WHAT’S HOT WHAT’S NOT

HOT CRISTIANO RONALDO

THE brightest peacock in sport now holds a quite brilliant record — the all-time top scorer in football history with 760 goals. It’s marvellous, whichever way you cut it. Here’s just one: across 19 seasons, he has scored an average of 40 goals a year for club and country.

INDIA

TO BEAT Australia at the Gabba was statistically improbable. But with so many injuries? And with 328 runs to chase? It was nigh on impossible and by extension, surely one of the greatest wins that cricket has known. Too bad for Tim Paine, the Australia captain. He seems such a nice chap.

BEN AINSLIE

THIS weekend Ineos Team UK are expected to reach the final of the Prada Cup, from which they would be favourites to win the right to face the defending champions from New Zealand in March’s America’s Cup match. After Ainslie’s crew lost all six warm-up races at Christmas, it is an incredible turnaround.

NOT LAURA ROBSON

A JUNIOR Wimbledon title at 14, an Olympic silver at 18 and inside the world’s top 30 at 19. Sadly, those numbers are now haunting reminders of a talent lost to injury. Her third hip surgery by the age of 27 might well signal the end of a career that was far too short.

SAM ALLARDYCE

HIS loose lips have caused bigger problems in the past. But his claim that an agreement prevented Robert Snodgrass playing for West Brom against his former club West Ham is rather awkward. Particularly for the Premier League, who find themselves compelled to investigate the kind of matter that typically occurs out of sight and mind.

THE TOKYO OLYMPICS

THE ‘will it, won’t it’ saga is going to run for months, bouncing between nonsensical bullishness from the IOC and those with some sense of perspective. A look at the challenges faced by the comparatively tiny Australian Open tennis would offer the IOC a step towards realism.