THESE sorts of weeks happen from time to time: the slow news week.
Not a single athlete confessed to abusing drugs, performance enhancing or recreational. Not a single team was accused of cheating. Not a single footy player was caught in an unsavory affair with a canine.
On these slow weeks the average punter is left to heavily scrutinize every major sporting event on the horizon because, what else are you supposed to do if there are no athletes to poke fun at?
ICC T20 World Cup
It is finally here. We’ve been waiting for this sucker to get underway and now that it’s here I don’t really know what to do with myself.
Which team will be the first to execute a mankad? Who will be the world’s best T20 side? Can anyone belt the cherry better than Chris Gayle? That guy can hit the stitches off a cricket ball just by looking at it. It defies logic. Gayle proved his ability with the blade on Wednesday in the West Indies thrashing of the Poms on Wednesday the 16/3. Belting 100 off just 47 balls, Gayle proved the only thing he could hit on and not knock clean out the park is Mel McLaughlin.
As it stands, the West Indies and New Zealand are sitting pretty atop their groups with two wins from two starts.
The Aussies seem to be their own worst enemy, capitulating against New Zealand in a dismal batting collapse.
CrownBet.com.au has the remaining sides odds stacked like this:
India $3.50
New Zealand $5
West Indies $5.50
South Africa $6.50
Australia $7.50
England $8
Pakistan $17
Sri Lanka $51
Bangladesh $151
Afghanistan $1001
As well as futures betting, CrownBet.com.au also offers head-to-head betting on each game.
White Sox falling apart
There is nothing worse than a sock that is falling to pieces on you. It begins to stink and everyone looks at you as if you’re some sort of derelict. That is exactly what appears to be going on in Chicago with the White Sox tearing themselves apart ahead of their pre-season matches, which start tomorrow.
What started as a seemingly innocuous story with first baseman, Adam LaRoche’s son being restricted to the team’s clubhouse has resulted in LaRoche turning his back on millions of dollars to announce his retirement in protest.
Now it appears the entire playing roster is leading a revolution against club management at the way LaRoche has been treated. There have been rumors that the players were planning to boycott a game as a show of solidarity behind LaRoche.
The situation has escalated in recent days with pitcher Chris Sale launching a scathing tirade claiming that the fiasco has torn the team apart. Sale has claimed that White Sox Vice President, Kenny Williams, had lied to the players about what sparked LaRoche’s son’s access to the club house being limited. At first Williams allegedly claimed other players had complained, then he said coaching staff wasn’t happy with the boy running around, then he pointed the finger at club owner, Jerry Reinsdorf.
This inability to maintain a consistent lie has caused a massive rift in the playing group against management.
With all of this weirdness in mind, WilliamHill.com has the White Sox at $41 to take out the World Series. Do you think that price will drop further throughout the season?
WTA riding the coat-tails of Nadal and Federer?
Indian Wells tournament director, Raymond Moore, has put forward the perfect example of what NOT to say as tournament director, while at the same time offering up perfect examples of senility and “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
In a recent interview, Moore laughed at the thought of being a women’s tennis player and said that every female tennis pro should get down on their knees and thank God for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Obviously Serena Williams has come out and torn Moore to shreds for his stupidity.
I have $10 on Moore to lose his job and be publicly lynched in less than a week by the usually cool, calm and collected tennis-going public.
This is just another scandal that has made tennis exciting, hip and new age in recent times. There have been allegations of match fixing, Nick Kyrgios is a walking headline and Maria Sharapova’s ban due to taking performance enhancing drugs.
What’s next for tennis? For the first time in my life, I’m actually beginning to look forward to the tennis news.
