Ed Warner: Don’t criticise British Cycling for accepting sponsorship from Shell October 20, 2022 Disclaimer No1: I don’t think I’ve written anything in support of British Cycling down the years. Quite the opposite in fact. But I can’t bring myself to add my name to the lengthening petition that splutters in indignation about the governing body’s sponsorship deal with Shell. So, here’s a first for me. British Cycling’s eight-year [...]
Ed Warner: Boxing’s parallel existence, Benn-Eubank, and a Trussian shambles October 13, 2022 The Sweet Science. The Noble Art. Boxing has a lore of its own and is a law unto itself. It occupies a parallel existence in which its rules, first published under the sponsorship of the ninth Marquess of Queensbury in 1867, and a love of litigation – real and threatened – are deemed sufficient to [...]
Ed Warner: F1 needs to fast track its cost cap procedures October 6, 2022 The headhunter was calling me about a CEO role at a top six Premier League club. He was building his long list of possible candidates. One of the lures was that half the salary would be paid outside the UK in a low tax jurisdiction, ostensibly for services rendered directly to the club’s overseas owners. [...]
Ed Warner: Marathon season revives questions about unequal fight against doping September 22, 2022 The track season is behind us and athletic thoughts now turn to autumn marathons. Berlin, renowned world record course, this Sunday. London and then Chicago within a fortnight. New York at the start of November. That’s four of the six marathon majors in seven weekends, and doubtless plenty of competition among race organisers to secure [...]
Ed Warner: How to solve the Hundred and help county cricket with private money September 15, 2022 The Hundred isn’t going away, whatever diehard cricket traditionalists might wish. It’s been cemented into the English calendar until at least 2028 by a television deal finalised just before the arrival of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s new chair. Richard Thompson, erstwhile arch-critic of the controversial competition, now finds his room for manoeuvre severely [...]
Ed Warner: Kicked off, tipped off, switched off September 8, 2022 One of the joys of writing Sport inc. is the flow of suggestions from readers of subjects to cover. In the past week alone: the highly leveraged balance sheets of Premiership rugby clubs ahead of the new season, the continuing scandal of the lack of financial support for Britain’s international basketball teams, the prohibitive cost [...]
Ed Warner: Andrew Strauss, ECB and What It Takes To Win September 1, 2022 It doesn’t yet look like a camel, but Andrew Strauss’s committee to propel English cricket to the top of the world and keep it there has come up with a discussion document that doesn’t quite resemble a thoroughbred racehorse. Once it’s been through the wringer of consultation with the members of the 18 first class [...]
Ed Warner: Does society have a responsibility to retiring athletes? August 25, 2022 We may be just days away from seeing the last of Serena Williams in competitive tennis. The US Open, which starts next week, is marked out as the retirement party for the greatest tennis star of the modern era. At 40 years old, she’s late to step away from elite sport and does so with [...]
Ed Warner: Value of hosting sport found in hearts and minds as well as spreadsheets August 18, 2022 Just what does constitute a sport? Breaking – otherwise known as breakdancing – will debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics. So how about singing with a dose of choreographed body-poppery? The unlikely combination of Vladimir Putin and Sam Ryder is bringing Eurovision to the United Kingdom in 2023. Seven cities – cut from 20 – are [...]
Ed Warner: English cricket has picked the right man to solve its problems – at last August 11, 2022 It’s only taken the best part of 10 months and two attempts, but the England and Wales Cricket Board’s search for a new chair has at last come up with the outcome that the counties identified for it from the off. Richard Thompson, until now chair at Surrey, is clearly the best person for the [...]
