Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2015 i Inside Sport

F, RIENDS OCCASIONALLY make the comment to me that I must have a great job. And I agree with them. It's a beaut vantage point to nourish a personal passion; as a journalism specialty the one unarguable thing you can say about sport is that it's seldom about life and death. For all the insights this sphere provides into the human condition, good and bad, at sport's essence it is generally a celebration of who we are as a species, and what marvellous things we can do. This past month, unfortunately, it HAS been about life and death. We've been shocked and saddened deeply by Phil Hughes' passing. Our sympathies to Hughes' family and his many friends. With the Australian Open around the corner, and the world’s best…

1 What is the only country to have beaten the NZ All Blacks in their first-ever encounter? 2 A two-time Olympic medallist and twice world champion, Russian woman Irina Slutskaya was a big name in which sport in the 2000s? 3 Which national soccer team drew its Euro 2016 qualifying match with Estonia in November, breaking a sequence of 61 consecutive defeats? 4 In 1979, at which motor race did actor Paul Newman finish second? 5 Who won the 2014 Australian Masters Golf tournament? 6 India’s Rohit Sharma hit what world-record ODI score against Sri Lanka in November? 7 At which Olympic Games did BMX make its debut? 8 In which NSW town was Queensland rugby league legend Greg Inglis born? 9 Pete Rose has played the most games in…

AUSTRALIAN cricket presents its Player of the Year with the Allan Border Medal. Just think about that. It’s not named after the boy from Bowral, whose feats with the bat will never be matched by anyone – ever. It’s “AB” who adorns the necks of our finest, and there are several reasons why. After all, the great man did average 50 even in an era of legendary West Indian fast bowling. His was a 16-year international career studded with glory and characterised by courage. He still holds the world record for consecutive Test appearances (153), and the most as captain. When he retired he was Australia’s greatest-ever run scorer in Tests; no surprise he’s often described as one of the most gutsy Aussie batsmen ever. With a slight crouch as…

Jim Courier went from Joke-ovich to Jock-ovich. John McEnroe goes with Jahk-ovich - although that might be his Noo Yok accent. Americans struggle to pronounce Novak Djokovic’s name, even after a commentary box tutorial from the man himself. So Joke- or Jock-ovich? Actually, neither. The first syllable is more like “jaw”, but speeded up. So Jaw-kovich. And since there’s a second o in there, it’s actually Jawkaw-vich. The “aw” vowel sound is missing from American English (jaw and jolt have the same vowel sound in the US, but are very different in Aussie and British English), which explains why Americans have trouble with "Djokovic". Since vowels in Serbian are pronounced consistently, the same "o" sound applies to his first name. So the No in Novak is not like nova or…

WORKOUT OF THE DAY Kara: “The WOD is programmed by an experienced coach and will contain a single or multiple functional movements. It is measurable, and always scalable for every fitness level or individual circumstance. The WOD should always be different from any other workout a CrossFitter will participate in during that week in order to stay in line with a balanced program of various movements.” Rob: “The Workout Of the Day keeps everyone guessing – this way it never gets boring. It is a combination of movements that you probably haven’t done before. It is essentially the same as a Crossfit competition. It could be two exercises together, or three, four, ten – that’s all part of the variety. “Once everyone’s done their workout, their scores are…

S URFERS - anyone with even a passing interest in the colourful culture of surfing - know the importance of George Greenough, one of the most innovative and influential practitioners of any sport, anywhere. Not only did this man profoundly affect design of the very tool of the surfer, the board, he ensured footage of surfing, and surf, would capture the popular imagination. Greenough is a born inventor and visionary, an iconic surfing figure and true eccentric. Born in 1941 in Santa Barbara, California (he now lives in northern New South Wales), he’s a descendent of the great American sculptor Horatio Greenough. His wealthy family allowed him his head from the start and so George embarked, forever shoeless, on an aquatic life (he’s worn formal attire twice in his life,…

UNDERWHELMED As a life-long follower of the wonderful game of cricket, I read with interest and agree with much that was raised in the article “Spin Attack” (Dec issue), by Matt Cleary. But there are greater issues than talking up the Test series for Michael Clarke to fix this summer. Not least of these is his captaincy. He’s got to ask himself why he’s regarded by some in his team as a “good” batsman but a “dud” captain. And, to solve that issue, he need only look at his own conduct over the years. Was he thinking of the prestigious position he holds in Australian cricket when he decided to do underwear ads? I don’t think so. - Ray Whitbread, via email HEAD CASE The tragic injury to Phil Hughes…

PAPER TIGER “Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody, and is really more like a grudge-fuelled piece of character assassination ... no fair-minded writer would put someone in the position of having to publicly deny that he mistreats his friends, takes pleasure in firing people and stiffs on tips.” – Tiger Woods, responding to a parody interview written by golf writer Dan Jenkins. “My next column for Tiger: defining parody and satire. I thought I let him off easy .” – Jenkins in response, via Twitter. DOING THEIR BIDDING “The potentially problematic facts and circumstances identified by the report concerning the Qatar 2022 bid were, all in all, not suited to compromise the integrity of the 2018-22 bidding process as a whole.” – FIFA ethics committee…

CRICKET Things to ponder during the Test series: a) Do we respect Sachin Tendulkar less for what he said about Messrs Chappell, Ponting, Gilchrist, Clarke et al? b) Wouldn’t it have been more fun if The Little Master had chosen to speak out during his career? c) What is it with cricket and tell-all books anyway? We hope these don’t turn out to be the most interesting talking points during the five-dayers, but they could distract us from tedious conversations about how Test players only really prove themselves in foreign conditions. The Indians have their next chance to do just that in Adelaide with the second Australia vs India Test (Dec 12-16), where we’ll see if MS Dhoni is ready to return. The nation’s greatest Christmas tradition continues with the…

WHEN he’s not smashing bowlers for six, Aaron Finch enjoys reading the books of Ben Mezrich. The American author is known for a niche of his own making, having produced highly colourful, surely embellished tales of non-fiction. Mezrich has written about the founding of Facebook (his book forms part of the basis for the film The Social Network), expat financial traders running foul of the Japanese mob and, in perhaps his best-known work, the team of card-counting, math-wiz college students that took millions from Vegas blackjack tables. The through-line of the Mezrich genre is distinct – very smart, young guys taking big chances to beat the system, and profiting handsomely from it. “I really love that kind of stuff,” Finch says. “True stories of people making heaps of cash and…

BOOKS SACHIN TENDULKAR PLAYING IT MY WAY BY SACHIN TENDULKAR AND BORIA MUJUMDAR, HODDER & STOUGHTON, $29.99 As seems to be the cycle with cricket books these days, every newly published tome is mined to create way-after-the-fact controversy. When the book is as anticipated as Sachin Tendulkar’s autobiography, there’s absolutely no avoiding it. But while the juicy detail is quickly extracted – Greg Chappell was a bad coach, Symonds provoked Harbhajan etc – the overall impression of Playing It My Way is a distinct lack of liveliness. The account of the Little Master’s grand, quarter-century-long career is so comprehensive that it runs stylistically dry. And amid all the detail, even with Tendulkar offering more frank thoughts than he did as a player, the private man we came to know remains…

• If any other Australian team had suffered a catastrophe the size of the 2002 World Cup no-show, the national body would have dragged the carcass indoors and subjected it to a full cavity search ... While one-time peers Korea, Japan and the US are riding off into the future on the backs of their 2002 glories, a whole year has been blown and Australia is no closer to starting a new campaign... The standard of squad management must match that of the Wallabies and the Australian cricket team. Neither of those outfits would’ve fallen into the trap of flying straight into the pressure cooker of Montevideo rather than staging a base camp in nearby Buenos Aires. Nor would they have failed to recognise that perhaps as many as five…

Sport gives us a steady diet of winners and losers to talk about and obsess over; sometimes, it also reminds us what’s really important. It’s no exaggeration to say that the death of Phil Hughes is the saddest day that Australian cricket will experience, a moment that puts all the passion and mania that our most beloved pastimes bring forth into the proper perspective. Hughes, just shy of his 26th birthday, had played 26 Tests and was poised for a return to the highest level of the sport. Known for his idiosyncratic technique at the crease when he first broke into the Test ranks, his talent was also undeniable, becoming the youngest Australian player to score two centuries in a Test. He was seemingly following the path of many talented…

HONOUR ROLL James Spithill has been named the 2014 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year at a presentation in Spain. Spithill, from Sydney, skippered Oracle Team USA to a win in the 2013 America’s Cup, in what’s been called one of the greatest comebacks in international sport. Trailing Emirates Team New Zealand eight-one in a first to nine series, Spithill steered the craft faultlessly to first level the series, then take the final race. “I feel a little awkward winning this award” said Spithill, 35. “It seems it’s an individual award and in my case it could not be further from the truth. What happened on San Francisco Bay was an incredible team effort. I was just a small piece. I would like to accept the award on behalf…

The Big Bash League has reached its fourth season of existence, and even the grumblers who lament that T20 isn’t “real” cricket can’t deny that people are watching. While the gimmick factor remains high in the BBL, at least those pyrotechnic cannons are gone – those things always looked really dangerous. This year’s action will come thicker and faster, with the 35 matches on the schedule played over 42 days. All the big-bashing excitement will culminate in a place that has no team, as the January 28 final will be played in Canberra. BOLTER While the three seasons of Big Bash have established no clear No.1 franchise, it has settled on the bottom. The Sydney Thunder has yet to finish better than eighth out of eight; the highlight of last…