Blackouts aren’t a perfect solution, but this one can play a part in a wider campaign to tackle racism, sexism and homophobia For as long as prejudice and abuse exists in society it will always exist on social media: but that doesn’t mean we have to take it, excuse it on that basis, or ignore it. I have received my fair share of abuse in relation to things I’ve written: “Honestly stop writing about football you clearly know nothing you stupid fucking whore”, “clown”, “you’re a complete idiot. You’re a fake feminist”, “plug in the iron love”, “stay at home just cooking”, “give your head a wobble you stupid cow!”, “ooooooo fuck off Suzy you mutt.” Related: Footballers and clubs...
Coverage on Channel 4 can help put the game back into the national conversation at a time when Test matches have rarely been more excitingFrom this distance, it looks like Joe Root is holding himself a little differently these days. You can see it in his press conferences, where his answers seem as self-assured as his footwork at the crease. Watch him at work after England wrapped up the first Test match, politely brushing aside insistent questions about whether he should have declared on the fourth evening and briskly dismissing everyone else’s enthusiasm about what he and his team had just achieved. “We can’t be happy with what we’ve done,” he said.Root is sure of himself, where he used to...
The ceremony’s usual bombast was dialled down a little but odd moments were reassuringly present and correctAs the BBC’s small, Covid-friendly Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony drew to a predictable conclusion, Lewis Hamilton – appearing via video link from a position in front of a lavishly decorated Christmas tree in Monaco – held up the replica trophy he had been thoughtfully equipped with in case of victory and thanked the people of Britain for voting for him. “All the frontline workers, all the children of the world, please try to stay positive at this difficult time,” he said. “Please, everyone out there, go out and follow your dreams.”Unless you’re in a tier 4 area, of course, in which...
Two untaxing wins meant the corporate behemoth arrived quietly – but the smart money says it’s here to stayIf Amazon Prime Video was hopeful its maiden foray into rugby coverage would be the main talking point of the weekend’s international Test match action, its thunder was unceremoniously stolen mere hours before its first broadcast by Sky Sports. After Sky’s viewers were spoiled by the unprecedented sight of Argentina beating the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations, a laboured Scotland win over Italy and routine England rout of Georgia in our own comparatively mundane autumnal jamboree, the Nations Cup, could never hope to compete.“Amazon delivers the rugby,” it told us, the pre-match graphic featuring rampaging and hulking household names carrying brown parcels...
The coverage of Sunday’s England v Pakistan T20, the first match on the BBC in two decades, will be very different to the days of Peter West and Tony LewisNostalgia is the comfort blanket of our times. The BBC knows this, which is why it spent lockdown pacifying or existential angst with golden replays of the Olympics, Wimbledon and West Indies tours. When it shows Sunday’s England v Pakistan T20, the corporation’s first live cricket TV broadcast in two decades, there will be a quiet sigh from older viewers, of something finally being put right with the world.Cricket and the Beeb used to be wedded to each other. For 60 years – it first showed the game on TV in...