12 best sports books 2021 | Saturday Review – The Times

Baffled by swing bowling? Confused by the fall of mighty Barça? Unsure about the rights and wrongs of sports stars kneeling? Wondering where on earth Mark Cavendish gets his stamina from? Worry not. The answers to sport’s big questions are all contained in the books below.

With journalist Ed Hawkins, Michael Holding writes of his personal guilt at rolling with the racist punches throughout his career as a devastating West Indies fast bowler and erudite TV pundit. His book takes in moments in black history, education and pop culture and is peppered with interviews with sporting superstars from Usain Bolt to Naomi Osaka. His rallying cry of a conclusion tells us never again will he see racism as “someone else’s problem”. The language is raw,