Three boxers who won medals at the Commonwealth games were invited for a felicitation. Empty envelopes replaced cash prizes. Read about it here.

So who will pay? No one knows.

Fernando Alonso was less than a second behind Schumacher. He had the faster car. He chased and chased and chased Schumacher till his car heated up. Alonso finished second.

It was brilliant watching what will be looked back upon as quite memorable formula 1 racing.

A classic if there ever was one. [Link]

Update: A lot of people are obviously blogging about this. Some people’s thoughts:

• Formula 1 Jam, a new quality Formula 1 blog.
• Bharath Kumar’s take here.
• F1 Blog on the race.
• and finally, some who who thought the race was quite boring.

I guess you can never make every one happy all the time!

Wladimir Klitschko has won the IBF Heavywright title. Read an excellent review from blogger JE Grant here.

Also, if you are bored/put off by boxing, check out of when the Klitschko brothers battled Kasporov in a chess match. [Link via the Getting into Chess blog]

Think chess is boring as well? Agh.

It is upon us. The first big battle of the clay court season. I had previewed the clay court season here. Over the last few days, Nadal and Federer have done away with the best of the rest in contemporary clay court tennis with considerable ease. Federer, after being stretched to three sets by Novak Djokovic, has lost just 16 games in 4 consequent rounds.

Nadal has been as dominant. Apart from the semi where Gaston Gaudio stretched Nadal to three sets, he has lost only 22 games in 4 matches. Nadal has a 3-1 lead over Federer in head-to-head. Also, a 1-0 in clay courtesy that semi-final Roland Garros triumph last year. Nadal has also handed Federer his only defeat of the season when he beat Federer 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in Dubai, the only time they met this year.

The previous two encounters in Dubai and at Roland Garros have been tight and engaging. The one upon us promises to be one in possibly a series of superb battles between the two over their careers.

Chinese woman footballer Sun Wen first made her debut appearance for the national team at the age of 17. She played 13 years for the China. During the period, she was part of the team which won the Olympic Silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta games, took part in 4 the inaugural four women’s FIFA World Cups, won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball for the 1999 World Cup (where China finished runners up) and shared the FIFA Player of the century award with American Michelle Akers.

What is Wen doing now? At 33, Wen is washing her own kits. China Youth Daily reported it initially and an English report on it can be found in Malaysian The Star:

Sun Wen and her teammates are accommodated in rooms no more than six square metres with dirty sheets on tiny beds, malfunctioning television sets and air-conditioning and a leaking toilet, according to a report in the China Youth Daily.

“I buy a plastic basin to do my laundry wherever I go,” the 33-year-old Sun Wen told the newspaper. “I’m afraid I’ll have to bring my own bedclothes next time.”

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Thierry Henry’s brilliant kick meant that Arsenal drew the game versus Tottenham Hotspur. However, the concerns of the possibility of a club in trouble in the future are very real. Arsenal now has no chance of qualifying for the Champions League until either:

1. The Spurs do some thing stupid, or,
2. Arsenal win the Champions League.

Arsenal Review explained before the match why today was a must-win game. In the end Arsenal only managed to draw courtesy Henry brilliance. A lot f Arsenal would cry over Davids’ going on and would feel he should have stopped.

Soccerworld explains why this is a misled perception:

Arsenal had nothing to complain about. I don’t think Spurs were under any obligation to kick the ball out after two Gunners tripped over one another. The Tottenham players simply took advantage of a mistake by their opponents. That’s far less egregious than Henry’s quick free kick against Chelsea a season ago, so I don’t want to hear any post-match complaining from Wenger.

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For part 5 of the series, JP Thieriot joins us. JP, as he is popularly known, blogs at The Argentina Blog over at World Cup Blog. Born in Buenos Aires in 1968, JP was hooked to football every since his grandfather surprised him and took him for the finals of the 1978 World Cup between Argentina and Holland. An experience that has clearly been with him ever since. Buenos Aires, as JP recalls and every proud Argentine will tell you, was in non-stop celebration for at least 3 days. The memories will be treasured, I am sure, for a life time.

I thank JP for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Road to the World Cup – the qualification, and the emotions the fans went through at the time.

Qualifications can be divided into the Bielsa era and the Pekerman era. Bielsa should have quit after the disaster in 2002, but instead he hung on and wound up winning the Olympics (17 goals for, 0 against) in dominating fashion. Even the serious Bielsa doubters like myself started to come around - then he quit. Seems he lingered in order to vindicate himself and then left the team in middle of Qualifications. Bielsa’a greatest fault was a refusal to change things in the face of failure. He wasn’t quick enough in changing schemes/players to fit challenging situations.

The Pekerman era, on the otherhand, has been characterized by almost constant change. The only fixture has been Riquelme, whom Bielsa had previously ignored. Qualifications under Pekerman got off to a roaring start with a tremendous victory over Brazil, then got bogged down in rather hohum performances against weaker opponents. Argentina really has an overabundance of talent, so the question is finding the right chemistry. Newcomers like Messi, Aguero and the injury status of players like Mascherano, Heinze, Ayala and Aimar have further complicated the ultimate formation of Pekerman’s squad.

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Ahead of the 2006 NBA Playoffs which begin today, the predictions are rolling thick and strong. Check out the Blogcritics and Marcellin Mutoni’s round 1 takes. Complete Sports has gone all the way and predicts a Detroit win:

This year, I think things may be tilted in Detroit’s favor. They’ve basically been resting for a while now, having locked up the East a while, they have home-court advantage, and their bench is better than it’s given credit for. And not to sound like a broken record, but their offense is better under Flip. Another thing is, I don’t think Rasheed Wallace will be leaving Big Shot Rob open for anymore late shots. PISTONS IN 7.

The Detroit Pistons have certainly moved from strength to strength after Brown moved on to coach the Knicks. Not many will predict any one except the Pistons or the Spurs to win the title. Can the Miami Heat or some other team tide over these two champion teams?

We will see.

Hopping flights to get from Varanasi to finally reach Calcutta means I am dead tired. Regular blogging resumes tomorrow. Hope you don’t miss me too much!

Natarajan H writes on Ricky Ponting in his own distinct style:

The fact is that Sir Don’s figures are beyond compare. As Vasu Paranjpe once said in his inimitable way: “In any cricketing comparison, Sir Don has to be left out. The great man’s head would go out if you try to fit him in the same frame as the others!” The latest to draw such comparison is Ricky Ponting…

If one splits his Test career into two, it makes interesting read. Till the end of 2001, he had scored 3182 runs in 52 Tests at an average of 44.19; in the 53 matches since, till the first innings of the second Test against Bangladesh in the ongoing series, he has scored 5610 runs, with at an average of 71. It’s in this rapacious mood that he has scored century in each innings of a Test match on three occasions to equal the feat of Sunil Gavaskar. Of course, there is a small difference: Gavaskar’s scored them in a span of eight years; Ponting got it in eight Tests!

I spoke on Ponting versus Dravid a few months ago. I said then:

It is too close to call but I would have Dravid because he adds solidity.

Has Ponting done enough to gain an edge over Dravid since then? Ponting has played all kinds of innings. He has been gritty, aggressive, defensive, sticking on to his wicket, winning matches from tight situations, winning matches without giving the opponents a sniff. Basically, doing whatever it takes to keep the Aussie juggernaut rolling despite a recent inconsistent batting order.

So is Ponting above the shoulders of all his contemporaries. Right now he is definitely the best batsman in world cricket. But it is best left to judge current players till when their careers are over, as Sunil Gavaskar always advocates, lest we do injustice to the modern players.