Adam Wakefield

I’ve only been involved with professional rugby journalism for just over a year, and one of the urban legends that I’ve picked up on my travels is that there is a bubbling (nothing too discernable) feeling from a section of rugby followers that media coverage in South Africa is biased in favour of certain teams, […]

I write this as South Africa do their damnedest to avoid defeat in Kolkatta, with Hashim Amla showing insane form and being backed up by Wayne Parnell, who we all suspected could bat a bit. Fingers crossed on that one … oh shit … nevermind. Parnell has just been dismissed. The Proteas are toast it […]

The Super 14 began in earnest on Friday morning with the Hurricanes overcoming a deficit and defeat the highly talented (but inconsistent) Blues. So, before the competition gets truly underway, it is time to place one’s head on the guillotine (which was designed by a Scotsman interestingly enough) and decide who is going to win […]

South African rugby enjoyed a great season in 2009, with the Springboks beating the British Lions, clean sweeping the All Blacks on the way to Vodacom Tri-Nations glory (including both the Freedom Cup and Mandela Plate) and the Springboks Sevens team claiming their first IRB World Sevens Series title. These titles, plus the Vodacom Bulls’ […]

It was a so-so day, with the humming of work and industry (there is an auto-repair shop adjacent to my office) filling the air with rands and cents. During a moment of “downtime” (ie procrastination), I was surfing the web and was surprised to read of the departure of Mickey Arthur as South African cricket […]

Ke nako! It is time! That’s right soccer fans, 2010 has arrived and the country is being revved up for the biggest month long party we have seen since the 2003 cricket and 1995 rugby World Cups. Much has been made of SA’s ability (with many of those doubters basing their convictions on stereotypes about […]

The holiday season has come to an end, and while most people take time off and enjoy this time of family, presents and often boozing at the office Christmas party, there has been one sour note that continues to needle me as I sit in front of my computer, not working (right now anyways…don’t tell […]

Can you feel it? I don’t know about you but I can. I can sense it in my bones and in the air. Cricket season is in full swing, a time of joy, sunshine and this season, squishing English ambitions. However, like the days following a trance party, in the silence that is all you […]

This year has been a tumultuous one for Test cricket. Many scribes have begun writing obituaries for the game that has formed the cornerstone of cricket competition for over a century. In relation to the ever-constant changes different sports have undergone recently, especially within the last 20 years where the iron grip of professionalism has […]

The mere mention of the name “Tiger Woods” even a month ago would arouse images of greatness, golf’s version of Zeus, and an example to all of his supporters and corporate sponsors. Professional sport, comparable to other celebrity-driven industries, appears from this vantage point at least to operate within its own time vacuum. While any […]

We all saw the handball. Thierry Henry, a fantastic footballer, decided to use his hand as a guide to set up William Gallas to score the goal that ended Ireland’s hopes of playing in 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Henry should be ashamed of himself for what he did. Though no angel on the […]

An interesting development, if you follow the touring English cricket team, has been the absence of Jacques Kallis from South Africa’s ODI squad. I wrote a loving hymn (or chunder-worthy appraisal depending on your point of view) about JK last week, focusing on his quest for greatness, present-day anxieties have brought his importance to the […]