The Turkish F1 controversy is getting F1 news spots in places where it wouldn’t have just as cricket is getting news space all over in the past week or so over the Hair-Pakistan controversy.

In an interesting piece, Grandprix.com talks on how the world looks upon Formula 1 citing examples:

It’s a sport over which hovers a cloud of conspiracy, a constant suspicion of manipulation of rules and results to suit the hidden agendas of shadowy backstage figures. And yet in spite of this, it is regarded as the pinnacle of motor sport, a multi-million pound industry commanding a vast global audience. Reaching into so many homes and with so much money at stake, it’s little wonder that Formula 1 has at times spread its tentacles into politics.

Wherever money comes in, politics is never far behind. However, what is very much evident from the citings is how the world looks at F1 as a money circus more than a race they would get a lot of thrill over. Another example quoted is of how most overtakes take place in the pit lanes rather than when the cars are being driven on the race track.

These perspectives show some of the many ways by which a sport can reach to newer audiences. You won’t get the most accurate descriptions of a sport (F1 is called driving around in circles - which would be true for Indy and not F1). However, observations from media and people who do not usually follow a sport is a rare insight and valuable.

.. becomes the number 1 most astounding reason why cricket matches have been interrupted. Sand storms and earth-quakes have been responsible for interruptions before of course but what are they compared to the Blackpool waterbombs!

Is there any former cricketer who hasn’t spoken up on the Pakistan-Hair contoversy? The latest is Mr. Michael Holding. He speaks on how the cricket world his divided and how the recent incident only reiterates this fact.

The last time I checked, the subcontinent had 40% of the votes on the ICC panel. The last time I checked, I also found out that most of the money in the game came from the subcontinent. So you would imagine that if any thing, the cricket world would be more in tilted towards the subcontinent. Every cricketer is trying to get his own mileage from the cricket controversy and Mr. Holding is no different in getting mileage from the controversy.

Angshuman Hazra remarks on Holding’s comments:

I am pretty sure that Hair would have gone about the matter just as Mikey says if the fielding team at Oval had been Australia, England, West Indies or even New Zealand.

By speculating and discussing, we are already creating a rift. Maybe, just maybe, the former cricketers can talk on how Md. Hafeez looked promising yesterday or how good Stuart Broad was in the Twenty-20 game.

Holding has got his newsprint and spotlight now and his remarks will be discussed at length. If every one pays Hair royalties for the mileage they are getting out of the controversy, I am sure he will far have more money than he demanded from the ICC.

Wikipedia has more on the annual highlight of the the sport:

The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organised by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It is a week long event held at the end of the summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the international rowing calendar.

You can find all the results from this page of official website. The highlight of the championship was Fan Xuefei. Who? Why? Shanghai Daily has the answer:

CHINESE rower Fan Xuefei etched her name in history as the youngest ever world (rower) champion on Sunday when she and her fellow crew members won the gold in the lightweight women’s quad sculls. The quartet of Fan, Yu Hua, Chen Haixia and Liu Jing won the gold medal in a new world best time of 6 minutes 23.96 seconds.

There are reviews in various newspapers on other countries as well like: Australia, Canada and England. No news on India’s performance yet, if they did take part that is.

In case you are wondering, regarding the young guns sport has seen, wikipedia has a list of young people in various fields and not just sports. Some from the field of sports are:

* Andrew Bynum - Youngest NBA player
* Naim Süleymanoğlu - Youngest Weightlifting Record Breaker
* Mike Tyson - Youngest Champion in Heavyweight boxing
* Norman Whiteside - Youngest player in World Cup Soccer

You can keep adding several people to that list but if you are wondering who the youngest world champion ever in any sport is, Fu Mingxia is the answer to the best of my knowledge.

How old (or should we say young) was she when he became world champion? 12 - the age you were probably playing with your He-man or Barbie dolls depending upon your gender.

Does an international player have the right to retire when he wants from international football or not? Domenech, the French coach says this:

For me it would be unthinkable to see a great player playing for a great club not playing for his national team. A player who refuses to accept a selection is liable to a two-match suspension.

If the law did not have the provision of a player retiring from international football, you have to follow logic rather than the last word of the law. I don’t always agree with Mourinho but when he says Domenech is being treated as a slave, I agree.

Makelele has tried to end the controversy by saying he will play for France but this is as weird as it gets. Next thing you know, Zidane can be ordered to play again for France. I wont blame him for head butting Domenech then.

What made Andre Agassi so special? If we speak regarding the achievements, they are astounding. Wimbledon champion in 1992. Super star. Then, ranked 141 in the world back away to play challengers. He didn’t go via the easy route of wild cards in his rise back and grinded his way up. The crowining glory has to be the 1999 French triumph which made him only the 5th man to win all four grand slams.

He has been an immense talent which is why, perhaps, a few people feel he achieved less compared to a Sampras. Agassi held his own even against Sampras and was the only opponent Sampras felt could defeat him even when Sampras was playing to his best. Agassi has had his roller coaster ride and it wasn’t as smooth as the Sampras career but he is a great in his own right and that should be that.

There was much more to Agassi than the achievements and the Sampras rivalry. Agassi was first the rebel and the enigma. Then, he became the super star. Then, he cut his hair off. I remember seeing this bald man with a frenchie playing tennis one fine day and thinking - ‘hmm good ground strokes and promising player. How have I not heard of him before.’ Then, the score board flashed Andre Agassi and it was a shocker. Apparently, balding gave Agassi a lot of tension for a long time and it was a huge relief for him when he cut off the famous hair.

The ground strokes were as good as that of any and the service return was the best in the world. All the while, the determination was inspirational. What I liked a lot about Agassi was the class with which he carried himself every where. The best parts were not his play but the way Agassi answered questions. He would always smile. He would never get abrasive. He would reply with a lot of respect to the question and always gave the perfect answer. Agassi was as good as the best diplomat in the world with words. Except, he didn’t use diplomacy.

When Sampras retired, Agassi said this:

You grow up with a guy, you compete against him for so long, he’s such a big part of your career, something that’s pretty special, so you do have that sense of personal regret that he’s not around any more. You miss having that around.

Many people are having the same feeling right now. Soon, we will say bye bye to the heart of tennis in the 90s and shouts of Agassssi between points will be heard no more. Thanks for the memories.

The hearing of Inzamam has been delayed till the end of September. You would think that the ICC would want to resolve this matter as soon as possible as they were serious regarding the ball tampering issue. The ICC is more concerned that the one dayers at hand are played without controversy and the revenues from the tournament are not risked rather than taking bold steps. They prefer that the matter is cooled off and away from the public eye so that they can take their normal toothless approach of doing nothing.

One thing the ICC was pretty active in was to bring in Ranjan Madugalle for the hearings in place of the match referre for the controversial match, Mike Procter. Even if Mike Procter was a part of hearing the points of the Pakistan cricket or it’s management (Woolmer) or Darrel Hair, would that mean Procter is no longer a neutral? Procter was the match referee and he should have been in the middle of the decisions. The reason that the ICC now gives to postpone the hearing of Inzamam - illness in Madugalle’s family is hilarious and unbelievable. They could replace Procter in a jiffy so why not replace Madugalle in a jiffy as well now?

What to make out of the whole issue? Depending on which country you are in or which local newspaper you subscribe to, you can get views on the issue from every one from Steve Waugh to Javed Miandad to Dilip Vengsarkar to the cricket superstar of your block. I still do not believe so much has happened over nothing really. Had Pakistan accepted to let the 5 points go off their records, won the match and then protested over the verdict, not only would they have won the match, we would have been spared of a lot of nonsense.

A few days ago, I read in an article that cricket has reached the front pages of US newspapers and media world wide after the Darrel Hair - Pakistan controversy emerged. This, when the football world cup didn’t manage to get the front page spot lights.

Now, we have the revealing news of Darrel Hair asking the ICC for money for which he would resign.

I had titled my comment immediately after the Hair-Pakistan controversy first broke out as cricket suffers. I did not imagine back then the extent could be so big though. Expect more coverage of cricket in media all around the world now.

Earlier, cricket was this game which people outside the traditional cricket playing countries found to have a set of very complicated rules. Now, it is a joke and not much else.

Given the recent history of Chelsea and Barca, the newspapers are hyping Barca facing Chelsea again in the Champions League. However, the two meet in round 1 which means that both can advance to the knock out stages. Barca did have Milan in their group two years back and Barca and Chelsea would rather face each other in round 1 than meeting each other early in the knock out stages like the previous couple of years.

What Barca and Chelsea will not like is the toughie group A is. You have Werer Bremen as the third team. Even if you forget how distracting it can be to face a team wearing orange and green, you cannot discount the quality side that Bremen is. You keep giving Miroslav Klose the ball and he will keep on scoring. Bremen can score a lot of goals in matches given the right setting. Add to this, you have the scenario of facing a Bulgarian club in Levski Sofia. Despite being professionals, I do not believe Barca or Chelsea would be accustomed to playing in Bulgaria.

If Chelsea slips up like they did in their recent premiership game, or Barca are not upto it’s best, or for that matter if Bremen puts on some inspired performances, there is a very real chance of an upset. Compared to the other groups, group A is far more tougher and intriguing. The Champions League always brings across new teams and players you get to know of along with the thrill the competition gives you. If we aren’t satisfied with that, we can always fall back on some juciy quotes from one Mr. Mourinho.

Except the huge basketball fans (like me) or sport nuts (again, like me), not many will be interested in the 2006 World Basketball Championship which is taking place right now. Given that USA hasn’t won on the previous two occassions, they want to give a strong performance this time. They took a much more solid team to meet this end as well.

The favourites, as far as I am concerned, are Argentina. They have always performed well at international basketball events. In the recent history, they have won the gold at Athens and came second to Yugoslavia in the World Basketball Championships in 2002. The Argentinean team works well together but more importantly, they are more adept to playing the international basketball rules play (which is quite different from the NBA rules).

As far as this championship is concerned, the big plus for Argentina is Manu Ginobili returning for them. Ginobili has some thing to prove too via the tournament as Draft Express wrote in their preview:

The tournament will be a great opportunity for Ginobili to show the world that he can be a legit go-to guy without the presence of a player in the mould of Tim Duncan.

The tournament will soon enter it’s knock out stages soon (August 26th) and a Spain-Argentina semi final clash and possibly Greece vs. US in the other semi final makes it interesting.

Whom am I supporting? The burger guys of course. The rise continues with a round of 16 spot secured. They face Argentina next and I can see Manu Ginobili is scared to death already.