Charlie Sale is a legend of sports journalism, often credited with creating the sports news genre, most famously as the feared and fearless writer of the daily Sports Agenda column in the Daily Mail and before that in the Express. 

Charlie was one of our early guests on the podcast, following his premature retirement due to ill health in 2018, so it’s great to have him back on to talk about his new book, which in true Charlie Sale style, is already ruffling feathers in the corridors of sport. It’s called The Covers Are Off: Civil War at Lord’s and is about the two decades old dispute over the future development of the Home of Cricket, between the MCC and Charles Rifkind, the property developer who acquired the rights to develop the defunct railway tunnels that lie beneath the ground’s Nursery End. It’s about cricket, and sports business, but also about class, politics and the often painful balance between preserving the traditions of the past in a fast changing modern world. 

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