Rather than being booed, Australia’s leading batsman should be saluted as a brave and decent cricketer for his stirring batting performances against EnglandFor tonight we’ll merry merry be,For tonight we’ll merry merry be, Related: Returning Steve Smith plays down impact of Jofra Archer bouncer Related: There have been 2,358 Tests since 1877 and this was the greatest of them all | Matthew Engel Continue reading...
The rise of Betfair’s wisdom-of-crowds online gambling model has put canny sports fans in the driving seatSir Tim Rice found a moment during the gripping final hours of the third Ashes Test at Headingley last weekend to tweet about the latest betting on the outcome. “Just phoned my bookie (a rare occurrence of course),” he said, “to see what odds they were offering against an England win. They quoted 6-1! Ludicrous. Should be 500-1. At 100-1 I might have invested a fiver. Having said that I am still rooting for England. Nothing is impossible.”My first reaction on reading his complaint was a wave of nostalgia. A quarter of a century after the internet turned gambling, and so much else, into...
All-rounder kept the Ashes series alive with his brilliance at Headingley and surely enabled some of his England colleagues to retain their places for the fourth Test in ManchesterThanks to Ben Stokes, there is still an Ashes series to savour. Thanks to Stokes, this may even be a summer to rival the epics of 1981 and 2005. Thanks to Stokes, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler keep their places in the Test team.Currently everyone, except a vibrant band of visiting Australians, is indebted to him. This cricketing summer is still alive after more miracles at Headingley, a melodrama that all those watching or listening to found captivating, and they all understood what was going on as well, whatever their age or...
World No 30 accused ATP of corruption before clarifying his comments but he owes tennis after a series of misdemeanoursAt some point, Nick Kyrgios will surely get bored being more famous for being an idiot than a very fine tennis player, but his latest outburst, which could earn him a year’s suspension, suggests that day is not at hand.It is likely that when the Australian time bomb called the Association of Tennis Professionals “corrupt” after winning in the first round here on day two he had little regard for the consequences, or even meant what he said. Related: US Open 2019 first round: Nick Kyrgios beats Steve Johnson in straight sets – as it happened Continue reading...
It is hard to differentiate between a great game and a great finish but Ben Stokes’s Headingley miracle takes the biscuitBeing broad-minded, we had an unbeliever to stay the weekend. At some point on Sunday afternoon I yelled out of the window: “You’ve got to come and see this! It’s the most astonishing game!” A languorous, world-weary voice replied from the garden: “Cricket! Always astonishing. Always historic. Always unprecedented.” She never budged.It is true that this was cricket’s second astonishing-historic-unprecedented Sunday in six weeks. It is also true it was being shown on Sky, whose policy is that everything must be treated as a-h-u even if it’s a goalless draw between Barrow and Boreham Wood. Which makes it hard to...