Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Inside Sport

Sport, for all its modern-day excess and dastardly behaviour, has this wonderful ability to present stories which warm the heart. And so it was, in the pre-dawn blur in early October, we sat and watched one unexpectedly unfold before our eyes. As the Socceroos battered Kuwait in the first match under new manager Graham Arnold, two childhood friends came off the bench to make their debuts for their nation. Their adopted nation. Thomas Deng and Awer Mabil grew up in trouble. Through no fault of their own, it must be said. Out of South Sudan, via Kenya, as refugees. Both found their way to Adelaide as primary school-aged kids and found football. Now it’s a romantic thought to say finding football automatically made them find themselves in a foreign land.…

REASONED ARGUMENTS HO HUM If big companies are willing to fork out millions just so they can have their logo on a building, and have their own corporate box at the footy, I reckon good on them. It’s not really hurting anyone, is it? No one actually calls it 1300 Smiles Stadium in conversation anyway. People still just refer to the Cowboys’ home ground as “Townsville”. This issue got dredged up when the horse racing people wanted to project racing advertising onto the Sydney Opera House. I mean, people are being a bit precious, aren’t they? It’s the Opera House. It only opened in the 1970s. It’s not as if it’s an ancient relic that was being poisoned by gambling money. People really need to move on from this. It’s…

Wherever there is team sport, there is Canterbury teamwear. Canterbury teamwear is not your usual made-to-order kit – developed using insights from our global ambassadors and teams and created using the same unique technology and specialised fabrics, this kit allows you and your team to outplay the final whistle and outperform the toughest of competition. Called upon during World War One to create troop uniforms for both the Australian and New Zealand armies, Canterbury has long understood the need to develop the toughest uniforms and kit imaginable. Attention to detail paired with rigorous on-field testing, customer and player understanding and the highest level of durable design technologies has made Canterbury one of the most reliable trailblazers in global sport to date. Strength, passion, trust and resilience are the pillars on…

In the nearly 50 years since I first played against India in a Test match, their performance has evolved in spectacular fashion. A former Indian player once told me: “We’ve had guys who craved selection just so they could show off the cap, sweater and blazer.” This attitude was epitomised by a tourist in 1977-78 who was in fine form in the state games. When told he was in line for the next Test side to play against an Australian attack headed by the tearaway Jeff Thomson, he responded: “Why me?” While it was true the odd Indian team member actually hero-worshipped players in the opposition side, this is no longer the case. The tone for India’s present competitiveness was set by players in the mould of astute captain “Tiger”…

The Swami Army has a quite funny chant that goes, “We’re so rich it’s unbelievable!” and repeat on high rotation. It’s illustrative of confident, modern, thrusting India. It’s New World thumbing nose at Old. It’s unapologetic, aspirational and understood: you have the coin, you may show it off. MK Gandhi wore the humble dhoti as pants. MS Dhoni rode a red Ducati into 16th on a Forbes list. The same magazine has declared that Indian captain Virat Kohli sits 83rd on their sports star hierarchy with annual earnings of $34m. He lives in a flash joint in Delhi, is married to a Bollywood star, and drives many fast cars. It’s hard to drive them, however, at least in the day time, because people know which ones are yours and believe…

Cricket’s batters and bowlers are picked to do a job: mostly to either bat like a run-scoring machine or bowl like a demon. In that realm, all-rounders aren’t just selected to be okay at both – they need to be at the top of their game across all departments, including fielding. It is double the workload and responsibility. Players like Sydney-born right-arm batter and right-arm off-spinner Ash Gardner are a unique lot. They’re ultra-talented but boast a ruthless work ethic. At just 21, this rising Indigenous star is already a master stroke-player who can pile on the runs when her team needs her; last summer in an amazing display at North Sydney Oval she hit the fastest-ever century in the WBBL – 114 runs from just 52 deliveries. Part of…

CRICKET GIANT The first batsman to hit a six in Test cricket, Joe Darling is one of the giant figures of cricket’s golden era, best remembered as a record-breaking batsman and outstanding leader of men. Captain of three Ashes tours to England in 1899, 1902 and 1905, he guided Australian cricket through its coming of age and captained the most successful Australian teams in England until Bradman’s Invincibles. Larger than life, Joe Darling, by his discipline and democratic approach, was admired by all cricketers who served under or played against him. During the latter part of his life, farming and politics in Tasmania took him to prominence, as he applied the same personal attributes which had brought him cricketing success. A member of the pioneering Australian dynasty, Joe achieved greatness…

Australian basketball is headed for its moon landing moment. The countdown has already begun, and this time next year we could be basking in the glory of one of the greatest ever achievements in Australian sport. The oÿcial big-stage launch of the Boomers’ China World Cup gold medal quest will take place in Australia next August, with two historic warm-up games against Team USA at a reconfigured 60,000-seat Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. The full-strength Aussie team, jam-packed with NBA stars such as Ben Simmons and Joe Ingles, will host a ridiculously talented collection of American NBA icons, which could include Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. And if the Aussies can somehow unite and rise to defeat the Americans for the first time ever at their own game, it would be…

IN THE following interview, Stuart Clark offers up a very interesting insight, especially in the context of today’s youth development camps and talent ID systems. Coming into the Australian national cricket team back in 2006 at the age of 30 meant Clark was already his own bowler. There was no journey of discovery in front of the NSW quick. He was what he was: super-consistent and reliable with the ball. The Aussie selectors needed someone resembling Glenn McGrath for their tour of South Africa, in the days of wife Jane’s illness. In Clark, they had it. Going on to enjoy a 24-Test and 39-ODI career, Clark these days is the Chief Operating Oÿcer at the New South Wales Rugby League, and is slowly nursing home the delivery of the Blues’…

Although India found wins hard to come by when instated as a Test-playing nation in 1932, they enriched the game with three distinctive attributes: spin, exotic batsmanship and indomitable spirit. They brought with them greater emphasis on wrists, fingers and feet. Indian cricket has negotiated hard roads since, but on those occasions when they’ve turned the right way, a great spinner or two has stood at the crossroads. Here are ten outstanding match-winning efforts by India’s spinners, and one that almost turned a momentous series – for even when the great Indian twirlers were not match-winners, they were always game-changers. VINOO MANKAD (CHENNAI, 1952) Left-arm orthodox spinner, opening batsman and one of India’s best-ever all-rounders, Mankad was slightly round-arm, but his flight and control were something to behold. He never…

There has been a buzz around the W-League this season, more so than usual. A lot has happened in the off-season, lots of arrivals and departures along with steps taken to improve the league through promotion and coverage. What are some of the things you’re looking forward to? There have been a lot of changes. We’ve taken a lot of steps forward with the W-League this year, with the Who’s Your Hero campaign for example, which I think is fantastic because it gives the kids an opportunity to see the big players come out and play. A lot of the Matildas are now back playing W-League and Fox Sports have jumped on board as well. All the games will be televised or streamed, which has never happened before. Also, with…

STEVE SMITH’S MEN BEHIND AUSTRALIAN CRICKET’S FALL BY GEOFF LEMON, HARDIE GRANT, $29.99 When Cameron Bancroft applied sandpaper to ball less than furtively in Cape Town earlier this year, the public outrage was at once unmistakable yet also complicated – people knew they were angry, but at what, exactly? Ball-tampering? That had long been cricket’s most tolerated offence. Cheating in such a blatant way? Plain naive. That other nations were making fun of us? Closer, but not sufficient as an explanation. The sharper observers of our oldest national game recognised something else: a full-on malaise, something that would be immediately recognised as “bad culture” in other sports. Sandpapergate was not merely one wrongheaded moment, or a touring party under stress, or a losing team that had just lost it –…

For players across the BBL08 and WBBL04, there are two countdowns that have well and truly started. The first is front and centre and marks the beginning of the Big Bash this summer in December. The second sounds a long way off, but believe me when I say the World T20 2020 – which will be staged in Australia – will come around very quickly. There are only two seasons of T20 cricket for players to impress selectors and to make a home World Cup. The women’s final on March 8, International Women’s Day, will be attempting a world record crowd at the MCG of 93,000-plus. The men’s final on November 15 will be hoping for a repeat of home-ground advantage following on from their 2015 ICC World Cup success.…

It has become a worryingly common refrain – the Australian Test team has suffered another batting collapse. There it was again in the Test against Pakistan in Dubai, when the Aussies crumbled for just 60 more runs after the openers put on a first-wicket stand of 142. Worse yet, it wasn’t the nation’s worst ten-for this year; that came in the wake of the ball-tampering debacle in South Africa. It’s hardly exceptional circumstances at play, though – over the last three years, Australia has had seven such ten-wicket losses for less than 100 runs.…

“Hey, Johnny,” Dad said, a big smile on his face. “Reckon you can score a try today?” I shrugged. in “I’ll give you a dollar if you can,” he said. My eyes lit up. his “In fact, I’ll give you a dollar for every try that you score,” he continued. “So you’ll get three dollars if you can get three.” I smiled. “How much money you got?” I asked. He laughed, at least until the end of the game. I scored nine tries. “You got a ten-dollar note?” I said, hand out the moment the full-time whistle was blown. There was barely a spec of dirt on my oversized black-and-white jersey. “I’ll owe you a dollar until I score next week.” Dad gave me the ten. “Just keep it,” he…