Usually, I hate new sports. But the Olympics keeps on trying to sell them to us. Here’s cheerleading – although it’s not quite what you think.

CRICKET

Why aren’t there more specialist coaches in cricket? Can Cook vacate the captaincy on his own terms?And is this cricket’s moneyball in action?

BASKETBALL

The 76ers, and Sam Hinkie. It’s an amazing story.

FAKE NEWS

In sports, it’s not such a problem – because there’s an endgame.

F1

Who’s up, who’s down – money-wise.

NFL

Nobody likes the 49ers stadium. Why? Plus, how to play into your late 30s.

INEQUALITY

The new serfdom: second-tier players.

book Book BOOK!

If you haven’t got a copy of my new book yet, what are you waiting for?

That’s it for this week.

The awfulness of both the football sex abuse story and the Brazil team plane crash are a reminder that what normally passes for ‘serious’ or ‘scandal’ in sport is nothing like. Ball tampering, driving slowly? Get real.

So it is with a heavy heart that I highlight the sports stories of the week. I don’t want to ignore the plane crash and sex abuse story – although both are important and horrifying in completely different ways – but I’m sure you’ve read them elsewhere.

SPOTY

Two items for the agenda. Why no Wiggins or Froome? And can Murray be stopped?

CRICKET

The case for allowing ball tampering.

FOOTBALL

It’s Gareth Southgate for England! Is he really the best person for the job? The answer is yes, if you think England are mediocre therefore need a mediocre manager. Or lets just cut to the chase and say No.

RUGBY

The extraordinary career of Kiwi Sonny Bill Williams.

TENNIS

Don’t ever go changing the Davis Cup. It always delivers. We could change the scoring system though.

plus: How far can a deaf tennis player go?

F1

Should Lewis Hamilton be criticised or even punished for driving slowly in an attempt to scupper Nico Rosberg? In a word – no. It made for a big story, overshadowing Rosberg‘s eventual championship win; but this is hardly deliberate crashing as of years gone by. Hamilton is the better driver, and part of that is the win-at-all-costs mentality. We can’t celebrate his skill and ignore the desire. Plus it was fun.

CHESS

Yes, again. How Magnus Carlsen is making chess cool.

THAT BOOK

By me. You buy.

See you next week.

Is sport a religion? An interesting piece in the Cauldron looks at the similarities. One thought occurred to me reading it – there isn’t anything about rivalries and hatred. Religion is usually about love. But in sports, there’s a lot of hate, too. For me, that’s where the metaphor ended.

[PLUG] One quick reminder: do by my book if you haven’t yet – Sports Geek, great Christmas present.

F1

The Hamilton-Rosberg finale should be fun, but you know about that. Instead, let’s look forward. Is F1 in a crisis? I would say that there is certainly one brewing, as both Malaysia and Singapore look to quit hosting races. Bernie Ecclestone made a pivot to Asia long before anyone was talking in such terms, expanding the F1 calendar away from Europe and into new markets. But if those new markets can’t, or don’t want, to host F1 Grand Prix, where does the sport go from here? It doesn’t help calling Singapore “ungrateful“, either.

It’s not just races that F1 needs, it’s faces too. And one of the best is retiring. Here’s what you need to know about Felipe Massa’s farewell.

TENNIS

I make the case in Newsweek that Andy Murray is a bit lucky to be world number 1. Has Novak had the better year? Check out the numbers and decide for yourself.

DRUGS

The sneaky ways athletes try to beat doping tests and the reason why so many are eventually caught – a Quartz explainer.

RUGBY

The Economist does a very thorough job of explaining why the All Blacks are really really good.

FOOTBALL

Cristiano Ronaldo’s goodbye to the Calderón – a great bit of writing by Sid Lowe in the Guardian.

Forget the night-out controversy – Rooney isn’t fit enough these days, and that’s the problem. Compare to Ronaldo: he takes 3am ice baths to improve his metabolism, apparently…

CRICKET

Which are the greatest bowling performances of them all? A book has the surprising answers.

CYCLING

The FT’s Murad Ahmed looks inside British Cycling’s medal factory. Great feature.

Adios.

No grand thoughts, let’s just crack on shall we?

MONEY MONEY MONEY

File under ‘didn’t see that coming’. Football move over – the best paid sports stars are now in the NBA, with eight of the top 12 teams worldwide. OK, it’s not a Leicester City-sized surprise, but still. Last year’s best paying team, PSG, are now 35th – although Man U are the highest-paying football club. Common thread? Ibrahimovic.

TENNIS

As the World finally thingy is underway at the O2 in London, a reminder from the Economist that rankings can deceive. What does the Elo system tell us about Novak vs Andy?

F1

How/what/why on earth is Lewis Hamilton not winning F1 this year when he is so clearly the best driver? (BBC)

CHESS

Yes, chess. A great rundown on a unique world title game from fivethirtyeight, who collectively are probably smarting from the US election. Speaking of which…

NBA

“We are Rome”. Gregg Popovich, one of the greatest ever coaches, gives the US election both barrels. Why are others not joining in? asks Sean Ingle of the Guardian.

FOOTBALL

Should Germany have to play San Marino? Is there a better way? Questions, questions. I think we know how Thomas Muller would answer. (From Vice)

I love it when the American press does small town UK football. Here’s a classic of the genre from the NYTimes on how the checkatrade trophy lost its lustre. Sorry, luster.

Not US politics, earlier

No US politics here… Instead, three “things” to get your sports chops around.

1) Murray’s ascent

When Andy Murray made it to #1 this week, there was a rather wonderful outpouring of joy in the British press. After all, the idea of a Brit atop the tennis world rankings a few years back was just crazy talk.

But here he is, the 26th player to hold top spot since the rankings began. More power to him.

The BBC’s Tom Fordyce notes that “It is not a gimmick, or a marketing exercise, or even a reward in itself, but a defining benchmark. You cannot fluke it or get lucky with a judging panel. It is deserved. It is definitive.”

He also suggests that

And this may yet be the start of something even more beautiful, rather than the pinnacle.

After five defeats in the Australian Open final, never will Murray have a better chance of winning it than this January, Federer and Nadal faded, Djokovic – his nemesis in four of those finals – jaded.

Steve Tignor on tennis.com was hardly less restrained in his praise: “One of the pleasures of being a tennis fan in this era has been watching Andy Murray grow up as player and person.” His piece is a more forensic analysis of how Murray got there. Worth a read.

Lastly on Murray: the Guardian’s Kevin Mitchell posts something of a love letter. “Pick up any dictionary and check the definition of honesty. There will be references to integrity, loyalty, candour, right-mindedness, authenticity. All of these describe the Andy Murray I have come to know.”

The only fly in the ointment is that a poor Masters final in the 02 and he might lose the ranking and never get it back. That would rather diminish his achievement – here’s hoping for a decent stint.

2) Those Cubs

The World Series was unforgettable and ended a 108-year wait for a Chicago Cubs win. There were hundreds of articles I could have picked for this, but here is Time, and the Economist, on perhaps the greatest sporting story of the year.

3) Jose Mourinho loses the plot early

Jose has a reputation for losing his players and owner’s faith around the third season of a managerial job. But at Man United it all seems to be happening a bit early.

Jamie Jackson at the Guardian noted:

Mourinho decided he had no option but to question the team’s commitment and effort: the base elements any professional footballer has to possess. It shows the slide Mourinho and his side are on. For any manager, the exposure of players – the men on whom their own success or failure depends – in the media is the nuclear option.

And that was BEFORE he hung Shaw and Smalling out to dry. And then there is the players response. And on it goes.

So will Mourinho last the season at Old Trafford? He’s reportedly unhappy in his posh hotel, kicking his players in public, and Christmas is cancelled. Doesn’t look good, does it?

Plus, a Soccerbrain points out the fallacy about managers – and rips Mourinho’s record to shreds. Lots of fun (h/t Simon Gleave)

See you next week

1908, earlier.

By the time you read this, the World Series may have come to its momentous conclusion (the game is on Wednesday night / Thursday morning UK time). It’s momentous because if the Cleveland Indians win the deciding game 7, it will be their first World Series win since 1948. That’s a hell of a long time. But if the Chicago Cubs win, it is their first win since 1908. And that is not a typo.

Only those in their mid 70s will have any chance of hazily recalling the Cleveland win. You’d have to be at least 112 or so to recall the Cubs winning. And here in England we moan about 1966.

So here are a few baseball pieces to whet your appetite, from Sports Illustrated and the NYTimes.

One question you might ask: why is baseball so white? Vox has the answers.

Meanwhile…

Vice points out that the All Blacks are in Chicago, and hardly anyone knows about it.

In footballing matters:

FiveThirtyEight takes a look at how one man pretty much ruined English football for decades with crap maths.

The Telegraph crunch a few numbers to ask why Arsenal are always so crap in November.

And without a stat in sight, Vice looks at Costa and Giroud – the moody frontmen.