After the doping finds at the beginning of the tour, what cycling needed was a heroic performance to bring authenticity to the sport. We seemed to have that with the efforts of Landis. Now, Landis is under a cloud. He denies it and his mom denies it as well. When Shane Warne was caught with drugs, he said that his mom gave it to him. Landis or his mom can’t expect to beat the audacity of Warne’s statements though of course.

BBC’s Matt Slater sums up the situation well:

To say the discovery that the winner of the Tour de France may have been cheating is bad news is perhaps the biggest understatement since James Lovell told Mission Control, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

Of course, Floyd Landis may be cleared, but with its credibility already hanging by a thread, the Tour needed this like a stick in the spokes.

Whatever happens and was the truth regarding Floyd Landis, the reputation of cycling, already weak, has been shaken and if new fans do not get attracted to the sport in the future, you can’t really blame them.

India has taken a big step. Manish Varma has more on it.

Earlier, India had opposed Twenty20 cricket, whether it was the old Jagmohan Dalmiya regime or the new one. The reasons, as stated by me back then:

As its 40 percent of a limited overs match (in terms of overs and time involved), it results in 40 percent of income… This year, Pakistan has continued with the successful experiment domestically. However, PCB Chairman Shahryar Khan has opposed Twenty20 for international cricket.

So what has changed now? The big factor which Lalit Modi believes in, if summed up - earn money wherever the opportunity lies and let free markets prevail. On free markets, Modi had infact stated precisely that in a detailed interview with Rahul Bhatia a couple of months back:

Absolutely. I believe in free markets deciding everything. If there is no value, there is no value. Let people decide. In certain cases you might lose, in certain you might win. You have to be risk-prone too.

Either that, or pressure internationally has forced the change on Twenty20. Whatever the reason, that and the other initiatives indepth and proper broadcasting of domestic cricket on national television, inter city leagues have been taken. The big question should not be why but why not. India brings in the majority of revenue in the cricket world. So, if the Indian audience wants more, why not give it more cricket. If there can be a market for domestic cricket, why not exploit it?

Domestic cricket has suffered for long. Why not go even further? If the NBA or English Premier League can prosper, why not go for inter city leagues bringing in international stars as well? International cricket is sustained due to the competition and the money generated. As Modi says:

The inter-city league will be on the lines of the Premier Football League (of England), and we will have separate television, merchandising and grounds right for that,’ he disclosed, and added it would not be part of the rights that Nimbus holds.

‘It will probably become the single largest revenue earner for the BCCI in the years to come, if we structure it right. It will also help us drive crowds back to domestic cricket and help build more stars.’

The big dangers in an inter city league with international players would be - 1) could it generate as much interest given international cricket’s interest is based on rivalry of countriesm and 2) There aren’t as much talent base of players in international cricket like say in football.

However, what’s the harm in trying? We may not see a level of an NBA reached in India. However, what we can see is money generated which can be a huge impetus for infra structure and further development of a talent pool of players. I had asked what is forward, BCCI?. One of the points I had raised:

However, domestic cricket promotion and marketing, initiatives to develop the game in the country remain missing.

One step forward has been taken then. The recent initiatives will please most Indian cricket fans who have been deeply saddened at the plight of domestic cricket for so many years. I am one of them.

This month’s links without any ado..

• Digg has added a sports section if you haven’t noticed yet. More power to sports fans.

• Why Brazil really did lose the world cup.

• ENOUGH on the world cup finals please.

• BBC: An unknown sports hero.

• Football: Scottish Premier League preview.

• Cricket: This week 104 years ago.

• Blogcritics: Mexican bimbos.

• Olympics: India? WTF.

• The Sports Pulse: Is it okay to boo?

• Complete Sports: US basketball roster cut to 15.

Is there some thing you would like featured in the next Decalink? Mail me then.

Another player joins the list of players injured while one has a close shave. The English test team has been facing an injury crisis which since the tour of India earlier this year which has reached a concerning state now as more players are getting injured and the phenomena does not seem to end.

The players of other teams are getting injured as well. England might have just ran ahead in the race of a global problem for the game. You want to have as much cricket as you can to make money. The television companies and cricket boards mostly share a complete agreement regarding this. The players do not. Though one school of thought says that you want to play as much as a player as your life as a professional sports person is limited, another counters that you want to play as much provided you are not doing permanent damage to your body which could shorter your career largely.

If you go down in history, international cricket was played far less. However, the county professionals did play many match days as well before the matches for county cricket was curtailed. So why are players getting injured now when we did not have such a situation in the past? The answer could lie in the level of play required for international cricket compared to international cricket. You cold have relaxed in the lesser important county matches. In international cricket, you want to make the best of the opportunity you get. Even against a minnow like Zimbabwe or Bangladesh, you want to make runs or take wickets for a) every one likes his career stats improved b) the fighting for playing XIs always exists.

That the players were not able to cope with too much cricket was evident when we saw them select one of the two forms of the game. A player retires early from one form of the game to preserve his career in the other form. As a result, we do not have the best players playing in each form of the game. The direct blame can be put to the excessive cricket effecting the players and thus depriving them of a longer career and the fans of seeing the best XIs on display.

(more…)

That’s what Abhinav Bindra achieved as Telegraph reports:

Abhinav Bindra overcame back pain to become the first Indian shooter to win a World Championship gold in Zagreb on Monday. Dr Karni Singh’s silver in 1962 was the best by an Indian in a World Championship meet before Monday.

That no Indian had ever won a gold before is not surprising. After all, the shooting boom in India is not very old. The Indian shooting contingent for Beijing is looking stronger with each passing day. We have the likes of Narang, Samaresh Jung, Rathore and young guns like Bindra.

We disappointed tremendously last time in the Olympics but it will be shocking if we don’t win a few medals via shooting in Beijing. Here’s hoping the shooting contingent does India proud and I don’t have to write some thing on this topic again.

Update: Read Indian Express’ Navneet Singh write on Bindra coming back from the dead.

…kid’s clothes and memorablia get stolen.

I always wanted to watch Abbott and Costello’s most famous comedy routine. Watching a re-run of Rainman (a movie in which it is mentioned many times) was a helpful reminder for this.

It is hilarious the first time. You can watch it again and again though, even if you have watched it before. A classic.

[The complete text of the routine can be read here.]

Today saw one reiterate his greatness while another became a champion after a great performance.

A young kid held a go Tiger banner along with a USA flag on it cheering Tiger on. That kid didn’t know it yet but he was forming emotional bonds with Tiger, golf and sport in general. The attachment means that we share the highs and lows of the sports persons and the teams we follow while we watch our sport. Tiger had no Earl to hug as he usually used to have. He cried and you couldn’t help but feel sad as well.

Even Deadspin cannot come up with a sarcastic comment after a perfect performance by Woods this week as they admit adding:

And we’ll probably not see anything like it again. Just minutes after he left the green, he did a television interview with barely any hints that he had just cried as hard as you’ll ever see anyone cry. It was amazing. No puffy eyes, red nose, wet cheeks. Just a couple of hard swallows, and other than that, all calm smiles.

Huge discipline apart from the hard work and talent is required to achieve what you do in sport. You do wonder at the composure and the discipline some of these sportspersons display outside the playing arena as well. For example, just look at Agassi answering questions thrown by media persons. Even the most outrageous questions are answered with cool finesee. The composure is staggering.

It is an exciting age to live in. Not only do we have Woods who will become the greatest sportsperson of our generation when he retires if things keep on going on track. We also have a Federer in tennis; Armstrong retired a year back and Schumacher is in the fag end of his career. Every generation produces it’s greats. However, I am sure that ages from now, people will marvel how these sportspersons could have been that good in a very competitive era.

Usually quite Sachin Tendulkar has reacted to recent comments of former team mate Sanjay Manjrekar. I doubt if he would have even bothered to make give a statement had it not been a player with whom Tendulkar had played a lot of his cricket.

In the piece, Manjrekar mentions:

But my guess is that Tendulkar seems reluctant to play any international cricket unless he is physically and mentally 100% fit. A state he will never ever be after 16 years of international cricket.

Not true. Tendulkar has played despite pain. The issue here is not whether Tendulkar is 100% fit or not but who should decide when Tendulkar should make a return to international cricket. Should it be Tendulkar himself on the advice of the doctors/physios or a former player who cannot expect to understand how Tendulkar’s body is functioning right now?

If Tendulkar decides to ease his way into international cricket by playing a few non-international games or delaying come backs, there shouldn’t be issues with it. As far as we all know, Tendulkar loves his cricket and is always raring to go. I don’t think we can cast aspersions on a player for him selecting when to make a return to the competitive international cricket arena. The men that count - the selectors always have the option of not selecting a player if they feel the concerned player is taking things for granted and missing crucial matches without legitimate reasons.

The Tendulkar of today gives me the impression that his main focus is not to fail! And he wants to give himself the best shot at that. By competing only when he feel he is in his prime, physically and mentally.

He is also stating through the piece that Tendulkar should play more often like Lara has done in the past. Now, people have the right to their opinions. However, they cannot try and make decisions for others. Not the least while making guesses. Maybe he could have tried to know Tendulkar’s side of the story before writing on the given topic. Maybe he could have given advice to Tendulkar in private if he felt it was that important.

The timing of Manjrekar’s comments when Tendulkar has finally made a come back to international cricket is poor as well as right now the issue of Tendulkar missing matches is over for the short run at least.

Barry bonds is in the news again. I didn’t care. Neither do you I am sure. The reason is not because you may not be an American and thus not interested in a lot of what goes on in US sports. Even Americans don’t care as this poll shows. [Via Blogcritics]

The Barry Bonds don’t care maybe due to the constant over coverage in the media during his home run chase. Each time Bonds hit a home run, ESPN cut regular programming to cover it. The result was that people went numb when they heard the words Barry Bonds. The senses system told them - shut every thing or your brains will burst.

We saw some thing similar in India not long ago during the Ganguly-Chappell controversy. First, people were either in favour of Ganguly or Chappell. The issue dragged and the media dragged it along. By the end, people didn’t care any more. They just wanted to hear no more of the Ganguly-Chappell issue. Tendulkar is back once again in the Indian team. Got the don’t care feeling? I guessed so.

Constant repitition maybe cause this numbness. For example, how many of you got excited when Roger Federer won Wimbledon again this year? Even against a promising Nadal, most people new Federer had little chance of losing. Had the opponent in the final been some one else, the Wimbledon final would have recieved much lower television ratings. The don’t care phenomena would have been much more evident.

Some how, flawed geniuses excite us and help us avoid the don’t care phenomena. So, a Kobe Bryant will never fail to bore us. One day, he scores truck loads of points and we can’t get enough of his talent. The next day, we wonder if he failed. Breaks in successful performances avoids repitions. Would we have got as excited for the second Jordan three peat had he not had the gap to try baseball despite scenario in which he achieved the second three peat very different?

We care about our sports but only that much and no more. For, the don’t care stage isn’t too far off.

Update: Read Ravi Gurnani’s flawed sporting idols here.