Ed Warner: Is Infantino a moonbeam or a clown? Either way, Fifa boss is here to stay Opinion Gianni Infantino. Moonbeam or clown? Flibbertigibbet? Certainly. Problem-solver, or problem to be solved? All depends on where you are coming from – quite literally. Just don’t expect Fifa’s demon/angel (delete according to taste) president to be going anywhere soon. Most likely not until 2031. Football’s Swiss-Italian head honcho has been front and centre of the [...]
Ed Warner: Richard Thompson must continue bold start at helm of English cricket Opinion No deckchair shuffling for Richard Thompson. English cricket’s new leader has pretty much cleared the deck of the governing body’s directors. His kind words about departing colleagues he has barely overlapped with suggests this is a diplomat with admirable stiletto-wielding skills. Now he must hire replacements capable of backing the reset that the sport so [...]
Ed Warner: How to solve the Hundred and help county cricket with private money Opinion 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 [...]
Kieron Pollard among Hundred draft movers as David Warner misses out April 5, 2022 West Indian star Kieron Pollard has joined London Spirit in today’s Hundred draft as David Warner is among those who miss out. The men’s draft saw over 550 players register for just 42 places after many of the spots were already filled with players from last season. Aussie Warner joins the likes of world No1 [...]
Hundred: International stars register for behind closed doors draft March 31, 2022 The Hundred has seen a total of 284 oversees men’s players register for the draft of the competition, which is set to take place next week. Australian David Warner and West Indian Andre Russell are among those who have entered to be included in the second edition of the franchise-style competition. The Hundred draft was [...]
First, England. Next, the world? Why those behind The Hundred have big ambitions March 21, 2022 “Every successful brand in the world has to start somewhere, in one geography,” says Nick Sykes, global chief executive of FutureBrand, the company that developed the branding for The Hundred, English cricket’s newest tournament. “But if you look at sporting formats around the world, many of them have travelled geographies and there are large parts [...]
Why sport is taking over terrestrial TV airwaves again February 21, 2022 If you’ve turned on your subscription-free, Nadine Dorries-unfriendly, terrestrial TV recently you may have been transported back to a time when moustachioed behemoths like Dickie Davies and Des Lynam ruled the afternoon airwaves – for we again live in an era of live, free-to-air sport. Of course, you may not have noticed. Sky and BT [...]
The Hundred: Tournament to start in August with Brave vs Fire clash January 27, 2022 Domestic cricket’s newest sensation The Hundred will return at the start of August with men’s defending champions Southern Brave taking on Welsh Fire. The tournament will run from 3 August through to to a showpiece finals weekend on 2-3 September. Last year saw the competition play out its inaugural, controversial, season with Brave winning the [...]
The strange case of The Hundred: a North-South divide? January 1, 2022 Recently this country has been roughly split down the middle on, well, virtually everything. Opinions are polarised and if there’s a fence in the middle, we’re damn well not sitting on it. Summer 2021 saw a new concept dividing the nation. Sports fans, I give you the strange case of The Hundred. Unlike most cricket [...]
Big Sport Quiz of 2021: How much do you remember? December 20, 2021 From teenagers sweeping to Grand Slam tennis titles to England reaching a major football final, an Olympic Games like no other and the introduction of a brand new cricket competition, it has been a hugely eventful year in sport. Off the field it has been just as transformative, with private equity and, increasingly, cryptocurrency and [...]