Features

The Art of the Lost Lament – England Here at Least are Champions

Features, Print, Sport

With a premature Champions trophy exit, England’s national habit of failing to win a major sporting tournament continues. Set up by a media complicit in placing the weight of a nation on our athletes’ shoulders, at least when the fall does come, it makes for compelling reading.

When England’s male cricketers last got knocked out at the group stage of a global tournament, Australia had the courtesy to go on and win the thing. Two years on from their humiliation at the hands of a burgeoning Bangladesh side, the tables appeared to have turned; England were favourites and well set going into the knockout stages of this year’s Champions Trophy.

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The Roar: The art of the deal – Cricket Australia’s pitch perfect or aggressive declaration?

Features, Print, Sport, The Roar

Just days following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union last year, the Financial Times ran the ominous headline: “The UK has no trade negotiators”.

After decades of being part of one big – for some, too big – club, the UK now found itself on the other side of the table, only this time without the negotiators.

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The Roar: Rallying around Cameron White’s flag of independent thought

Features, Print, Sport, The Roar

Social media entered into the public domain amidst a frenzy of expectation that a direct line between us, the public, and the sports stars, actors, world leaders and general elite, was now a reality.

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The Roar: Fans deserve better than cricket’s conflicted commentary teams

Features, Print, Sport, The Roar

Sport, by its very nature, is a partisan affair.

Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, required reading for any sports fan, reassures us that the transformation from upstanding member of society into fanatic irrational mob is a common occurrence – that we are not alone.

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The Roar: Sex, drugs and cricket – coping with addiction

Features, Print, Sport, The Roar

“Can you just rock and roll that?”

The advent of the decision review system has undoubtedly enhanced international cricket, not least by introducing us to this now trademark phrase. Its distinctiveness lies not only in the ease with which the words slide off the tongue but in the irony that the sport of cricket, burdened by a stiff and traditional stereotype, should ever be associated with such a dramatic turn of phrase.

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The Roar: A women’s bash, growing up gracefully

Features, Print, Sport, The Roar

On a lazy day in February only last year, the rumours became fact. A Women’s Big Bash League, in some shape or form, would be staged the following season.

The announcement’s timing was discrete, jammed into one of the few rest days during the month-long Cricket World Cup that was unfolding across the country.

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The Roar: Cricket’s not dead yet – the hyperbole raging through Australia

Features, Print, Sport, The Roar

In February this year, Hillary Clinton was odds on for a clean run to the White House, Brexit was the name of a breakfast cereal and Leicester’s claim to fame remained a long-deceased monarch buried under a few rusting Ford Fiestas.

Australia, the dominant force in global cricket for the past couple of decades, had also just reclaimed the number one Test spot. Normal service hadn’t resumed – it had hardly faltered.

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