“Fortunately I seem to be quite popular with the public, which is nice, too.”This is the closest the 43-year-old Yorkshireman is ever likely to come to sounding boastful.The Swedish city is the original home of the World Cup final – and also of Volvo, the firm that sponsored it for 20 years. Many of those who watched the inaugural final of 1979 have returned every year (there have since been eight other finals and 11 qualifiers in the Scandinavium), often requesting the seats that they originally occupied.This knowledgeable audience has therefore had plenty of opportunity to appreciate Whitaker’s quiet wizardry in the saddle. He is the only rider to have qualified for every final (last year’s wild card having proved unnecessary when a couple of others dropped out) and he has missed only one – at Del Mar in California in 1992, when it was decided to save Milton for the Barcelona Olympics that summer.He has won the final twice, been runner-up three times and finished in the top 10 on another seven occasions.Whitaker has a soft spot for all the horses who helped him to achieve this remarkable record – from Ryan’s Son (“he got me started”) and the fabulous Milton (“who took me a stage further”) to the present stars of his string. “You always get attached to the ones who try for you.”This year Whitaker and his younger brother, Michael, will be the only British participants because Geoff Billington, their regular team-mate and drinking companion, narrowly failed to qualify.The Whitakers’ opponents will include two of the greatest horsemen ever: Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum (the European champion) and Mexico’s 26-year- old Rodrigo Pessoa (the holder of both the World Cup and the World Championship title). We can expect to see homemade banners proclaiming love for these two – but there will also be some for John Whitaker, who still has a small army of loyal supporters in Sweden.. WITH ONLY three of the top-20 PGA Tour money winners in the Greater Greensboro Classic, much of the attention will be in Spain this week for two reasons.

Jose-Maria Olazabal will be playing for the Peugeot Open for the first time since winning the Masters, and Sergio Garcia will be making his professional debut.
Garcia, the 19-year-old British Amateur champion known as “El Nino”, was the first European to be the low amateur at Augusta National. While that does not guarantee success as a pro, he has a lot more going for him than Justin Rose, the English teenager who turned pro after tying for fourth in the British Open. Rose has not made a professional cut in 18 tries.Garcia has played 30 professional events in the past six years. He made 12 of 13 cuts last year, and has a 37-2 record in matchplay since 1997. “We are delighted to welcome Sergio,” said Ken Schofield, executive director of the PGA European Tour. “We’ve followed his progress ever since he made the cut at the Mediterranean Open at the age of 14.”Meanwhile, the Ryder Cup player Thomas Bjorn yesterday withdrew from the competition. The Dane, due to play his first tournament since missing the half-way cut in the Masters, suffered a recurrence of an old neck injury getting out of bed for the eve-of-tournament pro-am.The 28-year-old, a one-stroke winner over Olazabal and Australian Greg Chalmers on the same El Prat course last year, immediately flew home to Dubai to visit a chiropractor.

He hopes to be back in two or three weeks’ time.Meanwhile, Seve Ballesteros missed the pro-am with a left knee injury, but hopes to be able to tee off in today’s first round.Ballesteros, whose last tournament victory was the Spanish Open four years ago, said: “I’m falling apart. I’ve been having problems in my right knee for the last five months, but now all of a sudden I have the same problem with the left.”A few days ago I was [training on the] bicycle and weightlifting at home in Pedrena. I don’t know what happened, but I can’t squat or bend my knee. It hurts slightly, but continuously and it gets worse when swinging when I turn my weight through to the left.”Ballesteros is also suffering from a partially broken shoulder caused, he said, by the wear and tear of his 25 years on the European Tour.The competition represents another chance for Nick Faldo to make up lost ground in the Ryder Cup qualifying race. “I’ve got a two-week break after this week, then the Benson and Hedges International, Deutsche-Bank Open and Volvo PGA Championship One really good week and I’m right back in it,” he said.. MATTHEW HAYDEN, Northamptonshire’s captain, made an unbeaten 98 as his county made Sussex suffer for sending them in on a greenish wicket at Hove. Hayden, dropped on 39 off Mark Robinson, piled on the agony by stroking 15 fours off 170 balls to help guide his side to 184 for 2 at the close, after overnight rain had delayed the start until early afternoon.

Sussex met with some early encouragement by claiming the wickets of Rob Bailey and Mal Loye. But the Australian Hayden then took charge and dominated an unbroken third wicket stand of 127 with Russell Warren who had reached 39 when rain and bad light halted play early.
Hayden, who has appeared in seven Tests for his country, had his let- off when he played Robinson firmly into the gully where Rajesh Rao put down the chance despite getting two hands to the ball.The tall left-hander thrived on this good fortune by punishing anything loose and he was given excellent support by Warren to make it a satisfying first day for the visitors.The former Northamptonshire captain Bailey was dropped by the wicketkeeper Shaun Humphries off James Kirtley before he fell on 26 when he went leg before to Alex Edwards’ first delivery. Loye helped himself to two successive fours off Robin Martin-Jenkins, but perished on nine to the same bowler when he was leg before on the back foot.Hayden confidently went about rebuilding the innings with Warren, who enjoyed a slice of luck himself on 35 shortly after tea. The medium-pace bowler Martin-Jenkins was the unlucky bowler as Warren snicked him low to second slip where the captain, Chris Adams, spilled a sharp chance diving to his right. Adams immediately left the field for stitches on his right hand..

BRIAN LARA, the West Indies captain, withdrew from the pivotal fifth one-day international against Australia yesterday, still troubled by a wrist injury sustained in South Africa in January. Lara is also likely to miss the last two matches of the series this weekend in Bridgetown, Barbados, according to Mike Findlay, the chairman of selectors “Brian’s right wrist is sore and swollen,” Findlay said. “He was in some pain batting in the previous matches and has been medically advised to rest it.”
The 29-year-old batsman sustained a hairline fracture of his wrist when he was hit by a delivery from Jacques Kallis, the South African all-rounder, in a one-day international in Durban on 27 January. It put him out of action for three matches but he showed no signs of discomfort during the recent four-Test series against Australia, in which he amassed 546 runs at an average of 91, including scores of 213, 153 not out and 100.In the first four one-day internationals, however, Lara scored only 49 runs and dropped himself in the order from No 3 to No 5 in the last two. “His efforts in the Tests seem to have aggravated the injury and he has struggled more and more recently,” Findlay said.His condition is cause for concern on the eve of the seventh World Cup that starts in England on 14 May. Findlay, however, claimed doctors were confident the wrist would be healed by then.Javed Miandad yesterday resigned as Pakistan coach less than a month before the start of the World Cup tournament. Javed said that he had faxed his resignation to the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Khalid Mahmood, citing “pressing family commitments” as his reason.