Forgive (again) the dewy-eyed sentimentalism, but the cast-iron proof that all is not well with cricket comes tomorrow when England plays the ”Stanford Superstars” in a winner-takes-all Twenty20 match in Antigua worth $1m to each player on the winning side.
The match, sanctioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board, is backed by the Texas billionaire, Sir Allen Stanford. You might [...]
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Monthly Archives: October 2008
Cricket, Stanford-style, going to hell in a handbasket
October 31, 2008 – 11:44 pm
Too nice by half – the real reason Australia is losing
October 28, 2008 – 3:55 pm
Can someone tell me what’s going on here? Matthew Hayden praising the one-time ’obnoxious little weed’ Harbhajan Singh, the Australian cricketers engaging in some kind of love-in with the Indians and, in the first International Rules match in Perth on Saturday, the Australian players helping the Irish players up off the ground and giving them a friendly pat on the [...]
Rugby League World Cup? More like the Pesapallo Playoffs
October 27, 2008 – 10:31 am
Australia’s thrashing of New Zealand in its Rugby League World Cup opener last night has laid bare the absurdly one-sided nature of the competition. Supposedly a universal celebration of the working-class game, the World Cup in fact has only highlighted so far the paucity of league talent around the globe.
The fact that New Zealand, the tournament second-favourite, can [...]
Whipping up a storm: should jockeys use the persuader or not?
October 24, 2008 – 1:28 pm
The down-at-heel trainer, ever-hopeful owner and hard-core punter would need no convincing: if a jockey’s flourish of the whip is going to get their horse over the line in a close one then, by all means Mr Pint-sized Pilot, go ahead and start flailing away. If using the shillalegh means the difference between a prizemoney collect and an empty [...]
India learns to win the Australian way – sledging and all
October 22, 2008 – 9:50 pm
Given that Australia produced the template for success in modern cricket: make a power of runs, take a poultice of wickets and sledge the bejesus out of your opponents for five days, the Boys in Baggy Green cannot feel too aggrieved that those very same methods have brought them undone in this latest Test.
In beating Australia [...]
India lauds Tendulkar as The Greatest, but aren’t they forgetting someone?
October 19, 2008 – 8:36 pm
We expected a certain amount of excitement on the sub-continent when Sachin Tendulkar, India’s modern deity, broke Brian Lara’s Test run-scoring record on Saturday.
I mean we know how the Indians love their cricket, we know how little Sachin is revered the length and breadth of that crazy, complex country and we know how their players’ successes can provoke a [...]
A Warne comeback? Maybe it’s not just spin
October 17, 2008 – 10:10 am
Hidden away in Shane Warne’s News Ltd newspaper column today is a paragraph which may reveal a clue to one of the most compelling sports stories this year: his return to Test cricket.
When the notion of a Warne comeback was first raised in May, and then again reared its head last week, most thought the [...]
Zingy Zaheer comes out swinging (but perhaps he’s got a point)
October 15, 2008 – 10:16 am
So, who are the lippy ones now? No sooner had the hubbub died down after Indian opener Virender Sehwag last week accused the Australians of cheating in January’s Sydney Test, then up pops left-armer Zaheer Khan to claim the Australians have got a pop-gun attack. And that Ponto’s boys played too defensively in the opening Test in [...]
A man under pressure: Joe Kinnear delivers sport’s greatest rant
October 10, 2008 – 1:32 pm
Well, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks for rugby league coaches and soccer managers, and their prickly relationships with the powers-that-be.
First, Melbourne Storm’s Craig Bellamy went ballistic at the suspension of his captain Cameron Smith, spraying all and sundry at the NRL and its judiciary with a poorly aimed blunderbuss. And then incurring the [...]
India favourite but beware the bite on this Aussie underdog
October 8, 2008 – 10:08 am
In many ways, Australia’s tour of India – which starts tomorrow in Bangalore with the First Test – represents a watershed for the boys wearing the Baggy Green. Because, for the first time since the tour to India in February 1998 – yes, more than a decade ago – the Australians will go into a [...]
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