The Sports Bookshelf

Of all the new books adding to the wealth of words written about the World Cup since the planet's greatest football tournament began, none seems quite so intriguing as Graham McColl's, published this week. On the face of it, How to Win the World Cup  looks like a title that Messrs Capello, Lippi, Del Bosque, Low, Dunga, Domenech and company might form a queue to get their hands on, since every one of the 32 national coaches preparing to lock horns in South Africa will wonder whether he knows the answer. But this is not a book of theory. It is not a coaching manual, detailing training methods, diet plans or tactical strategies. Instead, it is an examination of the facts from the 18 tournaments held so far, analysing in forensic detail the circumstances in which each team won, not only looking at form on the pitch but at all the peripheral issues, such as media attitudes, public expectation, the political climate, even the weather. Did Italy's two victories in the 19...

It is a fact beyond dispute that, outside the nine or 10 nations in which it is a mainstream sport, foreigners don't really get cricket. Even in some of the countries represented at the ICC World Twenty20, which begins in Guyana on Friday, mention of the game will draw more quizzical looks than comprehension. Of all the things about the game that induce only bafflement, high on the list is the idea that it could have been devised in England. How does anyone invent a game to be played in dry conditions outdoors, over four or even five days, in a country where, on average, rain falls on one day in every three? The answer may be more simple than you think. Clearly, given the number of new cricket books published each year, it was to give spectators convenient interludes in which to read! Of course, not all rain stoppages are equal, and while hours of unremitting drizzle are not exactly an uncommon feature of an English summer there are stop-start days as well, which can be f...

The pairing of Hunter Davies with Wayne Rooney as biographer and subject looked like a dream partnership when publishers HarperCollins signed the Manchester United and England star to a £5 million book deal. Davies has been regarded as a literary heavyweight among writers on football ever since the publication in 1972 of The Glory Game ,  a portrait of Tottenham Hotspur that took the reader behind the scenes at a football club with an intimacy that no author had attempted before. It duly earned recognition as a classic work. The Scottish-born journalist has written more than 30 books, including novels for adults an children, several biographies and numerous titles relating to the Lake District, where he lives for half the year.  His football subjects have included Paul Gascoigne and Dwight Yorke. Yet sales of Wayne Rooney: My Story So Far , written by Davies as told by Rooney,  have fallen some way short of HarperCollins's expectations.  It did not help that pu...

The rise and rise of Colin Murray shows no signs of reaching a plateau.  The former Radio One DJ, who quit the music station to move full time to Radio Five Live last summer, has made such a strong impression in such a short time that he has been given a key role in BBC television's coverage of this summer's World Cup finals. The 33-year-old Ulsterman -- who made his debut on the printed page with A Random History of Football last year -- will front the late-night highlights show during the month-long tournament in South Africa, stepping into a role that had been earmarked for Match of the Day 2 presenter Adrian Chiles before the latter resigned from the corporation earlier this week. Murray is also due to take Chiles's place on the Sunday night sofa from August. The week's developments have seen both presenters emerge with their careers enhanced significantly. According to the early gossip, Chiles had flounced away from what had been a lucrative contract w...

It was the kind of moment, were it to occur in a dream, that would have most football commentators waking up in a cold sweat. You are in your position, the action unfolding in front of you, the voice from the studio is cueing you in with news of a major incident in the game... and you haven't a clue what he is talking about. Of all the tricky spots to be landed with, few could be more embarrassing. Except, that is, if you are Chris Kamara. If you are Sky Soccer Saturday's roving buffoon it doesn't matter at all.  In fact, it is something almost to relish, as Kamara discovered after presenter Jeff Stelling asked him about the player just sent off in Portsmouth's match against Blackburn earlier this month. Stelling's information was entirely correct. Pompey's Anthony Vanden Borre had indeed been shown a red card, for a second bookable offence -- only Chris had managed not to notice. Cue raucous laughter from the studio panel.  For Paul Merson, Matt le Tissi...

The 147th edition of Wisden, the iconic yellow book whose role in the heritage of cricket goes back further even than The Ashes, runs to 1,728 pages.  As a statistical bible it is unrivalled in sport. Few significant numerical details are left unrecorded and anyone with a fascination for the minutiae of the game would find the small print absorbing enough. Yet there is much more to Wisden, especially in the modern era, than mere facts and figures.  More and more it is a feast of fine writing, the long-established 'Notes by the Editor', always a platform for trenchant views, now supplemented by an extensive selection of additional articles covering the major issues of the game as well as some that are perhaps less widely discussed, but no less relevant. This year, for example, the declining coverage of county cricket in the national press is lamented both by Gerald Mortimer, venerable former sports editor, cricket and football correspondent of the Derby Evening Telegraph...

Fernando Torres Liverpool striker Fernando Torres faces a race against time to be fit for the 2010 World Cup finals after undergoing more surgery on his right knee. If his projected recovery time is accurate, he should be able to join his Spain colleagues in South Africa -- but whether he can start the tournament at anything close to match sharpness must be in doubt. He has already been ruled out for the remainder of Liverpool's failing season, further cutting their chances of finishing in the top four of the Premier League and meaning that he will miss the opportunity to face his old club, Atletico Madrid, in the Europa League. Given the uncertainties over the future at Anfield, he may even have played his last match for Liverpool.  By the time he returns to fitness, Rafa Benitez may have gone and with the manager who signed him no longer around, Torres may be disinclined to stay on Merseyside, particularly in a team that is less equipped to challenge the elite of Europe t...