1) It’s harder than usual to ignore Chris Gayle at the moment. Here he is last week hitting 77 from only 31 balls against South Africa, before promptly following it with 90 from 41 in the very next game. He has form, of course, having memorably hit a century in 30 balls last year, notched up a ton from 54 in the Big Bash, including 11 sixes, for Sydney Thunder and then there are these monsters at the Gabba. Also big-bashing at the moment: AB de Villiers.
2) You may have heard about Norwegian wunderkind Martin Odegaard being the new Lionel Messi and signing for Real Madrid. Judge for yourself with these highlights from the teenager’s first season in Norway’s top division, Tippeligaen.
3) Entertaining and surreal: it’s glow-in-the-dark golf.
4) St Pauli weren’t hanging about at their game with FC Winterthur, scoring inside five seconds despite not even kicking off. Meanwhile, Peru’s Under-20 keeper Daniel Prieto does no good at all to his chances of ever making it to a World Cup with this howler.
5) Poor luck for Dutch amateur the Barendrecht midfielder Mitchell van Gastel, who had his nose broken by a referee. While this was an accident, in the Kuwait league this poor man in, er, yellow just seems to have lost control and popped a player right in the coupon; inevitably the injured party goes down amid histrionics and squealing as if Ali himself had just slugged him.
6) The LA Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan finds his mind wandering to Tupac during an interview, although when he has his game face on, he is awesome.
Our favourites from last week’s blog
1) Never, ever complain about a spot of drizzle again: extreme golf on the Fair Isle lighthouse course.
2) What better time than during the Africa Cup of Nations to revisit the tale of Serbian coach Zoran Djordjevic and his bid to forge a team in South Sudan when it became an independent state in 2011, after almost 50 years of civil war. Here also is the full set of the BBC’s Frontline Football, following teams from war-torn regions as they tried to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and originally broadcast in 2005: DR Congo v South Africa; Bosnia v Serbia; Palestine v Iraq; Venezuela v Colombia.
3) Injury to insult dept: junior ice hockey player Mitchell Skiba is sent off. He fails to leave with grace, but show some pity for this poor teen who, midway through explaining his hockey mask design, realises he’s on TV and suffers mind melt.
4) The Big Bash keeps on giving – Glenn Maxwell makes what turns out to be a spectacularly ill-judged leave and almost as extraordinarily, Freddie Flintoff channels Elvis in the outfield …
5) Absolutely breathtaking stuff as French skier Candide Thovex goes on and off piste, having One of Those Days 2, and here’s the original: One of Those Days.
6) Sublime to ridiculous corner: Maradona playing futsal and Gary Lineker and Mark Lawrenson playing snooker. Younger viewers take note: the latter, kids, is what counted for entertainment before the internet.
Spotters’ badges: ForfallForFall, kisbie, TheCorporal, whobroughtoranges, BlackCaeser, looking4WMD, BOABOATENGTENG, Kev Brown.
