These words came out of my mouth tonight: “Mahmoud Khamis is with Nasr! That’s where he went!” Which is revealing, in this sense: I know way too much about the Arabian Gulf League, which began play in the 2014-15 season tonight. Good times!

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At The National, in Abu Dhabi, we work in a newsroom with at least 30 English and more than a dozen Scots. At the moment, the English and the Scots live in the same country and carry the same passport. That could begin to change, come Thursday, when Scotland votes on whether to leave the […]

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This week, The National celebrated the five-year anniversary of the Dubai Metro with a package of stories on the history and development of the system. In retrospect, it is hard to imagine what road traffic in that city would be like, without the rail lines that run parallel to major highways. Dubai already is nightmarish […]

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This has to be one of the most difficult rules in sports to enforce. Cricket’s 15-degree rule. The world’s top-ranked one-day international (ODI) bowler (pitcher) was suspended indefinitely today because studies of his bowling “action” find him breaking the 15-degree rule. Which is … ?

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On the surface, it seemed about as conventional as a major final could be. Serena Williams vs. Caroline Wozniacki in the U.S. Open women’s final. The world No. 1 and winner of 17 major championships, against the former world No. 1. Both of them regular subjects of tennis chat. In fact, the final had at […]

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American exceptionalism is a fairly controversial political notion, talked about for nearly 200 years, that the United States is unlike any other country in the world due to its “unique” history and form of government. People of good will can be on either side of that discussion. But the U.S. most certainly is exceptional in […]

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We have reached a point in sports history … and perhaps it is a compliment, although of a back-handed sort … that any time an aging or semi-flaky player is thought to be on the move … he invariably is linked to a club in the UAE. Earlier, it was Jorge Valdivia, Chilean midfielder. Now, […]

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An added benefit to working at a newspaper is the fascinating things you learn. Presumably golf fans already knew this, but I did not. The man who finished in a tie for second at the U.S. Open this year has had two heart transplants. Erik Compton is living with his third heart. But he has […]

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A few years ago, I went off on the misuse of the word “surreal” by athletes. It’s one of those Crabby Old Editor things. Most athletes don’t know surrealism from the Man in the Moon. What they mean is “unreal”. And here is another horribly overworked word, these past years: “Icon” … and it’s adjectival […]

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Turns out this is a specialty of the UAE government. The nine-day holiday. For the third time in our five years here, all government workers have off nine consecutive days. Well, actually, one of those previous episodes, in 2009, was 10 consecutive paid days off. And another was six days. Which is mind-boggling, really. In […]

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