The Dolphins have shown the way so far this season but there are no guaranteed rewards for adding an 18th, 19th and 20th team Two weeks into the 2023 NRL season and the story that has captured the imagination like no other has been that of the remarkable early success of the Dolphins. The expansion team sit top of the ladder, having become just the third new outfit in 113 years – after the Brisbane Broncos and the Melbourne Storm – to win their opening two games.So followed calls to further expand the competition, according to the Daily Telegraph, which reported that the ARL Commission is planning an expansion to 20 teams by 2032. ARLC chair Peter V’landys has never...
For years he churned out hundreds like a machine, then it stopped. Sunday offered the best environment to start againBetween March 2011 and and March 2012, the people waited for Sachin Tendulkar. With 99 international centuries, he was on the verge of something nobody else had ever considered achieving. Cricket stats are usually for a niche set of people, but this one grew as time went on. It sprouted tendrils that curled past the nuffies before lacing their way through broader society. For 33 international innings, more and more people watched each time as Tendulkar walked out to bat and returned without a ton. It almost drove them mad.That wait was a year and four days. Virat Kohli’s version dwarfs...
In a fresh quest to solve its identity crisis and attract fans, Super Netball’s new campaign steps into its power as a fierce, fast and feminist sportSince its inception, Super Netball has grappled with an identity crisis. Over the years it’s been variously marketed and consequently perceived as: an anodyne competition aimed at primary school girls fond of sparkly My Little Pony figurines, a world-class league likely to be embraced by casual male sports fans, and a brutal version of the grassroots game played by 1.2 million Australians that leaves players battered and bruised.In trying to please all masters since 2017, the league, its governing body Netball Australia and broadcasters have often disappointed many. But if the slick hype reel...
When Australia lost their first wicket to the second ball of the day, things looked grim. Then Travis Head slammed the doorWhen you read back over the scorecard in years to come, it will look easy. A run chase of 76 is a formality. Done in little more than an hour, purring along at 4.14 runs per over? Standard. Except it wasn’t. Not when the first ball of the third morning exploded in a dust cloud like a Dakar rally jeep jumping a dune. Not when Ravichandran Ashwin dialled back the turn on the next delivery, just enough of it to flick the bat so softly that even Usman Khawaja didn’t know he was out.For the next 10 overs, Ashwin...
Spinner has gradually become a formidable operator in Asia, where he has more Test wickets than any other visiting playerIn Bengaluru in 2017, Nathan Lyon took eight for 50; his best figures in a Test innings. He dismissed India’s key players at their peaks: Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane. He toiled for more than 22 overs, and later a further 33. He put his teammates into a dominant position with a modest target to chase. Then he watched them lose.In Indore in 2023, Nathan Lyon took eight wickets for the second time. After a long day of off-spin bowling, the figures were a similar eight for 64. This time he took them in the third innings of the match,...