England caught up in Ashes media fallout over security guard’s row with TV crew 13 December 2025 at 05:25

England caught up in Ashes media fallout over security guard’s row with TV crew

13 December 2025 at 05:25

Channel Seven airs footage of Brisbane airport incident
‘This matter is being taken seriously,’ says broadcaster

England’s embattled tour of Australia suffered a public relations setback on Saturday following a testy altercation between a member of security staff and a local camera operator at Brisbane airport.

In footage released by Channel Seven, England’s minder Colin Rhooms is heard repeatedly telling the camera operator Nick Carrigan to “get out of my face, mate” and eventually pushing him back as he attempted to film players in transit.

As Sudan burns, the NBA’s embrace of the UAE shows how sport enables atrocity 13 December 2025 at 04:00

As Sudan burns, the NBA’s embrace of the UAE shows how sport enables atrocity

The Guardian

By:Karim Zidan

13 December 2025 at 04:00

While UAE-backed forces are accused of mass killings in Sudan, the NBA is deepening its partnership with the controversial Gulf state. This is what sportswashing looks like

As paramilitary fighters from the brutal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overran the largest city in western Sudan – carrying out mass executions, rapes and ethnic cleansing with weapons supplied by the United Arab Emirates – the NBA’s annual in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup, tipped off on Halloween night, proudly sponsored by the very same Gulf state.

The tournament is the most visible example of the NBA’s expanding partnership with the UAE – a partnership that includes annual preseason games in Abu Dhabi, a lucrative sponsorship deal with Emirates airlines, and plans for a new NBA Global Academy at NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus.

Even Bazball’s implosion can’t shake Barmy Army’s crew of Ashes veterans | Emma John 12 December 2025 at 03:00

Even Bazball’s implosion can’t shake Barmy Army’s crew of Ashes veterans | Emma John

The Guardian

By:Emma John

12 December 2025 at 03:00

If anyone knows how to weather a whitewash, it’s the merry band of England fans marking their 30th anniversary at their spiritual home

Courage, soldier. Ben Stokes’s England team may be heading into the third Ashes Test already 2-0 down, but not everyone in English cricket is fazed. There is one group tailor-made for this scenario, a crack(pot) unit who can lay claim to be the ultimate doomsday preppers. Have your dreams been shattered? Are you crushed beneath the weight of unmet expectation? Then it’s time to join the Barmy Army, son.

Already their advance guard are moving in on Adelaide, the city where they officially formed 30 years ago. England’s most famous – and per capita noisiest – travelling fans will be hoping for an anniversary win-against-the-odds, like the one they witnessed on that 1994-95 tour. And whatever happens on the pitch, off it the parties will be long and loud.

Sports quiz of the week: big climbs, unlikely comebacks and elite camels 12 December 2025 at 03:00

Sports quiz of the week: big climbs, unlikely comebacks and elite camels

The Guardian

By:Paul Campbell

12 December 2025 at 03:00

Have you been following the big stories in cricket, football, motor racing, darts, climbing, athletics and the NFL?

The Spin | From jaffas to the corridor of uncertainty – revel in cricket’s rich language of bowling 10 December 2025 at 05:28

The Spin | From jaffas to the corridor of uncertainty – revel in cricket’s rich language of bowling

The Guardian

By:Daniel Gallan

10 December 2025 at 05:28

The act of bowling is simple, the vocabulary used to describe it reflects the difficulty in pinning down its artistry and craft

Every act in cricket’s history has begun with a bowler delivering a ball to a batter 22 yards away. Delivering. Like a postman delivers a council tax bill. Like a waiter delivers a round of drinks. Of all the verbs used to describe the bowling of a ball, this one speaks to the deep-seated cultural inequity that has plagued this sport since its inception.

“If there was ever a word that proves we live in a batter’s world, this is it,” says Steve Harmison, the fearsome fast bowler turned commentator who delivered 16,313 balls for England across eight years. “But not every delivery is the same. Some come gift-wrapped like a present at Christmas. Some can jump up and smack you in the face.”

‘Having a Bazball at Noosa’: Australian media goes to town over England’s mid-Ashes beach break 9 December 2025 at 20:49

‘Having a Bazball at Noosa’: Australian media goes to town over England’s mid-Ashes beach break

The Guardian

By:Jack Snape

9 December 2025 at 20:49

The host nation’s newspapers could barely contain their delight after Ben Stokes and his team were spotted relaxing before the crucial third Test

A mid-tour jaunt by the England cricket team to a Queensland beach town was covered gleefully by Australia’s tabloid newspapers, which splashed a shirtless Ben Stokes across their pages amid taunting headlines.

“On back foot, England bails to the beach”, one read. “Life’s a beach, even for the sinking Poms,” added another. “Sun’s out, runs out”, offered a third, alongside a photo of Stokes’s tattooed biceps.

Pat Cummins primed for return as Australia name squad for third Ashes Test 9 December 2025 at 19:53

Pat Cummins primed for return as Australia name squad for third Ashes Test

The Guardian

By:Jack Snape

9 December 2025 at 19:53

Captain back at the helm in Adelaide after missing first two Tests
Usman Khawaja remains in frame despite back injury concerns

Australian veteran Usman Khawaja remains in the frame for selection for the third Ashes Test after being included in the squad for Adelaide headlined by the return of captain Pat Cummins.

Khawaja was left out of the second Test XI after struggling with a back injury during the series opener in Perth, and new opener Jake Weatherald broke through with his first half century at the Gabba.

England’s Ashes approach is scrambling the brains of the next cricketing generation | Mark Ramprakash 9 December 2025 at 13:00

England’s Ashes approach is scrambling the brains of the next cricketing generation | Mark Ramprakash

The Guardian

By:Mark Ramprakash

9 December 2025 at 13:00

This squad aren’t just throwing away the series, they’re messing up the minds of the young cricketers I try to coach

The cracks are starting to show with this England team and with the narrative we’ve been fed for three years after another defeat. Their identity of always taking the aggressive option, of relentlessly putting pressure on their opponents, isn’t holding up to scrutiny. So far in this series they haven’t had the strength needed to achieve it, and they haven’t had the skills either.

I was confident that they could win the Ashes this time, mainly because I thought there was quality in the squad and that they had adapted their game to add intelligence and adaptability to their armoury. It’s becoming clear that neither of those beliefs were completely true. And meanwhile I’m seeing things at home that make me worry that this team aren’t just messing up this series, they’re messing up a whole generation of young cricketers.

Shouting at the class has never been OK | Brief letters 9 December 2025 at 11:42

Shouting at the class has never been OK | Brief letters

The Guardian

By:Guardian Staff

9 December 2025 at 11:42

Teaching methods | Holly stripped bare | Cricket in state schools | Flat Earth Society physics prize | Impact School of Motoring

As a retired teacher with family and friends who are still in the profession, I must take exception to John Harris’s assertion that our current method of education consists of “standing in front of 30 kids and shouting at them for an hour” (The right’s callous overdiagnosis bandwagon is rolling. Wes Streeting should not be on it, 7 December). At no point in my career would this have been regarded as an acceptable method of teaching any children, regardless of their individual needs or learning styles.
Jane Caley
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

• Susie White was lucky to find holly with berries (Country diary, 8 December). The one in my front garden had had the inner berries eaten by wood pigeons some time ago, and now the rest have gone – after a flock of redwings took the ones at the ends of the branches that the fat pigeons couldn’t get to. Not a single flash of scarlet remains.
Copland Smith
Whalley Range, Manchester

One of the most pernicious forms of corruption in global sports 10 July 2025 at 03:53

One of the most pernicious forms of corruption in global sports

MetaFilter

By:chavenet

10 July 2025 at 03:53

"Spot-fixing" is the practice of manipulating small, discrete events that have little to no bearing on the outcome of a game—the timing of a yellow card in soccer, a wide ball in cricket, a single double-fault in tennis. Or, in the case of Ortiz, the result of one of the roughly 300 pitches thrown in the average baseball game. What makes spot-fixing so insidious is how inconsequential the occurrences appear in real time. from The Scourge of 'Spot-Fixing' Is Coming for American Sports [WSJ; ungated]

Related: The psychology of spot fixing – why athletes might gamble their careers [The Conversation]

Normal view