Taking sport too seriously

1 - ONE SECOND One second, clear and cautious, a machine of war unstinting, I recharge my eyes uncornered, of one chain with fists unflinching, Picking spaces, prizing windows, opening wounds with dread precision, I’m a knife and I’m a cudgel, I am living every second And the referee is weighing what’s humane and what is brutal, I’m the truth this sucker paid for, I’m his point of last refusal, He can smell my fierce indifference to his pain’s humiliation, There will be a new world champion, any second, any second … One second, a contender, just outworking, never thinking Of the next fight, just reworking combinations neverending, Never cornered, always stabbing, never pounding, sword and scalpel, Neat and frightening, treading closer with each second, And one second of three minutes of twelve rounds of one life’s vigil I’m the boy with no defences who needs something to take pride in I’m the first parade of power to incredulous oppressors, An

It's seen as a great time for women's sport in the UK. Britain are Olympic Hockey champions, England are world rugby (for at least a few more weeks) and cricket champions, European Football semi-finalists. It's an exceptional level of success, and as people continue to point out, such a contrast to the men's teams. I've touched on women's sport as an issue before, as it often comes up when I write about sporting "greatness" and discrepancies that clearly emerge when making such lists. There is considerable debate at the moment, both polite and otherwise, about fairness in sport, about the pay gap etc. I feel like, on both sides, there is some nonsense being spoken. Safe to say, there is more nonsense being spoken by what we can gently call the "old-fashioned" side, but the "progressive" side is, as far as I can see, playing a little fast and loose with the truth sometimes. Look, I really want to write this. I'm aware that

Brian Lara, Sangakkara, McNamee and McNamara, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Oscar de La Hoya, Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Akabusi, Jamie Baulch,  Kahn, Courtouis, Cech, Lloris, Manuel Neuer Johnson-Thompson, Joyner-Kersee, Thompson, Johnson, Giggs, Van Persie Graeme Smith, Gilchrist, Shiv Chanderpaul, Phil Tufnell, Ashley Giles, Beth Tweddle, Simone Biles, Hurst, Peters, Hunt, Moore, Banks, Alan Ball John Collins, Collins John, Harry Greb and Billy Conn, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran Steve Davis, Tony Meo, Adedayo Adebayo Contador, Quintana, Porte, Froome, Uran Isinbayeva, Rod Laver, Elena Dementieva Wilkinson, Dan Carter, Martin Offiah, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Tony Drago, Tony Knowles, Dele Alli, Rose, Harry Kane, Eric Dier Andy Farrell, Andy Carroll, Hair, Harper, Darrell, Darryl, Merlene Ottey, Pirlo, Totti, Misbah Ul-Haq Little, Horan, Henman, Goran, Norman Whiteside, Kevin Moran, Fran Cotton, Winterbottom, Hill, Leonard, Back. MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Laur

Here are my 25 least favourite footballers of all time. I challenge anyone to find a more 'orrible lot. Very scientific method used for this list 1. John Terry Captain. Leader. Legend. Carry on the list as you see appropriate ... 2. Sinisa Mihajlovic Nasty piece of work on and off pitch 3. Roy Keane My least favourite footballing cliche is "Man Utd have struggled to ever find a replacement for Keano ..." you mean when they were winning three straight premier leagues, reaching three champions league finals pretty much as soon as he left. Real struggle. Keane was a very good footballer but he's the most over-rated there is in terms of aura. Teams don't need a Roy Keane. 4. Diego Costa Obviously 5. Luis Suarez Obviously 6. Barry Silkman Better known as an agent, known for saying horrible self-justificatory things on Sky Sports News, but was also a journeyman player, so makes my list 7. Pepe Keeps on outdoing himself in major games ... 8. Paolo Di Cani

A fun list to put together. The first test match I watched was the second test of the 1984 series vs the West Indies. Anyone who's played a test match for England at all since then is considered (apart from Bob Willis and Derek Randall, who played their last games in that series). Only test match performance is considered. Looking through the full list of every single player, I remembered, or barely remembered, so very many, particularly in the late 80s and early 90s, who came and went. For balance and a bit of fun, I've added 50 of them, who cast no shadow on test cricket (some of them were rather good cricketers, it was all just a total shambles of selection and retention. And some are actually notorious due to the very brevity of their test career - the likes of Mark Lathwell and Darren Pattinson). There's not that much more to say - current ones are only up to this point, so Stokes and Root will obviously be higher soon. Only in English cricket could there b

There was, as usual, a lot of good writing in this year's Wisden Almanack. I used to pore over it for the match reports and statistics, but now it's the articles at the beginning which grab my attention. There was a particularly lovely piece by Matthew Engel on the 60-year history of Test Match Special. Amongst that and several other good ones, the article called Cricket and Politics, though fine enough, was a bit of a damp squib - little more scope and insight than mentioning that there used to be more working class players, and that most cricketers are probably likely to be right-wing. No shit. So I've decided to have a go myself, ingeniously entitling it Politics and Cricket. Cricket is a special game of rare wonders, rare meaning and context. Sometimes it can be hard to pin that down, but I'll try. John Major's vision of cricket as the sun goes down on an English village green is all well and good - I've been there and I've loved that, I'm not