Andy Richardson

Andy Richardson's picture
Andy Richardson
Sports Reporter | Qatar
Biography
Started work as a sports journalist in Liverpool, the home of football, back in 1996. Have been migrating south ever since, stopping off in London for six years before joining Aljazeera in 2005. Rumour has it that some kickaround or other is on its way here in 2022.

Latest posts by Andy Richardson

By Andy Richardson in Middle East on March 22nd, 2012
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

I first saw the Afghanistan cricket team play five years ago. We came across them in Kuwait taking part in a regional Twenty20 event. Little was known about them, and not much was expected. They finished up as joint champions and so began their incredible journey.

This week they qualified for their second consecutive Twenty20 World Cup.

What was as noticeable then as it is now was the level of support the team has. Somehow, thousands of Afghans found that pitch in Kuwait. They arrived on foot, on the back of trucks and in overloaded taxis.

They came because they already knew what the rest of the cricketing world was about to find out. This was a team of winners.

The majority were brought up in refugee camps in Pakistan, their families forced to flee over the border during the Soviet-Afghan war. It was in these camps that they discovered and learned to play cricket.

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By Andy Richardson in Africa on February 5th, 2012
Al Masry fans remember those who died [Andy Richardson]

Al Ahly is a football club that has long been famous as a focal point for patriotism and political discussion.

Right now it is a meeting point for grief.

Families of the dead gather for shared comfort at the team's Cairo social club. Former and current players offer what support they can. Hundreds line up to sign a book of condolence. The future is something this club are struggling to contemplate. Remembering the fans who didn't return home from that fateful game in Al Masry is their only focus for now.

In Al Masry's hometown of Port Said, pitches stand empty. All local leagues have been suspended as a mark of respect. 

Here the local supporters talk of being unfairly vilifiied, that the disaster was the consequence of a police plot. Some tell us they are now afraid to drive out of the city. Anyone with a Port Said number plate on their car is liable to be attacked, they say.

By Andy Richardson in Africa on January 30th, 2012
Libya meet Equatorial Guinea in the opening match at the Africa Cup of Nations

It was a scene that must come close to defining irony - Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang introducing himself to the Libyan players at the opening ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations with a big smile.

Since the departure of Muammar Gaddafi, Obiang has taken the prize of being the longest serving leader in Africa. His country is effectively a one-party state and human rights abuses are well documented. Sound familiar?

The Libyan team is a group of players who talk optimistically about the new values they hope their country can represent.

But, in Equatorial Guinea, the people are often too frightened to even mention politics.

Last year alone a state radio broadcaster was fired on air just for mentioning Libya. He foolishly tried to evade the official news blackout on pro-democracy protests.

A recent conversation with a taxi driver is indicative.

By Andy Richardson in Asia on August 31st, 2011
Photo: EPA

The decision to stage the World Athletics championships in South Korea was all part of an effort to push the sport into a new market.

Track and field has only a small following in the country, not least because no South Korean has ever won a medal at the event.

 

Apparently the reason for that might have something to do with chopsticks. Let me explain.

Daegu's Taekyeung University is one of many South Korean seats of learning where sitting down to play computer games is taken very seriously. 

Since 2003 it has had a department dedicated to them.

By Andy Richardson in Europe on June 13th, 2011
Picture by GALLO/GETTY

They are the people you hear at every football match in England. But all too often their voice is not listened to by the game they love.

Fans have a hard enough time as it is. This week their task looks to have become even harder.

Supporters Direct is an organisation that has been in existence for just over 10 years now.

It was created under the previous Labour government as a means to encourage fan involvement in the running of their clubs. But despite a solid track record of success, the group now finds itself in crisis.

The English Premier League (the richest league in the world) has just withdrawn around $2 million worth of funding. If a remedy is not found quickly the body could well go out of existence.

The immediate crisis began when SD's chief executive Dave Boyle got a little bit carried away on Twitter.

Boyle is a committed AFC Wimbledon fan, a team embodying all that SD stands for - namely a club that is owned and run by the fans.

By Andy Richardson in Asia on February 27th, 2011
Photo by Reuters

 "Just who is this World Cup for? It sure isn't for the common man of India."

"Cricket comes from the streets, not the corporate box! They seem to have forgotten that."
 
Just a couple of the comments we heard from frustrated fans outside the Bengaluru stadium. Of course, not everyone can have a ticket for a big World Cup game but fans should at least know how to get one. Crashing websites, closed box offices and clashes with police really should not be part of the process.

The big problem for Indian fans is the lack of a centralised ticketing system.

Instead, regional cricket associations are in charge of distributing tickets for their own matches. It has left the ICC, the sport's world governing body, in the odd position of not being in charge of a key part of their own event. That they ceded control of ticketing to the hosts underlines the power Indian cricket has over the global game.

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By Andy Richardson in Asia on February 20th, 2011
Picture by Reuters

First time around, he answered the question politely but quickly.

The second time it came his way, he opted not to play a verbal stroke. When it arrived for a third time, a microphone was placed down on a table and young international cricket captain was on his way out of a press conference room.

Shakib Al Hasan would probably prefer never to return to one.

The question Bangladesh's 23-year-old leader is currently being chased around Dhaka with is why exactly he opted to start this World Cup with a ball rather than a bat in his hand.

While the mid-afternoon flick of a coin went Shakib's way, very little else did at the Shere Bangla stadium on Saturday.

His decision to ask India to bat first always looked risky. India have arguably the world's strongest batting line-up and players who view big occasions as just another day in already epic careers.

By Andy Richardson in Asia on February 17th, 2011
The Indian team at nets in Chennai before travelling to Dhaka for the opening match of the World Cup [Reuters]

You do not have to be in Bangladesh long to realise just what hosting a Cricket World Cup means to this country.

On the streets of Dhaka there isn't much room for anything other than feet, as 10 or so million people attempt to negotiate another day.

But in the few gaps there are, you will find cricket.

The boundaries don't stop on the ruinously cramped roads.

When I first turned on my hotel tv, the top five channels were all showing vintage World Cup games - highlights of England's semi-final defeat against India in 1983 a piercing reminder of a childhood crying fit. 

My next port of call was Dhaka's Shere Bangla stadium,  the stage for Saturday's opener against India.

By Andy Richardson in Asia on January 26th, 2011
Photo by AFP

 - The Asian Cup is still the least loved, or noticed, of all major continental tournaments, but less so. The Copa, the Euros and ACON have a huge edge, but the quality of the tournament is getting better with every edition.

- Blatter talked of India being a potential World Cup host. Their team though was way behind anything else on show in Doha. Until the basics needs of training facilities and a decent domestic league are in place India is destined to struggle.

- What exactly will Saudi Arabia do next? Their brief stay in the Qatari capital involved the firing of two coaches and King Abdullah organising the removal of the football federation's president.

- Qatar could yet qualify for a World Cup before 2022.

By Andy Richardson in Africa on July 10th, 2010
Photo by AFP

As the international football competition nears its end, here are my top moments from the tournament:

Top question: Female Chinese journalist in the direction of Raymond Domenech on the eve of France's first match. "When a frog is put in boiling water, it doesn't feel the heat until the water gets hot. How warm is the water for you now?" Had Monsieur Domenech known the water would soon be boiling hot with added sharks in the mix, he might well have left then.

Top man: Has to be Diego. Not many coaches can turn a pre-match press conference into a work of theatre. He may have the tactical awareness of a badly informed labrador but you cannot question his passion. When he solemnly announced that Germany's players would have to "leave their skins on the pitch if they want to beat us," I came close to punching the air with patriotic fervor. I was born 20km south of Liverpool.

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