Mihir Bose

Grounds for optimism as the ex-banker applies a safe pair of hands

mihir — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:51:19 +0000

Plans for a radical overhaul of Lord’s split the MCC but new chief Derek Brewer says slate is wiped clean with work starting on a fresh vision Evening Standard Derek Brewer knows how to avoid bouncers but then the new chief executive of Lord’s has had some practice. Before taking charge of Nottinghamshire in 2005, he was a banker for 24 years with NatWest and RBS, so talk of bonuses is a constant topic of dinner party conversations. In his first interview since arriving at the home of cricket last week, the 54-year-old is quick off the mark.

City can avoid Chelsea pitfalls by allowing Mancini to rule like Fergie

mihir — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:22:56 +0000

Manchester City’s plan to start an Alex Ferguson sort of rule at the Ethiad will depend not on how much money they spend, but how they succeed in managing the club. And by making sure that they keep hold of their management team, manager Roberto Mancini in particular, who has taken them to this wonderland. The initial signs are optimistic that they will avoid the problems Chelsea have had. PlayUp The comparison with Chelsea is very relevant. Remember back in 2005, we heard a similar vision of the future from Chelsea. Then, Peter Kenyon, chief executive of Chelsea, spoke of his vision to turn the world blue. Chelsea went on to win two more titles, indeed, they did the coveted double of League and Cup under Carlo Ancelotti and have won other trophies. The club could still crown it all with what its Russian Tsar dearly wants: the Champions League on Saturday. But if they do not, this is a season with only an FA Cup and sixth in the League, and that domination over United, taking over from Old Trafford in the way Ferguson took over from Anfield, has not been achieved.

Blackburn Rovers fiasco shows football is just too big and too important to self-regulate any longer

mihir — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:26:23 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz This may not come as much comfort to Blackburn Rovers supporters, but one result of their relegation and how Venky's, their Indian owners, have managed, or rather mismanaged, the club, is that, at last, high profile politicians may be persuaded that self-regulation in football does not work. This could even lead to legislation. I am given to understand it might it, and if it does, it will mark a significant development in British football.

Michael Vaughan on life beyond the boundary

mihir — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:31:09 +0000

Mihir Bose talks to the former England cricket captain about retiring from the game, and his documentary, Sporting Heroes: After the Final Whistle Radio Times A few hours after Michael Vaughan had shed tears as he announced he was giving up the England captaincy, he was celebrating at a family barbecue. So which was the real Michael Vaughan? We are in a room at the basement of BBC Television Centre talking about his documentary, Sporting Heroes: After the Final Whistle, for which he has interviewed famous athletes coping with retirement. For Vaughan the tears that fell during his August 2008 press conference did not represent fear of life after his sporting career was over. They were an unplanned reaction to a very different feeling...Read more

Blackburn’s decline displays lack of realism from all sides

mihir — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:00:08 +0000

PlayUp The world and its dog have descended on Venky’s following Blackburn’s relegation. Yet even as this is being done, I wonder if Blackburn’s fans should not ask some hard questions about their own ambitions. How realistic are they? I can understand their righteous indignation, but is it not time these fans realised that Jack Walker’s millions gave them a vision of paradise which is never going to be repeated? As the old song went, for one brief moment there was a Camelot. And the Camelot of 1995, when they won the Premiership, is not coming back for Blackburn. They would be much better off having the sort of hard-edged realism that shapes Wigan and its chairman.

Moz Dee: We’re not a guilty secret now that we talk a good game

mihir — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:53:57 +0000

talkSPORT chief explains how station has evolved, cutting down on phone-in ranters and hiring hosts who ask the key questions Evening Standard There is much for Moz Dee, programme director of talkSPORT, to be happy about. Next Monday, for the second successive year, he could win the prestigious Sony radio programmer of the year award. Last year talkSPORT was also Sony radio station of the year. We are meeting in a restaurant not far from Dee’s offices near Waterloo station, where he has been overseeing the building of 18 studios to prepare for next season. Then talkSPORT will broadcast all 380 Premier League matches in Spanish, Mandarin and English to Latin America, China and Indonesia.

The Media Show

mihir — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:56:33 +0000

BBC Steve Hewlett presents a topical programme about the fast-changing media world. In this programme, Steve discusses the future of BSkyB with or without Rupert Murdoch, and discusses the new England manager with Mihir Bose. Click here to listen to the programme (Note: Section with Mihir starts at 24:00)

The FA should be congratulated, not pilloried, for wisely taking a punt on Hodgson

mihir — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:48:11 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz The conventional view in English football is that the Football Association, in going for Roy Hodgson as the next England manager, has made the safe choice. The argument is the people's favourite, Harry Redknapp, would have been the bold move. How utterly absurd. Redknapp would have been the easy choice, hailed by the media and the supporters. It is Hodgson who is the brave, unconventional appointment, and the FA ought to be congratulated. I am not saying this because Harry, according to his court testimony, does not read or write much, whereas in Hodgson the FA will be getting something of an intellectual.

Brian McDermott: I wish I’d played for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal

mihir — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:11:00 +0000

After an unfulfilling time as a midfielder with the Gunners, Reading manager is looking forward to having another crack at the top flight Evening Standard Brian McDermott has had much to celebrate taking Reading back to the Premier League but his personal horizons stretch far beyond the Berkshire club. A child of Irish immigrants, who grew up in an area of Slough that was a mini-Ireland, you can almost feel the regret in his voice as he recalls playing for England at youth level. “I feel very Irish and I never played for Ireland. One day it would be an ambition of mine to manage Ireland. But not for now. I’ve got so much to do in club football and at Reading.”

At home: Lord Moynihan

mihir — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:31:37 +0000

The BOA chairman and former minister of sport talks about the boycott of the Moscow Olympics, his hopes for London 2012 and the ‘worst statistic in sport’ FT Lord Moynihan’s home presents a peculiar problem. Situated just outside Tunbridge Wells in Kent, it is not difficult to find, nor are the imposing electrically-operated gates an impossible barrier. The problem arises once you drive inside. I become so confused by the many driveways that I arrive at the back entrance feeling like a tradesman at Downton Abbey. Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA), emerges. “You have managed to arrive at the part of the house that is 160 years old, built for the governor of the Bank of England. Not many people manage that,” he says, reassuringly. And then he provides another piece of history that casts a different light on Britain’s class stereotypes. Click here to read the full article

Beyond the Premier League ‘top table’ clubs should adopt a “realistic” blueprint for survival

mihir — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:27:59 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz Change in football (let alone the wider society) is difficult to predict. It is often best left to historians with their long lenses to look back and tell us when one era ends and another begins. However, despite the fact that we do not know for sure who will win this season's English Premier League title, it is my firm belief that this campaign marks a momentous season of change in the Premiership – the third such change since the Premiership started 20 years ago. This shift not only affects the top of the League where the power lies but also the survivors at the bottom.

Brilliance of Barca hide improvements of English game

mihir — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:11:26 +0000

Play Up The wonder of Barcelona should not make us think that the English game is back to the dark days of the 80’s and 90’s when route one football prevailed. That is what Wimbledon talked about and why they so lauded the so-called box-to-box players. The bewitching play of Barcelona often leads us to believe that the English game is in a worse state than it is. These were more like runners than footballers, and would charge from their penalty box to that of the opposition hoping to connect their head with a long ball that had been floated over most of the field. The idea was that in the mayhem created by all these players trying to head the ball, there would be so much confusion that they might score a goal. Once that was done it was back to their own penalty box, kick every dangerous ball to row 52 and in the end emerge one-nil winners.

Denis Law: Roberto Mancini has shown his class

mihir — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:57:36 +0000

The Evening Standard Exclusive: Ahead of title D‑Day, striking great reveals his admiration for City boss and why he could not talk to Ferguson after that 6-1 derby humbling You won’t hear Denis Law belittling Roberto Mancini if Manchester City’s dreams of a first title since 1968 are shattered this season. Some supporters may not be so kind to the Italian, given that he has spent £210million on players in two years and that failure for City would mean United celebrating their 20th championship. The Premier League’s top two meet at the Etihad on Monday night, a match Sir Alex Ferguson has described as the biggest derby of his 26-year Old Trafford career with City just three points adrift of their rivals and with three games remaining.

Letter to The Sunday Telegraph: An English anthem would give us pride without prejudice

mihir — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:08:37 +0000

SIR – When British athletes win Gold for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics, God Save the Queen will play to celebrate. However, when it is England who take to the sporting field to play rugby or football, they should be heralded by an English anthem for an English team, just as Flower of Scotland and Land of My Fathers are sung as Scottish and Welsh anthems.

The modern idea of sport has morality at its core

mihir — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:43:21 +0000

The Independent With increasing lack of trust in politicians and church leaders, sports stars have filled the vacuum. Formula One's presence in Bahrain this weekend was the result of the sport forgetting a very important principle: that sport is more than just athletic activity or, in this case, buzzing round a circuit in hi-tech cars. Above everything else, it has a moral dimension. By choosing to race in a kingdom whose suppression of human rights has been so widely broadcast to the world, the petrol-heads are not only damaging their own sport but also the credibility of the wider sports movement. Cynics will say this is humbug. Formula One is probably the most unabashed money-making machine in all of sport. It is also a most curious sport. Given the technology needed, many would even question whether it counts as a true sport. And, unlike other sports, the real controller is not the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile but the rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone. And while publicly Ecclestone is careful to say little about wider issues, he doesn't appear privately to be driven by morality. Last year, as controversy raged around the Bahrain Grand Prix, he told Zayed Alzayani, the businessman who runs the competition, that "if human rights was the criterion for F1 races, we would only have them in Belgium and Switzerland". But this is where Ecclestone is contradictory. Formula One's rise has been made possible because, with increasing lack of trust in politicians, men of science and letters, and even church leaders, sports stars have filled the vacuum. Sport has also become a rare source of trusted news in an intensely sceptical world; a sporting result is a fact about which there can be no argument. And sport can also be understood by all, regardless of language or culture or intellect.

Charlton are already a match for half of the Championship, says club chairman

mihir — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:32:42 +0000

Evening Standard Last Saturday night, as Charlton celebrated promotion to the Championship, Michael Slater sent a text to Chris Powell saying: “I think it is a time for a vote of confidence”. As the chairman recounts this story he laughs and says: “Chris got the joke.” Just in case there is any doubt about the future of the manager the 46-year-old financier adds: “We’ve been in the doldrums with three years in League One but the momentum has started.” It is 15 months since Powell was handed his first managerial role but after a mixed time last season, which ended with the club in 13th, Charlton have been almost unstoppable this time round. They have held top spot since the middle of September and their victory at Carlisle saw them become the first team in England to win promotion this term. Powell might speak of recreating the Alan Curbishley era at The Valley but Slater proudly proclaims: “We are in the Powell era. We’re starting our own bit of history now.”

Not Just a Game Anymore- why sport has become so central to modern culture

mihir — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:04:49 +0000

History Today On February 8th this year two events took place in London. In a crown court Harry Redknapp, manager of Tottenham Hotspur, a football club which has not won England’s league title for 51 years, was cleared of tax evasion charges. A few hours later Fabio Capello, England’s Italian football manager, resigned. The speculation was that Redknapp would succeed Capello. Interesting as these events were they were not earth shattering; indeed they paled in comparison with news from around the world. The regime of Syria’s President Assad was bombarding the city of Homs, aided by Russia’s and China’s veto of UN action, while in the US the 2012 Republican race to find a challenger to Barack Obama had taken another turn. Yet that night football led the BBC’s News at Ten. Even The Times, which described the Syrian impasse as the ‘most serious East-West confrontation since the end the Cold War’, devoted its whole front page to football matters; Syria did not even rate a mention. So how did sport become so important?

Leaders of a ‘disreputable’ game have duty to recalibrate its moral compass

mihir — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:43:38 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz This season is turning out to be one in which football has had to look hard at itself. The critical question: is the game capable of examining itself? And if so, would changing things make this a defining football season? I am afraid I have grave doubts. The reaction to Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba's collapse at White Hart Lane showed that the game has a soul, but much else has happened which indicates that football has a lot to do, both on and off the field, before it can lay any claim to be a moral sport watched and followed by decent people. The two semi-finals in the FA Cup last weekend proved the need for change yet again.

Olympic Forum

mihir — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:57:33 +0000

Mihir Bose was a panellist at the CIPR Corporate and Financial Group Olympic forum on Tuesday 17 April This was a discussion on how financial and professional firms can benefit from associating with the Olympics.

We’ll have our day but it won’t be ‘D’-Day says Sir Philip Craven

mihir — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:45:50 +0000

Don’t use the term disabled, says chief of Paralympics, who is sure that unique spirit of the Games will make it as big a hit as the Olympics Sir Philip Craven, head of the International Paralympic Committee, has been confined to a wheelchair since the age of 16 but within days of the accident which paralysed him he knew what he would do with the rest of his life. “I never thought, why me?” he says. “Even my wife has said she doesn’t believe me but on the second or third day from my bed in the Southport spinal unit, I saw wheelchair basketball on the tennis court outside. Something must’ve clicked in my head: you can still do sport.”

Muamba outpourings demonstrate football has soul

mihir — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:30:26 +0000

Ever since Fabrice Muamba collapsed in the first half of the FA Cup match against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, not a single football event has gone by without some sympathy being expressed for the stricken Bolton player. This has included fans and players, even players in countries far removed from England, wearing T-shirts wishing Muamba a speedy recovery. His progress in hospital has been monitored with the sort of attention that was once accorded to members of the royal family and would nowadays be given to high profile pop stars. I can understand why this would be seen as mawkishness by some. And why it would go down badly in a country which has no tradition of loud lamentation to mark distress. Different countries have very different ways of showing distress and one tradition is not necessarily superior to another. But, given the historic traditions of this country, it is not surprising that some commentators felt the reaction to what happened to Muamba went well over the top. Some of them have gone as far as to say it is synthetic, perhaps even a little manufactured. The view here is that this is a bit like football's equivalent of how the country reacted to Princess Diana's death. This view has been particularly expressed by those who do not normally comment on sport or even, perhaps, have much interest in it.

Sports claimed the higher ground, but sports administrators often duck and dive.

mihir — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:29:50 +0000

Discussing if sports and politics ever mix on BBC World Service News Hour – with Sir Jackie Stewart and John Taylor You can listen again here, the topic starts at around the 33minute mark. Please note that this will only be available for 7 days.

Footballers will remain brainless bad boys until clubs step up

mihir — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:52:52 +0000

Inside World Football Balotelli is not the only footballer whose antics make you think there is much wrong with the game. Apart from his well publicised problems with his manager, the Manchester City player also managed to set fire to his house after a fireworks display in his bathroom. It is just as well not all footballers are like Balotelli. Not that the inane way they often answer questions on television give you much confidence that they think before they speak. Or that they think at all. But the question is not whether footballers are stupid. The more relevant question is why footballers, and particularly those at the highest level, always give the impression that they are celebrities who are gracing the world with their presence? My recent experience of top rugby players suggest, that in this regard, football has a lot to learn.

City should look across to town to see the benefit in keeping faith with Mancini

mihir — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:20:25 +0000

That picture of the Manchester City owners looking like thunder at the Emirates was widely interpreted as Mancini’s death warrant. I am not convinced it is. It made for good pictures and headlines but maybe no more than that. Let me concede that the Italian’s handling of Mario Balotelli has been a lesson on how not to deal with a brilliant player who is also a head case. I disagree with critics who say that the fact that he signed Balotelli showed his lack of judgement as manager. Not at all. Balotelli is gifted, there can be no doubt of that. Any manager reading his scouting reports, and probably having seen him perform, would want him in his squad if not his team.

Mark Todd: People said I was past it but I’m still very competitive

mihir — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:18:36 +0000

Evening Standard Great champions rarely make successful comebacks. But Mark Todd, who retired after the Sydney Olympics having been voted the event rider of the 20th century, can claim to be the exception. What is more, he wants the world to know. “There are not many people who have left top-level sport of any kind, been away for eight years, and then come back and won at the top level again — not even Michael Schumacher,” Todd tells me. “So winning Badminton, the Mecca of three-day eventing, last year was a unique achievement and something I’m very proud of. “There’s a lot to be said about the beauty of youth but age and experience counts for a lot, doesn’t it? The fact is that, at 56, I’m still competitive at the very top. There are not many riders of my age competing at the top level.”

We’d put our bodies on the line for Stuart Lancaster, says Brad Barritt

mihir — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:27:35 +0000

Brad Barritt quickly reels off the names of coaches who have influenced him. Starting with those from his childhood in South Africa, he continues through Eddie Jones, the former Australia coach who brought him to Saracens, and Brendan Venter, who was hugely influential after he arrived. But no coach has made the impression on him that Stuart Lancaster did when the England squad met at a steak house in Leeds before the Six Nations. At the end of the meal, reveals Barritt: “Stuart presented each of us with a frame. Inside each one were messages from family, friends, and people who had been significant in our rugby lives. He had contacted my dad, my brother, even my high school rugby coach in South Africa. He’d asked them questions such as: what does it mean for your loved one to play for your country? What does the team need to do to win?” Having played under Lancaster for the Saxons, England’s second side, Barritt knew he liked the personal touch. Just before the 2009 Churchill Cup Final, Lancaster had sent a hand-written letter to each player wishing him luck. But this was new territory.

Rodgers’ Swansea could start English football revolution

mihir — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:21:42 +0000

Passing game has won both fans and matches this season PlayUp This Premier League season may not have produced the most enthralling football. The argument goes that too many top teams have let in too many goals suggesting woeful defences. But this season could well be seen as the moment when English football changed for good. I know this is a huge claim to make. But for evidence I turn to the bookies. As we know they never get things wrong otherwise they would not be in business. So what did William Hill do on Sunday night after Newcastle had beaten Liverpool and Tottenham beaten Swansea? This is what they said:

Charles van Commenee: Plastic Brits is offensive . . . there’s no such thing

mihir — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:40:14 +0000

Britain’s Olympic coach speaks to Standard Sport's Mihir Bose about the controversy that’s raging off the track Evening Standard Charles van Commenee has never been afraid to speak his mind — he famously called Kelly Sotherton “a wimp” for only managing a bronze at the Athens Olympics when he felt she should have got silver. But did the Dutch coach of UK Athletics stir more controversy than he could handle by appointing Tiffany Porter captain of the British team for the recent World Indoor Championships in Istanbul?

It is fans, not players or owners, who get managers sacked

mihir — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:32:46 +0000

Boards rarely get thanked for making tough decisions PlayUp You can bet on one thing in the football merry go around – whenever a manager is sacked, someone will pipe up to say it is the players who got him the sack by not performing. It is a conclusion hard to resist after recent events at Chelsea, despite denials from the senior players led by John Terry. Yet I wonder if we have not got this all wrong. It is fans, with their hunger for instant success and impatience at what looks like failure, that force boards to act. In the last week, we have even had Liverpool fans turning on Kenny Dalglish, the hero whose return to Anfield became such a clamour that it led to the sacking of Roy Hodgson last season.

Crisis show revisited!

mihir — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:04:26 +0000

Spurs Show It's the Spurs Show, a podcast dedicated entirely to Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs diehards Phil Cornwell and Mike Leigh give their view from the Shelf Side in the only podcast that Tottenham fans around the world can’t live without. Major moans, lots of laughs and tip top celebrity guests! Mihir joins Phil and Mike to talk about how Tottenham is currently faring. Click here to listen or download the podcast (Note: scroll down and select the episode entitled 'Crisis show revisited!')

Demonstrations of player power are nothing new in football

mihir — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:30:19 +0000

For Tevez and Terry, read Spurs' Danny Blanchflower PlayUp I wonder if we’ve ever had a better season to demonstrate the contrasting effects of player power than recent events at Chelsea and Manchester City. Yet it would be wrong to see this as reflecting the fact that players are now super stars, and because of the money they earn, they have acquired power that players of previous generations did not have. That is moonshine. How modern players exercise the power may have changed, but players have always had powers, particularly players at the top of their profession. The most potent example of this was of course Danny Blanchflower, the captain of the great Tottenham teams of the early 6os. Blanchflower will always be remembered for those classic lines that define the game, “The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”

If FIFA is to reform can British privileges be defended?

mihir — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:25:33 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz British football's privileges are under threat. But don't blame Sir David Richards if Britain loses its unique status in world football. That will be the natural reaction after our Dave's extraordinary performance in Doha last week. But it will be wrong. Look to wider politics in the world body for the answer. Not that the Premier League chairman covered himself with glory when he went to Qatar last week. His mission there was to tell the world what it can learn from the Premier League having become the most powerful League in the world. As has been well documented, he decided he would turn historian cum cultural commissar. And this was not helped by the fact that, having performed this curious, self-imposed role, he slipped and fell into an ornamental pool just as the assembled guests were sitting down for dinner. But that, it must be said, was not his fault. I was sitting a few feet away. There was no drink involved and it is the sort of accident that can happen to anyone.

Why pride has come after the fall for former RFU boss

mihir — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:46:57 +0000

Official’s 10 months at Twickenham ended in chaos but he claims changes on his watch have helped revival of the national team. Evening Standard John Steele has not set foot inside Twickenham since he was sacked as chief executive of the Rugby Football Union last June. “I’ve had a few invitations to go back and will in due course,” he says. “I thought I should leave a healthy time for the dust to settle.” Given that his departure resulted in recriminations and resignations, it may be quite a while before Steele returns. Martyn Thomas, the RFU chairman who sacked Steele and took over as acting chief executive, himself fell on his sword following England’s disastrous World Cup and a series of reviews which revealed the chaotic state of English rugby.

Tragedy reveals that football does have a soul

mihir — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:54:16 +0000

Outpouring of grief and support for Muamba provides a crumb of comfort PlayUp What has happened to the Bolton player, Fabrice Muamba, puts football and all sports in perspective. We can only join his family in hoping he will make a full recovery. But the way the world of football has responded since the tragedy unfolded at White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon provides some comfort in this dark moment. It shows that the beautiful game has not quite lost its soul as many feared it was in grave danger of doing. That such a conclusion was being drawn was hardly surprising. The past few months has not shown the game in the best of light, what with the never ending corruption problem and gross mismanagement of the game by those entrusted with its administration. Add to it charges of racism and the inept manner some in football reacted to them. All this has not been helped by the behaviour of the fans and, in particular, what is presented as singing in English football grounds, but which are in fact hate filled diatribes of the type that no decent human being should want to be associated with.

Desert storm flares up over alcohol and a fall from grace

mihir — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:50:42 +0000

Mihir Bose reports first hand on Dave Richards' embarrassment in Qatar The Independent It takes a special kind of talent to whip up a desert storm and then turn it into Whitehall Farce, but veteran Premier League administrator Sir Dave Richards managed that unlikely double in Qatar this week. By the end of an extraordinary day, which saw him deliver a series of crass remarks before falling into a fountain, his name was pinging round the news wires while grainy footage of his tumble lit up YouTube.

Can there ever be a ‘best ever’ sporting achievement?

mihir — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:50:39 +0000

BBC Newshour 16/03/2012 (2100GMT) Highlights from the Sony Award winning global news and current affairs programme. On air twice a day, every day of the year. Julian Marshall and Mihir Bose discuss if there can ever be a 'best ever' sporting achievement. Other topics covered by the programme include Karzai: US uncooperative over massacre and who should lead the Anglicans? Click here to listen to the programme (Note: the section with Mihir starts at 14:00)

Robert Waley-Cohen: I don’t care what critics say, my son deserves to ride in the Gold Cup

mihir — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:37:07 +0000

Racecourse chief can’t wait for week’s blue riband event and rejects talk it is wrong to stick with family partnership which won last year Evening Standard Robert Waley-Cohen is chairman of Cheltenham Racecourse but, on Friday, he will not be presiding when the Princess Royal presents the most coveted prize in jump racing. His horse, Long Run, is the favourite for the Gold Cup and will be ridden by his son, Sam. “If we win I don’t think I can stand here with a microphone in my hand saying we’d like to welcome to the podium the winning owner,” says Waley-Cohen Snr. “That’s obviously nonsense. If I lose, I’m not sure I have a big enough heart to smile broadly while somebody else is given the award.”

The bookie who’s still at the races after 40 years

mihir — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:35:34 +0000

As the Cheltenham Festival kicks off next week, the gambling boss explains that football is fun but racing remains tops at his firm Evening Standard Ralph Topping, chief executive of William Hill, is able to do what we would all love to do: dress up sporting jaunts as work. A visit to the Cheltenham Festival next week could be counted as work, as could a trip to the European football championships in Poland and Ukraine in the summer. But, says Topping, “I don’t like jaunts. Somebody at work said, ‘Ralph doesn’t work 24/7, he works 26/9.’ I turned down invitations to see two semi-finals at the World Cup in South Africa because it would have meant practically a week away from work. As a Presbyterian Scot, I get guilty if I’m not working.” We have just sat down for lunch at the Ivy and the man who runs the country’s largest bookmakers with 2300 shops has encouraged me to order haggis.

Abramovich is like a child with a shiny new train set and he certainly doesn’t want to share

mihir — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:28:25 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz The easiest way to understand Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, is to appreciate that he is like a child with a new toy train set. The child knows his shiny new train set is better than anything possessed by the other kids, and while he wants to show off, he does not want to share his toys with anyone else. All he wants is to show how clever and superior he is in possessing this set. Indeed, Abramovich's behaviour since he took over Chelsea has been quite extraordinary and this extends beyond getting rid of seven managers in his eight years in charge. So Abramovich has never accepted the convention that when Chelsea play away, he, as the owner, should accept the hospitality offered by the directors of the home team. This is a very old tradition in English football.

Andy Gray: ‘I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about killing myself’

mihir — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:30:49 +0000

Former star of Sky Sports talks for the first time about the despair he felt after being sacked over sexist comments and how ‘some of the joy’ has gone out of his life in the wake of the row Evening Standard Until a year ago, Andy Gray was always sure he was in control of his life. “I’d always thought nothing would faze me.” But, caught on camera making sexist remarks and sacked by Sky for what the channel described as “unacceptable and offensive behaviour”, Gray was overwhelmed with doubt. “I was on the floor. I’ve never been like that in my life.”

Keys & Gray Radio Show

mihir — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:29:49 +0000

talkSPORT Richard Keys and Andy Gray bring you unmissable debate and exclusive interviews from the biggest names in sport. Click here to listen again (Note: Interview with Mihir is in sections 12:00 - 12:30 and 12:30 - 13:00)

We’ve got that negative feeling – and that is just fine

mihir — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:50:04 +0000

Why Poland/Ukraine could be a repeat of Italia 90 for England PlayUp In all the moaning after England’s defeat by Holland, let me begin with a bit of cheery news. It is that Holland, the team we all loved during the 70s and 80s, may at last be shaking off that horrible image they presented to the world during the South African World Cup. The 2010 World Cup final will always be the remembered as the occasion where the Dutch did immense damage to their great football traditions. This is the country whose football has long captivated the world, the one most of us neutrals wanted to win the 1974 and 1978 finals as a fitting tribute to the footballing nation of Johan Cruyff. But on that dreadful night in Johannesburg, they went, as one Dutch critic said, from advocates of total football, to that of total thuggery. How, we wondered, can a nation that can play such breathtaking football, and whose fans with their demeanour and songs make you feel this is indeed the beautiful game, be quite so false to everything they have stood for?

Al Jazeera ready to bid for the Premier League

mihir — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:41:23 +0000

Evening Standard Al Jazeera could be a sensational new bidder to show Premier League football, according to ESPN boss Ross Hair. The current three-season TV deal which saw Sky and ESPN pay a total of £1.78billion to screen 138 top-flight live games per year ends in May 2013. The fight for the next three-year contract is due to start in the spring and will be tougher than ever with the Qatar-owned TV channel said to be weighing up a move. Al Jazeera has already entered the French market. It screens Ligue 1 games and from next season it will also show the majority of Champions League matches on TV in France.

Ross Hair: ‘We won’t risk it all to keep the premier TV contract’

mihir — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:49:25 +0000

Evening Standard Sky and the Premier League is such a partnership - it has lasted longer than most marriages - that talk of a rival seems absurd. Yet Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned television channel, is now seen as a serious contender to Rupert Murdoch's prize possession. The bidding for the next set of rights, which will run from August 2013 for three seasons, is expected to start in the spring and the man talking of an Arab bid is Ross Hair, the boss of ESPN in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Hair has a vested interest as he seeks to hold on to his channel's existing package of live matches.

Wenger can learn a thing or two from Fergie

mihir — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:39:17 +0000

When it comes to averting a crisis, the Frenchman need only look at his great rival PlayUp Arsenal’s match with Tottenham may have been a prelude to the Oscars, but it could have more far reaching consequences than any movie. History does not always repeat itself, not in exact details, but Arsenal’s demolition of Tottenham did take me back to the 2001-2002 season. I believe it has lessons for us. Then, everyone was convinced Manchester United’s great run under Sir Alex Ferguson had come to an end. For a start, he had said he was going at the end of the season. The season had barely got underway when, on 28 August, Sir Alex Ferguson sold Jaap Stam to Lazio for £15.3m. It came a week after Stam’s book Head to Head was sensationally serialised in the Daily Mirror. He described how Ferguson had tapped him up when he was at PSV and also advised players to dive for penalties.

Despite the turmoil, the racism debate might spark some good progress in English football

mihir — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:54:55 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz Good can sometimes come out of evil, and the debate on racism that the game is going through could well lead to English football going down the road of America and adopting the Rooney rule. This rule, named for Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and chairman of the league's diversity committee, was introduced in 2003 so that minority coaches, especially African Americans, were at least considered for high-level coaching positions. It basically states that, for a position of general manager or head coach, a minority candidate must be interviewed. Not necessarily given the job, but part of the selection process. Americans emphasise that this is not a quota system. It is a means of making the system fairer and reflecting the world of American football. The acceptance of the rule has seen several NFL franchises hire African American head coaches, and now eight of the 32 teams have black coaches. This, in a league where 67 per cent of the players are black, is not an unreasonable proportion.

Cafe Calcio IV: The Spirit Of The Game

mihir — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:07:10 +0000

Cafe Calcio - Season IV, Episode 1 Cafe Calcio is a football fanzine radio show broadcast out of London on Resonance 104.4 FM and resonancefm.com/listen every Thursday at 19:00, and repeated on Saturday at 11:00 We're back, and we launched the new series with a guest, the caliber of which being equal to anyone we've had on before at the very least. On Thursday night, we welcomed the behemoth of sporting knowledge and all round thoroughly nice chap that is Mihir Bose to the Resonance studios to talk about football and sport in the wider context of his new book: 'The Spirit Of The Game: How Sport Changed The Modern World'. In the show we discussed the origins of fair play and its power as a civilising force, the cult of Horst Dassler and we also touched a little on the mess that is FIFA in current times. These things and much more are covered in the pages of his book, and I can genuinely recommend it to you all.

Respect in the game needs a shake-up

mihir — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:51:34 +0000

Beckenbauer and co's insistence on pre-match ritual is admirable, but misplaced PlayUp Nobody can quarrel with Franz Beckenbauer when he says that, “Honour has to be more than just a word,” on the field of play. As chairman of the FIFA task force 2014 rules he is keen to launch a FIFA-backed global campaign to reinforce the Fair Play Code saying, “We want to harness the power of football in a campaign focusing on fair play and make an active contribution to school life by founding our actions on the values of discipline.” But I am not sure the Kaiser is right when he thinks that the way to do this is for players to meet their opponents at the centre of the field of play and shake hands. The handshake in football has become a ceremonial show piece that means nothing. As for influencing schoolchildren I doubt if it can play any part. More so as they see on television the perfunctory way the players go about it. It is so evident they treat it as a ritual devoid of any value.

Wenger not quite the revolutionary we all thought after all

mihir — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:15:40 +0000

Frenchman heading the way of all great leaders - the scrap heap PlayUp I wonder if Arsène Wenger’s problem is that, for all the changes he has brought to Arsenal and English football, he is not quite the revolutionary he has been made out to be. Indeed, his likely demise is due to the fact that he is more like a great politician who, having surrounded himself by a coterie of advisers, cannot fathom how the world round him has changed. Whatever happens to Wenger, whether this proves his last season in England, he will always be remembered as one of the managers who shaped the Premiership. Figures will show Sir Alex Ferguson miles ahead, but Wenger changed a club: its ethos, its playing style and how it was perceived by the rest of football. Ferguson can be said to have continued in the tradition of Manchester United: if you score four, we will score five. Wenger took charge of a team that had often won, but its appeal did not extend beyond the faithful. Now, even in these barren years, they have played the best football seen in this country.

Cliff Jones: This is best Spurs team since we did the Double

mihir — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:41:40 +0000

Evening Standard It is just as he's seeing me to the door that Cliff Jones says: "I don't want Harry to take the England job. With him setting the benchmark for the club for the future, I can see us becoming one of the strongest clubs in Europe, alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona. Harry's got to lead us into the promised land." Tottenham supporters have been dreaming of that promised land since 1961. Then Bill Nicholson's team, of which Jones was one of the stars, scoring 19 goals in 29 games, became the first in the 20th century to do the Double.

Rangers situation a reality to check for football clubs

mihir — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:02:11 +0000

A look at German and American systems would serve British football well PlayUp So the Prime Minister goes to Scotland and in between trying to save the United Kingdom he has time to talk about Glasgow Rangers. If anything illustrates the power of modern sport, particularly football then this, surely, is it. But it also shows curious our football world is. The most important question is: if football is so powerful how come our legislators have not taken steps to make sure we have proper rules for football clubs and a level playing field? The simple fact is we talk about the importance of football but allow it to be run like a cottage industry. Worse still an industry which is allowed to make its own absurd rules.

Rangers entering administration shows how crazy football is

mihir — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:29:32 +0000

Insideworldfootball Administrators being called into Glasgow Rangers is more than yet another football club living way beyond its means. This is one of those seminal moments when you feel the world has changed and may not be the same again. It illustrates the perils of football commercialism and how dangerous it can be. No, it is not quite football's equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall; to suggest that would be going a touch too far.

McCarthy pays the price as frustration grows amongst fans

mihir — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:50:09 +0000

Quick-fix needed from new man if Wolves are to keep their Premier League status PlayUp Wolves have to come to terms with reality. The old saying goes that when fans shout, “sack the manager”, the board does nothing. But when they start shouting, “sack the board”, the board sacks the manager. The hierarchy at Molineux may deny that is the case. But that is undoubtedly what happened after the defeat at the hands of West Bromwich Albion at the weekend. There was a fan demonstration against the board and Mick McCarthy, manager for five and a half years, had to go. The Wolves denial on this must be taken with a large pinch of salt.

PFA urged John Terry to quit England captaincy for European Championships

mihir — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:32:48 +0000

Evening Standard John Terry refused a plea from the Professional Footballers' Association to step down as England captain until after his trial for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. Standard Sport can reveal that the players' union approached the Chelsea skipper after his case was adjourned until July 9, eight days after the Euro 2012 Final. The PFA made it clear to Terry - who denies the charge - that if he gave up the role they would issue a statement saying it was not an admission of guilt and that the defender was innocent until the court had reached a verdict.

Chris Powell: racist abuse between players was accepted in my day

mihir — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:54:26 +0000

Evening Standard Chris Powell may measure his words carefully but the Charlton manager is not afraid to make it crystal clear that football has failed to handle the race issue. We are in his office at the training ground where he has just accepted the manager-of-the-month award for the second time this season with his side top of League One. I have just asked him whether the Football Association were right, two weeks ago, to strip John Terry of the England captaincy, the decision that triggered Fabio Capello's sudden departure as manager. The allegation - which Terry denies - surfaced four months ago when he was accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand.

The world has changed – now show us the books

mihir — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:57:20 +0000

The Independent on Sunday Harry Redknapp's innocence was no surprise to his legal team, who had been saying for months the charges should never have been brought. But while last week's not guilty verdict was an obvious relief to Redknapp, the evidence presented at Southwark Crown Court raises questions about how football is run. For despite all the money in the game, it is still more like a cottage industry whose practices most other businesses would find unacceptable.

The Spirit of the Game – The Observer review

mihir — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:21:05 +0000

The Observer by David Goldblatt A royal anniversary is, in any normal year, one of the biggest events in the British cultural calendar. But in 2012 it will face stiff competition. England are going to Poland and Ukraine for the European football championships – no doubt accompanied by the usual patriotic euphoria. But even this will look like small change once the Olympic machine begins to roll. The numbers are giddy: a real budget of more than £12bn (some 3bn over the official maximum); 302 gold medals; 10,000 athletes, and twice as many journalists; plus innumerable coaches and officials, sponsors and factotums. Almost every UK department of state, security agency and London local authority will be engaged for months with the process, and the power of the world's hyperactive and hyperconnected media systems will be concentrated in the British capital. "How did we get to this?" is the question posed by Mihir Bose in The Spirit of the Game. How did sport become such an ethically and symbolically charged dimension of our global culture? How and why did the forces of money and power come to take it so seriously? I'm not sure that it was his intention, or if he knew quite what he was letting himself in for, but Bose has ended up trying to answer these questions by writing a global history of modern sport....Read the full article Click here to find out more information about The Spirit of the Game

FA was right to blow doors off the Italian job

mihir — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:56:49 +0000

Financial Times Fabio Capello’s departure goes beyond the all too familiar story of an England football manager failing to satisfy the country’s often unrealistic expectations of its national team. At the heart of this affair is the governance of the sport. Mr Capello, by publicly disagreeing with the Football Association’s decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy, was challenging the authority of his employers. When Mr Capello went on television last Sunday to express his views, he might as well have said: “I govern English football, not the FA”. His air was that of a chief executive who had been surprised by an unforeseen board decision. Mr Capello may have been paid £6m per year, several times the salary Stephen Hester receives to run Royal Bank of Scotland, but he has nothing like Mr Hester’s powers. He was the head of the FA’s most important production unit, not its CEO....Read the full article

Redknapp should heed Hodgson words ahead of job offer

mihir — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:59:52 +0000

Short term results too important in the eyes of West Brom boss PlayUp Harry Redknapp has such a wind behind his appointment to succeed Fabio Capello, that it seems impossible he will not be the next England manager. However, I was struck by an utterance of Adrian Bevington, head of Club England, during the FA’s press conference following the departure of Fabio Capello. He spoke about building for the future and taking England all the way to 2018 and the World Cup in Russia. It seems inconceivable that Redknapp, soon to be 65, could last that long. If he is appointed then it must be a short term one that takes England to Euro 2012 and, perhaps, Brazil in two years time. England are about to open the national training centre and, with much talk about getting the infrastructure right for long term success, it is possible that Redknapp’s appointment will be combined with a younger man who is seen as the long term successor. That could well be Stuart Pearce who has taken temporary charge.

The Week with George Galloway

mihir — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:06:38 +0000

talkSPORT This week George Galloway discusses the threat of civil war in Syria, the pending release of Abu Qatada from prison and Fabio Capello's decision to resign as manager of the England national team. Guest include Patrick Cockburn, the Independent's Middle East correspondent, sports journalist Mihir Bose from the Evening Standard and Chris Hewitt from Empire Magazine. Click here to listen to the show (Note: The interview with Mihir about Fabio Capello begins at 53:00)

The John Terry affair may be easy to remedy but the scourge of racism is leaving scars on the name of the FA

mihir — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:07:08 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz Whatever the final outcome of the John Terry case, and Terry must be regarded as innocent until his trial is concluded, it has already had a tremendous impact on the English game. It has made us look at the role played by the captain in English football, and the relationship between the Football Association and the England manager. But the most long lasting impact of the case could be on how black footballers feel about racism in the game. The way English football has elevated the captain's job to a position that cannot be sustained has always struck me as faintly absurd. A captain in football is not remotely like a captain in other sports like cricket. The very nature of cricket means that the captain constantly has to take decisions, decisions which can change the course of the match. He may consult the coach but the decisions are his responsibility and he has to be in a position to take charge of his players and the game. You cannot have a successful cricket team if the captain does not exercise leadership on the field of play.

The Spirit of the Game – The Telegraph review

mihir — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:17:39 +0000

Peter Oborne gets into the spirit of the Olympics, reviewing Mihir Bose's The Spirit of the Game: How Sport Made the Modern World. The Telegraph By Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator Almost exactly 125 years ago, a young Frenchman made a pilgrimage to Rugby School. Armed with a copy of Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays, he headed across the quad and into the chapel, only stopping once he reached the altar beneath which Thomas Arnold, the school’s legendary headmaster, was buried. There, as he was later to write, “in the twilight, alone in the great gothic chapel of Rugby, my eyes fixed on the funeral slab on which, without epitaph, the great name of Thomas Arnold was inscribed. “I dreamed that I saw before me the cornerstone of the British Empire.”...read the full article Click here for mose information about The Spirit of the Game

Football must realise it is not above the law

mihir — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:48:05 +0000

Sense of illegality sadly misplaced in world of sport PlayUp Wherever you look these days, football seems to be in the dock. We cannot comment on the individual cases until they are decided, but it has raised the question: what has gone wrong? Many will argue that surely football, and sport in general, should have nothing to do with the general law of the land. Sport, as one of our leading writers put it, is a parallel universe where the intervention of the lawyers is an unwarranted invasion of this wonderland. The sentiments could not be more beautifully put, but it is a bit like saying sports and politics should not mix. This was heard of a great deal when the issue of apartheid in sport came up. The argument was made by the white South Africans. They had an agenda as they knew politics defined the world they, and we, lived in. To suggest sport and politics should not mix was like saying sport should be divorced from society. Sport grows out of society and is as much part of it, if not more so than any other activity.

Sir John Armitt: We’ve made a magical place in London for the next 100 years

mihir — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:28:02 +0000

Evening Standard London is counting down the days until the opening ceremony - 171 to be precise - but the man charged with delivering the Olympic stadia and infrastructure is more concerned with the distant future. The buildings are in place - albeit at a cost of more than three times the original £2.37billion budget - and although battles remain over the future of the athletics stadium, the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority is thrilled by the transformation of Stratford.

Should Britain give India aid?

mihir — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:15:56 +0000

Channel 4 News Krishnan Guru-Murthy discusses whether Britain should give aid to India with Mihir Bose. Click here to watch the discussion (Note: This programme will only be available to watch for 7 days)

The Spirit of the Game – The Independent on Sunday review

mihir — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:24:55 +0000

The Independent on Sunday by Simon Redfern Those critical of modern society are fond of harking back to supposed golden pasts. Pre-industrial Merrie England and the imagined court of King Arthur have both been extolled as utopias. Now Mihir Bose has chosen the Victorian era of Tom Brown's Schooldays as the sporting equivalent. His argument seems to be that Britain, and specifically England's public schools, championed the virtues of good sportsmanship, fair play and pluck, then exported them around the world. But in the 20th century this Corinthian ideal was steadily subverted by greed, commercialisation, politics and the cult of celebrity, leading to a morally bankrupt sporting present...Read the full review Clcik here for more information about The Spirit of the Game

The big lie of sport

mihir — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:37:15 +0000

OPEN Magazine Sports may be big business but sport did not start as a business. It started with the noble idea of improving human beings. This spirit of the game was unexpectedly illustrated in last summer’s Trent Bridge Test. The Indians, having run out the English batsman Ian Bell, withdrew their appeal. Not because Bell was not properly out, but because they felt appealing was against the spirit of the game, Bell having strayed out of his crease thinking play had stopped for tea. I doubt if Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, has heard of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, let alone read it. Yet, that Victorian novel forms the starting point of how modern sport developed. The novel emerged at the height of the Victorian era. What is more, it came even before the laws of most sports that we play had been codified. So, sport acquired a philosophy before the actual rules....Read the full article

The Spirit of the Game – The Spectator review

mihir — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:00:28 +0000

The Spectator by Ed Smith There was a time when sportsmen fretted about the morality of being paid to play. Now the question is whether you are taking money to win, or taking money to lose. Mervyn Westfield, the Essex fast bowler, was only 20 when he accepted £6,000 to bowl deliberately badly in a county match. Three Pakistani cricketers, of course, are in prison for the same offence. How quaint the old distinction between the amateur who plays for love and the pro who toils to make ends meet now appears. How did sport become so morally complicated? It was the Victorians, as Mihir Bose explores in The Spirit of the Game, who decided that sport had to be good for you. The Georgians, in contrast, had been content with sport’s more obvious pleasures of gambling, blood-letting and licentiousness. The Victorians, with an empire to run, wanted sport to educate the officer class. No matter that Thomas Arnold, allegedly the founder of ‘muscular Christianity’, didn’t even like organised games. With Tom Brown’s Schooldays, the idea that Britain became great by playing sport hardened into folklore....Read the full review Click here for more information about The Spirit of the Game

Desert cricket doesn’t work

mihir — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:50:24 +0000

PlayUpCricket Mihir Bose’s views on Dubai and Abu Dhabi as cricket venues.

The Spirit of the Game – Evening Standard review

mihir — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:38:28 +0000

Evening Standard by Michael Prodger The infiltration of sport is such that the 2010 football World Cup final was watched by 700 million people. Amazonian Indians and Kalahari Bushmen notwithstanding, that is one in 10 of the world's population. What they saw was a match of minimal finesse and maximum thuggery as Holland and Spain forsook the laughably titled beautiful game and reverted to what Philip Stubbes in his 1583 tract Anatomie of Abuses called "this murthering play". Kicking an opponent's shins was only banned from the sport in the 1860s but it looked as though the rule - on shins and other body parts - had never been passed....Read the full review Click here for more details about The Spirit of the Game

India really has outgrown the need for UK aid

mihir — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:33:00 +0000

Evening Standard British aid to India was once an admirable, benevolent gesture. But to carry on giving aid is a colossal failure to understand how the country has changed. Just consider the new India. The ninth largest economy in the world by GDP, it is growing at over seven per cent and is predicted to overtake the UK by 2022. There are more billionaires in India than in this country. Since India gained independence in 1947, Indians have squirrelled away more than £900 billion in Swiss bank accounts, more than the rest of the world combined. India also gives £3.5 billion of aid to Africa and is spending £2 billion to put Indians into space.

Tony Livesey – interview

mihir — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:05:37 +0000

BBC Radio 5Live – Tony Livesey Show Breaking news that more than 70 people have died during riots at a football stadium in the Egyptian city of Port Said. We talk to people in Egypt. Tony gets reaction from one of the club’s spokespeople, as well as fans and journalists in Egypt and the UK. The Government [...]

Ajmal has England stuck in their crease

mihir — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:19:50 +0000

PlayUpCricket What makes Saeed Ajmal so dangerous and how can the English batsmen counter Ajmal? Mihir Bose shares his views. England need to be more positive against Pakistan’s spinners.

‘This is a very rewarding country but it requires a bit of patience’

mihir — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:26:11 +0000

Migrant Voice Since arriving from India in 1969 Mihir Bose has become a journalist and writer, and an observer of British society. He talks to Pilar Balet Robinson about the changes he has seen. Read the full article here

Let us not exaggerate how tweeting affects media coverage

mihir — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:25:19 +0000

PlayUp Barton’s tweeting may have given him power but not many footballers can follow his example It is not often that you read an article by a football player that makes you sit up and say, now this is something that is new, maybe I need to change my long settled opinion. But this morning, having read Joey Barton in the Times, I must confess I did a double take. Like most of the world, I have, until this moment, taken the view that Joey Barton is one of those bad boys of football almost beyond redemption. I did meet him once at the paddock in Ascot where he came over as very knowledgeable about racing, but beyond that my knowledge about him is what I have learnt from the media.

Refereeing gaffes are making a mockery of football

mihir — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:08:11 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz Michel Platini's Financial Fair Play may finally deal with the financial doping the UEFA President feels is ruining the game. But there is an equally serious crisis confronting the game which Platini and other football administrators refuse to address. This is the failure by football's bosses to deal with the events on the pitch where almost every game is blighted by incidents the referees do not spot. These then become the subject of calls for disciplinary inquiries by frustrated managers, and often lead to heavy penalties for the players concerned. But these are imposed long after the match is history and the whole thing is making a mockery of the game. Take the two incidents that have marred two otherwise very good football matches in recent weeks. The first was the match last Sunday week, when Manchester City beat Tottenham 3-2, probably ending the north London's club hopes of winning the League for the first time since 1961, a time which must seem like prehistory to most football fans.

Phil Taylor’s fearless ’son’, Adrian Lewis, has him in his sights

mihir — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:54:29 +0000

Evening Standard For a man who has become world darts champion for the second year running, Adrian Lewis could be forgiven for resting on his laurels. But, as we meet in a pub near the Bank of England, the 27-year-old exudes the hunger that Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank, would like to see in this country's entrepreneurs. "I want to help England win the World Cup and be No 1 by the end of the year," he says. "I have won two world titles and I want to win many, many more. I've got respect for everybody I play but I don't fear anybody. Nobody causes me sleepless nights."

Monty’s dance is England’s only high point

mihir — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:14:27 +0000

PlayUpCricket England are having a torrid Test series against Pakistan in Dubai. The return of Monty and his excitable celebrations are England’s most encouraging feature. Mihir Bose talks about Monty Panesar’s charismatic celebrations.

The World Today Weekend interview

mihir — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:07:28 +0000

BBC World Service - The World Today Weekend Join the World Today Weekend each Saturday and Sunday morning for a breakfast news show with a difference. Every programme one of our presenters is joined by two distinguished guests. Politicians and diplomats, writers, journalists, scientists, philosophers and comedians have all been on our panel. We dig behind the headlines to ask the questions that are missed in the daily rush to deadlines. Whether it's an important newsmaking interview, the latest insights from the worlds of business and sport, or a bit of music and poetry, we find a different way to bring you the weekend's news. Mihir discusses the loss of the original Corinthian spirit in sport with presenter, Fergus Nichol; Kate Crawford, deputy director, Journalism and Media Research, University of New South Wales; and sports correspondent Seth Bennett. Click here to listen to the programme

Football’s still a cottage industry

mihir — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:36:23 +0000

Football needs to reform to become a real business PlayUp The Harry Rednapp case, whatever the final verdict, has illustrated what we all knew: for all the talk of football being a business, it is still essentially a cottage industry. It has not moved on from the early twentieth century world when it first came into prominence. That football is big business can hardly be doubted. Look at the financial figures that UEFA has released about the profits and losses made by the clubs and the huge debts they have. In 2010, total revenues for top-flight clubs reached a record €12.8bn, but the increase in revenues was accompanied by record aggregate net losses of €1,641,000,000.

English season is baffling, says Springbok Pienaar

mihir — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:55:07 +0000

Evening Standard England have broken with the old guard following their poor World Cup but Francois Pienaar says the team will only progress if the game in this country is overhauled from top to bottom. The flanker, who captained South Africa to their epic 1995 World Cup triumph, played for and coached Saracens and believes the disjointed nature of the fixture list is harming the development of talent.

Mihir Bose plays Two Ronnie’s mastermind

mihir — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:12:34 +0000

PlayUpCricket Mihir Bose has to answer the question before last each time in the theme of the Two ronnie’s sketch. These are cricket related questions.

Have England taken Pakistan for granted?

mihir — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:11:49 +0000

PlayUpCricket Was England’s preparation sufficient, coming into the series against Pakistan? They played against poor opposition and weren’t convincing.

Lets Talk About Sport LIVE – Town Hall Birmingham

mihir — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:58:42 +0000

Date: 19th April 2012 Time: 7.30pm Venue: Town Hall, Birmingham Tickets: £22.50 (£15 concession) Special Offer: EXCLUSIVE 2 for 1 OFFER Call your local Box Office and quote ‘FAN’. Conditions: This offer is subject to availability and does not apply to tickets already purchased. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Book before 13 April. Book tickets online here Box office: [...]

Let’s Talk About Sport LIVE – Cadogan Hall, London

mihir — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:46:36 +0000

Date: 15th April 2012 Time: 7pm Venue: Cadogan Hall, London Tickets: £22.50 (£15 concession) Special Offer: EXCLUSIVE 2 for 1 OFFER Call your local Box Office and quote ‘FAN’. Conditions: This offer is subject to availability and does not apply to tickets already purchased. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Book before 13 April. Book tickets online here Box [...]

Tendulkar’s 100th is much more than just a number

mihir — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:51:23 +0000

PlayUpCricket The painfully long wait for Sachin’s next ton must end so India can be liberated. Mihir thinks the pressure of waiting for Tendulkar to score his 100th hundred is impacting on the performance of the Indian team.

Mouritz Botha: There’s no stopping me now

mihir — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:26:05 +0000

Evening Standard Mouritz Botha is so relaxed about his South African origins that he can even joke about his name. "Be sure to spell my name correctly," he says. "Mouritz, not Maurice, otherwise I would sound really English. Then I might even have to be called Maurice Botham." There's no danger of confusing the lock born in Vryheid, KwaZulu Natal, with Beefy. But the 29-year-old likely to face Scotland in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield on Saturday week will wear the England shirt with just as much pride as England's most celebrated all-rounder. "There is no extra pressure on me because I was not born in England," he insists. "I enjoy living here and am very proud to represent this country. England has a unique and renowned culture that had a massive influence on South Africa. I adapted to the culture. I find it wrong when people move to a country and cling to all the things from their country of origin."

Indians hit rock bottom

mihir — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:47:32 +0000

PlayUpCricket Mihir Bose says IPL is not the reason for India’s demise in Test cricket. India should have implemented a process to blood young players so they don’t get stuck with a team of aging batsmen. Bowling attack is under par.

Two games for the price of one? Football madness

mihir — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:38:10 +0000

PlayUp Lack of video technology is making a mockery of the game We can debate forever whether Manchester City deserved to win or Tottenham lose. Tottenham, after what happened at the Ethiad, may now feel the gods are against them. Their previous defeat against Stoke was also attended by a referee making decisions which did not stand up to scrutiny. Yet the really interesting question is why does football continue to shoot itself in the foot?

Broadcasting House – paper review

mihir — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:38:28 +0000

BBC Radio 4 - Broadcasting House The Sunday morning magazine programme with a fresh approach to the news and discussion about the big stories of the week. With Paddy O'Connell. News, views and discussion ... with a difference. Click here to listen to the programme (Note: The paper review with Mihir starts at 0:37:50. This interview will be available until 28th Jan 2012) Click here to find out more about The Spirit of the Game

The Spirit of the Game – The Independent review

mihir — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:11:42 +0000

The Independent - Book Reviews by Chris Maume One day, during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan, the American player Glenn Cowan missed his team bus back to the hotel. A Chinese player invited him to theirs. They gave him as a gift a silk-screen print of the Huangshan mountains; the next day he gave them a T-shirt with the words to "Let It Be". Within months Henry Kissinger was in Beijing, and inside a year Richard Nixon was meeting Mao Zedong. As Vladimir Putin could tell you, sport has many functions beyond personal fulfilment. The Russian leader's camera-friendly embrace of such rugged pursuits as judo, skiing, canoeing and ice hockey helps cement him in the minds of the people as the hard man to guide them through tough times. His sporting zeal might have found approval with Thomas Hughes, whose Tom Brown's Schooldays Mihir Bose credits as organised sport's big bang...read the full review

The Week with George Galloway – interview

mihir — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:06:02 +0000

talkSPORT - The Week with George Galloway This week George Galloway discusses short-staffed A&E departments, crimes of passion and smacking children. Renowned sports journalist Mihir Bose joins George in the studio to talk about his new book ‘The Spirit of the Game: How Sport Made the Modern World’ while guests on the phone include the Sun's Dr. Carol Cooper and former Republican senator John Leboutillier. Click here to listen to the programme (Note: The interview with Mihir begins at 1:03:50) Click here to find out more about The Spirit of the Game

At home: Lord Bell

mihir — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:46:09 +0000

Financial Times The PR guru on working with Thatcher and Murdoch and moving to the centre – geographically at least Tim Bell has been moving to the centre all his life. For a man who was Lady Thatcher’s PR guru, this would be sensational news except that the movement has been geographic rather than political. “As my [...]

English football will do itself no good by continuing to rubbish the Europa League

mihir — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:21:45 +0000

Insideworldfootball.biz The amount of muck poured on this competition reminds me of the words Kelvin MacKenzie said to John Major after he had taken Britain out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). As MacKenzie recounted to the Leveson inquiry on the press, as the hapless Prime Minister rang to ask the then Sun editor how he would treat the news, he replied, "Prime Minister, I have a bucket of shit by my desk and I am about to pour it on you." Some English managers, like Harry Redknapp, seem to have a similar view about the UEFA Europa League (UEL).

Midori House interview

mihir — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:46:54 +0000

Monocle 24 Radio - Midori House Midori House talks urban investment with the finance minister for Rio, visits the watch fair in Geneva and meets sports book author Mihir Bose. Click here to listen again, or download the programme Click here to read more about The Spirit of the Game

Night Waves

mihir — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:00:58 +0000

BBC Radio 3 - Night Waves Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme, featuring discussions, debates, interviews and reviews with leading academics and artists. Mihir discusses his new book, The Spirit of the Game with Anne McElvoy. Click here to listen to the programme (Note: Section with Mihir starts at 0:25:30)

Robert Elms Show

mihir — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:29:45 +0000

BBC London Radio With Jason Solomons, Michael Smiley, Mihir Bose, ‘Cover To Cover’ and Seal. The Robert Elms show is a celebration of every aspect of London. Three hours a day, revel in the stories and characters, memories and aspirations which make London such a great place to live and work. Art, architecture, history, movies, shopping, drinking and dining all carried out to a soundtrack of music for grown ups. The Robert Elms Show is tailor-made for you, dear Londoner. Click here to listen to the programme (Note: Section with Mihir starts at 1:36:40. This programme will only be available until the 26th January)

Super Sunday: City vs Spurs slug it out for pride & praise

mihir — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:51:55 +0000

PlayUp Mihir Bose talks about Super Sunday and the change in power in the Premier League as Man City vs Tottenham becomes a more important match than Manchester United vs Arsenal.

Meet David Collier, the England cricket chief on Australia’s side

mihir — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:30:56 +0000

Evening Standard When David Collier moved in to Lord's in 2004, Australia were ruling cricket while England were among the chasing pack. Now the roles are reversed, with Andrew Strauss's men looking to cement their place at the top of the rankings during the three-Test series against Pakistan which began in Dubai today. Australia claimed a series victory over India on Sunday, a result the Baggy Greens could not have envisaged a month ago when their first home Test defeat to New Zealand in more than a quarter of a century sparked headlines such as 'Aussie cricket crisis' and 'Lowest of the low'.

England’s desert test

mihir — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:38:49 +0000

PlayUp Mihir Bose discusses the England vs Pakistan Test series in Dubai in January 2012 and how Pakistan will struggle to bowl England out twice!