Mike Atherton

6 results

Tadhg Furlong and Jordi Murphy: the Wexford man has his granny lighting Lourdes candles for him at home on the big rugby occasions. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
TV View: Australian cricket in need of Granny Furlong’s divine intervention

After the weekend that was in it you couldn’t but conclude that Australian cricket and Oxford rowing could do with some help from Granny Furlong, both(...)

Cameron Bancroft and Australia captain Steve Smith. Photograph: Darren England/EPA
Overblown head-butt incident could derail fragile England

Cameron Bancroft, his anonymity beyond Perth and Bristol now entirely blown, delivered a scorching straight drive and the Test match was won by Austra(...)

Carlos Brathwaite is besieged by media and teammates as he celebrates the West Indies’ victory over England in the World Twenty20 final in Kolkata. Photograph: DIbyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
TV View: Goodnight Irene for Bumble as Brathwaite plays blinder with bat

“It’s a backside nipper, is this,” said David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd, leaving the viewers wondering if that was a cricketing stroke they’d never heard of, or (...)

England cricket coach Peter Moores’s unfortunate blurted promise “to look at the data” for reasons behind losing to Bangladesh in the World Cup has cued up much soul-searching about what the correct approach to the game should be. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
‘Analysis paralysis’ and the cult of turning coaches into Caesars

The phrase “analysis paralysis” is hardly new and its use hardly neutral. But the debate about whether sport should be parsed through as many analytic(...)

A dejected Michael Clarke, Australian captain, walks out for the presentation after day five of the first Ashes Test match between England and Australia. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Nothing tough about tattoo-branded attention seekers

Tattoos! Why? An expression of individuality? Hardly. It’s impossible to go anywhere without being ubiquitously treated to acres of flabby pseudo-Kanj(...)

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke: ‘What can I say? Our performance in the first innings was unacceptable’. Photograph: Philip Brown/Reuters
Australia are a laughing stock, says Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke has admitted his Australia team have become a laughing stock and cannot have any complaints about it after an “unacceptable” batting pe(...)