Sports journalism

Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on sporting topics and games. While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports coverage has grown in importance as sport has grown in wealth, power and influence.

Sports journalism is an essential element of any news media organization. Sports journalism includes organizations devoted entirely to sports reporting — newspapers such as L'Equipe in France, La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy, Marca in Spain, and the defunct Sporting Life in Britain, American magazines such as Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News, all-sports talk radio stations (other than John Kincade, of "Buck and Kincade" on 680TheFan), and television networks such as Eurosport, Fox Sports 1, ESPN and The Sports Network (TSN) and Web Sports News such as Cypriot Action in Sports.

Socio-political significance

West Indies

The West Indies is a region of the Caribbean Basin and North Atlantic Ocean that includes the many islands and island nations of the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago.

After the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, Europeans began to use the term West Indies to differentiate that region from the Indies (South Asia and Southeast Asia).

History

From the 17th through the 19th century, the European colonial territories of the West Indies were the French West Indies, British West Indies, the Danish West Indies, the Netherlands Antilles (Dutch West Indies), and the Spanish West Indies.

In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for US $25 million in gold, as per the Treaty of the Danish West Indies. The Danish West Indies became an insular area of the US, called the United States Virgin Islands.

Between 1958 and 1962, the United Kingdom reorganised all their West Indies island territories (except the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas) into the West Indies Federation. They hoped that the Federation would coalesce into a single, independent nation. However, the Federation had limited powers, numerous practical problems, and a lack of popular support; consequently, it was dissolved by the British in 1963, with nine provinces becoming independent sovereign states and four becoming British Overseas Territories.

2017

2017 (MMXVII) will be a common year starting on Sunday (dominical letter A) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2017th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 17th year of the 3rd millennium, the 17th year of the 21st century, and the 8th year of the 2010s decade.

Predicted and scheduled events

January

August

September

Glenn McGrath

Glenn Donald McGrath AM (/məˈɡrɑː/; born 9 February 1970) is a former Australian international cricketer and a commentator for Channel Nine's cricket coverage. He was a fast-medium pace bowler and is considered one of the greatest bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century.

Known throughout his career for maintaining an accurate line and length, McGrath's consistency enabled him to be one of the most economical and dangerous fast bowlers of his time. McGrath holds the world record for the highest number of Test wickets by a fast bowler and is fourth on the all-time list, with the top three wicket takers Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, and Anil Kumble all being spin bowlers. He has also taken the sixth-highest number of one day international wickets, and holds the record for the most wickets in the Cricket World Cup. McGrath announced his retirement from Test cricket on 23 December 2006, with his Test career coming to an end after the fifth Ashes test in Sydney in January 2007, whilst the 2007 World Cup marked the end of his one-day career, in which he won the man of the tournament award for his outstanding bowling which was instrumental in Australia winning the tournament. McGrath later played for the Indian Premier League team of the Delhi DareDevils, and was one of the tournaments' most economical bowlers during its first season, but he saw no action in the second season, ultimately having his contract bought out.