Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i Inside Sport

When you were younger – during your high school years or even earlier, perhaps – what would you have thought the year 2020 was going to look like in a sporting sense? Forty or even 50-team footy comps? Glow in the dark cricket balls? Robots playing instead of humans? Personally, I never gave it a thought. I always shook any mention of the year 2020 off as one of those fanciful dates that will never arrive; it was too far into the future to worry about. Then again, I thought the same thing of Prince’s plan to party like it was 1999. And that was 21 years ago. Anyway, welcome to the year 2020. You made it. Now, how would you describe what the Australian sporting landscape has become to…

We have come a long way since the first sports video game back in 1958. Created by physicist William Higinbotham and called Tennis For Two, it was played on an oscilloscope. Why did he make the game? So his mates wouldn’t be bored when they came to see him at work ... What a good mate! But it would be Pong, 14 long years later, that would grip the world. Pong changed everything. It hit the mainstream like a wildfire. The era of all-nighters with potato chips, pizza and soft drinks had begun. It all seems like an eternity ago now; we should dig up the bones of some Neanderthal creature to see if there’s an Atari joystick stuck solid in his clinched hands ... We have come a long,…

So this time it’s actually happening. AB De Villiers, one of the all-time great white-ball cricketers, is coming to the Big Bash League. The South African, who holds the world record for the fastest-ever one-day international century, 31 balls against the West Indies in 2015, has signed for the Brisbane Heat and will take his place in their squad in January. The 35-year-old, who also holds the record for the fastest T20 fifty by a South African, will play in the Heat’s last six matches, injury permitting, and the finals, if the Brisbane-based team can reach the top four. De Villiers explains that he and his representatives had communicated with five BBL franchises, but felt that Brisbane offered him the best opportunity. “I’ve always enjoyed the city and I love…

ELLYSE PERRY Australian cricket and football star (Episode 82 of Talking with TK) Twitter – @ellyseperry Ellyse Perry is one of Australia’s most accomplished athletes. Her record speaks for itself: she was a dual international at only 16 years of age in both cricket and football. Given how both sports have evolved in recent years, this is a feat we are unlikely to see again. Leading into the interview, she was coming off an incredible season where she scored a record 213 not out in the historic day-night Test against England, won a WBBL title, was the winner of the Belinda Clark Award and is the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year. Off the field she is also leading the way as a role model for children around the world…

The 2019 Coolangatta Gold produced an incredible day of racing at the southern end of the Gold Coast, with competitors battling it out over the 41.8km course in stellar conditions. Nutri-Grain Iron Series stars Matt Bevilacqua from the Kurrawa club and Noosa’s Lana Rogers won their respective events in one of the best days of racing the Coolie Gold has ever witnessed. Both the men’s and women’s categories were there for the taking right up until the line was crossed, with the lead constantly changing throughout the four hours of racing. Both titles were ultimately decided by dramatic sprint finishes; with the event doubling as round one of the Nutri-Grain IronMan and IronWoman Series, there was certainly plenty at stake. Bevilacqua’s dramatic victory over his best mate Matt Poole (pictured…

Nautical Milestone Expect Sydney Harbour to look a little more crowded this Boxing Day, as the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race (from Dec 26) has drawn its biggest field in a quarter of a century. The bluewater classic reaches a milestone this year, its 75th, which has brought out a fleet of 170 entries to sail away to Constitution Dock. Five super maxis will line up, including last year’s line honours winner, Wild Oats XI, which had to retire from the lead-up Cabbage Tree Island race with serious damage. One other Sydney-Hobart tradition remains intact for the time being; the broadcast of the race will continue on Seven. With the network also covering cricket, the boats will be rounding the heads during lunch at the MCG ... Old College Try For those…

1 Melbourne Renegades Last season they reached their maiden Grand Final since the BBL began back in 2011-12 – and came away with the title! The Renegades had consistently been a side that just missed out on the final four, but last year’s title has given Australian T20 cricket fans a new team at the top end of the table to cheer for. And they aren’t resting on their recent success, either. This season they’ve recruited one of the most prolific batsmen in the BBL, Australian Test, ODI and T20 player Shaun Marsh. 2 PREMIERSHIP TREND Three of the last four BBL title-winners were all appearing in their first final. The Melbourne Stars and the Hobart Hurricanes (the last two runners up) are the only sides yet to win a…

Congratulations on your memoir Beneath The Surface. A project like that must have kept you busy. What else is happening in your life these days? Well, I have a third baby on the way! I had been doing radio for a year and a half before my second daughter. While I was on maternity leave I ended up resigning. Since then I've mostly been doing presentation work – keynote speeches, etc. These are mostly around mental health. I have a roll with the Queensland Government in a mental health ambassador capacity, so that's been really good. It keeps me really busy at times, particularly in October for Mental Health Week. So there's lots going on. But it's good for me to not have a structured role at this point; a…

Presidents Cup 1 The biennial team match-play event pitting a collection of International golfers against an American outfit – a Ryder Cup for the rest – returns to Royal Melbourne for the third time from December 12-15. The venerable Sandbelt course was the site of a noted International victory in 1998, so noted because it remains, rather remarkably, the only time Team-Worldthat’s-not-Europe has beaten the United States in the 12 previous instalments of the Cup. 2 Because it has been so one-sided, approval ratings for the Presidents Cup run lower than Donald Trump’s. With top-notch talent on hand and a format that can make 72-hole stroke look painfully dull, the event should be one of golf’s showcases. But the Internationals haven’t been able to inspire the type of rivalry that…

Serena Williams blowing a 5-1 lead and four match points? Who was this imposter, felled by Karolina Pliskova in a dramatic quarterfinal of the Australian Open last January? The 23-times major winner, most prolific Grand Slam champion of the open era, built her glittering career on roaring back from perilous deficits – not falling from towering leads. But since returning as a mother, the 38-year-old Williams has laboured mightily (’scuse the pun) to win any title, let alone a major. Before bub, Serena was 23-6 in Grand Slam finals, unchallenged as the greatest winner of her generation and arguably of all-time. Since her 2018, return she’s 0-4 in major finals, and 0-8 in sets. She was the heavy favourite in all of those final losses – to Angelique Kerber and…

At the start gate in the biggest race of her career, newly crowned BMX world champion Caroline Buchanan battled a dangerous thought. Am I good enough? She won the World Cup in May of 2012 in front of family and fans, still relatively unknown to the general public. In two months she would come out of obscurity and into the Olympics. On YouTube you can see the replay. She stands on her pedals assessing the eight-metre drop into the London Olympic track for the last time. She’s mean-looking, tapping her tyre on the gate like an abused tiger eyeing her trainer. Behind her racing goggles she checks her future, running through the 35-second track. She knows it intimately, having dominated the event from the first heats. A good release and…

A STRONG start to the season, whatever the sport, can never be overestimated. Burst out of the blocks in the early games of a campaign and your squad is halfway there to claiming that vital semi-finals or play-offs spot at the business end of the season. Easier said than done, of course. Shane Bond is about to enter his second season as coach of the Sydney Thunder. The former New Zealand paceman is often labelled the best fast bowler the Kiwis have produced since the great Sir Richard Hadlee. Bond clocked up 225 first-class wickets during his international career (2001-2010), claiming 147 scalps in the one-day version of the game and 87 wickets in Test cricket. Bond is also the current Mumbai Indians bowling coach, but for the next few…

TRAINING TIME Introducing Under Armour’s versatile UA HOVR Apex Training Shoe. The UA HOVR proprietary cushioning platform changed the game for running shoes last year – and now, UA has expanded HOVR to the training category with the new UA HOVR Apex. This training shoe takes athletes’ favourite foam technology and creates a versatile performance training version that allows for comfort, stability and flexibility in the gym – whether you’re lifting or running. The layered support system locks in for springy take-offs, stabilising the heel and providing lateral control while guiding to a softer landing. The upper is built with layers of support; functionally mapped, it is guided to the parts of the foot that need them the most. Make every rep explosive with the UA HOVR Apex. RRP $190.…