Playgrounds of the Gods : A Year of Sporting Fantasy

During the course of nine injury-ridden months in 1998, British sports writer, broadcaster and author Ian Stafford lived out his fantasies and played sport with the world's greatest individuals and teams in their own environments.

He spent a week training with Flamengo, Brazil's biggest football team, before travelling to Pakistan to play squash against Jansher Khan.

There followed a week of training at high altitude with the world's top middle and long-distance runners from Kenya, including Moses Kiptanui and Daniel Komen, and a week training with the South African national rugby team in Johannesburg.

Then it was on to Henley and the world champion coxless fours team, culminating in a challenge race on the Henley Regatta course.

Stafford subsequently turned cricketer and went to Queensland to train and play with the Australian Test and one-day cricket squads.

His final sporting achievement took place in Florida when he trained alongside the world's best pound-for-pound boxer, Roy Jones.

The experience ended with a gruesome three-round fight against the world light-heavyweight champion, just three weeks before he defended his world title. This is an autobiographical account of a frustrated sportsman's exciting, hapless and painful adventures around the world.

Providing cultural insight into what makes winners of the greatest players of the sport, it should strike a chord with the many thousands of people who, like Ian, can only dream of achieving sporting victory.