Sport as Story

Julie Bozza talks with Gideon Haigh

7 February 2023

Gideon Haigh has been a journalist for more than three decades, has contributed to more than a hundred newspapers and magazines, published thirty-two books and edited seven others. Also, nobody has played more games for his cricket club - nor, perhaps, wanted to. 

So, when StoryFest Treasurer Julie Bozza wanted to talk about sport as story, and stories in sport, she knew exactly who to call.

Julie: I’ve often thought of a sports match as a story unfolding - with characters, allegiances and rivalries, action, conflict, moments of grace, and so on. But watching live sport gives us one of the few stories for which we genuinely don’t know the outcome. Do you think the metaphor holds?

Gideon: The unscripted drama is integral to the attraction, but so is the technical dimension and aesthetic experience. I’m fascinated while watching a game of cricket to see how many ways there are to approach the achievement of the same ends. We don’t talk anywhere near enough about style and beauty in sport.

Julie: There are times in live sports when we feel that it didn’t go to plan, that someone didn’t follow the script, that maybe the plucky underdog shouldn’t have won after all. This must put a great deal of pressure on the players, coaches and other staff - when so much of how a game unfolds is outside their control.

Gideon: No game beats such a drumbeat on the soul as cricket. An error in football passes, and is readily redeemed; failure in cricket has a lasting aftermath and is long in the contemplation. 

Julie: With all that excitement and uncertainty about watching a live sports match, I often wonder why the stories told in sports films always seem so cliched. The hero (occasionally the heroine) coming from nowhere, defying the odds through hard work and determination, and ending victorious or at least truly noble in defeat… Do you know of exceptions to this standard fictional plot? 

Gideon: The best novel about sport is David Peace’s The Damned United (2006), an uncompromisingly bleak portrayal of Brian Clough’s brief and bitter period managing Leeds United in 1974, and I recently read another excellent football novel, Ronan Hession’s Panenka (2021), about the impact on a player’s life of a missed penalty. My favourite cricket novel is Pro: An English Tragedy (1946) by Bruce Hamilton, brother of the magnificent Patrick. It covers the life cycle of a professional cricketer from emergence, through success and celebrity, into decline, disillusionment and betrayal. It is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Crack-Up in a county cricket setting.

Julie: What is the best or most intriguing story you’ve watched unfold in sport, on field or off?

Gideon: That I’ve watched? My career as a cricket writer overlapped almost perfectly with the life and times of Shane Warne, with all that that entailed. He’s left a Warne-shaped hole with his passing.

Julie: What other insights can you share with us about sport-related storytelling?

Gideon: Writing about sport has grown ever more challenging with the intensification of its coverage. By the time people read your words, they’ll have seen everything numberless times, been offered readymade opinions, come to their own conclusions. How do you surprise them? There is no other genre of writing like it.

Julie: What are you working on at the moment? What are you looking forward to most in 2023?

Gideon: I’m about to visit India to cover Australia’s tour, which should be fascinating. I’m simultaneously writing a true crime book about a fascinating disappearance, which I’ll self-publish later in the year.

Julie: Thank you so much for talking with me today, Gideon - and have a marvellous time in India!

To find out more about the awesome Gideon Haigh, all the books he’s written and the multifarious things he likes, visit his website: gideonhaigh.com