Rajasthan Royals: With Stokes, Buttler and Archer on board the franchise are aiming to become the United Kingdom’s go-to Indian Premier League side December 18, 2019 Like every other Indian Premier League side, Rajasthan Royals will take part in an auction on Thursday. The day of chaotic, intense and exciting player recruitment, which starts at 15:30 IST in Kolkata (10am UK time), will shape the season for all of the eight franchises, but looking at the wider picture, Rajasthan already have [...]
Review of 2019: Stokes has been England’s inspiration and Archer has broken through December 18, 2019 This year has been a memorable one for English cricket, with the World Cup and the Ashes getting people talking about the sport. My end-of-year review could not overlook that impact. Player of the year I can’t pick anyone other than Ben Stokes, who became the first cricketer since Andrew Flintoff in 2005 to win [...]
Hong Kong Racing Tips: Moore’s lightweight Warrior can fly to Venus victory December 18, 2019 IT HASN’T been easy for seven-time champion trainer John Moore recently. The legendary handler, in his last season before retiring, has found lady luck hard to come by in the past few weeks. Winners have been in short supply, especially at the Hong Kong International Races meeting at Sha Tin 10 days ago where Moore [...]
Hong Kong Racing Tips: Big Party on the cards for Happy Alumni backers December 18, 2019 CHRISTMAS comes early in Hong Kong today with several festivities taking place at Happy Valley. With Father Christmas parading around the track dishing out a sack full of presents, traditional food and drink on offer and seasonal songs blasting from the famous beer garden, what more could racegoers want? In terms of what most racing [...]
Angus Fraser interview: Middlesex managing director of cricket on Dawid Malan departure, soul-searching after poor form and The Hundred December 17, 2019 Domestic cricket may be far from the minds of many in this country as Christmas approaches, but work never stops for Angus Fraser. The County Championship finished for Middlesex on 26 September, but the off-season has been a busy one for the club’s managing director of cricket. “From my perspective summers are spent putting out [...]
Champions League draw reaction: English clubs face daunting ties in the last 16 December 16, 2019 In a change to the usual reaction of despair at familiar match-ups, today’s Champions League last 16 draw was met with a widespread reaction of excitement. In recent years the random draw has far too often thrown up repeat fixtures, with Europe’s best club sides getting used to lining up against each other every season. [...]
Review of 2019: Koepka and McIlroy inseparable after brilliant years, Lowry’s Open triumph the stand-out moment December 16, 2019 Golf has enjoyed another great year and with 2019 drawing to a close it is time for me to look back on its stand-out protagonists, moments and more. Player of the year This is a tricky one, but the world rankings don’t lie: Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy are No1 and No2 for a good [...]
EFL Cup and Club World Cup: How Liverpool are planning to fight on two fronts this week December 16, 2019 Liverpool will play Aston Villa tomorrow night in the EFL Cup quarter-final less than 24 hours before they are due to play in the Club World Cup semi-final half-way across the world in Qatar. It means Jurgen Klopp’s side will have played three games in the space of five days, following Saturday’s 2-0 win over [...]
Arsenal 0-3 Manchester City: Kevin De Bruyne masterclass leads City to comfortable win at the Emirates December 15, 2019 Being torn apart by a player as brilliant as Kevin De Bruyne is not in itself embarrassing. But the ease and speed with which the Belgian playmaker ended Manchester City’s trip to Arsenal as a contest was dispiriting. As the popular refrain goes, Gunners fans arriving at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon expected little and [...]
Sports business in 2019: Industry insiders pick the trends that defined the year December 15, 2019 Izzy Wray, consultant in Deloitte’s Sport Business Group Women’s football The growing popularity of women’s football has been one of the defining sports trends of 2019. The Women’s World Cup smashed TV audience records, with a reported 1bn people watching it worldwide and over 28m people tuning in to the tournament on the BBC. Numerous [...]