I wrote on Raina almost a year back just before he got selected for the Indian One Day team. I had stated that Raina is one for the future. I can say now that the future is here. India were struggling in the second One Day International versus England. A defeating chasing a low score (just like England had managed to do in the first One Dayer) looked on the cards. Suddenly the smallish target of 227 looked mighty big with 5 Indian wickets down.

Raina, with an unbeaten 81 off 89 balls, played his most important international inning yet. Raina is agressive. Raina is technically sound. Raina can also field superbly. What more do you want? We can go on and on regarding Raina’s strong points. Temperament, thought,  is the biggest strength of Suresh Raina. He showed it during Uttar Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy trimph this year with vital innings which are expected off seasoned campaigners and not new kids on the block.

But Raina isn’t really a new kid. He is known to have an old head on young shoulders right from the under-19 days. Today, he gained many more fans and admirers. It is only time before Raina makes a test debut and shines at the test level. In place of who you ask. The middle order is jam packed you retort. Those were the same sounds I heard from every where before Raina was selected for the One Day squad. I had written back then:

Quality players do not wait for room in the XI. They make their own room. Would a Sachin Tendulkar really not make it to the test team if the middle order was tightly packed? If not in tour x, then on tour y. Else tour z is always there. It is only a matter of when and not if with quality players. Raina is a quality player. The future is here for Suresh Raina.

One headline I thought I would never see on Cricinfo! Ian Blackwell’s performance so far: 6-0-16-2. He was great in the first game too with a bowling performance of 10-0-24-1. Srikkanth said at the lunch interval in game 1:

Ian Blackwell is an ordinary bowler but India made him look like a great bowler as if he is Bishan Singh Bedi.

India is struggling chasing England’s 226 and are at 125/5. Making a legend of Shaun Udal first. And now adding Blackwell to the list. India sure know how to improve the profile of pie bowlers! I have seen absolute ordinary players achieve extra ordinary feats versus India. Case in point: Chris Lewis making a century. But ordinary spinners made to look like they are unplayable is some thing else.

San Antonio Spurs have over taken Boston Celtics as the second best NBA team ever in terms of winning percentage. Lenny Wick points it out on Livejournal NBA community here. It shows how poor Boston has been in the years following the Lary Bird and their Championship days.

It also shows how consistently well San Antonio has been performing over the past 5 years. San Antonio hasn’t changed their team too much in a league where trades are frequent and teams hardly remain similar over a few years. The rewards have come in championships and wins. Lakers stand at the top with them maintaining some performance in the Shaq-Kobe era.

Ronaldinho is the most valuable footballer commercially ahead of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. Eto’o and Messi follow in next. So there are 3 Barcelona players in the top 5. Also, the youngsters are the new Brand ambassadors. Only Beckham is over 30 in the list. This more than any thing symbolises the new generation of footballers. There is no Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo and the likes. Beckham is likely to slide off from the top 5 soon too if he doesn’t do some thing spectacular in the World Cup.

What is amazing is how much Michael Jordan still makes via commercials. His brand name has crossed the performance barrier. He has proven so much over his career that it doesn’t matter whether he plays now or not. The Jordan brand is strong and tough to erode.

Would the Tendulkar brand be the same once he retires? Has it eroded even a bit in the recent past where his performance has suffered? What will happen of the Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher brands once they retire? How much is the Pele brand and Muhammad Ali brand worth today?

One would imagine that erosion does take place in brand values but quality sportspersons manage to command a fair deal of money after their retirement. If there is some legend who symbolises the sport itself even years afyer his retirement, his brand value could be unaffected by recent performances and even increase once he retires.

Liverpool is likely to be the next big club to be bought by a multi-millionaire. So will it be the new Real Madrid or Manchester United? Or will it go the Chelsea way in terms of performances after the buy out which looks likely?

Will it be a 100% take over (that is buying all shares) or partial take over? Will Liverpool fans protest like Man U fans did? Who or which group of investors will turn trimphant in buying Liverpool? What will be the turns in the fortune of the club once the take over is complete?

A lot wil be spoken on this subject in the media in the next few weeks. Buy outs. They create a media frenzie, they do! For an initial report, check out what The Telegraph UK has to say.

Barca missed their chances and in the end the score line read 0-0. It is all down to the Nou Camp now. A dangerous position. Benfica won in Liverpool and would be hoping to repeat the away track record. But certainly playing at the Nou Camp will be a lot different to playing in Liverpool.

The below photograph shows one of the things I enjoy about FCB so much:

Eto’o has missed another chance and is disappointed. Ronaldinho plays the role of the guy who encourages, boosts up the team in the face of this disappointment. Ronaldinho is quite the team man - creating chances, motivating players and always smiling.

Klinsmann gave a detailed interview to CNN ahead of the World Cup. With the Champions League final stages still not completed, the World Cup fever hasn’t caught the football world yet. But we are getting there.

Klisnamm talks on what the three World Cup wins have meant:

there was the oil crisis and the ’70s terrorism two years before, the Olympics in Munich that disaster and it was just perfect timing that they had that exceptional team right at the World Cup, when they hosted the World Cup, and looking back in the history of German football every time they won a big World Cup it was at a very special moment. The ‘54 World Cup was the first time the people got the recognition back after the second World War and felt like they are proud of something you know it brought people back together and you know now we can keep our heads up again. And then ‘74 as I mentioned and then the 1990 world cup was our team was the team of the reunification you know, so we were the team for both sides of Germany so now, you know throughout the last 16 years, we’ve melted together. And now comes the next milestone.

But Germany isn’t expected to win the World Cup. Brazil and Argentina are the strong favourites with people backing England as well. Other teams are underdogs in one way or the other. So Klinsmann suggests the team would be better in 2010:

certainly looking into the future and looking towards World Cup 2010 South Africa, Germany will be strong again.

Among the players, the interview just has talk on Michael Ballack which is a disappointment. I would have liked to know more on what Klinsmann thinks about other players, some deeper insight into the team. Over all it was a good interview but I wanted more out of it.

Germany will have a lot of pressure regardless of how good they actually are on paper. Teams can crumble or up their notch in this situation. Remains to be seen what happens with Germany.

Bjorn Borg has decided never to sell his Wimbledon trophies citing that the trophies mean long term financial security. If you decide never to sell trophies, does it not mean they are not financial securities at all for him? I do not see the logic there.

Not that I am advocating selling trophies or am against it. It is person X’s trophy. If he has had financial problems in the future, how else can he tacke them? Sporting personalities who do not even have financial tproblems have decided to sell sporting memorablia for easy cash or charity in the past.

How Borg will tacke his immediate financial problems though, I do not know. As CNN reports:

Bjorn Borg Design Group crashed in 1989 and he is being sued for 11 million crowns ($1.42 million) by former business associate designer Lars Modin. They case is due to come to court next month. Borg still makes money from the branding of his name, most notably on a successful underwear line.

Bjorn Borg does have a brand name but mere brand names cannot mean people will never face financial problems. Big movie stars and sportsmen have faced similar problems. Moreover, market values of brand names (which have suffered depreciation from the prime playing/performing days) are not usually sufficient to meet huge financial problems. In India, Amitabh Bacchan is the best recent example of a superstar celebrity facing financial problems and then overcoming the phase.

Here’s hoping Borg rides over this phase.

Update: Borg has come out and said it was McEnroe who finally convinced him not to sell the trophies. Also the initial decision was not to do with any financial concerns as he said that he is quite well off.

Indian Samaresh Jung has been adjudjed the best athlete of the Commonwealth Games for his performances. He now heads for the Shooting World Cup.

India has been steadily improving in shooting. The government has been supportive off late. I spoke about it here. It is not just a one off like say a P.T.Usha in Athletics. There is a bunch of shooters coming up. Vishwanathan Anand started the Chess revolution. Rajyavardhan Rathore may well be looked back upon as the trigger who helped India become an international force in shooting.

Half the contingent of Sierra Leone has disappeared (ran away) from the Commonwealth Athletes Village in Melbourne. Reports Reuters:

Police and Australian immigration officials have been searching for 11 athletes from the war-ravaged African country who have gone missing from the village.

This is not a new phenomena as 20 athletes went missing after the Manchester Commonwealth games in 2002. Of course the war plagued athletes will find this as a window for better life. A risk much less compared to living in the war ravaged country. Sport isn’t as important when the problems are much larger. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) isn’t going to rule out Sierra Leone for future games. Political dimplomacy evident in sport and sport again proving that it is life magnified.

India is proving difficult to handle with the doping scandal. The answer CGF President Mike Fennell gave explaining the doping occurences is amusing though:

It’s a very large country, over a billion people, and perhaps there will be people who are perhaps not as knowledgeable about the drug situation and the doping situation, and there will be instances.

The closing ceremony of the games is to be held today with bollywood stars staging a performance. Also, Javed Akhtar will present a song for the Delhi Games. I haven’t witnessed an international sporting event in India bar the Cricket World Cup in 1996. So come Delhi 2010, it will be nice.

Update: A few of the athletes have spoken out. They say that they fear genital mutation and death if they go back.