Sorry to come over all nostalgic while a football carnival is unfolding in Brazil and the world’s grandest  tennis tournament is taking place, but what choice have we British sports enthusiasts got? This pining for better times is not just brought about by poor Andy Murray’s tennis yesterday being as flat as his vowels. It is the result of failure after failure from our national sportsmen this year: our rugby players whitewashed in New Zealand, our cricketers losing a series at home to Sri Lanka for the first time and our footballers going out of the World Cup before the BBC had even got Alan Hansen out there. Down and out: Andy Murray is the latest from our shores to have lost on the biggest stage recently . It's over: The defending Wimbledon champion was beaten in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 by Grigor Dimitrov . We must hold judgment on this — the Tour de France, The Open, the Commonwealth Games await us — but we are in grave danger of seeing 2014 turning into an anti-2012. Ah, those blissful seven months between the late-spring and mid-winter of 2012. The conventions of lifetimes watching  British sport were inverted. Our heroes were not gallant losers, but imperious winners. At the centre of it all was the London Olympics, arguably the best thing we have accomplished as a country since winning the Second World War. We lit up the flame and we lit up the world, as Lord Coe told the Closing Ceremony. Across sport, fairytales were turning true. No British man had won a Grand Slam tournament for 76 years until Murray clinched the US Open title that year. Knocked out early: England didn't manage to get through their tough group at this summer's World Cup . VIDEO Rooney apologises to fans . That didn't go to plan! England's Test team lost the first series of this summer against tourists Sri Lanka . VIDEO Broad back captain Cook . And as for the Ryder Cup, here is the verdict of American sports writer Gene Wojciechowski after Europe finished the penultimate day 10-6 down. ‘For those who think this Ryder Cup is finished, think again,’ he mused. ‘Team Europe can still win if the following five things happen Sunday: . 1. Keegan Bradley is abducted. 2. Team USA captain Davis Love III inserts Cup spectators Michael Jordan, President George W Bush, Amy Mickelson and the Rev Jesse Jackson into the singles line-up. 3. Lee Westwood: US citizen. 4. Marty McFly shows Team Europe captain Jose Maria Olazabal how to go back in time. Last Friday morning will do. 5. Team Europe wins eight of the remaining 12 matches to retain the Cup.’ Nice one Gene, old buddy, but Martin Kaymer holed from five feet to clinch victory 14½-13½. Where did the time go? Martin Kaymer holed from five feet to clinch Ryder Cup victory two years ago . The Tour de France had always been as Gallic as brie and baguettes. As Des Robinson, brother of Brian Robinson, the first Briton to win a stage of the great race, once said: ‘If you can imagine a Frenchman scoring a century at Lord’s, then you can imagine an Englishman winning a stage of the Tour de France.’ Yet, in 2012, Bradley Wiggins won the whole Tour. Our relationship with the bicycle changed dramatically at that moment. The year 2012 even saw Manchester City win the championship of England. It’s no big deal nowadays, but it was then: they had not achieved the feat in 44 seasons. It was dramatic, too, Sergio Aguero scoring the late winner against QPR. As for cricket, we hailed the qualities of Alastair Cook on dusty Indian pitches. Cook scored three tons, taking him to 23 Test centuries — the most by any Englishman. It beat the record set by Wally Hammond 73 years earlier. Cook brings us back, unhappily, to today. Cook is a fabulous batsman of conspicuous gumption (form is temporary etc) but a ludicrously negative captain. A new era: Alastair Cook opted to blood youngsters Sam Robson (left) and Gary Ballance against Sri Lanka . Losing the series to Sri Lanka can be attributed to his decision not to declare, say, 45 minutes before the close of the fourth day of the First Test. Instead he allowed Gary Ballance to score a maiden hundred and declared overnight. Sir Lanka were nine wickets down by the dismal, avoidable conclusion. It is my theory that there are too many ‘support staff’ around modern sportsmen for them to think for themselves. So England had an 80-strong party at football’s World Cup, yet America went further in the tournament. What about Steve Peters, the mind doctor who is credited with having helped British Cycling and Liverpool? He was brought in to prepare England’s footballers. Fat lot of good that did. And let’s not forget that one of his charges was Luis Suarez, the not-so-reformed cannibal  of football. If good people think Peters is worthwhile — and Steven Gerrard, Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton are among his supporters — that is an outstanding statement on his work. Nevertheless, these huge retinues seem to be bloated products of over-funding, the bastard brother of the Lottery era, which said loads of money and lots of people were the answer to everything. It is the downside of what was an upside. Even nostalgia, it seems, is not what it was. The real deal? Steve Peters is a consultant psychiatrist with Liverpool and went to the World Cup . Chijindu Ujah became the third-quickest British 100m sprinter of all-time when he ran 9.96secs in Holland. The men’s four — Andrew Triggs-Hodge, George Nash, Mohamed Sbihi and Alex Gregory — and the women’s pair of Helen Glover and Polly Swann won European rowing gold in Belgrade. Justin Rose  won last weekend on the US PGA Tour at Congressional. Double Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft broke her T34 world 100m and 200m records and set a world 1500m best. Paul Drinkhall became the first British table tennis player to win a world tour singles event for 18 years when he took gold at the Spanish Open in April. Katarina Johnson-Thompson won the prestigious heptathlon in Gotzis, Austria — which doubles as a mini-world championship — with a personal best of 6,682 points, the best tally in the world this year. England women’s football team have reeled off eight straight wins in their bid to qualify for the 2015 World Cup, to be held in Canada next June. Laura Williamson .
Roy Hodgson's side left the World Cup in Brazil early .
England's Test team went down to Sri Lanka in the first summer series .
Murray beaten in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 by Grigor Dimitrov .
Sorry to come over all nostalgic while a football carnival is unfolding in Brazil and the world’s grandest  tennis tournament is taking place, but what choice have we British sports enthusiasts got? This pining for better times is not just brought about by poor Andy Murray’s tennis yesterday being as flat as his vowels. It is the result of failure after failure from our national sportsmen this year: our rugby players whitewashed in New Zealand, our cricketers losing a series at home to Sri Lanka for the first time and our footballers going out of the World Cup before the BBC had even got Alan Hansen out there. Down and out: Andy Murray is the latest from our shores to have lost on the biggest stage recently . It's over: The defending Wimbledon champion was beaten in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 by Grigor Dimitrov . We must hold judgment on this — the Tour de France, The Open, the Commonwealth Games await us — but we are in grave danger of seeing 2014 turning into an anti-2012. Ah, those blissful seven months between the late-spring and mid-winter of 2012. The conventions of lifetimes watching  British sport were inverted. Our heroes were not gallant losers, but imperious winners. At the centre of it all was the London Olympics, arguably the best thing we have accomplished as a country since winning the Second World War. We lit up the flame and we lit up the world, as Lord Coe told the Closing Ceremony. Across sport, fairytales were turning true. No British man had won a Grand Slam tournament for 76 years until Murray clinched the US Open title that year. Knocked out early: England didn't manage to get through their tough group at this summer's World Cup . VIDEO Rooney apologises to fans . That didn't go to plan! England's Test team lost the first series of this summer against tourists Sri Lanka . VIDEO Broad back captain Cook . And as for the Ryder Cup, here is the verdict of American sports writer Gene Wojciechowski after Europe finished the penultimate day 10-6 down. ‘For those who think this Ryder Cup is finished, think again,’ he mused. ‘Team Europe can still win if the following five things happen Sunday: . 1. Keegan Bradley is abducted. 2. Team USA captain Davis Love III inserts Cup spectators Michael Jordan, President George W Bush, Amy Mickelson and the Rev Jesse Jackson into the singles line-up. 3. Lee Westwood: US citizen. 4. Marty McFly shows Team Europe captain Jose Maria Olazabal how to go back in time. Last Friday morning will do. 5. Team Europe wins eight of the remaining 12 matches to retain the Cup.’ Nice one Gene, old buddy, but Martin Kaymer holed from five feet to clinch victory 14½-13½. Where did the time go? Martin Kaymer holed from five feet to clinch Ryder Cup victory two years ago . The Tour de France had always been as Gallic as brie and baguettes. As Des Robinson, brother of Brian Robinson, the first Briton to win a stage of the great race, once said: ‘If you can imagine a Frenchman scoring a century at Lord’s, then you can imagine an Englishman winning a stage of the Tour de France.’ Yet, in 2012, Bradley Wiggins won the whole Tour. Our relationship with the bicycle changed dramatically at that moment. The year 2012 even saw Manchester City win the championship of England. It’s no big deal nowadays, but it was then: they had not achieved the feat in 44 seasons. It was dramatic, too, Sergio Aguero scoring the late winner against QPR. As for cricket, we hailed the qualities of Alastair Cook on dusty Indian pitches. Cook scored three tons, taking him to 23 Test centuries — the most by any Englishman. It beat the record set by Wally Hammond 73 years earlier. Cook brings us back, unhappily, to today. Cook is a fabulous batsman of conspicuous gumption (form is temporary etc) but a ludicrously negative captain. A new era: Alastair Cook opted to blood youngsters Sam Robson (left) and Gary Ballance against Sri Lanka . Losing the series to Sri Lanka can be attributed to his decision not to declare, say, 45 minutes before the close of the fourth day of the First Test. Instead he allowed Gary Ballance to score a maiden hundred and declared overnight. Sir Lanka were nine wickets down by the dismal, avoidable conclusion. It is my theory that there are too many ‘support staff’ around modern sportsmen for them to think for themselves. So England had an 80-strong party at football’s World Cup, yet America went further in the tournament. What about Steve Peters, the mind doctor who is credited with having helped British Cycling and Liverpool? He was brought in to prepare England’s footballers. Fat lot of good that did. And let’s not forget that one of his charges was Luis Suarez, the not-so-reformed cannibal  of football. If good people think Peters is worthwhile — and Steven Gerrard, Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton are among his supporters — that is an outstanding statement on his work. Nevertheless, these huge retinues seem to be bloated products of over-funding, the bastard brother of the Lottery era, which said loads of money and lots of people were the answer to everything. It is the downside of what was an upside. Even nostalgia, it seems, is not what it was. The real deal? Steve Peters is a consultant psychiatrist with Liverpool and went to the World Cup . Chijindu Ujah became the third-quickest British 100m sprinter of all-time when he ran 9.96secs in Holland. The men’s four — Andrew Triggs-Hodge, George Nash, Mohamed Sbihi and Alex Gregory — and the women’s pair of Helen Glover and Polly Swann won European rowing gold in Belgrade. Justin Rose  won last weekend on the US PGA Tour at Congressional. Double Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft broke her T34 world 100m and 200m records and set a world 1500m best. Paul Drinkhall became the first British table tennis player to win a world tour singles event for 18 years when he took gold at the Spanish Open in April. Katarina Johnson-Thompson won the prestigious heptathlon in Gotzis, Austria — which doubles as a mini-world championship — with a personal best of 6,682 points, the best tally in the world this year. England women’s football team have reeled off eight straight wins in their bid to qualify for the 2015 World Cup, to be held in Canada next June. Laura Williamson .
champion was beaten in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 by Grigor Dimitrov . We must hold England's Test team lost the first series of this against Sri Lanka . Losing the series to Sri football’s World Cup, yet America went further in