Christmas afternoon I finished reading Cheat: the Not-So-Subtle Art of Conning Your Way to Sporting Glory by Titus O'Reily, AFL satirist and sports historian.

 

BUY the Book.

Christmas afternoon I finished reading Cheat: the Not-So-Subtle Art of Conning Your Way to Sporting Glory by Titus O'Reily, AFL satirist and sports historian.

 

BUY the Book.

Titus says that there are only two things needed to enable people to cheat: humans and competitions where humans can win. That's it.

A heap of research has gone into this book. It's written in an easy-to-read and humourous style covering big sports like the Olympics and (all) football to the not-so-well-known sports like curling.

There is almost-cheating, obvious cheating, and acts not even banned because no one believes people would be that silly to attempt them. From the life-threatening to the creative, if you are interested in sports and the ridiculous ways people, teams, and countries ensure they will win, then this book is for you!

 

(Image from an interview with Titus by the Sydney Morning Herald)

From the book blurb:

Where there’s sport, there’s cheating. No sport is immune; athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms. Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. From the fiendishly clever to the outright hare-brained, the borderline to the blatant, Titus O'Reily takes us through the many and varied ways athletes and countries have tried to cheat over the years. As well as sharing an alarming amount of tales involving swapping bodily fluids, Titus takes us through doping, illegal equipment, bribes, playing dirty, faking injuries, wearing disguises, dodgy referees, ball tampering, eye gouging, itching powder, licking an opponent to distract them and sending a dwarf out to bat to shrink the strike zone. Along the way, he asks: what does this say about us, that we cheat with such regularity and creativity? And will technology help stop cheating or will it only make it worse? This is a hilarious trip through the history of cheating in sport and a handy how-to-guide for the professional athlete in your family.

From Sportsocratic:

What do Luis Suarez’ teeth, Nancy Kerrigan’s knees, Cameron Bancroft’s pockets, John Hopoate’s fingers, an Olympic Games Intellectually Disabled basketball competition and the Barbados national soccer team (oh… and lots and lots of other soccer teams and players) have in common? They all take center stage in some of the world’s nastiest and most hilarious sports cheating scandals. Titus O’Reily’s brand new book takes an inside look at the phenomenon of cheating in sport and lays the boot into the cheats while providing some answers as to why they carry out their despicable behaviours. Throughout the text he also reminds us that cheating usually has consequences and that the victims of cheating often suffer long term impacts that go further than merely the disappointment of being deprived of a victory.

Read some examples from the book via Sportsocratic

LISTEN to Titus being interviewed on Conversations

Click on Look Inside to READ an excerpt

BUY the Book.

Check out my reviews on Titus' previous books: A Thoroughly Unhelpful History of Australian Sport + Please Gamble Irresponsibly