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The Ashes Are Alive

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The next episode of the Kingsgrove Sports Centre Podcast  promises to be a great watch/listen! Regardless which side of the Anglo-Australian divide you sit, you cannot deny that what transpired at Headingley is one of the greatest moments in cricket history; not just Ashes cricket, not just Test cricket, but the sport as a whole has just witnessed something so incredible that the great-grandchildren of those lucky enough to watch it will know about it, and be able to draw inspiration from it. The biggest criticism of Test cricket is how it can be boring at times; imagine a game that goes for 5 days and can still end up without a winner! That very format is why it is magic. Somewhat inevitably there are comparisons to Headingley 1981, Ian Botham smashing 149 as England followed on at Headingley and Bob Willis bowling like a man possessed to win the game for England not long after bookies had given them odds of 500-1. Or what about Edgbaston 2005, where Australia got so close t...
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It Cannot Be Denied, Lewis Hamilton IS An All-Time Great

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Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren Mercedes at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne How many people have won five Formula One World Championships? The answer is three; Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950's, German record-holder Michael Schumacher (who ended up with seven) and now Britain's very own Lewis Hamilton. Only two other men have reached a fourth title, namely Frenchman Alain Prost and Hamilton's current title rival Sebastian Vettel. For some reason Lewis Hamilton is polarising, but you absolutely cannot now say he is not one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. When compiling lists of the greatest ever the names of Fangio, Schumacher and Prost are usually up there alongside the mercurial Ayrton Senna. Senna's death in the third race of the 1994 season left him on three titles, and when Michael Schumacher won the title (his first) later that year he admitted that he always thought that 1994 would be Senna's 4th championship. Had he lived,...
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Is It Time To End Romain Grosjean's F1 Career?

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As the 2018 F1 season ebbs and flows towards its conclusion with the likelihood of Lewis Hamilton claiming a fifth World Championship to equal the great Juan Manuel Fangio, the driver lineups for 2019 are yet to be completed. From the confirmations so far there is something of a merry-go-round with exciting young drivers being given drives at top teams, namely Charles Leclerc at Ferrari and Pierre Gasly at Red Bull as a consequence of Daniel Ricciardo's switch to Renault. Leclerc's appointment at Ferrari is a notable shift from the Scuderia's policy of hiring experienced racers yet the general consensus is that signing Leclerc is not a bad decision, unless you are from Kimi Räikkonen's camp perhaps. Kimi Räikkonen is the last man to win a World Championship as a Ferrari driver, way back in 2007. Arguably he has not lived up to expectation in his second stint with the Italian team after being comfortably beaten by first Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel as team...
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Sympathy For The Devil? Smith, Bancroft and Warner Banned: Ball Tampering Fallout

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Before I start this article in earnest, I have to put in the following disclaimers; I work for (one of) Australia's biggest Cricket retailers, and am lucky enough to be called upon by Cricket NSW at times to be a net bowler at the SCG for the International teams most years and as such I have met, bowled at and conversed with Steve Smith, David Warner and briefly with Cameron Bancroft. Through these roles I have made many contacts in the game of cricket but in no way do I have an inside view of the events which have recently taken place in South Africa with the Australian Cricket team. The views expressed in this article are my own personal opinions and not those of my employers, or anyone I am affiliated or in contact with. As usual, sitting back and contemplating events as a whole leads to a much clearer view of events. On Sunday it was a piece of yellow tape, we now know it was sandpaper. On Sunday it was the leadership group in the Australian team, we now know it was Warne...
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