Juan Smith, the star flanker for the Springboks, has withdrawn his availability for selection for the World Cup squad. If Boks fans hadn’t turned to drink yet, this news may just make them reach for something a little stronger. By STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
You’re forgiven for wondering where on earth Russian Premier League side Anzhi Makhachkala has suddenly emerged from. Without the dynamism of better known Russian sides likes Dinamo Moscow, these Russian minnows have stolen the headlines from even England’s nouveau riche football club owners. If you believe the gossip rags, it’s a matter of days before they also steal one of modern era’s best strikers, 30-year-old Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o. By KHADIJA PATEL.
With only 10 days until the start of the 131st US Open Tennis Championships, Roger Federer’s fans will be rooting for the aging former champion to add one last major title trophy to his bulging display cabinet. By STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
British football club Manchester United want to raise R7 billion via an initial public offering on the Singapore Stock Exchange. But is buying shares in your favourite club the same as buying a replica T-shirt? Not quite. The consideration here is the financials, not the scoreboard. Man U’s results aren’t as good in the accountant’s books as they are on the field. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.
Peter de Villiers has made five changes to the Springbok side that went down to the Wallabies last weekend. Most significant of those is the demotion of John Smit to role of benchwarmer and promotion of highly rated understudy, Bismarck du Plessis. STYLI CHARALAMBOUS analyses the Bok starting line-up for their final Tri-Nations encounter.
Burkina Faso were comprehensively routed by Bafana Bafana in a friendly game at Ellis Park on Wednesday night. The Burkinabe’s poor showing was due to Safa’s sabotage, their coach hinted. In response, Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane merely thumbed his nose at the Burkinabe. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.
The Welsh say rugby is a game played in heaven. And for the first 40 minutes of this test match these two teams played enthralling rugby at a frenetic pace to give credence to that adage. After 80 minutes, the All Blacks showed just why they are the premier team in world rugby, beating the Wallabies 30-14 in a comfortable victory at Auckland’s Eden Park. This Tri-Nations – and Bledisloe Cup – review by STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
Many Australasians will have us believe this is a prelude to the final of the World Cup to be played at this ground. By picking what appears to be their best starting line-ups, coaches Deans and Henry will be lifting their skirts just high enough for the rest of the world to see what can be expected of them at RWC 2011. A preview of the likely Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations decider by STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
Sascoc has advised Cricket South Africa to appoint an independent person to suggest the best way forward for the cricketing body after a forensic audit revealed there had been some business going on behind the scenes that was just not, well, cricket. By KHADIJA PATEL.
Former Argentine striker Diego Maradona is the new coach of Dubai football club Al Wasl. He’s an eccentric who wasn’t very successful when he coached his home team at the 2010 World Cup, but we’ve really missed him. Things are never dull when Maradona is on the edges of the football field. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.
Masterchef Australia? Big Brother Africa? Pah! The world’s biggest reality TV show is the English Premier League. Everybody knows that. The give-and-take of the transfer period is enormously important. It signals what sort of imperatives the clubs are operating under – whether cool-headedness, desperation or the arrogance that comes from the crisp smell of a foreign owner’s pound notes. It is one way of predicting what the new season holds. We focus, obviously, on Arsenal FC. By SIPHO HLONGWANE
Once the Golden Boy of South African football, Benni McCarthy’s spectacular fall from grace and futile attempts to lift himself out of the doldrums of mediocrity, he has returned home to South Africa, determined to become the first South African to win the Uefa and African Champions Leagues. By KHADIJA PATEL.
The sports and recreation commission in Zimbabwe was ordered to investigate why the national football team had toured Malaysia in December 2009 without official authorisation from the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa). By KHADIJA PATEL
As expected, a superior All Blacks team showed the skill and precision to put a bruised and battered Springbok team to the sword. Our resident masochist STYLI CHARALAMBOUS reviews the 40 -7 Tri-Nations drubbing.
Warning! The following programme features content of a mature nature and is not suitable for sensitive viewers. We advise that this weekend’s match between the Springboks and the All Blacks, should only be watched by the bravest and mentally toughest of supporters. A scary Tri-Nations preview by STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
ANZ Stadium, Sydney, was the venue. A smarting Wallabies team were the opponents. The result? A dismal 39-20 drubbing for the Boks. STYLI CHARALAMBOUS reviews the first match of the 2011 Tri-Nations tournament - and wishes for those two hours of his life back.
Ten time winners, New Zealand, are once again odds-on favourites to lift the of the Tri-Nations championship trophy. The high-flying Aussies are licking their wounds after getting smacked by Samoa and P Divvy is taking a leaf out of Jake White’s book in preparing for the bigger picture that is RWC 2011. STYLI CHARALAMBOUS previews this year’s Tri-Nations.
A season that started in slumber (and in summer) and slowly built up to a crescendo of quality rugby, ended with a victorious Reds team lifting the Super Rugby trophy, edging out the sentimental favourites, the Crusaders, 18:13. By STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
Not even the most ardent or biased of fans will disagree with the claim that the two best teams in this year’s Super 15 competition are contesting the final. After 141 days and 124 bruising encounters, this tournament culminates with the Reds and the Crusaders contesting the right to lift the Super Rugby trophy at Suncorp Stadium. By STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
South Africans don’t get baseball. If they did, Roger Clemens would be as much of a hero here as he is in America?a huge armed pitcher who’s conquered batters for 23 seasons. He should be clearing a space for himself in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Instead, he may be warming a bunk in a prison cell, all for lying under oath about steroid use. As they said millions of times, it is not about the crime – it’s about covering it up. By RICHARD POPLAK.
Despite Marco Polo’s adventures, the Slavic nations have always been a tad mysterious and wild to the western European mind – especially to the jolly-hockey-sticks British folk. That changed when stiff-upperlipped Wimbledon commentators had to wrap their recalcitrant tongues around names like Ivanisevic. Now they have a new one – Novak Djokovic – and following his wholehearted conquest of Rafael Nadal on Sunday, they’d better get used to that name slipping like cream off their tongues. By MICHAEL McCLELLAND.
After 80 minutes of Super 15 semi-final rugby at Newlands on Saturday night, Stormers’ coach Allister Coetzee handed over a cheque to his Crusaders’ counterpart, Todd Blackadder. Accompanying the payment, could well have been an invoice for rugby lessons, 29:10, a service rendered by Crusaders Rugby Union. A tale of woe for SA rugby fans by STYLI CHARALAMBOUS.
What the 2011 Wimbledon Women’s final may have lacked in high drama or the status of historic contest, the match between the drop-dead-gorgeous Maria Sharapova and the delightful girlishness of Petra Kvitova had the grace and elegance of a royal command performance of women’s tennis. By MICHAEL McCLELLAND.
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jack Warner. Until a few days ago, he was vice president of Fifa, head of the powerful Concacaf football federation, successful businessman and an MP in his native Trinidad and Tobago. He can now cross the first two items off his CV. But will football get any cleaner? (Pipe down ? we can hear your guffaws from here.) By RICHARD POPLAK
Last year this time, our attention was singularly and not surprisingly focussed on South Africa’s soccer pitches to the extent that for two magical months there seemed to be only one sport on Earth. This year balance has returned – and the Daily Maverick will be bringing all the drama from Wimbledon 2011, thanks to MICHAEL McCLELLAND. Here’s what you can look forward to.
It had all the makings of a Wild West showdown. For one thing, it occurred in the Wild West. (Or Boulder, Colorado, which is not quite wild, but is west.) For another, it took place in a bar. Tyler Hamilton, the one-time Olympic Gold Medallist who recently spoke to “60 Minutes” about cycling’s doping plague, met his Voldemort—Lance Armstrong—while out for dinner. No one less than the FBI is interested in what they had to say. By RICHARD POPLAK.
As Caster Semenya continues to improve on her season’s best performances, posting world-class times for the women’s 800-metres at events across the world, it would be great if the memories of 2009 faded simultaneously into the background. They aren’t, of course, so maybe it’s worthwhile reflecting on how far South Africa’s young hero has come. By KEVIN BLOOM.
After 17 years in top-flight football, the legendary Manchester United attacking midfielder, Paul Scholes, announced his retirement at the grand old age of 36. He will be sorely missed, and not just at Old Trafford. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.
“Crisis? We are not in a crisis,” said a defiant Sepp Blatter at a Fifa press conference. In the wake of the huge uproar caused by allegations levelled by a top Fifa executive at the global football organisation, Blatter’s face told a very different story to his defiant words. To South Africans who regularly watch politicians squirm under extreme duress, it couldn't have been more familiar. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.
In 2002, Tyler Hamilton, once professional cycling’s heir apparent to Lance Armstrong, was on his way to a legendary career in his own right. He wasn’t merely tough, but was capable of feats of strength and bravery that were literally superhuman. That was a long time ago. On 20 May, he sent an open letter to friends and family warning them of a forthcoming appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in which he finally admits to doping. And he seems determined to take Lance Armstrong down with him. By RICHARD POPLAK.
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