While there are question marks over funding after Paris, the UK Sport chair insists there will not be a kneejerk response

Joy at the prize, or dejection over the what if? It’s the conundrum of the silver medallist, a question some are probably still grappling with after their efforts at the Paris Olympic Games, one written on the faces of Josh Kerr and Matt Hudson-Smith in the immediate aftermath. Does the motivation for gold transform into obsession after a near miss?

“It’s different for every single athlete,” says Dame Katherine Grainger, a five-time Olympic medallist in rowing and now chair of UK Sport. “I won a silver where it was the greatest thing ever, my first medal,” she says, recalling success at Sydney 2000 in the women’s quadruple sculls.

Continue reading…

Raheem Sterling is not the only player feeling suddenly out of place at a club beset by instability, excess and waste

It does not take a particularly sharp financial mind to grasp the dilemma facing Chelsea before the transfer window shuts in less than a fortnight. The market is depressed, everything has to be influenced by concerns around the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) and, in that context, it is hard to fancy Enzo Maresca’s chances of selling Raheem Sterling when the 29-year-old winger still has three years left on a contract worth £325,000 a week.

Maresca, the latest coach tasked with bringing tactical order to Todd Boehly’s and Clearlake Capital’s sprawling project, called it a “technical decision” after dropping Sterling for the 2-0 defeat against Manchester City on Sunday. But in light of another summer of heavy spending, not to mention the grubbiness of unwanted players being barred from using first-team facilities, the alternative view is that this is little more than another cost‑cutting exercise.

Continue reading…

Tourists are certainly not the force of old but Dan Lawrence’s technique will be tested as an opener at Old Trafford

Eight years have passed since Sri Lanka last played a Test in England and their return is long overdue. They are an established Test‑playing nation who over the years have produced wonderful players who have shone on these shores – I remember facing them at the Oval in 1998, when Sanath Jayasuriya scored a double century, Aravinda de Silva got 150, Muttiah Muralitharan took 16 wickets and they won at a canter.

The current team has an established batting lineup with a lot of experience, certainly a lot more than the West Indies side that was convincingly beaten last month, but their bowling attack lacks real pace or the brilliant mystery spin they’ve had in the past. Perhaps that is why in a blockbuster sporting summer, after Euro 2024 and the Olympics and with the Premier League back under way, the imminent arrival of this series has gone under the radar.

Continue reading…