Giving The Game Away

Paul McGinley was an elite golfer in his own right - reaching the lofty heights of top 20 in the world at one stage. However, Paul is perhaps best known for his success in team competitions, notably the Ryder Cup in which he played integral roles in 2002 when he sunk the winning putt and in 2014 when he captained Europe to victory. During this episode, Paul explains why he performed so well in team competitions, as well as his philosophy as captain of Europe’s victorious 2014 Ryder Cup side and how he got the best out of his players.  In this episode we discuss: Reframing challenges into opportunities Tailoring leadership approach for each individual Taking influence from Sir Alex Ferguson Delivering clear messages as a leader Creating a fun team environment What made the great Ryder Cup players so good Predictions for 2023 Ryder Cup McIlory’s recent form

TOM BOSWORTH | Taking The First Step | Out Now In the latest episode of the podcast, we talk to two-time Olympic Race Walker, Tom Bosworth, who provides some of the most powerful insights we’ve had on the series to date. During the conversation, we cover: - Captaining Team England and Winning Silver at the Commonwealth Games - Walking a mile quicker than anyone in history - How the first step is often the hardest part of achieving anything - Tips to manage our mental health - Becoming the first openly gay British track and field athlete  - Bouncing back from suicidal thoughts and depression - How we can improve and harness our own self-belief

Amy Williams was propelled to stardom in 2010 after winning Britain’s first individual gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in 30 years. Having only started Skeleton Racing at 19 years old, eight years prior to the Games, Amy’s story is one of dreaming big and following an ambition with focus and disciplined day-to-day habits. The topics we cover in this episode are:  - How a lack of resources can often be your biggest unfair advantage  - The importance of consistently getting your thoughts down on paper - How true enjoyment of your craft leads you to unlocking your potential - Controlling the controllables  - How discipline is more important than motivation  - The moment Amy knew she’d won Gold Amy has written about all of her experiences and learnings in a book called Talent to Triumph, and we highly recommend it. Check out more of Amy's work at https://www.amywilliams.com/. 

Ever since the Lionesses completed that historic Euros victory in the summer, we’ve wanted to get someone involved in the England set up on the podcast - and having played many times for the U23 national side, Anna Patten is in a perfect position to explain the current state of play in the women’s game and how the Euros success has given a real opportunity for even further growth.  Everyone was swept up by Lioness fever in the summer and the whole nation was captivated by the on-pitch successes of the team and their incredible off-pitch personalities, so it was great to get an even better insight into that team from Anna. Anna is one of the rising stars in the women’s game and is currently on-loan at Aston Villa from Arsenal. She has worked closely with the likes of England and Arsenal stars such as Leah Williamson and Jill Scott and so has seen first-hand how the profiles of women’s footballers have grown rapidly in recent years with strong media interest, growing attendances and major sponsorship and broadcast deals now coming into the game. It’s an exciting time for the women’s game, and at just 23 years old, Anna is going to be at the forefront of it all…  Listen to this episode to hear Anna discuss the legacy of the Lionesses as well as her own career, motivations and ambitions.

Tony Stanger is a Scottish rugby legend - playing 52 times for Scotland and, up until very recently, holding the nation's record for total tries scored. Post-rugby, Tony became an author, a coach and a business owner with his high performance consultancy named ‘Stanger Pro’. In this episode we cover:  - Scoring Scotland’s most famous try - Leadership lessons from Sir Ian McGeechan - The importance of not tying one’s identity to their levels of success - Why parents are the most important element of youth development  - How asking honest questions can lead to high performance

Anna Hemmings is a six-time world champion, two-time Olympian and now a world-class keynote speaker and performance consultant. Anna’s sporting career can be summed up as not only one of elite high-performance but also one of consistent success against the odds. Initially, this was proving the British Head Coach wrong – who had told her when younger that she was not big or strong enough to ever compete at the highest level of her sport. Later on in her journey, she would overcome an even bigger hurdle. At the peak of her career, Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and told by doctors that she would never race again. In 2005, after two years of being kept out of kayaking, Anna made a miraculous return to fitness and won at the World Championships in Perth, taking her back to the top of her sport. Not surprisingly, her incredible efforts were recognised at the Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year awards later that year, where she won the Champions award. Through all these experiences, Anna has become an expert in the field of high performance and resilience. As the founding director of Beyond the Barriers - a high performance consultancy that helps individuals and teams – Anna travels the world delivering lessons in leadership to a range of teams in the corporate world.  Anna has also appeared on Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO, and, as two huge fans of that podcast, when we saw Anna on there we knew we had to get in touch. We loved having a similar conversation on the importance of connection, on how powerful a tool visualisation is and how understanding your true motivators can lead you to success.

Christian is a former rugby player for England, British Lions & London Wasps. At 27 though, despite being one of the highest Premiership try scorers of all time, Christian took up a new challenge by becoming part of the NFL International Player Programme, securing a place on the Buffalo Bills squad & ultimately scoring a touchdown with his first competitive touch of a football. During the podcast, Christian talks about various mindsets, approaches and mental techniques he used during his career. The most notable of which was a mental shift he went through halfway through his career. When starting out on his rugby journey, Christian had moulded his training and his lifestyle all in pursuit of his ultimate goal - to play for England. However, when the call-ups did not come – much to the bemusement of many rugby fans - Christian said a negative mindset crept in, which then led to a period of change. From this point, Christian searched to evaluate what success meant to him, and why he was doing what he was doing. With the burden of the constant search of an England place removed from his shoulders, he was able to entertain, flourish and show people the extreme natural talent he had. As a result, opportunities opened up for him, like a two-year stint in the NFL and the opportunity to blaze a trail for English athletes wanting to make it Stateside. Fans among you will know that Christian is currently on the lookout for his next opportunity and challenge, and in our podcast he reveals what attracts him to the different leagues. For the first time in a broadcast interview, he reveals there have been offers, from an interesting mix of clubs around the world. It was an incredible experience speaking to someone who is constantly looking to push the boundaries of what he can achieve, someone who has done things differently to many of those around him and someone who was not afraid to sacrifice a position of comfort in pursuit of the unknown. This episode also marks the start of the new season for the podcast – we’ve got lots of interesting guests coming up and we can't wait to release some of the conversations

Tanni Grey-Thompson was born with spina bifida and subsequently became paralysed at the age of 7. Six years later, inspired by Paralympic legend Chris Hallam, Tanni began wheelchair racing and instantly fell in love with the sport. Tanni had won her first race within three years of starting, and just two years after that, Tanni won the London Wheelchair Marathon. This was the first in a long list of competitive wheelchair successes, and a testament to the mental strength required to overcome hardship and to compete at the very highest level of sport.  At the age of just 19, Tanni competed at the Seoul Paralympic Games and took bronze for the 200m. From that point onwards, having had a taste for the Games and the intense training process it demands, Tanni set her sights on achieving more success; which she certainly did.  In 1992 at the Barcelona Games, Tanni elevated herself to the world sporting elite with four gold medals, a feat she would subsequently repeat in true elite fashion at the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996. The Barcelona olympics were especially important though for Tanni as it marked a change in coverage by the media. Helen Rollason, one of the main broadcasters in the UK at the time, gave greater coverage to the Paralympics than there had been previously.  This made things more emotional when in 2000, Tanni won the Helen Rollason award at Sports Personality of the Year award. Somewhat disappointingly though, the BBC had failed to provide a ramp up to the awards stage, denying Tanni the deserved opportunity to celebrate her award at what is one of the biggest nights in the British sporting calendar. In typical fashion, Tanni reframed the mistake as an opportunity to suggest a number of changes in the BBC, and indeed across the country, with regards to their attitudes towards disability rights.   Tanni retired from sport in 2007, ending her career with 30 World Records, 11 gold medals and 6 London Marathon wins. Since retiring, Tanni has gone on to become Chancellor of Northumbria University, and in 2010, became an Independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. As a working peer, Tanni uses her experience and knowledge during debates in the House and has spoken on a range of issues including welfare reform, disability rights and sport.  To share over an hour with Tanni was an incredible honour and a real privilege. Tanni spoke to us about her belief that hardship is crucial in allowing us to achieve our full potential, that the hardest part of our journey is often getting started and the opportunity we all have in our own lives to make real, long-lasting change for others.

Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu's most famous moment on the football pitch came in 2016 when, against all odds, Wales reached the Semi-Final of the Euros. In the quarter-final, Hal Robson-Kanu scored one of the most memorable goals in modern football history, beating three defenders with one Cruyff turn and putting it past Thibaut Courtois, one of the best keepers in the world at the time. The individual brilliance of the goal warranted it being awarded a Puskas award and to all football fans, it perfectly encapsulated the exciting journey the Welsh side had been on that tournament. Since that tournament, Hal has continued to play at the highest level of football, playing internationally for Wales and in the Premier League with West Brom. As if this wasn’t enough, he’s also managed to launch a global e-commerce brand at the same time.  As Hal says in the pod, some footballers play golf in their free time, some play call of duty, instead he’s decided to use his free time and mental energy to enter the world of entrepreneurship.  Since beginning in January 2018, the Turmeric Co has grown to become a leading e-commerce brand in the world, now distributing 300’000 shots each month to over 50’000 consumers. Whilst these figures are impressive and help to paint a picture of how successful the brand has been in a short space of time, Hal says real success for the company will depend on the amount of lives he manages to change.  This opportunity to build a community of wellness, and to help habit-form healthy behaviours in people’s lives, is what stands as his main motivation now. Although the motivation to play in the Premier League was the focus for Hal throughout his teens and twenties, it is now the opportunity to change people’s lives that “goes beyond scoring goals in the premier league and the adulation that comes with it” which we found really interesting. Hal’s experiences in getting to the top of his sport, as well as leading a start-up, have led him to gain an incredibly detailed understanding of the psychology of performance, whether that’s techniques that allowed him to perform in the semi-final of a euros watched by billions of fans, or maintaining positive mental wellbeing when starting a dynamic and ever-evolving business. In our podcast, Hal’s understanding of the awareness of mental health is clear – in a revealing way, which many sportspeople would shy away from doing, Hal helps paint a picture of the hugely under-reported mental health crisis currently taking place in professional football and the structural reasons behind this. In his words, if it came out “you would not believe it”. For Hal, one of the main reasons for this is fear; players and managers fear under-performing, they fear social media abuse, they fear losing their livelihoods and what this creates is a hush culture, which needs to change.  This podcast was aimed to help display athletes as more than their on-field personalities and we feel this episode is a perfect example of this. It also marks a cool milestone in the podcast journey we’ve been on in the last year. We thank Hal so much again for his time and the ability to meet him in person – we encourage you all to check out the Turmeric co and appreciate the amazing work he’s doing in that space.

Having captained the England cricket team, as well as later becoming both a professional boxer and mixed martial arts fighter, there is no one else in the world who has experienced a sporting career like Adam Hollioake has. Despite having been born in Australia, as well as living in Hong Kong throughout his childhood, Adam Hollioake captained the England cricket team for the first time in 1997. In that same year, he made his test debut playing alongside his brother. Adam and his brother would go on to share the field together across multiple seasons with England and Surrey C.C.C. In 2002 though, in a piece of news that shocked all sports fans across the world, Adam’s brother Ben tragically passed away in a car crash. As Adam refers to in our podcast, the emotions that the game evoked and the associations the game had with his brother, meant he faced a difficulty of playing the sport and it wasn’t long before he then retired. Since retiring, apart from a brief return to T20 cricket in 2007, he became a professional boxer and a professional MMA fighter. The ability to not only face the physical fear of entering a ring, but also the fear of entering a new sport completely, is something Adam coped with in a way that not many could. In our conversation he says it's down to a lack of fear - something that, if harnessed correctly, can be incredibly effective. Adam had stints coaching England Lions and Afghanistan after calling quits on his fighting career, the latter stint of which led him to experience a terrorist attack – which Adam details in our podcast and the reflection and description could not be more timely considering the shocking scenes that we are currently seeing in the country. He now coaches Queensland Bulls, the Sheffield Shield winners, and the side of Marnus Labuschagne – one of the world’s best test player. It was amazing to hear first-hand reflections of how one of the best performers in one of the world’s largest sports, goes about their daily work. As Adam says, it’s a thirst for knowledge and an unrelenting dedication to improve that lead him to his success. Adam is an incredibly deep-thinker – which suits what we’re trying to achieve with the podcast perfectly. We talked about everything from the importance of living without fear, the reality that life is a constant learning journey and how success seems more sweet when you’ve experienced failure with it.

A British & Irish Lion, international rugby player and producer of some of the most memorable moments in English Rugby. Coming off the back of a Grand Slam win in 1995, in which Tony Underwood and his brother, Rory, scored 7 of the 9 tries their team scored all tournament, England entered the World Cup of that same year full of confidence. The highlight of that campaign for England would be a quarter-final win over Australia – a side who had beaten them in the final four years earlier - with Tony scoring one of the most memorable tries in English rugby history, out-running the reigning world-champions’ defence from his own half. Weeks later in the semi-final, Tony Underwood had the job of marking Jonah Lomu. After the 80 minutes, Jonah Lomu had announced himself on the world stage with four devastating tries, while Tony understandably had one of his lowest moments in the game. With New Zealand beating England 45-29, Tony had by his own admission under-performed on a big stage. However, as you will see in the podcast, he is far from someone who lets setbacks define them. Tony focussed on controlling the controllable, and rather than ruminating on past mistakes, he focussed on what constructive actions he could do to ensure he got back to his best. Testament to this was Tony gaining a place on his second Lions tour two years later– one of the most memorable Lions tours of all time – which many will know from the documentary ‘Living With The Lions’. That tour, Tony would get a full Lions cap in the third test, which he refers to as a ‘symbol of resilience’. From one of the lowest points of his career in the semi-final in 1995, to achieving the ultimate honour in British rugby, Tony is proof that resilience and self-belief are some of the key components in maximizing your potential. Since retiring from rugby, Tony has gone on to captain the largest commercial aircraft in the world - navigating an A380 across the globe. More recently though, in his role with Wordplay, Tony is helping organisations and individuals drive performance through better relationships and teamwork. As can be heard in our podcast, he has a set of proven methods to help people achieve their goal, and to help people facing their own Jonah.

Ed Jackson had a ten-year career in rugby. A proud Bath lad, and someone who had grown up watching Bath at the Rec, Ed’s dreams came true when he was signed by the club in 2007 at 18 years old.  Surprisingly, it was a day off the rugby field though that would bring Ed’s rugby career to an end. On 6th April 2017, at a family party, Ed chose to jump into a pool and unfortunately the depth was much shallower than expected. Ed was rushed to hospital immediately – along the way having to be resuscitated three times – when in the Spinal Cord Injury unit at Southmead Hospital he received the devastating news that he would never walk again. However, as we write this message, Ed is getting ready to walk Mont Blanc – one of the numerous mountains he climbed in the last 4 years.  He is the living example that in life we cannot change certain things that happen to us. What we can control, however, is how we perceive these events, and therefore our responses to certain setbacks. Since jumping in the pool, Ed has defied the odds to walk again, has climbed mountains in Nepal, has been recruited to commentate on the Paralympics in Tokyo and – as of yesterday – has become a Sunday Times best-selling writer. These are all feats that– to Ed’s own admission – he wouldn’t have done when still a rugby player. However, Ed’s ability to find purpose in his life and to practice daily self-improvement, gratitude and perspective has allowed him to achieve. Often in life it’s the post-traumatic growth we need to become who we always had the potential to be, and Ed is testament to that.  Ed has also co-founded Millimetres to Mountains, a platform that helps individuals redefine their limitations and take steps towards a brighter future. Alongside this, Ed has recently released his book, entitled “Lucky: From Tragedy to Triumph one step at a time.”  The book, which is available on Amazon, is an incredibly personal account of Ed’s journey and the mental and physical challenges he overcame to get to the point he’s at today. The strength of the story has been confirmed by reaching Sunday Times best-seller status recently – another incredible achievement by an amazing bloke.

Today, we have the great privilege of releasing our conversation with Layla Guscoth who is both an international sportsperson and a qualified Doctor on the Covid-19 frontline.  In February 2020, Layla won a dream move to play professional netball for the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the Australian Suncorp Super League, widely regarded as one of the most competitive in the world. Just a few months later, as the pandemic spread, Layla – who studied Medicine at Oxford - had to choose between staying in Australia or returning to England to join the frontline fight against Covid-19. As a dedicated Doctor, Layla returned to England.  We often speak to athletes about the need to deal with pressure in order to achieve their goals and Layla’s success is a wonderful example. Whether coping with the intensity of an Oxford medicine degree, the high-stakes environment of elite sport or, more recently, the life-and-death environment of Covid-19 treatment, Layla has demonstrated that capacity to deal with intense situations. So there will be few people more knowledgeable than Layla about coping with the demands of high performance whether in sport or at work, and it was fascinating to hear her insights on both of these. We were so grateful for the conversation we had together, and we hope you enjoy it.

“Will it make the boat go faster?” is a question that helped change the life and the sporting success of Ben Hunt-Davis MBE. Although Ben is now an Olympic Gold medallist and renowned performance consultant, success in the rowing boat hadn’t always come as frequently for Ben as you may have thought. By his own admission, Ben had underachieved on the Olympic and World Championship stage for the first years of his career. It was on a drunken night out, after another disappointing performance, that Ben and his crew agreed that something needed to change. In 1998, they decided to construct their new training regime around the question of ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’. They asked themselves that simple question before every action they took in the lead up to the Sydney Olympics. The strategy - with an evidence-based approach - allowed the team to see improvements within months. So much so that, Ben’s crew won gold at Sydney 2000, and stood atop of the podium as Olympic champions. Will It Make The Boat Go Faster is now the name of Ben’s consultancy which is enlisted by companies across the world to help them reach high performance. The strategy has been written into sporting folklore and is trusted by the likes of Clive Woodward showing that it is applicable to any sport. It can also be applied to business or everyday life, and Ben explains that all you have to do is identify what your 'crazy goal' is and understand what the question is that you need to ask yourself to achieve that goal. What shone through in our conversation with Ben was just how honest you have to be – with yourself and others – in order to achieve your goals. He also explained how having clarity about what the goal is, can propel a team towards success.  As Ben suggests, whatever your ‘boat’ may be, why do anything that doesn’t make it go faster. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out Ben's website www.willitmaketheboatgofaster.com and read his book Will It Make The Boat Go Faster.

As a teenager, Frances Houghton wrote a contract to herself saying “I vow to do everything I can to get to Sydney 2000.” Twenty years later, as well as having already achieved the initial dream of going to Sydney, Frances was a 5-time Olympian, 4-time World Champion and one of the most successful British rowers of all time.  Frances - as the first female British rower to be selected to compete in five different Olympic games – has a unique sporting experience to reflect on. She has a wealth of knowledge about the dedication, drive and hard-work that is needed to get to the top, as well as how to sustain it.  However, this incredible obsession to succeed, matched with the intense nature of rowing, meant that Frances experienced burnout along her journey. At this point, Frances decided to change her mindset, and rather than focussing entirely on winning medals, she began focussing on enjoying the moment with teammates. It couldn’t have worked out better, and in 2016, on the podium in Rio with a silver medal round her neck, she experienced the joy she’d been craving.  The stories behind Frances’ Olympic experiences are written down in her book – “Learnings From Five Olympic Games”. Frances’ book contains thought-provoking anecdotes and learnings from a 21 year career in elite-level sport. We couldn’t recommend it more and think it’s so valuable for anyone wanting to achieve high performance, whether in sport or not. Frances’ book can be purchased on her website www.franceshoughton.co.uk

Grandson of former Arsenal footballer and England cricket legend, Denis, Nick Compton has huge sporting pedigree and in many ways it was written in the stars that he would become a professional athlete. However, it wasn’t just good genes that enabled Nick to reach the highest level - it was his unwavering focus and relentless dedication that allowed him to flourish on the international stage. In an honest reflection of his career, Nick admits that sometimes his intense focus and desire to succeed was unhealthy and contributed to feelings of anxiety and doubt. During the interview, Nick also gives a fascinating insight into the English dressing room at that time, when the side was one of the greatest in the world. A prolific opening batsman, Nick scored two centuries for England in his 16 Test matches, and impressed players, fans and media with his grit and resilience. Many in the game felt Nick deserved more than just 16 Test matches, and his record as one of Alistair Cook’s most successful opening partners would corroborate that. While Nick reflects on his career with a slight disappointment that he didn’t play more often, he can be proud of his performances when he was selected. Since retiring in 2016, Nick has found a new passion as a photographer. He’s working hard to shine a light on communities that often don’t receive the attention they should do. Check out Nick’s work on his Instagram @nick.compton or website www.nickcompton.com

Martyn Rooney is a double 400m European Champion, a former captain of Team GB, and an athlete who has been at the top of their sport for over ten years. ⠀ ⠀ Despite the incredibly successful career that Martyn has had, he is no stranger to disappointment and controversy. With Martyn, as is often the case with track and field athletes, these highs and lows have unfolded on the biggest stage of them all – the Olympic Games.⠀ ⠀ At just 21, having been touted by Steve Cram as the next Seb Coe, Martyn represented GB at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Coming fourth in the final, losing to an unusually quick Russian team, Martyn was not the only one who was suspicious about their performance. 8 years later, when it emerged that a member of the Russian team had been doping, and they were rightly disqualified, Martyn received the medal he was owed in 2008. As Martyn touches upon in our podcast, winning a medal is undoubtedly life-changing, but when it comes eight years later than it should, it can lead to frustration and exasperation.⠀ ⠀ Perhaps his most famous Olympic moment though came in Rio in 2016; In a BBC interview straight after his individual race, when asked why the race didn't go well, Martyn famously claimed that he’d “ran like a dick”. In his last hope for a medal that year, Martyn was disqualified in the 4 x 400m final, when a team-mate was deemed to have stepped into the wrong area of the track. This was an incredibly frustrating thing to deal with, and his insights into how he coped with this were fascinating from a sports psychology perspective.⠀ ⠀ It was so good to get inside the mind of an elite athlete like Martyn, who has experienced the best that athletics can offer, as well as some of the frustrations that come with being involved in the sport. Martyn has his own podcast, called That Greaves and Rooney Sports Podcast, which we highly recommend – follow the link in our story for more of it.

As described by ESPN Cricinfo, "Lewis Hatchett achieved one of the most gloriously defiant careers in the history of cricket…" Lewis was born with a condition called Poland Syndrome, a rare condition which appears in only one in 100’00 births, leaving Hatchett missing a right pectoral muscle, and the two ribs that would have been behind it. At birth, Hatchett’s parents were told that he would not be able to play and compete in sport at all. In Lewis’ own words though, he knew he was different but wasn’t willing to be treated that way and, as a result, he continued to compete in sports. Whilst doing so, he would visualise signing a professional cricket contract at his home county Sussex and, in 2010, this became a reality. Having manifested his own ultimate dream, and having had a successful 6 year career at the height of his sport in the UK, it is no surprise that Lewis Hatchett is a firm believer in the power of visualisation as a tool for enhancing elite performance, which he now teaches other athletes. Alongside visualisation, he’s now helping other athletes, ranging from NFL Running Backs to Olympic Gold Medallists, realise the power of breathwork, meditation and yoga through his business Sport Yogi. In what we feel is an incredibly innovative way of enhancing elite performance, Sport Yogi allows Athletes to get every inch out of their recovery, and ultimately cope with the physical and mental stresses of professional sport. Lewis’ story is the epitome of making no excuses in order to live up to your dream. If you’d like to hear more of Lewis’ story, and how he now helps other athletes carve out their own journeys, check out his podcast Raising Your Game, by clicking the link in our bio.

With 27 ODIs and 7 Test matches under his belt, former England cricketer, James Taylor, was an extremely talented batsman and fielder, who was renowned for his work ethic and physical fitness. And it was his exceptional fitness levels that ultimately saved his life, when in 2016, he was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy or ARVC, a life-threatening heart condition, similar to the one sustained by Fabrice Muamba. If it wasn't for James' excellent fitness, it is unlikely that he would have survived. Unfortunately, the condition forced Taylor’s retirement and robbed him of more success as an England cricketer. However, prior to the diagnosis in 2016, Taylor had already achieved so much in an England shirt. He scored a 98* versus Australia in a World Cup, and later scored a hundred against the same opposition. He was a big game player, and was always confident that he would perform in high-pressured situations due to the hard-work and preparation he put in off-the-field. Perhaps James’ fondest memory on a cricket pitch was actually the two incredible catches he took in Johannesburg during a historic series win against South Africa. Such is the cruel nature of sport, it was just a matter of weeks after the highs of Jo’burg that James received the devastating news that his playing career was over. Not only could James no longer play cricket again, the sport that he loved and had spent most of his life playing, but he could no longer play any sport at all, or any activity that could increase his heart rate whatsoever. For someone who loved competing, training, and staying fit - that was an extremely tough blow. But what’s incredible about James is his sheer positivity, and shortly after the diagnosis, he changed his focus from what he couldn’t do to what he can do. He is still involved in the game, working as a coach, as a commentator and also as a selector for the England team. In his new role as selector, James was able to contribute to England’s World Cup heroics in 2019, and although James is unable to don the England whites any more, it is certain that he will still bring so much positivity to cricket in this country in the years to come. 

Match-fixing is ‘the action or practice of dishonestly determining the outcome of a match before it is played.’ In this interview, we speak to someone who, themselves, has received eleven life bans for fixing cricket matches.  Before being embroiled in scandal, Lou Vincent was a world-class cricketer, famed for his fearless approach to the game and ability to score runs against any opposition. A hundred on Test debut against Australia is just one on a long list of Lou’s cricketing achievements.  However, his career ended when he was slammed with eleven life bans in 2014, after it transpired that he had been involved in fixing several cricket matches. Never before has Lou gone into so much detail about the sinister world he got entangled in, and over the course of the interview we are given a shocking insight into what exactly he was asked to do by the corrupt fixers, and how they kept him involved through intimidation and fear.  Lou is now seeking redemption, and is looking to turn that period of his life into a positive by educating young sportspeople about the dangers of corruption and match-fixing and he hopes that his experiences can help to ensure that no one else gets tangled up in the same mess he was.  You can see the work Lou is doing at the moment for his community in New Zealand by following @windyridgecricketclub. Follow Giving The Game Away on social media: Instagram - @givingthegameaway Twitter - @GTGAMedia YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU_-ZyEHfjr8OImFRWJQD8A Website - www.givingthegameaway.co.uk