1. TEST CRICKET IS DEAD?
Yeah, yeah. They have been saying that for a while now and there still seems to be plenty of life left in the purest form of the summer game.
The day T10 or such nonsense is the pinnacle of cricket is going to be a sad day indeed. Might as well have the Saudi Arabian league as the pinnacle of football.
Test cricket sure continues to rack up the blows to the body, though.
We have just seen the shortest test in history — which can be viewed either as a sign the format is being ruined or that tests can still be truly, wonderfully bonkers.
India beat South Africa by seven wickets in a test that lasted 642 balls, and ended just after lunch on day TWO.
The only thing crazier than India — yes, the team who won — losing six wickets for zero runs was Aiden Markram scoring 106 of South Africa’s meagre 176 in the second innings. The highest other score by a team-mate in the entire test was 15.
Speaking of the Proteas, test cricket’s integrity is taking another hammering as they prepare to send a shockingly under-strength team to New Zealand for a test series.
The South Africans claim they have no choice, that their best players must instead be playing in their domestic T20 competition because it makes all the money, but it instantly makes this series a farce.
World cricket bosses need to decide if they still care about long-form cricket or if they are happy just to have their best players appearing in five or six candy-floss T20 tournaments every year.
2. A GENUINE MIRACLE
The Detroit Pistons won a game of basketball.
They made it to 28 straight losses in the NBA, equalling a record but falling five defeats short of the great Otago Nuggets mark, before beating the Toronto Raptors on the cusp of 2024.
A rugby number to consider here is 16 — that is the Highlanders’ active losing streak against New Zealand opposition.
3. WONDERFUL WEMBY
Speaking of basketball, I am still on the Victor Wembanyama bandwagon.
The French basketball sensation is using his insane 2.24m frame to good effect in his rookie season in the NBA, averaging 19 points, 10 rebounds and three assists, and providing plenty of highlight plays with his surreal athleticism and control.
His San Antonio Spurs are junk — five wins and 30 losses, yeesh — but will be great in time.
Wembanyama is the most exciting young athlete on the planet.
4. LUKE NO FLUKE
OK, so maybe Luke Littler is the most exciting young athlete on the planet.
"Young" (seriously, there is no way he is 16!) and "athlete" are doing some heavy lifting in that sentence, obviously, but the English tyro became the early contender for sports story of the year with his run to the final of the world darts championship.
Darts is a great television product and a sport that is perfect for the Christmas period.
There are no weird rules, no salary caps, no concussion concerns, no navel-gazing about the sport’s future in these uncertain times.
It’s just a bunch of fat blokes stepping up and throwing little spikes at the wall. Brilliant.
5. TOP OF THE TABLE
It ain’t bragging if it’s true.
Liverpool are three points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Long may they reign.
6. THE OTHER FOOTBALL
This was the summer my 15-year-old lad discovered American football, and our house has been dominated by talk of the Ravens and the Bills, the Longhorns and the Wolverines, Madden and Retro Bowl, tight ends and free safeties, Josh Allen and Kool-Aid McKinstry (name of the year).
The Americans get some things badly wrong — gun control and Donald Trump spring to mind — but they sure know how to run their sport.
7. THE TWILIGHT OF EL NINO
He turns 38 this year. He is out of the Australian Open with injury.
The end for Rafael Nadal is near. And how sad that will be.
We had, arguably, the three greatest male tennis players in history — Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic — playing in the same era. How blessed were we?
Many plump for Federer as the GOAT, while Djokovic has the superior numbers, but I was and will remain a Rafa man.
8. COCO POPS
The ASB Classic, New Zealand’s annual glimpse of professional tennis, is definitely on the bucket list.
It is pretty neat that a grand slam winner like Coco Gauff comes to our shores — and plays some cracking tennis to boot.
9. YOU MUST BE JOKING
Twenty-three days.
Your Highlanders will be running on to a field, to play Moana Pasifika in a preseason clash in Queenstown, in 23 days.
Whisper it quietly — and it seems unlikely anyone has mentioned this before — but it almost sorta kinda feels like the rugby season is too long.
