The latest comments from Ganguly are irritating to say the least. Ganguly tries to draw the lines the crisis should be embroiled in by saying:

I don’t think the entire team should be dragged into this

This comes a two days after Tendulkar’s statement that it was wrong on Ganguly’s part that dressing room matters were told to the press. Why should team members not have a right to comment on an issue as important as the decision of a captain and a coach when their own captain has not been responsible enough to deal with a matter with the BCCI rather than make a media circus of it? Who is Ganguly to say team members should not drag themselves into it if they want to.

Also Ganguly remarks:

It was some statement made by the coach. It is between the coach and me and we have to sort it out.

Sorry but it was a statement made by you Mr. Ganguly which spilled the milk. The statement of Chappell was his opinion told in private to you. If you had qualms with his opinion you should have dealt with it in a better way. If you really felt it was to be sorted out between you and the coach, you should not have gone to the media in the first place.

It is important that the team does well regardless of whoever leads it or coaches it. The team is more important than individuals. We need to play good, hard cricket as we will be facing very good teams. We will be playing Sri Lanka at home, then tour Pakistan and play England at home before going to the West Indies. It is going to be tough and we need to get our act together.

Really are all these things required to be said. I doubt if its not a way of Ganguly trying to show he is very much a team man. Really shows his insecurity.

Add to all this, Sambit Bal gives a perspective on the timing of things. The timing of the remark made by Ganguly a few days before the AGM of the BCCI where Dalmiya faction was likely to lose. The leaking of the coach’s e-mail diverting the attention from the adjourning of the AGM.

All this leading to a Ganguly supporting Dalmiya faction organising an urgent meeting on the 27th of September to sort things out.

I watched more than six hours of good tennis live at the Sunfeast Open. I wanted to comment on the Uberoi sisters, Sprem and Myskina. The current scheme of things in Indian cricket had to clog my mind regretfully.

The gladiators of the sporting world continue to create their mark. England has won the Ashes and the cricketing world cannot get enough of talking about it. Kim Clijsters has won a slam finally. Andre Agassi has been denied by the indomitable Federer. The Champions league has begun and I am happy Barca has managed to win its game.

Closer to home the Sunfeast Open WTA Tennis tournament will begin in Netaji Indoor Stadium right here in Calcutta on September 19th. I have the tickets for the last three days.

Will I be able to meet some of the stars? Keep track of sportolysis for my experiences from the tournament.

Tendulkar is out of the tests to be played in Zimbabwe as well and early optimism based on the return of Tendulkar hinging on hid selection into the 13 man squad has been dashed. The maestro, once regarded as God in India is now being treated with disdain by many fans which is infuriating. If Tendulkar would have played in the series, and scored a century, they would have chanted ‘Tendulkar can score runs only against the weak teams.’ Now they will chant ‘he is injured and past his best.’

Tendulkar, it seems, can never satisfy the unearthly expectations of his fans. I am glad Tendulkar is taking as much time as he deems fit before making a proper come back. As fans, there should be as much support as possible for the player in what is the most difficult phase in his career. Sadly the fans are doing the opposite.

Between work 10 AM to 8 PM the sport action I have been able to catch up has been the excellent Ashes contest and the football.

The Ashes have truly surprised me. I did not give the English a chance to win even a test even though I was sure they would give a good fight. I have never seen a close Ashes contest and feel luck I am able to catch the best Ashes contest since 1989.

I managed to catch three Premiership games over the weekend. Liverpool and Gerrard could not score but I liked the well fought out match nevertless. Arsenal vs Newcastle was scratchy but the backup strength of Arsenal looks good. Chelsea vs Wigan was a classic and a heartbreak when Crespo scored.

Too bad the net connection in my room has been non existant for the past few days resulting in a dormancy in posts in the blog.

I am lucky that I have been exposed to baseball fairly more than most Indians very early. The first introductions came while playing a video game on media which I loved. It helped me get familiarised with the rules. Then went on to the best sports shop in our city at around the age of 11-12, bought a baseball bat and ball.

In the cubs (the junior form of scouts which I later joined) group in our school, we had cool ‘brothers’ who were adaptive as well. We played baseball a few days, the only time I have had experience of playing the sport in the evenings, in the night camping in school. Great days camping during holidays in school as a kid.

Okay coming back to the topic, the point is I like baseball like I do many other sports. It has got its own appeal, own specific skills required. With cable, internet and more advanced EA sports games, I understood baseball more. I would watch a live baseball game on tv as I would watch most other live sports.

The thing is cricket is unique, has far more variations than any other sport, why just compare with baseball. While every sport looks to eliminate the inconsistencies of nature, like the same court in basketball, switching of court sides in tennis, change of tennis balls after specific number of games, playing indoors - basically bringing in uniformity, cricket does the opposite.

In cricket, you have the pitch which consistently deterioates(Far less now than on uncovered wickets). The ball becomes old. (The changing of balls after 80 overs was not always there), the batsman can face a full toss or a ball on bounce, and millions of other intricacies.

Test cricket - as it originally was spanning a time (if you notice, the earlier innings were counted on minutes, the concept of counting balls only came in after advent of one day cricket), not uniform (australia and england having different rules for eg the aussie 8 ball over) and stuff makes it a unique sport. It is completely contrasting when you compare with other sports.

Now in the past 25-30 years we have had some uniformity but if you watch two simultaneous live test matches, one in australia, one in the subcontinent, you will think you are watching a different game.

Test cricket is from another age. It is less remixed than any other sport. We have the remix in the one dayers and the Martin Crowe Max cricket and now the twenty20 cricket and the double wicket tournaments and the sixes and the super 8s and stuff.

But cricket is more uncertain, has more aspects than any other game.

I LOVE playing basketball and I have had fun playing baseball and football is such a simple beautiful game (it has its own charm) but never can any thing replace the joy of bowling leg spinners for me. Some other craft for some one else may carry the same fondness.

Every sport, every game has its own aspects. Even the recent twenty20 cricket requires specific skills. I refer to it as different as it is so contrasting to the original test cricket. We can enjoy them all.

Basketball is my other love for its own reasons. It carries a passion in me like rugby does in some people. But there is no denying the uniqueness of cricket compared to baseball, tennis, basketball or any other sport.

Mianad in saying Pakistan should cancel the English tour of Pakistan has got it spot on. Should cricket teams cancel playing in Lords or other cricket venues just because there was the terrorist attacks?

Its sad Pakistan Cricket Board has not insisted on England playing in one of Pakistan’s trditional venues.

If you get a hold of Pundits From Pakistan by Rahul Bhattacharya switch over to the chapters where he describes the enigma of Karachi - the city. Switch over then to the pages which show the atmosphere after the Karachi one dayer in 2004. Jagmohan Dalmiya declares that when India next tours Pakistan, the first test match will be held in Karachi. This after India’s refusal to play in the venue.

Such was the brilliance of the match in which nearly 700 runs were scored in a day, described so aptly in this archived piece by Bhattacharya that I remember I started cheering for Pakistan beyond a point. And when Md. Kaif took that brilliant catch, and every one in Cafe Coffee Day rejoiced, I quickly sank back on my seat.

Now we have England refusing to play a test in Karachi. Samiuddin, who is fast becoming the young voice of Pakistan cricket, voices his anguish. It is more to do with the fact that people, not players, not PCB officials have done any thing when a lot could have actually been done.

My stand is simple. If India and Pakistan can play a one dayer in Karachi some time after Musharaff had life threatening attacks, England has no case. If Pakistan guarantee player safety, England have no case. If specific players wouldn’t like to play in a specific match, in this case a Karachi test for fear of family and self, they can be allowed to opt out but I doubt many England players will try to make a stance in a crucial series in Pakistan like some did in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe when players opted out, though the scenario was different, and yet the English toured the country, the case brought up against Karachi is unnecessary.

After the controversial disqualification of McEwen in the earlier stage of letour, McEwen made a late spurge to beat Boonen.

BBC Sport reports:

Robbie McEwen claims victory on the line in front of Boonen. The Australian sat behind the Belgian and sprung off his wheel to take the sprint by half a wheel at most. Thor Hushovd was third with Stuarty O’Grady fourth.

The best answer on the face of adversity : Success

The substitutes bring in many possibilities as I pondered over the thought of how they can be used a few days ago. Most of the arguement against it has been the fact that cricket is traditionally a 11 a side game. But if we look at the history of the sport, there was 12 a side games, 13 a side games, games of all kinds - even 22 vs 11 a side games until uniformity was set in.

We always resist change and thus my conservative view on the substitutes when the law was brought into place.

Derek Pringle, one of the most intellegent cricket writers around, analyzed the situation perfectly in yesterday’s Telegraph UK. I knew it would be relevent soon and thus book marked it.

With football allowing the use of three subs, and basketball allowing entire teams to be replaced, it is surely just a question of time before cricket follows suit now the first breach has been made. With players expected to play and travel more, multiple substitutions could be a way of prolonging careers.

In the next few days, we will see the cricket world analyze how England and Australia used the substitutes in the Natwest Challenge which begines tomorrow. But we will also see more comment from every one on the question of how many can/will be used by cricket in due course. John Buchanan, who always likes to speak on changes which are made on cricket and always excited with new possibilities believes 15 players to be used a game is realistic thing in the future:

At the moment all touring teams travel with parties of 15, so the concept could be that we actually play all 15

Its to be accepted then that one day cricket which has existed since Kerry Packer, for nearly 35 years, is going to change more than ever before in the next two years. Surely the game has evolved in the past (Greatbatch - 1991, Jayasuriya and Kalluwitharana - 1996) but it is a totally different ball game now.

I am happy with my 5 days of test cricket and twenty20 and one day cricket will be taken as masala remixes of the game I call cricket. I have never given much weight to one day cricket and till they dont tinker with tests or encroach into the schedule of test matches(which is my real fear), I have no qualms.

Play 12 a side, play 15 a side, play 30 a side. Its nothing new ICC.

Another centimetre added to the world pole vault record and she says:

I don’t know how high I can jump, maybe 5.10 or even 5.15. I just don’t know my potential

It is the 14th time the 23 year old has broken the record and the slower she reaches her potential, the better it is for her. Why? because the Olympic champion receives a $50,000 bonus each time she breaks a world record. So whats the great hurry!

Sergei Bubka beat the record 35 times. And she has set herself to beat that number.

25-14= 21 times $50,000=$1,050,000!

If that comes along with the olympic medals, why not!