ISBN: 1-8586-8750-0
Carlton Books Ltd (1999)
RRP: £12.99

When our sporting heroes tumble from the pedestals on which
they have been erected by our admiration, the reverberations of the fall are felt around the world.

Sports Babylon is a no-holds-barred exposé of the malcontents and the maladroits of the world of sport. Those stars whose exploits used to be the sole preserve of the back pages of the paper, but now find themselves increasingly on the front pages, more often than not with a pint clutched in one hand, a cigarette in the other and a close friend, saying they were simply 'tired and emotional'.

From the global bad boys such as disgraced boxer Mike Tyson and 'daft-as-a-brush' Paul Gascoigne to the more obscure like British mountain biker Rob Warner, who was chased out of a French town in 1997 after fornicating with a local statue, the book will cover all those sporting stars who have succumbed to the temptations of drink, drugs, sex and easy money, and will prove that when that bad boy of ancient times, Juvenal, wrote in 100 AD; Nemo repente fuit turpissimus (no one ever became thoroughly bad in one step), he'd clearly never encountered a Roman equivalent of Eric Cantona.

ISBN: 0-8605-1861-2
Robson Books Ltd (1994)
RRP: £17.95

Runner-up in William Hill Sports Book of the Year, 1994

In November 1991 a group of South African cricketers — all but two of whom were white — arrived in Calcutta. The two countries did not recognise each other; there had been no diplomatic or formal contact since 1948, when the white nationalists came to power in South Africa; this was the first time a direct flight had been made from South Africa to India. The visitors did not even have visas to enter the country. But within minutes of the aircraft touching down, thousands of cheering Indians, who only weeks previously would have seen these young men as ambassadors of apartheid, lined the streets to welcome them as if they were conquering heroes.

Since these extraordinary scenes occurred, South Africa has returned to all the major sporting events from which it had been banned due to its apartheid policies. For over 20 years South Africa was the pariah of international sport, its very presence at any international event threatening to destabilise the whole edifice of sporting competition between nations. Now, suddenly, South Africa was welcomed everywhere, including the Olympic Games from which it had been banned since 1964.

In Sporting Colours: Sport and Politics in South Africa, author and journalist Mihir Bose presents a vivid portrait of one of the most complicated, racially scarred countries in the world. He explains why the poison of racism led to the highly effective sports boycott, looks at the efforts to break the boycott by the white authorities and recounts the dramatic way in which these sports authorities are now endeavouring to shed their racist image. With first-hand accounts by many of the principal players in this drama, this timely and compelling book describes how the sports which once helped to divide South Africa are now transforming it.

ISBN: 1-8515-8745-4
Mainstream Publishing (1996)
RRP: No longer in print (available second-hand)

English sport has retained an image which appeals even to people who only have a dim idea of England. This book puts English sport under the microscope, examining how it is played, how it is reported and how it shapes the lives both of the English and the millions touched by England.

Using his own experiences and those of high-profile sports stars like Linford Christie, Imran Khan, Garth Crooks, Ryan Giggs, Diane Modahl, John Fashanu and many others, Mihir Bose exposes the cultural stereotyping and inherent racism all too prevalent in English sport.

Bose digs deep into the seam of ignorance, racism and blind allegiance running through so much of sporting nationalism, advocating instead a new kind of sporting imperialism — sporting imperialism of the all-inclusive Roman variety, where England at last glories in its role as the true mother country of sport — as the only way for England to reclaim its sporting crown.