Unbalanced team after cut beginning to despair (8)
I believe the answer is:
lopsided
'unbalanced' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'team after cut beginning to despair' is the wordplay.
'team' becomes 'side' (both can mean a sports team).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'cut' becomes 'lop' (lopping is a kind of cutting).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'despair' is 'd'.
'side' put after 'lop' is 'lopside'.
'lopside'+'d'='LOPSIDED'
(Other definitions for lopsided that I've seen before include "not evenly distributed" , "Crooked" , "Not symmetrical" , "With one part lower or heavier than the other" , "Ill-balanced" .)