Adam Wakefield

Cricket, as a sport, has a habit of indulging itself in its own legend. Players are elevated above mere mortal status to something divine, something Bradmanesque as it were, where their influence on the game goes way beyond the boundary ropes of their personal selves. Sachin Tendulkar is the best example of a man who […]

It was with great trepidation that I stepped upon the metro train at Malvern Station, destined for my first ever day of Ashes cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, known to us as the MCG, or to the locals as simply “the G”. I had been there once before for a big AFL game, but […]

Just days after announcing that he had offered a 50/50 split to reigning WBO, IBF and IBO (Alphabet Soup) champion Wladimir Klitschko, WBA champion David Haye has backtracked once more. Klitschko, already incensed that Haye had “bitched out” on two fights with the Klitschko brothers (his older brother Vitali is WBC champion) he now has […]

2010 will in South Africa be known as the year of Ayoba! (The marketing person who latched on to that one should either be stoned or applauded.) The Soccer World Cup came to the shores of the Republic, and for once, the country didn’t descend into its usual cynicism to host a tournament that was […]

The first Test between South Africa and India has from Graeme Smith’s perspective gone rather nicely. His opening pair bowled like they were blood thirsty with even Morne Morkel, not usually the most aggressive of chaps, keen to play some chin music for the batsmen … at high pace. His batsmen then, himself included, went […]

The “roaring” 1920s saw the US economy explode in a manner befitting an octopus encircling an unsuspecting prey. Driven by Europe’s bankruptcy after World War I, the Marshall Plan ensured that apart from propping up capitalist states in the Old World, it allowed American industrialists to conduct business wherever they wanted to without their now […]

Steve Waugh was noted back in the day to have called India the “the final frontier”. A country vast in size and unique in character, has always proven to be a difficult place to tour. For the Australians, it was a place that had resisted their efforts for 32 years before that epic series of […]

The passing of a milestone is an important moment to acknowledge for a batsman. It shows that you respect the applause given to you by the crowd, your teammates and somewhat begrudgingly, the opposition. And now, more than ever, do we regularly see batsmen celebrating a landmark. The recent Test between Australia and England saw […]

The crowd seethes in one congruous mass, willing the home side to victory. Against them is an enemy akin to the Vikings, raiders of the north. Recognised as barbarians by their victims and heroes by those who support them, they are the furthest thing from an unorganised rabble. A man of tremendous size, playing for […]

The Hunter S Thompson title for his 1972 collection of articles, “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail”, told of a US presidential election which came at a time of change in western popular culture. Vietnam was still raging, the Cold War was still very alive and Richard Nixon was president, a figure Thompson despised. […]

South African sport has never been difficult to satirise, considering how much mischief occurs in stadiums, the backrooms of stadiums, training fields and offices around the country. Rugby, fuelled by its soon-to-be-permanent 24/7 news cycle and the greatest moustached literary character seen in a Springbok tracksuit since Andre Markgraaff, managed to push the ante even […]

If the Springboks arrived in Scotland with any notion of superiority, they don’t suffer any fools now. Murrayfield was where the grit, mongrel and resolve shown against Ireland and Wales simply wasn’t enough. Those with a long view of international rugby would’ve expected this for some time. South Africa were lucky to beat Wales and […]