Former Australia batsman’s father says his son woke up with a virus and felt so bad that he almost pulled out
By Isabelle Westbury, Adelaide
Greg Hughes, father of the Australian cricketer Phillip who died this time last year, has revealed that his son nearly withdrew from the game in which he suffered the fatal injury.
Over the past few years the fight for equality between the sexes in sport has been gaining momentum. Arguments in favour of increased investment, sponsorship and media coverage in women’s sport are now being heard on multiple platforms and the efforts to implement appropriate practices are increasing.
While the on-field fight is an important one, an area in which less fanfare is made, but in which there is arguably even greater inequality, is the one found behind the scenes, beyond the glamour and glare of the spotlight – those of the sports administrators. Traditionally these roles draw little attention anyway; a smooth operation should appear as though there isn’t an administration in place at all. However with the onset of the FIFA corruption scandal, the administration of the world’s most powerful sports governing body has tumbled headfirst into the limelight.
BBC Cricket commentary
Demo Tape
April – September 2015
The roar from the crowd echoed triumphantly through the stadium. The mood was one of nervous excitement. Thirty minutes in and Germany were yet to break the deadlock; the partisan French crowd fancied their luck against the reigning World Champs.
Andy Brown and Isabelle Westbury
One of the most stunning revelations from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission report, published on 9 November, was that both the WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratories in Moscow and Lausanne had destroyed athlete samples, against the specific instructions of WADA. New information relating to the role that the Director of the Lausanne Laboratory, Martial Saugy, played at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games raises new questions about the nature and extent of his relationship with the Russian Ministry of Sport and the Moscow Laboratory.
Australia versus New Zealand on the world stage has become a a regular occurrence. Cricket, netball, and rugby World Cup finals have all seen these two nations face off in the past year. Now they’re back at it again in the cricket.
Chris Bowen is the only Labor politician to realise what a gift the GST debate could be. But Labor’s UK cousins bungled it badly as well. Freelance journalist Isabelle Westbury writes.
It’s been a busy few months for anti-corruption in sport, with the on-going FIFA scandal erupting in May; resignations, corruption allegations and match-fixing trials plaguing the world of cricket; and now athletics has been mired in a scandal of its own. As the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prepares to deliver the findings of its independent Commission’s investigations into doping and corruption allegations in athletics, with much centring around Russian athletics, here’s an update on what’s happened so far.
Moderation in all things. A phrase so often uttered and agreed with, but so infrequently followed. And so it is with cricket and its obsession with age.
Women excel in so many sports yet investment and belief in female athletes lags behind. Jockey Michelle Payne’s win should be a game changer.
She’s only gone and won it. In a paradox like no other, Australian racing’s greatest prize has been won by a person on the field that the whole sport has for years contrived to belittle and objectify. Michelle Payne’s unlikely victory in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup fittingly caps a year of tremendous sporting achievement for Australia’s women. Now here’s to capitalising on it.
Isabelle Westbury 