At the elite level, sport is run, funded and used as a reputation-garnish by the world’s greatest carbon-gorgersEdgar Allan Poe wrote a brilliantly sinister short story about a man who wakes up in the night and sees a shadow against the curtains that looks just like a knife‑wielding murderer come to kill him in his sleep. The twist: it really is a knife-wielding murderer come to kill him in his sleep.The murderer has a plan for this. He freezes, knowing his victim will convince himself he is simply looking at a shadow, that something this frightening can’t actually be happening, that your worst fears never really come true. Related: Australian bushfire crisis: authorities plead for last-ditch evacuation, with terrible conditions...
Prospect of two great players at rival clubs pushing each other is just one cause for excitement about women’s football in 2020Friday is the day that Sam Kerr officially joins Chelsea as the mid-season transfer window opens, the arrival of the player I consider the best No 9 in the world ending an amazing year for women’s football.It has been a year of massive forward strides. The World Cup obviously was huge, and Megan Rapinoe brought positive attention to the women’s game by being brave and speaking about important issues while also doing her talking on the pitch, and there have been big signings, and groundbreaking sponsorship and broadcasting deals. Meanwhile clubs playing in men’s stadiums has become normalised and...
The Italian jockey is now 0-17 in ‘the race that stops a nation’ and came away with a ban for the second time in five yearsFrankie Dettori came heartbreakingly close to a first success in the Melbourne Cup but, instead of lifting the trophy, he ended his day with a dressing-down from the stewards, who demoted his mount from second place to fourth. The veteran jockey delivered a fine ride aboard the 25-1 shot Master Of Reality and they briefly seemed to have pinched the £2m prize. Instead, they were collared in the last two strides by Vow And Declare, and then ruled to have interfered with the fast-finishing Il Paridiso, fourth past the post.“I want to cry,” Dettori muttered,...
Bound by idealogical shackles, next year’s World Cup hosts have often found themselves playing catch-up with the leading nationsAs the Australian men’s team launched into their home summer over the weekend, powering their way to a T20 victory over Sri Lanka, one could almost hear the faint echoes of distant summers past.A sunny afternoon. A clinic of muscular first-innings batting, personal milestones, and sympathy for the opposition bordering on mild condescension. Then the innings break, when you ask, “is there a game here?”, during which time brutish Australian quicks have already stung the bodies and claimed the wickets of hapless top-order fodder in fading light, while commentary reminds us that they “must adjust to the bounce in Australia”. Related: Australia...
For all England’s skilful touches, it was Eddie Jones’s Kamikaze Kids who dominated Australia with 36 hard-hitting tacklesEddie Jones calls them his Kamikaze Kids, which fits – because the way Tom Curry and Sam Underhill play is right out of a comic book. You could picture it in Roy Lichtenstein prints. Pop! Pow! Whaam! Boom! They made 36 tackles between them against Australia, none better than the one Underhill put in on their strapping No 8 Isi Naisarani early in the first half, which was one of those blows that seem to reverse the entire flow of a game. It was in the 15th minute, or thereabouts, and Australia had made a hot start, thinking that they would catch England...