Spectator sport
The Cricket World Cup needs minnows
Graeme Swann arrived late for the last cricket World Cup. His wife had given birth before the tournament and he…
Little teams mean a lot
Graeme Swann arrived late for the last cricket World Cup. His wife had given birth before the tournament and he…
We should be grateful for Andy Murray (and Kim Sears)
It wasn’t that long ago when the most exciting event in any British tennis fan’s life was whether Jeremy Bates…
A cheerleader to swear by
It wasn’t that long ago when the most exciting event in any British tennis fan’s life was whether Jeremy Bates…
One-day cricket can make even a turbo-charged century tedious
What a remarkable innings that was in Johannesburg earlier this week when South Africa’s admirable Hashim Amla carried his bat…
Bats out of hell
What a remarkable innings that was in Johannesburg earlier this week when South Africa’s admirable Hashim Amla carried his bat…
The myth of Steven Gerrard
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
Myths and legends
‘As a leader and a man, he is incomparable to anyone I have ever worked with.’ Obviously quite some guy,…
Fifteen things we learned about sport in 2014
It was the year of KP, Keano and the Kiwis; of Federer, Froch and Phil the Power (no change there…
Fifteen things we learned about sport this year
It was the year of KP, Keano and the Kiwis; of Federer, Froch and Phil the Power (no change there…
What football can tell you about Jim Murphy (and what Jim Murphy can tell you about football)
The author of a rather brilliant little book about football could just hold the key to Labour’s otherwise negligible prospects…
Tackling Jim Murphy
The author of a rather brilliant little book about football could just hold the key to Labour’s otherwise negligible prospects…
International cricket must return to Pakistan (and my team went first)
In a tiny courtyard just off the teeming alleys of Lahore’s old town, a young Pakistani boy in a gleaming…
Cricket must return to Pakistan
In a tiny courtyard just off the teeming alleys of Lahore’s old town, a young Pakistani boy in a gleaming…
Test cricket and the Archers are both in deep trouble
Lions and weasels The Archers and Test cricket: words you rarely find in the same sentence and more’s the pity…
Is Test cricket heading for its last innings?
Lions and weasels The Archers and Test cricket: words you rarely find in the same sentence and more’s the pity…
Pietersen’s unlikely Passage to India
A typical Merchant-Ivory film, their biography informs me, features ‘genteel characters’ whose lives are blighted by ‘disillusionment and tragic entanglements’.…
Pietersen’s unlikely Passage to India
A typical Merchant-Ivory film, their biography informs me, features ‘genteel characters’ whose lives are blighted by ‘disillusionment and tragic entanglements’.…
Please don't let the Ryder Cup go the way of football
Well, that was a lot of fuss wasn’t it? The Ryder Cup is a strange old creation, only fractionally less…
Enjoying the Ryder
Well, that was a lot of fuss wasn’t it? The Ryder Cup is a strange old creation, only fractionally less…
Roy of the autobiographers
It has become a weary cliché to say that a book’s publication is eagerly awaited, but when an event is…
They don’t make footballers like Roy Race any more
It has become a weary cliché to say that a book’s publication is eagerly awaited, but when an event is…
Just what Diego Costa needed: a guide to the traditions of the Premier League
That excitable but likeable hombre, Everton manager Roberto Martinez, took it upon himself to give a stern lecture to the…
Those ‘traditions of English football’ in full
That excitable but likeable hombre, Everton manager Roberto Martinez, took it upon himself to give a stern lecture to the…
What does Duncan Fletcher actually do?
Some years ago, when the last Conservative government was limping towards defeat, someone published a book called 101 Uses for…