The deal is now done.

I feel bad that Shaq’s gone. Hopefully Lakers can keep Kobe.

Hey, at least Shaq did not go to Sacramento or Dallas. Phew! :-)

It’s going to be a long season behind the wickets

These replies do not sound scripted. I think these have come from the heart, in a very truthful manner.

Sachin like Formula 1 and would love to drive a Formula 1 car (Ferrari)! :-)

According to Cricinfo, Agarkar is all set to play for Middlesex for one month. Lord’s. The Mecca of cricket. Ajit’s only test century.

And Glenn McGrath as the bowler from the opposite end.

Only next to playing for India in the Asia Cup :-)

They were able to survive the last day and somehow manage a draw. To get a draw against these rampaging Aussies is a big deal. Especially after they put up such a huge score in the first innings. And especially after a collapse in the final innings from Sri Lanka.

Their lower middle order and the tail somehow survived some tough times at the end of a dark final session. Warne has equaled the world record for wickets, but Murali is going to win that race for sure.

Congratulations, Lanka. Now, please stay in that test match mode, because you are in India’s group for the Asia Cup :-)

Can’t wait. Though I must say I am not so excited about India facing the likes of UAE, Bangladesh and HK.

But looking ahead to the major series - Australia at home and South Africa at home, for tests, it is important to talk about the openers.

I understand that Sehwag turned into a decent opener despite being a middle order batsman. I am feeling bad for Chopra who has been conveniently pushed out of the squad with all the talk about Yuvi opening with Sehwag.

First of all, I have no problem with ‘middle order’ batsmen becoming openers. But talking about Yuvi as a test opener for the Indian national team without truly testing him in that position is unfair to him as well as Chopra. He is kinda set up for failure and Chopra is unnecessarily thrown out of the playing XI.

Of course, time will tell what the real deal is, but on paper, it does not make sense to shake the existing XI, except tweaking the bowling combination based on fitness as well as pitch conditions.

But Ganguly’s talk of Yuvraj being a ‘class act’ and one that ‘cannot be ignored’ is again a pointer to what I think is favoritism. ;-)

Came across an excellent article by Rohit Brijnath about brilliance and domination and how that is never boring.

Let me tell you my take on it. There is a certain part of me as a sports fan that wants to see some team dominate their opponents. There is another part of me though, that wants to create a contendor, and hopefully a rivalry. Two or three people (or teams) who are equally good in skills and talent and who could win on any given day, would be much better for me to follow, than one individual/team completely dominating all the time.

That’s why I did not like (and still don’t) Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

That’s why I am not liking the current state of Formula 1.

That’s why I truly did not like Steve Waugh’s Australian cricket team, and I do not like the Ricky Ponting’s current team.

That’s why I would not watch Sampras playing at Wimbledon.

In fact, in all of these cases, I would actually hope that a rank outsider would beat them.

I don’t follow much of football, so I will pass on Arsenal.

Mind you, it is not like I did not like them at all at any given point. I liked Jordan, Tiger and Schumacher as athletes. I loved to watch the Australian team playing awesome cricket, redefinig a lot of philosophies prevalent in cricket at the time. But once they start dominating for a while, they do make it less and less exciting for a lay sports follower like me.

True, the purists would say, like Brijnath says and like it is aruged on a blog, brilliance and domination is actually perfection on display. If you really really love the sport, you won’t mind domination as displayed my Schumacher, as displayed by Jordan and Tiger and the Aussie team.

But I don’t agree. I have seen enough of pure cricket. I have seen enough of pure driving. I have seen enough of buzzer-beater shots by Jordan. It is more exciting to see rivalries.

John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.

Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker.

Schumacher and Hakkinen.

Senna and Prost. Add Mansell, Lauda to the list.

Lakers and Celtics of the 80’s.

Yankees and Red Sox.

Michigan and Ohio State.

and so on.

Its rivalries that make the game more exciting from spectators' long term point of view.

Yes, it is cool to see a team or a players completely dominate the opponents once in a while. It has to happen otherwise we are encouraging mediocrity. But for the long term, it is good to see a change. Dynasties are good, but complete domination by a team in creating a dynasty is very bad for the sport.

At least that is my point. What’s yours?

The domination of Michael Schumacher continues, but the good news for me in the British GP was Kimi’s P2! Go Kimi Raikkonen!

But their choice for World XI’s to face Australia had poor Dravid as wicketkeeper.

Also, VVS ended up being 12th man in the test team because Kallis is an all rounder. But Sehwag as a test opener? Wow!

Wonder what those guys were thinking??

Rudy T and Lakers have agreed to terms and a press conference may be called tomorrow to announce the new Lakers coach.

I am not too pumped up. But let’s see how the players merry-go-round ends up at the end.

Ganguly’s comment that it was a tough call between Agarkar and Nehra makes me think about what I said earlier.

I think he still has his favorites, and does back them more than the others (ex Powar and Karthik vs Bhajji), but he is man enough to come and justify most of his decisions.

I have never doubted him. I just have a stinky feeling that if you are not in his good books, he may not support you as much as he could.

Comments posted on my earlier post were all good, but don’t you guys think that there may be some truth in what I am trying to say?

BBC carried a piece in which JP said Ferrari may win all the remaining GP’s.

Has he thrown in the towel and accepted that 2004 is a no-win year? How could his team let him do that? Motivational issues?

JP, you need to be skillful mentally as well as behind the wheel. Sharpen the former and then think about taking out the leader of a race!

BBC SPORT - Cricket makes Asian Games

Maybe this could wake up IOC and maybe we’ll see cricket in the Olympics soon???

If Kobe goes to the Knicks and Shaq goes to Dallas, I will have no reason to watch the NBA next season.

BBC Sport had this item saying that Ralf is going to Toyota next season and that they have not decided who his team mate is going to be.

But the important point is BMW has no drivers, with JP going to McLaren next year. Wonder who is on their radar. Vill? DC? Hope it is the two of them, so that I can dismiss that team completely. While you are at it, make Damon Hill the manager of that team :-)

Meanwhile, it was a surprise for me to learn that Toyota has the second largest budget after Ferrari.

Wow…

ESPN.com - NCF - Mike Williams files for reinstatement with NCAA

Now, keeping fingers crossed so that he can be reinstated. It will be good for college football if he can come back to USC.

National Championship retained? Who knows. Don’t want to woof it ;-)

They have not come up with a plan of showing the first cricketing action in the Indian cricket season. I hope they do, because I don’t want to sign up for computer-based cricket action.

And I do want to see this one. Though I am pissed at the selected team. I do believe that Agarkar needs to be in the team ahead of Nehra. Ah well. C’est la vie.

I like Ganguly as a captain. He has always backed his players and formed this team. In fact, he has, over time, earned the respect of his teammates. Especially the youngsters.

But he does play favorites. Well known examples are, he loves Nehra and Bhajji. And he does not like Agarkar and Powar.

Granted that Powar is not a certain inclusion, he was still dropped from the side after decent performances in Pakistan.

But dropping Agarkar is even more shocking. Is Nehra a better bowler than Agarkar? Who knows? Both are on-and-off bowlers and both need their ‘days’ to shine. On their off days, both are quite pedestrian. So what made Gangs choose Nehra?

Because Nehra probably brings him his morning tea with biscuits and newspapers. And Bhajji probably irons his clothes for him before he goes into the shower.

This attitude just sucks.

So the big bosses have decided to snub the US and make all the matches of the 2007 Cricket World Cup local to the West Indies.

I am not sure where I’ll be at the time, so I am making no plans. But if I am in the US I would love to go see some matches there…maybe follow the team package and watch India?

That would be wonderful. Who’s signing up?

Despite what people said was a thrilling Wimbledon finals match, I think Andy Roddick is overrated. He has a good serve, but his overall game is hyped up here in the US and most of the European players are better than him on paper at least.

Mentally, he has the edge over them and that is key, no doubt. But besides his serve and some attacking groundstrokes, he does not have that complete package to beat someone like Federer consistently.

But unlike my point about England being uselessly hyped, I think Roddick is at least somewhat worthy of the hype.

Well, it is never nice to compare sportspersons from different eras, but it is just too difficult to resist saying that Michael Schumacher is the best Formula 1 driver ever.

This past weekend he won yet another race this season - the French GP. That makes it 9 out of 10. And if you consider that the one race he did not finish, he was leading and was taken out by Juan Pablo, it could have been a perfect season so far for him.

Well, in my books, it is still a perfect season. I am not blaming people who say it has become a boring sport, with such dominance from one competitor (Schumi, as well as Ferrari being ‘the competitor’). But interestingly enough, the race for the rest of the spots is quite a good one.

I am rooting for Renault - I love Trulli and Alonso. Hopefully they will beat out Rubinho at the end :-)

Copyrights with Wimbledon.org and AELTC/ProSport

Didn’t I say that Maria Sharapova’s got what it takes?

What a win! Completely contradictory to pre-match analyses. She’s too tired. Serena’s won three in a row. It’s her first Grand Slam title. Any many more.

But she did it. Though I must say, the first set was more a story of Serena’s unforced errors than Sharapova’s winners, but the point is that Sharapova did not give in to the occassion. She stayed on top of her game and mentally took Serena out of the match. The exact reason I thought she would actually lose the match.

Congratulations, and may this be the beginning of a new wave!

Maria Sharapova has done it again. I thought she would not be able to come back from being one set down to winning the match against Lindsay Davenport.

I mean, to come back from behind against Ai Sugiyama is different, but to do it against a former champion is something that tells me that she is different.

And in both those matches, she ripped through the final set.

Of course, Serena is going to be a completely different opponent. She has won here twice in a row and she is just too strong in today’s tennis world.

Let’s hope I am not hyping Maria too much. Good luck, Maria!

SL 43/3 in reply to Aus 207 all out

At the end of day 1, after being all out for 207, Australia fought back by taking 3 quick wickets. McGrath got both the openers, one bowled and one lbw.

Tells me something scary. Could be that McGrath is back! :-(