It will take a super-human effort from England to level the series when the second Test gets underway in Kandy today.