A PANDORA鈥橲 box for statistics-obsessed sports fans. Eastaway and Haigh provide the answers to questions such as why soccer balls are shaped liked buckyballs, will women one day out-sprint men, and is there a correlation between a country鈥檚 GDP and its ability to win Olympic gold. I was intrigued to discover that the majority of team sports have 11 players a side, a tradition that likely originated with cricket in the 1800s. The official length of a cricket pitch is 22 yards (about 20 metres), or a tenth of a furlong, which was the typical width of a Saxon farmer鈥檚 strip of land.
How to Take a Penalty
Robson Books