Spectator sport
For the sake of athletics, the Olympics must not be delayed again
Whatever became of athletics? It’s fallen nearly as far as show jumping and that is a long way. But the…
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…
Why all the outrage over the European Super League?
Anything been happening in football in the past couple of weeks? No? Moving on then… Hang about though. The doomed…
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…
The Richard Freeman affair casts a cloud over British cycling
For those with neither the time nor inclination to plough through a PhD in the intricacies of the scandals surrounding…
In defence of horse racing
Rugby has enough problems — from baffling rule changes to concussion — without the referees muddying the pitch even more.…
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…
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…
Sailing’s coming home: the stunning Ben Ainslie comeback
Alan Bond was a rogue and a rich man, in every way your typical Aussie larrikin. In 1983 he bankrolled…
Footballers have made a pig’s ear of Covid rules
It’s the Portuguese piglet you feel really sorry for. The diminutive (ready cooked) porker — a festive delicacy all over…
Why 2021 could be sport’s greatest year yet
The best thing about sport in 2020 was that any happened at all. And how good much of it was.…
Rugby must try harder
Remember those lazy, hazy, crazy days of last year’s rugby World Cup, when as perfect a performance by England as…
Farewell to Graham Cowdrey, cricket’s king of the dressing room
So the Good Lord really wants to fill out his team: how else to interpret the passing in recent months…
Sporting spectacles to look forward to in lockdown
‘At least there’s sport,’ said the woman in the supermarket queue. True enough, and in a welcome sop to an…
Thanks for nothing, Jordan Pickford
You might hate the Premier League for its determination to suck all the money out of football, but at least…
Football is better without the crowds
The Liverpool defence might have decided in a rare show of togetherness to demonstrate what the word ‘appalling’ means, and…
DeChambeau’s the one to watch in the Masters
José Mourinho, it was surprising to read, recently said how relieved he was that the Amazon Prime cameras were out…
Foden and Greenwood’s ingenious Icelandic rendezvous
You suspect that a bar of duty-free Toblerone, no matter how supersized, wouldn’t really do the trick when hapless England…
Zac Crawley, a cricketing giant
Crowds, Covid and sport: could it get any crazier? I don’t mind about golf: no idiots yelling ‘Get in the…
The absurd self-pity of Stuart Broad
You are, shall we say, a famous commentator, one of a tiny elite in the British media. You are paid…
The magnificence of Carlos Brathwaite
We know about the endlessly jaw-dropping greatness of Ben Stokes (a peerage soon, surely), the furious power of a supercharged…
Was there ever any transparency in football?
So all that sound and fury about Manchester City’s sins signified precisely nothing. Well, a €10 million fine isn’t nothing,…
Klopp’s childlike enthusiasm – and incalculable savviness
Where were we? Oh yes, Liverpool were running away with the Premier League and a mere three months later have…
Billy the kid, football’s star of the future
Sadly it looks as though the 2020 Six Nations may have to go down with an asterisk and an explanation…
