Nifty footwork. A Zambian child’s home-made football. 1. What’s in a game? • Iranian women put on their running shoes • Training for life • Going for glory • A star that never rose • Basketball at midnight • Hidden hurdles of colour 2. The agony and the ecstasy • Batting for the nation • A Cuban mix of muscle and ideology • New players, same game • All together! • Till death do us part • May the betting man win...

The spell of sport A harsh wind is blowing through big-time sport these days, highlighting corruption and drug scandals, enormous salaries, stock exchange raids on top teams and the exploitation of child workers who stitch balls or sports shoes. Yet nothing checks the soaring popularity of sport. Millions of players and competitors strive for stardom and millions of fans cheer their heroes on. Egged on by the media, by politicians and by the makers of sports equipment, more and more people are falling under the spell of great sporting events which have become quasi-religious rituals. Our survey looks at the ways in which these passions are fired and at the joys and successes they can bring. But it also examines the downside of a situation in which the myths attached to sport are manipulated by powerful forces. Sport leads neither to perdition nor paradise. It should not be seen as the latest example of the opium of the people or as a pretext for violence. Nor is it a miracle solution which can neutralize dangerous tensions, promote greater freedom and improve human relations. Most likely it is a mixture of all these factors. Certainly, as French sports historian Bernard Jeu has put it, it is an important way for societies “to confront themselves.”