English Premier League Season Preview, part 2

Click here for part one of our Premier League season preview.
Newcastle: New beginnings, or same old same old?
More than any other club, the fortunes of Newcastle United depend on their summer signings: Sylvain Marveaux, Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and this season's "like a new signing", Hatem Ben Arfa. The dressing room culture remains awful - as evidenced by Jose Enrique and Joey Barton's

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English Premier League Season Preview

If you want in-depth analysis, visit The Guardian. If it's startling stat-facts you're after, then it's OptaJoe you're looking for. Amusement? Try the Football Ramble. But here, after a summer in which an awful lot was made of ridiculously little, is Balanced Sports' Q & A preview to the English Premier League 2011-12.



courtesy: bleacherreport.com
Arsenal: Where's the love for Arsene

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The Ballpark Guide to Promoted teams' spending

When writing a piece for the Montreal Gazette concerning how much each promoted side had paid to assemble their roster, it was interesting to note the circumstances of each team. Queens Park Rangers, though ostensibly backed by the capacious pockets of Bernie Ecclestone and perhaps Lakshmi Mittal, have spent a miserly ₤1.25 million on striker D.J. Campbell while both Swansea City and Norwich

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My Favourite Cricketer: Glenn McGrath by Gary Naylor

In our continuing series "My Favourite Cricketer", SPIN Cricket and 99.94's Gary Naylor examines Glenn McGrath.
The more one looks at cricket, the less one sees. This strange, cooperative competition (played on a big field, between stumps set 22 yards apart; by eleven men on each team, but just two at a time; using ancient materials like wood and leather, and 21st century technology like

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The Cost of Promotion to the Premiership

In the wake of some silly spending by Sven-Goran Eriksson and Leicester City as well as pre-season predictions of doom for the three English Premiership newcomers this season, it's worth taking the time to examine just how much it costs to contend in England's top division.
To do so, we can evaluate how much it costs to buy players needed to finish in the Championship's automatic promotion

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A short history of Australian cricket in Sri Lanka: a tale of two spinners

by Balanced Sports columnist Ben RobertsFor Part One, click here.
The Australian side did not return until 1992 for test match cricket. This time the series consisted of three matches between the sides. Much has been written about the first test, where Shane Warne began to break out and become a match winning player, however the series also featured Muttiah Muralidaran in two of his earlier tests

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A short history of Australian cricket in Sri Lanka, part 1

By Balanced Sports columnist, Ben Roberts.  The second part will be published later this week.
Sri Lanka, like most former and remaining British colonies, accepted cricket from the earliest time of colonisation as its national sport. Like most British colonies as well they have eventually turned over their former colonial masters at the game closest to their heart. Australia visits Sri Lanka this

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