Personally I think all sportsmen are brilliant writers.
I think in the future only professional athletes should write for newspapers because there words are so damn awe inspiring.
On Cric Info there is a brilliantly articulate article than only a person who spends his whole life with gloves on could have penned.
Kumar Sangakarra gives us amazing insights in the world of a cricketer about to play Australia.
According to Kumar “You’ve got to be prepared to grit your teeth, take body blows and keep going”.
And when writing your article Kumar, remember to take it one cliché at a time.
He also gives us some amazing insights into the psychological nature of his teammates.
Old Marvin is a “tough character”.
Fernando has “a heart to match the size of his body” (Lucky for him otherwise the blood may not flow correctly around his body resulting in death).
And Murali well he’s “devising plans and strategies to get wickets this time.”
Brilliant.
Even better than the article, is the title that Cric Info used for it.
“We have to annoy the opposition.”
Which in this climate, written by someone like Kumar, I was expecting some sort of article about how he plans on sledging the Ausrtalians, not some boring shit about grinding out ugly fifties.
How disappointing.
Right at the bottom of the article there is a bit of comic relief when he talks about how Murali called them on the tour of England and said “When will I be ready?”
What the fuck?
Why would he be ringing his teammates overseas to ask them if when he will be ready to play again?
Surely his doctors and physios would be a better judge than a touring team on a different continent.
Had the ghost writer been drinking? Don’t tell me in this day and age Kumar wrote this himself. Or did the ghost writer forget to tape the interview and just made up the last bit so he could put more of Murali in the article.
Well done Kumar and well done Cric Info.
Almost as good as Glen McGrath’s tour diary. I like the big guy, but it was the worst piece of drivel I’ve read.”Day 1Got up and went to breakfast. Ate breakfast with Punter. Got onto bus and went to ground. Played game and went back to hotel.Day 2Got up and went to breakfast. Ate breakfast with Bing. Got onto bus and went to airport. Flew to Melbourne and went to hotel”Ghost writers really need to be better at their craft.
I remember Ponting being interviewed about a tour diary once and him saying something like, i don’t know, i didnt write it.
A lot of times (read: most of the times), these articles are ghostwritten.
95 percent of the time Dinnie, the other 5 percent are people like Steve Waugh who think they can write.
the question is why media publish such inane stuff. do readers actually get drawn to these names? i know i make it a point not to read a piece published in the name of a cricketer, with a few exceptions like ian chappell, especially when he asks sachin to look into the mirror and ask himself why he’s still playing.
I think yes, the reader does get drawn to famous names. He would be more interested in reading something by Sangakkara than people like Dinnie, Sumit, or Uncle J. Well, but Uncle J will be famous soon, so I figure he’ll need one ghostwriter himself.Six,
Do you really think that was ghost writing? If it is he needs to interpret better. Like about Murali being eager…he must have said something wistful-like about his recovery but the written version comes out rather strangely.Vaas isn’t the same force as he was earlier and Malinga may not always pose a threat. The bowling continues to depend mostly upon Murali. So, Lanka will be hoping their batting comes good to keep this series competitive. That said, cricinfo is taking too many things for granted these days…it expects a continued readership to begin with.Sfx had a nice article on sports journalism on his blog.
If I found that any player of mine didn’t have the same size as his actual body, I’d kick him out straight off. Only those committed enough to transform into man-sized organs, oozing wicket after wicket, bleeding run after run, are good enough for me.
Dinnie, I’m not famous already?Atheist, giant organ cricket, on fox. I love it. Tony Greig to commentate.