In those moments when my attention has drifted away from World Cup games on the TV - which is not difficult - I have pondered on my dream team.

IN those moments when my attention has drifted away from World Cup games playing on the TV – which sometimes stretched to minutes and in one example lasted for the whole match – I have pondered on my dream team.

Like most people who imagine such things, it would be much, much better than the national teams on display in South Africa.

For the life of me, I can’t think of 11 English players (not many of the present incumbents) who would do us proud.

So my thoughts have shifted to an international, world-beating team.

Where to start? Between the sticks I would choose that former German military man who turned to religion and became a part-time preacher, Good Para Hans.

In front of him there would be Cambodian favourite U Sai Bio, playing alongside his countryman Pell Ai.

Diego Primadonna is capable of waltzing through any defence and would be formidable teamed up with Zig-zag Zidane who is also very good with his head.

Despite the name, there should be no lack of ball control from Michael Ballack

Spearheading the attack would be Portuguese twin strikers Ron and Al Doe. And to make it a really strong front line I would include remarkable Japanese centre forward Taka Shote.

There are still two players to be chosen and I’m pondering on that but as a substitute I would have that multi-talented and exotically-named individual, Brazilian Football Team who is known affectionately as Mr T.

If nothing else I should win something for having the best fantasy team.

Getting away from the World Cup if that is possible, I was interested in the results of a study which indicates that the supposed throwaway society is not all encompassing.

It looked at attitudes towards old favourites and found that not everyone throws things away easily. Almost nine out of 10 people questioned admitted to harbouring something from the distant past.

Research showed that people are hanging on to favourite items of clothing and other cherished possessions for an average of 12 years which makes our “vintage year” 1988. But a quarter of us have held on to old favourites for over 15 years, and it’s reckoned that 4.5 million people in the country have kept possessions for more than 25 years.

The top five favourites were T-shirt, jacket/coat, special mug, jeans and shoes for men and shoes, jacket/coat, jumper/top/cardigan, handbag and jeans for women.

Good quality that lasted the test of time was overwhelmingly the reason given for keeping things for so long.

More than half the people questioned said they kept things because they did not need to be replaced for the sake of it.

And one in six of those in their 50s said their favourite item looks better now or has actually improved with age. Perhaps they look at them through rose-tinted glasses.

I have lots of things in my wardrobe but I must admit that they are there more because I can’t be bothered to throw them away rather than I like them so much.