Traditional sports ranking of community strength:

Teams > Players > League

but esports/socialmedia/fantasy/tradingcard-boom/tech-unbundles-everything has shifted things

Players > Teams > League

Players are realizing it. Teams will be wise to adapt fast.

Thread:
Happy Birthday @therealkapildev
Kapil Dev was always present, in every cricket-crazy consciousness of India of my boyhood

#onthisday #cricket

One just had to close one’s eyes & the graceful, lithe run up could be seen, leap before delivery, head tilted to the left, right hand close to the chest left raised in front of the face, and then the left arm extended outwards as the right came around to send down the delivery

All through the 1980s with more cricket being telecast one found almost every cricket pitch, from coaching centres to school games, full of bowling actions that were almost exact replicas of the great man’s. Yes, Indians could bowl pace, successfully, and Kapil had shown the way

Anyone with more than a few paces in his run up seemed to follow in his excellent steps, at least as far as running up to the wicket was concerned. Almost every young lad in the country aspiring to bowl pace at any level of the game emulated the action.

From the early eighties, some occasionally tried to model their run up on Malcolm Marshall, although few managed the pace. One or two made a decent caricature of Imran Khan. But by and large, the template remained uniformly Kapil.

A simple solution for Welsh rugby, achieved by splitting the administration and control of the community and professional game......1/

The professional game owns the competitions it plays in (so the actual clubs are the shareholders) and form an organisation similar to PRL in order to best serve their commercial interests. Competition & broadcast income no longer flows through the accounts of the WRU but 2/

rather is paid to the incorporated organisation owned by the clubs (with the WRU having a share, so an interest, in that organisation). The WRU share isn't dividend paying, however. That organisation then deals with all aspects of the professional game 3/

from dealing with CVC, to negotiating competition and broadcast income, to sponsors for the Autumn International series, to working with World Rugby on the World Calendar - everything. 4/

From the funds of that corporation, a licence fee is paid to the WRU for the use of the stadium. This licence fee replaces the grant the professional game pays (north of £10m at the moment) to the community game each year. This money, plus whatever the community game 5/

Analyzing Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup through data and tactical analysis: a thread.

#MUFC’s plan was to progress the ball wide through the flanks to find runners and/or switch the players — and it was well executed.

Issues:

(A) Henderson’s ball distribution was not well utilized to find forwards through long balls.

(B) Weak verticality/central presence.

This can be better seen through the territory Manchester United occupied in both halves — although they dominated through the left flank, they progressed well through the right as well.

The height of central presence increased as a result of substitutions: Fred/Bruno.

EXAMPLE: #MUFC’s dominance in the left was seen in multiple formats which include:

(A) Construction of triangles — to cross, create space and perform third-man runs.

(B) Rashford dribbles > cutbacks.

(C) Overlaps from Luke Shaw.

(D) Long balls from deep to find runners.

So how did #MUFC move the ball?

In the first half — they looked to build-up *and* progress to the left flank to create opportunities to exploit #LIV’s high line i.e long balls, overlaps.

Directness improved in the second half with a more dangerous forward presence.

Bruno Fernandes

Player Analysis | A THREAD

An analysis where we look at how Bruno Fernandes, the Portuguese magnifico has revived the confidence of the Red Devils.

(Data accurate till 31st December, 2020)

When Bruno arrived at Old Trafford, @ManUtd was sitting at 5th on the table - six points behind Chelsea and fourteen behind Leicester! The image given below explains why United had to sign the Portuguese and how he turned the table around pretty much single-handedly.

United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer mostly plays in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Bruno Fernandes as the player behind the striker. At times, Solskjaer has employed Fernandes as the highest central midfielder behind the two strikers in a 4-1-2-1-2 setup.

(Source: @SofaScoreINT )

In general, like most other creative midfielders, Bruno Fernandes tries to occupy the gap in between the opposition’s midfield line and defensive line. He often drifts to both sides as well, to support the wide players.

Semenya is an in­cred­ibly powerful runner from South Africa, a two-time Olympic champion. She has also been the subject of controversy since the beginning of her career over decade ago.

Semenya has an intersex condition, though she doesn’t publicly speak about it: Her body allegedly produces testosterone at a higher level than most women.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that if Semenya wanted to continue to compete, she would be required to take medications to lower it.

The CAS, which was upholding a previous ruling by the @WorldAthletics , admitted that the decision was tantamount to discrimination. But, a statement read,...

“discrimination is a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the IAAF’s aim of preserving the integrity of female athletics.”