Cricket
Rest in peace, Shane Warne
Headingly, July 22nd 1993 and the opening day of the fourth test that summer between England and Australia. This, as…
Mason Greenwood and football’s obsession with prodigies
Well, there’s a surprise: Nike have cancelled their sponsorship of the Manchester United and England footballer Mason Greenwood, who is…
Letters: The BBC licence fee is a protection racket
Russia’s star Sir: Wolfgang Münchau is surely right to highlight the risk posed to European peace and stability by Germany’s…
The BBC is killing cricket
Full homage to the nail-biting cricketing miracle in Sydney, while bearing in mind that miracles, like lightning, rarely strike twice…
Why England lost the Ashes
England’s wretched performance in the Ashes – which saw the side lose three tests and so the series to Australia…
The year sport and politics became inseparable
Sport and politics have always been intertwined, but this was the year they became joined at the hip. Yorkshire racism;…
The ridiculous rehabilitation of Azeem Rafiq
Has Azeem Rafiq been forgiven yet? He’s certainly working on it. After finding himself on both sides of a racism…
Why the Reds have got the blues
Not so much the hair dryer: more a gentle home perm. Contemplating the increasingly less youthful visage of Ole Gunnar…
England’s shameful betrayal of Pakistan
Any English person with a love of cricket knows life has its ups and downs. But until now we have…
Spain vs Italy: who would win the wine Test?
In London, the weather is a gentle sashaying mockery. An Indian summer reminds us of the sullen apology of summer…
The absurdity of tennis players’ toilet breaks
Forgive the personal question, but how long does it take you to, you know, go to the gents, ladies, non-binary?…
Can the Lions prise open the strong Boks?
You would need a digger to explore the levels of irony in a Springbok chief slagging off an opponent’s dirty…
My 46 days on the road with John Woodcock
Although it was a miracle that he survived until a few weeks before his 95th birthday, the death of John…
The hateful Hundred is putting cash before cricket
This slick new tournament will ruin cricket
Ollie Robinson’s ritual humiliation
One of the more egregious innovations of Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution was something called the ‘struggle sessions’. This involved the…
Portrait of the week: Pub staff shortages, a baby called Lilibet and a slap in the face for Macron
Home The government pondered delaying the end of coronavirus restrictions on 21 June. But Chris Hopson, the chief executive of…
Judge Ollie Robinson on his cricket skills, not his tweets
Ollie Robinson, who made his Test debut for England at Lord’s last week against New Zealand, is an outstanding cricketer…
Thoughts on a foreign clash of the English titans
Thank heavens the Champions League final is being played in Portugal, now Turkey’s off the menu (sorry). It will certainly…
Outs-rage: the dumbing down of cricket
So wickets are out and outs are in for the new Hundred competition. But why? The language of sport is…
What cricket will look like in 50 years
After the thrills and spills and last-gasp excitements of England’s triple-headed series in India, the attention of the cricket fan…
How to breathe life back into European rugby
French rugby has always been well stocked with boeuf but now it has added lashings of exceptionally tangy moutarde and…
Letters: Immunity passports are nothing new
Too many bishops Sir: As a former Anglican clergyman, I have been following your articles about the current state of…
Portrait of the week: A royal baby, Boohoo buyouts and France legalises lunch al desko
Home On Sunday 7 February, as the week began, 11,465,210 people in the United Kingdom had received a first vaccination…
Just not cricket: the BBC is failing the Test
Michael Vaughan might disagree but — putting aside 2005 and all that — was there a more thrilling and satisfying…
Letters: The case for immunity passports
Joy Sir: Alexandra Coghlan identifies the coincidence between the rise of recording and broadcast technology and the flourishing of the…
