The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

A podcast hosted by Chris and Nathan that explores historical events through the prism of Sport.

The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life is a sports podcast hosted by Chris Bayes, with 40 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Chris Bayes hosts The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life, a sports show with 40 episodes published.

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  The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

  'It's just not cricket!'

  Aug 7, 202655 min

  In 2017, the ECB publicised plans for a new cricketing showcase – 'The Hundred'. Eight city-based franchises would compete in innings lasting just 100 balls – the shortest format the game had ever seen. Almost a decade down the line, 'The Hundred' has now become engrained within the English cricketing summer. The tournament has attracted millions of pounds in investment, and produced a greater platform for the women’s game than had ever existed before. Yet, 'The Hundred' still comes in for criticism from established cricket fans. With some franchises struggling to attract supporters through the gate, and huge turnover in the personnel at each team, questions remain about whether the future of 'The Hundred' is quite as rosy as the ECB would like us to think. In this episode of The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life, Nathan and Chris investigate the newest and most controversial of cricket’s many formats. They attempt to fairly acknowledge the Hundred’s attributes, but also to move past the ECB’s propaganda to explore the criticisms made by many traditional cricket fans. It is an investigation which helps to frame broader questions about the role of franchises in sporting competition, and the changing nature of the relationship between Britain and India. We hope you enjoy this exploration of why many feel 'The Hundred' is “just not cricket”.

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  The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

  'Why Does It Always Rain On Scotland? - An assessment of the tragicomedy of The Tartan Army at Major Tournaments'

  Aug 1, 202654 min

  As the dust settles on another World Cup, Chris and Nathan reflect on the performance of Scotland at International Tournaments. The most recent competition saw the Scots make unwanted history as they became the first nation to be eliminated from the competition at the Group stage nine times! In 'Why Does It Always Rain on Scotland?', we explore why Scotland seem destined never to progress beyond the Group stage and discuss whether this has now become a self-fulfilling prophecy and if Scotland and their hordes of 'Tartan Army' followers are forever doomed to never progress to the latter stages of the World Cup or European Championships. In the episode, we chart Scotland's adventures in successive World Cups between 1974 and 1990 and look to assess at which point Scottish failure became a self-fulfilling prophecy, before moving on to reflect on the reigns of Craig Brown and more recently Steve Clarke, managers who reached the finals of three major competitions, but were unable to shake off the weight of history and lead Scotland beyond the Group Stages.

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  The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

  Was Italia 90 really the moment 'football changed forever'?

  Jun 18, 20261h 8m

  The 1990 World Cup Finals in Italy has long been heralded as something of a 'Year Zero' moment for football. The tournament itself set to the strains of 'Nessun Dorma' in the BBC's coverage, Gazza's tears, the emergence of 'Toto' Schillachi and the collaboration between EnglandNewOrder have all achieved iconic status in the years since the tournament. With respect to football in England, the performance of the national side at Italia 90 is seen as the catalyst for a step-change moment; one that changed the way in which the national team and its supporters were perceived and led to a shift in public perception paving the way for the emergence of 'A Whole New Ball Game' in the form of the Premier League. There have been numerous books, documentaries and podcasts produced to pay homage to the tournament. Many of which herald Italia as the moment that 'football changed forever'. In the fourth episode of our World Cup mini-series, we discuss whether this is truly the case? We begin by reassessing why Italia 90 is considered such an iconic tournament. Firstly, we explore how the competition emerged from the ashes of a decade in which English football fans were characterised by the Thatcher government as part of 'The Enemy Within' and football itself was decried by The Sunday Times as “A slum sport played in slum stadiums and increasingly watched by slum people” . We then move on to explore how the performance of the England team, inspired by an emerging superstar in the form of Paul Gascoigne helped to shift the public mood throughout the tournament and resulted in a feelgood factor returning to 'The Beautiful Game'. As a result, 'Gazzamania' exploded in the aftermath of Italia 90 and during the following season, Gascoigne almost singlehandedly inspired his club (Tottenham Hotspur) to the FA Cup Final before disaster struck. A shockingly mistimed challenged resulted in ruptured cruciate ligaments and put his move to Italian club, Lazio in jeopardy. Whilst Gascoigne did recover, it is arguable that his career never reached the dizzying heights that were perhaps anticipated during that heady summer. Gascoigne was not the only star who burned brightly during Italia 90 who struggled to maintain such levels afterwards. At the heart of the host nation's attempt to claim the glittering prize were the goals of 'Toto' Schillachi, who started the tournament on the sidelines before firing six goals to inspire Italy on a run that (like England's) ended on a Semi Final penalty shoot out defeat. Like Gascoigne, Schillachi struggled to maintain his form in the years that followed Italia 90. A move from Juventus to Inter Milan was considered a failure and he played out the remainder of his career in the emerging J-League. Does Schillachi's performance at Italia 90 mirror many of the infrastructural 'White Elephants' associated with the tournament across Italy. Lastly, we explore how the teutonic power of the West German side proved to be an unstoppable force during the competition, defeating old adversaries in the form of The Netherlands and England en route to a World Cup Final rematch against Argentina. Speaking after his side had won to claim the world title for the third time, the West German coach Franz Beckenbauer, famously declared that "now that we will be able to incorporate all the great players from the East, the German team will be unbeatable for a long time to come.“ Whilst a unified Germany maintained a solid performance level throughout the decade that followed, the prediction of 'Der Kaiser' never truly came to fruition and former East German players remained firmly a minority in the squads throughout the tournaments of the nineties. We discuss what this tells us about German reunification.

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  The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

  'Back Home' - Mexico 70, Heath, Ramsey, Wilson & the final puncturing of the myth of 'English exceptionalism'

  Jun 11, 20261h 6m

  The summer of 1966. England had made good on the promise that Alf Ramsey made upon his appointment as the national team manager and become World Champions. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones led a 'British Invasion' that topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and Harold Wilson's Labour Party secured a historic landslide victory. It seemed that Wilson's Britain was set to be at the forefront of the 'White Heat' technological revolution he had proclaimed three years earlier and that Ramsey's England side had claimed the position many had long felt was rightfully theirs - in spite of a great deal of evidence of the contrary! - as Champions of The World. Four years on, both Ramsey and Wilson were faced with a fresh test of their credentials. The England national side (for the first and to date only time) entered Mexico 70 as World Champions and as ever, England expected. Both the gentlemen of the press and Ramsey hypothesised that the squad assembled in 1970 was even stronger than that which had won the World Cup in 1966. As the tie-in record released in the build-up to the tournament 'Back Home' stated "they ('the folks back home') think we're the greatest, that's what we've got to prove once more". If the period between the two tournaments had represented the national side's 'Arcadia' period, the Wilson government had found the intervening years much more tumultuous - In 37 by-election contests that took place between 1966 and 1970 Wilson’s government was defeated in almost half - and the furore surrounding the devaluation of the pound in 1967 threatened to undermine the Wilson government terminally. On the eve of the World Cup, the canny populist Wilson was fearful of the impact that a poor showing from England could have on his electoral prospects 'Back Home'. However, he was buoyed by the fact that his opponent Ted Heath (who like Ramsey and Wilson had risen from humble beginnings to lead the Conservatives) appeared to lack the common touch and ability to connect with the electorate. In this, the third episode of our World Cup mini-series, Chris and Nathan explore the linkage between England's fortunes in Mexico and the political situation in the UK during this period.

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  The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

  Austria in the 1930s; From Wunderteam to Anschluss

  Jun 4, 202644 minS0

  <p>In 1932, the Austrian football team had the world at their feet. A glorious victory in the Central European International Cup had seen them conquer the best teams that mainland Europe had to offer. With many South American heavyweights refusing to travel to the 1934 World Cup, it seemed highly possible that the so-called Wunderteam might soon be crowned the best football team on the planet.</p><p>Yet just six years later, that same Wunderteam was no more. Despite successfully qualifying for the third edition of the World Cup in France, by 1938 Austria no longer had an international football team...

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